Moved from Palm Pre+ to used D2 rooted..need help

[sailorfitz]

Hi all.

I'm new and would like nothing but to lurk every page here while at work but I'm hoping you can save me some headache and get right to the meat or give me some links to get up to speed. I'm not a coder, but i have stayed at a Holiday Inn a few times....Otherwise, I'm pretty savvy with computers and have both a Macbook Pro and a Vista at my disposal. I rooted my Palm and overclocked it for a bit, but it eat up the battery....mostly I just played with loading "pre-made" tweaks that were simple to load on a rooted (called Homebrew in Palm world) Palm. I enjoyed things like removing the Verizon banner, adding a tweak that allowed 16 apps on a page (card) vs just 12....battery % vs a symbol, etc, etc ...little tweaks here and there that made having a Homebrew Palm fun. Well, that was fun but the hardware suked arse. The OS was awesome but the hardware..fail. Also I'm a huge fan of location based apps and Vzw crippled the GPS in the Palm unless you used their $10/month Nav service...NOT. The main reason I got the phone was the free 5gigs of wifi teather/hotspot to use with my iPad.
The deal breaker was when at the Daytona 500 last weekend, I wanted to upload photos to facebook, use foursquare, etc and was unable to ...it just wouldn’t do what I wanted to....so yesterday I grabbed a used Vzw Droid 2 from Craigslist. It was listed as rooted. I didn’t need it to be, but the draw was the option list for wifi tethering.

Well, after verifying the ESN was good and transferring it to my account, the phone went through a "reboot" ...when it was over the kid said the Root was still on it and pointed to the icon for "Superuser" but said it wiped out the wifi tether app....said it was no biggy, "just google it, grab it, install it to external memory..also said to get "appinstaller" from marketplace and use that to install"....it was all very quick standing there in the Best Buy parking lot, but I wasn’t all that concerned.

However, when I got home and began to research all this, it appeared I needed to know my root version .... I CAN NOT figure this out ....I know I'm running Andriod 2.2 but when I press the app labled "Superuser Permission" it opens to a blank black screen with no options???

The "kid" said I would be looking for an "apk" file for the wifi tether....I found in the official wifi-thether page on Google, but it lists 5 or 6 versions of the apk based on which Root version you have. (ie ..for Root Users 2.0.2, or ...for Root Users 2.0.5, etc, etc)

I'm only a day into this phone, and wonder if I should RESET the phone and start fresh with a root that I know where it came from or what. There is nothing I care about on the phone or flash memory I must have .....should I blow up the phone and start over?

Or do I have a good base and just need some pushing in the right direction (links to detailed newb user guide) to get me up and running with wifi-tether and other "tweaks".

Finally, let me give a list of what is on there and maybe you can let me know what’s bloat and what isn’t.

Listed in no particular order:

3G Mobile Hotspot (square green icon)
Alarm & Timer
Amazon MP3 ( I will NEVER use this)
AppInstaller (I installed that first per prior owners suggestion)
Backup Assistant (any good? does it cost anything)
Blockbuster
Browser (obvious)
Calc
Calendar
Camcorder
Camera
CarDock
CityID
Contacts
Dialer
DLNA (cant get it to work well with my PS3 so far)
Dropbox ( i installed that)
Email
Emergency
Facebook
Files (?)
Foursquare (i installed)
Gallery (obvious)
Gmail (which is my mail server so do I need "Email"?)
Kindle (won’t use, have a iPad)
Latitude
Maps
Market
Media Server (what makes this diff then DLNA)
Messaging
Music
My AccountsNavigation
NetQFree ( i installed)
News
News and weather (why 2 "news apps"?)
NFS Shift
Places
Quickoffice
Skype Mobile
Social Networking ( do I need this if I have FB app?)
Superuser Permission
Talk (is this google "chat")
Text Messaging
Voice Command
Voice Search
Voicemail
VZ Navigator (I HATE this)
YouTube (obvious)


Regarding the 3g Mobile Hotspot App ....was this possibly installed during the "data download" when I was switching the ESN to my account? See, I had the Vzw hotspot feature on my Palm Pre+ with 5 gigs/month free, but it was a promotion attached for just that phone...I cant imagine they would transfer that promotion to my Andriod...I have a feeling if I use that and connect my iPad....I'm going to be billed

Thanks!
Fitz

 

[thebird36]

ok well i would get rid of the root and re-root so you know where you are starting from. Download z4root http://www.multiupload.com/QL0CLEHP7M After re-rooting... there is a wifi tether app on the market (wifi tether) and there is also a 3g mobile hotspot hack (go to droid hacks and look at the stickies for it) it's up to you on what you really want and the superuser just shows the apps that are using superuser permissions. When you start up an app that requires root it'll ask you if you want to give it superuser permission and say allow.

As for you list.... all the things you didn't install are bloat. If you get a ROM and put it on it'll erase your blur so you don't have those extra apps, it will keep a few, because they are needed. Backup assistant is from verizon and backs up your contacts i believe it is free if you have a my verizon account, if you use gmail then don't bother with the email app its for other emails like yahoo, etc.., couldn't tell ya anything about mediaserver i never used it, social networking to me is useless.

 

[random190user44]

Just to clarify, in case you feel that the "kid" scammed you, he did not. You don't need to know your root access version to use rooted apps. If you want free unlimited wifi tethering, go to the market and search for "wireless tether for root users". I use that app, obviously its a battery killer so try to use it near a power outlet.

Sent from my DROID2 using DroidForums App

 

[BayouFlyFisher]

I would recommend that you download, from the market, any app that requires root and see if it'll run. As recommended above try the Wireless Tether for Rooted Users app. If it installs and runs ok, your phone is rooted and you'll be ok.

Good luck.

 

[sailorfitz]

thebird36: Is that a "no pc" root? Does a new root overwrite another root installed? if I need to "unroot" first can you point me to a link for instructions...awesome, thanks

markml0528: Oh, I never meant to imply the kid scammed me ...he never touched any $ untill the phone was switched by *611 and was functioning like a normal phone ...if the (and it seems it has) the root was deleted during the ESN switch due to Vzw update at the time of the switch, then i do not put that on him. I didnt buy the phone stricly because it was rooted ....it was just the right price for me and the bonus of being "rooted" was a plus. I went into the transaction with 2 goals, and that was being sure the ESN was good and the phone was in decent shape for the price...

bayouflyfisher: Thanks for the idea...I did that just now and received the following "error" when I launched the app:
NO Access Control....Sorry but your kernal does not have all the necessary features for the Access Control feature of this application. Access Control will be disabled. Please see our FAQ http..blah blah

That dont sound good....

**edit: after posting I hit the OK button under the "error" then got the press here to start tether.....then got a "Superuser Request poop up asking to allow or deny the app .....so is this "good"?

 

[BayouFlyFisher]

Try downloading rom manager. It should work with any kernel.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[thebird36]

I found that rom manager doesn't work for d2 but that was me and yes allow it access and about the rooting you should be fine since you don't need your root number so you don't have to worry about that but I would look into buying droid 2 boostrapper just google it and you can find the apk for it and go into the d2 hacks section and find the rom install class it should be the first sticky on that part of the forum it'll tell ya everything you need to follow and instructions on how to set up after rooting I learned a lot from it wen I was a noobie about rooting

Sent from my DROID2 using DroidForums App

 

[sailorfitz]

I take it, not having Access Control on the tether app means not able to apply a WEP pass to the hotspot?

I guess not a huge deal.