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4 Quick Easy Steps to Root Your MT6589/MTK6589-based Android devices

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If you are looking to relatively safely and quickly root your MT6589-based smartphone without jumping through all the hoops and reading conflicting and confusing mambo jumbo on the Internet, here’s a quick solution that might just work for you. Members of the Gleescape community had given their inputs on the successful models that are proven to be compatible with the rooting package (see below for list).

Just a quick introduction here for the MT6589. The MT6589 chipset was the world’s first commercialized quad-core System-On-Chip (SoC), targetting the mid to high end smartphone and tablets market (and the dual-core MT6577 targeting the lower end of the market). This relatively new chipset integrates a power-efficient Cortex™-A7 CPU subsystem from ARM, PowerVR™ Series5XT GPU from Imagination Technologies, and MediaTek’s advanced multi-mode UMTS Rel. 8/HSPA+/TD-SCDMA modem. Adopting an advanced 28nm process technology, the MT6589 platform boasts extremely low power consumption and aims to deliver powerful performance at a very competitive price, just like the MT6577 platform that we have been quite familiar with.

As the number of MediaTek MT6589/MTK6589-based Android device begin to fill the market, and as more and more people start to pick these quad-core device at a bargain prices, the next question on people’s mind would be this: can I root this device which I have bought (or about to buy?). Some of the phones out there that uses the MT6589/MTK6589 chipset include the Goophone i9, UMI X1S, Jiayu G4, HDC Galaxy S4, Caesar A9600, ZOPO ZP800, F600, Goophone S4, ZOPO ZP980, Hero H7105, Hero H3088, Changjiang N8100, Hero H7189, UMI S1 and NEO N003. Most of these value-priced phones are running Android version 4.1 (Jelly Bean), so this should work for most of the phones out there.

I will attempt to put together a simple tutorial to help MT6589 (even some MTK8377!) owners to root their devices, so as to enable them to backup their Android and to many other things that root offers. So far, the community had confirmed that rooting was performed successfully on the following models (thanks to the excellent community here for sharing their experience and success stories!):

** Disclaimer: As with all rooting or recovery operations, it is always a good practice to backup your data and information before embarking on such an exercise. For your information, this procedure applies to MT6589  devices running on Jelly Bean (Android 4.1.x and 4.2.x). I cannot vouch for other combination of hardware and Android versions, so approach with caution and at your own risk, I cannot be responsible for any mishaps that may happen. ***

So, here we go.

Step 1: Getting the USB Driver Installed.

You need a USB driver for the MT6589 device. You can try and download the USB driver here: MT65xx_USB_Driver. Once you have downloaded the driver, ensure that you install the driver in Windows so that you can see the android device. You should see a device under “My Computer”. You may need to enable “Developer mode“, so just go to the “Settings” –> “Developer Options” –> “USB Debugging” and ensure it is checked/ticked. 

Alternatively, you can download the PDANet’s software (you can also try version 4 of the PDANet software here, if the earlier does not work for you) to install the ADB driver. And here’s how to install the PDANet’s software:

1. Double click on the downloaded PDANet’s software to start the installation process
2. While installing PdaNet you will get a window, “Installing USB drivers” PdaNet will ask you to uninstall the drivers that are previously installed and then install using PdaNet. Click “ Yes” to proceed further
3. Then select your device manufacturer. If your device manufacturer (brand) name is not listed, then select “Others” and click on “OK”
4. You will get an warning ignore it and click on “Install the Drivers software anyway”
5. Now connect your phone to PC using a USB cable and now it will start installing the drivers. (Do not enable USB storage or tethering)
6. Wait till the process ends and let the drivers be installed.

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When the Android driver is properly installed, the Device Manager dialog (Go to Start button, choose Run –> key in “devmgmt.msc”) on your computer should look like this when your Android phone is attached:

Remember that the “Android ADB Interface” must be listed without error. If you do not see the “Android ADB Interface” device, then try to make sure USB debugging is checked on your Android phone. Go to “Settings”-> “Applications” ->”Development”. Note: Some times, the USB cable may be the problem. If you have used a charge-only micro-USB, it will cause problem with data/detection of devices. So make sure you use a good micro-USB cable for connecting.

Step 2: Download the MT6589 Rooting Package

This is the MT6589 rooting package based on the motochopper exploit. You can download the rooting package here.  Unzip all the contents of the zip file in a folder (please do not launch from the zip folder, ensure it is fully extracted to a physical folder on your PC).

Enable Developer Mode (updated Mar 2014)

Before you proceed further, ensure that you have enabled USB Debugging mode on your device. To go “Developer mode“, just go to the “Settings” –> “Developer Options” –> “USB Debugging” and ensure it is checked/ticked.  On devices that are Android 4.2, you would likely need to unlock the “Developer Mode” as follows (if you have not unlocked, follow as per below):
a) Click on your device’s “Settings”.
b) Now scroll to the bottom and tap “About Phone” or “About Tablet” item.
c) Tap on “Build number” item seven times. Make sure you tap at least seven times! 🙂
d) If you see a “You are now a developer!” message pop up, then you know you have done it correctly. You have just unlocked the USB debugging mode on Android 4.2 and higher. Then make sure you check/tick the “USB Debugging.

Ensure that you have the contents of the zip file extracted into a physical folder on your PC (i.e. not in the ZIP explorer mode)

Step 3: Perform the Rooting

If you notice in the folder you have just extracted, there is a run.bat file. This is the batch file that would be used to run the exploit and do the rooting. Next, go to CMD by typing “cmd” in the run dialog on your start button (assuming Windows 7). Right click on the cmd.exe icon and select “Run as Administrator”.

Using the CMD.exe command line, change the directory to the folder which you have unzipped the contents of the rooter package. For example, in this case, it was unzipped to C:\Users\DeskPC\Desktop\mt6589_rooter as seen in the screen capture:

Run the run.bat batch file by typing “run”. You should see the following, where it will wait for the device and run the daemon on port 5037.

Once you plug in the phone (or you might already have plugged in, in this case, the program will go ahead to push the exploit and install the superuser.apk into your phone. The screenshot shows that the superuser.apk had been pushed and rooting being performed. Once the installation is complete, you will be prompted to press enter and reboot the phone. The program will then exit.

 Step 4: Complete!

There you have it, a quick and simple way to root your MT6589 device. Do let me know if your MT6589 rooting was successful but commenting below, so I can add the success story for others to consider their own rooting endeavors.  Once you have rooted your device, you will find a SuperSu application in your android, which enables you to control SuperUser access/root access to the android device. To check whether your phone is working well, install the “Root Checker” app to check the status of your rooting: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joeykrim.rootcheck&hl=en

Edit (Community Suggestion): If your operation was successful, why not share your success information in the comments section below, stating the brand and model of your phone and OS version (e.g. HDC Galaxy S4 /  JB4.1.2) , so that others can use it to determine whether their devices are compatible or not? Thanks for helping to make this page even more useful to the community!

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