The term “root” for the Linux distributions is for the powerful administrative permissions over the operating system that offers full write permissions over the root folder and thus allowing for complete modification of files and the chance to run all commands. That type of power is only available when somebody is logged into the root user account that most Linux distributions have and is offered to the first person to set up the computer much the same way the Windows operating system provides the admin account to the first person that sets it up.

All in all there isn’t much difference between the two term admin account and root user account; Linux just chose to name their root user account different because this relates to having full control over the root folder that is in Linux.

The Android operating system is based on the same Linux kernel as the desktop versions of the operating system and thus comes with the same root user account. However, there is a difference, and that is that Android developers take away the root user account, so you don’t get it when you first set up a device.

REQUIREMENTS

• You need to have a computer that is running on a version of the Windows operating system to install the ADB that is available in this guide.
• The custom recovery image in this guide is only available for the Google Nexus 6P smartphone and flashing it on the wrong device will not work.

BEFORE WE BEGIN

• Unlock the Developer Options menu on the Google Nexus 6P phone and then turn on the USB Debugging Mode from its menu before getting started with the guide so you can make the changes you need to make to the Android software for the custom recovery installation to work.

HOW TO ROOT GOOGLE NEXUS 6P SMARTPHONES RUNNING ANDROID 7.0 NOUGAT SOFTWARE UPDATES BY FLASHING SUPERSU

1. Download the SuperSU program directly onto the computer and then open up the Downloads folder to find your file.
2. Connect the Google Nexus 6P smartphone to the computer with the USB cable and then copy the SuperSU package from the Downloads folder over to the internal storage SD card folder that is available for the smartphone on the computer.
3. Set up the ADB for Windows on the computer and then come back and continue with the rest of this guide when that is complete.
4. Install the ADB Driver on the computer so the ADB commands you need to run can do so without any issues.
5. Download the TWRP Recovery for the Google Nexus 6P smartphone on the computer and extract the file to the Downloads folder and then copy the files from the Downloads folder over to the same folder as the ADB, so you have ADB and TWRP in the same directory.
6. Hold the Shift key with the ADB folder open and right click the background where it is white and choose to open a command window here from the menu.
7. Type the command “adb reboot bootloader” and the Google Nexus 6P will then be in the bootloader mode and ready for the flashing to occur.
8. Type the command “fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.0.2-0-angler.img” to have the custom recovery image then flashed onto the smartphone.
9. Type the command “adb reboot” to restart the smartphone into the normal mode and then hold down the hardware key combination to boot the Google Nexus 6P smartphone into the Recovery Mode.
10. Tap on the Install button from the Recovery men u and then browse through to the SD card and select the SuperSU zip file to install and then follow the guidelines on the screen to flash the SuperSU file.
11. Choose the “Reboot” and “System” options from the Recovery menu and then the Google Nexus 6P smartphone reboots back into the normal mode and has the SuperSU correctly installed and enabled.

In conclusion, that is how to root Google Nexus 6P phones running on the Android 7.0 Nougat software updates by flashing the SuperSU program by Chainfire from a custom recovery image. The custom recovery imaged used Team Win’s TWRP, and it is compatible with the most amount of custom ROM so you should have no problems installing any of the ROMs that are available for your smartphone. Since the guide made use of a custom recovery image to get the root access, you can now do anything from installing custom ROMs and custom kernels to root applications.