[General Questions and Answers] sabrefresco:
Couple of questions

I am switching from iOS to a OnePlus One, so here are the n00by stuff.

1. The first thing I plan to do after unboxing my phone is to unlock the bootloader, install TWRP custom recovery and use it to install SuperSU. I've read numerous mentions of doing backups because unlocking the bootloader wipes the phone. Does it fully wipe the phone, as in the stock ROM and I have to restore from the backup? Or does it do a factory restore and I should backup because things can go wrong during the process of unlocking? I have watched the unlocking and rooting video for 1+1 on the xda channel, and the guy didn't restore from a backup.

2. How exactly do you back things up without root access? Is there any particular reason I am following this order: unlocking the bootloader->installing TWRP->installing SuperSU? If I wanted to make a nandroid backup, can I not install TWRP, do the backup and copy it to an external storage device and then unlock the bootloader? Do the order of things matter?

3. Post bootloader-unlock with custom recovery with root access, do I get OTA updates from CM? Or do I have to grab the stable version and flash it everytime it gets updated? Same question for Custom ROMs (stable, beta or nightly builds) like Mahdi/OmniRom/SlimRoms, do they support OTA updates? I am not sure if the beta/nightly builds of ROMs distributed in the subforums are made by the users of this community or not. If that is the case, then it makes sense to flash it each time (dirty/clean flash).

4. After updating OTA/flashing the latest build of the ROM, do I lose the custom recovery and root access? Does that depend on what is included with the ROM itself? Do I ever lose the bootloader unlock via the flashing process?

5. What do you usually do when things go wrong? How do I make those nandroid backup to use when something breaks? Boot into recovery, wipe data, system, cache, dalvik (I have read more about TWRP than any other custom recovery so sorry for being so specific) and then restore the nandroid backup? Do nandroid backup have a universal file format so it can be used with both TWRP/CWM? Is it possible to corrupt the custom recovery? If so how would I get things back to normal? Fastboot and re-install custom recovery?

6. Is it possible to transfer a ROM file to the /sdcard when I am already in TWRP? Most guides mention that I should do that before rebooting the phone. Do I lose access to the filesystem when in recovery/fastboot? Are there ways to filesystem access for restoring things? Why exactly do you have to detach the USB cable before going into fastboot/recovery? Does it automatically make devices to go into a particular boot mode? I am coming iOS where the only time I have to detach the cable is when entering something called the DFU mode. I'd just like to know for future reference :D

7. I have read and watched quite a bit about kernels. My understanding is you can install a custom kernel after unlocking the bootloader. And the main reason is to get a fine control over the hardware aspect of things, like underclock for idlemode or overclock. Is that correct? Do I lose the kernel when flashing to a new ROM or when updating whether OTA/flashing. I basically want to have a list at the back of my head of things that need to be redone after going to a new ROM.

8. What would be a great source to read about android's file system (the folders)? Like I know /sdcard on the 1+1 is the internal storage (correct me if I am wrong), and can guess what system and data folders are for.

I apologize for making this post this long :silly: