[myTouch 3G Slide Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] beartard:
This post will no longer be updated and is pretty much for the archives at this point. It detailed the rooting process for Linux users right after the Slide was first rooted. Since then, newer, more foolproof methods have been devised. For those rooting their phones today (or any point since T-Mobile's OTA update), please see this link: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=780213. It says it's Ubuntu-specific, but the instructions there should apply to any GNOME desktop and any other desktop with slight modification. Thanks for the comments on this thread. I hope it helped.

Most of this is not new information, but it's all in one post for the first time. I post it in case Linux (and probably MacOS) users need clarification on the process. It should keep people from having to dig in deep threads to find all the info needed. I only added the loop.sh for Linux and the partitioning information.

For all the following, I assume that the reader knows how his computer works, but not necessarily Android rooting.

Preliminary Information

1. As always, make backups and take notes. You might want to make a list of installed apps you want to reinstall later, for example.

2. Install adb. Download it here: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html. adb is a little program distributed as part of the Android software development kit (SDK). Its job is to communicate with the phone from a shell (terminal). To install adb, I strongly suggest you copy the adb file from the tools directory into your system's /usr/local/bin directory. This way, it will always be in your path. If you don't intend to do development work on Android applications, feel free to delete the rest of the SDK after installing adb.

3. Start adb as root. In more traditional Linux distros, this can be done by typing "adb devices" in a root terminal ("su" then "adb devices"). In Ubuntu-based distros, "sudo adb devices" followed by your password should do the trick. You'll get a message about the adb daemon being started. If not, sometimes typing "adb root" or "adb start-server" as root will do the trick.

4. Make sure your phone has "USB Debugging" checked off in Settings > Application > Development

5. It may not make any difference, but I turn off the "disk drive" option, so that my SD card doesn't mount when the phone is plugged in via USB (unless I need it to).

Partitioning the SD Card (Optional)

This is an optional step, as ROMs are coming out now that allow swapsace (virtual memory) and apps2sd (installing applications to the SD-card rather than on the phone's internal memory). Right now, most Slide ROMs support apps2fat32, so the whole card can be left as is (one, big, fat32 partition). If your desired ROM supports apps2sd using an ext2 or ext3 partition, you can save some headache later by doing this step first. If you don't want it, just skip to the next section.

1. Using the package manager for your Linux distro, install parted. GNOME users have a great, graphical frontend to this utility called gparted. KDE users have the KDE Partition Manager available to them. I only have gparted, but the instructions should be similar for all variants. The graphical frontends take a lot of the pain away from using parted (automatically formatting for ext4, for example). For the braver souls, there is a much more detailed tutorial for using vanilla parted from the command line here: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=4098568&postcount=1.

2. Mount your sd-card, either using the "disk drive" function of the phone, or in an external card reader.

3. Make a backup of your sd-card by simply copying and pasting to a new folder.

4. Start up the partition manager of your choice with root permissions (using gksu or kdesu).

5. Make sure your desktop environment (KDE or GNOME) or a terminal doesn't have a file manager window open to the sd-card partition. You can't unmount a partition that's being accessed.

6. Find out which device node is assigned to the partition by typing "dmesg" in a terminal. The last few lines should tell you how it's assigned. Mine was /dev/sdg1, for example.

7. Using the dropdown menu, select your sd-card partition in parted.

8. Right-click on the partition in the bottom pane of the window and select "unmount".

9. Delete the partition using the same, right-click menu.

10. Now you're left with free space to configure as you see fit. You use the same right-click menu to create partitions.

11. When done, click "apply" and the partition manager will create and format the partitions you've selected.

12. When done, the computer should mount two partitions from the card, one for apps, the other for user data. Copy your backed-up files to the larger partition.

NB: Android phones can work with a smallish ext* partition at the beginning of the card for apps (around 512MB should be more than enough for almost anyone), a super-small swapspace in the middle (no more than 32MB, if any at all--it's up for debate whether the Slide benefits from swapspace at all), and the rest of the card formatted as FAT32 for the "normal" partiton. I'll leave those decisions to those who have the need and desire. Also, whether to use ext2,3, or 4 for the apps partition is a matter for debate, and some kernels for other phones didn't support the newer versions at all. All that is beyond the scope of this howto, mainly because I won't be trying it out. ;)

NB2: Eugene has released Koushik Dutta's recovery scripts that can help automate the partitioning process. It can be done directly from recovery, rather than on the computer. I much prefer the old way, as it gives more flexibility. For reference, the post with instructions is found here: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=6993132&postcount=1.

Getting root (original HOWTO at: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=6820344&postcount=1)

The following instructions are "the old way" to gain root. There is a new method found at: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=7658764&postcount=1 that seems to be a saner process, but I have not tested it as of yet.

1. Download the Slide Root package: http://outboundlink.us/anxo/dr_ta_1...ttp://www.4shared.com/file/IfrPbWG7/Root.html

2. Extract it somewhere convenient (I'm using the Desktop folder here. I'm also renaming the folder "slideroot" to keep things simple).

3. Open a terminal and cd to the slideroot folder you just created.

4. The "loop.bat" file here is of no use to you. Use a text editor to make your own loop.sh file, or edit loop.bat and rename it when you're done. It should contain the following:

#!/bin/sh
watch -n .50 adb devices;
done

5. Power on the slide while holding down the Volume-down button. This will bring you to the bootloader screen (three droids on skateboards). Plug the Slide in via USB.

6. Just to make sure everything is working correctly, type "adb devices" in the terminal to make sure the system is seeing your phone properly. If so, run your loop.sh by typing "sh loop.sh".

7. Use the Volume-down button on the phone to select "recovery" and press the power button to enter. The terminal will flash a few messages like "offline" and "recovery". When the phone's screen shows an icon of a phone with a red triangle, you know it worked.

8. Press Volume-up and Power together to enter the recovery menu on the phone.

9. Now, back in your terminal, hit "ctrl-C" to cancel the loop.sh script.

10. Type "adb push ota.zip /sdcard/update.zip" and hit enter.

11. Type "adb push update.zip /sdcard" but DO NOT hit enter yet.

12. This step requires some coordination and timing. On the phone, select "run update.zip" and press the power button. When you see a little greenish progress bar at the bottom in the background, hit enter in your terminal.

13. If it worked as planned, the phone will see the keys from the first file you pushed, and then use the file you're pushing now to run clockwork recovery. If not, don't worry. Just repeat. I haven't had to do it more than once yet.

14. Once this is done, reboot the phone from the menu system and wait. You can use "adb devices" in the terminal to see if the phone is detected.

15. Type "adb shell" and look for the "$" prompt. If you type "su" you should get a "#" (root) prompt. Give yourself a pat on the back.

Installing the Engineering ROM (original HOWTO at http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=6821968&postcount=1)

A. Now that your phone is rooted, you can "downgrade" it to the Engineering ROM. This gives a better recovery environment that allows other ROMs to be installed (custom ROMs are signed with the test keys; the original recovery will not install them since it looks for your carrier's keys.)

B. Download two files: http://outboundlink.net/anxo/dr_ta_1/goto.php?DR_id=1359&linkout=http%3A//www.4shared.com/file/OsmF_ZD7/ESPRIMG.html and http://www.4shared.com/file/sz0VO2TL/SlideEng-package.html.

C. I extracted the SlideEng-package.zip, copied the contents inside loose to the Desktop, and copied the ESPRIMG file to my sd card.

1. cd to the Desktop and type "adb push flash_image /data/local" and hit enter.

2. Type "adb push mtd0.img /data/local" and hit enter.

3. Start an adb root shell as above ("adb shell" then "su")

4. Type "cd /data/local"

5. Type "chmod 04755 mtd0.img" and "chmod 04755 flash_image". I didn't change any permissions on the other files in that folder, just in case.

6. Type "./flash_image misc ./mtd0.img" and hit enter.

7. Power off the phone.

8. Holding Volume-down, power the phone back up. The recovery will scan the sd card and automatically detect the update file (from step "C" above) and prompt to install it. Hit Volume-up to install.

9. You're done. Just reboot the phone after the update and you're good to go. The boot process will be a little longer this time around.

Updating the Radio (May be optional) (Original HOWTO at: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=6856313&postcount=1)

I leave this section here for archive purposes. Since switching the ROM to ChiefzReloaded's OTA in the "Installing a custom ROM" section below, this step is no longer necessary, as it contains the newest radio. Unless you're installing a custom ROM released before the last T-Mobile over-the-air update, feel free to skip this section.

When we downgraded the system to the Engineering ROM, we downgraded our radio as well. The following instructions will bring us back to the stock radio version.

1. Download the following file: http://files.androidspin.com/downloads.php?dir=chiefzreloaded/ROM/&file=Newest_Slide_Radio.zip and copy it to your sd-card.

2. Remember that update.zip way back in the rooting section? The one found in the slideroot package? Copy it to your sd-card as well, if it's not already there. I deleted the one on my sd-card and re-copied it, just in case. It contains the clockwork recovery and can be left on your sd-card for future upgrades.

3. Reboot the phone into recovery (should be easy now.)

4. Select "apply update.zip from sd card" to start clockwork recovery. No looping necessary anymore!

5. From the clockwork menu system, apply the Newest_Slide_Radio.zip file you just copied over.

6. Once that's done, just reboot. The boot process will take longer and you'll see a few crazy icons before the system finally loads up. When all is finished and you're back to the home screen, the phone will pop up a dialog telling you the update was successful.

Installing a Custom ROM (Original HOWTO at: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=6827968&postcount=1)

For this install, I'm using the new OTA update rooted by ChiefzReloaded. Complete information on this ROM is here: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=7534163&postcount=1. Like the older SLIDEMEROOT2 I had here before, I picked it because it's mainly the same, stock ROM the phone shipped with, but with root. I had way too many "fast, stable, feature-packed" custom ROMs on other phones that really weren't that fast or stable. I don't want to lose the use of my camera/camcorder to have live wallpapers, for example. These instructions will work for any custom ROM (adjusting for the new ROM in step 1 and 4.)

1. Download the following file: http://db.androidspin.com/androidspin_filedownload.asp?release=330&type=1 and copy it to your sd card.

2. Boot the phone into recovery mode.

3. From the recovery menu, select "apply update.zip from sd card". As stated earlier, this update.zip file contains the clockwork recovery. Applying it like an update will always load clockwork from now on.

4. In the clockwork menu, select "apply any zip from sd card" and select CR_Mod_1.35.531_OTA.zip.

5. Let the update take its course, reboot, wait, and enjoy.

Going Back to Stock (Just in case) (Original HOWTO at: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=6994424&postcount=1)

There may come a time when you might need your phone just the way it came from the store. It could be that you're tired of custom ROMs, a feature you find you can't live without is broken, or you need to return the phone for warranty purposes. If it gets to that point, here's how:

1. Download the following file: http://outboundlink.net/anxo/dr_ta_1/goto.php?DR_id=1359&linkout=http%3A//www.4shared.com/file/x7HRRsbM/ESPRIMG_2_.html and copy it to your sd-card.

2. Reboot the phone into recovery (just the regular one, not clockwork). The file will be automatically detected.

3. After checking the file, you'll have to hit Volume-Up to confirm the flash.

4. Once done, reboot and the Slide will be good as new.