How to Root the Samsung Galaxy Note II (All GSM Versions)(Video)
I. Download the Rooted Firmware and Odin
1. Head one of these sites and in the first post click and download the file specific to the device you have and save it to your Desktop.
T-Mobile/Mobilicity/Wind/Videotron Version of the Samsung Galaxy Note II
AT&T/Bell/Telus/Rogers/Sasktel Version of the Samsung Galaxy Note II
2. Unzip the file above using a program like 7zip by having that program installed (or one similar) and right click the file and select extract.
3. Download the Samsung Drivers, save them to your desktop and then double click them to install them.
Samsung Drivers for T-Mobile/etc.
Samsung Drivers for AT&T/etc.
4. Download Odin, extract it to your desktop.
II. Flash the Rooted Firmware
1. Turn off your device.
2. Turn it back on by holding down Volume Down, Home, and Power until a warning pops up.
3. Push volume up to continue.
4. Plug the Galaxy Note II in via USB cable.
5. Open Odin.
6. Click PDA and then select the .md5 file that was extracted from the .7z file you downloaded earlier.
7. Click Start and wait for it to finish.
8. Once it’s done, it’ll restart and you’ll be rooted. Head to the next section if you want a custom recovery image as well.
III. (Optional) Flash a Custom Recovery Image and/or Flash a Custom ROM
1. Head to our procedure here to Flash a Custom Recovery Image and/or Flash a Custom ROM.
what works with a vanilla unlocked note2?
The link for the AT&T Firmware is actually a post for the Galaxy S3. Not sure if they are the same. I found this link from XDA:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2004650