Google's Android operating system is riding a wave of popularity that
has rapidly eclipsed Apple's iOS, and by the end of 2010 it's expected
to overtake RIM's BlackBerry as the world's leading smartphone
platform. However, despite the relative openness and flexibility of
the OS, your Android phone still isn't as powerful and customizable as
it could be. To unlock all of your phone's potential, you'll need to
root it.
WARNING: Rooting--adding superuser capabilities to your phone by
altering its system permissions--is an advanced technique that the
inexperienced or faint of heart should NEVER ATTEMPT. It's hacking,
folks, and if done improperly it can destroy your phone. Do not follow
any of the instructions in this guide or on any of the linked sites
unless you are comfortable with the very real risk of turning your
phone into an expensive brick. As of this writing, rooting is not
supported by any carrier or manufacturer, and will most likely void
your phone's warranty. In short: This stuff is for big kids only. No
whining if things don't go your way.
Why Root?
With that very real and important caveat out of the way, there are a
few really good reasons to root your Android phone. The simplest
reason is that rooting your handset allows for some cool features that
probably ought to be enabled in Android by default, such as on-the-fly
screen capture, tethering capabilities (even on phones whose carriers
don't allow it), and advanced firewall apps.
Rooting also lets you install custom ROMs that eliminate the annoying
crapware many manufacturers and carriers include by default. In
addition, custom ROMs can give you the latest version of Android
weeks--or even months--ahead of the carriers' sluggish update
schedules.
Rooted phones can take advantage of some great performance
tweaks--such as CPU overclocking and improved cache management--that
can dramatically speed up Android. You can take advantage of these
options either by installing a ROM that includes them or by
downloading apps from the Android Market that will automatically tweak
settings on your rooted phone for you.
It would be a stretch to say that rooting Android is a necessary
project for most users. In fact, most people should never even try it
on their phones, just as most PC users probably shouldn't attempt to
overclock their processors. But if you're an advanced user (or an
intermediate user with a taste for adventure) and you know the risks,
rooting can help you get a lot more fun and function out of your
Android device.
Get Root
Until fairly recently, rooting Android was a messy process that
required installing the Android Debug Bridge and hacking the phone
from a command line. Fortunately, some industrious hackers have
produced a few simple apps that can root your device in seconds with
the tap of a finger. In this tutorial, I'll discuss two such
apps--Easy Root (for the Motorola Droid, Droid X, and Milestone, and
the HTC/Google Nexus One) and Unrevoked (which supports a variety of
HTC handsets).
It's important to note here that although these one-click root apps
are easy to use, they aren't completely trouble-free. For instance, as
of this writing the developer of Unrevoked 3 is reviewing it to solve
a problem with the HTC EVO 4G (but Unrevoked 2 is still available).
And the latest version of Android, 2.2 (aka Froyo), will present new
challenges for root users as carriers and phone manufacturers continue
to try to block users from hacking their handsets. These obstacles are
a basic reality for anyone attempting to root their device, just as
Apple iPhone users must constantly adapt to Apple's efforts to block
people from jailbreaking the iPhone.
Even though Easy Root and Unrevoked don't work on all Android phones,
they do cover a broad swath of the Android universe. If you're
interested in rooting a Samsung Galaxy or another device, however, you
still have options--they're just not as easy. Because the state of
Android hacking is constantly in flux, your best bet for phones not
covered in this tutorial is to google "root" and the name of your
phone, or to keep an eye on the discussions about your phone on a good
Android forum, such as AllDroid.org.
Step 1: Download a Rooting App
To get started rooting your phone, you need the appropriate app for
your device. If you're using a Droid, Droid X, Milestone, or Nexus
One, you'll want Easy Root. HTC users with an Aria, Desire, Droid
Incredible, EVO 4G, Hero, or Wildfire/Buzz will want to use Unrevoked.
With either of these apps, your first step is to download the app
directly from the developer's Website and put it in the root folder of
your phone's SD Card.
Easy Root downloads as an APK file that's ready to run from the phone,
so you could just download it straight onto the device and tap it in
your file manager app to run it.
Unrevoked downloads as a zipped file with several files inside it. If
you have an unzip utility on your phone, you can download and unzip it
directly on your device. Otherwise, you'll need to unzip it on a PC
and copy the appropriate file to the phone. Because Unrevoked comes in
a few phone-specific files, it's generally best just to copy the
correct file from your PC in the first place. The documentation on the
Unrevoked site clearly explains which file to use for your particular
phone.
Step 2: Install the App
Once you've placed the APK file for your rooting app onto your phone's
SD Card, locate it with a file-management app such as Astro File
Manager and tap it to start the installation. Follow the prompts to
allow the installation. Once this finishes, the rooting app will
appear in the phone's App Drawer. Launch it.
Step 3: Root It
This is the moment of truth. With your newly installed rooting app
launched, tap the option to root the phone. (You may first have to tap
past a warning or disclaimer screen.) Once you tap the button to root
your phone, the app will spend a few seconds running a script that
alters the system's user permissions to allow superuser access and
install a customized recovery image on your phone's System partition.
It will then present you with a screen that says you have root.
In some instances, running Easy Root or Unrevoked on a supported
device and following all the instructions exactly can still result in
an unrooted phone. If this happens to you, don't lose heart. The
developers of these apps are highly responsive to user questions and
feedback, and if you take care to document everything you did and all
of the relevant settings on your device, you stand a good chance of
getting the help you need to root your handset. Or, at the very least,
you could provide valuable information that the developer can use to
update the app and make it work on phones like yours. Just remember:
Rooting is a precarious business for everyone involved, and these
developers have put a lot of work into their projects with very little
promise of reward. So be nice, even if you're frustrated.
Step 4: Reboot
Restart your phone to enable the new root permissions on your device.
Congratulations--your handset should now be rooted.
Now What?
Gaining superuser access to your phone is just the first step in a
vast new territory of Android exploration. Depending on which rooting
app you're using, you may already be enjoying the performance and
usability benefits of a host of enhancements included in your root
recovery image. But there's plenty more to explore.
If your phone doesn't support Wi-Fi tethering out of the box, you can
now add it to your rooted phone. Barnacle is a good, fairly simple app
that exploits root for tethering with or without your carrier's
support.
Root users also have the option to overclock the phone's CPU to give
it a serious performance boost. For this task, it's hard to beat
SetCPU, which offers a friendly slider-bar interface for setting your
phone's clock speed. But be careful: Setting your clock speed too high
can damage your phone permanently.
The ultimate Android hack is to replace your phone's default operating
system with a custom ROM. You have many to choose from, and each has
its own pros and cons. Some ROMs are designed for specific phone
models, and not all Android phones support the installation of a
custom ROM. As of this writing, the Droid X is particularly
problematic in this regard, while handsets such as the Nexus One and
Droid Incredible support a wide variety of ROMs. The best way to find,
install, and manage ROMs is to run ROM Manager, which is available for
free from the Android Market. ROM Manager Premium even offers a large
list of available ROMs that you can download straight from the app
itself.
Have Fun
By now you should have a pretty good handle on working with a rooted
Android device. I've attempted to cover all the basics in this guide,
but there's no shortage of additional tips, tricks, and advice that
can help you improve how Android functions. If you have some tips of
your own to share, please chime in with a comment. And if you think my
attempt to simplify the process has resulted in a significant error or
omission, please let me know by e-mailing rstrohmeyer@pcworld.com.
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