what exactly is gained by "rooting" a phone?

[alkemyst]

:biggrin: Thought of the clip from the 40 yr old Virgin popped in my head reading his posts. The one comparing the feeling of boob to grabbing a bag of sand.

Maybe I wasn't so joking when I said those the look to root phone sometimes are looking for reason #1020 for not getting laid.

Seriously comparing rooting a phone to sex now?

wow.

 

[s44]

Seriously, a guy who can't even distinguish rooting from flashing a full custom ROM shouldn't be giving advice.

 

[Pliablemoose]

:biggrin: Thought of the clip from the 40 yr old Virgin popped in my head reading his posts. The one comparing the feeling of boob to grabbing a bag of sand.

I actually felt a boob that was like a bag of sand the other night in my search to find a white girl in LA that hasn't had a boob job.

She was a sweetheart, and we're going out again soon, or in or whatever the hell it was we did

 

[alkemyst]

Seriously, a guy who can't even distinguish rooting from flashing a full custom ROM shouldn't be giving advice.

I am just reporting the facts, jack.

 

[BenSkywalker]

I haven't owned a droid personally, I used to support them extensively.

I am just reporting the facts, jack.

For one it was camera issues. The camera did not work on the rooted phone.

These comments are utterly ignorant. Root gives you full access to your file system. That's it. Never will you have to resetup your phone because you rooted it. Never will the camera stop working because you rooted it. The person who posted these comments very clearly knows next to nothing about Android(or Linux) and is simply trying to make themselves look like they have a vague clue about something that is clearly far beyond their grasp.

If you don't know why you want to root your phone, then don't do it. Don't, however, believe the likes of the lies spread by the one quoted above. After you root your phone it is possible to screw it up by removing crucial system files, but honestly you have to be a moron to accidentally start deleting your /framework/ or other comparable key component. Rooting will allow you to uninstall the bloatware that you normally can't, it will allow you to deodex your phone(changes the flags on system files that determine which services start on boot, can clear up a considerable amount of resources on slower phones). It will allow you to install custom ROMs which *CAN* cause the types of problems that have been linked to rooting in this thread by the ignorant. Custom ROMs are an entirely different subject.

A very simple reason of why you would root without approaching anything like custom ROMs is Amazon's app market. If you have an AT&T Android device, they block the Amazon app store as it isn't a Google Market app. Other Android devices allow installation of non market apps as an option, AT&T phones do not. If you root your phone, you can get around this and install the Amazon market. This is something a very casual user would certainly want, and is the reason as an anecdotal example why I rooted my wife's phone(she is still content with default Blur, but wanted the Amazon market- the only thing I used root for on her phone was to get the AM installed).

 

[alkemyst]

Sorry for getting both the rooting and adding a custom ROM combined.

However, it's truly funny how the geeks here insist it's always easy to do and no risk, which is contrary to everything else.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/enhance_your_android_experience_custom_roms

 

[BenSkywalker]

However, it's truly funny how the geeks here insist it's always easy to do and no risk, which is contrary to everything else.

Custom ROMs are certainly risky, you can and many people frequently do brick their phones doing it. Custom ROMs are not rooting.

 

[alkemyst]

People have bricked their phones just doing a root.

 

[Pliablemoose]

People have bricked their phones just doing a root.

Alky, we're actually a friendly bunch of nerds in here, and like to help each other, you're jumping into a thread that you admittedly know very little about, confusing two very basic things we commonly do with Android OS'd phones.

Please don't give advice about something you're admittedly not familiar with and have no expertise in.

 

[sjwaste]

Alky, we're actually a friendly bunch of nerds in here, and like to help each other, you're jumping into a thread that you admittedly know very little about, confusing two very basic things we commonly do with Android OS'd phones.

Please don't give advice about something you're admittedly not familiar with and have no expertise in.

This.

Also, why does Alky feel the need to force a dichotomy that stipulates anyone doing the shit mentioned in this thread also doesn't get laid? It's like he's stuck in high school in the 80's or something.

You're right, bro. We're so busy rooting our phones and installing custom ROMs all the time that none of us ever bothered to get an education, have successful careers, get married, have kids, or any of that. One day, I will see the error of my ways. Now where's my clearasil? Oh, there it is, next to my oscilloscope and graphing calculator.

I've been watching this wonderful documentary called Saved By The Bell. Anyone seen that?

 

[ew915]

Custom ROMs are certainly risky, you can and many people frequently do brick their phones doing it. Custom ROMs are not rooting.

I have probably flashed over 50 phones, and i have yet to brick one. However the people who brick their phones are the ones who shouldn't be rooting or loading roms because they fail to read all the information or they are not patient enough to do their own research.

 

[sjwaste]

I have probably flashed over 50 phones, and i have yet to brick one. However the people who brick their phones are the ones who shouldn't be rooting or loading roms because they fail to read all the information or they are not patient enough to do their own research.

People use the word "brick" too loosely. Bricking a device means to make it completely inoperable, short of some actual work on the electronics. It's possible to fuck up a flash and have to do some work to get the phone working again, but I have never seen one require a soldering iron to do so.

I mean, with my Evo, there are few circumstances where a Sprint RUU won't return it to stock. I've run into one such instance, though, and had to do some other crap to get it to work. Extra work? Yes. Bricked? Hell no.

 

[Pliablemoose]

People use the word "brick" too loosely. Bricking a device means to make it completely inoperable, short of some actual work on the electronics. It's possible to fuck up a flash and have to do some work to get the phone working again, but I have never seen one require a soldering iron to do so.

I mean, with my Evo, there are few circumstances where a Sprint RUU won't return it to stock. I've run into one such instance, though, and had to do some other crap to get it to work. Extra work? Yes. Bricked? Hell no.

Yep, was going to post that as well, I've flashed a ton of ROM's gotten a bad flash many times, rooted a dozen phones, never bricked one yet. I think the G1 was the worst for that, thought I'd bricked it many times only to resurrect the damn thing from the dead

 

[alkemyst]

You can brick many devices with just software updates gone wrong.

For all intents and purposes, if you need the carrier to handle the fix then you may as well need a soldering iron.

This is where someone that supports a few thousand phones has a little more insight than a hobbyst.

Not all phones have one click rooting...esp if you are on bleeding edge tech.

 

[rudeguy]

You can brick many devices with just software updates gone wrong.

For all intents and purposes, if you need the carrier to handle the fix then you may as well need a soldering iron.

This is where someone that supports a few thousand phones has a little more insight than a hobbyst.

Not all phones have one click rooting...esp if you are on bleeding edge tech.

Soft bricks are easy to recover from. I've bricked every phone I've had and repaired them all except for when I formatted my Vibrant's internal SD. It turns out I could have fixed that but I didn't try hard enough.

So no...you do not need a carrier to fix them. Please post a possible bricking event that would require this.

 

[alkemyst]

k guys you simply do not get it. Most out there are not on geek forums 24/7.

Sorry you do not understand this.

 

[Pliablemoose]

k guys you simply do not get it. Most out there are not on geek forums 24/7.

Sorry you do not understand this.

kthxbye

 

[tatteredpotato]

k guys you simply do not get it. Most out there are not on geek forums 24/7.

Sorry you do not understand this.

However this just happens to be a geek forum 24/7 :sneaky:

I like rooting because I don't like artificial limits on what I can do with my device, no matter how minor they may be. Most of my non-geeky friends I wouldn't recommend rooting/jailbreaking just because there isn't great enough risk/reward tradeoff for them.

 

[alkemyst]

If a someone is pondering rooting on such a geek forum and doesn't know why they should...that's when from my personal experience with others thinking they should, but don't know why...I recommend against it.

I have hacked phones since the 80's...today if you can spare the cash I don't recommend it.

 

[sjwaste]

This is where someone that supports a few thousand phones has a little more insight than a hobbyst.

No, this is where someone that supports a few thousand phones has no perspective on the difference between that and a hobbyist community. A corporate phone should not be fucked with, rooted, jailbroken, whatever, EVER.

On the other hand, rooting and running a ROM on a personal device is common. It's an entirely different experience, with entirely different service level requirements. No one here is suggesting that someone who needs maximum security and 100% uptime root their phone and run a community ROM.

This is also not a discussion of enterprise devices, nor should you even have that impression from the content of this thread.

 

[Pliablemoose]

So, what does everyone think S flag? Yea or Nay?

 

[Pliablemoose]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee0FYyHlkZI

 

[alkemyst]

S flag? WTF? this you gangbanger colors or sumthing?

What I think is funny is how no one here realizes that many try to root their phones and for whatever reason mess it up.

I am just reporting on my experience, I have never bricked anything and I push the hardware boundaries regularly (it's actually part of my job to do so).

My point was if someone doesn't know why they should root, then chances are they shouldn't.

this isn't OT where you can threaten and stuff.

 

[iahk]

The high risk part of all of this is not following clear directions during the rooting process and/or messing up a radio flash.

Flashing a custom rom/kernel/theme is pretty much safe. Also, if you can get into recovery your phone is probably not bricked.

 

[alkemyst]

No, this is where someone that supports a few thousand phones has no perspective on the difference between that and a hobbyist community. A corporate phone should not be fucked with, rooted, jailbroken, whatever, EVER.

On the other hand, rooting and running a ROM on a personal device is common. It's an entirely different experience, with entirely different service level requirements. No one here is suggesting that someone who needs maximum security and 100% uptime root their phone and run a community ROM.

This is also not a discussion of enterprise devices, nor should you even have that impression from the content of this thread.

Hmm we tend to be more lenient in our handhelds. The user is free to customize. If it gets fucked up, it's not a big deal.

I understand what the thread is about. It's that anything related to messing with a device is simple if you spend most of your time researching it and doing it.

The average person doesn't so they miss steps and end up with a dead device.