douglascue
Lurker
Ya what is rooting why would one root their device and is it hard to do
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what is rooting and what does it do
- Thread starter douglascue
- Start date
semperLux
Member
Rooting your phone opens the OS to customization beyond what the manufacturer allows by giving you root access. After rooting your phone you can remove unwanted applications that the carrier installed thus freeing memory. It is not difficult to do but you need to read through procedures specific to your phone.
Astridax93
Member
Google Android is/was based on Linux, it has a Linux kernel at it's core.
On a Linux OS, a person using the super user account had complete control of every system function, there was nothing barred or off limits. The Super User account could be used to destroy the entire system once. The idea of having superusers in Linux was that anybody even administrators could use a normal account, If and when they needed access to something, assuming they knew the Super User password, they could log on to the super user account and perform the restricted option, or on newer Linux versions give permission for that singular activity, or run an su command. This extra level of security protected the system from malicious code, viruses and even unwitting administrators. If people only ever used the super user account when they needed to and a normal account for normal use malicious code would not be able to destroy the system without root access.
So this is the brief history root access. Anyway all of what semperLux said is true, root access on an android device can also give you access to the terminal, a command line interface. It allows you to install certain apps which are unavailable with our root access, such as apps2sd.
Many manufacturers limit root access because they don't want to sort out ruined phones because people didn't know what they were doing and deleted files by accident. Many operators don't want it because it can be used to get rid of their restricted (uninstallable apps) and enable things like wifi tethering without a tethering agreement.
Therefore please note that if you root, it will often invalidate the manufacturer's warranty.
On a Linux OS, a person using the super user account had complete control of every system function, there was nothing barred or off limits. The Super User account could be used to destroy the entire system once. The idea of having superusers in Linux was that anybody even administrators could use a normal account, If and when they needed access to something, assuming they knew the Super User password, they could log on to the super user account and perform the restricted option, or on newer Linux versions give permission for that singular activity, or run an su command. This extra level of security protected the system from malicious code, viruses and even unwitting administrators. If people only ever used the super user account when they needed to and a normal account for normal use malicious code would not be able to destroy the system without root access.
So this is the brief history root access. Anyway all of what semperLux said is true, root access on an android device can also give you access to the terminal, a command line interface. It allows you to install certain apps which are unavailable with our root access, such as apps2sd.
Many manufacturers limit root access because they don't want to sort out ruined phones because people didn't know what they were doing and deleted files by accident. Many operators don't want it because it can be used to get rid of their restricted (uninstallable apps) and enable things like wifi tethering without a tethering agreement.
Therefore please note that if you root, it will often invalidate the manufacturer's warranty.
1. One of the most frequently asked about topics.
2. Something that you shouldn't try IMO if you can't fish for yourself. Most Android forum sites have dedicated forums, FAQ's, guides. Not to mention what you can find with a simple Google search. That said, people are more than willing to help you on the path to root but you do need to take the initiative.
I wonder how many posts of, "What is rooting, and how do I do it?", were followed up by posts of, "I just tried to root and now my phone isn't working, how do I fix it?"
http://androidforums.com/all-things-root/