Rooting an Android phone... found out why today

[John Kotches]

Do they work with the Evo and do they support 4G? A lot of ROMs I've seen don't support Wimax 4G.

To get wimax you have to use a sense based rom (Fresh and Myn are the best I've used) or you can run CM7 based. That's it.

The wimax code has been open sourced by TeamWin (part of the CM team) so sooner or later it'll make it into another AOSP rom.

And what other problems comes along with it? My buddy is runing some custom Rom and the GPS is screwed up. It's a known issue and he's waiting for a nighly build to fix it. Guess what, I'm running stock Rom and my GPS works perfect.

Sounds like cm7. To fix it takes half an hour. Instructions are readily available in the CM7 threads @ xda.

Personally, I prefer CM7 to all of the sense roms. Faster, cleaner and very intuitive. Obviously, ymmv as will your preferences.

Finally, CM is not vanilla android, that would be a "google experience" device (nexus one, nexus s). CM is AOSP (Android Open Source Project) and significantly enhanced from "vanilla".



Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[Steve Mehs]

No thanks. With the stock Rom, everything on my phone works as it should. I don't have to spend a half an hour or more getting basic functions to work.

 

[Hall]

I don't have to spend a half an hour or more getting basic functions to work.

Was that your experience when you tried a "root" ROM ?

 

[John Kotches]

No thanks. With the stock Rom, everything on my phone works as it should. I don't have to spend a half an hour or more getting basic functions to work.

I find the phone performance to be significantly improved with CM6 before and now with CM7 to make it worth the little bit of trouble it was to resolve the issue. It's arguing preference though, and there's not much to point in that.

 

[John Kotches]

Hall:

My apologies if you already know this, but there are several things here...

First is rooting -- that's literally getting access via the Root account (Unix' God user) to the phone and its operating system. Then there are ROMs. For this, not only does your phone have to be rooted, but you also have to have an unlocked boot loader. Without an unlocked boot loader, you are stuck with whatever ROM the manufacturer gives you. You can hack to your heart's content but underneath it all is the original ROM.

Once you unlock the boot loader, you have free reign to install anything you want.

Cheers,

 

[Hall]

My apologies if you already know this, but there are several things here...

Been rooted for over a year now...

 

[TheForce]

No thanks. With the stock Rom, everything on my phone works as it should. I don't have to spend a half an hour or more getting basic functions to work.

Agreed, Steve. I respect many here like to tinker around with their phones, but all I want is to do some ordinary things. What I found with both iOS and Android is ordinary is what they do best. So far the only close call I had to needing to root the phone was something I found an app to do easier and safer.

It's fine for some to play with rooting and jailbreaking, but I enjoy my stuff just working without trouble. htc has their own version of stock apps too that fits my needs perfectly. It was the main reason I looked strongly at htc because I enjoyed my TP2 so much. These guys do it right as far as I'm concerned.


BTW- I'm averaging 9 hours on my new Seidio 1600mAh battery from 100% to 15% This is a typical day of about 30 minutes of phone calls, email, and surfing the web or watching sling for an hour time and listening to audible books with screen off the balance. Note- I am using hard wire ear piece rather than BT for long days because the charge on my BT is good for 4 hours of talk time.

 

[Ramy]

I would want my phone rooted if for no other reason than to use the wireless tether.

 

[Ronnie-]

I would want my phone rooted if for no other reason than to use the wireless tether.

That is the main reason that I rooted my Galaxy. That and to begin with, protected apps were blocked from the market until some issues got sorted out. So I rooted, and recovered them from a backup I had made of my Milestone.
Then I added wifi tether.
Thats pretty much all I have done this time around. With the milestone I flashed alot of different custom roms. With the Galaxy I have not tried one.

 

[TheForce]

I don't understand- I downloaded a wifi tether program, set it up and it works fine. I never rooted anything. Is the Thunderbolt different?

 

[mdram]

what was the name of the app you dl'd?

 

[Ronnie-]

I don't understand- I downloaded a wifi tether program, set it up and it works fine. I never rooted anything. Is the Thunderbolt different?

What is the name of the app?
Im not aware of one that works on non rooted phones, of course that could have changed.

Edit: or are you talking PDA net?

 

[mdram]

What is the name of the app?
Im not aware of one that works on non rooted phones, of course that could have changed.

pda net does, but its not wifi

or verizons hotspot

 

[Ronnie-]

Yeah I was thinking PDA was Btooth or USB.

If its not that, then again, I am not aware of any current wifi tether apps that would allow you to do it without rooting, unless it is a carrier app with a fee attached to it, which is what we are avoiding with the root and wifi option.

Again, things may have changed, but Id be shocked if it did and the carriers did not lock it out of your phone somehow.

 

[Hall]

I thought the Thunderbolt supports "WiFi Tethering" on it's own, so any 3rd-party app that wants to do the same shouldn't require root. It would just hook in the same way that the built-in app does.

 

[mdram]

I thought the Thunderbolt supports "WiFi Tethering" on it's own, so any 3rd-party app that wants to do the same shouldn't require root. It would just hook in the same way that the built-in app does.

not so. to use the built in it costs $20 for 2gb per month

if you root, you can install one to do it with no charge.
some people says its against tos. some says its not, its the same as any unsupported software, but thats a diff debate

 

[Ronnie-]

I thought the Thunderbolt supports "WiFi Tethering" on it's own, so any 3rd-party app that wants to do the same shouldn't require root. It would just hook in the same way that the built-in app does.

Like I said above, people use the root method to avoid those fees that are generally associated with built in carrier apps.

 

[Hall]

I'm aware that the carrier-approved tool will cost money. My point is, the functionality is already enabled and 3rd-party apps are probably able to hook into the same "back end" functionality and at the same time, be transparent to the carrier.

 

[Foxbat]

Hopefully, the other carriers don't pick up on AT&T's lead about ferreting out the unauthorized tethering and automatically enroll people into their $20/mo Tether Plan.

 

[TheForce]

I thought the Thunderbolt supports "WiFi Tethering" on it's own, so any 3rd-party app that wants to do the same shouldn't require root. It would just hook in the same way that the built-in app does.

That's correct. But one still needs to download the app and htc has the software to built. You find it in the settings menu as I recall. It downloads and installs. Verizon said there is no charge for it's monthly use at this time. I will be looking for a backup if that changes but the big question is whether the 3rd party app will access LTE. Rooting and 3rd party apps are pointless if I'm stuck in 3 year old speed technology.

Thanks Hall for your opinion on whether the 3rd party wifi app will work without rooting. Now just need to find one that works with LTE. Until Verizon starts charging, if ever, I will just use this from htc. Backups are in my blood for survival, however.

As I have said over and over, with Android OS, it either works now or you wait a week or two and something new will be out. Change happens rapidly in this Android world. Whatever I post now will be obsolete in a month I'm sure.

From what I have learned about rooting, is it gives you a tiny bit of jump on the new tech curve at the risk of losing something you may take for granted.


In my case I originally wanted to hold out to see what Apple iPhone5 would be like and get a Novatel 5spot for LTE but the Novatel LTE 5spot was delayed, iphone5 is rumored to be delayed, and Thunderbolt was released giving me everything I wanted now and the cost was $20 for jumping on my new every two upgrade timing. So I went with the Thunderbolt. I really need the LTE speed for my trip next week.