Pros and Cons of Rooting?

[redhawk24]

I've been reading through the forums, and seeing all of this talk about rooting my phone. I'm not the most tech savvy guy, so I'm kind of tentative as to whether I should try it. Can anyone take a shot at a simple pros and cons list and the easiest way to go about rooting it?

Also, if anyone happens to be in Licking County, Ohio and would like to help me do it in person, even better!

 

[illwood]

I will try to go through a few pros and cons, but really Jerry's article (link at bottom of post) does a much better job of explaining it.

Pros:

• You have complete control of your phone
• You can install ROMs and customize it to your heart's content
• Through ROMs you have access to newer versions of the Android OS earlier than phone manufacturers release updates.

Cons:

• You can brick your phone
• If you use it to get free wireless tethering, you can use too much data and have Sprint charge you $$ or cancel your account.
• You aren't guaranteed stability or functionality with any ROM that you run. Only recently has 4G been enabled in AOSP (Android Open Source Project) based ROMs like Cyanogenmod.
• May get hassled if you bring the phone in for service.
• If you don't know what you're doing, rooting can be a security risk (so can side-loading stock).

Rooting - is it for me? Some Q&A | Android Central

 

[redhawk24]

I had read that post, and it is the one that really got me to consider it.

But, how does the phone work after the root? Is it still simple to use? How much is performance and battery life affected?

I think I could follow the steps to make it through the root, but I don't want to have to keep it complicated for day to day use

 

[illwood]

I had read that post, and it is the one that really got me to consider it.

But, how does the phone work after the root? Is it still simple to use? How much is performance and battery life affected?

I think I could follow the steps to make it through the root, but I don't want to have to keep it complicated for day to day use

I'm glad that you have been giving this some careful consideration. Here are some answers to your questions.

If you only root the phone, it works the same as when you bought it. There are no performance or battery life differences. The phone will still function the same. The process of rooting itself is only granting you root access. This would be like the difference between a user account and an administrator account on a Windows computer. Having root is essentially like have administrative rights.

If you flash a ROM like Sprint Lovers by following the rooting guide, it is still a Sense ROM like stock but it will have most of the pre-installed "bloat" programs removed but available for installing if you want them, so it will look stock but will allow you to run programs that require root like Titanium Backup or MSL Reader or Wireless Tether.

You can go further still from a stock running phone by going to a modified Sense ROM like Calkulin's EViO 2 or Myn's Warm TwoPointTwo. You can get better battery life on these ROMs because they have less running in the background than the stock ROM and the Kernel has been optimized and may be setup to run at a low frequency or undervolted when the phone is idle to stretch your battery life.

Once you start wanting to venture further, you could go extreme and go the MIUI rout and that tends to have more of an iPhone look and feel.

Lastly, you can have pretty much a stock android experience (AOSP) and run a ROM like Cyanogenmod and make the jump to Gingerbread (Android 2.3).

I hope this has helped you some. If you have more questions, that's natural. You should do as much research as you feel you need before you jump into rooting.

 

[redhawk24]

Thanks! That has answered the resolving issues, and I think I'm going to give it a try!

But, before I start, I have a few more questions.

- You mentioned a "titanium backup". Is this what I use to back up my contacts, current apps, etc, before I do the root? Or is there something else I have to do to protect that info?

- How long does it take to root the phone?

- Which ROM would you recommend to start with? My main reasons for wanting to root are removing the bloatware and improving battery life, I see you link the EViO 2 ROM in your sig, is that what you are running yourself?

 

[illwood]

Titanium Backup can backup apps and their data like game scores and that kind of thing. I think you can use it with the z4root (it's a temporary root) and backup any apps that you want. Also even if you can't back up an app that you paid for, the Android Market will keep track of it and you can re-install it without getting charged twice.

Assuming that you saved your contacts as Google contacts, they will restore when you configure your Gmail account. It would still be worth it to go into the Contacts app and Menu > Import/Export and export your contacts to the SD card just in case.

If you root using the step-by-step method and flash the Sprint Lovers ROM it will take you about 30min to an hour. Read the steps a few times to get comfortable with it and charge your phone first. If you go with the automated Unrevoked method, it should only take a few minutes.

The Sprint Lovers ROM is a pretty good way to start. It is a bit better than stock for performance and battery life and still is familiar. I did use the EViO 2 ROM for a while and I like it a lot. It is stable, smooth, and has decent battery life while still being a Sense based ROM. I recently switch over to Cyanogenmod 7.0.3.1 with the SavagedZen kernel and that gets even better battery life. I did change to LauncherPro because I wasn't happy with the ADW Launcher that CM7 has built into the ROM.

 

[redhawk24]

Just posting to let you know that I successfully rooted my Evo with the Sprint Lovers ROM using the step by step method!

 

[illwood]

Just posting to let you know that I successfully rooted my Evo with the Sprint Lovers ROM using the step by step method!

Glad to hear it!

Thanks for posting up your success.

 

[Complex Pants]

I am a recent rooter as well. I followed the steps in the guide posted here and everything went smoothly.

A few things you should note before flashing away from Sprint lovers is that you can have issues with your GPS and you will lose your voice mail app. However, there are pretty easy fixes out there that worked well for me.

I will say that since I switched to the cyanogenmod rom my battery life has been much much better. I easily get more than a days worth of charge unless I am really pushing my phone with theming, installing apps, etc.

 

[illwood]

That's a good point. Since the OP is now rooted, then can get their MSL using MSL Reader from the market in case they need to do the GPS fix from Sprint Lovers.

The Voicemail doesn't bother me personally because I use Google Voice.

 

[tube517]

How is the battery life and speed w/Sprint Lovers? I just rooted this week and I like Sense/Sprint. Sorry, I'm a noob to all the ROMs and such.

 

[illwood]

How is the battery life and speed w/Sprint Lovers? I just rooted this week and I like Sense/Sprint. Sorry, I'm a noob to all the ROMs and such.

It's better than stock IIRC, but it's not groundbreaking.

Calkulin's EViO 2 ROM has under-clocking and under-volting built into the Kernel included with the ROM. There's a link to it in my signature. It hasn't been updated in a bit, but it's pretty solid, so it's not like it is buggy and needing an update.

 

[tube517]

Thanks Illwood. I'm just reading about different ROMs now and it's alot to read.

It's better than stock IIRC, but it's not groundbreaking.

Calkulin's EViO 2 ROM has under-clocking and under-volting built into the Kernel included with the ROM. There's a link to it in my signature. It hasn't been updated in a bit, but it's pretty solid, so it's not like it is buggy and needing an update.

 

[jamesrshaffer3]

*I took the plunge and rooted my phone by way of the auto root. I have flashed to cyo7 which I am not a big fan of. Is way of auto root ok? I mean it has worked so far..

*I love sense! which is the best(smooth, w/ no bumps)

*I really want to download the sprint lovers rom but you guys now have me second guessing myself b/c of this gps/voicemail issue? should I be worried?

*Also, what are the security risks I should be worried about?

I want to thank you guys ahead of time, I have really been wanting to root for a while, I unfortunately like to just dig in w/o reading up a whole lot..LOL

 

[illwood]

See my answers in bold.

*I took the plunge and rooted my phone by way of the auto root. I have flashed to cyo7 which I am not a big fan of. Is way of auto root ok? I mean it has worked so far..
I have never heard of auto root. Do you have a link? I am more familiar with Unrevoked for an automated rooting method. If you are rooted and can flash ROMs, then you should be OK

*I love sense! which is the best(smooth, w/ no bumps)
I still like Sense myself, it took me a while to make an AOSP ROM my daily driver. For other Sense ROMs you can try, there are quite a few out there. Popular Sense ROMs are: Myn's Warm TwoPointTwo, Sprint Lovers, and I liked Calkulin's EViO 2.

*I really want to download the sprint lovers rom but you guys now have me second guessing myself b/c of this gps/voicemail issue? should I be worried?
I'm not familiar with any problems with Sprint Lovers ROM. The GPS/Voicemail issue isn't with a Sense based ROM it is with AOSP like the CM7 that you are now running. FYI the GPS issue (if it happens to you) has a fix. It happened to me, I did the fix and haven't had any problems with it since. The Voicemail issue isn't really an issue it is just that the Sprint Visual Voicemail app doesn't work on AOSP ROMs. So, if you use Sprint Visual Voicemail you are affected, but it's not really a big deal in my eyes.

*Also, what are the security risks I should be worried about?
When you root your phone, it is like being the Administrator on a Windows machine. You have complete control. As Peter Parker's Uncle used to say, "With great power comes great responsibility." It is technically possible that you could flash a ROM that has malicious code in it, but most ROM developers are willing to let others see their code so that it can be verified as safe.

I want to thank you guys ahead of time, I have really been wanting to root for a while, I unfortunately like to just dig in w/o reading up a whole lot..LOL

I hope those answers helped you out a bit.

 

[jamesrshaffer3]

exactly what I said, LOL I like to just jump in..

[ROOT] ~~~ HTC EVO - Universal Auto Root ~~~ v2.5 (4/25/11) - xda-developers

youtube link:

YouTube - ‪HTC EVO 4G ** ROOT AND NAND UNLOCK ** AUTOROOT V 2.2 ** HOW TO **‬‏


**is this unrevoked forever, that is what I am not sure of!! I followed randy's youtube app, b/c I am a visual learner.???
** Also, what other apps should I be downloading if I want to continue using ROM's?
**When gingerbread comes out for the EVO, do I need to unroot?
Thank you

 

[Complex Pants]

At this point you won't accept an OTA update again. If you want to update your phone you flash the new ROM of your choice.

If you use AOSP ROMs (CM7) most of them are already running Gingerbread. Most of Sense based roms are still on Froyo.

 

[jamesrshaffer3]

*so the way I rooted my phone is called?????
*what about the different apps?
*are there different apps for ROM management?
*can unroot if I would like?

 

[Complex Pants]

*so the way I rooted my phone is called?????
*what about the different apps?
*are there different apps for ROM management?
*can unroot if I would like?

If you followed the guides above you use Unrevoked Forever to root.

You can unroot, but you may lose the ability to root in the future.

You want to download this for ROM management: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.koushikdutta.rommanager

 

[redhawk24]

I have decided to switch from Sprint Lovers to CyanogenMod 7.0.3.1 (stable version, not the nightlies). I am going to download it onto my computer and try to upload it to my phone. I have done a backup of the Sprint Lovers ROM as well as backing up my apps via Titanium Backup. Is there anything else I need to do before I download the new mod? Is there anything I would need to do after I download it before I use it? Is there a guide on the forums to help me out?