Saturday, November 28, 2015

Step by Step Guide to Rooting Amazon Fire Phone and Getting Google Apps

Recently I bought Fire phone almost for free with a year of prime membership. Its has some nice hardware features but its Fire OS has some downside like absence of Google Play Store. Here is how to make some useful changes to make Fire Phone more useful.

Backup all data before you start. There is 100% chances for wiping out all kind of settings and data etc.

Download following things before starting:
Put all these files in one folder.
To install adb binary in Ubuntu without downloading android tools use the command:

sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb

Otherwise get Android Tools to run commands such as adb or standalone adb binary from somewhere else if not installed already

0. Copy Safestrap and KingRoot apk's into phone storage. In Settings -> Device -> Get info about your phone. Click multiple time on Model Number to activate Developer Options. Do it all the time. Some notification pops up, accept it.



1. Install some nice file manager like ES File Explorer etc from amazon app store or from apk directly.

2. Install KingRoot and run. Follow onscreen instructions to root Fire phone. Fast Internet connection required for KingRoot to root.

Apk's are easier to install via adb command like this

adb install some.apk

3. Install the Safestrap and open it. Follow onscreen instructions to Install it. Safestrap will ask for root permission so allow it.



4. After Install Recovery click on Reboot to Recovery.

5.  Inside Recovery click Advanced.

6. Inside Advanced click ADB Sideload.

7. Swipe to Start Sideload. Better tick to Wipe Dalvik Cache and Wipe Cache.

8. Sideload the Amazon Fire Phone latest ".bin" file now like this command. Make appropriate changes to file name that you downloaded according to your phone version.

adb sideload update-kindle-32.4.6.5_user_465000520.bin

9. After successful side-load "DO NOT REBOOT" instead again go back and choose sideload option again.


10. This time sideload super-su zip like this. Again change the file name.

adb sideload UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.46.zip

11. Now choose to Reboot System.

12. Finish the first time start-up wizard process.

13. This time superSU should be your root management app instead of KingRoot.

14. Again install the File Manager. Install the Safetrap apk again and install recovery. Reboot to Recovery. just like in step 3 and 4.

15. Again in recovery go to Advanced -> ADB-sideload like step 5,6,7.

This time sideload Google apps using following commands. Please change the zip file name to what you downloaded earlier.

 adb sideload open_gapps-arm-4.4-pico-chage-it.zip

16. Reboot to system.

17. Go to ES File Manager and give it Root privileges.




18. Grant Root Privileges.




19. Swipe left and Choose System Apps.

20. Search for a System App named 'setupwizard'. There should be two apps with this name. Uninstall the app that has the package name 'com.google.android.setupwizard'. Otherwise it will bother next time the Fire Phone is factory reset.



21. Now Go to play store and login. Phone is like any other android phone with 3D features. Custom ROM can be installed using recovery but custom ROM does not support many hardware features like 3D, Camera etc.

22. Now Google Play store will not be removed even after a factory reset from settings.

23 To update Google apps simply download The Open Gapps latest package again and sideload it as in step 15 to 21.

Issues:

1. If anything go wrong than one can go to Fire System Recovery using holding together Power Key and Volume UP button while the phone is switched off. Choose apply update from ADB. Sideload the Fire Phone Software binary using adb following command. Better wipe cache partition first.

adb sideload update-kindle-32.4.6.5_user_465000520.bin

This should factory reset Fire Phone.

2. If having some issues because of old data than go back to Safestrap app and Reboot to recovery and wipe the DATA partition.

3. To install Safestrap and run it using command line.
 
adb install Safestrap-Kodiak-4.0.1-B01.apk

To run Safestrap from command line using adb shell.

adb shell am start -n com.hashcode.safestrap/com.hashcode.safestrap.ics.SafestrapActivity