To root, or not to root? - Moto G Power Questions & Answers

Coming from a rooted Oneplus 3t.
Should I unlock the bootloader in case I'd want to root it down the road?
The biggest reason stopping me from rooting is the hassle to flash OTA updates.
If I unlock the bootloader now, rooting in the future won't require a factory reset. Is that right?
Main reason to root for me would be Adaway/minminguard, etc. Are there other uses of rooting which outweigh the hassle of OTA updates?

I just recently purchased a Moto G Power, and I was a little hesitant at first as it seems there isn't a lot of activity for development on the forum yet. However during my investigation, there is a fair amount of people who have recently obtained the device as it's newer, and the information that was provided is extremely helpful. I decided to take the plunge because I was determined to get the hotspot functionality working that is blocked through my carrier (Sprint), and once I completed all of the steps, I realized how easy it was. Many have reported no issues unrooting, updating, and rerooting their devices, and Magisk makes it extremely easy.

i was one of the first to get the device, and it took some time to get used to android 10 rooting process and updating ...
if i see the "update" notification, i think ... ah here we go again, i have to plan that, but
it actually only takes about 20 minutes to do the entire unroot --> update --> reroot thing
so it's a "minor inconvenience"
so why not root straight away?
BTW , your statement is correct, you don't need to wipe for root, but it does get whiped at bootloader unlock,. so do that straight away and save the hassle of losing your config/ apps/data
edit:
did the latest update today ( ...124-2 ) with the July security patch
total time ( including 15 minutes waiting for the update to install) was 30 minutes

You can flash full ROM instead.
Grab full ROM from LMSA and get boot from there and regain root.
OTA is not a big deal

Related

To Root or Not to Root?

I just ordered my Sprint Hero online and it should be here by Monday. I have read all the Tutorials on how to root and how to Flash the custom ROMs. But I have two questions which I may have missed in all that reading.
1) Is there a possibility where further down the road an official update will not allow anyone to root their phone?
2) Can I root and do a nandroid backup. And not install any ROM for a while?
My goal is to play with the Stock Sprint Hero for atleast a month or so before I feel the need to try Custom ROMs.
- DroidD
Answers below!
1) If you update via an RUU, there is always a chance that HTC will replace the SPL with something that is uncrackable (or at least currently uncrackable). This occurred with later RUUs, and this is why the Goldcard method is often needed in order to root the phone.
When I had my G1 and received push updates, you needed to effectively "switch off" the auto-update routines to avoid getting a stock update that could prevent rooting further down the line. Since Sprint seem to push OTA updates out to CDMA Hero's so it is always possible that this could cause an issue for rooted ROMs, but I'd have though most custom ROMs would've switched off OTA updates anyway.
2) Yes
Regards,
Dave
Thanks Dave.
Dave,
I rooted my Sprint Hero, not necessarily for speed, more so I dont have to look at those horrible apps that Sprint doesnt want to let anyone remove.
I successfully rooted, nandroid backed up and removed the Sprint ware and installed THIS OPTIMIZER FILE (love the lockscreen) but have not decided whether I'm going to take the plunge into custom ROM world. I am actually impressed with how this phone runs (for now) and dont yet need to free up internal drive space.
My question is this: Essentially having the stock rom, is the fact my phone is rooted likely to cause a problem with future Sprint updates?
If so, can you unroot and leave the Sprint-crap out or do you have to go back to 100% absolute stock?
Thanks

stock upcoming upgrade

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on this bad boy.
Now I know the gingerbread + bootloader unlockable upgrade is just around the corner.
If I root now, will that nerf the ability to go OTA?
I just want to stick to stock/OTA until the upcoming upgrade as a baseline, then I'm home free lol
I'm not a rookie at flashing/custom ROM (cyanogen on N1, overcome on SG tab) but I am a bit cautious/lazy, would seem like a safe option to start with gingerbread and stock unlockable bootloader as starting point.
TBH I've only ever dealt with stock unlockable bootloaders.
If you just root, I think you should still be able to receive the update.
If, however, you root AND mod... then no. Even removing bloatware may shoot your chance (try freezing instead, so you can restore).
The reason is that hte Moto update will check certain system files (not sure which) before update - after reboot, just before installing the update . If it finds anything amiss with what it is checking, it will cancel the update.
So if yuo have waited that long for rooting, might as well wait a bit longer. In any case, if the past is any indicatino, the 2.3.3 (or 2.3.4) update may remove root and/or plug the security holes that allow root.
yep my thoughts exactly. I'll probably hold off entirely and live with the nerfing so I can get a nice clean OTA gingerbread base

[Q] Want to unlock and root, questions.

Intro: I'm on the official Jelly Bean update, and by updating lost the root I had on ICS. I was one of the unfortunate users that backed up with an older version of Voodoo OTA RootKeeper, before the program updated to account for the JB changes, so my root got wiped even though it was backed up. Well I'm tired of sitting around waiting for exploits, and I treat my tablet with care anyways, so I figure it's finally time to take the plunge and unlock so I can root the thing, right?
Plan: According to this thread, I should run the unlock tool and then flash TWRP, after that I'll be free to flash custom updates and/or replace the whole OS/ROM.
Question: Do I really need to change ROMs in order to root? I've read vague mentions of flashing a zip with the su executable and such, if that works for an unlocked TF201 with the stock JB ROM, that'd save me a lot of trouble of backing up my apps and all that jazz. Does anybody have any info on this?
EDIT: Okay, it seems I can't do it right now. I'm currently getting network access via bluetooth tethering (pdanet app), but the unlock tool seems to explicitly demand wifi, as it tells me there's no network connection available even when I can browse just fine in the browsers and such... so this will have to wait until I can access some wifi.

Re-enabling OTAs after Knox trip?

Hey everyone. I decided I would unlock my bootloader and trip Knox about two days before towelroot came out. Yay.
I've since gotten the OPO, so I wasn't that concerned. I wanted to give the phone to my mom who lives in another state, so I Odin'ed back to what I believe is the most current OEM firmware available (NK2) because I want my mom to be able to get updates OTA and not have to worry about troubleshooting her phone as much as if it were a custom ROM, or a phone with root.
Unfortunately, checking for a system update says the system is modified (ROM is all stock though) and device status is custom. I also discovered while testing the phone (it had been sitting in a drawer for months) that the microphone isn't working very well. I tried different sims, calling different people on different networks, I'm sure it's hardware problem. Is there any way to re-enable the OTAs? I'd like to get this hardware problem warrantied. The knox tripping didn't destroy the mic, so please no judgement here. I'm also not comfortable in removing the glass to replace the mic. If the mic could be replaced without that step, I would simply do that.
Thank you.
rockingondrums said:
Hey everyone. I decided I would unlock my bootloader and trip Knox about two days before towelroot came out. Yay.
I've since gotten the OPO, so I wasn't that concerned. I wanted to give the phone to my mom who lives in another state, so I Odin'ed back to what I believe is the most current OEM firmware available (NK2) because I want my mom to be able to get updates OTA and not have to worry about troubleshooting her phone as much as if it were a custom ROM, or a phone with root.
Unfortunately, checking for a system update says the system is modified (ROM is all stock though) and device status is custom. I also discovered while testing the phone (it had been sitting in a drawer for months) that the microphone isn't working very well. I tried different sims, calling different people on different networks, I'm sure it's hardware problem. Is there any way to re-enable the OTAs? I'd like to get this hardware problem warrantied. The knox tripping didn't destroy the mic, so please no judgement here. I'm also not comfortable in removing the glass to replace the mic. If the mic could be replaced without that step, I would simply do that.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm. Last time I Odined back to stock, using the tar file of the firmware version that came before NK2, my device was totally fine to receive OTA, despite Knox being tripped. Try removing root first, then Odin stock NK2, then factory reset.
Hm, so I now need to install SuperSU in order to use the un rooting function? I would've thought a full stock image file would've eliminated root...
EDIT - Simple Root checker says SuperSU is not installed BUT terminal app "does Rooted".
Installed SuperSU, but binary is not installed, so it doesn't run. WTH? What happened to the good old days of just flashing stock images and not worrying about it anymore?
SOLVED
I looked at the slightly outdated stock collection thread, flashed the NG4 stock image, then was able to take the OTA update to NK2. Went ahead and told T-Mobile the whole problem and they really only seemed to care if there was physical damage or water damage (which there is not).
Just leaving this here for future searches. How do I get this thread closed?

[Q] Could use a little help...I545 Have not taken Lollipop OTA

I've had my VZ S4 since sometime around Dec of 2013. Previously was on a DroidX, I've really honestly never had any problems rooting or installing custom rom's on my phones (A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU HERE that made that possible) so I'm not a noob...but I'm not an expert either. I usually wait and read a lot of threads, follow the instructions and I've always been good to go. My S4 started at MK2, (took the OTA right out of the box, now I now better ) and with the help of K1mu's post on rooting the S4 with Saferoot everything went off with out a hitch (thank you!!). After successfully rooting the phone, I installed Safestrap, backed up the stock rom slot, created a custom rom slot and installed Hyperdrive 11...everything is working flawlessly.
So fast forward a year to KitKat I returned to XDA...read and read and read and followed the Dev's instructions and was good to go again. I know it involved Safestrap-I545-3.75-KitKat-A03.apk, TowelRoot, Odin and ALL_VZW_I545VRUFNC5_I545VZWFNC5_1151670_REV06_user_low_ship_Multi_Cert_Tar.md5. Definitely was one of muniz_ri post. Any way I basically used Odin...flashed back to factory stock followed muniz_ri post and was good to go again with KitKat(Thank You!!)
So now to the present, about a week or so ago I had an OTA screen pop asking to update, it actually showed 2 updates available (don't know if there is a log in the S4 that keeps track of the updates). So I came back here of course and started reading and reading and reading...and I was ready to begin the process in this thread by muniz_ri: http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...-to-update-to-i545oc1-5-0-1-keeproot-t3096558 which again I am sure would have went flawlessly. Then I had an accident...I had been dismissing the update (it popped up a lot ) when the unthinkable happened...I pressed yes, the phone went thru the update process and I don't know what update it was but it wasn't Lolllipop...so I was like phewwww, clicked on my RootCheck (JRummy) and it said Rooted 4.4.2 KitKat (NK4), SuperSu 2.46 so I figured everything was ok. Not so, I don't know what the upgrade was but I no longer have root or access to safestrap, SuperSu or any apps that require root...and this is where I need guidance from the masters. I have a TWRP/Safestrap back up (stock-2014-12-08--19-33-37 KOT49H.I545VRUFNK1) from right after rooting for KitKat, nothing else...just root I'm pretty sure of that. So what would be the best way to fix? Is there a way to re-root the phone in it's present condition? Can I use the TWRP back up some how with out SafeStrap? How far back can I down grade with Odin using a VWZ factory image? Any idea what happened with the update prior to Lollipop? Sorry if this was long winded, just trying to figure out the best way moving forward. I don't really care about the data on the phone. Before going forward I'll do A Keis back up of the stuff I want to save. I appreciate any help/answers/suggestions...Jinx

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