Database Users

Root questions

I know if you root you lose your warrenty, but my question is will you still be able to get an insurance replacement? Or is that also void? If you still can get an insurance replacement I don't see a reason not to root. I know for the Fuze I would just have to reinstall the factory rom, does this work the same way on android?
Also if I root and flash a new rom onto my nexus one, will I lose all the apps i bought? I really don't want to have to buy them all again.

Moved as not Android Development.

No, the apps you buy are synced with your google account so when you sign back in then you can redownload them.
About insurance, just give it some water damage or something and claim that. Root status or not shouldn't void it.

First off, thank you for your reply.
So my purchased downloads should appear under the downloads tab in the market after I finish flashing a new rom?
Also, just to make sure I have this process down right (trying hard not to brick my phone so please forgive my noobness to andriod, I got so used to WM phones)
First I need to make sure i have all the proper USB drivers.
Next I have to root my phone found in the following link which will wipe my phone also? http://theunlockr.com/2010/01/02/how-to-root-the-nexus-one/
Then I can flash CM 5.0.2 following his first time flash instructions found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=623496
I assume this has the recent OTA update already built with in the rom.
Finally I can then install the black bar (reason for doing any of this) found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=617336
It says it just has the framework so I really don't know what to do yet, but I'm figuring after I go through this process it will make more sense by then?
I see on some places that it would be a good idea to use nandriod before I root, but when I read the nandroid description it says the phone has to be alreayd rooted. So I'm assuming this would be a waste of time for now?
Is there any way to back up my messages, bookmarks, etc. before I root? If I just have to kiss them good bye I'd understand, but just trying to make sure before I do it.

on most of the things you are correct, the black bar mod, you just flash in recovery after you flash the rom.
technically you can nandroid before you root, unlocking your bootloader and rooting are two separate things. After you unlock your bootloader and flash the recovery image to it, you are not technically rooted and can use the recovery image to make a nandroid of your unrooted phone.
there are a few backup apps in the market for various things. I know there are a few sms backup apps, but am not so sure about bookmarks.
you have the idea of what to do down though

Make a full imaging of the device without permanent root

Hi. I'd like to completely image my wildfire before rooting so that I have an image of it before I did anything. Just in case. Is it possible with soft root or unrevoked?

Bump......

Hi. I used androot to get a soft root. Any way to backup rom?

You could use adb to extract the whole tree, but it won't preserve permissions so will be useless.
Short answer: no. Do a proper root.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using XDA App

Yes, but the thing is that I want the ROM preserved completely as-is, with no custom recovery or anything. Say, something got broken in hardware, so to get the phone serviced I'd need to flash the stock ROM back on. I heard they don't even check the recovery, but if someone did I'd be in trouble.
On my Linux, I used "dd if=/dev/sda of=/root/hddimg" to get the byte-for-byte copy of my HDD. Will that work in Android as well?
EDIT: Of course I didn't mean /dev/sda, the ROM device is another one, right?

i don't think you can with soft root, you can dl titanium backup and save all your apps and settings on your sd card, but that won't backup your entire rom. i would just do a full root, im not that clumsy enough to kill my phone
you can also use the ruu to go back to your stock rom, but use the right one in case you lose root

I'm looking for a way of backing up my Vodafone Rom so when I install a sim free one I can restore all settings if I ever need to send if off for warranty, it won't void it.
Anything I can do???
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using XDA App

This doesn't make sense.
You can't ROOT a device, surely, without flashing the ROM?
So... ROOTING the device, by flashing the ROM, and THEN you want to backup the entire device? This sounds useless, as as soon as you ROOT the device, you've overwritten the original ROM! So how can you backup the Original ROM if you've overwritten it?
Which came first? The Chicken (ROM) or the Egg (Root)?

I didn't flash a ROM to get a root. I used Universal androot which does soft root on wildfire as well. Soft root means just getting root without modifying the system files permanently (ie. Changes disappear at reboot). Secondly, full root like unrevoked only write-unlocks the phone and flashes custom recover y. What I want is to have full backup of the phone WITHOUT the custom recovery so that when I flash it, it is the actual stock ROM. I know this is quite hard to do but I'm sure it is doable one way or another.

Can someone please link me to a thread on step by step Rooting
and backing up my entire device
its my first android phone and took me a long time to install apps n games n contacts a backup would help me a lot.
kindly help thank u

realxception said:
Can someone please link me to a thread on step by step Rooting
and backing up my entire device
its my first android phone and took me a long time to install apps n games n contacts a backup would help me a lot.
kindly help thank u
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you did a search of the forum or looked around the wildfire threads you'd easily find it... anyway here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=788776
to backup your rom you need to do a nandroid backup, to backup apps and data dl titanium backup

I know about nandroid. Don't you have to flash a custom recovery to use it? If so, then the original aim of preserving the ROM completely the way it is becomes broken, right?

xc1024 said:
I know about nandroid. Don't you have to flash a custom recovery to use it? If so, then the original aim of preserving the ROM completely the way it is becomes broken, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nandroid backs up your original rom, there is no other way to back up without root... unless you use a ruu to return to stock

Aren't RUUs a bit risky to use?

Yes if you use the wrong one. But rooting and flashing a custom rom is not , very simple and not hard
Wildfire is also my first android phone but I easily learnt by reading and searching around the forum.

[Q] MyTouch 4G: HTC Glacier - Perm root/with recovery?

I am new to the rooting scene and I am very eager to root my HTC Glacier|MyTouch 4G.
I am however hesitant because I cannot risk bricking my phone.
Advice on how to recover from brick and an easy to follow guide to perm-root.
Thanks

geronimo711 said:
I am new to the rooting scene and I am very eager to root my HTC Glacier|MyTouch 4G.
I am however hesitant because I cannot risk bricking my phone.
Advice on how to recover from brick and an easy to follow guide to perm-root.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is the end result you are trying to get to?
If you are wanting S=off so you can flash custom ROMs.
http://theunlockr.com/2010/12/10/how-to-temporarily-root-the-t-mobile-mytouch-4g-htc-glacier/; do that and it will lead you to perma root the easy way.
if you are wanting s=off so you can have complete control over your phone, which will enable the possibility of a brick. including SuperCID, ./gfree and some other goodies...... But this will give you the option to severally screw up your phone including up to a 500.00 paper weight.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=858996
If you haven't screwed up the HBoot and the bootloader you can use this to get back to a factory spec.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=863899&highlight=level
But if this is your first android, and your first time rooting i would HIGHLY suggest doing alot of reading before you jump in head first. There are alot of people who have tried to do and get stuck. This phone is confusing once rooted with 2.2 ROMs and 2.3 ROMs and different recovery images you need to read and make sure you understand everything before jumping in feet first.

Temp root with visionary is the easiest and safest way, but gfree is pretty simple as well. The hardest bit is getting the drivers and ADB to work, and thats not overly difficult. (remember to use the command "ADB devices" to know if the drives are working) It just matters what you plan on doing, stock root or custom ROM.
There is really only two points that risk a hard brick, flashing the radio or hboot.
The gfree method does not require either, but you can flash the engineering hboot as optional.
The biggest thing with recoveries and ROMs is know that gingerbread based ROMs (like CM7) use ext4 file system and froyo ROMs use ext3. So it is important to use the right version of Clockwork recovery. Use v2.5.1.2 for froyo ROMs and v3.0 for gingerbread ROMs. Soon clockwork mod will support both on the same version.
Just read the instructions well and have all files downloaded and ready to go.
If you want to use gfree and a custom ROM, there is no need to get perm root on the stock ROM first. After the steps that get s=off, just run visionary as temp root with system r/w access and install ROM manager from the market, then use ROM manager to flash a new recovery. Reboot into recovery backup your stock ROM then flash a new ROM.
If you never touch the hboot or radio firmware, then at worse you can bootloop or soft brick the device. That can be fixed with varying amounts of work, depending on the exact issue.
Read and learn how the different parts work, learn how to use ADB and you will be better prepared.

newbie here
This is my first post. I would really appreciate anybody helping me out here. I can't seem to get any straight answers, or answers I can understand, anyway, so here goes.
I have an HTC Mytouch 4g. I did a temporary root (using the method at theunlockr.com) and uninstalled the monopoly app. I was going to uninstall a bunch of other stuff but I got nervous and did a factory data reset (in the SD & phone storage area). All of my marketplace apps reinstalled, which I thought wasn't supposed to happen, but anyway.... I did the volume down/power on and see now that my phone is GLACIER PVT SHIP S-ON. So my question is how to interpret the state that my phone is now in. Is it factory? Is it rooted? Will the T-Mobile OTA updates work? Why is the monopoly app still gone? Is my warranty voided?

ibnird said:
This is my first post. I would really appreciate anybody helping me out here. I can't seem to get any straight answers, or answers I can understand, anyway, so here goes.
I have an HTC Mytouch 4g. I did a temporary root (using the method at theunlockr.com) and uninstalled the monopoly app. I was going to uninstall a bunch of other stuff but I got nervous and did a factory data reset (in the SD & phone storage area). All of my marketplace apps reinstalled, which I thought wasn't supposed to happen, but anyway.... I did the volume down/power on and see now that my phone is GLACIER PVT SHIP S-ON. So my question is how to interpret the state that my phone is now in. Is it factory? Is it rooted? Will the T-Mobile OTA updates work? Why is the monopoly app still gone? Is my warranty voided?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Temp root is just that, temporary. It creates a copy of the essential files in the system partition that it runs from rather than the actual system partition. If you allow it r/w access, (an option you can choose when using visionary) it can uninstall apps that normally can not be. (and more, but causing big changes would require more work on your part)
Because it is temporary, there is no need to get nervous. Unless you are doing some major changes, ones that need a root explorer app or terminal emulator, then you can't really hurt the phone. Download terminal emulator from market and run it, then type in the super user command "su" (no quotes) then hit enter, if the cursor changes to a # symbol then you have root. (you may get a popup asking for root permission, choose to allow) If it works after a fresh reboot, you either ran perm root in visionary, or you have the option checked to temp root every reboot.
S-ON means that the bootloader security is still in place. You need it off to install custom software. While you can root the stock software with S-ON you can not install any software that has potential to brick your phone, so no need to worry at all. If you are really that worried, keep a copy of the stock software on your SD card. Make sure it is named PD15IMG and at any time you get nervous, you can boot into hboot (the bootloader) and it will run automatically. It will wipe your phone and return it to complete stock. The irony is, that flashing this stock image file does things that can brick a phone if it goes wrong. It flashes more than just the OS, it also flashes hboot and recovery as well, and if the process is messed up in anyway like loosing power at the wrong time, it can brick the phone.
Really as long as you make sure you have the phone charged and you follow instructions you should be fine. The only times you can brick a phone to the point it can not be brought back is when flashing hboot and the radio firmware. Both of which you would rarely flash. Hboot only needs flashed to the engineering version once (OEM testing/DEV version) and only if you choose to, as it is not required. The radio will only need flashed if an update for it comes out, and that isn't often, and it is rarely mandatory.
The chance of truly bricking your phone is not very high, unless you just can't follow the directions. Now you can put it into a bootloop or soft brick it. (bootup stuck on mytouch screen) But if you can boot the phone into hboot (vol down + power on) then you can fix it. Even if you can not boot into recovery (an option in the hboot menu) you can even fix that with a good hboot.

theres a video on youtube by mackster its awesome and it gives you all the links very easy to use.
it wont let me post the link but just search root mytouch 4g on youtube and it should be the first or second one.

Thanks Marine and Tommy.
So with temporary root, as soon as I turned off and then back on the phone, it was back to its unrooted, original state, minus the T-Mobile application? Will I now get T-Mobile's Over the Air (OTA, right?) updates and not have a problem if I need warranty work?

ibnird said:
Thanks Marine and Tommy.
So with temporary root, as soon as I turned off and then back on the phone, it was back to its unrooted, original state, minus the T-Mobile application? Will I now get T-Mobile's Over the Air (OTA, right?) updates and not have a problem if I need warranty work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uninstalling an app will not hurt anything. OTA updates will still work fine. You can temp root and then perm root the stock ROM and revert easily. Heck, even perm rooting stock doesn't break OTA I believe.
Voiding the warranty is one of those grey areas. As long as you can revert to stock, then they will never know. Temp root does not void warranty at all, because you do not alter the system files. (unless you want to, and enable the ability to read/write system) Just uninstall terminal emulator and super user apps and there is no evidence.
The only time you might get caught, is if say the screen stops working, and you can not see to revert back. Though even then, just putting the stock OTA image on the sd card then booting up the phone in hboot will restore without needing to actually see anything. It does ask for confirmation to restore, just wait several minutes then hit the power button and it would do it on its own.
The set of circumstances needed to prevent you from restoring to stock, are rare. Basically a borked hboot or radio firmware, and you never need to touch those to get full root and custom ROMs. If you never touch them, the chance of issue is almost zero.

I just got my mt4g and I am looking to root my phone for the following reasons:
apps2sd
remove bloatware (I want the app to be disabled and I don't want the icon in my app drawer)
use adfree
I don't want any custom roms and I'd like to keep sense ui.
Can anyone tell me if this is at all possible? I've read around and I know it's possible but I don't know about rom flashing and I'm confused as to whether or not I need to flash a custom rom? What's the point of a custom rom anyways?

goldfish524 said:
I just got my mt4g and I am looking to root my phone for the following reasons:
apps2sd
remove bloatware (I want the app to be disabled and I don't want the icon in my app drawer)
use adfree
I don't want any custom roms and I'd like to keep sense ui.
Can anyone tell me if this is at all possible? I've read around and I know it's possible but I don't know about rom flashing and I'm confused as to whether or not I need to flash a custom rom? What's the point of a custom rom anyways?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You dont need apps2sd, as the mytouch 4g has Froyo installed, and you can move some apps to the SD card. Just go into settings-Applications-chose the applicaiton you want on your SD card, and look for "move to SD". If it's grayed out, then you cant move it.
Also download appfreezer from the market, and just "freeze" the bloatware. That's what I do, and it gets rid of those annoying looking apps they installed.

Question about clockworkmod
OK i just rooted my phone, flashed the rom, and installed all the goods... it works perfectly and looks great.
Ty for all the guides/ instructions.
My only question is about the clockworkmod. When I turn off my phone and plug it in to charge the recovery screen always appears when off and connected. Is this suppose to happen? Or is there a solution to this?
If there is a solution can some one post a link or provide instructions so it doesn't constantly boot to clockworkmod recovery.
Thanks.

[Q] Coming up with a failsafe procedure for reverting back to factory defaults

Hi all,
[I originally posted a question about this in the General Discussions forum, before I realized that there were dedicated forums for each phone model. So please forgive me for effectively double-posting]
Totally new to Android, only got my Desire Z last Friday. I'd like to root my phone and play around with custom ROMS, but I'm worried if I ever need to return the phone for warranty purposes, and for when I buy another phone and want to sell this one.
So my objective is to make sure I have a failsafe way to revert back to my current stock HTC ROM before I start messing around with rooting/custom roms.
As I understand it, the generic steps for rooting/s-off/custom rom are:
- Gain temproot
- Gain permroot + S-OFF
- Install custom bootloader and recovery image (ROM Manager/Clockworkmod)
- Install custom ROM
So if I want to revert back to the stock HTC ROM, I image I need to do the following:
- Restore HTC ROM
- Restore original recovery image and bootloader
- Remove permroot and set S-ON back
- Remove all traces of the method to gain root/S-OFF
Is that generally correct?
I'm currently thinking about using the following procedure, but there's a few gaps in there still. I'd appreciate it if people could verify my procedure and fill in the gaps...
Permroot+S-OFF the phone
Step 1. Back up phone data
Planning to use HandyBackup for that, just need contacts, SMS and call log...
Step 2. Flash older HTC firmware
There's no permroot/S-OFF hack for firmwares >=1.72 at the moment, so we have to first downgrade to 1.33.405.5 using the method described on http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=905261 (steps 1-12)
After I do this, make sure I never ever upgrade this phone to >=1.72 again!
Question: this guide tells me to make a goldcard first. As I understand it that's only required if you have a branded phone. My Desire Z is not branded as far as I know, so is it correct to say that I do not need a goldcard?
Step 3. permroot+S-OFF
Follow steps 13-19 from the link above.
Better get the original CID here as well? How?
Step 4. Create a backup of the existing bootloader and recovery image
Question: how can I do this?
dd if=/.... of=/....
dd if=/.... of=/....
Step 5.Install ROM Manager
Step 6. Install recovery image from inside ROM Manager
Step 7. Create a backup of the phone using ROM Manager
This will be a backup of the stock HTC rom, which is rooted+S-OFF. I will need this later in case I ever want to revert the phone back to factory defaults
Now how to revert back to factory defaults:
Step 8. Restore stock HTC ROM using ROM Manager
Restore using the backup I created in step 7 above.
Step 9. Restore original bootloader and recovery image
Question: how can i do this?
dd if=/... of=/....
dd if=/... of=/...
Step 9. S-ON and remove root
Question: "gfree -r -f"? This link here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=HTC_Vision#Returning_to_Stock talks about using "gfree -r" to restore "partition 7", but I've not seen anywhere where this backup of partition 7 is actually created...
Step 10. Clean up after myself
remove psneuter, gfree, uninstall ROM Manager, Visionary, SuperUser
So, summarizing my questions:
- Do I need to make a goldcard/debrand my phone first?
- How can you make a backup of the existing bootloader/recovery image?
- How can I restore the original bootloader/recovery image?
Kind regards...

Just root your thing already. I'm not confirming anything or nothing in your very well put escape route...but worry about that later. Yes there's always going to be a way to unroot. Especially when we have the files nao.

Root via the wiki page to downgrade then use the rage/gfree method to temp then permroot.
You CAN (and should) backup your stock ROM, but there is no need to revert to it before unrooting. The method of unrooting restores a completely bone stock ROM anyways. The backup is just useful to keep around if you ever make a misstep installing a new ROM and need to revert back.
To unroot, follow the wiki to unroot lol.
As long as you keep a program like Titanium Backup up to date, you'll always have your apps and system data backed up too. This much extreme caution is not necessary as much as it pains me to put it that way. Just backup your apps and be smart when u install a new ROM and you'll be fine.

martonikaj said:
You CAN (and should) backup your stock ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, then how (and at which stage) do I back up my stock ROM? Before or after downgrading and rooting?
To unroot, follow the wiki to unroot lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But the wiki only says:
In case of the original T-Mobile G2 the stock rom is called PC10IMG_Vision_TMOUS_1.19.531.1_Radio_12.21.60.09b_26.02.01.15_M2_release_149459_signed.zip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, guess what: I don't have a T-Mobile G2. I have an unbranded Desire Z. So which stock rom do I use in case I have to restore, and where do I get it from?
Sorry for being paranoid, but given the trouble my wife would give me in case I somehow ruined my phone (yes, I'll get into trouble even if it's my phone and not hers ), a bit of advance planning is worth it to me.

New Firmware Update

So asus put out the new firmware update. I figured i have to unroot to install it, but can I root again after updating?

Yes - be warned custom kernel's will make unrooting difficult.

ensign.fodder said:
Yes - be warned custom kernel's will make unrooting difficult.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i didnt have a custom ROM on it if thats what you meant, but either way for some reason it wasnt updating. i unrooted using the universal root toolkit that i used to root, but it would download the update, install like a third of the way, then stop and sit at a black screen with an exclamation mark and the android until i hard reset back to normal operation. i installed a custom ROM instead now

I didn't have to unroot. See post #111
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1332583&page=12

xneogenx said:
So asus put out the new firmware update. I figured i have to unroot to install it, but can I root again after updating?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my experience with the past few updates, rooting alone doesn't prevent the update from installing; but if you install CWM while/after rooting, that DOES seem to prevent it. After removing CWM a while back, I can update file while rooted. I do have to re-apply the rooting afterward though. I use the bootable CD that someone created an ISO for and posted here a while back. Works great and reliably so far.

xneogenx said:
i didnt have a custom ROM on it if thats what you meant, but either way for some reason it wasnt updating. i unrooted using the universal root toolkit that i used to root, but it would download the update, install like a third of the way, then stop and sit at a black screen with an exclamation mark and the android until i hard reset back to normal operation. i installed a custom ROM instead now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never rooted mine and I've never put on a custom ROM, but I have the same problem. It says there is a new firmware. It downloads fine, but only installs to about 1/4 of the way before it fails with a big yellow exclamation point. I've even restored to factory defaults and it was the same.