TopShelf10

how do you setup a rooted phone? aka, what do you do with a phone immediately after you root it?

id like to start by saying that i do not need the classic "if you dont know what youre doing, dont bother" root lecture. im looking for someone to inform me, not brush me off to feed their tech-ego. people tend to get really snotty when it comes to rooting, and dealing with people who do not know as much as they do on the topic. we all have the right to learn and obtain information.

i am posting this because i would like to understand more about rooting. feel free to verbal diahrrea and show off your knowledge in a helpful way! i have the following questions:

-Does it speed your phone up?
-Does it cause problems that normally would not occur using stock rom?
-Does it REQUIRE extensive knowledge of using command prompts and things of that nature? If so, are their tutorials and guides and sites you can refer to online to help you with this stuff?
-Once you root your phone, literally immediately after, what is the next step? "Flash" a rom, what does that do? And then what? And so on......

These questions may sound noobish, but I've read up a decent amount on rooting, yet its hard to truly understand whats going on without physically seeing it, but obviously I cant see it cause I dont want to do it unless I know EXACTLY what it entails. And their are no videos on this, just videos on how to root, but never any videos on what to do AFTER you root.

garddog32

Hopefully this will be enough to get you started:

First to answer your root questions. Rooting your phone doesn't really do anything for your phone except give your applications access to the core operating system of the phone. Rooting by itself will not speed up your phone. It shouldn't cause any problems with your phone, and doesn't require any extensive knowledge of Linux commands.

However, now that you are rooted, you have the ability to do all of those things. Here are some of the things you might want to consider doing with your rooted phone:

- Install WI-FI tethering
- Overclock CPU
- Install custom ROM

Until recently, you would need to have Linux experience to install the necessary kernels necessary to do these upgrades. However, there is now a program call Rom Manager in the marketplace. I recommend that if you want to start doing some cool things with your rooted phone, that you start with this app. The free version of Rom Manager will let you install the CyanogenMod rom.. which gives you the kernals to do WI-FI tethering. There are full instructions on how to prep and install CyanogenMod at CyanogenMod Wiki

You'll want to install the android sdk on your home computer... mostly to help out if you ever have issues and need to use some more advanced procedure to fix your phone. Kind of a "just in case / CYA". Android SDK | Android Developers

You'll see in the instructions to install CyanogenMod that you'll need to "wipe" your phone. This isn't quite as scary as it sounds. Your contacts will resync, but you'll need to download and install all of your apps. Don't worry about paid apps, you will be able to reinstall these as well. Just go to the download page in the marketplace and redownload and install everythign listed. You'll probably lose any settings you have changed, and will have to rebuild any shortcuts or widgets you have installed on your home pages. Another thing.. during the install process you'll have the option to install the google apps. You will want to use this option.. otherwise all of your core google apps will be missing.

Once you have CyanogenMod up and running, you can install app SetCPU to overclock your phone. You can also install Wireless Teathering to make your phone a wireless access point for other devices. For more ideas, just search for root in the market.

Anytime you start installing CyanogenMod, or any other "non-standard" rom, you do run the risk of having issues with your phone. However, you use a stable version of the rom those issues should be small. Also, if you follow the install procedures and do a proper backup, you can easily recover to your previous state.

Once you feel comfortable with CyanogenMod, you can start looking for other roms out there to play with. You can used the paid version of Rom Manager to install most of these roms. (Free version only allows you to install CyanogenMod).

So, long story short... you don't need to know a bunch of Linux commands to do cool things with your phone... if you use Rom Manager. If you do it the old-fashoned way... then you do need some experience with Linux and android sdk.

mcapozzi

Well, it depends:

Rooting the phone allows you to do stuff such as overclock the processor, remove bundled apps, fully backup your phone, use your phone as a wifi hotspot, and (in AT&T's case) allow you to install and run apps that were sourced from non-carrier approved sources.

Installing a new ROM will enable all of the above, but may also include a newer version of Android and perhaps some software tweaks to eliminate unnecessary bloat, improve performance/boot times, increase capability, or fix specific bugs.

Custom ROMs can break things from time to time, but for the most part I've never seen a ROM make a phone worse. I've seen plenty of ROMs that didn't fix very much, but none that made it worse (unless they were alpha stage).

ROMs are model specific. I'm not sure about Motorola, but last time I checked there were a few different ROMs for the Samsung Moment (including one that finally gets that phone up to Android 2.1), a few for the HTC Hero, some of which would get the phone up to 2.1.

There only seems to be one custom ROM for the Motorola Cliq and it just seems to include some additional goodies and perhaps some bug fixes.

Here is the link to get started:

http://androidforums.com/all-things-root-cliq/61133-rom-handler-1-5-3-29-10-a.html

Good Luck,
Mike

mcapozzi

He has a Motorola CLIQ, I don't think any of the ROM Manager and CyanogenMod stuff will work on his phone.

-Mike

TopShelf10

i appreciate everybody's effort in responding!

whats is wif-fi thethering, and what is overclocking? haha, yes i am quite the root-virgin

momoceio

WiFi Tethering = turning your phone into a wifi hotspot so you can connect your laptop and other wireless devices and browse over 3g

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vandyblackandgold

well i was gonna link you over the root sub-forum for the motorola cliq, b/c based on your question, i had assumed you had not found it yet, but alas, i see you posted the same question over there too.

TheSultan

Also, what is double-posting and why does it make people ticked off??

21gigs

1-NO it depends upon the ROM ,but you can install apps that allow you to setup cpu speed and even allow overclocking (OVERCLOCKING- suppose your phones processer is set by the manufacturer to run at 512mhz ,BUT when you raise this bar to 600 or more than 512mhz thats overclocking ).

2-some miserable ones at times,fortunately you can always reflash ROM's or Unroot at any time.

3-NOT at all ,but it always helps.
All you require is an instruction manual for rooting and flashing rom and you following each and every step carefully.

4- Yup ,you install ROM after rooting,
Its like installing an OS (win or ubuntu) on your computer after formating it.

And as for 'then what?'
The good thing about ROM's is that you dont require doing heavy customizations on your part.

TopShelf10

?

Dracus

it's when you post twice in a row.....people get annoyed because they figure if no one else has posted then you should go back and edit your previous post.

TopShelf10

well done, but i dont see any double-posts here (and i dont see what the problem is with that anyway, if no one posts then your topic gets pushed down on the list which decreases your chances of getting help if someone who does have answer doesnt see your post because its all the way down on the list)....how about we touch on something thats even more annoying, which is when people post unuseful posts on forums that criticizes someone for something that realistically, with a drop of effort, could easily not affect their lives at all. it seems like there is a certain group of people that jump on these forums with very little intentions of contributing in a positive way, they just want to try and show how "better" they are than everyone else. there were a few people on this particular thread that provided very useful information (btw i did end up rooting successfully, thank you for your information), and then this guy sultan comes in, makes a comment about "double-posting" and then is never heard from again. whats the point? youre the best forum-er out there, is that what you want to hear? just let people ask their questions without always having to find something negative, no one is forcing you to read these threads.