When Google brought Lollipop into the world they also introduced SELinux into an enforcing mode in all stock devices. This makes the system partition of a Lollipop stock device read-only by default. Everyone was worried about the future of the Android hacker scene but we shouldn’t have been as it was quickly shown that a custom kernel could be used to bypass the limitations of SELinux. We reported on a detailed explanation that well-known SuperSU developer, Chainfire, gave explaining the state of root for Lollipop.
While rooting the Nexus 9 is not as straight forward as previous generations of Nexus devices it is still relatively easy. It does require a custom kernel or kernel ramdisk modifications to obtain but thanks to the hard work of Chainfire it is easy for us.
It now seems that Chainfire has been continually working on the rooting process as he has now discovered a way to root a Lollipop device without a custom kernel. Chainfire has implemented a way to access root by using the zygote process that is responsible for launching all apps installed on a device. This allows the users to obtain root access without any kernel modifications. While this shines some light back onto locked bootloader devices being able to be rooted it is important to note that it can be fixed by Google with only a single line of code, and it may already have been given the large amount of SELinux additions to the AOSP in the past few months.
Going forward it is likely that this hole will be patched and it will be back to the drawing board again for those with devices that have locked bootloaders as a patched kernel will be required for root once more. The safest path for those who want root access to their device is to buy a device that has an unlockable bootloader (and particularly one that the company doesn’t cripple the software on when you do).
It is important to know that it is still only in beta form so I would suggest not testing it out unless you are intimate with fastboot and adb to recover any bootloops that may occur. From the keyboard of Chainfire himself:
I should warn you however that this method is more invasive, and has a higher chance of bootloops. Probably the highest-bootloop-risk beta in quite a while. Please make sure you have a backup before flashing it.
If you do want to check it out head over to the XDA SuperSU Beta thread and hack away. Let us know in the comments how successful it is for you.
Forget lollipop wait. OA was done yesterday and fully charged last night, with mild use I am at 15% battery after 5 hours…. There is something draIning power that is not being registered and I mean really draining power. Wifi has been on constantly even when not connected, serious power problems with 5.0
chris, lollipop on what device?
Nexus 5, not much else has OA update yet. There is some good stuff in it but also some painful as well, I will get used to it and love it but for now until they patch the power issues I would suggest avoiding the update if you can. Will try a factory reset but would prefer not to have to worry about it.
My Nexus 5 had terrible battery life for 2 or 3 days after I manually flashed it to lollipop. Strangely it came good without me doing anything.
I seem to be getting better battery life now than I did with KitKat, and I was already using ART on KitKat.
that’s good to hear thanks Martin, it seems to be improving for me as well, after 10 hours not a lot of use 57% left. I am growing to like 5 a lot but would still suggest people be wary for the short term and maybe wait till the first update is released. I stupidly bought LIFX light bulbs, utter trash back end with them and their app tends to kill the battery as well so deleted that a while ago, it shows how bad coding even when the app isn’t used can kill the battery because of something constantly… Read more »
I’ve noticed worse battery usage the past day or so as well (on a Nexus 5) and really sluggish performance on my N7.
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Did you check in the battery settings what specifically had been using up the battery? I had the same problem on my Nexus 5 and when I checked in the battery settings I could see that there was an app that was not compatible with Android 5.0 and used up approx. 14% in 3-4 hours. Once that app was disabled I’m getting much better battery stamina than with KitKat.
Perhaps the “OS Monitor by eolwral” app could give you a hint of what is causing the battery drainage. It gives you a much more detailed insight of what is going on.