yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] mbh87:
Im guilty of using the wugfresh kit. I could have easily done everything myself, but it contained everything I needed.

I agree with pretty much everything you said though. I see people offering money for them to root their phone over team viewer, etc. Those are the same people that warranty their phone that they, themselves messed up.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] El Daddy:
Thanks for your feedback everyone.

I just wanted to clarify I'm not ripping toolkits. They are a great way to get where you want to go quickly. If you know what you are doing by all means use it. But, to me it seems like they are just the cheat sheet to the test. Yeah, you aced the **** out of the test, but when asked to apply what you should have learned from that test in a real life situation; you are screwed.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] adrynalyne:
How to unlock, root, and be done with it.

adb reboot bootloader

fastboot oem unlock

fastboot reboot

adb reboot bootloader

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img (clockwork)

fastboot reboot

adb reboot recovery

flash rom

reboot

profit

Not hard at all.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] El Daddy:
Exactly.

Wouldn't it be sweet if there was actually "profit" and the phone started spitting out money?

You're a dev. See what you can cook up. :D
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] tannor:
The hardest part is just those drivers, not that I call it hard, just Windows can be a pita.

Once that part is working then using adb and fastboot comands I think is fairly straightforward and don't need the toolkit.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rye&ginger:
Im hardly experienced with Android or Linux. Ive used both for the past year or so only, and did take time to learn what abd commands there are etc. but also will use the toolkits to save time and headaches.

Anyways, its always like this. iOS hacking forums are similar.

Also, if you can get into recovery why do a nandroid? On SGS I was told by devs its not really needed as long as you dont mix up kernels. Do that, and what help is the nandroid? Cant flash it if you cant get into download mode. If you can, thats what stock images are for? I sync everything I really care about to cloud/PC.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] adrynalyne:
LOL...I wouldn't be here if I could :D
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] youarewrong:
Toolkits for the nexus is kinda unnecessary because it is so easy to unlock, but there are devices that one the 1%(?) could unlock without a toolkit.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] skynet11:
I

One-click rooting on my Fascinate:

I used z4root to root my phone before I flashed my first ROM (back then I just used ROM Manager for everything and didn't even bother looking at the ROM threads on XDA until the late DJ05/DL09 days when I got used to flashing manually in Clockwork Recovery). With z4root I didn't even need to use my PC to root, but it didn't always work when I had to go back to stock.

One-click Odin pitfalls:

My first experience with Odin was using a one-click version to flash a stock Froyo leak on my Captivate when they had just started making custom ROMs for Froyo. I had a bad experience using one-click Odin so I soon learned how to manually use Odin to do much more than simply flash a Froyo leak with one click. I soon discovered that Odin could be used to do much more than simply going back to stock - I could flash different versions of Clockwork Recovery, different Captivate and Fascinate modems, etc.

Learning adb for myself:

When I got my Gnex I used the exact method adrynalyne posted, and I found it more gratifying than any one-click root (I got my Gnex before there even was a 1-click, and I had long gotten used to adb. There's actually a lot more you can do with adb than simply rooting. If you only use it for rooting it's like going to a four-star restaurant and always ordering the hot dog from the kids menu - you're barely scratching the surface of what adb can do. I highly recommend reading up on adb and learning the different commands you can use. For example, it got me out of a bootloop more than once on my Fascinate when I was running AOSP MTD ROMs (long before jt1134 made 3-button recovery work on them).

The tl;dr:

One-click methods actually hinder you from exploring your phone's full potential, and often do more harm than good. Learning to do things manually for yourself lets you discover other possibilities you never would have found with the one-clicks.

Terminators run on Android :cool:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] El Daddy:
This is exactly my sentiment.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] hotleadsingerguy:
You just used 5 rhetorical sayings that make very little sense, in the context of this topic. Be helpful or don't post, maybe?

OP, I couldn't agree more. Too many people post here (and other places) about being stuck in a bootloop even though they should already know how to fix it, if they knew anything about the process they had gone through. It's utterly insane that people are making heavy modifications to a device that costs $650+ without knowing *what* they're doing.

It's like someone going outside to change the oil on their car without knowing a thing about it and following the most basic instructions from some random person on the internet, then freaking out when someone tells them they poured the oil into the power steering reservoir.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] case0:
No-ones forcing you to help people who have screwed up their phone so I don't see the need to be all holier than thou about it. Why should people have to understand everything that goes on when they use a one-click method? People should just make sure they read the instructions so they don't screw things up. That's the problem, not the tools they use.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] xyzulu:
As has been stated before in this thread.. you can't stop the stupid, or protect people from their own stupidity.

After far too many years helping out "stupid" users (here and on other forums), unfortunately, I find it far better to pick and choose who I want to help these days. Then, if I get frustrated, I only have myself to blame.. for even responding in the first place.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] anton2009:
Exactly toolkits may be a little faster, but I'd feel much better executing my own ADB/Fastboot commands. Tool kits are error prone, and fastboot won't let you mess up your phone if you type in the wrong command (unless you flash something you weren't supposed to... but that can be applied to toolkits as well)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jamerican413:
This is a GREAT thread! I remember when I had my G1 and had to learn to do everything manually. I did a LOT of reading and more reading and made sure I had all necessary files, including the .img to revert back to stock. Two yrs later, I got the Evo 4G and things had changed; there were many one or two step tool kits out and made flashing mindless (but I still made sure I had all of my files at the ready.) I bought the Acer Iconia A500 and it was more of the same - one click rooting. A friend asked me to root his Xoom and it was like stepping back in time. I took a full day to read, to relearn how to do it manually. Strangely enough, I got more satisfaction out of rooting (and relocking and removing root - he didn't like it) the old way than I have with the one clicks. I still use both methods but before I use anyone's script, I read through their entire thread for a few days, to see what's been happening, whether things went smoothly or not. I had more problems with some of the one clicks (but really, not that many) than I did doing things manually, for just the reasons given - I couldn't see what was going on. Sometimes doing things manually got me out of trouble, once I figured out how far an automated process got (or I started over). I had a LOT of help on here - by just reading. Any questions I had had already been asked.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] El Daddy:
-jamerican413 Thanks for your reply.

In other news... its spreading to the Nexus 7 forum http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1757921 :banghead:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] droidftw:
My first Android phone I bought was the OG Droid. I rooted that phone manually. After 3 warranty replacements for non root problems Verizon sent me a Droid 2. I manually rooted that phone as well. When the Xoom was released I bought it on release day. I also manually rooted my Xoom. I had soft bricked the Xoom while flashing back to stock(one system.IMG failed to install and I didn't notice). I spent 2 hours in fast boot fixing the device. I bought the Gnex a week ago. I used a tool kit as I was lazy that night. I didn't need to use it but I did as it took almost no time and was super simple.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] xjman:
Not using one click methods should be law.

No one wants to learn what they are doing, why it works, or how it works. They just care it works.

Goes back to most people having no clue what root is, and why those people don't need it.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] kyokeun1234:
I owe you a huge thanks bud :) I'm not a fan of toolkit either and always used cmd. I'm still a noob but thanks to the way I hack, I know few things that even people who hacked lots of phones don't! I'm just happy that I made a good choice by taking a hard way
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] adrynalyne:
Sometimes they are needed. For example, if anyone recalls the original Droid Incredible root method, it was very difficult and for some impossible.

However no Nexus device should ever warrant a one click method.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Zepius:
because i keep seeing more of the "HELP I BROKE MY PHONE and i used this toolkit"

i think im getting to the point of being done helping people who break phones with a toolkit
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] El Daddy:
Ha yeah I know. I've been hanging out at the Nexus 7 forums and its a lot worse over there. I tried to point people in the right direction with fastboot and I was murdered for it.

Apparently telling people to use a safer method is "unhelpful."
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Dragn4rce:
They're all tool kit users???

What happened to classic rooting & Pride.

--------------------------------------------------

If I have helped you.... hit that sexy thanks button. ^_^
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] efrant:
I wouldn't be too quick to judge if I were you... :silly:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=28554531&postcount=18

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=28439630&postcount=17
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] harveydent:
Thanks, that made me laugh :D Time to dig up my toolkit posts
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Zepius:
you win the internet for the day!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Roxy:
LOLOLOLOL!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] strumcat:
.oO(I'm just gonna stay quiet, cuz they might dig up one of my old toolkit posts, too...)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] efrant:
:)

I wasn't trying to be evil -- but I don't appreciate when people cut others up for something that they have recently done as well. We were all n00bs at one point and we've all relied on the knowledge of others. And there's no problem with that. But pretending is a #fail. We should be here to learn, share our knowledge and help others, not to act high-and-mighty.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] mattmartin77:
Rooted the droid x first day there was root, rooted my tbolt about a day before there was a script available (that one took literally hours to type into cmd) and rooted my gnex by hand, although that was pretty easy. I am glad that i did what I did the hard way. I use adb all the time, nandroid every week, etc. I will use the gnex toolkit if I need to do something like root/unlock after i flash stock, but at least i know what the toolkit is doing and how to fix whatever breaks.

tl;dr Do it the hard way, makes it easier in the future.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] efrant:
I totally agree with this.

A little quasi-analogy: my job requires me to be fast and proficient in using Excel. When I first started in the business at a company, the boss took away the mouse of my PC. At first, I was like WTF? and it took me forever to figure out all the keystrokes to get Excel to do what would have seemed very easy with the mouse. I ended up getting the hang of it, but what I then realized was that, once I had committed the keystrokes to memory, I was significantly quicker using the keyboard than I could ever have been with the mouse. And, more importantly, I never would have been able to develop that skill if I had a mouse lying around. Because I was forced to take a more difficult path, I ended up learning more and improving.

Back on the topic of toolkits: if they are "lying" around, people will use them, and never learn and improve. And they will never realize that they are not really any quicker than doing things yourself.

And although I know I probably take things to the extreme, but I didn't even really like using recovery scripts to do anything until I was comfortable doing it myself. I would root (and other things) by pushing the files to the right spot using ADB, changing permissions, etc., etc., instead of just flashing someone else's pre-packaged CWM-flashable zip file. And to this day, I still don't flash any script in recovery unless I package it up myself (which is not that difficult -- there is great info on XDA, particularly this thread). And not because I don't trust other people's scripts, but because I need to figure out how to do it myself.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] El Daddy:
This is brilliant!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] droidzika:
First let me say that I think the heart is in the right place here. You all want people to learn so things are not so fubar in the future. I agree!

But I was very annoyed at all the condescending posts. I mean, root kits they are there for a reason! I can also understand how the continuous crying can be annoying. "I brick my phone..I can't get past the boot logo...my girlfriend left me, etc". People will always whine about something.

Anyway, even though I was annoyed, I read up about adb and sdk got them installed..blah blah blah and I just pushed I few mp3s to my device.

XDA is awesome..that's all that matters :P

Thanks guys.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Zeinzu:
I'm able to do it myself but chose to use a tool kit for ease and speed. Then again I didn't run into any issues and did not need any assistance.

Sent from my AOSP Android 4.1.1 Galaxy Nexus
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] idiotzach15:
New XDA policy: if some one F****d up their device because of ignorance and lack of following directions, DO NOT HELP THEM. People need to lear by themselves. I know that helping other users is essentially XDA's biggest morals, but in this case, I feel obligated to say we shouldn't feel the need to help some people. OH, and I've said it before, and I'll probably say it another hundred times, but there needs to be an entrance exam for XDA. Or at least for the Development section. I know the whole 10 post thing, but if you just post 10 times in @off-topic, you really havent proven yourself.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Zeinzu:
I learned through trial and error, and the help of forum communities. If someone needs help and I'm able, I'm going to.

Sent from my AOSP Android 4.1.1 Galaxy Nexus
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] harveydent:
I'm with this. If the new XDA policy ever becomes DO NOT HELP THEM, this site will go down the dumpster in a heartbeat. If I want to spend my free time to help someone out, I'm going to.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Simer03:
Root toolkits are made to help people that DONT know how to do it manually...I was one of them, but u learn as u go...everyone starts somewhere and these toolkits help in the beginning! If u don't wanna help, just click the back button and move on

Sent from my Nexus Prime
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ogdobber:
knock yourself out, I think that all these "my phone is bricked threads" should be redirected to the toolkit thread that got them in the mess in the first place....let them deal with it.

If someone wants to really "learn" I will be happy to spend hours of my free time helping
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Menelkir:
Therrs no problems with toolkits at all, the real problem is: the human intelligence is limited, the ignorance isnt. :P
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] efrant:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=29541745
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] El Daddy:
Wow. At least the guy realized there was a problem.

This is a bit extreme. The point of this thread was to warn people of the potential problems with toolkits and show there is a better, safer, educational way of doing things. Yes, XDA is much different now than it was a few years ago. Fortunately, a lot of good has come from the increased user base.

I still enjoy helping people with problems I know how to fix. Hopefully, the people I help will learn from their situations and pass the knowledge along. Yes, sometimes it becomes tiresome seeing the same questions over and over again. If I become frustrated I just move along and stay off XDA for a while.

I'm happy to see such a great response to my post. I'm surprised it's still alive after 7 months. Now if I could only see the same response in the Nexus 7 forum. I've been run out of town with my "radical" just use fastboot suggestions. :confused:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Nebucatnetzer:
The best part of getting a new Nexus is typing.

fastboot oem unlock

I had a SGSII once and that was a real pain compared to a Nexus in terms of modding.

I always do the things manually I just feel more comfortable doing so.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jesusice:
Exactly! I'm always shocked that people would want to use a toolkit on a NEXUS! I did my previous Android phones manually too but then it was always a tense, nerve-racking endeavor and probably the main reason that I didn't use a toolkit then was it seemed too complicated and precarious to leave up to a program. Unlocking and rooting the Nexus manually gives you all the satisfaction with none of the anxiety.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jugg1es:
I've been reading this thread with interest. I'm no dev, I hadn't written any code for more than twenty years. I'm a complete noob to android, I unlocked my bootloader with htcdev because I hated sense. Why have htc then I hear you ask. Simple. Best phone for the price I liked. As a noob this site can be a mine of excellent information and that's due to the people on here. I read everything I could find on here till nothing made sense and it all seemed to much. Negotiating all the relative posts and such can seem very daunting first couple of times. I'm not young, I'm willing to learn, I ask what people can consider stupid questions, I have asked questions previously asked because I've missed a post or a thread. I'm grateful to everyone who is willing to give up their time to help and develop the Roms I love. An awful lot of people don't know about adb simply because Windows has made computing point and click easy, same with one click root solutions. I agree that people don't understand what happens to their phone when using one click, but that's not all their own fault it's what they've come to expect from computing. I want to learn Linux, brought rspi just so I don't have to wind the missus up by installing Linux on the desk top. It's not easy but I'm trying. Just wanted to their in my tuppence worth on this especially the bit about daunting sites, took me a while to get my head round things so it's going to be the same for a lot of people. I'm sure many of you panicked with your first bootloop, or soft brick. I panic every time I flash a new Rom. I can't afford to kill the phone. But I do understand the risks. Won't stop me sending though. I'll stop now as I've just realised how much I've rambled. And thanks again everyone:D

Swyped from my desire s running blindIce
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] slapshot30:
Difficulty of the GSII root has nothing on recent HTC phones lol... Check out the guide in my signature. That doesn't even cover how to S-OFF involving a wire trick that must be timed perfect. I'm with you guys though. If you can make it out of a manual guide alive then you'll end up learning many important things about your phone.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] KennyG123:
Thread cleaned of misunderstandings

Thanks

FNM
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jesusice:
I think XDA could strategically deploy some bots to deal with some of the more obnoxious questions. For example, any post that starts with "Can I dirty flash […] " could be dealt with via auto response.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] stopswitch:
I don't know about you guys, but I never used GUI interface programs such as one click root etc cause they never worked correctly. Using OEM unlock and flashing imgs over to the nexus is a piece of cake. I don't know why people use the one click stuff, it never seemed to work right anyway.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Stardate Tab 10.1:
I have to say that I see nothing wrong with the toolkits. For some it could be bad as they will never take the time learn what's happening with their phone. But these toolkits are getting better and better to the point that if something goes wrong the toolkit can even fix the problem, even if it is just going back to stock.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was my very first android device. I read and read and read some more but was nervous about rooting it. Every ROM or mod came with warnings and a 1,000 topics about "help I bricked my tablet." It took me some time to debate rooting this $500 device. I used a toolkit. Simple. Easy. A little comfort in having a pro help me along. Flashed a ROM, flashed a mod and I was off.

Granted I don't change up the ROMs on my tablet as much anymore, but as I gained confidence in voiding that warranty I am now a crack flasher on my nexus. No toolkit this time as I had now lost my cherry. The toolkit was my training wheels and I no longer need them.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] segv11:
About 20 years ago, I adopted a rule that I've tried my best to keep regarding random tasks that can be automated:

The first time, figures out what to do, and do it manually.

The second time do it manually.

The third time, do it manually.

The fourth time, stop and write a program to do it. If possible, put that program into your crontab and never worry about it again.

I've always thought of this as a lesson about not repeating drudgework, but I think it might also be a lesson about doing it manually a few times, so you know what you're doing.

I always flash ROMs through adb or recovery. On the other hand, I wrote packaged into an app a method we discovered on XDA to unlock/relock G-Nex bootloaders without adb. For nandroids, I have Tasker run a shell script that flashes TWRP (using dd), sets up OpenRecoveryScript to tell TWRP to take a nandroid with specified parameters. After TWRP reboots to Android, Tasker reflashes stock recovery. (I'm on a custom ROM with no recovery-from-boot.p)

Scripts and toolkits have their place... after you've done it the manual way a few times. Or, write your own. ;)

Sent from my Jelly Beaned "toro" Galaxy Nexus.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] efrant:
This is goes against what XDA is about. It's about helping people learn, not giving them "toolkits" to fix problems.

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=2031989&postcount=45

I think the point here is that you didn't have the knowledge to flash ROMs, so you relied on toolkits to give you comfort, and you jumped into a scene which maybe you were not fully ready to participate in. What should have happened is that you would have done enough reading to fully understand what was required in flashing, and why so many "help I bricked my tablet" threads were created, and things would have been clear. You would have developed the confidence that you would not brick your device because you would have had the required knowledge.