HOW-TO OEM unlock the Galaxy Nexus

[Gunslinger1981]

Has anyone else notice a slowdown in the UI after unlock? My device does not seem nearly as smooth as it did before.

 

[YourMobileGuru]

Need help... when i try to extract the fastboot.exe file to the tools folder, i am getting an "Access Denied" error.

any help please??

My giess would be your windows account does hot have administrator privileges. You need those t mess with system files.

 

[xsfspd]

Has anyone else notice a slowdown in the UI after unlock? My device does not seem nearly as smooth as it did before.

I really can't say I have seen any slowdown at all.

 

[lawlipop]

Are you trying to extract to C:\ ? If you don't have administrator privileges that could be an issue...try placing the zip in "My Documents" or something and try extracting there. If that doesn't work I don't know what the issue could be.

i figured it out. thanks.

unlocked!

 

[YourMobileGuru]

Finally got it working and I am unlocked. Thanks all!

 

[youngzayiles]

Anyone else do a face palm when they realized they forgot to enable usb debugging?

BTW, this is the driver that worked for me.

Dude you saved my life... I couldnt figure it out to save my life... If I were close to you it would be a beer on me.. I was about to throw my phone and laptop lol

 

[swarlos]

super pissed right now

I got the driver installed it now shows android ADB under samsung driver

but the path doesn't change when I edit it and the stupid thing is my account is the Administrator as it's my only account for my computer.

Don't understand did everything to the letter and it's still not working. Guess I won't be unlocking my bootloader freaking dumb

 

[Bendroid55]

Dude you saved my life... I couldnt figure it out to save my life... If I were close to you it would be a beer on me.. I was about to throw my phone and laptop lol

Haha. At least it wasn't just me.

 

[GalaxyMonkey]

For those getting the missing adpwinapi.dll error please read this SDK note:

"The adb tool has moved to platform-tools/

If you don't see this directory in your SDK,
launch the SDK and AVD Manager (execute the android tool)
and install "Android SDK Platform-tools"

Please also update your PATH environment variable to
include the platform-tools/ directory, so you can
execute adb from any location."

I did not bother to update the path, but 'fastboot oem unlock' was still successful....because the PATH update in the above instructions takes care of it.

 

[swarlos]

For those getting the missing adpwinapi.dll error please read this SDK note:

"The adb tool has moved to platform-tools/

If you don't see this directory in your SDK,
launch the SDK and AVD Manager (execute the android tool)
and install "Android SDK Platform-tools"

Please also update your PATH environment variable to
include the platform-tools/ directory, so you can
execute adb from any location."

I did not bother to update the path, but 'fastboot oem unlock' was still successful....because the PATH update in the above instructions takes care of it.

Would be nice if I could launch the sdk manager but when I double click it to open the command prompt flashes like it's opening then does nothing.

Sent from my Creamy Nexus

 

[bplewis24]

I am finally unlocked as well. I wish there was a note on the first post stating that you could possibly see the boot animation loop for a few minutes. I bet I did it right the first or second time, but I hadn't read page 9 or 10 of this thread yet. Good luck to all!

Can you point me to a specific post? I've been getting nothing but bootloops so far since unlocking Do I need to just let them continue?

Edit: Okay, I see it now:

Ok I am stuck. I ran the fastboot oem unlock, unlocked it and rebooted the phone. Now it keeps rebooting at the google screen. It showed unlocked but wouldnt go further. So I then locked it back, and its still stuck on google and reboots.

I did pull the battery too.

Help!

So after waiting, I put battery back in, went back into fastboot and unlocked again. this time it went past the google screen and went through the animation. Took a long time but eventually rebooted and showed unlocked still and then came up working. whew!

So, since it's just sitting here looping, should I relock and then unlock again? Where can I find the steps for re-locking?

Brandon

 

[bplewis24]

Okay, so I followed the steps of ggied's post. Relocked ("fastboot oem lock"), then unlocked again, and it booted past the "Google" on the first attempt, and stayed at the splash screen for an abnormally long time before boot-looping, and eventually making it into the OS.

Don't you love hacking an unlocked device?



Brandon

 

[Enoch Stump]

I got all the way to fastboot oem unlock and its just says "waiting for device' and never does anything else? Any ideas please?

 

[bplewis24]

I got all the way to fastboot oem unlock and its just says "waiting for device' and never does anything else? Any ideas please?

Did you follow the instructions mid-way through this thread on booting into the OS, enabling USB-debugging (Developer Tools) and then allowing the Samsung drivers to install?

If not, do that now.

If you did that already, then go to manage your computer and look for the Unknown Android 1.0 device. Right click on it and select "update driver" and then select "choose from a list of drivers on my computer."

Scroll down to the Samsung Android something or other and select that one, and it should install. After that, run fastboot oem unlock again or look at your device and it should ask if you want to unlock the bootloader.

These directions should really be added to the first post. It seems like this is a necessary step everybody has to go through.

Brandon

 

[rodeojones]

For those getting the missing adpwinapi.dll error please read this SDK note:

"The adb tool has moved to platform-tools/

If you don't see this directory in your SDK,
launch the SDK and AVD Manager (execute the android tool)
and install "Android SDK Platform-tools"

Please also update your PATH environment variable to
include the platform-tools/ directory, so you can
execute adb from any location."

I did not bother to update the path, but 'fastboot oem unlock' was still successful....because the PATH update in the above instructions takes care of it.

The part in bold red, that's the part that I'm stuck on. I can't install the SDK Platform-tools. How exactly do I do that part? I've been trying for two full days now to get this ADB/SDK stuff set up properly but I'm stuck and it's frustrating. If it matters, I'm using Windows Vista.

 

[bplewis24]

The part in bold red, that's the part that I'm stuck on. I can't install the SDK Platform-tools. How exactly do I do that part? I've been trying for two full days now to get this ADB/SDK stuff set up properly but I'm stuck and it's frustrating. If it matters, I'm using Windows Vista.

Do you see a folder in the Android SDK directory that says Platform-Tools when you navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk? If so, you've already done it. If not, you should be able to open the SDK and when it opens up, at the very top section of Packages, under the Tools section it will show that "Android SDK Platform-tools" is "not installed" and have a check box next to it. Make the the box is checked, and then press the "install packages" button on the bottom right.

Brandon

 

[rodeojones]

Do you see a folder in the Android SDK directory that says Platform-Tools when you navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk? If so, you've already done it. If not, you should be able to open the SDK and when it opens up, at the very top section of Packages, under the Tools section it will show that "Android SDK Platform-tools" is "not installed" and have a check box next to it. Make the the box is checked, and then press the "install packages" button on the bottom right.

Brandon

Holy crap, I figured it out. Brandon, I actually tried to do exactly what you were saying I should do multiple times but it never worked. Essentially it would say that the install never happened and "nothing was done." But what I had been doing was updating the PATH variable before installing Platform-tools. So I tried installing Platform-tools first (without changing my PATH variable) and it worked.

Easiest solution in the world and it took from 8pm on Thursday until now to figure it out. Thanks for the help.

 

[rodeojones]

Okay, one last question. When I download fastboot.exe should I place that in tools/ or platform-tools/? The OP says to put it in tools/ but I wanted to double-check that part.

 

[bplewis24]

Okay, one last question. When I download fastboot.exe should I place that in tools/ or platform-tools/? The OP says to put it in tools/ but I wanted to double-check that part.

Platform-tools. The first post needs to be updated.

In fact, I think it's as simple as putting it in the folder where "ADB" is located. If you see ADB in the platform-tools folder of your C drive, put it there.

Brandon

 

[rodeojones]

Platform-tools. The first post needs to be updated.

In fact, I think it's as simple as putting it in the folder where "ADB" is located. If you see ADB in the platform-tools folder of your C drive, put it there.

Brandon

Thanks again. I had a hunch that was where I should put it (seeing as how ADB is in that folder). Now as soon as I finish my breakfast I can finally unlock this thing.