Klingo & Vroot... bad?

[jefboyardee]

Out of boredom, I almost started Klingo up to finally root my dopey Ascend -- they make it sound ridiculously easy. Then I thought to check for reviews first and found:

PSA: Kingo Root and Vroot Malicious

PSA : DO NOT Use Kingo Root & VRoot to Root Your Android Device

Okay, so I won't. But why hasn't this product or these opinions been brought up here, at my/our home?

 

[Rukbat]

Kingo sends data back to their server - so that they can grab the right exploit for your particular model phone. Some people thought they were stealing data from your phone. Thousands of people have used it with no problem. (The only problem is that they've given up on Kit Kat because it's too locked down.) Oh, it installs a Chinese app of some kind on your phone, but it's easy enough to spot (it's the one with the name in Chinese ideographs) and once you uninstall it, you;d never know it had been there.

I've never used VRoot, but I've heard about the same thing with them - works well, doesn't do much more than root the phone (whixh a LOT of one-click-rootprograms do) and it works.

Of course, if you do it manually, you have a better idea of what's happening. Read ADB manually root almost any Android device

 

[Mikestony]

If someone wants to verify my view, I think Kingo is fine now.
Those articles are back from Nov. 2013, things have straightened out now.

It is talked about now on XDA..(see the edit reason)
[ROOT] Kingo Android Root Method - xda-developers

Edit: ninj'd by Rukbat

 

[jefboyardee]

Because you're not quite total strangers, I trust your opinions more than theirs... here I go.

It is talked about now on XDA..(see the edit reason)
[ROOT] Kingo Android Root Method - xda-developers

Huh, I did a search here, didn't see that.

 

[jefboyardee]

Okay, what just happened. I ran it on my PC with the droid hooked and usb debugging on, did everything I was asked. Droid asked me to grant superuser access so I did. All this took about twenty minutes, then the droid rebooted all by itself.

I expected to see vast horizons of opportunity arise, but I saw the same dopey phone. I checked for new (chinese) apps, saw nothing. I went to stngs> apps>all>wallpaper, thinking I could finally delete that crap, option stilled grayed out. I installed Root Checker and it said 'Success!'

Now I'm going to run Klingo for the fifth time, which still acts like it's installing something every time. Then, after the fifteenth time, I've tried that, off to bed.

 

[funkylogik]

Thats you rooted then. I dont mean this to sound harsh but i dont know how else to say it lol... what were you expecting to happen? :beer:

 

[funkylogik]

Ps i know nothing about kingo, has it installed a custom recovery?

 

[jefboyardee]

Ps i know nothing about kingo, has it installed a custom recovery?

Not only do I know nothing about Kingo, I know nothing about rooting. I installed Superuser, then SuperSU, thinking they were appropriate places to start something. The latter uninstalled the former to avoid a conflict, but both acted like I was in the club, whatever that is.

One thing I still haven't seen at Klingo is a Remove Root button, which they show on the site. It also, like I said, lets me install it over and over,

So now that I'm supposedly rooted, how do I, say, move Goole+ to the SD or just get of of it? All those options are still gray.

 

[funkylogik]

I've never had to move apps to sd on modern versions of Android but I've read of people using the app link2sd for that.
Stick with SuperSU that's what I use and I think it has an unroot option in its settings.

 

[funkylogik]

To uninstall g+ the hard way (which is the best way because you'll learn something lol) use a root file explorer like ES File Explorer and navigate to the system folder then the APP folder, find the g+ file, delete it and reboot.
Easy way, use an app like System App Remover.
Be aware though that this won't free up any user space for you :thumbup:

 

[jefboyardee]

With System app remover (ROOT), I couldn't move Google+ to SD but I could get rid of it, which I did. That would be proof that I really am rooted, and equipped to ruin everything .

 

[funkylogik]

With great power comes great responsibility mate lol.
Next thing you should be doing is Google how to boot your phone into "recovery mode" and tell us what you see there

 

[jefboyardee]

Gotta laugh at this... I postponed rooting for about three years over fear of bricking. Just needed two things: severe boredom and and a Windows app that did it all for me.

 

[jefboyardee]

boot your phone into "recovery mode" and tell us what you see

In Android system recovery utility, I see:

reboot system now
apply update from sdcard
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache partition
touchscreen firmware update

I've been here before and other than the last item, I see nothing new, a I recall.

 

[jefboyardee]

Hmm... after ditching Google+, Google Maps and some other Google Crap, my free space increased about twelve MB. That helps, but I think I'll still have to leave a bunch of other apps un-updated... or ...get a new cheapish phone with more internal and root it.

 

[funkylogik]

Next thing you want is a custom recovery if there is one for your phone then. Search "clockworkmod recovery [your phone model]"
That let's you backup the whole phone and flash cool things.
Also have a read up on "Xposed Framework" which let's you do lots of cool stuff without flashing anything :thumbup:

 

[funkylogik]

When you uninstall system apps it doesn't free up user space but it does make more space in the system partition so you can move some apps that you always use into there :thumbup:

 

[jefboyardee]

Well, whatever it did, my apps>storage has gone up from about 30mb to about 45. Finally got to replace Maps and Play with other, smaller stuff.

 

[jefboyardee]

Just because they're a lot smaller, I replaced Google Play with MoboMarket and Google Maps with GPS Maps. They're both funky, but I don't use either very often so it's worth it to save space.

I've installed and then removed but kept their APK on SD:
GetRoot -- dunno why
Root Checker -- don't need anymore
Root File Manager -- my Total Commander goes root too
System App Safe Remover -- don't need anymore
No Frills CPU Control -- dunno why
Recovery Tools -- don't need unless I ROM, I think
BusyBox -- ditto
Root Toolbox -- ditto

Two Googleys that System App Remover will NOT remove: All Backup and Wallpapers. That's kinda irksome.

Of all these root apps I've tried, I've only kept SuperSU and Titanium Backup installed, and even those can probably go since I do not plan on doing a ROM. So far, I'm content to increase my free RAM from about 30 to 40, so I can finally update some long-ignored apps.

I may be missing the point of rooting, but I'm sure someone here will edumacate me.

 

[iowabowtech]

Of all these root apps I've tried, I've only kept SuperSU and Titanium Backup installed, and even those can probably go since I do not plan on doing a ROM. So far, I'm content to increase my free RAM from about 30 to 40, so I can finally update some long-ignored apps.

I may be missing the point of rooting, but I'm sure someone here will edumacate me.

Not necessarily missing the point by wanting to stay stock. I've been rooted, stock for most of the duration of my LG G2's life. As Funky mentioned earlier, Xposed can do some cool things without a recovery but...and this is a big but...be careful making system modifications of any kind without a custom recovery. That includes Xposed and deleting system apps.

With root and a custom recovery, you can make a nandroid backup and if you ever do something that jacks the system, you can restore a previous configuration much like a Windows restore point. Without that, if your phone becomes unusable do to a boot loop or other system crash type issue, you're looking at a more difficult path of travel to get a working phone again. It gets harder with phones that don't have a bunch of development if that happens to pertain to you.

 

[iowabowtech]

With great power comes great responsibility mate lol.

^^QFT.

 

[jefboyardee]

And now, since I'm not going yeeha and can't get rid of Back All anyway, I've decided to also put Titantium in the SD graveyard, available any time.

Any opinions on something better than MoboMarket? I like it but it doesn't seem to stay current with some apps.

 

[mikedt]

And now, since I'm not going yeeha and can't get rid of Back All anyway, I've decided to also put Titantium in the SD graveyard, available any time.

Any opinions on something better than MoboMarket? I like it but it doesn't seem to stay current with some apps.

Google Play or Amazon. Amazon should work, Google Play you've got to root the device, and be prepared for a bit of hackery on a Chinese verson of Android, if possible.

MoboMarket is one of a plethora of Chinese app stores that's sprung up, during Google's absence from anything to do with Android in China. Many of the apps and games they offer are being distributed without the copyright holder's permission. They might have been tampered with and could contain malware, or at least use unsavoury advertising practises, popups, browser hijacking, notification ads, home-screen ads, etc. which is quite frequent.

 

[jefboyardee]

I never did find a link for Google Play that even worked, so I'm learning to live with Mobo -- at least it really does have an Ignore button. Couldn't get my old Play APKs to work either. Tried updating other things I've been ignoring and ran out of memory again, just like the good old days. Part of the problem, I admit, is that I'm cramming too much into this feeble device.

I'm tempted to try Kingo's Remove Root button at this point...

 

[funkylogik]

No point removing root. In titanium, look right down at the bottom of the main page where it shows you how much total/free storage space you have in the system/rom partition :thumbup: