[dropcap]L[/dropcap]ightening rips across dark clouds. The flickering glow fades as a 4g logo slips into view. The ominous advertisement spells out just how archaic your phone is and your heart bleeds while you wish you were somewhere else. Where once your pocket was filled with LTE goodness, and the display on your mobile device had an HD plasma warmth that spanned a coffee table with angry fowl the size of apples…
Unfortunately, this is the real world and most of us can’t afford to drop hundreds every month to stay at the top of the food chain. At the office, everyone thought you had the coolest new toy. Yet within a couple months, the device that captured the hearts and imaginations of so many is now the most lame waste of silicon in town. Break out the wah burgers and french cries.
Rooting Your Android Device…
First, this isn’t for everyone. Maybe you are just curious. Perhaps you want just an explanation of what it even is. It could be that you just don’t know what I’m even talking about. You might be looking for a fun place to bash someone who obviously has no idea what they are talking about. Whatever brought you here, there are some things you need to know.
- This is not a guide to root your phone. This is a guide on how to find a guide to root your phone.
- Do this at your own risk. Seriously, you could ‘brick’ it.
Seriously, you could brick it. If you are afraid or nervous, turn back now. Rooting a phone is a fun and challenging project that can take some time to complete, but requires much more time just researching and scouting out a plan of attack. This guide will attempt to aid you in working out how to complete this task. To review, if you have concerns about life without a phone, I suggest you go home.
Is This Legal?
Why would you want to root your phone? The simple answer is because you can. About a year and a half ago, the National Register of Copyrights broke from their usual ‘Sorry about your luck’ habits and responded in favor of your rights. While the majority of this response was directed at Apple’s complaint that jailbreaking an iPhone should remain illegal, the implications apply to all devices.
“On many computer operating systems, the superuser is a special user account used for system administration. Depending on the operating system, the actual name of this account might be: root, administrator or supervisor.” -Wikipedia
Gaining root access to your device allows you to update Android beyond the current version provided by the manufacturer, run a customized version of your phone’s default software, or run some other alternative. Put simply, root allows you to administer your device directly. While Google continues to update Android, manufacturers have customized it to such an extent that upgrading would require months of work by a dedicated team of developers. Those same manufacturers are too busy pushing out the next phone, and supporting several devices at once. The bigger problem is that while they leave your phone out of the update loop, malicious hackers and deviants take up shop. So those same developers are now tasked with fighting a never-ending battle of security updates and fixes.
The infamous HTC Sense Analog Clock
Though we can’t blame it all on the manufacturer. There is another party involved; the carrier. Each network provider has different policies in regards to software updates and many time, these are purely political. Some go so far as to have manufacturer specific Android versions modified to an even further extent to produce a carrier-branded version. One example, HTC, maker of a few notorious Android and Windows mobile devices, has developed a highly modified launcher and software suite known as HTC Sense that sits on top of the basic Android implementation. Samsung has a similar experience known as TouchWiz. T-mobile has gone a step further and sells a carrier-branded version of HTC Sense on their line of MyTouch devices. Known as Expresso, it debuted on the Mytouch 3g slide. It consisted mostly of rebranded features and some theme elements modified to fit within the company’s Mytouch branding.
Before We Go Any Further…
The depth of customization in Android has no bounds when a user has root, so you are not limited to whatever random themes your phone came with. We are not talking desktop wallpapers and ringtones here, you can get pretty far with a few downloads from the Android Market.
- ADW EX – My personal favorite. The depth this offers as a launcher is staggering at just a couple of bucks. Many themes are available for each launcher, but ADW, in my opinion has the largest selection of modifiable elements on offer to completely change the functionality and design of your phone or tablet’s GUI. The free version will allow you to play with a bunch of things and give you a taste of what’s possible. But the speed increase, reliabilty and just absolute power of the paid version will likely satisfy your urge to go anywhere else.
- Launcher Pro – One of the most popular, LP has a different feel but allows pretty much the same experience that ADW does. This launcher was included on several phones in the past such as the LG Ally from Verizon, among others.
- Go Launcher and Zeam – known as more simple or minimalist launchers, these two pack a little more speed and are backed by a wonderful collection of themes from Android Market.
- These are by no means the only launchers. There are 3d launchers, honeycomb launchers, Ice Cream Sandwich launchers and more. Just go to Android Market and search “launcher”.
"BLACK BEAR BLANC - IF I WERE YOU, I WOULD COPY ME"
Curious about just how far you can go? Black Bear Blanc is a nice example.
Seriously, check this out.
This Is Going To Hurt A Little…
So, you’re ready to root your phone. Where should you start? What should you consider? What will you need? Here we go…
First off, the device you will attempt to root is going to make a huge impact on where you go from here. I have rooted several devices, but by no means am I an expert but I still feel that I have something to offer here. I searched and read for weeks before I took the plunge and hacked my month-old HTC Hero. One Saturday morning I ran across an article about overclocking Android devices to play more resource intensive games. Since I’m not a big gamer, my real need was to increase my phone’s performance. The hardware in the HTC Hero is not much different from the T-Mobile G1, and for all intents and purposes you can consider this a ‘first’ generation Android device. HTC Sense on top of Android 2.1 (Eclair) struggled with the most basic of tasks, such as smoothly scrolling between homescreens. The weather animations, and over frivolties designed to brand the HTC experience absolutely ruined my experience with the phone, rendering even routine test messaging into an oblivion of uselessness. I have to admit, the Hero was old when I got my hands on it. Gingerbread had just been released and Sprint was finally rolling out Android 2.2 (Froyo) to select devices in its arsenal. That was the end of the line. As I read the posts in various forums I felt lost trying to find some sort of direction until I stumbled across XDA-Developers. XDA is one of the more popular, if not controversial sites to acquire the necessary tools to achieve root.
What I found at XDA was a simple ‘One-Click Root’ application that was extremely easy to use. I downloaded the program, installed it and clicked the executable inside my apps drawer. Per the instructions on the forum page, I waited about a minute, held the power button down and the phone rebooted. When it came back up, a new app called “Superuser” had been added to my app drawer. A quick launch of the terminal and my access was confirmed.
A simple command, "su" stands for superuser.
The terminal application can be found in the Market if your phone did not come preloaded with it. By typing su and hitting enter, the $ will become a # indicating you have root access. This is where the superuser app comes in. Upon accessing an app that requires root access, a message will appear requesting permission to give this app root access. There is a timer counting down that will auto-deny the app if you do nothing. This is the only remaining security measure that will keep your phone safe.
Unfortunately, most phones are not this easy to root. Manufacturers have varying views and policies when it comes to hacking, booting, rooting, etc., so the level of difficulty in achieving root will vary. Obviously there is no way for me to detail the various processes for each device in this article, as long-winded as it may be though here are the general concepts involved:
- Use of an exploit of some sort that allows modification of the system or temporary root privileges.
- Modification or breaking of the system that then allows full root access.
- Sometimes downgrading to older software is required, which can be very difficult.
- Probably the most challenging component is the use of ADB, which I will cover later but will avoid an in-depth guide as there are millions online. ADB is a command line interface using bash-like commands to push files into the phone or change permissions, etc. If your device requires the use of ADB, READ! A LOT! Most importantly, follow directions EXPLICITLY!
