AT&T started shipping the Galaxy Note to pre-order customers on Friday, but the device doesn’t hit stores until tomorrow, the 18th. Not having the device in hand doesn’t stop developers from tweaking it. Today, XDA dev Da_G achieved root access on the much-anticipated phablet. Some might think the international Note’s root method would work on the AT&T  variant, but it does not.

The process is simple. Just download the rooted kernel from the XDA thread here and flash it in ODIN. Da_G himself says:

This kernel enables custom boot animations, adb root, init.d support, runs a script to auto-root your /system partition, and then you’re on your merry way  You may need the USB Drivers available here. (Support & Downloads for SGH-I717)

Once the USB Drivers are installed, power off the phone, then hold volume down and power it on, you’ll get a screen asking you to hit vol up to continue, do so. This puts the phone in download mode.

Stick the provided pda.tar in the PDA box of Odin3 1.85, flash away!

Install Superuser from the market after booting.

Hit up the XDA thread for more info.