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Root Long time since rooting...

jl79

jl79

Android Enthusiast
So it's been quite some time since I have rooted a phone since the last new phone I purchased was the HTC One M8 when it first came out. I have been looking through various threads about rooting and now I think I am more confused then ever.

I took the plunge yesterday and ordered two (one for me, and one for my wife) new HTC U11 unlocked from HTC direct to use on T-Mobile. I want to root these bad boys when I get them and use ViperROM since that is pretty much the only ROM I ever used on my HTC devices. Now looking through the Viper threads over at XDA I am beyond confused. I am seeing something about MAGISK, but just cant seem to find anything to explain what it exactly is and if it is something that is needed to run Viper. I also cant seem to find anything with a "step-by-step" guide on what the first steps are for even going about rooting the U11. Is there any software out there that I can just plug in the phone to my PC and let the software handle the rooting process (one click)?

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated in this matter since I really don't want to screw up these devices and I feel like I am starting over with leaning all this rooting stuff again.

Also on a side note, does anyone have any good suggestions for a Otterbox style case for the U11 that includes a built-in screen protector? I have been searching Amazon all day and just cant seem to find anything besides the Love Mei case that is supper huge and heavy.

Again, thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer!
 
If you want to run a Viper ROM then I imagine the steps are:

1) unlock the bootloader (back up first, as this will erase the device)
2) flash the latest TWRP for the U11
3) using TWRP, take a backup of your current ROM (always a good idea to take a nandroid before flashing anything)
4) use TWRP to install ViperU

A custom ROM will usually already be rooted, so that side should be dealt with for you.

In fact the first post of the ViperU thread at XDA has an "installation" section which has a slightly more detailed version of these instructions.

Magisk is the new rooting method for recent android versions (rather than flashing superuser to /system). I'll be investigating it myself shortly when my new phone arrives (my current one is so old it's still using the old methods).
 
Hadron said:
If you want to run a Viper ROM then I imagine the steps are:

1) unlock the bootloader (back up first, as this will erase the device)
2) flash the latest TWRP for the U11
3) using TWRP, take a backup of your current ROM (always a good idea to take a nandroid before flashing anything)
4) use TWRP to install ViperU

A custom ROM will usually already be rooted, so that side should be dealt with for you.

In fact the first post of the ViperU thread at XDA has an "installation" section which has a slightly more detailed version of these instructions.

Magisk is the new rooting method for recent android versions (rather than flashing superuser to /system). I'll be investigating it myself shortly when my new phone arrives (my current one is so old it's still using the old methods).
Click to expand...

I was reading the installation section of the ViperU thread but wasn't sure if there was something more detailed somewhere else. Or something like a "one click" software that installs TWRP and roots the phone so all I would have to do is just flash ViperU.

When you say "back up first" in step #1 are you referring to just backing up my SD card or the whole phone in general? How would you do this if you don't have TWRP installed yet?

So am I gathering that the ROMS themselves are "rooted" these days and not the actual device?

So basically I don't need to worry about Magisk since I would be flashing ViperU and it is already rooted?
 
The closest to a one click would be to use Sunshine for temp S-off, any changes made prior to rebooting stick. Most roms are pre rooted, some are not like Lineage OS where you use a SU addon.

In the settings there may or may not be an option to backup the device, i believe there is a way though as i rooted one and did a sim unlock for a client the other day, and she did a backup prior to root.

A backup of the OS prior to flashing a rom will allow you to have a safetynet in case you end up with bootloops or softbrick the device. You can restore back to the point you made the backup or switch between stock and custom.
 
As long as you have TWRP you can flash the ROM, and flashing TWRP requires an unlocked bootloader (if Sunshine can do that without a reset then great, I've not read their documentation in enough detail to be sure with the U11).

So what does S-Off give you in addition? It lets you bypass some of the security checks that are present even in an unlocked and rooted HTC. So for example if you need to flash an RUU for any reason, if you are S-On you will only be able to flash one that matches your phone's cidnum and contains firmware that's at least as new as the current stuff. If you can't find one that matches those requirements, tough. If you are S-Off you can bypass those restrictions. It also lets you update the lower-level firmware (as opposed to the ROM, so stuff like radio, bootloader, etc) without flashing a full official RUU, which is your only option if S-On (and which will remove root, remove your custom ROM and wipe your phone). And if for any reason you wanted to pretend your phone has never been unlocked in the first place, S-Off lets you remove the evidence.

It also lets you do dodgier stuff, like flash modified bootloaders. My advice there is stay away from that unless you have a very good reason for doing it (in my book "removing some red text on bootup" is not a good enough reason, though back in the days of the original Desire I did do this in order to repartition the internal storage: that phone came with a whole 147 MB for your apps and data, so even pretty desperate measures were better than living with the stock partitions!).

Of course as Peter Parker's Uncle Ben said, with great power comes you-know-what. Those security checks are also safety checks, so S-Off will let you flash incompatible firmware as well. So a modicum of care is needed when taking advantage of this, but that's the name of the game with modding phones: make sure you know what you are doing before you do it. But it does give you more flexibility and more recovery and update options. I'm happier having it, but it is however not necessary simply in order to install a custom ROM, and many people do that without ever having S-Off.
 
Hadron said:
As long as you have TWRP you can flash the ROM, and flashing TWRP requires an unlocked bootloader (if Sunshine can do that without a reset then great, I've not read their documentation in enough detail to be sure with the U11).

So what does S-Off give you in addition? It lets you bypass some of the security checks that are present even in an unlocked and rooted HTC. So for example if you need to flash an RUU for any reason, if you are S-On you will only be able to flash one that matches your phone's cidnum and contains firmware that's at least as new as the current stuff. If you can't find one that matches those requirements, tough. If you are S-Off you can bypass those restrictions. It also lets you update the lower-level firmware (as opposed to the ROM, so stuff like radio, bootloader, etc) without flashing a full official RUU, which is your only option if S-On (and which will remove root, remove your custom ROM and wipe your phone). And if for any reason you wanted to pretend your phone has never been unlocked in the first place, S-Off lets you remove the evidence.

It also lets you do dodgier stuff, like flash modified bootloaders. My advice there is stay away from that unless you have a very good reason for doing it (in my book "removing some red text on bootup" is not a good enough reason, though back in the days of the original Desire I did do this in order to repartition the internal storage: that phone came with a whole 147 MB for your apps and data, so even pretty desperate measures were better than living with the stock partitions!).

Of course as Peter Parker's Uncle Ben said, with great power comes you-know-what. Those security checks are also safety checks, so S-Off will let you flash incompatible firmware as well. So a modicum of care is needed when taking advantage of this, but that's the name of the game with modding phones: make sure you know what you are doing before you do it. But it does give you more flexibility and more recovery and update options. I'm happier having it, but it is however not necessary simply in order to install a custom ROM, and many people do that without ever having S-Off.
Click to expand...

Great explanation! So in the end having S-Off isn't really worth it for the average user who just wants to run a custom ROM. I think I will be staying S-On instead of messing with things I don't really understand. I merely just enjoy using Viper ROMs since I am able to fully customize my phone's visual appearance.
 
jl79 said:
Does anyone have any experience with this software?

https://www.oneclickroot.com/?tap_a=12473-7742d5&tap_s=56833-1776f4
Click to expand...

Several red flags here.

Give this thread on XDA a read-through http://disq.us/p/1f8uhor
I also looked up the website registration and found that it's a Godaddy site registered through a domain proxy with privacy enabled (so you can't see who is the actual registrant).
Any root method that tries to charge for services is questionable.

Honestly, it sounds like a scam.
 
lunatic59 said:
Several red flags here.

Give this thread on XDA a read-through http://disq.us/p/1f8uhor
I also looked up the website registration and found that it's a Godaddy site registered through a domain proxy with privacy enabled (so you can't see who is the actual registrant).
Any root method that tries to charge for services is questionable.

Honestly, it sounds like a scam.
Click to expand...

Okie dokie! Thanks for the info!
 
I can not for the life of me find the info that someone on here once gave me about creating a folder in "C:\" (C:\Android) that had three files in it for ADB. I'm pretty sure one of them was fastboot, but can't remember what the other files were. This was the folder I used to start command prompt from to perform all the fastboot commands.
 
jl79 said:
I can not for the life of me find the info that someone on here once gave me about creating a folder in "C:\" (C:\Android) that had three files in it for ADB. I'm pretty sure one of them was fastboot, but can't remember what the other files were. This was the folder I used to start command prompt from to perform all the fastboot commands.
Click to expand...

Probably the mini-sdk.

https://androidforums.com/threads/mini-sdk.978229/#post-7408334

The attached file will give you want you need. Unzip it to wherever you want, but c:\android is pretty easy to type at the command line, so you are fine with that. :)
 
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