How To: Root the Motorola Droid 2

This procedure is obsolete. Please head to our new procedure here instead.

I. Install the Motorola Drivers

1. Download the drivers for your computer and unzip them. Then double click the program inside to install the drivers.

Motorola Drivers (for 32 bit Computers) OR Motorola Drivers (for 64 bit Computers)

2. On your phone, go to Menu > Settings > Applications > Development > and make sure USB Debugging is checked ON.

II. Install the Android SDK

1. Follow our How To Setup ADB procedure just until you can see the device’s serial number at the end of step 6. Then come back to this procedure.

III. Root the Phone

1. Download the Rooting Files and extract them to the C: drive on your computer (like you did the AndroidSDK).

Rooting Files

2. Plug in your phone via USB cable and select Charge Only on the phone.

3. On your computer, open a command prompt by clicking on the Start menu then typing in cmd and hitting enter in the search box.

4. In the command prompt, type the following, with hitting enter at the end of each line:

cd\
cd c:\androidsdk\tools\
adb push c:\Superuser.apk /sdcard/Superuser.apk
adb push c:\su /sdcard/su
adb push c:\busybox /sdcard/busybox
adb push c:\rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
adb shell
cd /data/local/tmp
chmod 0755 rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin

5. Once you have done that, leave the phone plugged in and go to the Market and download the Free version of ConnectBot and install it.

6. Open the ConnectBot, select local in the dropdown menu, then type local into the field and hit enter. Then type the following in, on the phone, with hitting enter at the end of each line (leave the phone plugged in to the computer while you do this).

cd /data/local/tmp
./rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin

7. If it worked, you should see the following on the screen.

[+] Forked xxxx childs.     (xxxx will be an actual 4 digit number)

If you do not, then close the ConnectBot and reopen it and try again.

8. If it worked, close the terminal by either typing exit and hitting enter or by hitting menu and clicking close/disconnect.

9. Once it is closed, reopen ConnectBot.

10. You should now see a # symbol, if so continue. If not then start over from step 4.

11. Now, with the # symbol in ConnectBot on your phone, type the following with hitting enter at the end of the line:

mount -o rw,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk1p21 /system
cp /sdcard/Superuser.apk /system/app/Superuser.apk
cp /sdcard/su /system/bin/su
cp /sdcard/busybox /system/bin/busybox
chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
chmod 4755 /system/bin/busybox
mount -o ro,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk1p21 /system

You should see nothing pop up after you hit enter, that means it worked, you now should have root access and be able to open your App Drawer on the phone and see Superuser Permissions inside (if you don’t see Superuser Permissions in the app drawer, restart the phone and check again).

12. To load a custom ROM and other fun stuff, head from here to our How To Load a Custom ROM procedure.

Thanks Skrilax_CZ!
Thanks Sebastian Krahmer!
Thanks Karnovaran!

12 thoughts on “How To: Root the Motorola Droid 2”

  1. I would like to ask some questions, if you will be kind enuf to answer Unlockr

    1. If everything goes south, or whatever reason (have to bring droid in for warranty work, can I just go back into Settings, & do a factory reset- to get back to where I was b4?

    2. Is there any app that I can use w/my newly acquired Root status that will back up everything, i.e. apps (free & purchased), data for ea. app (3d party apps as well) & ringtones, shortcuts, as well as my calendar & contacts?

    3. Is there a list of 3d party apps that WON’T work w/a rooted phone? like Tasker, or LauncherPro?

    TIA, aragorn

  2. ooops, I forgot – does rooting erase existing 3rd party app data? Since there is no backup app that I know of to backup everything on the phone, I would have to reload lots & lots of data in order to root… TIA, aragorn

  3. hello unlockr.

    I have tried several times in ‘connectbot’ to get the forked xxxx childs but it does not seem to be working. I do not know whats wrong. Can you help me out

  4. Hello Unlockr.

    I have tried several times on the ‘connectbot’ to get the forked xxxx childs but it just wont work for me. I have no clue why not. Can you help me out please sir.

    Thanks

  5. When i try typing in the command prompt once i type in the third line and hit enter the command prompt has a huge list of things pop up? every time i try it? i have done the first 2 steps, i downloaded the driver, did the SDK and it worked and then downloaded the root files and they are in my C drive but then I can’t get past this step

  6. also, when installing the ABD.. is the serial number you get just one they give you? or is the it the one that is on your phone? because my 2 numbers were completely different

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