I'd like to try my hand at a second foray into rooting my Android device. The first time was with my G1, which greatly extended its useful life (with the addition of the Cyanogen mod). I find myself wanting to do a little more with my Nexus One, or at least something that will require root access.

My initial goal: just root the phone without having to wipe it.

See, eventually I want to put CM7 on the phone, but first I want to back up some apps I have installed. For example, I have three stars on half of the Angry Birds levels across all three versions of the game. I don't want to start from scratch. So I want to get root access to I can install Titanium Backup and keep all that data. Then once I have CM7 installed I can reinstall those apps and still have my games saved.

So far I've tried SuperOneClick, which failed, and Gingerbreak, which also failed. Both just sat there and wouldn't finish. From what I've heard it could because I have 2.3.4, which apparently doesn't have an exploit yet, but that was just someone's theory. The XDA community isn't, frankly, being very helpful. So I thought I'd see if anyone else here has rooted their Nexus One or Nexus S.

Eventually I'd also like to root my brand new Galaxy Tab 10.1 (I'll have to post about that at some point).

Very cool. Thanks for the link, I'll try this sometime today!

I'm fairly certain my bootloader is unlocked. At least, I have the "unlocked lock icon." I guess that's the difference with purchasing it from Google instead of TMobile or AT&T...

I'll report back with my results.

*edit*
Just to be clear, am I resetting my phone with this tutorial? I get nervous when I see stuff like "flash recovery." What is the recovery image and what does it do?

Update:

I'm rooted and running CM7. That's the good news.

The bad news is that I did not have an unlocked bootloader. The other bad news is that unlocking your bootloader basically wipes your phone, so I wasn't able to back anything up. Oh well, it's a little cathartic in a way

But I'm quite happy now. I've already used Titanium Backup Pro to move a couple of unmovable apps to my SD card. I can't tell you how much that's going to help save space on the internal storage down the road.

Congrats on the rooting!
I'm getting more daring with ROM flashing. I'm finally on a nightly build of CM7 (Winner00's 122 for Droid).
Also have ChevyNo1's Low Voltage 1GHz overclock kernel on top of that.
There's also the V6 Supercharger script that has set some memory options.

TiBU, SetCPU, ROM Manager, Battery Monitor Widget (and more) are all favorites.
Favorite info sources:
xda
droidforums
CM forums

I used to be on Howardforums quite a bit, but now go there only rarely.

Here's a link to the V6 Supercharger thread.
The first post is intense and I recommend reading only as far as when the author links a user's installation walk-through. I followed those instructions exactly and have a pretty bulletproof Droid now. No more uncalled-for reboots, no more boot hang-ups. The instructions are pretty universal across all devices.
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-h...l-androids.html

So what are some of your favorite root apps? Or are those what you're talking about before "are all favorites?"

What exactly does V6 Supercharger do for me?

So far, the only use I'm making of the root is having Titanium Backup Pro on my phone, which is an amazing app. I love that I can shove apps to the SD card even if they haven't been programmed for that. It's essential considering the tiny amount of internal app storage space on the Nexus One.

It's also nice to be able to use it to back up apps going forward, like games, so I don't lose progress or settings.

I went through the rooting process a couple weeks ago when I wanted to try out that Autostarts app I mentioned in the other Android thread, but I shied away from actually loading CM7 because the RC1 release is apparently still not ready for prime time on the NS4G. I don't find myself wanting to overclock or anything just yet, but I do look forward to using it when it's more stable on my phone.

I also lost everything due to the boot loader unlock thing, but since I did it only a week or so into owning the phone, it wasn't that much of a loss. Hopefully now that I've gone through that, I won't have to worry as much when I flash CM7.

Yah- those are the root apps I use the most. Not sure what others I've got, but when something needs root access it's easy to say 'yes' and forget about it.

The supercharger script was written to aid phones with limited memory make the best use of it. So if you're seeing no screen redraws after closing an app or if you're getting force closes a lot, then it can help keep some memory free.
I found it to be worthwhile on my Droid 1.

Moving apps onto the SD card is great! I didn't know that TiBU did that. I think it's built into CyanogenMod. Plenty of ways to skin a cat, I guess.

In principle I want to root my Desire HD, from a purely tech curiosity viewpoint, but I can't think of a valid reason yet.

It has heaps of internal memory, you can run things from the SD card if you want, it doesn't force close...

(plus, it appears that there is no way to unlock it - currently it is T-mobile branded - without going to a dodgy corner shop and letting them plug it into something. T-mobile won't do it for me)

happy to learn if it is really easy and if there is a killer app :-)