Official "rooting isn't working" thread

[djrbliss]

Hi all,

First off, thanks to everyone who made good on their pledge with regards to the root bounty, I appreciate your promptness and honesty.

It seems some people are having issues with the root exploit.  Before I start, I need you guys to understand that I don't have time to give 24/7 technical support to dozens of individual people.  I don't own a Thinkpad Tablet, so it's very difficult for me to figure out every little problem that happens on every kind of device.  But I'm happy to do what I can to help resolve any issues you're having.

Here's everything I know about the situations in which the exploit is failing.  As far as I can tell, there are two situations where the root exploit is failing (besides people who aren't properly enabling ADB and things of that nature):

1. The exploit continues to return "[-] Exploit failed.", and nothing you do fixes this.

First of all, make sure you are connected to a wifi network when you run the exploit, since this seemed to fix the problem for some people.  If it still fails, you can do the following test, from a command prompt where you have ADB installed:

adb shell ls -l /data/data/jaba.landesk.com/files/

If the above command returns nothing or a list of files, then just try the exploit again, since you shouldn't have any problems.

If the above command returns something along the lines of "permission denied", then you have a problem.  For some reason, certain devices seem to not be affected by the vulnerability that I used to achieve root.  I have no idea why this is the case, and I haven't seen a particular pattern in terms of which devices are vulnerable and which are not.  If this problem happens to affect you, I'd recommend booting into recovery mode and wiping your /data and /cache partitions and trying the above test again.  It might take a few times.  This resolved the problem for at least one person.  If after restoring multiple times you continue to get a "permission denied" message with the above test, then I'm sorry, but your device is not affected by the vulnerability I used and it won't be possible to use my exploit to root your device.

Hopefully at some point an OTA update.zip will be leaked by Lenovo, at which point you'll be able to flash that and try rooting again.

2. The device boot loops after the first phase of the exploit.

As part of my exploit, I create the /data/local.prop file with the "ro.kernel.qemu" property set to 1.  This property basically tells the device "I'm running in an emulator", and from then on, ADB will run as root rather than dropping privileges, allowing me to install su/Superuser.  For some strange reason, a small number of devices *really* don't agree with this property and refuse to fully boot.  These devices are fully exploitable - it's just that they don't seem to like the method I used.

obscure.detour had this problem and was able to work around it.  I recommend you read his advice here:
http://thinkpadtabletforums.com/thinkpad-tablet-root-hacks-mods-and-development/how-to-root-the-thinkpad-tablet/msg2788/#msg2788

----

I hope this helps some of you out, because it's really all the advice I have.  The second issue seems to be possible to work around, but as for the first issue, I can't work magic: if your device is for some reason not vulnerable, nothing short of finding another vulnerability will allow you to get root.

I encourage you all to post your experiences with these two problems in this thread to gather all the information in one place.

Regards,
Dan

======

UPDATE:

After going through the other threads, the following people are the ones who are still having problems with rooting, organized by version.  Keep in mind that several *dozen* people rooted successfully, and only eight are currently having issues.  If anyone has successfully rooted and has an identical version number to any of those below, please post in this thread.  If you are in the list below, please contact me privately and I will try to fix your tablet manually.  I can be reached by email at:  dan (dot) j (dot) rosenberg (at) gmail (dot) com.

ThinkPadTablet_A310_02_0037_0075_US
manuelcalavera

ThinkPadTablet_A310_02_0037_0076_WE
alrua
wobinich

ThinkPadTablet_A310_02_0037_0074_ROW
rojima1
rnm
msm1111
wilsun
scottlam

[S.Prime]

Thanks Dan, for your input and clarification. It is understandable that you cannot provide individual support and at least for me it is understandable that the exploit carries no guarantee. We must assume the risk for bricking our device and accept that the exploit may not work. I suggest we continue to gather as much information as possible and try to determine if there is a link in the failures. I for one appreciate that, to this point, there has been no one who has reported that the exploit bricked their TPT.

S.  Prime


IT Service Professional, I Just Want a Device to Be Productive

[pghFL]

Hi all,

First off, thanks to everyone who made good on their pledge with regards to the root bounty, I appreciate your promptness and honesty.

Regards,
Dan

Thanks for the root!

[manuelcalavera]

So this topic is the official "I just didnt root Thinkpad tablet" thread .

[S.Prime]

This does not mean that we have given up on finding root for every user. So we continue to gather information and look for a common key. Therefore, I am again asking everyone to post their results, build version, adb driver, mobility manager version, settings, abd any special notes.


IT Service Professional, I Just Want a Device to Be Productive

[Phish]

S. Prime, did you want us to post in any specific thread with our build number, etc for a successful root?

Sent from my ThinkPad Tablet using Tapatalk

[woshi02191]

My build number is "ThinkPadTablet_A310_02_0037_0075_US" as well,

and I can't get over this "expliot failed" message no matter what.

[S.Prime]

S. Prime, did you want us to post in any specific thread with our build number, etc for a successful root?

Sent from my ThinkPad Tablet using Tapatalk

Hi everyone.  If you're still having issues with rooting, please move to the official thread here:
http://www.thinkpadtabletforums.com/thinkpad-tablet-root-hacks-mods-and-development/official-%27rooting-isn%27t-working%27-thread/msg3126/#msg3126

I've compiled a list of everyone who's currently having trouble.  There's only eight of you, out of several dozen (or even hundred?) who successfully rooted.  You're very special. :-)

Please follow the instructions in that thread based on the problems you're having.  If you could include the output of the following adb command, that would be helpful:

adb shell ls -l /data/data/jaba.landesk.com/files/

Regards,
Dan

As you can see from Dan’s post above, he is attempting to utilize this thread to help those who have failed in achieving root, so let's post the specifics about our build, etc. in http://www.thinkpadtabletforums.com/thinkpad-tablet-root-hacks-mods-and-development/how-to-root-the-thinkpad-tablet/ and leave the Official "rooting isn't working" thread clear for Dan to receive the information he requested from those who experienced failure in their rooting attempt. If Dan needs anything from those that have achieved root he will request it. If we see any clear trend it may be helpful to others and Dan.

[rnm]

Hi, Dan.
I tested my tablet with your solution. The command line "adb shell ls -l ........" show opendir error: permission denied.
unlucky...
I wipe data and cache and reset to factory and test again. No progress and stay the same. I tried several times, maybe 4-5 I cannot clearly remember.
So what's your sugestion?

Thx.

RNM

[homek]

Sorry for posting it wice. Here is my info on a failed root.

Machine type and model: 183822U
OS: Win 7 64bit
Size: 16GB
Mobility Mgr: 1.0
Kernal Version: 2.6.36.3
Build: A310_02_0037_0075_US
ADB Driver: Lenovo drivers
Settings: USB Debugging ON, WiFI ON
Other: I rooted first but incoming update to 75us left me with su installed but no root. Exploit failed.


Wysłane z mojego ThinkPad Tablet za pomocą Tapatalk

[obscure.detour]

I would just like to say how awesome I think it is that dan is so willing to help out so much. Truly a professional And thanks again.

That said, I am sorry for those that have continued to have issues with rooting. I have provided numerous suggestions around the various boards and have exhausted my knowledge on the issues. My specs are below from a rooted tablet.

Machine type and model: 183822U
OS: Win 7 64bit
Size: 16GB
Mobility Mgr: 1.0
Kernel Version: 2.6.36.3
Build: A310_02_0037_0075_US
ADB Driver: Lenovo drivers
Settings: USB Debugging ON, WiFi ON, Lockscreen Off

Rooted and wonderful, now just need to pump out a stock rom!!

[homek]

Unfortunately I am getting:
adb shell ls -l /data/data/jaba.landesk.com/files/
opendir failed, Permission denied

As I said before, ota to 075US have removed root but su and superuser.apk are still there. They just do not provide su privileges.

[scottlam]

Hello,Dan
I had tried what you've told in this thread,but nothing happened.
I have no idea about what infomation that u need, hoping you can help us.
No matter what we get at last, thank u all the same!

[djrbliss]

Here's an update, with a few points:

1. In general, if you ever root your device, installing an OTA update may cause you to lose the ability to root.  If you have done this, I'm sorry, but there might not be anything I can do to help you.  Never install an OTA update on a rooted device until someone has confirmed that it's possible to gain root again after the update.

2. There doesn't seem to be a pattern as to which devices are vulnerable (where vulnerable means "able to be rooted") and which aren't.  It seems that obscure.detour and homek have identical specs, but obscure.detour was able to gain root (with a little tweaking) but homek is not.  I have no idea why some devices are different from others within the same release build, it doesn't really make much sense.

At this point, it's important to understand that rooting a phone isn't magic.  Rooting relies on the existence of a vulnerability in your phone's software.  On phones where it's not possible to access the /data/data/jaba.landesk.com/files directory, the vulnerability is no longer present, so it's not possible to gain root.  I can't just wave my hands and fix this, it's a simple fact.

For the people who are still stuck, there are a few options moving forward:

1. Continue to try to wipe /data and /cache, restore, and try rooting again.  This worked on at least one device, but others have tried repeatedly with no success.  It may be worth another try, but don't drive yourself crazy.

2. Investigate whether it's possible to flash unsigned images to the phone, at which point you could skip this and flash a custom ROM.

3. Find a signed Lenovo ROM (full system, not just update), flash that, and root the phone using my exploit.

I'll let you know if I have any more ideas or if I figure out why there is a difference between some devices within the same release build.

Regards,
Dan

[TIM_I]

First , thank you djrbliss et al for all your efforts!  after 2 days of reading and attempts, I can't root either.  I did try the updated run.bat from S.Prime to no avail.

Machine type and model: 1838cto
OS: Win 7 64bit
Size: 64GB
Mobility Mgr: 1.0
Kernel Version: 2.6.36.3
Build: A310_02_0037_0075_US
ADB Driver: Lenovo drivers
Settings: USB Debugging ON, WiFi ON, Lockscreen Off

The results at the pc console are identical to manuelcalavera's, w/ the notation that upon 1st reboot the lenovo mobility manager comes up which i didn't touch.  Under 'location and security' I do not have any of the 4 lenovo device administrators 'enabled'. 
Other:  the results from adb shell ls -l /data/data/jaba.landesk.com/files/               is 'permission denied'.




Thanks,
Tim