Anyone got a HOWTO on rooting the Gemini?

[Charlie Stross]

See subject; as a non-Android dude I'm finding the existing advice on flashing new firmware somewhat opaque, especially as I'm more interested in unlocking the Gemini (so I can install ad blockers and backup utilities, rather than dual-booting), preferably without losing my already-installed apps and data.

Any suggestions?

[thefloyd]

The gemini isn't locked in any way shape or form. Neither cellular nor bootloader. There is nothing to unlock.

See subject; as a non-Android dude I'm finding the existing advice on flashing new firmware somewhat opaque, especially as I'm more interested in unlocking the Gemini (so I can install ad blockers and backup utilities, rather than dual-booting), preferably without losing my already-installed apps and data.

Any suggestions?

[Charlie Stross]

The gemini isn't locked in any way shape or form. Neither cellular nor bootloader. There is nothing to unlock.

Brain fart: I meant rooting.

[Murple2]

opaque is right. it's pretty annoying. Previously you could download rooted firmware and just flash the boot.img partition, keeping everything else intact. I guess that can still be done but its not clear where we now download the rooted boot.img from. It may be included in the standard firmware download, I'll be flashing my device from scratch this evening so I'll post back when I understand it a bit better.

the new image tool is a great idea, but either needs to be waaaay more transparent in what its doing or we need clear concise instructions. personally I need to understand whats happening at every step. efforts to make something idiot proof just annoy me - educate people don't just dumb it down!

(rant over)

[Murple2]

go here: http://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool.html
You need to select "Rooted Android" as the first gemini version and then "Download Base Firmware" and the "Scatter File"
Extract the firmware and put the scatter file in with the same files.
Open the FlashTool and load the scatter file
Select "Download Only" from he dropdown menu and select the boot partition (only) from the list
under the "Location" column the end of the path should read ..."root_boot.img".
Click Download & connect / restart your phone

This may work, haven't tried it

[gidds]

I agree that flashing is very awkward and opaque.  (Especially from a Mac — it took me many hours to find and set up the right Linux distro on a bootable USB key…)

But I've just flashed my Gemini with the latest firmware, without losing any apps/files/data, so I know it can be done!

The important points seem to be:

• You must be using exactly the same partition layout (sizes &c) as before.
• Deselect the final 'userdata' partition.  (The type will change to 'Download only', which is what you want.)

The scatter file created by Planet's new online tool had some extra partitions (for Linux, judging from the names — even though I was single-booting to rooted Android!), so I edited it, comparing with the scatter file I used last time, updating the filenames but leaving the partition sizes &c the same.

When set to 'Download only', the Flash Tool will compare the partition map from the scatter file with that currently on the Gemini, and will refuse to proceed if they differ.  So it's relatively safe to use.

And I guess all your apps, files, and other data is on the 'userdata' partition, so deselecting that seems to preserve everything.

Of course, it's well worth making sure you have a backup of everything, just in case something goes wrong…  (It's well worth having a backup of everything anyway!  You never know what might happen.)