[Xperia Arc Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rcummings100:
There is now a MUCH easier way to root ALL Sony Ericsson 2011 phones including the Xperia Pro, making these instructions obsolete. Please see DooMLorD's thread here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1319653

Remember to say thanks to DooMLorD for his awesome work!

However, I'll sill keep the 2 sets of instructions here in case anyone needs them or wants to refer back to them. My ZIPs do have all the drivers needed with good instructions on how to install them after all ;)

My original instructions based on alvaroag's work can be found below, and the instructions via my instructions the Xperia Pro CWM Recovery method can be found on post 50 of this thread.

It's important to note that DooMLorD's tool only works for Windows. You can still use our original method in this post if you're running Linux.

We finally have a method to root the Xperia Pro MK16a (and PROBABLY MK16i) thanks to XDA Member alvaroag!!

This is his method, with the instructions modified by myself for ease of use.

What you need before you begin:

1. A rock hard stomach, because should the very unlikely happen and this brick/damage your phone in some way, I’m not responsible ;)

2. An Unlocked Bootloader

NOTE: Sony offers a totally free, official, and simple method to unlock your bootloader here: http://unlockbootloader.sonyericsson.com/

Should that not work for you, your phone is probably SIM locked from your carrier (FIDO for example does that). You'll need to get the bootloader unlocked remotely from someone who has SETool and the appropriate security USB dongle. THIS COSTS MONEY, as SETool requires that user to pay per use.

Please see this thread for further instructions as it's the method I used personally: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1232050

Alejandrissimo was awesome at helping me through it.

3. On the phone itself navigate to the following locations:

a. Settings - applications – Make sure Unknown Sources (first option) is checked

b. Settings – applications – development – Make sure USB Debugging is checked

4. Download this archive. It contains all the files and drivers you will need:

http://www.mediafire.com/?7cz7672da9cxkrd​

Instructions:

1. Extract the archive you downloaded to a folder on your computer. Where doesn’t matter as long as you remember where it is.

2. Navigate to the folder ADB For Dummies (thanks to VanillaTbone for his guide) and install ADB for Dummies.exe

a. This will create a new folder on your C: drive called “android-sdk-windows”

3. Take the file “xperia_pro_root.zip” from the archive you downloaded and extract the contents to C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools\

4. Power off the phone and make sure it’s not plugged into anything.

5. Hold down the MENU button and connect the USB cable. A blue light will appear. If a blue light does NOT appear, then your phone can't get into FastBoot, and probably still has the bootloader locked.

a. If Windows asks you to install the drivers, install the driver from the folder “Fastboot Driver” in the archive you downloaded. Should those drivers not work, try the drivers found in "C:\android-sdk-windows\google-usb_driver"

6. Open the “Fastboot” folder in windows explorer (its part of the archive you extracted in step 1. Hold down the shift key and

right click

on an empty space in the folder window, select Open Command Prompt Here.

7. Type:

fastboot boot recoveryNEO.img​

8. The blue light on the phone will turn off, the screen on the phone will be blank, and the phone will be disconnected from windows, but after a few seconds you will get a Mass Storage & ADB Interface Detected. Note that the phone’s screen will continue to be black for the rest of this process. THIS IS NORMAL, your phone has not been bricked. If you need to stop anywhere along the way, simply unplug the phone from the computer and take your battery out. The phone will return to normal operations, though UNROOTED.

a. Windows will PROBABLY say hardware failed to install. This is fine.

i. Open the start menu, right click on “Computer” and select “Manage”

ii. Select Device Manager on the left side of the Computer Management window that opens.

iii. Look for the unknown piece of hardware. Right click on it and select update/install driver.

iv. Browse your computer, and select the main folder you extracted the archive to way back in step 1 – the drivers are somewhere in there, don’t worry about where, as windows will find them just fine.

9. On your computer navigate to “C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools”. Hold down the shift button on your keyboard and Right click on an empty part of the windows, and select “Open Command Window Here”

10. Type "adb shell". If it says "device not found", disconnect the USB cable, remove the battery, and try again from step 6. Also, try changing the USb port on your CPU. I'm not really sure about this, but I had to do it twice.

Now you’ll have to run a bunch of commands inside the ADB Shell window (the one with the black background and looks like a DOS window). You can just copy and paste each one from here. Be sure that once you start this step, you continue until the end of these instructions.

mount -t yaffs2 -o rw,relatime /dev/block/mtdblock0 /system​

If it says “/system is not empty” then type:

"rmdir /system/bin" and then run the first mount command again

type "exit"

11. From the DOS window, Run these commands (again copy and paste each one is fine)

adb push Superuser.apk /system/app/Superuser.apk

adb push su /system/bin/su

adb shell
​

12. From the adb shell, run:

chmod 0644 /system/app/Superuser.apk

chown 0 /system/bin/su

chgrp 0 /system/bin/su

chmod 6755 /system/bin/su

ln -s /system/bin/su /system/xbin/su

cd

umount /system

reboot​

13. The adb shell will terminate. Disconnect the phone from the USB cable, wait for about 15 sec, remove the battery, and then turn it on.

14. From the phone, Open the Market, search for "Busybox" by "Stephen (Stericson)". Install that

15. From the Market, go to My Apps, search for "Superuser" by "ChainsDD" and make sure you're running the latest edition

16. Run the App "Superuser" from your app tray.

- under the settings tab, scroll to the bottom and click SU Binary "tap to check for updates"

17. Run the "Busybox Installer" app. Follow the onscreen instructions - just leave everything at default.

Congratulations! Your device should now be rooted! I personally suggest downloading and installing Titanium Backup to make sure - it will run a root check on startup and notify you if anything is wrong.

Notes:

This may seem to be a complicated method, but, as we will have to wait some weeks for an automated or simpler method, I think making writing an automated tool for this method is not worth the effort. But maybe, if no automated method appears in some weeks, I write one myself as a comunity contribution. - alvaroag
​

Thanks to VanillaTbone of XDA Developers for his awesome ADB For Dummies guide and app.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=502010

And of course thanks to Bin4ry for his NEO recovery image.

And thanks to all the other contributors to this thread for their help, advice, and overall contribution.

And if this thread helped you in some way, Please click THANK YOU to show your appreciation ;)