Archos 80 G9 rooted

The Archos 80 G9 tablet is one of the first tablets from Archos to ship with Google Android 3.2 Honeycomb. On the one hand, that means it comes with the full suite of Google applications including the Android Market, Google Maps, and Gmail app — unlike earlier Archos tablets. On the other hand, the device is new enough that the techniques hackers have been using to gain root access on earlier tablets don’t work.

But Paul O’Brien has figured out a new method for rooting the Archos 80 G9. The process is a little involved, and requires you to install the Android SDK on a computer, connect to your tablet via a USB cable, and run some commands from the computer.

Once that’s done you should be able to access your tablet via a terminal. But so far this technique won’t install SuperUser on your device, which means that you don’t get all the benefits of rooting a device such as the ability to install third party apps that require root privileges. But he’ll have a SuperUser update soon.

Another limitation is that the bootloader and recovery images are signed, which means that there’s currently no way to install custom ROMs on the tablet, so if you buy the $270 Archos 80 G9 it looks like you’re stuck with the version of Android that comes with the device… at least until Archos issues software updates or someone figures out how to unlock the bootloader. The good news is that Archos is usually pretty good about releasing regular firmware updates.

O’Brien has also posted a detailed review of the new tablet at the Modaco forums. Overall he seems pretty impressed with the hardware and software, although he says the plastic case feels cheap.

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5 replies on “Archos 80 G9 tablet rooted”

  1. In that review you linked to a question was asked:

    “You mention GPS and 3G
    together as providing a “navigation tool”. Could you just confirm that
    the GPS receiver will work alone, without 3G, to give a location when
    suitable mapping is installed?”

    The reviewer said it worked without 3G. This stood out in my mind since the Lenovo was promoting offline GPS with their tablet and this comment seems to indicate the same about the Archos G9.

  2. I couldn’t believe how simple it was to root my Samsung Galaxy S Wifi 5.0. I downloaded a utility called SuperOneclick 2.1.1. from somewhere, enabled usb debugging (or whatever the setting is called) on my device, ran the utility, and it was rooted 30 seconds later.

    I needed to root it in order to install Titanium Backup.

  3. Sounds like we may not see a angstrom firmware for this series, not sure i like where that’s going…

  4. The aforementioned review tended to be favorable in view of the G9 80 as a “budget” tablet. That’s understandable, given the reviewer’s location (UK) and the tablet price of £199. At USD$300, the G9 80 no longer qualifies as “budget” (for the 7″/8″ size) for the US market, and its faults are harder to overlook. Ditto for the G9 101’s price of USD$370, which is actually more expensive than many of the current Tegra 2 tablets now being discounted.

    The review’s notably omitted an endemic defect that has been reported by most of G9 80 owners (cf ArchosFans forum), which is the screen distortion when the tablet is handled. The severity varies, but all reports thus far indicate that it is universal. Archos@FB has mentioned that “it will be fixed in the next batch”, but there’s no mention of a fix or recall for current owners. This sort of problem isn’t new to Archos. It has plagued the Gen8 models, and only reinforces Archos’ low-quality image–despite the now raised pricing.

    For the techies, another omitted con from the review (but mentioned in passing in your article) is that custom ROMs can’t be done, unlike most other Android tablets. With the impending release of Android 4.0 (ICS), it means that you’d need to wait for the official update, which presumably will be months down the road.

    Archos’ ace has been its movie player that can handle most types of videos. With the dual-core 4430 being common to the upcoming crop of tablets (including the $199 Kindle Fire), video handling can capably be handled with the many software players (eg Dice player), and Archos’ forte is no longer a factor.

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