Rooting Android

[project dragon]

Anyone have a rooted android phone? I am contemplating this to see how it benefits my phone (speed/batterylife). Please tell me +/- of this! (stares at jason)

[Jason]

what phone do you have? the rooting process can vary widely from device to device.

the biggest reason to root your phone is if you would like to delve into the world of custom ROMs and kernels. these will allow you to get much better performance and battery life out of your phone, as well as offer nearly infinite possibilities in terms of customizing the look-n-feel of your phone.

i have a rooted thunderbolt and i'm currently looking at some of the latest AOSP ROMs. i haven't once regretted rooting my phone. at stock, the thing was just too damn vanilla and clunky for my tastes. now it flies and it's decked out to boot.

bear in mind, rooting is not for the faint of heart. with all of the various guides out there, it's a relatively straightforward process. however, there will always be a slight risk of bricking your phone if you don't take it slow and follow directions to the letter. i don't say this to scare you, just making you aware.

[project dragon]

The idea of bricking does irk me a little, but I've done custom mods with my mp3 player (not the same, but similar risks), and they seem to be a big benefit.

Have a Samsung Captivate, and was doing a little research on it. Apparently the Galaxy S is pretty hard to brick, and there are some tools out there that can recover it. I've already done some customization to it (launcherpro, custom widgets, etc...), but would like to customize beyond cosmetic appeal. CM7 seems to be a safe bet it appears.

The process seems to have me confused sometimes. Do I root, THEN install the custom rom? or can I root > backup w/ titanium backup > custom rom > restore? I am under the assumption that things will take long to do, and I have to reset/reboot a bunch of times.

Also, I assume that I can continue to use Android Market? Since there are apps on it that require rooting. Any other app markets that cater specifically to rooted devices, like Cydia for apple products? Only place I can think of is App Brain.

[Money]

i got an evo shits on ur phones

[Jason]

The process seems to have me confused sometimes. Do I root, THEN install the custom rom? or can I root > backup w/ titanium backup > custom rom > restore? I am under the assumption that things will take long to do, and I have to reset/reboot a bunch of times.

Also, I assume that I can continue to use Android Market? Since there are apps on it that require rooting. Any other app markets that cater specifically to rooted devices, like Cydia for apple products? Only place I can think of is App Brain.

you should:

1.) root. (some quick googling seems to reveal that rooting a captivate is about as easy as it gets.)
2.) backup all your apps + data with titanium.
3.) flash custom rom. (kernel too if you wish, but most roms have a decent kernel baked in.)
3a.) flashing a custom rom may or may not require you to flash a new radio. (it depends on what radio you currently have. the installation instructions for whatever rom you choose should tell you what radios will work with the rom.)
4.) re-download all apps through market.
5.) restore app data with titanium. (restore app data ONLY, not system data.)

enjoy your fresh phone.

as far as what roms to go for... to be perfectly honest, i don't know what's out there for a captivate. in the thunderbolt world, there are a shit ton of options. it's an htc phone so i have sense-based roms, plus there's always aosp roms. then there's froyo (starting to be phased out pretty much entirely) versus gingerbread (would definitely recommend going with gb). i just flashed an aosp-based rom that's a hybrid of cm7 and omfgb. it's smooooth and i love it. best bet is for you to try out a few roms and see what you end up liking.

you can continue to use the android market. don't know of any root-specific app markets that will run on the phone. there are websites (such as app brain, which you mentioned).

any other questions, gimme a holler.

[Jason]

oh, and i want to stress this:

FOLLOW A GUIDE FOR EACH STEP OF THE PROCESS, AND CAREFULLY READ EVERY SET OF INSTRUCTIONS.

this is the easiest way to avoid bricking your phone. and if you do things right the first time, you'll save time not having to go back and re-do a step of the process. most commonly, people don't do a proper wipe before flashing a custom rom, and then they wonder why some of their apps either act funky or don't work at all.

[WuTang420]

i actually have android AND windows mobile on my windows phone lol..

anyways the best place for guides, files and to research these things is http://forum.xda-developers.com/

[Pressure Drop]

yeah i was considering this but never got round to doing it
heard some talk of http://www.cyanogenmod.com/

as of yet i've not been bothered to try as my phone is locked into the network and i got bored reading about making a goldcard or whatever you have to do. i might change my mind with the free time i have now dunno.

is there really that much of a difference or is it just a control/geek thing ? i'd prefer a rooted phone but i'd also just rather the networks to support root permisions and be more permissive on what you do with your phone

[Jason]

For me there's a huuuge difference with a rooted Thunderbolt running a custom AOSP rom with a decent kernel. My phone runs so much more smoothly and battery life is unbelievable even with heavy 4G usage. Is it a geek thing too? Sure it is but there are plenty of practical benefits.

Sent from my thumbs using Tapatalk

[Raver420]

your thumbs are gift from God

[Jason]

so is your avatar

[Weak]

rooting android phones, if done correctly, bring a whole new level to the phones. Battery life on my Motorola photon increased a bit when i rooted it, and basically the speed of the phone went from the 1.2 dual core tegra 2 capability to almost a 1.4 (tested) ..

Ps: I work at sprint, reporting all of you for rooting / tethering.

jk <3's

[Veloce]

Not to derail the topic but I'm trying to decide between a thunderbolt and droid 3. Since Jason and others apparently know a lot about cell phones, I'll ask...

I don't do a lot with my phone beyond the normal functions like google maps, a few low-resource intensive games, email, text, and talk. Everyone tells me I should get a droid 3 if that is the case, but I'm not sure what the huge downside would be to getting a thunderbolt aside from an extra 3-5$ I'd spend per month over the 2 year contract I sign?

Thunderbolt I hear sucks a bit on battery and there's no manual way for me to help that by switching it to the 3G network. How long would it last through the day?

Would I have any concern over having a phone still on 3G come 12-18 months? Probably no, right? Would I feel any pain considering what I do with my phone at that point?

These are the only real differences I see (battery life, network) aside from cost which has a minimal impact over a 2 year contract. Which phone would you recommend?

[Money]

[project dragon]

Okay, so I always thought that after rooting you had no other choice but to install a custom rom. But it looks like these two things do not always have to go hand-in-hand.

The rooting of my phone seems simple enough, it's all this jumbo about custom roms and selecting them and learning how to flash them onto my phone that seems to confuse me and frighten me a bit (with the whole bricking thing). Can I simply just root my phone and use some of the apps that are in the Market that require rooting, while using whichever firmwire/rom came with my phone? Then eventually I'll read up more about the various custom roms that are available to the Captivate and move on from there.