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Questions about Rooting

I use my phone a lot, and a huge thing that bugs me about it is Moto’s airtight grip on everything I do. So many apps I never use are flat out necessary, every update comes with 2 or 3 shitty mobile games I never play, and I am just sick of it. So I am looking at rooting and would like some advice from my comrades on lemdroid.

  1. Can I use SMS/Calling/5G through my provider still (Tracfone)?
  2. Is there custom OS for phones that is better than Android, or an Android version that isn’t tainted by Google and phone manufacturers?
  3. Are the risks associated with rooting played up more than usual, or are they legitimate?
  4. Would using a backup phone as a rooted one and my current phone as normal be a better idea than rooting the phone I use and rely on every day?

I appreciate your help a ton, comrades. Have a splendid day.

Max_P ,
@Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me avatar
  1. Yes unless it’s a Samsung. If it runs a Qualcomm modem, it usually pretty much just works
  2. Depends on the model. LineageOS is a pretty good one to start with: it’s pretty vanilla Android with extra features, and if your device is officially supported, their policy is that official devices and builds must support every feature of the phone so no broken modems or fingerprints.
  3. Sort of yes. If you root and do nothing with it, it’s not really much of a risk. The question is, do you absolutely trust whatever app you’re going to run as root. Root is full control, so if you run malware as root there’s nothing at all to stop it, it can do whatever it wants. Never had any issues personally, I’m very careful and only run FOSS apps as root as I can validate what it does.
  4. It makes for at least a good practice run.

I personally have been daily driving rooted phones with custom ROMs since the 2.2 Froyo days, always liked the experience more than stock.

Also ROMs like LineageOS don’t come rooted by default: you’ll need an unlocked bootloader in both cases, but if you don’t need root, you can simply not root your custom ROM. So security-wise, running LineageOS is about the same as running stock on a Pixel, if not a touch better. Root is specifically about getting root access, you don’t necessarily need that.

You can also root your stock ROM and debloat it as well, that’s another option and doesn’t involve replacing the entire operating system.

rufus , (edited )

forum.xda-developers.com

Is generally a good source for information regarding a specific device or provider.

I’m not from the US nor do I have a Motorola device. But I’ve been using custom roms for most of my life. I say risks are wildly exaggerated but have some truth to them. And don’t use root to install lots of shady stuff.

You can’t replace Android with something different on 99.9% of the phones. But there are pretty clean variants out there. I myself like LineageOS for microG and GrapheneOS. I just carry one phone and it always has something like LineageOS on it and no manufacturer crapware. Mind that going all the way and living entirely without Google services comes with a price. Some Apps will stop working. Notably things including payment services.

For me, currently everything works as intended. But I also had devices that wouldn’t do VoLTE or have worse camera quality. Depends on the exact model.

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