What is Rooting? Should you do it? Let’s Find out!

Different people have different views about rooting. Ranging from “It’s awesome” to “Your device encountered a problem, I told you not to root it”.So today I’m going to clear certain misconceptions and give you some clarity about this topic.

Do you have a geeky friend who throws such words at you? Well my friends have one 😀

Rooting is exploiting a security bug and using it to gain access to the system by injecting the su binary in the system and granting it executable permissions.

Ahh, Alright. In simple words,

Rooting is a term referred to the process by which a user gains administrator privileges of the system.

The word ‘root’ in computers comes from Linux wherein a user has read/write access to all files and folders in the environment.

•  Awesome backup service.

Titanium backup is a very useful app which backs up your application data including save games. So after installing an upgraded Operating System you don’t need to play your games from Level 1 or set-up each and every application again. It also saves your messages.  Anyone who has used Titanium backup before knows its usefulness.

• Full control

With root permissions you can permanently delete all the bloatware(apps that you don’t normally use or apps that take up huge amounts of battery)  pre-installed in your device. Also you can control behavior of the applications.

Note: Deleting some apps (eg: framework-res.apk, systemui.apk,etc) will render your device unusable so do some research before tinkering around with those.

• Special apps.

Some apps use the root permissions to improve the in app experience Certain security apps(anti-theft, etc) make use of the root privileges to get installed in the system so that incase the thieves format your phone you still have the app and can use it to use the post-theft measures of the app.

Also, Overclocking apps can be used to change the clock speed of the processor. The kernel of the device must support overclocking though.

•  Custom ROMs:

Rooting lets you flash an unsecure image to the system which basically means installing a developer made System. Apps like ROM manager help you with installing upgraded unofficial Android iterations to your device. ROMs like Cyanogemod, Paranoid Android , AOKP, etc are famous around all the parts of the world.

• Theming.

Rooting lets you modify the system files. This helps in simplifying the process of changing the User Interface.

For eg:

The black background you see in the settings and phone dialer can be easily changed by modifying the png(image) file in system/framework/framework-res.apk/res/drawable-nodpi  named  background_holo_dark.png.

Xtheme engine is a nice thing to checkout after rooting.

• Easy Process.

Rooting an android phone nowadays is a stress-free task. The developers have made it as easy as it can be.

But still, you must read all the instructions carefully and make sure you don’t miss a single step. (There aren’t many: p)

Time for the disadvantages

• Warranty Void:

Yes. It voids your warranty. Here’s a good thing. The process of unrooting the device is easy too. It involves flashing or loading the stock firmware/image of your device.

• Bricking your phone:

Let me explain first what it means. Your phone is as good as a brick or a paperweight. If you are sane enough to differentiate between rooting methods of two different devices then there is absolutely no chance of you messing up your device. That’s all I can say.

• Reduces Phone performance:

Whoever made this up might be some kind of a freak or a troll.

 

No but seriously, rooting doesn’t negatively affect your battery and phone performance. Instead you can stop unnecessary apps from cramming down the juice. If you overclock your device there is a probability of a major battery drain. As far as the shelf life of the under-the-hood parts goes, My Galaxy Tab P1000 has been rooted for years and I’ve been overclocking it by +200Mhz for quite a time now but still all parts of the device are intact and running to their full extent.

• An invitation to malicious software:

 Often people are suspicious if the developer of the exploit will spread malicious viruses and other stuff via it but if you follow the rooting methods from trusted and well known sites like xda-developers, etc you need not to worry about it. Some bad apps can be problematic but they still need your permission or your go-ahead once.

• Rooting is illegal:

Yes it is illegal and you might even get jailed for it. Hahaha. It is not illegal in India, US and other major countries but I don’t know about other countries. Maybe you should spend a minute googling it.

My word:

Rooting is very easy. People have developed an unnecessary terror about it which is fading over the years. I’ve gone through the same dilemma a few years back so you can believe me when I say it’s cool. But as intelligent people once said ‘Haste makes waste’ you should go through the instructions written by developers as they are made for you. Enjoy Android. Stay Awesome. Peace.

– Abhishek Narkar