How can answer these questions to Google Nexus One

[Guest Power Crack]

Hi All,

yes, we did have lots of posts and articles talk about how to unlock the Google Nexus One bootloader, how to rooting it, and how to flash the recovery image etc... ... But, to a newbie, i think they must have a lot of questions about, why we need to do this? what is the purpose we need to do such as unlock bootloader, rooting the device, etc... ..., To a new customer who is from apple iPhone, who must be confuse about the concepts of unlock bootloader and rooting and flash the recovery image etc.

I'm still a newbie to Google Nexus One and Android, thats why i have lot of questions about these:

1). What is bootloader unlock? why we need to do it on Nexus One and Android? Is it the same purpose with iPhone SIM card unlock? (As i know all Google Nexus One devices are open to all carriers, and NOT like iPhone will be locked to few mobile carriers)

2). What is rooting the devices? what the purpose of it? is that the same concept with iPhone jailbreak? Why in the Android Market, there are some applications ask for root right to install and run it.

3). What is the recovery image to Nexus One? and how many images Nexus One and Android has? what their purpose is? I can understand system image, and bootloader image, but i don't understand the recovery image, what is that for?

4). As i know there are three kinds of flash image in Android and Nexus One, they are boot, recovery and system. Is that system image the same with ROM?

Really appreciate to answer these questions to an Android newbie. I believe lots of Android newbies have the same questions.

PowerCrack

[Guest maddiez]

1. Bootloader Unlock allows you to flash a custom ROM.. see sticky post about how to unlock for more information. It's not related to SIM card unlock.

2. Rooting the devices allows you to have full access control to the device, enables you to use some features that is not available in the stock ROM. You can see it as jailbreaking as rooting/jailbreaking have the same ultimate goal: full access. Some software (like some firewalls e.g. DroidWall) needs to modify system files to take effect (iptables for example), and at the same time some needs a custom kernel with additional features (learn more about this in teknologism's post or MCR post).

3. Recovery image which is self explanatory.. it's for recovery. You can see what it can do in Amon_RA's post (See sticky).

4. I'm not sure about this, but I believe a ROM should include boot and system (which is for custom ROMs, stocks ROMs seems to include recovery, radio, or SPL).

Hope it helps.

[Guest thla]

Hi All,

yes, we did have lots of posts and articles talk about how to unlock the Google Nexus One bootloader, how to rooting it, and how to flash the recovery image etc... ... But, to a newbie, i think they must have a lot of questions about, why we need to do this? what is the purpose we need to do such as unlock bootloader, rooting the device, etc... ..., To a new customer who is from apple iPhone, who must be confuse about the concepts of unlock bootloader and rooting and flash the recovery image etc.

I'm still a newbie to Google Nexus One and Android, thats why i have lot of questions about these:

1). What is bootloader unlock? why we need to do it on Nexus One and Android? Is it the same purpose with iPhone SIM card unlock? (As i know all Google Nexus One devices are open to all carriers, and NOT like iPhone will be locked to few mobile carriers)

2). What is rooting the devices? what the purpose of it? is that the same concept with iPhone jailbreak? Why in the Android Market, there are some applications ask for root right to install and run it.

3). What is the recovery image to Nexus One? and how many images Nexus One and Android has? what their purpose is? I can understand system image, and bootloader image, but i don't understand the recovery image, what is that for?

4). As i know there are three kinds of flash image in Android and Nexus One, they are boot, recovery and system. Is that system image the same with ROM?

Really appreciate to answer these questions to an Android newbie. I believe lots of Android newbies have the same questions.

PowerCrack

I'm a little new myself but i think i can handle your questions.

1. A bootloader unlock allows you to run(i.e. boot) unofficial software(i.e. roms), this has nothing to do with the sim and it's only relevant to those wishing to modify their device beyond the stock software(rom)

2. Rooting a device is similar to jailbreak, the mobile phone has special features only exposed to root users(Similar to the Administrator account in Windows)

3. The recovery image is kinda parallel to a safemode like the one Windows has, it allows you to reflash a bad or non-working rom.

4. I'm not quite sure about the question, so i can't really provide an answer there :)

[Guest Power Crack]

Hi Thla and maddiez,

Thanks for you guys replied on this topic. Your answers makes me more clear to the questions.

Why i'm think there are three kinds of image Android OS supports. When you user fastboot command, you will see there is an option call flashall, which will flash boot+recovery+system (this is on the fasboot help page).

let us talking the unlock bootloader and rooting. Ok, maybe you guys are right, unlock bootloader to make the device accept customer images, so that we can flash customized ROM into the device. But, if you read the rooting process, you will know there is a command "./fastboot-mac flash boot nexusone.superboot.1.1.img" to flash the boot image in the device. (i'm using mac os x)

So my question comes again. If unlock bootloader is doing something to make the device open, then what this rooting for? from the command we can see, rooting is flashing a customized boot image into the device (use nexusone.superboot.1.1.img to take place of manufactory boot image). If command "./fastboot-mac oem unlock" already made the device open, why we need to flash the boot image again?

About the recovery image, if i'm not wrong, i think it should be a kind of utility which is helping HTC or google supporter to recovery the device into manufactory status, of course you will be required a special SDcard to insert into your nexus one. I believe the SDcard must hold some images which recovery process can read and flash the ROM.

anyway, thanks for your guys answered my questions.

PowerCrack

[Guest maddiez]

Hi PowerCrack,

I'm not sure about this problem either, but I remember reading a thread saying that if you didn't have root, you will not be able to flash the recovery image permanently as it will go back to the original one (stock recovery, don't know what it looks like though LOL). So I believe the superboot (rooting!) should be needed to flash the custom recovery image permanently (of course you can boot into the custom recovery, flash a custom ROM and reboot and reflash the recovery ..).

About the recovery image, I don't know much about the stock recovery since I have never seen it (I flashed custom recovery as soon as I have my phone), I have no idea what it does, but maybe you're right about it, it might act like HTC's WM devices' SPL, which needs the SD card built in certain structure to work. But a custom recovery is much more powerful, see sticky post.

[Guest Master_Ne0]

So my question comes again. If unlock bootloader is doing something to make the device open, then what this rooting for? from the command we can see, rooting is flashing a customized boot image into the device (use nexusone.superboot.1.1.img to take place of manufactory boot image). If command "./fastboot-mac oem unlock" already made the device open, why we need to flash the boot image again?

About the recovery image, if i'm not wrong, i think it should be a kind of utility which is helping HTC or google supporter to recovery the device into manufactory status, of course you will be required a special SDcard to insert into your nexus one. I believe the SDcard must hold some images which recovery process can read and flash the ROM.

This info is covered quite a lot, its not specific to the nexus one, though i will try and explain it a little here.

Unlocking the bootloader allows you to, amongst other things, flash images (*.img) to the device. There are 4 images that i know of (there may be more) boot, recovery, userdata and system. You will need to do this to be able to root your device, as you need to be able to flash the boot image "nexusone.superboot.1.1.img". Once you have flashed this image your device is rooted.

You also need to unlock the bootloader to be able to flash the RA-nexus_recovery_image. This image allows you to nand backups of your device, check the sticky for more info.

I hope this makes it a little clearer, Google search it, there is loads of info about rooting android devices and what it allows you to do.

Ne0

Edited January 18, 2010 by Master_Ne0