Jason Tyler - XDA Developers Android hackers toolkit: the complete guide to rooting, ROMs and theming

XDA Developers Android Hackers Toolkit

The Complete Guide to Rooting, ROMS and Theming

Jason Tyler with Will Verduzco

This work is a co-publication between XDA Developers and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This edition first published 2012

2012 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.

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About the Authors

Jason Tyler has been an IT instructor and is currently Director of Technology for Typefrag.com. An avid Android hacker, Jason has been rooting and ROMing every Android phone he can get his hands on since the OG Droid.

Will Verduzco is a Johns Hopkins University graduate in neuroscience and is now currently studying to become a physician. He is also Portal Administrator for XDA-Developers, and has been addicted to mobile technology since the HTC Wizard. Starting with the Nexus One, however, his gadget love affair has shifted to Googles little green robot.

Foreword

The XDA Developers (XDA) website was opened in 2003. Nine years may not seem like that long ago, but Facebook wasnt even a thing then. The iPhone and the first Android handset werent released until 2007. So, in Internet time, XDA is old. In smartphone time, were ancient.

xda-developers.com is a strange URLnot as imaginative, short or catchy as most high-traffic sites. Theres a simple reason for this: the site wasnt created for you. We never envisioned a smartphone revolutionor if we did, we never envisioned that millions would care so much about what was happening on our little developer-focused forum.

XDA was created for developers and it is still a site for developers. They are incredibly smart, generally selfless, and hard-working individuals who share their creations (for free) with the world. When they see a book like this, they get concerned that their site will be overrun (more than it already is) by newbs with annoying questions and demands. They see the title of this bookwith that overused H-wordand roll their eyes.

So, why did XDA lend its name to this guide? Honestly? Its because we cant stop you all from coming and wed rather you be a bit better educated when you arrive. People spend more time touching their phones than their spouses and many of those people want their phones to be completely customizable (even as their spouses are generally not). They want to remove restrictions placed on the devices by carriers and OEMs and make the phone theirs .

This book was written by a member of XDA. His goal was to share his enthusiasm about what he found on the site and across the Internet about the customizability of the Android operating system, to get you just as excited, and to show you the tools you need to put that excitement into action. As with most tech-related books, much of the text herein is outdated by the time it hits the shelves. But thats OK. Even if the content is slightly stale, even if you dont have any of the devices listed in the tutorial chapters, we still urge you to read it carefully so that you are better prepared to understand as you explore XDA for your device.

As a site for developers, XDAs goal is to make sure you have you respect for all those who have blazed the trail to make all this good stuff possible. We want you to use XDA responsiblyread everything before posting, understand the risks of rooting and customizing your device, and, as you learn, become a helpful, contributing member of the community.

The XDA Admin Team

Introduction

Theres a reason most Android geeks have such disdain for the other major smartphone operating system. The iPhone shackles the user, with its closed source code and ecosystem ruled with an iron fist. Android, on the other hand, frees developers to tear apart and rebuild nearly every aspect of the users experience with the operating system. Beyond the world of developer-created applications (apps), there is a vast universe of deeper customizationscustom kernels and ROMs, themes, CPU overclocks, and more.

In most cases, these tasks begin with gaining root access to your device. The goal of this book is to get you comfortable with the tools and vocabulary of Android hacking, to get you in the root mindset, and to point you towards the best online resources for expanding your knowledge even further.

First Things First: What Is XDA?

The XDA Developers (XDA) website, at http://www.xda-developers.com, is the largest smartphone community on the Internet. As the name implies, the sitelaunched in 2003is a destination for developers. XDA was a line of phones based on Windows Mobile that were branded by O2 and developed by a small (at the time) Taiwanese manufacturer called High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC). According to XDA history: