Database Users

Root questions

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

[Q] Droid 2, Roms & activations

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.

[Q] A few questions on rooting

Hello,
It's been a long time since I rooted a device.So please be patient.
I want to root the tablet because I need open vpn connectivity and I don't need a custom ROM because I am mainly using it as a media consumption device.
Does rooting automatically mean flashing a custom recovery(CWM) Is it possible to root without flashing one(I feel stupid asking this I remember flashing CWM every time I root a Android device.)
I have heard that there are some bugs in CWM for Nexus 10.
Thanks

siddardhab said:
Hello,
It's been a long time since I rooted a device.So please be patient.
I want to root the tablet because I need open vpn connectivity and I don't need a custom ROM because I am mainly using it as a media consumption device.
Does rooting automatically mean flashing a custom recovery(CWM) Is it possible to root without flashing one(I feel stupid asking this I remember flashing CWM every time I root a Android device.)
I have heard that there are some bugs in CWM for Nexus 10.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I like to think Android is Linux; which it basically is. It gives you access to system files and delve deeper than what you can normally access. superuser access more or less. You can install custom ROMs AFTER you are rooted. That's pretty much it. Also, no rooting doesn't automatically flashing a custom recovery.
A custom recovery is just a custom recovery that you can flash through fastboot..for a plethora of different functions which cannot be done easily with the stock recovery. Which is..another method of customizing and accessing your phone...since this can go on for a long time I'm just going to stop and add that you're better off reading and learning stuff before trying to do any of it though.
Good luck!

I've never quite got an answer to this: does rooting automatically ends warranty? What is Samsung's official take? Does unrooting work and can I cover traces? I only want rooting for adblocking and USB OTG, but now risking warranty.

I don't think rooting a device voids any warranty. You can always lock the bootloader and reflash the stock image and it's as if nothing ever happened.
If it were to void the warranty, Google wouldn't have made it easy to unlock the bootloader and root. If you tamper with with hardware in the device then yes it will void your warranty.

So basically, what is the point of rooting the device?

realyweely said:
So basically, what is the point of rooting the device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally I'd do that fro adblocking and external storage mounting, if it doesn't require messing with the ROM which I'd prefer not to.

what kind of adblocking just out of interest? is it possible to get something like adfender for portable devices?

AdAway is a popular app, dunno of compatible with the N10 just yet.

Rooting allows you to freeze apps that you don't want to keep them form wasting resources, freeze & hide apps you do not want the kids to use, back up apps & data plus entire system just in case you accidentally do something stupid. Then there is AdFree to block ads. Plus, if you get bored in the future you can jump into ROM flashing.

siddardhab said:
I want to root the tablet because I need open vpn connectivity and I don't need a custom ROM because I am mainly using it as a media consumption device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'OpenVPN for Android' (by Arne Schwabe) does not need root (btw I do not own a nexus 10 to check if it works on it)

[Q] Second-hand N4, some questions?

Hey!
I recently bought a second hand Nexus in decent shape.
Im really a newbie when it comes to roms, rooting, bootloader etc and Im not really interested in it either!
So what I did when I got the handset was to google around for how to restore it to factory edition. (The other guy seamed to have used other Roms and such)
I found a tool by Wugfresh called Nexus root toolkit and used it to lock bootloader, restore factory image (I downloaded myself from google) and unroot the phone.
Now I have some questions! Is the tool safe? Since Im a complete noob I have no way of telling if the rom etc is legit, could there be spyware or such on my phone now?
Since Kitkat is comming OTA soon, would that be a good way to check if the phone is "original"? I mean, if i get OTA 4.4 from google, will that make sure my handset is completly as it was out of the box, and nothing hidden can be there?
This is a screenshot from my "About phone" maybe you can verify that this is correct?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/17b4i9wi1wypsgl/Screenshot_2013-11-14-13-04-53.png
Very thankful for your help!

I found a tool by Wugfresh called Nexus root toolkit
Now I have some questions! Is the tool safe?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't you ask him personally?
Toolkit being safe or not depends on who you ask. It could cause problems and sometimes it's better to learn to flash the device manually. For some its better to use toolkit since they can potentially cause more problems doing something wrong manually. If you want to flash the factory firmware manually, the instructions are in these steps: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010312
Since Im a complete noob I have no way of telling if the rom etc is legit, could there be spyware or such on my phone now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you install the factory image from here https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images, then its the official Google firmware. However, these OTA packages are original as well: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2145848. To tell if other third party custom roms are safe, I don't program myself, but reliable ones are open source and have the sources available to the public that you can use to compile yourself. You can use hash checking to make sure if a file is original, Google gives you the hash values for their downloads.
This is a screenshot from my "About phone" maybe you can verify that this is correct?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/17b4i9wi1wypsgl/Screenshot_2013-11-14-13-04-53.png
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screenshot shows you are running stock Android 4.3 with stock kernel. However a device need to run an "odexed version of the stock rom" and stock recovery too to receive updates. If the toolkit installed the factory firmware for you, then you have everythig stock and is good to go to receive the updates.
Since Kitkat is comming OTA soon, would that be a good way to check if the phone is "original"? I mean, if i get OTA 4.4 from google, will that make sure my handset is completly as it was out of the box, and nothing hidden can be there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, a better way would be to flash the factory firmware of 4.4 when it become available, which would wipe everything in the process. It's always possible for phones to have spywares if you know how to exploit it, no software are impenetrable. For example, the seller could have installed a virus that stay in your system that lives through factory resets and use it to tell your exact location, phone information, record audio or take pictures of you. I use this myself, see: Cerberus (Nothing as drastic compared to what Google or Apple does however.) However, if you have flashed the factory image then it would wipe out programs like Cerberus.
But before being too worried about malwares, I suggest reading this article on Android malware: http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/1...at-001-of-apps-evade-defenses-and-harm-users/. To stay safe, just make sure to download apps from the PlayStore. Android have the ability to sideload app, don't utilize it if you are concerned. Even if you do sideload, if the phone have Google services installed, the "Verify apps" feature will ask to scan it before installing.
For many technical reasons and depending on usages and scenarios I believe its much safer to root than being unroot, but this will lead to other discussions. (Root may be required to catch and prevent exploits or close security holes that affect unrooted devices. It's down to how you use it. Aside from the UAC checking, most people who use Windows computer runs it fully rooted without knowing.)

eksasol said:
Why don't you ask him personally?
Toolkit being safe or not depends on who you ask. It could cause problems and sometimes it's better to learn to flash the device manually. For some its better to use toolkit since they can potentially cause more problems doing something wrong manually. If you want to flash the factory firmware manually, the instructions are in these steps: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010312
If you install the factory image from here https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images, then its the official Google firmware. However, these OTA packages are original as well: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2145848. To tell if other third party custom roms are safe, I don't program myself, but reliable ones are open source and have the sources available to the public that you can use to compile yourself. You can use hash checking to make sure if a file is original, Google gives you the hash values for their downloads.
The screenshot shows you are running stock Android 4.3 with stock kernel. However a device need to run an "odexed version of the stock rom" and stock recovery too to receive updates. If the toolkit installed the factory firmware for you, then you have everythig stock and is good to go to receive the updates.
No, a better way would be to flash the factory firmware of 4.4 when it become available, which would wipe everything in the process. It's always possible for phones to have spywares if you know how to exploit it, no software are impenetrable. For example, the seller could have installed a virus that stay in your system that lives through factory resets and use it to tell your exact location, phone information, record audio or take pictures of you. I use this myself, see: Cerberus (Nothing as drastic compared to what Google or Apple does however.) However, if you have flashed the factory image then it would wipe out programs like Cerberus.
But before being too worried about malwares, I suggest reading this article on Android malware: http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/1...at-001-of-apps-evade-defenses-and-harm-users/. To stay safe, just make sure to download apps from the PlayStore. Android have the ability to sideload app, don't utilize it if you are concerned. Even if you do sideload, if the phone have Google services installed, the "Verify apps" feature will ask to scan it before installing.
For many technical reasons and depending on usages and scenarios I believe its much safer to root than being unroot, but this will lead to other discussions. (Root may be required to catch and prevent exploits or close security holes that affect unrooted devices. It's down to how you use it. Aside from the UAC checking, most people who use Windows computer runs it fulled rooted without knowing.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very much thanks for your post! Appriciated that you are taking time to reply.
When it comes to why I don't "ask him personally", well, if I myself developed a malicious software I would obviously not tell people it is?
When I write safe, by safe I mean free from harmful or hidden software, not safe as in bricking. I've already used the toolkit and flashed the factoryimage I downloaded myself from google, my concern was if the toolkit in some way could add harmful code when the firmware was flashed.
An "odexed version of the stock rom" is not enough to be sure the phone is fine if I interpret you correctly? Since you are saying that recieving OTA 4.4 is no guarantee that the rom, bootloader, recovery, etc is completly googlish? Guess I will consider to flash 4.4 manually then when it's out, ill be reading the thread. Thanks alot!
How do I tell if Im running stock recovery?
I've never installed anything from outside google play, and pretty much every app are from trusted sources with millions of downloads. Atleast if facebook and instagram are to be trusted

You need to understand this is XDA Developers, a community that share open source ideas, not a warez site, you've been a member for a while to know this. The community and moderators do their best to check uploads for harm, in the end of the day still your choice to use the toolkit or install something, and to do research on it (reading through the thread).
Since you are able to use the toolkit to install factory firmware, KitKat firmware image is already available, so I suggest you flash it instead of waiting for the OTA. Generally a clean install have less issues than OTA updates.

[Q] Few rooting questions from a noob

Okay, I wasn't sure where would be the best place to port this, so excuse me if I'm in the wrong place:
So, I was thinking about rooting my phone (S4 Verizon) and flashing the Cyanogen Mod 11 on it. I was wondering a few things about it though before I decide to do it...
1. Is there any way that I can flash the ROM, and still have my phone the EXACT way it is now, except with CM11? When I watch installation videos on YouTube, it seems like it refreshes your phone to simply having the stock Google experience, which I don't want. I'm currently using Nova, which I love, and I just really want... A. TouchWiz off my phone B. The Notification center of CM11 and C. The status bar. So, if there was any way to flash the mod and keep everything the way it is, similar to how you jailbreak iOS, that'd be great.
2. Is there any way to UNROOT the phone, if I ever need to? I have insurance on my phone with my carrier, so if it ever suffers a cracked screen or the like, I can get a free replacement, and I'm sure if I were rooted that'd probably be voided.
3. I was planning on picking up a Gear 2 Neo tomorrow. If I'm rooted and running a custom ROM, will I still be able to use the Gear to its full extent (as in, not like a G2 connected to it) while running the custom ROM? Or will the Gear detect that the device no longer has TouchWiz/has been modified?
4. Also, if it isn't possible to load CM11 like you would jailbreak, and you always start with a clean boot, how would I go about reloading all my data/ contacts/photos/apps/Nova setup? How/what should I use to back everything up?
Thanks a ton in advance, I know, I'm a noob lol

1. Mostly , but there will be slightly difference maybe, depends how you look things. I don't really get your point B and C.
2. Unroot yes, but you must know there is something called KNOX, which will avoid your warranty, and by now this can NOT be undone.
Which means, unroot is easy, but if your carrier checks KNOX, you are so dead...
3. I think, gear support is part of TW framework, which means CM11 will be act like any other non-samsung connected to it.
4. I don't really understand it
If you mean the content in your internal/external sdcard, flash ROM will not delete them as long as you don't choose to (like option of format sdcard in recovery ) but you are on Verizon s4 , I don't really know about it, if it requires unlock bootloader, then you better back up sdcard first.
And yes, clean flash requires you to do apps backup and wipe data / cache / system before flash