Can Rooting allow a user to activate inactive functions?

[Mac Attack]

So I did the Android 2.2 OS upgrade today. I was looking forward to being able to use the WiFi hotspotting option which is supposed to be i nthe v2.2 build. After installing it I found that Verizon blocked the hotspot option. What I want to know is if I root my Droid, will I be able to activate the hotspotting function?

[dodgersrgood]

I think I read that the Droid 1 wasn't able to do the hotspot feature due to hardware limitations but u can still tether if I remember right

[aldeghij]

If you use wifi tether you CAN use the Droid 1 as a hotspot. Works great. And yes, you must be rooted.

[Se7enLC]

So I did the Android 2.2 OS upgrade today. I was looking forward to being able to use the WiFi hotspotting option which is supposed to be i nthe v2.2 build. After installing it I found that Verizon blocked the hotspot option. What I want to know is if I root my Droid, will I be able to activate the hotspotting function?

No, you cannot activate the hotspot function just by rooting - the functionality wasn't "removed", per se - it just wasn't ever fully added. It needs to have a wireless kernel driver that supports infrastructure (AP) mode, and the one that we have already doesn't. The "wifi tether" option that root users have been using since 2.0.1 uses ad-hoc wireless instead - and that should still work fine.