Rooting Android Devices

What is rooting? Rooting is the term for gaining access to the root of the hierarchical structure of a device Rooting is sometimes confused with “modding” Modding a device consists of first gaining root access and then combining new ROMS and applications to make the device perform closer to how you want it to versus how the manufacturer wants it ROM of course stands for Read Only Memory and pertains to the firmware of the device, similar to the version of Windows, OSX, or Linux you may have

Can you root your Android device? A change to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 2010 makes rooting completely legal – It’s your device to use however you desire Rooting and Jailbreaking are essentially the same thing ◦Rooting refers to Android devices ◦Jailbreaking refers to Apple devices

Consider yourself warned Rooting voids your warranty ◦Resetting your phone however, leaves no trace of rooting Bricking (Very Bad! – does what it sounds like) ◦Bricking is the term used if something goes awry in the process of installing a new ROM and the device is unable to load firmware or restart installation ◦With most devices there are ways to unbrick them and reset them to the factory ROM and settings

Why should you root your Android device? Why not? Wonderful way to learn new things OEM garbage apps ◦You are able to install a new ROM ◦Similar to installing a clean version of Windows without any extra programs from Hp, Dell, etc. Upgrade to newer version of Android ◦Most manufacturers don’t update the software on these devices, the few that do take their time when doing so ◦Rooting is the only way to update these devices

Why to root cont. CPU Overclocking ◦Overclocking uses more battery power and can be dangerous ◦There are several third party apps that can help you “safely” overclock an Android device that has been rooted More apps ◦Many manufacturers don’t allow certain apps  Such as HTC with the Desire phone can’t use flashlight apps unless it is rooted

Why to root cont. Use of Root Task Manager ◦Task manager that is able to kill all apps while others can only kill off apps that the manufacturer deem unnecessary Rooting allows you to make Android as different as you want it to be

How to root your device Every device requires different steps ◦Most of them will be covered by the following steps The place to start is almost always ◦ ◦You can select your device by manufacturer and find threads on how to customize just about any feature of your phone This is an incredibly large and helpful community ◦If you’re looking to do it for your device, chances are, someone has already done it and posted about it

How to root your device Step one ◦You must gain “SuperUser” control of the device ◦To accomplish this, use a program called Super One Click  Available here  Or through XDA developers.com/showthread.php?t=803682http://forum.xda- developers.com/showthread.php?t= ◦Super One Click works for most devices ◦Download and unzip the file Step two ◦Set your device to USB Debugging mode ◦Install the drivers for your device if you haven’t already

How to root your device Step three ◦Open SuperOneClick.exe from the folder you unzipped ◦Plug in your device ◦Click on the “Root” button

How to root your device

Step four ◦There is no step four, you’re done ◦It really is that simple  I wonder how they came up with the name for Super One Click… You now have SuperUser control of your freshly rooted device

How to root your device First things that you might want to do ◦Get “ES file explorer” it’s similar to Finder or Windows Explorer but let’s you read and write to all directories ◦Get “CPU Master” This gem allows you set conditions to automatically scale the speed of your CPU both to increase performance and battery life

Beyond Rooting What else can be done ◦Installing custom ROMS  Every device has different hardware that need different software to function correctly  This leads to different ROMS for each device and usually many of them  XDA Developers is a good place to find ROMS and get specific instructions on how to install them for your device ◦ Here in lies the danger… And the fun…