How to Root the Samsung Stratosphere

Samsung Stratosphere joins the rooting community as the device can now be rooted and can be installed with root-only apps, the apps that require root in order to work properly. While we’re seeing ICS and Jelly Bean running on almost all the Android devices out there, the Samsung Stratosphere’s still stuck at Gingerbread and there seems to be no hope from manufacturer to roll-out a firmware update soon. However, after rooting your device, you will be able to upgrade your firmware (using custom ROMs) as well as play around with mods and tweaks available only for rooted devices. So, in this guide, we’ve put together everything you need to help you root your device. Let’s see how you can root your Samsung Stratosphere smartphone.

I. Before You Begin:

1. You’re gonna void the warranty of your device by rooting it. However, if you ever need the warranty back, you can unroot your device if there’s any unrooting procedure available.

2. Your device needs to have at least 50% of battery life left.

3. You should have appropriate drivers installed on your PC.

II. Downloading Required Files:

1. Heimdall (Download link’s given in the first post)

2. Root Package (Download link’s given at the bottom of the first post)

III. Rooting the Samsung Stratosphere:

1. Place both the files you downloaded to your Desktop.

2. Extract files from both the archives to your Desktop.

3. Turn OFF your device.

4. Reboot your device into Download mode. This can be done by pressing and holding the Volume DOWN+Power buttons together.

5. Press Volume UP key when you see a warning on your screen.

6. Now connect your device to your PC using the USB cable.

7. Launch a Command Prompt Window on the Desktop of your PC. To do so, just press and hold the Shift button on your keyboard and right-click on any blank area on the screen, then choose Open command window here.

8. Type in following command into the Command Prompt Window you just opened:

heimdall detect

9. If you see a message saying Device Deteced, that means your device’s been recognized by the tool.

10. Next, enter the following command:

heimdall flash --kernel root-zImage

11. It will flash the insecure kernel on your device.

12. Your device will reboot in normal mode.

13. On your device, head to Menu>>Settings>>Applications>>Development and enable the USB debugging option.

14. Come back to the Command Prompt Window you have kept open on your PC and type in following command:

adb devices

15. You should see your device on the list of devices attached to your PC.

16. Issue the following command to remount your system:

adb remount

17. Now type in following commands to push some important and required files over to your device:

adb push su /system/bin
adb push busybox /system/bin
adb push Superuser.apk /system/app

18. Enter the following commands to change file permissions:

adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/busybox

19. Reboot your device.

20. And you’re rooted now!

Congratulations! Your Samsung Stratosphere has successfully been rooted and you can confirm the same by following the steps given in this guide.

IV. Flash a Custom Recovery Image (Optional):

1. If you would like to flash a custom recovery image in order to flash custom ROMs, head to the How To Flash a Custom Recovery Image on the Samsung Stratosphere to learn how to do that.

If this procedure helped you please thank/donate to the original developers here.

If you need help with this procedure, please ask in the comments below or in the forum.

This is part of our Android How To’s. We have how to’s on rooting, loading ROMs, and tons of other tips and tricks for your specific device or for Android devices in general! For all of our Android How To’s, head here.