Benefit in rooting Galaxy s2

NewApproach

Hi there,

I recently got a Galaxy S2; love it.

I've heard about 'rooting' the phone, and am wondering what the benefits are. Previously I had an iphone and had it jailbroken. Similar thing I presume?

Thanks

AckwelFoley

NewApproach wrote: »

Hi there,

I recently got a Galaxy S2; love it.

I've heard about 'rooting' the phone, and am wondering what the benefits are. Previously I had an iphone and had it jailbroken. Similar thing I presume?

Thanks

hi, im thinking about getting this phone today, and ive never had anysort of android type phone, but want it for the internet access...

what is rooting and jailbroken?

cantthinkof1

Rooting is the term used to describe getting access to the Administrator functions of your phones Operating System. Jailbreaking is the term used for iPhones.
Generally speaking once you root a phone you void your warranty instantly.

In android phones once rooted, a yellow warning triangle appears on the screen during each boot and a count is kept of each time the phone has been rooted and this too is displayed each time the phone is booted into recovery mode.


When you "root" a phone you are retting access to the root directory of the phone. Its a little like having administrator access in a Windows pc or super user access in linux computers

If you Root your phone you have greater control over your phones hardware and software. For the majority of users it offers no real advantages in normal everyday use.

Certain apps need the phone to be rooted as they access certain services to run that are locked in an un-rooted phone. For instance if you want to unlock your phone you will need to root it before installing and running an app that will unlock your phone so you can use it on other networks.

I hope this helps.. I too am new to andriod and have rooted my phone. I did it initialy so I could unlock it for use on another network. Since then I have installed many different custom roms.

For more advice see www.androidadvices.com or www.androidfirmwares.com

Its a bit hairy the first few times you do it as fi you get it wrong you could "brick" you phone i.e. render it useless.

PogMoThoin

You can unroot an Android phone very easily, usually with a single click, depends on what phone. Rooting will allow you access to locked system directories, allowing you to run system backup apps, adblockers and many other apps

00sully

NewApproach wrote: »

Hi there,

I recently got a Galaxy S2; love it.

I've heard about 'rooting' the phone, and am wondering what the benefits are. Previously I had an iphone and had it jailbroken. Similar thing I presume?

Thanks

Tis easy on the s2 takes about 20 seconds. i did it primarily to install adfree which blocks in app adds (eg in angry birds ads interfere with gameplay)

Easy enough detailed thread on how to do it on xda development forum. the guide includes loads of irrelevant info so if you want a concise guide i can put one up for you

BopNiblets

Main bonus for me is AdFree, blocks a lot of ad servers.
I also recently used an app to get the video version of Google Talk working on mine that needed root.

NewApproach

Thanks.

Does it void the warranty on the phone, and is there a way to reverse it if necessary?

Riesen_Meal

NewApproach wrote: »

Thanks.

Does it void the warranty on the phone, and is there a way to reverse it if necessary?

It does void the warranty, depends on the handset if there's a way to reverse it, older androids yes, not too sure on the galaxy though!

cantthinkof1

NewApproach wrote: »

Thanks.

Does it void the warranty on the phone, and is there a way to reverse it if necessary?

Once you root the phone its best to assume the warranty is voided. Not because you have damaged the phone but its a get out of jail card for the manufacturers/networks etc.

When rooted a yellow triangle is displayed on the screen during bootup and when the phone is booted into recovery mode (for updating firmware for instance) a log is shown of how many times the phone has been rooted. Mine is currently at 5 as I have udated my firmware from the original that shipped with it from 3 to the latest HHKH3 firware. I have also installed over that a custom rom. But perhaps thats another conversation.

As regards reversing a root, this happens each time you upgrade the firmware and there is a USB jig that can be bought on ebay etc for a few € that resets the custom rom count (how many times the device has been rooted)
See here:
http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/508357/0-483953456/Micro-USB-dongle-Jig-for-Samsung-phones-download-recovery-mode.html

But if you have your phone rooted and custom rom's installed and it dies - you may not be able to restore it before it goes back to the manufacturer on a warranty claim..

Hope this helps

Zagato

You can get rid of the the yellow warning triangle and the reset the count without requiring a jig

cantthinkof1

Zagato wrote: »

You can get rid of the the yellow warning triangle and the reset the count without requiring a jig

Care to share how...we can all learn from each other

Zagato

cantthinkof1 wrote: »

Care to share how...we can all learn from each other

This is my preferred method for root. Read post 1 for instructions to root, and post 2 for instructions to subsequently remove triangle (you need to have clockworkmod recovery in order to remove warning triangle, so you will need to follow post 1 instructions and then reflash Ninphetamine kernel from your internal sd if you prefer it (I'm guessing you do )
When you flash ninphetamine you will lose CWM app (at least I did) but you can download ROM Manager from the market for free ayway.

Hope this is of use.

cantthinkof1

Zagato wrote: »

This is my preferred method for root. Read post 1 for instructions to root, and post 2 for instructions to subsequently remove triangle (you need to have clockworkmod recovery in order to remove warning triangle, so you will need to follow post 1 instructions and then reflash Ninphetamine kernel from your internal sd if you prefer it (I'm guessing you do )
When you flash ninphetamine you will lose CWM app (at least I did) but you can download ROM Manager from the market for free ayway.

Hope this is of use.

Tried that as per your link but I still have triangle. That said I dont have the stock kernel to reflash. Still feeling my way around all the new Android terminology of pit, zImage, rom, Kernel etc etc. Afraid of bricking my SGS2 if i get too adventurous.

Just discovered all my apps have vanished and home screen are blank. Backed up roms gone aswell

Zagato

I don't know why you lost your apps, you shouldn't have ??

Do you have the CWM app now? What gets rid of the triangle is flashing the stock kernel and them flashing the image of the rooted kernel over it.

Here is a link to a page with a link to the stock to the KH3 kernel about two thirds of the way down

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=16781168&postcount=3