Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus can be easily locked and unlocked. However, there are a number of advantages to rooting the device – without unlocking the bootloader.
As many of you undoubtedly recall, there is a long tradition of rooting without unlocking the bootloader on Nexus devices.
Indeed, as PoorCollegeGuy of XDA Developers points out, the last time modders sought to root a Nexus (One) without unlocking the bootloader, HTC was the sole maker of the Pure Google Experience devices and dual-core Android devices were only a distant dream.
Remember, back in the day bootloaders could not be relocked after unlocking via the fastboot oem unlock method. Yes, the Nexus S had a similar method, although most only executed it if they didn’t want to wipe their handsets.
As noted above, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus can be rooted without unlocking the bootloader as well. The advantages?
“The biggest one is this method can be used in conjunction with this bootloader unlock app can get the phone rooted and unlocked without requiring a data wipe. Of course, there are other reasons as well,” XDA Devs explained.
”[But be warned], the method is a lot longer than usual Samsung root methods. In short, you’re going to push some files on to your device. From there, you’re going to restore a fake backup, run an exploit that’ll reboot you into emulator mode where you’ll perform the rest of the steps.”
Interested? You can check out the original thread and method published by XDA Forum moderator efrant here.
In other Android news, version 6 of the popular (online) Nandroid Backup tool has gone live. Coded by XDA Senior Member ameer12345767890, the latest iteration of the popular utility includes the following key features:
* CWM 6 style incremental backups.
* Garbage cleaning for incremental backups.
* Advanced backup / Selective backup.
* Long arguments for timezone.
* Setting alternate storage media via command line flag.
* Setting sd-ext path via command line flag.
* Battery level checking for HTC One X.
* Split backup mode (CWM 6+ only).
* Backup mode detection via .default_backup_format file (used by CWM).
* Advanced backup mode detection via .advanced_backup_partitions file.
* /flexrom and mmcblk0_start partitions backup (for Acer devices).
* Revamped and more useful progress indicators.
* Na Rnfgre Rtt.
* Replacing named backups with command line flag.
* Disabling notifications with command line flag.
* Setting progress indicator type with command line flags.
* Trapping exit/kill signals and cleaning up before exiting.
* Prompt whether to replace if backup name exists.
Interested? You can check out the full change log and download the utility here.
