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Rooting process for Google Pixel (sailfish) on May update

Scripts and files I used to backup & root my Google Pixel (sailfish) on May update

A complete guide to rooting the Google Pixel

Libraries/Tools

ADB and Fastboot

  • Latest ADB and Fastboot: https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools.html#download
  • Yes LATEST is required! some functions needed in scripts in this repo don't exist on older versions of ADB, especially the dual-bootloader slots functionality that is new to Android
  • Extract this to ~/bin (so ~/bin/platform-tools/adb is executable) or change the variables in the scripts to point to where you extracted it to

ABE (Android Backup Extractor)

  • Only used for extracting the backup file, if you don't need to be able to restore a backup then don't bother.
  • Download from: https://sourceforge.net/projects/adbextractor/
  • easiest is to extract the *.jars and *.shs to this repo folder, or you could edit the commands to where you put it

Bootloader

First off, if you have not already, you will have to unlock the bootloader. This wipes the device, so make sure you make a backup first!

  • to allow bootloader unlocking:
    • go to Settings => About phone => tap on Build number 7 times to enable Developer options
    • tap back, then go to Developer options and turn OEM unlocking on
    • scroll down and enable USB debugging to be able to use ADB
  • adb backup -apk -all backups apps and their data, but not the internal storage - backup that manually!
  • Run adb reboot bootloader while your phone is in Android to reboot into the bootloader, or shut down and hold Power and Volume Down to boot into the bootloader.
  • Run fastboot oem unlock while in bootloader, then accept prompt on phone to wipe & unlock

Rooting

There are several files you will need to download:

Then, make sure you have a terminal open in this repo folder

If you have just followed the steps above to unlock the bootloader:

  • reboot into the bootloader after the phone has finished starting up
  • run fastboot boot twrp-3.0.2-0-RC1-fastboot-sailfish.img to boot into TWRP
  • then have a look at the end of root.sh for steps in TWRP (the echo commands)

If you have tried to get root working with some other method or Android isn't booting properly:

  • run bash set-up.sh once-off to download and extract the official firmware
  • run bash root.sh to flash bootloaders, system image e.t.c. (pretty much everything) and boot into TWRP. It also tells you what to do in TWRP

Restoring the backup made from adb backup

The most simple command/process is to simply run this after setting up the phone (and enabling USB debugging again):

  • adb restore backup.ab

However, in my experience this doesn't work completely, so another thing to try:

  • run bash adb-split-no-extraction.sh backup.ab (from ABE), this will split the backup into smaller backups, one per app
  • then run bash adb-restore.sh, this simply adb restores all the backups individually

That didn't work for me either, next try:

  • run bash helium-ise.sh which copies the backups to a folder called carbon and puts them in a format that Helium can recognise
  • move/copy carbon to /sdcard on your phone, then use the app Helium (on Google Play) to restore the backups

That didn't work for me either, next try:

  • run java -jar abe.jar unpack backup.ab backup.tar (self-explanatory)
  • run tar -xvf backup.tar (unpacks the tar archive), and rm backup.tar (removes it)
  • next step is to start ADBD (the adb process on the phone) as root:
    • try running adb root, if this completes successfully then you're set
    • if adb root returns adbd cannot run as root in production builds as it did on my device, you will need to start ADBD in root mode some other way:
    • There is an app: "adbd insecure": https://stackoverflow.com/a/28070414/2999220
    • if that app doesn't work (didn't for me), use bash adb-remount-insecure.sh after extracting the proper ADBD from the app apk and pushing it to /sdcard
    • if ADB doesn't pick up your phone at all even after disabling and re-enabling USB debugging, reboot your phone to reset ADBD
  • run bash "adb push extracted apps.sh" to forcefully push the data to the phone, then set the proper permissions on the files so they can be accessed by apps

What Did actually work for me:

  • it seems to be that adb-restore doesn't restore the APKs, and if an app isn't installed it doesn't install the data...
  • I simply ran the first section of adb push extracted apps.sh to install the APKs
  • then ran adb restore backup.ab to get everything working