So I’ve come to a situation with my phone (to be explained later) that has all but required me to root it. Well, basically it HAS required me to root it because I have yet to find an actual solution that doesn’t involve rooting. Anyway…
I’ve been reading root info and stuff for the last few weeks and all I can say is that the way these people write these things, it doesn’t seem as easy as they make it out to be. I have yet to find clear, explicit instructions for someone like me who knows very little about it. Don’t get me wrong, I can learn this stuff pretty easily – but I think it’s more of a problem with terminology than anything else. Not sure.
Anyway, there are a few helpful threads on XDA that you’d want to read through. To start with there’s the Easily Root Your SGS2 thread. It’s a good read – but to me became pretty confusing – especially when my patience was at a minimum already thanks to the days’ frustrations. And then there’s another problem… I have a Mac. It looks to me like most of that info is for Windows users.
Ya, go figure. The Apple user wants to root an Android device.
Luckily I found some help in that thread above… and it pointed me to another thread. It was time to get down to business… except for one thing: I AM IN NO WAY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING YOU DO TO YOUR PHONE OR ANY OTHER DEVICE. YOU FOLLOW ANY OF THESE STEPS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND ASSUME ALL RESPONSIBILITY. I only have to say that because people are dumb. Keep that in mind…
Also worth noting, if you currently are not rooted and have the stock software from AT&T/Samsung, these specific instructions and files will basically be exactly the same – but with root privileges. All of your data and apps should remain intact. But again, not responsible, your own risk… blah blah blah. If you somehow manage to lose everything, it’s just not my problem.
So, if you have a Mac and want to root your AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II, here we go:
1. Download:
2. Install on your Mac:
- Install Heimdall
- Install EZ 7z for Mac
3. Extract:
- Extract PDA.tar from UCKH7_stock_odin.7z using EZ 7z
- Extract zImage & factoryfs.img from PDA.tar using the Mac’s built-in Archive Utility
4. Move Files:
- Move zImage and factoryfs.img to an easily accessible folder (Desktop?)
5. Prepare Phone:
- Power Off your phone (pull battery if needed)
- Connect USB cable from your computer to the phone
- While holding Vol Up AND Vol Down, turn on the phone
- Press Vol Up button to Accept custom OS notice
- It should now show the Android guy and say “downloading” (don’t worry, it’s not downloading anything yet)
6. Root Phone:
- Open a Terminal window
- Change the directory to where you moved zImage/factoryfs.img
- Type the following command in the Terminal window, press Enter and wait (you should see a status bar start moving on your phone after running it):
heimdall flash --kernel zImage --factoryfs factoryfs.img
Let the phone reboot when completed. You’re done. Well, more done when it finishes booting and you click Allow on the superuser access request.
This is exactly how I did it just a few short hours ago. Now you can go download Titanium Backup or whatever other SuperUser app you want to use. And in my case, immediately go into Titantium and Freeze the AP Mobile app. POS that one is…
So just to be clear – I can’t take any credit for this. Any of it. I’ve really just put it all together and ordered it in such a way that for me, made it extremely easy (yes, even easier than it was explained on the forum). I like things simple and straightforward… I just didn’t feel like I was feeling that from the other threads and didn’t want to clog them up with even more questions.
In any case, all of the thanks goes to those guys on XDA for their hard work and providing the necessary information. Seriously, go thank them.
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