I need rooting answers! Lots of answers! Galaxy S2

Lil Koala

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Jan 10, 2012
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First of all; Thank you SO much for at least looking at this! I hope I can find all the answers to my many questions I have..

Ok, so here we go!
I've had my S2 for almost exactly a year now, and am still totally in love with it. I'd like to think I'm pretty knowledgable when it comes to my phone and phones in general. but have always found myself wanting to do more with it. I've only ever heard of rooting through forums like this, and no matter how much reading I do, I can't seem to find the exact answers I'm looking for. Can anybody tell me exactly what rooting my S2 would do? How/ if I could do it myself? Will I lose any previous info I had on my phone or void my warranty? (I don't really care about the warranty, it's just that I have really bad luck with phones malfunctioning.)
So I guess what I'm asking is could somebody pretty much give Samsung Galaxy S2 Rooting For Dummies? And maybe walk me through it? I know I'm asking for a lot, but I really want to learn and do this.


Thanks so much in advance! O:-)
 
First of all, I don't think this is posted in the right forum. This question is probably better for the S2 rooting forum or the general Hacking forum.

Second of all, rooting covers WAY to much stuff to summarize in this reply. I know you've said you've done searches, but I'd say keep reading. There's a lot of info out there, but it can be kind of overwhelming at first. Stick with it.

That being said. I'll do my best to summarize what I can to get you started. First let me say that I'm no expert, but I've been reading up myself.

With an unrooted phone you can do everything that the OS and the manufacture intend you to do, but nothing more. Rooting your phone basically opens it up to allow you to do anything with it. But usually requires some significant hacking. The method to obtain root is different on every phone model, so you have to research how to root your specific model.

Almost always when you root you lose everything on your phone, but most things aren't on your phone. Contacts, email, app purchases, are usually stored on the cloud. Pictures and video is usually on your SD card and not your phone storage. In practice what you usually lose is call history, txt messages, settings, and (the big one) app data. This means that you lose progress, settings, and anything saved within the app itself (you apps will be back to when you first install them).

Now why would you want to root?

On of the biggest thing you can do with root is install custom operating systems (i.e. ROMS), so if your device isn't going to be officially updated to the latest version of android you can do it yourself. There are also ROMS that completely change the interface of your device, and give you lots of new features.

Also a lot of people root their phone to enable things like free wireless tethering (i.e. mobile hotspot) which allows you to connect your PC to the internet though your cell signal (which is a feature of Android but is usually disabled by the carriers).

Also rooting lets you uninstall "bloatware" which are the apps that your carrier puts on your phone that can't normally be uninstalled.

You can also do things to make your phone run faster, or to make the battery last longer (for example changing the clock speed of your processor).

Also a lot of people root their phone to install ad blocking apps, so when you're online you won't see any banner ads, popup etc.

Finally, there are lots of other apps that are root only. For example, screen capture/record, battery calibration, firewalls ... I'm sure there are a lot more.

Now, why would you not want to root?

With rooting you're hacking your device and run the risk of breaking it. You're also voiding your warrenty. Some root methods are safer than others, so it something you have to research.

Also, maintaining a rooted phones takes more time. You won't be able to accepts OTA updates anymore, so you have to apply your own updates. Also custom ROMs are often buggy and less stable so you have to deal with more bugs and crashes, but this varies by device and ROM. Also custom ROMs tend to get updated a lot more than manufacuter ROMs, so again, you'll be spending time applying updates.

Finally, rooted phones are inherently less secure. Basically since you've already hacked your device open, it's easier for a malicious app or a hacker to do bad things.

In summary rooting can fun and can give you a lot more capability, but it can also be very complex, time consuming, and less secure. If you decide to root, make sure you do your research.
 

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