Root Root Noob

[abhineetkundu]

Guys,
I am a noob to this android world.
I have a couple of really basic (could be annoying) questions:
1) What is ROOT?
2) What are the benifits of ROOTing your phone?
3) Can I revert my phone to its stock shit after I have rooted it?
Thanks for the help.

 

[SUroot]

1) Although my FAQ in my sig is for the Desire, it will at least answer many of these questions for you. Just do not use any linked guides or ROMs in that thread

2) As above.

3) You can if you have an RUU available:

They are here:

Index of /shipped/Ace/

Check your version of software is available in that rather small list.

Also note that adroid 2.2.1 is not yet rooted I believe (so you cant if you have this although you may be able to downgrade somehow.)

 

[abhineetkundu]

1) Although my FAQ in my sig is for the Desire, it will at least answer many of these questions for you. Just do not use any linked guides or ROMs in that thread

2) As above.

3) You can if you have an RUU available:

They are here:

Index of /shipped/Ace/

Check your version of software is available in that rather small list.

Also note that adroid 2.2.1 is not yet rooted I believe (so you cant if you have this although you may be able to downgrade somehow.)

Thanks for the reply, but that did not help. I need to know the real meaning behind rooting any phone.

 

[SUroot]

What? It explains the real meaning. What exactly do you not understand?

This section alone helps you endlessly:

What is rooting?

Rooting is the process of gaining root access to Android. Android is based on the Linux operating system. Root access is superuser permissions (SU), much like an Administrator in Windows.

OK Great, but what does it get me?

Well, it gives you more control over your phone essentially. You can run full backup of your entire phone, control how the CPU is used by Android, save internal memory to name but a few.

Anything else?

If you use the unrEVOked method (recommended), this also flashes a custom recovery (Clockworkmod recovery).

What is recovery?

When you turn on your phone, the phone's bootloader loads 1 of 2 things. Android or recovery. When you flash a custom recovery using unrEVOked, the HTC recovery is replaced.

Whats it for?

Booting into the custom recovery gives you the ability to flash custom roms, take backups, clear data etc. UnrEVOked flashes this AND roots your existing Android OS. You do not have to use a custom ROM to be rooted using this method.

You just have to ignore the "unrevoked" bits

 

[Rubixious]

SU, what he means by:

Thanks for the reply, but that did not help. I need to know the real meaning behind rooting any phone.

is that he didn't actually read what was in your sig - that would require clicking outside this thread. As cliche as it might be, most people don't go too far in the direction of "Helping Self"

That said, it DID take me about 4-5 hours to fully understand the answers to Ab's questions when trying to research them myself only 48hrs ago, so I can sympathise

 

[SUroot]

Depending on your level IT savvy, it can be complex. The simplest frame of reference is the admin account on a windows pc.