Beginner

[obrienkev]

Hi,
I am about to purchase the Galaxy S2. It will be my first smartphone!

I have read stuff about the need to 'root' the phone. Not sure what this does or why it is required.
Also read that there are better alternatives to the Kies software.

Any beginner articles on all of this? I am pretty clueless at the moment.

Thanks!

 

[lob]

Welcome to Android!

This is useful for some FAQ: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1065995

This is a very good Kies alternative: http://www.doubletwist.com/

You don't NEED to root. If you have any problems just read around the forums or post them here if you can't find an answer. If you personally need root, you will know.

This is also useful, the full user guide you don't get in the box: http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=717&d=1304546789

 

[obrienkev]

Thanks!

Why would I want to root it? Sorry very new to android phones.

Is it for advanced techy stuff or is it actually very useful to the average phone user?

Thanks again.

 

[steslatt]

Rooting just gives you access to otherwise secure parts of your phone. If your rooted you can removes system apps, over/underclock the cpu and things like that. Some apps require root access as well. Its not needed for an average user.

 

[lotus49]

I can give two examples but we could probably come up with a huge list if you were really interested.

Complete backups (ie including the OS) are not possible without rooting the phone.

Setting the time from the internet is also not possible without rooting the phone.

The latter was what drove me to root mine and it really was very easy, but there is absolutely no reason to root your phone for the sake of it. I'm sure that the vast majority of people don't. If you think of yourself as a techie though, sooner or later, you will want to do something that cannot be done without rooting.

 

[lob]

I would say that atm there is not very much of any interest Rom-wise for this phone.

But once the devs have fully ported MIUI and CM7, rooting will open up huge customization and optimization possibilitys.

 

[lotus49]

I read on this very forum that Samsung have sent an SGS2 to the developer of the Cyanogen ROM.

I'm fairly new to Android (having freed myself - at least partially - from the Jobsian yoke) and cannot tell you what is so great about Cyanogen but I'd say it is a very promising sign that Samsung is trying to encourage ROM development (unlike Motorola who locked the boot loader of the Atrix).

I would have thought that the power of the SGS2 would make it a very tempting target for ROM development.

I own a three year old netbook that I still use every day, but it's nowhere near as powerful as my new phone. The possibilities for a phone this powerful will be enormous.

 

[obrienkev]

Hi,

What exactly is ROM? Is it the OS? So for android Gingerbread is the ROM? And other OS/ROMS available incl. cyanogenmod

Thanks!

 

[mrvirginia]

I would say that atm there is not very much of any interest Rom-wise for this phone.

But once the devs have fully ported MIUI and CM7, rooting will open up huge customization and optimization possibilitys.

whaaa lol
there's lots of optimization being done now and customizing, if you're familiar with previous ROMs on other devices, is still just as easy to do yourself instead of waiting for someone else to do it. for instance, my notification drop down background on my build is currently transparent...

Hi,

What exactly is ROM? Is it the OS? So for android Gingerbread is the ROM? And other OS/ROMS available incl. cyanogenmod

Thanks!

General ROM FAQ - Android Forums
lots of good info here

 

[lotus49]

Hi,

What exactly is ROM? Is it the OS? So for android Gingerbread is the ROM? And other OS/ROMS available incl. cyanogenmod

Thanks!

Essentially yes.

The ROM is what is installed on the phone when you get it. In fact it's a mixture of the OS (ie Android 2.3.3 in our case) plus the supplied apps and configuration.

There are several reasons why someone might want a 3rd party ROM, such as being able to have root access (if this is all you want you just need to replace the kernel, not the whole ROM), installing system software that provides functionality apps cannot or removing the cruft that all phones come with.

If you are new to such things, don't just do it for the sake of it. Apart from anything, there is a small risk that you might brick your phone so make sure you are careful. Having said that, it's not hard and probably no riskier than flashing a Samsung update.

 

[lob]

whaaa lol
there's lots of optimization being done now and customizing, if you're familiar with previous ROMs on other devices, is still just as easy to do yourself instead of waiting for someone else to do it. for instance, my notification drop down background on my build is currently transparent...

Mmm, sorry... What I meant was that any customization now is basically limited to TouchWizz. Blue themed TouchWizz, slightly faster TouchWizz, even transparent lock-screen featured TouchWizz... It's all still really just TouchWizz.

As far as I know, all the SGSII ROMS out there at the moment are based on stock TouchWizz. I'll wait for a seriously modded stock UI, an existing ROM port, or something based on AOSP before I'm gonna get excited.

 

[xmjox]

Hi,
I am about to purchase the Galaxy S2. It will be my first smartphone!

I have read stuff about the need to 'root' the phone. Not sure what this does or why it is required.
Also read that there are better alternatives to the Kies software.

Any beginner articles on all of this? I am pretty clueless at the moment.

Thanks!

I'm new to Android and have only been using 1 month, but do not think I will ever root my phone. The customisation of Android OS itself is enough to keep me entertained I haven't yet tried to do something that I can't unless I root my phone.