HTC Droid DNA Gets Root, Custom Recovery, And Modified Kernel Ahead Of Official Release

That sure didn't take long. Just two days after the official announcement - and still a few days away from retail availability - the Droid DNA has already been rooted and gotten some goodies from famed Android modder/hacker dsb9938. Apparently the DNA is unlockable using HTC's official bootloader unlock tool, which allows a custom kernel to be flashed. The first available kernel has only been slightly modified to allow root in adb connections - a requisite in order to flash the custom recovery and root the device.

After going through the unlock process, the kernel is flashable via fasboot. With that out of the way, you're free to flash the recovery, which is also flashed with fastboot. Finally, you're ready for root.

Rooting is as straightforward as it comes - download the file, unzip, and flash in recovery, which installs the su binary and busybox. Done.

It's worth noting, however, that this will not allow you to write to the system partition while booted normally if the device is S-On - the only way to write to /system is while in recovery. S-Off will have to be achieved to modify /system while booted up normally.

For more information on the process, as well as all required downloads, check out the Droid DNA Development section over at RootzWiki.