Had a thread upstairs, on this http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/silver-subscribed-private-forum/442040-android.html For those not able to looksy, I have a 3yr old TF300T tablet, thought I'd give it a go and unlock the boot loader and root it. Why? honestly becouse it's (1) something I don't know and (2) opens the world of mods. or Why not? I've done a bit of research and found numerous sites and threads on 'how to' but either I'm an idiot or this stuff is cryptic on purpose but man is it ever confusing! Found this page: [GUIDE] TF300T Unlock/Root/Flash for Factory JB Devices on 4.1.X (newbie friendly) - xda-developers Read thru the majority and found that there is a shift from clockworkmod to twrp, OK what in gods name is that for? is it critical? What about the data and information I have already on the tablet? do I back this up before/ after? how? I can follow the need to unlock the bootloader to get access so as to be able to 'root' the device. Why is there this need of TWRP? That I don't follow. For all the 'concise' threads out there, and maybe to those doing this there is a bunch of implied steps/info, it's confusing and not well explained. And other then someone physically steeling the tablet is there a security risk once it's unlocked from a software app standpoint? Order of operations.. 1. unlock 2. backup? 3. root? I'm not even at ROM flashing and can't figure the order or what method is better/worse. CWM or TWRP? does it matter? does unlocking wipe the data? does rooting? how do I backup the data I have to avoid loosing various log-ins, files etc.. Oddly I managed this a couple yrs back on old phone, that was dead simple to this though. I have SDK, Eclipse etc.. So I can sort that part, just can't seem to wrap my head around how to manage the above without bricking it.
I may not be much help given my success rate but here it goes.... I've been trying to teach myself this over the past couple of years to be perfectly honest. The terms that mean anything have changed so much IMO. Root = master user Basically when you're doing this you're making yourself able to change process files that can negatively effect the OS. Ie: I'm sure you've read "this is a vital process, ending could cause xyz" Technically the way I'm interpreting that is as: You would be able to do that with a "wrong" swipe or touch or gesture considering the input medium. So I'm not really sure what your goals are if I'm describing that properly. That being said. If you want to give me more info as to what your end goals are I may be able to help further. Whatever you do though. BACK UP FIRST!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks, ended up passing on rooting the tablet for now, asus did an update so for now I'll see how that goes. In other news I loaded -x86 AIOS onto an unused toshiba netbook that has the atom processor. that was to hard actually and after doing a couple different things it'll run andriod faster and more stable then it could with win7. Now I was a bit fortunate to have a spare HHD laying that I've been using to do this with.
I've read some of your other posts. You seem very capable and talented with electronics. These things really make me feel horrible sometimes to say the least. I've had an "open" touch device since 2007 when you jailbroke with redsnow, ih8snow, whatever they wanted to make/name the touch app. Only realizing that the "heavy stuff" (the important coding) was really the most basic process. The politics behind this stuff is really what kills me. My basic understanding is that if I take something I own, paid for, including paying the company that "lent" me the money to afford it, change the baseband on it - I still have to pay that same company money? When you know what you're doing. It's like anything else I suppose...You can't make this **** up. What does a spare hdd have to do with the capabilities of running an os though? Just for the space to hold the data while you tinker?
The spare hdd, well I have 2 hdd one with win7 and the other was loaded with xp, the xp one didn't work well on the netbook enough to keep it, win7 was marginally better but gawd awful slow.So I sacrificed the xp one, android screams on it. it's loaded onto the hdd vs sd or usb. since it's rooted I have su access and it's a dual boot I can load a linux variant on the other side. two OS to fiddle with on a machine that's not really used for anything.
Hey smg2. Sorry I'm just seeing this post. I'm probably one of the most versed in unlocking/rooting Android on the forum, although compared to the guys at XDA-Dev, I'm probably a novice (not quite beginner). I've unlocked and rooted 3 different types of android devices over the years. Droid X (2 different phones), Asus TF Prime, and Galaxy Nexus (Verizon version x2). My previous tablet was the Asus TF201 (Transformer Prime), which was the precursor to your tablet. The unlocking and rooting process is similar. However, since I now have a new tablet, I have not kept up with the Asus devices. Last I checked, the update to Jelly Bean and/or Kitkat broke many of the methods for rooting and unlocking. If you really want some help with unlocking/rooting/flashing custom ROM, I can guide you through the process, but I won't be available all the time. First question... do you have a linux install handy? preferably a dual boot system that you can install the Android Dev Kit on?
Yes, that is critical. Koush's CWM fell behind in functionality and works very poorly these days. TWRP is actively maintained and tested on virtually every device. To not use TWRP these days is just plain stupid. You will want to back it up before you do anything. You will likely lose it during the bootloader unlocking process, but not necessarily. So back it up, but you can leave it there if you want to. TWRP is the "recovery" image that will be required to install anything that is NOT digitally signed and verified by Asus. The stock recovery will give you very basic functions, TWRP is a much more powerful back end. As long as you can get into TWRP, you can recover your tablet... Welcome to Rooting/Unlocking locked devices Yes. If you grant Super User rights to an application, it can do ANYTHING that it wants to on your device. Copy/Delete/Overwrite/Change/etc ANY file ANY where at ANY time. As long as you don't grant an app SU access, it is no more of a risk than on a locked machine. 1. Backup 1.5. (If this is necessary for the TF300T, it was on my TF201) Make your NVFlash backups. 2. unlock 3. Install TWRP 4. Install any 1 of the custom roms (most have Root access built in these days) 5. Make a "Nandroid" backup immediately of your fresh, untouched install. (if you screw something up, recovery is only minutes away!) My biggest suggestion, is USE LINUX. I switched from using Windows to using Linux, and this process got A BILLION TIMES EASIER.
Have to disagree with using Linux to root, it's overkill and not at all needed, and I've thus far rooted around 10 different phones and 2 tablets through Windows as well as done some light dev work as well. ADB can easily be installed and ran via Windows without the need to worry about any Linux specific libraries.
I disagree. Windows ADB commands work, until they don't. I'm not slouch, but I have spent many hours on end with a phone that won't boot because my Windows 7 ADB connection got disrupted in the middle of a command. Uninstalling/reinstalling ADB and the associated device drivers a billion times never fixed it. This has happened more than once. Booted a live Linux thumbdrive, and had my phone back to operational in under an hour. Now I've got Ubuntu in dual boot with my Win7. Any time I do ANYTHING with Android, I do it in linux. Running the commands via terminal may be a bit annoying at times, but it works... EVERY time.
Not entirely sure what connection issues you had, but that would be hardware related not the OS. You are relying on an active connection via USB to the machine. I respectfully have to disagree with you here. If smg needs help with understanding the root process, installing Linux is simply overkill and just not needed for him. Of all the phones I've rooted and even the dev work I've done I've never had issues like you're reporting, all of which were through Windows 7 using Google drivers rather than Koushes hacked driver.
we will have to disagree then, but IMHO it clearly isnt a hardware issue if changing which OS you use solves the problem. Let me, respectfully, ask if you have ever unlocked and rooted an Asus device? Specifically a Transformer Prime or TF300t or TF700? The process involved with doing this on these tablets is quite a bit more complex then a basic rooting exploit like what is found on many android devices. I`ve had to do it, and have helped numerous people bring bootlooping/almost bricked devices back from the dead over on XDA-dev. These are just a sampling of all things smg needs to have checked before beginning: The exact bootloader version he is running before he begins (they do get updated by asus) He needs to have the official unlock tool for his specific bootloader installed on his tablet. He needs to have a TWRP and TWRP only recovery image downloaded and ready to flash, having verified file integrity by matching md5sums. This MUST be matched for his specific bootloader. Ideally, he will download and install one of the available pre-rooted roms found at xda, and have it ready to push using ADB. Im not even mentioning the need for making nvflash backups so that he can unbrick his device, etc. Heres why I say smg *should* use linux. Is it necessary? No, I did it the first time without linux. But it was a long a frustrating process. ADB through windows is notoriously unstable on these tablets because of the crappy nand asus used for the ram. Linux just handles the communication between the device and the computer better. Rooting and unlocking the Asus Tf200 and Tf300T is a Nightmare compared to most other Android offerings. Smg already appears to be atleast minimally linux savy, so I suggested that he uses that because of all the pitfalls involved with these devices. Sent From my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Ed.
