# Noob neediness



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Howdy all,

I have been heavily scrutinizing the Rooting sticky, as I would like to root my Bionic. As the thread title says, however, I am need of some answers to questions that many here might see as fairly basic.

I am not new to Droids, having had the OG Droid until launch day for the Bionic; however, I left my OG stock.

I am fairly knowledgeable about computers, which may help a bit, but should be considered a novice in relation to manipulating this device.

I am posting a list of 17 questions I have: Some of these were answered in the Root sticky, but I have not stricken them from the list as I assume that more input (if offered) would be helpful.

I know that this is a lot of questions, and I don't actually expect any one to answer them all, but any help I can get concerning them would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

1.	SD (ext) in/out?
2.	Titanium backup enough?
3.	What files NOT remove (apk?)
4.	Why matter USB back 'stead of front on tower?
5.	How not threaten OTA updates? What is process to ready rooted phone for OTA?
6.	What needed/how to unRoot? Does unRoot restore to warranty - state?
7.	Can factory - reset after root? Does factory - reset affect SD (ext)? 
8.	How, exactly, find all the bloat want removed?
9.	How to return to warranty - state? How restore bloatware?
10.	What are all necessary utilities?
11.	What is a ROM in this specific context?
12.	Will apps stop disappearing?
13.	What is the difference between rooting and unlocking boot - loader? Does unlocking just mean can manipulate booting order and what apps are booted at startup?
14.	What does it mean to 'brick/unbrick'?
15.	What is 'flashing' a mod, and why do it?
16.	What is 'superuser'? Do I need to browse for a file called this, and remove it? If so; when?
17.	What is Busybox?

Thanks again.


----------



## terryrook (Jun 10, 2011)

Oh wow, that's alot, you really need to do more research but from what I can remember here goes. When you root it installs the superuser apk, it s basically like giving admin access in windows, you can unroot and you can also flash back to stock out of the box condition by a process called sbf, other manufacturers have different methods but the sbf is ours. A ROM or read only memory is basically switching your operating system to a better one, and believe it when I say some kid in a basement in Delaware can make a better OS than a motorola dev team. My fingers are getting tired so I'm gonna stop there for now.


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Thank you Terryrook.

I know it's a lot, and I appreciate your insights.

Actually, I am continually researching this stuff; that's how I've come to have so many questions. Last week I would only have been able to ask "Duh - how does I root dis here Droid thingy?"

Thanks again.


----------



## terryrook (Jun 10, 2011)

ok, I don't have to work until tonight so here goes round 2 man. USB, it doesn't matter which port front or back, whichever one installs your drivers properly I guess, Brick, when you brick your phone it means its nothing more than a brick, it wont boot, it won't do anything but bootloop, unbrick is obvious, flashing a mod is the same process as flashing a rom, mods can do anything from removing the data throttle that verizon puts on you when your over your data right down to installing more ringtones, appearence mods, theres many mods and we flash them because were addicted to hacking our phones and what they offer. Factory reset will not wipe your internal or external (ext) sdcards, you bloatware is things like the blockbuster app, theres a few different ways to remove it and your phone will be faster and you'll notice a little bit better battery life after removal of bloatware, you can factory reset after root but you cant get ota (over the air) updates.

Look, you can always get back to stock, when everyone around here says brick they mean soft brick, its extremely hard to perma brick your phone, all you can really do is create more work for yourself by having to sbf, set everyhting up again, ect. the only real thing to worry about is breaking your phone while rooted, like dropping it, then you prolly cant get back to stock and you'll have to bite the bullet and pay full price, or try to pull one over on them and then pray they dont figure it out in the returns dept. You shouldn't even think about the bootloader, its locked for now, all Rom's do is overwrite the system partition,they don't change the radio, kernel, nothing, I know its overwhelming but millions of rom's have been flashed with few problems considering the numbers, you'll be amazed at the difference from stock, Do your research, get comfortable with rsd lite, make a backup, and copy your backup to your pc just for peace of mind, you'll be an addict soon enough. Just like me.


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Thanks again Terryrook; that's alot of info.

I successfully rooted using the Pete method; I also got rid of my VZW bloat, but have yet to remove NFL, Blockbuster, etc.

Only odd thing I have noticed is that the task manager has notified me that my CPU usage is very high sometimes: This is only when I am playing videos, with nothing else running; however, since this never happened pre-root, I can't help but wonder about a connection. Could just be a coincidence, though.

I made a backup w/ Titanium immediately after root; I will be copying onto my PC after dinner.

I had been wondering why one would bother to unroot. I started thinking that maybe after removing all the bloat I might unroot as a means of not inadvertently harming my phone through short-sighted app installing, but now that I read your response it seems sensible to unroot in order to protect against harming my phone through my own clumsiness, or as a result of having small children and an equally clumsy wife.

Lastly, I'm well on my way to being addicted to this; the fact that I'm prone to this sort of addiction is why I have procrastinated doing this for so long (never modded my OG Droid). Since I have finally grown bored of modding PC games (until Skyrim), this seemed like the proper time to start learning how to mod my phone.

Thanks again.


----------



## terryrook (Jun 10, 2011)

Anytime man, we were all newbs once, a couple more things, task managers are unneccesary unless your running older versions of android, if you unroot you wont be able to add the bloat back, without the bloat you cant recieve updates, the update packages look for a complete stock phone before going forward, but you can root and unroot as many times as you want, plus titanium wont work unless your rooted, the backup I was referring to is a backup in clockwork recovery via the bionic bootstrap, it backs up everything your phone is right now, every setting, widget, ringtone, everything.

Anyone reading this and thinking about romming should back up their contacts to gmail if you havent already, you will lose them if you flash a rom or factory reset, you can export them to a csv file on your sdcard and import them if you ever need to but gmail is where its at, they will auto restore right when you sign in on your phone.


----------



## adroidman (Jun 29, 2011)

FYI TI is not enough. You need to make a backup in CWM this is called your nandroid backup. It is a backup of everything not just apps. If anything goes wrong if you can get into CWM flash your nandroid and it should fix everything. If you have anymore questions please post them. Were all here to help you out


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Gentleman,

I hope you don't think that my lack of response for the latest round of helpful responses indicates ingratitude, 'cause that would be far from the truth.

In the spirit of actual learning, I have been busily tinkering w/ my Bionic even while referencing the helpful and insightful information that you have given me; as I'm sure you will appreciate - the best learnin' comes from doin', influenced of course by long - haired books (as Foghorn Leghorn would say), or the equivalent, which I have found here.

I am now the proud owner of a fully rooted Bionic, bereft of the worst bloatiness, w/ a smidgeon of idiosyncratic removals of apps (such as the social - network ones). Further, using Bootstrap I was able to make back - ups of my system at each point of major change, which I have verified by restoring to various earlier states. As it stands, I am very happy with the changes I have made. Also, it has been a lot of fun puzzling my way through the various processes.

Again: The help I have received is greatly appreciated. As all good information should do, that which I received here led me to further useful finds, such as verified lists of safely removable apps per the Bionic; all of which made this a fairly painless process w/ comparatively little anxiety.

I do still have a couple of questions/concerns, however:

1.	Will cut/pasting the backups from the Clockwork folder that I intend to cut from my SD external to my PC suffer if I need to re - paste them to the SD external for the purpose of restoration?

2.	Is there any point to unRooting? Is there any point to not unRooting?

3.	When there is an OTA update, does installing the FXZ file I got from the link in the sticky (I think) fool the update into thinking my phone has never been rooted, or is there more that will need to be done (uninstalling Bootstrapper, deleting Superuser, etc.)?

4.	Otherwise, when installing the update through 3rd. party channels, will I need to unRoot?

Thanks again; you're help has been greatly appreciated and very useful.

Iullus Cornelius Smegmus Magnus Pantocrator


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

...there is one more question (read; that I remember, now): Referencing when I mentioned, above, that while playing videos I get a notification from a task manager saying my CPU is sky-high, and was told that using a task manager is pointless w/ Bionic---I believe that this manager is stock.

That's not the problem, though; the problem is how to regulate CPU usage, so as to avoid this difficulty.

Any suggestions?

Thank you,again.


----------



## adroidman (Jun 29, 2011)

1.	Will cut/pasting the backups from the Clockwork folder that I intend to cut from my SD external to my PC suffer if I need to re &#150; paste them to the SD external for the purpose of restoration?
Should not have a problem unless you mess with the files, such as unzipping renaming moving the files around.

2.	Is there any point to unRooting? Is there any point to not unRooting?
Some people like to get the official OTA so they unroot. Or if your phone is having a problem.

3.	When there is an OTA update, does installing the FXZ file I got from the link in the sticky (I think) fool the update into thinking my phone has never been rooted, or is there more that will need to be done (uninstalling Bootstrapper, deleting Superuser, etc.)?
You will need to FXZ and it returns the phone to stock unrooted it does not fool it. Its like it wad never rooted at all. I personally don't recommend getting OTA.

4.	Otherwise, when installing the update through 3rd. party channels, will I need to unRoot?
don't understand the question sorry.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using RootzWiki Forums


----------



## adroidman (Jun 29, 2011)

"Smegmus Magnus said:


> ...there is one more question (read; that I remember, now): Referencing when I mentioned, above, that while playing videos I get a notification from a task manager saying my CPU is sky-high, and was told that using a task manager is pointless w/ Bionic---I believe that this manager is stock.
> 
> That's not the problem, though; the problem is how to regulate CPU usage, so as to avoid this difficulty.
> 
> ...


Try killing some Apps before watching the movie. The app will kill them if you tell it to.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using RootzWiki Forums


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Is the fact that the CPU is running so high dangerous for my phone? I know that it is more prone to force closes when it is running > 90%, but I am unsure of other effects.

Thanks


----------



## adroidman (Jun 29, 2011)

Im not sure. I mean it should never be running that high because its dual core. I've tried to push it and have yet to have any problems.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using RootzWiki Forums


----------



## terryrook (Jun 10, 2011)

I agree with adroidman, you should never be at 90 percent CPU usage. What exactly do you run on your phone that eats up that much? Also, what are you looking at that tells you your at 90?


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

I really don't know what could be running to cause such a thing.

Possibilities:

- am using MX player, which is supposed to be designed for dual-core. Think I will visit devs Google group (he's pretty responsive) and see what he says; he already told me he would be producing a TI OMAP version.

-It seems to be the stock Task Manager which is making the notification; I wonder if there is a similar dynamic here to the problem I've read about concerning the battery notification icon not indicating juice-level accurately. Thus, maybe the usage is not actually as high as is being indicated.

I downloaded System Tuner (?), and it's assessment of CPU usage is dramatically lower than the notifications indicate.

Other than these possibilities I would have no clue, as I am not running anything other than whatever programs typically start on their own.


----------



## adroidman (Jun 29, 2011)

I would not worry about it. Liberty is working on a ROM and im testing it now. It does not include the stock task manager. When it is released I recommend flashing it. It should fix the problem of the notifications. I believe it is just a bug in the program. Because there is no way that you could ever get that high

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using RootzWiki Forums


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Thanks again, Adroidman.


----------



## terryrook (Jun 10, 2011)

adroidman said:


> I would not worry about it. Liberty is working on a ROM and im testing it now. It does not include the stock task manager. When it is released I recommend flashing it. It should fix the problem of the notifications. I believe it is just a bug in the program. Because there is no way that you could ever get that high
> 
> Sent from my DROID BIONIC using RootzWiki Forums


Exactly, no ****ing way it could be that high, mine shows barely any use at all when watching videos, as long as its not getting hot.


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

I agree that a bug seems the most reasonable explanation: However, there is a potential problem w/ that conclusion; IF this is the result of a task manager bug, THEN would the media player itself force close? This seems questionable, unless there is an underlying moderating mechanism in the kernel, responding to the red-herring notification, which causes the force close, rather than MX Player causing the shutdown directly.

Seems like I may vaguely remember reading, in the weeks leading up to Bionic release, that there were such monitoring mechanisms included in the OS.

Any illumination on this would be interesting and helpful.

Also, referencing what Terryrook stated directly above, my device does get slightly warm, but not any more so than when playing some games.


----------



## terryrook (Jun 10, 2011)

Warm is normal, why they would inlude a task manager to worry people is beyond me, android does a great job of managing its own tasks without any interference from us, when I was running android 1.5 they were a good thing but now..... Have you tried any other media players? I use qq video player and its never let me down, also are you streaming videos from say you tube or anything? or are these sdcard videos, if your streaming and syncing facebook data and getting emails and texts your phone is being bombarded but I've still never experienced an fc on my media player, even on the most heavy usage day I've had, but I only watch movies from my sdcard so theres not much to interfere with it, try a different player and see whats up, I ignore the task manager, in fact, I think I removed it.


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

I'm playing from SD card.

I just now got a CPU usage notification; all I've been doing for the last hour is web-browsing.


----------



## terryrook (Jun 10, 2011)

have you tried a different media player to see if it helps?


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Okay: have been experimenting w/ various players (qq, moby, double-twist, etc.); experienced the CPU usage notification, regardless.

My thoughts/questions:

---I may have removed something which might ought not to have been removed. Though I used safe-removal lists posted by people w/ 10,000+ posts on obviously long-frequented Android forums, the Bionic is so new that there may be errors.

---it's possible I did something wrong without knowing it.

---the files I am playing are unconverted .avi files (thus, large): could that be the problem?

---I wonder if unRooting and using the FXZ file, for stock restoration, might be a fundamentally important attempt towards understanding this phenomena?

Again; thanks for any insight. You have (all) been very helpful.


----------



## terryrook (Jun 10, 2011)

"Smegmus Magnus said:


> Okay: have been experimenting w/ various players (qq, moby, double-twist, etc.); experienced the CPU usage notification, regardless.
> 
> My thoughts/questions:
> 
> ...


All ive used was the toolbox that tbh put out. Now im running the unleashed rom. I too play unconverted avi files with no issue. Its possible you removed something you shouldn't have.


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

I was beginning to suspect that; now I have an alternative explanation to explore.

I was looking around in an app called System Tuner when I noticed that CPU0 was at 1 ghz., while CPU1 was at 300 mhz.

I have set both to 1 ghz. and made sure that the governor is set to 'performance', as well as setting the stock Battery profile to 'performance'.

I'll update you when enough time has passed to guage results.


----------



## terryrook (Jun 10, 2011)

I was just checking that app out and i would leave it alone. I would also change the gov back to mot hotplug.
Why dont you just go into your task manager settings and disable the notification.


----------



## Snow02 (Jun 14, 2011)

What are the stats on the video you're trying to play?
Codec
Resolution
Bitrate

Same three for the audio portion.

If they are encoded with a codec that the bionic doesn't have acceleration for, that could be a problem. If they're HD with a really high bitrate, also a problem.


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Terryhook,

---howz'come leave it alone? Because it is so new?

---the problem w/ turning off the notification is that I've come to believe that it is not actually a bug that is the underlying problem. I think this because because of the twin symptoms of my phone heating up more than I think it should (due to my 2 yrs. of OG Droid), and the fact that once the notification shows up the force closings follow close behind.


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Snow02,

Resolutions are variable across instances, which is probably the case w/ bitrates.

I'll get back w/ you about the range of these variables: I'm less sure about codecs, though; I thought they we're defined by the file types they allowed to function.

Thanks for lookin' to help.


----------



## terryrook (Jun 10, 2011)

"Smegmus Magnus said:


> Terryhook,
> 
> ---howz'come leave it alone? Because it is so new?
> 
> ---the problem w/ turning off the notification is that I've come to believe that it is not actually a bug that is the underlying problem. I think this because because of the twin symptoms of my phone heating up more than I think it should (due to my 2 yrs. of OG Droid), and the fact that once the notification shows up the force closings follow close behind.


My settings were 300 and 1000 too. Also i havent heard anything about the other governors for this phone. Mot hotplug is what my stock gov setting is and i would just leave it alone until we know more. Have you disabled notification to see if it still force closes?


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Terryrook,

...apologize for spelling your name wrong above.

Well--I can tentatively claim success concerning the video playback dilemma. I went ahead and flashed the Threshold rom and all has been working very nicely.

Why do you think that System Tuner should be regarded warily? Is it because it is knew, or is it because the Bionic is so new that a noobie probably ought not mess around w/ some of the settings it allows manipulating (a valid point which I accept)?

@Snow02,

Thanks again for your willingness to help; I still don't know the answers to each of your questions, as I was up very late involved in various projects.

Iullus Cornelius Smegmus Magnus Pantocrator


----------



## terryrook (Jun 10, 2011)

You are right about what I thought about system tuner, I just haven't heard anything about anyone successfully changing the governor with long term stable results. As for my name missplelling I dont care man, however you want to spell it is fine with me,


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Oops; meant to say 'Unleashed" rom above; no idea why I wrote 'Threshold"


----------



## Terri M (Jul 6, 2011)

Smegmus Magnus said:


> ---I wonder if unRooting and using the FXZ file, for stock restoration, might be a fundamentally important attempt towards understanding this phenomena?


You don't need to unroot in order to use the FXZ. I used the FXZ for the first time yesterday, and it restored all the files I had renamed to .bak back to factory. It also removed root privileges, but it DID NOT remove all the applications I downloaded, nor did it remove any of my user data. Just don't wipe your data before using the FXZ.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

Remember to hit the "Thanks" button when someone helps you!


----------



## Smegmus Magnus (Sep 20, 2011)

Terri M,

Thank for the input; I already did the same exact thing, unrooted, w/ the same results you got.


----------

