This thread is to all the new "rooters" and all of the people who are about to...or contemplating rooting their device. You have made the right decision but I recommend that you do some research and learn a thing or two before you start tinkering around.
NOTE: If your disagree with the general mindset of this thread...save it for yourself, I don't want to start a debate here...this is an informational thread.
I see a lot of new threads in this sub-forum with people having the same issues over and over. I am getting the distinct impression with talking to many of these people, that they are rooted, have a custom ROM and don't yet have a clue as to what they are doing. I'm not judging you...but it's true right?
I'm not saying that using DroidMod's "DM Updater" and Koush's "Rom Manager" are bad things. I use the ROM Manager myself to download and install new versions of his ROM...that's a nice feature. What I am saying is that whether you root via and app that installs everything you need, or do it the "old fashioned" way, you are left without much knowledge for what you actually need to know.
What I would love to see happen in this thread is some of the more experienced people post a unique example of the benefits of "knowing what you are doing" before you root. (unique to this thread that is). Please follow this with the information that people need to know to avoid the same types of problems. Those of you who are on this forum helping people with the same problems over and over...what's one more time?
This is not an elitist, "I'm better than you" thread. I am not an ADB expert, I don't write code, and I was a noob to all of this a few months ago. I've just taken the time to read and I feel that your should too...FOR YOUR OWN BENEFIT! This thread is to explain some of the things that can go wrong AFTER you are rooted and provide some infomation for you.
___________
I'll start
Last weekend Koush (the dev responsible for the CyanogenMod ROM on our Droids) issues a test release of a new update for his ROM. The test release was limited to a small number of people that volunteered to test it out.
The problem with this release was that when you flashed the ROM, the Google apps (most importantly the Market app) were not loaded, and the recovery system was completely erased. Oops! Good thing Koush released this as a Test! After reading about the problems, I got my hands on the ROM...and yep, I flashed it knowing what was going to happen....I was curious (and honestly, I have had this thread in mind for awhile) and because of my knowledge base...I'm not afraid to do anything with my phone...it can ALWAYS be recovered from any software problem...if you have the right knowledge
So I found myself without the Market app (can't download DM Updater or Rom Manager...they can't "do it all" for you right now). Well that's okay, I have DM Updater saved on my SD card...Oops, there was no built in file explorer so I couldn't just get to my SD card!
No market, no SD card access, and no recovery (can't hold 'x' while powering on...it's not there). So think...what would you do??? Would you be screwed? Would you have to rely on adding a "Oh crap, what do I do now" thread on here?
Here's what I needed to know to fix this...ADB! Many of the new rooters don't even have Android SDK loaded on a PC...DroidMod rooted and installed busybox, and SPRecovery for you, so you must not need it right? Wrong!
I had the recovery-0.99.3b.img file on my SD card so I flashed it using ADB (you could have downloaded a recovery image if you needed to ... Let me google that for you). FYI, SPRecovery and Clockwork Recovery would have both worked the same way.
It was an easy fix for me...this is all the code I needed to know to fix this issue:
If you needed to download a recovery image you would have to do a few more steps. You would have to copy the 'recovery-0.99.3b.img' file to your ADB tools folder. When you install SDK, you will set this up (mine is C:\android\tools). Then you would have to "push" that file to your sd card using ADB. Here is the code:
Now you are in recovery and can do a Nandroid Restore...and get on with life!
Bottom line is that without simple ADB skills and having SDK installed and running on your CPU, that could have been very difficult to recover from (not impossible...but VERY time consuming and frustrating )
This happened with a top notch developer like Koush...in the future, as more and more ROMs and developers surface, who knows what kinds of issues you could be left with by simply "checking out a new ROM". Verizon can't help you and you can't mail your phone to me to fix it (ie, people here can help but you have to push the buttons )...YOU are the only person who can fix your phone.
Check this out...it is a nice write up (not all inclusive...but good) and it includes all the links to get ADB working. Give it a shot, get familiar with it...could save you A LOT of time in the future (not to mention it is a great tool that I use more often as I get more experience with it).
[ HOW TO ] ADB AND WHY I LOVE ADB commands <3 - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum
Please help me out with this guys and gals. I for one always tell people that they should know what they are doing before they root and flash roms... but do not have the time or expertise personally to compile all of this on my own. What do they need to know and why? As you come up with info...please post it
NOTE: If your disagree with the general mindset of this thread...save it for yourself, I don't want to start a debate here...this is an informational thread.
I see a lot of new threads in this sub-forum with people having the same issues over and over. I am getting the distinct impression with talking to many of these people, that they are rooted, have a custom ROM and don't yet have a clue as to what they are doing. I'm not judging you...but it's true right?
I'm not saying that using DroidMod's "DM Updater" and Koush's "Rom Manager" are bad things. I use the ROM Manager myself to download and install new versions of his ROM...that's a nice feature. What I am saying is that whether you root via and app that installs everything you need, or do it the "old fashioned" way, you are left without much knowledge for what you actually need to know.
What I would love to see happen in this thread is some of the more experienced people post a unique example of the benefits of "knowing what you are doing" before you root. (unique to this thread that is). Please follow this with the information that people need to know to avoid the same types of problems. Those of you who are on this forum helping people with the same problems over and over...what's one more time?
This is not an elitist, "I'm better than you" thread. I am not an ADB expert, I don't write code, and I was a noob to all of this a few months ago. I've just taken the time to read and I feel that your should too...FOR YOUR OWN BENEFIT! This thread is to explain some of the things that can go wrong AFTER you are rooted and provide some infomation for you.
___________
I'll start
Last weekend Koush (the dev responsible for the CyanogenMod ROM on our Droids) issues a test release of a new update for his ROM. The test release was limited to a small number of people that volunteered to test it out.
The problem with this release was that when you flashed the ROM, the Google apps (most importantly the Market app) were not loaded, and the recovery system was completely erased. Oops! Good thing Koush released this as a Test! After reading about the problems, I got my hands on the ROM...and yep, I flashed it knowing what was going to happen....I was curious (and honestly, I have had this thread in mind for awhile) and because of my knowledge base...I'm not afraid to do anything with my phone...it can ALWAYS be recovered from any software problem...if you have the right knowledge
So I found myself without the Market app (can't download DM Updater or Rom Manager...they can't "do it all" for you right now). Well that's okay, I have DM Updater saved on my SD card...Oops, there was no built in file explorer so I couldn't just get to my SD card!
No market, no SD card access, and no recovery (can't hold 'x' while powering on...it's not there). So think...what would you do??? Would you be screwed? Would you have to rely on adding a "Oh crap, what do I do now" thread on here?
Here's what I needed to know to fix this...ADB! Many of the new rooters don't even have Android SDK loaded on a PC...DroidMod rooted and installed busybox, and SPRecovery for you, so you must not need it right? Wrong!
I had the recovery-0.99.3b.img file on my SD card so I flashed it using ADB (you could have downloaded a recovery image if you needed to ... Let me google that for you). FYI, SPRecovery and Clockwork Recovery would have both worked the same way.
It was an easy fix for me...this is all the code I needed to know to fix this issue:
Code:
C:\android\tools>adb shell
# flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery-0.99.3b.img
# reboot recovery
Code:
C:\android\tools>adb push recovery-0.99.3b.img /sdcard
C:\android\tools>adb shell
# flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery-0.99.3b.img
# reboot recovery
Bottom line is that without simple ADB skills and having SDK installed and running on your CPU, that could have been very difficult to recover from (not impossible...but VERY time consuming and frustrating )
This happened with a top notch developer like Koush...in the future, as more and more ROMs and developers surface, who knows what kinds of issues you could be left with by simply "checking out a new ROM". Verizon can't help you and you can't mail your phone to me to fix it (ie, people here can help but you have to push the buttons )...YOU are the only person who can fix your phone.
Check this out...it is a nice write up (not all inclusive...but good) and it includes all the links to get ADB working. Give it a shot, get familiar with it...could save you A LOT of time in the future (not to mention it is a great tool that I use more often as I get more experience with it).
[ HOW TO ] ADB AND WHY I LOVE ADB commands <3 - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum
Please help me out with this guys and gals. I for one always tell people that they should know what they are doing before they root and flash roms... but do not have the time or expertise personally to compile all of this on my own. What do they need to know and why? As you come up with info...please post it