[HOW TO] Gain Permanent Root on Samsung Moment Without Official CL14 Update

**rainfreak** · #1 (**permalink**) 02-25-2010, 11:34 AM

WARNING! I HAVE POSTED THIS TUTORIAL IN HOPES OF HELPING PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE PERMANENT ROOT. NEITHER PPCGEEKS NOR I WILL BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO YOUR PHONE.

A big thanks goes out to Zeife for making the custom kernels and making this all possible and to CarlaDarla for holding my hand when I first flashed the custom kernel. Without these two individuals this tutorial would have never have happened.

If you have a new Moment or one that Sprint has already updated with the CL14 Maintenance update, you would be better off reading elephant007's How To Guide here.

There are a couple of ways to root your Moment. One is done via a connection to a PC and is temporary, which means when you restart your Moment, you will lose root access. The second method, and the one that is outlined below, is the one that I recommend. That is because with the method below, once you are rooted, you will remain rooted even after restarting your phone. If done correctly, you should not lose any personal information or need to reinstall any apps.

The custom kernel is also faster than what is currently on your Moment. I have seen a drastic increase in speed when opening apps and switching home screens within Open Home 4.4. Below is a link to the latest version of the custom kernel, for users who have not yet had their Moment updated with the official CL14 update.

To see if you already have the CL14 update installed, go to Settings -> About phone and look under "Baseband version." If "CL14" is listed anywhere in the line, and you did not install the CL14 customized update from Zeife, download the Patched version of the kernel listed. I have posted below the latest versions of the kernels, as of 02/25/2010, mirrored on my personal web server. If you would like to check to see if Zeife has released a new version, here is the forum that he posts his releases at and here is a link to his MegaUpload directory.

SPH-M900_ZE12.1_KERN.tar.7z - ONLY FOR MOMENT USERS WITHOUT THE OFFICIAL CL14 UPDATE!!

Currently you must use a Windows PC to flash the Moment. It is recommended that you do it on a Windows XP system if you have one available. Windows Vista and Windows 7 can be used (I made this tutorial on Windows Business) but you may have issues and could be required to restart the process from the beginning, if it fails. Software that you will need to flash the custom kernel are listed below. Install them in the order that they appear to ensure that you do not get errors when flashing.

Samsung PC Studio - Get it here (free)
Odin (2.93) - get it here (free)
Moment OPs - Included in Odin package (free)

If you are not using a Windows XP system, you should set Samsung PC Studio to run in "compatibility mode SP3." To do that:

Open the Start Menu, All Programs, Samsung New PC Studio and right click on the shortcut for "Samsung New PC Studio"
In the Properties dialog click on the "Compatibility" tab and under "Compatibility mode" check the box
Then from the drop down menu choose "Windows XP (Service Pack 3)" or "Windows XP (Service Pack 2)"
Click OK and you have setup Samsung New PC Studio to function in compatibility mode

Unzip Odin.7z and the custom kernel to your desktop using either 7Zip (free) or WinRar (trial). Now get ready because you are almost there!

Place your Moment in "Download Mode" (hold down "volume Down" and the "Camera" button and then press and hold the "End/Power" button and the phone will turn on and enter "Download Mode")
Make sure that the Samsung PC Studio is NOT running in the systray (by the clock) on your PC
Plug your phone into USB cable attached to your PC and let the drivers install
Double click "Odin Multi Downloader v3.98.exe" on your desktop
On the main screen, in the top and bottom left, it should show that it has detected your phone
Check the box for "One Package" and ensure that "Reboot" and "Protect OPS" are also both checked
Click the "OPS" button in ODIN and navigate to the "Moment.ops" file on your desktop. Highlight the file and click the "Open" button
Click the "One Package" button in ODIN and navigate to the custom kernel (SPH-M900_ZE12.1_KERN.tar). Highlight the file and click the "Open" button

Click the "Start" button in ODIN to begin flashing the custom kernel. The whole process should only take a minute or two at the most. If ODIN gets stuck at "<1> setup connection..." in the status window in the bottom left, close ODIN and try again. If after closing and reopening ODIN you are still getting stuck at "<1>setup connection..." then please see the FAQ in post #2.
When the custom kernel flash is completed your phone will automatically restart
After your phone begins to reboot, unplug the USB sync cable and let your phone boot completely

Your phone is now permanently rooted. To begin removing some of the stock Sprint apps (like the Voice Control that will never stop running) you will need to download Better Terminal Emulator or another terminal emulator from the Android Market.

Once you have downloaded and installed the terminal emulator (from here out I will refer to it as TE) you can start the app. Then type the following commands, without the apostrophes ('), if you so choose to rid yourself of Sprint's bloatware:

Type 'su' and the "$" prompt will change to a "#"
Type 'mount -oremount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system'
Type 'cd system'
Type 'cd app'

* Note: Each command is typed one line at a time. Use the return button on your keyboard to enter each command.

You are now in read/write mode in the apps directory, which means that you can get rid of the Sprint apps and clean up your phone. To backup a file before you remove it, you can type the following (again without the apostrophes):

Type 'cat VSuiteApp.apk > /sdcard/VSuiteApp.apk'

The command above tells the system to copy the VSuiteApp.apk file to the root of the SD card, in case we want to install it again later. Then, to remove an app and completely unistall it, type the following (again without the apostrophes):

Type 'rm VSuiteApp.apk'

In the two examples above, we copied the VSuiteApp.apk app to the SD card and then removed it from the phone's main memory. VSuiteApp.apk is the app "Voice Control" which is always running. I personally didn't like it, never used it, and hated that it always ran, so it was the first that I removed.

When you are done removing apps that you no longer want, you must type the following, (again without the apostrophes):

Type 'mount -oremount,ro /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system'

The command above resets the system to read-only and stops you from making bad mistakes.

* Note: You should always remount the system to read-only when you are done.

To make all changes permanent you must reboot your phone. You can also do that from with BTE by typing the following (again without the apostrophes):

Type 'reboot'

Here is a complete list of apps that have been removed and do not cause adverse side effects to your phone:

amazonmp3_1.4_standard_signed.apk - Amazon store to buy music (I removed it)
Bejeweled.apk - Bejeweled demo (I removed it so that I could install the full version)
com.handson.h2o.nfl.apk - Sprint NFL (I didn't have it)
Email.apk - email client (I left it)
nascar09_prod.apk - Sprint Nascar (I removed it)
SprintTVWidget.apk - Sprint TV Widget (I removed it)
Sprint_App_Updater.apk - Sprint's updater for their apps and who knows what else (I removed it)
VSuiteApp.apk - Voice Control (I removed it)
Weather.apk - Weather Channel (I removed it)

You can also type 'ls' (without the apostrophes) in the TE when you are in the /system/apps directory and get a list of all apps there. I actually ran into a slightly different name for Sprint TV and after listing the contents of the directory I knew the name so that I could go ahead and remove it.

For a complete list of root commands, the steps to hard reset your phone and more, check the FAQ in post #2.

Good luck and happy rooting!

**rainfreak** · #2 (**permalink**) 02-25-2010, 11:34 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. I keep getting stuck at "<1>setup connection..." in ODIN, what should I do?

A. There are a number of things that you can try. Many people report different results, so keep going down the list of one doesn't work.

Close ODIN and reopen ODIN
Close any Firefox Browser windows that you may have open then close ODIN and reopen ODIN
Close ODIN, disconnect the phone from the USB cable, reconnect the phone to the USB cable and reopen ODIN
Close ODIN, disconnect the phone from the USB cable, remove the battery and after waiting a few seconds replace the battery, enter "Download Mode" again, reconnect the phone to the USB cable and reopen ODIN
Close ODIN, move the USB cable to a different USB port on your PC and reopen ODIN

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Q. My PC didn't automatically install the correct drivers for my Moment and I can not see it in ODIN, what now?

A. You can manually add the drivers to the generic device that Windows found by going to device drivers and manually pointing to the "\Program Files\Samsung\Samsung New PC Studio\USB Drivers\3\" directory.

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Q. My phone won't boot at all now and other than buying a bus ticket to go kick rainfreak's ass, what can I do?

A. First, save yourself a long journey for a bad ending. Next, simply perform a hard reset and it will make your phone go back to the way it was the day it rolled off the line at Samsung. To do a hard reset, do the following (Note: all data, apps, text messages, contacts, etc will be lost so you should only do this if you have no choice!):

Volume Down+Send+Cancel then follow the prompts

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Q. So Mr. smart guy, what are some more commands that I can use with BTE and my new cool rooted Moment?

A. Hey, thanks for noticing how damn smart I am! As for commands that you can use in BTE, check out this list:

su - enter super user/root priviledges
remount rw - remount the file system with read/write capabilities
remount ro - remount the file system with read-only capabilities
pwd - stands for print working directory and shows current directory
cat (filename) > /(destination)/(filename) - copy the file from current directory to the destination directory
rm (filename).apk - delete or remove (filename).apk from current directory
busybox sh - replaces the default android shell with the busybox shell, which gives you tab completion and command history, amoungst other things.

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Q. WTH? How come you listed Zeife's 12.1 version of the custom kernel and he has a newer version out?

A. When I created this How To I did it with version 12.1 of the Zeife kernel, which was the most recent stable version. If you want the latest and greatest, you can check on his releases here.

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Q. Why did you take out the information on how to get permanent root on the Moment for users with the official CL14 update already installed?

A. Another member of PPCG, Elephant007, created a great How To guide for users with the CL14 update. I just didn't see the point in having two of the same thing, with different approaches.

**elephant007** · #3 (**permalink**) 02-25-2010, 01:42 PM

STICKY!

Say it before even seeing it!

thmgombosi · #4 (**permalink**) 02-26-2010, 11:21 AM

I agree sticky!

thmgombosi · #5 (**permalink**) 02-26-2010, 04:43 PM

perfect tutorial. i see on alot of other forums to root your moment you need to format the sd card in a particular way do you have to when doing it this way?

**rainfreak** · #6 (**permalink**) 02-26-2010, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thmgombosi

perfect tutorial. i see on alot of other forums to root your moment you need to format the sd card in a particular way do you have to when doing it this way?

Thanks, it was a lot of work. As for the SD card, absolutely not. The method above won't even touch your SD card.