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Root Rooting Questions

S

spatch1969

Newbie
All,

I am new here and have a few basic questions. I have read the rooting guides, FAQ's etc but I still have some queries I cannot find answers for.

I am planning to root for the following reasons:
1) Want to free internal memory
2) remove some bloatware
3) speed up phone
4) get complete backups

I am not sure how far down the modified ROM route I want to go so I am thinking of just rooting the stock ROM and seeing where I go from there.

My phone info:
Desire on O2 (UK)
Android 2.2.2 (so will need to use Revolutionary)
ROM (software version) 2.29.207.4

My questions are as follows:
a) Assume I can root stock rom, and it will work as it did before, just rooted?
b) Once rooted, does the phone stay rooted with stock ROM, or do I always have to access fastboot to select recovery when booting to keep it rooted?
c) I have run sms backup and my backup (on unrooted phone). Can I use this to install apps, sms's etc onto a new custom/Sense ROM?
d) What exactly will i have to do to phone after I install a custom ROM, set up networking for O2 coms, text and voicemail numbers, service/message centre details etc? This is normally already set up when the phone is new and it all just works.
e) Can the backup from a rooted desire running either Titanium or Nandroid be applied to a replacement rooted phone so that all sms massages can be transferred? (i.e when upgrading to new phone)
f) Can I backup my ROM (in its entirety) so I can reinstall if required as I cannot see my version on the 'Shipped ROM' pages.
g) Lastly, on Mattb81's post on rooting with Revolutionary, it talks about using a custom recovery 'Amon-Ra 2.0.1' and then in the rooting part, 'flash zip from SD card'. I am assuming that neither of these will overwrite the stock ROM that is already installed.

I am sure these are quite basic questions but before I embark on the rooting process I want to fully understand what I am actually doing to the phone.

Many thanks
Mark
 
spatch1969 said:
All,

I am new here and have a few basic questions. I have read the rooting guides, FAQ's etc but I still have some queries I cannot find answers for.

I am planning to root for the following reasons:
1) Want to free internal memory
2) remove some bloatware
3) speed up phone
4) get complete backups

I am not sure how far down the modified ROM route I want to go so I am thinking of just rooting the stock ROM and seeing where I go from there.

My phone info:
Desire on O2 (UK)
Android 2.2.2 (so will need to use Revolutionary)
ROM (software version) 2.29.207.4

My questions are as follows:
a) Assume I can root stock rom, and it will work as it did before, just rooted?
b) Once rooted, does the phone stay rooted with stock ROM, or do I always have to access fastboot to select recovery when booting to keep it rooted?
c) I have run sms backup and my backup (on unrooted phone). Can I use this to install apps, sms's etc onto a new custom/Sense ROM?
d) What exactly will i have to do to phone after I install a custom ROM, set up networking for O2 coms, text and voicemail numbers, service/message centre details etc? This is normally already set up when the phone is new and it all just works.
e) Can the backup from a rooted desire running either Titanium or Nandroid be applied to a replacement rooted phone so that all sms massages can be transferred? (i.e when upgrading to new phone)
f) Can I backup my ROM (in its entirety) so I can reinstall if required as I cannot see my version on the 'Shipped ROM' pages.
g) Lastly, on Mattb81's post on rooting with Revolutionary, it talks about using a custom recovery 'Amon-Ra 2.0.1' and then in the rooting part, 'flash zip from SD card'. I am assuming that neither of these will overwrite the stock ROM that is already installed.

I am sure these are quite basic questions but before I embark on the rooting process I want to fully understand what I am actually doing to the phone.

Many thanks
Mark
Click to expand...


a) You can but this wont help you address 1). Best thing is to flash a sense based custom rom with a2sd+ Script
b) Stays rooted. Same for custom Pre-rooted roms.
c) Yes, although titanium is better for apps.
d) Nothing really. Just restore your apps. Worth installing apn backup and restore just incase though.
e) nandroid is an entire image of the phone. A snapshot. It can indeed be rstored on any desire. SMS backup+ is the best SMS backup. dont use titanium for that
f) Only once you have a custom recovery. If you use revolutionary to S-off, you can nadroid before rooting.
g) No, it will overwrite recovery, not rom. Best advice:


  • S-off with revolutionary and stick with standard clockwork mod recovery
  • Nandroid backup
  • Flash rooted stock rom (Teppic74's rooted GB recommended)
  • Download 4ext recovery updater app
  • Flash 4ext touch recovery to replace clockwork.
 
Thanks for replies, please could I ask you to expand a bit.

SUroot said:
S-off with revolutionary and stick with standard clockwork mod recovery
Click to expand...
OK with S-off. So should I use clockwork mod recovery instead of the Amon one recommended in Mattb81's guide? If so, in that guide, due to my software version, it says I should only use Amon?


SUroot said:
Nandroid backup
Click to expand...
Understood


SUroot said:
Flash rooted stock rom (Teppic74's rooted GB recommended)
Click to expand...
This will overwrite my current stock ROM? If this is just a rooted stock ROM, why is this better than me just sticking with my rooted stock ROM?


SUroot said:
Download 4ext recovery updater app
Flash 4ext touch recovery to replace clockwork.
Click to expand...
What are these programs doing? Are they better than clockwork at loading recoveries?


Thanks
Mark
 
4ext is a different recovery from clockwork mod, but it is the one we now recommend, but you dont have to use it. like suroot said, as your already s-off you can just install the app and it will flash the new recovery for you. Teppics rom is just a stock rom with a script built into it so you can use a2sd+ if you wish to (see faq's). One other thing i will say, is never accept any official updates on your device or you WILL lose root access and screw up your phone. Good luck.
 
Teppic's ROM has busybox (needed for 4Ext to work, so you need this ROM before you can install 4EXT recovery), Init.d support (Allows scripts to run at start up) and a2sd+.

being rooted alone is not enough to do most the things that rooting allows. You need these additional things. Its actually much easier to flash a custom rom than to make your rooted ROM as functional. Plus its optimised...
 
Thanks Shauny/SURoot.

I am going to do this:
1) follow Mattb81's guide to get my stock ROM rooted
2) Nandroid backup and Titanium so that I can install apps and data back on
3) then probably flash Teppics ROM
4) install 4EXT (although I am still trying to understand what this does)?
5) partition SD card to allow ApSD+ to work.

Sound OK??
Mark
 
4EXT is a recovery liek clockworkmod and amon-ra. This is where you flash roms from and take nandroid backups. 4EXT is the best recovery available. The thing is the way it installs is using an app called 4EXt recovery updater which requires root and busybox in your rom....

Unless youre going to use fastboot commands as linked in step 3 of Matts guide, then you can do it straight away...
 
May as well partition sd card whilst in recovery (via mount usd storage or something like that) before flashing Teppics Rom - and use Gparted to do it (follow SU's guide on setting up VMware for Gparted).

If you use Revolutionary it will put a version of ClockWorkMod custom recovery on your phone - this custom recovery allows you to take full nandroid backups/restore nandroids, flash custom roms etc. It should be good enough for you to flash Teppics Rom, but the last stable and recommended version of CWM was 2.5.0.7 so we don't recommend using versions after that including the one that Revolutionary will install. So as the guys have said once you have custom rom installed and since you will be S-OFF after Revolutionary recommend you get 4 Ext Touch Recovery to replace CWM.
 
saltire said:
May as well partition sd card whilst in recovery (via mount usd storage or something like that) before flashing Teppics Rom - and use Gparted to do it (follow SU's guide on setting up VMware for Gparted).

If you use Revolutionary it will put a version of ClockWorkMod custom recovery on your phone - this custom recovery allows you to take full nandroid backups/restore nandroids, flash custom roms etc. It should be good enough for you to flash Teppics Rom, but the last stable and recommended version of CWM was 2.5.0.7 so we don't recommend using versions after that including the one that Revolutionary will install. So as the guys have said once you have custom rom installed and since you will be S-OFF after Revolutionary recommend you get 4 Ext Touch Recovery to replace CWM.
Click to expand...

Thanks,

I am going to partition it now as I already have a CD with GParted on it. If I am correct, I can just shrink the size of the FAT partition (i.e do not have to reformat or anything), then create and Ext3 partion on the freed up space for Ap2SD+ to use.
 
SUroot said:
4EXT is a recovery liek clockworkmod and amon-ra. This is where you flash roms from and take nandroid backups. 4EXT is the best recovery available. The thing is the way it installs is using an app called 4EXt recovery updater which requires root and busybox in your rom....
Click to expand...

OK, I think I understand. It is a utility that you can boot to to flash ROM's onto the system part of the phone, or to run backups as you say. Not really a recovery per se, but a utility that can be used to recover the system (ROM etc)

SUroot said:
Unless youre going to use fastboot commands as linked in step 3 of Matts guide, then you can do it straight away...
Click to expand...
Sorry, but could you advise how I would do this straight away as i suppose I would not be following Mattb81's instrructions anymore?

Thanks for ongoing help, this is new to me.
Mark
 
spatch1969 said:
OK, I think I understand. It is a utility that you can boot to to flash ROM's onto the system part of the phone, or to run backups as you say. Not really a recovery per se, but a utility that can be used to recover the system (ROM etc)
Click to expand...


No, it IS a recovery but you need the app to update it.... Its a recovery.img the same as Amon-Ra, clockwork and the official HTC one thats on there currently.
 
SUroot said:
No, it IS a recovery but you need the app to update it.... Its a recovery.img the same as Amon-Ra, clockwork and the official HTC one thats on there currently.
Click to expand...

OK, so what is it an image of, not the ROM as that is a seperate item? This was always something that I did not get with Mattb81's guide using Amon, what is this image that I am flashing to recovery?
 
OK, thanks, still dont really understand but....

Anyway, onwards.

First step completed, partitioned SD card, 1GB to ext3.
Now onto S-off
 
What's not to understand? Recovery is explained in more detail in the rooting faq (see the "all things root guide" sticky thread). Read this now as you must understand this before you understand or do anything else.
 
Yes, I have read that, and numerous times. It is just my understanding of what an image does. Thinking about burning as iso image to a disc (like GParted) this sets up a platform that you can perform operations from (eg partitioning the SD card). If the recovery image is the same thing, then yes, I understand what it is doing.
 
SUroot said:
It's just a file type, yes like a cd .img file. It's not really relevant
Click to expand...
Yes, but I wanted to understand exactly what I was doing before going ahead.

Performing Nandroid backup now.

I am looking at the Teppic ROM, and his thread, and I cannot seem to download, just keeps going to Ilivid file downloader. Any ideas??

Also in the thread he states that his version of Gingerbread has a version of radio that is different to mine. I have heard very bad things about flashing radios. Do I need his radio or will mine do (mine is 5.11.05.27 I think).

And lastly, if I flash the Teppic ROM, I am assuming that if I download and install Titanium, this will install all apps, data, settings, apn etc or is there something else I need to backup (take a note of) before flashing. I have also backed up SMS's seperately.

Thanks
 
You don't need to change radio. You don't have to flash one with teppic either.

Search the thread for the word mirror. Think its page 429 there is a download link.

With titanium, you don't want to restore settings. Use "missing apps with data" and just make sure you don't restore any system data
 
I don't wish to be picky but to use apps2sd with teppics ROM you will need to flash his apps2sd script after flashing his ROM. It's available as an attachment at the bottom of his first post on page 1 of his ROM's thread on XDA (here) along with other mods & tweaks.
 
Sorry, one other question. I am ready to install Teppic ROM. Just reading again the FAQ's it states:

"set up the phone with network and market access and download Titanium again and whatever data restore app you used for sms"

Obviously I will need to set the phone with network and market access, so please can you tell me what data would need to be installed (apn etc). I can make a note before wiping if necessary.

Thanks
 
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