Rooting FAQ's (please post all related questions and concerns about rooting in here)

[Mikey47]

Pardon my dumb question about rooting, I am a longtime Pre user. My wife has an EVO and loves it.

With the Pre if you mess things up you can always use webOS Doctor and reload you Pre from scratch. Why do I hear so much about bricking an Android device, can't you reload an Android device similar to webOS Doctor?

 

[Prof-KOS]

Pardon my dumb question about rooting, I am a longtime Pre user. My wife has an EVO and loves it.

With the Pre if you mess things up you can always use webOS Doctor and reload you Pre from scratch. Why do I hear so much about bricking an Android device, can't you reload an Android device similar to webOS Doctor?

Bricking is incredibly hard to do. It is mentioned because people want you to be informed about the potential risks of hacking your device. The only real brick I can remember is when someone pulled the battery on their device while flashing a new radio image. There may be others, but they are incredibly rare. Most often you can re-flash the stock image or another rom if you'd like.

 

[mcguirej]

I've got an incredible and am thinking about rooting just so that I can get rid of the pre-installed crap I don't want. My question though is: do you have to use an app like Titanium to get rid of those things or can you just delete them?

Another question I have about rooting is: Do you have to flash a custom rom or can you get "superuser" status on the stock rom? From what I understand, unrevoked3 flashes a custom rom and allows for "superuser" status, what is the difference in that rom from the stock Incredible one?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Mikey47]

Bricking is incredibly hard to do. It is mentioned because people want you to be informed about the potential risks of hacking your device. The only real brick I can remember is when someone pulled the battery on their device while flashing a new radio image. There may be others, but they are incredibly rare. Most often you can re-flash the stock image or another rom if you'd like.

OK, cool thanks! So it is very similar to webOS doctor then.

 

[Hellnation]

Ok I have a rooting question.
In the house we have an EVO and a Backflip. Are either one of those rootable?

 

[Raditude#AC]

Just got my Droid 2 the other day. Rooted it that night, and installed Wireless Tether, and Super Manager. I also deleted some bloatware.

This morning the phone said I have an update available. If I accept the update, will this render any rooted applications unusable? Will I have to re-root my phone?

I'm currently running stock roms, and OS. My system version is 2.2.19.A955.Verizon.en.US.

It wants to update to 2.2.20.en.US.

 

[DaEXfactoR]

Ready for root

I have an Epic 4G. I am ready to root this bad boy. Can anyone direct me to a starting point. Thanks

 

[dmc_ii]

I have a Samsung vibrant if I root my phone do I have to install a custom rom or flash the original rom? Can I just root the phone and leave the stock rom?

 

[doublea500]

I have a Motorola droid(1st one), and verizon service.build number is frg22d I have had this droid for around a year and have not rooted it yet because i didnt know enough about it. well here are my questions:
2. What are roms?
3. What are the pros/cons of rooting my droid?
4. Will i be able to unroot MY VERSION and how
5. Will it increase the speed of my droid
6. will it incrase the ram of my droid
8. what is like the main reason people root droids and what different things can you do with a rooted droid rather then a droid thats not rooted.
9. Is it legal?
10. how can i root my droid

 

[UltimateBB9700User]

havent checked my thread ina while lol but thanks for all of the feedback guys!
I have another question though, how can i flash the stock image on my cliq? Can i download the stock image from somewhere?

 

[Mr.Verizon]

My phone is jacked and I need help!! I hope people still respond to this thread. I had my phone rooted but accidently erased my original HTC rom. I downloaded several other roms that I liked but on all of them my voice navigation or my camcorder didn't work. So I un-rooted my phone and then wanted to root it again but made sure I saved my original in case I wanted to use any of the two listed above. Now that I have it rooted, it will let me download roms, but wont let me load them. All I keep getting is the black screen with the triangle. Also, when I un-rooted it, it had my software at 2.1-update1 and didn't give me the option to go to 2.2. Someone please help me, I'm frustrated!!

 

[drunkgriffon38]

Help!!!!!

I rooted me G1 acouple days ago or so I think. I have yet been able to return my OS back to the upddated one. I followed all the steps so I guess my question is how do i tell it the root took and if it did how can i get my OS up to date casue it sucks running in the old market and not being able to get my apps back.

 

[drunkgriffon38]

whats an super userd icon

 

[TxGoatHead]

Evo 4g with Froyo 2.2 and HTC Sense...I have a question

If I decide to root, will I be able to use the device as it is now? Can I use the same version of HTC Sense? Will I need to re-download all my applications and set-up my email as if I had done a hard reset?

Main reasons for me to root...
1. Use Android Screencast...I would like to type on my phone with the computer keyboard while it rest on my desk.
2. Wifi Tether


Thanks,
TXGoathead

 

[AusFest]

Need help!

Last night I was trying to root my droid 1 and it didnt go so good. I am running android 2.2 like the rest of the unrooted country and somewhere in the mix I flashed a sbf file that was suppose to be used to root android 2.1. Now my phone is getting no signal my battery is showing white outlined in red with a red line through it and the phone keeps force closing. I was able to get into recovery mode and tried to wipe the phone. It wiped but didnt fix the problem. I didnt try to get into the boot loader but I dont think that will be a problem. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks!

 

[AusFest]

Last night I was trying to root my droid 1 and it didnt go so good. I am running android 2.2 like the rest of the unrooted country and somewhere in the mix I flashed a sbf file that was suppose to be used to root android 2.1. Now my phone is getting no signal my battery is showing white outlined in red with a red line through it and the phone keeps force closing. I was able to get into recovery mode and tried to wipe the phone. It wiped but didnt fix the problem. I didnt try to get into the boot loader but I dont think that will be a problem. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks!

Update. was able to get the phone rooted but when I rebooted the phone still resets every 60 secs, notification light is red battery is showing dead," I know it has power though". I messed it up

 

[VaDreamer]

Last week I rooted my HTC EVO, running the latest froyo release and I used unrevoked3 to root. I've now found this forum and was hoping someone could help me out.

All I really need root for (at least for the moment), is to use the EVO as a hotspot.

The root process went without a hitch and wifi hotspot was working fine, but now my battery will not last more than a couple of hours. I have removed all the apps that I thought migh be the issue, including the hotspot app, but the battery still drains like someone pulled a plug.

Anyone have any ideas?

I did find several posts on here, dissing the unrevoked3 method, and would like some specifics as to why this method is not well liked by some. I could not find anything specific in the forums.

Thanks in advance.

 

[hp2point0]

Unrooting phone

I have Droid X. I have successfully rooted my phone using SuperOneClick. There is an Unroot option on the app. I have a few questions. I keep seeing that on some posts people are stating to unroot you have to reinstall the manufacturers .sbfing file. I think Im saying that correctly.

1.) If i were to press the unroot button would that reinstall the manufactures software? or do I need to install it directly during clockwork recovery?

2.) If i need to reinstall it manually how would I do so or where can I find instruction on this? Where can I find the software from the manufacturer?

3.) Im thinking ahead, suppose I install a ROM that make my phone not work and I need to recover it. How do I get into clockwork mode. It seems once in a while when I reboot my phone it will go into the mode automatically and other times it just bypass's it and starts right up. Im worried if I install a ROM and it does not work properly, how am I sure I will be able to get into Clockwork.

4.) Once I unroot my phone will I be able to get automatic updates again like when Gingerbread comes out.

 

[AusFest]

Update. was able to get the phone rooted but when I rebooted the phone still resets every 60 secs, notification light is red battery is showing dead," I know it has power though". I messed it up

I fixed it! A month later, thanks for all the help. Oh wait no one reads these forums anymore.

 

[MrDragomir]

Does anyone know any information regarding as to why I don't have the "3G" box next to my network status (bars) after flashing a stock kernel and operating system on a Samsung Vibrant?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.