Is there an easier step by step list of what I'm supposed to do to root this? I can't find it on the xda site. I may not be looking in the right place on there but from what I've read about gold cards and mm0 mm2 stuff my head is spinning. Is it really this difficult to root?
Here is the readme from the tool I used to root my friend's phone
MAKE A GOLDCARD
Format the microSD card to FAT32 format.
Put the microSD card in your device and boot it.
Ensure you have unzipped the SDK, then open a command prompt to the extract location. Change to the 'tools directory.
Enter
tools/win/adb shell cat /sys/class/mmc_host/mmc2/mmc2:*/cid
You should get a very long number, cut and paste it into this page, to reverse it.
Then visit this page, enter your reversed number and create your goldcard image, which will be e-mailed to you.
Open the HxD hex editor in tools/win/HxD . If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you must run the application as administrator.
Go to the 'Extra' menu and select 'Open Disk'. Under physical disk, select Removable Disk (your microSD card), uncheck 'Open as Readonly' and click OK. Note that you should select physical disk NOT the logical disk. This is important!
Go to the 'Extra' menu again and select 'Open Disk Image'. Open the goldcard image that you received by email.
You should now have two tabs - one is your removable disk, the other is your goldcard image. Press OK when prompted for 'Sector Size' (selecting 512 (Hard disks/Floppy disks)) and click OK.
Click on the goldcard image tab. Go to the 'Edit' menu, choose 'Select All' then select the 'Edit' menu again and select 'Copy'.
Click on the 'Removable Disk' tab. Highlight offset (line) 00000000 to offset (line) 00000170 (including the 00000170 line), then click on the 'Edit' menu and select 'Paste Write'.
Click on the 'File' menu and select 'Save', accepting the warning.
You now have a goldcard!
2. DOWNGRADE the ROM:
Windows:
Make sure the phone is running and adb debugging is enabled and in charge-only mode (USB not mounted on the PC)
Open a command prompt as administrator and navigate to the location of this package
hackerize-ace setup-downgrade
At this point you should have verified temp root. If everything looks okay, proceed.
hackerize-ace install-downgrade
Once the FASTBOOT comes up, press power once to start HBOOT
Follow the prompts on the phone to downgrade.
Once the upgrade is complete:
Start the phone again and check that adb debugging is enabled.
run the following:
hackerize-ace clean
Do not close the terminal window ? you will need it later.
3. TEMPROOT, RADIO S-OFF, PERMROOT
Once the phone has been successfully downgraded, proceed.
hackerize-ace rage
Once this completes, Open terminal ON THE PHONE.
In phone terminal, type:
/data/local/tmp/rage
Wait for the message: "Forked #### childs."
Menu > Reset Term - Terminal Emulator will exit.
Launch Terminal Emulator again in the phone, it Force Closes. Launch a another time, and you'll have a temp root shell.
Again in the phone term emulator:
cd /data/local
./gfree -f
sync
/data/local/tmp/root
sync
Congratulations! You now have radio S-OFF, you are rooted, and your phone is carrier-unlocked (sim-free)
4. INSTALL CUSTOM RECOVERY
Install ROM Manager from MARKET
Install Clockworkmod Recovery with ROM Manager
55. RESTORE THE SHIPPING RADIO FIRMWARE
(Radio_12.39.60.19_26.06.04.06_M-ace-att.zip)
Make sure USB debuggery is on
hackerize-ace setup-radio
hackerize-ace flash-radio
This will restart the phone is fastboot mode. Push power to start the flash process.
Reboot
hackerize-ace clean
Hereis a link to the thread on XDA
Good Luck