Related
Every since the root method came out, I've been trying to root my phone for hours and hours and I haven't been able to. Since this is a problem for quite a few other users, I figured we should have a thread just for this problem since the rooting thread is over 30 pages long at this point.
My problem is that I see the device in offline mode for a few seconds, and after that it displays an empty list again.
What I'd like to know from people who managed to root their phones, if they had to try something different from the instructions to get passed the adb loop step where you have to catch the device in offline mode? What OS are you running (Win, Mac, Linux and x86 or x64)? How many times did you try?
I got past the loop by hitting ctrl c as soon as it detected the device it worked for me. it seems if you let the loop continue and you get device not connected you have to try again. I was able to get this to work consistently twice.
Getting the adb portion of this is what took me the longest in the rooting process.
Had your same problem on Ubuntu
Had same problem on windows 7 64 bit
UNTIL:
installed pda net - then htc sync, then removed android device driver, then installed the (r3) driver from android sdk... the update you can download through their program.
After that it worked like a charm first time.
my best advice is to start running the loop just before you click recovery from the boot loader screen.
Once you got it, theres no need to be quick with control C - it stays there.
- Faylix / local
the PDANET program seems to mess with the offline loop thing.
Once I closed it, it goes through just fine..
The only problem im having is that im getting a E:Failid to verify whole-file signature when i push the update.zip
And also I've used both Windows 7 64bit and XP 32bit to no avail...
My guess is its all about the drivers. I must have mine all mixed up. I am stuck in loop with no device found either. I will try one more time with pdanet off but Ive tried on a pc without it too anyways.
Someone really needs to write an indepth guide like the G1 because drivers arent even meantioned in the guide and I know its a big part of it especially if you have had other android devices before with sdk plus adb. One thing I do notice is all of us with the loop issue have touble with the device showing in device manager. It displays android 1.0 instead of mts or adb whatever it supposed to be. If your device isnt recognized from hboot it wont make the proper jump into recovery. Hence the loop issue. Can anyone with root ellaborate this a bit more?
@jnight
You're very close. I had this happen to me too. What's happening to you is the first try failed but the update.zip still got pushed to the SD Card. Here's what you do:
1) adb push ota.zip /sdcard/update.zip
2) Type in "push update.zip /sdcard/" on your computer but don't push enter yet
3) Choose "install update.zip" in the phone. AS SOON AS the green bar appears behind the letters, press enter on your computer.
If you miss the timing and don't see clockwork recovery, you NEED to go back to my step 1("adb push ota.zip /sdcard/update.zip") or it will continue to fail no matter how many times you try because you HAVE to start with ota.zip as the update.zip on the SD card. The trick is getting the phone to verify the signature from the ota.zip and replacing it with update.zip to enter the clockwork recovery. Once you're in clockwork recovery, it's a breeze- just follow the rest of the stickied root tutorial. Hope this helped
shinkinrui said:
@jnight
You're very close. I had this happen to me too. What's happening to you is the first try failed but the update.zip still got pushed to the SD Card. Here's what you do:
1) adb push ota.zip /sdcard/update.zip
2) Type in "push update.zip /sdcard/" on your computer but don't push enter yet
3) Choose "install update.zip" in the phone. AS SOON AS the green bar appears behind the letters, press enter on your computer.
If you miss the timing and don't see clockwork recovery, you NEED to go back to my step 1("adb push ota.zip /sdcard/update.zip") or it will continue to fail no matter how many times you try because you HAVE to start with ota.zip as the update.zip on the SD card. The trick is getting the phone to verify the signature from the ota.zip and replacing it with update.zip to enter the clockwork recovery. Once you're in clockwork recovery, it's a breeze- just follow the rest of the stickied root tutorial. Hope this helped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are a godsend. Spent the last two hours trying to time this just right by doing Step 2 and 3 over and over and over. 5 minutes after reading this post - Hello, Clockwork.
Lol
shinkinrui said:
@jnight
You're very close. I had this happen to me too. What's happening to you is the first try failed but the update.zip still got pushed to the SD Card. Here's what you do:
1) adb push ota.zip /sdcard/update.zip
2) Type in "push update.zip /sdcard/" on your computer but don't push enter yet
3) Choose "install update.zip" in the phone. AS SOON AS the green bar appears behind the letters, press enter on your computer.
If you miss the timing and don't see clockwork recovery, you NEED to go back to my step 1("adb push ota.zip /sdcard/update.zip") or it will continue to fail no matter how many times you try because you HAVE to start with ota.zip as the update.zip on the SD card. The trick is getting the phone to verify the signature from the ota.zip and replacing it with update.zip to enter the clockwork recovery. Once you're in clockwork recovery, it's a breeze- just follow the rest of the stickied root tutorial. Hope this helped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was having some trouble to, I found something else that I was gonna add but it was only on my end... I didn't have the same problem rooting my wifes. I will watch this thread and if I see any more posts I will drop my piece. Im glad someone else could post this before I could.
shinkinrui said:
@jnight
You're very close. I had this happen to me too. What's happening to you is the first try failed but the update.zip still got pushed to the SD Card. Here's what you do:
1) adb push ota.zip /sdcard/update.zip
2) Type in "push update.zip /sdcard/" on your computer but don't push enter yet
3) Choose "install update.zip" in the phone. AS SOON AS the green bar appears behind the letters, press enter on your computer.
If you miss the timing and don't see clockwork recovery, you NEED to go back to my step 1("adb push ota.zip /sdcard/update.zip") or it will continue to fail no matter how many times you try because you HAVE to start with ota.zip as the update.zip on the SD card. The trick is getting the phone to verify the signature from the ota.zip and replacing it with update.zip to enter the clockwork recovery. Once you're in clockwork recovery, it's a breeze- just follow the rest of the stickied root tutorial. Hope this helped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Man, I guess I was pressing the Enter button to fast...
Got past eveything except the "SU" it says "Permission Denied"
NM about this post for some reason it started working after I installed "Setcpu". Went in to Terminal emulator and it gives me the # just fine..
For some reason its just ADB that gives Permission Denied..
"Step 18.
adb install Superuser.apk (If this looks like it works, but says it cannot locate directories, make sure you can find your device using adb devices… If things still don't work, my best advice is to start over)
Step 19.
After Superuser is installed try to use adb to shell to your device.
adb shell
you will get a $
Then type su
Superuser should pop-up asking if you give permission, do so.
Your $ should turn into a #. If so, you have root."
Make sure you run this or you wont get SU rights, this programs needs to be installed to allow the SU rights.
AngelsShadow said:
"Step 18.
adb install Superuser.apk (If this looks like it works, but says it cannot locate directories, make sure you can find your device using adb devices… If things still don't work, my best advice is to start over)
Step 19.
After Superuser is installed try to use adb to shell to your device.
adb shell
you will get a $
Then type su
Superuser should pop-up asking if you give permission, do so.
Your $ should turn into a #. If so, you have root."
Make sure you run this or you wont get SU rights, this programs needs to be installed to allow the SU rights.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you thank you....
I've been repeating myself over and over regarding this...
It's the Number 1 issue why people can't Root & Flash to the ENGINEER Build!!
Still a no go
Marvin,
I am still getting the two device OFFLINE showing after going into recovery from hboot. I deleted ALL of the HTC SYNC software and drivers and ONLY installed PDAnet. I now can see the MY TOUCH SLIDE device when connected in hboot, unfortunately I still am having the same stupid problem. So since it's not showing android 1.0 anymore and still having the same problems, we might have to explore some other avenues. FOR THE LOVE OF ROOT SOMEONE PLEASE HELP US!!!
If you run loop and go to recovery and only see the device offline a couple times then it goes away, I do not think it is a driver issue at that point. As someone in the root thread explained, the loop is simply trying to catch the device in ADB mode as it's going into recovery. And then, randomly, it will "stick" in ADB mode. Now, I am not sure if there is a difference between our devices for those of us having trouble getting the ADB mode to stick.
Ok, I'm giving up. I have tried this hundreds and hundreds of times. I know I've followed the instructions the correct way (I've seen the video and read countless forum posts). This simply cannot be done on my phone. I am going to take it to the store and try to exchange it, perhaps for a black one.
Does anyone else have any suggestions?
as i posted in the other thread i was having problems trying to get adb "stick" open when i went from the bootloader into recovery so i went into the file explorer and right clicked on my computer then went to manage devices then went to the driver tab then clicked on update driver right before i went into recovery and this is what finally worked for me. the purpose wasnt to change the driver the purpose was to trick my computer into keeping adb open
Re: Getting passed the adb loop step
I had to hit power on phone and enter on pc at almost the same time to get it working. Then I realized that after you reboot, it boots back to your normal phone not recovery and then adb devices it shows up.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Re: Getting passed the adb loop step
Ugh none of these tricks have worked for me.. Still Stuck .. Maybe it's a computer issue.. Guess ill try a friends computer..
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Maybe/hopefully someone will find a different/easier way to root these for those of us stuck here. I've also tried, exhausting many many things, everything from timing of hitting loop/recovery, all the way to almost completely breaking the ADB driver on my PC. This is thoroughly frustrating the hell out of me.
By the way, add "ECHO OFF" (without the quotes) to the top of the batch file. It makes it easier to see when it reads out the offline devices.
Re: Getting passed the adb loop step
If you go to settings then pc connection . What seeting should it be? Drive , sync, or charge?
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Accidentally broke my G2's screen [blank & unresponsive].
I'm getting a replacement from T-Mo ...but need to extract a some data from the phone's memory.
I've tried connecting it to my computer but I can't access anything unless I put in the Unlock Pattern on my phone (which I obviously can't)
Any suggestion on what I can do?
****Update*****
Screen went out but touch screen functionality remains [Screen Defect?].
I've been able to use ScreenCast to see my screen on my pc & use it to some degree.
Temp. rooted my 'broken' phone with Visionary, ran Titanium Backup ... now trying to do Clockworks Recovery.
...need some help with operating Clockworks w/ a Broken Screen..
More info on second page
If you install adb via the Android SDK, you should be able to extract everything you want.
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
EDIT:
install adb
use adb pull to get what ever data you are looking for, probably something in /data/data/ ??
you can use adb shell to poke around on your phone
I think you might have to be rooted. I don't have an unrooted phone to test this on.
gee one said:
If you install adb via the Android SDK, you should be able to extract everything you want.
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
EDIT:
install adb
use adb pull to get what ever data you are looking for, probably something in /data/data/ ??
you can use adb shell to poke around on your phone
I think you might have to be rooted. I don't have an unrooted phone to test this on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had the SDK but I can't access my phone files because they are inaccessible from my PC + my phone doesn't have USB Debugging / ADB enabled by default...
I tried running ScreenCast to try and emulate my screen on my PC (something I've done before) but it wouldn't work because, as before, the phone to be detected as an ADB device
Other suggestions?
If nothing else what's a quick way to wipe all data to factory defaults (without relying on a screen )
SmartHat said:
I've had the SDK but I can't access my phone files because they are inaccessible from my PC + my phone doesn't have USB Debugging / ADB enabled by default...
I tried running ScreenCast to try and emulate my screen on my PC (something I've done before) but it wouldn't work because, as before, the phone to be detected as an ADB device
Other suggestions?
If nothing else what's a quick way to wipe all data to factory defaults (without relying on a screen )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have Clockwork recovery, you can boot into recovery mode and use adb.
shutdown
unplug the USB and shutdown- press and hold the power button for 2 seconds, scroll down on the trackpad several times and then press the trackpad button twice. it should shut down, or else pull the battery.
reboot into recovery
hold volume "down" and press the power button for a second and release. Wait 5 seconds and then press volume "down" once and press the power button. If all goes well, the phone should vibrate briefly. Wait a few seconds and then try adb.
Get a Ubuntu livedisk, boot from it and plug the phone in. You can see the phone's contents as well as sdcard. That would be the easiest. But if you can't do that and you have the latest clockwork mod, you will still need to mount stuff from recovery before you can access it. These instructions are relevant to the latest version (2.5+).
Once in recovery per gee one's instructions the menu is as follows:
Main Menu
- reboot system now <<- cursor
- apply sdcard:update.zip
- wipe data/factory reset
- wipe cache partition
- install zip from sdcard
- backup and restore
- mounts and storage
- advanced
By default "reboot system now" is select where it says cursor. Volume up/down to go up/down and trackpad to confirm. Power is to go back. The trackpad will also navigate for you, but it's hard to control so avoid using it for movement at all costs. It is also very sensitive to double clicks, try and make your click as quick and clean as possible.
Press Volume down 6 times and you will land on mounts and storage, then press trackpad (very quickly so as not to make it register a double click).
That menu is as follows:
Mounts and Storage
- mount /system <<-cursor
- mount /data
- unmount /cache
- mount /sdcard
- mount /sd-ext
- format boot
- format system
- format data
- format cache
- format sdcard
- format sd-ext
- mount USB storage
Your cursor starts on mount /system. Press trackpad once will mount system, pressing it again will unmount. Volume down will take you to data, and so forth. Then you can access those directories from adb, and do adb pull as others have suggested. Pressing it again will unmount it, and should be done. Keep in mind it will only unmount if you close all windows that point to that directory and leave the directory in adb shell (you can leave the directory by typing "cd /" to do that). If you stay in the directory or something is pointing to it, it will cause an error.
If you're unsuccessful, you can try doing a backup from clockwork.
From the main menu, press volume down 5 times and press trackpad.
The menu that appears is as follows:
- Backup <<-cursor
- Restore
- Advanced Restore
Simply click the trackpad again and it will perform a backup.
It will save the backup of the phone to the sdcard at /clockworkmod/backup/2010-12-8.x.x.x/
After that I'm not entirely sure how to extract it, hopefully someone else can help.
But simply put, get a live CD of linux and you go to Mounts and Storage and then to mount USB storage, you should have access.
Pic Please
How about "mount /system" or "mount /data" from the adb shell? This should be enough to poke around to extract files.
gee one said:
How about "mount /system" or "mount /data" from the adb shell? This should be enough to poke around to extract files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*facepalm*
or that. if you go into adb shell, you can mount whatever directory and cp it to the sdcard. you can use 'umount' to unmount.
adb push/pull will not work when in adb shell, but you can easily copy it over to your sdcard with the cp command.
funkeee said:
*facepalm*
or that. if you go into adb shell, you can mount whatever directory and cp it to the sdcard. you can use 'umount' to unmount.
adb push/pull will not work when in adb shell, but you can easily copy it over to your sdcard with the cp command.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried finding my G2 using an ubuntu 10.10 installation- it wouldn't find my phone unless I enabled USB mode, and then it would only find the sdcard. I'm still pretty new to ubuntu, so I might be missing something. It's like a brown version of my Mac!
adb push/pull will work from the terminal command line on your computer, not the shell.
Had some obligations I had to take care of but ... thank you for all the suggestions, I'll be trying them all to see which one I can get going!
I just got my replacement today & the first thing I noticed was the Z-Hinge issue.
Its looser than my original 'broken' phone right out of the box, even though the original has been thoroughly used for about 2 months...
so I gotta go thru Another replacement process ...
I suppose I'm going to keep getting replacements that people sent back for the Z-Hinge issue
gee one said:
If you have Clockwork recovery, you can boot into recovery mode and use adb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^ I don't have any recovery programs on my device (unfortunately).
--
@ funkeee: I'll def. try this, seems promising.
ddgarcia05 said:
Pic Please
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^ of?
gee one said:
How about "mount /system" or "mount /data" from the adb shell? This should be enough to poke around to extract files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^ how would I go about and do that?
and as I mentioned before my device is simply set up for mass storage mode & I'm certain I need to get past the Unlock screen to access anything (but I obviously cant)
What kind of data are you trying to extract? It might seem obvious, but I think I should ask for the sake of completeness- is the data actually in the phone or on the memory card?
gee one said:
What kind of data are you trying to extract? It might seem obvious, but I think I should ask for the sake of completeness- is the data actually in the phone or on the memory card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I can get the data from the memory card via my replacement G2 or an Sd adapter...but its mainly messages and some miscellaneous content / apps I had saved on the phone itself & the settings; its not a Big deal, but its something I'd like to port over.
If I didn't have a lock on it I could've managed my way through the menus using hard keys w/ my replacement as a guide but I have no way of doing it.
I wish there was an easy way to make a backup... still haven't got time to try the methods mentioned before, but I'm going to try and give it a go tonite.
Do you have a stock, unrooted phone? If you installed hboot-eng.img then there might be a chance.
gee one said:
Do you have a stock, unrooted phone? If you installed hboot-eng.img then there might be a chance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup, stock & unrooted... any hope?
SmartHat said:
yup, stock & unrooted... any hope?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm out of ideas, for whatever that is worth.
Thank you very much for the input, everyone.
I managed to get my phone into USB Debug mode & I've been able to open up a lot of options... (since I can finally use ADB).
So, Now I'm using my previously installed Android ScreenCast to see my previously Dead Phones Screen! -- Gotta love Android!
-- Now, can anyone suggest the best method for me to a image of my device, so I can flash it onto my replacement?
A Nandroid backup would be perfect, but you don't have root.
adb pull /data/app /somewhere/on/your/pc/app
will back up non-system apps, but not the settings or data
adb pull /data/data /somewhere/different/data
will grab your settings and data, but there is mix of other stuff in there as well that doesn't restore so well because it also contains other data. I think someone who is well versed in sqlite might be able to put it all back together.
Are there any data that you are looking for specifically? SMS? Browser bookmarks? etc?
gee one said:
A Nandroid backup would be perfect, but you don't have root.
adb pull /data/app /somewhere/on/your/pc/app
will back up non-system apps, but not the settings or data
adb pull /data/data /somewhere/different/data
will grab your settings and data, but there is mix of other stuff in there as well that doesn't restore so well because it also contains other data. I think someone who is well versed in sqlite might be able to put it all back together.
Are there any data that you are looking for specifically? SMS? Browser bookmarks? etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well I just temp rooted my 'broken' g2 ... ran titanium backup; Flashed clockworks recovery & now am backing up again(just to have all my bases covered)
When I went in to 'backup current ROM' in the Clockworks app, phone turned off and my Screen Cast disconnected... So I have no means of checking if I need to do anything else before my Rom's backed up
*ed-*
...but then again, since I have Visionary Temp root, wouldn't Clockworks loose its super user privileges when it restarted?
Answered my own question.
So it looks like nothing else will be possible unless I permaroot, which would void my warranty, meaning I won't be able to send it back in to T-mo
You can check the clockworkmod folder on your sd card to see if the backup completed. There should be 4 or 5 .img files if it ran.
Sent from my CyanogenMod Vision
i have an e4gt screen cracked and i need to get internal sd card data. i have done several searches and have come across ADB pull but not clear on how to perform this. i am rooted w stock 4.1 using whatever recovery came with the stock+rooted ROM. (SPH-D710_GB27_1014481_Rooted_Nodata.tar.md5 from Rwilco12's Android Repository). If I could just remember the exact steps to mount usb from recovery i would be good lol... any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Ive the same problem if someone would help.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
No need. Just power up your device and connect to your pc. It will connect using mtp and allow you to access your files that way (as long as you hadn't deactivated it prior to cracking your screen.)
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
There's a way to get your screen to pc...
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
hlxanthus said:
No need. Just power up your device and connect to your pc. It will connect using mtp and allow you to access your files that way (as long as you hadn't deactivated it prior to cracking your screen.)
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have done that and i get a box that says "there was a problem installing this MTP device." then another box says MTP was not installed correctly. Well i do have the Samsung drivers installed. Even installed a fresh copy direct from samsung support. Maybe something to do with my screen being locked with pin? Just got the Galaxy4 cant wait to get my data back...lol
Okay, assuming you already have android SDK set up and working ( you get adb this way), flash a recovery. I would likely use the direct boot for simplicity.
http://www.rwilco12.com/downloads.p...overy Kernels/GB/Noobnl Direct Boot/One-Click
That is for the one click version of the direct boot kernel/recovery. It is gingerbread based, but that shouldn't matter if it will boot the ROM later a due to kernel mismatch due to the broken screen lol.
Give it some time too verify you are in the recovery. Now the magic. Find where your adb is at, usually within android/platform_tools if memory serves. You can do a system search for adb and it should pop up. Move to that location. Make a note of the exact path to that location. Now open a command prompt (search for cmd.exe). You then need to switch to the location of your adb. It should be something like the "cd c:/path/to/adb" (no quotes) where you fill in the path you noted earlier. Once there, give this a go. Type "adb devices" (again no quotes) and if you get a string of numbers that means you have adb access!!! Then you can just type "adb pull /sdcard/" and that will drop the contents of your internal storage into the folder holding your adb files (kind of a mess but it is the easiest way to do it). If you would rather it be dropped in a location of your choosing, use this "adb pull /sdcard/ /path/to/desired/location/" and note there is a space between /sdcard/ and your path to desired location.
I am not expert at this, but let me know if you get stuck somewhere in this and I will try to help.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Hi thanks for the detailed response. i will need to make some time to go through these steps lol however i will update!
I've been searching my _ off for two days now to find a solution for my problem, but I can't find one working for me.
What I do have right now:
NO working ROM (I believe because of a failed atempt to revert to a backup in CWM)
Access to my bootloader (unlocked through HTCDev)
Access to my recovery (Which is the latest CWM)
Fastboot/adb working
Phone boots upon the HTC logo screen
NO ROM zipfile on the SD-Card (I accidentilly deleted that, I still hate myself for that)
I've managed to push to ROM file into both /data and /system, which (ofcourse) isn't usefull to flash from because they don't show up in CWM.
What I've tried:
Reverting to a Nandroid backup, I've 2 on the sdcard. Both don't pass the part where /system is being restored.
'asd shell' to push files, or mount the SD card, does not work. First I had the error saying '--exec /system/bin/sh failure: file or dir not found (2)'. I managed to push the sh file into system, (and I believe into /system/bin), and the error changed to '[...] No directory (20)'
asd push /sdcard/; doesn't work because /sdcard is read-only.
In CWM I can't mount as USB storage, is says something about a file which can't be found.
TWRP recovery doesn't work on my device, I can touch whatever I wan't, the only button responding is the power button, which causes a locked recovery, which I can't unlock. (You need to swipe for that, which my phone seems to ignore).
I've read almost every topic on XDA and whatever Google could give me, but most solutions somewhere relied on the asd shell, or pushing into the /sdcard, or simply assume I still can mount as USB storage.
Does anyone have any suggestions left on howto get a ROM into the /sdcard so I can flash it? I would be thanking you forever!
Thanks in advance!
No ADB shell, then adb push *filename* /sdcard?
Maybe sideload a ROM?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
I can't push files to the /sdcard since it's an read-only directory.
I tried the sideload part, but instead of executing something, it shows me the help of adb.
Any clue how to fix my shell, or get a ROM on it?
Tried typing 'adb remount' a few times and trying again?
Also, you should update your CWM to latest version so you can mount sdcard
tomascus said:
Tried typing 'adb remount' a few times and trying again?
Also, you should update your CWM to latest version so you can mount sdcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried using remount, but that is to remount the /system partition right? I can put the ZIP on the /system partition. But CWM can't install from there.
I'm using the last version of CWM, but it gives me an error about a file not being found, so I can't mound as USB Storage device.
I returned the phone, to the store. I pretty much gave up after another few hours of struggling.
[Qualcomm]
Hello.
I went through the process of rooting my XT1768. I did it only to be able to use my phone as a hotspot even though my carrier blocked it. The guides I found were very helpful, but there were a few things specific to this model, and to my specific goal of having a hotspot, that I had to figure out on my own. I'm writing this to help anyone else who's trying to do the same as I did.
References:
Main guide: https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-e4/how-to/moto-e-guide-to-rooting-t3652982
Unlock hotspot guide (do this after the main guide): https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-e4/how-to/how-to-enable-hotspot-t3654214
So here is what I learned:
Be careful clicking on hyperlinked words in posts. This forum system injects ads into our posts, so it looks like links to additional information. For example, the word "stock" may be hyperlinked and it sends you to buy chicken stock at Walmart (real example that happened to me). If you want to click something, hover over it and look at the bottom of your browser. The ad links are insanely long and start with the same domain name (I forget what it was, something like vlink dot com etc etc). Adblock doesn't block these.
After getting to the bootloader, I was not able to flash TWRP recovery. I got a failed error. I needed to boot from it, not flash it, everytime I wanted to use it: fastboot boot twrp-x-x-x.img
Small thing: the main guide tells to click wipe data, then slide. The TWRP I used (3.2.3-r1) had wipe data, but I had to type "yes", not slide.
The guide tells you to install Magisk ZIP but doesn't tell you where to get it. A simple google will help, but here's the link anyway. https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/magisk/official-magisk-v7-universal-systemless-t3473445
After wiping data, you can use the ADB tool to send the zips for no-verity and magisk to the device storage so you can install them. You don't have to get an external SD card for that. Just type adb push [localfile] /sdcard . For example: adb push Magisk-v18.zip /sdcard . You will then have the file in the /sdcard folder and you can navigate there in TWRP and install the zip.
If you get red errors in TWRP when trying to do something (wipe, install, etc.), I found that you just need to go back to bootloader and re-boot TWRP and try doing it again.
When the main guide says "set system as R/W", they mean going into Mount in TWRP, removing the tick from "read only system" and picking "system" to mount. Took me a while to realize that.
After installing the no-verity and magisk ZIP, while still in TWRP, you can access a shell prompt using your ADB. You'll need to do that in order to edit your /system/build.prop file. Type adb shell in your PC and hit enter. Make sure you mounted /system as writable (not read only) or else you won't be able to change build.prop.
After you add the line to build.prop, you can make sure it's there by typing cat /system/build.prop . The last line should be the line you added.
After I added that line I booted into my device and installed Terminal Emulator. I installed it through googling Terminal Emulator APK and installing it directly, but you can probably find it in the google Play store. When you open it, it will ask you to allow it SuperUser rights with a countdown timer. If not, it means you didn't install magisk properly, and it's a good idea to start over. When you get SuperUser in Terminal Emulator, type the line and press Enter: settings put global tether_dun_required 0
I don't remember if I rebooted after typing that and before trying to use my hotspot.
If you get a bootloop (just the Motorola and Lenovo logos), go to this other thread which I made: https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-e4/how-to/advice-xt1768-flashing-stock-motorola-t3879797
Please let me know how it went. Even if it went perfectly, just say that this worked for you, it'll help others dealing with problems.
Good luck!