Rooted Nexus 7 Updated to Android 4.2.2

As mentioned in my earlier post (Nexus 7 Rooted via the Nexus 7 Toolkit) I have rooted my Nexus 7 tablet using Mskip's Nexus 7 Toolkit from the XDA Developer forums.  It was an extremely easy (and quick) process.  Mskip did away the daunting and somewhat confusing aspect of rooting the Nexus 7 and he did an outstanding job.  But as my luck would have it, just a couple weeks after finally rooting my device, Google releases an OTA update to bring the device to Android 4.2.2.

What does this mean for my root access?

Well, typically when updating a rooted device using an official ROM or even an OTA update; there is a really good chance it will do away with your root access in the process of the update.  In some cases, if you have loaded a custom recovery during your initial root, the OTA update may even fail.  This is the last thing I wanted to happen, since I like using my device and not necessarily spending the time to fix my device issues.  So I purposefully waited for Mskip to update his toolkit for the Android 4.2.2 update.  Especially as some many were reporting the need to re-root after updating via the OTA push.

Tonight was the night!

So yeah, I decided to make the jump after reading on the XDA Developers forum that Mskip had updated his toolkit.  I figured why not go ahead and update?  Worse case scenario, I'd need to reroot again.  Sure, there are apps like SuperSU (which I have installed) and OTA RootKeeper which both have features that "should" technically preserve your root access while doing OTA updates.  I chose not to even worry with them, as other user's have had very limited success in either solution saving their root.

Anyways, I went ahead and ran the update.  To my surprise, my device rebooted into CWM and prompted whether I wanted to install the update.  I chose to proceed.  Then the update was installed, and towards the end of the process CWM alerted me that there was a "chance root access was lost".  And prompted me to "Fix" it.  So, I selected to "fix" it.  When the tablet rebooted, first thing I did was check my apps where I saw all of my "root-required" apps were still installed and working.  After downloading a Root Checker app for free from Google Play, it also verified that my root was preserved during the update.

That was pretty awesome.  Now keep in mind, per the XDA forums; some people have had this luck. While others have had to re-root their devices.  I'm not sure, but it almost seems like it depends on what version of the Nexus 7 Toolkit was used to initially root the device.  However, I can't state that to be gospel truth as my knowledge of the toolkit is limited to a couple of uses.

Anyways, give it a shot.  You never know.

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Nexus 7 Rooted via the Nexus 7 Toolkit

Last night I did something brave.  Something I swore I wouldn't do for a while after I purchased my Nexus 7.  Apparently, I lied to myself.  As I a little better than a month out of my ownership of my Nexus 7, and today it is rooted.  This isn't a definitive walkthrough.  But it will hit the high spots.  And we can do it in about 4 steps that make the rooting process so easy it's almost ridiculous.  Be warned, the rooting process does perform a factory reset during the process which means all of your user data and apps will be erased from the device.  Please backup any information or data you may need before starting the rooting process.  Read below.

Step 1: Drivers

First thing first, you need the ADB drivers for your Nexus 7.  This can be accomplished one of a couple of ways.  Way #1: download the Nexus 7 Toolkit and let it install the correct drivers for you.  I attempted this, and it didn't work for me.  I am using Windows 8, and I had read there were some funny issues about Nexus 7 driver installation under Windows 8.  So I had to go to Way #2.

Way #2 is manually downloading the drivers from the ASUS site (click here).  This will download the USB Driver Package to your PC.  Simply unzip this file to a folder you can easily find.  Then open Windows Explorer, right click Computer and click on Properties.  Look for the link in the properties box that says "Device Manager".  Look for an entry that had a yellow caution sign beside it that reads "Nexus 7".

Right Click the "unknown" Nexus 7 device and select to Update the driver.  Follow the wizard and point it to the USB Driver that you downloaded and unzipped.  This should fix the driver issue.

Step 2: USB Debugging has to be Enabled

On the Nexus 7 the "Developer Options" menu has been hidden.  To access is, open the "Settings" app on your Nexus 7, tap on "About Tablet".  Find "Build Number" and tap 7 times.  You will see a prompt counting down how many taps until you become a "developer".  This unlocks the "Developer Options Menu".  Now tap your back button to return to the "Settings" menu and then tap into the "Developer Options" menu.  Locate "USB Debugging" and enable it.

Step 3: Download and Install the Nexus 7 Toolkit

This is where the magic is going to happen but you have to be running this from a Windows PC with the drivers mentioned above (unless you let the toolkit install drivers for you).  Visit XDA Developer's Nexus 7 section and download the Nexus 7 Toolkit.  There is a lot of good information on this page, and if you have any desire to root and load custom ROMs on your device then please frequent XDA.  XDA is a great community for this kind of thing.  Anyways, click here to visit the thread about the Nexus 7 Toolkit and download it.  Once you have downloaded it, install it.  It will place a shortcut on your desktop for future use.

Step 4: Hook it all up!

Hook your Nexus 7 up to a USB Cable and your PC.  Launch the newly installed Nexus 7 Toolkit.  And you'll be greeted with a window that has a black background and green text asking if you want to check for an update to the toolkit (select No).  Then select your build of Android (if you aren't sure go back into your Nexus 7 settings and click on "About Tablet" it will tell you Android 4.2 or 4.2.1 or other).  Back in the ToolKit enter the number option that matches your version of Android.  For example, mine was 4 for Android 4.2.1.

If the Toolkit see's your tablet, your tablet's serial number will be just bove the main menu.  If you see it there, you're in good shape (see the pic below).  I selected #8 from the menu for "1-CLICK for ALL...".  Essentially, it will go through an automated process of unlocking the bootloader, rooting, renaming the recovery, installing custom recovery and busybox.  The whole process takes less than 10 minutes to finish.  It is prompted.  So just follow the instructions as the program prompts you.  The Toolkit will handle all rebooting of the Nexus 7 and installation of all software as needed during the process.  So basically sit back, answer a few prompts and let it ride until it is done.  Once the process is finished your Nexus 7 will reboot and the program will prompt that the rooting was successful.

If you are curious that it infact worked, download one of the many Root Checker apps from the Google Play Store and check.  Now you can flash custom ROMs and run apps that require root access.  One of my reasons for rooting was to use my PS3 controller for some of my tablet's games.  But we'll cover that in another post.

Links used:

Nexus 7 Toolkit from XDA-Developers (does not require site registration)

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Fun with Ubuntu: What is Sudo?

Since we have been posting quite a bit of information for new Ubuntu users I thought I'd cover the topic of what is 'Sudo'?  Why do we use it/need it?  What do elevated privileges allow us to do within Ubuntu?  I will try to clear this up for those who may be unfamiliar with what it means to use 'Sudo'.

Most of the time you may hear the administrative access in Linux/Unix to be limited to the 'Root' user or the 'Super User'.  But in Ubuntu, we do not have a 'Root' user.  Instead we have the 'Sudo' program.  By running a command from the Terminal using a 'Sudo' command, you are temporarily granting your user account the same access to elevated privileges as another account (in the case of sudo that account would be the Root or Super User account).  And you can even think of the command: sudo; as 'SUper user DO' to help you remember it.  Another way to remember what it means to think of the word it sounds like: pseudo.  Which means: to be like something else (in Techie's terms).  So in a sense you want your account to be a pseudo of the admin account temporarily.

You will use sudo when you attempt to install a package or remove a packages, modify system files, add repositories, update apt, install updates, etc.  Administrative tasks are usually protected by sudo access.  When using the sudo command you will be prompted in the Terminal for your password.  In most cases, this is the same as your log on password.  Unless this has been changed by the system admin.

Running a command with sudo, will grant your user account access to super user rights for 15 minutes at a time.  After 15 minutes, if you run another sudo command you will be prompted for your password again.  And easy way to think of sudo in relation to Windows Vista/7 would be think of it as the UAC of Ubuntu.  Sudo is a powerful command when used in conjunction with other strings in the Terminal.  Use it wisely and carefully.

Even though you may not use the Terminal much, most user's are fine with using the graphical user interface.  You may occasionally bump into a situation where you need to use the command line.  And it is important that you know what sudo is.  Especially when a lot of sites will post Terminal commands, but will offer very little instruction on what those commands actually do.

I will also hit the topic of 'Sudo' briefly in an upcoming video. 

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