Telus Galaxy S2 (T989D) Ultimate Root and Optimization Guide with Steps

[Blue1k]

Telus Galaxy S2X (T989D) Ultimate Root and Optimization Guide with Steps

Originally posted on Android Forums

*Our device is identical to the T-Mobile Galaxy S2X (T989) but there are a few minor differences you need to know when rooting and loading roms/kernels/modems.

Here is a comprehensive and user-friendly guide to rooting your Telus S2X. Included is also some tips to roms, kernels and things to improve battery life.
*Please ensure you follow the steps as laid out here. Failure to do so may mean you may break your device. If this happens, you can always flash back the original rom and fix your mistake. I take no responsibility if you screw up your phone but would be happy to help.

Adopted from Melvin's XDA thread (big thanks goes to Melvin!)

1. You will need these 4 files before proceeding:

Odin 1.8
T989 USB Drivers (Windows only)
Clockmod Recovery for T989 (flash with Odin)
Superuser app

2. Install, unzip the USB drivers and install them on your computer

3. On your phone, go to SETTINGS>APPLICATIONS>DEVELOPMENT Check USB Debugging

4. Now plug in your phone and a menu will come up asking if you want to mount as a USB drive. Select it and copy the SuperUser zip to usbStorage folder on the internal drive (really anywhere is fine but I will keep it simple here and select a folder)

5. Unmount your phone and unplug it from the computer.

6. Now, unzip Odin file and open the folder. Inside it will be the Odin app. Launch Odin but do NOT connect the phone yet

7. To flash with Odin (which is a Samsung Testing application) you will need to boot your phone into DOWNLOAD mode. To do this, do the following:

POWER OFF. Then HOLD VOLUME DOWN and keep pressing it and then press power. It will boot you into the following screen. Press UP to confirm you want to flash
*This is different for us Telus users. T-Mobile have to press both buttons and then connect



8. Now, you can connect your phone to your computer. Wait for odin com port to turn YELLOW before proceeding



9. On ODIN, Select the PDA button and browse to the recovery.tar. Make sure Re-Partition is NOT checked (it shouldn't be). Now press start and let it flash the custom recovery. It should say PASS once finished. Close Odin.



10. Next, disconnect your phone. Power it off. We will now need to get into the new recovery module you flashed. To do this press both VOLUME UP AND DOWN and hold them. Then press power and wait till it boots-don't keep holding power. Once you see the recovery screen let go of the volume buttons immediately. Sometimes, I am not fast enough and the phone reboots. If this happens HOLD the VOLUME buttons again and repeat the process.

You should see something like this:



11. Using your volume buttons, navigate down to BACKUP and RESTORE. Choose NANDROID BACKUP.

*To make a selection press the POWER button (it acts as a return key). This will create a complete backup of your stock phone in case something goes wrong. If it does, you can always boot back into recovery and choose RESTORE from the BACKUP and RESTORE menu. Nice huh! Don't skip this step or you will be sorry.

12. Once the backup is complete, navigate down to "GO BACK..". Once back at the main menu, choose INSTALL ZIP FROM SDCARD. Select CHOOSE ZIP FROM INTERNAL SDCARD. Navigate down to the usbStorage folder and select the su-3.0.5-efgh-signed.zip file. Go to main menu and reboot system.

You are now rooted!

This means you have full access to system files and is like jailbreaking on an iPhone. You should have a superuser app installed. If not, you are not rooted.

Hope this was helpful to people. Feel free to donate if you wish (see my sig)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stock Telus Goodies

PS. Rooting will void warranty but it is reversible. If you need return it use Odin to flash back the stock rom with one from XDA or use the one on my server below.

Telus S2X Stock Items

Telus S2X Stock T989DTLKJ3 Rom and Recovery (to get back to original state)
Pass: sampro.pl
*Thanks to Przekret from XDA!

Steps:

1. To install the stock rom file you will need to first extract it. Use the password above
2. Launch Odin. Press PDA and Select the stock recovery file (tar.md5 file) folder you extracted. Make sure re-partition is NOT selected
3. Restart your phone in download mode as before and wait for the yellow com
4. Press Start and flash back the phone to original state

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to flash the modem using Odin *RESERVED. NO NEW MODEM YET. DO NOT USE T-MOBILE MODEMS!!:

1. Ensure USB debugging is checked in settings>applications>development
2. Put the phone into download mode (see above)
3. Launch Odin. Make sure to check ONLY PHONE not PDA and load the modem.bin file. (see pic)
4. Connect your phone and wait for the yellow com signal. Then flash away

[Blue1k]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Battery Tweaks and Recommendations

I highly recommend you buy Titanium Pro to be able freeze apps that you do not need. Freezing means the app is not able to run in the backround or launch. You can easily reverse this process. Recommended over uninstalling.

How to freeze apps:

1. Make sure you have Pro. Open the app and Choose BACKUP/RESTORE
2. Scroll down to any app and click it. Choose Freeze. Done!
*to unfreeze, do the same thing and this time choose unfreeze

Apps to freeze to improve battery life (these apps keep running in the background and drain battery:

-Wifi-Sharing *tethering will still work fine
-Wifi-Sharing Manager
-Social Hub
(do not freeze Wifi app)

App to improve battery life:

I highly recommend 2X Battery, which is free from market. This made a noticeable difference to battery life for me.
In the app you can turn off the notification icon if wanted

Currently, I am getting about 16 hours of battery where I used to get 8 or so.

[Blue1k]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recommended Roms and Themes

There are a few roms to choose from and I'm not here to tell you which is best. You can decide for yourself. I will however recommend a few.
ROM: The operating system of your device
KERNEL: The central component of most operating systems. Its responsibilities include managing the system’s resources (the communication between hardware and software components. Kernels can make a big difference to battery life, speed, and smoothness of the interface

1. Mr. X's Rooted Telus Rom with CIQ removed
Rom Features: Stock rom with speed and battery life mods. CIQ framework removed
Kernel: Stock Telus Rooted Kernel with CIQ killed
Battery Life: Excellent (best for me out any rom)

2. Beast Mod v4.x
Rom Features: T-Mobile Rom with many modifications including speed hacks, screen responsiveness, animations, 5-icon app drawer, smaller font, and look (Ice Cream Sandwich theme)
Kernel: Mr. X Synergy Kernel
Battery Life: Excellent (not as good as Mr. X's rom but still damn good)
*wait for the next version of beastmod to be released. 4.1 and 4.2 have issues right now.

Themes (not for stock rom). You must be using a rooted rom such as the 2 I mentioned above

1. Ice Cream Sandwich Theme (so awesome) by qasimzia512 of XDA <the man is a theming god!

Ice Cream Sandwich Complete Theme
Telus Mr. X Rom Users need the following (see his thread):
2.1 Theme for all roms
Telus Dialer Fix 2

Screenshot:

[p1rate7]

Thanks for the information and I look forward to your battery area.

One question, I thought that when you use Odin to install these updates that the Custom Binary Download counter that you see when booting into the install mode changes from "no" to a number to indicate that you have updated the device and this could show that the device was modified and the question of warrenty comes up. Can this counter be reset? For the s2 you can reset it if you revert to older roms...

I used super oneclick to root my device and my counter still indicates no...



Sent from my Xoom using HowardForums

[Blue1k]

No, rooting this way will not change the binary counter because everything is kept stock. You are not flashing a custom kernel to achieve root. You are flashing a custom recovery image, which in turn lets you flash the rooted superuser update in recovery. This achieves root without using Odin.

As far as resetting, the jig method does not seem to work for this phone. Flashing roms through CWM doesn't change the counter.

This is discussed here:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...r#post20403806

[ent007]

Hey anyone root their phone? Just wondering if the differance is worth it and if there's an advantage to using the latest Gingerbread OS.

Thanks,

NB

[ent007]

Hey all, does rooting mean I can still do back ups and restores? Will I lose my settings and apps?

Thanks

[HC - NO "i"]

ent007,

For your sake, please spend some time to understand what rooting is about...

http://droidlessons.com/what-is-root...disadvantages/

Rooting does not all always mean using custom ROM or updated with newer version of Android. You can just root it with the stock firmware whatever comes with the first day you picked up the phone. After the successful rooting, you can now use some apps which work fully for rooted devices, e.g. Titanium Backup.

[ent007]

Thanks, I've read online, couldn't find much Telus specific stuff.

Thanks for the link, I will definitely read up on this more.

Cheers.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using HowardForums

[HC - NO "i"]

ent007,

You are welcome We are learning everyday.

If you just want to root it only, it may be easier than before... http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1321582

[1morematt]

I used this guide and rooted my phone a while back and it's no longer running the stock recovery module. I'm worried that I won't be able to get the Telus ICS update or I might damage my phone if I'm not running the stock recovery.
Is this a concern?

[Tristan.Rahman]

I am still experiencing issues with unrooting the phone and returning it back to its original telus stock rom. I had purchased the phone unknowingly off someone who had rooted it. I would like to unroot it to stock so I can get the ICS update via kies. I had followed all the steps in unrooting and returning the phone back to stock rom posted in this thread but the firmware still says TMB (T-Mobile) instead of TLS ( Telus) in kies.

How can I resolve this issue?

[Fenrry]

How can I resolve this issue?

By chance did u use the steps for T-Mo?, seems to me as u installed the T-Mo ROM, try looking for a stock ROM from Telus, I'm not an expert but I'm going to try an update my phone in the coming days, rt now I'm using Stock Telus GB with 3rd party kernel.

[bruddah]

Hey, can i use these instructions for rooting my phone thats on ics? sorry im still a noob at this :S

[DenCan]

Yes. I 're-rooted after upgraded to ICE.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2