Database Users

[Q] failing to root after OTA 2.2.1

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Prior to OTA 2.2.1 had my DX rooted for tethering, but forgot to unroot this week before finally running the update that VZn pushed out. Now when i try to root with any method i can find info on, the rageagainstthecage process gets me to a point where rooting stops. Using ADB shows the DX is connected but offline and the whole process just stops there. Rebooting the DX is the only way to start all over again with the same results. Have seen some posts that maybe the later OTA was different than the earlier one and thats why some are having rooting issues. btw, was using pc mode and debug enabled.
I Sure do miss that tethering!

DasNas said:
Hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Prior to OTA 2.2.1 had my DX rooted for tethering, but forgot to unroot this week before finally running the update that VZn pushed out. Now when i try to root with any method i can find info on, the rageagainstthecage process gets me to a point where rooting stops. Using ADB shows the DX is connected but offline and the whole process just stops there. Rebooting the DX is the only way to start all over again with the same results. Have seen some posts that maybe the later OTA was different than the earlier one and thats why some are having rooting issues. btw, was using pc mode and debug enabled.
I Sure do miss that tethering!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Find the APK file for Z4 root and give it a go that way or Superoneclick has always worked for me. Just make sure you have the latest drivers from Motorolla for your phone and PC OS. It's far easier then rageagainstthecage.

Thanks, some of the things I've tried... Z4 all 3 editions, they dont hang and run through as if there sucessful, but when the X reboots and i try running an app like root explorer. It says phone not rooted. Super1click gets stuck in a loop and using adb devices, shows device connected but offline. Rebooting phone is the only way out. I Just can't see what im missing here, other than I should have unrooted b4 the OTA update.

DasNas said:
Hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Prior to OTA 2.2.1 had my DX rooted for tethering, but forgot to unroot this week before finally running the update that VZn pushed out. Now when i try to root with any method i can find info on, the rageagainstthecage process gets me to a point where rooting stops. Using ADB shows the DX is connected but offline and the whole process just stops there. Rebooting the DX is the only way to start all over again with the same results. Have seen some posts that maybe the later OTA was different than the earlier one and thats why some are having rooting issues. btw, was using pc mode and debug enabled.
I Sure do miss that tethering!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's been a coupe threads already started with your issue..I think there's one on the 3rd page called can't reroot after the ota update...find it and follow the directions..
Sent from my DROIDX

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction to find the right post. I have to admit it was a very different approach to finally being able to get RW access to the file system & then using a terminal emulator to delete the old Superuser.apk at 1st try i couldn't get rm superuser.apk to work (no such file or dir) then it hit me its case sesitive. 2nd try & it went away.
Finally rooted again & Tethered!
Android Life is Good Again!

DasNas said:
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction to find the right post. I have to admit it was a very different approach to finally being able to get RW access to the file system & then using a terminal emulator to delete the old Superuser.apk at 1st try i couldn't get rm superuser.apk to work (no such file or dir) then it hit me its case sesitive. 2nd try & it went away.
Finally rooted again & Tethered!
Android Life is Good Again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's good..Enjoy
Sent from my DROIDX

[Q] Unable to complete root process

Hello there fellow Glacier owners.
Let me start off by saying I have rooted 2 Glaciers very recently, and I am very familiar with the process. One of them was swapped at the store because I had one of the Taiwanese screens, and it was driving me nuts. I have been trying to root the new one.
I've gone through the gfree, adb, and Visionary+ methods already, and now an issue has cropped up.
Now, when I run Visionary, pop open the terminal, and type 'su' I get an 'unknown user root' error.
When I try to use the adb/gfree method and run 'rage', I now get a 'rage: applet not found' error.
During my previous attempt, I did not get this error. I have tried a reset to factory through stock hboot, I have tried loading the 2.2.1 PD15IMG.zip, through stock hboot (didn't help, wasn't expecting it to). I've even tried switching out and formatting mSD cards on the off chance it might help.
If anyone has any advice or help they can offer me, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks

Any way you can post a video of your step by step? I've always used grankin's guide and I've never had an issue, not once, on 6 HTC Glaciers.
Thus far, I've only seen a few reasons why people can't root their phone:
- They aren't on 2.2.1
- They didn't put files in the correct location/follow directions to the T
I don't think I've ever seen a legit, "your device is defective" post, but it's been suggested.
I use visionaryplus.r14.apk each time and my employee has rooted a handful of HTC Glaciers using the same.
I think a video would really help expose any possible oversights. It's either your steps or the device is just "bad" and I'm thinking video footage would help reveal which it is.

Here is a link to my video using the Visionary+ method. I can upload a video for the adb if you want as well.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb3HIvXiF74
Replace DOT with .
I should also note that I was able to run the 'su' command at one point successfully, but this is no longer the case.

Awesome, great vid and thanks for that. Can you get a screen shot (or pic) of your About Phone > Software Information?

Thanks! Here is the requested pic...
I should note that this phone came with 2.2.1, where the other two I have rooted did not.

Awesome, thanks for the quick pic. I've had six Glaciers, two of which came with 2.2.1 pre-installed, the rest came with 2.2 and then 2.2.1 came down once I checked-in. So that alone (2.2.1 pre-installed) shouldn't be an issue.
The difficult part is, there have been multiple "processes" attempted on this device, so I can't attest to the state of the device/ROM. Is this attempt with Visionary coming from a clean install/factory reset? I'd sort of like to "take it back to basics" and have a factory reset device THEN try ONLY the Visionary method.
I saw someone mention that a dev though there could be a hardware issue causing this (I can't remember which thread or which dev mentioned it), but it was only speculative.
It seems pretty clear you know what you're doing and you're quick AND we're not even to the .sh portion (where a lot of people end up with /root/root directories).
Keep me posted...

If you could, please supply me with some detailed factory reset instructions.
I want to make sure we are troubleshooting this appropriately, and I may not be wiping it correctly.
Please let me know.
Thanks.

It should just be Menu > Settings > SD & phone storage > Factory data reset...

Ok, it's running through now.
What would my next step be?
EDIT: Wipe finished. I installed Visionary, ran Temproot, still get the 'su: unknown user root' error.
May be heading to my local T-Mobile to replace the device.

K, so once it's finished you'll get to the TMO setup wizard where you enter your Google account info, etc. Once you get through that and get to the home screen, stop and don't do anything else. That's our home base.
Let me know once you get to the home screen for the first time after factory reset and we'll go from there...
I appreciate your patience and willingness to go through everything in baby steps.

Youch, k, there we go. That's exactly what the next step would've been and it sounds like you're truly not missing anything.
Does anyone else out there have anything to offer? I think you're probably best at cutting your losses and just getting another device. It really should be a very simple process, as you've seen before.
Keep us posted on the new device!

Woops, went a little too far then. I'll re-wipe.
What's the next step?
EDIT: Didn't do this, nevermind.

Ok, I got the new phone. Attempted to root through Visionary, everything looked good, but then I did not have root. Here is what I did...
From factory, out of the box (confirmed 2.2.1), ran Visionary - Temproot.
In terminal, 'su' works properly.
Ran root.sh
Appeared to work, rebooted the phone manually, S was still on.
Ran Visionary Temproot.
Ran Visionary Permroot.
S is still on.
Are there other steps I should take? Or did I perhaps do something wrong.
Please let me know.

Ok, unless there's some silly oversight, I think we might have a different issue here. Anything 'special' about these newer HTC Glaciers? All the specs you posted look identical the devices I've had from November, December, etc.
I hope there's no issue with me posting a link to Visionary.
Visionary R14:
http://deancasey.net/android/apps/visionaryplus.r14.apk
Just for giggles, can you try that APK? I know you said you have the same version, but there's obviously some difference between what you have (hardware, software, etc.) Other than that, it's either process or device. You seem pretty knowledgeable and it's not some silly mistake like not finding the .sh script.
Has anyone else tried to root using Visionary R14 on a newly-acquired MT4G? I'm just wondering if ANYTHING is different about the newer devices.

Still not working.
Should I try the gfree method? I will also note, that the last 2 I did gave me a real hard time rooting them. I bounced around a bunch of threads/methods before I got it to work, and I really don't recall what I had to do.

Yeah, it's just something that's really weird to me. I've been a "tech," professionally, for nearly 15 years. I worked as a Project Manager for a software company for 7 years, so I was solely responsible for testing our new releases. I also did all the 'lite' work like the database patches, installer scripts, etc.
Working closely with a smart developer, you start to get really good at testing and removing your own opinions from the loop. So there's pretty much always a finite reason why something isn't working as expected.
So that side of me wants to know what the variable is. Six of these devices and I've rooted them all without issue, using that .apk and Grankin's .sh script. So it's like, ok, I know this works. I've seen it not work for people who weren't on 2.2.1, who didn't follow the directions, etc. It looks like we can rule out the user with you so now it's a matter of what is unique about your device(s)?
Try the gfree method and report back, but I'd definitely like to see if anyone smarter than you and I has any input on what could be different about the newer devices you have.

Ok, I got the new phone. Attempted to root through Visionary, everything looked good, but then I did not have root. Here is what I did...
From factory, out of the box (confirmed 2.2.1), ran Visionary - Temproot.
In terminal, 'su' works properly.
Ran root.sh
Appeared to work, rebooted the phone manually, S was still on.
Ran Visionary Temproot.
Ran Visionary Permroot.
S is still on.
Are there other steps I should take? Or did I perhaps do something wrong.
Please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was under the impression that you had to turn S off before you can perm-root this device. The way I did it is here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=858996
I used only Gfree and Visionary (both can be obtained in the link). No separate rage exploit. If I follow you correctly, I don't see where you used gfree after temp-rooting, which is what actually turns S on or off from my understanding. Visionary is what puts the binaries in place and executes the exploit to do so. I only used these two tools and I have S off with perm-root verified. Try it this way:
1. Fresh MT4G, stock bootloader, recovery, etc.
2. Ensure USB debugging is on
3. Install a terminal emulator
4. Install Visionary
5. Temp-root with Visionary
6. Push gfree to your phone as described in the link above using adb
7. Open your terminal and run gfree as described in the link above
8. Reboot
9. Run Visionary again, but this time ensure you check the box to have it mount system R/W after temp-root
10. Temp-root through Visionary
11. With Visionary still open, attempt to perm-root the device; it should reboot
These are the steps that I remember following and it worked perfectly. The key was using gfree to turn S off in order to get it to stick, then going back to Visionary and rooting. I think it is possible to get perm-root with the engineering bootloader and not really turning S off, but I am not %100 sure about the new stock bootloaders and having to turn S off or not. But, this method worked on more than one MT4G on which I tried it. Hope it helps.

The method outlined in Grankin's post gets you S-Off.
totalentropy is getting stuck before we can even get to the next steps. He's just trying to get Temp Root and then get su. You won't have S-Off at this point in the process and you don't need to have it off at this point. You won't get S-Off until you run the root.sh script...
*Crappy iPod Touch camera
total, have you tried the 'Alternative Root Process' outlined in Grankin's post? He wants you to remove the Visionary and Super User apps before proceeding with that method.

kmdub, that didn't work for me.
schlongwoodian, I did try that, and it seemed to be working. After the last rage, it soft reboots to the MyTouch logo, 5 seconds later flashes back to the MyTouch logo, then boots normally. I checked S after that, and it is still on. This is the same behavior that my other two exhibited when I was trying to root them.
Here is some additional info that may be helpful.
For all 3 Glaciers, I could not push su or Superuser.apk to the phone normally. I could only push them right when the phone booted with the USB plugged in, right after the USB debugging mode message appears. Any other time and I get access denied.
When I run gfree, with the -f switch, I get an error with input file, sometime a different error that I cannot remember off the top of my head. On one Glacier, I could run gfree with the -s off switch, which did work. I tried that on this current one, and it did not help.

For all 3 Glaciers, I could not push su or Superuser.apk to the phone normally.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Push via? ADB? Why is Superuser.apk being pushed to the phone? That's part of another root process I'm guessing? That's not part of Grankin's root process. Now, the Superuser.apk does get installed (Visionary), but never does Superuser.apk have to be manually copied over.
Those are good points that you mentioned. Can you clarify if you pushed Superuser.apk to your phone earlier? The process should be:
- Factory reset or start with clean device
- Copy visionaryplus.r14.apk to your microSD card (I put mine in a folder named _appz)
- Copy Grankin's 'root' folder to the root of your microSD card
- Run Visionary to gain temp root
- Run Terminal and type su
It's interesting that you're getting the 'unknown user' error right when you type 'su' and you also have manually copied over a Superuser.apk. Can you start the process over again - factory reset - and do nothing once you boot the phone for the first time? Wait and don't copy a thing over, nada. Just wait and post back here. And make sure there truly is nothing on your microSD card - nothing that you've put there that is, not until we can start this over again.
I hope we're onto something...

[Q] unable to get su when attempting root

I am trying to root my phone and am running into trouble early. I have watched the videos & followed instructions. Somehow I am either missing something or my phone is jacked somehow.
I made sure it's not in fast boot, USB debugging & unknown sources are on. I have tried visionary r14 & r11. I have also tried multiple factory resets.
OK, I use visionary with set system r/w after root checked. I go from there to Term. Emulator & when I type su it shows "unknown user root" without the quotes. I've tried to continue but it gives me other errors and S is always on when I check.
I've searched Google & the forums and haven't found much that's been able to help me.
If anyone has seen this I would appreciate the help. Thanks!

Visionary (r11 & r14) are only temp root tools. You must use one of the two methods (both are in my signature) to turn s-off. As long as your s-on you will not be able to permaroot your phone.
Once you turn off the phone, and turn it back on you've lost Root Access. and that's why it's given you that error. If you pull the battery wait about 30 seconds, put the battery back in. Then temp root you should see a "superuser" icon appear. Once you see that try your SU command from terminal emulator. The other thing you can try is setting up your ADB (link in signature). Navigate to the c:/adb folder then typing in ADB shell. You should see a $ sign appear. Type SU from the Command Prompt and it should ask you to approve the SU access on the phone. once you've gained temp SU access you can proceed with one of the two methods i've got posted to finish turning s-off.

It's the temp root I'm getting stuck at. I do get the superuser icon after I do the temp root. I go directly to emulator and type in su and that is when it tells me "unknown user root". I will try the ADB method when I get home from work if nothing else is figured out before that.

Same deal for me. Not sure if my MT4G is a newer model or what. I've literally done EVERY set of instructions and youtube videos on rooting and keep getting stuck at the same place. Typing su into terminal emulator and getting unknown user root. I have reset my phone, taken the battery out for five minutes and re-inserted it. I have tried both visionary 11 and 14 versions and clicked temp root. Once the temp root process completes and comes back to visionary+ I go straight to terminal emulator, type in su and get unknown user root. Unlike dbharr I DO NOT get a superuser icon after temprooting with visionary. It's not like i'm fudging up any part of the process here. I'm stuck at like step 2 of the rooting process. Any ideas anyone?
Software version is 2.2.1

You may have a newer chip set and may only be able to root with s-off by using the gfree route. It was the only thing that worked for me.
In my situation I had visionary installed, root folder in the root of my sd card, and followed the unlockr method for root access.
I temprooted and checked temp root on boot and rw one too.
I ran terminal emulator, typed in the commands and the process ran and looked like a success.
I powered my phone down and boot into hboot and s-on showed up.
I tried the same process and factory reset between tries.
I then found out there was another way to get perm root with s-off using a similar process.
I factory reset and placed visionary apk and gfree folder on the root of my sd card.
I went on the android market and installed root explorer (there plenty others you can use it only need to be able to access your root) and also terminal emulator.
I installed visionary and temp rooted (using same temproot method from unlockr.com) my phone I downloaded the gfree file and extracted it on my cpu then moved it to the root of my sdcard.
Then using your root explorer go into gfree folder and copy the file called "gfree" and only this file.
The go into the root of the phone and your going to paste that into the local folder in /data/local/
From there you type in a few commands in terminal emulator. It will run thru a process then power down.
Boot into hboot and verify it shows s-off
If so reboot phone. When your phone boots up visionary should have temp rooted your phone.
If so Open up visionary and uncheck temproot on boot and click attempt perm root. Your phone will reboot and you have perm root. Verify by typing su in terminal emulator and then if you get # your good to go.
If you dont get s-off try factory reset and repeat process, you should be able to find the instructions if you search gfree and it should come up but if im not mistaken its a stickie on the developement forum
Hope this helps!
HTC Glacier
Perm-rooted S-off

If root.sh method is not working, use gfree + visionary method. Worked for me as a charm.

People, please bother to read before answering questions. Marking below the important part of the question that everyone is missing:
corollatercel said:
Same deal for me. Not sure if my MT4G is a newer model or what. I've literally done EVERY set of instructions and youtube videos on rooting and keep getting stuck at the same place. Typing su into terminal emulator and getting unknown user root. I have reset my phone, taken the battery out for five minutes and re-inserted it. I have tried both visionary 11 and 14 versions and clicked temp root. Once the temp root process completes and comes back to visionary+ I go straight to terminal emulator, type in su and get unknown user root. Unlike dbharr I DO NOT get a superuser icon after temprooting with visionary. It's not like i'm fudging up any part of the process here. I'm stuck at like step 2 of the rooting process. Any ideas anyone?
Software version is 2.2.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To corollatercel:
If Visionary doesn't temp-root your phone, you could attempt it using SuperOneClick (google it) from PC, using rageagainstthecage or psneuter method. Just substitute the steps for temp-root using Visionary to temp-root using SuperOneClick.

Jack_R1 said:
People, please bother to read before answering questions. Marking below the important part of the question that everyone is missing:
To corollatercel:
If Visionary doesn't temp-root your phone, you could attempt it using SuperOneClick (google it) from PC, using rageagainstthecage or psneuter method. Just substitute the steps for temp-root using Visionary to temp-root using SuperOneClick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, this is the answer I was looking for. An alternate method of temprooting. I will try this and post results. Thanks Jack.

Ok you guys may think i'm kidding but I tried both methods outlined
Here:
SuperOneClick trying both psnueter AND gingerbreak options
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=803682
And
Here:
RageagainsttheCage
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=792016
and even after superoneclick says its rooted AND says says success when it asks if I want to test root by sending su command, whenever I go into terminal Emulator and type in su I get permission denied or unknown user root whenever I tried su through adb shell through Dos on my machine. I dunno what is it with my device. I did all of this after fresh factory resets just so you all know. I dunno my MT4G must have a newer chipset that's not vulnerable to the current exploits is all I can say. I've follow these instructions to the letter more than twice each time factory resetting just to make sure things are fresh. Still no dice.

I never did get mine working. I did get a warranty replacement & had it rooted within 10 minutes of being out of the box. That makes me think it was something with the phone. Best of luck to others with the same problem.

dbharr said:
I never did get mine working. I did get a warranty replacement & had it rooted within 10 minutes of being out of the box. That makes me think it was something with the phone. Best of luck to others with the same problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah unfortunately am not in that same position. It sucks. Guess i'm stuck with it for the moment. Only reason I really wanted to root and upgrade was so I could download netflix. I went from the G2 to the MT4G and had NO idea it was just compatible with certain devices. I've tried different versions of the netflix app on here too but they all require you to have root. Hopefully they make the app compatible soon.

Here's an update everyone. I was FINALLY able to get everything working. I had to use a tool called Z4root to gain temproot. You can imagine my relief AND also frustration after I installed z4root and things just started running just the way it was supposed to. I gained temp root in a matter of minutes and after doing so I was able to use the gfree method to perform all other functions that are a part of the rooting process. And for the record ALL other tools did not work for me:
- Both versions of visionary + 11 and 14
- SuperOneClick using psnueter AND rageagainstthecage exploits
Just thought I'd share. Thanks a lot guys. I had already put my mytouch on cl for sale or trade for a G2 because I thought my device could not be rooted or anything. until about 1 o clock in the morning I got it workin...ha.

Thats sweet man im glad you got it done, only difference I was avle to use visionary
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

Can not install TWRP with KF Utility

KF Utility is stuck at the <waiting for device> script
It also says
adb can not run as root in production builds.
the command prompt says <idme> invalid permissions.
and i notice in the video that it's supposed to reboot in fastboot and it doesn't do anything.
can anyone help? Nothing is working so far.

Dumb question, but are you rooted?

rolyatkcinmai said:
Dumb question, but are you rooted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, with burritoroot2
i think, well, i know i'm rooted, i just don't know if its with that or burritoroot3

I had the same problem. After the 6.2.2 update, I rerooted with burritoroot2. Apps requiring root work fine, but I was unable to use KFU 0.9.2 to install TWRP. So I basically followed the directions in this post and KFU was able to install TWRP.

Drivers
Make sure that your device manager has the fire listed as composite adb and not just adb. Sounds like you are having driver issues.

huchman said:
Make sure that your device manager has the fire listed as composite adb and not just adb. Sounds like you are having driver issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured it out. my ADB wasn't rooted on my computer itself. I must have messed up something while i was in the command prompt. My kindle was rooted, but my computer wasn't recognizing it as being so.
I now to CM7! and i love it!

Another dumb question: how do I know if I'm rooted
Is there a way to display the status (rooted or not)? Or do I always have to run the Kindle Fire Utility to check the status of my Kindle?

there are apps on the market like rootchecker

Bmcd37 said:
Is there a way to display the status (rooted or not)? Or do I always have to run the Kindle Fire Utility to check the status of my Kindle?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is an app called root check
download, install and give it superuser permissions.
when you root it, it should stay rooted unless you tell it to not be rooted anymore.
or are you talking about the computer?
if you do the command prompt sequence for burritoRoot it should stay rooted.

Thanks.
I'm still getting used to the concept of rooting. I forget that it's more permanent that a network connection between the PC and Kindle Fire. I will download an app just to satisfy myself that things don't change in the way of root status, unless I change it.
Have a good weekend.
Thanks.

[Q] superoneclick stuck

superoneclick 2.3.3 stuck on step 5 (unable to chmod...) and i think i did everything right!
it's on C:/ and i run it as adminstrator but it still stuck-???

Liorgex said:
superoneclick 2.3.3 stuck on step 5 (unable to chmod...) and i think i did everything right!
it's on C:/ and i run it as adminstrator but it still stuck-???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use ZergRush method to root.

sorry for being noob but what does it mean? its something for SOC or its another program?

Liorgex said:
sorry for being noob but what does it mean? its something for SOC or its another program?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats another tool using different method of root.

Here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1321582

Did you enable the Debug USB Settings?

Very nice, thanks!

Step #7 stuck for me
Superone stuck at step #7 on me said waiting for device but never whent finsed the root I have romtool box , titaumbackup, allso have superuser installed plus adw installed could those be the couse of superone getting stuck just before it reinstalled programs.. I have z4 and universalroot allso was truing to root with out pc my phone is a samsung infuse from at&t

SuperOneClick Stuck ** Possible Solutions for some **
Liorgex said:
superoneclick 2.3.3 stuck on step 5 (unable to chmod...) and i think i did everything right!
it's on C:/ and i run it as adminstrator but it still stuck-???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been trying to root a Sidekick 4G for two days now. But the only process that I could find to do it that was currently updated was SuperOneClick. I am posting this to hopefully help others that might be stuck somewhere along the process because in my extensive searches, I have found so many people that were stuck at the same places I was, but noone seemed to have any answers other than re-install the drivers. Well I installed and re-installed the drivers about 10 times; downloading them from various websites.
Problems that I had:
- My Samsung drivers would install part of the way or not all all
Finally, what worked for me was to DL KIES from the Samsung Website. I installed KIES and let it fix the drivers for me! I was then able to get past the 2nd line in SuperOneClick where it was waiting for ADB but now...
- I was getting stuck at Step 5 in SuperOneClick and sometimes at step 7
What I found was that my virus software (Bitdefender) was deleting the exploits as soon as I started the root process! Even though I thought that I had shut down Bitdefender (in MSCONFIG) when I went back into MSCONFIG to check I found that Bitdefender was turning itself back on!
I found that there was a way in the settings within BD to turn off the autovirus scan for a short period of time. Once I had it all turned off, I unzipped SOC again (because BD apparently couldn't see the zipped up files and never deleted those). I reran SuperOneClick, then it finally worked!!!
Hopefully this helps someone from spending the hours & hours that I did trying to find the solution.

SuperOneClick stuck on step 5 for me too.
-Danik- said:
Use ZergRush method to root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SuperOneClick uses ZergRush. Why would it matter?
Anyway, when mine was stuck at step 5, it did finally clear. You just have to wait.

Every firmware for the MS2 is rootable with Cydia Impactor, even the ones on BL4.
It's easier now

Lean946 said:
Every firmware for the MS2 is rootable with Cydia Impactor, even the ones on BL4.
It's easier now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This worked for me. Couldn't have been easier.

Always used SuperOneClick to root my ML2.
Please, check this items:
- User Debugging Mode
- Motorola Flash Interface (on Device manager of your computer), if not show this, will not work well.
With your device manager opened, click on Root button and check if your cell loses connection when stopped at chmod command.
The SuperoneClick uses the zergrush tool and seems like a exploit by anti-spyware softwares. Make sure that you disable when runs the SuperOneClick.