How to Root the Archos 101 G9

The Archos G9 series tablets have gone a long way since their release. One of Archos’ famous G9 series tablets is the Archos 101 G9 that features a 10.1-inch touchscreen and a 1.5 GHz processor. Powered by Android 3.1 Honeycomb, the Archos 101 G9 is built primarily for watching movies and playing games with the family, and other general entertainment purposes.

Just like any other Android device, the Archos 101 G9 is fully rootable, thanks to a rooting exploit developed by Paul O’Brien. According to him, it was not easy bypassing the device’s inbuilt security as he had to undergo certain precautionary measures to perfect the rooting method.

The rooting process itself is a little bit complex, but with your diligence and attention to instructional details, you should be able to pull it through.

Warning

Before you proceed with rooting your device, take note that rooting will void your warranty.
We will not be held responsible if anything should happen to your device. Proceed at your own risk.
This tutorial is intended only for the Archos 101 G9 tablet and will not work on Generation 8 tablets.

Requirements

Archos 101 G9 tablet
Windows PC
Android SDK installed on your PC. Follow the installation guide here. Make sure you install the USB drivers as instructed in step 4 of the guide and update the system path as instructed in step 5 of the guide.
Enable USB Debugging on your tablet (Applications > Development > USB Debugging).

Instructions

Rooting the Archos 101 G9 tablet requires a series of procedures before you can fully have permanent root on the tablet.

Part 1: Temporary Root

Connect your Archos 101 G9 tablet to your PC via USB cable.
On your PC, launch a command prompt.
To confirm that your tablet is visible in ADB, enter the following command at the command prompt:
- adb devices
The command above should display your tablet’s device and serial number. If you don’t see your device and serial number, then it’s your ADB driver that needs to be installed correctly. See this XDA guide for help.
Download archos-g9-step1-and-2.zip (8.6 kB) and save it to your computer. This package contains step 1 and step 2 of O’Brien’s method for rooting the Archos 101 G9 tablet.
Extract the downloaded file using any extraction software and place the files inside a single folder. The extracted files should contain two files named “1” and “2”.
At the command prompt, change directory to where you extracted “1” and “2”.
After which, enter the following commands at the command prompt:

adb push 1 /data/local/
adb push 2 /data/local/
adb shell chmod 0755 /data/local/1
adb shell chmod 0755 /data/local/2
adb shell /data/local/1
adb reboot
adb shell /data/local/2
adb reboot

Your tablet is now temporarily rooted. Do not disconnect your tablet from your PC just yet. Continue to the next part.

Part 2: Permanent Root

Download gen9_enable_sde_zip (3.2 MB) from here and save it to your PC.
Extract the contents of gen9_enable_sde.zip and place them inside a folder on your PC.
Inside the folder where you extracted the contents of gen9_enable_sde.zip, browse for the file named enable_sde.bat and double-click that file.
At the command prompt, enter the following command:
- adb shell rm /data/local.prop
Download the Archos partition file (archos_3.2.79.ext4.zip, 191 MB) from here and save it to your PC.
Connect your Archos 101 G9 tablet to your PC via USB cable.
Copy the archos_3.2.79.ext4.zip file to the internal storage (/sdcard) on your tablet. Do not place it inside any subfolder.
Disconnect your tablet from your PC.
Download initramfs.cpio.gz from here (1.2 MB) and zImage (a kernel file) from here (3.9 MB) and save both files to your PC.
Switch off your tablet.
Boot the tablet into recovery mode. You can do this by holding down the “Power” and “Volume Down” button until the Archos splash screen and recovery menu appear.
Once inside recovery, use the Volume keys to navigate and the Power button to select.
Select “Recovery Menu” then select “Developer Edition Menu”.
Select “Flash Kernel and intramfs.”
A drive should appear on your computer. Copy both the zImage and initramfs.cpio.gz to the said drive.
Press the Power button on your tablet and wait for a couple of seconds.
Press the Power button again.
After which your tablet should reboot into the unrooted edition. We need to make some changes so that the rooted edition will be booted each time. To do that, continue with the next steps.
Switch off your tablet again and boot back into recovery (see step 9).
From the recovery menu, select Recovery System > Developer Menu > Remove Android Kernel.
You will see warnings. You can dismiss each warning by accepting it.
Reboot your tablet. Your tablet will now boot to the rooted edition every time you use your tablet.

Part 3: Busybox and su

Install Root Explorer on your tablet from the Google Play Store. (Alert: paid app)
Install Android Terminal Emulator on your tablet from the Google Play Store.
Install BusyBox Installer on your tablet from the Google Play Store.
Launch the Root Explorer app on your tablet.
Inside Root Explorer, navigate to the /bin directory
Tap the menu button located at the top-right corner of the screen.
Tap “Multi-select”.
Tap “Select all” located at the bottom-left corner of the screen.
Tap “Move”.
Navigate to the /system/xbin directory.
Select “Mount R/W” located on the top-right of the screen.
Select “Paste”.
On your tablet, launch the Terminal Emulator application.
Enter the following commands and press Enter after each line of code:

su
rm -r /bin
ln -s /system/xbin /bin

Return to the Root Explorer app.
Open the /system/bin directory.
Locate “su” and copy the file by long-tapping it and selecting “Copy” from the popup.
Go the /sdcard directory.
Tap “Paste” to copy the su binary into /sdcard directory.
Launch the BusyBox Installer on your tablet.
Select “BusyBox v.1.19.3” to install that version.
Select “/system/xbin” as the installation location.
Return to the Android Terminal Emulator app and enter this command:
- rm /system/xbin/su
Return to Root Explorer.
Open /system/bin and the “su” file.
Copy “su” by giving it a long-tap and selecting “Copy” from the popup.
Open /system/xbin.
Tap “Paste” to copy the su binary into the directory.
Long-tap on “su” and select “Permissions” from the prompt.
Set the permission of the su binary to the following lines of code:
- Owner — read, write, execute
- Group — read, execute
- Others — read, execute
- Set UID — yes
- Set GID — yes
- Sticky – no
Select the OK button to finish setting the permission.