How to Root Razer Phone and Fix WiFi after Root

The Razer Phone is a high-end, premium device released in November of 2017. Being made by popular gaming peripheral company Razer, the Razer Phone delivers what one would expect in terms of hardware specs – a whopping 8GB of RAM, 64GB of internal memory, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset – not to mention its 1440 x 2560 (~515 DPI) screen resolution.

Despite being launched with Android 7.1.1 Nougat, the Razer Phone has been a bit of a mystery to root – until now. Many people, when trying to root the Razer Phone using the standard TWRP + Magisk / SuperSU root methods, encountered problems such as broken WiFi after root. This is because many people only flash TWRP via ADB as a temporary boot, which flashes itself onto the stock boot.img and then masks itself. Then when you flash Magisk over this “temporary” boot.img, something breaks in the formatting which effects things such as WiFi.

So when you fastboot TWRP on the Razer Phone, it will overwrite the stock boot.img, which then required the clean, original boot.img to be saved somewhere for restoration – but most people simply completely overwrite their original boot.img when flashing TWRP + Magisk together, which meant trouble.

This guide will show you the latest and cleanest method of rooting the Razer Phone, without breaking WiFi. Make sure you follow all the steps carefully, and leave a comment if you encounter any trouble!

If you are rooting your Razer Phone for the first time, skip to that section of this guide. If you have already rooted your Razer Phone and are experiencing issues like broken WiFi, follow the guide below.

Note: This guide requires an original boot.img from the latest Razer factory image – you can obtain it by downloading the latest Razer Phone firmware and extracting the boot.img, which is beyond the scope of this guide, but very simple to do.

How to Fix Broken WiFi on Rooted Razer Phone

Requirements:

• ADB tools on your PC (See Appual’s guide “How to Install ADB on Windows”)
• Original boot.img from latest Razer factory image.
• TWRP.img and TWRP.zip for Razer Phone
• Magisk

Note: If you are not on the latest Razer factory image, you should just flash it using Razer’s guide to restore using factory image)

1. Download the required files and place them in your main ADB folder.
2. Launch an ADB command window and ADB push the files to your Razer Phone’s external SD card. The commands would be:
   Adb push boot.img /sdcard
   adb push twrp-installer-3.2.1.-0-cheryl.zip /sdcard
   Adb push Magisk-v16.0.zip /sdcard
3. Now type into the ADB command window: adb reboot bootloader
4. When you’re in Bootloader / Download Mode, type into ADB: fastboot flash boot twrp-3.2.1.-0.cheryl.img && fastboot reboot
5. Your Razer Phone should now reboot into TWRP. You need to press the Reboot button in TWRP and check which slot you are on (Slot A or Slot B) and then follow the instructions accordingly (the instructions are the same whether you are on Slot A or Slot B, all you need to change is which slot you initially switch over to):
6. Go to Install in TWRP main menu, and choose “Install Image”and select the boot.img you pushed earlier to your SD card.
   
7. Swipe to install it.
8. Go back to the main menu, choose “Reboot” and change the slot to Slot B.
9. Once TWRP verifies you are in Slot B, select Bootloader and reboot to Download Mode. This will force it to reboot in Slot B, so once you are there, type into the ADB command window: fastboot flash boot twrp-3.2.1-0-cheryl.img && fastboot reboot
10. Now once you’re in TWRP again, go through Install > Install Image > flash boot.img once again. This will give you the clean, original boot.img in both Slot B and Slot A.
11. Go back to TWRP Install > Install Zip > choose the TWRP-installer-3.2.1-0.cheryl.zip and swipe to install it. This will apply the patch to both boot.img on Slot A and Slot B.
12. Reboot to System so that we can verify that WiFi now works. If it doesn’t, you may not have followed the above instructions completely.
13. Once you’ve confirmed things are working as they should, type into the ADB command window: adb reboot recovery
14. You should be launched directly into Recovery mode without any overwrite. You can now Install > Install Zip > choose the Magisk.zip, swipe to flash it, and then reboot to system.
15. Now we want to flash Magisk on the other slot as well – its completely optional and you can in fact skip this step, but you’ll thank me if something goes wrong, like your phone erroneously decides to switch banks, and you suddenly lose root.
16. Type into ADB: adb reboot recovery
17. Go to the Reboot button and change back from Slot B to Slot A.
18. Flash Magisk once again.
19. Magisk is now flashed over both clean boot.img files on Slot A and Slot B, so now it doesn’t matter which slot you boot from, and you will keep root if your Razer Phone decides to suddenly boot from one instead of the other!

How to Cleanly Root the Razer Phone for the First Time

1. On your Razer Phone, go into Settings > About Phone > tap ‘Build Number’ 7 times until Developer Mode is activated.
2. Go into Settings > Developer Options> enable USB Debugging.
3. Connect your Razer Phone to your PC via USB and launch an ADB command prompt (hold Shift + Right click inside your main ADB folder and choose ‘Open a Command Window Here’)
4. Download the required files (original boot.img, TWRP and Magisk) and place them in your main ADB install path folder.
5. Connect your Razer Phone to your PC via USB and accept the USB Debug pairing dialogue on your Razer Phone screen.
6. To make sure the ADB connection is properly recognized, type into ADB: adb devices
7. The ADB command window should display your Razer Phone’s serial number – if the connection is not recognized, you may need to troubleshoot your ADB installation, or your USB cable, or something like that.
8. Type into ADB window:
   Adb push boot.img /sdcard
   adb push twrp-installer-3.2.1.-0.cheryl.zip /sdcard
   adb push Magisk-v16.0.zip /sdcard
9. Now type into ADB: adb reboot bootloader
10. Once your Razer Phone boots into Bootloader / Download Mode, type into ADB: fastboot flash boot twrp-3.2.1.-0.cheryl.img && fastboot reboot
11. Your Razer Phone should now boot into TWRP, so from the main menu, choose Install > Install Image > choose the original boot.img on your SD card. Swipe to install it.
12. Once the original boot.img has been installed, go back to the Install > Install Zip > choose the TWRP .zip and swipe to flash it.
13. This should patch TWRP onto both of your boot.img (in Slot A and Slot B). You must now Reboot to System.
14. When you are booted into the Android system, verify that everything works, like WiFi. If everything is good, type into ADB: adb reboot recovery
15. Once your Razer Phone is in Recovery Mode, go to Install > Install Zip > select the Magisk-v16.0.zip and flash it.
16. Once the Magisk .zip has been flashed, you need to do this to the other side/slot. So go to the Reboot button from the main menu, and choose the opposite slot from the one you are currently on, then choose Recovery > Reboot Into Recovery > go through the Magisk .zip install process again.
17. Now you can Reboot to System, and both slots should be completely functional and rooted, so it will not matter which you boot from, and you should have no issues with WiFi that were encountered in previous root methods.

Happy rooting!

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