Hi all.
Background: Been watching this site since before getting the Nexus S 4G when it launched last summer. Upgraded from a well-warn Palm Pre, which I loved save for its painfully slow performance. My favorite feature of webOS, honestly, was the very direct ability to 1) unlock the device in dev mode and 2) restore the entire system to factory default in 20 minutes with the Palm Restore Tool.
That said, I love my phone and the Android ecosystem, and have been studying for some time what rooting would involve, how it's done, advantages, restoring to factory, bootloader unlock, and so on. I rooted once, right before 2.3.7 was released, using Pete Alfonso's one-click root. This was short-lived since I updated to 2.3.7 as soon as it became available, and likewise with 4.0.4. Both OS updates were done via the recovery console and the associated "update.zip" files. I simply didn't feel like waiting for my phone to get the updates OTA. I can't say for sure if these were done via the default Android Recovery Console or Clockworkmod. All I can say for sure is that I currently have the default Android Recovery Console. If I ever had Clockworkmod installed, assuming it was installed via one-click root, it's gone now. I assume that one of the system updates restored it.
So as it stands, I have (I believe) the factory out-of-the-box stock Android 4.0.4 build IMM76D, and the default recovery console, "Android system recovery <3e>". However, my bootloader is still unlocked.
My understanding is that unlocking the bootloader is a prerequisite to obtaining root. I also understand that unlocking the bootloader is the only part of the root process that wipes the phone. Since mine is already unlocked, I can root without losing data/settings, correct? In fact, I have purposely avoided one-click restore options for this very reason.
So to my big question...in studying everything I can find, I've found myself in a circular conundrum for which no one seems to ever actually explain...and forgive me if I just missed the point...but EVERY rooting tutorial I've found includes steps to install a custom recovery console like Clockworkmod, THEN root the phone buy using recovery to install the superuser file(s). However, EVERYTHING I've read about Clockworkmod states that root is required to install and use it. This seems very much like a chicken vs. egg scenario.
So...can root be achieved WITHOUT using a custom recovery? simple yes/no will suffice, but additional useful commentary would be very much appreciated.
I want to root my phone, not for any special purpose yet, but because I want to understand it. Forget custom ROMs and such for the time being. All of the tutorials I find are very step-by-step, and many are very very good...but I don't want just a checklist, I want to know what's going on, and why each step is necessary, what each step does, which steps are necessary for what purpose and which ones aren't. And this stuff doesn't seem to ever be explained anywhere. I'm making my own notes, but the above question is holding me up and I'm tired of searching. I'm that guy who takes stuff apart to learn how it goes back together, so that's my angle (and a systems engineer by trade).
As part of this, I want to fully understand how to restore everything about the phone to its factory state. Until I do, I'm not going to hack it anymore (not asking how to do that, just stating my general intentions).
FYI, I'm pretty tech-savvy, very familiar with Windows, OS X, and Linux command line stuff, as well as very experienced with scripting via Perl, Python, and VB. so you're not talking to an idiot
Thanks for any feedback.
Background: Been watching this site since before getting the Nexus S 4G when it launched last summer. Upgraded from a well-warn Palm Pre, which I loved save for its painfully slow performance. My favorite feature of webOS, honestly, was the very direct ability to 1) unlock the device in dev mode and 2) restore the entire system to factory default in 20 minutes with the Palm Restore Tool.
That said, I love my phone and the Android ecosystem, and have been studying for some time what rooting would involve, how it's done, advantages, restoring to factory, bootloader unlock, and so on. I rooted once, right before 2.3.7 was released, using Pete Alfonso's one-click root. This was short-lived since I updated to 2.3.7 as soon as it became available, and likewise with 4.0.4. Both OS updates were done via the recovery console and the associated "update.zip" files. I simply didn't feel like waiting for my phone to get the updates OTA. I can't say for sure if these were done via the default Android Recovery Console or Clockworkmod. All I can say for sure is that I currently have the default Android Recovery Console. If I ever had Clockworkmod installed, assuming it was installed via one-click root, it's gone now. I assume that one of the system updates restored it.
So as it stands, I have (I believe) the factory out-of-the-box stock Android 4.0.4 build IMM76D, and the default recovery console, "Android system recovery <3e>". However, my bootloader is still unlocked.
My understanding is that unlocking the bootloader is a prerequisite to obtaining root. I also understand that unlocking the bootloader is the only part of the root process that wipes the phone. Since mine is already unlocked, I can root without losing data/settings, correct? In fact, I have purposely avoided one-click restore options for this very reason.
So to my big question...in studying everything I can find, I've found myself in a circular conundrum for which no one seems to ever actually explain...and forgive me if I just missed the point...but EVERY rooting tutorial I've found includes steps to install a custom recovery console like Clockworkmod, THEN root the phone buy using recovery to install the superuser file(s). However, EVERYTHING I've read about Clockworkmod states that root is required to install and use it. This seems very much like a chicken vs. egg scenario.
So...can root be achieved WITHOUT using a custom recovery? simple yes/no will suffice, but additional useful commentary would be very much appreciated.
I want to root my phone, not for any special purpose yet, but because I want to understand it. Forget custom ROMs and such for the time being. All of the tutorials I find are very step-by-step, and many are very very good...but I don't want just a checklist, I want to know what's going on, and why each step is necessary, what each step does, which steps are necessary for what purpose and which ones aren't. And this stuff doesn't seem to ever be explained anywhere. I'm making my own notes, but the above question is holding me up and I'm tired of searching. I'm that guy who takes stuff apart to learn how it goes back together, so that's my angle (and a systems engineer by trade).
As part of this, I want to fully understand how to restore everything about the phone to its factory state. Until I do, I'm not going to hack it anymore (not asking how to do that, just stating my general intentions).
FYI, I'm pretty tech-savvy, very familiar with Windows, OS X, and Linux command line stuff, as well as very experienced with scripting via Perl, Python, and VB. so you're not talking to an idiot
Thanks for any feedback.
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