Confused how to root my phone

[Paddy Landau]

I have an old model (ZTE KIS), which has a tiny internal memory.

I want to root the phone so that I can uninstall the bloatware and move a couple of the apps to the SD card (starting, of course, with a Nandroid Backup). This will allow me to install apps, such as antivirus, which don't fit at the moment.

I've spent ages Googling, but I just cannot figure out how to root. I find either a bunch of spammy advertising sites or instructions that are badly written and so I cannot understand them.

Is there a simple-to-follow method (for dummies like me)? I am guessing that there are instructions on this forum, but I have been unable to find any.

I know Linux well, though not Android specifically; I've learned how to boot my phone into Recovery Mode; and I've successfully used the ADT bundle (to move downloaded apps to the SD card).

But I don't know how to root the phone! Please help me to find some instructions.

 

[teddyearp]

Yes, it looks as though there's not much support for rooting your phone out there. I see it is running Gingerbread, correct? Meaning Android version 2.3.x? You might be able to root it with the Gingerbreak.apk, however, unless you can compile your own custom recovery, you will not be able to make any nandroid backups.

 

[Paddy Landau]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I'm running Android version 2.3.6.

I wouldn't know how to compile my own custom recovery. Perhaps I'll just have to live with what I have and save up for a better phone!

 

[teddyearp]

Yeah, without any method to restore the phone in case of accidental massive system failure, I would be very wary as well. With the Motorola A855 (OG Droid) we had the original factory .sbf file before we had a custom recovery, so even then we had something to fall back on if we screwed something up after rooting.

good luck