[GUIDE] How To Unlock Bootloader and Root Verizon Galaxy Nexus

ohcalcutta

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Now my phone's not showing up at all in Explorer on my computer. It's also not there in Device Manager. Not sure how to proceed. I tried reinstalling the drivers from the Samsung warning and it gave me a warning saying the driver was already installed.

EDIT: I'm good to go. I tried turning off USB debugging for now and connecting that way, since all I'm looking to do right now is pull my nandroid/TiBu backups onto my hard drive. That did the trick.
 

ohcalcutta

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One quick question: When I flash CWM through adb or ROM Manager, it only uses the custom recovery temporarily, correct? When will it revert to the stock recovery? On reboot? I've read on how to permanently boot into a custom recovery, this was the only part that wasn't clear to me.
 

dmmarck

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One quick question: When I flash CWM through adb or ROM Manager, it only uses the custom recovery temporarily, correct? When will it revert to the stock recovery? On reboot? I've read on how to permanently boot into a custom recovery, this was the only part that wasn't clear to me.

No, if you're "stock" the "stock recovery" will always revert until you remove a particularly file (I never remember the name, but it's mentioned here countless times. Check my OTA thread, there's a decent explanation in there). You have the option of booting into recovery instead of flashing it; booting just let's you go right in, without installing it.
 

ohcalcutta

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No, if you're "stock" the "stock recovery" will always revert until you remove a particularly file (I never remember the name, but it's mentioned here countless times. Check my OTA thread, there's a decent explanation in there). You have the option of booting into recovery instead of flashing it; booting just let's you go right in, without installing it.
So essentially, if I don't want to remove that file, my options for getting to CWM recovery are to flash it through ROM Manager or using adb fastboot commands to boot into it.
 

dmmarck

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So essentially, if I don't want to remove that file, my options for getting to CWM recovery are to flash it through ROM Manager or using adb fastboot commands to boot into it.

If you want stock recovery, yes. Choose not to let it erase the file (watch the video in the OTA thread, read that post I mentioned) or don't delete it.
 

dmmarck

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How to Unlock and Root your Verizon Galaxy Nexus Running 4.1.1 in a Few Simple Steps - WINDOWS/MAC

  1. Download Wug's Toolkit, follow the prompts to install the adb and fastboot drivers. You can use this to unlock or you do it manually. Choice is yours.
  2. Download the latest SU.zip, found in this post.
  3. Backup your files using Wug's or adb (this is beyond the scope of this quickie guide, so Google it :))
  4. Manually boot into the bootloader (or use adb). Hold volume UP, volume DOWN, and POWER simultaneously when you are powered down. This will bring you to "Fastboot Mode." Connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable.
  5. Find the folder that has the fastboot.exe executable. This will be in the Wug's Toolkit folders, perhaps in the /data folder. (Double check)
  6. Open a command prompt from that folder.
  7. Make sure fastboot is working. Type
    Code:
    fastboot devices
    You should see a serial number. If none, (a) make sure you're in the right location [where the fastboot.exe is] and (b) make sure your fastboot drivers are working (step 1)
  8. To unlock--and this will wipe every single thing you have that's not synced with Google--type in the following command:
    Code:
    fastboot oem unlock
    Select yes. Reboot the phone, set it up as you normally would. Place the superuser zip you downloaded in the prior steps on your SDcard/internal storage (or simply download it from your browser--it'll be in the downloads folder).
  9. Go download a Custom Recovery. This can be from ClockworkMod or from Team Win Recovery Project. Make sure you download the latest, and make sure it either says Verizon or "toro" (our top-secret Google codename). Place this custom recovery "image" (it's a .img file) in the same exact folder with the fastboot.exe you used previously.
  10. Boot back into the bootloader (see steps supra), connect it to your computer via USB, then launch a terminal/command prompt from the fastboot.exe folder.
  11. Now, you have two options. You can FLASH the custom recovery or you can BOOT the custom recovery. See this post for info. I will presume you want to flash/install it, so type this
    Code:
    fastboot flash recovery [insertnameofrecoveryimagehereanddeletebrackets].img
  12. Once flashed, boot into Recovery Mode using the volume keys to find "Recovery Mode" and the power button to select it.
  13. Once in your recovery, choose "install" or "install zip from SDcard." Find your superuser zip. Install it. Reboot system. If you're in CWM, you get to choose whether you want your custom recovery to permanently stick OR if you want the stock recovery (in which you can do almost nothing) to "revert." Choose YES to keep the custom recovery, NO to revert.
  14. After it boots, go find the superuser application in your app drawer. Update the binary from within the app (hunt around, it's in there). Congrats, you're rooted :).


[NOTE]
  • If you don't have fastboot.exe, but rather, fastboot-windows.exe, simply replace "fastboot" in the commands above with "fastboot-windows"
  • If you have an Apple/Mac, while you don't need to install drivers (yippee!), you must download this zip. Unpack it to your "home" directory (so for me, /Users/dmmarck/thatfolderhere). (In theory, you can unpack it anywhere, just make sure to cd/change directory to that place or just make sure it works by using the "fastboot devices" command above). For your fastboot commands, instead of using "fastboot," you must use
    Code:
    ./fastboot-mac
  • If you want to keep your custom recovery but aren't using a newer version of CWM that let's you choose to keep it, then once you're rooted, simply grab a file manager (I recommend Root Explorer), then go to the /system folder (make sure you have root permissions, which will become painfully obvious if you don't lol), and either rename or delete the file titled
    reboot-from-recovery.p
    If you choose to rename it, rename it
    reboot-from-recovery.p-bak
[/NOTE]
 
Last edited:

dbareis

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At least on Windows 7 64 bit MTU is very buggy and won't show all files, or refresh file attributes (dates/times etc) when file changed on phone. Other than that it won't show the contents at all while the phone is locked.
 

Scottieh83

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Re: [GUIDE] How To Unlock Bootloader and Root Verizon Galaxy Nexu

Can someone please tell me where the link to download r3-galaxynexus-suberboot is? I think I might be missing something here...
 

whitehathacker

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Hello everyone...newbie here...was wondering if the below is also valid for Verizon Galaxy Nexus 4.2.2. Initially needed to root the phone so I could run Wireshark app but I'd also like to play around with other things within the phone.

How to Unlock and Root your Verizon Galaxy Nexus Running 4.1.1 in a Few Simple Steps - WINDOWS/MAC

  1. Download Wug's Toolkit, follow the prompts to install the adb and fastboot drivers. You can use this to unlock or you do it manually. Choice is yours.
  2. Download the latest SU.zip, found in this post.
  3. Backup your files using Wug's or adb (this is beyond the scope of this quickie guide, so Google it :))
  4. Manually boot into the bootloader (or use adb). Hold volume UP, volume DOWN, and POWER simultaneously when you are powered down. This will bring you to "Fastboot Mode." Connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable.
  5. Find the folder that has the fastboot.exe executable. This will be in the Wug's Toolkit folders, perhaps in the /data folder. (Double check)
  6. Open a command prompt from that folder.
  7. Make sure fastboot is working. Type
    Code:
    fastboot devices
    You should see a serial number. If none, (a) make sure you're in the right location [where the fastboot.exe is] and (b) make sure your fastboot drivers are working (step 1)
  8. To unlock--and this will wipe every single thing you have that's not synced with Google--type in the following command:
    Code:
    fastboot oem unlock
    Select yes. Reboot the phone, set it up as you normally would. Place the superuser zip you downloaded in the prior steps on your SDcard/internal storage (or simply download it from your browser--it'll be in the downloads folder).
  9. Go download a Custom Recovery. This can be from ClockworkMod or from Team Win Recovery Project. Make sure you download the latest, and make sure it either says Verizon or "toro" (our top-secret Google codename). Place this custom recovery "image" (it's a .img file) in the same exact folder with the fastboot.exe you used previously.
  10. Boot back into the bootloader (see steps supra), connect it to your computer via USB, then launch a terminal/command prompt from the fastboot.exe folder.
  11. Now, you have two options. You can FLASH the custom recovery or you can BOOT the custom recovery. See this post for info. I will presume you want to flash/install it, so type this
    Code:
    fastboot flash recovery [insertnameofrecoveryimagehereanddeletebrackets].img
  12. Once flashed, boot into Recovery Mode using the volume keys to find "Recovery Mode" and the power button to select it.
  13. Once in your recovery, choose "install" or "install zip from SDcard." Find your superuser zip. Install it. Reboot system. If you're in CWM, you get to choose whether you want your custom recovery to permanently stick OR if you want the stock recovery (in which you can do almost nothing) to "revert." Choose YES to keep the custom recovery, NO to revert.
  14. After it boots, go find the superuser application in your app drawer. Update the binary from within the app (hunt around, it's in there). Congrats, you're rooted :).


[NOTE]
  • If you don't have fastboot.exe, but rather, fastboot-windows.exe, simply replace "fastboot" in the commands above with "fastboot-windows"
  • If you have an Apple/Mac, while you don't need to install drivers (yippee!), you must download this zip. Unpack it to your "home" directory (so for me, /Users/dmmarck/thatfolderhere). (In theory, you can unpack it anywhere, just make sure to cd/change directory to that place or just make sure it works by using the "fastboot devices" command above). For your fastboot commands, instead of using "fastboot," you must use
    Code:
    ./fastboot-mac
  • If you want to keep your custom recovery but aren't using a newer version of CWM that let's you choose to keep it, then once you're rooted, simply grab a file manager (I recommend Root Explorer), then go to the /system folder (make sure you have root permissions, which will become painfully obvious if you don't lol), and either rename or delete the file titled If you choose to rename it, rename it
[/NOTE]
 

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