It enables use of superuser (root) privileges by select apps. The usual "su" program installed when rooting will prompt for confirmation whenever an app requests superuser privilege, and you can confirm/deny/remember the setting for the app at that time.

Apps need root access to do things that are normally out of reach of an app -- such as a full system backup/restore, using "su" from a terminal, mounting an external USB storage device, etc..

Cheers

Oh, I suppose you were really asking about the rooting step itself. I'm not entirely sure what it does, but it includes installing the "su" app itself (which prompts/grants per-app etc..) and giving that app the required superuser privilege.

In my understanding, custom firmware isn't part of the "rooting", but to get to the point where rooting is possible, one has to first "unlock" the bootloader. That latter step involves custom firmware.

Cheers

For folks with Android devices, one of the first "fun" techie things to learn about is the "adb" command, which is available for Linux and Windows, and probably also OSX.

This works best on Linux, because no special USB drivers are needed. But despite that, most of the unlock/root toolkits are still Windows based, and involve great frustration trying to get a working set of USB drivers installed prior to being able to use the tools.

So on a Linux machine, I just connect my phone or N7 using the stock USB cable, and then do this from a Linux shell on the PC:

adb shell

Presto.. I'm now logged into the device with a shell prompt.
Next step for me is usually to type "su", gaining root access.

From there, the world's your oyster!
(but it won't get you tube access)

Cool. So once the bootloader is unlocked, it remains unlocked and you can flash whatever firmware on you like?

Can you run a stock Nexus 7 "image" with just the "su app" installed?

(Sorry, these are dumb questions..)

What happens when google update the OS, would I lose the ability to run stuff at su, i.e will the update "remove" the su app?

Providing I don't get held up too late on the way home tonight (work near Cambridge live in south London) with the Olympics I might have a go at rooting. I'll download ubuntu and run it in the VM and use the linux tools if they're less of a headache!

I'm also 100% decided that my next phone will be the next google phone.

Cheers.

Adrian

That may or may not be more of a headache, getting USB devices working in a VM isn't always the most pleasant of activities...

I'm only a day or two ahead of you in knowledge here, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

But this is interesting: here is the "unlock+root" shell script from the n7tools I linked to earlier. The first thing it does is "push" the SuperSU app (which gives the per-app pop-up prompts later on) to the device, without unlocking the bootloader.

It then unlocks the bootloader, and finally installs a custom ROM. I am not year clear on whether that last step is necessary -- maybe the SuperSU app never gets installed unless the custom ROM is loaded to "see it" and install it?

Code:

#!/bin/sh
echo "---------------------------------------------"
echo "  Nexus 7 Simple Root Bash Script            "
echo "  Made by @Complex360 (cyr0s on xda)         "
echo "---------------------------------------------"
echo "Checking adb presence..."
./files/adb version
echo "Go Settings > Developer Options and enable USB Debugging."
echo "Once you've done this, press [ENTER]"
read go
echo "Pushing SuperSU onto device..."
./files/adb push ./files/SuperSU.zip /sdcard/
echo "Pushed SuperSU onto device!"
echo "Rebooting Nexus 7..."
./files/adb reboot bootloader
echo "Once you see a  android and \"Start\" on your device"
echo "You will see a prompt offering to unlock the bootloader, select Yes."
./files/fastboot oem unlock
echo "Once you get confirmation that the bootloader is unlocked, press [ENTER]..."
read go2
echo "Flashing ClockWorkMod..."
./files/fastboot flash recovery ./files/recovery.img
echo "ClockWorkMod flashed with fastboot!"
echo "Everything is done! to install SuperSU, load into CWM and choose it from the \"install zip from sdcard\" menu"
xdg-open https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3ZA7P55X62ZDQ

The final line of the script attempts to open a PayPal "beg screen" for the developer.

I shamefully admit I still use VMWare Developer here for such things, and USB could hardly be simpler. Just plug and play.

Cheers

That partially answers one question I was curious about. What doesn't get restored if I simply use the built in backup option in the settings?

Having played with the N7 tablet for a while now, I suspect your impressions are correct. It is not as smooth as my Galaxy Nexus phone, despite the two devices having the same number of display pixels, and running the "same" operating system (well, from the same base source code anyway).

Given the N7 was a "rush job", it appears they haven't had much time to tweak it for "buttery smooth" operation, compared with their flagship device (the GN).

I think the answer is, the 3rd-party Apps themselves (.apk files) and any data files they create/maintain.

Not that I've had to restore anything from backup yet. I'm still trying to break it and haven't succeeded.

From what I've seen, Google will keep track of which apps you had installed and reinstall them after a factory reset or purchase of a new phone/tablet. However, this has mixed results. In the past, its seemed to get almost everything. Beyond that, the main problem is that none of your settings will be saved in any of those apps, and game progress will be lost as well. Frankly, I don't know why more games don't have built in methods to save your progress to either a file or online storage. It's very frustrating.

Other than that, the only thing I can think of off the top of my head that gets saved through a reset are WiFi connections. It'll remember the SSIDs and passwords of any networks you've connected to before.

*edit*
Or, I might be confused about your question, Tom...

Even with VMWare USB has always been hit and miss for me. Devices that worked on one install of VMWare would not work on another one (even with the same host OS and same guest image).

But it has been a while, I guess I just gave up ever trying to make USB work in VMs

Getting CD-ROM drives to work for ripping audio CDs can be equally taxing in a VM, but I persist and make them work in the end

(and yes, doing you CD ripping in a VM might sound odd, but it is a setup using the the best ripping tools that just work, with all the metadata creation setup the way I want it and baking it into a VM seemed like the best way to keep it working just the right way and not have to spend ages tweaking it back into the right state every time I change machines)

The backup option in the settings seems to back up just the system settings: some of those get synced to other devices on the same gmail account.

So when I powered up my N7 and entered my gmail password for the first and only time, it then instantly had all of my calendar data, contacts list, WiFi SSIDs and passphrases, and a few other things.

I don't know how much of that was just "Google Sync" versus the "Settings Backup". And were I to wipe my phone and then "restore", I don't know how much additional stuff would come back.

??

Note that "unlocking and rooting" a device causes it to be wiped back to factory defaults, which is why I do that as soon as I remember to with a new device.

A friend of mine has a Nexus S handset that has never been rooted, and he's gradually becoming keen enough to want it rooted (so he can use external USB storage etc..). If/when he finally says "yes", we'll then have a perfect guinea pig to experiment on.

And this is one of the key selling points of iOS for me. When you do a backup on iOS it always backs up everything*.

It makes moving between devices so straight forward (with the obvious restriction that you are only moving between Apple devices). And iCloud makes it even better. Turn on any new (or reset) iOS device, login to iCloud, select a backup and it all restores somewhat magically. Every* setting, every document, every game save, every app, every photo you've ever taken, everything.

I have managed to use this to bring all my data/settings with me, since my first iPhone in 2008, through half a dozen or so devices.

For me, it is worth living with the downsides of iOS/Apple to benefit for the Apple ecosystem that makes things like this work.

* ok, so there is one thing that doesn't get restored, your passwords for your non-Apple accounts (third party IMAP etc) don't get backed up and restored. And if an app has deliberately chosen to exclude passwords or a file from the backup, that also doesn't get restored

This doesn't install a custom ROM, i.e. Android. It installs a custom recovery ROM. And the script doesn't install SuperSU. It just copies it to the SD-card so that you can install it through the recovery console.

Unlocking and rooting shouldn't bring it back to to factory reset either, so you shouldn't loose any data by doing it. Installing a custom ROM, e.g. CyanogenMod will make you loose your data (since one of the steps is to wipe Data and Cache).

Ok, so I went with Windows as I was being impatient and it didn't quite go to plan, but somehow I managed to muddle my way through by hand.

The "sd filesystem" didn't exist, but I was able to disable signature checking and install the su app from the filesystem.

I verified that it was rooted by running an app that required root access.

So, I appear to be rooted now, do I need to somehow re-enable signature checking?

Adrian

This is the Nexus 7 thread, not the iOS thread.
I'm not really into letting Google own everything of mine, but my understanding is that if I was, then I could enable Google Drive and some other settings, and then everything (?) would end up on a Google server somewhere, for automatic restore.

Dunno for sure, though. Anyone out there tried it?

...that's the first I've heard of that. Yes, Google backs up the calendar and mail and contacts, but that was mostly because it's not really part of Android, but Google's other products. The nice sell of Android right from the get-go was that when you bought the phone, all you had to do was put in your Google credentials and you'd be off to the races, really able to use your phone without doing anything else.

As far as I know, Google does not back up the details, so to speak. Your settings are gone, especially all the settings in individual apps. If you had an alternate launcher with your homescreen set up just right, you can say goodbye to it because it's gone now.** To play fanboy/devil's advocate, I'd say that it's a lot harder to back up things like an alternate Launcher on Google's end than it is to backup where you put your icons on your home screen in iOS. But that's a trade-off.

Personally, I've wiped my phone tons of times. The ONLY thing I've disliked about the process is losing progress in games. That's what makes me wish I could save my games somewhere other than inside the app its self, which seems like a stupid place to store them. At least if I could chose the save location, I could upload saves to Dropbox or something.

**this is one reason I switched from Zeam to Apex Pro for my launcher. It lets be back up my settings.

No, it is a Nexus 7 owners discussion thread. I'm a Nexus 7 owner



I'm 99.9% sure that isn't the case Mark.

I would be interested in hearing how Android users here move their data/settings for all their many from one device to another (and whether it involves messing about with root access). But only if they are Nexus 7 owners, obviously.

I guess I want to know from you two what it is you want to back up. I don't know what you think is getting backed up, and I don't think it's as much as you think it is!


My apologies, for I am not a Nexus 7 owner, just someone who wants to be. That said, I do have two Android devices and have had many in the past. There is no "moving" anything, because from day one the OS has been a cloud-connected one. The whole idea is that when you log into a new device it all just comes down from the internet.

So when you log into a new device, you get all of:

- all your apps
- all their settings
- all the data stored locally by the apps
- all the photos you took on the old device
- all the SMSes on the old device

?

It was my understanding that Android apps had the option to store settings in a way that meant they ended up being transferred between devices, but that they mainly opted not to. Is this not the case ?

I'm not trying to bash Android by the way, both dominant mobile OSes have their pluses and minuses. I'm just trying to check that my understanding of how it works with Android in this area is correct.

Or to put it another way...

If I opted to try out a new version of iOS on my iPad and then reverted back to the previous version I would:

- make sure a backup had happened
- install the test version of iOS
- revert back to the old version of iOS
- restore the backup

At which point my iPad, its apps and all their data would be back to exactly as it was before installing the test version of iOS.

Does the cloud side of Android mean that the same would happen if I did the same on Android ?

As I said earlier, the settings for apps does not get restored. Photos can only be restored if you have the Google+ auto upload feature enabled. I don't believe SMS is backed up.

The apps themselves, though, do get downloaded and installed again automatically.

What did you mean then when you said:

"That said, I do have two Android devices and have had many in the past. There is no "moving" anything, because from day one the OS has been a cloud-connected one. The whole idea is that when you log into a new device it all just comes down from the internet."

From what you've just said there is plenty of "moving" to be done. It sounds like you just said that very little actually "just comes down from the Internet" ?

Sorry if that was unclear. I shouldn't have said "everything," but there is indeed no moving, because you can't "move" anything that can't be backed up anyway.

Lets take Angry Birds as an example. If I factory reset my phone, when I log back in with my Google credentials, I don't have to do anything to get my calendar, contacts, and email back on my phone, and Angry Birds will reinstall automatically, but any progress I made in the game will be erased. That is unfortunate, but I don't have any way of backing up that saved game information (unless I root and install something like Titanium Backup).

Like I said, I wish app settings backed up, but they don't. I also don't know of any magical setting that will back everything up to Google Drive.

You can backup SMS by using an app (SMS backup & restore) and you can select where to back it up to. It is also possible to have the app automatically upload to Dropbox. But SMS is not backed up automatically by Android or Google.

Third-party app settings aren't automatically backed up and restored, although many individual applications do this sort of thing themselves, particularly the ones that are really thin clients for some web service. For everything else, like games, the answer is one of the many backup/restore tools, which I believe all require root. I've used Titanium Backup to do this. It lets you make checkpoints of any apps you want, as many times as you want, on your phone. You can then copy those checkpoint files to some other phone and restore from them.

Dunno, but I do wish you'd stop harping on about iFruits in the Nexus 7 thread -- Tom even asked for us to stay on topic in his thread.

Edit: Oh, screw it. Tom even mentions iOS in post #1, so I guess this becomes yet another fanboy thread. I'll be quiet about it now.

I don't think the stock Google Android has that capability.
But that's why there are apps, lots and lots of apps.

Titanium Backup is the Android standard for backup/restore to/from the Cloud, and it does exactly what you're asking for. It will backup directly to Google Drive, or other cloud services, as well as to local flash.

Cheers

I do object to being referred to as a fanboy, do we really have to resort to such tired labels here ?