• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

some well thought out root questions (I think)...

jbg25

Member
Nov 26, 2009
52
0
So...I am thinking of rooting to upgrade to 2.1 but have some questions I have not seen here yet. I did try searching...but as each phone is different and the Droid root is so new I could not find these questions anywhere.

I have seen the term brick thrown about quite a bit here. When you talk of a risk of bricking the phone are we talking the true sense, as in the phone will be as useful as....???? Or are we talking the more recent and inacurate type of brick...where things dont work, but you can still access the phone and with help can reformat?

Lets say I root and insall Flan, and decide I am not happy with it. How easy is it to unroot? Can I just do a factory reset?

Do you have to turn off auto syncing and backups?

Can I back up my phone and program settings so that if I can undo the root...I can restore my Droid to current configuration without a lot of work?

I believe that is it for now...thanks!
 
First of all, let me say that it is entirely possible to upgrade to 2.1 without rooting a DROID. Those are two entirely separate issues.

Once again, rooting a device simply gives you access to system files that you did not have access to before rooting. Make sense?

As for "bricking" ... yes, that term refers to screwing up a procedure and/or messing up system files that ultimately leave your phone unbootable; i.e. a BRICK. :eek: Us geeks LOVE living on the edge. Show me a geek who hasn't bricked a device, and I'll show you a geek that's not living up to his/her potential. :D

Rooting is fairly safe. (IMO, very safe. But that's from MY perspective.) For instance, it is MUCH safer than installing an UNofficial ROM release. Having said that, it is what you do once your phone is rooted that can be very harmful. Once a noob has access to critical system files, it is very easy for the unsuspecting noob to brick their beloved DROID. But if you follow directions VERY carefully, and ask lots of questions, one can save themselves lots of headaches.

Was this helpful at all? :)
 
Upvote 0
Scroll down for other answers/opinions...

Lets say I root and insall Flan, and decide I am not happy with it. How easy is it to unroot? Can I just do a factory reset?

- Again, 2.1 and rooting are two different things. But yes, you can always UNroot a DROID, and you can always go BACK to 2.0.1 ... unrooted as well.

Do you have to turn off auto syncing and backups?

- No.

Can I back up my phone and program settings so that if I can undo the root...I can restore my Droid to current configuration without a lot of work?

Yes, given the right apps ... and the right skill level. Since last night I have installed 2 different ROM versions of 2.1. Both times, I totally reinstalled all 140 apps that I have. Contacts, bookmarks, etc... About 30 minutes total for each 2.1 version. Not too shabby.

I believe that is it for now...thanks!
 
Upvote 0
Interesting...While I fully understood that rooting and installing 2.1 are not the same...Every instance where I have seen 2.1 installed on a droid has required nandroid and therefore root.

Has someone gotten their hands on a fully operational version that works on the Droid without rooting? do you have a link?
 
Upvote 0
There's a 2.1 ROM available in an update.zip format now, however, it's not ready for day to day use yet, IMO. The most stable is humancyborg's, which will require rooting to install the custom recovery necessary to make nandroid restores.

If you do choose to use the update.zip to upgrade to 2.1, make sure that you adb shell while you're in recovery and:

format DATA:
format CACHE:

before you flash the update.zip. The update.zip will format SYSTEM for you, but you will run into troubles if you don't format DATA and CACHE manually.
 
Upvote 0
There's a 2.1 ROM available in an update.zip format now, however, it's not ready for day to day use yet, IMO. The most stable is humancyborg's, which will require rooting to install the custom recovery necessary to make nandroid restores.

If you do choose to use the update.zip to upgrade to 2.1, make sure that you adb shell while you're in recovery and:

format DATA:
format CACHE:

before you flash the update.zip. The update.zip will format SYSTEM for you, but you will run into troubles if you don't format DATA and CACHE manually.

does the humancyborg still have gps problems?
 
Upvote 0
Seeing this thread as well as the thread in How-to and Tips (http://androidforums.com/how-tips/29204-how-root-install-droid-2-1-a.html ) is making me wonder - is there now conflicting info, or are those two different ROMs that are making the rounds (humancyborg's versus the one PeDe7 has posted)?

I like to live on the bleeding edge (just ask me to post a list of the programs I am running on my daily use PC, you'll see) and I think this would just be the next evolutionary step for me, seeing as classes don't start back up for another week :D

However, messenger13's advice to ask questions is probably one of the best things in this thread - some of the folks who saw me posting in early November know that I do that. A lot. So, without further ado, let me ask a couple of things firstly in here, and then possibly later on in the other thread, if I need to.

According to the other thread, the adb shell is no longer a requirement - is this a safe statement to follow?

Also, other than the possibility of installing the screen capture app for rooted phones (and does that even work with rooted DROIDs yet?) what are the other possibilities for the use of a rooted phone, other than development?

At least one person said that they had heard that upgrading to 2.1 without rooting was the more 'dangerous' way to do it - is this based upon the fact that with rooting you can perform the NANDROID backup, helping to avoid a possible bricking of your phone in case the upgrade does not take place?

Finally, I know the procedure outlined by Fabulous refers to wiping DATA and CACHE clean - does this also render installed apps unusable, and if so, does anyone have a list (or know of a list that has been started) that mentions apps that specifically break with new ROMs (and in particular 2.1 ROMs)?

EDIT: Added the following:

NM, the first DL in the list is for rooting specifically. The last is the actual ROM - and it *IS* the humancyborg one. I had opened the wrong file on my computer and was scratching my head...

Silly me :p
 
Upvote 0
i've had experiences with flashing psp's, ipod touches, ps2's, xbox 1's, xbox 360's before but upgrading the droid by rooting and doing all these funky things with new roms seems way to complicated. i'm not stupid, i'm fairly good with following directions but the DROID takes this to a whole new level, this stuff is difficult and if someone tries doing any of these "hacks" upgrades, etc i believe they will run into big problems (bricking a $200 phone)

i am just going to wait until 2.1 is officially released for the droid, id rather have a 2.0.1 droid than a useless paperweight droid.

however, if a perfectly working HTC Sense UI 2.1 ROM came out for the DROID, THAT WOULD CHANGE MY MIND.
 
Upvote 0
There's a 2.1 ROM available in an update.zip format now, however, it's not ready for day to day use yet, IMO. The most stable is humancyborg's, which will require rooting to install the custom recovery necessary to make nandroid restores.

If you do choose to use the update.zip to upgrade to 2.1, make sure that you adb shell while you're in recovery and:

format DATA:
format CACHE:

before you flash the update.zip. The update.zip will format SYSTEM for you, but you will run into troubles if you don't format DATA and CACHE manually.

good news that its avail in the update.zip format! I will just get it when its ready haha! How far off ya think it is?
 
Upvote 0
good news that its avail in the update.zip format! I will just get it when its ready haha! How far off ya think it is?

It looks like I spoke too soon. The update.zip isn't properly signed, so you'll need to have the custom recovery image to flash it, in which case, you can just use humancyborg's ROM.

This update.zip version was released by Eugene, and I don't think he's doing much to update it. I think he's concentrating on getting the Milestone features onto Droid (multitouch browser, etc)
 
Upvote 0
How do I back up my system once I rooted????
It is really quite easy. once you get the hang of it.

Just goto the market and search for droidroothelper.

After you have sucessfully install DroidRootHelper, launch the application and click the following buttons in the following order.

Mount system 3 then 4
Rename recovery
Install busybox
Install flash image
Flash boot animation
Flash SirPsychoS's recovery (the really big button at the bottom)
Reboot recovery

*you should see a yellow android as the background and “Patched by SirPsychoS” @ the top

now you might want to perform a nandroid backup (recommended) just incase you do something wrong. to do this from the screen you are at (if you already exited it, turn off the phone and turn it back on while holding down the power button and the X button on the keyboard) navigate down to backup/restore using left and right on the dpad. select it using the dpad, and than select simple nandroid backup. it will perform the backup, than you press power to go back to the main menu and than select reboot system now using the d-pad.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones