A few months back Amazon unveiled the Fire TV, its first set-top box. It has a lot of features that some of its biggest competitors don’t. For example it serves as a gaming device as well apart from letting users surf the web and stream content from various online sources. There’s no official way to run custom ROMs or apps that require root access on the Fire TV but now its possible to root Amazon Fire TV. Even though it runs a heavily forked version its still Android OS deep down.
Rooting the Fire TV will provide users with access to settings and files that would have otherwise not been available. Moreover it will also open the door to custom ROMs for the device which would ultimately alter the user experience. Such customizations are already widely done on Android powered smartphones.
The procedure isn’t that hard. There are two essential components that are need, one is Geohot’s recently released Towelroot app and the other is Chainfire’s SuperSU app. Once they are sideloaded onto the set-top box it can easily be rooted.
Those who do root Amazon Fire TV would also be better off by installing BusyBox to block over-the-air software updates. A software update can take away root access which is why its important to block them. The caveat is that users don’t get bug fixes and security improvements that come as part and parcel of the software update.