Rooted Android - You really don't need to do this anymore

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Rooted Android - You really don't need to do this anymore

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Vykk.Draygo: Jan 17, 2004; I say salesmen and women of the world unite!

nocal posted:

It's on 2.3.5 and it's a 2G phone? Did you invent e-ink or do you just want to relive 2006? Return that phone and buy a phone and a Kindle.

Maybe he's not using it as his phone, but has an actual legit use for that turd.

# ? Jul 11, 2014 12:35

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# ? May 13, 2024 22:53

revolther: May 27, 2008

Bobalbmi posted:

I have a quick question that I'm a little stumped as to how to answer - this is my first need for a root and also this phone isn't really mainstream right now.

I just bought a Midia Inkphone (https://onyx-boox.com/shop/midia-inkphone-onyx-e-ink-phone-e43-android/) running 2.3.5 and I'm not entirely sure what the most straightforward method to root this thing. I need to disable the frontlight on the e-ink display as it's draining the battery life and won't completely shut off, but there aren't any options to do this using the standard software. Is there a generic one-click/app to do this for 2.3.5 in a way that's not phone specific? Not sure if this matters but the software is "optimized for e-ink" displays.

I'd look into gingerbreak, it's a generic root that works across a lot of old devices. Does the devices power button not put it into sleep with the screen off? I'd try various "screen off" apps from the play store and hope one works with wacky e-ink displays.

# ? Jul 11, 2014 14:04

Skeezy: Jul 3, 2007

A buddy of mine just got a Droid Maxx and was asking about root options and all. Is there anything he could do to get it done?

# ? Jul 11, 2014 21:10

XIII: Feb 11, 2009

XIII posted:

So, this worked great, but her wifi still doesn't work. This seems to be a fairly common issue with this phone and the general consensus is that it's due to a corrupt /persist folder. I've replaced the /persist and /etc/firmware/wlan/prima folders with "clean" copies (that have seemingly worked for others) with no luck. I've changed permissions, I've altered owners, I've don't everything I can find that's worked for others. Nothing has fixed it. I did manage to get it working again a few months ago by refreshing the ROM that was on her phone, but it eventually stopped again. I've even pulled the /prima folder from the ROM zip (there isn't a /persist in it) and replaced hers with it, to no avail. Any ideas?

Quotting myself in search of an answer

# ? Jul 11, 2014 21:22

kitten smoothie: Dec 29, 2001

Skeezy posted:

A buddy of mine just got a Droid Maxx and was asking about root options and all. Is there anything he could do to get it done?

I posted something on that a few pages back.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3358561&pagenumber=439&perpage=40#post431606204

From some posts on xda, the 4.4.4 update that is due to show up sometime soon apparently breaks the write protection removal exploit and restores /system to be write protected. So don't take that OTA until they sort that out.

# ? Jul 11, 2014 23:41

fuf: Sep 12, 2004; haha

Is this a good place to ask about my Kindle Fire?

I hosed up installing a rom and bricked it (red screen). I just got a factory fastboot cable but when I plug it in the screen flashes the fastboot logo for a few seconds and then goes blank (either turned off or crashed, I dunno). Not enough time to send it any commands. Any ideas?

I find XDA a total nightmare to get info from because there's always a million threads covering different things and cross-referencing each other in confusing ways.

edit: I got fastboot working by running

code:

fastboot -i 0x1949 oem idme bootmode 4002

before plugging in the factory cable, and then plugging it in while it says "waiting for device".

I flashed the FFF bootloader with

code:

fastboot -i 0x1949 flash bootloader u-boot.bin

Then tried to boot into recovery with

code:

fastboot -i 0x1949 oem idme bootmode 5001

Now I just get a totally blank screen :v:

I can't even get into fastboot any more - I plug the cable in while the kindle is off, but nothing happens.

fuf fucked around with this message at 14:56 on Jul 12, 2014

# ? Jul 12, 2014 14:06

wolrah: May 8, 2006; what?

The original Kindle Fire is a real pain in the rear end to deal with because of its goofy bootloader and lack of vibrate motor or any other real indication that its turned on.

I found that it does not like doing anything with a low battery, so just leave it plugged in to proper power (not plain USB, full power charge) for a while and try again. If you have a *nix machine (Mac included) its a lot easier because you don't have to deal with all the USB driver bullshit on Windows.

Also I strongly recommend checking out the "OtterX" project if you don't feel the need to retain stock OS compatibility. It is a whole new bootloader and partitioning scheme which makes it work more like a modern Android tablet. CyanogenMod's support is shifting over that way, IIRC the new nightlies are only for otterx, and it also adds missing features like the ability to charge while "off".

I converted mine over a few days ago and it feels a lot smoother (presumably from using F2FS rather than EXT3/4).

# ? Jul 12, 2014 17:42

fuf: Sep 12, 2004; haha

Thanks, I'll try charging it. The thing is I'm not sure it's even charging since it has to be turned on to charge (that seems like a pretty massive design flaw to me but whatever I don't know the details).

I'm on linux so I don't think it's a driver issue. ADB and fastboot have both recognised the device at various points before I started loving things up.

And yeah I'll definitely check out OtterX, if I ever get to that stage. I haven't looked at any roms yet because I bricked it like as soon as I got it. :v:

# ? Jul 12, 2014 18:11

Dr. Video Games 0050: Nov 28, 2007

I rooted and installed CM11. I want to go back to pure stock and just root/use gravity box etc.

Am I able to go back to stock and still root at this point? I'm using a Galaxy s4 SGH-I337M on Rogers Canada.

Also what's the best way for my apps to come back?

Where can I find the image file for stock Touchwiz? You'd think Kies could do this like iTunes but that would be too easy. Last time I tried to flash stock my LTE died once a day.

# ? Jul 12, 2014 18:20

grack: Jan 10, 2012; COACH TOTORO SAY REFEREE CAN BANISH WHISTLE TO LAND OF WIND AND GHOSTS!

Dr. Video Games 0050 posted:

I rooted and installed CM11. I want to go back to pure stock and just root/use gravity box etc.

Am I able to go back to stock and still root at this point? I'm using a Galaxy s4 SGH-I337M on Rogers Canada.

Also what's the best way for my apps to come back?

Where can I find the image file for stock Touchwiz? You'd think Kies could do this like iTunes but that would be too easy. Last time I tried to flash stock my LTE died once a day.

You can re-install the stock image, just search for it on Google.

Next time make a backup. Seriously, don't ever, ever, ever, EVER skip this step if you want to gently caress around with custom ROMs.

# ? Jul 12, 2014 20:18

Dr. Video Games 0050: Nov 28, 2007

grack posted:

You can re-install the stock image, just search for it on Google.

Next time make a backup. Seriously, don't ever, ever, ever, EVER skip this step if you want to gently caress around with custom ROMs.

I'll make sure to do that. Can I root on the newest version of touchwiz?

# ? Jul 12, 2014 22:15

sourdough: Apr 30, 2012

Dr. Video Games 0050 posted:

I'll make sure to do that. Can I root on the newest version of touchwiz?

Search XDA. I'm sure you'll find a stock rooted image that can be flashed from custom recovery or using Odin or something.

# ? Jul 12, 2014 22:35

Die Sexmonster!: Nov 30, 2005

grack posted:

Next time make a backup. Seriously, don't ever, ever, ever, EVER skip this step if you want to gently caress around with custom ROMs.

Ever ever. If the OP for this thread was one line, that should be it. Back your poo poo up.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 05:06

Guillermus: Dec 28, 2009

Dr. Video Games 0050 posted:

I'll make sure to do that. Can I root on the newest version of touchwiz?

You can always find samsung roms on http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/ then root it with your prefered method (usually Odin).

# ? Jul 13, 2014 09:10

Dr. Video Games 0050: Nov 28, 2007

Guillermus posted:

You can always find samsung roms on http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/ then root it with your prefered method (usually Odin).

What is the preferred method to root? Only time I've gotten root to work was when I installed cyanogenmod and it did it for me.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 14:47

Fuck My Ass: Mar 24, 2010; College Slice

Does anyone have an up to date link on rooting the Nexus 5?

Thank you, very nice I like. For the insanely win sig.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 21:31

Vykk.Draygo: Jan 17, 2004; I say salesmen and women of the world unite!

gently caress My rear end posted:

Does anyone have an up to date link on rooting the Nexus 5?

I don't think the process has changed ever.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 21:57

Fuck My Ass: Mar 24, 2010; College Slice

Vykk.Draygo posted:

I don't think the process has changed ever.

so I could watch a video from say 7 months ago and not worry about bricking my phone?

Thank you, very nice I like. For the insanely win sig.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 22:26

sourdough: Apr 30, 2012

gently caress My rear end posted:

so I could watch a video from say 7 months ago and not worry about bricking my phone?

Yep. You can't really mess up with a Nexus. You should try to follow instructions with adb/fastboot so you have some idea what's going on, though toolkits can do it in "one click" too.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 22:38

ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

gently caress My rear end posted:

so I could watch a video from say 7 months ago and not worry about bricking my phone?

You could watch a video from 2011 about the Nexus S and it would be the same.

Vykk.Draygo posted:

I don't think the process has changed ever.

I know you were just talking about the Nexus 5 and not the entirety of Nexuses, but since I said what I did and now see what you said I thought I'd just edit in the only thing that's changed.

The only difference between Nexuses today and the Nexus One is the bootloader. It wasn't until the Nexus S that they settled on the current one with the black screen with the info at the bottom and the giant option arrow across the top pointing at the power button.

The HTC Nexus One bootloader of course is not relockable.

The steps for rooting have always been the same, however, gently caress My rear end. In general, you have to:

Unlock the bootloader with "fastboot oem unlock" (this wipes the device and internal storage)
Flash a custom recovery with "fastboot flash recovery [filename.img]" (either CWM or TWRP, your choice)
Flash a superuser app in that recovery "adb sideload [filename.zip]" (either Superuser or SuperSU, your choice)

Any guide or video or even toolkit you use will do those three things in that order. Like RVProfootballer suggested I'd say you should use adb/fastboot without the benefit of a toolkit so you can see how it works. It's only three steps and as you can see it's a straightforward and simple process and then if something goes wrong down the road you won't be at a total loss for how things work.

ClassActionFursuit fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Jul 13, 2014

# ? Jul 13, 2014 23:07

Zenzirouj: Jun 10, 2004; What about you, thread?
You got any tricks?

Tunga suggested that I post here to head of inevitable problems with my rooting as a result of my incompetence. I have a Galaxy Nexus, I backed up appdata using Helium, and I've downloaded this: http://www.wugfresh.com/nrt/. Anything more that I need to be thinking about right now? I suppose I ought to decide if I want to use a different ROM before starting...

# ? Jul 13, 2014 23:13

SplitSoul: Dec 31, 2000

gently caress My rear end posted:

Does anyone have an up to date link on rooting the Nexus 5?

Check my posts ITT, I asked the same thing a month back.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 23:16

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

I have posted Nexus root methods in the thread multiple times and it's the same for every single Nexus device ever except the part where you type your device name in to a website to get the right recovery image. So yeah, my post history should have it covered for both the GNex and the N5. But feel free to post if you have any specific questions.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 23:27

ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

Zenzirouj posted:

Tunga suggested that I post here to head of inevitable problems with my rooting as a result of my incompetence. I have a Galaxy Nexus, I backed up appdata using Helium, and I've downloaded this: http://www.wugfresh.com/nrt/. Anything more that I need to be thinking about right now? I suppose I ought to decide if I want to use a different ROM before starting...

Read my post directly above yours.

It's a simple process and the worst part is getting adb/fastboot to recognize your device in Windows. (If you have access to a Linux/Mac machine they are much better for this.) Once you get it working you can type the three steps or let the toolkit do it for you. If you're going to use a custom ROM, it's as simple as flashing it in recovery instead of flashing the superuser.

I'd advise you to make a working backup before starting to flash custom ROMs but since you're wiping anyway there's no reason to make one as you can get back to "stock and completely empty" any time you want.

# ? Jul 13, 2014 23:28

Martian Manfucker: Dec 27, 2012; misandry is real

The battery on my nexus 4 had been draining like crazy (0% by 4 or 5pm, only using it for 10-15 min at a time on my breaks at work and it gets charged every night). I downloaded BetterBatteryStats to get a better idea of what's going on, but a lot of the features require root, so here I am.

Is there a quick and easy way to do this? I literally only want to use the features in the app that require it, no fancy ROMs or anything like that. I didn't see anything in the OP about rooting/getting super user access for the nexus 4, so I apologize if I'm missing something obvious.

# ? Jul 18, 2014 03:28

Grassy Knowles: Apr 4, 2003; "The original Terminator was a gritty fucking AMAZING piece of sci-fi. Gritty fucking rock-hard MURDER!"

LastInLine posted:

You could watch a video from 2011 about the Nexus S and it would be the same.
I know you were just talking about the Nexus 5 and not the entirety of Nexuses, but since I said what I did and now see what you said I thought I'd just edit in the only thing that's changed.

The only difference between Nexuses today and the Nexus One is the bootloader. It wasn't until the Nexus S that they settled on the current one with the black screen with the info at the bottom and the giant option arrow across the top pointing at the power button.

The HTC Nexus One bootloader of course is not relockable.

The steps for rooting have always been the same, however, gently caress My rear end. In general, you have to:

Unlock the bootloader with "fastboot oem unlock" (this wipes the device and internal storage)

Flash a custom recovery with "fastboot flash recovery [filename.img]" (either CWM or TWRP, your choice)

Flash a superuser app in that recovery "adb sideload [filename.zip]" (either Superuser or SuperSU, your choice)

Any guide or video or even toolkit you use will do those three things in that order. Like RVProfootballer suggested I'd say you should use adb/fastboot without the benefit of a toolkit so you can see how it works. It's only three steps and as you can see it's a straightforward and simple process and then if something goes wrong down the road you won't be at a total loss for how things work.

# ? Jul 18, 2014 04:25

Ojjeorago: Sep 21, 2008; I had a dream, too. It wasn't pleasant, though ... I dreamt I was a moron...; Gary’s Answer

Can we just start a new thread with that and something about Xposed in the OP?

# ? Jul 18, 2014 04:56

ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

Whizbang posted:

Can we just start a new thread with that and something about Xposed in the OP?

How about we wait until after Android L since ART will definitely break Xposed?

If Xposed stays the same I'll do one up although I might need help and input from all the non-Nexushavers.

# ? Jul 18, 2014 08:49

Xik: Mar 10, 2011; Dinosaur Gum

Samsung SIII Mini GT-I8190
CyanogenMod 11-20140718-unofficial-golden (4.4.4)

Yesterday I flashed, installed and used adb to get things how I wanted. Then I took it off charge:

code:

7h 7m on battery [100% to Dead]
Android System  77%
Screen          18%
Phone Idle      3%
Cell Standby    3%

Charged it this morning after it being dead:

code:

3h 35m on battery [96% battery left]
Screen          46%
Phone Idle      21%
Cell Standby    19%
Android System  8%
Android OS      7%

What happened yesterday? Any ideas of what would prevent the device from going into idle? This is almost guaranteed to be user error since my total amount of experience with the Android system is approaching a whopping 1 and 1/2 days.

# ? Jul 20, 2014 02:21

7 Bowls of Wrath: Mar 30, 2007; Thats so metal.

US SIII Running cyanogenM8, it's working fine but I'm wondering if any of you guys have a ROM you prefer over CM? It's buggyness is getting to me...

# ? Jul 20, 2014 02:30

nimper: Jun 19, 2003; livin' in a hopium den

Xik posted:

What happened yesterday? Any ideas of what would prevent the device from going into idle?

Your screen was on for an hour and a half. That prevents the device from idling. You can turn down the brightness to save some battery life. Also Android System eats up battery because the OS likes to do that after you install new firmware. After a couple days it calms down.

# ? Jul 20, 2014 13:33

ArcMage: Sep 14, 2007; What is this thread?; Ramrod XTreme

7 Bowls of Wrath posted:

US SIII Running cyanogenM8, it's working fine but I'm wondering if any of you guys have a ROM you prefer over CM? It's buggyness is getting to me...

I plug Carbon ROM a lot, but that's because it's really solid. They aggregate a lot of good bits from several devs, CM included, and only CM has better dev support, I think.

# ? Jul 21, 2014 03:49

7 Bowls of Wrath: Mar 30, 2007; Thats so metal.

ArcMage posted:

I plug Carbon ROM a lot, but that's because it's really solid. They aggregate a lot of good bits from several devs, CM included, and only CM has better dev support, I think.

Thanks for the heads up on the carbon ROM, Im going to check it out.

# ? Jul 21, 2014 04:11

ExtremeODD: Jul 16, 2005

7 Bowls of Wrath posted:

US SIII Running cyanogenM8, it's working fine but I'm wondering if any of you guys have a ROM you prefer over CM? It's buggyness is getting to me...

Personally for the s3 I was loving the MOAR rom, seems to have dropped out of the main page on XDA but a really solid rom. With that said I ran it for a year without updating or anything before I changed phones so Im not 100% up to date on whats good out there.

# ? Jul 21, 2014 18:48

bam thwok: Sep 20, 2005; I sure hope I don't get banned

kitten smoothie posted:

I posted something on that a few pages back.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3358561&pagenumber=439&perpage=40#post431606204

From some posts on xda, the 4.4.4 update that is due to show up sometime soon apparently breaks the write protection removal exploit and restores /system to be write protected. So don't take that OTA until they sort that out.

I finally got around to rooting my Maxx. Wasn't too bad at all, though I had to spend about 15-30 minutes just creating a legible step-by-step guide for myself out of the broken English broken-linked XDA guide.

Write protection did not survive the 4.4.4 update, but root did. Since I'm not really interested in installing a custom ROM (on a device so close to nexus/vanilla, with a couple of genuinely good moto-only feature, why would I?) ad-free and WiFi tether are all I really wanted out of this, and I got em.

Would recommend.

# ? Jul 21, 2014 20:42

Guillermus: Dec 28, 2009

LastInLine posted:

How about we wait until after Android L since ART will definitely break Xposed?

If Xposed stays the same I'll do one up although I might need help and input from all the non-Nexushavers.

My Nexus 7 has fantastic battery life both on continous screen play and idle (I'm one of these lucky fuckers with a 6-7h screen time N7), Android L breaking xposed isn't going to affect me with that leap in performance.

# ? Jul 21, 2014 23:09

frameset: Apr 13, 2008

I'm getting a sim free Samsung S4 Mini tomorrow to replace my ageing creaky HTC Desire S.

In the meantime I've had a Nexus 7 and been really pleased with the clean, almost spartan interface.
What is a ROM I can install that is similar in UX to the Nexus 7?

Also before anyone asks, I didn't get a Nexus phone because I wanted a memory card slot.

# ? Jul 24, 2014 00:49

Die Sexmonster!: Nov 30, 2005

ExtremeODD posted:

Personally for the s3 I was loving the MOAR rom, seems to have dropped out of the main page on XDA but a really solid rom. With that said I ran it for a year without updating or anything before I changed phones so Im not 100% up to date on whats good out there.

This? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2116531 Does look pretty sweet. I'm using AOKP and pretty settled with it, but I might try that out before Android L is ready.

# ? Jul 24, 2014 00:53

sourdough: Apr 30, 2012

frameset posted:

I'm getting a sim free Samsung S4 Mini tomorrow to replace my ageing creaky HTC Desire S.

In the meantime I've had a Nexus 7 and been really pleased with the clean, almost spartan interface.
What is a ROM I can install that is similar in UX to the Nexus 7?

Also before anyone asks, I didn't get a Nexus phone because I wanted a memory card slot.

Most people here would recommend a Moto G LTE, which added an SD card and LTE to the original Moto G. Compared to the S4 Mini, you'll get stock Android, better and faster updates, and you won't have to "fix" your phone.

sourdough fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Jul 24, 2014

# ? Jul 24, 2014 01:01

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# ? May 13, 2024 22:53

ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

RVProfootballer posted:

Most people here would recommend a Moto G LTE, which added an SD card and LTE to the original Moto G. Compared to the S4 Mini, you'll get stock Android, better and faster updates, and you won't have to "fix" your phone.

Took the words right out of mouth.

# ? Jul 24, 2014 09:25

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Rooted Android - You really don't need to do this anymore

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