To root or not to root

SButler · December 30th, 2010, 11:02 PM

I've been using this site for the better part of A year and a half to stay up to speed with everything android. It is really a great site. Having had many different devices in that time frame(moment, eris, evo, fascinate and now streak) I can definitely say this device leaves me wanting more! Don't get me wrong I love the streak but I hate the lag and the fact that it runs 1.6. So with that being said I have done a lot of different research on Rooting my device and want to know if there is anyone that has a rooted streak and if the performance is a lot better on it and what options are available for Rooting this device. Thank you for any help in advance.

jhotmann · January 3rd, 2011, 03:11 PM

rooting wont do much for you performance wise...you're better off making the switch to 2.2. Theres the QDL method, DJ Steves Roms, and many other methods you can search for and use. I personally followed these steps http://dellstreakunlock.com/guide-to-upgrading-and-downgrading-the-streak.html but instead of using the O2 2.1 update that they use I used the O2 2.2 (319) found here http://mobileupdate.dell.com/PackageProductionLocations/Streak_319_12792_21.pkg

then if you want to root use super one click which can be found on xda.

hope that helps

Aidan Bell · January 6th, 2011, 12:06 PM

I concur. I updated my Streak to 2.2 recently (I'm with O2 in the UK) and I'm very happy with the much improved performance over 1.6. Furthermore my personal feeling is that Rooting can, if one is not careful, be like opening a Pandora's box of problems. Whenever I find something which requires my machine to be rooted, I ask myself if I really want to go through all that trouble and then I just let it go or find something alternative that does the same thing without the need for root

stoney73 · January 7th, 2011, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aidan Bell

I concur. I updated my Streak to 2.2 recently (I'm with O2 in the UK) and I'm very happy with the much improved performance over 1.6. Furthermore my personal feeling is that Rooting can, if one is not careful, be like opening a Pandora's box of problems. Whenever I find something which requires my machine to be rooted, I ask myself if I really want to go through all that trouble and then I just let it go or find something alternative that does the same thing without the need for root

Hi Aidan, I'vr had a hero(rooted and flashed many many roms to it) and now I have a streak, which I've rooted, and up nitl today, I used to have dj steves custom installed. Rooting doesnt do anything except open up possibilities. It just gives you more options.
It all depends what you want to do with your phone. If you are happy as it is, then fine. but some of us like to tinker, and see if there is an improvement to be had.

Aidan Bell · January 7th, 2011, 08:13 AM

Thanks. Yes, you've opened my eyes a little, to be honest. I think maybe I was being a bit too paranoid! Especially as I actually WOULD class myself as a "Tinkerer". I guess my concern is also that once you've rooted a phone you've invalidated any kind of manufactures warranty. But as you say, if it opens up possibilities then it's certainly something to think about. To that end, is there any chance you could list a few things that you find the Streak able to do rooted, that it couldn't otherwise?
Cheers.

stoney73 · January 7th, 2011, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aidan Bell

Thanks. Yes, you've opened my eyes a little, to be honest. I think maybe I was being a bit too paranoid! Especially as I actually WOULD class myself as a "Tinkerer". I guess my concern is also that once you've rooted a phone you've invalidated any kind of manufactures warranty. But as you say, if it opens up possibilities then it's certainly something to think about. To that end, is there any chance you could list a few things that you find the Streak able to do rooted, that it couldn't otherwise?
Cheers.

well...for one thing, you can enable the hardware acceleration in the build prop. which gives better performance.
titanium backup is a handy app when one is rooted.

you can also:

Move cache data to SD card
Move installed applications to SD card

Root allows you 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.... A nice round-up of some useful reading can be found here

Why Root - Android Wiki

Hope it helps? for the average user, rooting doesnt change their lives or anything. it just gives more options.

the problems come with flashing custom roms. thats when you have to be careful.

Aidan Bell · January 8th, 2011, 09:18 AM

Many thanks for that Stoney73.
Definately food for thought.

nb_mitch · January 8th, 2011, 09:15 PM

I just rooted, took about 20 minutes, not hard at all, very good instructions. I tried to root my SE X10 for a week and never made it

Aidan Bell · January 10th, 2011, 04:15 PM

Might rooting help me with this issue?

Display date and time data, not "Yesterday" and "Today"

nb_mitch · January 10th, 2011, 06:04 PM

That sounds more like an App to me, but to change it universal might take something with root powers.

Personally, I am ok with that, it is just annoying at midnight when it flips over

bigtoysrock · January 11th, 2011, 01:13 AM

I know its one more click but in call log if you click on it it will give better info on it.

Aidan Bell · January 26th, 2011, 10:09 AM

I'm about to root my Streak! I want to run a Bluetooth keyboard and realise that the only way that I'm going to make that work properly is with a rooted device. But here's a final plea to anyone who can give advice: is rooting in any way risky, do I risk damaging my device? I've also heard about UN-rooting. Is that possible? If anybody would be prepared to write a short paragraph explaining exactly what rooting is and does, and what, if any, the potential risks are, I'm sure it would be useful to a lot of people.

stevenlong · January 26th, 2011, 01:49 PM

Rooting your phone will not damage it.
It is just as easy to un-root your phone as to root it. The applications that root your phone also can un-root it.

Rooting your android device give you (the user) the choice of allowing programs to run with extra rights (e.g. root).
With this extra rights programs can do many things that normal are prevented.
Not limited to the following:
Allows backup programs to backup internal memory and settings.
Allows same backup programs to restore all this information.
Allows to move all applications to a SD card (some work involved in this, and you need a SD card with speed).
Allows you to change (edit) files located in internal storage, with that ability you can change some aspects of you phone. Only one I know of the top of my head is pixel density.

Aidan Bell · January 26th, 2011, 01:59 PM

Many thanks Stephen.
I feel more confident now. Off to root!

Aidan Bell · February 18th, 2011, 11:38 AM

OK, well here's the thing. I've been trying very hard to root my phone but can't!
It took quite a while to establish a link to the PC at all (O2 Streak running 2.2), but when eventually trying SuperOneClick v1.6.5.0 I can never get further than the following. Can anyone please offer any help?

Starting ADB Server...
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *

OK

Waiting for device...

OK

Pushing psneuter...
error: closed

FAILED

and "SuperOneClickv1.5.4" produces the following:

Starting ADB Server...
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *

OK

Waiting for device...

OK

Pushing rageagainstthecage...
error: closed

FAILED

nb_mitch · February 18th, 2011, 03:39 PM

I found it very easy to root, I just can't get 2.2 updated. I followed the instructions here to root it, I had to hit the "root" button twice, but the second time was a charm.

Aidan Bell · February 18th, 2011, 04:23 PM

Thanks nb_mitch. I'm glad it worked for you. Unfortunately the root instructions here are already too old for my device. They only go as far as v2.1, and I'm running 2.2.
Can anyone point me in the direction of a 2.2 root?