Develop Bugs

[Q] Newb questions about rooting/roms

So i have an HTC Evo with the latest OTA update 3.70.651.1. Completely stock, non rooted. I know very little about both rooting and roms other then what i quickly went over in a few Q&A's here.
Im not sure what to do, if anything, so i thought id ask here. Primarily id like to be able to delete unwanted stock apps/bloatware and backup the entire phone (like making a recovery image). Itd be nice to be able to wirelessly tether but this isnt necessary. Other then that id like to keep it the same.
Is it possible to root but use the stock rom? if so what does this accomplish?
Is there a risk free way to accomplish my goals?
Thanks

Im not sure what to do, if anything, so i thought id ask here. Primarily id like to be able to delete unwanted stock apps/bloatware and backup the entire phone (like making a recovery image). Itd be nice to be able to wirelessly tether but this isnt necessary. Other then that id like to keep it the same.
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Click to collapse
You would need to root to do this.
Is it possible to root but use the stock rom?
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Click to collapse
Absolutely. Thats what I do. The only reason I rooted was for wireless tether, and titanium backup. Other than that, I didnt want another rom, I love the stock one.
if so what does this accomplish?
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Click to collapse
Exactly what you just asked for in the previous paragraph.
Is there a risk free way to accomplish my goals?
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Nope. There is ALWAYS a risk when doing anything in life, and rooting your phone in no different. However, it is actually quite difficult to completely brick your phone. Most of the time, if you follow the directions, you will be fine. But if you do screw up, you can usually just flash a stock ruu and redo it.

Thanks for the information. Is there anything the free version of titanium backup doesnt backup? What does a nandroid backup save?
Also will rooting alone allow me to delete any app on the phone?
Lastly what would be the recommended way for someone new like me to root my phone (or resources i can use to pick a method)? Is there a way to restore my phone back to stock if i need to?
Thanks again. As i ask these questions im also digging into the forums looking for specific answers

Hey welcome to XDA.
I don't know when you received your phone, but it seems very brand new to me, I would say your best luck is to try to look for the details of your main specs in your phone, when you start to root your phone, you look for instructions here to setup properly on How to do the root process with the same exact phone detail specs of it.
I was rooted with an older OTA at first, but I see these new OTAs are up on new EVOs but It's kinda fishy to think of how to root it with the latest OTA on the old leet legit methods that toastcfh had...you know...The Manual Professional way, without the risk of bricking your phone completely, if you had the chance to root successfully with idiot proof instructions, I say that was quite a day for me then.

Actually ive had my Evo since release, ive just been too scared to risk bricking it til now lol.
i currently have:
hboot 2.10
software 3.70.651.1
hardware 0002
i took down some other info but idk if it matters for rooting directions.
So far from my searches it appears the only option for hboot 2.10 + 3.70.651.1 is a pretty lengthy/difficult for beginners method. Is that accurate?
Also my primary concern is deleting bloatware/included apps, does rooting alone allow me to delete these?
Also none of the guides ive seen detail how to backup your phone before the root, is there an easy way to make like a backup image of the stock stuff + data,sms,phone log, etc?
Thanks again everyone, still digging but your help will make it go much more smoothly

So ive pretty much discovered that my 2 options are do it the "hard" way or wait for unrevoked to update their stuff for the newest evo software/hboot. Im probably going to wait.
In the meantime i want to make sure of a few things, deleteing apps, backup, wireless tether. How would i approach each of these; can i use the built in app manager to delete apps? the built in wireless tether to tether? what exactly does nandroid backup compared to titanium backup?
Does the stock rom support netfilter?
Is there any scenario in which ota updates wont break root?
Thanks again

ctbenk said:
In the meantime i want to make sure of a few things, deleteing apps, backup, wireless tether. How would i approach each of these; can i use the built in app manager to delete apps? the built in wireless tether to tether? what exactly does nandroid backup compared to titanium backup?
Is there any scenario in which ota updates wont break root?
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To delete apps, you will want to use Titanium Backup. After removing stock apps, some of them still stay indexed, so you will need to boot to recovery and wipe your cache and dalvik to clear them from the apps list.
You won't be able to use the built-in wireless tether to tether unless you flash a new rom that unlocked that feature. Once rooted, there is a an app on the market called Wireless Tether for Root Users that will accomplish what you are looking for.
Titanium Backup will also allow you to backup your apps and data so that in the event you do flash a new rom, you can restore them without losing anything.
Titanium Backup is designed to backup your apps and data, Nandroid(recovery) will backup your entire ROM, so if you do flash a new rom, you can always revert back to your stock setup exactly how you left it.
OTA updates will always break your root, but at the same time don't offer much in the terms of upgrading. Plus 90% of the time the dev's here release a rooted version of the OTA update very shortly after it goes live.

[Q] Noob questions on rooting info: New handset from Fido (canada i747M) runing 4.1.1

Ok so here goes a long but detailed read. I am writing this in hopes other fido users searching may find this thread and avoid future questions. Phone came with the TW 4.1.1 from fido and is fully stock.
Brand new S3 Galaxy from Fido (same as rogers) i747M Phone is great but the rooting bug has caught me.
1. I plan to root the device fairly shortly and install a non touchwiz variant. I will be following "High on Android's" Technique. detailed in this youtube video.
Is that method correct for my phone?
or should I be following something different? I just noticed Mr. Robinson posted the Fido TAR with root injected already on it. Does this make any difference? Links to TAR file are here
2. Now assuming I get everything up and running. What is the deal with "Triangleaway" and flash counters? From my understanding, Samsung has a counter installed that ensures they keep an eye on voided warranties due to flashing. Sure thats fine but lets talk about what we can do.
From what I gather, Triangle away will sort me out and get rid of the counters and put them back to zero in case I need to send my phone in for warranty. Is this correct?
Most of the triangle away info I read is for pre 4.1.1 confirmations hence why I ask.
3. Now lets assume I have flashed thephone and I am running CM 10 beautiful. Oh no power button breaks. What will be the required steps to get my phone back to 'stock" to send to Samsung. Will this even be possible to send it in without a worry? I cant seem to find steps online for this.
4. A lot of guides talk about the importance of backing up. Sure sounds great but they dont seem to give detailed instructions. What are the most important things I should backup before, during and after rooting my phone in case I brick it or anything goes wrong? Again any link or detailed explanations would be great.
Sorry for being so exhaustive in my questions. I like to learn it all so I can help other afterwards but also structured the thread so its easy to search for future users.
Happy new year everyone!

sspikey said:
1. I plan to root the device fairly shortly and install a non touchwiz variant. I will be following "High on Android's" Technique. detailed in this youtube video.
Is that method correct for my phone?
or should I be following something different? I just noticed Mr. Robinson posted the Fido TAR with root injected already on it. Does this make any difference? Links to TAR file are here
2. Now assuming I get everything up and running. What is the deal with "Triangleaway" and flash counters? From my understanding, Samsung has a counter installed that ensures they keep an eye on voided warranties due to flashing. Sure thats fine but lets talk about what we can do.
From what I gather, Triangle away will sort me out and get rid of the counters and put them back to zero in case I need to send my phone in for warranty. Is this correct?
Most of the triangle away info I read is for pre 4.1.1 confirmations hence why I ask.
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Click to collapse
I'm going to answer these two questions together, because they're interrelated.
There's no one single root method that's more "correct" than any of the others. The key difference between the end result of most of the methods is whether the flash counter has been tripped, which occurs (under circumstances where you're coming from ICS) if you use Odin to flash something other than a stock image (untouched or rooted as in Mr_Robinson's case). You can also trip the flash counter if you have the Jelly Bean boot loader and boot into a non-stock recovery image.
Thus, if you want to avoid tripping the counter for as long as possible, you want to use a method for rooting that doesn't trip the counter, such as the Mr_Robinson method.
If you're going to flash a custom recovery after working from stock JB, you'll probably end up tripping the flash counter the moment you boot into it, in which case (assuming your phone is still rooted) you could use Triangle Away to reset said flash counter.
sspikey said:
3. Now lets assume I have flashed thephone and I am running CM 10 beautiful. Oh no power button breaks. What will be the required steps to get my phone back to 'stock" to send to Samsung. Will this even be possible to send it in without a worry? I cant seem to find steps online for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd do the following:
Triangle Away, if the flash counter isn't 0;
Boot into download mode;
Flash a normal stock image from here; [*]Boot into stock recovery and wipe data/cache; [*]Boot phone as normal.
sspikey said:
4. A lot of guides talk about the importance of backing up. Sure sounds great but they dont seem to give detailed instructions. What are the most important things I should backup before, during and after rooting my phone in case I brick it or anything goes wrong? Again any link or detailed explanations would be great.
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Click to collapse
There are two major approaches you can take here, and using both of them responsibly is probably a good idea.
Titanium Backup, usable if your device is rooted, can back up all of your application data and some system settings; it's great for transferring data between ROMs and/or between devices altogether (I've done both). Most people I know of only use it for the former, as trying to restore system data with TiBu usually causes bizarre and unpredictable effects (with a few exceptions, such as text message data).
With a custom recovery, you can make what's called a "nandroid" backup, which is a complete image of your current ROM and userland data; it's most useful when you want to make a restore point of sorts for if you're, say, flashing experimental ROM images or other things you don't expect to work very well.
Hope this is of help.

smelenchuk said:
I'm going to answer these two questions together, because they're interrelated.
There's no one single root method that's more "correct" than any of the others. The key difference between the end result of most of the methods is whether the flash counter has been tripped, which occurs (under circumstances where you're coming from ICS) if you use Odin to flash something other than a stock image (untouched or rooted as in Mr_Robinson's case). You can also trip the flash counter if you have the Jelly Bean boot loader and boot into a non-stock recovery image.
Thus, if you want to avoid tripping the counter for as long as possible, you want to use a method for rooting that doesn't trip the counter, such as the Mr_Robinson method.
If you're going to flash a custom recovery after working from stock JB, you'll probably end up tripping the flash counter the moment you boot into it, in which case (assuming your phone is still rooted) you could use Triangle Away to reset said flash counter.
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Click to collapse
It seems the flash counter is a lot less worrysome to me now that you indicated I can always go back to a stock rom and return it for warranty regardless if it has a counter or not. Now I wonder why people even worry about tripping it.
I'd do the following:
Triangle Away, if the flash counter isn't 0;
Boot into download mode;
Flash a normal stock image from here; [*]Boot into stock recovery and wipe data/cache; [*]Boot phone as normal.
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Click to collapse
So Sounds to me like I should not worry about flashing and warranty correct? There will always be a method to go back to my phone in order to deal with warranty if something physical goes wrong? Any guide you could point me towards for this? I found this http://galaxys3root.com/galaxy-s3-unroot/how-to-unroot-canadian-galaxy-s3-sgh-i747m-stock-roms/
but it doesnt mention any fido files (understandable since its new)
There are two major approaches you can take here, and using both of them responsibly is probably a good idea.
Titanium Backup, usable if your device is rooted, can back up all of your application data and some system settings; it's great for transferring data between ROMs and/or between devices altogether (I've done both). Most people I know of only use it for the former, as trying to restore system data with TiBu usually causes bizarre and unpredictable effects (with a few exceptions, such as text message data).
With a custom recovery, you can make what's called a "nandroid" backup, which is a complete image of your current ROM and userland data; it's most useful when you want to make a restore point of sorts for if you're, say, flashing experimental ROM images or other things you don't expect to work very well.
Hope this is of help.
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Click to collapse
These two forms of backup I am use to and have used extensively on my nexus S. What I am worried about is more deep "system" type backups people do. is there any for this phone I should do through odin or Kies?
Edit: almost forgot to say thank you!

How come the root66_FMC_I747MVLDLK4.7z download link keep saying searching for mirror, please wait? Waited for 1 hr, no links. Refresh, no links.

thats odd I tried it yesterday and it worked
send a PM to the thread starter he will put up a new mirror I guess

[Q] Rooting help neaded for note2

hey guys im new 2 android community... ive a galaxy note 2 GT-N7100 International version bought in India. Recently ive been thinkin 2 root my device for various mods like copyin/ installing games on memory card etc... so i wanna know wat software should i use 2 mod my device?? Also i wanna know if its safe??? Ive heard that rooted devices leads to void of warranty... is that true???
thanks in advance....

You should use the wonderful Note2 ToolKit, found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1923956
Yes, rooting it voids your warranty. But you can flash back a stock ROM and unroot if you need to take your phone in for service.
All modifications have risks. Though rooting probably won't break your phone, an user error on your part just might, or malicious code might. You can never know that! You have to be careful and use your best judgment. Rooting is basically like logging in to a computer with an administrator account, you can change all the system settings and as a result you can really screw up your system if you are not careful.
I'm just saying all that to clarify that if you do root your device and mod it, have an accident and screw something up, it's your own fault. You need to always keep that in mind.
When you download the toolkit, the first thing you need to do is:
1) EFS backup
2) Full Nandroid backup
Do those two things first, then do whatever you want. If you have EFS and Nandroid backups you have a safety net in case something goes wrong later on.
Also: read, read, read. Read every single Note II guide and FAQ you can find here on XDA.

Read post #2 and 3 of this thread (though 1-9 all posts are informative for newbies)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1896696

Noob questions

Hi everyone,
I just recently acquired a Note 8 (5110), my first Samsung device (had 2 Sony and 1 Motorola android phones) and I'm a little lost, trying to figure about custom roms, root, recovery and everything :-S
1) What's the disadvantages of rooting? I read somewhere that some apps don't work
2) Do I need to backup something before rooting/flashing kernel/etc? I'm not talking about /system or /data, I'm asking if there's some partition or other thing to backup in case i need my warranty.
3) In CM11 thread, I read that the only bug is BT Voice Search. Does this means that everything, including S-Pen, is working?
4) In CM, will I be able to install some Samsung apps, like Readers Hub? There's a lot of crapware in stock, but some are useful.
I apologize if these questions were answered a lot before, thanks in advance
--------------
Couldn't wait, installer CM11 already If this helps someone:
1) Still don't know, but already know that I can unroot any time and can zero the count that says you are on custom rom
2) EFS partition backuped
3) Right now everything is working, but it's too soon to say
4) Still searching for this, right now I'm looking for good alternatives

Root without wipe?

Time to retire my TMO G8, but I've been using it unrooted for years, because it wasnt available when i first got the phone. Ive been out of the scene since the G6, so im not sure what a lot of the common tools are, TWRP i know, but whats a firehose? Basically, I want to be able to take a full backup of my app data, ideally using titanium backup, but ill take what i can get, as long as it dosent involve a device wipe. do i have any options?

ZeikHunter said:
Time to retire my TMO G8, but I've been using it unrooted for years, because it wasnt available when i first got the phone. Ive been out of the scene since the G6, so im not sure what a lot of the common tools are, TWRP i know, but whats a firehose? Basically, I want to be able to take a full backup of my app data, ideally using titanium backup, but ill take what i can get, as long as it dosent involve a device wipe. do i have any options?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, look at this thread for discussion re backup non root device. It's in the Sammy forums but much of it is relevant to any non root device.
I'd ask though, what did you plan on using root for? You need Magisk to get root, and normally when it's installed data has to be wiped and you flash dm-verity to now have unencrypted data partition. If you don't do that, data will remain encrypted and inaccessible (except by the device of course).
a 'firehose' file is used by qfil to access the low level / partitions of the device. It's a signed file specific for an individual device. It's a somewhat rare thing to have, as it gives you pretty much full access to the device, without root.
but using qfil to backup your user data partition, would result in a huge file, maybe like 80 gig or so, and, it's encrypted, so it basically doesn't have any value to do that?