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what is rooting?

ok i think im beginning to get the picture here.

im actually waiting for my phone to come. im eager to start fiddling around with it.

im not even sure if it can be rooted yet. im getting a galaxy s2 skyrocket. but a lot of great info for whenever that comes if it hasn't yet.

thanks for the help.
 
dan330 said:
1. true... but "flashing" is the act of throwing a custom OS on to your phone. it "flash" on top of the existing one. totally replacing it. still android OS.

2. Themes are different than custom ROMs. themes are exactly what you understand it to be. changing the look of the environment. from small to larger changes..depending on what you want. ROMs are changes in the OS, but many custom ROMs also incorporate themes too. (NOTE**: someone might take a someone elses custom ROM, add a few themes changes to their liking. then put it out as a new custom ROM...that is why it is confusing.

3. depends on the ROM you choose to do this with. stock OS (rooted) will need an app to do WIFI tether. some ROMs let you use the carrier app to wifi tether; the dev put in an app to do it.

4. true.. but some mods are not that complicated.. the more popular mods are sometimes added (cooked) into the ROM by the dev.

5. true.

6. they are on the Market. and amazon market and brainapp..
Click to expand...

Hey dan, I've got a flashing question since your on the subject. The Samsung Galaxy S2 International phone I recently acquired had already been rooted and also with a custom ROM. I've begun reading about backing up my current state just in case anything happens such wiping data, cache, dalvik cache etc. before flashing. Can I flash another custom ROM to replace current one without messing up the phone seeing that I don't have the stock ROM to fall back on?
 
riverob said:
Hey dan, I've got a flashing question since your on the subject. The Samsung Galaxy S2 International phone I recently acquired had already been rooted and also with a custom ROM. I've begun reading about backing up my current state just in case anything happens such wiping data, cache, dalvik cache etc. before flashing. Can I flash another custom ROM to replace current one without messing up the phone seeing that I don't have the stock ROM to fall back on?
Click to expand...

.. I don't have that device.. But I would guess...

You can find a completely stock ROM for your device. So don't worry about that.

It is a great safety net.. To always do a nandriod backup before you make any changes. If you don't know.. Nandriod backup is built into the recovery, when the device was rooted.

Flashing a ROM.. Will completely replace your current OS.. So a good nandriod backup would be the smart thing... You never know if something might go wrong. With a nandriod backup.. You can restore and start over
 
about rooting.
would u recomend buying an already rooted phone?
its the samsung i897 (us version of galaxy)
its off ebay the seller says it unlocked and rooted and runs 2.3.5 instead of 2.1
from feedback he seems to deal in phones and has sold a few of the i897's all rooted and unlocked some even having ICS! and he recieved positive feedback from those purchases.
i'm just scaredsince i've heard that wiht rooting the phone can shutdown or certain apps can at least or camera fails and various other problems.
would u recomend buying it? (an already rooted phone)?
 
Ramshackle said:
Taken from the Cyanogen Wiki CyanogenMod Wiki



Most carriers "lock" their handsets to discourage customers from taking their handset and moving to another carrier. Carriers also depend on "exclusivity" agreements to encourage users to switch to their plans so they can use a particular handset (e.g., Apple's iPhone on the AT&T network). To use the handset on another carrier's network it would be necessary to "unlock" the handset. This is done with a code based on the IMEI of the handset that can be provided by your carrier or firms on the internet that are slightly more reliable than west African ebay bidders. Unlocking is not possible with CyanogenMod or any other Android replacement.
Furthermore, they may impose software limitations to prevent using the handset in a manner that might undercut their voice plans (e.g., Skype, Google Voice), or putting strain on the data network (e.g., tethering, streaming video). The way to get around this is to acquire 'root' (i.e. Administrator) access on the device, so you can install/modify/fix/break anything you want.
Click to expand...

I am not to sure about this, when I buy a phone I have 2 options, an unlocked version or locked. Unlocked version you can use any provider but the phone costs much more. The locked version, in some countries they are free from your provider. I don't think we can call this ROOTED phones, correct me if I am wrong..
 
For all you people so concerned with voiding your warranty, a little story. A friend of mine was having problems charging here AT&T phone. I told her look, it's under warranty, you have insurance. Either call them up and tell them you lost it or take it in to get it repaired. Well, turns out she has a $250 deductible on her insurance, no sense doing that. Then the sales rep spends a half hour trying to scare her out of sending the phone to the manufacturer to be repaired stating more than likely it will be determined that it was due to user error and she will have to pay a $300 fee. So, of course she just buys a new phone. lmao.

So, I don't know AT&T that well, but sounds like that warranty and insurance are both worthless. Not only wouldn't I pay for either, I certainly wouldn't worry about rooting my phone if it were AT&T.
 
I think I'm not going to root my phone. I have samsug galaxi i5800 and I can't update my OS I was looking at Setinngs>Abaut phone. and I don't have an update system option.
Why?/How can I harmless update my phone from 2.1 to 2.2 or higher?
(without hacking system)
 
Your options are either to wait for the carrier or manufacturer to release an update (depending on whether the phone has carrier-modified firmware or not), or to root and upgrade using a custom ROM. I'm afraid those are the only choices.
 
ggp said:
:confused: I've seen posts on how, but don't understand what rooting is. Been anxiously awaiting the first VZW android phones, so am now trying to quickly immerse myself.
Click to expand...

We all know android OS is working on Linux so on linux root acc is the same like super admin on windows. When you root your phone you get full acsses on system so you can install unique themes and aslo screw up your phone. If you want to root your phone be careful. :)
 
That's why you should always take a nandroid backup (backup made from recovery) before fiddling with system, as well as before flashing ROMs.

If you take care and precautions these things can be safe. But it is surprising how many people forget to take a backup. If you don't then it's generally recoverable, but a lot more hassle and may involve data loss.
 
Hadron said:
That's why you should always take a nandroid backup (backup made from recovery) before fiddling with system, as well as before flashing ROMs.

If you take care and precautions these things can be safe. But it is surprising how many people forget to take a backup. If you don't then it's generally recoverable, but a lot more hassle and may involve data loss.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, some root guides dont tell people to backup!

Yes, whatever my phone cant install roms.
 
mecosmommy said:
So rooting an android is like jailbreaking an iphone? I had an iPhone for years, this is all new to me.
Click to expand...

Sort of.

Rooting an Android is the same exact thing as getting admin access on your PC.

You don't have to change anything once rooted but you can if you want. You maintain access to the Play Store, same as before.

It's ok to say it's similar to jailbreaking, but conceptually, it's much more simple.

Rooting has its own insider language, that's the biggest barrier.

Root is the name of the Admin account. Rooting makes that you instead of the carrier. You get to install your most important admin tool that we call a custom recovery. With it, you do admin installations and we call installing, "flashing."

That's really the whole deal in a nutshell. :)

By the way, welcome to the forums! :)
 
in your PC computer... you know what the ROOT directory is?
it is the main director of all on your harddrive. From the root directory you have full view and access to all other directories.

now, imagine if i locked you into a sub-directory like say the "Desktop" directory. You can only see what is that directory and the sub-directories located in it.
you could never be able to get to the "Windows" or "systems" directory. that would stop you from making any big changes.

Carriers.. are locking you out of the ROOT directory.. keeping you from making any system or OS changes. They think this will be safer for you and the phone. Which in some cases it is! :)

so.. when you ROOT your android phone... you are giving yourself full access to the ROOT directory. Which means full access!
 
To keep it plain simple rooting allows apps to change the operating system files. It also allows changing the operating system itself(this is called to flash a rom)
 
I am so glad I found this thread, and proud to introduce me a noob - coz I know I see a lot of warm and friendly people out here.

The main purpose of coming here is getting some help and sharing my experience/concerns with my first ever android phone, Motorola Razr Maxx - which I received today. I am sure I am not the only person in the world who has had this problems/dilemma.

I come from a nokia world (have used 3 symbian phones) and I extensively use maps and Sat nav on my previous phone( Nokia-X6) and it truly has helped me a lot both while travelling at work(inland and abroad) and personal life. I stopped carrying my tomtom device about couple of years ago ever since I got my X6. I would still say the sat nav software on X6 is not that brilliant as tomtom, but does a good job.

My mobile plan with Vodafone does not have a huge amount of data allowance - just 100MB per month). Its fit for purpose for me becuase I do like few dozen pages of browsing (mainly train and toilet seat browsing of facebook, news and sports and email browsing ) and data usage was always well within 50-75MB per month. I really do not want to spend more money and upgrade my mobile plan to have 500MB or 1GB data, but at the same time I am dependent on an offline map on my phone, especially when travelling abroad. That is where I am finding the 'android move' causing me a dilemma.

Looking at android, I can certainly see why it is a winner in comparison with Symbian in all departments except one - maps. Offline google maps are a 'limited feature' and they are not fully offline like nokia, though google maps allows some amount of caching. Caching is really not fit for purpose for me, becuase you need to do some 'homework' to get the caching feature enabled everytime you make a journey or trip. I really do not understand why google cannot offer offline maps, so it makes people life easier and there is no dependency on the network provider to download the maps from a server located somewhere in Antartica. Also, in my Razr, everytime I want to access googlemaps, it keeps asking me to logon everytime - which I find very very strange and annoying. I do have a google account, but do no not use it at all, but why on earth I have to use a google id to use my phone maps - I do not understand this. I have tried every other option on the phone, it keeps coming with google login prompt, otherwise it will not simply display the map. Then I looked up on the internet, and found some pages that talks about on "rooting", basically going as a root/admin to eliminate google dependency. Is that a solution or only solution to avoid google login prompts everytime I open googlemaps. I think there can be a simple way?

Please someone could post some thoughts/suggestion. If there is not a real solution to offline maps, I might return the handset in exchange for a nokia again - but I really think there are many people out there like me who is thinking of making a move from Nokia world to Android hence I am posting this to get comments.

I know my first post has gone really long, thanks for reading - any thoughts/suggestion most welcome.

Thanks

Henry.
 
Hi Henry, and welcome to AF :)

I don't think rooting is the answer to your questions, so it might be better if we moved them to a thread of their own? If you can suggest a thread title you'd like I can do this for you.

There are paid apps that allow offline navigation with Android, but TBH for the use I make I find that caching is fine - current versions of Maps allow quite large areas to be stored on the SD card for offline use, though it may depend on how far you travel in a single trip whether this suffices. Navigation using this app does however require a live data connection if it has to recalculate a route, so it might be that a dedicated offline navigation app would suit you better.

The Maps app never asks me for a login. Have you not set up a Google account on the phone?
 
Great thread.
Here's an example of why I rooted my tablet (Galaxy Tab 10.1):
My tab came with HC 3.2. In August, we finally got the update to ICS 4.0.4.
For some unknown reason, the 5Ghz WIFI band isn't enabled even though the tab is capable of using it. Only the 2.4Ghz band is enabled.
There's a file that can be edited to enable the 5Ghz band, but the device must be rooted to allow that file to be edited. Without root, it can't be done (which is actually a good thing).
There are numerous other things that can be done on a rooted device, some good, some not so good. I found the hardest thing about rooting my tab was finding the correct files. Lots of excellent guides "out there" on how to root, but often there's conflicting info.
Once I found the right files for my tab, the actual process of rooting was quite simple.

BTW, if anyone needs the files for rooting the Galaxy Tab 10.1 WIFI only model, I have them in my Dropbox. Send me a PM and I'll send you the links.
The files are CWM 5.5.0.4 and SuperSU. These are the files I used and my tab runs great.
 
For those who want custom themes but not into rooting try replacing your stock launcher with something like Go Launcher.
 
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