Rooting the Odin2 Mini

The Odin2 Mini is a handheld gaming device which comes with an Android build (rather than Linux, but that's a whole other rant). There are a few ways to root the device, however the following is the one I used and the one I recommend.

I got it rooted after a little effort. Also this is in my opinion an easier way than using the edl tool or the qpst tool. The edl guide from the renegade project works for this device as well, at least if you only follow the required steps for getting magisk root. The qpst tool guide should also work as it also uses the same mechanism to extract the partitions.

Steps

  1. Download extract-init-boot.sh. It's just a simple shell script which directly copies your init_boot_a & init_boot_b partitions to an img file.
  2. Download platform-tools from the official android website.
  3. Download latest Magisk from the Magisk Github.
  4. Create a file called extract-init-boot.sh with the following contents -
    dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/init_boot_a of=/sdcard/init_boot_a.img
    dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/init_boot_b of=/sdcard/init_boot_b.img
    Copy the extract-init-boot.sh & magisk.apk to the device.
  5. Install the Magisk app.
  6. Open Settings -> Odin settings -> Run script as Root & select the extract-init-boot.sh file.
  7. Open Files app and you should see init_boot_a.img & init_boot_b.img in your home folder.
  8. Now it’s just the standard process, open Magisk and patch both of the these files and copy them to your PC. Also, remember or write down which magisk patched img file corresponds to which init_boot img file.
  9. Reboot to fastboot, by restarting the device and holding the volume down key.
  10. Connect to your PC, and run the following command -
    “fastboot getvar current-slot”
  11. If previous command shows a, run the following command -
    “fastboot flash init_boot_a magisk_patched-27000_A.img”
    If previous command shows b, run the following command -
    “fastboot flash init_boot_b magisk_patched-27000_B.img”
  12. Then run, “fastboot reboot”. And you’re done. :)