[How-to] Guide to Rooting with software version LS670ZVC

[exl40]

Don't know what is up with getting stuck, but to become root in adb shell, turn on the phone, make sure you aren't in the lock screen, type "su" in adb shell, look on the phone for a prompt asking for root privileges, and accept the prompt.

Many thanks. My dumb ass did it again and (seemingly) perma bricked my phone. Had to take it to the store since I couldn't get it into emergency mode. Trying it again.

 

[apristel]

Step 9, Only disconnects and connect once

I have made it to step 9, prior to that i get the error unable to chmod but read that was no big deal and kinda normal so i continued.

At step 9 I go to do the rageagainstthecage and I hear it disconnect and connect once then nothing. I waited like 5 min then when i try to adb shell back in i get no device connected. Tried restarting from step 1 about 10 times with no luck at all. Same thing everytime. With the 1 click method it says it completes but never installs SU. Tried that quite a few times also. I was on VD with the lg updater then reverted back to vc. Tried reverting back to V9 but get the blank screen problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[drewwalton19216801]

I have made it to step 9, prior to that i get the error unable to chmod but read that was no big deal and kinda normal so i continued.

At step 9 I go to do the rageagainstthecage and I hear it disconnect and connect once then nothing. I waited like 5 min then when i try to adb shell back in i get no device connected. Tried restarting from step 1 about 10 times with no luck at all. Same thing everytime. With the 1 click method it says it completes but never installs SU. Tried that quite a few times also. I was on VD with the lg updater then reverted back to vc. Tried reverting back to V9 but get the blank screen problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sounds like you still have the VC recovery kernel, which is completely unrootable ATM.

Here's what I think you should do. This is a general overview so you will need to know what you're doing.
1) Revert to V9
2) Root using z4root. If you have the new LCD panel (and therefore the blank screen issue), you can use Android Screencast to view the screen but you can't control Android using it until you're rooted. Also, it requires that ADB be in your PATH variable.
3) Install/Flash Xionia CWMA recovery kernel v1.2518.4
DO NOT CONTINUE UNTIL YOU HAVE FLASHED THE ABOVE RECOVERY KERNEL!!!!!!!
4) Use the LG update tool to go all the way up to VD because VC sucks monkey nuts IMO
5) Follow Part 5 of the LS670ZVD root guide

 

[apristel]

quick question for ya. I am back to V9 but how can I install z4root if its not in the market? I keep trying to use my android explorer which works with my HTC EVO but it keep F/Cing on me everytime I open it. I searched for it in the market and it is not there. I do have the apk on my pc tho so if there a way to install through adb that you know of that would be great.

EDIT: Got it so NM thanks tho

 

[apristel]

When i do "flash_image recovery /sdcard/xionia_cwma_12518.5.img" should I have renamed "xionia_cwma_12518.5.rar" to "xionia_cwma_12518.5.img" before putting it on the sdcard?

 

[drewwalton19216801]

When i do "flash_image recovery /sdcard/xionia_cwma_12518.5.img" should I have renamed "xionia_cwma_12518.5.rar" to "xionia_cwma_12518.5.img" before putting it on the sdcard?

Yeah, if you want it to fail miserably.

You're supposed to extract the IMG which is in the RAR. A RAR file is an archive, but you already knew that, right?

 

[apristel]

wow yeah it is late here! But now that i think about i did do cat /sdcard/flash_image.rar > /system/bin/flash_image so basically added the .rar

now when i do "cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image" i get "cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image invalid length" any ideas.

Still learning alot from this stuff but really appreciate the help

 

[drewwalton19216801]

wow yeah it is late here! But now that i think about i did do cat /sdcard/flash_image.rar > /system/bin/flash_image so basically added the .rar

now when i do "cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image" i get "cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image invalid length" any ideas.

Still learning alot from this stuff but really appreciate the help

Try doing

rm -r /system/bin/flash_image
cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image

Alternatively instead of using cat, you can do

busybox cp /sdcard/flash_image /system/bin/flash_image

Just make sure your /system is mounted read-write.

 

[apristel]

Just so I am clear I unzip the flash_image and place the file inside the folder flash_image on the sdcard not the entire folder? Correct? As of now I have the entire folder with contents of flash_image which is 26kb

When i tried "busybox cp /sdcard/flash_image /system/bin/flash_image" I got cp: can't stat 'busybox cp /sdcard/flash_image /system/bin/flash_image': not a directory

 

[apristel]

Dont know if that helps, but here is what I did so far from the time I started to flash the recovery. I have root as I am at the # and still using the androidscreencast to see what i am doing.

Also when I navigate to /system/bin in that screencast i see there is both flash_image and the flash_image.zip that put in there.

 

[drewwalton19216801]

Dont know if that helps, but here is what I did so far from the time I started to flash the recovery. I have root as I am at the # and still using the androidscreencast to see what i am doing.

Also when I navigate to /system/bin in that screencast i see there is both flash_image and the flash_image.zip that put in there.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. When it first started spitting error messages that's when you should have stopped.

1) Remove all instances of flash_image from both /system/bin and /sdcard
2) Start over from the beginning. Make sure to only copy flash_image from INSIDE THE ZIP FILE and the Xionia recovery from INSIDE THE RAR FILE.

 

[apristel]

K removed all the flash_images and went through it all again and when reboot into recov I still have the original recov that i started with.

The end user just want to have the option of using wireless tether is all. So dont know if I would still need to flash the alt recovery if they dont want to ever flash other roms or if not doing that will mess up something else when the lg updater runs

 

[drewwalton19216801]

K removed all the flash_images and went through it all again and when reboot into recov I still have the original recov that i started with.

Are you sure you correctly flashed the Xionia recovery? Try it again, and post the output BEFORE rebooting to recovery mode.

 

[apristel]

Here is what I did.
When i look into the /system/etc the install-recovery.sh is not in there

 

[drewwalton19216801]

Here is what I did.

OK it looks like flash_image isn't working properly for some reason. Try this:

chmod 4755 /system/bin/flash_image
flash_image /sdcard/xionia_cwma_12518.5.img

Post the output and DON'T REBOOT TO RECOVERY YET!

 

[apristel]

Looks to be the same thing.

 

[drewwalton19216801]

Looks to be the same thing.

Hmm, interesting. Can you post the output of

ls -l /sdcard/
The trailing slash is required. And that's a lowercase L not an I

 

[apristel]

 

[apristel]

What would happen if i just updated it to vd now? Would it still have SU permissons but just not be able to flash alternate roms and such?

Also do you think that remote assistance would be of any help? Maybe let you see first hand what is going on?

 

[drewwalton19216801]

What would happen if i just updated it to vd now? Would it still have SU permissons but just not be able to flash alternate roms and such?

Also do you think that remote assistance would be of any help? Maybe let you see first hand what is going on?

Do not update to VD. It is GUARANTEED to wipe out root and you will have no way to get it back without reverting to V9 again (which is why Xionia recovery is needed so we can get root back after updating). Post the output of

ls -l /system/bin/flash_image

We'll do some remote assistance if need be. I think I know what's going on now though.