[How-To] Root LG Optimus T

KSmithInNY

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Oct 7, 2009
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WARNING - This is a cat and mouse game we play with manufacturers. I guarantee you an update will come from LG that patches this exploit and will prevent people from rooting. It will also close your root access if you've already rooted using this method. Long story short, NEVER ACCEPT OTA UPDATES FROM THE CARRIER OR MANUFACTURER.

Notice: There is now an application available called z4root which roots your phone using the same method detailed below. This has been confirmed to work on the Optimus line. Click THIS for more information. I feel the knowledge gained by doing this process yourself rather than a 1-click method will prove to be invaluable down the road if/when you encounter any issues but either way works.

For those who learn visually, iamlilysdad has put together an awesome walkthrough video of this process which you can find HERE

What You'll Need:
- Sun JRE, FOUND HERE
- The Android SDK, FOUND HERE. Install this on the root of your computer so the path is C:/android
- Drivers for the LG phone installed on your computer. Instructions can be FOUND HERE courtesy of our favorite android hacker, modder, developer, blogger (jack of all trades) gbhil
- And the file I have attached to this post. Download it, unzip it, and put the 3 files inside in your android-sdk-windows\tools folder created from installing the SDK.

/\You need to have installed/done all of the stuff in the "what you'll need" section. From this point on I'll assume you've done that./\

Ready?:
Step 1: Plug your phone into your PC with the USB cable.

Step 2: Make sure the phone is charge only (don't mount as USB drive) and USB debugging is enabled. Menu > Settings > Applications > Development > check mark USB debugging

Step 3: Launch the SDK manager, should be something like C:/Android-sdk-windows SDK Manager

Step 4: Open a CMD window and type the following:
cd c:\wherever-your-sdk-tools-folder-is (mine for example is C:\android\tools however in the new SDK the correct directory would be "Platform Tools", and not just "tools". See what you have on your directory)
adb push rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage
adb push su /data/local/tmp/
adb push busybox /data/local/tmp/
adb shell
chmod 4755 /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage
chmod 4755 /data/local/tmp/busybox
cd /data/local/tmp
./rageagainstthecage (let things sit a couple minutes (2), your phone will disconnect from the computer and you'll be removed from your ADB session)
adb shell This should return a "#" symbol instead of a "$" symbol. If it does you're good. If not go back and start from the beginning of step 4
mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system
cd /data/local/tmp
./busybox cp su /system/bin
./busybox cp busybox /system/bin
cd /system/bin
chmod 4755 su
chmod 4755 busybox
busybox --install /system/bin
exit
exit

If you get to this step "busybox --install /system/bin" you get an error, do this:

4-A) Download superuser (free) from chainsDD in the market (this is step 5 below)
4-B) Download titanium backup (free) in the market
4-C) Launch titanium. You should get a request to give it root permissions select always allow. Now in titanium, hit the "problems" button and let it install busybox
4-D) Reboot phone and enjoy

Some phones are having a problem on that step while others are not.

Step 5: Go to the android market on your phone and download "Superuser"(free). The developer will be listed as ChainsDD.

Donations:
What I ask is, if this helps you root, please watch this thread and help someone who may be experiencing issue. Yes, I am asking you to donate your time. The same donation I made while writing this so you could root your phone :D

Thanks:
gbhil - as always thanks, you rock rainman lol.
Sebastian Krahmer - Without your exploit many phones would not be rooted today.
iamlilysdad - for making the walkthrough video and sticking around and providing so much support for new users during this process.
 
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KSmithInNY

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Everything in this post assumes you've successfully rooted your phone.
Now what?:
-Memory Management -
The optimus has not so great lowmemory settings. This will improve that.
1) Download the free app from the market called "Minfreemanager" (free)
2) Launch the app and you'll notice the following numbers:
6, 8, 16, 20, 22, 24

For an explanation of what these numbers mean GO HERE and read an excellent in-depth explanation by Jerry Hildenbrand

3) From inside Minfreemanager hit the menu button and select "presets". Because you have a second gen device, you can select "aggressive" without a care in the world.
4) After selecting aggressive the numbers should now reflect
6, 8, 16, 32, 64, 96
5) Press the menu button and select "apply"
NOTE - This is not a sticky change and even if you select "apply at boot" it will not work. Every time the device is rebooted you will need to open the minfreemanager app and re-apply the aggressive setting but this should keep you're phone running like butter

-Cache Management-
Android has a tendency to cache everything it seems like. Now you can reclaim that space.
There are 2 really great cache cleaning apps for rooted users. CacheMate for root users and Cachecleaner. Both can be obtained for free but cacheMate for root users has a paid version (not currently showing in the market, soon) which gives you much much more customization and caches available to be cleaned. Also i prefer the free version of CacheMate over the free version Cachecleaner because it lets you pick which caches you'd like deleted, cachecleaner does not. Thats just a preference of mine.
 
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Jerry Hildenbrand

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Awesome. LG seems to know the score, and is selling hardware that hasn't been locked down.

Now I'm off to KMart, I need some underwear :p
 

Turducken

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Thank you! I'll be picking up one of these on Monday. Just need to do some general do's, don'ts and just in case research to feel comfortable before jumping in. THANKS AGAIN!!
 

KSmithInNY

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Awesome. LG seems to know the score, and is selling hardware that hasn't been locked down.

Now I'm off to KMart, I need some underwear :p

lol oh boy! Too funny man

Thank you! I'll be picking up one of these on Monday. Just need to do some general do's, don'ts and just in case research to feel comfortable before jumping in. THANKS AGAIN!!

You're welcome. I will have updated root instructions posted shortly. They are slightly longer but no more difficult.

The only thing i ask is when you root, stick around the thread and help the folks out who bump into issues. Seems like a fair trade to me :)
 

KSmithInNY

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Help! its asking: Usage: chmod <mode> <file>

Where in step 4 are you? Please show me what you're screen (CMD) looks like. Also just to verify, you're on a PC (not a mac), correct?

Also to eliminate spelling/typos from being a problem, when you get to this line - adb push rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage you can pretty much copy and paste right into the CMD window. Another side note, make sure you are NOT mounted as a USB drive.

The optimus T and optimus S share the same kernel so considering the optimus T came out first and the exploit wasn't patched by this weekend when the optimus S shipped, this method will work.
 
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Kevin OQuinn

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It's you!!!! Welcome. Try my free wireless tethering exploit before you root. Would be curious if it works on the T.

yes it's me. I left the now network to save some money and found this gem of a phone. so far i'm very pleased with it. of course i've only had it for 3 hours LOL.

Edit. The widget turns the hotspot on, but doesn't give me internet access. I tried leaving it open with no password. No go.
 
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Lightos

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root

Where in step 4 are you? Please show me what you're screen (CMD) looks like. Also just to verify, you're on a PC (not a mac), correct?

Also to eliminate spelling/typos from being a problem, when you get to this line - adb push rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage you can pretty much copy and paste right into the CMD window. Another side note, make sure you are NOT mounted as a USB drive.

The optimus T and optimus S share the same kernel so considering the optimus T came out first and the exploit wasn't patched by this weekend when the optimus S shipped, this method will work.


As soon as I type "adb shell" I keep getting $ instead of #. Dont know why? any Ideas.
d:/android/tools/adb shell
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully*
$
 

Lightos

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Im on d:/android/tools/adb shell
i get this
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
$

Whats going on. I repeated the steps so many times I memorized all of it word for word. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 

Kevin OQuinn

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I can get to that step no problem. You have to make sure you follow everything to the letter. Also you might try redownloading the root file and unzip it again, just to make sure it wasn't a bad download. It happens.

It's the last step that gets me. It keeps giving me errors that the files don't exist. Ksmith you can ask Beezy he knows exactly what it was saying. I can't remember specifically right now. I'm gonna try again tonight.
 

Kevin OQuinn

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C:\Users\Kevin>cd c:/android-sdk/android-sdk-windows/tools

c:\android-sdk\android-sdk-windows\tools>adb push rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /d
ata/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage
adb server is out of date. killing...
* daemon started successfully *
292 KB/s (5392 bytes in 0.018s)

c:\android-sdk\android-sdk-windows\tools>adb push su /data/local/tmp/
754 KB/s (26264 bytes in 0.034s)

c:\android-sdk\android-sdk-windows\tools>adb push busybox /data/local/tmp
1526 KB/s (1926944 bytes in 1.233s)

c:\android-sdk\android-sdk-windows\tools>adb shell
$ chmod 4755 /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage
chmod 4755 /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage
$ chmod 4755 /data/local/tmp/busybox
chmod 4755 /data/local/tmp/busybox
$ cd /data/local/tmp
cd /data/local/tmp
$ ./rageagainstthecage
./rageagainstthecage
[*] CVE-2010-EASY Android local root exploit (C) 2010 by 743C

[*] checking NPROC limit ...
[+] RLIMIT_NPROC={3342, 3342}
[*] Searching for adb ...
[+] Found adb as PID 1295
[*] Spawning children. Dont type anything and wait for reset!
[*]
[*] If you like what we are doing you can send us PayPal money to
[*] 7-4-3-C@web.de so we can compensate time, effort and HW costs.
[*] If you are a company and feel like you profit from our work,
[*] we also accept donations > 1000 USD!
[*]
[*] adb connection will be reset. restart adb server on desktop and re-login.
$
c:\android-sdk\android-sdk-windows\tools>adb shell
# mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system
mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system
# cd /data/local/tmp
cd /data/local/tmp
# ./busybox cp su /system/bin
./busybox cp su /system/bin
# ./busybox cp busybox /system/bin
./busybox cp busybox /system/bin
# cd /system/bin
cd /system/bin
# chmod 4755 su
chmod 4755 su
# chmod 4755 busybox
chmod 4755 busybox
#

Here's where I get. Then when I tell it to install it returns errors that read like this:

"busybox: /system/bin/zcip: No such file or directory"

Any ideas?
 

Kevin OQuinn

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Yeah .... go to the market and download stericsons application "busybox" and see if that will install it

Status: Failed...

Your phone is rooted
BusyBox was not found!

The application failed, either because your device is not nand unlocked or we were unable to remount. Please use logcat at this time, get it from the market, to send a log to .................

(except that his email is listed)



that's the message i get when i try to install it.