hey i'm new just curious what rooting means? and what it lets you do?
xstreetz said:
hey i'm new just curious what rooting means? and what it lets you do?
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Google is your friend. But, can can start here.
Root Android the Easy Way
Add advanced features, customize the interface, and boost your handset's performance by rooting your Android phone.
By Robert Strohmeyer
Sep 14, 2010 5:00 PM
Google's Android operating system is riding a wave of popularity that has rapidly eclipsed Apple's iOS, and by the end of 2010 it's expected to overtake RIM's BlackBerry as America's leading smartphone platform. However, despite the relative openness and flexibility of the OS, your Android phone still isn't as powerful and customizable as it could be. To unlock all of your phone's potential, you'll need to root it.
WARNING: Rooting--adding superuser capabilities to your phone by altering its system permissions--is an advanced technique that the inexperienced or faint of heart should NEVER ATTEMPT. It's hacking, folks, and if done improperly it can destroy your phone. Do not follow any of the instructions in this guide or on any of the linked sites unless you are comfortable with the very real risk of turning your phone into an expensive brick. As of this writing, rooting is not supported by any carrier or manufacturer, and will most likely void your phone's warranty. In short: This stuff is for big kids only. No whining if things don't go your way.
Why Root?
With that very real and important caveat out of the way, there are a few really good reasons to root your Android phone. The simplest reason is that rooting your handset allows for some cool features that probably ought to be enabled in Android by default, such as on-the-fly screen capture, tethering capabilities (even on phones whose carriers don't allow it), and advanced firewall apps.
Android Superuser Request
Rooting Android gives you superuser access to your phone's OS, letting you do more than you'd be able to with a stock Android installation.
Rooting also lets you install custom ROMs that eliminate the annoying crapware many manufacturers and carriers include by default. In addition, custom ROMs can give you the latest version of Android weeks--or even months--ahead of the carriers' sluggish update schedules.
Rooted phones can take advantage of some great performance tweaks--such as CPU overclocking and improved cache management--that can dramatically speed up Android. You can take advantage of these options either by installing a ROM that includes them or by downloading apps from the Android Market that will automatically tweak settings on your rooted phone for you.
It would be a stretch to say that rooting Android is a necessary project for most users. In fact, most people should never even try it on their phones, just as most PC users probably shouldn't attempt to overclock their processors. But if you're an advanced user (or an intermediate user with a taste for adventure) and you know the risks, rooting can help you get a lot more fun and function out of your Android device.
Get Root
Until fairly recently, rooting Android was a messy process that required installing the Android Debug Bridge and hacking the phone from a command line. Fortunately, some industrious hackers have produced a few simple apps that can root your device in seconds with the tap of a finger. In this tutorial, I'll discuss two such apps--Easy Root (for the Motorola Droid, Droid X, and Milestone, and the HTC/Google Nexus One) and Unrevoked (which supports a variety of HTC handsets).
It's important to note here that although these one-click root apps are easy to use, they aren't completely trouble-free. For instance, as of this writing the developer of Unrevoked 3 is reviewing it to solve a problem with the HTC EVO 4G (but Unrevoked 2 is still available). And the latest version of Android, 2.2 (aka Froyo), will present new challenges for root users as carriers and phone manufacturers continue to try to block users from hacking their handsets. These obstacles are a basic reality for anyone attempting to root their device, just as Apple iPhone users must constantly adapt to Apple's efforts to block people from jailbreaking the iPhone.
Even though Easy Root and Unrevoked don't work on all Android phones, they do cover a broad swath of the Android universe. If you're interested in rooting a Samsung Galaxy or another device, however, you still have options--they're just not as easy. Because the state of Android hacking is constantly in flux, your best bet for phones not covered in this tutorial is to google "root" and the name of your phone, or to keep an eye on the discussions about your phone on a good Android forum, such as AllDroid.org.
Step 1: Download a Rooting App
To get started rooting your phone, you need the appropriate app for your device. If you're using a Droid, Droid X, Milestone, or Nexus One, you'll want Easy Root. HTC users with an Aria, Desire, Droid Incredible, EVO 4G, Hero, or Wildfire/Buzz will want to use Unrevoked. With either of these apps, your first step is to download the app directly from the developer's Website and put it in the root folder of your phone's SD Card.
Easy Root downloads as an APK file that's ready to run from the phone, so you could just download it straight onto the device and tap it in your file manager app to run it.
Unrevoked downloads as a zipped file with several files inside it. If you have an unzip utility on your phone, you can download and unzip it directly on your device. Otherwise, you'll need to unzip it on a PC and copy the appropriate file to the phone. Because Unrevoked comes in a few phone-specific files, it's generally best just to copy the correct file from your PC in the first place. The documentation on the Unrevoked site clearly explains which file to use for your particular phone.
Step 2: Install the App
Once you've placed the APK file for your rooting app onto your phone's SD Card, locate it with a file-management app such as Astro File Manager and tap it to start the installation. Follow the prompts to allow the installation. Once this finishes, the rooting app will appear in the phone's App Drawer. Launch it.
Step 3: Root It
Easy Root for Android
Easy Root's interface is as simple as it gets. Tap 'ROOT ME!' to root your phone.
This is the moment of truth. With your newly installed rooting app launched, tap the option to root the phone. (You may first have to tap past a warning or disclaimer screen.) Once you tap the button to root your phone, the app will spend a few seconds running a script that alters the system's user permissions to allow superuser access and install a customized recovery image on your phone's System partition. It will then present you with a screen that says you have root.
In some instances, running Easy Root or Unrevoked on a supported device and following all the instructions exactly can still result in an unrooted phone. If this happens to you, don't lose heart. The developers of these apps are highly responsive to user questions and feedback, and if you take care to document everything you did and all of the relevant settings on your device, you stand a good chance of getting the help you need to root your handset. Or, at the very least, you could provide valuable information that the developer can use to update the app and make it work on phones like yours. Just remember: Rooting is a precarious business for everyone involved, and these developers have put a lot of work into their projects with very little promise of reward. So be nice, even if you're frustrated.
Step 4: Reboot
Restart your phone to enable the new root permissions on your device. Congratulations--your handset should now be rooted.
Now What?
Gaining superuser access to your phone is just the first step in a vast new territory of Android exploration. Depending on which rooting app you're using, you may already be enjoying the performance and usability benefits of a host of enhancements included in your root recovery image. But there's plenty more to explore.
Barnacle Wi-Fi Tether
Barnacle makes it one-tap easy to add Wi-Fi tethering to your phone, even if your carrier doesn't support the feature.
If your phone doesn't support Wi-Fi tethering out of the box, you can now add it to your rooted phone. Barnacle is a good, fairly simple app that exploits root for tethering with or without your carrier's support.
Root users also have the option to overclock the phone's CPU to give it a serious performance boost. For this task, it's hard to beat SetCPU, which offers a friendly slider-bar interface for setting your phone's clock speed. But be careful: Setting your clock speed too high can damage your phone permanently.
ROM Manager
ROM Manager includes a variety of features that make replacing your phone's stock OS easy.
The ultimate Android hack is to replace your phone's default operating system with a custom ROM. You have many to choose from, and each has its own pros and cons. Some ROMs are designed for specific phone models, and not all Android phones support the installation of a custom ROM. As of this writing, the Droid X is particularly problematic in this regard, while handsets such as the Nexus One and Droid Incredible support a wide variety of ROMs. The best way to find, install, and manage ROMs is to run ROM Manager, which is available for free from the Android Market. ROM Manager Premium even offers a large list of available ROMs that you can download straight from the app itself.
Have Fun
By now you should have a pretty good handle on working with a rooted Android device. I've attempted to cover all the basics in this guide, but there's no shortage of additional tips, tricks, and advice that can help you improve how Android functions. If you have some tips of your own to share, please chime in with a comment. And if you think my attempt to simplify the process has resulted in a significant error or omission, please let me know by e-mailing [email protected].
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thanks will do some reading
So I'm fairly new to android having been on the iOS scene for quite a while now, and I've always jailbroke my phones to get the most out of them.
Now I've started using android, I'm interested in rooting but don't really fully understand it yet. Custom ROMs, Kernels etc etc, its a lot more in depth than jailbreaking and I was wondering if there were any threads, or sites (or anyone willing to post about it) explaining what its all about, the benefits, drawbacks, why people do it etc so I can get a good understanding about it before I start messing around.
Any help/info would be greatly appreciated.
Rooting is a way of allowing apps to get superuser privileges. Also for modifying parts of the OS that you couldn't normally access. The advantages are that you can flash custom firmware. Remove stock bloatware. Block ads. Do cwm backups. The kernel is the area between the phone os and the hardware. Different kernels tweak different settings. Which one you chose will depends on what you want to achieve. Performance battery etc. I wouldn't worry about kernels for.the moment. Rooting the SG3 currently does not change the stock kernel anyway. Look for xda member chainfire he is the man to follow. All I can suggest is read up on the forums as much as you can. Don't touch a thing until you understand the core of any instructions your attempting to.follow. Good luck
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
The main reason for jailbreaking is the ability to sideload apps (install apps that are not from the official market such as alternative keyboards, Emulators, ...) e.g. from Cydia.
Android phones already support this feature out-of-the-box, you just have to tick the corresponding box to confirm you understand the risk of possible malware when installing apps you found somewhere on the internet.
Based on this feature there exist several alternative markets, SlideMe and Amazon being the most popular.
Additionally Android allows you to modify most of the system starting from the launcher to dialer and up to low-level features such as equalizer and notification LED control by installing a corresponding app.
Root gives you access to far more low-level features such as backing up apps including their 'secret' data (Titanium Backup), getting the S3 to use mass-storage mode, remove Advertisement (AdFree), get detailled informatiaons about your phone's battery drain (BetterBatteryStats)...
Samsung ROM's have gotten better but people always want other, new or changed features or upgrades to OS-versions Samsung is not officially supporting. For instance the old Galaxy S1 never got an official upgrade to Android 4.0 but the Cyanogenmod project made it available.
Samsung-Kernels obviously do not support such features such as overclocking the CPU (which I wouldn't recommend anyway on the S3) and have good but not excellent optimizations. E.g. the sound processor can gain huge improvements by simple software optimizations (Voodoo Sound) and the phone feel much snappier with tweaked CPU scaling algorithms. Additionally custom kernels can e.g. include NTFS support which Samsung does not provide due to license and potential stability issues.
In conclusion I'd say, stay with the original ROM if there is nothing that really bothers you but I'd recommend flashing a custom rooted kernel such as Siyah as it brings direct improvements.
Thanks for the replies.... I'm trying to find as much as I can to read up on, but I'm yet to find a decent website with some info explaining everything from the start. I prefer to know exactly what everything is, what it does etc etc before I start messing around.
Anyone know anywhere I can find this info, threads containing beginners guides to rooting or something similar?
joeyh51 said:
Thanks for the replies.... I'm trying to find as much as I can to read up on, but I'm yet to find a decent website with some info explaining everything from the start. I prefer to know exactly what everything is, what it does etc etc before I start messing around.
Anyone know anywhere I can find this info, threads containing beginners guides to rooting or something similar?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is a good guide on rooting http://androidforums.com/evo-3d-all-things-root/389787-beginners-guide-rooting-android-devices.html
Google is your best friend. I am going to add a section on my website www.modmymobile.co.uk with a simple breakdown.
Have a look on YouTube there is a few step by step guides.. only downside to rooting is you will lose your warrenty
Hello, I'm new to this forum, but, I have been in other forums relating to hacking 'mobile' devices. Previously, I was part of a number of different iOS forums, so, I know about jailbreaking, and troubleshooting problems on the iOS platform. I'll also share my few thoughts on Android, and my experience on Jelly Bean so far within this, embarrassingly long, post.
However, with Google's announcement of the Nexus 7, I was impressed by Android, and I was thoroughly impressed that it had finally sorted out the lagging problems. (I had used Android tablets, but they never appealed to me due to the lag which each one experienced. Jelly Bean, and, in particular, 'Project Butter', has remedied this issue - I have experienced no lag on my Nexus 7 since I received it a week ago.) And so, I pre-ordered the Nexus 7 - deciding against purchasing, a much more expensive, but, I believed, an excellent tablet, the iPad.
iOS, also, was beginning to become less interesting to use - sure, the iPad may have a larger scale of the iOS mobile operating system, but it remained largely the same. Same interface (although on a, admittedly, much better screen) same apps, same freedom - without the jailbreak. The new iPad (as advertised and sold by Apple), I thought, also did not do an excellent job on improving it's predecessor. Sure, an improved screen, and processor to power the screen - but is that worth it? (Considering another one will, inevitably, be released within a year.)
Tegra 3 was making strides. Although, one thing that saddens me about Android, and is something which definitely hinders it's ability to overthrow iOS - is the fragmentation present on the operating system. I'm not sure which apps are compatible with my Nexus 7, and which ones are not. (On a side not, piracy is also another factor which slows the progress of Android, and is perhaps a reason why some apps are exclusive to iOS in the first place - I'm looking at you Epic Games! Android certainly has the power and graphical capabilities to run the game, but Epic, like all companies must, are interested primarily on their profits. Again, fragmentation plays its part!)
Although, shifting to different mobile operating systems is rather difficult - especially since I am intrigued by modifications, and altering devices to make them fulfil my needs. On iOS, it was quite simple: There was only one thing to do - jailbreak. A process, which in itself, was extremely simple (for the most part.) It appears there are also much more iOS specialists on YouTube, who post easy to follow tutorials. Also, since iOS is a 'closed' platform, I was not concerned by viruses, and I knew what I could, and could not do.
Android, however, is open - and this, paradoxically, limits myself. There are so many modifications, I do not know which ones are good, which ones are bad, and which ones could result in bricking my, now beloved, Nexus 7. I don't want to completely mess up my device, or install random rubbish which only makes it slower. I have, almost literally, no clue on where to start. Sure, I've downloaded a few basic apps from Google Play - TegraZone - but who cannot do that without assistance?
I want to install more widgets, that amaze me, and also applications which will prove useful. (For example, a file managing app, a torrent app (no piracy! ), and other cool things.) I also, though, require a reliable anti-virus. Having previously used iOS for a number of years, I was not subject to any viruses, and, indeed, I did not have to worry about viruses - there are very few, if any, viruses on iOS. Android, though, is much more open to viruses. I need to ensure that I do not succumb to one.
However, what I am most interested in is the 'rooting' process, and the benefits which can derive from it. What extra things can I achieve by rooting my Nexus 7? What applications should I install to supplement the rooted device? (I have read of ClockWork(?)Mod, but I have not really ventured that far into applications which take advantage of rooting, since a lot of the information mentioned appears to me as gibberish, due to my noobishness .) And, perhaps most importantly, if something were to go tragically wrong - how would I recover the device. (Again, I'll make a reference to iOS, since, it is an operating system I am familiar with - you could simply restore the device through iTunes - what is Android's alternative?)
So, can you assist me in getting accustomed to the Android operating system by providing your recommended apps, and also useful tutorials which I can use to develop my understanding? I literally have no clue what half of the things in the Android section of this forum talk about - they included an abundance of vocabulary which, evidently, you need relative experience to understand. I also need require some Android experts - involved in perhaps development - to follow on Twitter!
Thanks for reading through my essay! Please, help a noob get started! I would appreciate all forms of feedback!
Note: I have downloaded the Android SDK (Although, not installed it, as of the time of writing.), and I have also got the factory image for the Nexus 7. I achieved this by briefly viewing a YouTube video. There do not appear to be that many, though. The XDA YouTube channel generally covers the news aspect of all things related to Android.
The greatest bit of advice I can give is to start here - Nexus 7 - and read read read!
There's no backup and restoring the entire system without root. When you do you can install a custom recovery. Note there is always a stock recovery that is far limited compared to recoveries such as CWM.
Android really doesn't have problems with viruses. Seriously. The only reason why it appears so is because idiots sideload apps from shady sites that contain viruses, but on iOS there is no sideloading without jailbreak.
For a file managing app, you can use Explorer (my preferance), ES File Explorer, or Astro.
Widgets are really personal preferance, I keep a music widget to quickly play music, a calendar widget, weather widget. You might want a news widget like Flipboard.
Rooting gives you full access to your device. It allows performance gains like overclocking, battery saving with underclocking. Like I said before, it opens to ability to backup/restore entire systems and individual apps with Titanium Backup. You can install customs ROMs, delete system apps (usually bloatware), remap the physical keys, use Tasker for automated tasking (pretty awesome btw). You can also edit system files, such as notification tones, ringtones, bootanimation, etc.
Sent from my MB508 using xda premium
Konflict1471 said:
Hello, I'm new to this forum, but, I have been in other forums relating to hacking 'mobile' devices. Previously, I was part of a number of different iOS forums, so, I know about jailbreaking, and troubleshooting problems on the iOS platform. I'll also share my few thoughts on Android, and my experience on Jelly Bean so far within this, embarrassingly long, post.
However, with Google's announcement of the Nexus 7, I was impressed by Android, and I was thoroughly impressed that it had finally sorted out the lagging problems. (I had used Android tablets, but they never appealed to me due to the lag which each one experienced. Jelly Bean, and, in particular, 'Project Butter', has remedied this issue - I have experienced no lag on my Nexus 7 since I received it a week ago.) And so, I pre-ordered the Nexus 7 - deciding against purchasing, a much more expensive, but, I believed, an excellent tablet, the iPad.
iOS, also, was beginning to become less interesting to use - sure, the iPad may have a larger scale of the iOS mobile operating system, but it remained largely the same. Same interface (although on a, admittedly, much better screen) same apps, same freedom - without the jailbreak. The new iPad (as advertised and sold by Apple), I thought, also did not do an excellent job on improving it's predecessor. Sure, an improved screen, and processor to power the screen - but is that worth it? (Considering another one will, inevitably, be released within a year.)
Tegra 3 was making strides. Although, one thing that saddens me about Android, and is something which definitely hinders it's ability to overthrow iOS - is the fragmentation present on the operating system. I'm not sure which apps are compatible with my Nexus 7, and which ones are not. (On a side not, piracy is also another factor which slows the progress of Android, and is perhaps a reason why some apps are exclusive to iOS in the first place - I'm looking at you Epic Games! Android certainly has the power and graphical capabilities to run the game, but Epic, like all companies must, are interested primarily on their profits. Again, fragmentation plays its part!)
Although, shifting to different mobile operating systems is rather difficult - especially since I am intrigued by modifications, and altering devices to make them fulfil my needs. On iOS, it was quite simple: There was only one thing to do - jailbreak. A process, which in itself, was extremely simple (for the most part.) It appears there are also much more iOS specialists on YouTube, who post easy to follow tutorials. Also, since iOS is a 'closed' platform, I was not concerned by viruses, and I knew what I could, and could not do.
Android, however, is open - and this, paradoxically, limits myself. There are so many modifications, I do not know which ones are good, which ones are bad, and which ones could result in bricking my, now beloved, Nexus 7. I don't want to completely mess up my device, or install random rubbish which only makes it slower. I have, almost literally, no clue on where to start. Sure, I've downloaded a few basic apps from Google Play - TegraZone - but who cannot do that without assistance?
I want to install more widgets, that amaze me, and also applications which will prove useful. (For example, a file managing app, a torrent app (no piracy! ), and other cool things.) I also, though, require a reliable anti-virus. Having previously used iOS for a number of years, I was not subject to any viruses, and, indeed, I did not have to worry about viruses - there are very few, if any, viruses on iOS. Android, though, is much more open to viruses. I need to ensure that I do not succumb to one.
However, what I am most interested in is the 'rooting' process, and the benefits which can derive from it. What extra things can I achieve by rooting my Nexus 7? What applications should I install to supplement the rooted device? (I have read of ClockWork(?)Mod, but I have not really ventured that far into applications which take advantage of rooting, since a lot of the information mentioned appears to me as gibberish, due to my noobishness .) And, perhaps most importantly, if something were to go tragically wrong - how would I recover the device. (Again, I'll make a reference to iOS, since, it is an operating system I am familiar with - you could simply restore the device through iTunes - what is Android's alternative?)
So, can you assist me in getting accustomed to the Android operating system by providing your recommended apps, and also useful tutorials which I can use to develop my understanding? I literally have no clue what half of the things in the Android section of this forum talk about - they included an abundance of vocabulary which, evidently, you need relative experience to understand. I also need require some Android experts - involved in perhaps development - to follow on Twitter!
Thanks for reading through my essay! Please, help a noob get started! I would appreciate all forms of feedback!
Note: I have downloaded the Android SDK (Although, not installed it, as of the time of writing.), and I have also got the factory image for the Nexus 7. I achieved this by briefly viewing a YouTube video. There do not appear to be that many, though. The XDA YouTube channel generally covers the news aspect of all things related to Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to Android!
I think you'll enjoy it
Ok on to your questions:
These are gonna be out of order
Reliable anti-virus: Trend Micro Mobile Security (worth the $10 )
Benefits of CWM: Backups, restores, custom ROM flashing
Benefits of rooting: custom ROMs, access to system files
Some apps to get started: Angry birds , Rom Manager, BatteryCalibration, ES File Manager, imo
Android's alternative to iTunes' restore is CWM. It's not official but its tons better then iTunes. You do it from the device and its a full, complete restore.
Ask again if I didn't answer something
Very long post BUT a few things to think about.
I have never used a antivirus software and really they are pointless just look at the apps before you download them read the comments and look at the permissions the app uses and think "does that fart noise app need to be able to send texts" of cause the answer is no so don't install it.
Other fractures can be useful like phone tracking but there are better apps that are free for this like prey.
If you root you will have full control of your filesystem much like su on Linux if you have ever used this. You could for example with root use my project to run Linux distros like Ubuntu. The nexus 7 due to being under googles power is very easy to unlock and root and if you mess something up easy to restore a backup. There are other great apps to like being able to back up apps and there data.
Just a few points and if you have more questions feel free to pm me
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
AVG or Avast antivirus are the best.
Solid Explorer is the best file explorer.
UCCW is the most customizable widget.
Taptu or Pulse are the best news readers.
Pocket.
Tapatalk forum.
MX player is the best video player.
Dropbox is by far the best cloud storage.
Photoshop.
PowerAMP is the best Music Player.
I would say that you don't need to root a Nexus Device. You got the latest OS and will always have.
The only reason you would wanna root is for some root apps.
Like Titanium Backup, AdBlocker and ROM Toolbox.
CWM is only necessary if you want to flash a custom ROM and you don't need to because you already have AOSP Jelly BEAN.
Thanks for all of the responses! And apologies for the long post! xD
I'll look through the Nexus 7 forums as XperienceD mentioned.
And by ClockWordMod - is that actually ROM Manager? I'm confused, and this is probably the most noobish question you'll get. xD
Since I don't really want to root my Nexus 7 (currently, that is) - then I would not really need to back up the data, since, there will be no risk. I'm not really concerned about overclocking my device - it's quite fast as it is. However, battery saving is quite tempting. Although, I don't see it as a reason alone to root my Nexus. And, as it is stock Google - there is no unnecessary bloat ware attached to the device.
And I can't get viruses while browsing through the internet?
I always thought that was the case, which is why I was looking for an anti-virus application.
Also, for UCCW - do I need to install a custom launcher of some sort? Is it really possible to add a widget, that appears complicated, simply through the Google Play market?
And finally, while installing ES File Explorer - I noticed that it had permission to remove shortcuts without user intervention. Is this the sort of permission I should be checking for on other applications? Since people on this forum recommended the app, I didn't really have any doubts of whether it was legit.3.
Also, how you I get toggles back on the notification bar? On iOS (sorry for the repeated mentioning of the scum ) - I had SBSettings, which was similar to the notifications available on Android. How would I add the toggles back?
Konflict1471 said:
Thanks for all of the responses! And apologies for the long post! xD
I'll look through the Nexus 7 forums as XperienceD mentioned.
And by ClockWordMod - is that actually ROM Manager? I'm confused, and this is probably the most noobish question you'll get. xD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a custom recovery which lets you backup your ROM, flash new ROMs and make other changes to your device (so in a way use it is a ROM manager)
Konflict1471 said:
Since I don't really want to root my Nexus 7 (currently, that is) - then I would not really need to back up the data, since, there will be no risk. I'm not really concerned about overclocking my device - it's quite fast as it is. However, battery saving is quite tempting. Although, I don't see it as a reason alone to root my Nexus. And, as it is stock Google - there is no unnecessary bloat ware attached to the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is true if you have a nexus device the need for root is far less, and the fact that alot of apps that used to need root have become features in new versions of android, back in the days of 1.5/6 you needed root to pretty much do anything good
Konflict1471 said:
And I can't get viruses while browsing through the internet?
I always thought that was the case, which is why I was looking for an anti-virus application.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure you might get windows viruses but in no way will they beable to run on your device let aloan harm it. The only way anything evil can be done is if you install the app (and in alot of cases give it root) so check those permissions!
anti-virus apps are the biggest scam (well paid one anyway) all they can really do is check a database of known bad apps and check it its there, other than that they do nothing. They are a trick from all the Windows users coming to android after having it hammered into them that you need anti-virus
Konflict1471 said:
Also, for UCCW - do I need to install a custom launcher of some sort? Is it really possible to add a widget, that appears complicated, simply through the Google Play market?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope just add the widget to your home creen, in the app launcher press the widget button and then long press on the widget you want and drag it to the home screen you want, many apps include widgets so will be installed with the app as part of it (e.g twitter) while other 'apps' are just widgets
Konflict1471 said:
And finally, while installing ES File Explorer - I noticed that it had permission to remove shortcuts without user intervention. Is this the sort of permission I should be checking for on other applications? Since people on this forum recommended the app, I didn't really have any doubts of whether it was legit.3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is likely a good reason for this (And with alot of apps if there is a odd permissions it will say in the apps description why its needed) but yes its the kind of thing you have to stop and think about
Konflict1471 said:
Also, how you I get toggles back on the notification bar? On iOS (sorry for the repeated mentioning of the scum ) - I had SBSettings, which was similar to the notifications available on Android. How would I add the toggles back?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
to add toggles you would either need to use a custom ROM, or download a app that will do it like this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.j4velin.notificationToggle&hl=en
Thanks very much for your detailed and extremely helpful reply!
I'll just do what you recommended! The Notification Toggle is an extremely impressive app, I must admit.
Since there is no point downloading a paid antivirus, should I download Avast Anti-virus (since it's free), just for precautionary measures?
Konflict1471 said:
Thanks very much for your detailed and extremely helpful reply!
I'll just do what you recommended! The Notification Toggle is an extremely impressive app, I must admit.
Since there is no point downloading a paid antivirus, should I download Avast Anti-virus (since it's free), just for precautionary measures?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well its not going to hurt and would at least prevent an app thats bad be installed if you missed it. And like I said some do have some nice other features just the "anit-virus" side of it is rather pointless
There is a huge thread with skins for UCCW.
And Power Widgets or Notification Toggles are the best Notification Drawer toggle apps.
NT has customizable icons.
If you want weather too there's some new app called Deluxe Notification Bar which shows weather and toggles.
Look in the Nexus 7 forums for no-root battery saving advice.
And if you do not want battery drain don't use Anti-virus.
I've never had any virus problems.
If you're unrooted they can't really mess with your phone.
Just stay away from creepy apps, Chinese apps (no racist), piracied apps and apps from other than Play Store and XDA.
And never play ad-supported games.
Buy ad-free versions or play offline if you don't want battery drain.
Also SwiftKey is a MUST, if you're not happy with Jelly Bean keyboard.
Hi everyone,
We are conducting a survey on the current usage of custom ROMs and user interests and I'd like as many users as possible to answer the very few questions: https://bit.ly/2gM1Ntv (survey is closed now)
Why all this?
We believe that the current custom ROM world and choice is not very nice. We basically have a single large player and a few smaller ones providing official builds and then there are many "homemade" ROMs of doubtful trust. Newbies that care about privacy and free software are scared of homemade ROMs, don't like CM and usually have a device not officially supported by the smaller ROMs. We are thus discussing if we should start a whole new ROM (maybe robbing some hardware code from CM) or contribute to an existing one. Our focus is on security and privacy and some of our ideas might be hard to achieve inside the currently existing ROMs.
We don't want to re-invent the wheel if it's not necessary, a ROM that nobody wants to use is just a waste of time.
To know if our ideas of a custom ROM are supported by the community, we need to know what you think about custom ROMs and our ideas on it.
If you want to discuss this further or want to give your opinion on this publicly, fill this thread up with whatever you want. We don't bite.
Thank you for your time,
Marvin
Personally I would like a ROM based on CyanogenMod (since I like 90% of the ROM) with:
- microG included
- Integrated XPrivacy (but rewritten inside the ROM without Xposed)
- Ability to hide root to specific apps on-the-fly without restart (with the code included inside the ROM impossible to detect)
- Ability to simulate other phones to specific apps on-the-fly without restart
- ARMv7 to ARMv6 software emulation for apps that support only ARMv7 on ARMv6 phones (probably slow but better than anything, ARMv7 to x86 emulation already exist)
ale5000 said:
Personally I would like a ROM based on CyanogenMod (since I like 90% of the ROM) with:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem with CM base is that it is partly proprietary (contains some google libraries). Read about freecyngn for details.
ale5000 said:
microG included
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Plan is a sort of "setup wizard" that allows to install microG and of course the required patches as part of the ROM.
ale5000 said:
Integrated XPrivacy (but rewritten inside the ROM without Xposed)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Three-state deny/spoof/allow is already on our wishlist as well as extending the permission model to be more fine-grained.
ale5000 said:
Ability to hide root to specific apps on-the-fly without restart (with the code included inside the ROM impossible to detect)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The idea is to have a root system that works the opposite to what some su hiding tools do: the su binary is only available to certain apps the user preselected. This will also hide it to apps that should not see it. This way we can't have a nice "grant root permissions" dialog, but these are insecure nonetheless.
ale5000 said:
Ability to simulate other phones to specific apps on-the-fly without restart
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly do you want to simulate. The device name as returned by Build.MODEL? Note that it is technically impossible to simulate a whole other device in a way that can't be recognized
ale5000 said:
ARMv7 to ARMv6 software emulation for apps that support only ARMv7 on ARMv6 phones (probably slow but better than anything, ARMv7 to x86 emulation already exist)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which device is still ARMv6 nowadays? joke aside, the x86 emulation was developed by Intel (so that their processor can compete on the smartphone market), a similar software is very unlikely to be written for armv6. It might be possible to use user-mode qemu to run armv7 libraries on armv6, but this will be terribly slow and for most apps the reason to use native code is that it should be faster than Java code, which will not be the case with such an emulation approach...
MaR-V-iN said:
The idea is to have a root system that works the opposite to what some su hiding tools do: the su binary is only available to certain apps the user preselected. This will also hide it to apps that should not see it. This way we can't have a nice "grant root permissions" dialog, but these are insecure nonetheless..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although it is more secure it will kill user-friendliness and it will probably cause compatibility problems with old apps.
I sometime use also apps no longer updated and it wouldn't be nice to not be able to use them.
I think it would be better to support both modes and allow user to choose.
MaR-V-iN said:
What exactly do you want to simulate. The device name as returned by Build.MODEL? Note that it is technically impossible to simulate a whole other device in a way that can't be recognized
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My intent is just to run apps that do run only on specific phones without change the app itself, I don't think they use a type of detection hard to bypass but I don't really know.
MaR-V-iN said:
Which device is still ARMv6 nowadays? joke aside, the x86 emulation was developed by Intel (so that their processor can compete on the smartphone market), a similar software is very unlikely to be written for armv6. It might be possible to use user-mode qemu to run armv7 libraries on armv6, but this will be terribly slow and for most apps the reason to use native code is that it should be faster than Java code, which will not be the case with such an emulation approach...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that it will be really slow but it still would be better than an app that crash at startup.
PS: Also it would be nice to have compatibility with cSploit.
ale5000 said:
Although it is more secure it will kill user-friendliness and it will probably cause compatibility problems with old apps.
I sometime use also apps no longer updated and it wouldn't be nice to not be able to use them.
I think it would be better to support both modes and allow user to choose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For apps this will look as if you don't have root if you did not grant permission in advance through the system settings. The applications should not break because of this (but maybe just show you a message). Yes, it will be less user-friendly, but opening a critical hole in the security system should be nothing that is user-friendly. You usually do not have a lot of apps that require root access and to activate those manually in the system settings is not a huge problem. We would like to add features to the ROM like app data backup so that you need even less.
Well, for a normal user yes, but a normal user do not usually install a custom ROM.
I personally use a lot of apps that require root access.
Although it is probably not so easy I think it is possible to implement a dialog with tapjacking protection that ask if allow or deny root access.
ale5000 said:
Well, for a normal user yes, but a normal user do not usually install a custom ROM.
I personally use a lot of apps that require root access.
Although it is probably not so easy I think it is possible to implement a dialog with tapjacking protection that ask if allow or deny root access.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even with all tapjacking techniques that are possible in Android (which would include a certain delay for the root usage confirmation to be tap-able), you can still use invoke keystrokes. This would allow a privilege escalation. When talking about security, don't argue with "I know what I do", it's not about you knowing what you do, it's about attackers knowing it as well.
The only effective way to protect against any type of tapjacking/input injection is to put everything completely aside (e.g. in the settings app) and protect it by requiring the user to enter his/her lockscreen key (or use fingerprint) before being able to change anything. While the ask about permission approach might be good enough for classic permissions (contacts/calender), it is not a good idea for something like root access, because it requires extreme caution.
Can you list the apps that require root which you are using? This would help a lot in finding out how important the root feature really is.