Rooting & Custom Roms— Part 1
What is rooting and custom ROM
Rooting is the means of unlocking the android operating system on your phone for full customisation. With root access, you can change system-level applications and settings to perform operations with privileged permissions that are impossible for an average user. And by use of some apps, you can access even push the device to its total potential capacity.
Now what's's custom ROM, its essentially a third-party operating system that replaces the manufacturers-installed (aka stock ROM) operating system from your phone. For example, if you have a Samsung phone with OneUI running, you can install an ASOP rom to have stock like look on your Samsung device.
Disclaimer: Unlocking the bootloader/ installing custom rom will wipe all the data on your smartphone and in some cases, may even void your warranty. It's’s also important to understand that not following the steps correctly may result in a bricked phone so make sure you know how to recover your phone back to its original state in case you end up in a situation like that. Furthermore, Magisk may cause issues with a few banking and payment-related apps so if those are absolutely vital to you, proceed with caution.
Why to root
1. Performance improvement
You can uninstall the bloatware that's making your device slow. Bloatwares are unwanted apps that come preinstalled on a phone. For example, many samsung phones come up with Facebook and Linkedin app preinstalled. It takes up space, reduces battery life, and cripples performance. You can get rid of bloatware on a rooted phone.
For more advanced users, installing custom kernels, overclocking (or underclocking) the processor gives the full potential of using a android phone. Overclock improves the performance of phone but battery usage is more. While underclock conserves the battery life of your phone.
2. Custom roms
By installing a custom ROM (my favourite ;), you can give your device a fresh new look. Lineage OS, Pixel Experience, Havoc OS, Arrow OS, dotOS, are the most famous among the android enthusiasts community.
3. Secure and Quick updates
Apple devices get system updates within a day or two as it is released. Unfortunately, most android companies deliver the system updates very late if they deliver at all. But you can quickly and securely update your phone using the custom rom. Many custom rom developer even provides OTA updates.
4. Custom Mods
AdAway can be used on rooted phone for ad blocking system wide. For theming there is substratum theme engine to give a new overhaul to your device. Magisk and Xposed modules for tweaks and customisation of every inch of your android device.
How to root
1. Unlock bootloader
First thing first, for rooting or installing any custom ROM/recovery, you need to unlock the bootloader of your android phone. Unfortunately, different phone manufacturers employ different methods for unlocking different. Just google “xda unlock bootloader <insert full model name">”. There would be a good article for unlocking the bootloader.
For Samsung - click here
For OnePlus - click here
For Xiaomi - click here
For your phone - click here
2. Install custom recovery
Before installing custom rom, you need to replace stock recovery with custom recovery like TWRP or Orange Fox Recovery. This is because stock recovery won't allow instalation of other firmwares.
Go to TWRP website or xda thread of your device to get the latest custom recovery image. Before proceeding future make sure to get adb and fastboot installed.
Next step is to flash the custom recovery. Boot the device into bootloader mode and execute the command to flash the recovery image to device. Voila then reboot to device to have your recovery installed.
$ adb reboot bootloader
$ fastboot flash recovery twrp.img
$ fastboot reboot recovery
3. Install Custom Rom
Now comes the fun part, time to install your favourite custom rom to your device. There are lots of beautiful roms to choose from that will give your device a fresh and brand new look.
If you want a simple and elegant rom then go Lineage OS, for heavy customisation go for havoc os (formally known as resurrection remix), or pixel-like experience then go for Pixel Experience. There are other to choose from, like Arrow OS, Dot OS to satisfy the taste of anyone.
4. Install Magisk
In the next step, we are going to install magisk from custom recovery which you just installed.
- Download the Magisk APK.
- Rename the .APK file extension to .ZIP (e.g. Magisk-v23.0.APK → Magisk-v23.0.ZIP).
- Reboot to recovery. (Google " “reboot to recovery <your phone mode">” to know how)
- Tap install and select the magisk zip file. After installation, reboot to system.
- Check whether the Magisk app is installed. If its isn't installed automatically, manually install the APK.
- Voila, You have successfully rooted your phone. Time to enjoy ;)
Source: https://www.xda-developers.com/
PS: Check out xda site for any custom rom or root related guide. It's the BEST website for modding android phones.
