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Root To root or not to root?

mbtaylor

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Apr 20, 2011
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What's up guys. I just bought the ThunderBolt, and I absolutely love it. Question I have is, should I root it? And what do you think is the best Rom out there? I came from the Droid 2 running on liberty 2.0.1 so I know about root and what it does. I checked out "das bamf" and saw a lot of people liking it. Just trying to see if there is any significant reason to root my ThunderBolt. Thanks!
 
I agree with Worm. It is a very personal thing, and what needs to be understood is that, while rooting is a *must* for some people, for others it is a *no-no*.

What I mean is, people who are tweakers, tinkerers, and who are always playing with their phones will probably root if they are comfortable with taking moderate risks and are at least somewhat technically-inclined and/or can learn technical procedures and FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS.

The best way to root your T-Bolt right now if you want to avoid problems, is to do it the long and dirty way: ADB. If you are intimidated by using prompt commands, then study it and learn it. Get used to it. Learn about how to use the terminal or prompt window. If you can FOLLOW DIRECTIONS and ASK QUESTIONS about what you are unsure about, there are plenty of people who can help you out if you get stuck, both in this forum and at XDA.

If the above is NOT you, then you should leave your T-Bolt stock. It is still a great phone. I had to root mine, there was no other option for me. I cannot own a phone I cannot root, completely. I am willing to experiment and accept that the ROM I'm using offers many more benefits than the stock ROM, even if it means I must overlook a bug or two... many ROMs are *works in progress* and though they may be awesome as a whole, they might not be *perfect*, and if you're a complainer - like my wife - then don't root. (THERE IS NO WAY I WILL EVER ROOT MY WIFE'S T-BOLT. I'D NEVER GET ANY RELIEF)

So, I'd say you need to ask yourself if you're the type of user who can not only make it through the process, but would enjoy the tweaking, experimenting, flashing multiple ROMs and kernels to see what works best. If the answer is no, then don't root. If the answer is yes, then there is a whole new world full of goodies that awaits you. ;)
 
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This is a personal question and one that no one can answer for you. If you want to root it, do your homework and go nuts. If you don't want to your phone is still awesome

Well said. Rooting allows you to do certain "things"...things that you can't do when not rooted. For me, those "things" are overclocking, applying custom ROMs/themes (including framework modifications like different battery indicators), removing system apps (bloatware), etc. I just like full control of my device and make changes as I see fit. Landscape capability for the sense launcher?...Yep, I want that.

Do you "need" to root this phone to be happy with it? No, it's not quite like the Motorola Droid that was clocked @ 550MHz by Motorola but could be OC'd up to 1.3GHz after rooting. That made a HUGE difference to the performance of the device. Plus the phone was limited to storage for apps, and rooting solved that as you could move apps to the SD Card. All of the things root did for the Droid are NOT NEEDED for the Thunderbolt. So it really just comes down to minor performance tweaks and the ability to have full control of your device.
 
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CyanogenMod 7. Period. The nightlies are rumored to begin tonite. I'm so sick of Sense I could puke.

You're the biggest CM fanboy on this site, DJ, haha, not that there's anything wrong with it, just something I've noticed :)

While CM is a fantastic ROM, it may not be a good someone who's just rooted. I would say the best ROM right now is Das BAMF 1.5. It's nearly flawless, IMO.
 
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You're the biggest CM fanboy on this site, DJ, haha, not that there's anything wrong with it, just something I've noticed :)

While CM is a fantastic ROM, it may not be a good someone who's just rooted. I would say the best ROM right now is Das BAMF 1.5. It's nearly flawless, IMO.

You're right, Worm... man, I can't help it. I was such a ROM-WHORE when I had my OG Droid. I liked CM back then too, but I couldn't stop flashing all the other great AOSP ROMs that were out.

Then when I got my Incredible, CM6.1 was great, but man oh man, when CM7 came out for the Dinc I just never looked back. So many features, tweaks, such smooth and fast performance. Just an all-out awesome pure, unadulterated Android experience. I almost decided to hold out on getting my T-Bolt until I could flash CM7 on it. That's how much of a CM7 fanboy I am! I went ahead and got it only because I knew the CM team would support the T-Bolt just as they have virtually every other HTC device. :)

I'm running the De-Sensed Das_Bamf (1.4) right now and like it *okay*. 3G seems to go away and come back randomly, and I get unexpected reboots about once or twice a day. It still has the Sense dialer, contacts, gallery, calendar and all that crap. I check many times a day to see if CM7 has dropped. :eek:
 
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What's the advantage of CM7 over other roms like Das BAMF, Virus, etc. which all seem pretty similar to me with maybe some differences in kernals and Sense/Senseless. Is it just that the CyanogenMod team puts out super stable and high quality roms?

You are correct in your assumption... the CM team DOES put out super stable and high quality ROMs. Here's a bit more to digest:

1. CyanogenMod is AOSP-based (Android Open Source Project). That means a pure form of Android - absent of a phone manufacturer's firmware that runs atop of Android, such as Sense (HTC), TouchWiz (Samsung), Blur (Motorola). While manufacturer-based firmware can add some benefits, they are not optional and there is no way to remove their firmware (unless you root and an AOSP ROM is available). They can hog memory, include a lot of bloatware, and can create an undesirable experience overall for many people.

2. CyanogenMod provides many system tweaks. This is what I think Worm was referring to when he mentioned CM not being a good ROM for someone new to rooting. And this is correct. CyanogenMod has built-in settings that allow you to overclock, change memory settings, and other performance tweaks.

3. Lots of other cool customization. Too much to list here. I'm all the time needing to tweak something I used to be able to tweak, and now I can't.

4. DSP Manager. In short, this is a graphic equalizer that installs at the system level of your phone that allows you to add bass, treble, mids to all that you listen to... such as Pandora, Sirius XM, PowerAmp, etc... In short, music you listen to through your Android sounds much better than anything Apple has to offer!

5. There's a bunch of other stuff... people help me out here...
 
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You're right, Worm... man, I can't help it. I was such a ROM-WHORE when I had my OG Droid. I liked CM back then too, but I couldn't stop flashing all the other great AOSP ROMs that were out.

Then when I got my Incredible, CM6.1 was great, but man oh man, when CM7 came out for the Dinc I just never looked back. So many features, tweaks, such smooth and fast performance. Just an all-out awesome pure, unadulterated Android experience. I almost decided to hold out on getting my T-Bolt until I could flash CM7 on it. That's how much of a CM7 fanboy I am! I went ahead and got it only because I knew the CM team would support the T-Bolt just as they have virtually every other HTC device. :)

I'm running the De-Sensed Das_Bamf (1.4) right now and like it *okay*. 3G seems to go away and come back randomly, and I get unexpected reboots about once or twice a day. It still has the Sense dialer, contacts, gallery, calendar and all that crap. I check many times a day to see if CM7 has dropped. :eek:

Hey, when you find something you like, you stick with it. I ran CM7 on my Inc and while I did like it a lot, the battery life and something else I just couldn't put my finger on kept bringing me back to IR2.3(de-sensed) I'm very anxious to try it again on the TB. If someone can develop an AOSP Kernel that can rival and bring the same benefits and advantages a sense Kernel can it will probably become my daily. I love HTC phones, but feel that sense is just too much. I do like some of it, but I always run a de-sense zip and go fishing in root explorer to make it perfect for me.

I'm running 1.5 de-sensed and I'm extremely happy with it. You should try it out, the new radio with the battery improvements is worth the wipe alone. I've been debating on trying tesla, but I haven't gotten around to it. Unless something groundbreaking comes out between now and CM, I think I'll be sticking with bamf

edit: I was having random reboots and wanky 3G/4G on 1.4, but the wipe before 1.5 seemed to correct everything. Plus 3G-4G transitions are much improved with the new radio
 
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CyanogenMod 7. Period. The nightlies are rumored to begin tonite. I'm so sick of Sense I could puke.
lol,im with ya here bro... i cant wait for pretty much anything AOSP :eek: doesnt look like any nightlies yet. :(

I'm running the De-Sensed Das_Bamf (1.4) right now and like it *okay*. 3G seems to go away and come back randomly, and I get unexpected reboots about once or twice a day. It still has the Sense dialer, contacts, gallery, calendar and all that crap. I check many times a day to see if CM7 has dropped. :eek:
im with ya here too. the desensed roms still have to use the sense contacts,mms,and most of em email,among other things. at least i can use the GB keyboard or swiftkey so i dont have to deal with the stupid htc keyboard. i could deal with sense if it was 2.3(working sensation port :D) or i could deal with 2.2 if it were CM/AOSP but both together are wearin me out,lol.

im on das bamf too(1.5 remix),and while i agree its smooth and very functional,im not quite as big a fan as some here are. i liked tesla alot,and am goin to go back to that today and give version 1.7 a try...

my battery life on bamf hasnt been as quite good as it was on tesla(this is the first time ive actually noticed a difference) but i flashed the radio at the same time,so im not sure which is the cause. if im getting the same life on tesla 1.7 ill try changing the radio back and see what happens.
 
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So I went ahead a rooted my TB. And thank god, I missed all the rooting fun. I went with das bamf. Have some more questions for ya guys, are there themes for das bamf and if so, could someone direct me to them and tell me how to install them? And, I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with Droid 2 roms, but when I was running Liberty 2.0.1, the rom itself had a toolbox. I could go into the toolbox and customize my entire phone that easy. My question is, is there and Thunderbolt roms similar to that. I greatly appreciat any positive info you can give me. People on other sites are often Dick heads when it comes to guys like me.

Edit: I also am in need of a lighting bolt sound for my text tone. Since its called The ThunderBolt, I thought it'd be cool to have the cracking sound of a lighting bolt, since there is no such thing as an actual thunderbolt. Lol
 
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Hey, when you find something you like, you stick with it. I ran CM7 on my Inc and while I did like it a lot, the battery life and something else I just couldn't put my finger on kept bringing me back to IR2.3(de-sensed) I'm very anxious to try it again on the TB. If someone can develop an AOSP Kernel that can rival and bring the same benefits and advantages a sense Kernel can it will probably become my daily. I love HTC phones, but feel that sense is just too much. I do like some of it, but I always run a de-sense zip and go fishing in root explorer to make it perfect for me.

I'm running 1.5 de-sensed and I'm extremely happy with it. You should try it out, the new radio with the battery improvements is worth the wipe alone. I've been debating on trying tesla, but I haven't gotten around to it. Unless something groundbreaking comes out between now and CM, I think I'll be sticking with bamf

edit: I was having random reboots and wanky 3G/4G on 1.4, but the wipe before 1.5 seemed to correct everything. Plus 3G-4G transitions are much improved with the new radio

So I thought, "What the heck, I'll take Worm's word on it and give BAMF 1.5 DE-SENSED a flash to see what it's all about." So after a complete wipe and a quick TiBu restore and market link restore, I found myself in business with a very impressive ROM! There is another thread here: BAMF Remix Extras: Let's Remix It Again [04.26.11] UPDATE: Market Icons - xda-developers that has a lot of very cool add-ons. Have you tried flashing the AOSP dialer? This is one of the biggest complaints I had with Sense... and this dialer is themed with a dark glass effect that is way cool. Also installed the black Market (and I went into TiBu and froze the market updater so the market will STAY black... hehehe... AMAZING what you can do with root!!). Not much time involved with setting it up... looking forward to playing with this one.

Of course, I will be leaning on CM7 most of the time during the day. I do a good bit of listening to programs during the day while I work (music too), so I very much appreciate having DSP Manager again. I can hardly listen to anything without it. :D
 
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im with ya here too. the desensed roms still have to use the sense contacts,mms,and most of em email,among other things.

im on das bamf too(1.5 remix)

You can get rid of the Sense dialer, contacts, SMS, MMS.

Since you're on das_BAMF 1.5, if you haven't already done this, look here: BAMF Remix Extras: Let's Remix It Again [04.26.11] UPDATE: Market Icons - xda-developers. There is an AOSP dialer you can flash that gets rid of everything Sense. It's even a black transparent color and is very cool aesthetically. An absolutely epic improvement! You can also flash a black market if you want. For SMS/MMS, I use GoSMS Pro. Way better than even AOSP stock, in my opinion of course! ;)
 
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I honestly do not know the first thing about rooting. I recently purchased the Thunderbolt. I have all these apps that I do not want but from research, the best way to get rid of them is if I root it.

I dont want to mess up the phone but I dont want the apps either. What should I do???


If removing bloatware is your only reason for rooting...I wouldn't worry about it. If you like the idea of running custom ROMs, custom themes, over/underclocking, installing apps that require root privileges, etc...then you might want to consider rooting.
 
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If removing bloatware is your only reason for rooting...I wouldn't worry about it.

id prolly agree with this :)

i know its annoying to look at them in the app drawer,but the phone has a good,fast processor and a fair amount of internal memory,so having them there really isnt going to hurt its performance.

i rooted so i can use root apps,and so i can run AOSP roms.
 
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id prolly agree with this :)

i know its annoying to look at them in the app drawer,but the phone has a good,fast processor and a fair amount of internal memory,so having them there really isnt going to hurt its performance.

i rooted so i can use root apps,and so i can run AOSP roms.


What's funny is that my first reason for rooting my devices is still the most simple reason...because I can! :D
 
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I honestly do not know the first thing about rooting. I recently purchased the Thunderbolt. I have all these apps that I do not want but from research, the best way to get rid of them is if I root it.

I dont want to mess up the phone but I dont want the apps either. What should I do???

If you aren't comfortable with rooting, or just don't want to you can download Launcher Pro and there's an option to hide apps in the app drawer. I have a sense style dock I posted below so you're phone will still look stock. If you need help installing it shoot me a PM or ask in here and I'd be glad to walk you through
 

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