[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mr2nSmith:
I've been trying for over two weeks to root my LG Enact (Verizon branded), with no luck. This is not the most popular phone out there, but I like my QWERTY keyboard, I can't help it. It's an 8GB phone, the stock ROM is KitKat, it's a capable little device. So I'm going to keep at it until I find a solution. But I could use some help.

Unfortunately, I've tried just about every tethered AND untethered method out there, and nothing is working. The root-by-adb scripts run into a brick wall if they boot the phone into recovery, because the phone refuses to communicate that way, the computer says "Device not recognized" once recovery starts. (And all of those drivers are as up-to-date as I can make them.) The ones that use Download Mode (such as the LG One-Click Root method I tried, from this forum) get a little further, but they never complete the process. There are several apk methods that claim to be able to root without the adb connection, like framaroot, towelroot, kingoroot, etc., but none of these works either. I think I've tried them all. (And I'm going to have to do some hefty virus-scanning on my computer, after all the shady places I've wound up, from following bogus links while looking.)

The phone's stock ROM seems to have been set up with an extra layer of security which most devices don't have, which is one problem. We all know the "Allow installation of apps from unknown sources" option in the Security menu; mine also has a choice below it to "Disallow or warn before installation of apps that may cause harm", which of course I leave UN-checked. In Developer Options, grouped with USB Debugging, there is another "option" to "Verify apps over USB -- Check apps installed via ADB/ADT for harmful behavior", which is automatically checked when Debugging is enabled, but the "option" is grayed out and cannot be changed. So it's likely that NO tethered method will ever root this phone, because anything I attempt to install that way will be flagged as "harmful behavior".

Sorry this is growing so long, but you need to know what I've already explored, which explains my next question: there MAY be a way to run a root exploit directly from the phone, if I can find a way to manually place the file (such as the zipped ioroot exploit) in a folder which recovery can access, and this is where I'm asking for help. The stock recovery has two other selectable options, besides "Apply update from ADB" (which is where some file would be sideloaded, if the phone didn't stop communicating here) -- there is also "Apply update from cache", and "Apply update from external storage". I already have the appropriate file on the SD card, but when I try that option, the phone says it "Cannot mount SD card, no CSI structures installed", or something like that... which renders the SD unusable during recovery. If I look at the "Apply from cache" selection, it gives me four choices, which are "backup/", "fota/", "lost+found/", and "recovery/". The problem here is, none of those "cache" folders are in a location I can access... they must be in a system partition which I can't even see, without root.

So if anyone has ANY thoughts on this -- either how to force the phone to leave the SD mounted during recovery, or how to move a file to an invisible partition -- would be greatly appreciated.