The root of an Android device is the procedure for obtaining administrator permissions on the operating system and having freedom to do what you want with your mobile phone or tablet. There are many advantages to root Android, but you also need to be a little able to follow the guides and, in some cases, accept a small percentage of risk of breaking the device in case something goes wrong.
Among the advantages are the installation of a custom ROM, the installation of particular applications that require root and which act on the system hardware to do things such as overclocking the processor or moving apps to the SD card even when it would not be possible.
In this blog we have seen how to root all Android smartphones using particular programs and apps that must be used in different ways depending on the model.
Among all Android smartphones and tablets, the easiest to unlock with Root permissions are the Google Nexus which having Android in the original Stock version, have no locks or complications.
Recalling that Root is not absolutely illegal and is always reversible, let's see here how to root a Nexus 4, a Nexus 5, 5X, 6, 6P or a Nexus 7 without installing particular programs, using only the ADB command line .
1) First of all, turn on USB debugging
The option to enable USB debugging is in the Android "Developer Options" menu.
2) Download ADB and Fastboot for PC, to be able to send commands from the terminal to activate certain actions on the device.
Now, to make things easier, copy the " platform-tools " folder, located in the sdk folder and pass it (paste it) in the user folder, in the path C: \ Users \ username.
The platform-tools folder is the one that contains the ADB and fastboot tools needed to control the device.
3) Connect the Nexus 4, 5, 5X, 6 or 7 with a USB cable to the computer .
4) Make sure ADB recognizes the Nexus
It may happen that the device is not detected by the ADB tool making any operation in vain.
Start the terminal (Start - type cmd in the search bar - Enter) and go to the folder where there are platform-tools, ADB and fastboot.
If it has been moved as per point 2, the command is cd C: \ Users \ username / platform-tools
Now, type the adb devices command and see if the Nexus is found.
If no device appears, check that USB debugging is turned on and make sure that the device is properly connected to the computer via USB cable.
The problem may also be the ADB driver or you must also activate the "multimedia device (MTP)" option in Settings -> Memory -> Setup icon at the top -> USB connection of the computer .
5) Unlock the bootloader
If the bootloader is already unlocked, you can skip this step.
Unlocking the bootloader is the most painful operation because it deletes all the data of the mobile phone so you must make sure you already have a backup before doing it.
- Switch off the device
- Press the volume-down and power button together and keep them pushed until you reach a configuration screen.
The bottom line should have the words " lock State - locked " indicating a locked bootloader (if not, it is already unlocked).
- To unlock the bootloader, remain still in this screen, open a DOS terminal on the computer (from the Start menu, type "cmd" in the search box and press enter), isassare the folder where ADB and fastboot are located and, finally, type the fastboot oem unlock command, press Enter and confirm the action on the device.
The bootloader is now unlocked.
6) Install the recovery console .
From your computer, download the recovery console installation file which can be TWRP, the most stable and best.
After downloading the img file, move it to the usual platform-tools folder, boot the device in bootloader and use the command: fastboot flash recovery RECOVERY-file.img
Now from the bootloader you can enter the recovery console using the volume buttons and selecting with the power button.
7) Install SuperSU
Download now the SuperUser permission management app (which would be root) SuperSU and move the zip file to the usual folder where there are ADB / fastboot.
Boot the device in recovery mode (you can use the " adb reboot recovery " command to do it first) and put the device in adb sideload mode from the Advanced menu.
Now send the adb sideload SuperSU-name.zip command to install SuperSU
The Nexus device is now unlocked and "rooted".
If, for some reason, something goes wrong and the phone or tablet no longer responds, you can always use this guide to reinstall Android on the Nexus from the PC with ADB.
To unlock Nexus there are also automatic tools such as those of CF-Root for Nexus 6 and for Nexus 5.
In another article we also saw the one-click tools for all smartphones such as the Nexus Toolkit which does nothing but unlock the device with two clicks.
However, it is better to do these operations manually, to have more control and, in case of problems, to know where to stop and find a solution.
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