Root Important post by P3droid (For GB users especially)

[tom108]

Its gonna happen some day. From a business standpoint it makes sense. Root community is big but not big enough to totally affect sales if all carriers and manufactures do the same. Moto finally is finding a good direction with how they implement blur into android so eventually root wont matter much and with dual core processors starting to hit the market overclocking will not really be needed except for the novelty (which it kinda is now with the DX). Is it sad? Yes. But only time will tell what the true impact will be.

 

[xliderider]

So, it would be in our best interest to sbf our phones back to the way they were out of the box and not root at all? If so, when should we be expected to do this, what date is safe?

I'm doing it now... the fact that the weird message came up with the wireless tethering recently shows that Verizon is well on the way in implementing their evil plan.

Edit: Not that I ever used the wireless tethering mind you. Just read about it on the forums.

 

[yawdapaah]

So, it would be in our best interest to sbf our phones back to the way they were out of the box and not root at all? If so, when should we be expected to do this, what date is safe?

I think think you should wait till tomorrow before SBF'ing. I already SBF'd back but I don't know how long I'll last (Drod released Blurry GB edition).

 

[kramerica]

OK. Some of you guys must work for VZW for sure .

Seriously, if VZW was knew i rooted and refused my request for an exchange or whatever, I'd have no problem. The day I rooted my DX, I made a promise to myself to never send it in unless I experienced a hardware fault.
However, disabling or fooling with my service because I'm rooted is unacceptable to me (if that's what VZW and Moto intend to do).

Edit:

Aaaaand Drod decides to release Blurry GB at this precise moment. The bastard! Frack.

HA! I would have been fired a long time ago for calling out a customer's shenanigans of a bricked phone claiming DEFECT!

I also agree that fooling with a service after the fact is evil. However, it also depends on the service you GET vs what they want to "change".

 

[woodstorm]

Is root detection actually implemented into GB already, or is that for the future and we're jumping the gun here?

Nobody knows but those with inside information and they have not spoken up yet. Looking at the forums I lurk on though, it appears that there are several interestingly named files. I wonder if the framework is there but, because this is a prerelease version, the "weapon" has not been activated. With everything that went back and forth with an "official" release week before last, it makes me think something is coming and it won't be good for root users. Or it could be residual paranoia from my dope smoking days mixed with a little P.T.S.D.

 

[Kevmueller]

So, it would be in our best interest to sbf our phones back to the way they were out of the box and not root at all? If so, when should we be expected to do this, what date is safe?

If you are rooted now and it is already in place then you will all ready be in the system as a rooted device. If you are doing this for tethering my guess from what I have seen and others have seen is that there is something in Gingerbread that will be able to catch this.

To me if root voids my warranty I am fine with it I expected it. If they start to slow my data I will have issues with that because I am doing nothing for that.

I guess I am not freaking out too much about this yet. I am not giving up my Gingerbread or my ability to theme my phone. I rarely used wireless tether, but I have gone ahead and removed that, not a big deal to me.

To everyone their own, but I don't feel anything will change from what I expected when I rooted my phone.

 

[Kevmueller]

Here is the thing, it sounds like the "leaked" Gingerbread was a pain to root, that is why a new version had to be released that was already rooted and not just give instructions on how to do it. My bet is when the final OTA comes out that it will be almost impossible to root and only the true developers will be able to do it and will be very complicated even for advance users, or one that just follow instructions well like myself.

 

[trav473]

Its gonna happen some day. From a business standpoint it makes sense. Root community is big but not big enough to totally affect sales if all carriers and manufactures do the same. Moto finally is finding a good direction with how they implement blur into android so eventually root wont matter much and with dual core processors starting to hit the market overclocking will not really be needed except for the novelty (which it kinda is now with the DX). Is it sad? Yes. But only time will tell what the true impact will be.

I seen this and had to chuckle a bit. lol. I can remember, back in the day, buying a dual processor motherboard and two Celeron 266 Mhz processors, overclocking them to almost 1200 Mhx (combined) and thought I had the shiz.... once PCs hit 4Ghz multicore processors, why would you need to overclock, but yet you see Unlocked Core i7 chips ready to be bumped. As with PCs, Cars, Trucks, Tractors, (anything a man chooses to own or possess) there will be those that wish to push everything to it limits and beyond!!

 

[rudybow]

If you are rooted now and it is already in place then you will all ready be in the system as a rooted device. If you are doing this for tethering my guess from what I have seen and others have seen is that there is something in Gingerbread that will be able to catch this.

To me if root voids my warranty I am fine with it I expected it. If they start to slow my data I will have issues with that because I am doing nothing for that.

I guess I am not freaking out too much about this yet. I am not giving up my Gingerbread or my ability to theme my phone. I rarely used wireless tether, but I have gone ahead and removed that, not a big deal to me.

To everyone their own, but I don't feel anything will change from what I expected when I rooted my phone.

I'm rooted and running Apex 1.4.1 with RogueCellX theme. I've never used tethering.

So I'm already flagged? I knew it would void my warranty and I'm fine with that. I have unlimited data and I don't want to have extra charges on my bill. So I should sbf by tomorrow sometime and just run the stock ROM of GB without root?

 

[xliderider]

This gets weirder and weirder. I sbf'd back to .340 and while I was setting up my phone, I cleared the OEM launcher screens of all widgets and app icons, then downloaded and installed LP.

I then made the activation call to Verizon to activate my phone (was using wifi previously), after my phone was activated and programmed, the OEM screen was repopulated with all the stock setup widgets and icons. WTF? It's never done that before, to my knowledge, since when does an activation call (*228 option 1) reprogram your homescreen?

 

[Kevmueller]

Well there is no stock version of Gingerbread yet, what is stock is 2.2.340.

No one has said what is already being tracked and what will happen so no one can really tell you what to do. I was just letting you know what I was going to do.

The way I look at it is I am under a contract with Verizon and rooting my phone does nothing to void that contract, it does void my warranty. So if Verizon wanted to play nasty and disable features or control my usage because I am rooted we would have a little talk about that. While I would not happily go back to 2.2.340 if that is the only option they gave me I would. I would expect they would give everyone that option. So from my standpoint nothing has changed or should change. I am rooted and my warranty is no longer good, but I am on Gingerbread because it works on my phone and works great, but there is nothing I am doing or features that I am running that is harming Verizon in any way or services that I am getting that I am not paying for.

Everyone has their own options of that they feel is best for them to do. Just remember there is no difference in running the leaked Gingerbread that is rooted or not rooted or any other ROMs or themes on 2.2.340. The only thing that you could run is stock 2.2.340, however you have already rooted and voided your warranty.

 

[woodstorm]

Implementation takes time. This is something that will be introduced by ALL U.S. carriers. No other forum is even talking about this right now. Everyone needs to take a deep breath, relax, hug your Angry Birds, enjoy your phone and stop the spiral this is causing. It will happen. Until then, be glad we had some warning.

 

[GandalfTehGray]

Um i thought it always reset homescreen, only thing i had left after sbf and factory reset was apex wallpaper

 

[xliderider]

Um i thought it always reset homescreen, only thing i had left after sbf and factory reset was apex wallpaper

I know the sbf will reset everything, but I cleared all the homescreens following the reboot after the sbf. Then I made the activation call to Verizon, and THAT repopulated the homescreens that I had just cleared out.

 

[dmiller2007]

Tethering isn't nearly as big of a deal as its being made out to be. I can't get high speed internet at my house. So I've used my phone to tether my xbox or desktop. The amount of data is no higher than my regular usage just on my phone, and is lower sometimes. Xbox live games really don't use much bandwidth. I can play black ops for hours and be under 100 mb. My phone is my main internet browser and I'll connect the computer if I need to use it instead. Instead of charging extra for tethering, they just need to make the tiered data plans and include tethering with overage charges. Bam. Tethering issue fixed. The problem is with people bricking their device by messing with it. Then taking it in to be replaced. This is costing them a lot of money. And the only way to stop this is by knowing who has rooted and voided the warranty.

 

[dvader]

the sky isn't going to fall.
verizon isn't going to kick anyone off the network.
people need to relax.
verizon want's your money, they don't give a shit about anything else.
kicking you off the network is not good for business

 

[GandalfTehGray]

I know the sbf will reset everything, but I cleared all the homescreens following the reboot after the sbf. Then I made the activation call to Verizon, and THAT repopulated the homescreens that I had just cleared out.

ah that sucks, that would piss me off, takes forever to clear off the crap

 

[magic1]

Tethering isn't nearly as big of a deal as its being made out to be. I can't get high speed internet at my house. So I've used my phone to tether my xbox or desktop. The amount of data is no higher than my regular usage just on my phone, and is lower sometimes. Xbox live games really don't use much bandwidth. I can play black ops for hours and be under 100 mb. My phone is my main internet browser and I'll connect the computer if I need to use it instead. Instead of charging extra for tethering, they just need to make the tiered data plans and include tethering with overage charges. Bam. Tethering issue fixed. The problem is with people bricking their device by messing with it. Then taking it in to be replaced. This is costing them a lot of money. And the only way to stop this is by knowing who has rooted and voided the warranty.

Agreed.

 

[kishin14]

If you are rooted now and it is already in place then you will all ready be in the system as a rooted device. If you are doing this for tethering my guess from what I have seen and others have seen is that there is something in Gingerbread that will be able to catch this.

To me if root voids my warranty I am fine with it I expected it. If they start to slow my data I will have issues with that because I am doing nothing for that.

I guess I am not freaking out too much about this yet. I am not giving up my Gingerbread or my ability to theme my phone. I rarely used wireless tether, but I have gone ahead and removed that, not a big deal to me.

To everyone their own, but I don't feel anything will change from what I expected when I rooted my phone.

I agree completely. Even if I knew I wasn't in their database yet, I still wouldn't sbf back to stock. My rooted gingerblur is the best my phone has ever felt. Ever. Even after using it for a week, I'm still am impressed. No way I'm giving that up.

But I also don't believe that Verizon is going to throttle me or cut my service just because they've identified my phone as being rooted. I've been a customer with them for 8 years, and on huge family plan for the past 4. I also have Fios with no contract. I'm good for about $280 per month. (Most companies would kill to get that much money from a single household on a recurring basis.) And I rarely use more than 700mb of data per month.

I can't believe they'd be willing to risk losing me as a customer simply because I was rooted. I think that's why they also track illegal tethering. Sure, they'll stick me in the db, but until I actually do something that they deem actionable, I think they'll leave my service well enough alone.

I'm not saying I like what's going on, but unless P3's third shoe ends up dropping right on my face tomorrow, I think I'll take my chances.

 

[dmiller2007]

Its been obvious for some time now that this was all going to happen eventually. I think they're taking the wrong route with this tho. Before you say I'm bias, look at it from a business standpoint.

Ok option 1. Take away the root ability from android phones. Android loses appeal, people start jumping to microsoft, webOS, and iOS. The carriers don't have to allow tethering and manufacturers don't eat the cost of devices at the price of losing customers.

Option 2, be COMPLETELY open. Allow the bootloader to be unlocked , allow root, release full sbf's when updates are released, tiered data that includes tethering. Put some type of unremovable feature that raises a flash on your account if your device is rooted. Making any warranty claims impossible. Carriers won't be losing money for tethering and manufacturers won't lose money to warranty claims. Imagine the influx of customers if every android device was as open as the nexus devices.

 

[sjones765]

the sky isn't going to fall.
verizon isn't going to kick anyone off the network.
people need to relax.
verizon want's your money, they don't give a shit about anything else.
kicking you off the network is not good for business

+1

 

[dmiller2007]

The problem isn't with getting kicked off the network- that wouldn't hold up. Its locking down phones to prevent root exploits. That's what the endgame is. And its driving a final nail in the android community in the process. Its david vs goliath. And in this case, goliath has the resources to completely smother us. The devs do GREAT work, but I'm sure if manufacturers made a big push to prevent root, it wouldn't take them long to accomplish it.

 

[sjones765]

Option 2, be COMPLETELY open. Allow the bootloader to be unlocked , allow root, release full sbf's when updates are released, tiered data that includes tethering. Put some type of unremovable feature that raises a flash on your account if your device is rooted. Making any warranty claims impossible. Carriers won't be losing money for tethering and manufacturers won't lose money to warranty claims. Imagine the influx of customers if every android device was as open as the nexus devices.


This makes a lot of sense. But then again, when is common sense acutally used?

 

[emaN resU]

I just find it a little ironic that "we" the minority users, the tweaker's and rooters, can't make enough of a stink to generate enough pull to keep them from locking the systems down, but we sure can get their attention when they perceive that we might cost them revenue.

Who can say for sure that they don't have code in the kernel or drivers that ID and report who is rooted in existing/previous versions anyway. I don't know enough about coding OS software to know one way or the other. I just trust that the devs are doing everything they can to provide the best experience for our devices possible.

Also, I work in IT and am part of the security team, if a company wants to track every piece of data that resides in their environment, there is no way that said data could get leaked without very serious planning and execution. Not saying it is impossible to get it, I'm just saying it would be near impossible to not leave a trail.

Just my opinion here. Not trying to make any waves or cause any friction. I'll just keep doing what I want and see where this whole mess is headed. If it gets to a point where I am uncomfortable having and using this type of device, I will go with ye ole basic phone with text capabilities.

 

[dmiller2007]

If they already had it implemented, then the people that get warranties on rooted devices would have that cost added to their bill.