• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Root Another generic "Should I root" thread if you are bored

H

Heide264

Newbie
GENERIC POST IN ADVANCE =P

Well, I've had my droid since just after release, and am pretty happy with it. Tried home replacements and have gotten bored with them. Thought about rooting, but felt a little overwhelmed with all the bricking and such. Also didn't seem worth it at the time.

Now that its become pretty popular, how stable are some of the ROMS out there for the droid; mainly cyanogen.

Really just looking for some ups and downs. I like to tinker with stuff a fair amount, but I like it stable. If its glitchy I revert back.

Also, I'm fairly tech friendly - actually going for EE. How over my head in water am I going? I can understand most conversations I have read concerning development, but I have no actual experience with the material.

Thanks; sorry for the generic post just looking for a place to start.
 
Given that you're going for your EE, rooting should be a piece of cake. That said, with little/no experience in the nitty gritty, just make sure you do your research and you should be alright.

Actually "bricking" the hardware is difficult to do, rarely if ever does it happen (seriously, look around the forums, hardly any mention of any bricks). But, again, just make sure you follow directions.

Now regarding the ROMS, trust me when I say that stability is remarkable, performance improvement is impressive, and there are very few if any glitches.

I don't have any personal experience with the Cyanogen release, but I can personally recommend Bugless Beast; the latest and greatest iteration from one of the more experienced droid developers (Pete) is based on an Android 2.1 release made for the droid, so it's optimized for the hardware. I've been running bugless beast versions for going on 3 months and nothing else has been so consistently stable for me.

As an aspiring EE, you should be able to appreciate the overclocking capabilities of the droid. I run mine at 1200 mhz stably with little temperature increase over the standard 550. Voltage increases through the range of frequencies up to 1100 mhz require very little voltage change, and I've experienced better battery life thanks to the clockspeed throttling interface in the SetCPU utility.

The added features are really cool too, I'm liking the interactive live wallpapers a lot more than I initially thought I would.

Poke around some more, do you research and play around with some ROMS, see what you like. It's hard to go wrong with most current releases.
 
I have been using the CyanogenMOD/Koush ROM for a few days now and I haven't had any trouble with it. It definitely offers more then any other ROM out yet and is actually compiled from Cyanogen's github. It is missing a few things like the default YouTube HQ hack but that is very very easy to fix (simply replace the YouTube.apk with one from a ROM that has the HQ hack like Pete's BB).
 
i have not used Cyanogen's rom yet. though i have tried a few different roms. i am currently running Pete's v.8 of BB with the smoked glass updated theme. i went pretty conservative and ran low voltage with the 550mhz and it is running very very smooth with no crashes reboots or force closes. it can run the LWP flawless with minimal battery use. I would have a hard time replacing this rom as it is my favorite to date.

if you want to take the easy route you can download dmupdater. this will auto root your phone and flash the new recovery module. i would suggest not using the droidmod rom though as it is now outdated and has seen some issues.
 
tom108 said:
i have not used Cyanogen's rom yet. though i have tried a few different roms. i am currently running Pete's v.8 of BB with the smoked glass updated theme. i went pretty conservative and ran low voltage with the 550mhz and it is running very very smooth with no crashes reboots or force closes. it can run the LWP flawless with minimal battery use. I would have a hard time replacing this rom as it is my favorite to date.

if you want to take the easy route you can download dmupdater. this will auto root your phone and flash the new recovery module. i would suggest not using the droidmod rom though as it is now outdated and has seen some issues.
Click to expand...

I would recommend the BB v.8 listed above. I have not had that latest version on my phone but of all the ROMs out there, Bugless Beast would be my first choice for someone new to running custom ROMs. I feel that Cyanogen's Rom has the most potential...but it is not yet perfected and has some quirky issues. BB will be the most stable choice as of today IMO.
 
I did a lot of reading last night and got it rooted. Followed through Start Here | Root Your Droid ... great site and really helped cut that learning curve.

Basically rooted, added busy box, the SPSrecovery, blocked OTA updates, and made a backup.

Now its onto the next step. One question I wanted to check with, is if I install a custom ROM, what all will it clear and keep? Everything by chance?

Still going to do some reading on cyanogen and BB before picking one.
 
Heide264 said:
I did a lot of reading last night and got it rooted. Followed through Start Here | Root Your Droid ... great site and really helped cut that learning curve.

Basically rooted, added busy box, the SPSrecovery, blocked OTA updates, and made a backup.

Now its onto the next step. One question I wanted to check with, is if I install a custom ROM, what all will it clear and keep? Everything by chance?

Still going to do some reading on cyanogen and BB before picking one.
Click to expand...

Keep this in mind...Cyanogen uses Clockwork Recovery. EVERY OTHER ROM out there uses the format found with SPRecovery. If you go with Cyanogen, you will have to flash to a different recovery before you can flash to a different rom. With Droidmod and Rom Manager...that is quick and easy but still is probably more confusing unless you have been flashing roms for awhile.
 
Alright, thanks. Will probably stick with BB then for now just to give it a go without switching recoveries.

What all will I lose/keep with a new ROM? I actually haven't found it explicitly said yet =/
 
Heide264 said:
Alright, thanks. Will probably stick with BB then for now just to give it a go without switching recoveries.

What all will I lose/keep with a new ROM? I actually haven't found it explicitly said yet =/
Click to expand...

You will keep everything on your SD card. You will not keep phone data and system settings when you do the wipe. Once you're ROMmed you can log back into Gmail and then reload all your apps (both free and paid). I know I lost my testing threads as well. A lot of people recommend Titanium Backup, that stores everything on your SD card so you lose nothing.
 
Heide264 said:
Alright, thanks. Will probably stick with BB then for now just to give it a go without switching recoveries.

What all will I lose/keep with a new ROM? I actually haven't found it explicitly said yet =/
Click to expand...

i did a full nandroid backup before flashing BB. then after i installed the new rom and let it load once i booted back to recovery and did a restore of the data only. i got everything back. however i believe BB has backup built into it.
 
You will keep all the data from your SD card. That is never deleted by a recovery system.

My opinion on setting up a new ROM is this:

- Back up what you are currently using. Only use Advanced Backup as you can set the name of the backup. You should included Rom, version, and date. So Bugless Beast v.8 saved today would be BB_v0.8_3-15-10. SPRecovery will add a bunch of other crap after that but YOU will be able to identify it and that's important.

- Each time you set up a new "series" of ROM (Bugless Beast, Ultimate Droid, DroidMod, Simply Stunning, etc.) you should start COMPLETELY fresh. Meaning wipe data and cache before installing the new rom. Then you have to re-install all of your programs which is a pain in the ass...so get Titanium Backup to help automate as much as possible. When a new ROM version comes out, you can upgrade and usually keep your data without problems.

Does that help? Just my 2 cents as I have spent a lot time trying things out differently and I have found these tips will help anyone who wants to try various roms and kind of bounce around to see what they like.
 
Well, running BB now =). Have it OC'd up to 1.2 and everything is running well. Sync'ing FB contacts as I post.

I am a bit curious as to the setcpu profiles and peoples experiences with them. I think I will make a poll and see how people set theirs up.

Overall everything seems great. WiFi tether is amazing and that extra speed makes things quick =).

Any suggestions from here? Anything else anybody would recommend looking into?
 
Heide264 said:
Well, running BB now =). Have it OC'd up to 1.2 and everything is running well. Sync'ing FB contacts as I post.

I am a bit curious as to the setcpu profiles and peoples experiences with them. I think I will make a poll and see how people set theirs up.

Overall everything seems great. WiFi tether is amazing and that extra speed makes things quick =).

Any suggestions from here? Anything else anybody would recommend looking into?
Click to expand...

There are numerous threads on peoples setcpu profiles already, trying searching for them before making another thread to save you time
 
Yeah have been searching around. It seems to be running well. Chunked up a good bit of battery but pretty sure thats only because I have been messing with it the entire time.

Only issue I see is that my facebook profile pics aren't syncing up quite right, but they did that originally too; sure given some time it will sync up correctly.

:D
 
Heide264 said:
Well, running BB now =). Have it OC'd up to 1.2 and everything is running well. Sync'ing FB contacts as I post.

I am a bit curious as to the setcpu profiles and peoples experiences with them. I think I will make a poll and see how people set theirs up.

Overall everything seems great. WiFi tether is amazing and that extra speed makes things quick =).

Any suggestions from here? Anything else anybody would recommend looking into?
Click to expand...

Applying different themes is always fun. Check out the metamorph sticky at the top of the root forum. There's quite a bit there to mess around with.
 
Well, I actually was just doing that and trying out the HexTheme, but upon finishing it went back into a bootloop... actually the third time today =(.

Started happening with Chevy 10slot and BB at 1.2Ghz when using ring droid...

Switched to smoked glass and AdamZ 5 slot at 900Mhz and it just did it after finishing the update...

sigh =(
 
I saw it mentioned (but didn't read up on it yet) that the 10 slot OC kernels MAY cause issues and most devs were recommending 5 slot kernels for OC'ing. I switched to a 5 slot and haven't had a single boot loop since. I've tried Smoked Glass and BB, both great ROMs and for me, fulfill my requirements.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom