For some reasons the Z4 root does not work for me. The process stalls when displaying “attempting to apply root”. Some online posts say a wait time of 2hrs is expected.

Then I have to use the wired root methods. In fact the process is as simple as the online tutorials show, besides a few notes below.

  1. Get a version of Windows running in a virtual machine.
    • I chose Oracle VirtualBox, since I have a Windows image already.
    • Do not install the open source version due to the limited USB support.
    • Installing the VirtualBox Extension Pack is necessary.
    • Windows is necessary, since the process not only includes putting a zip file onto the device, but also replacing a bootloader with the Odin3 program from Samsung.
  2. Connect the tablet to the USB.
    • First a filter for the usb port for the tablet should be created. See for example a post here.
    • Also, the order of plugging the device is important; otherwise VirtualBox will complain about the annoying “device in use” error. See this post.
  3. Follow the online tutorials carefully.
    • Here is the tutorial that I followed successfully. It is simple but tedious.
    • The status of the USB debugging option is quite important; don’t mess up.

Once the root process is done, the device will be up and running again without much difference. However, a Superuser app is installed. It will control which applications will have access to root.

There are a lot more apps to explore with rooted tablet. Here are two pictures, one taken with Screenshot ER for the effect of removing ads with the AdFree app, as opposed to what it looks like before (from Android Market).

Andoku Sudoku Free with Ads Andoku Sudoku Free Without Ads