How to 'root' (or gain root access to) a Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 with Android 2.1-update1? I have a Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 with Android 2.1-update1 and I need a quick easy way to get root access so I can boot it through a custom ROM me and a friend have been working on (the custom ROM is like Gingerbread (Android 2.3), but with a different UI so that it's compatible with my phone)
Taken from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=811457

This hack (http://c-skills.blogspot.com/2010/07/android-trickery.html) is almost universal. I've compiled and tested a version for X10 mini.

Download: exploid_x10mini.zip

Download and extract the archive.

You will need ADB from Android SDK and USB drivers for X10 mini (part of Sony Ericsson PC Companion).

Enable USB debugging on the phone in Settings>Applications>Development and connect the phone to PC via USB.

Add the Power Control widget to your active widgets on the phone, so you can quickly turn off and on the wi-fi function.

From the command line (on windows it's cmd.exe):


cd c:\exploid_x10mini (or another folder where you've extracted the files from exploid_x10mini.zip)
adb push Superuser.apk /sdcard/Superuser.apk
adb push su /sdcard/su
adb push exploid /sqlite_stmt_journals/exploid
adb push busybox /sqlite_stmt_journals/busybox
adb shell
cd sqlite_stmt_journals
chmod 755 exploid
chmod 755 busybox


Immediately after the next command, you will need to disable and enable the wi-fi using the power widget on the phone:

./exploid

Then run:


rootshell and enter password rootnow


Prompt will change to # - now we have root. Enter the following to make it permanent:


./busybox cp /sdcard/Superuser.apk /system/app/
./busybox cp /sdcard/su /system/bin/
./busybox cp busybox /system/bin/
chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
rm /system/bin/rootshell
exit - out of rootshell
exit - out of adb shell


Verification:

When you run the abd shell again and issue su command, the Superuser.apk will run on the phone and will ask whether to allow the root permissions...