[How-To] Root the LG Optimus V

Lenoh

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It was all due to the adb shell. I didnt see it there the whole time. I went through and downloaded everything okay. I was not able to connect with the lg mobile support tool ,so i spent some time trying to uninstall and reinstall lg drivers.

I ran across a post on xda for "noobs" titled "READ FIRST] [REF] Dictionary for n00b." It was created by " The_ERROR " it gave me a little background on what I was doing. There was a video I ran across on youtube where i used the adb
devices command. I thought okay the app was seeing my phone,I went back to the post and saw the "ADB SHELL" worked like a charm after that.I would move the "(At this point, you should have a "#" prompt, if instead you see "$", SuperOneClick has not been able to gain access to your phone. Go Back to step 3 and try again)" above the adb shell so all the commands are together.



I used the set cpu app but it said the rom would not let me overclock, oh well I will need to read more before I move on.
 
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RevolutionRed

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.I would move the "(At this point, you should have a "#" prompt, if instead you see "$", SuperOneClick has not been able to gain access to your phone. Go Back to step 3 and try again)" above the adb shell so all the commands are together.

I used the set cpu app but it said the rom would not let me overclock, oh well I will need to read more before I move on.

Good suggestion. I made the move.

As far as overclocking your phone goes, you'll need to flash a new kernel. Rooting your phone simply gives you permission to do whatever you want to your phone. It doesn't actually do anything in and of itself.

There's some information in the Optimus S section that will get you started on how to do that.
 
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seyahmit

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Picked up the V today and it is rooted. Thanks for the guide RevolutionRed, made the first time rooting any phone a breeze!
 

blaqbird

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Thanks for the instructions made rooting my first Android easy. I've already a recommended that some users over on XDA come here for rooting too since their instructions require downgrading to 2.2. When I get enough posts in I'll throw in a link to this sticky or maybe you could place a sticky over there.
 

Fletch888

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I'm trying to follow this procedure. I needed the JDK as well as the JRE. Downloading now.

Edit 1:
I accepted all updates on the Android SDK, and it's taking forever; even on a fairly fast connection ....

Edit 2:
The instructions worked perfectly. I'm running superuser and titanium backup on my phone.
Now on to the custom recovery thread ...
Thanks. No feedback other than adding the JDK to the necessary items list. Maybe add the .net framework that superoneclick needs to the list as well.

Edit 3:
I have custom recovery installed per the thread linked in the OP.

Thanks folks!
 
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darrenb1988

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I can't get mine to root. Super one click freezes when attempting to root my device. Also under device manager it says adb interface Android sooner adb interface with a yellow warning sign. I've rooted about 20 phones so I am not sure whats going on. Maybe my new xp is crap.
 

RevolutionRed

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I can't get mine to root. Super one click freezes when attempting to root my device. Also under device manager it says adb interface Android sooner adb interface with a yellow warning sign. I've rooted about 20 phones so I am not sure whats going on. Maybe my new xp is crap.

My initial guess would be that the Android SDK did not install correctly. I would try uninstalling it completely along with the LG USB drivers, and then reinstalling them. I haven't tried the process on XP, nor do I have an XP to test with, so I can't verify that it works on XP. Anyone else have success on XP?
 

tzzoooma

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I managed to root and uninstall some bloat.

Problem is I lost google voice search, apparently when I removed the default browser, which it is hard coded into. My titanium backup isn't letting me recover, and I can't even find any of the deleted apps in the directory, eventhough I backed everything up.

Any ideas on how I can just put the browser back on?
I reinstalled Voice search from market, which updated the version to 2.1.1, but I still have the same problem.
 
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RevolutionRed

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Any ideas on how I can just put the browser back on?
I reinstalled Voice search from market, which updated the version to 2.1.1, but I still have the same problem.

If you made a nandroid backup, you can unzip it and grab the file from it. Google programs are stored on the phone as files with an .apk extension, so if you look in system/app, it should be there. Alternatively, you can flash a rom that still has it, or try googling Browser.apk and see if you come up with anything.
 

ARP

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This question may betray my newness to Android (I bought my first device four days ago and rooted it tonight), but here it goes anyway:

I followed these directions to create a stock boot and recovery image before rooting my device:

Open up a command window and cd to your android/platform-tools directory.

type the following
adb shell (logs you into the phone, you should see the # prompt)
cat /dev/mtd/mtd0 > /sdcard/stock-boot.img
cat /dev/mtd/mtd2 > /sdcard/stock-recovery.img
exit

You should now have two files on your sd card called stock-boot.img and stock-recovery.img.

Now, I currently have dsixda's kitchen installed on Ubuntu and would like to modify the stock ROM. In order to do this, I need stock boot.img and system.img files. Are the recovery.img and system.img files identical? In other words, can I just rename "stock-recovery.img" to "system.img" for use in dsixda's kitchen? If not, where can I find a bone-stock system image?

Thanks!
 

RevolutionRed

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Now, I currently have dsixda's kitchen installed on Ubuntu and would like to modify the stock ROM. In order to do this, I need stock boot.img and system.img files. Are the recovery.img and system.img files identical? In other words, can I just rename "stock-recovery.img" to "system.img" for use in dsixda's kitchen? If not, where can I find a bone-stock system image?

Thanks!

Unfortunately, the recovery.img is not the same as the system.img. Fortunately, there are already a couple of dumps of the system.img on the forum. Check HERE for example. Download the nandroid backup, and you'll be able to extract with 7-zip to grab the stock images.
 
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Desmock

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Curious question, I am a newb to all of this so I do apologize if this was already answered in another thread on the forum or what not, though I figured with all the helpfulness that this thread has provided thus far, more could be found with my said inquiry.

I just bought my Optimus V about 3 or 4 days ago, I love it, I didn't root it via this thread's directions (Though from reading it they do sound very easy and helpful) but none the less I figured out how to root it and I installed a custom recovery etc etc etc. My question is... with all these kernels and ROMs floating about, I've yet for the life of me been able to figure out how and where to download Gingerbread and upgrade my phone from Froyo.

Yeah I have a custom ROM and kernel... but what I really want is the latest and greatest updates... and perhaps some apps that you would normally have to pay for, for free... lol.

Anyone have any need to know information on how I would go about getting Gingerbread for my phone? All I've been able to find is the developer's platform for Gingerbread, but not the actual upgrade.
 

ejdme

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Anyone have any need to know information on how I would go about getting Gingerbread for my phone? All I've been able to find is the developer's platform for Gingerbread, but not the actual upgrade.
There are a few people over at xda-developers forum that are working on a Gingerbread port for the LG Optimus variants, but I wouldn't really recommend using it yet. A lot of things are still broken.
 

tzzoooma

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If you made a nandroid backup, you can unzip it and grab the file from it. Google programs are stored on the phone as files with an .apk extension, so if you look in system/app, it should be there. Alternatively, you can flash a rom that still has it, or try googling Browser.apk and see if you come up with anything.

I tried everything you suggested, and made my nandroid backup after I did the titanium. The couple of browser.apk on the web didn't work. Would anyone be able to put their browser.apk on the web someplace for me to try, before I do a full system flash? Thanks if you can.
 

ARP

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Unfortunately, the recovery.img is not the same as the system.img. Fortunately, there are already a couple of dumps of the system.img on the forum. Check HERE for example. Download the nandroid backup, and you'll be able to extract with 7-zip to grab the stock images.

As I prefer the do-it-yourself route (hoping to learn more about the process that way), could I obtain the stock image by simply making a nandroid backup of my phone and extracting the boot.img and system.img files? I have rooted my phone and installed superuser + Titanium Backup, but otherwise made no changes. Would this still be a "stock" system.img? I'm unclear as to what, exactly, is contained within the system image.

Again, thanks for all of the help! I'm documenting things as I go along so that I can help other newbies in the future.
 

RevolutionRed

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As I prefer the do-it-yourself route (hoping to learn more about the process that way), could I obtain the stock image by simply making a nandroid backup of my phone and extracting the boot.img and system.img files? I have rooted my phone and installed superuser + Titanium Backup, but otherwise made no changes. Would this still be a "stock" system.img? I'm unclear as to what, exactly, is contained within the system image.

Again, thanks for all of the help! I'm documenting things as I go along so that I can help other newbies in the future.

Yes, you could obtain the system image by doing a nandroid backup and extracting the system.img file. You can think of the .img files as being similar to a CD .ISO file (or disk image), it's one big file that represents an entire filesystem (or the case of the phone, specific areas of the phone's memory). Your .img file wouldn't be stock in the sense that you have the phone rooted and have installed titanium backup, and those changes are captured in the system.img file, but it would work fine as a base to tear apart and start cooking a rom. The contents of the various img file are as follows:

boot.img - Operating System Kernel, images, and configuration files necessary to start the phone (e.g. fom the time you press the power button, to the time the virgin mobile logo goes away)

recovery.img - Contains the program that helps restore your phone in the event of failure. When your press power+home+down when you boot, the menu you get is running off of the recovery.img. Alternatively, you can go to your platform-tools folder and type "adb reboot recovery" to get here. A custom recovery is flashed to this partition.

system.img - Contains the applications and drivers for the system. Basically, once your phone is booted (after the virgin mobile logo disappears) it's running off of the system.img. This isn't strictly true, because the kernel is still running, but it's a general guideline to help you understand what's where.
 
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RevolutionRed

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I tried everything you suggested, and made my nandroid backup after I did the titanium. The couple of browser.apk on the web didn't work. Would anyone be able to put their browser.apk on the web someplace for me to try, before I do a full system flash? Thanks if you can.

Probably because your rom is still odexed, while all the ones online are deoxded. Google that to get a description of what it is. I've attached a zip file containing the original apk and odex files for the V browser. They both need to go into your system/app folder.

To get them there, do the following:
1. Extract the files in the zip to the c:\android\platform-tools folder.
2. Start up a command window
3. Go to android\platform-tools\ folder
4. type:
adb shell
mount -o remount,rw /system /system
exit
adb push browser.apk /system/app
adb push browser.odex /system/app
adb reboot

Hopefully your phone starts and the browser works. If not, not much you can do besides use takehull's method to restore your phone to stock and start over.

Browser Files:
HERE
 
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