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Hi, everyone.
I am fairly new on the forum. I keep reading about "rooting" your phone. I have a Samsung Galaxy SII T989 and my questions are:
1. What is "phone rooting" ?
2. What are the advantages of having your phone "rooted" ?
Thank you.
I'm *hoping* this is a joke, but if it isn't, here's a good place to start:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=why+root+your+phone
unclespoon said:
I'm *hoping* this is a job, but if it isn't, here's a good place to start:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow that's pretty awesome, would have never thought about that ha ha ha
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Yes... It is a job to think: Why would you risk to unstable your phone by "root" it?
I see that:
- people are removing the wrong apps that negatively affect their phones (e.q. a ccounts and sync).
- people's phone are missing other thinks they used to like (bars, the small flashing blue light when you scroll to the top and to the bottom of the screen).
- the pletoria of apps for rooted phone are not that great...
- the advantage you get is that you only free up some internal space?
I have no issues with my phone rooted. I am on a stock T-Mobile ROM and froze all the bloatware. You can get rids of ads in apps when rooted which is pretty damn convenient for me. Do research on what is safe to freeze and you wont have any problems. Freezing is more safe than uninstalling...
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
The reason is you then have 100% control over your system. If you know what you're doing, having root can be a very powerful tool. You can greatly speed up the phone, free up ram, theme things, it gives you total control.
Now this is a double edged sword too. All the horror stories you're hearing about root are by people who don't have the faintest idea what they're doing and are breaking things.
Think of it in terms of computers. On linux, having root is, well, having root. You have full access to the system. On windows, (vista and above mainly) it's like having an administrator account with UAC turned off. In the right hands, this is very very nice. In the wrong hands, it can cause problems.
If you don't see the benefit of rooting, then I'd highly suggest you do not do so. These devices are not windows boxes where you screw up and "oh well, guess it's time to bust out the windows cd and do a re-install. I'd also suggest perhaps looking through the market at things that require root, and the benefits they give you. (Titanium backup, for instance. Or tethering when your provider doesn't want you to.)
Sui Generis said:
Yes... It is a job to think: Why would you risk to unstable your phone by "root" it?
I see that:
- people are removing the wrong apps that negatively affect their phones (e.q. a ccounts and sync).
- people's phone are missing other thinks they used to like (bars, the small flashing blue light when you scroll to the top and to the bottom of the screen).
- the pletoria of apps for rooted phone are not that great...
- the advantage you get is that you only free up some internal space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly if you don't want to root your phone do not root it. A lot of the problems you mention stem from people attempting to root and don't know what they are really doing. I am one of those people who are strictly against one click root methods. Because you literally don't need to read anything to understand what exactly are you doing.
If you know what you can do with a rooted phone things like
-Better battery life by manipulating the cpu cycles and governors.
-Change the entire look of the phone to look as if it a totally different os.
-Better performance overall of your phone
-Overall better experience than what the carrier give you.
I could name endless things about why rooting is better than what the stock gives you.
A lot of people I hear just say go to xda and root your phone. Which is very ignorant. Not everyone should root. If your phone is doing what it needs to do then leave it alone. My friends who have android phones ask me to root for them i tell them no root it themselves. With one click methods people make an xda account and blame the developer saying their rom sucks and is bad battery life where as the problems stem most of the time the user side.
I agree. I haven't rooted my SGS2 yet because the stock ROM, for me, seems to be serving its purpose very well. All my benchmark scores are within standard deviation of the OC kernels and now we've got wifi calling. I use ADW for a new UI and that suits me just fine. Yes, ICS will come from CM long before it does from the carriers, but I'm ok with that - even though I'll probably end up rooting and installing ICS once it's stable. My previous Android phones were rooted within days of purchase, and yes I would like to remove bloat, but with all the internal storage and my 32gb sd card I think I'll be a happy camper. It would be nice to know carrier IQ was gone, though...
rooting = control
no root = no control over settings
they don't let you root by default to prevent noobs from damaging their phone by changing some settings they should have not touched
when i rooted my phone and got beastmod 4.0 with flaux kernal my battery life increased like 50x than stock x.x
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk
I personally don't think I'll be rooting (at least not while the phone's still new). I'm happy with the level of customization on the stock.
One question though. So basically, when rooted, you are "logged in" to your phone as root user? Are there any security risks with this?
Killbynature said:
Honestly if you don't want to root your phone do not root it. A lot of the problems you mention stem from people attempting to root and don't know what they are really doing. I am one of those people who are strictly against one click root methods. Because you literally don't need to read anything to understand what exactly are you doing.
If you know what you can do with a rooted phone things like
-Better battery life by manipulating the cpu cycles and governors.
-Change the entire look of the phone to look as if it a totally different os.
-Better performance overall of your phone
-Overall better experience than what the carrier give you.
I could name endless things about why rooting is better than what the stock gives you.
A lot of people I hear just say go to xda and root your phone. Which is very ignorant. Not everyone should root. If your phone is doing what it needs to do then leave it alone. My friends who have android phones ask me to root for them i tell them no root it themselves. With one click methods people make an xda account and blame the developer saying their rom sucks and is bad battery life where as the problems stem most of the time the user side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree entirely, back on the ns forums I was constantly advising people against one click.
Sent from my Hercules with xda Premium.
eMace said:
I personally don't think I'll be rooting (at least not while the phone's still new). I'm happy with the level of customization on the stock.
One question though. So basically, when rooted, you are "logged in" to your phone as root user? Are there any security risks with this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only if you use bad apps. Its just like on any other os: if you're the administrator you have to be twice as careful wity what you install
Sent from my Hercules with xda Premium.
Rooting your phone is like getting under the hood of your car.
If you have never worked on a car, it would not be wise to just start pulling out plugs/wires, moving things around and installing enhancements as you would probably ruin your car and end up paying a mechanic to fix it.
However, if you take the time to read up on any changes before you make them, then you could end up with a turbo-boosted hot rod with a custom Chrome setup that not only looks better but performs like a champ.
www.youtube.com/themrroxtar noob tutorials and rom reviews. Check it out. Plus everyone can find how to win a free Hercules at the end of this month!
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
for me, rooting is mainly removing bloatware.
just like when you buy a new laptop, they install a lot of crap and it slow your computer down.
rooting can remove bloatware and also give you more speed, but you might lose the upgrading from the OTA(official t mobile update) and need to check update in here.
but if you are ok with the performance that you can on your phone now, stay with it.
It's all about the flash (yeah, bahby!) The custom ROM's can't be flashed without root: Forget about deleting/freezing unwanted applications and find a developers ROM you like - experiment a bit and have some fun with the phone.
As well, applications that require root - quick boot and appinstaller, are a must for me, making root mandatory for my phoning pleasure.
I had an HD2 before, and while there's greater variety in the ROM's, set-up to root is a biach on the HTC devices, so we can thank our lucky stars Samsung makes this easier (prolly not on purpose, though )
TheMrRoxtar said:
www.youtube.com/themrroxtar noob tutorials and rom reviews. Check it out. Plus everyone can find how to win a free Hercules at the end of this month!
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's up man...wheelerhomes from YouTube.
Enjoying my rooted sg2! Have to agree with some comments ...understand what you're doing or don't do it. I learned just enough to be dangerous! But am picking up more and more as I read. I do wish the tutorials went a little more into WHY you're doing this or that vs just saying do this. It confusing to grasp what rooting is but when start downloading Odin, loading superuser, clockwork mod recovery, titanium, etc its REALLY overwhelming not knowing what each step does.
I certainly did not need to root. But like all these phones, it started out nice and snappy and within a week it was glitching like my old vibrant ...all kinds of stupid crap running in the background. Rooting was stressful because I didn't know exactly why I was doing these different steps!! Once I did it I was stoked at how fast my phone was. Just flashed wifi stock rom today that whitehawkx put up and I'm already missing my Juggernaut! But wifi calling/texting is slick for my location!
OK,
- better battery life can serve me better...
- being able to install other apps (such call recorder) can also be beneficial...
The problem is that I come from the Windows side rather than the Linux or Apple so I do not excel into this so I am afraid not to brick the phone.
Having said that, it would be VERY, VERY, VERY nice of you (or everyone else with a very rooted stable phone) to post clear and "for dummies" instructions on how to:
1. root your phone
2. install customed rom (beastmod, juggernaut or odin, etc - upon your recommendation).
Many thanks in advance !
eMace said:
I personally don't think I'll be rooting (at least not while the phone's still new).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Installed clockwork mod recovery on the first boot while the phone was still in the plastic wrap. Rooted via superoneclick on the 2nd boot ONLY because you have to reboot after flashing clockwork mod.
The process is easy if you read the instructions.
Sent from my Hercules using XDA App
I have never rooted a phone before(well technically I rooted an HTC Inspire, which I was asked to do, but I did nothing on it involving the Root). What are some reasons I should root, and can anything go wrong during the root process? Just putting this out there, I will not be flashing any ROMs, as I know there is a chance that the device can be bricked While flashing if something goes wrong, and I do not have a spare phone to go back to if something does go wrong.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
If your not going to use customs ROMs having root access will allow you to delete any app you desire including all the preloaded sprint ones. You will also be able to download and use any apps that require root for enhanced functionality. Beyond that, there's not a whole lot of difference you'll see.
In the early days, people would do root only to adjust memory values on phones like the g1 and hero. There were a lot of settings you could tweak on a stock phone to make it better with the addition of root. Now with today's technology and phones like the E4GT, alot of those tweaks are unnecessary. The ones that are helpful are lower level and best done by a ROM dev or someone who knows what they are changing. Custom ROMs will have these included usually.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
Removing bloatware that wastes ram and flash storage space, certain apps are smoother (tasker, some launchers, and custom lockscreens for example), ability to block ads, better backup capabilities, ability to underclock the cpu for those times you need to squeeze extra battery life out, and so on.
If none of this sounds important, then don't root. It can be a little bit of a puzzle getting back to stock sometimes, but it is extremely extremely hard to do something to your phone that is not reversible at this point. Note this statement is not true for all phones, especially newly released phones. But it is true for the epic touch.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
Yeah.. I second what the guy above said..lol.
Wasup King..
I third the guy above the guy above me and second the guy above him... My thoughts are if you have to make a thread asking others should I root when the basic community offers all the info on the profit or lost of rooting then I say leave your phone alone.
Do yourself a favor and get an extended battery and download foxfi and you will be just fine. Most of us... ok all of us in here are flash-a-holics and can't help ourselves that's why we do it... Do some reading in here take a look at rom pics and see if you really really really like something...
Good luck
playya said:
I third the guy above the guy above me and second the guy above him... My thoughts are if you have to make a thread asking others should I root when the basic community offers all the info on the profit or lost of rooting then I say leave your phone alone.
Do yourself a favor and get an extended battery and download foxfi and you will be just fine. Most of us... ok all of us in here are flash-a-holics and can't help ourselves that's why we do it... Do some reading in here take a look at rom pics and see if you really really really like something...
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The truth can sometimes be cruel..lol. +1 to Playa..
The best thing about rooting for me is adblocking, I cant believe how many apps and things are bundled with intrusive ads.
Indrid Cole said:
The truth can sometimes be cruel..lol. +1 to Playa..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just trying to keep it real up in herrrrre! Ya Ya!
someguyatx said:
The best thing about rooting for me is adblocking, I cant believe how many apps and things are bundled with intrusive ads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just another app that root brings to the table:
Roam control lets you force into roam when you are stuck with one bar on Sprint.
Godsend for me!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
playya said:
I third the guy above the guy above me and second the guy above him... My thoughts are if you have to make a thread asking others should I root when the basic community offers all the info on the profit or lost of rooting then I say leave your phone alone.
Do yourself a favor and get an extended battery and download foxfi and you will be just fine. Most of us... ok all of us in here are flash-a-holics and can't help ourselves that's why we do it... Do some reading in here take a look at rom pics and see if you really really really like something...
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have seen several ROMs I love the look of, including AOKP, CM9, and Caulkin's ROMs. My only issue with ROMs is the fact that things can go wrong with flashing, and they can brick the device. And from what ive heard, there is an increased chance of bricking when flashing an ICS ROM while on GB. I have no backup device to go to if something like that does happen, so thats why Im staying away from flashing for now.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
EggosEvo said:
I have seen several ROMs I love the look of, including AOKP, CM9, and Caulkin's ROMs. My only issue with ROMs is the fact that things can go wrong with flashing, and they can brick the device. And from what ive heard, there is an increased chance of bricking when flashing an ICS ROM while on GB. I have no backup device to go to if something like that does happen, so thats why Im staying away from flashing for now.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The brick usually come from flashing to gb from ics using ics repacked kernels. There is always some risk/chance of brick from a bad flash, but El26 with cwm is fairly safe and the last kernel to have offical cwm. That is the only kernel i will use to flash anythin. I flash new roms every week. I have flashed to and from ics with no issues.
Sent on HyDrA using Tapatalk 2
EggosEvo said:
I have seen several ROMs I love the look of, including AOKP, CM9, and Caulkin's ROMs. My only issue with ROMs is the fact that things can go wrong with flashing, and they can brick the device. And from what ive heard, there is an increased chance of bricking when flashing an ICS ROM while on GB. I have no backup device to go to if something like that does happen, so thats why Im staying away from flashing for now.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My friend you have been misinformed.... There is a risk in everything we do so like I said if worried don't do it. If you take some more time and read you will see that the tar files are pretty brick proof and problems have occurred when flashing roms on ICS and using an ICS recovery. Most developers have stopped using CWM in ICS roms.
Clearly you need to do a lil more reading if you want to root but like suggested just relax and wait for the OTA and you will be OK.... One more thing all instructions say to flashEL26 kernel which is GB to flash anything ICS..... so flashing ICS rom while on GB is wrong
EggosEvo said:
I have never rooted a phone before(well technically I rooted an HTC Inspire, which I was asked to do, but I did nothing on it involving the Root). What are some reasons I should root, and can anything go wrong during the root process? Just putting this out there, I will not be flashing any ROMs, as I know there is a chance that the device can be bricked While flashing if something goes wrong, and I do not have a spare phone to go back to if something does go wrong.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Titanium Backup: remove those pesky system apps that Sprint really thinks you need.
2. File explorers: Being able to modify system folders to change things like the boot animation, etc.
3. Ad blocking: The ability to block ads (moral issues notwithstanding... but some apps have no paid version to get rid of the ads.)
4. Once you've rooted, it's just the beginning. You may change your mind about flashing and rooting your phone is the first step in learning more about your phone and the AndroidOS in general.
I have not seem anyone mention that it's also about the about the damn principal of the matter... why shouldn't you have root access for a device you bought? Also if you ODIN back to EL26 to flash, carefully read all instructions posted with the rom, and wait a day or two after the release and check the comments to make sure there hasn't been some sort of inexplicable rash of bricks thanks to the rom you won't have any problems to speak of... other than not being able to fathom how much better something like AOKP is than stock touchwiz gingerbread
Thanks to everyone. I've decided that I will root when the official ICS launches for my phone.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
Personally, I root to follow fledging developers open their ROMs. It is exhilarating to see the new stuff that people come up with and the creativity that ensues because of it.
Also enhancing my phone experience with free hotspot access and customization doesn't help. However if none of these interesting you I wouldn't recommend it.
Reason to root
I root because it can be done. It's that simple. To me, it feels like regardless of the magnitude of what you can or cannot do while rooted, or how easy or difficult it may be to root your phone, a skilled user should have access to everthing your phone is capable of.
Plus, I feel like I'm "sticking it to the man", which is an added bonus!
My main reason for rooting was to remove the bundled software that comes with the phone. But I love that fact that I don't have any ads either! If u decide to root, download AdFree from the market & u'll realize just how many "free" apps use adware
Well i think it is. I rooted my phone last night and installed the beats drivers from the Play Store. Shortly, it froze and went straight to the Samsung logo. I can still go into both recovery and download mode, but what do I do after that? I've heard about Odin....but how do i exactly put the custom roms into my phone, and which ones? And if any one can point me to a guide or tutorial, ill be extremely relieved. I'm new to the website as well as android, so if anyone could please help me out, thanks
When you rooted did you NANDROID backup ? If not go into recovery and clear cache and then go into advanced and wipe delvik cache. reboot
If that fails go back into recovery and do a factory reset and you should be ok.
touchdownadrian said:
Well i think it is. I rooted my phone last night and installed the beats drivers from the Play Store. Shortly, it froze and went straight to the Samsung logo. I can still go into both recovery and download mode, but what do I do after that? I've heard about Odin....but how do i exactly put the custom roms into my phone, and which ones? And if any one can point me to a guide or tutorial, ill be extremely relieved. I'm new to the website as well as android, so if anyone could please help me out, thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1727401
This is why noobs shouldn't be rooting, hell I'm on my 4th android phone and I'm still holding off on rooting it. And I was constantly popping new ROMS on my Vibrant, never bricked any phone
z0phi3l said:
This is why noobs shouldn't be rooting, hell I'm on my 4th android phone and I'm still holding off on rooting it. And I was constantly popping new ROMS on my Vibrant, never bricked any phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree as long as you are willing to learn from the mistake all is good. I had a Samsung Exhibit II and deleted touch wiz launched (I was using go launcher) later I would do a factory reset and well... learned that system files do not get restored when you do a factory reset...oops
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
I agree, we all were NOOBS at some point. That's the one thing I love about XDA is that with patience and the help of the users any noob can learn how to mod their devices. One piece of advice that I can offer is before you do any type of modding is READ and keep on READING. I have bricked the first device I ever rooted because I did not READ the forums as they are meant to be read.
z0phi3l said:
This is why noobs shouldn't be rooting, hell I'm on my 4th android phone and I'm still holding off on rooting it. And I was constantly popping new ROMS on my Vibrant, never bricked any phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, not cool dude..remember that WE were all NOOBS at some point in time, therefore we should support and help one another. As for what to do next, follow "Saldebot's" instructions and you should be fine. Sounds like it's only a soft brick. Just keep reading and learning as much as you can bud.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Thanks guys, it worked. And my bad for not reading alot, im kinda new to this lol
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
not fair
z0phi3l said:
This is why noobs shouldn't be rooting, hell I'm on my 4th android phone and I'm still holding off on rooting it. And I was constantly popping new ROMS on my Vibrant, never bricked any phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude the vibrant is bullet proof . Now HTC that's a mother.
:silly:
touchdownadrian said:
Thanks guys, it worked. And my bad for not reading alot, im kinda new to this lol
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not the noobs who shouldn't be rooting... It's the lazy and careless who should stick to stock. If you are careful and diligent, rooting and all the good stuff that comes with it is easy and rewarding.
TheSeanTeam said:
It's not the noobs who shouldn't be rooting... It's the lazy and careless who should stick to stock. If you are careful and diligent, rooting and all the good stuff that comes with it is easy and rewarding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I whole-heartily agree, I was a freshman noob August 1st this year, by August 4th I was flashing like a pro. Left and right, ROMs, Kernels, Modifying system files, you name it. I wanted to streamline my phone and future proof it somewhat by overclocking. I spent 3 days researching and educating myself, finding the best ROMs, weighing pros and cons, and when it came time to flash, I was on my PC all day making sure whatever I did wouldn't brick me. I carefully analyzed and learned about virtually all methods of flashing by watching tons of videos and reading a bunch of tutorials by several sources. I MD5 checksum'd every zip to be flashed on my phone using an app (to ensure download and transfer was successful). I must have verified that the files I was preparing to flash were indeed for my device make and model about a dozen times before ever touching a button. When I went to flash over my first custom Kernel (even though I had already flashed 2 custom ROMs shortly before that), on that last button my hands were literally shaking, I could not afford a second Galaxy S III. Everything went beautifully, all of my careful planning and hours of invested research payed off. I had done everything right and was rewarded with better battery life (about +50% on heavy load and +500% on idle) and performance (+25%).
My girlfriend also has a Galaxy s3 and she wanted the same performance I was getting. I flashed the exact same software to her device I had to mine, no changes.
Total time invested in flash on my device: 36 hours, at least
Total time invested in flash on her device: 1 hour... if that
The bottom line is yes, if you're not willing to put forth the effort and educate yourself first, you probably shouldn't be doing this. There are guides and tutorials out there for noobs and I would recommend you go there first until you know your way around your device. That way at least you have a little experience on your belt before you start doing anything too advanced (I did this when I was rooting my device for the first time).
As a side note, I know there are a lot of people out there worried about doing anything that could potentially brick their device. That is always a real possibility, I'm not going to lie to you, it happens more often than you think. However in just about every case of bricking you'll ever hear about, it's usually someone flashing something they're not suppose to, like a ROM designed for a different make and model of device, or something experimental that wasn't ready yet. Do all your homework (from multiple corroborating sources) before you undergo a flash and as long as you do everything "by the book" (so to speak) and don't rush through things by being lazy, you should be fine. Some even flash nightlies (yeah they're called that for a reason, updated versions of the ROM they currently have) EVERY NIGHT!!! In the end when you have an android device, you have an open source platform at your fingertips and you should take advantage of that, it would be a waste not to. If not, your next device might as well be an iPhone. They're great for noobs and as long as you're ok drinking whatever punch Apple gives you, they're pretty much impossible to brick since you can't do a whole lot with them. Apple will be happy to take your money and stiff you with closed source for it.
lordazoroth said:
I whole-heartily agree, I was a freshman noob August 1st this year, by August 4th I was flashing like a pro. Left and right, ROMs, Kernels, Modifying system files, you name it. I wanted to streamline my phone and future proof it somewhat by overclocking. I spent 3 days researching and educating myself, finding the best ROMs, weighing pros and cons, and when it came time to flash, I was on my PC all day making sure whatever I did wouldn't brick me. I carefully analyzed and learned about virtually all methods of flashing by watching tons of videos and reading a bunch of tutorials by several sources. I MD5 checksum'd every zip to be flashed on my phone using an app (to ensure download and transfer was successful). I must have verified that the files I was preparing to flash were indeed for my device make and model about a dozen times before ever touching a button. When I went to flash over my first custom Kernel (even though I had already flashed 2 custom ROMs shortly before that), on that last button my hands were literally shaking, I could not afford a second Galaxy S III. Everything went beautifully, all of my careful planning and hours of invested research payed off. I had done everything right and was rewarded with better battery life (about +50% on heavy load and +500% on idle) and performance (+25%).
My girlfriend also has a Galaxy s3 and she wanted the same performance I was getting. I flashed the exact same software to her device I had to mine, no changes.
Total time invested in flash on my device: 36 hours, at least
Total time invested in flash on her device: 1 hour... if that
The bottom line is yes, if you're not willing to put forth the effort and educate yourself first, you probably shouldn't be doing this. There are guides and tutorials out there for noobs and I would recommend you go there first until you know your way around your device. That way at least you have a little experience on your belt before you start doing anything too advanced (I did this when I was rooting my device for the first time).
As a side note, I know there are a lot of people out there worried about doing anything that could potentially brick their device. That is always a real possibility, I'm not going to lie to you, it happens more often than you think. However in just about every case of bricking you'll ever hear about, it's usually someone flashing something they're not suppose to, like a ROM designed for a different make and model of device, or something experimental that wasn't ready yet. Do all your homework (from multiple corroborating sources) before you undergo a flash and as long as you do everything "by the book" (so to speak) and don't rush through things by being lazy, you should be fine. Some even flash nightlies (yeah they're called that for a reason, updated versions of the ROM they currently have) EVERY NIGHT!!! In the end when you have an android device, you have an open source platform at your fingertips and you should take advantage of that, it would be a waste not to. If not, your next device might as well be an iPhone. They're great for noobs and as long as you're ok drinking whatever punch Apple gives you, they're pretty much impossible to brick since you can't do a whole lot with them. Apple will be happy to take your money and stiff you with closed source for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. It took me months of researching on my vibrant before flashing my first rom (bionix 1.6 by teamwhiskey). As I progressed, I did brick left and right but I always managed to bring it back to life with my prior knowledge. Now I'm eagerly waiting for my computer to be done downloading the root files and get started.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
Cr vibe said:
Dude the vibrant is bullet proof . Now HTC that's a mother.
:silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Omg I LOVED THE VIBRANT! Restoring it from a brick was a piece of cake
Sent from my SGH-T999
Cr vibe said:
Dude the vibrant is bullet proof . Now HTC that's a mother.
:silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+++++++1 on that.... DAMN talk about headaches....
dmarco said:
Yea, not cool dude..remember that WE were all NOOBS at some point in time, therefore we should support and help one another. As for what to do next, follow "Saldebot's" instructions and you should be fine. Sounds like it's only a soft brick. Just keep reading and learning as much as you can bud.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:good::good:
Yeah one of the only other IMPORTANT thinks i could add would be always do a factory reset before flashing roms.. some people like to flash "dirty" i wouldnt recommend it cause you will ALWAYS have issues maybe not in a hour but guaranteed you will... but knowledge is power dude.. i two read for about 36 hours before rooting my phone.. i rooted my wifes phone days after a rooted mine back in the day it only took like 15 mins.. another thing let phone sit 10 mins before ya play with it... gotta let the cache settle... the ten min wait is well worth it.. ive been doing it that way since the vibrant bro.. happy flashing and welcome..
I read constantly things change hourly like when that new leaked kernels came out for sgs2 and the emmc was trashed never to come back from a brick again. To anyone that cares if you love your phone read more than just the root and flash stuff learn what makes your phone tick from the factory hardware software and added crap from your carrier it all play's a part in the end result. Its as easy as you make it.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
Nabeel10 said:
Omg I LOVED THE VIBRANT! Restoring it from a brick was a piece of cake
Sent from my SGH-T999
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive passed down two vibrants (both rooted) to my sons so they can learn to flash roms and everything else that comes from the joys of root.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
I've had my E4GT for about 2 or 3 weeks now, I received the OTA update to FI27 last week, and overall I'm pretty happy with it (I was happy before the update though, but to be honest because I only had the phone a few days I haven't noticed a difference ).
I rooted my last phone, which was a Virgin Mobile LG Optimus V, but that was because Virgin loaded it with a bunch of bloatware and there was a very good ROM that removed all of it, improved battery life, etc etc.
But with this phone, I don't find I have any issues with battery life, I have plenty of space on my phone with way more apps installed than I had on the Optimus, it runs smoothly, and the only complaint I have is that my LED notification light isn't working correctly, which I know can be fixed with an app.
So, to all the people that have rooted and know what else this phone can do, is there a good reason other than "you can install lots of different custom roms" that I should root my phone? What else will I be able to do with it? What benefits will I see? Installing different ROMs doesn't mean much to me. Even though I did that on my old phone, there was a real reason to do it: I could install more than 4 apps on it (and I kept that same ROM on it the entire time). I don't have that issue with this phone, so why should I?
Thanks
I personally consider customization, removing bloatware, and tweaking to your own liking genuine and legitimate reasons. You also have Ad blocking & WiFi tether though.
You shouldn't if you are happy with it.
I rooted for those reasons..
-Tired of stock look. Install new roms.
-Use apps needing root like titaniun backup.
-Get rid of stock apps.
I didnt root for almost 2 months. I was eager to try ics leaks before ota so I eventually rooted.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app
someguyatx said:
I personally consider customization, removing bloatware, and tweaking to your own liking genuine and legitimate reasons. You also have Ad blocking & WiFi tether though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well this is what I don't really understand. What sort of customization and tweaking can be done to the phone? What are the effects of it?
BluesRulez said:
You shouldn't if you are happy with it.
I rooted for those reasons..
-Tired of stock look. Install new roms.
-Use apps needing root like titaniun backup.
-Get rid of stock apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't you really only need Titanium Backup if you are gonna be rooting though? The bloatware I can deal with as the phone hasn't (yet) told me that I don't have enough space to stop me from installing new apps.
mewikime said:
I've had my E4GT for about 2 or 3 weeks now, I received the OTA update to FI27 last week, and overall I'm pretty happy with it (I was happy before the update though, but to be honest because I only had the phone a few days I haven't noticed a difference ).
I rooted my last phone, which was a Virgin Mobile LG Optimus V, but that was because Virgin loaded it with a bunch of bloatware and there was a very good ROM that removed all of it, improved battery life, etc etc.
But with this phone, I don't find I have any issues with battery life, I have plenty of space on my phone with way more apps installed than I had on the Optimus, it runs smoothly, and the only complaint I have is that my LED notification light isn't working correctly, which I know can be fixed with an app.
So, to all the people that have rooted and know what else this phone can do, is there a good reason other than "you can install lots of different custom roms" that I should root my phone? What else will I be able to do with it? What benefits will I see? Installing different ROMs doesn't mean much to me. Even though I did that on my old phone, there was a real reason to do it: I could install more than 4 apps on it (and I kept that same ROM on it the entire time). I don't have that issue with this phone, so why should I?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no reason for you to root. You are happy that's good.
XDA's 4,697,117+ Members are just nuts. We're unhappy with our stuff and insist on making it less useful to us.
Nothing to see here....
Seriously if you need to ask and don't want to investigate for yourself then rooting and certainly these forums are not for you.
I root because
- Hate Touchwiz look
- Customization
- Themes
- Battery Saving options
- AOSP (AOKP)
- JELLYBEAN
- Better reception and data
You may be happy with bloat. I do not want battery resources going to apps I will never open. I like battery life. I like optimization. I like customization. If you don't see a need then don't do it. But if your phone ever drowns don't complain that you lost all your game data or texts and stuff. With titanium backup I can even set a schedule to back up those items for me at whatever time to my sd card. So if my phone drowns I pop my as card into my new phone and its all there. Also make nandroids when I receive my replacement its like my phone never died. Its all exactly how I had it.
sent from my BAD A$$ Epic touch
I run stock 90% of the time.
My main reason to root at least after FF18
-Tethering
-Tethering nothing more
I said after FF18 because on Gingerbread there's no need to root for tethering thanks to FoxFi but since ICS, Sprint block it and they are working on a new version for ICS when they found a way again I'm back to Stock.
Do what you want!
That is what is most important.
If there was any legitimate reason, it would be because you want to.
Otherwise you are just following what someone else says. Of course, there are very good reasons for both. The one thing I am told a lot by people on the other end of the phone conversation consistently, is that there seems to be feedback and they hear themselves a lot(- since I started Modding). What do I care, I hear everyone just fine. But I do care. I use my phone for work a lot. NOW, someone else is going to post after this that you can play with modems and what not to clear this up... which is true. And also you can reflash and do this & do that. What if the person using the phone just wants simplicity.... stay stock! Do not pass go. It takes tweeking, fine adjustments, research and ROM updates(The almighty Search box on XDA is awesome) and time to figure some of this stuff out. And ALSO it doesn't hurt to have an interest in android, Apps, ROMs and so on and so on.
Sometimes either the manufacturer or the carrier sends out updates that just don't work well. I like having the ability to keep it working properly, not working the way Sprint thinks is best for me.
You have only had your phone for a month. I have had mine for about a year, and others here have had it longer. If you are trying to convince us not to root, you should spend your time on the Sprint message boards instead of here.
Your happy that's what matters. Your choice
Sent from my HTCEVOV4G using Xparent SkyBlue Tapatalk 2
It comes down to personal choice. Android is customizable right out of the box. It is even more so once you root and get under the hood.
Agreed with all that say it's your choice. Also your habits are very important. One of the reasons why I love Android is that I can literally change my software whenever I want. I was running AOKP 2 days ago, M'ICS the day after. Now today I'm on stock rooted FI27.
Honestly though, this phone is really good out of the box. I had the LG Optimus V for over a year as well, and the only way to get that phone to perform was to root it and put a custom ROM on it. It was actually a great phone for being low end. I had said that when I upgraded to this phone that I wouldn't root it, but that didn't last long. Really though, you can easily get the performance you're looking for on this phone without rooting it.
I rooted for UV/OC ability.
And I really didn't like touchwiz, but I accidentally found that it comes stock with both the ICS launcher and TW launchers, so that was a plus.
I'm on a stock rom running agat's source 6.5 kernel. Runs great. Only thing better would be if I could find an optimized stock rom (much like Sprint Lovers on the OG Evo 4G.)
I'm rooted because I like to tell my devices what to do.
I guess rooting might make more sense if you've ever been an administrator or if you've ever ran any Linux machine.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Tethering and titanium backup. There is no way to truly backup data without root and on something as accident prone as a smartphone that's a necessity.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
mewikime said:
Don't you really only need Titanium Backup if you are gonna be rooting though? The bloatware I can deal with as the phone hasn't (yet) told me that I don't have enough space to stop me from installing new apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't reliably backup say your angry bird progress without TiBu or the like and being rooted. Sure for this specific series of apps there have been applications made to back up the save progress but they have proven often at times to be unreliable.
Maybe your favorite app gets pulled from the market, lets say flash. Too bad you didn't back up the APK. Of course for flash you can download the apk from adobe still so not a great example but you get the idea.
But overall something like Titanium Backup comes in handy if you ever need to format the phone. Like say the OTA to ICS, problems for unrooted users were easily solved by a factory reset (except for that brick bug triggered by factory reset...). Nice to be able to restore all your user apps with all their settings and save data.
I rooted so I could use a PS3 controller back on gingerbread. As time goes on many things that required root like taking screenshots have become officially available in Android or OEM firmware. Question is you want to be able to do completely normal and reasonable things up to a couple years ahead of Google catching up? Surely if someone locked down your windows PC so you couldn't do things you take for granted you would wish for root access.
I waited about 5 months before I finally rooted my phone. My old phone was rooted and I liked CM7 and MIUI but with stock ICS on this phone I was getting amazing battery life and I was using GO Launcher and it looked great. The only thing I hated was the black status bar and it could only be changed if it was rooted.
There are a lot of roms for our phone but I really missed the CM7 rom I had on the old optimus S. It supported status bar transparency and I could change the color of the status bar and status bar text. It looks like no rom for our phone has that feature. Right now I'm on MIUI which has a great looking UI but battery life isn't nearly as good as the unrooted FH13. I get the best battery life with CM9 which is still a lot less than before when it wasn't rooted. My phone used to last around 60 hours with very light use and now I could only get around 48 hours with CM9 and maybe 30 hours with MIUI. But I'm still happy with it since I get tons of beautiful themes and new features and I like to try new roms and it keeps me busy lol.
Rooting allows you to have full control of the device whether its software or hardware. I agree that this phone is just fine stock. It just works and its fast.
Reasons why I'm rooted
Titanium backup, roam control, extended toggles, root explorer to push custom themed apps to /system/app. When rooted you can do almost anything with your phone that comes to your mind. There's a pic of the super super handy extended toggles that I can't live with out.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app
leaderbuilder said:
There is no reason for you to root. You are happy that's good.
XDA's 4,697,117+ Members are just nuts. We're unhappy with our stuff and insist on making it less useful to us.
Nothing to see here....
Seriously if you need to ask and don't want to investigate for yourself then rooting and certainly these forums are not for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
byrdcfmma said:
You have only had your phone for a month. I have had mine for about a year, and others here have had it longer. If you are trying to convince us not to root, you should spend your time on the Sprint message boards instead of here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wasn't trying to imply that anyone who has rooted this phone is nuts, you shouldn't have done it, and that it's less useful. I was asking what are some specific advantages to rooting, how does rooting make it more useful, as at the moment I have had no issues with the operation of the phone, but I don't know the full extent of what it can do when rooted, and I thought that these forums would be the place to get such answers from experienced rooted users who have had their phones for a year and know more than I do. I should have worded my initial question differently to explain that better.
hrffd said:
I root because
- Better reception and data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is interesting to know. At home I get 1 bar of reception if I'm lucky, dropped calls, and no 3G data. I had to ask Sprint for an Airave. When I leave my street but am still in the general neighbourhood I get no service again. Is reception improved by root-only apps or certain ROMs?
patrao_n said:
You may be happy with bloat. I do not want battery resources going to apps I will never open. ... But if your phone ever drowns don't complain that you lost all your game data or texts and stuff. With titanium backup I can even set a schedule to back up those items for me at whatever time to my sd card. So if my phone drowns I pop my as card into my new phone and its all there. Also make nandroids when I receive my replacement its like my phone never died. Its all exactly how I had it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for telling me that. It's not that I'm happy with them, I just haven't yet had my phone tell me I can't install a new app. When that happens no doubt I wouldn't be pleased. I assumed that because I hadn't opened the bloatware apps that they weren't using battery resources so it's good to know that they do, and that this is a good reason for rooting and removing them. Your reasons for using Titanium backup were something I hadn't thought of as well.
Omar04 said:
I run stock 90% of the time.
My main reason to root at least after FF18
-Tethering
-Tethering nothing more
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, good to know. As I said, I've had the phone a couple of weeks and only now with a lower workload have I really had time to sit and contemplate what to do with my phone, and look into what it does and what it can do. I have the paid EasyTether app but I haven't used it on this phone yet. I also saw that it comes preloaded with Sprint Hotspot app.. I take it then that EasyTether won't work on this phone with current stock setup?
mjs2011 said:
Agreed with all that say it's your choice. Also your habits are very important. One of the reasons why I love Android is that I can literally change my software whenever I want. I was running AOKP 2 days ago, M'ICS the day after. Now today I'm on stock rooted FI27.
Honestly though, this phone is really good out of the box. I had the LG Optimus V for over a year as well, and the only way to get that phone to perform was to root it and put a custom ROM on it. It was actually a great phone for being low end. I had said that when I upgraded to this phone that I wouldn't root it, but that didn't last long. Really though, you can easily get the performance you're looking for on this phone without rooting it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think if I did root, I'd do what I did with the OV and stick with the same ROM for a good time. Again, not to insult those that do (see above reply), but I don't think I'd have the balls to run different roms on a daily basis in fear of bricking it and also because once I've found something I'm happy with I'm usually okay not to look any further!
Mattix724 said:
I'm rooted because I like to tell my devices what to do.
I guess rooting might make more sense if you've ever been an administrator or if you've ever ran any Linux machine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, no. No Linux experience here except for a tiny bit of stuff on my seedbox, installing 7zip and using Putty to unzip iso's and stuff.
I'm going to spend the next couple of days reading the various forums, looking at what ROMs are available, what they do, etc etc, checking out what apps that require root access I'm missing out on.. one has piqued my interest already: Root Call Blocker. But I use my phone to make calls, make texts, check emails, surf the web a bit, and let the kids play a few games on it. So this is why I was wondering if there were any other benefits for me to do this.
Just as a preface, wasn't sure if this should go in this section or the general section, but figured since this was Q&A I'd pick here. Anyways, I just got my HTC One today and am coming from Samsung Galaxy S3 (droid 3 and OG before that) and had them all rooted with custom roms, but have been reading about the process to unlock/root/s-off this device. I downloaded rumrunner and tried to run the program once already and got a "........f******" error and it closed without working, but that's not what I'm making the thread for. I'm really terrified of messing up the phone because I'm broke and can't afford to pay the insurance deductible if I break it and have to claim it was stolen. All of this back story to ask the question of: Is this one of those phones that NEEDS to be rooted to be worth using or can I expect acceptable battery life, speed, & use by simply disabling as much bloatware as possible and keeping the phone stock? Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it!
Coste5a9 said:
Just as a preface, wasn't sure if this should go in this section or the general section, but figured since this was Q&A I'd pick here. Anyways, I just got my HTC One today and am coming from Samsung Galaxy S3 (droid 3 and OG before that) and had them all rooted with custom roms, but have been reading about the process to unlock/root/s-off this device. I downloaded rumrunner and tried to run the program once already and got a "........f******" error and it closed without working, but that's not what I'm making the thread for. I'm really terrified of messing up the phone because I'm broke and can't afford to pay the insurance deductible if I break it and have to claim it was stolen. All of this back story to ask the question of: Is this one of those phones that NEEDS to be rooted to be worth using or can I expect acceptable battery life, speed, & use by simply disabling as much bloatware as possible and keeping the phone stock? Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, based on what you wrote I'd say just disable the apps you don't want showing up and call it good. The Sense based ROMs are actually quite nice and HTC has been good about timely updates. Turning things off like Facebook notifications, weather updates, location service, and Google Now if you don't need it will all help. Enjoy your new phone.
I agree with mmuzy. I got my One right after they blocked HTCDev on this phone and the phone it worked perfect with out root. Speed was good, battery life was ok considering the size of the battery. My only reason for being hell bent on rooting this phone was ads on YouTube lol Pretty sure you already know this but disabling the animations in the developer settings speeds up the phone just a tad as well.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk
Coste5a9 said:
Just as a preface, wasn't sure if this should go in this section or the general section, but figured since this was Q&A I'd pick here. Anyways, I just got my HTC One today and am coming from Samsung Galaxy S3 (droid 3 and OG before that) and had them all rooted with custom roms, but have been reading about the process to unlock/root/s-off this device. I downloaded rumrunner and tried to run the program once already and got a "........f******" error and it closed without working, but that's not what I'm making the thread for. I'm really terrified of messing up the phone because I'm broke and can't afford to pay the insurance deductible if I break it and have to claim it was stolen. All of this back story to ask the question of: Is this one of those phones that NEEDS to be rooted to be worth using or can I expect acceptable battery life, speed, & use by simply disabling as much bloatware as possible and keeping the phone stock? Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First things first, with the latest 4.3 update rumrunner doesn't work so even if you wanted to root and s-off it wouldn't be possible yet. Second, unlike Samsung devices, this thing is buttery smooth with or without the bloat so honestly your experience will still be excellent either way. I had an S4 before this phone that was rooted, all bloat removed, ad blocking, greenify, etc and I can tell you right now that right out of the box the HTC One was STILL way smoother than the S4 with NOTHING done to it. I'm running BoneStock at the moment which is basically just a stock rom, so I think HTC did an excellent job with Sense 5 on this phone.
I'm not going to try to sway you one way or another, just sharing my story. I've had the VZW HTC One since launch (Aug 22nd) and never saw a need to root or unlock it out the box. Everything was running great, the phone was smooth.
Suddenly, the 4.3 update arrived and my previously (close to) perfect phone has been plagued by issues. Multiple FCs from core and basic apps, piss poor data connectivity, and worst of all, terrible battery. Since accepting the update, my phone radio has been sucking roughly 45-60% battery at all time. Now I'm growing desperate for a way to unlock my device and control it. I went from around 14-16 hours of medium to heavy usage to barely getting 8 hours from light use. Once again, this is only my story, but, I know that having more control over my device will give me the ability to change my radio and fix my issues. So I vote yay to unlock/root.
LightAeterna said:
I'm not going to try to sway you one way or another, just sharing my story. I've had the VZW HTC One since launch (Aug 22nd) and never saw a need to root or unlock it out the box. Everything was running great, the phone was smooth.
Suddenly, the 4.3 update arrived and my previously (close to) perfect phone has been plagued by issues. Multiple FCs from core and basic apps, piss poor data connectivity, and worst of all, terrible battery. Since accepting the update, my phone radio has been sucking roughly 45-60% battery at all time. Now I'm growing desperate for a way to unlock my device and control it. I went from around 14-16 hours of medium to heavy usage to barely getting 8 hours from light use. Once again, this is only my story, but, I know that having more control over my device will give me the ability to change my radio and fix my issues. So I vote yay to unlock/root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try a factory reset. I was running the 4.3 OTA rom for a few days and I didn't experience any of the issues you just mentioned. I'm now on 4.3 BoneStock with zero issues as well.
Crawshayi said:
Try a factory reset. I was running the 4.3 OTA rom for a few days and I didn't experience any of the issues you just mentioned. I'm now on 4.3 BoneStock with zero issues as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with this. OTAs are nice in that we don't lose all our apps and settings but they're kind of like dirty flashing a custom ROM. If you have a gremlin infestation with the OTA then I'd start with a factory reset and see if things run better when you clean install your apps.
Well, after a few days of time to test after the full wipe and manual restore I'm still experiencing terrible battery life. As I stated before, it was mainly phone radio taking the brunt of the battery, and that still seems to be the case. On the positive side of things, I do have twice the free space available now.