Firstly, I apologise for the noob question - I'm finding it difficult to make sense of what is required for rooting this device.
I've tried one-click root, which failed, and that's what has brought me here. I think the best first question to ask (as its a requirement for me) is that with all the options out there - will my phone need to be wiped to perform this rooting? I can't lose the data that's on it.
I keep seeing mentions of using a different ROM, which suggests it might be wiped completely.
If not, and it can be rooted without wiping it, can anyone point me at the best/latest guide for doing this?
TL;DR I just need to root this device to allow a particular app to work - I don't need/want anything else.
Thanks in advance
Related
Hey Guys!
I just got my first android device (switched over from iPhone 3g) and I LOVE IT!
With that said, now to business! I read a lot about rooting the Evo, and other android devices, and I must say, I am quite lost in the lingo. I looked through a bunch of threads, and there are a bunch of tutorials about rooting the device in many different ways. And, after reading a lot of them, I found out about unrevoked, but I am not quite sure what it does. I gather it is a one step rooting program, but if that is the case, what is PC36IMG.zip needed for if unrevoked already roots the device in one click?
Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Arm0 said:
Hey Guys!
I just got my first android device (switched over from iPhone 3g) and I LOVE IT!
With that said, now to business! I read a lot about rooting the Evo, and other android devices, and I must say, I am quite lost in the lingo. I looked through a bunch of threads, and there are a bunch of tutorials about rooting the device in many different ways. And, after reading a lot of them, I found out about unrevoked, but I am not quite sure what it does. I gather it is a one step rooting program, but if that is the case, what is PC36IMG.zip needed for if unrevoked already roots the device in one click?
Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok so rooting removes the protected recovery on the phone. a recovery lets you restore/factory reset and install updates manually. with the non protected recovery, you can make the phone think it is being manually updated, but really you are modifying it to your hearts content. read up on roms. i reccomend flashing the ava froyo v7. very good. have fun with your newly rooted device!!!! just tell me if you need more info.
btw, this should be in questions and answers
Sorry if I posted this in the wrong place, and thanks for the respond. Figured, can't go wrong with General!
So, if i just root it without running a custom recovery, can I still run tethering apps and the screen shot app?
Basically the root gets you access deeper in the phones files than you previously had. You also gain a new set of permissions (superuser permissions) with the process so that your phone allows you to do more, similar to the iphone jailbreak.
You will need a custom recovery. The updates that sprint/htc usually send out over the air (OTA) can't be used anymore because you will lose your root, so you have to apply them manually through recovery instead. This is just one reason, but the custom recovery is a necessity. It can look complicated, especially the way it reads on the forums, but it is very simple once you have it in your hands.
After rereading your post, you may be referring to a custom rom, not recovery. You do not have to use a custom rom, you can just use stock with root access and superuser permissions and be good to go for wifi tether & screen shots
So, from what I gather, we use unrevoked to unlock the phone and get more privileges, and the custom recovery is used to not lose root privileges after Sprint or HTC puts out new updates to the devices?
essentially, you got it. The recovery is used for lots of different things, like adding themes, changing kernels, custom roms, backups, ect.
There are also methods besides unrevoked to gain root. It all depends on the type of person you are, if you want root and don't want to think about it, use one of the one click methods. If you want to learn a little check out regaw_leinad's root thread and the videos that are in the OP and you will get root and you will know how it happened when your done.
My recommendation is to choose your method of root and do it and stick with the stock rooted rom for a bit. Read the forums, mostly the OPs on the different custom roms and the kernel threads and you will start to get an idea of what you want from your rooted phone. After a week or two of hanging out on the forums, you will know what you want and you will have enough grasp to go for it. Read OPs thoroughly and follow directions to the T and you will not have any problems.
You guys must be tired of people asking the same over and over, and to be honest that is because information is so scattered newcomers often get confused.
But Anyways.
I've got myself a motorila Droid 2 a few days ago, poking around internet i found about rooting and roms and all that stuff, however I've got a question that's yet to be answered!
I'm currently residing in Mexico, my Droid 2 is unlocked and activated on a mexican carrier, however on the guides I've red so far it says that one of the requirements for installing custom ROM's one must wipe all data from the phone and return to factory settings, this means i will have to pay AGAIN to get it unlocked and activated?
As i said before, information is scattered, and is not always accuarate.
Somewhere on the net i also found a post that states customs ROM's come unlocked... whats with that?
And one last question.
What will happen if i only root my phone, no custom rom added? will this be harmful in any way? could i be able to overclock and get rid of the annoying verizon apps or do i forcefully need to install a custom ROM?
Thanks for all answers in advance.
Rooting itself would not harm your device, however rooting allows you to do pretty much anything on the device. So, in other words, rooting wont hurt it, however what it allows you to do CAN hurt it.
As far as the roms being unlocked, as far as I have read, all roms are unlocked. However I could be mistaken. But there is an easy way to find out for sure: give it a try. What I would do first root the device and install the Clockwork Recovery Mod and then boot into recovery and make a backup. This way you can restore the phone back exactly as it was when you backed it up (using the restore option), as if you never made any changes. Then I would go ahead and install whatever rom you wanted to try out, and see if everything works as intended. If you dont like it, or it doesnt allow you to access the network, etc then all you need to do is boot back to recovery and restore your backup and when it's done you'll phone will be back to it's old self.
Links:
Root: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=782556 (This is the process I used)
Clockwork: http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-install-clockwork-recovery-to-your-android-phone/
Not sure how experienced you are - or aren't - so if you have any deeper questions about the process or need more detailed instructions just let me know.
EDIT: Oops, I completely skipped some of your questions. With just rooting you can uninstall SOME of the preloaded crap, however there is allot of the preloaded applications and such that you cant uninstall without crippling your phones functionality. My originally plan when I first rooted my device was just to remove the bloatware. However after I saw just how much there was I couldn't remove I decided to jump to a custom ROM. Just to give you an example, I have the Fission ROM installed on my device, and it's packaged filed were about 70ish mb, while the packaged files to restore it back to stock/factory was nearly 300mb. And yes, rooting alone would allow you to overclock your phone.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 on AT&T. This is my first android and I'm trying to get a grasp on rooting as an ex-jailbreaker. I've tried reading and searching but unfortunately I just need to ask some specifics.
My understanding is that the current root for this phone is derived from a Motorola root and that it does not include a way to make backups. I am eager to root but I really don't want to take extra risk than is necessary. Is something like CWM required to backup your phone in a way that protects you against accidentally messing up the filesystem? And is there any way to get something like CWM on this phone yet?
I see that there is now a custom recovery for this phone on galaxys4root dot com but can I even use it without something like CWM.
I'd appreciate any info, thanks for your patience.
HardOnChairs said:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 on AT&T. This is my first android and I'm trying to get a grasp on rooting as an ex-jailbreaker. I've tried reading and searching but unfortunately I just need to ask some specifics.
My understanding is that the current root for this phone is derived from a Motorola root and that it does not include a way to make backups. I am eager to root but I really don't want to take extra risk than is necessary. Is something like CWM required to backup your phone in a way that protects you against accidentally messing up the filesystem? And is there any way to get something like CWM on this phone yet?
I see that there is now a custom recovery for this phone on galaxys4root dot com but can I even use it without something like CWM.
I'd appreciate any info, thanks for your patience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We cant have CWM until bootloader is unlocked (assuming you have the US AT&T version)
That being said, seeing how there is no custom ROMs you can use ODIN as a kind of backup. It'll wipe and then install factory /system partition, leaving /data alone (you can wipe /data in stock recovery if needed).
CWM works better as it backs up YOUR phone (including mods and /data).
_Dennis_ said:
We cant have CWM until bootloader is unlocked (assuming you have the US AT&T version)
That being said, seeing how there is no custom ROMs you can use ODIN as a kind of backup. It'll wipe and then install factory /system partition, leaving /data alone (you can wipe /data in stock recovery if needed).
CWM works better as it backs up YOUR phone (including mods and /data).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would a stock firmware be enough to get me back up if I mess up my phone with root access? That's my main concern.
HardOnChairs said:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 on AT&T. This is my first android and I'm trying to get a grasp on rooting as an ex-jailbreaker. I've tried reading and searching but unfortunately I just need to ask some specifics.
My understanding is that the current root for this phone is derived from a Motorola root and that it does not include a way to make backups. I am eager to root but I really don't want to take extra risk than is necessary. Is something like CWM required to backup your phone in a way that protects you against accidentally messing up the filesystem? And is there any way to get something like CWM on this phone yet?
I see that there is now a custom recovery for this phone on galaxys4root dot com but can I even use it without something like CWM.
I'd appreciate any info, thanks for your patience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answers to all of the questions you asked are in these threads...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2261573
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2252248
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2257058
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2259933
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2261232
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2254274
I found a few of those threads, they are what prompted my additional questions. But the second to last one seems to answer my question. Thanks.
HardOnChairs said:
I found a few of those threads, they are what prompted my additional questions. But the second to last one seems to answer my question. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use either Kies or Odin and the stock factory firmware to completely return to factory stock, but be careful with ODIN, if you check the wrong options it can hard brick your phone.
MotoChopper
I would like to know ...
I rooted my S4 with Motochopper and I realized that my boot animation changed (to the one Samsung used in older models...) Is it easy to put back the new one ?
Okay so I just have a few questions about rooting my phone before I do it, since I saw the root here that works for the most recent OTA update.
1) If someone happens with my phone (either bricking it from rooting or something inconsequential) will they not replace my phone due to it being rooted?
2) If they won't replace it due to being rooted (if it wasn't bricking), is there an easy way to unroot the phone?
3) I can't tell from the instructions, but I'm pretty sure some others have said that it might require you to restore factory settings, does this one require that?
4) The thread says that it is now impossible to unlock the bootloader, does this also mean that you can't use a custom ROM? How exactly do you add a ROM?
Sorry for all the questions, I've never rooted an android device before, and I don't have the time or energy to go running around Google/forums trying to find these answers.
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: yes I know i've already asked 2 of these questions, but I'm a stupid poop who needs validation.
wholocked10 said:
Okay so I just have a few questions about rooting my phone before I do it, since I saw the root here that works for the most recent OTA update.
1) If someone happens with my phone (either bricking it from rooting or something inconsequential) will they not replace my phone due to it being rooted?
2) If they won't replace it due to being rooted (if it wasn't bricking), is there an easy way to unroot the phone?
3) I can't tell from the instructions, but I'm pretty sure some others have said that it might require you to restore factory settings, does this one require that?
4) The thread says that it is now impossible to unlock the bootloader, does this also mean that you can't use a custom ROM? How exactly do you add a ROM?
Sorry for all the questions, I've never rooted an android device before, and I don't have the time or energy to go running around Google/forums trying to find these answers.
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: yes I know i've already asked 2 of these questions, but I'm a stupid poop who needs validation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
first, rooting your voids the warranty, so technically, they (either VZW or Motorola) are not obligated to replace it. that being said, you can always play dumb and say that you accepted some OTA install, and now the phone won't boot up. usually, VZW will try to restore the phone, and if not, they'll replace it - no worries.
2.) I believe there is an unroot method, but I have not explored this. try doing a search on this forum for "unroot razr m"
3.) restore factory settings could unroot - check the threads
4.) you can still install a custom ROM, but you'll need to install Safestrap first. however, the custom ROMs available for SS are out-dated, and I don't think that any devs will be providing any going forward. however, I would not be too discouraged by this, as the phone is very solid stock. so rooting is the key to remove the bloatware to help increase battery life, increase performance, and reduce excess data usage.
hope this helps.
I wanted to look into the possibility of recovering old/expired snapchats, and I was wondering if any of you have knowledge of this. If you do, do you mind giving me instructions on how to do it?
My phone is currently not rooted, but if need be, I will root it.
Thanks!