Prolific XDA recognised developer Chainfire has successfully rooted his Pixel phone by modifying the boot image and disabling dm-verity for a systemless root. To support his claim, Chainfire has uploaded a screenshot via Twitter showing ADB shell request for superuser access on the Google smartphone.
#pixel pic.twitter.com/dFo4B6T2uc
— Chainfire XDA (@ChainfireXDA) October 27, 2016
Avid fans of Google Pixel phones can now rest assured that Chainfire would eventually find a way to release a seamless rooting tool for the phone without disabling dm-verity. The Android developer has already achieved systemless root without making any changes to the kernel and that should pave the way for releasing a flashable root package with an automated or one-click setup for novice users.
At the moment, any attempt to root your Pixel phone will force you to unlock the bootloader and thereby cause the SafetyNet to fail, according to XDA.
Victory is mine! Full systemless root achieved. Boot image mods only, /system fully intact, dm-verity switchable. #pixel
— Chainfire XDA (@ChainfireXDA) October 27, 2016
Furthermore, some of your favourite apps like Pokemon GO and Android Pay will not work if the SafetyNet feature fails or crashes on your phone. Although you might try using SultanXDA's temporary SafetyNet bypass patch to circumvent this problem, Google could force a SafetyNet fix through maintenance updates anytime soon.
That root is with verity disabled and modified /system. Going to continue trying to get it working without this requirement.
— Chainfire XDA (@ChainfireXDA) October 27, 2016
We can just hope that Chainfire gets ahead of Google in his bid to unlock root access on the company's highly-popular flagship phone.
