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Root Droid stuff... I am just not getting it.

J

justicedealt

Member
Ok, I am just not getting it. I have a Droid X running 2.2. From what I have been told, this is the stuff. I have had it for a week and a half, and I love the phone. Honestly, I can't put it down. But I have questions. I have searched, and looked, and I have read all of this stuff, but I am not techie and most of the threads speak that language. So I have the following for you to ponder and help me with... please :D

1. Should I root my phone, and why? ( If so, please supply me a link to how to do it that is easy to understand )

2. Friday night, my phone was "asleep", and all of a sudden it woke up and said it was checking for updates? Then it downloaded and installed some things, and restarted itself. I saw something that had a number associated with it that was 2.3 something something something... (it was like 3 in the morning) What's up with that?

3. I did put the Advanced app killer on it. I set it for aggressive in automode, and set it up to where it kills apps when I turn off the screen. I have read that this is what I need to do, and I have read that I am taking more battery by doing it. So what's up with that?

I appreciate any help you can offer... Merry Christmas...
 
justicedealt said:
Ok, I am just not getting it. I have a Droid X running 2.2. From what I have been told, this is the stuff. I have had it for a week and a half, and I love the phone. Honestly, I can't put it down. But I have questions. I have searched, and looked, and I have read all of this stuff, but I am not techie and most of the threads speak that language. So I have the following for you to ponder and help me with... please :D

1. Should I root my phone, and why? ( If so, please supply me a link to how to do it that is easy to understand )

2. Friday night, my phone was "asleep", and all of a sudden it woke up and said it was checking for updates? Then it downloaded and installed some things, and restarted itself. I saw something that had a number associated with it that was 2.3 something something something... (it was like 3 in the morning) What's up with that?

3. I did put the Advanced app killer on it. I set it for aggressive in automode, and set it up to where it kills apps when I turn off the screen. I have read that this is what I need to do, and I have read that I am taking more battery by doing it. So what's up with that?

I appreciate any help you can offer... Merry Christmas...
Click to expand...


Hey there,

1: Rooting your phone is essentially the equivalent of jailbreaking an iPhone. It allows the user to load custom roms with tweaked performance or unapproved third party apps to be installed. Example would be tethering your phone as a wifi hotspot for free when rooted, versus paying the additional tethering fee to your cell provider. Having a rooted phone can have great benefits but you will need to read and be careful as you venture into it as it can lead to a bricked phone (unusable).

2: Your phones settings by default are to automatically check for updates to your Android OS. These settings can be adjusted to check at a different time or not to check at all unless you tell the phone to. This is located under the phones settings. If you are going to root your phone I would advise you turn off the automatic updates because if you install an update it can overwrite your root access.

3: I would recommend getting rid of your task killer. There are many posts on the forums as to why this is actually harmful to your Android experience. Android OS source code is written to optimize memory usage much like Linux therefor using a task killer does not provide benefits but in many ways drains your battery quicker and causes decreased performance.
 
justicedealt said:
but I am not techie and most of the threads speak that language.
Click to expand...

Christopher.Lee872's post is correct, but I'm afraid you won't be able to read through some of the tech speak so I'll try to bring it down a notch.

1. Root allows you to make changes to the programming of the phone. The most popular reasons are to allow you phone to be used as a wireless internet connection, changing the look of the display (i.e. making the notification bar and icons different colors), and overclocking (speeding up the processor past the manufacturers settings) to speed up the phone a little. If you don't need any of those things, you definitely don't need to "root". It's not very hard if you follow the step by step, but if something goes wrong, you are going to need lots of help.

2. Updates. Your downloaded programs need updates once in a while, but the one you spoke of was an operating system update. Think of it like a major software update for Windows or Mac, everyone wants it as it usually improves a bunch of things and sometimes breaks others. You want the updates when they come and your phone rebotting after an update is normal.

3. App killers. The easy answer is...If you don't know for sure you need it then you don't need it. There is a lot of debate about how these things are supposed to save battery but actually use more than they save. Unless you need it to close a program that doesn't like to end completely and gives you errors, I'd get rid of the task killer.
 
Got it now. Are there setting that you can access after rooting that allow all the changes you spoke of? I am seriously liking the idea of a 3G hot spot for sure. Would not mind changing the background on all of my screens to something different. BUT this is coming from a guy that cannot move his apps from screen to screen...lol.
 
There really aren't settings that you can check and uncheck to change the look of your device (besides wallpaper). You'll see many posts about different themes/ROMs where people try to get the look and feel of the device the way they want it. It can get fairly complicated and I'd suggest waiting and reading before you dive in. There are hundreds of posts in various forums about folks pleading for help because they messed up their phone and don't know how to fix it. You CAN do all this, but you need to do some reading/learning first. I'd suggest starting here-

http://androidforums.com/droid-x-al...ing-custom-rom-theme-how-unbrick-droid-x.html

As far as the Hotspot issue, there is a built in app that you have to pay to use, or you can use a free program like Easytether or PDAnet to have a wired connection which you do not need to root for.

At your current level of tech ability you have to be careful or you could mess up your phone. There are ways to recover and there are folks here that are probably willing to help walk you through doing everything, but you should know what changes you want to make and why- before you ever get started.
 
I'm getting my Droid X this week and I also would like to know things I should definitely do and things I definitely shouldn't.

I'd rather not mess with my warranty, I'm not sure if rooting would affect my warranty or not.

I don't really need the hotspot right now, but being able to customize my wallpapers would be cool.

I have read more bad about the app killers than good, so I think I'll stay away from that.

Edit: Also, I just ordered my Droid X from a Verizon deal on Friday Dec 10th, 2010, will it already have the OS update on it?
 
rudybow said:
I'm getting my Droid X this week and I also would like to know things I should definitely do and things I definitely shouldn't.

I'd rather not mess with my warranty, I'm not sure if rooting would affect my warranty or not.

I don't really need the hotspot right now, but being able to customize my wallpapers would be cool.

I have read more bad about the app killers than good, so I think I'll stay away from that.

Edit: Also, I just ordered my Droid X from a Verizon deal on Friday Dec 10th, 2010, will it already have the OS update on it?
Click to expand...

Rooting definitely voids your warranty
 
rudybow said:
I'm getting my Droid X this week and I also would like to know things I should definitely do and things I definitely shouldn't.

I'd rather not mess with my warranty, I'm not sure if rooting would affect my warranty or not.

I don't really need the hotspot right now, but being able to customize my wallpapers would be cool.

I have read more bad about the app killers than good, so I think I'll stay away from that.

Edit: Also, I just ordered my Droid X from a Verizon deal on Friday Dec 10th, 2010, will it already have the OS update on it?
Click to expand...

Rooting does void warranty....if they find out

Changing wallpapers is easy and you don't need root. You can have whatever wallpaper you want. Changing the Notification bar is a different story
 
understand that nowadays with roms like ApeX and the like, they automatically deodex you, so you don't need to worry about that section.
 
I rooted my Droid X using the new 2.3.340.MB810.Verizon.en.US. under Android Version 2.2.1. How do I go about using my phone as a bridge between my computer to my wireless router. I don't want to use the 3G on my phone to connect my computer to the internet, but rather use the phone's WiFi to connect my computer to my wireless network. Is there a way to do this? Everything I come across or search for seems to want to create a wireless hotspot using the phone's 3G, but I don't want to do that. Basically I want my computer to connect to my Droid X via USB, and use the Droid X's WiFi to connect to my wireless router. Is it possible?
 
NX54, I'm not sure I understand your question entirely, but it sounds as if you want to run your droid off of your wifi signal at the house, yes? I have 'Wifi Finder' on my DX, when I launch it it finds all the available wifi channels I can connect to. Then I simply choose one and connect to it. So the answer to your query (if that was it) is yes.
 
if you aren't going to root and download a custom theme. then dont worry about deodexing your phone.


ALSO**** there is a free app called Z4 ROOT (google it) that is literally a one click button to root your phone.
 
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