[ragnarokx]

Rooting the Nexus 7 - Video Walkthrough

This is a step-by-step video guide on manually rooting the Nexus 7 tablet using Windows. No toolboxes, kits, or one-clicks. You get to see exactly what is being done to your tablet, and can easily pinpoint any problems you might have. If you'd still prefer an automated method, or if you are using OSX or Linux, Zero Neck has got you covered.

Materials needed:

1. Nexus 7 tablet
2. Windows computer
3. USB cable

Unlocking your bootloader (which is required to root) will completely wipe your device, so make sure to backup anything you need before starting.
Also make sure your tablet is fully charged.

Step 1
Here are the files you'll need (pick the appropriate Nexus7.zip based on your device). Download them and extract the folders inside onto your desktop:

for WiFi only tablets (no SIM card version)
for GSM tablets (version with SIM card)

-

Step 2
Take note: ClockworkMod Recovery has been updated since this video was made, and looks a little different as seen below:


A new feature has also been added to Clockwork since the making of this video, as seen below:

Do you want to be rooted only, and keep the ability to install OTA updates? If so, select No from the above menu. Alternatively, if you aren't worried about applying OTA updates and want to be able to flash ROMs/kernels/etc, select Yes from the menu above. This is completely reversibile by flashing recovery again, so if you aren't sure what to choose just pick No. You'll be presented with the above screen toward the end of the video.

With that in mind, proceed to the video below:

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd0aHglMagY[/YT]

See Troubleshooting in post 3 if you have any problems.
I cannot answer technical questions through PM - please post any questions in the thread, thanks.

[ragnarokx]

In case any of the Windows command prompt (cmd) commands in the video were not clear, I'm going to list them below along with their functions.

fastboot devices

uses the fastboot.exe program in the nexus7 folder to check what Android devices are connected to the computer

fastboot oem unlock

fastboot.exe unlocks the Nexus 7 bootloader, letting you install Clockwork/SuperSU

fastboot flash recovery clockwork.img

fastboot.exe flashes clockwork.img, installing ClockworkMod Recovery

fastboot reboot-bootloader

(don't forget the hyphen!) fastboot.exe restarts the bootloader

fastboot boot clockwork.img

fastboot.exe boots into ClockworkMod Recovery

adb reboot recovery

(not in video, may be needed if problems pushing/flashing supersu.zip) adb.exe reboots recovery while in recovery

adb push supersu.zip /sdcard/

copies SuperSU to your tablet

[ragnarokx]

Troubleshooting

Installing the driver worked like a charm after this.

The folder contents were encrypted and Windows needed them to be decrypted for the driver to install properly. To decrypt, right-click on the folder -> properties -> Advanced (under "General" tab) -> deselect "encrypt contents to secure data".

I couldn't mount the sdcard in recovery. I was also getting several error messages at the bottom of the screen about being unable to mount or read some cache folders.

I actually gave up and just let the tablet boot up to the welcome screen, and then powered it back down and booted to the bootloader and then into recovery. Once I did this - the errors were gone, and it was able to mount the sdcard to flash the supersu file.

Hey ragnarokx

Everything went great, but I have a question. The Nexus7 wants to do the update to 4.1.1, when I tell it yes, it reboots and goes into Clockwork and says the update fails? Any ideas? I do not tell it to go into Clockwork, just to reboot when the Nexus7 asks. Thanks!!

You need stock recovery to install an OTA update. To get stock recovery back, you repeat the same steps that you used to install Clockwork. do the following:

1) download , extract the file inside, place the file in the nexus7 folder (C:\nexus7)
2) reboot into bootloader (power off, hold vol down+power), plug in tablet to PC via USB
3) open Windows command prompt (cmd), navigate to the nexus7 folder in the command prompt (cd c:\nexus7)
4) in command prompt, type "fastboot devices" to make sure your tablet is connected properly, then type "fastboot flash recovery stock-recovery.img" to get stock recovery back, then reboot the bootloader by typing "fastboot reboot-bootloader" to finish installation
5) using the volume keys, go to "Recovery mode" on the bootloader screen and press power to select it
6) you should now see stock recovery, which is a little Android laying down with an exclamation point over him. if you see this, then you're ready to apply the OTA update. reboot and apply the 4.1.1 update as normal.
7) after you apply the OTA update, if you want Clockwork back repeat the above steps but instead of using "stock-reocvery.img" use "clockwork.img" from the video (it should already be in your nexus7 folder).

if you lose root access after the OTA update, check to see if SuperSU is still in your app list. if it is, open it and tap yes when it asks to install binaries, then you'll have root access back.

So I flashed Clockwork, it alerted me to the OTA. I chose to download and install... couldn't from Clockwork.

So today I reflashed stock recovery. It's no longer alerting me to an OTA, says I'm up-to-date on 4.1, and I don't see an update.zip on my sdcard.

Any ideas? :\


Nevermind, got it. Had to clear data/force stop on Google Services Framework. Now it's downloading OTA.

First: Basically if you can only see the N7 mounted as the Samsung device, do not worry, it roots fine using that. I simply could not get the naked drives mounted but it was not a big deal in the end. As a matter of fact somewhere along the line it changed to the Android ADB Interface.

Second I also had the issue of the N7 not seeing the "SD card" and when i did I did not see the supersu.zip file to install, "

So this will fix both. Just restart the N7 and boot it as normal from the recovery screen.

Let it mount a USB drive, it will be called Nexus 7 in the My Computer list of devices and the drive will be called Internal Storage.

Copy the c:\nexus7\supersu.zip file to this N7 drive. Just stick it in the root along with the folder, Android, DCIM etc...

Then shut down the N7, hold power and Vol down and go from there to install supersu.zip. After I coped the file there manually I could then see the SD card and install it.

There are two boot issues. One as you described...bootloader will not boot to recovery on key presses without a PC.

The other is that the zip version of this CWM causes it to only boot to recovery...no way to boot back to system. Kind of the opposite problem in a way

If you type fastboot oem unlock and it returns

"... FAILED "

Try typing "fastboot reboot-bootloader" then "fastboot oem unlock"

I had an issue that prevented installing the unsigned driver in Windows 8. To fix that issue I did the following:

• From the Metro or Desktop
• Bring up Charms by mouseing over to the right of the screen
• Go to Settings
• More PC Settings
• General
• Advanced Startup > Restart Now
• Trouble shoot
• Advanced options
• Windows startup options
• Restart
• Click on 'Disable driver signature enforcement
• Reboot

For anyone having a problem pushing the supersu zip to your Nexus 7, I followed the instructions from top to bottom, starting over each time but at the "choose zip from sd card" stage, there was no zip file to select. After several attempts, my fix turned out to be quite simple; just repeat the 'adb push supersu.zip /sdcard/' and 'adb reboot recovery' commands rather than starting again from the beginning.

An indication that the push probably didn't work is if your command prompt returns '* daemon not running. starting it now *' and '* daemon started successfully *' during the push command.

[ragnarokx]

File Contents and Credits

Nexus7.zip
ADB & Fastboot -
ClockworkMod Recovery -
SuperSU -
Universal_Naked_Driver.zip
Driver package -

07-16-2012
Clockwork v5.8.0.2 r2
SuperSU v0.94
Universal Naked Driver v0.7

07-17-2012
updated Clockwork to v6.0.0.4 r3
reverted to Clockwork v5.8.0.2 r2 due to problems with newer version

07-19-2012
updated Clockwork to v6.0.0.6

07-21-2012
updated Clockwork to v6.0.1.0

12-24-2012
updated Clockwork to v6.0.2.3
updated SuperSU to v0.99
added GSM (Tilapia) version of Clockwork

[2defmouze]

"No toolboxes, kits or 1-clicks.."

Love it. Nice job!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Best tutorial ever.

[jbuggydroid]

awesome video. Thanks

[Paul627g]

Makes me jealous I don't have one! Great job Rag!

[tntdroid]

This was awesome. I'll use it tomorrow.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

[ilkhan]

unlocked and ROMd my Gnexus on basically its first boot. This will help me do the same for my Nexus7 when it arrives later today.

Thanks.

[Miffo]

Great tutorial - I will be using it when my Nexus 7 finally arrives!

I've got a suggestion to make it even clearer for the super-inept like myself. At 5:10 we're told to type "fastboot reboot bootloader" verbally but you can just make out on the screen (just) that it's "fastboot reboot-bootloader". I spotted that one - don't know if there are others so perhaps a .txt file with a transcript of the commands I have to type would be nice.

Thanks again.

Peter.

[eze036]

great video....

[dekan54]

Thanks for the great "How To"....

[SHWELL]

I was unable to complete the root...

I had success unlocking it, but root access escapes me..

"E:cannot mount /sdcard/" is what I am getting..

[ragnarokx]

I was unable to complete the root...

I had success unlocking it, but root access escapes me..

"E:cannot mount /sdcard/" is what I am getting..

Are you getting that message when trying to push supersu to your tablet? Did you get Clockwork installed ok?

[zero neck]

Great tutorial, rag!

[SHWELL]

Are you getting that message when trying to push supersu to your tablet? Did you get Clockwork installed ok?

I couldnt tell you if Clockwork was installed correctly.. I couldnt backtrack to verify.. I have a local buddy who has done this with success.. He will walk me through the Root access.


Thank you are responding.

[jchice2]

SHWELL

I had the same issue, I just started over skipping the unlock step and everything worked correctly.

[ragnarokx]

If both of you were attempting to push supersu.zip while in Clockwork (black screen with yellow letters), rebooting Clockwork may have fixed your problem. You can reboot Clockwork by typing "adb reboot recovery" in Windows command prompt, or going to Advanced>Reboot recovery on the tablet.

[jchice2]

Hey ragnarokx

Everything went great, but I have a question. The Nexus7 wants to do the update to 4.1.1, when I tell it yes, it reboots and goes into Clockwork and says the update fails? Any ideas? I do not tell it to go into Clockwork, just to reboot when the Nexus7 asks. Thanks!!

[ragnarokx]

Hey ragnarokx

Everything went great, but I have a question. The Nexus7 wants to do the update to 4.1.1, when I tell it yes, it reboots and goes into Clockwork and says the update fails? Any ideas? I do not tell it to go into Clockwork, just to reboot when the Nexus7 asks. Thanks!!

You need stock recovery to install an OTA update. To get stock recovery back, you repeat the same steps that you used to install Clockwork. do the following:

1) download , extract the file inside, place the file in the nexus7 folder (C:\nexus7)
2) reboot into bootloader (power off, hold vol down+power), plug in tablet to PC via USB
3) open Windows command prompt (cmd), navigate to the nexus7 folder in the command prompt (cd c:\nexus7)
4) in command prompt, type "fastboot devices" to make sure your tablet is connected properly, then type "fastboot flash recovery stock-recovery.img" to get stock recovery back, then reboot the bootloader by typing "fastboot reboot-bootloader" to finish installation
5) using the volume keys, go to "Recovery mode" on the bootloader screen and press power to select it
6) you should now see stock recovery, which is a little Android laying down with an exclamation point over him. if you see this, then you're ready to apply the OTA update. reboot and apply the 4.1.1 update as normal.
7) after you apply the OTA update, if you want Clockwork back repeat the above steps but instead of using "stock-reocvery.img" use "clockwork.img" from the video (it should already be in your nexus7 folder).

if you lose root access after the OTA update, check to see if SuperSU is still in your app list. if it is, open it and tap yes when it asks to install binaries, then you'll have root access back.

[jchice2]

You rock ragnarokx !!

Thank you again!

[pahern]

At this point I don't need root (total newbie to unlocking/rooting - never did it on my phone) but I may want to root it later, so the best thing at this point would just be to unlock it right?

If I just unlock it now I'll still get the OTA updates directly and it will be "root ready" without wiping it when the day comes that I want to root it?

[zero neck]

At this point I don't need root (total newbie to unlocking/rooting - never did it on my phone) but I may want to root it later, so the best thing at this point would just be to unlock it right?

If I just unlock it now I'll still get the OTA updates directly and it will be "root ready" without wiping it when the day comes that I want to root it?

yes. you can even root it if you want, just don't flash a custom recovery and you can get updates.

[ragnarokx]

At this point I don't need root (total newbie to unlocking/rooting - never did it on my phone) but I may want to root it later, so the best thing at this point would just be to unlock it right?

If I just unlock it now I'll still get the OTA updates directly and it will be "root ready" without wiping it when the day comes that I want to root it?

If you're worried about your device being wiped, then yes - unlocking before you do anything will save you the trouble of getting your device wiped later when you root.