Develop Bugs

[Q] Rooting and Rom For A Beginner

Hey guys I am a serious beginner to the android world. I just upgraded to the Nexus from a Blackberry. I am looking to root and add a rom to get the best performance from my phone. I have looked at a lot of threads and websites but because of my newness to this world, some of the instructions are not clear to me. I have a Mac and just want some step by step instructions that I can understand so I won't do anything wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

mrmajor247 said:
Hey guys I am a serious beginner to the android world. I just upgraded to the Nexus from a Blackberry. I am looking to root and add a rom to get the best performance from my phone. I have looked at a lot of threads and websites but because of my newness to this world, some of the instructions are not clear to me. I have a Mac and just want some step by step instructions that I can understand so I won't do anything wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
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I will offer my opinion and you can do with it what you will.
First off I have no information about how, specifically, you root with a Mac.
Secondly, my advice is think hard about why you want root. I started rooting back with my HTC EVO and it was pretty cool - until the problems started. When I say problems, I should probably say bugs. I tried several roms and most were pretty good but all had their shortcomings, random reboots, force closes, etc. I finally ended up with Cyanogenmod (arguably the best rom out there) but even then I had problems. No autofocus in in video, no HDMI out and something else I can't put my finger on now - but really annoyed me.
In short, rooting is kind of a give and take between fun stuff and more bugs - IF you are using custom roms which most everyone does. The factory roms are written by the guys who make the phones and the custom roms are written by guys who are reverse-engineering the hardware/software so expect some problems. (Cyanogenmod even had a list of things that didn't work on their webpage). The Nexus is stock AOSP so the roms may be better but there is still the issue of custom kernels, radios, etc. If you don't get it JUST RIGHT you can have compatibility and stability problems.
My Nexus is still stock and is waiting for the official 4.0.4 OTA (over the air) update. It runs much more stable than my EVO with Cyanogenmod (or any other rom). If you want the best performance and don't NEED any of the functionality of root I'd personally just keep it stock. I've thought about rooting again, but ultimately I don't really need it. My friend switched from iOS to Android and rooted but kept having reboot issues on a couple roms and ultimately restored to stock and was fine. Same story with another friend who is currently (read: STILL) using a gen1 Droid.
Don't get me wrong, rooting is great - if you will really use it. But I wouldn't root just for the hell of it unless you don't mind the hassles.
YMMV
Good luck!

chjade84 said:
I will offer my opinion and you can do with it what you will.
First off I have no information about how, specifically, you root with a Mac.
Secondly, my advice is think hard about why you want root. I started rooting back with my HTC EVO and it was pretty cool - until the problems started. When I say problems, I should probably say bugs. I tried several roms and most were pretty good but all had their shortcomings, random reboots, force closes, etc. I finally ended up with Cyanogenmod (arguably the best rom out there) but even then I had problems. No autofocus in in video, no HDMI out and something else I can't put my finger on now - but really annoyed me.
In short, rooting is kind of a give and take between fun stuff and more bugs - IF you are using custom roms which most everyone does. The factory roms are written by the guys who make the phones and the custom roms are written by guys who are reverse-engineering the hardware/software so expect some problems. (Cyanogenmod even had a list of things that didn't work on their webpage). The Nexus is stock AOSP so the roms may be better but there is still the issue of custom kernels, radios, etc. If you don't get it JUST RIGHT you can have compatibility and stability problems.
My Nexus is still stock and is waiting for the official 4.0.4 OTA (over the air) update. It runs much more stable than my EVO with Cyanogenmod (or any other rom). If you want the best performance and don't NEED any of the functionality of root I'd personally just keep it stock. I've thought about rooting again, but ultimately I don't really need it. My friend switched from iOS to Android and rooted but kept having reboot issues on a couple roms and ultimately restored to stock and was fine. Same story with another friend who is currently (read: STILL) using a gen1 Droid.
Don't get me wrong, rooting is great - if you will really use it. But I wouldn't root just for the hell of it unless you don't mind the hassles.
YMMV
Good luck!
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This is good info but... There are other reasons to root a device other than just running custom ROMS such as the ability to use Titanium Backup (for backing up your apps / device), AD Free (for getting rid of ad's in free apps) along with other great apps that you can only use when your device is rooted.
I am running a custom ROM and you are correct, I have / had some bugs with it so in this case for a NOOB the OP may be best to stay stock for the time being but there are other reasons to root.
OP - All I can say is READ, READ, READ and the READ SOMEMORE... Good luck and welcome to ANDROID!!!

As a fellow noob/semi noob I can highly recommend using youtube instead of text guides if available. There are a surprising amount of video guides that are alot easier to follow..
For me the posibility to do full and partial backups of my phone is the main reason i rooted.

yiannisthegreek said:
This is good info but... There are other reasons to root a device other than just running custom ROMS such as the ability to use Titanium Backup (for backing up your apps / device), AD Free (for getting rid of ad's in free apps) along with other great apps that you can only use when your device is rooted.
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Click to collapse
Right. He mentioned rooting for performance so I assumed he meant he wanted to use a custom rom/kernel/radio. I rooted mostly for roms (HTC Sense, sigh) and tethering but titanium backup was awesome (although less useful if you don't switch roms every week lol). Adfree was alright but I don't notice much of a difference. Overclocking was fun, too - but except for benchmark scores I didn't notice much of a difference either.
If I root again it will be stock ASOP and only for tethering --- but only if I can find a 100% stock rom with just the carrier-tethering-tracker file removed.
Klippetop said:
As a fellow noob/semi noob I can highly recommend using youtube instead of text guides if available. There are a surprising amount of video guides that are alot easier to follow..
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+1!
Youtube videos are much nicer than written guides. Just watch and follow along step-by-step seeing how everything is supposed to go.

I actually made a how to video for the nexus s 4g on a Mac. And did it the same way on my galaxy nexus. Only thing u would have to do different is make sure u type in the right clockwormod recovery image but here's the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m3ypr4J5Gc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

You couldn't really pick an easier phone to root, I would do a lot of reading before having at it though. I was able to find a guide fairly quickly by doing a google search. I would link it but apparently I'm still a noob myself.

root causes random reboots?
LOL

I found this method to be the easiest, at least for me.
I was in the same situation a couple weeks ago, didn't know a thing about rooting but now I'm flashing custom roms and testing kernels
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1352413
good luck and have fun

Firstly, just use the device. Get used to Android before trying everything else. For all you know it might do exactly what you want it to without rooting.
If, after a week or 2 of using it, you want to explore rooting then read the rooting guides available online or in the Dev forum. Then give some ROMs a try! Better to find out for yourself which work for you than asking for a recommendation as what works for one user might be **** for another.
Also, learn how to use adb and fastboot as they'll come in handy in future (not enough people have any idea what to do). Try and do things manually as opposed to using one-click tools so you have the confidence to know what you're doing

Worth rooting?

I just bought a oneplus 3 (offerup $200 use). Havent been in the rooting scene for a while thanx to the gs7 edge. Now that i do have a device that can be root and bootloader unlock i know there're great support.
The thing is, this device seems the snappier device i ever own. Little to non bloware and really fast. Cant imaging been faster. There any reason to root this device. If u did. Why and what rom r u using?

eduardmc said:
I just bought a oneplus 3 (offerup $200 use). Havent been in the rooting scene for a while thanx to the gs7 edge. Now that i do have a device that can be root and bootloader unlock i know there're great support.
The thing is, this device seems the snappier device i ever own. Little to non bloware and really fast. Cant imaging been faster. There any reason to root this device. If u did. Why and what rom r u using?
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Click to collapse
i am using the freedom os because of its preinstaled apps like xposed, viper4android, a theme engine. basicaly stuff that i could not get working on OOS. and there is supose to be better battery life i havent seen that (maybe because of my extreme usage). i get 4hrs SOT

eduardmc said:
I just bought a oneplus 3 (offerup $200 use). Havent been in the rooting scene for a while thanx to the gs7 edge. Now that i do have a device that can be root and bootloader unlock i know there're great support.
The thing is, this device seems the snappier device i ever own. Little to non bloware and really fast. Cant imaging been faster. There any reason to root this device. If u did. Why and what rom r u using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OP3 is the first phone that I didn't root to achieve extra performance, but to improve Android. After using a rooted phone for the last 2 years I can't live without AdAway and a combination of Greenify/Disable Wakelock/Xposed/Amplify to control what my phone is doing, not to mention really useful things like Tasker, customizing the Alert Slider and many many more. Nowadays, flagship phones aren't rooted for performance.
That being said, I am disappointed by the responsiveness of the OP3. On OOS 3.2.7 it is LESS responsive than my 2year old OnePlus One running CM14.1 nightly. Disappointing, but getting my hopes up for when the CM14.1 nightlies for the OP3 get good. Which is the biggest plus point in my opinion - software updates. If you have root, you can have the newest version of Android anyday, not having to wait for OnePlus to update it (which they take way too much time for).
All in all, if you know what you are doing, root your phone. It is worth it.

PivotMasterNM said:
The OP3 is the first phone that I didn't root to achieve extra performance, but to improve Android. After using a rooted phone for the last 2 years I can't live without AdAway and a combination of Greenify/Disable Wakelock/Xposed/Amplify to control what my phone is doing, not to mention really useful things like Tasker, customizing the Alert Slider and many many more. Nowadays, flagship phones aren't rooted for performance.
That being said, I am disappointed by the responsiveness of the OP3. On OOS 3.2.7 it is LESS responsive than my 2year old OnePlus One running CM14.1 nightly. Disappointing, but getting my hopes up for when the CM14.1 nightlies for the OP3 get good. Which is the biggest plus point in my opinion - software updates. If you have root, you can have the newest version of Android anyday, not having to wait for OnePlus to update it (which they take way too much time for).
All in all, if you know what you are doing, root your phone. It is worth it.
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U got me pretty much convince to root mine. The only other stock android experience for me has been nexus 6p and this phone stock is much faster and fluid. Im concern about instability of using a rom like CM or other rom that has so many tweak to improve it but mess uo other things. Have u try cm14.1. Or how about CM.13 how solid is that right now?

I'm not rooted....running community build stock...3.5.5 is stable, great performance...get 5hr SOT with 15% left...over 24 hrs... phone is a great performer...

I root all of my Android devices, tablets and phone, primary for customizations and backup. I like having a full nandroid backup incase something ever goes wrong. This way I am assured that I can recover to a previous working state. I know you can often find factory image out there for just about any phone, but I will also backup at a point in time once I have everything exactly as I like. Again, this allows me to roll back to exactly how things were before I started tinkering. Running Xposed and theming, is another big reason to root. However fiddling with these can sometimes go bad so having a nandroid backup is handy.
For me, I am still running stock on 3.2.7. I find it extremely fast and stable. Been looking at the other roms, but have not found a need to switch from stock yet. I am getting 4 - 5 hrs SOT consistently, stock so again, have not found compelling need to switch roms, but am playing with different Xposed modules so that alone is reason to root.

Oh yes for sure... Adaway alone makes it worthwhile
Also check out Android explained on YouTube.. Very well explained, instead of just following some tutorial and not really understanding... Android explained breaks everything down so now I have an understanding of how my device operates.

There's a lot of great stuff you can do with root. For me the best features are: much better battery life, GUI customization, and OGYoutube (basically YT Red for free, and yes, there's a nonroot version but the root is better).

Root....
IT bus corp guy and like others said AdAway, Youtube ad blocker, TB to backup apps and be able to save app come back previous version when dev mess it it....all just a must have for me.
I am on Resurrection Rom not OOS so still have that Android Nexus experience since I came from 6P and not slow with any responses...quick, stable

Install xposed and enjoy Google assistant, N-ify, YouTube background player etc.

Personally i'm not rooted, for the first time in years, someone earlier mentioned nandroid backups they require TWRP but not root.

My concern with rooting is the updates. I hate setting up the phone after clean install since we dont have anything like icloud. I know ubcan dirty flash the updates but there so much there up to a point that u would have to clean install and update. Like going from MM to nougat. Quote if im wrong but i havent been in the rooting scene for a while. I remember titanium backup use to break alot of things when i did a restore

eduardmc said:
My concern with rooting is the updates. I hate setting up the phone after clean install since we dont have anything like icloud. I know ubcan dirty flash the updates but there so much there up to a point that u would have to clean install and update. Like going from MM to nougat. Quote if im wrong but i havent been in the rooting scene for a while. I remember titanium backup use to break alot of things when i did a restore
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I have used Titanium Backup once, didn't work at all, I was really disappointed. Although this was years ago, I never tried it again and don't want to. Anyway - when switching ROMs, I always make sure that Whatsapp syncs everything with the cloud, all accounts in the 'accounts' setting menu of the system have synced, that my Google Photos are synced and then copy pretty much everything from /root/sdcard (your internal memory) to my computer. Then I completely wipe my phone (= wipe system+data+cache+internal storage), install the new ROM, boot it once to see howwell its working, power it down, factory reset it (wiping data) and then copy all of the data of my computer back to the phone, set everything up with my google account and let google download everything. If you have correctly configured the app-backup function of Google, then everything will be about 95% the same, and nothing will be missing. Be sure not to forget to make a TWRP backup of EVERYTHING before full-wiping the phone, so you can always go back if you really need to.
I prefer this method to anything else because you will never any problems with restoring from the cloud or performance issues of certain file-structures being different or whatever. It is clean and works.
---------- Post added at 19:23 ---------- Previous post was at 19:19 ----------
eduardmc said:
U got me pretty much convince to root mine. The only other stock android experience for me has been nexus 6p and this phone stock is much faster and fluid. Im concern about instability of using a rom like CM or other rom that has so many tweak to improve it but mess uo other things. Have u try cm14.1. Or how about CM.13 how solid is that right now?
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Click to collapse
I have not tried CM13, and I will ait until sultanxda brings his goodness to CM14.1, then I will switch but - as I have used sultanxda's ROMs on my OnePlus One I can definately recommend t Install his version of CM13 on the OnePlus 3 instead of the nightlies, his optimisations und his update frequency are fantastic and he is a great ROM maker. His ROMs on the OnePlus One made me rediscover the full potential of the device, it's truly amazing.

PivotMasterNM said:
I have used Titanium Backup once, didn't work at all, I was really disappointed. Although this was years ago, I never tried it again and don't want to. Anyway - when switching ROMs, I always make sure that Whatsapp syncs everything with the cloud, all accounts in the 'accounts' setting menu of the system have synced, that my Google Photos are synced and then copy pretty much everything from /root/sdcard (your internal memory) to my computer. Then I completely wipe my phone (= wipe system+data+cache+internal storage), install the new ROM, boot it once to see howwell its working, power it down, factory reset it (wiping data) and then copy all of the data of my computer back to the phone, set everything up with my google account and let google download everything. If you have correctly configured the app-backup function of Google, then everything will be about 95% the same, and nothing will be missing. Be sure not to forget to make a TWRP backup of EVERYTHING before full-wiping the phone, so you can always go back if you really need to.
I prefer this method to anything else because you will never any problems with restoring from the cloud or performance issues of certain file-structures being different or whatever. It is clean and works.
---------- Post added at 19:23 ---------- Previous post was at 19:19 ----------
I have not tried CM13, and I will ait until sultanxda brings his goodness to CM14.1, then I will switch but - as I have used sultanxda's ROMs on my OnePlus One I can definately recommend t Install his version of CM13 on the OnePlus 3 instead of the nightlies, his optimisations und his update frequency are fantastic and he is a great ROM maker. His ROMs on the OnePlus One made me rediscover the full potential of the device, it's truly amazing.
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Last question. Any bugs that needs to be fix from the CM 13 rom

Not for me. I am no longer OCD about my phone.. don't care what color the signal strength font is, etc... The phone works so well stock, that there isn't much I would change other than adding some functionality with the camera and some good video editing software...
I played with a few ROMs, they were ok, but once the newness wore off(2 days) I went back to stock, and am now running the Community builds and like them the best.
Fast, stable, great battery life... no complaints...

P600 stuck on 4.4.2 - need upgrade for speed and reliability

I have an Australian version (XSA) of the Note 10.1 sm-p600 which was only ever upgraded to 4.4.2 (latest official release).
I find the performance sluggish when playing games (eg Clash Royale) and want to see if a new ROM will improve the speed but want minimal fuss. I would like to know people's suggestions of which ROM to use that will give me a faster but still stable experience.
Is the official 5.1.1 any good? Do I need to go custom? I want to avoid having to do complicated installs as well if possible.
I mostly play games and watch YouTube on it and maybe some sports apps to get scores. Nothing that really requires root (and some of the sports apps don't like root).
Thanks in advance.

Just checked my build and it looks like it is already on 5.1.1 - I must have updated it last year and forgotten.
Still not happy with the load times of Clash Royale, any other suggestions about making the tablet run faster? It seems to still have a decent processor and RAM despite being a few years old.

Well, you're running 5.1.1 right? Probably the only thing left is to go to Development section and install Prime Kernel V6, it's the last version for lollipop touchwiz. That one has a couple of tweaks to improve the standard performance offered by stock/factory software. Make sure to backup everything, and then flash the zip. Updating kernel has no need to wipe or reformat anything so no data is lost, but do it just in case.
To get more juice out, you'd have to install custom ROMs, like LiquidDeath from the Original Development section, that has a couple of new stuff like the updated GPU driver ported from marshmallow touchwiz apparently, and from my subjective view, performance is better along with increased battery life.
I don't do much gaming, but on stock 5.1.1 with stock kernel I usually get around 7 hours screen on time browsing the web, but with LD I can go around 10 to 11 hours easy with the same usage.

Thanks. I'll check out the kernel first.
Would you suggest LiquidDeath or LineageOS?

Sorry for the late reply, lol. I assume you've been running touchwizz/stock Samsung lollipop this while, but using that custom kernel I've mentioned? How was the experience? If that works fine with you, I believe there's no need for custom ROMs.
I test and run random ROMs many times, liking to flash stuff and all. If you want to try out the waters, the most rock-solid, no-issues release so far is probably the last release of LiquidDeath, mostly because it has less crud, and therefore fewer potential to go wrong. Lineage is good too, but I prefer keeping it simple.

Stock ROM or Nougat custom ROM?

Hi to everyone, recently I acquired (as a gift) this device (a RIO-L03, probably I'll change it soon, it's a "temporal" device). The performance and the battery are pretty good by my standards, but I don't like EMUI in overall. It is worth it flash a custom ROM for more performance/experience or just stay here in Marshmallow with EMUI? What are the advantages and inconvenients?
Thanks in advance, people.

Well, It depends on wha you're looking for.
I have my L03 and it was running MM B340 (it was supposed to solve whatsapp notification problems) but as time passed by It started to have some issues with apps like twitter, FB, Instagram and Whatsapp (Forced Closes). Furthermore, I commenced to experience some lag on my phone, even when just one app was running. In the end I decided to flash a N rom (AOSP Extended 4.4) and I can tell you is a lot better then the MM. Faster, easier to use, with no lag and battery life is greater. The only thing I can complain about is the CAMERA. This is, you lose your native camera app (huawei cam) by flashing in the ROM the Google cam. It's not as good as the original one and GC doesn't contain as many functions as the Huawei one.
Customization is amazing. And the possibility to root it is really easy.
However, you said it is only temporary and it might take more time to flash than the time you'll have this phone. So you keep it, you won't regret having a N rom. You change it, enjoy it as it is.
Regards.

JJulious said:
Well, It depends on wha you're looking for.
I have my L03 and it was running MM B340 (it was supposed to solve whatsapp notification problems) but as time passed by It started to have some issues with apps like twitter, FB, Instagram and Whatsapp (Forced Closes). Furthermore, I commenced to experience some lag on my phone, even when just one app was running. In the end I decided to flash a N rom (AOSP Extended 4.4) and I can tell you is a lot better then the MM. Faster, easier to use, with no lag and battery life is greater. The only thing I can complain about is the CAMERA. This is, you lose your native camera app (huawei cam) by flashing in the ROM the Google cam. It's not as good as the original one and GC doesn't contain as many functions as the Huawei one.
Customization is amazing. And the possibility to root it is really easy.
However, you said it is only temporary and it might take more time to flash than the time you'll have this phone. So you keep it, you won't regret having a N rom. You change it, enjoy it as it is.
Regards.
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Thanks for being the only person who reply, seriously. I've considered too much that option because, as like you, the phone has started to lagging and certanly it lost a bit of smoothness in overall (especially in menus like Settings or just in basic apps like WhatsApp). I can't complain too much about the camera because it just expendable for me, same with root. (I mean, I like Xposed/Magisk but I prefer just the personalization of AE with Substratum and still playing Pokémon GO and LL!, lmao). Again, thanks for your time, and I'll change to AOSP Extended soon. (Further, I'm going to give this phone to my mother, hopefully she's gonna have a fluid and solid experience)
Cheers.

Very thanks for this informative post! where is the best rom rootless for my RIO-L03?

i need ur support for custom rom
please
i need ur support that i downloaded more than rom for devise g8
and try flash it Rom from t wrap but appear error 7
more time
Although i try to solve this error but failed
please help me

Rooting this phone, what's the point?

As the title asks, whats the point of rooting this phone? It doesn't help that unlocking bootloader isn't free, it doesn't have a lot of roms/kernels for it either? And in a performance stand point, would those kernels/roms improve performance even? Hence this is on stock android, youd automatically assume its optimisation would be A+, tho, not for this phone in terms of ram management, but what about CPU and GOU performance? Ive asked on kernel posts and none have answered, leading me wondering, and I'm obviously no pro and just want to really know what's going on with "improved gpu effeciency" sort of updates to kernels, like, i get what it means, but in what way? Does if give more fps to games or something? . Granted that rooting gives you more freedom to do anything, but theres a big draw regarding to privacy, which is no problem to me, of course, but some apps like bank apps disable access to rooted devices, does exposed work for pie or is it still in development?
Tldr
All I'm asking is it worthit?
Do roms improve performance?
Do the kernels improve performance regarding games and such?(on my good ol phone the zenfone 2 it did, quite a lot)
Is exposed fully working for pie?

I've not bothered to unlock this phone. I will, however, say that even if the custom roms only have comparable performance, it would be worth it just to be rid of the Evenwell task killer Nokia allowed to be bundled into the stock rom, as long as the custom roms are problem free.

I just unlocked cuz it's cool to have root, themes etc. Regarding roms look here
Plenty of development for treble enabled devises.
Downside I guess is when u got twrp installed one will no longer recieve system updates untill one installs custom rim.
You right, root gives you more freedom that stock on any phone ever made will never provide, sadly.
Sent from my Nokia 6.1 using XDA Labs

I am unlocked since July 2018. Sadly, custom roms are not bug-free and I was lacking important features for day-to-day usage (alot of issues with treble roms and hotspot for instance, which is mandatory for me since it is my only internet access point). Every time I try roms (aospex/treble) I finally come back to stock because at least, almost everything I need is working.
Imo, it would be better to stay on stock. Magisk (+xposed if you want this specific module) is working on Pie. You just gotta uninstall Magisk partly before applying Nokia's OTAs (but as of now, with the improved system-as-root support, it may not even be necessary in a few updates, who knows).
Btw, you still get otas when unlocked, + never flash twrp and just boot the image using fastboot when needed, that way you'll avoid lots of trouble

If you have to ask about it then just don't do it

I couldn't imagine how bored I'd get with my 6.1 without root. No themes, no modules, no way to downgrade etc