yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
I have had my Bionic for a while now and have been thinking about rooting it. I finally got the ICS update but have been using GO Launcher too much to even notice it. Anyway, like I said, I want to root my phone. I am current on all updates. For some reason it's running at a tenth of it's memory tho not much is running that I can see. This leads me to believe there's things running in the background that I can not see. I am reluctant to get rid of all my apps, but I also don't want anything that's eating all my resources either. I kinda want to start new but kinda don't. I guess I just don't like letting go of anything.

I know this is selfish of me, but I am hoping that this thread will stay clean of others chiming in asking about their issues. I just don't want the thread to lose focus since this is about what I hope to get from my phone.

Ok, so here are my questions or favors to ask:

Since my phone is fully updated, do I need to do some other updated steps for rooting my phone or is rooting always the same no matter the build or version?

When I go to root my phone, I back up everything first and then I get it back, right?

I read somewhere that it's possible to brick the phone. What precautions should I take to avoid that?

Can I get all the benefits of a rooted phone without a ROM?

Are ROMs really that awesome that I should get one, or three?

I am interested in a ROM after some posts and pages I read. I was attracted to CM at first but so is everyone else probably at first. Does CM even work on the Bionic? And if it does, does everything work like the camera and Bluetooth?

As I said earlier, I use GO Launcher. One of the things I really like about it is the folders I can make in the App Drawer. Now CM is based off of ADW Launcher, but no options to make folders in the app drawer? Is it possible in any way if I choose CM as my main ROM?

Is CM overrated? Liberty and Eclipse look nice too. I also read a little, very little, about AOKP. Any suggestions? I want to get rid of a lot of extra processes and bloatware but I don't want to lose some of the apps pre-installed like Google Maps and Navigation, etc. Unless there are other, much better replacements that anyone knows of.

I know most of this is personal preference but I am hoping to find a comprehensive way at figuring out what's best for me.

I had more questions but I will wait and ask more as the thread continues.

Oh, I don't really need answers in step by step unless I ask. A simple link would suffice unless it's not covered anywhere.

Thanks for reading this, I hope I am not frustrating anyone as I am sure similar posts have been made.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] digitalr0gue:
You're basically asking to have this entire forum summarized into one post...

Spend some time reading, then ask smaller, more concise questions.

Not trying to sound like a ****, but i could spend an hour answering all of that. Half of those questions could be answered with some reading of the ROM specific threads.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
Ok, I know that SOME of the questions are answered somewhere else. The thing is that after I read one thread only to find it unsolved, I read others that are are 50 pages long going nowhere as well. I haven't seen anything about my phone being fully updated and I am not going any further until I know for sure from someone like a DEV that I can.

Some of these questions are yes/no questions, which wouldn't take long at all to answer, maybe even less time it takes to write a complaint about my post. I certainly don't expect one person to write for an hour on every topic I asked about. I thought it would be a collective effort.

I guess I will take this slowly.

Since my Droid Bionic is updated to the current versions, do I need to do this differently than others have used in the past to root this phone?

Where is the best method to do this?

Before I start, I have to backup everything, right? If so, what's the best way to go about backing up everything?

I read somewhere that there are 3 things you should do to make sure you avoid bricking. I have since lost it. Does anybody know a surefire way to do this.

Please be gentle.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] Obsidian_soul:
1st question . No, your phone is not special since it is updated what worked for others will work for you.

2nd follow this link and the instructions to the letter http://www.droidrzr.com/index.php/topic/4026-samurihls-house-of-bionic/

3rd . Since you are stock. I would suggest using Verizon's back up services. TiBu requires root. IMHO I wouldn't bother because Google automatically backs up contacts and most roms require you to do a full data wipe.

There is no magic formula to keep from bricking your phone. Just follow directions and if you can't tolerate the risk don't do it.

From my EVOLVED bionic
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
That link no longer works

Also I found an article named "Learn How-To Root, Custom Recovery, Backup, And De-Bloat Your DROID BIONIC" while searching around for ROM ideas and such. Anyway, after reading this, it almost seems as if I don't need to do factory reset. Is this ok?
[Motorola Droid Bionic] Ratamacue:
Just last week I started with a stock ICS Bionic and followed this guide to root: http://droidbionicroot.com/droid-bionic-root/how-to-root-ics-on-droid-bionic-and-motorola-android/

That went very well. I wanted to try out JB 4.2.2, so I installed SafeStrap and an official CM 10.1 nightly. The net result was that I had a very unstable phone

until

I did a factory reset . As of this writing, however, it's behaving extremely well. YMMV.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
Ok, so you flashed the ROM, didn't work so well, then you did a factory reset. Doesn't a factory reset wipe the phone? If that's the case, doesn't it wipe out the ROM?

Oh one more thing. Following this link, does this wipe the data from my phone? Anything I should back up before doing this? Should I do any updates before flashing CM 10?
[Motorola Droid Bionic] Ratamacue:
No, a factory data reset doesn't wipe the ROM, but it does require running the initial setup (as if you were setting up a brand new phone).

You definitely want to back up everything you're not willing to lose. I ran a backup the very first thing after installing SafeStrap, and it was a good thing because with all my messing around I managed to bork my stock ROM to the point that it wouldn't boot. Fortunately, all I had to do was restore it from a backup.

My phone on CM 10.1 had enough issues with freezing and crashing that I decided this morning to try a different ROM. So far, I've had really good results with Icarus HD (a custom ICS ROM). I really don't know if my experience with CM 10.1 was typical.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
OK, so I want to root. Now does rooting wipe any data? Regarding Safestrap, I install that first before rooting?
[Motorola Droid Bionic] Ratamacue:
Rooting doesn't wipe any data. Root first, then install SafeStrap.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
Okay, I will be rooting and installing safestrap when I get home for work today. I will still have more questions I am sure. I do have a few before I actually start rooting or right after.

I know safestrap makes a backup/recovory, but is it full recovery only or can I recover portions, like say my Dolphin browser with the settings and bookmarks?

I read that when making a backup of stock ROM, use sdcard, I'm sure that means external but when flashing a ROM, will that wipe data from the external card?

When setting up slots for multi booting ROMs, gernally how much storage do they need?

If I have two different ROMs, does it act like user accounts in Windows, would I have to download the same app on each ROM or do both ROMs have access?

Can one ROM have stuff I don't want the other ROM to have visible?
[Motorola Droid Bionic] Ratamacue:
1. SafeStrap is full recovery only. Use Titanium Backup for backing up apps and data.

2. Flashing a ROM won't do anything to your external SD card.

3. When you set up ROM slots, you'll be asked how much room you'd like to allocate for data. The choices are 1, 2, or 3 GB. I started off allocating 3 GB to the stock ROM slot and was never able to load more than 3 separate ROMs before I ran out of room. I'd start with just using 1 GB for data.

4. Each ROM is an island. You have to download the apps separately (unless when you go through the initial setup you tell the system to restore apps and settings from the Google servers.)
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
Cool. I rooted and got safestrap but it's version 3.05 and not 3.11. Some ROM I was interested in said must have 3.11, which I am assuming that's the newest one so far. I did watch a tutorial about getting the current version, so no question there.

So the ROMs are separate islands and during flashing they can be in slots allocated up to 3GB. Does that mean that's the only amount of storage I can have when running that ROM? Say I like taking lots of photos and didn't save them to my external card, could I essentially run out of space or is the storage allocation just for the ROM itself and any updates it may have?

Sorry about these series of questions, just want to make sure I am doing it correctly in case I might make a mistake for future's sake.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] Ratamacue:
The storage allocation is for the ROM, apps, and data that haven't been assigned to the external SD card. You can definitely run out of space if you load several ROMs and don't save any of your data to the external SD card.

Also, keep in mind that when VZW sends the OTA update to 4.1 next week, the only way to keep root is to root in ICS and use Voodoo OTA Rootkeeper to protect root before you take the OTA. If you flash the system image, you will lose root, and there is no known working root exploit for the Bionic JB release.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] auglove3rd:
Lost Root

Hey, I used Voodoo before flashing the 4.1 update, but forgot to update the binary beforehand, and therefore lost root. Anyone have any luck yet with an exploit for the OTA?

And there's no working FXZ before this now, correct? This software is now the earliest version I can FXZ to?
[Motorola Droid Bionic] theistus:
Not root exploit yet for bionic JB. And if you try to FXZ back to an earlier version, you will brick your phone.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
OK, so I rooted, got safestrap tho still not updated to 3.11, got TBU (free), got Voodoo. I had to race the clock today cuz it was updating android, or at least downloading the update. The root process I used gave me SuperSU and didn't tell me the version for the SU binaries. I searched around and all I could find was info on SuperUser in regards to backing up root. I uninstalled SuperSU, kinda. I just told it to use a different SU cuz when I used SuperUser and updated the binaries, SuperSU wanted to update them, then I opened SuperUser and the binaries reverted back. I was worried so I just told SuperSU to use a different SU. Was that ok? I didn't update to JB yet. Has there been luck with the Bionic using voodoo and keeping root after the JB update?
[Motorola Droid Bionic] kschang:
All this back and forth means I'm making a full image backup, then trying various ROMs. I've tried CM10.1, too many issues (no car dock, trouble installing lots of apps, no speakerphone). Next is... Whizzed Bean?

EDIT: Seems Speakerphone issue was fixed in the 0420 nightly. Will have to try it again.

AND I copied all the backups to my PC, so I can restore them at will (provided the phone still boots, that is... )

If I can't find a JB ROM I like I guess I can do HouseofBionic reflash (which did NOT cause me to lose data, as I upgraded to ICS that way) then allow the JB OTA to go through.

*sigh*... So much bull**** in these updates.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
Hope someone sees my question above. I still haven't updated to JB yet. Once I do I will be flashing ROMs. I am interested in CM, Liquid Smooth, Icarus Hd and Wizzed Bean or Synergy (executioner ) Both WB and Synergy look indentical. What is the differences.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] kschang:
WB is a fork of CNA (codename Android) 4.1 JB (which is itself based on AOSP)

while Synergy is a fork of the standard Moto ICS (.246).

Yes, they look identical because they both used the Samsung UI elements. :)
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
I wish there was a way to know which ROMs are good, at least for me. If I can figure out which one excels at what, I would use a few for certains "tasks" Like one could be for media, another could be for privacy, another for "security" If I can post links yet, I want to share something I found on theming. I've seen some really awesome themes and screen configurations I never thought of on phones. Remember MySpace? There was a time you could make your page look completely different. I had one that got rid of everything except a few links. Them I created a background with "buttons" and put the links over them. Anyway, I not sure if these people did that on their phone, like making a wallpaper the has areas that appear to be functional then laying icons or if it's an actual theme. Just look up screenshot sunday episodes 28-31. 28 has an HTC one s that has a blue android. Would love to have something similar to that, some are sick tho.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] kschang:
You're talking about two different things though. Home launcher config / home launcher theming is completely separate from ROM theming, though ROM theming would affect home themeing (somewhat), as launcher theming can't do anything about the notification area, status bar, and stuff like that. On the other hand, there are other apps that do that...

I've seen a couple launchers that really throw away the convention of "grid of icons" and pretty much let you free-form the launch area. But those will work in any ROM, pretty much. Maybe you should post in the app / theme area and we can guess how to replicate it, as it's not really a ROM question. :)
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
Oh I know, just something that was on my mind since most of those had rooted phones with ROMs. I have Go Launcher and i like it mainly for the folders in the app drawer, but it's starting to bog down my resources. Definitely want to try another launcher if I can get some of those effects. I am jus waiting and hoping to get my answer soon cuz I really need to redo my phone. Too much crap going on with resources going down.
[Motorola Droid Bionic] kschang:
Not really ROM related, but I hope my little guide will at least point you in the right direction.

http://kschang.hubpages.com/hub/Ful...Change-Almost-Anything-In-Your-Android-Device
[Motorola Droid Bionic] CycoPuppet:
Ok, so has anyone had luck or bad luck keeping root after the JB update? I'd like to know about people losing it so I know that it's possible. I have updated all the SU stuff.
[RAZR HD General] nmeofdst8:
Phone just auto downloaded 0.7.2 ...haven't seen exactly what changed or checked site yet. Seems to be working fine. Phone is on Verizon
[RAZR HD General] kench33:
Probably the security update. I saw it on pulse news
[RAZR HD General] minhgurluver:
I want to know if your phone would remain rooted after the patch...
[RAZR HD General] hdtechk:
Using ota root keeper I still have root
[RAZR HD General] Jay A whY:
I lost root after the update. Re-ran motofail2go, root is back...

Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX HD
[RAZR HD General] princeplanet:
I get the message that I do not have enough room to download the update. I did a factory reset and only installed ota rootkeeper and supersu. Any suggestions as to what to do?

Transmissum est ex Transformo Primo cum Tapatalk duo
[RAZR HD General] dandar:
If you have some frozen vzw apps you may have to unfreeze them before the update.
[RAZR HD General] screecwe:
I used OTA Rootkeeper and it did NOT keep my root. When I tried to restore the root, it said that root had been restored, but nothing happened. Tried a reboot and ran it again, same issue. Ran the motofail2go and root was restored.
[RAZR HD General] RoomTenONine:
I thought I had kept root, but after a reboot I lost it. I have run the exploit several times and can't gain root again. Did a factory reset and still can't get it. HELP!
[RAZR HD General] RoomTenONine:
Reloading the stock firmware in RSD Lite. Let's see how this goes.

Edit: OK, back to original firmware. Root worked. Restoring from TiBU and will try root keeper and this update one more time...

Edit 2: OTA Root keeper worked. Latest firmware + root!
[RAZR HD General] Maurice216:
I can confirm OTA root keeper worked perfectly after updating. Even after rebooting recovery shows 1/1 rooted.
[RAZR HD General] DertyDOH:
root keeper didn't work for me, I had to rerun the exploit but I can verify it did work
[RAZR HD General] Maurice216:
That's weird. I wonder why.. I tried it on my brothers phone, reboot and confirmed that it also held root. You are using OTA root keeper and running it before hitting update right?
[RAZR HD General] lucidvtec:
Update failed for me....was rooted

Used OTA... protected root.....then did temp unroot before applying update

After phone rebooted it said failed
[RAZR HD General] Arhtard:
so is this small update pushed to allow use with the new isis wallet app?

from what i understood, the dinc 4g lte was the only working device on verizon and saw plans that the razr hd and maxx hd were to be added by the end of last week. can someone with either the razr hd or maxx hd that has the ota update search play for isis wallet and see if its available now on your device?

thanks in advance

(i'm planning on buying the razr hd monday)
[RAZR HD General] hdtechk:
Isis wallet is available for for install but it detects root and has to have the new sim cards
[RAZR HD General] lucidvtec:
What detects root...the app?? Or something new in the update

Sources?/
[RAZR HD General] Arhtard:
sweet. at least there is progress being made on verizons part.

seems like swapping sim card shouldn't be too difficult for verizon to accomplish, lol. you never know though.

any chance someone could try using that ota rootkeeper app to hide root and then try installing isis wallet app?

i live in salt lake where isis wallet is being tested and am curious, sorry for all the questions. kinda excited to get the phone monday. feels like christmas coming or something lol.

---------- Post added at 01:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:09 AM ----------

the app is supposed to check for root as seen in the third paragraph here:

PCMag article for ISIS Wallet

i'm guessing the update was to enable the ability to use this new app.
[RAZR HD General] erikjonpeterson:
No go launching Isis with root disabled using OTA root keeper. I get the warning message that says my phone doesn't meet the requirements. It doesn't specify which requirement fails so can't say if it's detecting root or if there's something else missing.
[RAZR HD General] AshyKnuttz:
Is that all the new update is? isis wallet?
[RAZR HD General] Xelios029:
So I'm getting an update failed. Is this due to the fact that I froze and deleted the bloatware? Or is it because I modified the LCD Density? Any help is appreciated.
[RAZR HD General] hdtechk:
It's because you have bloat frozen or deleted. It always stops Moto updates. I don't know about LCD density I have never did that
[RAZR HD General] RoomTenONine:
Actually, I took the update just fine with bloat frozen. However, that broke root. Had to use rds lite to get back to previous firmware, root, use ota root keeper, then update and restore root.
[RAZR HD General] Maurice216:
So if you uninstalled bloat what options do you have to restore them in order to update.
[RAZR HD General] beetnick55:
reboot loop :(

i downloaded the update this morning and ever since my droid razr hd has been in a reboot loop. i get an error saying boot failure and to connect usb data cable. when i restart it from this screen, it loads just fine but then when i get to the home screen, it automatically shuts down after about 10 seconds.

any tips on how to stop this? i don't really care about the update now b/c i'm not in the isis markets but i just don't want to brick my phone. note: i did use moto2fail and had rooted the phone right after i got it. any help is greatly appreciated.
[RAZR HD General] lucidvtec:
This update has shady all over it

Do we need to start a bounty

Who is the best moto dev???... let's get this started
[RAZR HD General] Xelios029:
Got it, thanks. I'm not completely familiar with this since the Droid X only had two updates haha.
[RAZR HD General] RoomTenONine:
For those of you stuck with uninstalled apps you should try a factory restore, then run the update. In the future just freeze stuff or save a backup before uninstalling.

If you are really stuck you may have to use RDS lite to get back to a totally clean original firmware. Andromods has a tutorial on this, but I cant post links yet.
[RAZR HD General] jlivolsi:
I did the same thing, how did you use rsd lite to go back to the previous one? I have used rsd lite to flash a new sbf to my droid x but I don't know how to go back to the previous firmware with it. Thanks
[RAZR HD General] koftheworld:
This is the exact problem with letting people do this in ics. There should be a warning the first time you freeze or uninstall bloat. If they force the bloat they should at least protect us from it :)
[RAZR HD General] RayLovesick:
I had this problem, and as a result of freezing some of the installed apps via Titanium Backup (GuidedTours.apk, VideoEditor.apk, some others I don't know about yet), the Moto update ended up deleting the frozen apk, and then errored out. You can check the log file in /cache/recovery/last_log, and towards the end you'll see exactly why it's failing. I managed to get another copy of the GuidedTours.apk file from someone else, and now it's erroring on the VideoEditor.apk file.
[RAZR HD General] donwhall70:
Freezing apps from within ics won't prevent the update from installing. I can't speak for tibu as I don't know what process it uses to freeze them. Altering or removing files that the updater checks before patching will prevent the update from installing. Freezing from within android just merely disables them in user space and does nothing to the actual file in /system.
[RAZR HD General] RayLovesick:
That's why this is puzzling to me. Freezing by itself shouldn't touch the file in system/app, but after trying to update, these files are gone from that directory, and now I have to get them back if I want to install this update.
[RAZR HD General] donwhall70:
Where is LCD density changed? If its in build.prop then the md5 has been changed. If the update is checking build.prop and it has been altered the update will fail.
[RAZR HD General] koftheworld:
It was me.new files here.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7niZuqLJUYnazBwZXZSNklwVU0

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7niZuqLJUYnekpNVGlDNVJEU2c
[RAZR HD General] RayLovesick:
Thanks again!! Now it's telling me I need Protip.apk. I think at this point I may just reflash the stock firmware.
[RAZR HD General] HowardE:
Using OTA Keeper didn't keep the root... but re-running the motofail2go worked fine.
[Galaxy Ace S5830i General] satya_461:
Hi all,

I am trying to get ace s5830i connected to a wifi ad hoc network. I tired downloading many modified version of wpa_supplicant binaries from xda.

None of them seem to be working on this device :(.

At terminal emulator (before replacing the binary), if I do

$wpa_supplicant -version

0.6.x..

I am on stock rom, with root enabled. Can someone please post wpa_supplicant binary?(patched binary which is able to connect Adhoc):confused:?
[Galaxy Ace S5830i General] Styrke:
Here is it, but it's buggy you have to disable and renable to connect.

Just rename your original wpa_supplicant copy this one and do the permissions like the original one.
[Galaxy Ace S5830i General] satya_461:
Thanks Bro! :good: Its working.. little buggy though..

I will replace it with this version whenever I need adhoc access.. little painful but I'm ok with this..

Thanks!!:)