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[Q] To root or not to root... newbie questions

Hello All,
I am new to the forum. And the more I read on this forum and others re: rooting, the less I feel I understand. I'm decent on computers but tech speak (as I call it) somewhat eludes me. I posted this on another forum and no one has really answered my questions. Hopefully you all can give me succinct and simple answers/advice.
I have a G2 that I adore. The only thing I hate is the bloatware that came on it. I want to get rid of the crap. In searching methods to do so I learned about rooting. So now I am on the fence as to whether or not I want to root or not.
I have heard that someone people experience better performance when they root, but not many go into specifics on what kind of enhanced performance they noticed (eg. internet speed, call clarity, battery life, etc.). If I could get rid of the bloatware, get faster performance (especially when web browsing), and other benefits I wouldn't mind figuring out how to root. What kind of benefits do you notice with rooting? Is it worth rooting since it has been announced that a new version (gingerbread) is supposed to be coming out soon, or is this new version not that much of a big deal?
Is there a program or app (hopefully in the market) that will root for me? If so can it also unroot and bring me back to my original state? Is rooting that easy?
Also what is a ROM, and what does it mean to flash? I semi understand what this is. I'm not confident in my understanding of it though. I understand it to be a file or app that can alter phone settings once rooted. I do think the actual meaning and purpose of ROMs go deeper than that, but a little clarity would be helpful.
Lastly, what does clocking out mean? I have seen a few charts, and people throwing out numbers and saying they are impressive but no one describes what clocking out means. It seem to be something involving speed, but speed in what aspect (eg. web browsing?).
I have never rooted a phone before, but I am willing to try it out if the rewards and enhancements are that much greater. And I also like to tinker with and fully utilize and understand my favorite gadgets from time to time.

Android is a Linux OS. Having root access is like having admin access in Windows. You can modify the system in any way you want. You can do temp root on the G2 but with temp root, all the bloatware you have will come back after a reboot (to my understanding, please correct me if I'm wrong.)
There are plenty of guides to doing a full complete root. It includes flashing an HBOOT (the screen you get when you turn the phone on by pressing the back arrow) and that can brick your phone if done wrong. READ! READ! READ!
Flashing a ROM is like installing an OS on a computer. There are plenty of Fro-Yo (2.2 ROMS) Fro-Yo with HTC Sense on top or even Gingerbread ROMs (like CyanogenMod 7 nightlies.) You can install any of them but make sure the ROM comes from the G2 section of the forum to avoid any problems.
In my experience, Custom ROMs are MUCH faster than stock. All those extra things that they tweak/add really makes a difference. I rooted two android phones before and Custom ROMs always make the phone much more enjoyable.
Overclocking or clocking is setting the speed of the CPU. Every phone (even if they are the same phone) has a slight difference in the CPU. Some can clock higher than others and remain stable. Overclocking helps in CPU intensive apps like web browsing, and games. It makes the experience much smoother. The side effect is decreased battery life (since you are over clocking past the factory settings).
This is all I can explain to you. Hope someone else who is more experienced in Android helps you.

Thank you so much! A lot of what you said just helped make everything I have been reading make a little more sense. Thank you soo much! Here is another question what is S-Off? I have seen it in a ton of places now since researching further into rooting.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=789498

[Q] why should i root my xoom

im a recent android convert. i can jailbreak my iphone in my sleep and can list plenty of reasons to do that but im very much unfamiliar with rooting and what the pros and cons are

Backups, overclocking, freedom...but there is already a ton of these questions in the forum already answered

angry6 said:
im a recent android convert. i can jailbreak my iphone in my sleep and can list plenty of reasons to do that but im very much unfamiliar with rooting and what the pros and cons are
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
put into a simple perspective.
un-root = using a windows/mac computer with a non-administrator user.
you come to a limit where you can only do certain things the administrator allows you to do.
root = you are the administrator of your tablet. you do what you like.

Rooting will allow you to to remove system apps you dont want, tether, OC, and best of all, install beefed up kernels. I use the Tiamat kernels and they are awesome. As mentioned above it gives you the freedom and complete control over your device. If you have a list of reasons why your root your Iphone, then you should already know why you need to root your Xoom...

Because you can.
...xoom posted...

I have personally not botherered rooting my Xoom or my nexus S, if you are just looking to install downloaded apps manually which I do then you don't need root. I found no advantage at all to rooting and I haven't felt i'm missing out on doing anything with my devices.
Its personal preference, I keep my warranty and can still do everything I need.

You won't be playing ps1 games at constant 60 fps without tiamat. One practical reason if you care about games, just a example.

*****deleted*****

The main reason I root is over locking and root only apps. Things like A free android and cache cleaner are a couple examples. But running your xoom at overclock speeds is like a whole new tablet experience

You can install Ubuntu on your Xoom and run it through VnC. You can root for SD card support and USB tethering.

Why do people not root?

What's the reason for people not rooting? There have been 1 click installers since July. I still see people posting like it's some wild thing only 1337 h4x0rs do when my grandma rooted her phone.
Or people weighing the benefits and debating whether or not to do it. It takes 15 minutes to unroot it back to stock(if you have a good sd card) so what's all the fuss about it? I've yet to see a brick made by anything other than physical damage. maybe a bad BIOS flash or firmware update would do it to computer parts but the tablets are pretty hard to brick.
inb4 "enjoying stock experience". buy an ipad for that.

pretty easy to brick actually, if I didn't have nvflash access to my device I would have bricked my device half a dozen times by now. I've also bricked my Galaxy Tab 7" twice now.

Also, starting with some B70s, there was no one click for quite some time, until Razorclaw

Personally, I haven't had much of a reason to root mine. I've had a rooted G1 and currently use a rooted Nexus S.. only because I knew I could make it better by flashing a custom ROM. The Transformer runs well enough for me out of the box.

I like my devices rooted, but I can understand if people don't want to root. There are plenty of threads that start out "Help, I tried to root, but now I'm screwed!" It's certainly not rocket science, but there is a risk and I can understand if some people don't want to take that risk with their tablet, time, or money.
I would guess that some people don't want to follow every thread here on XDA to figure out if Nachoroot will root the .21 firmware that was rooted with Razorclaw on the .19 firmware, but borked by the OTA. I'm not even sure what the answer to that is?
Lastly, maybe people actually use their tablets as tablets?? I thought they were portable Android! playgrounds where the trick to the puzzle was to root the OTA before you're forced to flash it. I enjoy my tablet, but the IT guy at work asks me why I need to root it and I can't come up with a great reason why other than I can.

hkt03 said:
Personally, I haven't had much of a reason to root mine. I've had a rooted G1 and currently use a rooted Nexus S.. only because I knew I could make it better by flashing a custom ROM. The Transformer runs well enough for me out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. My phone is rooted and running a rom pretty much because out of the box, it was down right horrible to use (and on most occasions I love having the latest and the greatest) .
With my Transformer, speed has never been an issue. Asus has done a great job with Honeycomb for the TF101. It never feels slow or laggy.
I can say, however, that if there was a sure-fire way to recover from a brick on SBKv2 devices (nvflash), I would experiment a little more with custom roms.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA App

But for voodoo control plus I could live without root. Don't get me wrong I love all the goodies it brings like titanium backup pro and so on; but essentially because no manufacturer to date has properly implemented in hardware and software the hardware audio capabilities of any android device, I always buy a wolfson based voodoo supported device and seek root.
(Please no one make any claims about audio particularly in that HTC beats software based bollocks they are ripping people off with!).
The question of why Tf101 users aren't rooting is different. Look at the ilk or breeding of TF101 users in xda as opposed (for arguments sake) to those nexus s users here. By comparison the TF101 users are greener than the grass in Ireland.
But I believe it comes from this :
The vast majority of mobile phone owners will use their phones and be done with it.
Tablet owners on the other hand, no matter how uber noob will be more likely to congregate to gather advice and solutions as if we are honest - it ain't no iPad.
This in mind I fully understand the amount of totally over excited kids it seems are hanging around salivating awaiting the official ICS.
I use my tf101 for a multitude of things. Only really my love of music needs root. I'm down with the situation, all is cool.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

I don't think I could live without AdFree.

Why not to root? I don't understand either!
I daily use the rooted part of my transformer:
* Anyconnect to get on the vpn network
* Hidebar to hide the bottom systembar
* chroot to get to a Debian image on it
* modified hosts to limit ads

ppirate said:
Why not to root? I don't understand either!
I daily use the rooted part of my transformer:
* Anyconnect to get on the vpn network
* Hidebar to hide the bottom systembar
* chroot to get to a Debian image on it
* modified hosts to limit ads
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 i agree
weekly basis for me
script manager / always trying scripts n tweaks
root explorer /system etc always playing round
titanium backup (update my backup daily)
ADW.ex as a system app and dolphin browser hd that required root right
upd8r, vodoo, systune, ttorrent, my masses of emulators
logcats , tools, etc
I use root everyday and love it !!
Sent from my tf Enigmatic V2 beta 1.65Ghz Panda.test cust kernel settings

ppirate said:
Why not to root? I don't understand either!
I daily use the rooted part of my transformer:
* Anyconnect to get on the vpn network
* Hidebar to hide the bottom systembar
* chroot to get to a Debian image on it
* modified hosts to limit ads
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not everyone needs VPN.
Not everyone needs to hide the bottom systembar.
Not everione wants a Debian image in it
Not everyone is that bothered with the few ads they might bump into.
Really, the kind of people who think that rooting the device is a MUST seem just like the bunch of Android fanboys that have to scream at people buying Apple products. "It's better! Don't use that!"
People have to realize that some times there's just no particular reason for certain things, and rooting is one of them. There's just no particular reason for some people.
Did I rooted my device? Yes.
Have I been using it for many purposes requiring root? Not quite, even though I will.
The reason why I required root was for certain things like using a custom ROM that would allow me to, coupled with the dock, use a 3G dongle and being able to have a SSH tunnel to make secure use of certain open networks.
But beyond that I don't have that much use to it.
Some people simply don't need to "play around", or access parts of their device that they don't need if they aren't rooted at all.
The TF is a functional device.
Android is a customizable and open OS.
Some people are plain happy with it, and root wouldn't give them anything more.

I'm glad to find this thread. I currently use a rooted hd2 and I have a tf101 and I have been unable to decide weather to root or not.
What are the benefits of rooting this device?
Sent from my HD2 using xda premium

it's the same benefit as you get with rooting your phone... wifikill is a great app. overclocking is a huge feature. I'm at 1.7GHz. stock is 1GHz.
root lets me have control of everything. I uninstalled gmail because it is useless to me, and instead I use the ICS email app.

kylew1212 said:
I'm glad to find this thread. I currently use a rooted hd2 and I have a tf101 and I have been unable to decide weather to root or not.
What are the benefits of rooting this device?
Sent from my HD2 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
read first page and thats just a few of the benefits
but i agree its a choice that everyone should have and not all people like root
but for the people that are debating it thats enough for me to pipe in and say do it!!
Sent from my tf Enigmatic V2 beta 1.65Ghz Panda.test cust kernel settings

Some people either just don't know about rooting and what it provides, while some people know the benefits but don't wish to seek them just because they don't want to take a risk, even a slim one.

All my phones are rooted but I have no desire to root my TF.
I don't have to remove anything off I don't use. If I didn't know it was required to own an Android device you had to root it. It must be something wrong with me.

Wolfson DAC with Voodoo Control Plus app
wildestpixel said:
But for voodoo control plus I could live without root. Don't get me wrong I love all the goodies it brings like titanium backup pro and so on; but essentially because no manufacturer to date has properly implemented in hardware and software the hardware audio capabilities of any android device, I always buy a wolfson based voodoo supported device and seek root.
(Please no one make any claims about audio particularly in that HTC beats software based bollocks they are ripping people off with!).
The question of why Tf101 users aren't rooting is different. Look at the ilk or breeding of TF101 users in xda as opposed (for arguments sake) to those nexus s users here. By comparison the TF101 users are greener than the grass in Ireland.
But I believe it comes from this :
The vast majority of mobile phone owners will use their phones and be done with it.
Tablet owners on the other hand, no matter how uber noob will be more likely to congregate to gather advice and solutions as if we are honest - it ain't no iPad.
This in mind I fully understand the amount of totally over excited kids it seems are hanging around salivating awaiting the official ICS.
I use my tf101 for a multitude of things. Only really my love of music needs root. I'm down with the situation, all is cool.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Voodoo Control Plus on both my Asus TF101 and Nexus S is a tremendous enhancement that I couldn't replace. You have to really hear it once to fully understand. This is also the first app I have bought for the android OS.
For other tools (backups, logs, network tools...), root is really usefull, but for an audiophile, it's a necessity (the only alternative is another device in the pocket, as the Cowon J3 I still use, or a portable headphone amp).

All my devices have been rooted out of choice. I could just as easily be unrooted and still be happy. Current best reason I have is Titanium Backup; ).
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk

Well, everything I own is rooted, but my new Galaxy Nexus lost ability to write to internal memory after two weeks. I'm sure it was an electronic failure, but since it was rooted you can't get it returned under warranty and you couldn't unroot it cause you couldn't write to the memory. Without the insurance that would been a $750 problem.
Sent from my old Incredible while awaiting replacement Galaxy Nexus

ive always rooted just because i like to tinker and like the results that can be had. i too must have voodoo its just night and day differences. i was stuck stock on the tf101 for a couple months waiting for razorclaw and didnt have too many complaints other than a little laggy and a few fc's here and there. then once rooted running a custom rom oc'ed and tweaked, there was just no going back . stoch honeycomb is fine but modded honeycomb is just slick. i am very thoughtful of bricking and dont go flashing every new thing out there cuz there isnt a way to unbrick my sbkv2 device, but i couldnt go back to stock it would be completely a downgrade.
of course this is all preference and opinion.

new to forum and android

hi guys, as tittle newby! dont know much about custom roms and what the phone is capable off doing! im running a htc one s on o2, great phone have had some reception issues apart from that i would like to learn more about what these phones are capable off doing and what would be the advantage off a custom rom!? thanks in advance

Welcome and have some fun.. Lots of great information in these threads.

hellopips said:
hi guys, as tittle newby! dont know much about custom roms and what the phone is capable off doing! im running a htc one s on o2, great phone have had some reception issues apart from that i would like to learn more about what these phones are capable off doing and what would be the advantage off a custom rom!? thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey mate, welcome to the forums, there's lots to find here
Firstly, seeing as you're new to Android, it can be a bit overwhelming at times to get the most out of your phone. Start small, basic functions, then dive into the Google Play store for awesome apps to make your phone better (even without custom ROMs). To to find what the phone is capable of, just spend some time fiddling around with all the features, try every setting and the like to see what it does!
Here's a general rule: If you're happy with the way your phone is behaving now and the thought of flashing customs ROMs scares you, stock is good
However, being on the bleeding edge can have advantages:
--Installing custom ROMs can give you features that are not yet available via official channels
--Custom ROMs give an even greater amount of control ability on your phone and give you the ability to do things like changing the boot screen on your phone, and many many others.
--They allow you to run things that weren't designed to run on your phone or allow you to overclock your processor for maximum speed (at your own risk of course)
--Often they allow you to remove bloatware and useless apps that you couldn't remove before.
The list is endless. If you want a custom ROM though, you'll need to ROOT. Thats what XDA is all about
If you're keen, there's great info on everything One S related on the Wiki:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/HTC_One_S

nice one:good: now i have a new Q lol what is rooting :silly:
i like the phone its quick and smooth and dare i say seems better than the s3 my opinion,
my only let down is the signal others on other phones same network are getting better reception than me is there anything i can do to improve signal strength, sorry for overload off q's.

No problem Rooting is when you run an exploit on your device that gives you "root" access to the Android file system to do administrative tasks, install apps without the Store, tweak your phone and more. Here's a good explanantion from Wikipedia:
Rooting is often performed with the goal of overcoming limitations that carriers and hardware manufacturers put on some devices, resulting in the ability to alter or replace system applications and settings, run specialized apps that require administrator-level permissions, or perform other operations that are otherwise inaccessible to a normal Android user
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha the CPU indeed is better in day-to-day tasks then the Exynos in the GS3 (except of course gaming) the benchmarks show that uh yeah I've experienced that too, some people say try toggling Settings>Mobile Network>Network Mode>GSM only/WCDMA only but the GSM only restricts data speeds to EGDE.
Is this the problem? : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1616350&highlight=mobile+network+signal+issue

ive not tried turning phone on and off, i just find when i go rc racing every 1 has good 3g or H so there able to use browser, weres if im lucky i mite get E or G ill try the settings you sent us and see what happens

signal
cheers for the heads up, i tried it but didnt do much to improve! oh well. im now looking into rooting and custom roms, as from what ive read it can help speed up the phones performance but im not very clue up on the best way to do it or what rom to use is a numpty guide available step by step on how and what to use. cheers

hellopips said:
cheers for the heads up, i tried it but didnt do much to improve! oh well. im now looking into rooting and custom roms, as from what ive read it can help speed up the phones performance but im not very clue up on the best way to do it or what rom to use is a numpty guide available step by step on how and what to use. cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recommend thoroughly reading on it first, and knowing what to do if something goes wrong etc. Also, rooting may void your warranty, just to inform you beforehand.

usaff22 said:
I recommend thoroughly reading on it first, and knowing what to do if something goes wrong etc. Also, rooting may void your warranty, just to inform you beforehand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cheers buddy been reading up on it just cant find a good step by step easy to follow tutorial for beginners.

[Q] Is it even worth rooting/modding?

Is the Shield Tablet even worth rooting. I mean, it is stock android with Nvidia stuff. And rooting it just takes away the Nvidia logo when turning it on, and its few apps that do more good than harm. Is there a mod out there that will beat out Lollypop? Only thing I can really think of is Carbon KitKat, and I'm not sure if the Tablet runs crappy because of the hardware or because of the software. I haven't been in the scene for a while (and when I was I wasn't there for long), but my swag snapback wearing friend put Cyanogen on his phone (yes, they're evolving) from the Cyanogen website. Has this in it's essence killed the development for systems since they made it easier to run the OS? Much of the ricing vocabulary is jargon for me, so please explain it instead of avoiding it, for example I don't know the difference between a root vs. recovery vs. rom vs. kernel and TWRP vs ClockworkMod, Unofficial mods vs official.
What do you guys run? What do you recommend visual appeal, and what do you recommend for performance? Can I possibly run Carbon Kitkat while keeping the nVidia apps?

Mehhh I only rooted for xposed modules... honestly stock lollipop with a ntfs SD card to get around the SD card issues and root really isn't a factor in performance. Just using like gravity box and an ad block. I think if you have a lte version it may be more useful so u can mess with radios but I can't vouch for that.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

I only rooted for viper audio. Major improvement then without

I'd say its definitely worth it for the fact that you can move all your games off of the internal storage onto the SD card using virtualized directories (ie FolderMount) so the data appears on internal storage but actually resides on your SD (load times have been fine for me with a 64 GB class 10, HL2, Portal, TT Games, etc.)...although I'd probably root either way just for a few specific root apps and the fact I root every android device I ever get.
Side note: PLEASE don't use NTFS on flash storage (unless you absolutely have to)...it doesn't know how to cope with it and over time will have degraded performance. Use exFAT, it was pretty much made for this purpose. I've heard people having issues with exFAT on the shield (specifically 128 GB SDs it seems), but my 64 GB worked perfectly on KitKat and now on LolliPop

Since you're not familiar to the terminology, I'll give you the "concise" (I sometimes ramble...) summary of my understanding:
1. Rooting is giving yourself full administrative power over every single file and operation on your phone. Use this power responsibly, meaning think twice before executing a command and bear the consequences like an adult (or enjoy the benefits like a giddy goof!)
2. Recovery is a partition on your device's storage. Stock recovery usually only automatically performs the one task of factory reset/wipe of your device's data, but a custom recovery can allow you to flash (install) programs or even a customized version of the whole operating system (a custom ROM).
3. ROM technically stands for "Read-Only-Memory" but these days it refers to the actual operating system that's residing within that read-only-memory. You've heard of the Cyanogen ROM, which really means Cyanogen's customized operating system for your read-only-memory.
4. Kernel is basically a magical piece of software that tells your device's hardware how to function. So, if you use the wrong kernel, your device's hardware won't know how to function properly and you'll run into problems. But using a customized or optimized kernel will allow your hardware to function much more efficiently or unlock abilities that your hardware didn't know it could do (e.g. undervolting to save power, communicating with USB devices via USB on-the-go, etc.)
5. TWRP and ClockworkMod are both examples of very popular recovery partitions. Some people prefer one over the other. I personally like TWRP because it has an easier to use interface for me.
6. Unofficial vs official mods are best discussed using an example like a cyanogen ROM. An unofficial cyanogen mod means that it's not officially made by the Cyanogen team and is therefore not supported so you can't go crying to Cyanogen if you've messed up your device using an unofficial mod. Official mods are the stuff officially released by Cyanogen and will be fully supported by their team.
I hope the above helps with your understanding of some terminology. Below, I describe my opinions on whether rooting / custom ROMs are worth it.
I'm currently using the nVidia stock firmware, so I'm not using a custom ROM. The downside is that I miss out on the great customized features like clearing all recent apps from memory, or holding the Overlay button to switch to my last-used app, etc. The upside is that I get to use the nVidia-specific features, such as stylus-only mode (I use it a lot for annotating PDFs / research papers / drawings etc.) or the Console Mode for when I hook up the tablet to the big TV. I've tried a custom ROM and loved the somewhat increased smoothness and extra features, but I personally wanted the nVidia-specific features more than the custom features.
That said, I have rooted my stock nVidia firmware because I wanted to block ads without downloading or purchasing an additional app. I've used the root privileges to allow me to modify my hosts file to redirect ad URLs to 127.0.0.1, which gives those ads no data therefore effectively blocking them. That's all I use my root privileges for, and some of you might think "that's it?!?!" and to that I say "yyyyyyup".
Long post, but congrats for making it this far and thanks for reading!

amartolos said:
The downside is that I miss out on the great customized features like clearing all recent apps from memory, or holding the Overlay button to switch to my last-used app, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you're rooted, check out the app "Recently" from Chainfire - it provides much better control over the stock 'recents' menu as well as the option to clear all.
Sent from my SGH-I337M using XDA Free mobile app

An Droid said:
Since you're rooted, check out the app "Recently" from Chainfire - it provides much better control over the stock 'recents' menu as well as the option to clear all.
Sent from my SGH-I337M using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
neat, i didn't know they made such an app! thanks =)

ben.nesheim said:
Mehhh I only rooted for xposed modules... honestly stock lollipop with a ntfs SD card to get around the SD card issues and root really isn't a factor in performance. Just using like gravity box and an ad block. I think if you have a lte version it may be more useful so u can mess with radios but I can't vouch for that.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing I do. I rarely flash a custom ROM if the device is stock or near stock android. Simply rooting, installing an adblocker and installing xposed framework is good enough for me.
Sent from my SM-N900V

Evolve
Rooting is Evolving
To me for buy the shield tablet is going beyond on your imagination, why don't try something new, come on is a piece of hardware, you just installing a software and why not with a such powerful device,you don't want more juice and control.
My ST LTE root and some utilty and tool apk got between 60000 and 62000 in antutu performance and stability, but careful in what you do.

I see many people doing modifications and having many issues and then spending a lot of time having to mess with their devices in order to get them back in order. If that's your thing great and I used to be one of you ...
... but these days I try and consider very carefully everything I do so everything works rather than spending hours basically being a mechanic if you want to use a car analogy. I want to drive my car not spend most of the time fixing it.
I see people with a lot of issues after they've done a lot of "do it because it can be done" modifications, their devices become unstable and then they don't know what caused it due to having five or ten major modifications.
One at a time:
1. Nandroid Backup.
2. Do 1 modification
3. Use your device for a day
4. If everything is working, go to 1, otherwise see 5.
5. If everything is not working restore backup from 1. and start at 2. again.
Now my opinions (as a half interested longtime Android user and a new Shield Tab user) are:
TheSkywayBridge said:
Is the Shield Tablet even worth rooting. I mean, it is stock android with Nvidia stuff. And rooting it just takes away the Nvidia logo when turning it on, and its few apps that do more good than harm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends - if there is some added functionality that you cannot have any other way then yes.
Rooting by itself actual does nothing to the ROM but it allows other applications that might change your boot logo. What will change your boot logo usually is using a custom ROM or kernel.
But you can absolutely make any firmware better by rooting your device for example by installing Viper4Android which will improve sound quality and a ton of other stuff.
TheSkywayBridge said:
What do you guys run? What do you recommend visual appeal, and what do you recommend for performance? Can I possibly run Carbon Kitkat while keeping the nVidia apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After a few devices it's been my preference to use stock ROM's with custom kernels (sometimes) because I mainly use my phones and tablets to play games and with some rare exceptions the dev community doesn't get to the performance level when I benchmark them.
If I never played games then CM and other custom firmware is better.
Unless I'm mistaken there is no CM based ROM that allows Nvidia Shield Controller usage so for me personally it's even less appealing as a prospect on the Shield Tablet to not run stock.
Since I'm a new Shield Tablet user I've only used some LP version (which arrived with the tablet) then had an awful experience with Nvidia's OTA update when I attempted to update to MM after no mods :|
However I went back to LP v5.1.1 and it's an amazing tablet again which doesn't surprise me as it usually seems you need to stick 1 major version behind on Android if you want to customise it and run apps you like sometimes.
I'm now going to apply a custom kernel onto stock firmware as this has often been the "winning" combination if you want to evaluate ROMs using benchmarks.