[General Questions and Answers] groumfi:
How to unlock and root HP SlateBook x2

Hi there,

We finally achieve root on this SlateBook x2. Full story here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2402681&page=59

Sum-up

Buy the HP proprietary cable

Unlock bootloader

Boot CWM recovery I built for the SlateBook x2

Push SuperSU thru sideload

Detailed steps

You need to buy the Micro-USB dedicated cable, HP spare part number 728141-001

You can find it at http://www.eetgroup.com/. Frenchies can order it here: http://fr.eetgroup.com/i/728141-001-HP-MICRO-USB-TO-USB-CABLE. The guys are located at St Ouen (93) and it is possible to pick-up the cable at their office to save shipping costs. Even w/o shipping costs I had to pay 57,30 € which is quite expensive for such a cable.

Anyway, once you have the $$$ cable, proceed as follow to root the device:

You'll need adb installed and working onto to your computer. This could be done by installing the full Android SDK or a light version from here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=42407269

Normally, the package should install the naked USB drivers. If this not the case have a look at http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2386956 and download and install the naked USB drivers

Into your home directory (ie: C:\Users\<username> for Windows or /home/<username> for Linux) you should find a .android directory. Check the adb_usb.ini file within this directory and ensure that content is 0x03F0

Then, enable USB debugging into the Developper options of Android parameters

Once done, connect to the PC with the dedicated cable, wait for a moment for adb drivers to install

Once installed, check that adb can detect the tablet with by entering: adb devices

If it is detected, reboot in bootloader mode: adb reboot bootloader

Once in bootloader, unplug / plug again the tablet and wait for adb drivers to install. Then unlock the bootloader: fastboot -i 0x03F0 oem unlock. WARNING: this will reset your tablet to factory default and loose all your data

Once bootloader is unlocked, reboot your tablet and perform the initial android setup

Tun USB debugging on again and connect the tablet

Reboot to bootloader: adb reboot bootloader

Boot downloaded recovery: fastboot -i 0x03F0 boot recovery_maya-0.1.img

Wait a couple of seconds for CWM to start on the tablet

On the tablet, select Install zip and then Install zip from sideload

Once sideload is ready, install UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.94.zip: adb sideload UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.94.zip

Wait for install to finish, reboot and enjoy

Notice

For those running Ubuntu flavor Linux, no need to download any drivers (assuming you've installed android-tools-adb and android-tools-fastboot packages). Just add 0x03F0 to your ~/.android/adb_usb.ini file so that adb will detect the tablet.

I have updated my device to 4.3 to ensure this is working properly. For those who still have 4.2.2, this method will also work as developper Chainfire has implemented 4.3 and olders in SuperSU zip

I did the build of CWM by my own and it is not 100% fully functional (still have issue mounting internal storage). But it is usable enough to install SuperSU zip thru sideload

DO NOT FLASH this version of CWM. I've not tested flashing and it might brick your device

Edit 23-Aug-14 : I flashed it thru Flashify and it boots. I also installed Quick Boot (Reboot) to easily reboot to recovery. Only issue is that it does not mount internal storage, but with external SD, I was able to perform a Nandroid backup-restore operations