Worth rooting?

[Prism Guest]

Familiar with Linux. Not so much Android. Used to old dumb phones but giving Android a try. T-mobile Huawei Prism U8651t running Android 2.3.6 and kernel 2.6.35-7-perf

Before I go throug the process listed in the sticky:

1. I will not tolerate Google location services phone home. I understand cell devices pretty much have constant tower trangulation and GPS but anything to mitigate this is something I want to do.

Will rooting phone allow me any control over this? I understand how to shutoff mobile data and wifi networks via GUI, but what is network location app that is constantly running ( default app non removeable) ? Pretty sure it's tearing up my battery life as well.

As soon as I force close it opens right back up. I'm assuming this feature is used to assist a number of other apps in locations but I want to control it. not someone else.

2. Somewhere I saw when rooting you should inseret a non-working sim card
3. Somewhere else I saw you need to downgrade to Android 2.3.3 to root the phone
4. Is network location app the one I want or is there something else?

Thanks in advance

 

[teddyearp]

1.) I do not think there is anything you can do about it. The .gov decreed several years ago that no cell device could be used without some sort of GPS on it. Although rooting the phone may allow you to remove (instead of force closingt) the offending app, I am sure it will also brick your phone because too many other things depend upon it. The only thing I can say it that there is an app somewhere in the application announcement section for an app that will tell you which apps are using the network; however at this time I do not remember the name of it and it is installed on my non-active phone at this time.

Sorry, and good luck

 

[Rukbat]

Familiar with Linux. Not so much Android. Used to old dumb phones but giving Android a try. T-mobile Huawei Prism U8651t running Android 2.3.6 and kernel 2.6.35-7-perf

Before I go throug the process listed in the sticky:

1. I will not tolerate Google location services phone home. I understand cell devices pretty much have constant tower trangulation and GPS but anything to mitigate this is something I want to do.

Will rooting phone allow me any control over this?

The phone has to be in almost constant contact with the tower. Otherwise, when someone calls your phone, every tower in the world would have to send out a notice to your phone. Shut that off and you have a pocket-sized Linux box.

I understand how to shutoff mobile data and wifi networks via GUI, but what is network location app that is constantly running ( default app non removeable) ? Pretty sure it's tearing up my battery life as well.

It's turn-offable (in some hardware/software combinations, at least). Basically all it's doing is using wifi locations to assist the GPS.

As soon as I force close it opens right back up. I'm assuming this feature is used to assist a number of other apps in locations but I want to control it. not someone else.

In Linux terms, some of the static libs for one app may actually be in another app - which has to keep running as long as the app using the lib is running.

2. Somewhere I saw when rooting you should inseret a non-working sim card

And turn 4 times widdershins - and only under the light of a full moon. Where do people get these "factoids"? (I'm not tweaking you - I know you heard it from someone who heard it from ... someone once made it up.)

3. Somewhere else I saw you need to downgrade to Android 2.3.3 to root the phone

See #2. Some versions of Android have been butchered by some manufacturers to make rooting a PIA, but lucky for us, the really good programmers are owners, not employees of the manufacturers. No, we've rooted 2.3.x and 4.4, and versions in between. (Even the "belt, suspenders and Gorilla Glue" AT&T Note 3 has been rooted.)

4. Is network location app the one I want or is there something else?

Want to do what? There are apps to show you tower locations, signal strength and other data of the tower you're connected to, etc., etc.

Little lesson. "Rooting" an Android phone is installing su. Problem is you need root to do it, which is why there are various schemes to do it. (Most Android users couldn't tell a cp from a mv. And don't need to.) There are also apps (SuperSU is probably the best at the moment) to give you a graphical interface. You don't actually run su to run a program with root permissions, you run the app, it asks for root and the graphical program will ask you to say yea or nay, and remember your choice (unless you choose "this time only").

There's not all that much in the Android world that requires root - and rooting the phone voids all warranties and most insurance - but if you want complete control over the phone, you'll have to find a root script for your phone, or search

adb root Huawei Prism

for instructions on how to do it command-line style. You'll need a driver for the phone and a program called adb - both easily available (for free). Then you can even run a terminal app and talk to the actual OS, not some graphic toy that talks to it for you.

Read a lot first. As with Linux, rooting gives you enough power to turn your phone into a planter.