Question about rooting

[madcat033]

So I've read about rooting in those various threads, but could someone sum it up for me? I hadn't really heard about "rooting" your phone until everyone got all excited about it.

What exactly is rooting and how do you do it?

What are the benefits / disadvantages?

Will it affect our ability to update to Android 2.0?

Would you recommend rooting?

 

[Edaze55]

So I've read about rooting in those various threads, but could someone sum it up for me? I hadn't really heard about "rooting" your phone until everyone got all excited about it.

What exactly is rooting and how do you do it?

What are the benefits / disadvantages?

Will it affect our ability to update to Android 2.0?

Would you recommend rooting?

The simple answer is rooting is to android what jailbreaking is to the iPhone. It basicly gives you full control over your phone.

Benefits are a slew of apps that require root access to use. Just search "root" in market and take a look at what you get. It will also allow you to flash your ROM if you decide to do that.

No.

Yes.

 

[madcat033]

In another thread they mentioned that the update could "close the root loophole." Wouldn't that prevent us from updating to Android 2.0?

 

[bl4ck0ps]

In another thread they mentioned that the update could "close the root loophole." Wouldn't that prevent us from updating to Android 2.0?

No, you would just have to re-root after the update to 2.0. However, the method may be different and could take some time to be developed.

 

[PGR]

Yeah, there seems to be some fear that any updates, whether they're maintenance or a full version updates, will close the "root hole". But I can't imagine that it will take 'em long to find a new one if that happens.

My personal course of action is to do nothing until HTC can make the phone work right (for example, fix the bluetooth memory leak and SMS issue). Then I might start thinking about making it work better.

But the truth of the matter is I'm someone who can appreciate good enough and I think the Hero comes pretty close as it is.

Pete

 

[pking]

The hooplah I made over the 'root hole' was for one simple reason: once your phone is rooted, it's far easier to keep it rooted. Once the 'hole' is patched, it's significantly harder to regain root access.

The dev community will generally have a rooted version of the stock update available moments after someone gets their hands on the update files. As long as your phone is already rooted and you've got the 'custom' recovery imager installed, this works very well.

If you happen to install the stock updates, and Sprint/HTC happens to fix the bug used to gain root access, you'll have to wait for someone to find a new exploit to gain root access on the new software. Chances are all the devs that would care are already rooted, and don't have much incentive to look for this - meaning your wait could be quite long.

[edit]
To throw a little perspective at that, it took over 3 weeks for someone to find an exploit that could be used against the current software. During that 3 weeks, the entire might of the Hero dev community was focused on this task. It was pure luck that an exploit was discovered quickly that could be used, and now all those devs are happily rooted.

I'm not tryin to be a pusher 'er nuttin, just sayin'

 

[iKolor]

The simple answer is rooting is to android what jailbreaking is to the iPhone. It basicly gives you full control over your phone.

Benefits are a slew of apps that require root access to use. Just search "root" in market and take a look at what you get. It will also allow you to flash your ROM if you decide to do that.

No.

Yes.

About your 2nd point..
are those apps dangerous at all? Because giving a program root access just sounds risky (I have no idea, though, I just started all of this today ). But the apps are on the official Android market, so I'm also inclined to try some out.

 

[bray424]

I also have two questions:

1) Does rooting void any warranties you may have?

2) What is the likelyhood that rooting will brick your phone? And in the event it does brick your phone, would I have to pay the full $429 for a new one?

 

[Godfather13]

I wouldnt mind rooting mine, Im just not 'that' computer inclined and knowing me I'll f*ck it up somehow. Maybe there is a guy at my work that could do it. There are a few here that have done so with the iPhone and Palm Pre.

Bray424: if you have insurance on the phone and you brick it...just break it, lose it, drop it in toilet...and get a new one.

*I dont condone insurance fraud and have never in my 12 yrs with sprint lost or damaged a phone needing a replacement. But add up all that insurance money Ive paid out...wowzers. However I believe the insurance covers scratches and stuff like that right? Everyone will eventually scratch something. =)

 

[pking]

*cough* AndroidForums does not condone insurance fraud in any way and the opinions of our posters do not reflect the opinions of our parent.. blah blah blah */cough*



The hardest part of rooting the phone is setting up the android SDK so that you can copy files to the system and shell in easily. Even this part can be done without the SDK if you're tricky. Once you're in and you've run the 'asroot2' script, the rest is cake.

Damn karma - choked on my coffee directly after posting that!

 

[sneaky_zekey]

has anyone found out if the newest motorola android that was released last week. is it able to be rooted or did the 2.0 fix the explote.

 

[pking]

Unfortunately the exploit is specific to the Sprint Hero's kernel - even the Hero on other carriers does not fall to the exploit, nor does Verizon's Eris as far as we know. The Droid is almost certainly using a newer kernel where the exploit has been fixed.

 

[Boxer4u]

so once the newest firmware is updated to the Hero, can the phone still be rooted.... Or will it take some more time for someone to figure out how to root the phone after every update is available?

 

[Kelmar]

so once the newest firmware is updated to the Hero, can the phone still be rooted.... Or will it take some more time for someone to figure out how to root the phone after every update is available?

It all depends on if the loophole is fixed. If they (Sprint/HTC) fix it then it'll stay the same. If they do fix it then someone will have to figure out a new loophole.