OTA for rooted N4?

[rayfield]

1) I held off rooting my Nexus 4 just because I didn't want to be bothered, but six months ago when I got tired of poor battery performance & saw how easy TowelRoot made the process, I did -- and was pleased with the increased control. Now I'm a bit concerned: last night I kept getting prompted to install the OTA but held off, since from what I could gather, it wouldn't install to my rooted phone.

This morning I decided to unroot so I could d/l & install the OTA, so went into SuperSU and did that. Unfortunately -- and here is my concern -- I hadn't uninstalled XPosed Framework before unrooting; so now I'm concerned whether I'll be able to install Lollipop (or if I might succeed & brick the thing) -- these might seem like stupid concerns, but not knowing the answers to these questions is what held me off rooting in the first place. Did Xposed make any kind of changes that would muck up the OTA install? should I root the thing again and uninstall it, or am I good to go as is?

2) Oddly, I'm also finding that I am no longer offered the OTA. Did I miss the boat somehow?

 

[acejavelin]

Its up to you... Re-root and remove Xposed, or load factory images. Honestly if you have modified the system there is a 50/50 chance it will fail anyway. Best to backup and flash stock images.

The OTA being there then gone is common, give it a day or two and it comes back for most people.

 

[rayfield]

Its up to you... Re-root and remove Xposed, or load factory images. Honestly if you have modified the system there is a 50/50 chance it will fail anyway. Best to backup and flash stock images.

re-rooted & uninstalled after backing up, will cross my fingers. would be nice if something simple like TowelRoot comes up for Lollipop, it was ideal for me.

 

[acejavelin]

re-rooted & uninstalled after backing up, will cross my fingers. would be nice if something simple like TowelRoot comes up for Lollipop, it was ideal for me.

Not likely anytime soon but who knows, the boot.img needs to be modified in order to root the device on Lollipop, which requires CFAR at the moment.

An app based root solution is not likely to occur on any stock Lollipop ROM.

 

[rayfield]

well it worked. if the battery life is lousy, I will probably look for the easiest way to root it -- otherwise I will wait for a maintenance version or two.

Not likely anytime soon but who knows, the boot.img needs to be modified in order to root the device on Lollipop, which requires CFAR at the moment.

An app based root solution is not likely to occur on any stock Lollipop ROM.

in other words, it's highly unlikely I'll be able to root the device without wiping it? what a pita. I am sorely tempted to convert this phone to Ubuntu Touch and maybe get another cheap N4 with stock Lollipop on it. tell me -- I happen to be on Cricket as well -- would you happy to know if it's possible to get two SIM cards for the same number?

 

[acejavelin]

well it worked. if the battery life is lousy, I will probably look for the easiest way to root it -- otherwise I will wait for a maintenance version or two.



in other words, it's highly unlikely I'll be able to root the device without wiping it? what a pita. I am sorely tempted to convert this phone to Ubuntu Touch and maybe get another cheap N4 with stock Lollipop on it. tell me -- I happen to be on Cricket as well -- would you happy to know if it's possible to get two SIM cards for the same number?

No... You can root now as long as your unlocked already with CF-Auto-Root, then manually install BusyBox, this will not wipe the device at all. If you are still rocking a locked bootloader somehow, rooting will likely be impossible going forward with any Android version in the future unless you unlock the bootloader which will wipe the device.

If battery life is lousy, its not the OS's fault, rooting isn't the answer to battery problems but can sometimes help diagnose them... Many people who take the OTA have complained of this, a factory reset clears up the problem 90% of the time, 9% usually require flashing factory images manually, and 1% can't be helped for one reason or another.

And no, you cannot get two SIMs with the same number on Cricket or any carrier for that matter.

 

[rayfield]

If battery life is lousy, its not the OS's fault, rooting isn't the answer to battery problems but can sometimes help diagnose them... Many people who take the OTA have complained of this, a factory reset clears up the problem 90% of the time, 9% usually require flashing factory images manually, and 1% can't be helped for one reason or another.

Sure enough -- it was only after I rooted I learned how many applications were starting after powerup and continuing to run in the background. For better or worse, I liked a lot of them, & rooting allowed me to continue using them without the battery/memory overhead (or invasiveness). If I knew of a better way to continue using my phone the way I'd like to, while getting decent battery life out of it, I wouldn't hesitate to go that way. So -- pardon my venting, but -- just a little annoying that I'm going to have to spend a few hours rooting and another few hours reinstalling/tweaking. Honestly if/when I start hearing that Ubuntu Touch doesn't burn up the battery, I will probably switch right over.