newbie to root

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Laurie M. 2
Laurie M.
  • Forum posts: 3

Feb 10, 2014, 2:33:19 AM via App

I have rooted my gs3 sgh i747 but before I dive in too deep I was wondering if there was anything like a dummies guide to rooted phones that is up to date? I have found one that has been somewhat helpful but it was created back in 2010 and I know that there have been a lot of changes in the devices since then. I am just wanting to do as much research as I possibly can so that I don't end up totally messing up or bricking my phone.

— modified on Feb 10, 2014, 2:35:40 AM

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Joel W. 11
Joel W.
  • Forum posts: 164

Feb 10, 2014, 3:27:51 AM via Website

Welcome to the wonderful world of rooting! I taught myself how to root basically just by Googling everything. Your best bet is to closely follow directions on anything you pick up, and make liberal use of XDA Developers, which is the go-to site for rooting tools. The good thing is if you have really technical questions, the people there tend to be able to fix most anything. Have you picked out a custom ROM you'd like to use? I very much liked the Eclipse ROM.

--I do a good impression of myself--

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Laurie M. 2
Laurie M.
  • Forum posts: 3

Feb 10, 2014, 5:45:02 AM via App

I have flashed the cyanogen mod and I liked it at first but then my camera wouldn't work, I sought some help from a guy through true android, I think that is what it was called, and he sent me a kernel to flash and said it would fix my problem. It didn't, it actually made things a lot worse. I lost my Gmail completely and several other glitches came along with it. I almost started to panic, like I said I am a true newbie, lol. I wasn't sure what to do at that point so I did a factory reset and wiped it all out. I am not sure how I did it but I ended up going back to the basic android 4.3 That experience alone made me realize that I need to know a lot more about rooting than I do. The last thing I want to do is brick my phone. My main reason for rooting to begin with was to find a way of saving my battery. After the dreaded 4.3 update I have had horrible battery consumption. I haven't figured that out yet but I figured that since I have my phone rooted I might as well try out new roms.
I guess what I am seeking is definitions and explanations of what all the technical terms mean in layman's language. I pretty much understand what roms are and how to flash them but kernels confuse the heck out of me. And I am sure that there are many other things I will have questions about, so knowing that I have people out there willing to answer my questions is reassuring.
So my first real question is how to I cut down on my battery usage with out cutting down on my phone performance?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

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sinkster 23
sinkster
  • Forum posts: 610

Feb 10, 2014, 11:14:27 AM via Website

Kernels are the interface between the software (rom) and hardware (phone). They can increase performance, wifi/network signal, and improve pretty much most things, but they can also do the opposite, depending on what you use your phone for. Generally, most custom roms come with their own kernel, or the developer will recommend one. With a custom kernel you can undervolt the cpu (doesn't make a huge difference to battery life) or underclock it (does make a huge difference to battery life), plus other tweaks.
CM roms tend to improve the performance of your phone rather than battery life, plus because they don't use the proprietary framework (i.e. they are a totally new firmware with nothing from the manufacturer) you'll lose samsung stock items like the camera, music player etc., as they only work within the samsung framework.
Your best option is something like the Android Revolution (ARHD) rom, which is stock based, so you keep the samsung stuff, but tweaked for smoothness/performance/battery life. The link should be correct as it's for the i9300/i9305, but read it before you do anything, obviously.

Sinkster

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Laurie M. 2
Laurie M.
  • Forum posts: 3

Feb 11, 2014, 6:53:20 AM via Website

you mentioned that the link should be good because it is for the i9300/i9305 however I have the i747, will that link work for my phone?

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