Root the Motorola Milestone

February 6, 2012 | Filed under: Turotial | Posted by: Sam Turker

With many Droid variants coming from Motorola, it seems that the Milestone was left behind in terms of third-party modifications. The Motorola Milestone may be an old device, considering it was released during the golden years of Eclair and Froyo. Nevertheless, the device proved to be a smashing hit and appealed to many consumers with its built-in sliding keyboard.

Rooting an Android device is a means for unlocking a device’s full potential. The Motorola Milestone is no exception. With an aged processor clocked at 600 MHz, it’s no wonder that many users tend to exploit their low-end device by making it faster by running scripts and custom ROMs. But, before users can enjoy the benefits of custom ROMs, they need to have root access on their device. In this tutorial we are going to teach you to root your Motorola Milestone so that you can unlock it, in preparation for such great things as installing a custom ROM.

Instructions

Download the following drivers and files to your computer:
- Motorola USB Drivers for Windows (32-bit version | 64-bit version)
- RSD Lite 5.5
- Vulnerable Recovery SBF file
- Milestone Root Update ZIP file
Install the Motorola USB Drivers on your computer. This will help your computer recognize your device once it is connected via USB cable.
Rename “milestone_root.zip” to “update.zip”
Connect your device to your computer via USB cable.
Copy the renamed file into the root of your phone’s SD card.
Disconnect the USB cable.
Enable USB Debugging on your device by heading to “Settings > Applications > Development > USB Debugging”.
Reconnect your phone to your computer via the USB cable.
Run the RSD Lite tool on your computer. The application will then communicate with your device and show you the model number as “A853” with the status shown as “Connected”.
Press the “…” button, and choose the file named “vulnerable_recovery_only_RAMDLD90_87.sbf”.
After the file is in place, the “Start” button should now be enabled. Press the “Start” button. Your device should boot itself to bootloader mode and start flashing the recovery firmware. You should see the “Finished” notification in the RSD Lite tool once it is done.
Exit RSD Lite and disconnect the USB cable attached to your device.
Turn off your phone.
Press and hold the “X” button and then press the Power button to boot your phone into recovery mode.
At the next screen, press and hold the Volume Up button and press the Camera button to get inside recovery mode
Once inside recovery mode, select “Clear Storage” to completely wipe out all the data that is inside your phone.
Select “Install zip from SD card” then select “Choose zip from SD card” and choose the “update.zip” file that you have renamed and copied earlier. Wait for a few minutes for the installation to finish.
Select “++++ Go Back ++++” and choose “Reboot system now” to restart your device.