Sorry, I meant Temp root.
I am new to android thus I am new to rooting a phone. So I have no idea what amon ra, nandroid, kernals as opposed to ROMs and etc.
I guess as of right now I just have to wait untill ROMs etc are released? I don't see what I can do at this very moment since this was just discovered today.
Welcome to rooting!
Don't sweat the questions - we were all new at this once.
First rule of rooting - read, read and read some more. Second rule - ask questions first. So, I think you're doing fine.
Rooting is just like getting Admin access on your PC. Same thing.
ROM is really an overloaded term - meaning exactly: it means different things depending on where it's used. It's really easy to understand:
On your phone, in addition to RAM, you have the program memory area. People call that ROM (read-only memory) but that's slang because it's obviously read-write memory. In fact, it's the same kind of memory as what's in an SD card - that's called flash memory.
The "rom" area contains several partitions - the bootloader (ok to think of that like your PC's bios - it's not a bios, but it's ok to think of it that way), some areas for phone radio firmware and an area for Android.
Android is your operating system (as you know) and it's made of these parts (from top to bottom):
- Apps
- the Dalvik Virtual Machine (VM)
- Linux operating system
All apps run inside the Dalvik VM. The Dalvik runs on top of Linux. Linux provides common services (networking, sound, etc). Part of the Linux OS that ties the hardware to the software is the lowest part of the operating system, called the kernel. (This is exactly like Windows or Mac OS in that regard.)
We call the collection of the three bullets above - a "rom" because it's an image of a working Android (with apps, like the phone dialer) - and because we're lazy and didn't invent another word.
When we write something to the program memory area, we say we "flash" it - because it's flash memory and that's the shorthand.
The "recovery" part of the program memory ties the pieces together and points to where to boot from. A custom recovery, like Amon Ra (that's the name for one particular recovery program) adds more - like the ability to "flash" easily and the ability to make a perfect snapshot of your program memory onto the SD card. We call that snapshot backup a "nandroid" backup. (Because the flash memory silicon is a logic type called "NOT AND" aka NAND - and nandroid just fit as a fun name.)
Once you have root and all, you don't have to do anything.
You can install a rom - if you do, make a nandroid first of what you have that is working. (First and most important power of root: the nandroid backup.)
You can install other fun root apps without changing your rom.
Example - if you use a firewall on your PC and like it, then I highly recommend installing DroidWall, free in the Market. Requires root to work.
Please see our sticky guide in this forum for more rooting details.
Hope this helps!
