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How To: Root the Samsung Vibrant / Captivate

August 2, 2010 in Android How To's, Featured, How To's, Samsung Captivate How To's, Samsung Vibrant How To's, Video

I. Before You Begin

1. Download and install Microsoft .Net 4 Framework.

2. Download and install the Samsung Drivers.

II. Root the Phone

1. On the phone, hit Menu then go to Settings > Applications > Development and make sure USB Debugging is checked ON.

2. Download the One Click Rooting program for your specific phone and extract it to somewhere on your computer.

Samsung Captivate One Click Root

Samsung Vibrant One Click Root

3. Connect the phone via USB cable to your computer.

4. Right click the AT&T Captivate One Click Root.exe/T-Mobile Vibrant One-Click Root.exe file and select Run As Administrator

5. A command prompt window will appear, simply follow the instructions in the command prompt and you’re all set.

III. (Optional) Load a Custom ROM

1. Head over to our How To Load a Custom ROM on the Samsung Vibrant/Captivate procedure.

Big thanks to TGA_Gunnman for his one click rooting program!

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209 responses to How To: Root the Samsung Vibrant / Captivate

  1. Jonovan said on September 19, 2010

    My phone wont reboot into recovery mode, not sure why but ive followed all the steps above, any ideas?

  2. stuckers said on September 22, 2010

    Are there any updated drivers for the Samsung? I downloaded the drivers that were linked and my computer goes to install them, but ends up saying that it cannot install the drivers.
    Dell Inspiron Windows Vista 64.

  3. Rico said on September 28, 2010

    my phone did not reboot in recovery mode when i clicked the one click root. also i do no get the screen when i plug my phone to my pc that tests the samsung drivers.

    help

  4. Hao said on October 9, 2010

    I have T-mobile Vibrant with 3 key locked, and I followed all the instruction to root it and install a new rom. I used the “enter recovery mode” function provided by “ROM Manager”.

    My problem is, in the step of “choose a zip file from SD card” in recovery mode, it displays internal storage’s directory instead of SD card’s.

    I found that the update.zip is located in the root of internal storage’s directory and is missing in SD card. I tried to fix it by copying update.zip to SD card and it didn’t work. Then I tried to copy the ROM file to the root of internal storage, I can find the ROM in “choose a zip file” this time. However, when I installed the ROM, it freezed at “installing” with 0% of the process bar. I waited for about 10 minutes and removed the battery. The phone booted into the T-mobile’s ROM.

    What should I do to correct the SD card directory?

    Please help! Thanks!

  5. Pixbuf said on October 28, 2010

    I was able to root my Captivate with no problem. The instructions are quite clear. I got the little Superuser Permission app icon. However, I don’t know what to do now. I wanted to uninstall apps that I don’t want, like AT&T Navigate, but I don’t have the uninstall option for that app in Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications. How do I get rid of it for good?

    Also, is it safe to keep the phone rooted all the time? Would it be better to unroot it when I don’t need root access? (I’m a Linux user (although I ran the rooting in Windows) and I never run apps as root because safety is a big concern.)

    Thanks for helping this Android newbie.

    • Avatar Image

      David Cogen said on October 28, 2010

      1. Its a bit of a command line adventure to remove apps you don’t want one at a time. The best way to go is flash a custom recovery image then use it to flash a custom rom (the custom roms have speed tweaks and crappy att apps removed etc.)

      2. Unlike with root access on a regular linux system, we root and install a separate app called Superuser Permissions. What that program does is notify you if anything asks for root access then you have to give it permissions to allow the app to use root otherwise it blocks it. So no worries about leaving it rooted.

    • Kenforillo said on December 14, 2010

      hey, i tryed all that but it wont work, can you get back to me at kenforillo@yahoo.com

    • Acollinsjr927 said on March 2, 2011

      In order to remove apps once the device is rooted, you have to go to the android market and search for “root uninstaller”. That will bring up a number of apps made specifically for that purpose.

  6. Ckenares said on November 6, 2010

    I click samsung vibrant one click root and i get a blank page plz help

  7. Jsmaloney07 said on November 11, 2010

    i have a vibrant when i click to put in revocery mode it does nothing to my phone? how do i get it to go to recovery mode?

  8. Alanchm said on November 12, 2010

    Everything went well for my Captivate, until “reinstall packages”…it said “E:signature verification failed Installation aborted” why is that?

  9. Hunterstiles said on November 23, 2010

    will this work for 2.2

  10. Anonymous said on November 23, 2010

    I keep getting the following error when trying to drag anything onto my internal sd card:

    error 0×80070057 the parameter is incorrect

    I’ve been posting this in multiple forums and have not had any help yet. Please please please can somebody help me?

  11. Missy Sippy said on December 4, 2010

    This sucks!!! I’ve been trying to root my phone all day. It keeps telling me that the driver is unable to run on my pc. I have an updated windows vista pc and neither one of the drivers seem to work. Where do I go from here? Any suggestions? I just want a faster phone :(

  12. Missy Sippy said on December 4, 2010

    Never mind….I was trying to be precise and follow the video step by step!! THANKS!!

  13. TheUnlockr said on December 4, 2010

    If you can’t get the drivers to work sometimes just trying a different computer is the easiest solution.

  14. TheUnlockr said on December 4, 2010

    If you can’t get the drivers to work sometimes just trying a different computer is the easiest solution.

  15. Ericcwallsshh said on December 5, 2010

    hi, when i connect my vibrant to my computer, it does not install the drivers. What am I doing wrong? I have everything installed, ( net version 4, the driver software, and the one click root,..I also have debugging mode ON) What am I doing wrong? Please help, thanks

    • Robodawg said on December 12, 2010

      make sure the USB port is one mounted directly on the motherboard, ie: backside of computer. I have read other reports similar to this and that was the suggestion that had the highest success rate.
      Hope it helps :)

  16. TheUnlockr said on December 6, 2010

    Not sure, try a different USB port, or a different computer.

  17. Nat said on December 6, 2010

    Can i still use this one click root on a Samsung Captivate that has the leaked 2.2 Froyo update installed on it?

  18. cbarnard said on December 6, 2010

    I had my captivate rooted before, Last night I re flashed my OS to 2.2 from 2.1,

    Every update.zip I have loaded refuses to work including this one this is the error I get every time.
    “E:signature verification failed Installation aborted”

    It seems to me this doesn’t work with Fryo.

    Do we have any fixes for this?

  19. TheUnlockr said on December 6, 2010

    Wait, the 2.2 update you tried to flash failed? or you managed to update to 2.2 and now every update.zip after fails?

    • Flaran said on December 7, 2010

      I think he meant the latter. After I updated to Froyo on my Captivate it won’t work either :(

    • Flaran said on December 7, 2010

      I think he meant the latter. After I updated to Froyo on my Captivate it won’t work either :(

  20. Joshnunez1000 said on December 11, 2010

    I did everything right and when i try to reinstall the packages it says it aborts

  21. Joshnunez1000 said on December 11, 2010

    I did everything right and when i try to reinstall the packages it says it aborts

  22. Robodawg said on December 12, 2010

    Awesome, very easy to do!! I researched a lot of links and this was as straight forward and simple as it gets! HATS OFF TO YOU! thank you.
    Robodawg

  23. Robodawg said on December 12, 2010

    Awesome, very easy to do!! I researched a lot of links and this was as straight forward and simple as it gets! HATS OFF TO YOU! thank you.
    Robodawg

  24. Jsobol12 said on December 12, 2010

    Thank you so much for the ‘how to’! This was so very helpful!!!

  25. TheUnlockr said on December 12, 2010

    Factory reset the phone and start over.

  26. TheUnlockr said on December 12, 2010

    Factory reset the phone and start over.

  27. TheUnlockr said on December 14, 2010

    It might. Try it ance let us know.

  28. TheUnlockr said on December 14, 2010

    I’d try factory resetting his phone.

  29. TheUnlockr said on December 16, 2010

    Ha welcome!

    • Anonymous said on February 6, 2011

      Thanks for great video.

      I have got T mobile simlock on my vibrant and to get it unlocked i have to root as far as i know. I have been trying for a long time till i got your video. But i have one and final problem though.

      It works fine till the blue cmd window appears press any key to continue but i cant see recovery mode on my device. I dont have SD card on my mobile. Do one has to have SD card for rooting?

      Any help would be appreciated. Or anything else i can do to remove T mobile lock??

      Thanks in advance.

      Regards,
      Jayendra

  30. Vicero2 said on December 20, 2010

    vicer2
    Please Help. Rooting a TMobile Valiant. When I click the one click root button, I get an error message as follows: Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click continue, the app will ignorre this error an attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the app will close immediately.

    I click continue and nothing happens. Can you suggest a ffix?
    Thank you.

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