Database Develop

my first root, lots of questions. :-)

n00b, but not an idiot here. been playing with handhelds for many years, new to android though.
I've been watching this forum (CDMA Hero sect.) since I got my Hero, been learning quite a bit. Held off on rooting until there was a official 2.1 release for the device that a ROM could be built around (I wanted full function of the phone and software), did the stupid thing of running the RUU (leaked official), and had to wait until Regaw (thanx!) gave us root...
It would seem the tone of this forum has changed fundamentally since the release of the EVO and an official 2.1 for our Heros. I can understand that perhaps the "thrill" is gone, and since we can all get 2.1 now without rooting, I guess it's "why bother"? (see questions below)
Aaaaanyway...
just did my first root, my first nandroid BU, my first rom flash (hated the rom), and then my first nandroid recover ;-) (what an amazing function, what a relief!) About to try out a 2nd ROM, see if I like it better...
(as an aside to the point of this post, the ROM i tried was DamageR, found it too "messy" for my tastes, and while I can appreciate the work put into it, the options it offers... not my style. was thinking on Damageless, waiting for a "rerelease" of his final. Or perhaps the Aloysius...)
Now that I have my caveats and excuses out of the way, I had a few n00b questions?
1) while I think I have figured out what JIT is, why is it "enabled" in many new ROMs? Is it not an included part of Sense 2.1 from HTC on the Hero?
2) When I was wiping before flash, I was unable to wipe davlik (sp?), insisted I had to do through adb. Is this "normal"?
3) could someone explain what "push" an APK is? Since I have rooted, will I be unable to use the application installer in the HTCsync? (haven't actually tried yet...) And how to "flash" a file? (Example: Dammageless' LWP fix...) I am sure it's something very simple that I am just not getting dues to being unfamiliar with the jargon here.
4) I would really like to use the A2SD feature, and in the recovery screen (where one does the nandroid BUs) it gives me the option to create partitions. I was of course clever enough to BU all data on the card before doing Anything re: root/flashing/etc, but I would like to know if this was needed? Will it just use empty space already present on the card? And in general, I would love to know what I am doing re: A2SD in general, I know "search is my friend", but would someone point me to a quick and succinct link to the "instructions" of doing this? And the different kinds of partitions (ext2? ext3?ext4? huh? why?) I need to know about?
5) And, so why bother rooting now? I know this sounds like a dense question, but really since I don't know enough about it, I guess I am looking for a list of "the obvious reasons" that would not occur to me, or other Android nooblets. LWP will be nice i guess, other launchers, A2SD, bootscreens, OCing... what else?
5) Personally, I am hoping people will rise to the Froyo challenge. While being ignorant of most things involving "programing", or compiling (cooking?), my understanding is that 2.2 runs several times faster due to (a new?) JIT (admitted ignorance again), so does this mean "more efficient"? Would something like a Hero be able to take advantage of that? I realize that we (due to CPU) will never have the highend features (OpenGL, gaming, LWPs being sluggish), so please correct me if I am grossly missing something, besides it not being written for this HW, I see that many other versions written for other devices have been ported to this device.... is this being actively worked on, seen a worthy challenge? Or even a possible one? One that has any benefits?
7) And the n00best question of them all: ROM suggestions? I happen to like Sense, or thought I did because of the 7 screens and other neato features in the UI, but it seems from further reading I can get most features and function out of just about any of them... As an example, what will I gain from flashing Damageless as opposed to the stock RUU? (While Damageless' ROM seems to be the most popular, it is also the least described in his post re: features added/removed, and it's benifits. It would seem like his ROM was "da bomb" when we didnt have 2.1 officially, but since we do now... do I bother with his? Or move to something "more exciting"?
Thank you for your patience.
/n00b-rant

1) JIT just speeds up the phone a bit, although, it's incompatible with Sense :\
2) Don't worry about the dalvik cache unless you're getting problems with booting up a new ROM
3) Push = copying a file to the device (usually when you're putting an .apk in the /system/app/ directory) And about HTCsync? I've never used it before, but it probably wouldn't hurt to try.
4) A2SD? I suggest you back up the files on your sd card before trying anything with it, also, make sure it's a fast card.
5) Rooting? To get rid of annoying sprint bloatware, overclocking, Wi-Fi Tether, etc.
5b) It'll be a little while before we get a stable FroYo (when they release the source, the work will begin)
7) I was about to suggest DarchDroid, but seeing as you like sense.....
(although, 7 homescreens? That's available in just about every homescreen app on the market, my favorite being LauncherPro Beta)

1. The JIT leak we have is buggy at best, and Force close city at worst, but is supposed to be fully featured in 2.2
2. What version of recovery are you running?
3. You can still use the HTCSync installer, but to push system files, you need to use ADB (Google "Android SDK"). You flash a file the same way you flash a ROM, always nandroid backup.
4. A2SD is only really helpful if you have a Class 6 SDcard, and can be hurtful otherwise. A2SD requires a portion of the SDCard to be formated as EXT, so say you have a 1GB SDcard.
256MB EXT (Space for apps)
0MB Swap (basically, "RAM" on your SDCard)
The rest as FAT. In a file manager and you phone, your SDcard will only appear to be ~760MB, as 256 is taken up by EXT.
5. Being able to completly customize everything, getting day by day support to fix bugs instead of waiting on Sprint/HTC, Basically, rooting is what makes your phone YOUR phone.
6. 2.2 is currently available in a very basic install, and will be developed further when the source code is released. Yes, the new JIT is supposedly 450% faster, by being more efficient with how it handles everything, and theorhetically with it, we can expect to see performance increases in everything.
7. I'm a personal fan of DarchDroid, it lacks Sense but he's incorporating ADWLauncher into his next release (Google it, it's amazing.) Damageless is also no longer developing his ROM as the Evo is out. Same thing with Flipz.
Anything else?

[Q] Just rooted my phone! adivce? cool apps?

Ok, first off i'll say i don't have much android knowledge. I did successfully root it following a video. I now have one click lag fix installed. Now, someone please answer these for me
1. Now that its already rooted successfully, is bricking still possible? or is that only something that happens during trying to root.
2. What is a good way to backup everything on my phone? and where do i find it?
3. What are cool apps or widgets to have that can only be used on a rooted phone?
4. Lastly, will someone point me in the direction of a manual or instructions on how to install custom roms and how to get froyo.
Thanks!!

i'd like to know that too...

C-4Nati said:
Ok, first off i'll say i don't have much android knowledge. I did successfully root it following a video. I now have one click lag fix installed. Now, someone please answer these for me
1. Now that its already rooted successfully, is bricking still possible? or is that only something that happens during trying to root.
2. What is a good way to backup everything on my phone? and where do i find it?
3. What are cool apps or widgets to have that can only be used on a rooted phone?
4. Lastly, will someone point me in the direction of a manual or instructions on how to install custom roms and how to get froyo.
Thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. No
2. Titanium Backup from the market
3. I don't know but I don't care much for widgets.
4. Check sticky posts here and the dev board of galaxy s

try SetCPU for conserving/overclocking your device,
Titanium Backup is godsend! well worth the price

Try rom manager from the market, it will assist in making a more comprohensive backup
Most custom roms should have a good install guide with them and aslong as you read it first, download everything first, and not get scared off by the reference to all the diferent csc files its qctually fairly easy. In the event that it does go wrong it probably was a user error but easily fixed by going over the steps again (i myself only just flashed my first android last weekend, and the improvement is worth the time and small hassle of learning to do it your self).
Some good apps are ShootMe (screenshot app), rescan media root (controls the media scanner function), cache cleaner, and there are some wifi transfer app that need root to work (still fairly new/beta/buggy). Not root but the xda forum app aswell
Hope that helps a bit
Sent from my GT-I9000T using XDA App

oh and autokiller to alter the minfree setting. makes the phone fly!

Root file manager
C-4Nati said:
3. What are cool apps or widgets to have that can only be used on a rooted phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am looking for a good root file manager - one that allows me to see whole device. Anyone know of a good one?

reydoog said:
I am looking for a good root file manager - one that allows me to see whole device. Anyone know of a good one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root Explorer is the best file manager i've come across, works great and well worth the price.
Best apps (I know these dont all require root) I've come across are
"App 2 SD" - This moves your installed apps (that are compatible) to your external memory card to save phone memory
"Titanium backup" (root) - As mentioned above, its a great backup tool for your apps and settings
"CacheMate" (root) - clears your apps cache, helps speed things up
"MixGet" - increase headphone volume, very useful if you find output it quiet, be careful not to deafen yourself
"PhoneMyPC" - Connect via wifi to your computer and control, useful if you want to be lazy and sit back to move the mouse
Best thing to do is goto market and search "root", that will return the majority of them
"Handcent SMS" - Very customisable sms app, much better than stock samsung one
Good games:
Angry Birds - This is free but includes ad's (turn off internet on phone so they dont display)
Talking Tom cat - repeats everything you say in a funny voice
Need for speed Shift - Excellent graphics, really good racing game
Asphalt 5 - (can get this free from samsung apps)
Widgets I use:
Accuweather - self explanatory, great for the days weather, includes a clock (find this on samsung apps on F.W JPM) available in market
Facebook - Facebook Status updates
If I think of any others I'll let you know

Quick questions for a avid rooter of android phones

Ok guys I am sure this info is in here if I just look, but I know how to use nandroid and other stuff that is necessary for roms, also know how to load them and such.
My quick and dirty questions are as follows.
1. If I root and break something can I always go back with a factory and data reset?
2. Is honeycomb even worth it or should I stick with CM7 for now?
3. Going on a trip tomorrow and would love to load some movies, what is the best format and player to use?
4. What is the best rooting method right now?
5. Also I like the nook magazine thing and books on it as well is it possible to run both OS's or start the nook app from CM7 or something like that?
That's about it.

1) Yes, its virtually impossible to brick the device, you might get stuck on a bootloop of something but that is alwas reversible to stock.
2)Cm7 for now. honeycomb has a LOT of problems. go with the Cm7/Tablet tweaks version
3) if you do a search for nook color handbreak presets, you will find it
4) to root go with auto-nooter.
Remember, Rooting and installing roms are completely different

5. You can install an OS to an sdcard and keep the internal memory stock. Then when you want to switch, just pop out the sdcard and reboot. If you want CM7, take a look at the CM7 size agnostic sdcard image- it takes care of fixing up the standard CM7 builds so that they can be installed on an sdcard.

[Q] Rom/Kernal Help

ok ive been reading a few posts but cant make head nor tails of this rom/kernal stuff and cant find a guide to it in the stickys so i have come here to ask some seasoned memebers for help
I am Uk based and english speaker any help is welcomed.
1. At a guess what are the chances of bricking my device and is it fix's able
2. what is diffrence between Kernal and rom
3 in what order do i need to install kernal and rom
4. what are the best kernal's and rom's availible For - Gameing, phonecalls, texting, wifi connections and battery life
5.what will i need to backup on my phone before i install them and what program's are needed?
6. after installing if all has installed correctly can someone recomend some apps for my phone (and will i be able to use the google playstore still if not how do i get them)
Please can you help me out there seem to be 100s of roms/kernals

Rom/Kernel Help
Hi mazoshi,
I'm no super-guru but I'm happy to share my experiences. Ref your questions:
1. It is possible to brick your phone to varying degrees as evidenced by all the help requests for bricked phones, but IMHO, it's very unlikely as long as you follow the directions scrupulously and make sure you only flash ROMs/kernels that are known to be compatible.
2. The kernel is the low-level operating system, derived from Linux, that handles the low-level interface to the hardware and manages device resources (CPU, memory, peripherals, interrupts, etc). The kernel is mostly written in "C". A "ROM" is the whole ball of wax, usually including the kernel as well as the Android framework and apps, written in java, that provides the user interface and all the apps you see on your screen.
3. For installation, you'll need a firmware flashing program, like ODIN or Heimdall. You'll also need a USB cable for your phone. And, of course, you'll need compatible zips or tars to flash.
4. Common question that's difficult to answer. The best ROM, the best religion, the best political party and the best pizza are almost completely personal choices and depend on your expectations.
5. There are a number of "backup" programs that can back up your personal settings and data, e.g., Titanium backup. Note that these do NOT backup up the kernel and system stuff. You need to be rooted to do that. After root, you'll probably get ClockworkMod (CWM) which has a nice function to back up whole partitions, including the system stuff. There is a chicken-and-egg problem here though: You can only back up the system after you root, but after you root you've got a "new" system. I've never been able to figure out a way to do a complete backup of a stock system, i.e., to be able to restore to factory new state.
6. Like 4, apps are also a matter of personal chioce. There are zillions of apps on play.google. And yes, you can get to that after rooting but you'll have to manually install the Google apps package first. I don't know the latest, but a quick google search should locate many. They're usually called "gapps-something". They are supplied as a zip and can be installed with CWM.
Hope this helps.

[Q] Rooting Samsung Galaxy Exhibit 4G SGH-T679

Most posts on this are two years old and links no longer work to files needed...
I have never rooted my SGH-T679 but now I keep getting notices that the phone memory is low. I would like to root without touching the rom on the phone so that I can finally dump the bloatware. I have read the XDA thread on rooting this phone and the links to root-stock.zip - 1.62 MB no longer work - come up file deleted or missing. Also second file required - ClockworkMod (? - not sure the name) also comes up as not found.
Yes, it is an old phone (actually only three years old) and I can't afford a another one right now. If I can still root this phone I can get more years out of it. And I like the Gingerbread rom it has.
Also - will the rooting process wipe out all currently downloaded and installed apps? I'd like to avoid that too if possible.
Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

Rooting wipes nothing. Links work fine for me. Perhaps dev-host was down at the time.
http://d-h.st/s9X root
http://d-h.st/O36 cwm
Are you talking about storage space? Removing bloat will not help as that only frees up system space which most apps won't use. If you mean actual memory rooting alone won't help and removing bloat won't help at all. These phones have very little memory and the only thing that will really help is a kit kat ROM as they have been optimized for phones with 512mb memory. Tweaks are mainly a placebo as @ArtfulDodger found out for us through extensive testing.
Sent from my SGH-T679 using xda app-developers app

Dvarl said:
Rooting wipes nothing. Links work fine for me. Perhaps dev-host was down at the time.
http://d-h.st/s9X root
http://d-h.st/O36 cwm
Are you talking about storage space? Removing bloat will not help as that only frees up system space which most apps won't use. If you mean actual memory rooting alone won't help and removing bloat won't help at all. These phones have very little memory and the only thing that will really help is a kit kat ROM as they have been optimized for phones with 512mb memory. Tweaks are mainly a placebo as @ArtfulDodger found out for us through extensive testing.
Sent from my SGH-T679 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried both of those links before I posted this. All download buttons on those pages led to spam ads. Seems every comment on those pages is how do I download - and then a mysterious thanks as if the answer was revealed and then deleted. At one point I got a link on that page to go to a page that said no file found - missing or deleted. Just tried again and found one download button that actually worked.
The system memory on my Exhibit 4G is just about full and there is 1.07 GB of system memory. The internal USB/SD memory is almost empty as is my external SD card. What I need to do is free up internal memory - and deleting apps that will not install to Internal USB/SD memory that I don't use has freed up a small amount of that system memory. But there are some apps that will not install to internal SD and insist on sitting in system memory. And then there are the screen after screen of apps that Samsung shoved on this phone that keep updating constantly and 80% of those apps I have never used. So researching this the recommendation always seems to be root and dump the bloatware - and have the ability to swap External SD for Internal SD. So I am looking to root. I have found Clockworkmod on some other site and just got the stock-rom.zip.
Thanks for responding - hopefully if I do this it I won't get notices to delete apps or the phone will cease this function and that function.
So after I root every app on the phone that I installed will still be there and the only difference is the phone will be rooted. Just asking because one video showed an empty phone other than stock apps after rooting.

Ok, then what you are more looking for may be swap sd since your on stock. It may be a hastle shifting things around. In the long run a lot of people chose to use this feature to have quite a few apps. I never personally used the feature as I never load many apps on my phone. So you would do the following.
1. Flash rootstock.zip
2. Flash cwm.zip
3. MAKE A BACKUP!!! (sorry but I need to stress this point as it will save you tons of headaches)
4. Install/flash swapsd you'll have to search for it as its buried in the thread
5. Shift non system apps/data to your memory card (new internal)
6. Enjoy
Hope the info helps.
Sent from my GT-P3113 using xda app-developers app

Dvarl said:
Ok, then what you are more looking for may be swap sd since your on stock. It may be a hastle shifting things around. In the long run a lot of people chose to use this feature to have quite a few apps. I never personally used the feature as I never load many apps on my phone. So you would do the following.
1. Flash rootstock.zip
2. Flash cwm.zip
3. MAKE A BACKUP!!! (sorry but I need to stress this point as it will save you tons of headaches)
4. Install/flash swapsd you'll have to search for it as its buried in the thread
5. Shift non system apps/data to your memory card (new internal)
6. Enjoy
Hope the info helps.
Sent from my GT-P3113 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how do i "flash root"? sorry im new =)

Instructions are in first post of this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1686384
Sent from my GT-P3113 using xda app-developers app

1776 said:
So after I root every app on the phone that I installed will still be there and the only difference is the phone will be rooted. Just asking because one video showed an empty phone other than stock apps after rooting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rooting alone will not touch any of your data. It just gives you full permissions to your phone.
however, I HIGHLY recommend you put a custom ROM on this phone. If you really want to get the most out of this phone, it is THE BEST way to go. I've owned this phone since it was first out and had so many problems with it on the stock ROM. I was seriously considering spending a lot of $$ on a new phone. Once I put a new ROM on it, its like a brand new phone. Everything is so much smoother. Just put your data on an SD card. If you sync your contacts with Google they will all sync back up to your phone. All your apps will be re-downloaded. Its a bit of a pain to set them all up again but soooo worth it.
After you make a backup, give it a shot. If you really don't like it then you could go back to the backup... but I doubt that would happen after you see just how well the phone runs.

kfs325 said:
rooting alone will not touch any of your data. It just gives you full permissions to your phone.
however, I HIGHLY recommend you put a custom ROM on this phone. If you really want to get the most out of this phone, it is THE BEST way to go. I've owned this phone since it was first out and had so many problems with it on the stock ROM. I was seriously considering spending a lot of $$ on a new phone. Once I put a new ROM on it, its like a brand new phone. Everything is so much smoother. Just put your data on an SD card. If you sync your contacts with Google they will all sync back up to your phone. All your apps will be re-downloaded. Its a bit of a pain to set them all up again but soooo worth it.
After you make a backup, give it a shot. If you really don't like it then you could go back to the backup... but I doubt that would happen after you see just how well the phone runs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What ROM did you end up using?

Raschal said:
What ROM did you end up using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The most stable one I used was this CM 10, Fairly good performace and was rock solid stable for me.
I am currently using slimkat 4.4 though. It does have some small hiccups but nothing that makes me want to go back to CM 10

wadswerth said:
The most stable one I used was this CM 10, Fairly good performace and was rock solid stable for me.
I am currently using slimkat 4.4 though. It does have some small hiccups but nothing that makes me want to go back to CM 10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. I have used Peach Sunrise for sometime. It is very stable.

Towel root?
1776 said:
Most posts on this are two years old and links no longer work to files needed...
I have never rooted my SGH-T679 but now I keep getting notices that the phone memory is low. I would like to root without touching the rom on the phone so that I can finally dump the bloatware. I have read the XDA thread on rooting this phone and the links to root-stock.zip - 1.62 MB no longer work - come up file deleted or missing. Also second file required - ClockworkMod (? - not sure the name) also comes up as not found.
Yes, it is an old phone (actually only three years old) and I can't afford a another one right now. If I can still root this phone I can get more years out of it. And I like the Gingerbread rom it has.
Also - will the rooting process wipe out all currently downloaded and installed apps? I'd like to avoid that too if possible.
Any help is appreciated. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you ever heard of towelroot? there is a website called towelroot.com, and i am not sure whether it still works, but you should try anyway. You click the lambda and it will download an app. You then install it and click the make it rain button, and you should be root. After that, download Supersu, and root checker. You should then be able to clear bloatware with a root browser.