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How to Root the Atrix 4G after Gingerbread Update
Sunday, July 24th, 2011
After updating your Motorola Atrix 4G you will lose root access. Some of you may not care because you only had it rooted for sideloading. For the others if you want to root your Motorola Atrix 4G after updating to Gingerbread this is how you do it.
Keep in mind that when typing in the commands during the rooting process you will leave out the quotes.
Instructions to root Atrix 4G running Gingerbread:
- Download and Extract Fastboot Files to your C: drive (Download Link)
- Connect your phone to the computer via USB
- Put your phone in fastboot mode (restart phone holding volume down button)
- Open a command prompt and navigate to C:/moto-fastboot-win32
- type “moto-fastboot.exe flash preinstall preinstall.img” press enter
- type “moto-fastboot.exe reboot” press enter
- Your phone should reboot, wait for it to come back up
- type “adb shell” press enter (to restart the shell)
- type “/preinstall/dosu” press enter
- If step 10 fails type “/reinstall/su” instead and hit enter
- type “/bin/mount -o remount,rw /system” press enter
- type “cp /preinstall/su /system/bin/” press enter
- type “chmod 6755 /system/bin/su” press enter
- type “PATH=/system/bin:$PATH pm install /preinstall/Superuser.apk” press enter
- Reboot your phone
- Congrats you now have a rooted Atrix running Gingerbread.
Those of you that use this root method for your Atrix running Gingerbread please let us know any issues you run into. We dont foresee any issues, nor have we heard of any at this point although we would like to hear your experiences.
2 quick questions….
1)After downloading the above package I do not have a DAB package, instead it is an ADB package should I use that instead?
2) Also, after running the “adb shell” command it can not locate the moto-feedback.exe files therefore not allowing me to complete any more of the process. It gets stuck at a “$” prompt.
3) If I try to run the moto-feedback.exe without the adb shell running it just says “Waiting for device”… I assume that means the device needs to be running in USB Debugging mode and have the shell running?
Any help you could provide is greatly appreciated! Thanks…
I have updated the instructions to add a few steps that should have been detailed a bit more. If there is still any issues please let me know.
During step 10, it still shows an error but it works anyway as shown below:
C:\moto-fastboot-win32>adb shell moto-fastboot.exe flash preinstall preinstall.img
sending ‘preinstall’ (30720 KB)… OKAY [ 1.941s]
writing ‘preinstall’… OKAY [ 2.132s]
C:\moto-fastboot-win32>moto-fastboot.exe reboot
rebooting…
(Device reboots into Android)
C:\moto-fastboot-win32>adb shell
$ /preinstall/dosu
/preinstall/dosu
bash: groups: command not found
root@localhost:/# /reinstall/su <–Wasn't sure if this was needed
/reinstall/su
bash: /reinstall/su: No such file or directory
root@localhost:/# /bin/mount -o remount,rw /system
/bin/mount -o remount,rw /system
root@localhost:/# cp /preinstall/su /system/bin/
cp /preinstall/su /system/bin/
root@localhost:/# chmod 6755 /system/bin/su
chmod 6755 /system/bin/su
root@localhost:/# PATH=/system/bin:$PATH pm install /preinstall/Superuser.apk
PATH=/system/bin:$PATH pm install /preinstall/Superuser.apk
pkg: /preinstall/Superuser.apk
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_ALREADY_EXISTS] <–Already had Superuser from GladRoot
In any case, it worked fine for me…I was surprised I couldn't find this easily in the xda-developer forum.
I followed the instructions and everything worked perfect. I did get a few errors along the way but if you just ignore them (if you get them) everything still works. I just installed Titanium Backup and gave it Superuser rights. Thanks!!!!
When I type “adb shell”, should something happen on the phone? Nothing does, so it seems like its not working. Help, I’m a noob!
Make sure you have your phone in USB Debugging mode (Settings -> Applications -> Development) and the drivers for your phone are installed on your computer.
I had errors from Step 10 on but just ignored them as the other posters said to do. You should note at Step 5, after pressing “Enter” on my computer, I also had to press the “Volume Up” button on my phone. I tried it 3 times and waited about 20 minutes for something to happen twice. The third time, I figured what the hell and pressed the first button I thought would work – the “Volume Up” button. GOOD THING! IT WORKED. THANK YOU SO VERY VERY MUCH! MUUUAAAAAAHHH!!!
Got an error on the following:
9. type “/preinstall/dosu” press enter
10. If step 10 fails type “/reinstall/su” instead and hit enter
But if you ignore those and just move on to the other commands it works fine. Titanium Backup was able to gain root after a reboot.
Has anyone tried to set custom APN for hotspots, and do they still work?
Hi,
Followed instructions and this works thanks.
The error i got was the same as jka:
/preinstall/dosu
bash: groups: command not found
Not sure if this is because being linux it should be: ./preinstall/dosu (ie with a dot). Anyway checked my commands and actually ran ./preinstall/su by mistake. So maybe these commands are actually not needed??
Thanks again
Works like a charm, thank you!
Just a quick note:
I think that step 10 should read:
If step 9 fails type “/preinstall/su” instead and hit enter
[...] you must have a rooted Atrix for this mod to work. If your Atrix is not rooted then go to “how-to-root-the-atrix-4g-after-gingerbread-update“ to root your Atrix and come back to this article [...]
Okay, I did everything correctly but for some reason I am getting
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE]
after step 14… Not sure if I am doing something incorrectly or if this is a quick fix because I’m being an idiot…
Random people have been having this issue. Just skip to the next step and reboot the phone. After it comes back up go to the Market and install the Superuser app and all should be fine.
I getto step 5 and it says “waiting for device”. How long do i wait? Why isn’t anything happening?
Make sure you have your phone in USB Debugging mode (Settings -> Applications -> Development) and the drivers for your phone are installed on your computer.
Step 3.5 – After holding volume down during bootup, you’ll see Fastboot. At that point, release the volume down and press volume up. Then it should say ‘Starting Fastboot protocol support’
i used your method of root and it allowed a root access and superuser access but it wont allow me to load customer ROMS. when i use rom manager to download a custom rom when it reboots it will go to android symbol and a white triangle with an exclaimation on the middle of it. any idea on what happened or how i can fix this?
Followed the instructions and it was completely successful on my Atrix 2.3.4
i couldn’t tell whether some things were spaCE or not or id the o’s were 0′s so i just copied and pasted
WORKED LIKE A CHARM
Thanks a ton…. followed the steps exactly as mentioned in the guide and got the root without any errors.
—followed JKA steps above and it worked as follows………..
c:\moto-fastboot-win32>adb shell
$ /preinstall/dosu
/preinstall/dosu
bash: groups: command not found
root@localhost:/# /reinstall/su
/reinstall/su
bash: /reinstall/su: No such file or directory
root@localhost:/# /bin/mount -o remount,rw /system
/bin/mount -o remount,rw /system
root@localhost:/# cp /preinstall/su /system/bin
cp /preinstall/su /system/bin
root@localhost:/# chmod 6755 /system/bin/su
chmod 6755 /system/bin/su
root@localhost:/# PATH=/system/bin:$PATH pm install /preinstall/Superuser.apk
PATH=/system/bin:$PATH pm install /preinstall/Superuser.apk
pkg: /preinstall/Superuser.apk
Success
root@localhost:/#
Step 6? I’m not sure why but my phone won’t reboot. Tried GlammaGeek’s tip and pushed volume up but this doesn’t work much to my chagrin.
error can not load preinstall.img…. What is the problem here?
[...] have had the manual instructions on rooting the Motorola Atrix 4G build 4.5.91 running Gingerbread 2.3.4 for a while now. This being said there is a one click method that is available and been tested to [...]
Hi, I am follwing these steps and seems that Atrix is rooted. What is need id to control the mobile from android acreencast. But after rooting when I type ADB SHELL it prompts with $ and not with #. Because of this screencast is also not working. Why is this happening, if the device is rooted it should prompts with #?
I have an ATT Atrix 4G 2.3.4 system (4.5.91) and did the OTA update to 2.3.6 (4.5.141) . Did your root method – all seemed to work (did have the error in step 9) but the rest seemed to work. Rebooted phone and phone comes on. Used Root Checker from the Market and it says I do not have root. Super User from the Market says that certain apps (Remote Web Desktop for example) get Super User – but when I run Mobiler it says I do not have root. So it seems my phone is in some in between state. Can you help me get root ???
Worked great. Thanks.
At last step, I get error saying following. Need your help
# PATH=/system/bin:$PATH pm install /preinstall/Superuser.apk
PATH=/system/bin:$PATH pm install /preinstall/Superuser.apk
pkg: /preinstall/Superuser.apk
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_ALREADY_EXISTS]
Now. It is working. I Installed Super user update fixer and ran it. Thanks
Pls Help me, after step 8 my phone reboot and start (normal phone mode not fastboot) when i write into cmd adb shell he says device not found then i reboot and start fastboot he says device not found pls help what can i doo? (sry for my eng)
Thanks a lot. It works great, just have to remember to push volume up after step 5.
Thanks!!!
took a few tries but got it.
I was successful with these steps on Motorola Atrix 4G, Android 2.3.4, Sys: 45.31.0.MB860
prerequisites for this setup are Win32 system, Motorola drivers, Mobile phone usb mode should be motorola native.
also there is a typo in step 10: it should remark step 9 and the command is: “/preinstall/su” not “/reinstall….”
Not sure if everybody needs to do this but on number 4. I had to type
“cd C:/moto-fastboot-win32″
I tried this method using guides on xda but I was letting it reboot, then rebooting back into fastboot when you should just do it while your phone is awake after 7.
im a noob and it worked for me.
Using uk t-mobile atrix 4g.
android 2.3.4
build number 4.5.2A-74_ole-31.2
Gingerbreak didnt work for me but this did.
thanks