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Root is root for me?

rick311

Android Enthusiast
Jan 31, 2010
673
44
Thinking about rooting. This is what i want from my phone and I'm wondering if rooting is my answer:

1. 2.1 - for Google Nav.

2. No dialer Lag - it's annoying.

3. Ability to save apps to SD card - so I don't fill up internal memory.

I basically Love the way the phone works and dig the sense UI. I wouldn't want anything else to change except what I stated above.

Does rooting require me to reinstall all my apps and contacts?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Hi. I can answer your points one by one.

1. Rooting is a great way to get 2.1. Of the two options available to you (leak or root), many would point to rooting as the better way to go. Currently, the people who upgrade to the 2.1 leak (without root) are kind of stuck where they are until the official OTA update from Verizon. There is (at the time of this posting) no way to downgrade to 1.5, or to gain root if you upgrade using one of the leaks. The developers are working hard to fix this, but it hasn't been accomplished yet.

2. You could go either way on this. I have heard from people who have upgraded using the leak who have complained that dialer lag is still an issue, and I have heard from some saying that it is much faster. The same split occurs with people who upgraded via root. There are some tweaks you can do either way (disabling the 'touch tone' sound and keeping your call log trimmed, for example) to keep it at a minimum, but it seems like some people have problems while others don't.

3. There is (again, at the time of this posting) no way to use apps2sd for the Eris, because HTC hasn't released the latest kernel to us. Many developers seem to believe this is not as critical a feature for us, since we have much more internal memory than, say, a G1 did. Also, without a Class 6 (fast) SD card, many apps would run much slower due to the slower data transfer rate between the phone and the SD memory.

However, with root access, you can uninstall unwanted stock apps (such as Amazon MP3 and Footprints) to free up more internal memory.

Lastly, the only way to update to 2.1 without having to reinstall all of your apps is to wait for the official OTA update. Your purchased apps (and your contacts) are both connected to your Google login, so you won't lose everything completely, but you will have to spend time reinstalling all of your apps and settings.

I know this post is long, but I hope this helps answer your questions.
 
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Thinking about rooting. This is what i want from my phone and I'm wondering if rooting is my answer:

1. 2.1 - for Google Nav.

2. No dialer Lag - it's annoying.

3. Ability to save apps to SD card - so I don't fill up internal memory.

I basically Love the way the phone works and dig the sense UI. I wouldn't want anything else to change except what I stated above.

Does rooting require me to reinstall all my apps and contacts?

Thanks in advance for your help.

It really depends.

1. Yes! This alone is one of the reasons I rooted. I'm running on a rooted Eris and it works like a charm! Only one fc so far, and I recently used it on a long road trip without a hitch.

2. This is tricky. I would say it depends on which ROM you decide to use. I'm running Sense-able 2.0 with Autokiller set to "Strict" and there's not really an issue.

3. [EDIT] Apparently it hasn't happened yet. :)

I would recommend visiting the thread pertaining to the ROM that looks most appealing and check out the bugs before rooting. I have read several times that people have had problems with contacts syncing to Google/Facebook, so it's definitely worth looking into before you make the plunge.

For my needs, I have loved having root! It seems faster overall, and most devs remove the stock apps, freeing up space for yours.

In addition, you can always roll back to 1.5 if necessary.

Hope this helps and good luck! :D
 
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You do indeed have to backup all your apps and contacts. For your apps, you can use ASTRO or Titanium backup ($5.99 I think) to back them up and I think you can export your contacts to a file.

Unfortunately, you can't use Titanium until after you have root. ASTRO will backup your apps, but once you restore them, you won't be able to get updates for those apps in the Market.

Before root, I would recommend using AppBrain (Find great Android apps and games - AppBrain) or aTrackDog (atrackdog.a0soft.com). Any settings in the apps you backup will be lost, so make a written copy of anything of great importance. Once you root (or leak, depending on your choice), just re-download the AppBrain or aTrackDog app from the Market, and then you can restore all of your other apps from there.

After root (again, if that's the way you go) and restoring your apps with one of the aforementioned tools, I wholeheartedly recommend Titanium Backup. Not only does it backup your apps, but it backs up all of their settings and the Market data, so you can continue to receive updates. The donate version ($3.99 and up) is well worth it.
 
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In your option, if I want to root what would be the best rom to use?:thinking:


It depends largely on what you're looking for. That is the beauty of being rooted...choices! I prefer something close to the original Eris experience, and so I stick with ivanmmj's ErisOfficial ROMs.

Others prefer a different style, but wish to keep Sense. Jamezelle's Sense-able ROM does a great job of this.

Aloysius is Spencer_Moore's port of a great Hero ROM. It is made for those who prefer a vanilla Android experience, that is, Android without HTC Sense.

There are other great ROMs that do other great things, but you can find out about most of them from this thread, a sticky in this sub-forum.
http://androidforums.com/all-things...-thread-addons-roms-updated-04-21-2010-a.html
 
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For what its worth I am in the same boat as you. I have a Nav system in my car so I doubt I will ever really use the phone for that. As far as dialer lag I rarely use my dialer. I have all my favorite contact on their own page with individual icons. When I do use my dialer I don't really have any lag. Turning off animations, haptic feedback, and tones really made the phone much faster. For me my phone works so well on 1.5 that I really don't care about root right now. Many of the Roms still have some of the bugs from the 2.1 leak and so I will probably wait until the OTA comes out before I consider rooting again. Then you will get the Devs cooking 2.1 Roms based on the final OTA. Its really up to you. If you want Nav and or wireless tethering then I say go for it but if your overall really happy with your phone then why risk it.
 
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i appreciate all the help! Hercules, i feel the same way as you do. i think ill just wait til the OTA. turning off the dialer sounds helped a lot with the lag. i also have a navi, but sometimes it'll be in my g/f's car and i need one in a pinch.

my MAIN concern is the small internal memory for apps. i dont care if we would need a faster SD car, i would buy one if it meant i could install a ton of apps on it.
 
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my MAIN concern is the small internal memory for apps. i dont care if we would need a faster SD car, i would buy one if it meant i could install a ton of apps on it.

FWIW, on stock 1.5 I had about 70mb free after installing all my apps and clearing all caches (except for browser, i tried to keep that data as long as possible). Now I'm rooted and running SenseAble 2.0, and with all of my apps I have 95 mb free after clearing everything.

EDIT: I should mention that I don't have Astro, which I had on 1.5, but i DO have Titanium now. I know Astro didn't take up 25 mb of internal memory though. I've also deleted stocks, voicedialer, flickr, weather and some other stuff, which probably freed up some room too.
 
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