By Less than a month ago we broke the news that Paul over at Modaco had succefully rooted his HTC Desire, with the promise that a full tutorial would be following. After a slight delay, he has held to his word and released the HTC Desire root guide!
If you just need to get more out of the already top-notch Desire, have at it. Just remember the process of rooting will completely wipe your phone, and there are currently no backup options for the current ROM on the Desire. You also risk bricking your phone, and we all know how hard a Desire is to come by these days, what with all the stock issues and European volcanos. Of course, if you are considering rooting and are reading this article, you are well aware of the risks.
As far as what you will and will not get from rooting:
The root process will…
- flash your device with a new, generic 1.15.405.4 based ROM that has Superuser access
- show you how to enter the recovery image in future, allowing you to flash update zips
The root process will NOT…
- enable you to flash your device with a custom recovery image that can be launched easily by just holding down the volume down button when powering on
- enable you to have write access to the /system partition in normal use of the device
Both of these limitations are being worked on of course.
So root at your own risk and let us know how it goes. Just don’t blame me if something bad happens.
Full guide here.
[via Modaco]
I just don’t understand the benefits vs. the risks.
as of now… none
No benefits except root access. Bricktastic!
I’m not willing to risk bricking my new phone, but there are a few benefits such as
you can install Apps2SD so that you can install apps to your SD card if the internal memory is full.
you can replace a manufacturer customised OS with a standard Sense rom
You can install a utility to remove all the adverts in apps.
You can install marketenabler which allows you to download apps that are not available in your country.
you can install newer versions of the system applications or install the latest builds of Android
You can install chinese or hebrew language files
A few of my favorite root options:
1) custom rom with this such as useless program removal, speed enhancements, theming etc
2) Overclocking
3) Wireless Tethering
4) Complete backup using Titanium Backup
5) Newest version of Android available(via #1)
6) Scripts to alter how memory is allocated and how much to keep free(BIG speed improvement)
7) As mentioned above, newest system apps.
So there are several reasons to do it. Bricking your device is highly unlikely if you are not the first person to do it.
I will be holding on this one until there is upside like rooting the Motorola Droid
You can also run the wifi tethering app after rooting.
I feel “You can also run the wifi tethering app after rooting.” is a great benefit to rooting.
The point is not how it benefits “us” it is that Paul O’Brien with Modaco worked his tail off to get this far. He has provided a guide for other users to get to where he is as well, so that further development can be had. That is the point here, ladies and gentleman, its not so us tech kiddies can get custom roms yet, its so more advanced techs can feast off this wealth of information obtained from root access.
You can already tether the Desire to a laptop. When i plug my desire into my pc i get the option to :
*Charge
*Share Internet (tether)
*act as disk drive
@Nick: Some of those benefits such as using Market Enabler require write-access to the /system patition which isn’t available at the moment. Others (like Apps2SD or replacing system apps) can be done using an update.zip via recovery mode. If anyone can get it done, Paul can though and I hope people will show their appreciation by supporting MoDaCo with a paid account (frankly the online ROM kitchens alone are worth paying for).
I shall mainly use it for apps which need root access as OPENvpn.
I’d needs to create an additional tun/tap adapter behind the existing nic.
if there are any other options than risking to brick my phone please step forward.
Greetzz
So, I can stick 2.2 (Froyo) on my desire by doing this?
Tutorial?
it’s too complex to me
i will to try in my HTC right now..if there is trouble please help me. thanks.