[Jerry Hildenbrand]

This method is pretty much standard for Samsung phones, but much credit to for verifying it works with the Sidekick

Read this. It very much applies here. If you're good to go after that:

This can screw things up badly. Once you decide to try anything that T-Mobile hasn't approved, whatever happens is your responsibility. Not Android Central's. Not mine. Especially not mine. This is in a big red box, so don't even try to say you didn't see it.

Install the Samsung USB drivers and Android SDK. If you can't get those up and running, you should probably quit now before you break anything.

• Download both attachments, and unzip them. Place the files "rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin", "su", and "Superuser.apk" in your Android SDK/platform-tools folder. Credit for these files goes to their original authors. Source code for RATC is included in the zip file.
• open a command window
• cd to your SDK/tools folder
• reboot your sidekick
• plug it into a full speed, primary, USB 2.0 port on your computer.
• in the command window, enter the following, one line at a time:
  

  adb push rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /data/local/tmp
  adb shell
  cd /data/local/tmp
  chmod 755 rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
  ./rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin

• Eventually you'll get kicked out of adb and back into your command window. that's a good thing. When that happens, enter the following, again one line at a time:
  

  adb kill-server 
  adb start-server 
  adb shell
  mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/stl9 /system
  exit 
  adb push su /system/xbin 
  adb shell chmod 4755 /system/xbin/su 
  adb push Superuser.apk /system/app 
  adb shell echo "root::0:0:root:/data/local:/system/bin/sh" > /etc/passwd
  adb shell echo "root::0:" > /etc/group
  adb shell mount -o remount,ro /dev/block/stl9 /system
  exit

• Reboot your phone
• Enjoy the root.

If you can't get a root prompt (#) after you re-enter adb, try rebooting your phone.

If you can't make heads or tails out of this, don't try it.

[eggFuJON]

Is there a way to unroot? Just in case I'm in need of warranty or insurance services. I plan on keeping this bad boy my whole 2yr contract.

[BME123]

thanks!

[stafly17]

just what i have been waiting for

[RamboDroid]

the last two cmd lines "adb shell echo..." it said not found blah blah....are those needed...LOL

[markcb420]

Thanks

[eggFuJON]

For whoever is rooted, did uninstalling all that bloatware manage to speed up the phone by any amount? The lag is killing me. More importantly, the physical keyboard input lag.

[jjsmchs#ac]

thanks brah

[vwftw]

woohoo!

[sr20de919]

sweet thanks

[droid4g]

can i do this on a mac?

[redcheetah]

thanks

[sr20de919]

Hi

I have a question..

adb shell echo "root::0:0:root:/data/local:/system/bin/sh" > /etc/passwd
adb shell echo "root::0:" > /etc/group
adb shell mount -o remount,ro /dev/block/stl9 /system

These will not work but i skipped thoses and then exit it .. root works. are those command needed?

[tigrress]

Couldn't push "su" or "superuser" files...got the Read-Only File System error both times...

I unmounted my SD card halfway through this process, is that why I go these errors? If I start over (with SD card already unmounted) will it then work?

BTW - SR20DE - the quotation marks are actually apostrophes (single tic, not double) ' not "

try that maybe?

[Hacksawhannah]

When it comes to 'adb shell echo......' it will not work. I tried what was suggested in the comments but that did not work either.