A
Android Question
Guest
is root and flash the samething
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Rukbat
Extreme Android User
No.
"Getting root" means getting administrative access to the operating system. (In Windows, if you right-click a program, there's a "Run as administrator" option. That's the same thing.)
In Linux (and Android is Linux), you get root by running a program called su. Except Android comes without su. And to install su you have to have root access. Which you can't unless you run su. Which ... as you can see, there's a problem.
In almost every phone, there's some little hole through which you can sneak in a program that, until you turn the phone off, gives you root access. You use that to install su (and a couple of other programs),
Since most phone users aren't comfortable around a Linux command line, there are programs you can download (different ones for different phones) that have everything needed to "root" the phone (get temporary root, install programs, delete the temporary root program, etc.)
That's rooting.
Flashing? That's simply copying software to the phone. The physical part of the phone you're copying to used to be called (way back around the time cellphones were invented) flash memory (because the process by which it was written to reminded the inventor of the flash of a camera). Writing data to flash memory is called flashing.
It's usually used in cellphones to mean writing a new ROM to the phone. ROM? Well, that originally stood for Read Only Memory. It was a chip that was manufactured with the data already on it. Then came EPROM - Electrically Programmable ROM. Except it was erased using UV light. (I still have a UV eraser somewhere in the garage.) That became EAROM - Electrically Alterable ROM - you could erase it without the light. That became Flash ROM. So now ROM means both the firmware you put into the phone and the hardware you put it into and, since the hardware is flash ROM, you "flash" the phone.
All phones are flashed with some ROM, all at the factory with the "stock" ROM, some by owners with custom ROMs. Very few phones (relatively speaking) are rooted.
And for most phone users, neither rooting nor flashing are anything they'd gain anything from. Most of the features the casual user would use on a custom ROM can be gotten by installing a few apps. Rooting? Most users wouldn't know what to do with a rooted app, because the apps they use most are apps that don't need root. (And a rooted app isn't held back by anything - you can erase the entire phone with a rooted app and never get a warning that you're turning your phone into a desk ornament.)
"Getting root" means getting administrative access to the operating system. (In Windows, if you right-click a program, there's a "Run as administrator" option. That's the same thing.)
In Linux (and Android is Linux), you get root by running a program called su. Except Android comes without su. And to install su you have to have root access. Which you can't unless you run su. Which ... as you can see, there's a problem.
In almost every phone, there's some little hole through which you can sneak in a program that, until you turn the phone off, gives you root access. You use that to install su (and a couple of other programs),
Since most phone users aren't comfortable around a Linux command line, there are programs you can download (different ones for different phones) that have everything needed to "root" the phone (get temporary root, install programs, delete the temporary root program, etc.)
That's rooting.
Flashing? That's simply copying software to the phone. The physical part of the phone you're copying to used to be called (way back around the time cellphones were invented) flash memory (because the process by which it was written to reminded the inventor of the flash of a camera). Writing data to flash memory is called flashing.
It's usually used in cellphones to mean writing a new ROM to the phone. ROM? Well, that originally stood for Read Only Memory. It was a chip that was manufactured with the data already on it. Then came EPROM - Electrically Programmable ROM. Except it was erased using UV light. (I still have a UV eraser somewhere in the garage.) That became EAROM - Electrically Alterable ROM - you could erase it without the light. That became Flash ROM. So now ROM means both the firmware you put into the phone and the hardware you put it into and, since the hardware is flash ROM, you "flash" the phone.
All phones are flashed with some ROM, all at the factory with the "stock" ROM, some by owners with custom ROMs. Very few phones (relatively speaking) are rooted.
And for most phone users, neither rooting nor flashing are anything they'd gain anything from. Most of the features the casual user would use on a custom ROM can be gotten by installing a few apps. Rooting? Most users wouldn't know what to do with a rooted app, because the apps they use most are apps that don't need root. (And a rooted app isn't held back by anything - you can erase the entire phone with a rooted app and never get a warning that you're turning your phone into a desk ornament.)