[WARN]
Android Central,Team Win, Koush ,nor myself take any responsibility for any modification you make to your own phone. Even if your phone sprouts legs, steals your car ,uses your credit cards or sleeps with your girl. NOT OUR FAULT!
DO NOT USE ROM MANAGER TO FLASH CUSTOM RECOVERY. DO NOT USE GOO MANAGER TO FLASH CUSTOM RECOVERY. YOU MUST HAVE AN UNLOCKED BOOTLOADER TO FLASH A CUSTOM RECOVERY. FAILING TO HEED THIS WARNING WILL CAUSE DAMAGE THAT WILL FORCE YOU TO HAVE TO FLASH STOCK IMAGE WITH ODIN TO RECOVER.
That being said, HAVE FUN!!
[/WARN]DO NOT USE ROM MANAGER TO FLASH CUSTOM RECOVERY. DO NOT USE GOO MANAGER TO FLASH CUSTOM RECOVERY. YOU MUST HAVE AN UNLOCKED BOOTLOADER TO FLASH A CUSTOM RECOVERY. FAILING TO HEED THIS WARNING WILL CAUSE DAMAGE THAT WILL FORCE YOU TO HAVE TO FLASH STOCK IMAGE WITH ODIN TO RECOVER.
Please Read Directions carefully!
This does have the potential of BRICKING YOUR PHONE.Follow Directions carefully, ask if you need help. and above all else never panic.That being said, HAVE FUN!!
[NOTE]Pictures and videos will be added at a later date [/NOTE]
Guide: How To Install and Use Custom Recoveries
Questions below:
What is a Recovery?
What is a Custom Recovery?
Do i need a Custom Recovery?
How Do I get to my stock or custom recovery on my phone?
I am rooted, can i simply flash a custom recovery from Rom manager or Goo manager?
How do i get a custom recovery?
Which custom recovery is best?
Will installing a custom recovery void my warranty?
What is a Nandroid Backup/Restore
What is Dalvik cache
What are Permissions and what does fixing them do?
Q: What is a Recovery?
[INFO]A: In Android, recovery refers to the dedicated, bootable partition that has the recovery console installed. A combination of key presses,will boot your phone to recovery, where you can find tools to help repair/recover your installation as well as install official OS updates.Its main purpose is to delete all user data and files, or to perform system updates. When you tell your phone to do a factory reset, recovery is what boots up and erases the files and data. Besides the said functions the stock recovery does not offer much of any other usefullness to someone looking to modify their android device.[/INFO]
Q: What is a Custom Recovery?
[INFO]A: A Custom Recovery is a recovery developed to give much more functionality than the stock recovery. Functions of a custom recovery include:
?Wiping your phone?s data,cache, and Dalvik cache.
?Make, restore and manage backups of your phone?s operating system and software.
?Install a custom ROM(operating system) or application from a zip file to make specific modifications to your device.
[/INFO]
Q: Do i need a Custom Recovery?
[INFO]A: No if you are happy with the way the device is running and all of the functionality that your device with then you do not need it. Also low level modifications can be done by simply rooting your device.
If you plan on doing higher level modifications such as installing custom kernels and custom roms then yes this is necessary.[/INFO]
Q:How Do I get to my stock or custom recovery on my phone?
[INFO]A:You must first Power down your device. Then press and hold Volume up and home buttons,while continuing to hold, press and hold Power. Keep holding until your recovery screen appears.[/INFO]
Q:How do i get a custom recovery?
[INFO]A:When/if you unlock your bootloader, Team Win Recovery Project more commonly known as TWRP will come preinstalled. If you would like to you use Clockwork Mod Recovery also known as CWM this must be flashed using TWRP after rebooting the recovery system will have changed over. Detailed instructions will be found within this guide.[/INFO]
Q:I am rooted, can't i simply flash a custom recovery from Rom manager or Goo manager?
[INFO]A: NO, in order to have a custom recovery on your device it must have an unlocked bootloader. Flashing a custom recovery onto your device without unlocking the bootloader will result in a soft brick and you will have to flash a stock rom via Odin. If you find yourself in this position please ask for help. [/INFO]
Q:Which custom recovery is best?
[INFO]A:Both TWRP and CWM are great choices but in the end it is up to you. It is up to you to try them out and see which one you like better.[/INFO]
Q:Will installing a custom recovery void my warranty?
[INFO]A:If you have flashed a custom recovery you are way beyond caring if your warranty is void lol. The answer is yes, this is a high level modification. But if you need to return your device you can always return to stock and your warranty will be fine.[/INFO]
Q:What is Dalvik cache?
[INFO]A:One of the best functions of Android has to be the Dalvik cache. Dalvik cache is a wonder from the point your Android starts up, runs, hibernates and all the way till you device shuts down. Dalvik cache collects the information about the installed applications and frameworks, and organizes them into a writeable cache. Under this writeable cache, it stores the ?optimized? bytecode of the applications which is used by the applications themselves later for a smoother operation. This dalvik cache can grow immensely huge as more applications are installed on your phone. It is safe to wipe dalvik-cache. It will be rebuilt again when the phone boots. This also explains why your phone takes ages to start up for the first time.
If you ever extract an APK installer file, you will always find a file named classes.dex. This is the file Dalvik finds to build the cache. What makes the process slow? APK is an archive (which is why you can open it up with an unarchiver such as WinRAR or 7-Zip). Being an archive, it provides limited write access to the files contained within and the fact that archives are compressed. Not to forget, APKs are encrypted archives too. Therefore, DalvikVM has to extract the classes.dex files and build the Dalvik table accordingly which makes it easier to write data on it too. With this collective set of data, the Android OS no longer needs to index the applications and find their classes.dex when the phone is already running. Instead, it will just look into one place, and will know what to do next.
When flashing a New Rom it is important to wipe Dalvik cache so it can be rebuilt upon startup. Failure to do so in most cases will cause endless boot loops or many force closes upon startup.[/INFO]
Q:What is a Nandroid Backup/restore?
[INFO]A:This is a backup that takes a snapshot of your operating system, your data and settings taken from the phones NAND memory.
This is similar to a restore point on a desktop computer.
It is an excellent tool if you like to flash roms on your device and you run into trouble.
A nandroid restore will bring you back to the state your phone was in at the time you made the backup.
It is important to note that a Nandroid backup does not backup/restore your kernel or modem,
so its important to be aware that you may have to flash a compatible modem and kernel to restore full functionality to your device.
[/INFO]
Q:What are Permissions and what does fixing them do?
[INFO] Permissions:
When your phone boots up for the first time and apps are installed they create a corresponding data folder these folders are assigned a User ID. which the app apk becomes owner of. the ID is assigned in installation order.
Now if for some reason a data folder goes missing as in deleted or corrupted these UID's are regenerated but since they are not doing it in installation order the system instead assigns the ID in alphabetical order.. When this is done the data folders no longer match the application. So when the apk goes to look for its data it finds something that has nothing to do with it. BOOM force close city. We usually fix this by wiping data and letting the apk's reinstall thereby recreating its data folders and reassigning UID's .
when you fix permissions the system goes and corrects this alphabetical mismatch. And you are back to normal. Here is a visual representation of this
How a Malicious app with root access could theoretically use permissions:
A malicious app could in theory create a Group ID and be a Co-owner of a particular UID, therefore retrieving whatever is created in the original data folder. Here is a visual of what this would look like
[/INFO]
FAQ
Guide: How To Install and Use Custom Recoveries
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