[Q] Questions about Motorola and the Bootloader: - Atrix 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So I have been getting feeds on the reviews from the Atrix and there is a lot of praise for the phone itself, if not the overpriced dock just yet.
I have a few questions about using a rooted but locked Moto phone:
1. Can you remove bloatware / motoblur apps and replace them with stock ones from other roms?
2. Does Moto use any kind of bad proprietary (and laggy) file system like Samsung that requires you to partition the App storage, ala the Vibrant Voodoo kernel?
3. Can you still sideload apps with the locked bootloader in place?
I have no doubts that the locked bootloader will cause problems in some way, I just was wondering if anyone knew from experience with the Droid X as to what they may be specifically.

SquareBare said:
So I have been getting feeds on the reviews from the Atrix and there is a lot of praise for the phone itself, if not the overpriced dock just yet.
I have a few questions about using a rooted but locked Moto phone:
1. Can you remove bloatware / motoblur apps and replace them with stock ones from other roms?
2. Does Moto use any kind of bad proprietary (and laggy) file system like Samsung that requires you to partition the App storage, ala the Vibrant Voodoo kernel?
3. Can you still sideload apps with the locked bootloader in place?
I have no doubts that the locked bootloader will cause problems in some way, I just was wondering if anyone knew from experience with the Droid X as to what they may be specifically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The CNET review stated that it was possible to uninstall all of the ATT bloatware apps. Motoblur, I doubt, at least at first. But you can always install Launcher Pro or whatever to use instead. Motoblur doesn't seem to cause much lag on this phone.
I haven't seen anything about the FS, but since Samsung is the only one I know of like that, I highly doubt that they have anything similar. If they did we would probably be seeing lower quadrant scores from reviewers.
The bootloader doesn't have anything to do with sideloading. You *should* be able to sideload on day one with Sideload Wonder Machine or similar. As long as sideloading is disabled the same way it is on all other ATT phones (option is removed with sideloading locked), there wont be any problems.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

Related

[Q] Interested in the Atrix

My HTC Aria was stolen last night, so I'm in the market for a new phone. I was pretty happy with the Aria, but I'm checking out some other options to see if I want to stick with it or not. I have to stay with AT&T so the Atrix is on my list to check out..
1) Is the Atrix currently rootable with the latest stock AT&T ROM?
2) What are the big issues/annoyances with the Atrix (if any)?
Thanks!
1) Current version (1.83) is rootable via gingerbreak.
2) The only problem people have is that the Atrix has a locked bootloader, therefore getting something like Cyanogen on the Atrix is currently impossible.
I don't think you'll be dissapointed by this phone. It's leaps and bounds better than your Aria was. I came from Captivate and I really love it so far.
InsaneJester17 said:
1) Current version (1.83) is rootable via gingerbreak.
2) The only problem people have is that the Atrix has a locked bootloader, therefore getting something like Cyanogen on the Atrix is currently impossible.
I don't think you'll be dissapointed by this phone. It's leaps and bounds better than your Aria was. I came from Captivate and I really love it so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure I understand.. The phone is rootable, but you can't use a custom ROM?
So will I be able to get rid of bloatware and be able to install non-market apps? (I could live with bloatware, but there are a few non-market apps that I must have..)
ShinerDraft said:
I'm not sure I understand.. The phone is rootable, but you can't use a custom ROM?
So will I be able to get rid of bloatware and be able to install non-market apps? (I could live with bloatware, but there are a few non-market apps that I must have..)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone is rootable, and you'll be able to install custom ROMs just fine. The custom ROMs will obviously get rid of the bloatware for you if they are worth their salt. Check out this thread for more information to your questions.
I must have misunderstood this:
getting something like Cyanogen on the Atrix is currently impossible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought that Cyanogen was a custom ROM..
Thanks for the help!
The Atrix is fully rootable, but the bootloader is locked. So you can still sideload apps, run the apps with root access, but you cant make drastic changes to the system like alternate/overclocked kernels. This is why Cynogenmod is not possible on the Atrix at this time. The current roms that are out for the Atrix are mostly just themes.
Do it. It is a great phone and you won't regret it.
CyanogenMod isn't the only custom ROM out there and I believe too many people forget that.
You can root and have custom ROMs like previous posters have said. And coming from an Aria, you will be severely blown away.
My big needs are Swype and EasyTether. Amazon market is also nice, but not a deal-breaker.
So if I understand correctly, Cyanogen is a custom ROM that can't be installed because the Atrix's locked bootloader prevents certain drastic changes.
Other custom ROM's do not make the drastic changes which require bootloader access, so these work fine. Do these other ROM's bypass AT&T's restrictions on apps such as the three noted above? Can these be installed like regular market apps, or do they have to be sideloaded from a PC?
Well if you enable sideloading using gladenable after you root it, you can install all the third party apps you want, without needing to use your computer.
Sent from my Greyblurred Atrix
ShinerDraft said:
My big needs are Swype and EasyTether. Amazon market is also nice, but not a deal-breaker.
So if I understand correctly, Cyanogen is a custom ROM that can't be installed because the Atrix's locked bootloader prevents certain drastic changes.
Other custom ROM's do not make the drastic changes which require bootloader access, so these work fine. Do these other ROM's bypass AT&T's restrictions on apps such as the three noted above? Can these be installed like regular market apps, or do they have to be sideloaded from a PC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You shouldnt need to use a custom rom for your needs, but if you wanted to you'd download it on a computer and install it yourself as they wouldnt be in the android market.
All you would have to do is root, then run a script on these forums to enable sideloading and you should be good to go for installing Easytether and Amazon market. The Atrix comes with Swype pre-installed as an alternative keyboard to Motoblur's, so you get that without having to root.
All you need to know is that the phone is fast, has great battery life, and some pseudo custom roms that do everything you are looking for.
Go to the Dev section and read about Gladroot, Gladenable, and Gingerblur then purchase the phone and if you've got more questions, people will be here to help.
garekinokami said:
All you need to know is that the phone is fast, has great battery life, and some pseudo custom roms that do everything you are looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that this is a great phone, and I'm much happier leaving iOS behind, but when people say this phone has great battery life, I feel a bit confused. Does that mean that Android phones in general have worse battery life than the Atrix? I know a few people have said they get 25-30 + hours on the phone, but then again there are several threads on battery life and the general consensus seems that this is a phone that you MUST charge at night, because otherwise the next day it will be dead. 18 hours or so seems like what most people get...
maledyris said:
I agree that this is a great phone, and I'm much happier leaving iOS behind, but when people say this phone has great battery life, I feel a bit confused. Does that mean that Android phones in general have worse battery life than the Atrix? I know a few people have said they get 25-30 + hours on the phone, but then again there are several threads on battery life and the general consensus seems that this is a phone that you MUST charge at night, because otherwise the next day it will be dead. 18 hours or so seems like what most people get...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not a user, but in my research I found that the Atrix had a higher capacity battery (1930mA hrs) than other phones (Inspire - 1230mA hrs, Captivate - 1500mA hrs).
My experience is that battery life depended on my use more than anything else. If I played music in the car, left my data connection open most of the day, but kept bluetooth and wifi off, I could go about 1.5-2 days between charges. By not playing music and keeping my data off most of the time, I could stretch that to 3-4 days.

Noob Q: efuse upshot

Hi, didn't want to clutter the "bad news" thread nontechnical noob questions. If the tablet won't boot from SD
1) Will it still possibly be rootable where I could side load apps? I could live with the stock ROM if I could sideload apks, maybe.
2) Am I right to assume even if it is rootable where I can add apps, it is much more likely that I could brick it somehow?
Dang, just really crappy timing. I actually bought gift cards to get it (so I could get some cash-back deals). I can't return the cards. I guess if this thing isn't worth it, I can use them to get a refurb color.
Very surprised and disappointed they went this route (if they really did).
Damn
Same here, I could live with side-loading. But I think it's a bit early to write off bootable SD. Hopefully it's here relatively soon as I'd like to leave the stock experience in place for family members.
As an aside, I've got the original Nook Color (rooted of course), as well as the Transformer. Even without the benefit of ICS, I found that I still resorted to grabbing the NC for my bedtime reading (Google Reader and articles in RIL, rather than actual books). 7" is perfect, 10" a bit unwieldy for me.
I picked up the NT today and am very happy I did. It's a nail in the coffin for the Transformer, gonna sell it as the NT will meet all my needs. I'm saying this based on the stock experience with the expectation that we'll have ROMs at some point.
But soon enough we'll have a) root and b) ICS on the NT. It's gonna be sweet!
Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm yet to see an Android device that XDA geniouses couldn't root.
Including the crazy-ass encrypted Craporola devices.
Rooting might be doable, but if the bootloader is encrypted, then installing a custom ROM like CM7 might be out of the question.
Case and point: look at how much agony the owner of the Motorola Milestone (the GSM version of the Droid) went through. Far as i know, they just got the official Froyo ROM within last few month, and most likely won't get GB, ever.
DarkDvr said:
Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm yet to see an Android device that XDA geniouses couldn't root.
Including the crazy-ass encrypted Craporola devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i figured as much but wasn't sure if there was something out there I wasn't aware of. I'm using an Atrix. Despite Motorola's best efforts, the community eventually got into this thing.
gordon1hd1 said:
Rooting might be doable, but if the bootloader is encrypted, then installing a custom ROM like CM7 might be out of the question.
Case and point: look at how much agony the owner of the Motorola Milestone (the GSM version of the Droid) went through. Far as i know, they just got the official Froyo ROM within last few month, and most likely won't get GB, ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would suck but I think I could live with it. I just noticed that some of the nook apps are the tablet version rather than the phone versions. Evernote and Netflix, for example. Root and sideloading would probably suffice, although B&N would lose some goodwill.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
I could honestly care less about custom roms or anything like that. I'm fine with the NT stock experience.
But sideloading would be a very very good thing, just so I can get the few apps I'd like to use onto the thing. I'm only gonna use it to consume media- but I'd like to decide which apps I use to do that.
Rooting will get most users far, but compare to a full blown CM7 rom, there still many short coming with just root.
Example:
1. Tablet soft buttons, the CM7 tablet soft key are vital in making a lot of side loaded application work in NC.
2. Custom keyboard. one of my favorite app on NC is the thumb keyboard, which make typing on the NC in landscape orientation feel natural. With Root, the user can install the keyboard, but won't be able to enable the keyboard, since B&N remove some of the menus settings.
3. Honeycomb and ICS, with the source code for ICS just came out, CM9 is on the horizon, without unlocking the bootloader, NT won't get a taste of either.
So Root is a great start, but for many android hackers and purist, it is not enough.
1. Tablet soft buttons, the CM7 tablet soft key are vital in making a lot of side loaded application work in NC.
I have button savior on my manually rooted NC. Works fine. Am I missing something?
2. Custom keyboard. one of my favorite app on NC is the thumb keyboard, which make typing on the NC in landscape orientation feel natural. With Root, the user can install the keyboard, but won't be able to enable the keyboard, since B&N remove some of the menus settings.
I got the Palm input keyboard working on my rooted NC. Worked great. I forget what I swapped it out for, but it wasn't a problem - you just have to tell the device that your preferred keyboard just happens to be named the same as its preferred keyboard and lives in the same place.
3. Honeycomb and ICS, with the source code for ICS just came out, CM9 is on the horizon, without unlocking the bootloader, NT won't get a taste of either.
This may be for the best.
I'm looking at Honeycomb now on a 10 incher, and I'm not as happy with what I'm seeing as I'd hoped. ADB is more challenging, and putting files on the device via mass storage device is right out, which means a lot of my tools for managing content on it are gone, too - manually copy over stuff that Calibre used to just take care of? Bleargh.
Honeycomb pretty much requires your real, fast computer talk to your honeycomb device, aka a ****ty slow computer, over a serial link as if it were a peer, rather than just being able to get the storage and write files to it.
And if you use linux, your good, fast computer can't even talk to the ****ty, slow one that google's deliivered because they didn't bothered to warn anyone about this far enough ahead of time for the linux folks to really get working on trying to port over that stupid set of media player commands. Who knew that anyone would all of a sudden decide they were going to pronounce a brain-dead media player communications interface as workable?
Once you unplug and being passively consuming your pr0n again, the tablet's all good and pretty.
http://soledadpenades.com/2011/06/12/honeycomb-mtp-and-linux/
Not to second guess anyone here, but there always OTHER ways of doing things. Witness the Droid X where even with an encrypted bootloader an exploit was found called 2nd Init (http://cvpcs.org/blog/2011-06-14/2nd-init._what_it_is_and_how_it_works) which allowed the Droid X to get custom roms (albeit with the stock kernel) such as CM7 and MIUI.
jhanford said:
Not to second guess anyone here, but there always OTHER ways of doing things. Witness the Droid X where even with an encrypted bootloader an exploit was found called 2nd Init (http://cvpcs.org/blog/2011-06-14/2nd-init._what_it_is_and_how_it_works) which allowed the Droid X to get custom roms (albeit with the stock kernel) such as CM7 and MIUI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I truly hope that it won't be such an involved process for us, but still... very cool to read what the genius devs put together as a workaround on other devices. We just need to hope that they jump on the Nook Tablet like they did the NC.
jhanford said:
Not to second guess anyone here, but there always OTHER ways of doing things. Witness the Droid X where even with an encrypted bootloader an exploit was found called 2nd Init (http://cvpcs.org/blog/2011-06-14/2nd-init._what_it_is_and_how_it_works) which allowed the Droid X to get custom roms (albeit with the stock kernel) such as CM7 and MIUI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a Defy, and it need too 2ndInit to start custom rom like CM7/MIUI.
I hope that NT will be no boot-locked, but if it's the sadly truth I think that port 2ndInit will be not too much hard.
well we already figured out how to side load apps. they dont pop up in NT's GUI, but with 2 buttons you can launch Go Launcher and within there you can see everything you installed.
I would actual prefer to have the stock Rom, just rooted. I had CM 7.1 on my NC but removed it because I actually do use the NC as bookreader and that would the primary use for a NT. I have a TF and soon a TF Prime for the full tablet experience, which IMHO really needs a 10 inch or bigger screen.

[Q] After root questions

Dear community,
I've rooted my TFP using the guide from xda. To be honest, I didn't mean to, I read the guide and got carried away with it . Finally the root is good now. As a windows guy and with slight understanding of linux I'm pretty new to android.
My question is, now that my tablet is rooted, how can I take advantage of it? What are the recommended apps? Any known tweaks?
Please enlighten me
Search 'root' on android market.
Titanium Backup is useful, Ghost Commander or EZ file, there are also apps to remote control your tablet, you can use new launchers - trebuchet launcher or nova launcher on rooted devices.
You can also delete system files, so be careful.
The biggest bonus to rooting is being able to flash different roms like many of us do with our android smartphones. Flashing roms is currently not an option on the Prime but should or could be available in the future. Right now I don't think there's a whole lot to do with a rooted Prime.
While I haven't rooted my Prime yet, I'm only in day 6 and waiting until the "send it back" period elapses I rooted my moto Atrix2 almost immediately. I installed Titanium Backup as well as System Tuner, and a couple other root only apps. The primary reason for rooting the Atrix2 was to freeze Carrier ID as I don't care for ATT snooping on me with without so much as a by your leave. In any case I'll probably root the Prime just to get more control over what the device is doing when it's in standby. For instance I am hoping to be able to use Tasker to shut off the wifi after 5 or 10 minutes in standby in order to save battery power and turn it back on,when I wake up the tablet. Maybe find a way to create different, more detailed power profiles for different activities. I've done a lot of this on the Atrix2 and seen some significant increases in battery life because of it.
Q
coogrrr94 said:
The biggest bonus to rooting is being able to flash different roms like many of us do with our android smartphones. Flashing roms is currently not an option on the Prime but should or could be available in the future. Right now I don't think there's a whole lot to do with a rooted Prime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Incorrect, Rooting has nothing to do with flashing ROMs. Unlocking the bootloader on the other hand, has everything to do with flashing ROMs.
Swiftks said:
Incorrect, Rooting has nothing to do with flashing ROMs. Unlocking the bootloader on the other hand, has everything to do with flashing ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right. i don't think that any ROM can improve the already very good existing one from ASUS.
I haven't rooted my TFP, but I'm seriously considering doing so. The main reason is that most of (good) adbockers require root access. Loading all this rubbish adds, many of them being large flash animations, slows down browsing experience significantly. I want to get rid of them and the only way I know is by rooting Android.
For me about the biggest thing is "AdAway" or any other app for updating host file.
Never see one single ad on your device again. Less anoyance, faster loading times in browser, less data consumption ...
Neter67 said:
right. i don't think that any ROM can improve the already very good existing one from ASUS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've never used CM7 then... soon to be CM9.
Sent from my CM7 Atrix 4G

Screenshot?

Sorry if this has already been talked about...but I'm amazed how difficult it is to take a screenshot on the RAZR. Anyone have an easier method then adb or root?
Sent from my DROID RAZR using XDA
There are apps on the market that allow screenshots without root. You can look into those. Besides that I don't really know of any other alternative.
Tried them. But the most popular ones still require adb. There seriously isn't a key combo?
Sent from my DROID RAZR using XDA
With "one click" root and unroot tools easily available, I don't see why you don't just root your phone if you want to use root functions (like screenshot). When rooted, there's a superuser software which will prompt and you can deny access when any software wants to use root functions. So unless you allow them, there's no reason that they will screw up your phone.
Lastly, we have fastboot files for most regions available. So even if you screw up system, just flash those flashboot files into factory default.
I root my phone for:
razr bootstrapper - backup/restore nandroid
setcpu - for underclocking when screen off
screenshot
automem killer - optimise android internal mem management
vm heap tool - allow bigger apps to run faster
titanium backup - backup and restore apps easily
For me, using the above apps are the reasons why I think everyone should root their phones. Just my 2c.
I vowed not to root my new RAZR MAXX. Haha.
I am aware of the reasons to...I've had countless phones including the Nexus series devices and an Incredible (amongst many others). I'm also very familiar with rooting and the process.
It just seems weird to me there isn't a key combo like on the iPhone or HTC Sense system. I shouldn't have to root just to screenshot. Lol.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using XDA
Why did you vow not to root your new RAZR MAXX? It's not like rooting is illegal or a sin. Manufacturers disallow root to protect dumb users.
I'm pretty sure taking a screenshot is not an android standard, so not all androids can do that unless their manufacturer program it in.
I do agree that we shouldn't have to root to take screenshots, but I also think that there's no reason not to root, with all the reasons I gave in my previous post.
Haha. Trust me my vow will likely not last all that long. But since I modded all my other phones...I thought I'd give stock a go-around. Especially if ICS is around the corner. Just less hassle. Also without an unlocked bootloader I don't really see the point.
I just can't believe I've never had the screenshot quandary on Android before. The two button iPhone method is sooooo easy. Not to mention I figure by 2.3.6 this capability should be built-in.
Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX via XDA

Root, custom roms. Questions from an Android noob.

I feels good to be on a phone platform that isn't stagnant. After owning an LG S-Class phone and a Bada phone, having Android feels like Christmas has come early. However I am left majorly confused as to my options on various things.
I have tried to read and understand the benefits of rooting my phone. I've only found one negative in that Google Play movies won't work. Other than that it seems like a great thing to do. However after reading and trying to understand everything, I was left more confused than ever before. So far I've found 4 different methods to root a phone. Which method does one go for? Then there's the super user access, busybox, yellow triangle, again it's confusing.
I would like to root my phone to achieve the following:
- Be able to shutoff various services and things to get better battery life.
- Get access to all of the cool rooted apps out there, like the ones from Chainfire etc.
- Play some of the Tegra games.
- And I'm sure other things I havn't yet discovered or am aware of.
I would like to also know what are the options for being able to install copied paid apps etc. On the iPhone it was easy once you jailbroke a phone, but on Android I'm again confused on this part. I know there is an option to be able to install apps from an untrusted source, but it seems there has to be more to this than that.
Then the thing that confuses me the most is the huge amount of custom roms. Then you have kernels thrown in as well. I've gone into information overload trying to get up to speed with everything and this part seems too large a scope to get my head around it so quickly. I don't have any problem with my stock ICS really, but then I don't know what I'm missing on the custom side of things.
I'm sure I sound like a complete noob. That's ok, I am when it comes to Android. For my previous phones I was flashing custom roms, and doing all kinds of things. Maybe it's not all as confusing as I think, but right now I'm having a hard time getting a good picture on things when it comes to my new Galaxy S2 phone.
I would greatly appreciate someone being able to help me with some of these questions rather than telling me to gtfo or use the search function. I've tried, but now after overloading on stuff, I've taken a step back. I've been trying to find a website, page or post that might answer my questions in a way that I can get my head around it all. In the end I choose an Android phone because of the customizations, and for the community that is doing great things. I'd like to join the party :good:
Superuser access, busybox, and yellow triangle are not root methods. Superuser is what you get when you root the phone, and it allows root apps to get superuser access to do certain root things, if you grant the app those permissions. Busybox is some sort of utility (I don't know much about it, actually. Shrugs) that you can only get on Android once its rooted. Required for titanium backup and some other root programs. I think it was originally on linux. The yellow triangle is a Samsung only thing, basically it counts how many times you have flashed custom firmware and kernels onto your phone. The app triangle away resets the counter so you can claim a warranty if the phone breaks without the triangle giving you away. You can choose your root method, some are one click and others are the traditional method.
Installing the .apk of a paid app? That's a no-no. To answer your question, you can install a non market app without root and there isn't really another side of that. (Maybe you're talking about license verification?)
Custom ROMs are firmware (you know that, since you said you've done it before. The advantages are usually a later version of Android that your manufacturer stopped on, a stock non skinned Android experience (your S2 has touchwiz), and tweaks/other features to make it faster/cooler. For example, ParanoidAndroid allows you to switch between tablet and phone modes easily, and the entire cyanogenmod series has a built in theme engine as well as many options in the CM settings.
Custom kernels (or just kernels) manage the CPU and GPU. Different kernels allow overclock/underclock better battery saver and performance settings, and simply CPU management.
Sent from my LG-C800 using xda premium
gagdude said:
Superuser access, busybox, and yellow triangle are not root methods. Superuser is what you get when you root the phone, and it allows root apps to get superuser access to do certain root things, if you grant the app those permissions. Busybox is some sort of utility (I don't know much about it, actually. Shrugs) that you can only get on Android once its rooted. Required for titanium backup and some other root programs. I think it was originally on linux. The yellow triangle is a Samsung only thing, basically it counts how many times you have flashed custom firmware and kernels onto your phone. The app triangle away resets the counter so you can claim a warranty if the phone breaks without the triangle giving you away. You can choose your root method, some are one click and others are the traditional method.
Installing the .apk of a paid app? That's a no-no. To answer your question, you can install a non market app without root and there isn't really another side of that. (Maybe you're talking about license verification?)
Custom ROMs are firmware (you know that, since you said you've done it before. The advantages are usually a later version of Android that your manufacturer stopped on, a stock non skinned Android experience (your S2 has touchwiz), and tweaks/other features to make it faster/cooler. For example, ParanoidAndroid allows you to switch between tablet and phone modes easily, and the entire cyanogenmod series has a built in theme engine as well as many options in the CM settings.
Custom kernels (or just kernels) manage the CPU and GPU. Different kernels allow overclock/underclock better battery saver and performance settings, and simply CPU management.
Sent from my LG-C800 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply gagdude.
The custom roms thing is indeed confusing lol. You have files for modems, kernels, and it goes on. How does one even know if they need a new modem file I wonder. I imagine people probably flash their phones on a daily basis. What to speak of choosing a new kernel.
At any rate, being that this is my first android phone, and my second Samsung one, I'm quite happy with the Touchwiz interface as it's familiar.
I understand more now what a kernel does, unless I'm mixing in some things I've seen that look like a completely different UI. I might look at that at some point, but for now my stock ICS 4.0.3 on the S2 seems quite ok. So really it's now just choosing a method of rooting it.
As for installing the .apk of a paid app, yes that was what I was referring to. It was possible on jailbroken iphones installing .ipas, but I don't know if it is on Android. When you say a no-no, are you referring to it can't be done, or that it can, but it's a topic that cannot be discussed here?
KrazyKong said:
Thanks for the reply gagdude.
The custom roms thing is indeed confusing lol. You have files for modems, kernels, and it goes on. How does one even know if they need a new modem file I wonder. I imagine people probably flash their phones on a daily basis. What to speak of choosing a new kernel.
At any rate, being that this is my first android phone, and my second Samsung one, I'm quite happy with the Touchwiz interface as it's familiar.
I understand more now what a kernel does, unless I'm mixing in some things I've seen that look like a completely different UI. I might look at that at some point, but for now my stock ICS 4.0.3 on the S2 seems quite ok. So really it's now just choosing a method of rooting it.
As for installing the .apk of a paid app, yes that was what I was referring to. It was possible on jailbroken iphones installing .ipas, but I don't know if it is on Android. When you say a no-no, are you referring to it can't be done, or that it can, but it's a topic that cannot be discussed here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No prob.
Some people do flash quite often, yes, but I don't believe they completely change everything. Usually they flash a different ROM because hey - ROMs are the fun part. Each one is unique and its fun to play around.
Touchwiz is a pretty nice interface IMO but its personal opinion, some people hate it. Either way, your choice on that. I do believe some skins are big resource and RAM hogs, especially Sense (despite it looking very nice) and the old Motoblur. That's when flashing a vanilla Android ROM really helps.
The S2 should be getting a JB upgrade in the next few months, so if you plan on staying stock and taking the OTA, make sure to only freeze bloatware (not uninstall) and do NOT install a custom recovery. Rooting these days are pretty easy, its just that some old timers dislike one click root methods because you don't know what you're getting into and you don't fully understand what you're doing to your phone. Little secret: I've only rooted with one click root methods
Yes just like a jailbroken iPhone you can install the .apk however it is available without root.
When I say no - no I mean we can't discuss it on xda. It's against the rules
Sent from my DROID2 using xda premium
gagdude said:
No prob.
Some people do flash quite often, yes, but I don't believe they completely change everything. Usually they flash a different ROM because hey - ROMs are the fun part. Each one is unique and its fun to play around.
Touchwiz is a pretty nice interface IMO but its personal opinion, some people hate it. Either way, your choice on that. I do believe some skins are big resource and RAM hogs, especially Sense (despite it looking very nice) and the old Motoblur. That's when flashing a vanilla Android ROM really helps.
The S2 should be getting a JB upgrade in the next few months, so if you plan on staying stock and taking the OTA, make sure to only freeze bloatware (not uninstall) and do NOT install a custom recovery. Rooting these days are pretty easy, its just that some old timers dislike one click root methods because you don't know what you're getting into and you don't fully understand what you're doing to your phone. Little secret: I've only rooted with one click root methods
Yes just like a jailbroken iPhone you can install the .apk however it is available without root.
When I say no - no I mean we can't discuss it on xda. It's against the rules
Sent from my DROID2 using xda premium
Click to expand...
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Yes I was aware the S2 would be, or should be getting JB in the next few months. I'm more than happy to wait for that. I have found one program that enables you to one click root the phone, but it's a bit misleading as you have to first flash a file using ODIN, thus it's not one click on that sense. What is the program you use for rooting may I ask?
Maybe I got lucky but my phone is unbranded and only contains 2 apps. Both can be uninstalled. As for freezing the bloatware, I'll have to read up more on what services and things I can freeze safely.
SuperOneClick is by far the most popular one click root solutions. It doesn't support all devices, however. If it doesn't work on your S2, that method you found (flash a file via ODIN first and I'm assuming the next step is a one click root?) seems pretty simple. As long as you don't mind doing a few extra steps, there are many methods for the SGS2 because of its popularity. Make sure the instructions to root are for your specific model, becaused there are many variants of it.
The reason why I said not to uninstall bloatware and only freeze is because when you update, you have to have all the apps the phone came with (if its uninstallable stock, then it should be fine), unroot, then update for it to work correctly. Having a custom recovery like Clockworkmod also causes problems when updating. You'll have to stick with the stock recovery.
Sent from my LG-C800 using xda premium

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