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Root Rooting - Pros and Cons? (Noob)

B

briggss3

Newbie
Ok,

Just bought the Rezound and like others, my primary complaint is the bloatware. So I am looking at rooting, not even knowing what it does really other than wiping your OS off and then reinstalling a new one (aftermarket). I chose it since I thought I might be willing to root.

So my question is really - why and is it worth it?

I ask this from the ignorance of what it accomplishes since I just don't know of what the benefits are vs what you gain on the Rezound. I saw a guy's Galaxy Nexus that was rooted and it was really cool compared to the stock one (on the interface). Things like the menu bars were customized, and a whole variety of crap was removed (although the GN was already lite on the bloat).

Also, does the Rezound's bloatware really impact performance?

Are there improvements to the device's overall speed, camera/video, etc.?

So step 1 for me is to decide whether I want to root at all vs leaving it stock. I am leaning towards rooting, but don't really know what I am stepping off into (not worried about warranties, etc.) - I just don't want to create unique new problems or issues that I don't know how to deal with.

Thanks for those who take the time to reply.

:confused::confused::confused:
 
briggss3 said:
Ok,

Just bought the Rezound and like others, my primary complaint is the bloatware. So I am looking at rooting, not even knowing what it does really other than wiping your OS off and then reinstalling a new one (aftermarket).
Click to expand...

Rooting itself does not wipe out your stock OS and replace it. That is when you install a custom rom.


briggss3 said:
I chose it since I thought I might be willing to root.

So my question is really - why and is it worth it?

I ask this from the ignorance of what it accomplishes since I just don't know of what the benefits are vs what you gain on the Rezound. I saw a guy's Galaxy Nexus that was rooted and it was really cool compared to the stock one (on the interface). Things like the menu bars were customized, and a whole variety of crap was removed (although the GN was already lite on the bloat).
Click to expand...
Rooting gives you superuser rights to your phone. As you mentioned earlier, you want to remove bloatware and rooting will allow you to do this. You will also be able to install custom roms (different enthusiast developed versions of Android) or customizations as they become available for your phone.


briggss3 said:
Ok,
Also, does the Rezound's bloatware really impact performance?
Click to expand...

Android will "learn" the apps you use the more you use your phone and preload those apps into memory. If you don't use the bloatware, those apps should have little to no impact on performance. The manufacture skin, in my experience will have more of an impact on performance. In your case, this is Sence for HTC.


briggss3 said:
Are there improvements to the device's overall speed, camera/video, etc.?

So step 1 for me is to decide whether I want to root at all vs leaving it stock. I am leaning towards rooting, but don't really know what I am stepping off into (not worried about warranties, etc.) - I just don't want to create unique new problems or issues that I don't know how to deal with.

Thanks for those who take the time to reply.

:confused::confused::confused:
Click to expand...

There are many performance boosts available with custom roms. If there are custom kernel available these will often allow for overclocking as well as provide better battery life.

In the end, rooting is a personal choice for you. Feel free to ask further questions and I'll do my best to answer.:)
 
The biggest reason I am going to root (once the OTA ICS update gets here) is to modify the HTC weather database so I can have the citiies I want in there!
 
Thanks. I guess I need to know what the cons are. I am good at following instructions and am not totally ignorant - I build my on PC's from scatch (not the same, but still I trust that the guides will take me step-by-step like described).

My biggest fear is that I somehow decrease my phone's battery or give it a set of bugs that bother the crap out of me.

Also, I am on day 1 of the Rezound and one thing I love is that the contacts list went in and found duplicates in all of my accounts and linked them. Also, it came with the ability to use my Yahoo Contacts group so I can text my small groups I manage (I have YContact!).

So what is my biggest risk or common bug (assuming I won't "brick" it as described)?
 
If you are on day one, the best course of action I could recommend is staying stock reading some threads in the All Things Root forum for the rezound. See what others are doing with root and decide if any of those are important enough for you to root. See what issues folks are resolving with root, or which ones they are introducing. It is different with each device. Many folks are perfectly happy without root (My GNex is rooted, but I really do nothing with it except back up files).

If you do decide to root, read a few different guides in case someone explains it a little bit differently and in a way that makes sense to you. If you are in the process of rooting and get uncomfortable with a step or are seeing something different than the guide you are following, don't push forward. Post up a new thread here with your scenario and the folks here will help you out. Most times where a user "bricks" their phone, they have varied from the beaten path and continued along a path to brickville. Most times it can be recovered (there are cases where your device will truly be a brick) it just takes more time and patience on the rooters part and the folks trying to help them recover their phone.
 
briggss3 said:
Out of curiosity, do you have the nexus and the rezound? If so which do you prefer?
Click to expand...
I have the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon. I am very happy with it. I haven't tried a Rezound so I can't offer any specific feedback there other than to say like my Nexus, some folks love it, some hate it. If you like it, then that's what matters.
 
I agree with Unforgiven, if you are just starting out on your phone. Don't root right away. Take time to learn your phone, and during that time read whatever you can about rooting. You can never read enough, and ask as many questions as you can think of, especially on here. People will be more than happy to help out.
 
briggss3 said:
Out of curiosity, do you have the nexus and the rezound? If so which do you prefer?
Click to expand...


I have used both, but I prefer sense over AOSP....never been a big fan of AOSP.

But some people don't like sense. It's really all about the user, both are great phones.
 
I see the main reasons to root are:
1. The capability to make and restore backups
2. The ability to WiFi teather

With my old Droid-X, I have never found a ROM that worked right - meaning it did everything the factory stock ROM does, and did it properly.

You might ROM because you really want a particular feature - for example to get ICS on a phone that is out of production and thus will never get ICS from Verizon/manufacturer.

ROMing adds alot more complexity and required knowledge, especially with these HTC phones.

In general Rooting is a good thing, as long as you are computer literate enough to not go deleting system files. In the linux world the administrator account is called "root". Rooting is nothing different than using the Administrator account on Windows XP. It just means you have complete control to do anything you want - including damaging things.
 
howardz2 said:
I see the main reasons to root are:
1. The capability to make and restore backups
2. The ability to WiFi teather

With my old Droid-X, I have never found a ROM that worked right - meaning it did everything the factory stock ROM does, and did it properly.

You might ROM because you really want a particular feature - for example to get ICS on a phone that is out of production and thus will never get ICS from Verizon/manufacturer.
Click to expand...

I think you forgot 3. Remove bloatware and 4. Run custom ROM's. Those are the two main reasons I see why people root.

Just curious but did you try Liberty or Gummy for your DroidX? I WISH we could get these for our phones, very well made ROMs that do everything well.
 
These are great replies. I am taking the advice to continue reading about the Rezound. I have noticed that in the 4 days I have had this phone, that there has been regular time outs on downloading apps or just opening a webpage. My X never really had this issue. I also can not open several video streams as it says my player does not support it. Again, my X streamed them fine.

Off to research those bugs...

Again, any other comments are appreciated. I get all replies on my email notification.
 
briggss3 said:
Maybe I can fart with rooting my X if there is a good ROM...
Click to expand...

That's not a bad idea. It will give you a lot of insight into the architecture of Android and give you a taste of what you can do with a rooted device before you mess around with your daily driver.
 
chknhwk said:
Just curious but did you try Liberty or Gummy for your DroidX? I WISH we could get these for our phones, very well made ROMs that do everything well.
Click to expand...

My wife first waited for Iphone to come to Verizon, and then kept waiting for the Iphone 5 to have 4G. But last year she gave up and purchased an Iphone-4S. Then I tossed my LG flip phone, and got her hand-me-down Droid-X as my first smart phone.

During the first half year I remained stock GB - somewhere along the way I got rooted, clockworkmod, and purchased Titanium Backup.

Then I got eager to try ICS. First I tried CM9, then moved to gummy, and currently the Droid-X is on AOKP. All (I think) were ported to the Droid-X by x13thangelx. I have nandroid backups of everything: stock GB, 612 rooted (not Milestone X rooted, but 612 rooted), CM9, gummy, AOKP. I think AOKP is the best.

Of course now that I have a HTC Rezound, the Droid-X is a wifi-only device sort of similar to an iTouch. I probably can make 911 calls with it, but of course I am not going to test this.

With the Droid-X, all those ROMs only required that one start with a rooted GB system.

The HTC Rezound is far more complicated: htcdev Unlock, S-ON/S-OFF, stock/jBear hboot, boot.img, recovery.img, ROM (which I think is just system partition and boot.img), radio firmware, and I read people referring to some other unspecified firmware.

I have owned the Rezound for about one month, and I am still reading and learning. It's a little difficult to repress expressing my opinions or advise, though with only one month of ownership I probably shouldn't.

I will never buy another Motorola product again because they are so agressively eliminating the possibility that owners can root, backup, rom, etc.. What Motorola did with their Droid-X 621 update they are doing to all their other model phones.

I have htcdev unlocked, rooted, Ramon ra recovery, S-OFF, put back the stock hboot, and will put the stock recovery back later for the OTA ICS update. I want the HTC/Verizon official ICS release to be my new stock starting point.

With the Droid-X, I never found a ROM that did everything the stock ROM did - and do it all correctly. Motorola/HTC/Verizon are professionals, and the ROMing world are amateurs - or perhaps they just don't have access to what they need. Examples:
1. Need stock GB if one wants to charge the phone without booting it.
2. Need stock GB if one wants to connect phone to an HDTV to watch a movie on the phone.
3. For a long time these ROMS could not do MMS - though I think I read it is fixed now.

What I miss from those Droid-X ROMS is the capability to adjust the settings for the auto-brightness. Stock auto-bright is way too bright on all phones and in all lighting conditions and is probably wasting the battery power.
I will likely stay unlocked S-OFF rooted stock ICS after the HTC/Verizon ICS OTA. Perhaps, if I don't like all the bloat and sense, then I might try Scott's less sense or completely desensed ROMs.

BTW, a co-worker put LIBERTY on his BIONIC. He says the first thing liberty did was delete every nandroid backup he had on his SD card. He also had terrible grief with his SIMM card and replacement SIMM could not fix. He had his BIONIC replaced under insurance and is sworn to stay stock forever. He did not know about RSDLite and SBF files as a tool he could have used to go back to stock. That's all I know about LIBERTY, and would not recommend it.

I have read that once Verizon releases ICS, supposedly HTC will release the source code and then it will be much easier for developers to port CM9, gummy, AOKP, and other AOSP based ROMS. But, I don't think I'd like losing functionality to use those ROMs.

Howard
 
Howard, what functionality do you believe you lose on the Rezound?

I don't believe I have lost any functionality on CleanROM Developer Edition 1.2 and I did not lose any functionality by rooting and roming my OG Droid. To the contrary on the Droid, I gained functionality by using roms, and swapping kernels.
 
That is a good question and something I am not clear on. By adding aftermarket ROM,s will I kill something I liked or create new bugs in the process of eliminating others?

The Galaxy I saw had alot of neat stuff created by the new ROM. From what I read, that is why people buy that phone is because it is so rootable and the alternate ROMs are really nice. So much so that I think people are willing to tolerate poor antennas and actual useability on that phone.

I did not get theat the Rezound was so well regarded for customization, even though it is absolutely loaded to the maxx with crapware.
 
dassh said:
Howard, what functionality do you believe you lose on the Rezound?

I don't believe I have lost any functionality on CleanROM Developer Edition 1.2 and I did not lose any functionality by rooting and roming my OG Droid. To the contrary on the Droid, I gained functionality by using roms, and swapping kernels.
Click to expand...

The Ice Cream Sandwich ROMS I used on the Droid-X were based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). This open source code is available for free here Welcome to Android | Android Open Source

So, on the surface, it looks like anyone can download the ICS source code and compile/build it and run it on their android phone or tablet. But apparently it is not so simple and it needs some customizing to each particular phone or tablet. There seems to be some functionality that manufacturers like Motorola and HTC add to their phone which are proprietary and not open source.

These AOSP based ROMs are often missing some functionality compared to the OEM Motorola/Verizon provided operating system. However, I gladly traded away features I rarely use for the opportunity to use Ice Cream Sandwich. For example, I text sometimes, but very rarely send or receive MMS. How often did I hook my droid-x to my HDTV? Well so rarely that I can't find where I put the cable last time. So, I didn't miss very much what was missing from the AOSP based ROMs. But there were others who said missing MMS was an absolute show stopper. Others couldn't use a ROM without a working camera. etc.

I have not tried any Rezound ROMs yet, but when I do, Scotts ROMs will probably be the choice ones to use because he isn't using AOSP. Scott cleans up and customizes the HTC/Verizon ICS leaked ROMs. Scott will take the OTA ICS and work on it to make it better. Thus I think it is unlikely that there will be any lost functionality with Scott's ROMs, except for HTC Sense in his developers edition.

I am optimistic that we really will get the ICS OTA in 6 days. For now, I just want to use the future HTC/Verizon ICS release, and make a nandroid backup of it. This will be my baseline system with all my settings/data which I can always return to should I venture into trying Scott's ROMs.

I have a friend at work who used to ROM his older phone, but now that he has a Galaxy Nexus wth ICS, he is happy to just root his stock ICS system. I may indeed find myself like him.

Regards,

Howard

P.S. On the xda-developer's web site you can find ROMs for the Rezound which list all the functions which don't work. Apparently people will try these ROMs anyway out of eagerness to try the new ICS or other new features at the expense of having certain functions. For example, I think I saw CyanogenMod9 with so many broken functions listed that I am surprised anyone uses it. By comparison we are fortunate to have Scott's ROMs.

P.P.S. Here it is: CM9 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1566489
and here is the list of what doesn't work right:

  • Ril (Phone, SMS, MMS, Data, etc...)
  • Wifi
  • Bluetooth
  • Sound
  • GPS
  • The Occasional Force Close
    biggrin.gif
  • Camera
So why will anyone use this ROM with no working phone, texting, wifi, bluetooth, sound, or GPS? It is so far away from being a working ROM that why even offer it for people to try? I don't know, but there are people who enjoy trying it.
 
Howard,

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I respect your stance but for me, roming was the right choice because while stock was okay, I knew I would not be satisfied until I had a comparison and could then decide which was the best ROM for me. I also knew , that if I decided I liked stock better I could always switch back. I used the patch, so I could go back to a GB ROM or stock if I didn't like the current ICS.

I am very pleased with my current set up but just like on the Droid, I'm sure I will succumb to the allure of other roms if for no other reason than to try them.

You are correct that sometimes you choose to give up certain options that are not important to you, hopefully to gain options that are. In my case, flashing a new ROM did achieve my goal, at least for now. It remains to be seen if it will remain that way or not as new versions, and new roms are released maybe I will decide this current setup is the best for me and as long as I have a nandroid, I can try other options and always come back if I want or need to.

Regards,
 
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