Root Help

JMKosmo said:

Anyone board member in the Pittsburgh Area. I'm looking for someone to help me root my phone and show me how to install ROMs. I'm tired of waiting on VZW. I'll even buy dinner/drinks!

PM me if interest.

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Hello JMKosmo. I'm not in Pitt, but I can provide your with some instruction that will get you rooted:

(Verizon) Galaxy Nexus - All Things Root - Android Forums is the Nexus Verizon All Things Root area here at Android Forums (right above this section where you posted).

In there you will find also this, with the actual root guide:

http://androidforums.com/verizon-ga...ngs-root-guide-minor-update-01-26-2013-a.html

Many have rooted the Nexus.. and there is plenty of experienced Nexus users in those linked areas to help with questions and clarification to make it easy for you.

You can take comfort in the fact that this device is nearly impossible to perma-brick. The only way that I've seen anyone perma-brick a nexus is by deleting the bootloader or flashing a bad bootloader. This device is relatively easy compared to most because it doesn't require the use of exploits and it will not change as ota's come. In practice, the process require unlocking the bootloader, flashing custom recovery, and then flashing the su binaries in custom recovery.

JMKosmo said:

Thanks. I read all that stuff and I'm still afraid.

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If I were feeling that way about rooting my device (and I have felt that way), I'd not root my device anymore than if I felt afraid to do anything else that was not really necessary; the root exploits for these things are about choice about customizations that the manufacturers and carriers don't want users messing with.

They get more revenue by including the apps and widgets that most rooters remove as "bloatware." They also spend a lot of resources, time and money on support from users who rendered their devices unusable in rooting and modification attempts, thus the company's ongoing efforts to prevent root exploits via OTA updates, etc.

Modern Android devices are fast, reliable and user friendly (once the user gets to know the menus and finds the user manual (most often a pdf file somewhere in the internet). They now have huge, fast processors and a lot of internal memory, etc.

Rooters want to do a whole list of things that are seen by them as necessary and by others as not necessary. So, the choice is there and if being afraid is holding you back, well, just wait and read around; educate yourself.

Read the issues and "bricked" device threads that populate all device root sub-forums. Some overcome all that and go ahead with it; I did with my Eris, my Fascinate, my Droid 3, my first Galaxy 7" Tab.. and always went back to stock after finding very little difference detected in performance (although it was fun manipulating the CPU speed, etc for a while).

Take your time to learn about it.. use your device stock for a while. Make sure that whatever issues/bugs you detect are not merely user error, configuration conflicts between apps and widgets vying for resources, etc. Jumping to root to resolve that stuff will prove futile and make no difference at all.. it's all about learning how to use the stock device then deciding if you want to root for whatever reasons.

Another thing about this device is that if you have Windows, Wugs Nexus toolkit will for the most part do the whole thing for you. The hardest part about it is actually configuring the two different sets of drivers, though it even gives you a walkthrough of that. As far as flashing a custom rom, that is something you'll have to do manually. Many of the custom roms are already updated or in the process of updating to 4.2.2, making the stock Verizon app 4 revisions behind.

I don't blame you for wanting to root because Verizon has really ruined the meaning of a Nexus device, but just make sure that if you do go that route that you read carefully and don't hesitate to ask questions. There's quite a few experts that roam the Gnex forums.