[HACKS] Root Droid 1 - regardless of OS version

[teddyearp]

Good job both of you two new rooters, Liquid Fusion and pirdroid1! Over two years and 200 pages later, this guide is still one of the best.

 

[Cuttingedge]

Created this account just to say many thanks. Dug out the old droid to play around with it and get a custom rom on it soo i could use it as a wireless security camera for my home. Excellent tutorial, worked like a charm. Many thanks.

 

[albertc]

32 or 64 bit motorola driver

"3. Either the 32-bit or 64-bit Motorola drivers as appropriate for your machine."

How do I know which one is appropriate for my machine?

 

[CJM]

"3. Either the 32-bit or 64-bit Motorola drivers as appropriate for your machine."

How do I know which one is appropriate for my machine?

To find out if your computer is running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows, do the following:

Open System by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking System.

Under System, you can view the system type.

Tapped from a Galaxy Nexus using Xparent ICS

 

[zDarby]

spf_flash universal

Hello. I am a newbie but not a technophile. Got my first android device, a used a855, about two weeks ago.

This is my first post on these forums. I registered specifically for this thread 'cause I wanted to add info so the instructions might be modified slightly.

First off, this is truly an awesome thread that has helped me root my droid. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. :hail:

I'm a linux user and on looking at spf_flash I noticed the page linked in the instructions says "You're viewing an archived post, click here for the latest". (Note that I kept the link in the quote.) It sent me to another page with a universal spf_flash that works in both linux and mac. I searched this thread for mention of this fact and found that ShiftF8 was able to modify the instructions to successfully use the universal spf_flash wih his/her Mac. (S)He did not make mention of what modifications were needed. (Here's the entry) But I found no other mention of it. I wouldn't be surprised if they're there and I just missed them. Even so, I found very little acknowledgement that Mac users can use this method to root the droid 1.

Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe it's just too old a phone for anyone to really care. Or maybe there are better ways of rooting from a Mac. I really don't know. And I will not pretend that I have any right to tell anyone what they should do. I just wish to make the information known that there is a version of spf_flash that works with Mac and that someone has made it work for them.

Again, and I can't emphasize this enough, AWESOME, AWESOME thread!!
THANK YOU!! Thank you for writing the instructions. Thank you for keeping up.

Edit:
I said "technophile". I meant "technophobe".
I am a technophile.
I'm not a techonphobe.

 

[phonetool]

Have fun with the OG Droid! Look for chevycam's steeldroid thread, it's probably your best bet for a ROM. Recently updated, too!

-CM7 on DInc2

 

[pabigot]

Working around assert failed: package_extract_dir("system","/system")

ok so i am TRYING to root my droid 1 and i have tried a one touch root and that didnt work and now i try this and i almost got it to work except when i go to install the update.zip the install goes normall until it gets to superuser.
Installing Superuser 2.3.2.3 - Eclair/Froyo...assert failed: package_extract_dir("system","/system")
E:Error in /sdcard/update.zip
(status 7)
Installation aborted is what it says and i looked at the mount setting and thats correct and i dont know what else to look at any help would be great

I encountered the same problem when following the instructions in the original post with my decommissioned Verizon Droid (original) with Android 2.2.3 (FRK76). Investigating via adb I found that /system/xbin was a file:

$ ls -l /system/xbin
-rw-rw-rw- root root 91980 2013-03-08 12:42 xbin

I modified the updater-script adding the delete_recursive command shown below and restarted at step 12. With this change everything worked.

diff --git a/META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script b/META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script
index 40b1307..8224abf 100644
--- a/META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script
+++ b/META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ set_progress(0.428571);
ui_print("Installing Superuser 2.3.2.3 - Eclair/FroYo...");
delete("/system/bin/su");
delete("/system/xbin/su");
+delete_recursive("/system/xbin");
assert(package_extract_dir("system", "/system"));
set_perm(0, 0, 6755, "/system/bin/su");
symlink("../bin/su", "/system/xbin/su");

 

[teddyearp]

Thanks for the additional info on this page. Nice to see some folks using this breakthrough phone. I know it wasn't the first android device, but it definately put it on the map. I remember when I got it on release day, folks were saying, what's that? Now eveyone I know has an Android phone. . . .

 

[JourneyAbout]

E: Error in /sdcard/update.zip (Status 7)

Hello! I have a stock A855 running 2.2.3 and FRK76 and have gotten through to step 16/17. It runs and then:

Installing Superuser 2.3.2.3 - Eclair/FroYo...
assert failed: package_extract_dir("system". "/s
ystem")
E:Error in /sdcard/update.zip
(Status 7)
Installation aborted.

I have rerun several times with same result.

Can anyone help?

Thanks so much!

 

[teddyearp]

First off :welcome: to the site !

Second, try reading the post two posts above yours and you will see the answer there. I will also see if I can fix the file with the edit mentioned there. Post back if you have a problem and I will get notice tomorrow if you can't fix it yourself with the info above.

good luck

 

[JourneyAbout]

Yeah, I didn't see that until after I posted and it took me to the last page. But, then I didn't understand exactly what to do. I can get this part:

$ ls -l /system/xbin
-rw-rw-rw- root root 91980 2013-03-08 12:42 xbin


But I wasn't sure if I just type the next lines in one at a time? And, since this was a newer post and it's the only thing I could find on this problem I was hoping I could get confirmation that this is safe to do.

 

[JourneyAbout]

OK, so first I did this and that came out right.

$ ls -l /system/xbin
-rw-rw-rw- root root 91980 2013-03-08 12:42 xbin

Then I tried copying and entering this line:

diff --git a/META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script b/META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script

I got something like diff
diff: permission denied (or something like that...I forgot to write it down but I remember it wasn't accepting the diff part)

Next I thought, well, maybe I need to put it all in at once. So I copied the whole thing and when I pasted it some parts worked and some didn't. Now I believe, unfortunately, it did both deletes correctly because now when I do

$ ls -l/system/xbin

I get

$ ls -l/system/xbin: no such file or directory

Sheesh, I wish I hadn't given it a try on my own and had waited on your help. This is my first attempt at something like this obviously. I appreciate any assistance you are willing to give.

Thanks again!
Jennifer

 

[teddyearp]

Hey not a problem, we were all new once. The post above I referred to was talking about editing the updater-script file within the file you are trying to flash. I guess using all those commands mentioned might be one way to do it, but anyways, I went ahead and did the edit for you and posted the file in my 'Droid files' collection linked in my sig. It is called:

MotoCache1_Complete_Root_v1.1_teddyearp-mod_update.zip

Now if I can get it to work, here's a direct link for you:

http://ted.servepics.com/nap/droid/MotoCache1_Complete_Root_v1.1_teddyearp-mod_update.zip

good luck

 

[JourneyAbout]

Teddyearp,

Ok, I went through the whole process several times using your new file. Now I am getting this error at SPRecovery:

-- Install from sdcard...
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
Verifying update package...
Installing update...
E:Error in /sdcard/update.zip
(Status 6)
Installation aborted.

I have tried redownloading the file several times and putting it on the SD card to make sure there were no errors in transfer.

Thanks for having patience! I appreciate the help.

 

[teddyearp]

Hmmm, maybe I did something wrong when I edited it. Try downloading the file again, I hope I fixed it now.