Idiots Guide to Rooting and Custom ROMs, Optimus S Edition

Yes that was it. In the steps for installing the custom recovery, I had to issue su at the command prompt first (even though it was a # prompt) in order for the flash_image command to be allowed.
 
after many days and nights of andriod fourm crashing, ive made it to the custom recovery portion of the process. when i entered the line

"mv /system/etc/install-recovery.sh /system/etc/install-recovery.sh.bak"

i recieved back

"failed on '/system/etc/install-recovery.sh' - no such file or directory"

i dont understand if this process is looking in the computer directory or the SD card root directory. i unzipped the flash and recovery files and put them on my SD root. im at an impass

should i continue entering in the line commands?
 
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after many days and nights of andriod fourm crashing, ive made it to the custom recovery portion of the process. when i entered the line

"mv /system/etc/install-recovery.sh /system/etc/install-recovery.sh.bak"

i recieved back

"failed on '/system/etc/install-recovery.sh' - no such file or directory"

i dont understand if this process is looking in the computer directory or the SD card root directory. i unzipped the flash and recovery files and put them on my SD root. im at an impass

Ignore this step. Many people get this message. If the file doesn't exist, keep going.
 
Alright so I did "adb shell su" Superuser came up I hit allow.
And then when I go to type in command promt the # comes out but won't let me input anything in the command prompt
 
Actually I found out reading the original thread.
After you accept it on superuser. Open another command prompt window.
Do cd c:/android/tools
Adb shell
Then "$" Comes out.
And then type "su"
and "#" comes out.
 
I'm having a problem getting the custom recovery installed.

I have su permission set and am following the steps to install the custom recovery. I'm getting an error (failed on '/system/etc/install-recover.sh' - no such file or directory) but it appears from other posts to be ok to get that.

When I reboot recovery I get the stock Android system recovery <3e>

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? I really want to to a backup before I install the thunderom.

Thanks,
Mike

P.S. I forgot to unzip the img file....dumb mistake...I was thinking it needed to be zipped like the rom files.
Maybe a step should be added in the dummies file stating that you need to unzip the zipped files.
 
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P.S. I forgot to unzip the img file....dumb mistake...I was thinking it needed to be zipped like the rom files.
Maybe a step should be added in the dummies file stating that you need to unzip the zipped files.

+1. I read a couple of threads this weekend and used this summary as my guide to root my S. I went through the steps before we left for dinner out (crazy, I know - if it failed I would have been SO stressed) and figured after the reboot that I still had the stock recovery screen. Thanks to a little Linux and command-line experience I realized the same thing you just mentioned! Sure, it's in the original thread, but since this is the "idiots" thread I think it deserves mention here as well.

I think ThundeROM is next. But after rooting and purchasing Titanium Backup Pro (with 15 minute return period! Crap, it's active!) and moving updated sys apps to ROM and "App 2 SD" on the rest I am at a "comfortable" 28.37MB free. After ThundeROM I will move some frequently used apps back to internal for a speed boost.
 
Hi, I'm a noobie to this, so I got my optimus s rooted thru z4root and I also download flash_image and recovery-RA-GNM-thunderc-s-1.1.0.img, so what's next? How do I install them so I can get custom recovery? What is adb shell or sdk? Do I need it? Thanks in advance.
 
Hi, I'm a noobie to this, so I got my optimus s rooted thru z4root and I also download flash_image and recovery-RA-GNM-thunderc-s-1.1.0.img, so what's next? How do I install them so I can get custom recovery? What is adb shell or sdk? Do I need it? Thanks in advance.

Yes, you will need the Android SDK (software development kit). ADB (Android Debug Bridge) shell is a tool included in the sdk. One of the main reasons why the developers urge people to root via the "long" method is because to do pretty much anything else you'll still need the sdk and adb shell software and knowledge. Start in post #2 of this thread and follow it until you get the sdk, java runtime, and phone drivers installed and can successfully connect to your phone via adb shell, and then you can jump to the instructions in post #3 of this thread to get the custom recovery you downloaded installed on your phone.
 
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A question:

At this point I have successfully rooted my device and installed the custom recovery thingy.

My main concern is relating to the Gingerbread update. If I flashed the Thunderrom, can I still get the Gingerbread update? I don't know if creating a Nandroid backup before flashing a rom is enough to restore it to its initial state
 
Stock

A question:

At this point I have successfully rooted my device and installed the custom recovery thingy.

My main concern is relating to the Gingerbread update. If I flashed the Thunderrom, can I still get the Gingerbread update? I don't know if creating a Nandroid backup before flashing a rom is enough to restore it to its initial state

There are guides to returning the Optimus S to stock, which uses a nandroid back-up but you end up applying v8 and then use what LG disseminated to get back to version 9. See here.
 
Ok I figured out where I was going wrong....


but this is what I am getting

I put the files in the root like I was suppose too....
 
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Ok I figured out where I was going wrong....


but this is what I am getting

I put the files in the root like I was suppose too....

Do I detect a syntax error at the bottom there?
Does that say flah-image on your command line instead of flash-image?

I highly recommend copying and pasting the text into the command line to avoid mistakes like this.
 
Yup, you are correct....my bad...I sometimes get to typing too fast for my own good.

Thanks I'll give it another go when I get home from work :)


Ok, next question looking at my command screen...did I do everything? Is that how it's suppose to read (save for the syntex error)
 
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It looks like you are missing some spaces through out some of the commands. Just copy and paste directly from the directions at the start of the thread.
 
Well im a complete idiot n noob when it comes to android devices n ifinally got it last night. Loving it so much betterthanstock. I do have a question, is thereany reccomended apps to dl or use nowthat I am rooted and romed besides tit backup n super user. Thankyou toall that havehelped and made this possible.

How you get it to work? Mine say device not found when I typed in adb shell in command and how you get the usb driver to work?
 
Yes, you will need the Android SDK (software development kit). ADB (Android Debug Bridge) shell is a tool included in the sdk. One of the main reasons why the developers urge people to root via the "long" method is because to do pretty much anything else you'll still need the sdk and adb shell software and knowledge. Start in post #2 of this thread and follow it until you get the sdk, java runtime, and phone drivers installed and can successfully connect to your phone via adb shell, and then you can jump to the instructions in post #3 of this thread to get the custom recovery you downloaded installed on your phone.

I can't get the phone drivers to installed in my computer. I got the android sdk but I can't get into adb shell, it keep on saying device not found.
 

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