Superuser AND SuperSU?

jean15paul

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I saw this posted on a forum on another site (the cyanogen forum actually), but that forum isn't active enough to get an answer so I thought I'd ask it here...

The OP asked if it's ok to have both the Superuser app and the SuperSU app installed at the same time. Then someone added that when Superuser is included with a ROM they disable Superuser and install SuperSU, which prompted me to ask is there any significant difference.

Unfortunately no answer. So I'll pose the question here:
  • Are there any differences between Superuser and SuperSU? Do you have a preference?
  • What would happen if you had them both installed? Would it be bad, like having 2 firewalls can be?

Thanks for the help. The OP is here if you're intersted... Multiple Superuser Apps - Google Galaxy Nexus CDMA General - CyanogenMod Forum
 

greyhd

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I have both installed and haven't seen any issues, but I do notice that SuperSU takes over Superuser. I prefer SuperSU since it has better binaries.
 

JkdJedi

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I have both installed and haven't seen any issues, but I do notice that SuperSU takes over Superuser. I prefer SuperSU since it has better binaries.
+1 for SuperSu works with everything unlike SuperUser, especially on CM roms. Just Disable SuperUser! SuperSu FTW.
 

jean15paul

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I have both installed and haven't seen any issues, but I do notice that SuperSU takes over Superuser. I prefer SuperSU since it has better binaries.

Can you elaborate on "better binaries"?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums
 

digitalslacker

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Yea +1 for SuperSu. I've seen a few issues that were corrected by going to SuperSU.
I also always disable superuser so I don't get confused who's managing things.
 

Froojr

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The way I rooted my phone adds Superuser. I have also installed SuperSU from the Play store. How would I "disable" Superuser? Superuser is shown as a System App, while SuperSU is shown as just Installed.

Someone's going to tell me to adb push SuperSU. Where do I get the zip?

I need college-level Android Hackery 101.
 

jean15paul

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The way I rooted my phone adds Superuser. I have also installed SuperSU from the Play store. How would I "disable" Superuser? Superuser is shown as a System App, while SuperSU is shown as just Installed.

Someone's going to tell me to adb push SuperSU. Where do I get the zip?

I need college-level Android Hackery 101.

I can't call this "Hackery 101," but maybe it's "How to mess with system apps 101: a dummy's guide to screwing something up" :)

What version of Android are you running? Starting in ICS, Google made it very easy to disable system apps. Just go to the app info screen for that app and hit "Disable." This will stop it from running and remove it from your app drawer.

If you use Titanium Backup, you can also "freeze" apps from within Titanium Backup, which I believe does basically the same thing as "Disable". (Although I'd prefer to use "Disable" since it's native to the OS.)

If you have root and you want to uninstall a system app, you can do it with any root-capable file explorer, like Root Explorer or ES File Explorer. Just navigate to /system/app/ (that's where system apps are installed), and delete the apk file. Be careful; deleting system apps can be dangerous. If you're not sure if it's safe, ask.

Another method uses Titanium Backup. Titanium Backup has the ability to convert system apps to user apps and vice versa. (It basically just moves the apk and app data). So you could use Titanium Backup to convert it to a regular user apps and then uninstall as normal.

I hope I helped. One final piece of advice. Ask if it's safe before removing something and ALWAYS make a nandroid backup first just in case you need to go back.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums
 

Froojr

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I can't call this "Hackery 101," but maybe it's "How to mess with system apps 101: a dummy's guide to screwing something up" :)

What version of Android are you running? Starting in ICS, Google made it very easy to disable system apps. Just go to the app info screen for that app and hit "Disable." This will stop it from running and remove it from your app drawer.

If you use Titanium Backup, you can also "freeze" apps from within Titanium Backup, which I believe does basically the same thing as "Disable". (Although I'd prefer to use "Disable" since it's native to the OS.)

If you have root and you want to uninstall a system app, you can do it with any root-capable file explorer, like Root Explorer or ES File Explorer. Just navigate to /system/app/ (that's where system apps are installed), and delete the apk file. Be careful; deleting system apps can be dangerous. If you're not sure if it's safe, ask.

Another method uses Titanium Backup. Titanium Backup has the ability to convert system apps to user apps and vice versa. (It basically just moves the apk and app data). So you could use Titanium Backup to convert it to a regular user apps and then uninstall as normal.

I hope I helped. One final piece of advice. Ask if it's safe before removing something and ALWAYS make a nandroid backup first just in case you need to go back.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

I have root, ES, and TiBu. I'm running Euroskank JellyBro 1120, the last nightly for 4.1.2, with a franco kernel.

Once I disable Superuser, is SuperSU okay as a user app or does it need to be a system app?
 
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ragnarokx

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I have root, ES, and TiBu. I'm running Euroskank JellyBro 1120, the last nightly for 4.1.2, with a franco kernel.

Once I disable Superuser, is SuperSU okay as a user app or does it need to be a system app?

As long as you opened SuperSU and installed binaries when prompted, you can disable Superuser.

Sent from my Nexus 7
 

AfroDroid

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I had the same problem even though the two did not seem to get in each others way besides asking for super user authorisations. i do prefer SuperSu as it seems to work better with all apps but i wouldnt uninstall any of the two unless i noticed a problem.
 

AntonioMichael87

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You can have both of them installed i have both of them installed the only difference is SuperSU has better bianarys intern that means it works better with all apps that need root access 200% better read and write between apps over SuperUser you can have both installed SuperSu takes over Superuser