Dazed and Confused..

[Phoenix1224]

So, here I am, four days old on the Verizon network with my new Droid 2 Global. I love it! After switching from T-mobile (practically no service anywhere in Oregon, especially 3G), I definitely have no complaints about the quality of service I am getting in comparison, though I am pretty pissed about all of the extraneous crap that Verizon forces on you with their phones, and there is no way to delete it! WTF, it's my phone...

Anyway, what finally tipped me over the edge to consider rooting is the fact that I got a Nook for Christmas, and I can't delete the damn Kindle software from my phone. Which is how I stumbled upon this wonderful compendium of knowledge. I have been wary of rooting, flashing and everything else because of some of the risks, though the though has always ate away at my curiosity since I got my G1 on launch (or shortly thereafter, lol).

I have, in short, decided to root my phone, and just experiment with what I can do, though if someone could answer just a few questions I haven't been able to find a clear cut answer for, that would be great! I've narrowed them down to this:

1) What is a launcher (ie. launcherpro)?

2) What is meant by radios? Like the Wi-Fi and Cellular radios? Or something different?

3) What is the difference between themes and ROMs? From what I have gathered, a ROM is like the author's UI in place of the Android's system, and a theme is like a skin for that particular ROM, modifying look but not operation..

4) I think I figured bootstrapping out.. Basically creating a partition in the memory, bypassing the stock loader and tricking the system into loading an unsigned ROM, like fission for the D2G.. Though I'm not sure.

5) From what I've gathered, Blur is, on top of Verizon's crap applications, Motorola's vision of improvements to the Android OS, mucking it up and eating my memory, but once again, not sure.

6) Once rooted, you can keep the stock Android system, just with more privileges, correct? And with the way the Droid 2 Global ROM scene is, I might just do that for awhile.

Anyway, I am not at all experienced with programming and the like, but I have noticed that common sense and a general understanding of things goes a long way with things like this, and with your help maybe I'll be able to answer someone else's questions one day! I am pretty much waiting to figure these things out before I start pushing buttons that I probably shouldn't, plus any other tips that an astute idiot such as myself can absorb.. Well, thanks in advance!

 

[dlwhtrose]

So, here I am, four days old on the Verizon network with my new Droid 2 Global. I love it! After switching from T-mobile (practically no service anywhere in Oregon, especially 3G), I definitely have no complaints about the quality of service I am getting in comparison, though I am pretty pissed about all of the extraneous crap that Verizon forces on you with their phones, and there is no way to delete it! WTF, it's my phone...

Anyway, what finally tipped me over the edge to consider rooting is the fact that I got a Nook for Christmas, and I can't delete the damn Kindle software from my phone. Which is how I stumbled upon this wonderful compendium of knowledge. I have been wary of rooting, flashing and everything else because of some of the risks, though the though has always ate away at my curiosity since I got my G1 on launch (or shortly thereafter, lol).

I have, in short, decided to root my phone, and just experiment with what I can do, though if someone could answer just a few questions I haven't been able to find a clear cut answer for, that would be great! I've narrowed them down to this:

1) What is a launcher (ie. launcherpro)? Launcher is how you access your app drawer. There are a couple popular ones in the market.. LauncherPro and ADW. Choosing one over the other is really a personal choice also some of your themes will only use one or the other.

2) What is meant by radios? Like the Wi-Fi and Cellular radios? Or something different? I think you are talking about radio apps like Pandora, Slacker, etc. It is an app that allows you to listen to the radio. But I caution you, its not necessarily your local radio, it is different.

3) What is the difference between themes and ROMs? From what I have gathered, a ROM is like the author's UI in place of the Android's system, and a theme is like a skin for that particular ROM, modifying look but not operation.. Okay, ROMs run your phone and Themes change the appearance. Many like to use stock ROMS and not put a theme on there. I do both. I run a custom ROM and have a Theme. Again choosing between the many that are out there is a personal choice. Also each phone is different and thus your experience with each ROM may be different from others.

4) I think I figured bootstrapping out.. Basically creating a partition in the memory, bypassing the stock loader and tricking the system into loading an unsigned ROM, like fission for the D2G.. Though I'm not sure. I do not have a Droid 2 so I know nothing about bootstrapping

5) From what I've gathered, Blur is, on top of Verizon's crap applications, Motorola's vision of improvements to the Android OS, mucking it up and eating my memory, but once again, not sure. I believe you are correct and I believe you can remove it once you are rooted. Also just so you know all the "crap" that Verizon puts on your phone is usually called Bloatware.

6) Once rooted, you can keep the stock Android system, just with more privileges, correct? And with the way the Droid 2 Global ROM scene is, I might just do that for awhile. I am not sure what you mean by "stock Android System". Once you root, you will need to but on an alternate recovery system. I believe you can leave it at that but again with the Droid 2 I am not totally sure.

Anyway, I am not at all experienced with programming and the like, but I have noticed that common sense and a general understanding of things goes a long way with things like this, and with your help maybe I'll be able to answer someone else's questions one day! I am pretty much waiting to figure these things out before I start pushing buttons that I probably shouldn't, plus any other tips that an astute idiot such as myself can absorb.. Well, thanks in advance!

First of all Welcome to the forum. I tried to answer some of your questions above (see my colored answers). Also we have a subsection dedicated to the Droid 2 that you may find useful. To get there, click on the Forum tab at the top of the page and then scroll down until you see the Droid 2 section. Have fun there, I am sure you will find more answers than you realized you had questions.

 

[Phoenix1224]

Well, thank you for the welcome! And thank you for your answers to my questions on here. I ended up rooting last night, keeping the factory OS (which is what I was talking about with the 'stock android') and just tweaking some of the settings, freezing some of the bloatware and messing around with the overclocking. I've been browsing the Droid 2 Global section looking for more answers before I tweak any further.

About the 'radios' question, from the context of the conversations I've seen about them, I'm not so sure it is like Pandora and the like. They're naming off values and such..

And, what did you mean that just by rooting, I would need to find an 'alternate recovery method?'

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums App

 

[Gremlin]

And, what did you mean that just by rooting, I would need to find an 'alternate recovery method?'

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums App

Rooting is basically like jailbreaking an iphone..

With rooting, you get a put a developer's ROM on your phone.. plus also install a theme sometimes specific to that particular ROM.

Rooting also removes bloatware in some cases.. The process can be reversible to go back to factory defaults if warranty repair needs to be done on the phone..

Hope that answers your question...