(Guide) (Beginners) You have rooted your phone, now what can you do

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The-Hulk

Retired Forum Moderator
Feb 9, 2012
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(Guide) (Beginners) You have rooted your phone, now what can you do​
Note – I will keep updating this guide as much as I can

Note - Please ask as many questions as you need, there is no question to basic to ask, it would be better being asked here instead of starting a new thread.

Note – Please don’t swear in this thread fu**ing is still swearing, using this - ** - still means you are swearing. Also please don’t call anyone a Noob after all this is a guide for beginners.

Final note – Can all beginners please thank people if they give you an answer to your question.


So welcome to the world of being rooted, you now have a nice shiny new rooted Android phone, but what can you do now. Well I have decided to start this thread to tell you what you can now do. This guide is for beginners and should be treated as it is intended, keeping it simple and just going over the basics. This guide will be broken down into main sections –

Post 1
• Super User
• Clockwork Mod Recovery (CWM)
• Apps
• Roms

Post 2
Further reading, it’s time to get you geek on

Post 3
More usefull apps that you might like

Super User
When you have a rooted phone you will need this little app called super user that has a massive job. When you rooted your phone it will have more than likely come with this app, if not then you can download it here. The basic idea behind super user is to control the root access to you phone. Your phone must have this app before you continue with the rest of this guide. Using Super User is easy when you open an app that needs root access a prompt will come up asking if you want to allow this app super user access, giving you two options deny or allow.

Clockwork Mod Recovery (CWM)
Once you have rooted your phone one of first thing you need to do is make sure you have Clockwork Mod Recovery. All phones have a recovery mode that can be accessed when turning on your phone or some root access apps allow you to access recovery mode through them. What CWM recovery does is modifies this recovery mode to make it better, allowing you to flash nearly anything you want or need, such as roms, themes and kernels. Also through CWM Recovery you can create a nandroid backup, which is a backup of your whole current rom, you can also carry factory data wipes and more advance features.
So how do you get CWM, well the first thing to do is check, depending what root method you used you might have it all ready (power off your phone and then hold the power, home and volume up buttons together until you enter recovery mode). You will know if you have CWM Recovery by looking at the top of the screen is should say “Clockworkmod Recovery”; if it doesn’t then you need to get it. The easy way to get CWM is by downloading the app Rom Manager (talked about below), open Rom Manager and there is an option to flash Clockwork Mod recovery, select that select which phone you have and it will do the rest for you.
Controls for CWM Recovery – Then volume buttons allow you to move and the power button is used to select.

Apps
Right there are a number of apps that will take advantage of you root access, and I am going to cover what I believe are the basics.
Remember when using any app that uses the root access of your phone it can come with risks.

Rom Manager – So Rom Manager and CWM sort of go hand in hand, being that Rom Manager is the nice user friendly app, giving you control of CWM from your phone home screen. Just like in CWM you can backup and restore your rom, flash new roms, fix permitions and partition SD card. As said above you can use Rom manager to flash CWM for you straight from the app, you can download this app here.

BusyBox – Trting to keep this simple, when you have a rooted phone there are sets of commands that you do not have, installing BusyBox will give these. This is required to run some apps that require root access. I think that was simple enough, oh and before I forget you can get it here.

Titanium Backup Root – Titanium Backup is an enormously useful app. Not only can it backup apps, but it can backup apps and all their data, and it can delete apps—even system apps or bloatware (bloatware are apps that come with your phone that you normally can’t remove like Games hub), making regular backups of all your apps and their data. You can download Titanium Backup here, also if you would like to know more about how to backup and restore most things when changing roms (more about roms just below) you can use my other guide here.

These are the very basic apps that you will need to see you of into the future of a android custom android experience, I will include other cool apps that use root access in post 3.

Roms
So the best part about having a rooted phone well for me anyway is the massive list of roms out there. If you don’t know what a rom is then here we go. When you get your android phone and turn it on, you’re faced with this impressive software that allows you access to apps throught the market, make phone call, txt, maps, voice commands, email and the list is never ending. This is all done through the software known as the Rom, the rom you get when have your phone is known as a Stock Rom. Now it this stock rom that we can change to improve our Android mobile experience known as a Custom Rom, and there are lots of custom roms out there. Some are made to give you a better battery, better custimization, improved features, so to provide a vanilla experience and some try to make a balance of them all, but the main idea is to make android better. So roms are broken down into different categories, here is a breakdown of them for you.

Stock Rom – As talked about before stock roms are the software that comes with the phone, some people prefer the stock experience but I don’t. The main problem with stock roms is that manufactures will place an extra layer of software on top of the rom known as a user interface (UI), such as Samsung wither their touchwiz UI and HTC with HTC Sense UI. The problem I have with these UI are they are power hungry and well not to sound mean but touchwiz is not very well made.

AOSP – Android open Source Project is the android rom in its basic form, so it has no bloatware or power hungry UI’s. This is where you will get most of your custom roms from, there are devs within the android community most found right here on XDA, that will use AOSP and make their own custom roms with this adding to and improving it to make the best rom they can. Just as a note there is no best rom and you will never get an answer as to which is the best. Each rom is to their own and suit different people with different needs, but as a starter rom to get use to the idea of flashing roms and learning everything that is needed then I would recommend a Cyanogen Mod Rom, as this is the most popular and you will get the most advice from the community is it is the most used. You can find the Cyanogen Mod website here. The best way to find roms is to look through the forum and look in the Development and Original Development threads.

INDEX - Android Development [29 March] - Here is a Rom list from the Android Development Fourm, the list includes both ICS and GB roms, thanks to daniel_costa_rj

There is a lot more to roms that just this basic overview and I will be adding more in the future as this will take just as long as writing this whole thread, so keep an eyeout for more updates, including AOKP.

EFS Folder (Important)
Ok this is more of a you must do and not a what you can now do. So the efs folder is a very important folder within your android system that contains infomation like your IMEI number, and just well important infomation trust me it's important. When people start to mod their phone such as flashing roms, kernels e.t.c, this folder can become corrupt, making you phone usless. So backing up this folder is important and their is an easy way in which you can do this, a more user friendly way using a great app by hellcatdroid. You can get this app from google play here, and it will give you all the tools to back up the folder. I will also include a guide on further reading for you to have a look over, so please backup your efs folder.

Well that’s it for now, this is my first draft and I will be making a lot on adding and changing over the next week.
Thanks for reading and I hope this guide helps even a handful of people.
 
Last edited:

The-Hulk

Retired Forum Moderator
Feb 9, 2012
1,327
1,871
Warrington
More usefull apps that you might like

Root Browser Lite - Root Browser is for both non-root and rooted users. If you are rooted then this app will give you access to ALL of Android's file system. With a beautiful interface, tons of features and a cheap price Root Browser is a must have!#

ROM Toolbox - ROM Toolbox is the MUST HAVE app for any rooted user.
ROM Toolbox combines all the great root apps all tied up into one monster app with a beautiful and user-friendly interface. It also adds many more unseen features!, Check out the link for the full feature list

SGS2 Dual-Boot Setup (LolBoot) - Dual-Boot your Galaxy S2!
/!\ Requires root /!\
/!\ This is for the Galaxy S2 *ONLY* /!\
When the dual-boot is set up, you can (re)boot between two different, independent ROMs.
Just powering on boots into the primary ROM (duh!).
Using the recovery button combo (VOL-UP+HOME+POWER) will boot into the second ROM instead of recovery!
Pluggin in a USB cable or AC charger when the phone is powered off will make the phone boot into recovery.

AdFree Android - THIS APP IS FOR ROOTED PHONES ONLY!
AdFree removes most ads in the browser and other apps. It does this by nullifying requests to known host names in the system hosts file.
If you have problems with this app, or you know of additional host names not being filtered, please comment in xda-developers.com forum so it can be fixed!

kTool - Tool for a few functions after rooting. Kernel dump/flash, EFS backup/restore...
/!\ Requires Root /!\
/!\ Works on the >Galaxy S2< and >Galaxy Note< *ONLY* /!\
(i) the "lock pattern bug" is currently being investigated and worked on!

kTool is a small tool originally bundled with Hellcat's Root-Kernel for the Galaxy S2.
It offers a few functions usefull after rooting the device:
- Dump current kernel to /sdcard/zImage
- Flash kernel from /sdcard/zImage
- Backup the phone's EFS (sensitive storage are holding the IMEI and other vital data) as a raw .IMG dump and a .tar archive
- Restoring EFS from the raw .IMG or the .tar backup
- Format EFS (create fresh filesystem for cases where you want to restore seperate files or a .tar backup, but the filesystem is stuck/locked in read-only due to corruption)
- Reboot (normal, directely to recovery or directely to downlaod mode)

EFS Pro - EFS Pro - For Samsung Android Devices
Advanced Backup and Restore of your Device's '/efs' folder!
Features:

Supports Backup and Restore of Partition Image (*.img) and Compressed TAR Archive (*.tar) formats.

Automatically detects saved EFS Backups on Device and PC for hassle free restoring.

Re-Scan option to refresh Backup list for restoring Backups.

Automatically Re-Mounts '/efs' folder with Read/Write permissions during restore for users 'stuck' with Read Only permissions.

Automatic detection and prompting of Mass Storage Mode.

Automatic detection and termination of SAMSUNG Kies application on startup.

Supports Multiple Backup handling.

Option to Format '/efs' partition before restoring an EFS Backup.

Displays Device, ROM and BusyBox information on startup.

(NEW!) Attempt NV Recovery - Restores NV Data from '*.bak' files if they exist to fix corrupt or incorrect IMEI number.

(NEW!) Repair NV Data - Repairs NV Data file ownership to fix 'Unknown Baseband' and 'No Network / Signal'.
 
Last edited:

The-Hulk

Retired Forum Moderator
Feb 9, 2012
1,327
1,871
Warrington
Introduction to Kernels

What is a kernel

So to keep this simple their 3 parts of your device the hardware, Software (rom) and your kernel. The kernel is the communication link between hardware and Software, although some of the seen as more important things are battery life, touch, wifi and more. You can also use a kernel to give you greater controll of your phone with such things (each kernel has its own conrtoll features).

You can swap your kernel just like you can swap your rom, although you need to check that the kernel you are going to flash with work with the rom you are using. some kernels will work woth all rom types such as SiyahKernel, others are made to be used on certain roms only such as Stock Roms, AOSP roms, AOKP Roms, and some even more specific such as CM9, MIUI and diffrent versions such as GB and ICS. So you will need to check the thread for that kernel and see what the features are and what Roms it will work on.

Their are many kernels on XDA Develpoers and the idea is for you to try a few out and see which suits your needs best, as their is no best kernel, the same as their is no best rom. So here is a list of a few kernels to get you started, and remember to check that the kernel you are about to flash will work on your device.

[KERNEL][ICS][ExTweaks][All-in-1kernel][DualBoot] SiyahKernel v3.2b6

[KERNEL][05.05][APP/PRO/OTA][AOSP&SAMMY] N.E.A.K. ICS - Designed by Nature (v2.0.4x)


[KERNEL] SpeedMod SGS2 ICS [K3-16 CIFS ROOT / NO-ROOT CWM5]


[KERNEL] SpeedMod SGS2 [K2-21 CWM5 CIFS ROOT]

[KERNEL] XPLOD 3.0.24 opensource kernel

Learn more about kernels

I will be adding more reading on kernels soon
 
Last edited:

psygitt

Member
Apr 3, 2012
26
4
Gonna try Adsfree. My best improvement with my custom rom (resurrection remix 1.1) is that now i can tether. And overall is much better than the stock one.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
 

RealMcoy

Senior Member
Feb 9, 2012
62
1
u said that u can flash new roms now that your phone is rooted but my question is dont you have to unlock bootloader to do that
i'm still new so i'll ask alot of questions :)
 

RealMcoy

Senior Member
Feb 9, 2012
62
1
ok then nevr heard of that but i'm still new to everything
would clockwork mod unlock the bootloader of xperia play r800i i recently rooted it(last night to be exact)
i know this may not be the xperia play section but i was searching and stumbled upon this thread
 

The-Hulk

Retired Forum Moderator
Feb 9, 2012
1,327
1,871
Warrington
ok then nevr heard of that but i'm still new to everything
would clockwork mod unlock the bootloader of xperia play r800i i recently rooted it(last night to be exact)
i know this may not be the xperia play section but i was searching and stumbled upon this thread
I am not sure you would have to look in the relevent thread for you device, i wouldent want to give you advice on a device i have never worked with.
 
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takeitkool

Senior Member
Apr 11, 2012
206
11
Pune
AOKP sms related

I have rooted my phoen and installed custom ROM with AOKP sms, can some one please help me that how can i send sms to multiple ppl @same time, i mean how can i add contact group in AOKP sms, i tried a lot but not able to find it..:confused:
 

The-Hulk

Retired Forum Moderator
Feb 9, 2012
1,327
1,871
Warrington
Update to thread

I have updated the thread a little with more guides for you to geek up on, and i have added a link to a rom list................ Enjoy
 
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E_Goldstein

Senior Member
Nov 23, 2011
645
115
192.168.0.1
Just a thought mate, how about linking up a thread on how to back up your efs folder after root, last few months been lots of threads about efs being messed up, there is also a guide to re-storing ya efs if ya screw it up. Nice thread btw


Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
 

The-Hulk

Retired Forum Moderator
Feb 9, 2012
1,327
1,871
Warrington
Just a thought mate, how about linking up a thread on how to back up your efs folder after root, last few months been lots of threads about efs being messed up, there is also a guide to re-storing ya efs if ya screw it up. Nice thread btw


Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
I will make an edit to the 1st post and include a guide on efs backup, not that many people now how important efs folder is so thanks for the idea.
 

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    (Guide) (Beginners) You have rooted your phone, now what can you do​
    Note – I will keep updating this guide as much as I can

    Note - Please ask as many questions as you need, there is no question to basic to ask, it would be better being asked here instead of starting a new thread.

    Note – Please don’t swear in this thread fu**ing is still swearing, using this - ** - still means you are swearing. Also please don’t call anyone a Noob after all this is a guide for beginners.

    Final note – Can all beginners please thank people if they give you an answer to your question.


    So welcome to the world of being rooted, you now have a nice shiny new rooted Android phone, but what can you do now. Well I have decided to start this thread to tell you what you can now do. This guide is for beginners and should be treated as it is intended, keeping it simple and just going over the basics. This guide will be broken down into main sections –

    Post 1
    • Super User
    • Clockwork Mod Recovery (CWM)
    • Apps
    • Roms

    Post 2
    Further reading, it’s time to get you geek on

    Post 3
    More usefull apps that you might like

    Super User
    When you have a rooted phone you will need this little app called super user that has a massive job. When you rooted your phone it will have more than likely come with this app, if not then you can download it here. The basic idea behind super user is to control the root access to you phone. Your phone must have this app before you continue with the rest of this guide. Using Super User is easy when you open an app that needs root access a prompt will come up asking if you want to allow this app super user access, giving you two options deny or allow.

    Clockwork Mod Recovery (CWM)
    Once you have rooted your phone one of first thing you need to do is make sure you have Clockwork Mod Recovery. All phones have a recovery mode that can be accessed when turning on your phone or some root access apps allow you to access recovery mode through them. What CWM recovery does is modifies this recovery mode to make it better, allowing you to flash nearly anything you want or need, such as roms, themes and kernels. Also through CWM Recovery you can create a nandroid backup, which is a backup of your whole current rom, you can also carry factory data wipes and more advance features.
    So how do you get CWM, well the first thing to do is check, depending what root method you used you might have it all ready (power off your phone and then hold the power, home and volume up buttons together until you enter recovery mode). You will know if you have CWM Recovery by looking at the top of the screen is should say “Clockworkmod Recovery”; if it doesn’t then you need to get it. The easy way to get CWM is by downloading the app Rom Manager (talked about below), open Rom Manager and there is an option to flash Clockwork Mod recovery, select that select which phone you have and it will do the rest for you.
    Controls for CWM Recovery – Then volume buttons allow you to move and the power button is used to select.

    Apps
    Right there are a number of apps that will take advantage of you root access, and I am going to cover what I believe are the basics.
    Remember when using any app that uses the root access of your phone it can come with risks.

    Rom Manager – So Rom Manager and CWM sort of go hand in hand, being that Rom Manager is the nice user friendly app, giving you control of CWM from your phone home screen. Just like in CWM you can backup and restore your rom, flash new roms, fix permitions and partition SD card. As said above you can use Rom manager to flash CWM for you straight from the app, you can download this app here.

    BusyBox – Trting to keep this simple, when you have a rooted phone there are sets of commands that you do not have, installing BusyBox will give these. This is required to run some apps that require root access. I think that was simple enough, oh and before I forget you can get it here.

    Titanium Backup Root – Titanium Backup is an enormously useful app. Not only can it backup apps, but it can backup apps and all their data, and it can delete apps—even system apps or bloatware (bloatware are apps that come with your phone that you normally can’t remove like Games hub), making regular backups of all your apps and their data. You can download Titanium Backup here, also if you would like to know more about how to backup and restore most things when changing roms (more about roms just below) you can use my other guide here.

    These are the very basic apps that you will need to see you of into the future of a android custom android experience, I will include other cool apps that use root access in post 3.

    Roms
    So the best part about having a rooted phone well for me anyway is the massive list of roms out there. If you don’t know what a rom is then here we go. When you get your android phone and turn it on, you’re faced with this impressive software that allows you access to apps throught the market, make phone call, txt, maps, voice commands, email and the list is never ending. This is all done through the software known as the Rom, the rom you get when have your phone is known as a Stock Rom. Now it this stock rom that we can change to improve our Android mobile experience known as a Custom Rom, and there are lots of custom roms out there. Some are made to give you a better battery, better custimization, improved features, so to provide a vanilla experience and some try to make a balance of them all, but the main idea is to make android better. So roms are broken down into different categories, here is a breakdown of them for you.

    Stock Rom – As talked about before stock roms are the software that comes with the phone, some people prefer the stock experience but I don’t. The main problem with stock roms is that manufactures will place an extra layer of software on top of the rom known as a user interface (UI), such as Samsung wither their touchwiz UI and HTC with HTC Sense UI. The problem I have with these UI are they are power hungry and well not to sound mean but touchwiz is not very well made.

    AOSP – Android open Source Project is the android rom in its basic form, so it has no bloatware or power hungry UI’s. This is where you will get most of your custom roms from, there are devs within the android community most found right here on XDA, that will use AOSP and make their own custom roms with this adding to and improving it to make the best rom they can. Just as a note there is no best rom and you will never get an answer as to which is the best. Each rom is to their own and suit different people with different needs, but as a starter rom to get use to the idea of flashing roms and learning everything that is needed then I would recommend a Cyanogen Mod Rom, as this is the most popular and you will get the most advice from the community is it is the most used. You can find the Cyanogen Mod website here. The best way to find roms is to look through the forum and look in the Development and Original Development threads.

    INDEX - Android Development [29 March] - Here is a Rom list from the Android Development Fourm, the list includes both ICS and GB roms, thanks to daniel_costa_rj

    There is a lot more to roms that just this basic overview and I will be adding more in the future as this will take just as long as writing this whole thread, so keep an eyeout for more updates, including AOKP.

    EFS Folder (Important)
    Ok this is more of a you must do and not a what you can now do. So the efs folder is a very important folder within your android system that contains infomation like your IMEI number, and just well important infomation trust me it's important. When people start to mod their phone such as flashing roms, kernels e.t.c, this folder can become corrupt, making you phone usless. So backing up this folder is important and their is an easy way in which you can do this, a more user friendly way using a great app by hellcatdroid. You can get this app from google play here, and it will give you all the tools to back up the folder. I will also include a guide on further reading for you to have a look over, so please backup your efs folder.

    Well that’s it for now, this is my first draft and I will be making a lot on adding and changing over the next week.
    Thanks for reading and I hope this guide helps even a handful of people.
    25
    More usefull apps that you might like

    Root Browser Lite - Root Browser is for both non-root and rooted users. If you are rooted then this app will give you access to ALL of Android's file system. With a beautiful interface, tons of features and a cheap price Root Browser is a must have!#

    ROM Toolbox - ROM Toolbox is the MUST HAVE app for any rooted user.
    ROM Toolbox combines all the great root apps all tied up into one monster app with a beautiful and user-friendly interface. It also adds many more unseen features!, Check out the link for the full feature list

    SGS2 Dual-Boot Setup (LolBoot) - Dual-Boot your Galaxy S2!
    /!\ Requires root /!\
    /!\ This is for the Galaxy S2 *ONLY* /!\
    When the dual-boot is set up, you can (re)boot between two different, independent ROMs.
    Just powering on boots into the primary ROM (duh!).
    Using the recovery button combo (VOL-UP+HOME+POWER) will boot into the second ROM instead of recovery!
    Pluggin in a USB cable or AC charger when the phone is powered off will make the phone boot into recovery.

    AdFree Android - THIS APP IS FOR ROOTED PHONES ONLY!
    AdFree removes most ads in the browser and other apps. It does this by nullifying requests to known host names in the system hosts file.
    If you have problems with this app, or you know of additional host names not being filtered, please comment in xda-developers.com forum so it can be fixed!

    kTool - Tool for a few functions after rooting. Kernel dump/flash, EFS backup/restore...
    /!\ Requires Root /!\
    /!\ Works on the >Galaxy S2< and >Galaxy Note< *ONLY* /!\
    (i) the "lock pattern bug" is currently being investigated and worked on!

    kTool is a small tool originally bundled with Hellcat's Root-Kernel for the Galaxy S2.
    It offers a few functions usefull after rooting the device:
    - Dump current kernel to /sdcard/zImage
    - Flash kernel from /sdcard/zImage
    - Backup the phone's EFS (sensitive storage are holding the IMEI and other vital data) as a raw .IMG dump and a .tar archive
    - Restoring EFS from the raw .IMG or the .tar backup
    - Format EFS (create fresh filesystem for cases where you want to restore seperate files or a .tar backup, but the filesystem is stuck/locked in read-only due to corruption)
    - Reboot (normal, directely to recovery or directely to downlaod mode)

    EFS Pro - EFS Pro - For Samsung Android Devices
    Advanced Backup and Restore of your Device's '/efs' folder!
    Features:

    Supports Backup and Restore of Partition Image (*.img) and Compressed TAR Archive (*.tar) formats.

    Automatically detects saved EFS Backups on Device and PC for hassle free restoring.

    Re-Scan option to refresh Backup list for restoring Backups.

    Automatically Re-Mounts '/efs' folder with Read/Write permissions during restore for users 'stuck' with Read Only permissions.

    Automatic detection and prompting of Mass Storage Mode.

    Automatic detection and termination of SAMSUNG Kies application on startup.

    Supports Multiple Backup handling.

    Option to Format '/efs' partition before restoring an EFS Backup.

    Displays Device, ROM and BusyBox information on startup.

    (NEW!) Attempt NV Recovery - Restores NV Data from '*.bak' files if they exist to fix corrupt or incorrect IMEI number.

    (NEW!) Repair NV Data - Repairs NV Data file ownership to fix 'Unknown Baseband' and 'No Network / Signal'.
    20
    Introduction to Kernels

    What is a kernel

    So to keep this simple their 3 parts of your device the hardware, Software (rom) and your kernel. The kernel is the communication link between hardware and Software, although some of the seen as more important things are battery life, touch, wifi and more. You can also use a kernel to give you greater controll of your phone with such things (each kernel has its own conrtoll features).

    You can swap your kernel just like you can swap your rom, although you need to check that the kernel you are going to flash with work with the rom you are using. some kernels will work woth all rom types such as SiyahKernel, others are made to be used on certain roms only such as Stock Roms, AOSP roms, AOKP Roms, and some even more specific such as CM9, MIUI and diffrent versions such as GB and ICS. So you will need to check the thread for that kernel and see what the features are and what Roms it will work on.

    Their are many kernels on XDA Develpoers and the idea is for you to try a few out and see which suits your needs best, as their is no best kernel, the same as their is no best rom. So here is a list of a few kernels to get you started, and remember to check that the kernel you are about to flash will work on your device.

    [KERNEL][ICS][ExTweaks][All-in-1kernel][DualBoot] SiyahKernel v3.2b6

    [KERNEL][05.05][APP/PRO/OTA][AOSP&SAMMY] N.E.A.K. ICS - Designed by Nature (v2.0.4x)


    [KERNEL] SpeedMod SGS2 ICS [K3-16 CIFS ROOT / NO-ROOT CWM5]


    [KERNEL] SpeedMod SGS2 [K2-21 CWM5 CIFS ROOT]

    [KERNEL] XPLOD 3.0.24 opensource kernel

    Learn more about kernels

    I will be adding more reading on kernels soon
    3
    If you install ClockworkMod Recovery, it will allow you to flash roms as it will unlock bootloader for you

    Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA