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Root Couple issues with temp root (z4Root)

Been reading the forums here for a while, finally got around to signing up.
Phone is one of the original Optimus M's, I got it the first week they were available back in 11/10. Android 2.2 and VZ3 firmware. I've been very happy with this phone and haven't had any of the freezing or other issues so I haven't had any need to apply the LG updates.
Anyway after all this time I finally decided to try a temp root just to get rid of the Metro bloatware that's been hogging space since day one. Did the temp root with z4Root and it seemed to work, Superuser was installed and I was able to explore the root files. However I wasn't able to delete any of them, perhaps this was because I wasn't using Root Explorer. I tried a bunch of different explorer apps that said they could delete files but none of them actually did. They would give the delete option but when selected it would not remove the file. Now don't think that I'm cheap (ok maybe I am a bit), it's more a matter of convenience since I never bothered to set up a payment method through the market.
Anyway I chose to call it a day at that point and reset the phone, uninstall z4 and try again another time. So after doing so and putting everything back the way it was previously (as far as I can tell), I've noticed that my available internal storage is down about 5MB from what it was before I started all this. I used to have about 57MB free, now it's 52MB. Is there something left behind even after uninstalling z4Root that is holding that memory?
I will probably try the root again but first I'd like to get some insight from those who know more about this than I do. If the consensus is that Root Explorer is the only explorer app that will actually allow for deleting those files, I'll certainly install it. And I'd like to know where my 5MB went.
 
So I tried again. Got Root Explorer and ran z4Root, it said the phone was rooted and Superuser was installed. However Root Explorer thinks the phone isn't rooted and won't let me delete system files or see the root directory. Any ideas how to proceed from here?
 
So I tried again. Got Root Explorer and ran z4Root, it said the phone was rooted and Superuser was installed. However Root Explorer thinks the phone isn't rooted and won't let me delete system files or see the root directory. Any ideas how to proceed from here?

You got superuser running? Have you done an update via Superuser with everything running as OK?

Also, do you have an older version of Root Explorer or is this the latest version.

I suspect that although z4root may say the phone has been rooted it really isn't. This happened to me once and only via the guides posted here, or Gingerbreak if you're on 2.2, can the phone be rooted.
 
Thanks, I did finally get it. Read more carefully through a thread I already had open on the topic, and found that the temporary root in z4 doesn't actually work. Did it again and selected permanent root and it worked so I'm rooted now. In the process of purging bloatware.
 
Yeah temp will cause you to lose root as soon as you reboot. Also a suggestion, download Titanium Backup, that way you can make backups of everything before uninstalling them.
 
Yeah temp will cause you to lose root as soon as you reboot. Also a suggestion, download Titanium Backup, that way you can make backups of everything before uninstalling them.

Actually temp root doesn't work at all. z4 says the phone is rooted until the next reboot but it really isn't. Although it installs Superuser the permissions aren't there and files remain either read-only or not accessible, Root Explorer reports the phone is not rooted.
When I selected the permanent root option z4 ran and then the phone rebooted. When it came back up it was rooted.
I did install Titanium Backup, not right away but after playing around for a while I saw the suggestion to do so and realized it wasn't a bad idea. I didn't back up the first few apps I removed but they were useless bloatware that I will never have reason to reinstall so it's not an issue.
 
Also a note about deleting apps to get space back- I found that just deleting the apk's from the system folder didn't free up all that much. However after removing the associated files for old apps from the dalvik cache I got back about 30MB.
 
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