What Is Rooting, Exactly Rooting, for those of you that dont know, means giving yourself root permissions on your phone. Its similar running programs as administrators in Windows, or running a command with sudo in Linux. With a rooted phone, you can run apps that require access to certain system settings, as well as flash custom ROMs to your phone, which add all sorts of extra features. If youre on the fence about rooting, check out our top 1. Android phone for some motivation. Android is one of the most open, versatile, and customizable mobile operating systems out there. Read more Read. There are a ton of different Android phones out there, and while some rooting methods might work for multiple phones, there is no one size fits all guide for rooting every phone out there. But, there are a lot of things you should know about rooting before you start, and this guide should help you out. Glossary of Rooting Terms. As you learn more about the rooting process, youll probably run into a bunch of terms that can be confusing. Here are some of the most important ones and what they mean. If there are any other terms you think we should add, let us know and well put them in Root Rooting means you have root access to your devicethat is, it can run the sudo command, and has enhanced privileges allowing it to run apps like Wireless Tether or Set. CPU. You can root either by installing the Superuser application or by flashing a custom ROM that includes root access. ROM A ROM is a modified version of Android. It may contain extra features, a different look, speed enhancements, or even a version of Android that hasnt been released for your phone yet. We wont discuss ROMs in depth here, but if you want to use one once youre rooted, you can read more about doing that here. Stock Stock refers to a few different things, depending on the context. When we refer to Stock Android, we mean the Google built version youd find on Nexus devices, with no extra UI chances like HTC Sense or Samsung Touch. Wiz. Many ROMs are based on stock Android with some additions, like Cyanogen. Mod, while others are based on the version that came with your phone. In other cases, Stock can also mean the version of Android that came with your phonee. ROM and return your phone to factory settings, you might say youre going back to stock. Kernel A kernel is the component of your operating system that manages communications between your software and hardware. There are a lot of custom kernels out there for most phones, many of which can speed up your phone and increase your battery life, among other things. Be careful with kernels, though, as a bad one can cause serious problems with your phone and possibly even brick it. Radio Radios are part of your phones firmware. Your radio controls your cellular data, GPS, Wi Fi, and other things like that. You can sometimes find custom radios for your phone that you can flash yourself, but beware as sometimes these can cause problems. Flash Flashing essentially means installing something on your device, whether it be a ROM, a kernel, or a recovery see below that comes in the form of a ZIP file. Sometimes the rooting process requires flashing a ZIP file, sometimes it doesnt. Brick To brick your phone is to break it during flashing or other acts. There is always a small risk with flashing, and if your phone becomes unable to functionthat is, it basically becomes a brickyouve bricked your phone. The risk is very small, however, and more often than not people say brick when they really mean it turns on but doesnt boot properly, which is a very fixable problem. See the FAQ below for more information. Bootloader Your bootloader is the lowest level of software on your phone, running all the code thats necessary to start your operating system. Most bootloaders come locked, meaning you cant flash custom recoveries or ROMs. Unlocking your bootloader doesnt root your phone directly, but it does allow you to root andor flash custom ROMs if you so desire. Recovery Your recovery is the software on your phone that lets you make backups, flash ROMs, and perform other system level tasks. The default recovery on your phone cant do much, but you can flash a custom recoverylike Clockwork. Mod or TWRPafter youve unlocked your bootloader that will give you much more control over your device. This is often an integral part of the rooting process. Nandroid From most third party recovery modules, you can make backups of your phone called nandroid backups. Its essentially a system image of your phone Everything exactly how it is right now. That way, if you flash something that breaks your phone, you can just flash back to your most recent nandroid backup to return everything to normal. This is different from using an app like Titanium Backup that just backs up apps andor settingsnandroid backups backup the entire system as one image. Titanium backups are best when switching between ROMs or phones. ADB ADB stands for Android Debug Bridge, and its a command line tool for your computer that can communicate with an Android device youve connected to it. Its part of the Android Software Developers Kit SDK. Many of the root tools youll find use ADB, whether youre typing the commands yourself or not. Unless the instructions call for installing the SDK and running ADB commands, you wont need to mess with ityoull just need to know that its what most of the tools use to root your phone. S OFF HTC phones use a feature called Signature Verification in HBOOT, their bootloader. By default, your phone has S ON, which means it blocks you from flashing radio imagesthe code that manages your data, Wi Fi, and GPS connections. Switching your phone to S OFF lets you flash new radios. Rooting doesnt require S OFF, but many rooting tools will give you S OFF in addition to root access, which is nice. RUU, SBF, and OPS ROM Upgrade Utilities for HTC phones, System Boot Files for Motorola phones, and OPS and PIT files for Samsung phones are files direct from the manufacturer that change the software on your phone. RUU and SBF files are how the manufacturers deliver your over the air upgrades, and modders often post leaked RUU and SBF files for flashing when the updates havent been released yet. Theyre also handy when downgrading your phone, if a rooting method isnt available for the newest software version yet. You can flash RUUs right from your HTC phone, but Motorola users will need a Windows program called RSD Lite to flash SBF files, and Samsung users will need a tool called Odin to flash OPS and PIT files note there is a specific version of Odin for each device. You may have heard about how flashing a new ROM can improve your Android experience, but flashing a Read more Read.
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