Database Develop

[Q] ROOT

so im new to android...ive had my moto xoom since march and i havent tried to root because i want to do the 4g upgrade first...and well im not confident that i can pull this off (is there an easy way to root my xoom btw) but it would seem that the bionic would be easy...so peeps out there...should i ROOT my bionic? pitch some pros and cons to me again im new to android and any tips are greatly appreciated

Root will block OTA (over the air) updates, so you'll want to be prepared to unroot if an OTA comes along that you want on your device. Root is also inherently risky, since you're doing something to your phone that makes it possible to screw things up by using superuser permissions. For example, you could delete an application that is critical to a variety of functions. But with the root available for this phone, the risk of bricking your phone accidentally in the rooting process appears extremely low. If you use safe methods of debloating your phone such as freezing or renaming .apk's to .bak's, you shouldn't cause any harm that you can't easily undo.
I suggest reading and asking questions until you feel confident, and then taking baby steps until you get a better feel for what's safe and what's not.

Thanks a lot I will definitely do some more research before I make any attempts seeing that this its my first Droid cell I really don't want to brick it cause of me not having the knowledge of what I'm doing and all you legit devs up in here are sick I wish I had the skills you guys have and again thanks
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App

rooting does not block updates. it will still download to your phone. and it will install, as long as you haven't removed or frozen any sytem apps.

Benifits of rooting the bionic

Okay so i had the revo before this and i liked it. I rooted it and it was great, ran custom roms, and really easy to do. I just got the bionic and i have had it for about 2 weeks now and I LOVE IT!!! So my question is, and correct me if im wrong, if there are no custom kernels, and only one stable updated rom thats not buggy ics, what is the point in rooting. I should add that i dont plan on using wifi tether. I mean i use adw so my phone already "looks" like i want it to, and acts like i want it too. The only thing i think i would use is the fact that the bloatware is gone but does it really make that big of a difference? I mean if i can like make the display look better or something than of course, but if its just for the look, no performance upgrades, i dont seenthe point. Please give me your guys opinion.
Thanks for all who respond and appreciate your time

Lots of benefits to rooting. Here's a random one.

tuckmobile said:
Lots of benefits to rooting. Here's a random one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I mean that's cool, what are the benefits of Beta over regular or a keyboard like touch pal.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium

Personally I haven't found the need to root my Bionic. Going on six months now I think. Had the Eris before this and rooted it to get a faster phone(Bionic is fast enough), to tether(Bionic can do it wired for free and wireless without root using FoxFi), to move apps to sd due to storage limitations (Bionic has plenty of room and lots of stuff can be saved or moved to sd). ROMs are a bonus, but they are always a work-in-progress and most being updated regular, so you always have to reinstall so more stuff will work. My Bionic just works.....................

Sir_Eagle said:
Personally I haven't found the need to root my Bionic. Going on six months now I think. Had the Eris before this and rooted it to get a faster phone(Bionic is fast enough), to tether(Bionic can do it wired for free and wireless without root using FoxFi), to move apps to sd due to storage limitations (Bionic has plenty of room and lots of stuff can be saved or moved to sd). ROMs are a bonus, but they are always a work-in-progress and most being updated regular, so you always have to reinstall so more stuff will work. My Bionic just works.....................
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree completely
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium

Lots of programs will have more functionality when your device is rooted. If you use a security program like SeekDroid or Avast you'll benefit from root. With root you can install custom recovery, allowing you to backup/restore your entire system. If you haven't tried a custom ROM you don't know what you're missing. Sure they are always a work in progress, but so is the Stock ROM. Try eclipse I bet you'll like it better.
Let's flip your question around: what's the disadvantage to rooting? You can always unroot.

Sir_Eagle said:
Personally I haven't found the need to root my Bionic. Going on six months now I think. Had the Eris before this and rooted it to get a faster phone(Bionic is fast enough), to tether(Bionic can do it wired for free and wireless without root using FoxFi), to move apps to sd due to storage limitations (Bionic has plenty of room and lots of stuff can be saved or moved to sd). ROMs are a bonus, but they are always a work-in-progress and most being updated regular, so you always have to reinstall so more stuff will work. My Bionic just works.....................
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm rooted but use stock. I'm able to replace my boot animation with something more to my liking. My status and notification bar is also customized. Having pulldown toggles is nice for turning things on and off. Being able to flash the webtop hack is nice. I've also found that I enjoy changing my font.
Besides those things, its much easier to back up some apps when your rooted. If you ever buy any apps, I suggest backing them up. Being able to make system backups is also useful.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA

[Q] Is rooting/flashing worth it?

Hello!,I've had the Atrix HD for a little under a year now, and I was just wondering if rooting the phone is worth it. I've looked at the Development section and all that, but this is my first Android phone, and I'm worried about messing up and bricking my phone with no warranty. So is it worth it?

boredperson said:
Hello!,I've had the Atrix HD for a little under a year now, and I was just wondering if rooting the phone is worth it. I've looked at the Development section and all that, but this is my first Android phone, and I'm worried about messing up and bricking my phone with no warranty. So is it worth it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its worth it.
I just rooted one yesterday its easy if you read

boredperson said:
Hello!,I've had the Atrix HD for a little under a year now, and I was just wondering if rooting the phone is worth it. I've looked at the Development section and all that, but this is my first Android phone, and I'm worried about messing up and bricking my phone with no warranty. So is it worth it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you love custamisation, and want to make full use of it, it is worth, else, go with the original one...

boredperson said:
Hello!,I've had the Atrix HD for a little under a year now, and I was just wondering if rooting the phone is worth it. I've looked at the Development section and all that, but this is my first Android phone, and I'm worried about messing up and bricking my phone with no warranty. So is it worth it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will be amazed what this beast is really capable of once you root and get a custom ROM which have no bloatwares.
In my case games like subway surfer used to lag on the stock JB but after rooting it is all smooth ride .
Go ahead and install mythtools ( say thanks to the dev) and unlock the bootloader and root it.
Bricking your phone is really difficult even if you intend to do so . So get going and post back when you are rooted.

boredperson said:
Hello!,I've had the Atrix HD for a little under a year now, and I was just wondering if rooting the phone is worth it. I've looked at the Development section and all that, but this is my first Android phone, and I'm worried about messing up and bricking my phone with no warranty. So is it worth it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting has essentially no chance of bricking your phone. What you do after you get root? That's a different story...
Unlocking your bootloader actually makes you safer if you have no warranty anyway. If you flash a custom recovery then you can back up your stock ROM and recover at any point or flash to a much nicer custom ROM. I'm running XenonHD personally and I'm very impressed with it. They recently added the option to overclock the processor to 1.9GHz and I've had a huge performance jump in games and multitasking. Now I just need the EB40 to support it.
If you're a new user then READ EVERYTHING THOUROUGHLY before you proceed. I consider myself rather skilled and even I have had a couple "OH SHI-" moments because I didn't read enough.
tldr: DO IT! But be careful.

Rooting was definitely worth it. Enabled tethering (on T-Mobile, so it would never have worked otherwise), AdFree, Screen Standby (while streaming video on hotel TVs).
Bootloader unlocking I haven't done it. I've lost a phone before and the idea that someone can get through the lock screen, access my data and use the phone bothers me.

diamond12 said:
Rooting was definitely worth it. Enabled tethering (on T-Mobile, so it would never have worked otherwise), AdFree, Screen Standby (while streaming video on hotel TVs).
Bootloader unlocking I haven't done it. I've lost a phone before and the idea that someone can get through the lock screen, access my data and use the phone bothers me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that's what you're afraid of then don't root...seriously. All that's necessary is adb with root access and all your info is mine.
adb root
adb pull /data /local/directory
adb pull /sdcard /local/directory
adb pull /external_sd /local/directory
some things are encrypted, some not. Not sure if its still this way, but WiFi passwords used to be stored as unencrypted text files on /data....CM7, btw.
Anyone of us here could steal your data if we had physical access to your device, some of us if you are on stock, no root, no unlocked bootloader.
The safest way is to have an unlocked bootloader, a password protected recovery (we don't a have one), and disable adb completely. Even then, I could get around that and access your stuff (snap-fastboot flash recovery non-protected-recovery.img ). There is no way to fully lock out an android power user from an android phone, simple as that.

boredperson said:
Hello!,I've had the Atrix HD for a little under a year now, and I was just wondering if rooting the phone is worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ohhh boy. I can't wait to see all the comments on this lol.
Yea its definitely worth it. Rooting/unlocking boot loader makes it so you can: 1) flash roms. 2) change the CPU speed at which you phone runs. 3) change you boot loader image (the animation that happens when you phone turns on/off). 4) and the most appealing one (to me), get ride of all that #!*[email protected]!-+ blootwere (apps that come preinstalled that you don't use but aren't able to delete, thus freeing up a lot of memory/ram)
If your worried about bricking you phone, its become pretty hard to permanently brick It as long as you have the determination to fix it.
The MythTools will help you root/unlock bootloader/flash cwm for you so no worries about screwing up
Hit "thanks" if this helps!
Sent from my PACman Atrix HD

I think rooting my atrix hd was well worth it in terms of de bloating all the junk off my phone that just slowed it down.
Not to mention with the PACMAN rom which I LOVE!!!!, you can also overclock the cpu to 2GHZ which is insane fast my girlfriend has the same phone and hers is so slow compared to mine now.
With the PACMAN rom and all the customization available like for example, under the launcher settings I set the transition effect in both the homescreens and apps drawer to cylinder out effect, which pretty much gave the phone a almost complete 3d UI effect along with HD Widgets.
I wouldn't take back rooting mine.

I rooted, unlocked the bootloader, and downgraded back to ICS so I could use the lapdock my dad got me for my birthday. I'm still on stock but I liked the stock look, just had to get rid of that horrible bloatware eating up my space. It was all worth it and I was a afraid to do it at first and just waited. Mythtools came out and it took no time at all to get it done. Try it, I think you'll like it

Rooting is well worth the trouble. It took me 6hrs to root my galaxy s3 and I flashed cm 10.1. I love the customization, speed, themes, boot animations etc... The main thing about it is you have to do back-ups quite a bit.
Sent from my brain to your eyes, to your brain, using my Galaxy S3, running Cm 10.1. I'm in your head now.

Rooting NIGHTMARES!

Hi all,
So my Nexus 4 arrived today and I'm umming and ahhing as to root or not.
I've heard all the good things about doing it but I'm interested in peoples rooting nightmares. What's gone wrong? When have you wanted to throw your phone out the window?
Look forward to reading!

noahdev said:
Hi all,
So my Nexus 4 arrived today and I'm umming and ahhing as to root or not.
I've heard all the good things about doing it but I'm interested in peoples rooting nightmares. What's gone wrong? When have you wanted to throw your phone out the window?
Look forward to reading!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really takes a tremendous effort to screw it up, it really does.
Cliff's Notes/summary, not an actual guide:
1. Learn to do it the old fashioned (and easiest way) by installing the drivers and using fastboot.
2. fastboot oem unlock
3. fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
4. flash your SU binaries zip
5. b00m!

CMNein said:
It really takes a tremendous effort to screw it up, it really does.
Cliff's Notes/summary, not an actual guide:
1. Learn to do it the old fashioned (and easiest way) by installing the drivers and using fastboot.
2. fastboot oem unlock
3. fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
4. flash your SU binaries zip
5. b00m!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In that case I'll lower my requirements. Anyone done it and thought 'You know what, I prefer the stock experience.'?

noahdev said:
In that case I'll lower my requirements. Anyone done it and thought 'You know what, I prefer the stock experience.'?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes actually. I thought rooting it was great and all, even went for custom kernels. The thing is, when you get all the updates that Google provides on a near instant basis, there is no need to root and rom your phone. Also, I feel like it doesn't provide too much extra for the experience. On a side note, when I had an HTC Sensation, I would root and rom just to get the newest and greatest from Google.
Your choice, but I like getting OTA's and don't run any SU apps.

Drebin 894 said:
Yes actually. I thought rooting it was great and all, even went for custom kernels. The thing is, when you get all the updates that Google provides on a near instant basis, there is no need to root and rom your phone. Also, I feel like it doesn't provide too much extra for the experience. On a side note, when I had an HTC Sensation, I would root and rom just to get the newest and greatest from Google.
Your choice, but I like getting OTA's and don't run any SU apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting means you are:
- able to make nandroid and Titanium Backups
- run a good custom kernel for color and sound control, better batterylife and performance and lower cpu temperatures
- install adblockers and other usefull apps.
If these aren`t improvements i don`t know what is and you might as well buy an iPhone for stock xperience, just my 2 cents.
BTW: @OP: rooting nightmares only occur with mis and badly informed users.

gee2012 said:
Rooting means you are:
- able to make nandroid and Titanium Backups
- run a good custom kernel for color and sound control, better batterylife and performance and lower cpu temperatures
- install adblockers and other usefull apps.
If these aren`t improvements i don`t know what is and you might as well buy an iPhone for stock xperience, just my 2 cents.
BTW: @OP: rooting nightmares only occur with mis and badly informed users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but I feel like I don't need them on my phone. I don't need to back up apps as I am not switching roms, I like getting the OTA updates, and I don't care about ads on mobile because I never see them anyway, either through paid apps or little browsing.

Drebin 894 said:
Yes, but I feel like I don't need them on my phone. I don't need to back up apps as I am not switching roms, I like getting the OTA updates, and I don't care about ads on mobile because I never see them anyway, either through paid apps or little browsing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Too each his own bro

I fully agree to each his own but if you do not see the advantages and personalization rooti g gives you then most likelyyou are the type tthat is satisfied with what you get. For me T9 calling alone is worth it, adjusting scree colors, raising the sound level,showing actual dBm signal strength, removal of all apps I don't want that were preloaded, darker ui experience. Now if you never try this then you wont miss it but its not lime you can't root it then unroot if you are not happy.
Bottom line updates will come the same day here whether rooted or not and these updates can also come with goodies...
Edit: Also lets be honest in a forum of 100.000's of members and rooter you will find maybe a few hundred or so that may have an issue and most of them I guarantee you was because of them not following directions properly. Thats what makes for rooting nightmares. Remember even non rooters from time to time have to restore their phones for one crazy reason or another. Now you have to restore back to 1 year ago when you first got the phone...SMH

I am having some trouble rooting and puting a custom recovery on my new Nexus 4, I unlocked the bootloader, and flashed the custom recovery through fastboot, but its not sticking, I don't know whats wrong.

UNless youir getting deadlocks letting your phone charge overnight, I would stay on stock.
CM is great, but there are just always broken things and bugs that will eventaully piss you off when you want to do something.

noahdev said:
Hi all,
What's gone wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely nothing, except for the very slight inconvenience of having to re-root or re-install TWRP after doing an Android operating system OTA update. Not only that, but I now have several "root only" apps that I needed, I have full access to the Linux command line programs which I use, and I am learning a lot about the Android OS lower level stuff. For me anyway, I really have no desire to install custom ROMS, as stock rooted Android does everything I want it to do.

There are stock based custom roms with CM type customization's... Again unless you have tried a stock customized rom with advancements you should not be judging. Also you don't have to use each cutsomization you can actually leave it stock and only use 1 or 2 custom items. Check out PSX 4.1 bone stock with a handful of customizations

There is really only one thing that annoys me about stock and that is the oversized Nav bottons. I just wished they made them smaller or gave us the otion to change the size. This is available on custom Roms and gives you more screen real-estate which definitley makes a difference.
That is one thing that keeps pulling me to custom Roms. I was running AOKP which seemed to run pretty good. I restored my phone back to stock because I thought I was having an issue with the notification light but then saw it just needed an app to make it work the way I was expecting it to.
So I have my phone rooted on stock 4.3 right now and I just wish I can make those Nav bars smaller! There are definitley cool features on some of the custom Roms though and it most certaintly can enhance your experience.

If ur not using the toolkit, then you should be.. If ur using and still manage to screw things, you should leave ur phone stock... The toolkits are already noob proof..
Connect phone to PC
Unlock boot loader
Root
Install recovery
Install ROM....
Its all 1 click each or some toolkits does it all in 1 click...
Rooted and running Paranoid Android + franco.kernel

my nightmare came from me going to fast... i missed a step and screwed up my phone...
i was able to get a stock image and reflash it, but it was a grueling 2 hours with a soft-bricked phone.
read all the stuff you can, and don't rush it.

Lucke said:
my nightmare came from me going to fast... i missed a step and screwed up my phone...
i was able to get a stock image and reflash it, but it was a grueling 2 hours with a soft-bricked phone.
read all the stuff you can, and don't rush it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please don't take this the wrong way... but you being the only person with a real horror story is quite comforting!

noahdev said:
Please don't take this the wrong way... but you being the only person with a real horror story is quite comforting!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no offense taken thats what i get for trying to root it while at work dealing with an Exchange upgrade

You can't really screw up a nexus device. It's not like Samsung where you hard flash the wrong version for the wrong phone and end up with a paperweight. If you mess up with nexus you can always return back
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

My last nightmare with rooting was from htc desire hd, lots of bullcrap to be done, lots of s**t pre requisite..goldcard, emmc etc., ugh gives me headaches for days :/

Just use wugfresh toolkit and its a breeze
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

[Q] Help with rooting and the best custom rom for Droid 3

Hello. I am totally new to rooting. I've done a lot of research, and usually because I can't really understand a lot of the jargon or instructions I just kind of stay away from it. Well, now that I've had to give up my Nexus 4 for an the older Droid 3, I'm finding it difficult going back a few generations and the lack of fluidity is very bothersome. The best suggestions I've gotten is to root. Can someone please help me by breaking down some step by step instructions? (I'm really at a loss as to how to get started, and since this is my only device after having to let go of the Nexus I can't really afford to accidentally brick it). Also I've also noticed that a lot of the roms have issues with the Droid's camera, so can someone advise me on the best one to use once I've rooted as well? Thanks a lot.

If you want a fast smooth rom I say go with minimoto
Sent from my XT883 using xda app-developers app