Develop Bugs

[Q]Why "root" your phone ?

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

New To Android, but bricked my phone?

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

Sorry but I may be leaving the root community for good

I've suspected for a long time that custom ROMs have been the source of all my frustrations with the Gnex. I unlocked and rooted on the first day and even though there wasn't much in the way of custom Roms with 4.0 I was excited to try all the different mods that were slowly flooding XDA and RootzWiki.
This wasn't my 1st experience with root either. I owned the Dinc and loved the idea of tinkering with my device. I learned a lot. Mainly that you should ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP. and take the extra minute to wipe everything. I don't even use TI backup anymore because I wanted to start over from scratch any time I flashed a new ROM.
I say this because I know there are ppl in the forums that are smarter than I when it comes to Android. There are also some of those same ppl that will assume that I made some sort of noob mistake and I should try "wiping data" or something. Trust me, I've tried that and it doesn't fix it.
My main issues have been:
*losing data connection for no reason and eventually having to reboot in order to restore data.
*Weak network/WiFi.
Now I know there is a thread on rootz that addresses the bars and how inaccurate they are. But when two identical devices sit down in the same place and run speed test. My Gnex can slow to a snails pace at times. The wierdest thing about this is that it only seems to do it sporadically, which makes recreating it almost impossible. Although it seems most frequent at work, but that maybe because I spend an ungodly amount of time at my office.
*Lag/freezes
I know its not gonna work perfectly all the time and sometimes you have to reboot your phone just to give it a chance to reset itself and that's cool but when you do that and it doesn't fix the sluggishness of the phone then I feel there is a problem.
* problems with certain system functions like Bluetooth or GPS
Now this may be only an issue with particular Roms which may be known to have problems with certain aspects of the system. For instance, it seems pretty common from what I've seen on the forums that GPS is an issue for some on 4.2. I was actually on 4.2 this morning until I went to punch in an address from a text msg to Navigation and it wouldn't lock on my location. I got frustrated and decided to wipe and install the AOKP milestone I had saved and when I set everything back up guess what? Navigation still wouldn't lock on. I ended up having to bail out on some guys because I could find there house. I got home and found a stock ROM online. I wiped, flashed and setup my phone for the second time today. I downloaded Maps and immediately went to find the address and it was insane how fast it locked on a location.
There are other issues but I'm becoming long winded so I'll try to wrap it up.
Now I'm not one to dismiss my own part in my problems. I've certainly tried to address them when/if they arise with what little knowledge I have and the ability to learn what I can. I e emailed devs amd talked to others and sometimes it helps, but sometimes like this morning you just want things to work when you need them to without wasting your time having to revert to a nandroid or doing some other wizardry.
"Well, why don't you just go buy an iPhone then?" you might say
I've actually contemplated it but I do really like android, Google Maps are the **** (I depend on Navigation a lot )and I like to be able to customize. And I also don't really want to pay the money to terminate my contract so I'm kinda just stuck. But I thought about doing one thing.
A couple weeks ago, I unrooted and relocked my phone and flashed stock images for JB on CDMA and from there all I did was unlock and root keeping it stock and I tell you I glad I did because all my problems no longer seem to exist. My battery life might not be what I was getting on 4.2 these last couple days but I think I'm willing to stick with this for now until Verizon gets off their ass and pushes an update to us.
I'm not trying to rant to the Dev community or complain that y'all aren't living up to my satisfaction. Hell, maybe somebody might have a solution I haven't tried yet. I'm just putting this out there in case someone was having the same trouble and could get some help.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app

On ParanoidAndroid 2.54 + franco.kernel r300. None of the problems you mentioned are present or has ever happened with me. Perhaps if you didn't mod your phone so much as to NOT be able to pinpoint a problem is where you went wrong.
Who knows? I surely don't. Don't know you but I don't think I'll be noticing your absence. Good luck with everything!

automaddux said:
I've suspected for a long time that custom ROMs have been the source of all my frustrations with the Gnex. I unlocked and rooted on the first day and even though there wasn't much in the way of custom Roms with 4.0 I was excited to try all the different mods that were slowly flooding XDA and RootzWiki.
This wasn't my 1st experience with root either. I owned the Dinc and loved the idea of tinkering with my device. I learned a lot. Mainly that you should ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP. and take the extra minute to wipe everything. I don't even use TI backup anymore because I wanted to start over from scratch any time I flashed a new ROM.
I say this because I know there are ppl in the forums that are smarter than I when it comes to Android. There are also some of those same ppl that will assume that I made some sort of noob mistake and I should try "wiping data" or something. Trust me, I've tried that and it doesn't fix it.
My main issues have been:
*losing data connection for no reason and eventually having to reboot in order to restore data.
*Weak network/WiFi.
Now I know there is a thread on rootz that addresses the bars and how inaccurate they are. But when two identical devices sit down in the same place and run speed test. My Gnex can slow to a snails pace at times. The wierdest thing about this is that it only seems to do it sporadically, which makes recreating it almost impossible. Although it seems most frequent at work, but that maybe because I spend an ungodly amount of time at my office.
*Lag/freezes
I know its not gonna work perfectly all the time and sometimes you have to reboot your phone just to give it a chance to reset itself and that's cool but when you do that and it doesn't fix the sluggishness of the phone then I feel there is a problem.
* problems with certain system functions like Bluetooth or GPS
Now this may be only an issue with particular Roms which may be known to have problems with certain aspects of the system. For instance, it seems pretty common from what I've seen on the forums that GPS is an issue for some on 4.2. I was actually on 4.2 this morning until I went to punch in an address from a text msg to Navigation and it wouldn't lock on my location. I got frustrated and decided to wipe and install the AOKP milestone I had saved and when I set everything back up guess what? Navigation still wouldn't lock on. I ended up having to bail out on some guys because I could find there house. I got home and found a stock ROM online. I wiped, flashed and setup my phone for the second time today. I downloaded Maps and immediately went to find the address and it was insane how fast it locked on a location.
There are other issues but I'm becoming long winded so I'll try to wrap it up.
Now I'm not one to dismiss my own part in my problems. I've certainly tried to address them when/if they arise with what little knowledge I have and the ability to learn what I can. I e emailed devs amd talked to others and sometimes it helps, but sometimes like this morning you just want things to work when you need them to without wasting your time having to revert to a nandroid or doing some other wizardry.
"Well, why don't you just go buy an iPhone then?" you might say
I've actually contemplated it but I do really like android, Google Maps are the **** (I depend on Navigation a lot )and I like to be able to customize. And I also don't really want to pay the money to terminate my contract so I'm kinda just stuck. But I thought about doing one thing.
A couple weeks ago, I unrooted and relocked my phone and flashed stock images for JB on CDMA and from there all I did was unlock and root keeping it stock and I tell you I glad I did because all my problems no longer seem to exist. My battery life might not be what I was getting on 4.2 these last couple days but I think I'm willing to stick with this for now until Verizon gets off their ass and pushes an update to us.
I'm not trying to rant to the Dev community or complain that y'all aren't living up to my satisfaction. Hell, maybe somebody might have a solution I haven't tried yet. I'm just putting this out there in case someone was having the same trouble and could get some help.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats cool, you already tried your fair share of roms, if none of them worked for you the stock is the best with unsurpassed stability. Despite whats advertised about the nexus, the stock android firmware is excellent too, specially when you want something that just plain works.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Great story brother. Thanks for sharing.
Sent from my i9250

bk201doesntexist said:
Great story brother. Thanks for sharing.
Sent from my i9250
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep coming..it works if you work it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

goodbye person ive never seen post before. hope you figure out your problems

Stock is the way to go, but you don't have to leave the xda because you no longer run a custom ROM. there is a lot of useful information that is shared here that doesn't necessarily apply to custom ROM.
I am also running stock rom from now on.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

automaddux said:
I've suspected for a long time that custom ROMs have been the source of all my frustrations with the Gnex. I unlocked and rooted on the first day and even though there wasn't much in the way of custom Roms with 4.0 I was excited to try all the different mods that were slowly flooding XDA and RootzWiki.
This wasn't my 1st experience with root either. I owned the Dinc and loved the idea of tinkering with my device. I learned a lot. Mainly that you should ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP. and take the extra minute to wipe everything. I don't even use TI backup anymore because I wanted to start over from scratch any time I flashed a new ROM.
I say this because I know there are ppl in the forums that are smarter than I when it comes to Android. There are also some of those same ppl that will assume that I made some sort of noob mistake and I should try "wiping data" or something. Trust me, I've tried that and it doesn't fix it.
My main issues have been:
*losing data connection for no reason and eventually having to reboot in order to restore data.
*Weak network/WiFi.
Now I know there is a thread on rootz that addresses the bars and how inaccurate they are. But when two identical devices sit down in the same place and run speed test. My Gnex can slow to a snails pace at times. The wierdest thing about this is that it only seems to do it sporadically, which makes recreating it almost impossible. Although it seems most frequent at work, but that maybe because I spend an ungodly amount of time at my office.
*Lag/freezes
I know its not gonna work perfectly all the time and sometimes you have to reboot your phone just to give it a chance to reset itself and that's cool but when you do that and it doesn't fix the sluggishness of the phone then I feel there is a problem.
* problems with certain system functions like Bluetooth or GPS
Now this may be only an issue with particular Roms which may be known to have problems with certain aspects of the system. For instance, it seems pretty common from what I've seen on the forums that GPS is an issue for some on 4.2. I was actually on 4.2 this morning until I went to punch in an address from a text msg to Navigation and it wouldn't lock on my location. I got frustrated and decided to wipe and install the AOKP milestone I had saved and when I set everything back up guess what? Navigation still wouldn't lock on. I ended up having to bail out on some guys because I could find there house. I got home and found a stock ROM online. I wiped, flashed and setup my phone for the second time today. I downloaded Maps and immediately went to find the address and it was insane how fast it locked on a location.
There are other issues but I'm becoming long winded so I'll try to wrap it up.
Now I'm not one to dismiss my own part in my problems. I've certainly tried to address them when/if they arise with what little knowledge I have and the ability to learn what I can. I e emailed devs amd talked to others and sometimes it helps, but sometimes like this morning you just want things to work when you need them to without wasting your time having to revert to a nandroid or doing some other wizardry.
"Well, why don't you just go buy an iPhone then?" you might say
I've actually contemplated it but I do really like android, Google Maps are the **** (I depend on Navigation a lot )and I like to be able to customize. And I also don't really want to pay the money to terminate my contract so I'm kinda just stuck. But I thought about doing one thing.
A couple weeks ago, I unrooted and relocked my phone and flashed stock images for JB on CDMA and from there all I did was unlock and root keeping it stock and I tell you I glad I did because all my problems no longer seem to exist. My battery life might not be what I was getting on 4.2 these last couple days but I think I'm willing to stick with this for now until Verizon gets off their ass and pushes an update to us.
I'm not trying to rant to the Dev community or complain that y'all aren't living up to my satisfaction. Hell, maybe somebody might have a solution I haven't tried yet. I'm just putting this out there in case someone was having the same trouble and could get some help.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you really didn't write all of this from your nexus lol. But just go to stock...simple :thumbup:
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I see how you feel abouyt this. I have had issues as well. It really stems from what Roms are and what we expect from them. The term Night lies have lost a little bit of its worry recently because they are fairly bug free. But that doesn't mean that little tweaks and mods aren't killing battery life and deteriorate over time due to bad patches and coding.
That said I would highly recommend checking out BuglessBeast. They are not night lies by any means. They are highly stable AOSP Roms that perform much better then anything else on the market. He has few commits aside from under the hood tweaks. Reboot menu, emoji and a slight few other things are it. I have never had an issue with them and recommend checking them out. Also they are pretty much the only VZW app compatible ROM. Peter has been building BuglessBeast since Eclair on the Droid1 (almost 3 years now). Always providing an excellent experience.

spjetrovic said:
Keep coming..it works if you work it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashaholics anonymous?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

Stock + root is the way to go for me on Nexus phones. On my last non Nexus (SGS3) I was always flashing new roms trying to look for something that just works, but I am tired of it. On my Nexus S and GNexus, stock rom is amazing, I don't need anything else.

automaddux said:
I've suspected for a long time that custom ROMs have been the source of all my frustrations with the Gnex. I unlocked and rooted on the first day and even though there wasn't much in the way of custom Roms with 4.0 I was excited to try all the different mods that were slowly flooding XDA and RootzWiki.
This wasn't my 1st experience with root either. I owned the Dinc and loved the idea of tinkering with my device. I learned a lot. Mainly that you should ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP. and take the extra minute to wipe everything. I don't even use TI backup anymore because I wanted to start over from scratch any time I flashed a new ROM.
I say this because I know there are ppl in the forums that are smarter than I when it comes to Android. There are also some of those same ppl that will assume that I made some sort of noob mistake and I should try "wiping data" or something. Trust me, I've tried that and it doesn't fix it.
My main issues have been:
*losing data connection for no reason and eventually having to reboot in order to restore data.
*Weak network/WiFi.
Now I know there is a thread on rootz that addresses the bars and how inaccurate they are. But when two identical devices sit down in the same place and run speed test. My Gnex can slow to a snails pace at times. The wierdest thing about this is that it only seems to do it sporadically, which makes recreating it almost impossible. Although it seems most frequent at work, but that maybe because I spend an ungodly amount of time at my office.
*Lag/freezes
I know its not gonna work perfectly all the time and sometimes you have to reboot your phone just to give it a chance to reset itself and that's cool but when you do that and it doesn't fix the sluggishness of the phone then I feel there is a problem.
* problems with certain system functions like Bluetooth or GPS
Now this may be only an issue with particular Roms which may be known to have problems with certain aspects of the system. For instance, it seems pretty common from what I've seen on the forums that GPS is an issue for some on 4.2. I was actually on 4.2 this morning until I went to punch in an address from a text msg to Navigation and it wouldn't lock on my location. I got frustrated and decided to wipe and install the AOKP milestone I had saved and when I set everything back up guess what? Navigation still wouldn't lock on. I ended up having to bail out on some guys because I could find there house. I got home and found a stock ROM online. I wiped, flashed and setup my phone for the second time today. I downloaded Maps and immediately went to find the address and it was insane how fast it locked on a location.
There are other issues but I'm becoming long winded so I'll try to wrap it up.
Now I'm not one to dismiss my own part in my problems. I've certainly tried to address them when/if they arise with what little knowledge I have and the ability to learn what I can. I e emailed devs amd talked to others and sometimes it helps, but sometimes like this morning you just want things to work when you need them to without wasting your time having to revert to a nandroid or doing some other wizardry.
"Well, why don't you just go buy an iPhone then?" you might say
I've actually contemplated it but I do really like android, Google Maps are the **** (I depend on Navigation a lot )and I like to be able to customize. And I also don't really want to pay the money to terminate my contract so I'm kinda just stuck. But I thought about doing one thing.
A couple weeks ago, I unrooted and relocked my phone and flashed stock images for JB on CDMA and from there all I did was unlock and root keeping it stock and I tell you I glad I did because all my problems no longer seem to exist. My battery life might not be what I was getting on 4.2 these last couple days but I think I'm willing to stick with this for now until Verizon gets off their ass and pushes an update to us.
I'm not trying to rant to the Dev community or complain that y'all aren't living up to my satisfaction. Hell, maybe somebody might have a solution I haven't tried yet. I'm just putting this out there in case someone was having the same trouble and could get some help.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with this guy as well... I upgraded to a stock 4.2 rom (with root, but not a custom build).. and I have been smooth sailing since. It seems with all these custom roms and kernels there are nothing but issues. Sure, they're a TAD faster or offer little tweaks but when you need to use your device in the real world and it f*cking reboots while navigating somewhere because of a stupid tweak you made.. well, I can't see why it's even needed.

This phone runs very well with Stock+Root. I normally root devices because of different apps I like to use, and the ability to make custom backups...but I dont normally try anything bleeding edge...lol.
Partly because of my experience on an HTC phone...hated Sense and bought the GNex because of the AOSP.

akira02rex said:
I'm with this guy as well... I upgraded to a stock 4.2 rom (with root, but not a custom build).. and I have been smooth sailing since. It seems with all these custom roms and kernels there are nothing but issues. Sure, they're a TAD faster or offer little tweaks but when you need to use your device in the real world and it f*cking reboots while navigating somewhere because of a stupid tweak you made.. well, I can't see why it's even needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to bash the custom roms that some devs here work so hard to make, i agree that stock is amazing but android would be a boring scene without the custom roms out there
We would just be like Ios, Wp and blackberry users, stuck with what we've got
Others wouldnt even have the chance to use a newer OS version because their phone has been abandoned by official support.
Or many of u guys would have crappy colors or other issues that custom roms and kernels DID fix
I use stock but i love the fact that there are custom roms around
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

negrobembon said:
No need to bash the custom roms that some devs here work so hard to make, i agree that stock is amazing but android would be a boring scene without the custom roms out there
We would just be like Ios, Wp and blackberry users, stuck with what we've got
Others wouldnt even have the chance to use a newer OS version because their phone has been abandoned by official support.
Or many of u guys would have crappy colors or other issues that custom roms and kernels DID fix
I use stock but i love the fact that there are custom roms around
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I get that, it's good to see support for older devices but c'mon have you counted the amount of 4.1.2 roms that are available for the gnex? If I build android I'm automatically called a developer? Because that's the way it seems here...

I don't know why people keep bringing up the so crappy colors. In reality, the crappy colors are the ones custom ROM offer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Soldier 2.0 said:
I don't know why people keep bringing up the so crappy colors. In reality, the crappy colors are the ones custom ROM offer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its the kernels that offer the colors(the kernels that the ROM developers include too). of all the kernels available, only a very few distinguish themselves from the stock crappy colors.

This is ridiculous... who obligated you to install a custom ROM? F*cking emos.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

automaddux said:
I've suspected for a long time that custom ROMs have been the source of all my...
Blah blah blah.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, please stay! We'll never survive without you! [/SARCASM]

GhoXt said:
This is ridiculous... who obligated you to install a custom ROM? F*cking emos.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright Captain, you keep Franco deep in your throat.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

ROOTING & UNLOCKING - why so much trouble?SOLVED

Backstory: I have just switched over to Sprint from ATT, due to a growing need to save money on my family plan. As such, I had to sell my Nexus 4 and get an Optimus G (HTC One was sold out ) Picked this phone for it's extreme similarity to the N4, which I liked quite a bit. Brought home my new device and immediately set about rooting and unlocking it. I have been around this particular block many times since my first rooting and ROMing experience with the HD2 back in '10. I am relatively adept at this and don't typically get put off by it being more or less difficult than the last time. For example, I had an HTC Rezound that required a length or wire to touch two contact points together during a script run to unlock the bootloader. That was fun! Point is, this ain't my first rodeo. I researched the threads pretty thoroughly, and although I wanted to use shadow's AIO root/unlock, it sounded from the posts that it was outdated due to recent updates that hadn't been implemented. Sooooo, I went with engine's root/unlock. I followed the instructions carefully, installed and utilized Freegee(after running the rooting script, which was successful), got to the 'YAY' screen, and went about the reboot to recovery process, and poof! - brick city. What sucks is that I see all over where people have had seemingly the same problem (no boot past the LG splash screen). The thing is, everyone else seems to be able to get a download mode or fastboot or both, thereby making some form of 'recovery' possible, even without an actual recovery program being in place. I cannot. I was unable to do anything with the device, and after many hours of trying, I took the damn thing to Sprint and got another(always root and ROM on the first day, that way you can blame the crappy product instead of your crappy ability to follow directions ). Now, I have never been too proud to admit when I screw up, but I was very careful about reading and following the instructions and took my time. This isn't to say it couldn't still be user error; it almost always is. But, the fact that my problem was so similar to so many others, but no one else had documented a problem like mine really bugged me. Anyway, I got a new one and have been researching LGNPST and teenybins way of rooting/unlocking. I have already installed all the drivers and software and am ready to go. But, I gotta be honest, I am leery. I don't care about taking another phone back to Sprint, but just don't want the hassle. I am nervous because it seems that these devices are very finicky and there are many posts in all of the root/unlock threads with people who can't seem to get theirs handled. This is compounded by the fact that my friggin device refuses to go into either download mode or fastboot mode. I have followed the instructions for this as well (vol down and pwr for download - all three and plug at the same time for fastboot) I can't accomplish either task with this device. WTF. I have no problem doing the noobie dance if I am somehow screwing this process up, but I can't see how. I have some experience at this; I have owned an HD2, a Sensation 4G, a Rezound, a G2X, a GSII Skyrocket, a Nexus 4, and this. All have been rooted and unlocked successfully, except one of the LGs, see below. I have had issues getting this done before, but never like this. I also have some experience compiling builds, so I am not a pro by any means, but I have a pretty good idea how to go about these things when I change devices. What I would like is some factual and specific tips, steps, and/or advice. I have read all of the threads about these, so simply mirroring the current steps listed is not much help right now. I also have some questions, regardless of whether or not some of the 'purists' will troll my possibly noobie style thoughts :
Why the hell can't I get into download or fastboot? If this is something that is actually happening and not just my user error, it would definitely be a reason for unlock failure and potential bricking, right?
Is it absolutely neccesary to unlock after root? I know that the two almost always go hand-in-hand, but nevertheless I think it is a legitimate question.
Is this just a problem with LG devices? I had a G2X for about a week, and went through 3 of them trying to get the damn thing rooted and unlocked. I literally could not do it, and after the third one even TMobile was tired of it. The gave me a Sensation that I had rooted and ROMed in about an hour. I had no issues with my N4, and to be honest I was nervous as hell getting that badboy set up. smooth sailing....
I know that most eveyone swears by the LGNPST method, but there have been reported failures through this method as well. Can I get anything more than just opinion about the best way to accomplish this with a minimum of bloodshed?
I would appreciate as much advice and discussion as possible, because I can't be the only one and we have to be able to figure this out once and for all.........
One other question: Why the hell am I having so much trouble extracting the .bin files on my laptop? I have 7zip, archive manager, and winzip. All three have the settings refecting .bin files being formatted with each file manager, and none will recognize the .bin files. I have an HP DV7 dual-core, running W7 Ultimate. SOLVED: Desktop at work showed these files properly as .bin. Don't know why my laptop won't........
UPDATE: I was able to get into download mode by pressing both vol buttons while plugged in. I was also able to gain root using fiddy619s Universal root and held it after reboot. For all the good it does... can't use font installer. hmph. Can alter root files though, so progress is being made
UPDATE: I am able to get OEM system recovery by holding dn and pwr until 'buttons' light up, then releasing pwr but not dn until recovery shows. Still can't get anything from holding up and pwr. Tried unplugged and plugged in; no love. From what I have read, you HAVE to be able to access fastboot to be able to complete this process, sooooo........

BMP7777 said:
Backstory: I have just switched over to Sprint from ATT, due to a growing need to save money on my family plan. As such, I had to sell my Nexus 4 and get an Optimus G (HTC One was sold out ) Picked this phone for it's extreme similarity to the N4, which I liked quite a bit. Brought home my new device and immediately set about rooting and unlocking it. I have been around this particular block many times since my first rooting and ROMing experience with the HD2 back in '10. I am relatively adept at this and don't typically get put off by it being more or less difficult than the last time. For example, I had an HTC Rezound that required a length or wire to touch two contact points together during a script run to unlock the bootloader. That was fun! Point is, this ain't my first rodeo. I researched the threads pretty thoroughly, and although I wanted to use shadow's AIO root/unlock, it sounded from the posts that it was outdated due to recent updates that hadn't been implemented. Sooooo, I went with engine's root/unlock. I followed the instructions carefully, installed and utilized Freegee(after running the rooting script, which was successful), got to the 'YAY' screen, and went about the reboot to recovery process, and poof! - brick city. What sucks is that I see all over where people have had seemingly the same problem (no boot past the LG splash screen). The thing is, everyone else seems to be able to get a download mode or fastboot or both, thereby making some form of 'recovery' possible, even without an actual recovery program being in place. I cannot. I was unable to do anything with the device, and after many hours of trying, I took the damn thing to Sprint and got another(always root and ROM on the first day, that way you can blame the crappy product instead of your crappy ability to follow directions ). Now, I have never been too proud to admit when I screw up, but I was very careful about reading and following the instructions and took my time. This isn't to say it couldn't still be user error; it almost always is. But, the fact that my problem was so similar to so many others, but no one else had documented a problem like mine really bugged me. Anyway, I got a new one and have been researching LGNPST and teenybins way of rooting/unlocking. I have already installed all the drivers and software and am ready to go. But, I gotta be honest, I am leery. I don't care about taking another phone back to Sprint, but just don't want the hassle. I am nervous because it seems that these devices are very finicky and there are many posts in all of the root/unlock threads with people who can't seem to get theirs handled. This is compounded by the fact that my friggin device refuses to go into either download mode or fastboot mode. I have followed the instructions for this as well (vol down and pwr for download - all three and plug at the same time for fastboot) I can't accomplish either task with this device. WTF. I have no problem doing the noobie dance if I am somehow screwing this process up, but I can't see how. I have some experience at this; I have owned an HD2, a Sensation 4G, a Rezound, a G2X, a GSII Skyrocket, a Nexus 4, and this. All have been rooted and unlocked successfully, except one of the LGs, see below. I have had issues getting this done before, but never like this. I also have some experience compiling builds, so I am not a pro by any means, but I have a pretty good idea how to go about these things when I change devices. What I would like is some factual and specific tips, steps, and/or advice. I have read all of the threads about these, so simply mirroring the current steps listed is not much help right now. I also have some questions, regardless of whether or not some of the 'purists' will troll my possibly noobie style thoughts :
Why the hell can't I get into download or fastboot? If this is something that is actually happening and not just my user error, it would definitely be a reason for unlock failure and potential bricking, right?
Is it absolutely neccesary to unlock after root? I know that the two almost always go hand-in-hand, but nevertheless I think it is a legitimate question.
Is this just a problem with LG devices? I had a G2X for about a week, and went through 3 of them trying to get the damn thing rooted and unlocked. I literally could not do it, and after the third one even TMobile was tired of it. The gave me a Sensation that I had rooted and ROMed in about an hour. I had no issues with my N4, and to be honest I was nervous as hell getting that badboy set up. smooth sailing....
I know that most eveyone swears by the LGNPST method, but there have been reported failures through this method as well. Can I get anything more than just opinion about the best way to accomplish this with a minimum of bloodshed?
I would appreciate as much advice and discussion as possible, because I can't be the only one and we have to be able to figure this out once and for all.........
One other question: Why the hell am I having so much trouble extracting the .bin files on my laptop? I have 7zip, archive manager, and winzip. All three have the settings refecting .bin files being formatted with each file manager, and none will recognize the .bin files. I have an HP DV7 dual-core, running W7 Ultimate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to the Optimus G. It sounds like you got a phone that needs the "Special Unlock". This is not a method available to the general public. You will need to go to IRC and ask Shelnutt2 for it. Good luck!

Stories like this make me not want to root/unlock.
I know the basics, but I dont know much beyond that. I would feel pretty stranded if some sort of soft-brick, etc occurred.
Rooting my OG EVO was simple as simple could get.

Mindspin_311 said:
Stories like this make me not want to root/unlock.
I know the basics, but I dont know much beyond that. I would feel pretty stranded if some sort of soft-brick, etc occurred.
Rooting my OG EVO was simple as simple could get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm just as nervous, but I'm not gonna let this damn thing get the best of me. Already made some progress. As I figure it out, I plan to offer another listing for how to accomplish this goal. I don't think we need YET ANOTHER thread about it though. Probably ask one of the others to add whatever makes mine work to their existing OP. I think part of the problem is too many different ways to do this that are only verified as working by a few; or many up until a recent time. Maybe the latest LG update is part of it as well.....

I know this feel all too well. On my third LGOG and I was able to properly rot/unlock. I'm more of a visual learner so learning using text only was a pain in my ass(weird right?) But I am way to skeptical to flash a new ROM and the ROM I want to use(Paranoid Android) was just recently ported so I'll stick with Stock rooted for now.

KUmike said:
Welcome to the Optimus G. It sounds like you got a phone that needs the "Special Unlock". This is not a method available to the general public. You will need to go to IRC and ask Shelnutt2 for it. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually not anymore, since I rewrote the freegee app, it's built into it. On the main screen press menu -> sbl unlock. Follow the directions, read everything, then after you enter the code, unlock like normal. This method is guarnteeed to always work, however there is some additional risks involved and only a small subset of optimusg owners need it, that is why it is not the default method.
BMP777 said:
vol down and pwr for download - all three and plug at the same time for fastboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is wrong, it's vol up + vol down + have the usb plugged in + power and they will get you to download mode. Fastboot mode is only avaliable when unlocked and that is vol down + power .

Tried the Freegee again but the softbrick was the result. I didn't find the sbl unlock, it must be in the paid version. Waiting for a new bank card to come in the mail is the only reason I haven't coughed up the buck. Was able to get into download mode easily and restore using LGNPST. No fastboot or recovery access though......back to the drawing board. Makes me wonder if the last one was really broken or I was too dumb to figure it out.

BMP7777 said:
Tried the Freegee again but the softbrick was the result. I didn't find the sbl unlock, it must be in the paid version. Waiting for a new bank card to come in the mail is the only reason I haven't coughed up the buck. Was able to get into download mode easily and restore using LGNPST. No fastboot or recovery access though......back to the drawing board. Makes me wonder if the last one was really broken or I was too dumb to figure it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe the SBL unlock method in the freegee app is there, you just have to hit the menu button (I think).

Ran LGNPST again and acheived unlock. Good to go.

BMP7777 said:
Ran LGNPST again and acheived unlock. Good to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to hear it, and fyi as in the description on the play store, the free and paid versions are 100% the same minus the name change.

I was considering trading my Note 2 for two OG's but reading this scares me a lil. Is it really that bad to root this thing?
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app

RayTrue04 said:
I was considering trading my Note 2 for two OG's but reading this scares me a lil. Is it really that bad to root this thing?
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope not at all. Rooting and unlocking is pretty easy for 99% of the phones out there.

Shelnutt2 said:
Nope not at all. Rooting and unlocking is pretty easy for 99% of the phones out there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you ever owned an Evo? Rooting and unlocking is not always easy lol
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app

RayTrue04 said:
Have you ever owned an Evo? Rooting and unlocking is not always easy lol
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By phones I was meaning optimus g's
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda app-developers app

Rooting this device is easy. Unlocking was a bit more detailed but in the end, just as easy. Still not certain if my issues were genuine or user error, but I will assume it was me. Make sure you read the instructions over and over before you begin. I have been doing this for a long time so I may have gotten caught up in thinking I knew all there was to know and not paying close enough attention to the details. Thanks to fiddy619, engine95, and especially Shellnutt2 for making these tools and taking time to offer assistance. Use fiddys tool for rooting, then buy and install Freegee for unlocking. If you have issues with Freegee, use the two-button plug method of accessing download mode(press and hold both volume buttons while plugging in the USB), and then use the LGNPST tool with teenybins for unlocking and/or repairs. These are the steps that worked for me without hassle; your experience may vary......

Galaxy Nexus death scheduled ?

Hi,
I've got my GN for about 2 years now. It always runned fine. I use it essentially to make calls, mails, some european "anti-cop" app called "icoyote", spotify and that's it
Everything stock, full google official, no cracked bull**** apps or whatever.
Ok so now for about 1 month it became less and less stable. It literally happened from one day to another. I guarantee i didn't add/change or remove anything.
Main issues are : spotify crashes many times (~20 to 50) a day and 50% of the time the GPS fix fails to go trough, but a simple reboot and it work's instantly.
So I tought I should make a full factory reset. I did that and the issues I was experiencing remained the same.
Now comes the 1million $ question : how the heck can something stop to work from one day to another ? If it was some *unpredicted*, classic hardware failure, a simple reboot would definitely not solve it, for sure.
Leading to think it has to be software related..OK, so a factory reset should solve : it doesn't neither.
Why are those apps crashing even in a very stock/factory config? I even did skip this google restore profile bull**** to be sure i'm workng in a perfect clean state.
The only logic conclusion is that there must be some kind of hard coded counter which reached the end and is now triggering randomly something, *i don't know based on what, or activated how* making this **** happen
It's very very very frustrating because it was working like a charm those past 2 years and i thought it was a good investment. I was obviously wrong, another death scheduled device.
Now with the 4.3, I got the feeling it becomes even worse. Today, I had to reboot 4 times to get a gps fix (working 100% of the time just after the reboot) and it was a hassle to get trough 2 songs without being cut off in the middle of it.
FU samsung

But you only tried to flash 4.3. It's like giving a patient only 1 medicine and when that not works declare him dead. There maybe other ways to revive your phone..
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app

mrgnex said:
But you only tried to flash 4.3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when did i say that ? i'm done by years flashing a tool I use to work with. i'm not using it as a toy.
i received the update ota
there's nothing left to try, since my last basic test's where made in a official google factory default situation on a google phone
it's just stock u see? everything else i could try from this point would lead to a non-default situation making every further considerations totally pointless
Well, if i'm right, the so called "crash-routine" would *maybe* not be present in a custom rom, but, again, it worked before and has to work the same way now.
I refuse to use any other workarounds than factory resetting it and, since i already did that a few times, i'm done
i'm not awaiting some kind of help here. i'm just exposing my case and the frustration i'm feeling since samsung nicely dry-fcked me ^^

Don't know why you're acting up for no reason.
It doesn't take a genius to understand and figure out that applications designed and updated for 4.2.2 will most likely not work on 4.3 until the devs update it to work on 4.3. Which, from my experience, doesn't take long at all. That's probably one of the solutions to your few problems.
Way to take things a little too far and throw a tantrum rather than seeking help.
Also, if you have no intentions of seeking a fix then you didn't need to post anything at all.
You're not waiting around here for help? Well, I'm not going to offer help to someone with that kind of attitude.
Peace out you won't be missed.
BTW, there's nothing left to try? LOL
There's about 7 things left to try and one of them would have definitely worked 100%. Figure it out on your own since you know everything.

Read this. It's called Planned Obsolescence. Manufactures purposely make devices with limited lifespan in order to upgrade to their next new device.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Fastboot, Odin, omap.. All stock..
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app

johno86 said:
Don't know why you're acting up for no reason.
It doesn't take a genius to understand and figure out that applications designed and updated for 4.2.2 will most likely not work on 4.3 until the devs update it to work on 4.3. Which, from my experience, doesn't take long at all. That's probably one of the solutions to your few problems.
Way to take things a little too far and throw a tantrum rather than seeking help.
Also, if you have no intentions of seeking a fix then you didn't need to post anything at all.
You're not waiting around here for help? Well, I'm not going to offer help to someone with that kind of attitude.
Peace out you won't be missed.
BTW, there's nothing left to try? LOL
There's about 7 things left to try and one of them would have definitely worked 100%. Figure it out on your own since you know everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ain't here to help either, i just couldn't agree more with what he said above... and its 2013, everyone knows that every electronic sh*t comes with a limited life span, if you didnt know that until now, i'm not sure where you been living..
Peace \m/.

Try wiping your SD card