Hacker finds root for Samsung's Galaxy S

We've seen the inside of the hardware for Samsung's Galaxy S, and now a Russian coder who goes by the name LeshaK is ready to take you down to the core of the software -- despite himself not actually having one of the phones. He's posted a kernel that you can apply for easy unpacking or, if that's not your thing, provided the commands you can use to do it yourself, which look to be as simple as changing the permissions on 'su' and then re-flashing the phone with the new, lighter restrictions. We're not able to test this ourselves, but a few users are reporting infinitely looping reboots when trying to apply this, so we'd advise reading the entire thread on the other end of that source link before you go ahead and ruin your whole Wednesday.

[Thanks, Amit]

[Alfred E Neuman Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:26AM]

Problems stemming from rooting?

[clift Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:34AM]

@Alfred E Neuman
No, problems stemming from rooting incorrectly

[Zylam Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:27AM]

Please my man rid us of the immoral Touch Wiz

[r3loaded Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:29AM]

Great news, I'm buying one next month! :D

[Professor Hubert J Farnsworth Posted Jun 23rd 2010 10:34AM]

@r3loaded
Good news everyone! r3loaded is getting one next month.
Get it right; don't mess up my phrase.

[TareG Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:30AM]

Froyo and Cyanogen PRONTO.

Also when you uninstall TouchWiz 3.0, I want you to burn it.

[Schmich Posted Jun 28th 2010 10:53PM]

@TareG I haven't used the previous versions of TouchWiz but this one doesn't seem bad at all. Of course stock is always preferred but you get quite a bit more than stock on this phone eg. native divx and mkv play.

[Alfred E Neuman Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:33AM]

It's actually pretty unobtrusive and tolerable on this device from what I've seen.

[juanvaldez Posted Jun 23rd 2010 10:28AM]

@Alfred E Neuman 99% of Engadgeters talking about Touchwiz have such an inaccurate impression of what it is, they might've seen a pre-release video, they might have seen some pics or read some reviews, but so, so few have actually had 3.0 UI on-top of Android in their hands. It'd be better if Samsung just made some proprietary apps and left the UI off, but comments mostly stem from ignorance on how it helps and how little it detracts (ok, ok, the app pages look like iPhone icons).

Still, extra widgets, extra home screens, built in functionality that wouldn't be there otherwise...please get a clue (not you OP).

[Ambient80 Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:34AM]

I just can't get excited over this phone. I do like the hardware, but I don't know... something about it just seems off. Maybe once I see one in person I will like it more. Sometimes just having the device in hand makes all the difference.

[Alfred E Neuman Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:37AM]

@Ambient80 maybe all you can complain about is it not having flash (in both senses) but that'll be fixed when it gets Froyo. The lack of flash for the camera is not really a biggie. Apart from that, this phone has the best CPU-GPU combo on any smartphone right now.

[Ambient80 Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:39AM]

@Alfred E Neuman Well not having Flash isn't an issue for me, as I've had an iPhone for quite some time. I'm just used to it.

I dunno, like I said maybe once I hold the device and use it I'l enjoy it more. It might just be the UI skin more than anything, which is easily fixed, and yes Froyo would help.

[TareG Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:46AM]

@Ambient80
I see what you're saying.

1) It looks almost exactly like the iPhone 3G; hardware and app screen UI.
2) It lacks a lot of SEXY, and has a plasticky look.

So please, HTC: Release a SEXY Tegra 2 Gingerbread with a front camera.

[dank414 Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:53AM]

@Alfred E Neuman really? lack of flash & front face camera is no biggie? come on the Sprint & ATT is saddling devices with those options. with Evo & iphone4 in the minds of buyers, I'd expect the two other carries to compete for the same me too superphone.

i'm hoping that those leaked images of the Samsung Galaxy S were the different variations or prototypes (considering 110 countries are expecting to get them) and the US T-mo version has flash & front facing camera. If Samsung/T-mo wants a summer's share, they'll need to reconsider and place the "two no biggies" back in like the "Pro" version going to Sprint.

[Alfred E Neuman Posted Jun 23rd 2010 9:01AM]

@dank414 well, I for one do not care so much about low light photography on my phone. Of course, this might be a big thing for you and/or the others. The front facing camera on the iPhone is perhaps a glorified gimmick. It's VGA and does video calls only over Wi-fi if I'm not mistaken. I also saw considerable lag from what I saw on the videos. What was good was that the EVO handled that pretty well over Fring but from what I know, it and the Dell Streak are the only two devices supported. So video calling is really a novelty, not really a necessity in my book.

[Ambient80 Posted Jun 23rd 2010 9:44AM]

@Alfred E Neuman Yeah im not particularly thrilled about a front facing camera for video calling. It just doesn't seem necessary. I do like a flash on the camera (i thought you meant the flash program earlier). It all depends on what the buyer wants. If they don't want video calling, then they won't have to pay for it because there are respectable phones without it. Options, people, options!!!! This is what makes this market so nice!

[juanvaldez Posted Jun 23rd 2010 10:25AM]

@Alfred E Neuman Actually it comes stock with flash lite, it's not 10.1 but it will play some of the content you want without crashing your phone.

[nicolasgoddone Posted Jun 23rd 2010 11:12AM]

@TareG It' doesn't matter if it looks "like" iPhone 3GS, under the hood its much more powerfull (as it should be since 3GS is exactly a year old), don't know where you get your hardware facts check gsmarena www.gsmarena.com. Besides samsung galaxy s has already been rooted so changing roms should be fairly easy should you not like the carriers UI.

[Hussain Rahim Posted Jun 23rd 2010 11:19AM]

@Alfred E Neuman No camera flash is a HUGE deal. Have you ever tried to take a picture outside of perfect sunlight?

It's a definite problem.

[GeneralJesh Posted Jun 23rd 2010 8:57AM]

"Android doesn't need to be hacked, it's open" Lmao

[Alfred E Neuman Posted Jun 23rd 2010 9:02AM]

@GeneralJesh And you think that was funny, sigh...

[FC1032 Posted Jun 23rd 2010 9:41AM]

Wow that pic shows how vivid and smexy the Super-AMOLED looks!

[churchdennis Posted Jun 23rd 2010 12:07PM]

Is there any chance the code could contain a trojan horse?

[Pdavis Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:35PM]

this is a noob question but what exactly is rooting a device?

[maveric101 Posted Jun 23rd 2010 7:53PM]

@Pdavis kinda gaining administrative rights on a windows pc. some things on the phone are locked down by default so the average joe doesn't mess them up. rooting gives you superuser privileges so you can do anything and everything to your phone.