what exactly is gained by "rooting" a phone?

[Pliablemoose]

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.

http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile...on-htc-android-phones-with-unrevoked-forever/

Yes, Alkemyst, I'm threatening you with S flag...

 

[alkemyst]

awesome...

 

[YoungGun21]

If you're asking if you should turn S-OFF then yes, turn it off.

 

[Pliablemoose]

If you're asking if you should turn S-OFF then yes, turn it off.

:sneaky:

 

[WelshBloke]

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

I had to root and s-off my desire just to get a decent recovery/backup option.

Root was an easy one click app, but the included recovery wasn't compatible with my desire so I needed to load up a newer recovery manager.

S-off involved booting up a minilinux disk but was also pretty much click and watch.

So both were really easy. What took the most time was finding out what was compatible and what wasn't.

I stuck with the original ROM though as I really like Sense and the stock ROM seems the most stable Sense ROM.

 

[DivideBYZero]

kthxbye

This.

 

[jonks]

To address the naysayers, the risk of bricking the phone when rooting is the same when you are updating the phone with official, carrier approved updates.

Except one voids your warranty and the other does not, allowing you to seek official support or even get a replacement, so while the risk of bricking b/c of the software process may be about the same, the consequences are clearly not. I think most people include consequences in determining risk.

 

[YoungGun21]

Bricks that result from updating and bricks that happen from rooting are almost always just soft bricks. You can recover from those fairly easily. So, there really isn't much risk involved. No need to return to a store.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Bricks that result from updating and bricks that happen from rooting are almost always just soft bricks. You can recover from those fairly easily. So, there really isn't much risk involved. No need to return to a store.

I can't even imagine getting any sort of brick from rooting. Rooting does absolutely nothing to your phone except elevate privileges.

 

[Anubis]

rooting has gotten rid of bloat for me as well as given me features sooner then i would have gotten them from VZW and now has gotten me 2.3 which my phone will never see officially

also lets me take screen shots and block adds

 

[rudeguy]

Except one voids your warranty and the other does not, allowing you to seek official support or even get a replacement, so while the risk of bricking b/c of the software process may be about the same, the consequences are clearly not. I think most people include consequences in determining risk.

I've warranty swapped while rooted. I personally know at least 20 people who have.

Heck Eugene swapped his Vibrant specifically because his Vibrant was hardware locked which prevented him from accessing recovery.

 

[rudeguy]

I can't even imagine getting any sort of brick from rooting. Rooting does absolutely nothing to your phone except elevate privileges.

Its not rooting that does it...its applying themes, loading rom's, etc.

 

[cronos]

All true. As far as I know, on an Android phone if you can still connect through fastboot, no matter what happened you will always be able (or at least someone out there will find a way) to bring it back up.

I also sent my phone twice for warranty because of a (legitimate) hardware problem and both times they sent a replacement and never said anything. The first one was rooted and the second one was running a custom ROM.

Either way, if you don't know what is gained by rooting, it's very likely that you don't need it. I don't have my phone rooted now, simply because I haven't felt the need for it yet after getting it.

 

[Anubis]

can you get on screen music controls and or volume rocker control's without a rom? i forgot about those and i use them every day

 

[rudeguy]

can you get on screen music controls and or volume rocker control's without a rom? i forgot about those and i use them every day

I don't know what volume rocker controls are but yes, you can get lockscreen music crontrols without root

 

[Anubis]

I don't know what volume rocker controls are but yes, you can get lockscreen music crontrols without root

i long press the volume rocker to skip forwards or backwards

 

[rudeguy]

i long press the volume rocker to skip forwards or backwards

nice!

I never use the music player, so I haven't played with many of them. I switched to 100% Slacker a while ago.

 

[Anubis]

nice!

I never use the music player, so I haven't played with many of them. I switched to 100% Slacker a while ago.

it works with slacker

well forward does as you cant go back

 

[rudeguy]

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.

O rly?

Please enlighten us on this. Do you work in cellular hardware development?

 

[alkemyst]

O rly?

Please enlighten us on this. Do you work in cellular hardware development?

No but I dabble in a technology called MobileAccess.

 

[rudeguy]

No but I dabble in a technology called MobileAccess.

And what does that have to do with having hardware?

Just admit you were lying and move on.

 

[alkemyst]

And what does that have to do with having hardware?

Just admit you were lying and move on.

What do you mean having hardware? Do you not believe I was the one of the two people that handled all mobile devices for my company including BES and ActiveSync?

We have been through all the phone types up to Android and iPhone at the end, moving off the BES platform totally.

My current job as of about two months now, moves me from front facing the devices to behind the scenes in actually engineering the solutions and bringing the connectivity in.

Another main project that I am lead on is smart power devices for the home.

Oh and I am sure I may make a typo here and there doing this, like typing SPF module when I meant SFP...I don't think in practice I am ever going to go grab a tube of sunscreen instead of a fiber port device however I am sure a few here will assume that.

 

[rudeguy]

What do you mean having hardware? Do you not believe I was the one of the two people that handled all mobile devices for my company including BES and ActiveSync?

We have been through all the phone types up to Android and iPhone at the end, moving off the BES platform totally.

My current job as of about two months now, moves me from front facing the devices to behind the scenes in actually engineering the solutions and bringing the connectivity in.

Another main project that I am lead on is smart power devices for the home.

Oh and I am sure I may make a typo here and there doing this, like typing SPF module when I meant SFP...I don't think in practice I am ever going to go grab a tube of sunscreen instead of a fiber port device however I am sure a few here will assume that.

nice tangent but again...what does any of that have to do with pushing cellular hardware to its limits?

Again...admit you lied and move on.

 

[glen]

So, the main thing gained by rooting a phone is getting rid of developer bloatware and cheese, such as MotoBlur?
If so, then seems like almost no point in rooting a G2, since it doesn't have any bloatware, does it?

Now, I have an old Cliq, so it may benefit a lot from rooting. Then I can give it away.

 

[rudeguy]

So, the main thing gained by rooting a phone is getting rid of developer bloatware and cheese, such as MotoBlur?
If so, then seems like almost no point in rooting a G2, since it doesn't have any bloatware, does it?

Now, I have an old Cliq, so it may benefit a lot from rooting. Then I can give it away.

to answer your question directly: rooting gives you super user access. SU gives you the ability to access and modify anything you want.

Most people think of installing custom ROM's when they think of rooting. You don't have to install custom ROM's though. You will have access to Titanium Backup which is great for restoring apps and setting if you do switch ROMs. I am currently running stock with root access and have no complaints. Your G2 has a host of great ROM's available and it might be worth your time to try some. ROM's can give you better performance, more style and a host of options that aren't available on stock.