[At Your Own Risk] How to Root your Samsung Galaxy S II

We're starting a new run of serialised content today at AndroidNZ, you'll be able to recognise it from here on out by its 'At Your Own Risk' tag.

It's going to focus on how to Root, hack, and mod your Android handset, and as the very name itself implies there is an element of risk involved in all of this. If the disclaimer-in-a-title isn't clear enough: if you try these mods you might turn your shiny cellphone into a paperweight. If that or any other problem does eventuate, it's all on you. We take no responsibility whatsoever for any problems you might experience.

If that isn't bad enough, we're not even going to give you troubleshooting support. OK, that's a little harsh, we will be able to give very limited troubleshooting advice. It's not that we don't care, it's just that a blog isn't really set up to allow the level of 1:1 interaction required to meaningfully
troubleshoot anything more than basic problems.

...now that you've had time to really digest just how alone you will be if it does all go pear-shaped, we can pledge that we will never run a piece on anything that we haven't tried first. We can also assure you that a Rooted Android device has many advantages over it's stock brethren - so many advantages that even with the dire warnings above we think you'll probably still want to Root your Android device at some point.

OK. If you're still onboard, and haven't turned into a gibbering wreck at the thought of irreparably damaging your beautiful phone, lets get to today's topic: How to Root your Galaxy S II.

First, here is a list of things you will need:

• A fully charged Galaxy S II
• A micro USB connection cable
• A Windows PC (I have no experience with doing this on a mac, so for now the guide will only cover Windows)
• The PC will need to have the USB drivers for the Galaxy S II installed:
• If you simply connect the Galaxy S II to the PC with the micro USB cable it will install them 
• To be very sure your device will be recognised by Odin connect twice - once with USB debugging enabled, and once without - different drivers are installed depending on the status of debugging (USB debugging is in Settings --> Applications --> Developement)
• If you're still having no luck try also installing the latest version of Samsung's Kies
• A copy of a program called Odin  - you can download it here
• The right version of Chainfire's Root kernel
• To work out which version you need go into Settings --> About Phone in your Galaxy S II, and scroll down to where it says "Kernel version". You will see a string something like this: 2.6.35.7-I9100XXKI3-CL571576. The yellow bit after the XX is what you're looking for. 
• Once you've found that bit head to Chainfire's thread at XDA-developers here, and download the correct file. The easiest way to find it is hit Control+F and then enter the text from your phone that corresponds to the yellow text in our example above.

Alright, now we've got all those things assembled, it's time to void your warranty! Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Unzip the CF-Root zip that you downloaded using the instructions above
2. Start Odin, it should look like this:

    3.  Click the button "PDA", shown in the picture below. Navigate to the file you unzipped
         from the CF-Root zip and select it (it's file extension will be .tar)

    4.  Make sure "Repartition" is NOT checked

    5.  Power down your phone, and then put your phone into download mode. Do this by
         simultaneously pressing and holding the Volume Down and Home buttons, and then
         while holding these buttons down press and hold the power button down until this
         screen appears:

    6.   Follow the instructions on that screen and press the Volume Up key to proceed into 

          download mode, you will be greeted with a screen that looks like this:

    7.   Connect your phone to your computer with the USB cable, after a few moments 

          Odin should recognise the device and look like this:

    8.   In Odin press the Start button

    9.   Odin will flash the kernel to your device, and at the end you should see this in Odin:

    10.   Your device will reboot, disconnect the device - congratulations! Your Galaxy S II is now 

            Rooted!

Simples right? 

...or maybe not? If you have any feedback about how you think we can improve these instructions, please let us know in the comments below.

If on the other hand you found these instructions were just what you needed to Root your Galaxy S II, feel free to let us know in the comments below also (along with showering the article with all the customary social media ways of saying thank you while you're at it).

If you feel compelled to show your gratitude with a financial reward, please DO NOT hit our AndroidNZ donate button, instead go here and make a donation to Chainfire for his excellent work.

I'm going to be following this piece up with several articles showing you some of the ways you can make your Rooted Galaxy S II better than your friends stock one, so if you aren't convinced that Rooting is worth it yet stayed tuned!