Motorola Droid X Has Been Rooted
| by Quentyn Kennemer on July 22nd, 2010 |
That was quick! The Motorola Droid X has been officially rooted after a week on the market. The crafty minds over at AllDroid – headed by Stephen Bird – have taken the beast that is the Droid X and made it its — well, you get the idea. Full root is capable here with a read/write ‘System’ mount and everything else that normally comes with a fully rooted Android device (super user, full access through the shell, etc).
This does not enable any ROM flashing, though: this is just root. Being able to install custom ROMs through an unencrypted recovery and bootloader is an entirely different beast in and of itself, but you already knew that. Root is still very useful for many things (such as WiFi tethering, having the ability to take screenshots, and more) so make your way to AllDroid now for full instructions and download links if you want to give it a shot.
1. Ted417 wrote on July 22, 2010
Interesting enough… this was figured out in Alldroid and not XDA… I remember when the Droid was rooted… God… Alldroid got a lot of attention after that…
2. derrickISONLINE wrote on July 22, 2010
WOOOOOOOOT! Thank you! Been waiting for root. Custom roms, I can live without for now, but root is a must!
3. chris wrote on July 22, 2010
Can you uninstall the preloaded apps now?
4. Sandtiger wrote on July 22, 2010
This is awesome news for the owners of the Droid X. Now about that pesky custom rom thing :)
It doesn’t surprise me that its AllDroid and XDA since the X isnt an HTC device, and thats what XDA seems to mostly develop for.
5. jj wrote on July 22, 2010
So say i did this.. would i have to buy additional software to use wifi tethering or would i be able to use the software on my X? Also i wouldnt have to pay anything to keep it up? i could just use my existing data plan?
thanks in advance!
6. john wrote on July 22, 2010
yea you can unistall all the bloatware now
7. oldman_58 wrote on July 22, 2010
Congratulations AllDroid
You deserve all the attention you will be getting.
8. John wrote on July 22, 2010
Verizon should just stop trying to lock these things down, it’s really a waste of time for everyone involved on both sides.
9. chris wrote on July 22, 2010
I just want to remove the bloatware wish verizon would allow this without rooting oh well will try it when i get home
10. Simon wrote on July 22, 2010
thats great news :)
still not sure if i should buy the Droid X or the Samsung Galaxy S! :( such a tough decision
11. Gerg wrote on July 22, 2010
#5 jj -
Google “android wifi tether”. there’s the answer. And no you won’t have to pay. Just watch out for data caps, and don’t torrent with it.
12. JAG wrote on July 22, 2010
nice, beautiful song.
13. Alex wrote on July 22, 2010
If you root and don’t flash a new ROM, will you still get over-the-air updates?
Someone needs to make a list of all the things this allows you to do and what problems it may cause. There’s a lot of literature out there about rooting, but most of it assumes that you’re going to install a custom ROM.
14. jj wrote on July 22, 2010
@Alex – i totally agree. i really want to do this but i have a ton of questions that cant be answered with a simple google search.. sometimes its better to just ask a person with the knowledge than to trust a search engine.
15. riz wrote on July 22, 2010
New DroidX user (never roooted) current using pdanet w/bluetooth for tethering, if rooted for tethering, A)it doesn’t require bluetooth just a wifi signal sent out? and B)is it fast than my current solution because pdanet plus Verizon is only current getting around 500kbps (which seems slooooow), thx riz
16. chmod421 wrote on July 22, 2010
first of all i need to buy one
17. Dave K wrote on July 22, 2010
Rooting does exactly that, it gives you root access to the system. It doesn’t affect OTA unless you install a custom rom. If all you’re doing is gaining root access, you’ll still receive OTA updates that are pushed.
18. Paul wrote on July 22, 2010
@Alex if you root WITHOUT a custom rom you will still get ota updates. But they may take away root access. @riz you probably would get faster access with wifi tether which requires root access.
19. Alex wrote on July 22, 2010
@Dake K and Paul
Thanks for the info. When I get my Droid 2 next month, assuming it’s running mostly the same software, I might root just to uninstall the bloatware. If they issue an update that takes away my root access later, that wouldn’t really bother me as long as the bloatware stays gone.
20. swazedahustla wrote on July 22, 2010
@Alex
Just to let you know, if you rooted and removed bloat from your phone and accepted an OTA (firmware), it would put the bloat right back on your phone, and the only difference would be you would no longer have root.
21. Alex wrote on July 22, 2010
@swazedahustla
Well. That’s just lame.
22. Brett wrote on July 22, 2010
So can anyone with a rooted DroidX confirm that android-wifi-tether is working properly on the device? There aren’t any specific DroidX builds on google code yet. I want to buy the phone but tethering is a must for working remotely.
23. swazedahustla wrote on July 22, 2010
@Brett,
It should work. It isn’t designed for any specific phone. Its designed for Android period, so it should run perfectly. I used it on 2.1 on my EVO and the same app works on Froyo that im running as well. If you are rooted, it should work perfectly.
24. Anon wrote on July 22, 2010
This is ridiculous that the Droid X’s encrypted bootloader was cracked within a week while we HTC Increidble users still struggle without a full NAND unlock several months after release.
25. Steve wrote on July 22, 2010
@Anon the bootloader still has not been cracked. Only root gained, if you do not understand the difference you should not be doing these things to your phone.
26. Dogsby wrote on July 22, 2010
@swazedahustla
Is an OTA update guaranteed to take away root, once rooted? If so, would another rooting method need to be found?
27. swazedahustla wrote on July 22, 2010
@Dogsby
I can’t say for sure but here is how these carriers do it. They definately watch the forums and learn all of the exploit methods out there. Then when a basic OTA comes out, they won’t mention that along with bug fixes, they included something that will kill root. Depending on what/how they did it, you may/maynot be able to get root again. Its a game of chess. But my strong advice to anyone who wants to keep root no matter what……..NEVER ACCEPT OTA UPGRADES from your carrier.
Now in the case of the droid x, its different because normally if you had custom ROMs, whenever an update went out, someone would just incorporate the changes into a custom ROM and you wouldn’t lose root. Now I don’t know how one would get an update from vrz, and not risk losing root. I don’t have enough experiance to answer that one.
28. swazedahustla wrote on July 22, 2010
BTW, this is exactly what happened with the EVO. People used that unrevoked stuff and then accepted the sprint OTA update and lost root. And it took a while before someone found a different way to root.
29. jj wrote on July 22, 2010
alright.. im gonna do it. unless anyone here can give me an excellent reason not to? also there were rumors flying about saying verizons unlimited data plan had a 5gb cap on it.. i dont want to run into problems if i accidentally go over that limit (if it indeed exists)
30. Brett wrote on July 22, 2010
@Dogsby
OTA updates are *pretty much* guaranteed to take away root. Moto will have likely fixed the exploit that was used to gain root in the previous version. It’s possible that another exploit will be found in the new update, but it may take time. Best not to update until you’re sure root has been gained on the new version.
31. Brett wrote on July 22, 2010
@jj
The same way that Comcast had a soft 250GB cap (they’ve officially announced that they have a monthly cap) Verizon has a 5GB monthly cap on wireless data. I’m not sure if they straight up cut you off at 5GB, but you can bet that you’ll be on their radar.
32. Dogsby wrote on July 22, 2010
@swazedahustla @Brett
Thanks guys.
33. swazedahustla wrote on July 22, 2010
@JJ
If you can follow instructions well, do it. Rooting is not that hard to do, and gives you so much more control over your device. Im not on verizon so I don’t know how their policy is, but just be careful with the tether. They have the right to cut you off and cancel your contract, but I don’t know how strict they are with it. Good luck.
34. Mutt wrote on July 22, 2010
“NEVER ACCEPT OTA UPGRADES from your carrier” Froyo will be an OTA…
35. Rondy wrote on July 22, 2010
Does that mean than when the Froyo update for Droid 1 gets delayed for a month or two to make sure it doesn’t also have the same problem, and then has to undergo long in house and network testing, we have the root hackers to thank?
36. KDroidX wrote on July 22, 2010
I love it :) after all the criticism and everyone saying “dont buy this phone” “lets show motorola a lesson” this gets rooted within almost a week. People love a challange
37. Dan wrote on July 23, 2010
Don’t you need a kernal that supports WiFi Tether? I know you need one for the Droid.
38. Arnold wrote on July 23, 2010
@swazedahustla “They have the right to cut you off and cancel your contract” And prosecute you for theft. You’re using a service you didn’t pay to use.
39. Brad wrote on July 23, 2010
Now, can somebody come up with the same type of root method for the Droid Eris with 2.1? All the rooting methods I can find involve installing a completely new pre-rooted ROM, which involves a phone wipe, which I don’t want to do. I have a lock screen wallpaper that I lost the original file for due to SD card corruption (thanks a lot Android 1.5), and I want to get it back, but it must be stored in a protected area of the filesystem. Anyone know of a way I can get it back?
40. Gus wrote on July 23, 2010
If my friend and I both have rooted phones, can he give me the paid apps on his so I can install them on mine without having to pay for them? I hate paying for something I can just copy.
41. Dingo wrote on July 23, 2010
Will the Droid X be available outside US any time soon ? ‘cuz i really like this phone & i wanna get one.
42. Dogsby wrote on July 23, 2010
@Gus
Great philosophy. You’re a winner.
43. Holly wrote on July 27, 2010
Hi guys. So I got my droid a few days ago and it’s my first smart phone.
Now that I have my smart phone, I want to customize the theme, enhance speed (thinking about overclocking), and now I am thinking about rooting also so that I can create and install my own apps. I’m thinking small though, just my own custom themes. And, I definitely want to tether.
So to cut the the chase, I was wondering if you can root straight from 2.1 or if you have to downgrade to 2.0.1 root and then install a rom that runs on 2.1 since the OTA updates will remove your root?
I know this is slightly off topic since we are talking about the droid x, but I was just curious.
44. oscar wrote on August 11, 2010
Could somebody tell wha is the application to get wireless signal fron my Droid, Please tanks.