You guys must be tired of people asking the same over and over, and to be honest that is because information is so scattered newcomers often get confused.
But Anyways.
I've got myself a motorila Droid 2 a few days ago, poking around internet i found about rooting and roms and all that stuff, however I've got a question that's yet to be answered!
I'm currently residing in Mexico, my Droid 2 is unlocked and activated on a mexican carrier, however on the guides I've red so far it says that one of the requirements for installing custom ROM's one must wipe all data from the phone and return to factory settings, this means i will have to pay AGAIN to get it unlocked and activated?
As i said before, information is scattered, and is not always accuarate.
Somewhere on the net i also found a post that states customs ROM's come unlocked... whats with that?
And one last question.
What will happen if i only root my phone, no custom rom added? will this be harmful in any way? could i be able to overclock and get rid of the annoying verizon apps or do i forcefully need to install a custom ROM?
Thanks for all answers in advance.
Rooting itself would not harm your device, however rooting allows you to do pretty much anything on the device. So, in other words, rooting wont hurt it, however what it allows you to do CAN hurt it.
As far as the roms being unlocked, as far as I have read, all roms are unlocked. However I could be mistaken. But there is an easy way to find out for sure: give it a try. What I would do first root the device and install the Clockwork Recovery Mod and then boot into recovery and make a backup. This way you can restore the phone back exactly as it was when you backed it up (using the restore option), as if you never made any changes. Then I would go ahead and install whatever rom you wanted to try out, and see if everything works as intended. If you dont like it, or it doesnt allow you to access the network, etc then all you need to do is boot back to recovery and restore your backup and when it's done you'll phone will be back to it's old self.
Links:
Root: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=782556 (This is the process I used)
Clockwork: http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-install-clockwork-recovery-to-your-android-phone/
Not sure how experienced you are - or aren't - so if you have any deeper questions about the process or need more detailed instructions just let me know.
EDIT: Oops, I completely skipped some of your questions. With just rooting you can uninstall SOME of the preloaded crap, however there is allot of the preloaded applications and such that you cant uninstall without crippling your phones functionality. My originally plan when I first rooted my device was just to remove the bloatware. However after I saw just how much there was I couldn't remove I decided to jump to a custom ROM. Just to give you an example, I have the Fission ROM installed on my device, and it's packaged filed were about 70ish mb, while the packaged files to restore it back to stock/factory was nearly 300mb. And yes, rooting alone would allow you to overclock your phone.
Related
I know if you root you lose your warrenty, but my question is will you still be able to get an insurance replacement? Or is that also void? If you still can get an insurance replacement I don't see a reason not to root. I know for the Fuze I would just have to reinstall the factory rom, does this work the same way on android?
Also if I root and flash a new rom onto my nexus one, will I lose all the apps i bought? I really don't want to have to buy them all again.
Moved as not Android Development.
No, the apps you buy are synced with your google account so when you sign back in then you can redownload them.
About insurance, just give it some water damage or something and claim that. Root status or not shouldn't void it.
First off, thank you for your reply.
So my purchased downloads should appear under the downloads tab in the market after I finish flashing a new rom?
Also, just to make sure I have this process down right (trying hard not to brick my phone so please forgive my noobness to andriod, I got so used to WM phones)
First I need to make sure i have all the proper USB drivers.
Next I have to root my phone found in the following link which will wipe my phone also? http://theunlockr.com/2010/01/02/how-to-root-the-nexus-one/
Then I can flash CM 5.0.2 following his first time flash instructions found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=623496
I assume this has the recent OTA update already built with in the rom.
Finally I can then install the black bar (reason for doing any of this) found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=617336
It says it just has the framework so I really don't know what to do yet, but I'm figuring after I go through this process it will make more sense by then?
I see on some places that it would be a good idea to use nandriod before I root, but when I read the nandroid description it says the phone has to be alreayd rooted. So I'm assuming this would be a waste of time for now?
Is there any way to back up my messages, bookmarks, etc. before I root? If I just have to kiss them good bye I'd understand, but just trying to make sure before I do it.
on most of the things you are correct, the black bar mod, you just flash in recovery after you flash the rom.
technically you can nandroid before you root, unlocking your bootloader and rooting are two separate things. After you unlock your bootloader and flash the recovery image to it, you are not technically rooted and can use the recovery image to make a nandroid of your unrooted phone.
there are a few backup apps in the market for various things. I know there are a few sms backup apps, but am not so sure about bookmarks.
you have the idea of what to do down though
Hey Guys!
I just got my first android device (switched over from iPhone 3g) and I LOVE IT!
With that said, now to business! I read a lot about rooting the Evo, and other android devices, and I must say, I am quite lost in the lingo. I looked through a bunch of threads, and there are a bunch of tutorials about rooting the device in many different ways. And, after reading a lot of them, I found out about unrevoked, but I am not quite sure what it does. I gather it is a one step rooting program, but if that is the case, what is PC36IMG.zip needed for if unrevoked already roots the device in one click?
Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Arm0 said:
Hey Guys!
I just got my first android device (switched over from iPhone 3g) and I LOVE IT!
With that said, now to business! I read a lot about rooting the Evo, and other android devices, and I must say, I am quite lost in the lingo. I looked through a bunch of threads, and there are a bunch of tutorials about rooting the device in many different ways. And, after reading a lot of them, I found out about unrevoked, but I am not quite sure what it does. I gather it is a one step rooting program, but if that is the case, what is PC36IMG.zip needed for if unrevoked already roots the device in one click?
Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok so rooting removes the protected recovery on the phone. a recovery lets you restore/factory reset and install updates manually. with the non protected recovery, you can make the phone think it is being manually updated, but really you are modifying it to your hearts content. read up on roms. i reccomend flashing the ava froyo v7. very good. have fun with your newly rooted device!!!! just tell me if you need more info.
btw, this should be in questions and answers
Sorry if I posted this in the wrong place, and thanks for the respond. Figured, can't go wrong with General!
So, if i just root it without running a custom recovery, can I still run tethering apps and the screen shot app?
Basically the root gets you access deeper in the phones files than you previously had. You also gain a new set of permissions (superuser permissions) with the process so that your phone allows you to do more, similar to the iphone jailbreak.
You will need a custom recovery. The updates that sprint/htc usually send out over the air (OTA) can't be used anymore because you will lose your root, so you have to apply them manually through recovery instead. This is just one reason, but the custom recovery is a necessity. It can look complicated, especially the way it reads on the forums, but it is very simple once you have it in your hands.
After rereading your post, you may be referring to a custom rom, not recovery. You do not have to use a custom rom, you can just use stock with root access and superuser permissions and be good to go for wifi tether & screen shots
So, from what I gather, we use unrevoked to unlock the phone and get more privileges, and the custom recovery is used to not lose root privileges after Sprint or HTC puts out new updates to the devices?
essentially, you got it. The recovery is used for lots of different things, like adding themes, changing kernels, custom roms, backups, ect.
There are also methods besides unrevoked to gain root. It all depends on the type of person you are, if you want root and don't want to think about it, use one of the one click methods. If you want to learn a little check out regaw_leinad's root thread and the videos that are in the OP and you will get root and you will know how it happened when your done.
My recommendation is to choose your method of root and do it and stick with the stock rooted rom for a bit. Read the forums, mostly the OPs on the different custom roms and the kernel threads and you will start to get an idea of what you want from your rooted phone. After a week or two of hanging out on the forums, you will know what you want and you will have enough grasp to go for it. Read OPs thoroughly and follow directions to the T and you will not have any problems.
Hi Gent's, I have some holes in my Atrix knowledge, that with all the recent developments and new members/devs I'm sure would be helpful for all to discuss and clear up.
The problem is as follows.
How can I, and others, backup their Atrix in safe secure manner that allows us to take advantage of, and remain flexible, for both future updates, either XDA member created, or OTA(which could mess with things, for example blocking our bootloader unlock for those who OTA and haven't unlocked yet, thereby denying them further future flashing freed-up fun roms).
I know we need to backup and save the PDS partition if we want security in flashing the roms regarding touchscreen and device issues, but some things need to be spelled out. First things first, my understanding is a month ago we didn't have a fully functioning CWM, we had tenfar's CWM bootstrap, which was limited in function. I heard something about borked backup/recovery with it, so I played things safe, didn't touch it. Now a couple weeks ago tenfar put out a new version that supports the Atrix post-unlocked bootloader, which allows for greater functionality in CWM. What I need to figure out guys, is what's the protocol for backing up the PDS, making a safe backup of the ENTIRE phone, and then the safe way for wiping the cache's, (IDK which one's, I don't want to trash my touchscreen lower half like some people did?), followed by the currently established procedures for switching from rom to rom.
This is all compounded by the problem that either yesterday or today a new (bootstrap?) item was given Atrix compatibility by the almighty Koush, something called ROM Manager. Should I use this instead of CWM, or should I wait. I'm fine with TiBu for apps and data, but I need to be sure I have everything necessary to restore the phone if necessary because of a bootlooping new rom for example, because I've heard too many nightmare stories about people so far, granted some members have done some stupid stuff, but I think it would be helpful if some of the recent developments in Atrix Backup/Restore could be explained by someone omnipotent in this area.
I'm thinking the correct options are, get Tenfars latest CWM, which REQUIRES bootloader bashing, followed by a Nandroid(?) backup in CWM, then wipe data cache, and dalvik cache, and any other cache's?(IDK!) After the wiping, then install new rom zip from CWM as usual, correct?
The problem with the procedure above, is I think Tenfars latest CWM requires pudding, which presents me and probably others with the following dilemma. I'm assuming, because of Motorola's past history, that when the ATT GB update OTA's, they are going to try to f**k with our current implementation of pudding bootloader unlock, for those who aren't unlocked yet, just how they closed up root with every past update for example. These guys are security nuts, read a post of mine I made last month, they definitely read our forum, at least the Nvidia Tegra guys I've confirmed to. Now I may be wrong, and they may not able to implement this, but I don't want to confuse you guys, I know that those who are unlocked will stay unlocked, but what if they refuse you guys OTA GB official because they check for unlocked BL? That's why me, and I'm sure others haven't unlocked yet. I plan on waiting for the OTA to pop up, pressing install later for 3-4 days denying the update, and checking XDA feverishly to see if those who install the OTA can use CWM, root, Unlock bootloaders, etc. If they lock up the new official GB OTA, then I'll just hit install later one last time, unlock bootloader, and pop in one of the many roms raining down from the sky.
Also this isn't so much a question, as it's a discussion, because I feel like I can't be the only one with these information gaps. If someone can add to the collective knowledge, it will help all of us
/on an unrelated closing note, since it's raining roms, has anyone tried Cherryblur 1.1a, AND Quickrom V1 (7/18), AND Kpenn's GB Beta 4 AND Ninja V 0.4.2 Alpha, AND Dorains Redpill? I'm curious if anyone has been crazy enough or has had the chance to try all of the latest and greatest, I'm sure one of those is more stable than the others, they are all based off of a hodgepodge of unofficial development builds, ha, one's a French 2.3.4 even? Not mention we were goofing around with HKTW earlier, which is MT870 not even Olympus!!! That surely cannot run with much real stablity....
Hi,
Once there is an official OTA for GB, it can be captured and saved. It's a simple edit to remove references to any bootloader. Then it can be flashed using CWM.
Cheers!
Excellent!
Spoken from NF...HIMSELF! Thank you, I was waiting to bite the unlock bullet but I forgot we always steal stuff and repackage it for flashy-goodness.
However, I guess I should just use ROM manager and do a complete NANDROID backup? Does that capture the all important PDS? And by the way, it would seem, that if you stick to legit packages and ROMs and flash with CWM and deal with data the right way, its difficult to brick it would seem?
Dalvik and Clear User Data right, or is there more....
Once again thanks NF, since your such a talented dev for atrix, are you working on cooking a rom?
Okay so I just have a few questions about rooting my phone before I do it, since I saw the root here that works for the most recent OTA update.
1) If someone happens with my phone (either bricking it from rooting or something inconsequential) will they not replace my phone due to it being rooted?
2) If they won't replace it due to being rooted (if it wasn't bricking), is there an easy way to unroot the phone?
3) I can't tell from the instructions, but I'm pretty sure some others have said that it might require you to restore factory settings, does this one require that?
4) The thread says that it is now impossible to unlock the bootloader, does this also mean that you can't use a custom ROM? How exactly do you add a ROM?
Sorry for all the questions, I've never rooted an android device before, and I don't have the time or energy to go running around Google/forums trying to find these answers.
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: yes I know i've already asked 2 of these questions, but I'm a stupid poop who needs validation.
wholocked10 said:
Okay so I just have a few questions about rooting my phone before I do it, since I saw the root here that works for the most recent OTA update.
1) If someone happens with my phone (either bricking it from rooting or something inconsequential) will they not replace my phone due to it being rooted?
2) If they won't replace it due to being rooted (if it wasn't bricking), is there an easy way to unroot the phone?
3) I can't tell from the instructions, but I'm pretty sure some others have said that it might require you to restore factory settings, does this one require that?
4) The thread says that it is now impossible to unlock the bootloader, does this also mean that you can't use a custom ROM? How exactly do you add a ROM?
Sorry for all the questions, I've never rooted an android device before, and I don't have the time or energy to go running around Google/forums trying to find these answers.
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: yes I know i've already asked 2 of these questions, but I'm a stupid poop who needs validation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
first, rooting your voids the warranty, so technically, they (either VZW or Motorola) are not obligated to replace it. that being said, you can always play dumb and say that you accepted some OTA install, and now the phone won't boot up. usually, VZW will try to restore the phone, and if not, they'll replace it - no worries.
2.) I believe there is an unroot method, but I have not explored this. try doing a search on this forum for "unroot razr m"
3.) restore factory settings could unroot - check the threads
4.) you can still install a custom ROM, but you'll need to install Safestrap first. however, the custom ROMs available for SS are out-dated, and I don't think that any devs will be providing any going forward. however, I would not be too discouraged by this, as the phone is very solid stock. so rooting is the key to remove the bloatware to help increase battery life, increase performance, and reduce excess data usage.
hope this helps.
HI, I have an LG G2 that I want to root, mainly so that I can get rid of some of the stock apps that are running in the back ground and using system resources however before I even venture down the rooting road I need some of the basics explaining to me. I am computer literate in the windows environment so am quite happy to have a go at rooting my device however I would like to get a better understanding of the terminology etc first, I also have a number of rooting specific questions if anyone can answer them. Ok here goes:-
1) ROM - What is it, my understanding is that this is basically the operating system shipped with the phone and therefore it follows that a custom ROM is one made by a third party that can be installed on the phone instead of the standard one. Am I correct on this.
2) Recovery - I have no idea what this is but am guessing that it is some way of recovering the device / re-setting it to its default factory settings if the phone goes completely wrong, I would therefore guess that a custom recovery is a third party recovery that does different things to the one provided by the manufacturer. Again am I correct in this or not.
3) Is it possible to gain root access on the device and keep the standard ROM. As I said before I want root access so that I can control the default apps and get rid of the ones that I don't use or run in the background, at this stage I don't want to install a custom ROM until I have had a go at just rooting the device (I suspect this will change as I love tinkering)
4) I am aware of the issue around warranty being void if a device is rooted, is there anyway to restore the device so that it is un-rooted and the repair centre etc will never know that it has been rooted. I understand that this is something to do with a counter needing re-setting but have no idea how to do this.
5) What software do I need to root the device.
I appreciate I have a lot of questions, most on the very basic side of things but I would be very grateful any help offered.
Thanks
Ben
Monkeyhands said:
HI, I have an LG G2 that I want to root, mainly so that I can get rid of some of the stock apps that are running in the back ground and using system resources however before I even venture down the rooting road I need some of the basics explaining to me. I am computer literate in the windows environment so am quite happy to have a go at rooting my device however I would like to get a better understanding of the terminology etc first, I also have a number of rooting specific questions if anyone can answer them. Ok here goes:-
1) ROM - What is it, my understanding is that this is basically the operating system shipped with the phone and therefore it follows that a custom ROM is one made by a third party that can be installed on the phone instead of the standard one. Am I correct on this.
2) Recovery - I have no idea what this is but am guessing that it is some way of recovering the device / re-setting it to its default factory settings if the phone goes completely wrong, I would therefore guess that a custom recovery is a third party recovery that does different things to the one provided by the manufacturer. Again am I correct in this or not.
3) Is it possible to gain root access on the device and keep the standard ROM. As I said before I want root access so that I can control the default apps and get rid of the ones that I don't use or run in the background, at this stage I don't want to install a custom ROM until I have had a go at just rooting the device (I suspect this will change as I love tinkering)
4) I am aware of the issue around warranty being void if a device is rooted, is there anyway to restore the device so that it is un-rooted and the repair centre etc will never know that it has been rooted. I understand that this is something to do with a counter needing re-setting but have no idea how to do this.
5) What software do I need to root the device.
I appreciate I have a lot of questions, most on the very basic side of things but I would be very grateful any help offered.
Thanks
Ben
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 Yes it is the operating system, AOSP means its full on custom. While STOCK based roms are the basic OS the phone came with but with multiple tweaks to improve performance and the system in general but keeping features that are not released publicly and drivers. For example camera performance etc.
2 Yes. The manufacturer recovery only resets the RoM to factory default. Custom Recoveries let you Backup your entire System (except files) to exactly the way it was before so if you do something wrong you can go exactly to the way it was before down to apps installed and messages.
so Stock is a Restore partition. Custom needs you to backup system first unless you store a Rom on Memory or external to *flash*
Custom actually gives you more options to recover a broken phone than stock.
3. Yes you can. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=45692679#post45692679
4. The samsung Galaxys had counters to check root and flashes etc i believe LG G2 Doesnt you can remove root and also flash back to complete STOCK firmware for returning to manufacters.
5. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=45692679#post45692679 GL read into it
squee666 said:
1 Yes it is the operating system, AOSP means its full on custom. While STOCK based roms are the basic OS the phone came with but with multiple tweaks to improve performance and the system in general but keeping features that are not released publicly and drivers. For example camera performance etc.
2 Yes. The manufacturer recovery only resets the RoM to factory default. Custom Recoveries let you Backup your entire System (except files) to exactly the way it was before so if you do something wrong you can go exactly to the way it was before down to apps installed and messages.
so Stock is a Restore partition. Custom needs you to backup system first unless you store a Rom on Memory or external to *flash*
Custom actually gives you more options to recover a broken phone than stock.
3. Yes you can. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=45692679#post45692679
4. The samsung Galaxys had counters to check root and flashes etc i believe LG G2 Doesnt you can remove root and also flash back to complete STOCK firmware for returning to manufacters.
5. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=45692679#post45692679 GL read into it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HI,
Thanks for the info, I have now rooted my phone and as anticipated now have a whole load of new questions. Firstly I installed an app Root Checker Basic by joeykrim, just to make sure the phone was rooted and the app reported back that it was not rooted despite the fact that esfileexplorer now has root access and I have been able to install SuperSU by Chainfire so whats going on, is my phone rooted, not rooted or partialy rooted (if that's possible). Also I am not exactly sure why I need to use the SuperSU app, it doesn't appear to have any options for uninstalling system apps or changing previously restricted settings etc which I was expecting once I got root access, the stock ROM hasn't given me access to this stuff either so the question is how do I now get access to it, from other apps I presume. One thing that I do need SuperSU for is to use it in combination with hidemyroot so that SKYGO will still work as this app will not work on rooted devices, if there is another way to get SKYGO to work on rooted apps then I will happily give it a go as it means I wont need SuperSU then.
Thanks
Ben
Be careful wich apps from system you want to uninstall, you can brick your device.
Do not remove anything from /system, ever. Use Settings->Disable on the apps that allow that, anything else you absolutely thing you need to disable use (as root) pm disable com.package.name.
Google it for more details.