Need help rooting Xperia Play

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Hobchild

581 posts

Ultimate Geek
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Topic # 109929 29-Sep-2012 15:41

I can't stand it anymore. I have exhausted the measly 400mb included in the phone's storage and now can't download anything bigger than 20mb which is a pain at the moment with the android sale on. I need to be able to move evrything over to the memory card and delete the stock apps I don't use.

The problem is I have no idea what I'm actually doing. Normally I'm confident enough to do a google search, follow the step by step instructions and boom, problem solved. But I'm very weary with this as I have never attempted anything like it before and I don't know which sites to trust.

I'm also not entirely sure what it means to root my phone. Am I just unlocking it's restrictions and giving me priveleges I wouldn't normally have or does it do more? Does it involve installing a custom ROM or is that over and above what I want? And how will it effect my phone? ie Will I have to install all my apps again? Do I need to do a back up? If so how do I go about doing that?

So please I need some good ol' geekzone friendly advice.

Hobchild

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Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 25

Reply # 693400 29-Sep-2012 15:42

Also what's the risk? How likely is it to brick my phone as that's the last thing I want to do.

KevinL

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Reply # 693403 29-Sep-2012 15:55

A few comments:

a) You should be able to move to SD all apps that support it without root (root will enable you to move apps that don't natively support move2SD)
b) You can purchase apps through the google play web store and opt to not install at the present time

The root method will depend on what firmware your device is running at present. Root is a bit like administrator access in Windows, it allows you to make alterations to the file system etc. that a normal user isn't able to. You don't have to install a custom ROM, in most cases you wojn't have to reinstall your applications.

XDA developers is probably your best bet in terms of reliable information: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1090

Hobchild

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Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 25

Reply # 693419 29-Sep-2012 17:09

Thank you for your reply, but although you've probably pointed me to a trustworthy site the lingo they speak I no understand and from a quick browse I found this but there is no instructions on what to do with the download.

Do I just copy it to my phone and open it?
Is that all?
Should I do a back up first?
If so how should I do that?

Also some of words used on the forums and what I think they mean.

Kernal: A piece of corn.
Bootloader: Something that makes a *bootload of stuff.
Baseband: A band that is comprised entirely out of *base players.

My current firmware is gingerbread 2.3.4 and the only thing I could move without root access was my vodafone app but I'd lose the widget.

KevinL

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+1 received by user: 20

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Reply # 693421 29-Sep-2012 17:25

Hobchild: Thank you for your reply, but although you've probably pointed me to a trustworthy site the lingo they speak I no understand and from a quick browse I found this but there is no instructions on what to do with the download.

Do I just copy it to my phone and open it?
Is that all?
Should I do a back up first?
If so how should I do that?

Also some of words used on the forums and what I think they mean.

Kernal: A piece of corn.
Bootloader: Something that makes a *bootload of stuff.
Baseband: A band that is comprised entirely out of *base players.

My current firmware is gingerbread 2.3.4 and the only thing I could move without root access was my vodafone app but I'd lose the widget.

Try here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1312859

What is your exact build number? (Settings - About Phone)

Hobchild

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Reply # 693562 30-Sep-2012 10:22

Build number - 4.0.2.A.0.58

Thanks for that link it looks a little simpler to understand.

DrStrangelove

368 posts

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Reply # 693598 30-Sep-2012 13:04

Hmmm... To gain root access on an Android phone just means someone has found a vulnerability in the existing Android OS for that device and are exploiting it to gain system access to/for your device.

A lot of anti-virus applications will show these rooted applications as viruses if they're initiated from Android as applications i.e Z4Root.apk

This allows the equivalent of Super-User (su) on a Linux system, which is normally called 'root' access to the system.

There is/was an application that parsed your phone and identified the exploits your phone is vulnerable to and thus identifies which exploits will be successful for gaining root access on your phone. I can't find the app off hand at the moment.

When you modify the kernel to gain root access, there is a chance you will introduce instability into your phone. So be warned.

I have used the ZergRush exploit with FlashTool to gain root access on my XPERIA X10i and then installed LordDoom kernel on top of that to allow CPU over-clocking. Works well with some instability at higher clocking above 1.152GHz (998MHz original) but benefits outweight the few reboots.

Root access is normally applied to your phone using a PC with an attached USB cable. For some exploits you'll have to download the Google SDK and then use it to apply 'updates' or in some cases you need to download an application such as FlashTool and then use that to modify your device with the nominated exploit code introduced.

I read that FlashTool can be used to 'root' the XPERIA Play. This is a one stop and almost one click way to 'root' your phone as the ZergRush exploit is built into FlashTool.

Android PC FlashTool v0.9.7.0

Read release notes for overview of Flashtool

There may be other exploits available for the XPERIA Play, but I haven't read up on it.

Odd really as you'd think with an XPERIA Play designed for games, they'd at least give you more than 400MB for data storage. *sigh*

If you do brick you phone in the process, it's just a matter of downloading Sony Ericsson Update Service and just reinitialising the phone and starting all over again.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play Update Service

If you can install and use App 2 SD without having to root your phone, I'd try that first.

Google Play Store App 2 SD Not sure if any one of these is better than another,

By gaining root access to my phone, I was able to delete somewhere in the region of over 40 apps from my phone. By installing Google Play Store Link2SD (root access required) I was able to recover half of my Internal data storage and keep on extending the space using a second partition on the SD card. (SanDisk class10 32GB)

Of interest, the read/write speed at approx 20MB/sec and 7MB/sec on my SanDisk card is faster than my internal memory at 3MB/sec for both read and write. It's win win all round. :-)

By removing all the bloatware and using SD offload, I was then rewarded with an 'old' but working Android phone with few builtin resources, but tweaked to now support a 'good' operating environment.

XPERIA X10i memory

Internal Storage: 1GB
RAM:384MB

Operational

RAM: 384MB(80MB free)
Internal Data Storage: 465MB(285MB free)
Internal System Storage: 353MB(285MB free)
Internal Cache: 111MB (110MB free)
External SDcard: 32GB (8GB class2 original supplied)

72 Google Play Store applications installed

Hobchild

581 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 25

Reply # 695859 3-Oct-2012 22:06

Thanks guys I successfully rooted my phone tonight. I love learning new stuff.