The Nexus 9 hit the stores and made it to the hands of the consumer earlier this week. Being a Nexus device, developing root forward on it was always going to be fairly straightforward. However, cheers to a new version of Android and the Nexus 9 being the first 64-bit Android tablet to hit the retail stores, SuperSU developer Chainfire hit a several roadblocks while trying to root his Nexus 9
As they say though, one man’s pain is another man’s gain (Okay, pleasure). He has released a unique version of SuperSU v2.18 meant specifically for the Nexus 9 device and a patched boot image to develop gaining root access on the tablet simpler.
Before you proceed with the steps beneath though, keep in mind that rooting the Nexus 9 needs its bootloader to be unlocked, which means all your device data including the installed apps and their data will be lost. Next, since Android 5.0 Lollipop is less than a week old, possibilities are your usual root apps will act weirdly under it. Either way, if you wish to root your Nexus 9 device for one reason or another, simply follow the steps listed below:
Step No 1: Create a new folder on your desktop and title it “nexus”. Proceed to download all the files linked below and the extract their contents inside this folder.
- ADB/Fastboot: Windows | Mac
- Patched Boot image
Step No 2: On your Nexus 9, head over to Settings -> About Device and tap on ‘Build Number’ 7 times to enable Developer Options. Then, go back to Settings -> Developer Options & enable the “Enable OEM Unlock” and “ADB Debugging” options.
Step No 3: On your Windows or Mac based Computer, open up the Command Prompt or Terminal window and navigate to the “nexus” folder on your desktop using the “cd” command (i.e. cd/desktop/nexus).
Connect the Nexus 9 to your Computer and ensure to tap on ‘OK’ to authorize your Computer for USB Debugging. Then, type the following command:
adb devices
If the drivers were properly installed, your Nexus 9 will be found by your Computer and you’ll get a bunch of random numbers and alphabets. If not, you need to reboot your Computer and re-install the drivers and try again. Then, type the following command:
adb reboot bootloader
Step No 4: Once your Nexus 9 reboots into Bootloader mode, use the Volume keys to navigate & highlight the “FASTBOOT” mode and ensure your selection by pressing the Power button.
Step No 5: Enter the below command in Terminal or command prompt to unlock the bootloader of your Nexus 9 device:
fastboot oem unlock
Confirm the prompt on your Nexus 9 device by pressing the Volume up key. Your device will reboot now, which is going to take its own sweet time. Once completed, you’ll be back into the Bootloader menu.
Step No 6: Copy paste the following command after which your Nexus 9 device will reboot back into Bootloader mode. This command will momentary boot a patched boot image that will inject SuperSU into the system partition.
fastboot boot inject.img
Step No 7: Finally, enter the below command to install a patched kernel with a modified ramdisk on your device.
fastboot flash boot patched.img
Once installed, reboot your device back into Lollipop by executing the below command:
fastboot reboot
Congratulations! You’ve successfully managed to root your Nexus 9. Though chances are you won’t be able to enjoy it much since most root apps aren’t going to play along perfectly with Android 5.0 Lollipop in the meantime.
