Thanks to Knightcrusader for doing all the work. No offense, but some of it was hard to understand or misleading because I am a noob. I did some googling and was able to figure some stuff out on my own. I added noob instructions in red and included Knightcrusader's text so the whole thing is chronological. These are instructions for Windows XP. Some text was taken from
How to root the Samsung Stratosphere in a few easy steps
Download the files first, to make rooting go faster:
android-sdk_r12-windows.zip
jdk-7u2-windows-i586.exe
heimdall-suite-1.3.1-win32.zip
vcredist_x86.exe from the above site
Stratosphere Root.zip: md5: ead3a6a2b36a25a32692dec71e6bfc7f
Stock Kernel.zip: md5: 97d8df7945b5035d480547424cbcaa35
If you want to check the MD5 hashes to make sure the files you download are not corrupted, you also need to download a program to do that.
BACK UP YOUR PHONE. I backed up my contacts using Verizon's software - go to https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...services/backup-assistantplus/&token=NwpvfGQr and using Google. I backed up all the files on the SD card by dragging them and dropping them on my computer. I made sure I read all the text messages and acted on them, since I don't know how to back up texts. I made sure all the browser bookmarks are on the computer also. I made note of all the apps and extensions I have.
Install ADB
First things first: Let's get your system set up to flash the kernel to the phone.
NOTE: If you have data encryption turned on, its been warned that you might want to turn it off before attempting this. Not sure if this is related to custom kernels or not, but better be safe than sorry. (And I think its off by default, mine wasn't on... so if you didn't turn it on, you should be fine.)
Download Heimdall 1.3.1 and extract the zip contents to a folder. Make sure to install the C++ distributable mentioned in the download section or the tool won't run (Windows only).
If you install in the root of your C: drive, it will be easier to type in commands later.
Make sure the phone is charged. Then unplug the phone from the charger or computer.
Put your phone in download mode. There are many ways to do this, easiest being holding the Vol - key while powering the phone on. It will warn you about flashing custom firmware, yadda yadda. Accept it anyway, then you'll see a green Andy that says "Download Mode Do Not Turn Off Target". Now plug your phone in. (Linux/Mac users can skip the rest of this paragraph. Yay us Windows users.)
Those running on Windows must go to the Heimdall folder and navigate to Drivers. Now double click on zagig.exe and install all the needed drivers. When finished, disconnect the phone, restart the PC, and then re-connect the phone.
Next, unzip Stratosphere Root.zip to a working folder. To make things easier, just extract the zip contents to the same directory that heimdall is living in. You should have the following files from the zip:
root-zImage
su
busybox
Superuser.apk
Open the Terminal (command prompt for Windows users: press Start + R buttons and then type cmd.exe, followed by a swift Enter key ) and navigate to the Heimdall folder.
To move up two levels, type
cd.. (enter)
cd.. (enter)
First make sure the device is detected. Type:
heimdall detect
If it works, you'll get 'Device detected'. Now you are good to go:
heimdall flash --kernel root-zImage
That's a capital "I" in image, it looks like a lower case "L" in the original instructions
You'll see it say uploading kernel, and a progress bar will appear on the phone. It goes pretty quick. On success, you'll see the phone reboot, and then a new yellow '!' triangle will flash under the SAMSUNG logo on the boot screen. This means the system detected a custom kernel. If you see/hear the boot animation, then you were successful! You are now sporting a working insecure kernel reading for rooting!
Wait for the phone to boot back up and make sure everything is in working order. Make sure USB Debugging is on. (Settings->Applications->Development)
Now, in the command window, make sure your phone can be seen:
type
adb devices
List of devices attached
3235A3CA0D8400EC device
now, remount the file system. Type
adb remount
remount succeeded
Push the following files to the phone:
Now, type the following commands, each followed by an Enter key:
adb push su /system/bin
adb push busybox /system/bin
adb push Superuser.apk /system/app
adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/busybox
Note- In the command window, you can't paste in text. To save time, you can hold down the right arrow to type what you typed above.
Unmount the phone from the compter (the green arrow in the taskbar). Unplug it from the computer.
That?s it. The Stratosphere should now be rooted. Give it a swift reboot to celebrate the relationship.
Disable USB debugging on the phone by navigating to Settings-> Applications -> Development.
Now, download something from the market that needs root privileges to test. I bought Root Explorer, so I used that to test. I also tried to su from ConnectBot in a local connection and it also worked for me.
Titanium backup is a free program I used.
If you get the Superuser Request popup, then you are rooted!! Congrats!