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What to do with a rooted Nexus One?

I'm considering rooting my phone, but I'm kind of on the fence. First, I don't really want to void my warranty, but since I bought the phone used do I even have a warranty anymore? Second, I'm not really that interested in custom ROMs at this point since I'm new to Android OS and I'm happy with the way things are stock for now. So my question is... What can I do with a rooted phone running the stock Froyo ROM? Anything cool/interesting, or does it not even pay to bother rooting if I'm going to keep it stock?

I waited 3 months before rooting and I thought the same as you, wasn't interested in custom ROMs and all. Once I finally rooted and loaded cyanogen ROM, it completely changed my thinking. I highly highly recommend using cyanogen if you root. I can't stress enough. Things wkt can do with root are many, 720p video hack, black notification bar, themes, meta morph, audio volume hack, ROM manager, titanium backup, nand backups! The list is endless. Hell nand backup alone is worth rooting.

Is there a place or a link I can find more information about just stuff that I can do with a rooted phone BESIDES installing custom ROMs? Everything I usually find is just about ROMs. I want to just get my feet wet a little before I decide to just jump right in. For now I'm just interested in stuff I can do with plain old vanilla android once it's been rooted.

Look for apps that require root, see what they are and if you need any of them.

Here's my current list of things "to root for", I haven't yet..
Reasons to root:
Just root, nothing else:
- Adblock host file
- ClockSync
- GScripter
- Remove built-in crap (Amazon MP3)
- Screenshots
After installing recovery image
- Nandroid
After installing custom rom
- Black notification bar

Depending on where you live, you might still have warranty. For example, in Europe, the warranty is by default 2 years on the device. So it doesn't matter if you got it second hand, as long as the device still has warranty, you're OK.
Secondly, you can root your device without unlocking the bootloader. Check this thread for more info. At step 18, before doing the 2 'exit' commands, also take the time to rename /system/etc/recovery-install.sh & install + make executable a file called flash_image (google it to find a download) into /system/bin. This way you can install a custom recovery (e.g. for doing nandroid backups) and will make installing custom ROMs later a lot less painful.
A rooted stock FRF91 can already do many things, search for 'root' in the market and you can find tons of apps that require root privileges and that will run fine on stock. However, the really interesting things (like color trackball alert, firewalling, proxy support, ...) will require you to install a custom ROM.
I rooted my stock N1 with the above procedure a couple of weeks ago, and installed Cyanogen6 RC2 ROM to get some of the more advanced functionality. Been working like a charm and I've actually managed to get a lot more out of my device AND have longer battery life

[Q] Rooting Questions; Effects and Consequences...

Sorry for the wall of text and for being a total noob and thank you for all your help !
So I've been researching all night (read the wiki to no avail too; so please don't simply direct me there) and I have some unanswered noob rooting questions questions and need general reassurance...
Basically I want is full and lasting root permissions on FRG83D 2.2.1 so I can remove system apps (twitter, amazon, etc...) through terminal commands and MAYBE a unlocked boot loader to flash a custom recovery image (Amon_RA) so I can make full nandroid backups.
1) It seems to me that unlocking the bootloader is a more flexible and permanent way to achieve root, as opposed to other '1-click' type methods in the face of firmware updates (2.3...), which would just disable root and it might not be re-achievable till another exploit is found whereas with an unlocked bootloader I can flash w/e I want?
2) Is it possible to enable root and use terminal on my n1 without some "superuser.apk" program? In order to do this would I use an insecure superboot and manually deploy SU?
3) How can I make a backup before rooting if I'm not rooted? I've been using my device for 8 months so there's a lot of stuff on there...
3a) If I can't make a full backup where can I find signed stock recovery images and boot images or updates zips so I can reflash them if I need to?
4) I believe if I superboot.img and leave everything (ROM and Recovery) stock will I still be able to receive and install OTA updates...?
4a) Can someone explain the difference between himem with updated wifi driver and not? I think himem removes permanent virtual address mapping so memory can be used for running applications. Asides from having more memory what are the tangible benefits or downsides to this? Would it make the system faster?Would I be able to multitask more apps before the system quits some because of lacking resources? Would the use of this extra memory inhibit system processes because there is no longer its own personal memory map?
4b) Will installing OTA updates remove root permission? If so, would simply flashing superboot.img re-grant me those permissions? But it would seem I need an updated superboot.img for the appropriate newer build(?). Is the development of superboot images still active and timely?
5) How important are OTAs and the stock recovery image? It would seem if I'm going to do any system moding (even just removing twitter/amazon) I should have a full and function Nandroid backup and would therefor need a custom recovery image- at the sake of missing OTAs (not important mainly because applying them would disable root etc anyway?)?
6) With root permissions and stock everything do I have to worry about manual baseband and radio updates? What about with a custom recovery image?
7) Apps2SD+ doesn't work with stock roms period and I would need a compatible custom rom?
Thanks again.

actually you can flash a recovery image without unlocking boot loader
1. Unlocking bootloader voids warranty and it is the official way to offer you the ability to install third-party roms.
You may get root without unlocking bootloader if you're using an old build. I think there are ways to root frg91 and frg83 without unlocking boot loader), then after you get root, you flash a recovery image, and then install whichever Rom you like. Don't bother with those official release, there will always be someone to release a rooted 2.3 rom.
2. not sure but from security's point of view it's better to have super user GUI program, because not all applications should get root
3. don't know sorry
4. Yes, there are lots of people revert back to stock ROM just for getting next OTA.
4a. I personally have never ran out of memory on my Nexus One, I do want to multi task as much as possible, however no matter how I set low mem killer, Android still automatically kills apps according to oom value (or something like that)
4b. If you get a successful OTA then definitely root is removed, and probably your recovery will revert to stock recovery too, thus you have to re-root..
5. I'd suggest to wait for someone to mod OTA 2.3 to make it rooted, then you flash the rom through recovery.
6. You can freely upgrade baseband (it's radio, the same thing) when you have a custom recovery.
7. There are mainly two ways to App2SD, one is Froyo implementation which works with stock Froyo rom, another way is to use App2Ext which requires root.

houzuoguo pretty much summed it up. I'll add what I can.
3) There is backup software in the market that can backup data without root, although it is not as powerful or thorough as the apps that require root.
3a) You can go back to a stock ROM. I believe there is a sticky round here of ROMs that has some stock ROMs in it. I know someone with a N1 that flashed a CM ROM, didn't like it, flashed a stock ROM, and got the OTA afterwards.
5) Even before an OTA is pushed there are ROMs floating around with the latest and greatest. After the OTAs are pushed you see a lot of very good, stable ROMs based off of them with all features working properly. You can do more with the custom ROMs and recovery images than you could ever do with the stock stuff.
7) DarkTremor's Apps2SD script will not only give you better A2SD than what is built into Froyo but it will give you a few more very useful terminal commands that I can't live without. Good stuff.

hi everyone! i just had my nexus one. i bought it from someone and i don't know if it's already rooted or not. Im already on FRG83D 2.2.1.
1.How do I know that my fone is already rooted?
2.Where can i download the stock ROM just in case the fone crashes and i want to revert?

proteus665 said:
hi everyone! i just had my nexus one. i bought it from someone and i don't know if it's already rooted or not. Im already on FRG83D 2.2.1.
1.How do I know that my fone is already rooted?
2.Where can i download the stock ROM just in case the fone crashes and i want to revert?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Check if there's application named 'superuser'. Or install any terminal emulator; run it, type 'su'.
**Please make your own thread next time.....

LFact said:
**Please make your own thread next time.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Thanks guy!
I think I'm going to superoneclick to get root; back up with titanium and remove the system apps I don't want.
From there I'll be able to flash a custom recovery if I want to get more custom.
I'm probably going to wait till 2.3 comes out cause it's right around the corner; Or did they fix the superoneclick exploit in 2.3...?
Also, doesn't Apps2ext require a custom rom that supports it? i.e. it wouldn't work if I had root and was running a stock rom anyway?

kernel discosion looking for help

Originally Posted by verkerria
Here is a question I've never seen asked before. We have succeeded in hijacking the bootloader and getting clockworkmod recovery working. We have succeeded in using genius methods to run android via a zip, off an sd card, and even flashing nand on many different types of phones. Now here is my question... I'm going to use some metaphors here... let's say the kernel loads up during startup... what if we "shoved" the GB kernel into a closet after the 2nd system initializes, and load a custom kernel instead? ( don't know if its possible, as I don't really know how android boots up... but it is just a question, and if you have time to explain it, I would feel rewarded for my thoughts
Droid 1 Rooted (ChevyNo1 0.9MV Kernel, LGB2.6)
Droid 3 Rooted (Hashcode gave me some Ice Cream)
this may help some till some one can get more in depth.
http://www.androidenea.com/2009/06/a...-power-on.html
it shows the booting process from power on.
__________________
Originally Posted by verkerria
That's was a rather informative article. At what point during that process does the safe rom start loading? Could a second kernel load and take over after the safestrap loads into the second rom, and the first kernel confined somewhere in the background?
Droid 1 Rooted (ChevyNo1 0.9MV Kernel, LGB2.6)
Droid 3 Rooted (Hashcode gave me some Ice Cream)
that kinda depends if you use safestrap, bootstrap or flash from rom manger
if im not mistaken using safestrap you are dual booting the two roms. with the other two you are replacing the rom.
Originally Posted by verkerria
I'm talking about putting a different kernel in the safe system rom of a safestrapped device, instead of trying to run the safe system rom off of the kernel in the non safe system
Droid 1 Rooted (ChevyNo1 0.9MV Kernel, LGB2.6)
Droid 3 Rooted (Hashcode gave me some Ice Cream)
maybe this will help
hash explains how it works.
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/8752-romd...ost__p__248383
__________________
I got the general gist of the function when I started using it. My mind works in kind of a weird way, I'm trying to figure out if the system just checks to see if the kernel is intact and continues loading, and if the system would notice if we put a script into the bootup process to squash the original kernel after it is checked and load a custom one in its place. I apologize if I am confusing anyone, I'm trying my best to iterate it the way I'm thinking it lol

I got the general gist of the function when I started using it. My mind works in kind of a weird way, I'm trying to figure out if the system just checks to see if the kernel is intact and continues loading, and if the system would notice if we put a script into the bootup process to squash the original kernel after it is checked and load a custom one in its place. I apologize if I am confusing anyone, I'm trying my best to iterate it the way I'm thinking it lol[/QUOTE]
i understand now what you want to do.
kinda like how we over clock the cpu but have it put a kernel in the place of over clocking
the kernel boots before init dose is the scripting not done in the init part of the bootup?
here is a another good link to how android boots up
http://elinux.org/Android_Booting

verkerria said:
I got the general gist of the function when I started using it. My mind works in kind of a weird way, I'm trying to figure out if the system just checks to see if the kernel is intact and continues loading, and if the system would notice if we put a script into the bootup process to squash the original kernel after it is checked and load a custom one in its place. I apologize if I am confusing anyone, I'm trying my best to iterate it the way I'm thinking it lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I (think) I understand you fine, and think it's a good idea, but whether it can be done I have no idea.
just to clarify, the normal boot order for an android device is
Code:
[B]Ⅰ — firmware[/B]
A — first-stage bootloader runs
• it detects if a special key is held, and can launch the recovery
  image, or the 'fastboot' bootloader
[I](I would assume this is where the bootloader protection checks
to see if the officially signed kernel is intact, but I can't find
anything to corroborate)[/I]
B — eventually, a kernel is loaded into RAM (usually with an initrd)
• normally, this will be the kernel from the 'boot' flash partition.
[B]Ⅱ — kernel[/B]
A — the kernel boots
1 — core kernel initialization
• memory and I/O areas are initialized
• interrupts are started, and the process table is initialized
2 — driver initialization
3 — kernel daemons (threads) are started
4 — root file system is mounted
5 — the first user-space process is started
• usually /init (note that other Linux systems
start /sbin/init)
[B]Ⅲ — user space[/B] (I'll skip this since it doesn't apply to the issue)
What you're suggesting is to somehow trick the bootloader protection by letting it keep the correct kernel, but then prevent the official version from loading. instead, loading a different, unofficial kernel. in which case the boot process would look like this:
Code:
[B]Ⅰ — firmware[/B]
A — first-stage bootloader runs
1 — special key detection
[COLOR="Red"]2 — BL protection verifies official kernel is present[/COLOR]
B — eventually, [I]a[/I] kernel is loaded into RAM (usually with an initrd)
• normally, this will be the kernel from the 'boot' flash partition,
  [COLOR="red"]but instead is loaded from somewhere else[/COLOR]
[B]Ⅱ — kernel[/B]
[B]Ⅲ — user space[/B]

I think the easiest way to answer this is no. Because the stock kernel is in the boot partition which is locked (locked bootloader) and the stock kernel will always boot no matter what. A kernel module is a lot simpler and way less work. Otherwise this would have most likely been done on previous phones with locked bootloaders. (d2 d2g dx etc..) But the thing is, I don't think anyone is working on a module since there are only a hand full of developers for the D3 (apporx. 8..) and most of them aren't experts on writing kernel modules. The modules were written by other devs that no longer mess with it or have no interest since the phone is already fast stock (and with other system tweaks). Hashcode is our best bet, but its not in his interest at the moment.
Is overclocking the point of this?

Nah, I'm not interested in overclocking, I just want to see hash have an easier time with the things that are still broken, like memory management, graphics accelleration, and the camera, which would be easier for him to diagnose if we could get a tailored ics kernel up and running, nobody ever thought dual booting roms would happen, and Hash/Koush made it happen, now its becoming a standard on fastboot phones. Hash is an extremely talented programmer, and he has come a long way very quickly on a few devices, I'm just throwing things out there to stir out ideas
Droid 1 Rooted (ChevyNo1 0.9MV Kernel, LGB2.6)
Droid 3 Rooted (Hashcode gave me some Ice Cream)

There's kexec that allows booting a kernel within Linux. I was using it with xdandroid. Kind of like a hotboot. It was orignally set up for when a new zImage was compiled. I used it when a reboot was needed rather than rebooting into Windows Mobile. But if i'm not mistaken the currently loaded kernel had be be patched to be able to use it.
[edit] Just found this for Atrix, development seems to have stopped http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1079097

This kholk guy has a lot of crazy ideas, I like his style. A lot of people were saying his idea work, and he abandoned the thread after getting a Razor it looks like
Droid 1 Rooted (ChevyNo1 0.9MV Kernel, LGB2.6)
Droid 3 Rooted (Hashcode gave me some Ice Cream)

So let me see here, when we switch to safe system, a patch is applied which causes bootloader panic mode, initializes kexec, loads custom kernel over the resident one into the proper ram address, initializes/reinitializes radio, rom boots under new environment, that's what i get out of that project info wise. Now.. as to whether or not its possible with all the info/expertise we have accumulated over the past 7 months, that's the question
Droid 1 Rooted (ChevyNo1 0.9MV Kernel, LGB2.6)
Droid 3 Rooted (Hashcode gave me some Ice Cream)

eww245 said:
There's kexec that allows booting a kernel within Linux. I was using it with xdandroid. Kind of like a hotboot. It was orignally set up for when a new zImage was compiled. I used it when a reboot was needed rather than rebooting into Windows Mobile. But if i'm not mistaken the currently loaded kernel had be be patched to be able to use it.
[edit] Just found this for Atrix, development seems to have stopped http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1079097
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the main problem is that kexec isn't working correctly w/our omap4 devices and causes a crash when rebooting to the new kernel. If we had kexec working 100% this might be possible (running a second kernel on our devices) but then we might be stuck loading a second moto-signed kernel still.

could some thing like this be used to help
http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Ubiquitous-QuickBoot/?kc=LNXDEVNL032410
not so much for the boot up speed but to switch kernels. i was reading one of these last night that said it loaded the kernel but stoped part way through then loaded the ram/scripts then when back to finish the kernel. so could it not go back and load a custom kernel.

oostah said:
could some thing like this be used to help
http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Ubiquitous-QuickBoot/?kc=LNXDEVNL032410
not so much for the boot up speed but to switch kernels. i was reading one of these last night that said it loaded the kernel but stoped part way through then loaded the ram/scripts then when back to finish the kernel. so could it not go back and load a custom kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that's more just restoring certain areas of ram to speed up booting, not really loading another kernel, like if when you turned off your devices it stored everything about the state it was in and just loaded it directly to that state vs a full boot. AFAIK the most promising is Kexec, it already works on the linux kernel on most machines out there it just needs some tweaking and polish for our devices. There are a few sites/gits out there that are getting regular commits (changes to the code) to get it working. Another thing we have to look at though is moto security and wether even with Kexec or something else working we can boot a kernel that wasn't compiled in a moto lab and signed with their tools, afaik they still need to be signed(so I could boot like xt862, razr, bionic kernel on my xt860 but not samsung or htc or kernels I've compiled myself).
Edit: I found this pic helpful to show what quickboot was actually doing, notice how the flow shows that it just skips part of the normal booting process by restoring from rom to ram

Bumping. Interesting thread and idea.

[Q] What type of root do i have?

I'm rooted and it shows my system version is 7.2.3_user_2330720. Superuser works, everything works, but I'm still trying to understand what the difference would be if I somehow used CM. I read about CM on rooted devices everywhere but I'm still not clear on what it would do. Is it basically like a launcher/theme that still lets me have root access?
I'm baffled by all the info available and how everything works together, like roms, kernels, etc. Are these all separate things you do for different reasons, or would you need to do them all at the same time for some reason?
I've still not rooted my phone because I'm just not clear on this and I can't do without my phone.

Cm is Cyanogenmod a ROM.ROM's replace the whole system with another one. You cannot get cyanogenmod yet unless you build from source.

Best or easiest way to update android version?

I'm using a SM-T710 running 5.1.1 that's been rooted. I've been on the same android version for years, and now some of the apps I use for my business are starting to run into issues. I'd just like to update the most painless way while still maintaining root. Is there a higher version that still runs well without any drawbacks like hardware not working?

If you want stuff work at least as good as possible and don't plan to tinker a bit... Your device was updated up to Android 7, but not when /system rooted. You need to load the firmware yourself and Odin flash it or do a reset with Samsung's softwares to the newest official one.