Database Users

[Q] Rooting questions

does using the 1-click root method clear all my apps or configurations? i spent quite some time setting up the phone how i like and would not want to do it again. i have a droid 2.

No
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App

what if i reroot because of needing warranty service or something?

Root puts three or four files on your phone and runs an exploit to get superuser or "root" access then one of those programs keeps root and the other helps do root activities like with the shell. So adding a few files to your phone will not ruin your setup.
Now the things you do to your phone after you get root may mess up your current configuration so the question is do you really need root?
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App

newk8600 said:
Root puts three or four files on your phone and runs an exploit to get superuser or "root" access then one of those programs keeps root and the other helps do root activities like with the shell. So adding a few files to your phone will not ruin your setup.
Now the things you do to your phone after you get root may mess up your current configuration so the question is do you really need root?
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i want to be able to remove some stock apps from my phone which from my understandign can only be done with root.

droid2user2010 said:
i want to be able to remove some stock apps from my phone which from my understandign can only be done with root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct since you really like your current config might I suggest as soon as you root you install koush's bootstrap and install it and go into recovery and make a backup before you remove apps either with root explorer, terminal emulator etc. That way if something does go wrong while you tweak you can always restore the backup you made. Instructions for all of this is in the forums or google.
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App

Getting control of my Desire HD

Hi folks,
I want to be able to uninstall all the bloatware that my DHD came with so I guess I need to root it. However in this regard I don't need a perm root? As I don't need to change the UI etc, just remove a bunch of unecessary apps.
I've tried using the rooting guide here but as an anroid newb the instuctions are too vague for me to follow and my attempts to infer what the authors mean have resulted in failure (no brick tho! ).
So, I have visionary and supersuer both installed and I tried the temp root and perm root function in visionary (which is granted supersuer permissions from the superuser app in the process) but when I go back to "manage applications" the uninstall button for all the bloatware apps is still greyed out.
Any ideas?
EDIT: Typing "su" in terminal emulator results in "#" so that appears to be working correctly. But still no go on uninstalling the apps. I don't care about not getting updates over the air as I value having greater control over my device more. Besides, I can always flash it manually.

dccxviii said:
Hi folks,
I want to be able to uninstall all the bloatware that my DHD came with so I guess I need to root it. However in this regard I don't need a perm root? As I don't need to change the UI etc, just remove a bunch of unecessary apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello 718 ,
I've read something about uninstall unwanted applications
in the adb description "Using ADB.pdf" and "How to install adb.pdf".
Hope it helps you, I'm in the searching and reading phase of owning
the HTC DHD (some weeks ago - and android newbee) -
it's a jungle of information here on xda-developers
WBR peschi

Use titanium backup or root explorer.
sent from my dhd

Thanks for the replies.
So far i've started using titanium backup as it seems easier to use then having to install adb shell. Although I installed that as well and start learning some basic commands.
For now, titanium seems to be the answer to my issue as it allowing me to uninstall a whole heap of useless apps. But I think in the next few days of tinkering i'm gonna come to the conclusion that I want even greater control. Which seems to indicate falshing an entirely defferent rom to HTC sense. Although the keyboard on the sense UI is second to none IMO but smoething tells me that there's a .apk file out there with that in it

So, I've rooted my Desire HD with VISIONary+ and mounted /system as r/w using that "Mount system r/w" app from market, to move some of the stock apps from the Desire HD (and to hopefully solve that Facebook for Android problem I described in another thread). I used Root Explorer to move the apps to a folder on the SD card, turned the phone off and back on, and the apps were back?
Is this because I haven't done that "S-Off" thing, does the quick boot option need to be disabled (even though I turned the phone off entirely) or something else, in order to keep the apps that I moved, from respawning in /system/app?
Thanks in advance (and sorry for borrowing your thread, OP).

I don't think i've got s-off (whatever that means lol) and I was able to uninstall the crapware using titanium backup. My process was somewhat convoluted but I guess it boiled down to 2 things. Visionary and Superuser apps.
Now I don't think my phone is completely rooted because when I go to the default "manage applications" list in the stock UI the uninstall button for the crapware system apps is still greyed out. But for when I run titanium backup, it gets granted superuser acces from the superuser app and is then able to uninstall all the bloatware.
I would like to know of a sure fire way whether my phone is completely rooted or not though. Namely because I think I want to start using completely different roms.

I temprooted using visionary+ then opened titanium back up to uninstall unwanted apps. But which are safe to remove? I want to get rid of Facebook, Friendstream and a few others but Titanium warns me they are system components and my phone may not work after uninstalling them....
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

I got rid of all of that (twitter, myspace etc rubbish). Even some native htc ones that I know are ancilliary. You just have to use a bit of logic as to what might require what. Crap like friend stream or whatever wuold most likey rely on such apps. But since I uninstalled that too... you get the idea
I was gonna get rid of sound hound as well but it's actually kinda useful. One of the few apps I left on it from the factory.
EDIT: I've also been using titanium to backup more usefull HTC system apps so that when I do eventually move to a new rom, i can just install them later. Things like the HTC clock, office apps, calender, messaging etc are superior to stock android equivalents.

WTF...
I had to remove my sim card for something and when I reinserted it and turned on the phone all the apps I 'removed' were back as if nothing ever happened!
Did I miss something because I don't remember reading anywhere that that would happen if you rebooted your phone!
Agrrrr...I need some help >.<

If your DHD does not have S-OFF after every reboot it will restore everything you removed.

Ahh, thnaks for that. I've used the S-off radio tool to disable the security now. Hopefully those rubbish apps will stay away (tested with reboot and it seems so). However, now that i've rooted my phone and switched to S-off I am still curious as to why system apps are still unable to be uninstalled through the in-built android app manager.
Also, I attempted to use the clockworkrecovery mod to install new ROMS and so wanted to backup my current ROM install before trying new ones but the phone just goes to a black screen with a pic of a mobile phone with a red exclamation point in a triangle.
...unless of course after all this it STILL isn't rooted. In which case I think I might start looking seriously at the Nexus. *sigh*

The built-in app manager will not let you remove system apps regardless of being rooted. Install Titanium Backup from the market. This will remove it.
Download ROM Manager from the market, and "Flash Recovery" again, some users have issues with it working first time.

That did the trick! Thanks very much
One last question then, if I flash a new ROM e.g. cyanogenMOD, will that completely replace HTC sense and thus allow me to use the built in app manager to remove apps because...there won't be anymore 'system' apps?

andyharney said:
If your DHD does not have S-OFF after every reboot it will restore everything you removed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have root + Radio S-Off but every restart the phone causes my default Smart Keyboard deactive. Do you have any idea about that, is it spesific for an app or a general problem?
I am asking because I did not do ENG S-Off I have done only Radio S-Off.

With S-ON every reboot will result in ANY change to the system being restored, You make system changes permanent you need S-OFF.
As for your keyboard being disabled, not sure about that. Installing & using an additional keyboard shouldn't make any system changes.

dccxviii said:
That did the trick! Thanks very much
One last question then, if I flash a new ROM e.g. cyanogenMOD, will that completely replace HTC sense and thus allow me to use the built in app manager to remove apps because...there won't be anymore 'system' apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even on CM system apps cannot be uninstalled through the Android App Manager. It's the way its designed, why would the system allow you to remove the "Android System" or "Dialer". Imagine the chaos if you uninstalled something you actually needed and Android let you do it.
You need to use 3rd Party apps (Titanium Backup) to do this, or ADB

still scared
so after rooting my HD what ARE the apps which are safe to remove?

Mat Buenaluz said:
so after rooting my HD what ARE the apps which are safe to remove?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you ever want to make use of ota updates (eg to improve camera performance) then none of the 'bloatware' apps are safe to remove as removing them will prevent the ota update installing.
Sent from my HTC HD so may contain typos, bugs and, if the battery lasts, pearls of....(battery 0%)

As the tittle says getting control over your DHD, so this might be the right thread, allthough might be off topic to op's post...
Anyway my last device was a N900 and that was fully rooted with no permission limits. I've learned that the rooted DHD has some limits and i've run into one. On the N900 i used the terminal for allmost anything, flashing, copying, installing, removing etc. and would like to do so here on the DHD. My problem is that i'm trying to flash the kernel/zImage through terminal emulater but get this error - failed with error: -1. -
Any help would be great
Sorry to go off topic...

You cannot flash a kernel using terminal emulator. If you want to flash manually, get android sdk and use fastboot.exe in platform-tools to flash.
1. Reboot your device while holding vol-, it will go to bootloader
2. Select fastboot in bootloader
3. In your PC, type: "fastboot.exe flash zimage c:\any_folder\zImage"
4. Type: "fastboot.exe reboot"
After that you have to remount your DHD's system to rw state: "mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p25 /system", and manually push wifi module to /system/lib/modules/ using adb. If you do not do that, your wifi does not work. You need ENG S-OFF.

real one click root???????

Does anybody know if visionary or another one click root app is
being developed??? one that will perm root my mytouch 4g. ive been having so much trouble rooting it that i guess im just going to wait for the total one click root meathod. plus help ive looked everywhere and cant find any info on it. thanks in advance

I have no idea, but I used the video guide from unlockr.com and although it took a few more clicks than one (not many), I got it done without any major issues.

Most likely there will not be 1-click roots anymore. Protection is way too sophisticated on these newer devices. However, I rooted my replacement yesterday and it took me less then 5 min (ultimate s-off, sim-unlock, eng boot).
Good luck.

Jmayes1786 said:
Does anybody know if visionary or another one click root app is
being developed??? one that will perm root my mytouch 4g. ive been having so much trouble rooting it that i guess im just going to wait for the total one click root meathod. plus help ive looked everywhere and cant find any info on it. thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where are you running into a problem? This is by far the easiest phone I have ever rooted. It took like 5 or 10 minutes if that.

Im looking for something similar...the problem for me is I don't have a computer to connect to. Just my phone.
Any solutions?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

I used Visionary+ with root files and terminal emulator and it took less than 5 minutes for permaroot, s=off. It really is very easy.
I also started rooting way back on a G1 and remember the first time rooting took me almost a week of reading up and more than 2 hours to accomplish just the root!

Ok basically when I download the root.rar file I right click on it which creates another root file our whatever I drag it over to my sd and when I unplug from my lap top I open astro and there is the root folder or file or whatever it is so I open terminal emulator get su permission and type the first command + enter and it says something to the effect like sh file not found or in astro if I click the wpx or hboot it says they are not file. Can someone please tell me when im doing wrong with this root folder? Thanks in advance.....

You are running Visionary first and clicking temp root right??

I know that akaskriller.com has a one touch root. Dont know if its perm root or temp root. You can check out his videos on youtube and he has his own web site. Last time I checked, there was a 5 dollar donation to get access to the link on his site and it seems to work pretty well. You can email him and ask him questions and even call him. He's always willing to help. I think there's even a thread on here about him. Check it out.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

Jmayes1786 said:
Ok basically when I download the root.rar file I right click on it which creates another root file our whatever I drag it over to my sd and when I unplug from my lap top I open astro and there is the root folder or file or whatever it is so I open terminal emulator get su permission and type the first command + enter and it says something to the effect like sh file not found or in astro if I click the wpx or hboot it says they are not file. Can someone please tell me when im doing wrong with this root folder? Thanks in advance.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stop! Do not turn this into another one of your "I can't root" threads.
Enjoy stock phone or get an iPhone..... you obviously do not have the brains or patience to learn.

Ok thank u for ur insult I will take that with a grain if salt. I am now rooted. Apparently there was a issue with my girlfriends lap top that is I could never get the correct root filer on my sd.this is not my first root anyway but the only only were her stupid lap top acted a donkey.

captrobb said:
I also started rooting way back on a G1 and remember the first time rooting took me almost a week of reading up and more than 2 hours to accomplish just the root!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, yeah, dreaming.nbh, that separated the men from the noobs.
This phone is stupid easy to root, grankin put out an .sh file that does it all in terminal for you. Much easier than when I did it when root first dropped, though it still wasn't very hard then. Listen, this may sound like an insult to you though I really don't mean it as one, but if you can't get root following grankin's thread, root just isn't meant for you. Once you have root, its so easy to mess up your phone if your not paying attention to what you're doing. All you need is terminal and VISIONary.

kitsunisan said:
Lol, yeah, dreaming.nbh, that separated the men from the noobs.
This phone is stupid easy to root, grankin put out an .sh file that does it all in terminal for you. Much easier than when I did it when root first dropped, though it still wasn't very hard then. Listen, this may sound like an insult to you though I really don't mean it as one, but if you can't get root following grankin's thread, root just isn't meant for you. Once you have root, its so easy to mess up your phone if your not paying attention to what you're doing. All you need is terminal and VISIONary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't agree anymore.
Rooting is a process that enables you to completely FUBAR your phone. IF you cannot get the directions down to root the phone. Then you really need to second guess Rooting the phone.
As far as the root.sh file and the unroot.sh files they are stored in a .rar format. You need a special unzipper to extract those files. I bet your GF's Computer didn't have that.

neidlinger said:
Couldn't agree anymore.
Rooting is a process that enables you to completely FUBAR your phone. IF you cannot get the directions down to root the phone. Then you really need to second guess Rooting the phone.
As far as the root.sh file and the unroot.sh files they are stored in a .rar format. You need a special unzipper to extract those files. I bet your GF's Computer didn't have that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've rooted a couple G1s, and my Nexus One (ha!) but I think the problem with this one is that there are several posts detailing how to root, and they are a bit confusing (where do I start? What do I really need? Was it temp or permanent?). Maybe some cleaning up of ALL of those threads and leaving just the ONE that truly details it would be a lot better (and listing if "ultimate S=off" is truly required). So yes, it may be super easy for those of us that have done this a lot, but for a noob the thread count is entirely too high.

If you're having so much trouble rooting......DON'T ROOT. It isn't for you and you'll just end up bricking your phone then asking for help here.

Do you really need a permanent root?
Student Driver is right when he pleads for a single set of instructions - the multiple sets are confusing for those without the experience to sort out the abbreviations, other shorthand, and implicit steps.
But permanent root might not be necessary for everybody. If all you want to do is eliminate the effect of bloatware on speed and battery life, you can use Visionary (free) and Titanium Backup Pro ($5.99). Set Visionary to temp-root on every reboot, and create a list ("label") of applications you want "frozen" under "Batch" in the menu in Titanium Pro. Then the user can remove the bloatware after every re-boot by starting Titanium Pro and carrying out the batch operation of "freezing" the stored "label." [It would be nice if someone wrote an app that did all this automatically--that is, temp root + freeze unwanted apps--on reboot right after Visionary did its thing] It takes longer to get the phone back in service on a reboot when you do all this, but there's no worry about bricking the phone or about making it impossible to upgrade, because all of the apps are retained, although not in use, and these processes can be automatically undone on the next re-boot.
This may be a reasonable solution to the effects of bloatware on speed and battery life for those who don't re-boot frequently and are satisfied with the stock ROM.

all of the guides are very easy to follow. If my wife can root her phone, and she has no Android tech background I'm sure anyone can
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

ecdy said:
Student Driver is right when he pleads for a single set of instructions - the multiple sets are confusing for those without the experience to sort out the abbreviations, other shorthand, and implicit steps.
But permanent root might not be necessary for everybody. If all you want to do is eliminate the effect of bloatware on speed and battery life, you can use Visionary (free) and Titanium Backup Pro ($5.99). Set Visionary to temp-root on every reboot, and create a list ("label") of applications you want "frozen" under "Batch" in the menu in Titanium Pro. Then the user can remove the bloatware after every re-boot by starting Titanium Pro and carrying out the batch operation of "freezing" the stored "label." [It would be nice if someone wrote an app that did all this automatically--that is, temp root + freeze unwanted apps--on reboot right after Visionary did its thing] It takes longer to get the phone back in service on a reboot when you do all this, but there's no worry about bricking the phone or about making it impossible to upgrade, because all of the apps are retained, although not in use, and these processes can be automatically undone on the next re-boot.
This may be a reasonable solution to the effects of bloatware on speed and battery life for those who don't re-boot frequently and are satisfied with the stock ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Freezing apps after temp root with TB will persist through reboots. All work is done in /data partition which is set to rw by default. If all you want to do is remove bloat - then no, you don't need to permanently root.
PS. You might want to detach frozen apps from the market as well so they don't update and re-enable themselves.

Deleting System APP

Hey all
I need to remove FACEBOOK, so that I can use the launcher pro facebook widget, but its saying invalid key file when trying to log into it.
Soooooooooooo , how do I remove the original facebook ?
There only seems a force quit option , and then I cant delete it
Any help welcome
Thanks, as always
Stephen

I think you need to be rooted to do this.
Just go to the /system/app/ folder and you'll find the Facebook.apk. Delete it, and reboot.
--an Explorer is needed--
if you dont have an explorer installed (i.e. Root Explorer, or ES file explorer) then you can use adb
in cmd type 'adb shell'
then the following...
>su
>rm /system/app/Facebook.apk
(notice the capital 'F' in Facebook. the shell is case sensitive)

Brilliant , thanks I will give it a try
Steve
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Only custom ROMS can remove stock apps

Yea, it says cant be removed
Any other suggestions ?
Twitter works ok, but on the launcher pro facebook widget it says error:invalid_key
any other suggestions ?
Steve

Off course you need to be rooted and you can download titanium backup from market to easily remove system app. Use it with great caution!!!
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Thanks , I downloaded that, and I am not ROOTED (which I understand means it needs root priviliages to remove the program)
Soooooooooooooo , how do I get it rooted ?
Thanks
Steve

sbsshadow said:
Thanks , I downloaded that, and I am not ROOTED (which I understand means it needs root priviliages to remove the program)
Soooooooooooooo , how do I get it rooted ?
Thanks
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out the handy guides in the development thread, that's all you need.

ok, thanks

fdelosriossanchez said:
Check out the handy guides in the development thread, that's all you need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any link inparticular ?
I still havntdone this , and still cant remove facebook and its driving me MAD !!!
As I want to use is with Launcher PRO in my other window with twitter ..
Thanks
Steve

Just start from the downgrade the system and then , root, s-off,.......... It is a lot of tutorials. use serch button

Even if you're not intending to install CyanogenMod I found their guide to be the easiest to understand.
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/HTC_Desire_HD:_Rooting

But dont forget once u have rooted and removed facebook u will not be able to install any ota updates from htc. Based on the bug infested updates so far that may not be a bad thing.
Sent from my HTC HD so may contain typos, bugs and, if the battery lasts, pearls of....(battery 0%)

Also if you have root permissions, use Root Explorer, go to system --> app --> and delete the Facebook app. Then you no need to hack with adb or computer.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App

Problems blocking ads

I've rooted my Nexus 4, but I can't seem to block ads. Tried adaway and adfree. Any suggestions?

Try adblock plus as well, maybe that works.

Dster said:
I've rooted my Nexus 4, but I can't seem to block ads. Tried adaway and adfree. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check to see that the file /etc/hosts actually gets updated when you use adaway/adfree. Also, you need to reboot your phone after you apply the new hosts file.

Same issue here, Used adaway, adfree, none of them seem to work.

stealthj said:
Same issue here, Used adaway, adfree, none of them seem to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have the same issue

marinierb said:
Check to see that the file /etc/hosts actually gets updated when you use adaway/adfree. Also, you need to reboot your phone after you apply the new hosts file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you don't, my ads are always blocked immediately after running ad away even if I don't reboot.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

marinierb said:
Check to see that the file /etc/hosts actually gets updated when you use adaway/adfree. Also, you need to reboot your phone after you apply the new hosts file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you don't reboot your phone immediately after using AdBlock or AdFree (I switched from the former to the latter), then you will run into an issue where the Back button doesn't actually take you back in the browser. You have to double click it and mess with it in general.
I didn't know this for a solid 5-6 months when I first rooted my Atrix back in the day and it DROVE ME NUTS.
Anyway, go into Superuser or SuperSU and make sure that you've given AdBlock or AdFree root access. I would maybe even recommend just installing both apps anyway, reinstalling, granting root access, run/apply new hosts file, and then immediately reboot.

adway working just fine, are you sure that you rooted it properly though.

joshnichols189 said:
No you don't, my ads are always blocked immediately after running ad away even if I don't reboot.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whether you have to reboot or not depends on cache and DNS. Just because your ads are always blocked, doesn't necessarily mean everyone else doesn't need to reboot.
Adfree works fine for me. Reboot the phone to be safe.

Stryder5 said:
Whether you have to reboot or not depends on cache and DNS. Just because your ads are always blocked, doesn't necessarily mean everyone else doesn't need to reboot.
Adfree works fine for me. Reboot the phone to be safe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's some funky stuff going on for me. I checked my hosts file, and it had in fact been updated by Adfree/Adaway/Adblock Plus (I've tried them all troubleshooting this).
Superuser says that they have the appropriate permissions.
I take it that there's multiple methods for rooting, right? I just followed the first walkthrough I found. I'm running the CM10.1 nightly with this issue.
Could someone who has adblocking working describe what method they used for flashing recovery? I'm thinking that there's some sort of problem with my filesystem. One symptom is that I can't figure out where RomManager is storing my backups. It sees them, and they take up space, but they're not in my SDCARD partition.
EDIT: I see that my backups are in /data/media/clockworkmod and the hosts file that is being altered by adblocking software is in /system/etc.

Dster said:
There's some funky stuff going on for me. I checked my hosts file, and it had in fact been updated by Adfree/Adaway/Adblock Plus (I've tried them all troubleshooting this).
Superuser says that they have the appropriate permissions.
I take it that there's multiple methods for rooting, right? I just followed the first walkthrough I found. I'm running the CM10.1 nightly with this issue.
Could someone who has adblocking working describe what method they used for flashing recovery? I'm thinking that there's some sort of problem with my filesystem. One symptom is that I can't figure out where RomManager is storing my backups. It sees them, and they take up space, but they're not in my SDCARD partition.
EDIT: I see that my backups are in /data/media/clockworkmod and the hosts file that is being altered by adblocking software is in /system/etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you get it working?
I am having the same problem
Nexus 4
4.2.1
Unlocked & rooted using 1.3.0 toolkit..