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Root What is the benifit or rooting your phone?

I've written a rooting Q&A guide for those new to Android on my blog

If you would like, we can make that part of the FAQs and guide posts here in the forums ...

Just post it as a thread in the 17500 forum and we will take care of the rest ... of course you will still be able to edit it if necessary...

Thanks for you contribution to the community
 
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If I didn't know how helpfull most of the people on this forum are, I would have never came back to it after the replies here.

I am already rooted, yet I haven't been able to do more than backup and apps2sd. I have search for what seems like hours to see what else I can do and came up with nothing that I could use.

If you google "root my g1" you get 835,000 results. Each one of thoose results will tell you something different. If you google "how to root g1" you get 2,350,00.

So yes there is a lot of info out there. There are even a few step by step guides on how to root. I however had a lot of problem (to me) rooting my phone. It took me 3 days to get it right. Some of the info I foumd was not very clear on some things.

After being rooted a few days, I found that maybe I should just leave it for now. I just couldn't find CLEAR and easy to underestand instructions on what to do next.

What I am getting at is, why do so many people keep getting the "google it" reply? Why not come down from the throne of supreme knowledge and help someone ? Really how much of a bother can it be to help another person out?

I guess some people on this forum (not all most here are very helpfull) are just to darn smart to help.

Thank you to all the helpfull people on this forum. This is really what open source is about.

To the "google it" people, get over it. Maybe next time you need help someone will tell you where you can "google it".

Rant over
 
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If I didn't know how helpfull most of the people on this forum are, I would have never came back to it after the replies here.

I am already rooted, yet I haven't been able to do more than backup and apps2sd. I have search for what seems like hours to see what else I can do and came up with nothing that I could use.

If you google "root my g1" you get 835,000 results. Each one of thoose results will tell you something different. If you google "how to root g1" you get 2,350,00.

So yes there is a lot of info out there. There are even a few step by step guides on how to root. I however had a lot of problem (to me) rooting my phone. It took me 3 days to get it right. Some of the info I foumd was not very clear on some things.

After being rooted a few days, I found that maybe I should just leave it for now. I just couldn't find CLEAR and easy to underestand instructions on what to do next.

What I am getting at is, why do so many people keep getting the "google it" reply? Why not come down from the throne of supreme knowledge and help someone ? Really how much of a bother can it be to help another person out?

I guess some people on this forum (not all most here are very helpfull) are just to darn smart to help.

Thank you to all the helpfull people on this forum. This is really what open source is about.

To the "google it" people, get over it. Maybe next time you need help someone will tell you where you can "google it".

Rant over

Nothing wrong with a Rant ... but noticed you didn't add any useful info for the OP.

I think you know having been around this site for some time that there is wealth of information in the forums and a search of any forum's threads is the first obvious thing a person should do.

We have regulat Search and my prefered way of searching = Tag Search to locate info....

One person saying to google is not out of the norm... the important part of this community is that people responded and gave the the poster guidance to find information...

If the OP is still unable to get a reasonable understanding or can't find exactly what they are searching for then they can post again with their results.. and that the still dont understand ...

Maybe this poster found the search to work, or will come back, or not ! Hopefully they found an answer they could use and will return .... or
maybe they will return to ask again ....

My final thought and question is did ranting in any way help the OP with his question ?
 
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Your right my rant did not help.

To the OP, sorry I didn't help with your problem. I haven't been able to do any more than apps2sd and backup.

I wish I could give more info, but just like the OP, I cannt find it myself.

The following is from : Main Page - Android Wiki

Root allows you :
To run as "superuser", effectively giving you total control over the OS.
You can add/remove stuff from the device memory,
change ROMS,
recovery images,
themes,
backup installed apps....

MORE >>>

The good thing about having root is you can go back if you want. The same is not true of not having root. We do not know what steps Google/Tmobile will take to rid the end users of root in the future. For all we know the next OTA will remove the keys that allows the RC29 downgrade method to work and you could be stuck on a non rooted G1 forever. If you have root and for some reason it does not work for you there is always the option of going back.

What Does Root Give Me?
Full control over your system
Ability to alter system files. You can replace many parts of the "Android Core" with this including:
Themes
Core apps (maps, calendar, clock etc)
Recovery image
Bootloader
Toolbox (linux binary that lets you execute simple linux commands like "ls") can be replaced with Busybox (slightly better option)
Boot images
Add linux binaries
Run special apps that need more control over the system
SuperUser (lets you approve or deny the use of root access to any program)
Task Manager For Root (Lets you kill apps that you otherwise could not kill)
Tether apps (like the one found at [android-wifi-tether.googlecode.com])
<there are more but I cannot think of any right now>
Backup your system
You can make a folder on your sdcard and backup all of your .apk files to your sdcard (helps if an author decides to "upgrade" you to a version that requires you to pay to use the version you just had)
Relocate your (browser/maps/market) cache to your /sdcard
Relocate your installed applications to your /sdcard
Reboot your phone from the terminal app easily (su <enter> reboot <enter>)

What Do I Lose Having Root
The ability to accept OTA updates (well, you can but you would lose root, so its been made so they get denied)
The sense that someone else controls your phone
The need to sit in an Android chat channel asking how to get root
The need for a stupid useless "File Manager" that lets you see filenames but almost nothing else.
The ability to have a knowledgeable conversation with a T-Mobile rep about your phone. (Ask one of them to spell root for you)

the Following is from :

This is a link in my Guide to Rooting >>> Why Root - Android Wiki


Need I forget my favorite ... is the Cyanogen Series and the ability to do Nandroid Backup & Restore of the phone's complete Image in just minutes ...
 
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Thanks to all who replied in this thread.

I'm a newbie in terms of Android but not when it comes to iPhone OS and Symbian, I've dabbled a bit in Winmo too.

The only reason I asked was to get a quick response, believe me I did Google it but there were too many answers.

I know how it is when a newbie asks a question and how easy it is to refer them to the search button. To help a member is far more easier by using your knowledge by typing if not pointing out the answer in a specific thread.
 
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