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Root Questions about rooting

Derek1267

Newbie
Jun 10, 2010
13
0
I've been on the fence about rooting my droid, and looking through these tutorials it looks simple enough.

My questions are this;
1. What are Kernels and do I need them exactly
2. Do I need a specific ROM to overclock or will just a plain rooted phone work
3. Do I need a nandroid backup?

Thank you for anyone that can help me out :)
 
I've been on the fence about rooting my droid, and looking through these tutorials it looks simple enough.

My questions are this;
1. What are Kernels and do I need them exactly
2. Do I need a specific ROM to overclock or will just a plain rooted phone work
3. Do I need a nandroid backup?

Thank you for anyone that can help me out :)


1. A kernel lets you overclock your phone, not needed as every ROM has one built in. But if you want to overclock you can switch out the kernel with a different one.
2. You can overclock any ROM by switching the kernel
3. A nandroid is like a picture of your phone, it will let your restore your phone incase something does not play well. Yes a nandroid is need 100%, over time you will make lots of these.
 
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1. A kernel lets you overclock your phone, not needed as every ROM has one built in. But if you want to overclock you can switch out the kernel with a different one.
2. You can overclock any ROM by switching the kernel
3. A nandroid is like a picture of your phone, it will let your restore your phone incase something does not play well. Yes a nandroid is need 100%, over time you will make lots of these.

I would like to add to this post.

As the post above says, kernels are used to overclock. However, one key point that you must remember is that they do not do the overclocking themselves. You need to download the app SetCPU in order to use the kernels to the full potential. Also, kernels are used to enable wifi tethering, etc.

You can use any plain ROM or even a specialized one. First you will flash whatever ROM you want, or you can keep your stock one. Then you flash the kernel, and use SetCPU to edit it. \

Nandroid backups are optional. I find doing them is a waste of my time (OMG!!) because ROMs get outdated fast. If I mess up in any way, I just tend to reflash. I would only recommend them if you plan to do some metamorph editing, or things which you might corrupt your phone but you want to keep your data/settings, etc.
 
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Nandroid backups are optional. I find doing them is a waste of my time (OMG!!) because ROMs get outdated fast. If I mess up in any way, I just tend to reflash. I would only recommend them if you plan to do some metamorph editing, or things which you might corrupt your phone but you want to keep your data/settings, etc.

And I would like to add to this part of your post.

Yes, nandriods are optional but if you load a new kernel and you end up in a boot loop you can just restore your nandroid and try again instead of reflashing and seting everything back up (huge time saver).

I only make nandroids when I'm changing things like kernels or getting ready to flash a new ROM.

Think of a nandroid as insurance, you might not ever need it but it's nice to know you have it.
 
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