I think I am getting on over me head...advice please.

[GeorgeTKE]

I recently upgraded from my Bionic to a Droid Razr. I finally decided that I wanted to try to root the device and install a custom ROM. After reading through an endless stream of forum posts, I realize that not only do I have no bloody clue what I should be doing, I am afraid that even attempting such an endeavor will cause my phone to explode and a Tsunami to occur somewhere in the South Atlantic. I know to use the Droid Root tool v1.8, but something about freezing apps, something Titanium Backup, what is safe-something...augh! Is there a step by step instruction somewhere the will tell me how to do this and what I need to accomplish it?
Also should I root my phone before setting up the service, installing, accounts, etc. or should I do it after?
What does "root"ing actually do to the phone?
Can anyone recommend a stable/cool ROM to install?

I am WAY new to this and are approaching this project with some trepidation.
Thanks for your advice time on this, everyone.

God, i hope I posted this in the right forum!

 

[Sydman]

Welcome to the forum and the world of the Razr.

First off yes you are in the right place and I would not feel bad about being frustrated with all the information out there.

I don't normally do this but I will answer one question with another, what are you looking to gain from a ROM? The only reason I ask is mainly because of my personal preference I stay away from them all together because I see no real upside to the headache.

To answer another question, most ROMS that are out right now require you have Safe-Strap installed. Now what is Safe-Strap? Basically it is a way to flash a ROM while still having a "safe" backup of your current ROM that does not get messed with. You then alternatively have your non-safe side that has your custom ROM installed and you can choose to boot to over the stock one.

One thing I can tell you if you are going to go Safe-Strap, you can not have Bootstrapper installed along side of it so under no circumstances try and do that.

Now for rooting, I root them as soon as I go through my initial setup before even installing any other APPS.

The reason I root is to use Titanium Backup to "freeze/disable" APPS that I don't want running and don't use but am unable to uninstall because of manufacturer restrictions. Now with ICS you can actually disable most APPS without even rooting, however I still choose to use TiBu.

Also for rooting I enjoy using root only APPS such as Root Explorer, ScreenShot UX, WIFI Tether, SQL Editor, and Cache Mate. Now to answer your question about what rooting does or is, it basically gives you SuperUser or ADMIN access to your phone so you can do whatever you want. Now what comes along with this is the understanding you know what you are doing because you can so some damage if you are not careful.

You should never delete any system files, just disable it will only cause problems down the road. What is nice for us is we have what is called fastboot files, which will return out phones stock system files to bone stock. Thus removing root, custom ROMS, safe or boot strap, and the like, while leaving your user installed APPS alone. So you do have a safety net of sorts, but it is good to not get into an en devour thinking you have a backup just in case that back up fails.

I hope I have not made thing less unclear than they were before, and helped in some small way. Please don't hesitate to ask further questions. Again welcome to the forum.

 

[jpcalhoun]

+1^^^on what Sydman said. Welcome to the forums, and yes you've come to a good place to get answers. Root alone does nothing to improve your phones performance, battery life or anything else. I, like Sydman do not generally flash custom ROMs for a couple of reasons 1) the stock ROM is good and 2) aside from custom ROMs eliminating most bloatware, they usually (particularly new ones) always seem to have something that doesn't work right (camera, data, battery indicator or something). From my experience, most users get into trouble (brick their phones) in the process of flashing ROMs or trying to flash the stock ROM. Very few users have ever bricked their phone by just rooting it. There are some good apps that require root, but they are not essential to most users...you have to be the judge. The RazrUtility you refer to is an excellent tool for anyone wanting to root or flash roms.

 

[TisMyDroid]

Welcome to DroidForums george! And exactly what he said and he said (Sydman and jpcalhoun)! By all means ask any questions you have. Like Sydman said... you've come to the right place.

Sent from my DROID RAZR Maxx using Droid Forums

 

[GeorgeTKE]

Honestly, the idea behind rooting my phone was to be able to disable many of the apps that I know I NEVER use, but if I can do it through ICS I might just keep that. As for the ROM, I was hoping to find something that might add extra screens, drawers, and different icons, but it really doesn't sound like that is a good idea. Having to keep in mind everything I need to avoid f*****g my phone doesn't sound like it is worth it, especially with the flexibility of ICS. Does anyone know of an "overlay" that I might able to add to my phone that could have the features that I want?

Thanks y'all for the warm welcome. I look forward to stalking the forums and hoping to expand my knowledge base. I never seen so many positive and supportive comments in a forum in a long time. =)

 

[TisMyDroid]

Actually George for what you want to do (one of the things you want to do anyway) that is probably all you need is an "overlay" aka a home launcher. There are some great ones out there. The most common ICS specific ones would be Apex, Nova, Holo and Atom. Go Launcher is also very common and works well with ICS. Look then over in play store and test one out. Enjoy, look around, join in, ask questions! Great to have you aboard!

Sent from my DROID RAZR Maxx using Droid Forums

 

[Sydman]

Actually George for what you want to do (one of the things you want to do anyway) that is probably all you need is an "overlay" aka a home launcher. There are some great ones out there. The most common ICS specific ones would be Apex, Nova, Holo and Atom. Go Launcher is also very common and works well with ICS. Look then over in play store and test one out. Enjoy, look around, join in, ask questions! Great to have you aboard!

Sent from my DROID RAZR Maxx using Droid Forums

Ditto.

 

[GeorgeTKE]

Awesome thanks a lot y'all. You have all been really helpful!!!

 

[GeorgeTKE]

So I am back and I have no idea where to put this question...so I try it here.

[I have four email accounts, 1 hotmail, 2 yahoo and a gmail. the gmail is pretty much left alone to it's own devices. I use hotmail for work and the yahoo for personal. Right now the push settings are on automatic, but grayed out. I cannot change the setting to save my life. I have no idea where the setting is to change it or how. The second question is that for both the hotmail and the yahoo I normally I get email messages with the sender, a subject and a preview of the text. Other times I get an email with just the sender and the subject, but when I click on the email only the headers are displayed and there is a white line through the body of the email where the message is displayed. I am wondering what is causing this and how to fix it. Thanks for the assistance.

 

[jpcalhoun]

So I am back and I have no idea where to put this question...so I try it here.

[I have four email accounts, 1 hotmail, 2 yahoo and a gmail. the gmail is pretty much left alone to it's own devices. I use hotmail for work and the yahoo for personal. Right now the push settings are on automatic, but grayed out. I cannot change the setting to save my life. I have no idea where the setting is to change it or how. The second question is that for both the hotmail and the yahoo I normally I get email messages with the sender, a subject and a preview of the text. Other times I get an email with just the sender and the subject, but when I click on the email only the headers are displayed and there is a white line through the body of the email where the message is displayed. I am wondering what is causing this and how to fix it. Thanks for the assistance.

Yahoo email can sometimes be a problem with Android phones...not sure of the particulars because I don't use yahoo, but there are numerous yahoo users who have had problems with their email. Hotmail on the other hand seems to work well with Android, but I don't use it either.

Here is a suggestion/recommendation that you may want to try. I use it for my 4 email accounts and it saves me time, battery usage and really helps me keep all emails organized in one place. I have all my emails forwarded to my gmail account. You can do this by going into your hotmail/yahoo account settings and activate the setting that allows them to forward a copy of the email to gmail. Gmail will then "push" all email to your phone so your phone doesn't have to "go get the mail" from yahoo or hotmail. There are settings in gmail that will enable you to maintain your specific email signature when you send or respond to an email account other than gmail. So if you send an email from yahoo, the recipient will see "your user name"@yahoo.com even though it came through gmail. It's simplified my life and it works like a charm. The only drawback is that you have to periodically go clean out your hotmail/yahoo accounts because if you delete an email on gmail it will not delete it on the other email servers.

 

[GeorgeTKE]

Oh that is such a big help! Here is hoping that this works! Thanks for the suggestion!