By 
It didn’t take long for the T-Mobile G2 to get root, but it didn’t last long either. HTC had taken precautions to prevent permanent rooting of the device, resetting every time the phone was powered down. Still, a workaround was found to allow for permanent root, but why stop there? Flashing ROMs is one thing, but the G2 still wasn’t as developer-friendly as, say, the Nexus One or original G1. Well, thanks to some savvy work and dedication by the folks over at XDA the T-Mobile G2 is now as primed for tinkering as it could be.
The methods to accomplish all are detailed in the source links below, but this isn’t for your first-time hacker. Those of you who want this type of access without the risk may want to hold off for automated methods that will surely come later. An interesting read either way!
[XDA via AndroidCentral]
cool
Marketing this as the successor to the G1 was misleading… Wasn’t the G1 meant to be a developer’s phone?
@ed this IS THE successor to the g1, why wouldnt you think so? its an amazing phone
i thought the t-mobile g2/htc hero was the g1 sucessor, t-mobile should seriously think about their names, they now have 2 g2’s, i dont care if they are in different countrys, it annoys me so much
The hero is the T-mobile G2 touch.
on the tmobile website it is shown as the t-mobile G2, not G2 touch, they should update their website
Someone give me this phone for christmas:(
It wasn’t a manufacturer protection. It was bad coding. Cyanogen figured that one out.
Of course correct me if I misread that :P
@dork
“the G2 still wasn’t as developer-friendly as, say, the Nexus One or original G1”
Don’t market it as a successor to a developer phone if you’re going to put all manner of roadblocks up that limit it’s usefulness to developers.
Granted it looks like the roadblocks were just bad coding and the dev community fixed it for HTC and T-Mobile free of charge, but still… It seems like this is a flawed product and if it had a different name than G2 it wouldn’t have sold as well because people would have waited for a true developer’s phone.
kind of old news….my g2 has been S-OFF (which is the correct term, not perma root) for a month or so.
I got the HTC G2 for my son for Christmas for $200 without a contract! Suckers!
All I take from the article, is that I won’t be buying an HTC phone ever… if they’re going to keep doing this locking it down BS.
@teckel. Can you get me one as well for $200?
@ed The G1 was not a developer phone. It was the first Google phone. However, the first developer phone was identical to the G1 yet carried a different name and was unlocked as shipped.
@bigsg This is not the same as perm-root. This is like perm-perm-root. Checkout the G2 wiki at XDA. They indicate this.
@Teckel me as well :]
The HTC G2 was T-Mobile’s cyber Monday deal (free). 16 days after I get the phone I’ll cancel my contract and pay the $200 early cancelation fee. No contract and I don’t need to pay $25/month for the Internet. Just not having to buy the Internet saves me $600 over 2 years.
I really wish the US market was more like Europe for cell phones. Phones in the US are sold for MSRP even years after their release as the cellular companies are in total control over the phones. And they con people into cheap phones by locking them into a 2 year contract. I’d much rather just pay a REASONABLE price for a phone from anyone and then buy my cellular service from someone else. The cellular companies have stacked the deck and consumers like myself must resort to playing these kinds of games to get phones for a reasonable price.
@teckel
All you accomplished was to be burned by the carrier and not being able to make another contract. Or do you think they make billions a year giving away phones like that?
And so that we’d be clear, Europe’s cellphone market it’s just the same as in the US. I live in Portugal and carriers here also sell the phones with 2 year contracts (but the upfront price is much higher than there) so the vast majority of people just prefer to buy them unlocked, since the difference is not that big (for example: HTC Desire on Vodafone tied to a 2yr contract costs 415€ while unlocked it sells for about 550€). The Desire Z (same as the G2) is not yet available on Vodafone Portugal so I’m gonna buy it today unlocked at a big electronics retail store for 629€ (roughly 820USD) and be grateful (not really, just being sarcastic) that our minimum wage is 475€ (that’s 620USD a month!).
/end rant
@Ed: I think you take the rooting community way too seriously. The average, and overwhelming majority of people that walk into a T-Mobile store either don’t know, or don’t care about rooting their phone. Last I saw, Cyanogen had 250K users of his roms, and not all of them use the G2. Only the tech nerds like ourselves really care if it’s a developers phone or not, and we are a small minority at best in the cell phone community.
I have a Sprint EVO 4G by HTC and I love it, especially the kickstand! With that being said, my friends G2 is FAST, way faster than my EVO, both in processor speed and network speed. The G2 is the fastest phone I have ever used, this was running the factory ROM too!
I am excited by this news as I helped her root it on day 1 but having that root work around always irked me a bit. Let the games begin!
If you can’t deal with a 2yr contract and the monthly phone bill that comes with an android phone….go get a prepaid…its like a car, if you can’t pay the note, then you must be broke! Get your money up!
If you read your contract, there is an early term fee for the line($200) and for the Data package ($200)…. So you got a phone for $400….. Sucker
Re:The HTC G2 was T-Mobile’s cyber Monday deal (free). 16 days after I get the phone I’ll cancel my contract and pay the $200 early cancelation fee. No contract and I don’t need to pay $25/month for the Internet. Just not having to buy the Internet saves me $600 over 2 years.
I really wish the US market was more like Europe for cell phones. Phones in the US are sold for MSRP even years after their release as the cellular companies are in total control over the phones. And they con people into cheap phones by locking them into a 2 year contract. I’d much rather just pay a REASONABLE price for a phone from anyone and then buy my cellular service from someone else. The cellular companies have stacked the deck and consumers like myself must resort to playing these kinds of games to get phones for a reasonable price.