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Root [FAQ]ROOTING (Updated 7th April 2012)

DBook said:
Wasn't asking anything, I ran that command to discover I had an erase size of 40K in the first place :)

I was in awe of your reputation, and thought I was missing something when you said you needed root to run this command :p
Click to expand...


Nope. It was I who was missing something ;)
 
Updated:

If you do have PVT4, you then need to check if your erase size is 40,000.

To check erase size, you can simply download "terminal Emulator" from the market and type:

Code:
cat /proc/mtd
(And press enter) - This should work on non-rooted devices


And:

What about Gold Cards? Do I need one?

For rooting itself, no. However, if your phone is branded, you should definitely make one.

Here is the GoldCard Tool

To use:


  1. Format your SD card to FAT32 by going Settings > SD Card & Phone Storage > Unmount SD Card then Format SD Card
  2. Launch the goldcard tool as admin by Right click on App > Run as Admin
  3. Connect your phone to your PC and make sure USB debugging is enabled (Settings > Applications > Development > USB Debugging)
  4. Click get CID (Try clicking MMC0 if MMC1 fails)
  5. Click the link to open the goldcard generator, copy the CID from the tool into it. You will get an email.
  6. Enable USB Mass Storage on your phone.
  7. Click 'Refresh' in the app and select your micro SD card.
  8. Click 'Load goldcard.img' and select the file you received by email.
  9. Click 'Patch MMC'
  10. You now have a goldcard!
Credit to the author of this article
 
Okay, so I eventually bit the bullet and rooted last night (using this guide How to root stock 2.2 using unrEVOked 3.32 - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum as the one linked to in this thread is just slightly out of date now)

However, despite seeing the superuser permissions my phone still showed S-ON after Unrevoked done its thing. I've read that attempting S-OFF is one of the slightly more dangerous aspects so my question is do I have to S-OFF before a can flash a ROM?

I'm pretty sure I have to using unrevoked-forever but I've read one or two contradictory posts that have placed some doubt in my head.

Also, for a n00b like myself would Rom Manager or Clockworkmod Recovery be the way to go? (assuming that it doesn't go perfectly and I may have to try and redo/fix...)
 
Unrevoked ONLY s-off's CDMA desires so if you are GSM (uses SIM card) this is not the case.

only AlphaRev 1.8 S-offs and yes it can be risky.

You dont need S-off to flash roms though.

Rom manager uses a fake flash clockworkmod, but you have clockworkmod already flashed using unrevoked.

Rom manager is a work around from before we had the ability to root with unrevoked so we could use clockwork, but now unrevoked does this, no need for rom manager.
 
If it is accidental damage that's insurance. It's warranty (manufacturing fault) that's affected
 
Well that would be dishonest and fraudulent.

You really need to be sure you want to do this before you root.
 
Hi i'm new to rooting, I have a T mobile branded UK desire, and just this week I rooted my phone using the unrevoked method...and installed the MIUI-AU rom, loving the rom but seems to be draining battery a lot quicker,
However I did not make a GOLDCARD!
Is there a way to make a goldcard after rooting the phone?
 
Thanks.
I'll give it a try this weekend , will go buy a cheap SD card.
Was worried as a lot of the guides on rooting state need to create goldcard before rooting phone.
I would not know how to create goldcard using card reader.. I was just gonna follow your guide from page 1 on creating a goldcard.
 
Its the same, just with a card reader instead of a phone.

Put the card in, run the app, follow the instructions
 
Thanks will give it a try.
Also when I installed the ROM i did not partition the SD card.. for Apps to SD function.
Is this necessary to do?
I'm thinking of trying some other roms as the MIUI-Au rom seems to be draining battery.
Any ROMS u recommend which are better on battery life?
 
H2TheC said:
Thanks will give it a try.
Also when I installed the ROM i did not partition the SD card.. for Apps to SD function.
Is this necessary to do?
I'm thinking of trying some other roms as the MIUI-Au rom seems to be draining battery.
Any ROMS u recommend which are better on battery life?
Click to expand...

It is not necessary to partition your SD card, but it is highly advisable if you want to "cure" the low internal storage problem.

In general, probably the vanilla Android v2.3 ROMs are the least battery consuming ones. Some people claim Oxygen ROM is well optimized for that.
I have GingerVillain and it works 1-2 days with a medium usage.
 
Added:

Is rooting easy?

It can be, Using the unrEVOked tool makes it straight forward. My compiled guide for using this is here:

UnrEVOked rooting guide



Added so the FAQ links to a guide we at AF can keep up to date ourselves
 
I'll watch it later but the guide I linked to originally I thought was the best but elaborated, consolidated and updated it here for accuracy

A video tends to only follow one process and therefore can not be universal or easily updated if there are changes

Edit. This video is nothing to do with unrEVOked. UnrEVOked is the method used for rooting desires. The desire is similar to the Evo and the video's method doesn't work on the evo. This was possibly why unrEVOked was created (note the capital letters in the name) ;)
 
Cheers for the guides dude, you've put a lot of work in and it's appreciated.

Quick question however. Would I be right in thinking that you only need a Gold Card to install a generic ROM to a branded device? So where you say "if your phone is branded, you should definitely make one" it'd be more accurate to read "if your phone is branded and doesn't have a specific RRU avaliable, you should definitely make one"

Or have I totally missed the point? Looking at zapping my phone shortly to sort the storage space issue, and I'm just trying to get my head around everything first.
 
Hi Cougar, thanks for your input.

I'm of the school of thinking "2 RUU's are better than 1" ;)

Sometimes an RUU may fail, be bloated with crap or could be quite old for a branded device. Having a goldcard allows use of unbranded RUU's which could be better than an older or dodgy branded RUU.

An older RUU may be a lower android version than what is on the phone you want to recover and will fail for this reason as the version must be the same or higher.

Although its not really any use from a warranty perspective, from a "getting it working" perspective, its best to have as many options as possible.
 
Aha. Keeping options open. Good point, well made. (-:

I didn't realise you couldn't go backwards. That's a bit of a show-stopper if you want to restore for warranty purposes, isn't it. (Though that said, I sent my Samsung Galaxy back to O2 with all manner of madness on it and they never batted an eyelid).
 
If the phone still boots, there is a downgrade tool available, which downgrades to 2.1. You can either use a goldcard and downgrade to an unbranded 2.1 or you can supply a branded 2.1 if available.

Out of interest, is your handset branded? If so, to which network?
 
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