Root Just a few questions about the Nexus 7.

[Yander]

Alright so, I'm getting a Nexus 7 32GB today as a Christmas present. I've looked around and have seen various threads about unlocking the bootloader, rooting, and custom ROMs. Now I've done rooting and flashing a ton of times on my LG Esteem and have had no problem while doing it at any time. The customizations are great and give you the most out of the device and I'm curious to see how far the Nexus would go as far as customization.

Now I want to know what unlocking actually is in terms of unlocking the bootloader, what the gain is, and what to watch out for when performing the unlock.

What are the risks in term of doing so along with rooting in comparison to other devices?

What are the chances of bricking this device by doing so?

Which ROM/s available for the Nexus 7 would be the best to flash?

I also see various recoveries for the Nexus 7. Which is the best choice?

Thanks in advance.

 

[pastafarian]

The unlocking process was painless, it does wipe the device but that wan't an issue for me. I don't run any custom roms, preferring the stock 4.2 experience. I've looked at a bunch of roms, but don't see anything added in that I want or need. My only wants out of root access is to use use a host cable and to run Titanium backup, Adfree, ect.

Enjoy the present and welcome to the forum!

 

[Yander]

The unlocking process was painless, it does wipe the device but that wan't an issue for me. I don't run any custom roms, preferring the stock 4.2 experience. I've looked at a bunch of roms, but don't see anything added in that I want or need. My only wants out of root access is to use use a host cable and to run Titanium backup, Adfree, ect.

Enjoy the present and welcome to the forum!

I too prefer the stock experience and don't really see if flashing any of those customs roms are worth the hassle. So rooting is what gives you full use of a host cable? Can't be used without it for flash drives etc?

Also, Thanks.

 

[pastafarian]

During the summer, you needed to be root in order to run stickmount and mount the usb host. Now there are apps like Media Importer that accomplish the most important functions without the need to root. Still, Stickmount is free (though support to the dev through a Pro version is a good idea if you use the app a lot) while Media Imported costs $3.