[Android General] Kyuubi10:
Hey guys, Kyuubi10 back for another guide :)

Today I want to tackle the open ocean of options one has once they are finally rooted.

If you still don't know what rooting is, this guide probably isn't for you...But if you feel intrigued feel free to check this link out:

http://lifehacker.com/5789397/the-always-up-to-date-guide-to-rooting-any-android-phone

Many of you are unsure whether to root or not, since you don't yet understand the endless possibilities available to rooted devices. Most guides which I have found online only cover the options on the surface, I will try to go into deeper detail.

Meanwhile some of you have already rooted your phones on the promise of great things but find yourself stuck for ideas, and you start feeling that rooting is a bit useless. This is due to lack of information available for non-rooted folk, prior to actually rooting.

Note:

Just unlocking your bootloader, or flashing a custom recovery isn't rooting. But usually a custom recovery is required before rooting.

Hopefully you already know these, but if not here is a link to some terminology you may need to fully understand this guide:

http://www.talkandroid.com/guides/beginner/android-rom-and-rooting-dictionary-for-beginners/

So... You have successfully unlocked your bootloader, flashed a custom recovery and have rooted your device. What now? Where to start?

Finding Sources:

The first stop once you have rooted is to find sources of information about what is available to you and your device.

This is where the first complication arises, since each device is different, each device has a different rooting method, different mods, themes, ROMs and Kernels available to it. So there is NOT a universal way to root, nor software universally available to any rooted device. You have to find guides, and indexes of things made specifically for your own device.

If you have made it to this guide, you are on the right path. This website currently is the biggest hub for all things root, for any device. If you use the search option on the top right corner, you will have a really high chance of finding a thread dedicated to your own device. With all the information and software you may need, or want, specifically catered to your device.

This, along with all the available ROOT enabled apps within Google Play Store, will be the main source of ROOT software for you.

Why are you rooting?

Now you have a lot of options available to you. Where do you begin? This depends on what is your own personal reason for rooting.

The main four are: To improve battery, performance and to add themes and features which would be otherwise unavailable. (e.g. Double tap to wake.)

Improving battery AND improving performance may seem to be a contradiction, as improving performance may make battery suffer, while improving battery life may make performance suffer.

While focusing completely on one will definitely make the other suffer, if you focus on efficiency instead it's very much possible to improve both battery life AND performance TOGETHER!

There a multiple ways to improve efficiency of a device, and I will enter into more detail soon.

The other options are adding themes and features.

There may be themes which are only available to rooted devices, themes which would change values which you usually would not have access to while being unrooted. Such themes can be added as mods, or skins. Flashed from custom recovery or added by an app which writes directly to /system folder. Things which require root.

Mods on the other hand modify the visual design of existing things on the phone like widgets, such as clock widget. Theme mods are not usually reliant on ROOT, but they often need to be flashed through custom recovery, something which you will already have if you are rooted.

Features are a bit more complex than themes, but follows the same idea. They can be added through root apps, or flashed through custom recovery. Most features will require ROOT permissions, since most useful features perform actions which are not usually allowed without root. These include but are not limited to changing an apps way of functioning, or making a system change to give a ROM a feature it did not previously have.

All of these will be available to you through both XDA and/or Play Store. The limit is your imagination, all you need to do is think of something you want and use the available search boxes to find that which you want for you own device.

The most common way of adding all of it together are mod packs, frameworks, custom ROMs, custom Kernels etc...

But since there are such a wide variety of choices available, the ones you choose will be highly dependent on the original reason you have for rooting your device.

If you want to focus on performance and battery, you will choose a ROM with a lot of optimizations, and a custom Kernel instead of one with a lot of themes and features. While you will choose a ROM with few optimizations but loads of themes and features if you are looking more to the visual design experience, while ignoring the kernel, which doesn't affect visuals.

Once you know what your aim for rooting is feel free to begin flashing, installing and experimenting with a variety of software.

You may hear a lot about the risks of rooting, bricking your device, soft-brick or hard-brick, glitches from beta software etc....

But my advice is,

don't worry about the risk....make a NANDROID BACKUP, and flash away.

If anything goes wrong, just go back in recovery and restore your last stable nandroid. This way you can flash without worrying about all the risks. And if something does go wrong, and you struggle to get into recovery, just leave an SOS post right here on XDA, on the thread for your device and the community will be more than happy to help you get back on your feet.

This will always be a learning experience...don't let fright stop you from enjoying the rooted life!

The essentials:

Here are my recommendations for the most common and essential things which you should have/flash/install once you are rooted.

1) Begin by making a nandroid backup.

2) Find a custom ROM with the features you like. I personally recommend to focus on theming options when choosing a ROM, since you can use other methods to improve battery and performance.

3) Find a custom Kernel with great features to improve battery and performance. You should learn to adjust and fine-tune kernel settings to your liking, to find the ideal balance between battery and performance for your liking and your device.

3.a) This is my Comprehensive Guide to Kernels. It will have most of what you need in order to learn how to adjust kernel settings.​

4) Install BusyBox - What is BusyBox?

5) Flash Xposed Framework and Install the apk - This is only a framework, which facilitates and makes available multiple mods to both add features, themes and mods to improve performance and battery.

6) Flash Viper4Audio - The best audio mod available for Rooted devices. Recently for lollipop and marshmallow it seems that you need a Kernel with SELinux set to permissive.

7) Find and download an Adblock apk - Note: While it is awful to surf the net while being annoyed by intrusive ads, it is also not nice to stop content developers from from receiving the money they deserve through these ads, for content which the provide freely. Therefore please check the option to allow acceptable ads. So that non-intrusive ads are allowed to show up, so developers can continue providing their content freely.

From the Play Store:

8) Greenify - This will help both battery and performance by hibernating apps which keep awake even after manually force closing them. Thus allowing you to control how many apps are truly running at the same time and utilizing RAM. This app also has an Xposed module which adds boosted functionality.

9) Any ROOT file explorer - This will allow you to access ROOT directories of your device. This will be useful for multiple reasons, trust me :)

10) Tasker - If you are a fan of automation, this is your holy grail. With this you will be able to automate anything on your device.

11) Seeder - I am unable to explain what this app does. It's own description within the Play Store is perfect and very clear! Go check it out. It will improve performance when actively using the device.

12) SD Maid - This is a swiss army knife for Rooted devices. Those of you familiar with CCleaner, will know some of the things this app does. It cleans system and app caches, it cleans leftover files after uninstalling apps. It is also able to toggle autostart, delete system apps, freeze/disable apps and much much more!

Hope this has helped you get started on your Rooted adventure, and given you more aim of where you can go from here.

If you still haven't rooted your device, I hope this guide could help you seal your decision, and ease your fears. :silly:

If this was a helpful guide, I would be grateful if you could press the

thanks button

.:good::good: And feel free to comment with any questions or mentioning anything I may have forgotten, or your own opinions for the essentials things to do once you are rooted.