Nokia had a great show in Mobile World Congress 2014 held in Barcelona. The company announced new devices – Nokia X, X+, XL and Asha 220. Interestingly, Microsoft managed Nokia to develop a phone that runs Android without Google. It means, though Nokia X is an AOSP based device, it can’t install Google apps (supports only 75% of android apps). It’s an android device, but not really until you can install Play Store and Google Now launcher. If you ever wished to buy Nokia X and wants it run apps from Play store? Then here’s a root from an XDA developer Kashamalaga, who bought Nokia X during the MWC 2014 (Nokia X is still not available in production market – at the time of writing this post) and had put his hands to install Play store and Google Now Launcher.
Note: Rooting Nokia X is different from other rooting methods, since it features a different bootloader that is partially locked. Also, there’s no custom recovery for the device.
Disclaimer: Follow the below steps at your own risk. Techglimpse or the author doesn't hold any responsibility for any damage that may cause.
Prerequisites
- Framaroot application
- A root level File explorer such as Root Explorer or ES file Explorer.
- Nokia’s GApps package. (Download it from the link at the bottom)
- NokiaX_SomeGoogleApps.zip (Download it from the link at the bottom)
Here we go,
Step 1: Root Nokia X using Framaroot app. You have to sideload the Framaroot APK and gain root level access.
Step 2: Sideload root file explorer to change system file permissions.
Step 3: Extract the downloaded Nokia GApps package and copy all the APKs inside the package to /system/app directory on your Nokia X using the root file explorer.
Step 4: Set proper permission for the copied APKs to “read” for all and “write” permission only for the first (as shown in screenshot).
Step 5: Reboot the device and install all the APKs from ‘NokiaX_SomeGoogleApps’ package.
That’s it! Your Nokia X is rooted and should run Play store and Google Now launcher. Launch the Play store app and start setting up your Google account to download the apps.
Struck with an issue during the process? Head on to XDA Developer forum thread.
