Galaxy Nexus is the third flagship Android smartphone made with the partnership between Google and Samsung. If you are not aware, Galaxy Nexus is also the most powerful Android phone to date, sporting a large 4.6 inches screen and dual core CPU. In addition, it is also the first Android phone to be shipped with the latest Android 4.0 – Ice Cream Sandwich.
If you are one of the lucky few who have got your hands onto this device (it is only available in UK for now, but will be made available Worldwide from December onward) and you are looking to root the phone, we’ve got the guide for you.
Note:
The following steps will work only on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone. Do not try it on other phones.
Rooting your phone means voiding your warranty. While we have tried and tested the method (and make sure it works) before posting, we are not responsible if you bricked your phone during the process.
The method shown below is for Windows only.
Rooting your Galaxy Nexus
There are a few things that you will need to have in order to proceed further in rooting your device. Those are:
- Galaxy Nexus Root Package (Download)
- Android SDK and ADB Utility (Download)
All the required utilities are included in the above root package so you don’t need to download each file separately. Moving forward, the steps below should be followed.
First of all, you will need to have Android SDK and the ADB installed on your system. These can be obtained using the above download links. To make the process a little bit simple, install the SDK in C:\android-sdk-windows.
After installing the SDK, extract files from the Root package to the below directory. C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools
You will see four files after extraction, among them, one is the drivers file. You need to install the Samsung USB drivers in order to get your smartphone recognized by your computer. It is named as Samsung_USB_Driver_for_Moblie_Phones_v1_4_6_0.exe. Double click on it and install it.
Now, it’s time to play with your device. Turn off your phone and connect it to your PC via the USB cable.
Open the Command Prompt on your Windows. Type the following command to change your current working directory to the SDK directory.
Turn on your phone in bootloader mode so the aforementioned task can be completed. It can be done by holding the volume up and the volume down key and then pressing the power key. It lets you enter into the bootloader mode.
Get back to the Command Prompt again and type the following command to see whether your PC recognizes the phone or not.
If the PC has recognized your phone, it will show it on your screen. That was just to check the connection between your PC and your phone.
The below step will wipe all your phone data. So, if you have stored your important data on your phone, backup it now.
Now, we need to unlock the bootloader to soft-boot the unsecured boot image. Type the following command in the command prompt to do so.
After the bootloader unlockes, we need to boot up the phone with the boot image, following command will do that.
The boot image has successfully been installed on your phone. Start up your phone as normal and enable USB debugging to finish the final step. USB Debugging can easily be enabled by going to “Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB debugging“, mark the box.
After finishing the above steps, your phone will reboot and then it will be a rooted phone. You will be prompted for the Super user permission when any app requests for it. If you are having any problems rooting your Galaxy Nexus, do let us know it!
Mahesh Makvana is a freelance tech writer who’s written thousands of posts about various tech topics on various sites. He specializes in writing about Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android tech posts. He’s been into the field for last eight years and hasn’t spent a single day without tinkering around his devices.
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