During linux.conf.au I tried to do a talk involving an Android phone and a live demo onto a projector. I didn't have time to root the phone again to install vncserver - so I took the simple option and installed http://code.google.com/p/androidscreencast. It worked when I first tried it but then failed miserably during the talk.
Anyway - I decided to root my phone again so that I could use a proper vncserver - but the internet is really not very helpful when it comes to rooting Android phone. There are so many articles - many not current any more and lots of conflicting information.
So - here is what I did to do a simple root on my Nexus one running Android 2.2.2.
- Unlock your bootloader (I'd already done this a long time back - loads of good instructions on this).
- Download fastboot - if you are using Ubuntu 10.10 like me - use these instructions http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=911545 - the udev stuff is important
- Download Android 2.2.2 root image. I used the stock image from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=927935
- Put the zip file of the image in the root of your SD card on your phone.
- One thing that slipped me up was that I didn't have the right recovery image. The RA passion image from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=611829 worked well for me.
- Now, put your phone into bootloader mode (hold down trackball while powering on).
- Open directory where you extracted fastboot and your roms and type: fastboot boot ./fastboot boot recovery-RA-passion-v2.2.1.img
- In the bootloader menu of your phone select fastboot
- The recovery image should load and your phone reboot into recovery mode
- Select install zip from flash and select your zip you copied to sdcard.
- Let it install - then select reboot
- Your done!
Hope this is helpful - feel free to msg me at @spidie if you have trouble.
Now I have root - I can install busybox for shell commands and most importantly Droid VNC Server - which is just awesome.