Android Power Users: Root and Full Customisation of Androids Part 1

Different skins of Android (from left to right: Sense 4 by HTC Coporation, MotoBlur by Motorola Mobility, TouchWiz Nature UX by Samsung Corporation)
Source: http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17qwgbodw8nfzjpg/ku-xlarge.jpg

There are many smartphones running the Android platform made by the different manufacturers. And each manufacturer placed their own skin onto the phone in order to differentiate and attempt to outstand their phone from their competition. There is the "vanilla" skin from Google on the Nexus series, the "TouchWiz" skin from Samsung on the Samsung Galaxy series of phones, the "Sense" skin from HTC on the HTC Android line and so on. However, what happens if you like the phone, but dislike the OEM skin? Or if you're a power user that likes to have full control of your device? Well, on Android, there is a way that enables you to do either of that, and that method is known as rooting.

Logo of CyanogenMod 7
(Source: http://bit.ly/1aB0QHT)

So, what is meant by rooting in Android? And also, what is a power user? Rooting, is an process which grants the user global administrative privileges of the device, also known in the linux world as a superuser. With the superuser (su) permission on the phone, the user is able to modify and system files, customize and install custom recoveries and bootloaders, as well as load various "custom ROMs" that are created to completely change the look of your device. One popular custom ROM, is known as CyanogenMod, which

is a customized version of the AOSP version of Android.

Superuser command (su) allows access to
file locations previously denied

What is a power user then? Power Users in Android, are users who likes to control everything about their phone, such as how fast their processor should run, what system app is present, and so on. With root and su, power users are able to overclock their device to improve performance, underclock/undervolt their device to conserve battery power, view previously inaccessible files, remove unnecessary system applications/files that are previously unremovable, that is constantly taking up space, RAM and CPU time and so much more. The possibilities are endless with root permissions (su).

Unlike users of the Apple iOS or Microsoft Windows Phone, where the companies (Apple and Microsoft respectively) does not like or allow users to obtain such "root" privileges (commonly known as "jailbreak" on

HTCDev.com Official bootloader unlock tool for HTC Devices

iOS and Windows Phone), Google allows and encourages people who knows what they are doing (mainly power users), to unlock and attain such privileges (as shown by the easy way of rooting a Nexus, more details in Part 2). Their Nexus devices are locked and restricted solely due to the fact that they have to keep in mind and protect the general users from unknowingly messing up their phone. While in the past, the other manufacturers in the AOSP are against rooting, constantly trying means to prevent and patch up security exploits used by Power users to obtain root access on their phone. However, more and more manufacturers are loosing up on their policies over rooting, most notably manufacturers such as HTC and Sony, who have released official bootloader unlocking tools for people who wish to unlock and access all parts of their phones.

Warning from Google on unlocking
bootloader on the Galaxy Nexus

That being said however, Google, as well as the other manufacturers in AOSP, has a clause stating that users
will be voiding certain parts of their warranty (mainly the Software) in rooting their device. This is because each phone has been tested to ensure that the phone will not have software or configurations that may be detrimental to the phone. By rooting, the user is able to modify the software and configurations such that they might consequently corrupt their phones, with the worse case being a radio brick (caused by a corrupted radio image or corrupted radio partition). Because of the warranty void, the manufacturers are not liable for

anything that happens to the phone due to user modifications on the phone. This is used to protect the manufacturers from suffering losses due to having to replace phones that is damaged due to the user.

In the next part, we will be talking more in depth about to how to root certain devices with their respective unlocking tool, as well as some useful root applications available on the Google Play Store