Sunday, December 11, 2011

Rooting the LG Optimus M

I convinced my wife to let me root her LG Optimus M (stock Android 2.2.1). After the struggle I had to go through to root my 2.2.2 Ascend, rooting the Optimus was a breeze! Here's what I did:

  • Turn on the following phone settings under "Applications": Unknown sources, USB debugging (under Development).
  • From your computer, search for Gingerbreak and download APK v1.2; here's a Gingerbreak link that currently works.
  • Connect your phone to your computer; on your phone, pull down the top menu, touch the "USB storage" message and turn on USB storage.
  • You should see notification on your computer that your phone's SD card has been mounted. Copy the Gingerbread APK to somewhere on your phone (e.g. the "downloads" directory).
  • On your phone, install the ES File Explorer (or your favorite file explorer/browser) app via Market
  • Open the file explorer, find the Gingerbreak APK and install it (make sure "USB debugging" and "Unknown sources" settings are turned on)
  • Run Gingerbreak, touch the option to root your phone. Your phone should reboot by itself in a few minutes. If it doesn't reboot by itself, Gingerbreak probably didn't work. After the phone reboots, you should see a "Superuser" app in your list of apps.
  • Install Titanium Backup (free version is fine) from Market.
  • In Titanium Backup, touch "Backup/Restore", select an app you want to remove, then select "Un-install". Be very careful about which apps you remove! Removing the wrong one can brick your phone. Here is a list of "safe" apps to remove for LG Optimus M.

Here are the apps I removed. I'd recommend that you stop Boingo WiFi before trying to remove it---I kept getting error messages after removing it and had to reboot the phone before I could continue. Also note that some of these apps provide basic functionality; if you ever think you'll use that functionality or aren't sure, don't remove that app.

  • Boingo wifi (had to reboot after removing)
  • Gameloft free games
  • Loopt
  • Mail@metro
  • Metro backup
  • Metro 411
  • Metro navigator
  • Metropcs easy wifi
  • Mocospace
  • Myextras
  • Pocket express
  • Uno
  • Virtual card
  • Music
  • Sns
  • RSS reader
  • Voice dialer
  • Voice search
  • Weather

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