New to Droid

[ckhelmig]

I have never rooted a phone & would appreciate advice on how to root my Bionic. I know there is a lot of blot on my verizon bionic and would like to clean it up. Does that improve battery preformance, can I restore it if necessary, do I need to back up before. Thanks

 

[projektorboy]

We have the Bionic Hacking forum for advice on rooting & modding the Bionic. There's even a thread in there dedicated just to rooting: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-bionic-hacks/169993-how-root-your-motorola-droid-bionic.html

Since you're new to removing bloatware from your phone, ALWAYS back up things before you remove them. Titanium Backup is the preferred tool to allow you to make backups of whatever you're about to remove from your phone.

Before you root, you should also know that OTA (over-the-air) updates typically break root, and may prevent you from re-rooting.

 

[wicked]

Looks like projektorboy has you covered! :biggrin:

Welcome to the forum! Be sure to do alot of reading... there's a ton of info here to be had.

 

[lm2]

I'm also new, and after some reading, here's my impression of "first things first". Is it accurate?

1. Root
2. Titanium Backup
3. Forever root
4. Bionic Recovery bootstrap
5. Th3ory Purity ROM (for battery improved battery life, although I know some say they see no difference between ROMs on this)

Thoughts on this list? At what points should I make backups? I know to make a backup immediately after root, while all the bloatware is on there. But do I make another after Forever Root? Another after Bionic Recovery bootstrap? etc etc? #n00b

 

[projektorboy]

I'm also new, and after some reading, here's my impression of "first things first". Is it accurate?

1. Root
2. Titanium Backup
3. Forever root
4. Bionic Recovery bootstrap
5. Th3ory Purity ROM (for battery improved battery life, although I know some say they see no difference between ROMs on this)

Thoughts on this list? At what points should I make backups? I know to make a backup immediately after root, while all the bloatware is on there. But do I make another after Forever Root? Another after Bionic Recovery bootstrap? etc etc? #n00b

You don't need to double your rooting efforts. Just forever-root to start the whole process. Any ROM you're going to install is going to be pre-rooted anyway. Root just makes it possible for you to start all the customizing.

 

[lm2]

You don't need to double your rooting efforts. Just forever-root to start the whole process. Any ROM you're going to install is going to be pre-rooted anyway. Root just makes it possible for you to start all the customizing.

Thanks! I saw a vid on youtube that suggested Forever Root is done all on the phone by changing some text somewhere. Is this the best way for a n00b to do it, or is there a one-click Forever Root tool?

 

[donzz]

This is the best step for step I've seen.
[Complete Guide] Root, Custom Recovery, Backup, And De-Bloat Your DROID BIONIC

 

[lm2]

This is the best step for step I've seen.
[Complete Guide] Root, Custom Recovery, Backup, And De-Bloat Your DROID BIONIC

Thanks!

 

[lm2]

You don't need to double your rooting efforts. Just forever-root to start the whole process. Any ROM you're going to install is going to be pre-rooted anyway. Root just makes it possible for you to start all the customizing.

On another thread, wooddale recommends backing up BOTH stock root and forever root. is there something to that advice?

 

[projektorboy]

On another thread, wooddale recommends backing up BOTH stock root and forever root. is there something to that advice?

I can't imagine needing to go through that effort. If your end-goal is to install a new ROM, it doesn't matter what root method you choose. The only thing you'll want to accomplish before a new ROM is to use something like Titanium Backup to keep your Apps+Config Data. Then when you stick in the new ROM you'll be able to restore your apps as they were before you installed the new ROM.

If your end-goal does not involve a new ROM, and you just want to stay stock-rooted. Just do Forever Root. You'll be able to install the Bionic Bootstrapper and make full system backups with Clockwork Recovery. Should you ever want an OTA update, it's pretty much a guaranteed that stock-rooted versions of OTA updates will be available so you can do those in Clockwork Recovery too.

In the end, it's entirely up to you if you'll feel more "secure" doing full system backups in Recovery mode, or if Titanium Backups will suffice.

 

[lm2]

Thanks very much for that, projektorboy! My first goal is to always be able to return to things more or less as they came out of the box and to always be able to root the device. My second goal is to be able to install custom ROMs like Th3ory's Purity.

I'm still a bit confused about the difference between root and forever root. If forever root is forever, why would anyone go with a non-forever avenue? Is there something special about a stock-rooted (but not forever-rooted) version of a firmware?

Forgive my ignorance, please!

 

[lm2]

I just read this entire post: R3L3AS3DRoot and 43V3R root for the BIONIC v2.1 - xda-developers

That tool looks like where I'll start, since it's one-click and seems idiot-proof.

One further question I have: I see that once one has updated kernel/radio, one cannot go back. But I'm not exactly sure what that means. How do I know which kernel/radio my bionic has, and how does one do an update (so I can avoid doing it by accident)?

 

[projektorboy]

I just read this entire post: R3L3AS3DRoot and 43V3R root for the BIONIC v2.1 - xda-developers

That tool looks like where I'll start, since it's one-click and seems idiot-proof.

One further question I have: I see that once one has updated kernel/radio, one cannot go back. But I'm not exactly sure what that means. How do I know which kernel/radio my bionic has, and how does one do an update (so I can avoid doing it by accident)?

The Bionic took a lot of fun little turns with indie devs since it got released. Once root was established, it was found that there was a Motorola-specific vulnerability in a particular system file that allowed forever-root to be a thing. This vulnerability also extends to the Droid3, and I believe the Droid X2 as well. It was added as another rooting option just to give people some flexibility in what they may want. However, always be aware that Motorola may one day figure out how to patch that vulnerability and break Forever-Root too.

As for your concerns with kernel/radio, there's where things get a bit crazy. To my understanding, once your radio updates then you are chained to the kernel update that came with it. When the Bionic was first released, it was released under Motorola System version 5.7.886. There's since been a leaked update to 5.7.893 (that will become an official OTA update)

On system 5.7.886 it came with radio version "CDMA_N_03.1.C.50R - LTEDC_U_5.15.00".
On system 5.7.893 it came with radio version "CMDA_N_03.1.C.57R - LTEDC_U_5.15.02"

There seems to be a soak test coming out, however. It reportedly contains 5.7.894. You may also want to sniff around Rootzwiki & XDA for further clarifications and usermade discoveries.

 

[lm2]

thanks for the great post, projektorboy! Looking around more last night, I also found this nice post giving me the lay of the land about kernels, radios, and firmwares.:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...what-do-alternate-kernels-do.html#post1868692