Rooting my life

April 20, 2025

My Andoid Rooting Journey

Where it all started

KingRoot

After getting my first tablet (from Byju's) in my 6th grade (2015), I was introduced to the world of Android rooting. I was fascinated by the idea of unlocking hidden features and customizing my device. I stumbled upon KingRoot, a one-click rooting app that promised to root my device effortlessly. I tried it out, while being scared as to losing my device, and it worked. i had successfully rooted my tablet. I was thrilled! I could do anything i want on my tablet now. But I didnt even know what all i could do with it. So i started with what i want to root for the first place, Game Guardian. I found what i could from Youtube Tutorials and Guides as to how to change the games running memmory to make that one shop item cost -10000000 coins, so that when i buy that item, i would get coins that i could spend on other items. I was so happy to see that i could do this. I was a pro gamer now. I could play any game and get unlimited coins and gems. Sadly this is where it ended for me at that time.

Redmi Note 8

on August 2019, the Redmi Note 8 Series launched. And my Mom bought one. It was a game-changer. I could play all the latest games and use all the latest apps. But I wanted more. I wanted to root my phone and unlock its full potential. I started researching and found out about Magisk. So I went right back to getting beaten by my mom for bricking her phone. I followed the instructions carefully and successfully rooted my phone. I was now part of the elite group of Android users who could customize their devices to their heart's content. I used to experiment to my hearts content. I tried out different ROMs, kernels, and mods. I was in heaven. But I also learned the hard way that rooting could be risky. I soft-bricked my phone a few times and had to unroot it to get it working again. But I didn't care. The thrill of rooting was worth the risk. I was addicted, switching ROMS every week, and then spending hours trying to setup the new ROM. Experimenting with different kernels and mods. I was a mad scientist, and my phone was my lab. I learned so much about Android and how it worked. I even started helping others root their phones and customize them. I felt like a guru. But I also realized that rooting wasn't for everyone. Some people just wanted a phone that worked without any hassle. i learnt that when i came to my 1st year of my Backelors, when i didnt get enough time to experiment as much. Life went stagnant and dull. Instead of working with the newest and latest and greatest, i switch to a more laidback ROM. CrDroid and Lineage where the best at that time for that, All nice and stable.

Classic ways of rooting rn

you can follow these steps if you have a Pixel 6A like me or any other Pixel device:

if you want to go with Lineage, go to LineageOS and download the latest build for your device. If you want to use Google Apps, go to NiksGApps and download the latest build for your device. You can also find the different packages, like stock, basic, and full. I recommend going with the full package for the best experience. but i choose core and add whatever else i want later on.

Some Inside info i found out the hard way

when i used to flash the full builds that range to 1.5GB, i used to error out with only a few starting apps getting installed. I later found out that the GApps package was too big for my device to handle. So i switched to the core package and added whatever i wanted later on. This worked like a charm. I was able to install all the apps i wanted without any issues.

what actually happens is, the ROM Maintainer leaves some space when creating vanilla ROMS(ROMs with no GApps) for the GApps package to be installed. But it is almost always not enough to install the whole Full package. so it is better if you customize your GApps package to your needs. This way you can install all the apps you want without any issues. This blog contains the guide to it later on.

Step 1: Unlock the bootloader

  • Go to Settings > About Phone > Tap on Build Number 7 times to enable Developer Options.
  • Go to Settings > Developer Options > Enable OEM Unlocking and USB Debugging.
  • Connect your phone to your computer and open a command prompt or terminal.
  • Type adb reboot bootloader to boot your phone into fastboot mode.
  • Type fastboot flashing unlock to unlock the bootloader.
  • Type fastboot reboot to reboot your device.
  • After the reboot, you will see a warning message. Press the required button to confirm the unlock.
  • After that, your phone will reboot and you will see the welcome screen. (the phone was reset), but now the bootloader is unlocked.
  • Now, re-enable Developer Options and USB Debugging.
  • And go back to the bootloader again.

Step 2: Flash necessary files

  • Download the latest LineageOS build for your device from the official website.(pls make sure to download the correct build for your device)

    • you will need these files(Like for Pixel 6A),
      • lineage-22.2-20250419-nightly-bluejay-signed.zip
      • boot.img
      • dtbo.img
      • vendor_boot.img
    • And you will flash them with these commands:
    • fastboot flash boot </path/to/boot.img>
    • fastboot flash dtbo </path/to/dtbo.img>
    • fastboot flash vendor_boot </path/to/vendor_boot.img>
    • now you reboot to the recovery,
    • continue, to adb sideload ( we will load the actual ROM now,)
    • type adb sideload /path/to/lineage-22.1-20250405-nightly-bluejay-signed.zip
    • Some Insider Info

      All my life, the flashing would complete at ~47% progress it always gives an error like "Total Xfer: 0.00X" if you get the same error, it means that the ROM has been flashed successfully dont worry about it.

    • after that you will see a message to flash additional packages before rebooting, select that because we still have to flash the GApps package.
    • type adb sideload /path/to/NikGapps-core-gms.zip
    • you can check the logs to see the apps getting skipped and installed one by one.
    • the guide to customizing the GApps package can be found below

  • Download the GApps package from the NiksGApps website (check the Android version as well, it should match the downloaded build's Android Version).

WIP