How To: Gain Permanent Root and S-OFF on the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G / HTC Glacier
December 10, 2010 in Android How To's, Featured, How To's, HTC MyTouch 4G How To's, Video
THIS PROCEDURE IS OBSOLETE, PLEASE HEAD TO OUR HOW TO ROOT USING REVOLUTIONARY METHOD INSTEAD
I. Before You Begin
1. An explanation of what S OFF is and why you might want it - S Off means security off for your HBoot mode (aka Bootloader). The bootloader is what allows you to flash updates and write to the file system of your phone. By turning the Security OFF, we can flash any updates/ROMs we want without the phone checking to see if it is an official update or not.
2. You MUST have done our Temporary Rooting Method before coming to this method.
3. This ONLY works on T-Mobile MyTouch 4G’s that have gotten the OTA. You can check by going to Settings > About Phone > Firmware and your Android Version should read 2.2.1 or higher! If you are Android 2.2, either just wait for Android 2.2.1 to automatically come to your phone OR download this file save it to the root of your sd card and then turn off your phone and turn it back on holding down Volume Down and Power and then apply the update when asked. After that, you can continue with this procedure.
Thanks to Grankin01 for his rooting scripts!
II. Flash the S-OFF Hboot Image and Gain Perm Root
1. Download the rooting files:
2. Extract the files somewhere to your computer.
3. Plug your phone in via USB cable and mount the SD card so we can transfer files to it.
4. Copy the entire root folder from inside the extracted folder from step 2 to the root of your sd card on your phone (NOT in any folders, just on the SD card itself).
5. Unplug the phone.
6. Go to the Market on your phone and download/install Android Terminal Emulator (free).
4. Open the Terminal Emulator app and type the following with hitting enter at the end of each line (to get the touch screen keyboard to come up hit the menu button then toggle soft keyboard):
su
cd /sdcard/root
sh root.sh
5. Now, wait for it to finish.
6. After that is done, reboot the phone. When it boots back up, turn it off and back on holding down Volume Down and Power until the HBoot screen comes up. Confirm it says S-OFF at the top. If so, you have S-OFF.
10. Now, to get permanent root, turn the phone back on to get to the normal home screen.
11. Open Visionary and Uncheck TempRoot on Boot and click Temproot Now.
12. Then select Attempt Perm Root Now and the phone should reboot.
13. Once the phone reboots, open Terminal Emulator on the phone and type su and hit enter. If you get the # symbol, you have permanent root access and S-OFF, enjoy!
IV. (Optional) Load a Custom ROM
1. Head to our How To Load a Custom ROM on the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G / HTC Glacier procedure.
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Daren Hathaway said on April 26, 2011
fuck me will someone that knows what there doing help me please i cant get s off i have tried this pdb thing with gfree using adt and pdb and “the unlocker” way its so fucked up some guy tried i give him that but i cant even download pd15img to put the latest img on my phone the one i downloaded said invaild content or some bull shit cant get my phone to s off i dont know what to do i have done one other phone it worked mine wont please save my soul before i kill a guy haha please my number 801 8240026 my email daredog8989@gmail.com seriously please someone help that knows something not saying the other dude didnt he knew a gri of shit just couldnt do what i needed i have team viewer also
Dirk said on May 7, 2011
i did evrything gud n evrthing was wrking fine untill i saw S-ON, how can get it to be S-OFF plz email at Farquh@gmail.com, i dnt wanna try any new method tht might brick my fone.
Acuna16 said on May 12, 2011
Cant get S off. Tried it like thirty times, any ideas?
Marshunjackson said on May 17, 2011
Hey. I got my replacement phone. Mytouch 4g that is. I got the s=off on the phone I broke. But on this replacement phone it only let me temp root. I know I’m doing everything right cause I rooted 7 mytouch 4g. So if anybody can help me out with this issue that would be nice
Krupal Patel said on May 17, 2011
I was able to root my mytouch 4g with android 2.2.1 after several attempts using same steps described above. Temproot was easy. On my first trial I got perm root with Su capability and S off, but I was not able to get rw permission. I repeated steps three more time and on third trial i was able to get all root functionality. Thanks DAVID……..
Jay V said on May 21, 2011
didn’t work for my mytouch 4g. im still stuck only for perm root.
Jay V said on May 21, 2011
I mean Im still stuck on Temp Root.. I went on Hboot after this method and my S still ON. Any suggestions?
Ian Brock said on July 20, 2011
did you flash the two files after placing them on the root of your sd card? looks like the flash didnt go through.
McD said on May 24, 2011
I am getting “Permission Denied” when I type “su” on the terminal emulator. HELP please!
Mz61 said on May 31, 2011
Worked for me thanks!!
Shawn C said on June 1, 2011
I tried this method on my MyTouch 4g and after rebooting, all my applications were forced to close. After wasting about 2 hours trying to search the logs, etc. I decided it was either a permissions or a username error.
I uninstalled Visonary, Clockwork ROM Manager and Superuser. Then reinstalled all 3 applications. After that I rerooted using Visonary. And used the Fix Permissions from Clockwork which fixed most of the problems. It still isn’t perfect but at least it is usable for now. I suggest before trying to root your phone with anything other then Visonary make a backup first.
Ernie Gill said on June 4, 2011
for some reason i cant get into hboot….
Bunnachea2006 said on June 15, 2011
is there anyway to unroot it back
Newellk said on June 19, 2011
Did you ever figure out how to get it to say s=off
mine still giving me s=on
thanks
Cnw0918 said on June 21, 2011
i got to the last step “open Terminal Emulator on the phone and type su and hit enter” and the response was “permission denied.” what do I do now?
Douglas Jones said on June 27, 2011
it wont let me cd/sdcard/root it keeps saying cd/sdcard/root not found and i did what you said i extracted the files and put the root folder on the sdcard and nada
Ian Brock said on July 20, 2011
had the same issue found out it was due to the phone still showing hd acess even after i set it to charge only also if you have a space of any kind in the command it will not show up.
Pickle said on July 4, 2011
Took my time. Checked, rechecked and checked everything I was doing before committing anything.
Worked first time and run like a Italian racecar.
MT4G running CyranogenMod 7
Dscoott005 said on July 7, 2011
when i type su intp the terminal it says permission denied
Tuntungio24 said on July 19, 2011
i tryed following both instructions but was not able to get s-on can you give more tips..?
Rj Stone7 said on July 19, 2011
This is the SECOND different Root method I’ve tried. I’ve been able to achieve PERM-ROOT with both methods, but I’m not longer able to boot in Recovery. It shows the Recovery, FastBoot and other options, but then it quickly runs Hboot and goes through the long process (blue progress bar on the right side) and then asks me if I want to continue update. I know those are the steps to take when Unrooting S=Off. I tried the other method like 2 times and Unrooted and then tried Rooting again, but I still was never able to get into Recovery via volume button and power button. I also would see the ! inside of triangle with the Android Animator.
Besides following each steps, word-for-word, I don’t know what it could be. Should I Reformat my SD card or something or is their an easier solution. Thanks!
Andy Curdo said on July 22, 2011
phone does nothing when i attempt step 12
Jamyil Thomas said on July 24, 2011
just not working for me. tried like 10 times. fat reset, just wont do S-OFF. i keep following the steps and dont work for me.
cherish said on July 25, 2011
im following these instructions exactly and on the final step it says permission denied. ugh…help
Julian Wilkinson said on July 26, 2011
I assume this DOESN’T work after the Gingerbread OTA like all the other rooting methods?
Kingellobo said on July 27, 2011
dident work for me
Craig Bennett II said on August 3, 2011
Hello everyone. This is Craig Bennett II, one of your spec/ROM hunters.
I notice a few people have said the cd /sdcard/root code doesn’t work for them. When you put in this code make sure there is a space between cd and /sdcard/root. Also, make sure it is in lower case.
Michael Zmich said on August 17, 2011
Anyone who is having problems i didnt have a pc to work off of so i used this method and worked like a charm
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1035278
K15goose said on August 18, 2011
red triangle with ! inside… followed directions to a t…
now what??
K15goose said on August 18, 2011
when i type the first line “su” I get “permission denied”
any tips?? did this on my old phone without any issues….
K15goose said on August 18, 2011
i turned my phone off and it wont come out of the opening “t-mobile mytouch 4g” screen you get at the beginning when you turn it on.
it literally stays on there forever
can i do a factory reset or will that cause further damage???
Apsitos said on August 24, 2011
Hey i have a problem. When ever i type in cd/sdcard/root it says not found i believe. It’s exaclty where you said it should be.
Barer said on September 5, 2011
i have done this for couple times i even had erased all files to root mytouch4g.. re do all this work.. and still have the S-on i dont know what else i can do.. i have every method n still not able to root my phone.. any help?
Alexis4787 said on September 8, 2011
s off rooting files like says not available
Alexis4787 said on September 8, 2011
***did not mean to put like thats a typo…:(
mike t said on September 27, 2011
i was just wondering does this work with the 2.3.4 update
Anonymous said on September 27, 2011
im sorry but i dunno how to check my comments it wsays i have one but cant figure out how to check it
Minusakattt said on October 3, 2011
I followed everything until i got to cd/sdcard/root, then it said “not found”. What do i do?
T_esco78 said on October 24, 2011
When I reboot holding down the down volume, it just boots normally. I’m not really clear on how to turn it off and on. Do I turn it off hold ing down the volume button, and then on holding down the volume button?
T_esco78 said on October 24, 2011
When I type in Su and enter it says SU: Permision denied
then after I type the rest and it starts doing its thing, first it says failed(operation not permitted)
then 2 lines down it says cannot open for write: permision denied.
Did the temp root not work or something?
Rebeca_orillo said on November 11, 2011
AT step for after i typed it all it said cant open root…pls anyone help whats wrong. i followed every step -__-
Wheelerboy12 said on November 20, 2011
mine isnt in cd/sdcard/root it says not found, mine is in /mnt/sdcard/root but it says permission denied and when u type sh root.sh and it says sh: cant open root.sh what did i do wrong?
Iwilltryintoidi3 said on November 22, 2011
i try every step. nothing work, it still says s-on. i had a mytouch 3g slide root it but i wet it. so please help.
Cowbasa said on December 17, 2011
Dude, thanks a looooot for the link!
Jordan said on February 1, 2012
same thing mine says and I can’t get S=off.