Until recently the only method to root the Motorola Photon 4G was connecting it to the HD Dock. Now there is an even easier method that does not require the dock. We have only attempted this on one Photon and it worked flawlessly (we have since rooted 3 photons using this method and have yet to have any errors). The Motorola Photon as many of you know is the CDMA version of the Motorola Atrix and has to this point worked much better than its counter part. The Photon is easily rooted now and allowed to use the media dock without additional features being paid for.
Root Instructions for the Motorola Photon 4G:
- Download photon-torpedo.tar (Download Link)
- Place photon-torpedo.tar into the “/data/tmp” folder
- Install “Superuser” from the Android Market
- Install “Android Terminal Emulator” from the Android Market
- Run Android Terminal Emulator
- Run “cd /data/tmp”
- Run /bin/tar xf /data/tmp/photon-torpedo.tar
- Run /data/tmp/photon-torpedo.sh
- Run /data/tmp/install-su.sh
- Congrats your Motorola Photon 4G is Rooted!
Thank you to XDA member edgan for posting these instructions in the XDA forums. A few other things that rooting the Photon will get you besides the obvious ability to access the entire file system is screenshots and the ability to turn off the shutter sound on the camera. Even with these added benefits from rooting the Photon we have to say our favorite is being able to use it as a mobile Wifi hotspot and tether other devices to it without upgrading your plan or paying extra for features that you should get out of the box anyway.
If you use this method please let us know how everything goes in the comments below as well as any issues you run across so that others can learn from your experience. Also feel free to ask any questions about the process as we are here to help and enjoy being there for our loyal followers.