ED2 and rooting question

[MikeS]

OK so I am dying to root this phone and start playing around with it on a deeper level but I am in IT and, as most people in my field, I will never change something unless I can get back to where I started. So from what I understand I would need an ODIN image of my phone to fully restore back to what I had before I changed my ROM or any of those other fun things you can do. The problem I have is that I have read you have to be rooted to get the ODIN image and I am on ED2 so rooting for me would mean using the downgrade which would put somebody else's image on my phone and I do not know if I am quite comfortable with that. So here are my questions:

1. Is it correct I need to be rooted to get an ODIN image and restore it to the phone?
2. Is it likely Samsung will publish stock images for recovery?
3. If I have to be rooted is there any progress being made on ED2 rooting?
4. Is there any other info that I am missing on how this process works?

I am still really new to this whole Android thing so I apologize if I am way off. I am coming from a BlackBerry which had its own way of handling stuff like this but you could always get back to start with a stock image no matter what so this is a lot different for me and I think I am at the point where I need help before I end up stuck where I don't want to be. As an aside, I am quite technical and I have found it really awesome the possibilities of stuff you can do with this phone. I think I just need to be nudged in the right direction.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can provide!

 

[Raptor007]

From what I have been reading the last day or so, yes you need to be rooted to use ODIN image, I somehow don't think Samsung will give us what we really need. Over at XDA-Developers here [ROOT] [KERNEL] [RECOVERY] - Root / Voodoo Lagfix / CWM Recovery - xda-developers that last one I can't answer in full yet. I am still reading a lot about it before I dive into the pool and find out there isn't any water.

I am very familiar with rooting with HTC, Motorola and Samsung is new for me so I got as far as I could and need to read more.

 

[elucid]

I am in the exact same boat. I'm really nervous about trying this until I'm confident I can get back to where I am now. I'm on ED2 without root and don't see a way forward without taking some serious unrecoverable risk. I see lots of I bricked my phone messages and this makes me very cautious. I'm coming from the D1 and make a backup was always step 1. Hope someone knowledgable chimes in.

 

[MikeS]

So I took the plunge this weekend and just went for it and here is what I found from a newbie standpoint...

First and foremost at the current state of the ROMs and mods it is very important that you not be too attached to anything on your Charge because chances are you are going to have to wipe your phone multiple times throughout this process.

So I started out simple and flashed the ODIN downgrade. From what I have found this is pretty much pure stock ED1 and it saved my ass more times than I can count. It also s pre-rooted which makes life much easier in the long run. After flashing that I used Super Manager to start deleting bloatware. I cleared out a bunch of stuff successfully including the TouchWiz launcher because I have found Go Launcher to be more useful.

From there I became more confident and started playing around with Voodoo, CWM, and Altered Beast. I cannot tell you guys how many times I bricked my phone throughout the process of trying these various methods out. I do have to say the most stable of the bunch was Altered Beast (way to go DroidXcon) but I wasn't really digging it because it was just not my style.

Everytime I bricked (and I got them all... soft ODIN brick, boot looping, stuck on the Samsung screen, and any other brick you can think of) I was able to use the ED1 downgrade and reflash with ODIN to bring me back.

As of right now, I am back to the beginning. I flashed the downgrade one last time for temp root while I cleaned out the junk and then after I got everything the way I wanted it I went ahead and installed ED2 and lost root. I am gonna roll with this until CWM and voodoo become more stable and then try again.

Bottom line here is, yes there is a way to get back no matter what you do but as of right now I don't think what is out there is quite stable enough for full use. The devs are coming out of the woodwork though and they seem to be on the right track so I don't think it will be too long before we see more stable releases.

 

[Halo]

Thanks for the write-up Mike. I too am coming from a D1. Just ordered my Charge yesterday. I have no idea if it will come with the ED1 or ED2 update. I'm planning on just rooting it and leaving it at that until we get some stable ROMs.

 

[elucid]

I took the plunge and am now rooted with a voodoo kernel! Worked the first time. 1575 quadrant now and more importantly the phone is a bit more responsive. Now to remove some bloat.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

 

[Halo]

I took the plunge and am now rooted with a voodoo kernel! Worked the first time. 1575 quadrant now and more importantly the phone is a bit more responsive. Now to remove some bloat.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

Did you use ODIN to flash the kernel or Gingersnap first to root the phone and then ODIN to flash the kernel?

 

[tintn00]

So I took the plunge this weekend and just went for it and here is what I found from a newbie standpoint...

First and foremost at the current state of the ROMs and mods it is very important that you not be too attached to anything on your Charge because chances are you are going to have to wipe your phone multiple times throughout this process.

So I started out simple and flashed the ODIN downgrade. From what I have found this is pretty much pure stock ED1 and it saved my ass more times than I can count. It also s pre-rooted which makes life much easier in the long run. After flashing that I used Super Manager to start deleting bloatware. I cleared out a bunch of stuff successfully including the TouchWiz launcher because I have found Go Launcher to be more useful.

From there I became more confident and started playing around with Voodoo, CWM, and Altered Beast. I cannot tell you guys how many times I bricked my phone throughout the process of trying these various methods out. I do have to say the most stable of the bunch was Altered Beast (way to go DroidXcon) but I wasn't really digging it because it was just not my style.

Everytime I bricked (and I got them all... soft ODIN brick, boot looping, stuck on the Samsung screen, and any other brick you can think of) I was able to use the ED1 downgrade and reflash with ODIN to bring me back.

As of right now, I am back to the beginning. I flashed the downgrade one last time for temp root while I cleaned out the junk and then after I got everything the way I wanted it I went ahead and installed ED2 and lost root. I am gonna roll with this until CWM and voodoo become more stable and then try again.

Bottom line here is, yes there is a way to get back no matter what you do but as of right now I don't think what is out there is quite stable enough for full use. The devs are coming out of the woodwork though and they seem to be on the right track so I don't think it will be too long before we see more stable releases.

1. When you upgraded to ED2, did the update restore all the bloatware that you removed with Super Manager?

2. When you removed TouchWiz, did you already have Go Launcher installed? If so, did you install Go Launcher before or after flashing with Odin?

Thanks!

 

[elucid]

I only used odin.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

 

[MikeS]

The ED2 update did not restore any of the blaotware removed but a word of caution, the ED2 update is pretty much for Media Hub only so if you remove Media Hub with Super Manager the update will not take.

As for Go Launcher, I installed it after I flashed the ED1 downgrade and made sure I had it up and running before uninstalling TouchWiz. After I was totally happy with everything I went ahead and installed the ED2 update. The reason you want to be totally sure you have everything good before installing the update is because you will lose root and if you miss something you have to start from the beginning. Trust me I learned this the hard way LOL.