[GUIDE] How To Unlock Bootloader and Root Verizon Galaxy Nexus

**dmmarck** · 12-16-2011, 03:02 AM

What You Will Find In This Guide
How to unlock the bootloader & root using a PC
How to unlock the bootloader & root using a MAC
YouTube video tutorial
Troubleshooting
How to root the 4.0.4 update

[INFO]For this method we are going to use Paul O'Briens Superboot.

Superboot is a boot.img that when booted, will root your device the first time you boot (installing su and the superuser APK). No need to flash any partitions, no need to mess around with ADB, no messing with the contents of your data partition, no overwriting the shipped ROM on your device, just boot the boot image using the instructions below and you're done!
...evostance- xda
[/INFO]

BEFORE WE BEGIN

This Guide is For Windows/PC Users (For Mac... See the end of the guide)

***** WARNING: Before you begin... Unlocking the bootloader wipes the entire phone, including the internal storage. So back up any pictures, videos, music, etc... to your computer before you begin. *****
NOW LETS GET STARTED
STEP:
1) Extract the contents of the above zip file. (SUPERBOOT)

2) Open the r3-galaxynexus-superboot folder you just extracted and select all of the files. (Ctrl + A)

3) Right click to Copy the files.

4) Open the C: drive of your computer. Right click to create a new folder and name it "root". Open the folder and PASTE the files in it that you just copied.

5) Open Command Prompt from the start menu on your computer. Use the search field if you need to.

6) From your phone... go to > Settings > Developer Options > Turn on USB Debugging.

7) Power your device off.

8) Connect your phone to your computer.

9) Put the device into bootloader mode by holding down Vol Up + Vol Down + Power and release when you see this screen.

10) Go to the Command Prompt Window and type the following: (Hit enter after each line)

Code:

cd C:/

Code:

cd root

11) Unlock your bootloader by typing this: ***This Will Wipe Your Device | Make A Backup of Anything Important If You Need To***

Code:

fastboot-windows oem unlock

12) You should get a warning on your phone. Use the volume keys to select an option, and press the power button to confirm it. (Select YES )

13) Your bootloader should now say that it is unlocked at the bottom.

14) To root your device, go back to the root folder that you created earlier on your C: drive and double click:
install-superboot-windows.bat
[NOTE]14) To root the 4.0.4 update... continue here [/NOTE]

15) When completed... you should see this screen:

16) After seeing the Google unlock screen for a few minutes, your phone should eventually power itself back on. Don't freak out and think it's frozen... it may take a good 5-10 minutes to power up off of the Google screen. ***If the Google screen goes into a bootloop... Whatever you do.. DO NOT pull the battery immediately... it will soft brick the phone. Try unplugging the USB Cable or hold the power button until the phone powers on and off. If you do end up having to pull the battery... wait at least 5-10 minutes while on the Google screen before you do so*** (more info on troubleshooting this can be found in the first 7 pages.)

Congrats... You Are Now Rooted with an Unlocked Bootloader. Now go have some fun!

CREDITS
SuperBoot: Paul O'Brien
Info: Evostance (XDA)

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For MAC Users
The instructions are the same as for PC... you just need to change the command codes.
Replace the PC codes with the following:
Step 5 from above:

Code:

cd C:/

Code:

cd root

Step 6 from above:

Code:

./fastboot-mac oem unlock

Also... From Step 9 above: Choose "install-superboot-mac.sh"
That's All...

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YouTube Video: Unlocking the bootloader and rooting from a MAC

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tF-Sz_yjYI&list=UUTqkQCOfg2k27s4GJZWrkjg&index=1&feature=plcp[/YT]
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyiCjdoUheU[/YT]

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TROUBLESHOOTING
[TIP]Common Facts & Questions[/TIP]
If you're having problems with the Drivers or the device not being recognized... Go to Device Manager on you computer and do the following.
* In fastboot mode, this is how your device may show up... with a yellow exclamation point (Unknown Device).

* Right click on the unknown device and select "Update driver software". Brings this up.... select "Browse my computer for driver software"

* That then brings up the following. Select "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"

* That then brings up the next step screen. scroll down until you see "SAMSUNG Android Phone". If you do not see this, you have not installed the driver.

* After selecting that, then select "SAMSUNG Android ADB Interface".

* Then select "Yes" to update that driver.

DONE.. your device is now recognized in fastboot mode!

**dmmarck** · 12-16-2011, 05:25 AM

Rooting the 4.04 update (if your phones bootloader is not already unlocked.. you will need to unlock the bootloader first/directions in the first post)

Instructions:

1. Download this to your internal storage.
2. and place in in your SDk/Tools or Platform-Tools folder.
3. From you Tools or Platform-Tools folder, open a command prompt.

*Wherever your adb.exe and fastboot.exe files are.

4. Type the following commands:

Code:

adb reboot bootloader

–wait for your phone to boot to the bootloader

Code:

fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.4-toro.img

–wait until the command prompt tells you it has finished

5. On your phone, scroll down to “Recovery Mode” and press the power button.
6. Your phone should boot into Clockwork Recovery.
7. Select “install zip from sdcard.”
8. Find the su.zip file that you downloaded earlier. Choose it and flash it.
9. Reboot your phone and you should now be rooted.

Enjoy!

credit adrynalyne for the new su.zip

**Terrigno** · 12-16-2011, 06:23 AM

Fantastic! This wont stop OTA updates from coming right?

EDIT: Just checked and OTA will be ok. Awesome write up. I never had to unlock a bootloader before. This will be the first time, but Sammys are fairly simple

**kichard** · 12-16-2011, 08:30 AM

Wow this was way easier than the ADB style droid life posted last night. Thank you!!

**kichard** · 12-16-2011, 08:39 AM

Im worried now lol. Been stuck at the google screen for a good 5 minutes..

**Terrigno** · 12-16-2011, 08:48 AM

Everytime I get to the last Command Prompt, It always says waiting for device. I dont get it. I have the Samsung Drivers installed, USB installed and did everything else. When I notice that I plug the usb in before I put the phone in fastboot mode, It makes the studder step sound of the USB inserted on the computer. Instead of the full Sound a USB connection makes. Can anyone help me with this?

**reactortrip** · 12-16-2011, 08:50 AM

Does this work if you already installed the OTA?

**Vaffanculo403** · 12-16-2011, 09:01 AM

Originally Posted by Terrigno

Everytime I get to the last Command Prompt, It always says waiting for device. I dont get it. I have the Samsung Drivers installed, USB installed and did everything else. When I notice that I plug the usb in before I put the phone in fastboot mode, It makes the studder step sound of the USB inserted on the computer. Instead of the full Sound a USB connection makes. Can anyone help me with this?

download the drivers, then click on the start menu, then right click on my computer, then click on manage from the drop down list, then in the window that pops up on the left hand side click on device manager. look for something that has a yellow "!" by it and right click on it and go to properties. then in 1 of those tabs (I believe it's the first 1) click on update driver. then click browse my computer for driver software. then click "browse" and find the folder where is the drivers are located and click next. you'll probably get a message saying that windows cannot determine the source the driver you sure that you want to install it and you'll want to click yes. directions just be following prompts. that's what works for me hope this helps.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

**Upstreammiami** · 12-16-2011, 09:05 AM

Open for service

hit me up guys BTW another awesome guide Cyber Warrior

**panitsos** · 12-16-2011, 09:06 AM

i'm not getting the unlock boatloader screen. when i plugged in my phone before i booted up it said installing drivers but nothing happened, i got an error

**gothir** · 12-16-2011, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by Terrigno

Everytime I get to the last Command Prompt, It always says waiting for device. I dont get it. I have the Samsung Drivers installed, USB installed and did everything else. When I notice that I plug the usb in before I put the phone in fastboot mode, It makes the studder step sound of the USB inserted on the computer. Instead of the full Sound a USB connection makes. Can anyone help me with this?

Well I used this method to unlock the bootloader but I had the same problem with the waiting on device message. I had to manually go into the windows device manager and update the driver...then navigate to the driver. For some reason it was using the wrong driver even though I had installed it. Maybe you are having the same problem?

And for a question of my own. If i used this method to unlock the bootloader only, can I just skip to step 14 to root the phone or do I need to use another method to get root.

**Terrigno** · 12-16-2011, 09:27 AM

Originally Posted by gothir

Well I used this method to unlock the bootloader but I had the same problem with the waiting on device message. I had to manually go into the windows device manager and update the driver...then navigate to the driver. For some reason it was using the wrong driver even though I had installed it. Maybe you are having the same problem?

And for a question of my own. If i used this method to unlock the bootloader only, can I just skip to step 14 to root the phone or do I need to use another method to get root.

Thank you for that. I did it via your method that same exact way and it finally worked. Was sitting on the Google sceen for a minute there I was a little bit worried. But Its finally booting up now after I installed Root. So I gotta see how this is gonna work out.

I just want to make sure that we can still get OTA updates?

**clucernoni** · 12-16-2011, 09:38 AM

MOST if not all errors that you will get are caused by the drivers not being installed correctly. Go into your device manager and make sure there are no errors or yellow exclamation points on your device. If they are, you won't be able to do anything here until they are resolved. Double click on the device and browse to the folder you downloaded the driver packages too from this thread and hit ok. It should find and install them.

**kcrandall758** · 12-16-2011, 09:41 AM

do you have to unlock the bootloader in order to root? reason I ask is because I've already got the phone pretty much set up to how I want it (sounds, background, etc)

**Terrigno** · 12-16-2011, 09:57 AM

Originally Posted by kcrandall758

do you have to unlock the bootloader in order to root? reason I ask is because I've already got the phone pretty much set up to how I want it (sounds, background, etc)

For now. Yes. Once its done. Its done lol

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

**panitsos** · 12-16-2011, 10:00 AM

all set! that was easy, i didnt have the drivers properly installed. ok now what? lol lets see some roms

**ohiomoto** · 12-16-2011, 10:02 AM

Would someone be kind enough to post a detailed guide on how to do this in Linux?

Thanks!

**panitsos** · 12-16-2011, 10:11 AM

ok back for one more question. i powered up the phone and it keeps on saying android is upgrading and starting applications. seems to be stuck in a loop its been doing it now for 10 minutes. is that normal?

**Vaffanculo403** · 12-16-2011, 10:24 AM

That didn't happen for me...

**Ricky Babalu** · 12-16-2011, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by Cyber Warrior

[INFO]For this method we are going to use Paul O'Briens Superboot.

Superboot is a boot.img that when booted, will root your device the first time you boot (installing su and the superuser APK). No need to flash any partitions, no need to mess around with ADB, no messing with the contents of your data partition, no overwriting the shipped ROM on your device, just boot the boot image using the instructions below and you're done![/INFO]

Very Nice, thanks for posting. I think I will take the ADB route so I can learn how this process works.

**mclarryjr** · 12-16-2011, 10:45 AM

Thanks Cyber for the guide it work perfect for me

**Upstreammiami** · 12-16-2011, 10:48 AM

During reboot, DO NOT BATTERY PULL. The phone may loop and loop, but battery pulling will soft brick you and you will have to flash factory images to reset yourself. I was able to unplug from the computer while it was looping and the phone then rebooted itself. Or you may just have to wait a while since it is factory reseting during this first boot.

**mclarryjr** · 12-16-2011, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by Upstreammiami

During reboot, DO NOT BATTERY PULL. The phone may loop and loop, but battery pulling will soft brick you and you will have to flash factory images to reset yourself. I was able to unplug from the computer while it was looping and the phone then rebooted itself. Or you may just have to wait a while since it is factory reseting during this first boot.

Needed to read this a few minutes ago, was looping and looping so like a dumb a$$ I pulled the battery. Looks like time to start over and flash the factory images

should I give it a few minutes before trying that?

**Upstreammiami** · 12-16-2011, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by mclarryjr

Needed to read this a few minutes ago, was looping and looping so like a dumb a$$ I pulled the battery. Looks like time to start over and flash the factory images

same here man hope cyber puts it on the OP.... how would you load the image if no sdcard ?

**Cyber Warrior** · 12-16-2011, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by Upstreammiami

During reboot, DO NOT BATTERY PULL. The phone may loop and loop, but battery pulling will soft brick you and you will have to flash factory images to reset yourself. I was able to unplug from the computer while it was looping and the phone then rebooted itself. Or you may just have to wait a while since it is factory reseting during this first boot.

I'll add it to the instructions... honestly, im not sure how i got off of the Google screen

I did eventually pull the cord which i guess is what eventually rebooted the phone.