Droid X can now be counted among the rooted (update: video!)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted July 22nd 2010 9:14AM
posted July 22nd 2010 9:14AM
It's recently come to our attention that Birdman over at the AllDroid.org forums has rooted the Droid X. By all accounts (which, at the time of this writing, consists of two forum posts that exclaim "it works!") things are going beautifully, so what do you think? Ready to pierce the soft underbelly of your smartphone's OS? Been dying to get a hot session of ADB going? Hit the source link, and remember: if you brick your phone, you only have yourself to blame.
Update: We've added a video of the process after the break. Thanks, Steven!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Update: We've added a video of the process after the break. Thanks, Steven!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
@Shalabi 'Rooting' comes from installing su onto the bootloader of the phone enabling root user access. It's not installed by default so that mom and pop don't download anything that deal with messing up the system partition.
Google provides the tools for 'rooting' and it's usually just an accomplishment because folks like Samsung, Motorola, and HTC have proprietary bootloaders that need to be unlocked. Google's own Nexus One can be 'rooted' by just going to the android svn site and downloading the tools from Google themselves since it's a straight up 'from Google' phone.
And not to mention, the Android Marketplace has root apps in there. You don't see apps in Apple's app store that are commented 'needs to be jailbroken to use'.
Also Apple doesn't provide the jailbreak with Xcode.
@Shalabi
Easy.
Rooting involves the right climate, proper pH of the soil and a little but of patience. You take your phone and dig a hole about 7 inches deep. Place your phone in the hole and cover with soil. Fertilizie the phone with, I would recommend Emu fertilizer, it gives you some greener greens. Water the phone. Now, how much you water is a delicate balancing act depening on your climate. I think it most closely goes with the watering needs of an apple tree. Now, go to another phone and call the on you want to be rooted and leave a message of hope for the phone on the voicemail. Water consistantly for the next 4 months and you should have a nice rooted phone by then.
Now for jailbreaking.
The first step is getting your phone sent to jail. Depending on the crime commited by your phone and the size of the jail will determine the difficulty of the jail break. If its a petty crime it should be much easier. Now you start by watching an episode of the A-Team where they are in a small town with a dirty cop. Go buy a van and follow their directions and you should be good. Also it may help to buy a lot of gold so you don't stand out and look ridiculous.
So in summary rooting your phone is gardening, simple and legal. Jailbreaking is illegal and requires classic TV.
@theNEOone Rooting an android phone allows custom roms, overclocking, etc. Jailbreaking an iPhone only allows you to install non AppStore apps. Huge difference.
@JOBN LOL! +1 =)
@4u2nv Rooting doesn't mean you can install custom roms... they have to crack the bootloader.
@4u2nv Rooting does not mean you can install custom roms. All it does is allow you root access. You still have to crack the bootloader, which is the tricky part with efuse.
this just got quite a few people off the fence about the Droid 2.
@ckeegan How? Everyone knew the Droid X would be rooted. To get people off the fence someone needs to figure out the digitally signed bootloader issue.
It Works!
You can do this with a iphone4 while holding it on left hand
@Makali
Root and screw are only synonyms using a different context.
@Makali: It's old; it has been old; get over it.
This post is about the Droid X and warrants no mention of the iPhone 4's antenna issue when held a certain way.
@Makali
Custom roms please
Well, that didn't take long.
rooting does not equal custom roms. the bootloader needs to be hacked before you can load custom roms. right now with root you will be able to delete crap and add things like wifi tether.
@sroach23
Are there still wifi tethering apps in the Marketplace?
@sroach23: Give me a Droid 2 with Froyo and root, I'll be happy enough. No bloatware (it can be removed), current OS, and I can install whatever I need.
@DdotSpot http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/downloads/list?can=2&q=Droid
@Bogus83 droid 2 is just a barely updated droid. theres not much added. wait for the droid pro in november, its a dual core monster.
@sroach23 Really?! With root and the ability to put the /system partition in R/W mode, a WHOLE LOT can be done that can result in what you'd be hard pressed to not call a "custom" ROM. The reality is that some things can't be customized, but then again, "custom ROM" as you'd use the term, still contains many bits that aren't changed because there's no benefit/need. ROOT (su and a R/W /System partition) allow for a LOT of customizing, to include themes. About the only major limitation in place right now is the inability to swap kernels.
That said, please define "custom rom".
@rainabba If you could throw 2.2 on it right now, I'd say that it allowed custom roms.
You can't, so it doesn't.
@rainabba custom rom, as in an unofficial release of android 2.2 that is running on my droid. you cannot do that on the milestone or droid x until the bootloader can be broken. until that happens you are stuck running the os until it is updated by the manufacturer.
All we need is a jailbreak for iOS4 now /:
Go Birdman!!!! Droid X>All.
That was fast, love those Devs.
The credit for this exploit should be given to Sebastian Krahmer, he is the actual coder who wrote this exploit that was used here. Accepting donations for others work is a but shady.
@R1Lover Have you even read our announcement/directions post? He got the credit he deserved (first on the list) and it wasn't credit for rooting the X because he didn't mod the code, compile, or actually get one rooted. What he did do, was discover a vector/vulnerability that suggested how it might be done.
Sounds cool... but a little too early me thinks to get super excited by this.
Wait until it's around for a bit, some people have already tried it, and then maybe.
Either way, I still got a few days for mine to ship, but it would be damn awesome if true.
@rainabba
My point being the exploit (exploid) in this case was found and written by Sebastian, birdy simply used this method to root the x... I'm not trying to take away from what was done here... but simply pointing out who found the exploit in linux and who wrote the code to exploit it.
I did see you linked to him... but it was for a blog post... as you noted... and not for the actual exploit and method to do it.
Not a big deal... but I like fact's!
That picture is disgusting.
If the droid x can be rooted why can't the milestone be rooted too.
@rockingtushar The milestone has been rooted. Rooting and having an unlocked bootloader are two completely different things.
@4u2nv it has been a long time since the milestone has been released.... why hasn't the bootloader been unlocked??
I don't need root access to ADB install/uninstall normal apps from my phone. Is the bundled Verizon crapware a different matter?
@timmins Yes.
Donate to the Bird folks!
People get a hard on to go from one android version to the same version tweked?
Lol hahahahahaha.
"Hey im running android 2.2" - Im running android 2.2 too but mine have cute icons. hahahaha
Please is not that big of a deal. I was with android and 99% of the custom roms out there are garbage. With the exception of cyanogen.
At the end of theday no openess is ever going to help android unpolished nature.
@FrankDTank
You have not added anything to this thread. Get back on Job's cock where you belong please...
I'm a bit nervous to try. It took me nearly a month to attempt to root the original.
@cstrife999
did it to mine very simple haha it took me longer to SDK and ADB working actually. ( this is my first droid phone)
The Droid X can only hope to sell in the shadow of the iphone 4. Nothing else. Rooting or otherwise.
@Afewgoodmen The iPhone 4 is not their goal. Motorola is planning on producing less than 1 million Droid X's for 2010, so even if they sold out every single one of their phones, it still won't match the iPhone 4's numbers. However, that doesn't matter since the volume of 1 phone isn't their goal. They are going to be supplying much more Droid 2's, which is their real money maker.
@Narutogrey
You said it.
I really wish people would STOP spreading the e-fuse shit. The phone will NOT brick, it will boot into recovery, which will allow you to re-flash a factory image. As far as root, this is awesome. Blur can be gotten rid of by downloading a different launcher from the market, and now you can overclock (setCPU) and load WiFi tether and many other things that can be done only with root. Thanks Birdman...
@chicojd except you need a kernal to enable wifi tether and overclock but at this point that cannot be done until the bootloader is cracked. Please get your facts straight. Keep up the good work devs I have huge faith in this community that this phone will be cracked!
@JoshR Nooo... You can use wifi tether without an unlocked bootloader. I'm doing it as we speak. As for over clocking, you can under clock now with root, and using a modded version if the milestone oc app, oc should be very possible soon.
I dont wanna root it despite the benefits.
Really good step in the right direction! Next one: stock android! Then I will finally use my droidx as my primary phone and get rid of the original droid.
Sort of off topic but does anyone know what Windows 7 theme that is?