Rooting phone, to get rid of crap/bloat ware, worth the trouble?

[cidley69]

I'm trying out Android after many years of being an iPhone user. There seems to be a pile of preinstalled apps on phone I will never use.

Am considering doing root to get rid of them.

Phone is already out of warranty period so no issue there.

Anyone recommend for or against doing this?

[ExtraSlow]

Don't know, but interested in the subject. Subscribed.

[firebane]

Do it. Problem is that some apps do root checks as do games and you won't be able to use them.

[revelations]

You can but I;ve found that even factory apps can sometimes be disabled from the service menu.

[BigDL]

What phone are you trying to root?

[cidley69]

Moto x play 1563

[mr2mike]

Yep, got Facebook, Instagram and all those useless apps disabled.

[cidley69]

For anyone that's done it, did you do it yourself?

Any suggestions for where to find instructions?

[D'z Nutz]

If you're going to go through all that trouble, you may as well just wipe it and install a custom ROM without all that stuff already. Chances are you'll get a newer version of Android than what the manufacturer is providing as an added bonus.

I'm a big fan of LineageOS myself cause they try to keep the OS as close to pure Android as possible without too much extra bloat. Pixel Experience has caught my eye too but it doesn't have the device support LineageOS does.

If you've never done this or don't have good Linux experience, it can be a little overwhelming so make sure you don't skip any steps:
https://download.lineageos.org/lux
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/lux/install

[cidley69]

Well I took a good 3-4 hour stab at installing new ROM, and think I'm almost there, but they lost me on the later steps.

I did: unlock bootloader, install recovery tool, downloaded ROM (decided to try Pixel Experience instead, cuz it has Google Apps pre-installed).

Then it all went to hell when instructions got vague.... this is example of what trying to do:

First, download and install a custom recovery. If you already had a custom recovery installed on your device then skip this step.
Download Andriod 8.0 ROM and Gapps from above and save it on your device.
Now Boot your device into Recovery mode.
Now in TWRP, create a Nandroid backup (Recommended) of your device for safer side, if anything goes wrong.
Now do a Factory Reset by Goto Wipe>Advanced Wipe>Select Wipe cache, Dalvik cache, System, and data and swipe to confirm it.
Now, Go to Install and locate the ROM zip file & swipe to Install the ROM file. After the process completes, Flash the GApps zip file.
Now wipe cache & Dalvik cache again and Reboot your device.
Done!

Each of those steps alone seems like a feat, lol.

Anyone have link to installing new ROM for dummies?

[revelations]

Is there no section on XDA forum for your phone? Thats my usual go-to.

[firebane]

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Well I took a good 3-4 hour stab at installing new ROM, and think I'm almost there, but they lost me on the later steps.

I did: unlock bootloader, install recovery tool, downloaded ROM (decided to try Pixel Experience instead, cuz it has Google Apps pre-installed).

Then it all went to hell when instructions got vague.... this is example of what trying to do:

First, download and install a custom recovery. If you already had a custom recovery installed on your device then skip this step.
Download Andriod 8.0 ROM and Gapps from above and save it on your device.
Now Boot your device into Recovery mode.
Now in TWRP, create a Nandroid backup (Recommended) of your device for safer side, if anything goes wrong.
Now do a Factory Reset by Goto Wipe>Advanced Wipe>Select Wipe cache, Dalvik cache, System, and data and swipe to confirm it.
Now, Go to Install and locate the ROM zip file & swipe to Install the ROM file. After the process completes, Flash the GApps zip file.
Now wipe cache & Dalvik cache again and Reboot your device.
Done!

Each of those steps alone seems like a feat, lol.

Anyone have link to installing new ROM for dummies?

Those are very simple steps and once you get the recovery environment installed you will see this.

The nandroid backup is just to ensure you have a copy of your original OS before doing anything

Gapps should some in different variations and I usually choose a minimal which gives you play store and gmail. This gets installed after the ROM.

They are all .zip files which the recovery will install automatically for you

Also I recommend twrp recovery if you can.

[D'z Nutz]

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Anyone have link to installing new ROM for dummies?

Follow the install link I provided. The steps are the same regardless of what ROM you're using.

[zehnd]

What does banking apps think about rooting?

[cidley69]

Followed the instructions, everything went smooth, until halfway through the update, got this error:

E: Footer is wrong E: signature verification failed

[firebane]

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Followed the instructions, everything went smooth, until halfway through the update, got this error:

E: Footer is wrong E: signature verification failed

At what part and what were you doing to get that error?

[cidley69]

Found the problem, I accidentally downloaded old or unstable version of TWRP, and it didn't match the instructions.

Got that fixed, now i am hung up on the step:

Place the LineageOS .zip package, as well as any other .zip packages on the root of /sdcard:
Using adb: adb push filename.zip /sdcard/
You can use any method you are comfortable with. adb is universal across all devices, and works both in Android and recovery mode, providing USB debugging is enabled.

for some reason, adb does not see the phone anymore, when I use command: adb devices.

I can go into sideload in TWRP, and then device shows up with adb devices, but I am not able to copy the zip file to sd card.....

I get this error:
PS C:\Users\fernm\Desktop\Phone Tools\platform-tools> .\adb push lineage-14.1-20180817-nightly-lux-signed.zip /sdcard/
adb: error: connect failed: closed

any ideas how I can get zip onto sd card? Can i do it first, before entering recovery mode, then not wipe it during the install steps?

[firebane]

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Found the problem, I accidentally downloaded old or unstable version of TWRP, and it didn't match the instructions.

Got that fixed, now i am hung up on the step:

Place the LineageOS .zip package, as well as any other .zip packages on the root of /sdcard:
Using adb: adb push filename.zip /sdcard/
You can use any method you are comfortable with. adb is universal across all devices, and works both in Android and recovery mode, providing USB debugging is enabled.

for some reason, adb does not see the phone anymore, when I use command: adb devices.

I can go into sideload in TWRP, and then device shows up with adb devices, but I am not able to copy the zip file to sd card.....

I get this error:
PS C:\Users\fernm\Desktop\Phone Tools\platform-tools> .\adb push lineage-14.1-20180817-nightly-lux-signed.zip /sdcard/
adb: error: connect failed: closed

any ideas how I can get zip onto sd card? Can i do it first, before entering recovery mode, then not wipe it during the install steps?

You have a couple of options.
1) SD Card - If you have a spare place it on that and insert into phone
2) ADB - Can be a bear and a pita to get working properly
3) Boot into phone and download to phone

I always find 1 the easiest with 2 the second.

[cidley69]

Got it.

Not sure why all the trouble, but its finally working.

Big thanks for the help!

Anyone reading this interested in rooting your device, do it!

Its pretty easy process really.

[syscal]

Did it with my Huawei P10 Plus. Their EMUI interface wouldn't bring the phone up in Android Auto, so I had to hack in Google Dialer using Magisk and a Google Framework package.

Anyway, cool discovery is that most of the P10 Plus phones share the exact same hardware.

In North America, the phone has single SIM with Micro SD port.
In Europe, the phone has dual SIM.

Install firmware from Europe and now I have dual SIM capability but can still use the MicroSD. Also got Oreo way before Rogers ran the update, and I get the monthly Android updates.

They did fix their EMUI so I'm considering going back to stock, but it's such a pain setting everything up again.

Found that any stock update that came through meant I had to download the entire ROM, run a script in TWRP to install it from SD, and then push TWRP again to recovery once the update was complete. Such a pain, once Waze and the Phone app started working with Android Auto I stopped installed TWRP...updates work fine now.