Root root questions

[fletchlives]

hi there-
I'm a noob. I hope these questions havent been asked before. I searched a bit and didn't really find anything. I just got a thunderbolt, and it's my first android phone. I want to root it, but there are some concepts I see thrown around that i don't really understand. I'm a software engineer, and very familiar w/ linux, so you can lay the tech-heavy stuff on me!

1. What is a ROM? I'm guessing that this is just a prebuilt version of the android OS that you copy over the existing factory one? ("flash" it? as in flashing the firmware?)

2. I'm guessing that "Rooting" is not exactly the same thing as flashing a ROM? Rooting just means becoming root? But you need to be root in order to flash a new ROM?

3. I see a lot of warnings about "bricking" the phone. To me, "bricking" means making the phone into a "brick" - ie. totally unusable. In the event that something went wrong with the rooting/ROM process, isn't there a way to just restore to the factory default?

4. I see warnings about voiding the warranty. My question: how would they know? If i ever had a problem with the device, couldn't I just restore it before i brought it in for service?

Really, my main motivation for rooting is 1)mobile hotspot 2)get rid of the ridiculous carrier bloat/spy/malware that comes w/ the phone. What is my best net ROM? Just root and delete stuff?

Thanks!

 

[Papadroid]

hi there-
I'm a noob. I hope these questions havent been asked before. I searched a bit and didn't really find anything. I just got a thunderbolt, and it's my first android phone. I want to root it, but there are some concepts I see thrown around that i don't really understand. I'm a software engineer, and very familiar w/ linux, so you can lay the tech-heavy stuff on me!

1. What is a ROM? I'm guessing that this is just a prebuilt version of the android OS that you copy over the existing factory one? ("flash" it? as in flashing the firmware?)

A ROM is the Android OS in this case. Some are stock that give you root access and some are heavily customized. And yes you flash it like flashing firmware through a custom recovery.

2. I'm guessing that "Rooting" is not exactly the same thing as flashing a ROM? Rooting just means becoming root? But you need to be root in order to flash a new ROM?

Simply, yes.

3. I see a lot of warnings about "bricking" the phone. To me, "bricking" means making the phone into a "brick" - ie. totally unusable. In the event that something went wrong with the rooting/ROM process, isn't there a way to just restore to the factory default?

It is extremely difficult to brick the phone (not impossible but most are hardware related problems). Recovering from what is considered a soft brick (meaning the phone will not boot into the OS) you can typically get into recovery and flash either a fresh ROM or a nandroid backup (basically an image of the OS partition). And yes there are some RUU files (an executable file that will restore the phone to the latest stock firmware) that can take you back to stock.

4. I see warnings about voiding the warranty. My question: how would they know? If i ever had a problem with the device, couldn't I just restore it before i brought it in for service?

There is no way for them to know if you restore your phone back to stock.

 

[fletchlives]

Many Thanks!
So just to clarify - according to this guide: http://androidforums.com/thunderbolt-all-things-root/353591-how-some-root-terminology.html
(post #3)
I first have to root the phone to be able to put the clockworkMod on it, then use that to flash the ROM? I'm confused - only because, in the computer word, you would install an operating system from a level ABOVE - ie, you don't need to be root to completely wipe a disk and install a new OS, because the OS never even gets loaded.

 

[Papadroid]

Many Thanks!
So just to clarify - according to this guide: http://androidforums.com/thunderbolt-all-things-root/353591-how-some-root-terminology.html
(post #3)
I first have to root the phone to be able to put the clockworkMod on it, then use that to flash the ROM? I'm confused - only because, in the computer word, you would install an operating system from a level ABOVE - ie, you don't need to be root to completely wipe a disk and install a new OS, because the OS never even gets loaded.

In this case, yes you have to root first and then you can put on a custom recovery. Mainly because of the secured bootloader that the phone comes with. During the root process you are going to follow, you will no longer have a secured bootloader giving you more options of flashing in the bootloader. If the bootloader was unsecured from the beginning then all you would have to do is flash a custom recovery to get you to flashing a ROM with root access. I hope I was able to explain it well enough to understand.

 

[fletchlives]

In this case, yes you have to root first and then you can put on a custom recovery. Mainly because of the secured bootloader that the phone comes with. During the root process you are going to follow, you will no longer have a secured bootloader giving you more options of flashing in the bootloader. If the bootloader was unsecured from the beginning then all you would have to do is flash a custom recovery to get you to flashing a ROM with root access. I hope I was able to explain it well enough to understand.

Yes - I think I'm starting to get it. So, if I want to get back to 'factory' - I really just have to back-up my initial setup and re-flash that? But, then, wont that image be rooted with the s-off bootloader?

 

[Yeahha]

Yes if you want to revert to unrooted you will need to actually unroot which involves changing the revolutionary hboot to the engineering hboot that can be overwritten. Once you do that you flash the nohboot stock RUU and then flash the s-on hboot ruu to be fully unrooted with s-on.

 

[scotty85]

Yes - I think I'm starting to get it. So, if I want to get back to 'factory' - I really just have to back-up my initial setup and re-flash that? But, then, wont that image be rooted with the s-off bootloader?

If you rooted with revolutionary,and followed their recomendations to make a backup before flashing the superuser file,then that backup will be unrooted. The s-off bootloader will remain,its a seperate part of the phone from the system,data,and recovery and isn't able to be changed with the backup.

For all but warranty return,restoring that backup,or flashing the "no hboot" file in the unroot directions are 100% good enuff to get you "unrooted".

The revolutionary hboot offers several advantages over the stock s-on hboot,and id pretty strongly reccomend to leave it in place unless you have hardware failure and need to send the phone back to vzw.