[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sparkplugDev:
Unlocking the bootloader and rooting for new users

The only thing I've ever used toolkit for in the past is restoring my Nexus devices to a factory image and the only reason I did that is because I didn't care to figure out how to decompile those things. But yeah, just like others have said above it is extremely easy to root a nexus device. Since my N4 already has the bootloader unlocked I can't really give you a real video anyway so I will give you an very detailed instruction list.

Before you start, install the N4 drivers. More simply, you can download and install the clockworkmod universal adb drivers from kouch. Everything below assumes that drivers are installed and working.

1. Get your supplies - download a custom recovery (most these days prefer TWRP and for simplification, today, so will you) You will also need a superSU.zip which I will also provide below. You will notice that it is a bit old but it can be updated easily once you reboot back into android. Lastly, but most importantly you will need the fastboot interface which will be in the mini_adb.zip file that I have also provided on mediafire. Keep in mind that there are a lot of tools in that folder that could be useful for you at some point down the road but today all you need is fastboot.

Link to Team Win Recovery for mako

MediaFire link to Superuser.zip

Mediafire link to miniadb_inc.zip

2. Set up your environment - first you need to unzip miniadb_inc.zip and for the sake of making things easier take the folder inside of the same name and drop it into the root of your C: drive. Again, to make things easier, go ahead and drop the twrp.img into the miniadb_inc folder. If you don't follow these instructions exactly then my commands won't work as written.

3. Turn off your phone and boot into the bootloader. To do this, when the phone is off hold down the power, vol-up, and vol-down buttons simultaneously until the phone viabrates once. You should see a picture of an Android lying on it's back with it's front opened up and a big start button on top. Connect your phone and then set it aside for a moment and open command prompt on your PC. Input the following commands:

cd /
cd /miniadb_inc

this changes your active directory to the miniadb_inc folder. Next input this command:

fastboot oem unlock

this sends the command to your phone to unlock the bootloader. At this time you should look at your phone and see a prompt regarding unlocking the bootloader. Click accept to unlock the bootloader or if you're freaking out too much to continue at the moment you can click that you don't accept the terms and then click the power button and boot back into android and go about your day.

If you were bold enough to get to this point then you will now need to boot back into android anyway. Your phone will have reset and these instructions assume that you aren't flashing a custom ROM at this time so go ahead and take a minute to sign in and get things like you want them. While you're booted into Android take a moment to transfer superuser.zip to your SD partition on your phone. When you're done get back to the bootloader like you did earlier and input the following command:

fastboot flash recovery twrp.img

this command tells your computer to push the twrp recovery that you downloaded earlier to your phone and to flash it, effectively removing the stock recovery from your device.

4. Using the volume keys scroll through the bootloader options until you see recovery at the top of your phone and then click the power key to confirm. This will boot you into TWRP for the first time. Now select the install button in TWRP and then find the superuser.zip file that you put on your phone in the previous step.

5. Select the reboot button and your phone should reboot back into Android and will now be rooted! Update the su binary within the SuperSU app and update SuperSU through the Play Store like any other app. Congratulations, you're done!

6. Profit. :laugh: