[How-To] Root, Custom Recovery, NANDroid Backup

[KSmithInNY]

Ok so theres SDK's, and JDK's, and drivers and ..... ahhhhhhhh!!!!! lol all this stuff to know! Don't worry, when it's laid out in an easy to read way, and you actually take the time to read it (<-- Key), this is all fairly simple.

Requirements:
-Make sure you have a good charge on your phone. I suggest starting with a full charge.
-From the home screen of your phone press Menu > Settings > Applications > Development > check mark "USB debugging". This is necessary to root the phone.
-You need to download Android Terminal Emulator from the market (free)

Instructions:
Root
1) On your computer, download and install THESE DRIVERS on your PC
2) On your computer, download LG_Esteem_Root.zip.
3) On your computer, make a folder right on your desktop and name it "fun" or anything you want.
4) On your computer, using 7zip, winzip, winrar or whatever tool you want, take the contents out of Lg_Esteem_Root.zip that you downloaded in step 2, and place those contents into your "fun" folder you created in step 3.
5) Plug your USB cable into the computer and then into your phone.
6) Assuming you followed instructions and enabled USB debugging, you should see an icon in your notification status bar on your phone that says "USB Debugging". Pull down notification status bar and select "charge only"
7) Inside of the "fun" folder, double click a file called run.bat ...

You should see the following on your computer screen:
IMPORTANT: Please notice below the same code is repeated 4 times when this exploit is run. Be aware of this. You are not stuck in a loop. This is intentional and how it's supposed to work.

[**] Zerg rush - Android 2.2/2.3 local root
[**] (C) 2011 Revolutionary. All rights reserved.

[**] Parts of code from Gingerbreak, (C) 2010-2011 The Android Exploid Crew.

[+] Found a GingerBread ! 0x00017118
[] Sending 149 zerglings ...
[] Trying a new path ...
[] Sending 149 zerglings ...
[] Trying a new path ...
[] Sending 149 zerglings ...
[] Trying a new path ...
[] Sending 149 zerglings ...
[+] Zerglings caused crash (good news): 0x401219c4 0x0054
[] Researching Metabolic Boost ...
[+] Speedlings on the go ! 0xafd260a9 0xafd39f9f
[] Poping 24 more zerglings
[] Sending 173 zerglings ...

[+] Rush did it ! It's a GG, man !
[+] Killing ADB and restarting as root..enjoy!

 

[KSmithInNY]

Re: [How-To} Root, Custom Recovery, Backup, Flash ROMs

Recovery
STOP
It is very very important you read THIS LINK before continuing.
STOP

IMPORTANT - You will want to turn swype off for this portion, trust me. Open any field you normally type text into such as a text message and long press in the input field. A menu will ask you to select an input method, you want android.

1) On your computer, download Flash_Image.zip.
2) On your computer, Download VM701_recovery.img
3) Connect your phone to your computer using the USB cable, pull down notification status bar and select "mount storage" (or similar verbiage)
4) On your computer, using 7zip, winzip, winrar or whatever tool you want, take the file "flash_image" out of flash_image.zip that you downloaded in step 1, and place "flash_image" on the root of your phones SD card
IMPORTANT Do not just drag and drop flash_image.zip onto your sd card. The file you are moving is named flash_image, not flash_image.zip
5) Drag and drop VM701_recovery.img which you downloaded in step 2, onto the root of your SD card.
IMPORTANT This is a .img file so drag and drop it onto the SD. No need to use 7zip or any other tool to open it.
6) Unmount your SDcard from your PC and then you can unplug the phone from the PC
7) Open android terminal emulator you downloaded above and type su [press enter] You should now have a popup asking you to grant the terminal superuser permission, select "always allow"
8) After granting permission you may now have a spacing issue in the emulator so please close it by doing Menu > Reset Term.
9) Reopen the emulator and proceed with the following ....
IMPORTANT - These lines are very specific. If you make a spelling mistake, you'll get an error. If you miss a space, you'll get an error. If you do not enter them EXACTLY as shown below, you'll get an error. Period. If you get an error, you've made a mistake. Try retyping the line you got an error on.

----press enter after each line-----
su
mount -o remount, rw /system
cp /sdcard/flash_image /system/bin
cd /system/bin
chmod 777 flash_image
flash_image recovery /sdcard/VM701_recovery.img
reboot recovery

You navigate the recovery as follows:
Volume button up - Move cursor up
Volume button down - Move cursor down
Back button - Go back to the previous screen
Camera button - select

[TIP]
Once you have a custom recovery, there are several options for accessing it including but not limited to:

• Download an app from the market such as quick boot (free)
• The old fashioned way of using ADB or terminal emulator (reboot recovery)
• With the phone powered off, press and hold down the volume down button and the power button. Don't release the button until you're at the custom recovery.

[/TIP]

 

[KSmithInNY]

Re: [How-To} Root, Custom Recovery, Backup, Flash ROMs

Making your first NANDroid backup
1) From your custom recovery, use the volume down button to move down to highlight the "Backup/Restore" line.
2) Press the camera button to enter the "Backup/Restore" menu
3) Press the camera button again to select "backup" and watch it go
4) Select the reboot system now option from recovery and wait a minute until you're back at your android home screen.

Donation:
My expectation is that the community will assist each other and support each other. That's right, I'm asking you to donate your time to help others.

Thanks:
- BobzHome - custom recovery
- csrow - pointing out root method
- Revolutionary - Creating root exploit (source)
- My girlfriend for letting me use her phone to do this and dealing with my Android addiction
- Androidcentral.com.
- My peeps from Team Hydro

 

[KSmithInNY]

jic, might toss in a flash section if i get free time later. If not then I'll delete

 

[n.audeh]

Thanks alot!!

 

[ckpcw]

Thank you - I appreciate the detailed writeups.

Recovery working nicely.

 

[tacosrdelicioso]

how to boot into recovery from a turned off state? or is it not possible now?

 

[KSmithInNY]

Press and hold volume down and power until at custom recovery.

 

[tylermich7]

The VM701_recovery.img file isnt available anymore, where is it?

 

[KSmithInNY]

You'd need to ask bobzhome. Its the recovery he compiled, hosted on his mediafire account.

Edit- I think I have the wrong link. Hold.

Link is in the post below. Will fix some other time.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/virgin-mobile-optimus-slider/126357-possible-root-try-3.html#post1359885

 

[charkswitlazers]

I've heard rumors that the CWM for the OS released lately isn't completely stable...is this true? Will there be a more stable release out shortly? This is the only reason I haven't flashed this recovery yet.

 

[tylermich7]

i got the flash_image and the VM701_recovery.img installed on my sdcard.
i entered the terminal commands correctly a few times and everytime i get

error opening /sdcard/VM701_recovery.img: No such file or directory

anyone help me with this?

 

[jondevere]

i got the flash_image and the VM701_recovery.img installed on my sdcard.
i entered the terminal commands correctly a few times and everytime i get

error opening /sdcard/VM701_recovery.img: No such file or directory

anyone help me with this?

Did you remember to unmount your SD card when you were done copying over your files?

 

[tylermich7]

nothing said to unmount it, so what, i unmount it then mount it?

ok well i unmounted it and then mounted it, tried it again, and nothing, i get the same error. >.<

 

[tylermich7]

Forget my last post, after a few trial and error, i got it working. Now we just need the new cm7 rom

 

[KSmithInNY]

Link fixed and added instruction to unmount your phone from your PC prior to using terminal emulator.

When you mount your phone to your PC, like you did to move files over to the SD in the instructions, it has to unmount SD from the phone to allow it to mount to the PC. So when you tried to use TE, it couldn't see SD because it was still mounted to your PC.

 

[tylermich7]

yeah, the problem was that when i renamed the VM701_recovery to VM701_recovery.img I didnt know it already saved as VM701_recovery.img so it ended up saving to the sd as VM701_recovery.img.img
had to go into root exploroer and rename it to just VM701_recovery.img.
after that everything worked great.
Now im just waiting for a custom rom (cm7) to get ported over to this device, any ideas on when this will be released?

 

[primetechv2]

Fixed, I see

Is there any totally stock backup anybody out there has? I would share, but mine is probably not what people want to have... sd-ext already has files in it and everything.

 

[slattieri]

Is it normal to recieve an error ( E:Bad boot message)
"recovery"

when rebooting into recovery from quickboot?

 

[KSmithInNY]

Is it normal to recieve an error ( E:Bad boot message)
"recovery"

when rebooting into recovery from quickboot?

Yep. I'm pretty sure bobzhome, who made the recovery, doesn't have this phone so he may not be aware of the message. My GF's phone has the same message. Despite that message though i can confirm the custom recovery wipes, backs up, flashes, and restores which are the primary functions of a custom recovery.