#2.0. Rooting procedure
Just to recap. You should by now have installed
Samsung Kies and
Odin on your PC and
be able to connect via your USB lead. Also, you have the correct
.tar file on your home screen.
Important Now is a good time to make a note of your phone's, "
Version" in case you ever need to revert back from rooting. To do this, open the dial pad and type in the following:-
*#1234#
This will give you 4 lines of information about your phones firmware and CSC code, etc: You should make a careful note of all this information and keep it somewhere safe.
Now you can watch
this video so that you know what to expect.
#2.1. Step 1.
Ensure that your phone is fully charged.
On your phone, go to...
Settings >
Applications >
Developement >
USB debugging and check the box.
(On
ICS/JB ROM's..
Settings >
Developer options >
USB debugging and check the box)
Put your phone into
Download mode by turning it off completely and then press and hold the following buttons...
Volume Down +
Home (centre hard key) + (lastly)
Power. Continue to hold these buttons until your phone boots into the
Warning! screen asking you to press volume up if you want to continue or volume down to cancel. Press
Volume Up. See video,
here.
#2.2. Step 2.
Right click on Odin and select, "
Run as Administrator", to open it. Ensure that the Samsung Kies programme is
not running at the same time as this can cause problems
With Odin displayed on your PC screen, click on the
PDA button, (a.k.a.
AP on later versions of Odin), and navigate to the
.tar file, that you placed on your home screen, and select it.
Make sure that
Re-Partition is
unchecked and that
Auto Reboot,
F.Reset Time and
PDA are
checked and that the PDA box, (a.k.a.
AP on later versions of Odin), now contains your
.tar file.
#2.3. Step 3.
Connect your phone, still in Download mode, to the PC using the USB lead. If you have successfully connected to Odin you should see the ID:COM box in Odin turn yellow or light blue, (depending on which version of Odin you are using).
#2.4. Step 4.
In Odin click the
Start button and you should see a green progress bar above ID:COM and shortly after that the box above it will turn green with the word
PASS! in it and your phone will automatically reboot.
#2.5. Should you encounter any problems with booting automatically at this stage, put your phone into
Recovery mode by turning it off completely and then press and hold the following buttons...
Volume Up +
Home (centre hard key) + (lastly)
Power. Continue to hold these buttons until your phone boots into the
Recovery screen. See
video. Then select, "
wipe cache partition", and under, "
Advanced", "
wipe dalvik cache", and then, "
Go back", and select, "
reboot system now". Your phone should now boot up.
Congratulations! You have just rooted your Samsung Galaxy S2.
You can now disconnect from the USB lead and check your App drawer where you will find 2 extra app's have been added. These are...
CWM
Superuser
If you are unsure whether your phone is now rooted you can install
Root Checker Basic, free from the Market, and run it.
***I now strongly urge you, for your own protection, to make the following backup's in case of future problems... A
Titanium Backup. A
Nandroid backup. An "
efs", file backup. See items,
***, below for details.
#2.6. Removing the Yellow Warning Triangle at Boot-up
Because you have now installed CF-Root kernel you will notice a yellow warning triangle appear briefly when booting up your phone. Personally, this does not bother me and experienced modders tend to treat this as a badge of honour that declares their phone is rooted and capable of more than the stock version.
However, if you wish to remove the yellow triangle you can do so by either purchasing the Jig mentioned in the first post, (this may not work on newer bootloaders, see,
here), or by following the instructions
here.
If you are running
Ice Cream Sandwich or
Jelly Bean,
Android 4., firmware, you can download, "
Triangle Away" from the
Play Store to remove the Yellow Warning Triangle.
#2.7. I'm rooted... now what?
Now that you are rooted you can start thinking about installing custom ROM's, kernels and modems as well as, "freezing", some of the, "bloatware" that comes with your phone.
A good place to start is here,
Samsung Galaxy S2 - All Things Root Guide
Recovery and Download Modes. Here are two videos, mentioned previously, showing how to get into
Recovery Mode and
Download Mode. These are two states that modders constantly refer to and it will pay you to familiarise yourself with their operation.
A popular Gingerbread ROM to install at the moment is
CheckROM RevoHD v6.
Some popular Ice Cream Sandwich ROM's are:-
http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-international-all-things-root/554062-neat-rom.html
AndyX ROM
Jelly Bean...
Jelly Bean NEAT ROM Android 4.1.2.
KitKat...
NEAT ROM KITKAT SLIM ANDROID 4.4.4
KitKat...
AOSP NeatROM for Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100 Android 4.4.4
Popular kernels at present are
Siyah....
Siyah Gingerbread kernel - A Dummies Guide
Siyah ICS/JB kernel - A Dummies Guide
and
Dorimanx ICS/JB. See here:-
Dorimanx kernel ICS/JB - Dummies Guide
To change or upgrade your phone's modem, see, "
Modem installation - A Dummies Guide"
To remove, "
Bloatware", and improve the performance of your phone and battery life, see,
here.
To improve your
Battery life, see
here.
How to make
nandroid and
Titanium back-up's and restore, see,
here.
***(I strongly urge you to make a nandroid and Titanium backups after rooting and save them on your external SD card)
#2.8. What App's should I install
There are a number of app's that you can install from the Market to aid and enhance your modding experience now that you are rooted.
Titanium Backup, (a must for modders), and
Pro key.
ES File Explorer.
*** (I strongly advise installing this app after rooting and using it to navigate to the, "
/efs", file in the root directory of the phone and making a copy of this and putting it on both your external SD card and PC as its loss or corruption in future could render your phone unusable and require a Samsung repair) Also, free from the Play Store, is
GSII Repair, which will backup/restore your efs folder.
Android System Info.
BetterBatteryStats.
CPU Spy.
BusyBox.
#2.9. WARNING
Rooting your phone could, in theory, void your warranty. See under USB Jig in first post. Also, you will no longer be able to update your phone via Kies or OTA, (Over The Air), and will need to flash ROM's via Odin or CWM Recovery... which is probably why you rooted anyway!
Whilst I have taken every care in compiling this guide, I cannot be held responsible for any damage that may occur through its use and the decision to use this guide lies with you, the owner.
Thanks
My thanks go to the following for their help and contributions to this guide:-
Josh at MobileTech Videos. Feel free to make a donation if he has helped you.
Chainfire for the kernels and original instructions. Feel free to make a donation to Chainfire at the bottom of his first post so that he may continue the good work.
Hawker whose brains and posts I have shamelessly rummaged.
Slug whose tolerance, forbearance and guidance have made this guide possible.
To all the
Android Forum posters whose posts I have plundered in an attempt to organise a definitive guide.
ironass motto... "
Flash in haste... repent at leisure"
bject_r:system_file:s0 failed: Operation not supported on transport endpoint
