Sony has already rolled out Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) to many of its Xperia 2011 Android handsets. Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc LT15i users who’ve just flashed the OTA Ice Cream Sandwich firmware (4.1.A.0.562) may be a little heartbroken to find some trouble regarding root privileges. Rooting methods in the past will certainly not work, but luckily for us, you can still root your phone using DooMLoRD’s kernel and flashing it via Fastboot. The custom kernel also incorporates a modified version of ClockworkMod Recovery, so it’s a two-in-one thing.
Check out the guide below to root your Xperia Arc running Ice Cream Sandwich firmware.
Requirements
- Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc (LT15i) running Ice Cream Sandwich firmware 4.1.A.0.562 with locked or unlocked bootloader
- Windows PC
- ADB drivers installed on your computer (Flashtool-drivers.exe, md5sum: 3ceff17ea876b403441bb54092d9d00a)
- Enable USB Debugging on your phone. You can do this by heading to Settings > Developer Options > USB Debugging. Make sure that there is a check mark beside that option.
- Enable Unknown Sources on your phone. You can do this by heading to Settings > Security > Unknown Resources. Make sure that there is a check mark beside that option.
Instructions
Rooting via Fastboot
- Download the following files and save them to your PC:
- Connect your Xperia Arc to your PC via the USB cable.
- Copy the Superuser-3.0.7-efghi-signed.zip file to the root of your phone’s SD card.
- Disconnect your phone from your PC.
- Extract Fastboot.zip file and place the extracted folder in the C:\ directory on your PC. The extracted folder named Fastboot will contain four files inside.
- Copy the ARC-DooMKernel-ICS-BETA-V04-lower-boot.img file and place it inside the Fastboot folder. You should have 5 files by now in the Fastboot folder.
- Connect your Xperia Arc to your PC but this time around you must be in Fastboot mode. You can do this by first plugging in your USB cable to your PC. Hold the Menu key of your phone then connect the other end of the USB cable to your phone.
- On your PC, launch a command prompt from Start > All Programs > Accessories.
- At the command prompt, enter the following commands and hit the Enter key after each command:
cd c:\Fastbootfastboot boot ARC-DooMKernel-ICS-BETA-v04-lower-boot.img
- Important! Once the kernel has been flashed, your phone should automatically reboot itself. As soon as the Sony splash screen shows up and the blue LED lights up, press the Back button on your phone repeatedly to enter ClockworkMod Recovery.
- In ClockworkMod Recovery, select Install ZIP from SD Card.
- Select Choose ZIP from SD Card then browse for the downloaded Superuser-3.0.7-efghi-signed.zip file and select it. Confirm the installation by selecting Yes on the screen that follows. It may take 2-3 minutes for the installation process to complete.
- Head back to the main recovery menu by pressing the Back button on your phone.
- Select Reboot System Now to reboot your phone.
- Complete the rooting process by installing BusyBox on your phone, as it is required by many applications to use root access properly. You can install BusyBox by downloading the app from the Google Play Store.
- Launch the BusyBox Installer app on your phone and select the Allow button to grant the application root access. Select Ok when a pop-up screen shows up. Select the Install button at the bottom to download and install BusyBox on your phone.
Rooting via one-click method
- Download the Rooting Toolkit (DooMLoRD_v1_Xperia-2011-ICS-ROOT-emu-busybox-su.zip, MD5SUM: dc7f4a107e7d991572219404a9ca996e) for the Xperia 2011 ICS and save it to your PC.
- Extract the downloaded file using any extracting software and place the files inside a folder.
- Connect your phone to your PC via USB cable.
- Double click the runme.bat that you obtained during extraction. This will also begin the rooting process. Wait for the application to finish rooting your phone.
- After a while, you should be greeted with an “All Done” message. Your phone is now rooted.
- Disconnect your phone from your PC.
Congratulations! You have successfully rooted your Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc LT15i running Ice Cream Sandwich firmware 4.1.A.0.562.
