Verizon Users Shout “I Am Root!”

Droid has been rooted. It was only a matter of time but we do like to celebrate this sort of thing. Why? Because if you pay for it you should own it. This will probably spark a flame war about licensing agreements and such in the comments but answer this: if it breaks, who pays to fix it? If you’re the one paying for it, you should be able to do what you want with it.

The process seems simple. Copy the magic file onto your SD card and go through the firmware upgrade process. Just make sure you know what you’re doing so that you don’t brick this sexy device.

[via Gizmodo]

71 thoughts on “Verizon Users Shout “I Am Root!”

  1. @deo
    “Or, you could just buy a nokia N900, which ships with a full linux distro and root shell out of the box.”

    The shitty resistive touch screen just kills the N900 for me. Really a stylus is so 90’s.

  2. @Moreau “Guess what produces CO2 besides cars, planes, and factories…YOU DO.”

    CO2 produced from biological processes has very different implications than CO2 from fossil fuels, because CO2 from biological sources is CO2 that was extracted from the atmosphere to begin with.

    The fact that you don’t understand this tells me you’re either scientifically illiterate or willfully ignorant, and that everything else you say on this subject is likely to be B.S.

  3. “CO2 produced from biological processes has very different implications than CO2 from fossil fuels, because CO2 from biological sources is CO2 that was extracted from the atmosphere to begin with.”

    I think you forget where fossil fuels come from.

  4. @Orv

    Thank you, Captain Obvious. I do understand these details.

    Unfortunately, YOUR illiteracy is evident in the fact that you don’t read. Nowhere in the reports I’ve seen is there *any* indication that the EPA has been mandated to draw a distinction between CO2 that originates from source X or source Y. To them CO2 is CO2.

    You give any government bureaucracy blanket powers to control CO2, you give them blanket powers to control ALL sources. Show me any human activity that doesn’t produce CO2.

    So while this means that they can stick it to one of the few remaining American corporations that actually employ American citizens on American soil, it also means that they will have jurisdiction over ma-and-pa hot dog stands, backyard grills, fireplaces, and gas heating furnaces for homes. It means they can tell you when (or if) you can mow your lawn, ride a dirt bike, or cruise in your boat.

    Meanwhile, as we are enslaved for the sake of our “carbon footprint,” most of the rest of the world will continuing belching filth into the air. Actually– that pollution will increase, because *all* of our production capability will eventually leave to go elsewhere.

    Let’s not forget that a Google search generates 7 grams of CO2. What do you suppose the carbon footprint of your Hackaday comments is?

    This is not a left-or-right question. It is not a Democrat vs Republican issue. It is a liberty issue, pure and simple.

    If you are a mouth-breather who needs the government to help guide you through life, more is the pity for you. The rest of us would prefer to be left alone.

  5. @Moreau
    “ah bloo bloo bloo”

    Yes, we all need the government to some extent or another. Do you live in a shack in the woods? Did you make the computer you’re using out of sticks and rocks by hand? Don’t forget, you’re using the internet, a service that originated from a little organization called DARPA (psst, it’s part of the DoD).

  6. I AM AN AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE SHITHEEL

    This morning, I woke up to my radio alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly run by a state agency and supported by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

    I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility with its quality monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency.

    After that, I turned on the TV to one of the Federal Communication Commission regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

    I watched this while eating my breakfast of US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

    At the appropriate time as regulated by the US Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I got into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the federal reserve bank.

    On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US Postal Service (USPS) and drop the kids off at the public school.

    After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it’s valuables thanks to the local police department.

    I then log on to the internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration (DARPA) and post on freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how the government better keeps its hands off my Medicare and to remind everyone that SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.

  7. Wow 90% full off topic, there is no shame here! I was thinking this would simmer down and someone would have something insightful to say in regards to Mororola Droid hacking.

    Anyways on topic. Anyone know what the 12/10 updates did to the Moto Droid? Does it affect the root hack?

  8. But, the last post of octel, was amusing, and I’m not even american.

    and about the Android and the networks.
    I think that if they use some proprietary code in their system, they have the right to protect it, and make agreements about its use. In the end, they’re not prohibiting you developing software for android, and at least in my country, you sign a contract, there’s nobody forcing you to do it (although, if there isn’t another option in another company, maybe it would be an unethical marketing approach?).

    Well, I’m not that literate about cellphones, monopolies and network contracts (neither have a “smart” phone). That’s just what I know, and my humble opinion.

  9. @Octel

    OK, so you’re for big-government… I guessed that several pages ago. So your point is what? Not sure what a “conservative shitheel” is, but it’s a free country (at least for now.) So, you can call yourself whatever you want.

    I myself, am an independent.

    A few points of response with regard to your essay…

    The “Federal Reserve Bank” has NOTHING to do with the federal government. It is a private business interest. Unfortunately, because of Nixon and his removal of the dollar from the gold standard, the money our government prints is worthless, and can be manipulated at will. Not a good example of the government looking out for the little guy.

    My water comes from a well I paid to have drilled. However, I managed a public well some years ago, and found the regulatory agencies impossible to deal with. Every year we’d receive threats for having failed to conduct this test or that. Yet, if you contacted them up front, and asked them to please specify which tests they wanted data for each year, they couldn’t tell you, because nobody there knew. Wow… they really made my life safer.

    My electric power is generated by a private company. They’d like to produce more of it and more cheaply, but people like you have prevented that sort of development for years. Did you read about the windmill farm that Ted Kennedy had nixed? Yeah…like everyone of that ilk, he was all for it until they want to install mills near HIS high-value property.

    The US is sitting on one of the largest natural energy stockpiles on the planet. Can’t use it, though. Thanks, you politicians.

    The roads where I live are falling apart, and every project the county or state undertakes ends up being done half-assed and double over budget. Certainly nothing to brag about.

    The last “inspector” that came to my home to enforce the building codes, appeared 3 times during construction of an add-on. Each time, he left an empty fifth of Jack in the garbage can by my garage. This was typically around 7 am in the morning. I wish I had his photo. I’d put it on a tee shirt and mail it to you, so you could wear it when you lectured people about how the government makes my house safer.

    Your comment about government “regulating” time is laughable. NO ONE “regulates” time, with the possible exception of God (or Obama, who at least *thinks* he’s God.)

    I for one avoid use of the US Postal system because of their tendency to lose or destroy anything I send. I have found UPS to be much more reliable. As a private business, they actually *have* to perform better in order to compete. Fedex is good, too.

    What exactly do you herald about the public schools… lessons in “fisting” like Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” advocates?

    At least you got one thing right with regard to Darpa. Military spending is among the few things that the government does that pays off. Spinoff technology always benefits the private sector sooner or later (look at GPS, for example).

    I don’t get your reference to Fox. I don’t watch Fox, because it is as insufferable as MSNBC and CNN. They’re all a bunch of pompous asses who spend more time telling you what you should think than reporting facts and objective news. They treat politics like was a big football game where people can cheer for their team and boo for the oponents.

    Frankly, I have some suspicion that this is done on purpose. As long as people are busy with that kind of crap, they are distracted from what is really going on.

  10. Another embedded system running unsigned code. I guess it’s interesting, I don’t even own a cell phone or smart phone, but am thinking about getting the ST-Ericsson U8500 because it pwns this and the latest iphone in many aspects, most notable processing power. It’d be fun to reverse it.

  11. *looks in, reads rants, thinks “and I logged on for this shit”*

    Isn’t this the reason why most forums forbids the topic or discussion of politics? This detracts attention from the hack. Can you all just stop the madness already and focus.

    As for the hack, lucky bastrads. I want to pwn my BB. That’s the real bullshit.

  12. Wow while you guys are getting carried away about laws and abortions some dude on the beach is reading this post on a laptop over wifi from his rooted droid. AND he’ll be able to take a frickin screenshot to prove it. (Currently not possible without using the sdk and a usb connection).

    Who put the restriction where? Who cares?! Don’t like it don’t buy it.

    Now go help the cause and donate to the guys putting together the recovery image so you can go back to normal if you mess things up

  13. Everyone has their favorite way of using the internet. Many of us search to find what we want, click in to a specific website, read what’s available and click out. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because it’s efficient. We learn to tune out things we don’t need and go straight for what’s essential.
    This goal-oriented way of surfing the web is largely based on short-term results. For example, finding facts to write a blog post, doing a comparison before making a purchase and reading a news site to find owww.onlineuniversalwork.com
    ut what’s happening right now.

  14. First off I think the droid should have been completely open originaly. (Stupid companys wont let anyone take potential profit)

    Also Moreau I think you should not worry so much. People can think what what they want and trying to change their minds is far too difficult. It takes two oposing forces to create friction.

    Call me a hippocrite but I dont thing this comment thread is for anything other than rooted droid coments anyway.

    I’ll take a beer too.

  15. Okay, I wanna point out that the OS on this phone is the Android OS. Android is a Linux based OS. Linux is intended to be totally open source software, and since Android is based on the open source kernel, Linux, then for a company like Verizon or Motorola to tell you you can only do what they want you to with it is illegal. Open source is free for all, free for any modification you may wanna make to it, and free for redistribution. That being said, I don’t care if Verizon finds out that I did things to my phone’s OS that they didn’t want me to.

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