Rooting means installing a su binary onto the device, which provides a way to become the root (=Superuser, “su”) user on the Android system. root has access to everything and thus you can do really nasty things with it.

Preparation

Unlock bootloader

If not already done, unlock your bootloader.

su binary

There are currently two different “su” binaries available: Superuser and SuperSU. I prefer the latter one.

These apps are only for updating an already installed binary, so you’ll need the installable zip file for your desired binary:

• SuperSU
• Superuser (get the Superuser-… zip which includes the updater app)

Recovery

The stock recovery only allows flashing zip files from a special directory you can’t access yet. So you’ll need a custom recovery to work around this limitation.

There are – again – 2 options: ClockworkMod (CWM) Recovery or TeamWin Recovery Project (TWRP). I prefer the latter one.

• ClockworkMod Recovery (download “touch” or “non-touch” version)
• TeamWin Recovery Project (download the recovery image, not the app install method)

Step by Step

TBC