I rooted my D2 and have installed Epic on it. I was wondering if I was to crack the screen somehow or have anything else thats covered by warranty happen to it, how would the VZW person see that its rooted and how would they handle it? I was also wondering if I were to unroot my phone would there be any evidence that I rooted? Thanks, this is my first thread.:icon_eek:
Verizon people seeing root
- Thread starter GoPackGo
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If that ever comes to that you will need to .sbf or install a Nandroid backup and unroot the phone, otherwise you risk them not honoring your warranty.
scoder
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No one at Verizon knows anything about rooting. If they ask about your cool theme, just say it's an app. Seriously.
Moondonkey
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They could tell by a few things, all depending on the knowledge of the employee of course.
Here are just a few that might tip them off
Super user icon
root only programs
UI modifications
System info
If you unroot your phone they will not be able to tell
Welcome to the forum
Here are just a few that might tip them off
Super user icon
root only programs
UI modifications
System info
If you unroot your phone they will not be able to tell
Welcome to the forum
- Thread Starter
- #5
thatisandwas
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I would recommend insurance. The deductible varies depending on the coverage, but even if you completely lose your phone you can get a replacement for around 50-100 bucks.
Just because some sales reps do not know about rooting does not mean vzw dont know. The people who needs to know will know. That is why it is getting harder and harder to root because they know what is going on. Do not think one bit that if you turn in a rooted phone that they will not charge you. What will happen is they will exchange the device and the phone gets sent off with a work order to motorola. Motorola will probably look to see if the device is rooted and sent that info back to vzw.
Welcome to the forums here!
I'd say the posts saying nobody would notice are accurate but when you send it in do you want to be sure? Even if your screen was smashed someone could still connect to the phone and see what files are on it. They quickly could tell if the OS was stock or not.
If the files are available to unroot your phone and get it back to stock there will be no trace. Although, technically, if you wipe your hard drive there are still some methods to regain the info that you thought was erased. So yes, there is evidence but I really don't think anyone is going to go to that level to check.
It depends who handles the phone. While the official stance is "if you root you void warranty" I like to think folks who work in the stores are just normal people like the rest of us
. They'll try and help you out as long as you don't tie their hands.
Welcome to the forums here!
I'd say the posts saying nobody would notice are accurate but when you send it in do you want to be sure? Even if your screen was smashed someone could still connect to the phone and see what files are on it. They quickly could tell if the OS was stock or not.
If the files are available to unroot your phone and get it back to stock there will be no trace. Although, technically, if you wipe your hard drive there are still some methods to regain the info that you thought was erased. So yes, there is evidence but I really don't think anyone is going to go to that level to check.
It depends who handles the phone. While the official stance is "if you root you void warranty" I like to think folks who work in the stores are just normal people like the rest of us
The people in the stores are not the ones doing the full check or repair motorola is. And they are holding a stance against rooting.
Read this from a guy from MDW, what he said makes clear sense.
SirBass from MDW:
I will speak up for Moto on this one just to clarify (please don't take this as a personal endorsement of their methodology... it's not... the encrypted bootloader process is as frustrating for me as it is for the rest of you).
Moto is NOT trying to keep us from modifying and using open-source code. However, we MUST remember that unlike modern desktop and laptop computers, the OS code here is MUCH more fundamentally embedded (thus why this is still considered an EMBEDDED software device) to the hardware and firmware. In order to get the OS code to work, it must access actual code that IS indeed Motorola's rightfully owned, proprietary IP and they have every fundamental american right to protect that from infringement. This includes the bootloader. They also want to protect themselves from litigation, and so they come down on the side of overly protecting their stuff because they take the mindset of "most of the buyers won't give a rip about hacking this phone, so why not just make it encrypted and keep IP thieves away." That is speculation on my part, but consider it from their perspective for a moment. They exist to make money. They're in this for paychecks and market share and who can blame them. That's free enterprise, man, and they need to protect themselves from fierce competition. We're not at a point yet in phone hardware/software integration that will allow us a more pure linux experience where the hardware guys can keep their firmware, etc. proprietary and locked down yet we still are working with fully opensource code. We're not there yet.
And so, we get combative with Moto here when we hit an area WE consider a grey area that we think we're fully legally and rightfully able to operate in, yet because it is grey, not black or white, Moto decides "Our hardware, our firmware, our rules." And, in many respects they are right. The law seems to have taken their hands off this (and thankfully SO, b/c the last thing we need is MORE regulation) and said we the users have a legal freedom to jailbreak our phones, but nothing is said about a company's right to try and release hardware that is not able to be fully jailbroken. It's their right to do so.
So, they did so in order NOT to piss us off or because they were bored (trust me folks, we engineers, like hackers HATE unnecessary workloads.... unless it is to implement things that our customer.... either internal [the company] or external [the people for whom we are designing a product]... want in there. they are paying us, so we do the work). This is most likely done for a very practical reason: to put a fortress of protection around Motorola's IP because they don't want it stolen by someone who WILL use it in order to gain a competitive edge (and the best way to use stolen IP and still get around copyright infringement is to get a hold of the actual end product decompiled so that you can learn its secrets and find a way to implement it yourself with enough variances that a lawsuit would be unsuccessful.... just look at how Bill Gates screwed over Apple with Windows... that is what stolen IP can do in the right/wrong hands). It's NOT about us. It's just that we get involved when we try things like this b.c our efforts invariably tread on Moto's toes at this stage in mobile computing technological history. And though we may not have nefarious purposes, moto 1) doesn't know that for sure, and 2) we are still a potential portal for someone WITH nefarious purposes to gain access to something that may very well contain IP that they wanted to keep under lock and key (b/c that IP makes them money).
Please don't take this as a personal plea to C&D. It is nothing of the sort. I instead just want you all to possibly understand what may very well be Moto's intentions behind what they did with the locked bootloader. Screwing over OUR desire to hack and mod and toy around is just collateral damage for them and means very little in their overall sales numbers to make it worth their time and money to suit us, and the tradeoff for them is increased security and decreased time spent (and thus money) trying to keep the lid on their IP. They did this most likely to keep thieves off their source or object code (or make it much harder for a thief to crack it). No conspiracy theories or anything like that. They don't hate this community. In fact they most likely do not care a wit unless we somehow present a IP security threat to them. That they only sent a simple C&D ONCE and did nothing else shows that they were just covering bases and protecting themselves. If they really wanted to be spiteful I'm sure their legal team could have done much worse. But why would they? That'd be money wasted and bad PR for them. That'd equate to a blow to their competitiveness in a market that is VERY competitive (the android phone market) and where they are seen somewhat as the guys to beat since they are the ones who really hit the ball out of the park with the Droid 1. These guys are going to do what best helps and protects their ability to make money and gain brand-loyal customers overall. In that respect, we are small-fry. As long as they can still give us a solid phone, they'll see customer satisfaction as having been achieved. That they lock down the bootloader is not seen as an impact to that. Remember, the average end user doesn't WANT endless options. It is the hacker/developer who is offended by a lack of options and abilities. The general end user sees added options and abilities as just more things to learn. And the general end user is the larger market with the larger profitability.
For more general insight, I'd suggest reading Neal Stephenson's insightful (if dated.... as some of his predictions will be glowingly stamped out by events that happened several years after he wrote the essay, which was penned in a plain text .txt on a BeBox in January of '99) essay called "In the beginning was the command line." If linux is the tank, then android is the landwarrior system. Read the essay to get what I mean by that.