I have had 4 smartphones and 1 iPhone.
HTC One, Samsung S3, S4, S5. I've rooted the S4 and then unrooted it. I've never rooted any of the others.
The truth is, I don't quite get it.
I have found very little, if anything, on the S4 that I could do rooted that I could not do unrooted. When I've replaced the supplied OS with various alternatives, I've never found any significant advantages, and I've certainly found disadvantages in loss of facilities on the hardware.
Its not like phones these days are lacking in space or memory.
So, I don't get what I'm not getting.
Am I missing something? Because I like to fiddle, and I find it frustrating not to see any reason to do so.
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>> Am I missing something? Because I like to fiddle, and I find it frustrating not
>> to see any reason to do so.
And there is the key. You root if you have a need to. I have an old iPhone3 that I rooted, but that was because I just wanted it as an iPod in my car, so rooted it to rid it of crap that wasn't needed in that role.
I have had an iPhone 4 for 4 years, and have never had the need to change much, so never rooted it.
You need the need.
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My daughter started school in the city. She gets picked up by taxi at 7am and dropped home between 12 and 3 depending on classes. She is 8. I wanted her to have a phone so should she miss her taxi, get delayed or for whatever reason not have a way of getting home, she always has a way of getting in contact with us if she needs to.
I wanted to remove Facebook, Twitter and all the other garbage of the day.
It's a phone, an MP3 player and that's it, for now.
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Right, now I get that and had the same thing.
However, did you actually achieve anything worthwhile other than preventing her access to those things?
I don't mean that to sound challenging, I am just trying to understand.
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No problem, I get why you are asking.
Depends what you mean by worthwhile?
I removed PlayStore so the only apps which can be loaded I download the APK and install it after we (Mum, Dad and daughter) discuss what she wants and why.
If I wanted to I could use the phone to track the position if I was paranoid enough. I'm not.
The phone itself came with Gingerbread Android 2.6 or roundabout then with no upgrades from HTC. It is now running Cybergenics 10.1 or 3 I forget which one I eventually settled on which is JellyBean compatible.
Rooting also lets me control what the apps can do. Some apps you install access the camera, can read your phone book or listen. Rooting allows you to block this. Most apps want to know the phones serial number, country and SIM network. You can also anonymise that info even throw some garbage out if you feel like it.
It really is a powerful little tool billions of people are running around with in their pockets.
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There's also a hosts file which exists on your Android phone just like your PC so you can control what the browser can and cannot show.
It requires a bit of manipulation to access the storage partition and convert the hosts file from DOS to UNIX if you have a common hosts file you share across hardware in your network. Not rocket science.
You also need to show some constraint here as the bigger the hosts file the more processing required by the phone when surfing. It can get quite warm with a 1MB hosts file :-)
Last edited by: gmac on Fri 21 Nov 14 at 22:20
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So, I have a 9 almost 10 yr old with an S3. I probably wouldn't have bought her such a phone, but hand-me-downs sometimes work to advantage.
Its an S3 with, I think, 4.2 - it doesn't suffer from space issues, RAM or CPU issues, and she doesn't have Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts. If she showed an interest in Social Media, then perhaps I would need to think more carefully, but she doesn't.
She does download endless appalling games and ringtones and the like. She can't spend any money and there's nothing on the phone that I care about losing (photos upload to Dropbox). And I can zap it without causing any particular grief.
So I think that for this phone, rooting isn't worth the effort.
Mine is an S5.
No space, RAM or CPU issues and seems to do everything I want. (although I've only had it a little while). I haven't encountered any difficulty I need root to solve. I am ok with Touchwiz, which others aren't. For example rtj70. I mean its not great, but it isn't rubbish either.
So I guess I'm not seeing a need for me either.
No 1 has the S4. Interfering in her world is a nuclear option and to be done with care and need. And I'm not seeing a need at this point. Without a driving need I am more than happy to wuss and dodge the matter.
Dammit. I want to meddle. Can't somebody come up with *the* need?
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How do you know what the S3 is doing on social media?
Do you block data at the router, does the SIM card have nG network data access?
Don't need the app when the browser will do.
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Can I just say I have a Samsung S something or other and I can't understand a single thing anyone is talking about on this thread.
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>> Can I just say I have a Samsung S something or other and I can't
>> understand a single thing anyone is talking about on this thread.
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I'm glad its just not me then ROR !:-)
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It's primarily a motoring forum, there are people who frequent here who could strip down and rebuild a Ford Escort 1.6CVT engine blindfold.
Similarly there are people who work in IT who could not do the above but will happily do the same with a phone, tablet or PC. I don't fall into this category, I left tech. ten years ago.
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An attempt to describe what the 'rooting' means for an Android phone or tablet. First we need to begin with some history.
Linux is heavily influenced by UNIX, an operating system*. There is a user on UNIX/Linux called root which is the main administrator user and can do anything. You can create other users with equivalent permissions/rights but there's a root user. Like Administrator on Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8.x.
But you wouldn't want to be logging in to UNIX/Linux all the time as root because you could do something you didn't intend - like deleting all files :-) So you'd use a less privileged user most of the time, probably not an administrator at all.1
On Android, you are running as a user with lower privileges to stop you or malware doing harm. So there are some things you cannot change. If you gain root access you can change pretty much anything.2
* (I'll keep it simple!)
1 Note that OSX from Apple is also UNIX (not Linux) and is a BSD flavour of UNIX. And the root user is normally not accessible unless you effectively reenable it. So the administrator users are not root. And iOS is a derivative of OSX and is therefore also UNIX. For some reason people call rooting iOS on an iPhone or iPad as jailbreaking.
2On Android phones and tablets, to install an alternative firmware requires you to have access to the boot loader. This is not the same as rooting the device.
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>> It's primarily a motoring forum, there are people who frequent here who could strip down
>> and rebuild a Ford Escort 1.6CVT engine blindfold.
I can, but I would need to see what I am doing.
>> Similarly there are people who work in IT who could not do the above but
>> will happily do the same with a phone, tablet or PC.
I can, and do, and I still need to see what I am doing.
>>I don't fall into
>> this category, I left tech. ten years ago.
So did I, but tech never leaves you.
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>>How do you know what the S3 is doing on social media?
A fair point, and more philosophical than technical.
I try to introduce her to stuff and to learn how to manage it. I think holding back on stuff, mystifying it and then one day letting her loose is dangerous.
Whether that be alcohol, going out alone, or social networking.
Consequently I try to advise rather than restrict. With some judicious monitoring in the background.
If I ban her or block her, then one day she'll break through on her own. But because she'll do it in secret, then I won't be there or aware to help.
As it happens, I offered her a Facebook account, and she declined. Its for parents and old people, apparently.
Instagram on the other hand...................
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I take the same approach to engage and introduce rather than dictate.
Instagram will be for oldies by the time my two get around to SM, it changes that quickly.
Who'd be a parent eh?
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The first time she went out alone I allowed her to walk up to the village corner shop. without me. I think she was 7.
She was very proud, a little bit scared and quite excited. When she got back she was full of her achievement.
Sadly for me though, that night the village pub was full of stories from people who had seen me hiding in hedges, ducking behind parked cars, sneaking through gardens etc. etc. As I followed her to a) make her safe and b) keep myself calm.
Embarrassing, but at least she never knew.
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>> Embarrassing, but at least she never knew.
She does now.
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Reminds me of when my (now deceased) father in law was picked up by the police as a potential predator. He was out following his daughter whilst she was doing her paper round. There had been reports about local suspicious males, hence his concern.
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Rooting is JUST getting root access to the phones operating system, allowing you to delete/rename/alter files, that you would not normally be able to. It also allows to you see files and get into areas of the phone you would be unable to, with a non rooted phone. Also allows you to install custom ROMs and OS updates on the phone that are not installed or even available on the phone normally.
As far as your warranty, if you were to send a rooted phone in for warranty exchange and you were unable to reset the phone to it original unrooted state, and you were issued an exchange, the tech working on the phone would know this and you would be charged the full retail price of the phone.
If you sent in for warranty work , the phone would be sent back unrepaired, and you would be told that the problem the phone was having was due to your device being rooted (even if it wasn't) and would then be told that you warranty does not cover user alterations of the OS. Thus voiding your warranty.
The work around of course, is to unroot the phone before sending in for warranty repairs/exchanges.
Rooting is not for ANYONE that can not read and FULLY following directions.
Rooting is not for ANYONE that needs a lot of hand holding when/if something goes wrong with their phone, and is NOT comfortable in understanding how to use their computer to access the inner workings of their phone, should something go wrong during the rooting process.
SO planning ahead and downloading the Android SDK (just in case) and any other tools that may help fix a root gone bad (bricked phone), that are discussed in the rooting threads on the different rooting forums, those people should not even think about it, and just use the phone as it comes out of the box, until comes a time that they are willing to learn more about their phone, past installing Angry Birds or Fart Buttons.
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To root, nor not to root..... - Zero
