Root Just got a Samsung Galaxy S2 wondering if I should root.

[rbtrucking]

I am coming from an htc evo 4g and the reason I rooted that was because it was really choppy and had allot of htc sense crashes. This phone however runs soo good stock that I dont know if I should even root it. I would however like the free wifi tether. Well, what do you guys say? Should I root it? If so what are some good roms that offer free wifi tether? When I was with the evo I was using mikg v2.61 and absoluetly loved it. Are there any roms similar to that for the galaxy?

 

[rbtrucking]

No one has an opinion?

 

[jdbaker82]

I am coming from an htc evo 4g and the reason I rooted that was because it was really choppy and had allot of htc sense crashes. This phone however runs soo good stock that I dont know if I should even root it. I would however like the free wifi tether. Well, what do you guys say? Should I root it? If so what are some good roms that offer free wifi tether? When I was with the evo I was using mikg v2.61 and absoluetly loved it. Are there any roms similar to that for the galaxy?

I used the one click root and since my battery life seems to have went way down but I think its because of a glitchy problem that I am having with the Open Garden Wifi tether that I now use (only reason I rooted BTW I love free wifi tether especially with my job on the road doing computer repair) what happens is my wifi tether works fine with open garden but the program does not close down properly even if it appears to be closed and I force close all running applications if I hop on my laptop it still seems to be broadcasting the SSID (Network name)......Very very strange.

 

[chrlswltrs]

I root all of my phones, whether you should or not varies. I do it because I want to get rid of ads and I like to try out different ROMs and themes.

When you start tinkering with things too much, things can go wrong. For example my phone has been worthless most of the day today and I am trying to fix it right now. Doesn't happen very often, but you have to be prepared for it to happen if it does.

 

[rbtrucking]

I root all of my phones, whether you should or not varies. I do it because I want to get rid of ads and I like to try out different ROMs and themes.

When you start tinkering with things too much, things can go wrong. For example my phone has been worthless most of the day today and I am trying to fix it right now. Doesn't happen very often, but you have to be prepared for it to happen if it does.

Ya I definitely know what you mean with that one thats how it was with my evo some days it would run great then others the battery would drain real quick and it would just be real choppy and laggy. When that happened to me though I would just clear cache partition and delvic and that would fix it right up. I had to do that every couple of days though.

 

[rbtrucking]

Well what are some really good roms out there now? Like I said in my previous post I loved the Mikg something that just works and does what its suppsed to. I have had a couple roms that certain things like 4g or bluetooth wont work.

 

[chrlswltrs]

I just switched to Venum ROM today. So far I am really liking it. Fast, smooth, looks nice.

[ ROM] EpIc VeNuM Rom 12-05-2011 [ for EK02 l EpIc VeNuM Themed] [TeAm VeNuM] - xda-developers

 

[So-Low Da Don]

Well what are some really good roms out there now? Like I said in my previous post I loved the Mikg something that just works and does what its suppsed to. I have had a couple roms that certain things like 4g or bluetooth wont work.

I've been using Blazer ROM and it is excellent. It's a tweaked TouchWiz ROM with an ICS theme. It looks awesome and also performs really well. Everything works fine for me and I still haven't experienced any LoS. You should check it out on XDA

 

[rbtrucking]

I've been using Blazer ROM and it is excellent. It's a tweaked TouchWiz ROM with an ICS theme. It looks awesome and also performs really well. Everything works fine for me and I still haven't experienced any LoS. You should check it out on XDA

Ya it the blazer rom does look good. Might give it a try. Is it allot faster than the stock rom? Hows the battery life?

 

[So-Low Da Don]

Ya it the blazer rom does look good. Might give it a try. Is it allot faster than the stock rom? Hows the battery life?

I really can't tell a difference in speed, probably because I underclock the processor to 1GHz. I get a lot better battery life (mostly because of underclocking and Juice Defender Ultimate) But I used to get about 18-24 hours medium usage (with Juice Defender) on Stock, now I get about 36-48 hours medium usage (58 is my Max with light-medium usage). Juice Defender is obviously a big help to battery life, if you don't mind spending money on it you should definitely try it out.

 

[mem1220]

I have tried every rom for this phone and am always coming back to Calkulins rom. Fast, insane battery life and sprint hotspot hack too. Just my $.02. Go to youtube and type in Calkulin for the search and there are links to it. Good luck.

 

[rbtrucking]

I have tried every rom for this phone and am always coming back to Calkulins rom. Fast, insane battery life and sprint hotspot hack too. Just my $.02. Go to youtube and type in Calkulin for the search and there are links to it. Good luck.

I am still on the fence as to weather or not I should because with my old evo I would need to restart every couple of days and clear delvic cache and cache partition because it would just start lagging real bad and battery life would drop down to nothing. Another thing in my experience with these roms is there is always something that doesnt work like with the evo after I rooted it one of the roms didnt have 4g which wasnt much of an issue because i dont have good coverage in my area. Then the second rom had trouble with the bluetooth. I just want a rom where everything works. I know this galaxy is MUCH faster than the evo so I dont really think the lagging after a couple days will be an issue but I am not sure. What do you guys think? Other than that I loved my experience with rooting. Another thing that is always a concern in the back of my mind is bricking my brand new phone but I know if you know what you are doing the chances of that are slim.

 

[happy fun time]

If u make backups its nearly impossible to truly brick your phone. Im on calkulins ROM and flashed the ics theme, its f'ing beautiful now. The phone doesnt seem much faster as far as apps and switching and such, bu the data connection seems a lot snappier. Still having the same problem I had when the phone was stock, when it switches 4g/3g the download stops. But everything else works great. I havent had a chance to test out Bluetooth yet tho.

 

[chrlswltrs]

We are really close to CM7 on the phone... That is more than enough reason to root.

Won't be long after that until CM9 (ICS based)

 

[rbtrucking]

We are really close to CM7 on the phone... That is more than enough reason to root.

Won't be long after that until CM9 (ICS based)

Well I am trying to root using the video here How to root and clockworkmod the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch - latest - YouTube qbkings video on how to root and it fails every time. I have followed every instruction to a T. I have kies installed on my comp as well as the odin and lostkernal. 1.024 tar md5 it just sits there for like 2 minutes then says fail. Damn good thing I didnt destroy my phone! What am I doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rbtrucking]

One thing I completely forgot about though which I had to have enabled with my evo when I rooted was usb debugging. That is not enabled on my galaxy. Could that be why it keeps failing?

 

[rbtrucking]

Alright I got it to work but now I dont have wifi anymore. Is this because I need to flash a rom? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rbtrucking]

Anyone? This is really annoying and exactly the reason I was skeptical about rooting in the first place.

 

[chrlswltrs]

I didn't watch the video, but there are some ROMs and Kernels that do cause you to lose things like wifi. Depends if the rooting method flashed a rooted kernel that was broken.

I recommend trying Venum ROM. It comes packaged with a kernel and after a few days of use I can confirm it is stable and everything works (GPS seems a little buggy, but it's the same on every ROM I have tried).

 

[rbtrucking]

Alright How would I do this? The same way I did it with my evo? Wipe dalvic and cache partition then flash?

 

[chrlswltrs]

Alright How would I do this? The same way I did it with my evo? Wipe dalvic and cache partition then flash?

The directions are in the first post of the thread. But factory reset, then in recovery wipe data, wipe cache, wipe dalvik, then flash.

 

[rbtrucking]

Alright thank you very much I am gonna give it a try right now.

 

[rbtrucking]

I put that file on the root of the sd card and it is not showing up in recovery when I go to install zip from sd. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[rbtrucking]

Nevermind I acidentally put it on the phones internal memory instead of the sd card. Not used to having all that built in memory!

 

[rbtrucking]

All is excellent got the venom rom up and running wifi is back! Thank you soo much for the help. I couldnt have done it without ya!