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Root [ROOT] Ultimate DROID3 Root/ROM Thread
- Thread starter imnotmikal
- Start date
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- Tags
- motorola droid 3
Some help here. I just want to root my phone, vzw, to get access to some features. would like to run a battery management program for one, as well take advantage of other things.
Don't want new roms, etc., just SU access.
Simplest way to do this is by just downloading motofail, extracting , and running? Or is the one click still working? Thanks.
Don't want new roms, etc., just SU access.
Simplest way to do this is by just downloading motofail, extracting , and running? Or is the one click still working? Thanks.
If you have a Verizon Droid 3, and have accepted the 906 over-the-air update, the only method that I know works is to use Dan Rosenberg's Motofail method. You can find it here: Security Research by Dan Rosenberg
If you really want to type the adb commands, when you unzip the Motofail download, there is a run.bat file (which you can type from a command line to automatically root the phone) - but you can just look at the run.bat file to see what the adb commands are. In fact, here they are:
Anyway, I suggest just running the run.bat batch file from a cmd prompt. (There is a mac/linux version of the script as well.)
jaycbrf4
Member
Thanks, just rooted using Security Research by Dan Rosenberg. On Mac OSX.
Used Titanium Back-up Pro to Freeze a few VZW apps. No Problems -
Used Titanium Back-up Pro to Freeze a few VZW apps. No Problems -
freaknormel
Lurker
Thanks.. you really took your time
Yes. All you need to know is a couple of posts above yours. Motofail works.
beowulf7
Android Enthusiast
In the first post, the OP mentioned:
Download the One Click Root by psouza4.
However, that link is dead. Does anyone have that file? Thanks.
Edit: I Googled for that file name, PetesMotorolaRootTools_v1.07.zip, and found this. Can someone verify it's the same file? Its size is 1,747,541 bytes. TIA.
Download the One Click Root by psouza4.
However, that link is dead. Does anyone have that file? Thanks.
Edit: I Googled for that file name, PetesMotorolaRootTools_v1.07.zip, and found this. Can someone verify it's the same file? Its size is 1,747,541 bytes. TIA.
beowulf7
Android Enthusiast
Also, the Safestrap.apk is now broken as well. If someone has that file, I'll be happy to host it on my server and then a moderator can update the OP's post accordingly. TIA.
In the first post, the OP mentioned:
Download the One Click Root by psouza4.
However, that link is dead. Does anyone have that file? Thanks.
Edit: I Googled for that file name, PetesMotorolaRootTools_v1.07.zip, and found this. Can someone verify it's the same file? Its size is 1,747,541 bytes. TIA.
Pete's tools will no longer root a Droid 3 with the 5.7.906 system software update. If you scroll up a few posts you'll see a link to Dan Rosenberg's Motofail root method. That one works just fine.
Safestrap is at Hashcode's blog, here: http://blog.hash-of-codes.com/downloads/safestrap/
While the 3.05 version is still listed as beta, it works just fine.
You do need to be rooted first...
beowulf7
Android Enthusiast
A little noob help please. I downloaded the motofail_windows.zip file and extracted it as a separate folder on my computer. I set USB for debugging mode from Applications > Development on my phone. I have USB connection set for USB Mass Storage mode. I verified that my Windows computer can see both the internal and external flash drives of my computer. I tried to manually run the first command of doogald's post #105 from the Windows 7 command line prompt:
<Drive and folder>adb.exe push motofail /data/local/motofail
But I received the following error:
* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *
error: device not found
What noob mistake am I making? TIA.
Edit: I also changed USB connection to Charge Only but that didn't work either. "error: device not found"
Edit #2: I tried running the run.bat file. This is where it gets stuck at:
I don't think I need any special drivers b/c Windows 7 recognizes both the internal and external flash drives of my Droid 3 when I have it set to USB Mass Storage mode.
<Drive and folder>adb.exe push motofail /data/local/motofail
But I received the following error:
* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *
error: device not found
What noob mistake am I making? TIA.
Edit: I also changed USB connection to Charge Only but that didn't work either. "error: device not found"
Edit #2: I tried running the run.bat file. This is where it gets stuck at:
And it's just stuck there.
I don't think I need any special drivers b/c Windows 7 recognizes both the internal and external flash drives of my Droid 3 when I have it set to USB Mass Storage mode.Since you have Windows, I'd suggest that you stay away from the manual method. Definitely use the run.bat batch file.
Edit #2: I tried running the run.bat file. This is where it gets stuck at:
And it's just stuck there.
Try restarting your computer. See if that helps.
beowulf7
Android Enthusiast
When I plug in my phone to my computer via USB, the internal and external flash drives show up as P:\ and Q:\. (Yes, I have a lot of drives on my computer.) But the run.bat file, which you spelled out several posts ago, refers to /data/local/motofail, etc. There's no such thing as the /data directory from the perspective of my computer. Should it be P:\data\... in my case? Also, was I in the correct USB mode to be in Mass Storage mode? TIA.
beowulf7
Android Enthusiast
OK, I think I got it to work. This video came in very handy. I recommend fellow newbies to check it out. Assuming you have a 64-bit Windows OS, you want to download and install this file before you connect your phone: Motorola_End_User_Driver_Installation_5.9.0_64bit.msi (Google it or get it from here). Whether or not your phone shows up via USB on your computer, you need to install that driver. Then proceed with the run.bat script as doogald explained. For me, the phone rebooted twice as part of the rooting process. I now see there's the Superuser app as described in the latter part of the aforementioned video.
Edit: I just now downloaded and copied over the Safestrap 3.05 file (name: Droid3Safestrap-3.05.apk) to my phone's microSDHC card and then installed it.
Edit: I just now downloaded and copied over the Safestrap 3.05 file (name: Droid3Safestrap-3.05.apk) to my phone's microSDHC card and then installed it.
Awesome; I'm glad to see that you got it to work.
To explain this:
The answer is that when you run the Android Debugging Bridge (adb) app on your computer to connect to your phone, which is running a version of linux, you then begin sending commands from the perspective of the phone, and you need to enter the path to files in a way that the phone's linux OS will understand. Linux does not use the concept of drive letters like Microsoft DOS/Windows-based OSes do, and the "/data/local/motofail" represents a path from the perspective of your phone, not from your computer.
Just so you know...
To explain this:
The answer is that when you run the Android Debugging Bridge (adb) app on your computer to connect to your phone, which is running a version of linux, you then begin sending commands from the perspective of the phone, and you need to enter the path to files in a way that the phone's linux OS will understand. Linux does not use the concept of drive letters like Microsoft DOS/Windows-based OSes do, and the "/data/local/motofail" represents a path from the perspective of your phone, not from your computer.
Just so you know...
Thanks for the tip. Just looking back at the Motofail page I notice that the instructions are less than I remembered.
One of these days I will start a more canonical root instruction thread here, and we'll see if we can get a moderator to change the title of this thread to show that the information is outdated.
By the way, if I read your post correctly, you do have an external SD card. It is very helpful to have one as you start using Safestrap 3.05. The ROM slots that are used by Safestrap are created in the internal storage (known to the phone as /sdcard) and they can slice away a good deal of the available storage. I now have all of my photos stored to /sdcard-ext/DCIM/Camera rather than /sdcard/DCIM/Camera. I also change the default storage locations to the external SD card for any other apps that can be configured that way. (I use the app ProCapture for all of my photos these days, mostly because I can use the volume keys as shutter buttons.)
beowulf7
Android Enthusiast
Thanks, yes, I'm familiar with Linux and those / files looked like Linux directories, so I was confused how connecting my phone via USB would make the Windows file structure be recognize by the Windows .bat file to run Linux commands. I now see that what I thought was the optional driver file (from what the OP wrote) is absolutely mandatory in order to root the file. I used version 5.9 since that appeared to be the latest version, but I guess older and newer versions should work, too.
I do have all my multimedia files, including pictures and videos I take, to be automatically stored on my external card (which is now 32 GB large). But I have all my apps to be on the internal card.
Now that I rooted my phone and installed Safestrap (I saw the little splash screen after the Motorola "M" splash screen), I guess I'm ready to run Titanium Backup and then a new ROM. I'm comfortable with the former since that just means running an app (with superuser access in the case) but I'll have to research on how to install a ROM. It doesn't appear to be as simple as installing an app from Google Play or installing an .apk file, like Safestrap.
BTW, a complete rewrite of the OP's first post or even a new thread would be much appreciated for new would-be rooters. I can help you if you'd like since it's now fresh in my mind, at least the rooting and Safestrap stuff, since that's only as far as I've gotten so far. The video I linked to it is also absolutely essential viewing for newbies like me.
It's not. There is a video linked at Hashcode's Safestrap blog with some information on how to set up Safestrap for the first time, here: SafeStrap V3.04 for Razr, Razr Maxx, D4, Bionic, and D3! Overview and How To Use! - YouTube
Read this as well: How-To Safestrap (Updated for v3.04)
beowulf7
Android Enthusiast
One final question (for now - I'm sure I'll have others later): do I need to keep USB debugging mode (the setting in Applications > Development) or can I uncheck it? In other words, is it only for rooting the phone? I'd rather disable it if it doesn't need to be enabled.
You CAN disable if you wish, but I believe that Titanium Backup requires that the setting be enabled. If you restore from Titanium and then don't plan to use its schedule features to back things up on a schedule, you should be able to disable USB debugging after that.
beowulf7
Android Enthusiast
Ahh, I see. I thought it was pretty much only needed to make the root process work with the run.bat script that uses those adb.exe commands.
I guess I should be asking what is the negative side of having USB debugging enabled. Does it slow down USB file transfers between computer and phone? One of these days, I'll transfer a large file with both USB debugging enabled and disabled and see if there's a difference in speed.