[Xperia Z1 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] LaZiODROID:
I think some of us are not being successful because of some small barriers/details. The easyroot seems to work very nicely. I re-did the FTF and root process to see if I would have the same problems:

1) First I started with a fresh stock FTF flash: I chose UK Generic 108, though I'm sure any of the 108 FTF's will be fine. (D5503_14.4.A.0.108_Generic_UK_1279-4053.ftf).

2) Then of course made sure I had the Z1Compact ADB drivers installed. I believe if you install Sony PC Companion, it comes with these drivers (correct me if I'm wrong?). But you don't want PC Companion to interfere with the rooting process so if you have PC Companion installed, make sure it is closed / exited / gone from the system tray!

3) Then downloaded the Easy root v10 from this thread:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2784900

This easyroot method is great - it roots, AND allows read/write access to the system area (if you need it).

4) Then extracted easy root v10 to a simple directory (like c:\temp\z1ceasyroot\)

5) At this point, make sure the phone isn't connected to the computer yet. Check to make sure you did the right settings on the phone.

Pausing here because some of you mentioned that easyroot started by saying it couldn't find the towelroot APK. I got this same error message - this was when I realized I had forgotten to do the USB Debugging & Unknown Sources settings!

Enable USB Debugging

To do this, go into Settings, Phone Info, and tap on the Build Number 7 times. Then go back into Settings, into Developer options, and turn on USB Debugging.

Enable Unknown Sources

Then in Settings, go to Security, and turn on "Unknown Sources"

6) Now you're pretty much ready. Open command prompt and navigate to the easyroot v10 folder.

7) Connect the phone to the PC - NOTE - on a fresh ROM install, the first time you connect the phone to the PC it will offer to install PC Companion. Skip that and tell it to go away.

8) Make sure the phone's screen is on, and not busy with any messages. It may be helpful to set a decent timeout (like 2 minutes) before the screen shuts off.

9) Now run the easyroot install.bat - the reason I mentioned above to have the screen on, is because if you are on a fresh rom install, this will be your first time connecting to the phone via ADB. A notification will pop up on the phone's screen to ask you if you want to allow the ADB connection. Say yes (and check the box so it doesn't bother you with that again).

The easyroot will run and do what it has to do.

NOTE: On my first run, it got stuck at "creating vm (loljavasucks)". I hit CTRL-C to break the process, closed the command prompt window, opened a new one, navigated back to the directory, and tried again.

NOTE: On my 2nd run, it got stuck just after the above, at "cleaning up". I did the same thing (stopped the process and closed the window.)

On the 3rd run, it ran completely.

LOG:

C:\temp\xperia-z1c-easyroot>install

==============================================
= =
= Easy Root Tool v10 =
= Supports various Xperia devices =
= created by zxz0O0 =
= =
= [url]http://xdaforums.com/[/url] =
= showthread.php?p=53448680 =
= =
= Many thanks to: =
= - [NUT] =
= - geohot =
= - MohammadAG =
= - cubeundcube =
= - DooMLoRD =
= - nhnt11 =
= - xsacha =
= =
==============================================

* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
=============================================
Waiting for Device, connect USB cable now...
Make sure you have only one Android device connected
BlueStacks emulator can also cause problems
=============================================
Device found

=============================================
Getting device variables
=============================================
Device model is D5503
Firmware is 14.4.A.0.108

=============================================
Sending files
=============================================
/dev/kmem exists. Using files of cubeundcube...
931 KB/s (953 bytes in 0.000s)
6156 KB/s (657704 bytes in 0.104s)
355 KB/s (729 bytes in 0.002s)
2319 KB/s (9496 bytes in 0.003s)
2669 KB/s (13672 bytes in 0.005s)

=============================================
Loading towelzxperia
=============================================
3317 KB/s (13592 bytes in 0.004s)
6884 KB/s (197320 bytes in 0.027s)
=============================================

Waiting for towelzxperia to exploit...

towelzxperia by zxz0O0 (EasyRootTool Version)
libexploit by geohot

libzxploit.so created
doing the magic
creating vm (loljavasucks)
cleaning up
done

Checking if device is rooted...

Device rooted.

=============================================
Checking for Sony RIC
=============================================
Sony RIC Service found.
Installing RIC kill script "installmount.sh"...
Stock mount does not exist. Creating dir and link
Installing of mount.sh finished

Done. You can now unplug your device.
Enjoy root
=============================================

What to do next?
- Donate to the people involved
- Install SuperSU by Chainfire
- Install dualrecovery by [NUT]
- Backup TA partition

Press any key to continue . . .

C:\temp\xperia-z1c-easyroot>

10) Once that was done, I powered off the phone, back on, and went into the Play Store to get SUPERSU by Chainfire. Once that is done, you're finished. Like it suggests at the end of the rooting process, you may want to donate to the people that worked hard for this root method, install the NUT dual recovery, and backup your TA partition (Backing up your TA is important if you plan on unlocking your Bootloader!)