The kernal is contained by and is the core of the ROM. The ROM accesses hardware services via the kernal.

The kernal wraps (abstracts) the hardware so that all the other aspects of the ROM can make simplified calls to the kernal when they want to access the hardware in some way.

So the kernal is an interface to the hardware. It's value is in wrapping the hardware into a nice set of API calls for the ROM that abstract away the messy details of interacting with the hardware.

Otherwise every part of the ROM would have to know the ins and outs of the hardware. This leads to bloated, fragile components.

So yes you can alter the kernal independently of the ROM. But you must ensure that when replacing your kernal your ROM can still understand how to make calls into it. i.e. Not all kernals are compatible with all ROMs. When you do a ROM update however you are typically replacing both the ROM and the kernal. i.e. the kernal is bundled with in your ROM update.

But when you do something like rooting. You are replacing your "bundled" kernal with one that allow you superuser access to core of the OS/ROM. So in this instance the outer shell (i.e. the ROM) is being left as is and you are just replacing the inner core. i.e. kernal.

hth
Richard

Originally Posted by intermension

But when you do something like rooting. You are replacing your "bundled" kernal with one that allow you superuser access to core of the OS/ROM. So in this instance the outer shell (i.e. the ROM) is being left as is and you are just replacing the inner core. i.e. kernal.

Rooting actually does not require replacing the kernel... you are just adding the required binaries to the system that allows root access. Replacing the kernel is done through recovery. This is why you can flash the superuser zip file to any ROM. It just adds the necessary files that allow you to obtain root access.

Galaxy S Plus GT- i9001

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My phone isnt very popular so I was excited when I found a cm9 port somewhere, but it turned out to be very buggy, just like my stock rom was before flashing a kernel, so i thougt that this was because of the kernel and tried to flash some(feaxore and cranium), but with every one I just got a bootloop. Can somebody tell me why? Id ask this in the rom's or kernel's thread but Im still a noob on xda... thank you for reading this!

@penguindroid. those kernels you flashed might be not be compatible wid your rom. search for the correct kernel before flashing

Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

Thanks, but i dont think there is any... oh, can i ask you why do roms require a certain recovery? I also get bootloop unless i have cwm instead of feamod...

can u provide more detail. what phone,rom,kernel n recovery are u using?

Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

Galaxy S Plus i9001 with an unofficial port of Cyanogenmod 9, and I get bootloop with:
Stock cm9 kernel & feamod recovery (based on cwm 5.5.0.4)
Feacore Phoenix kernel & feamod recovery
Cranium v6 kernel & ClockWorkMod recovery (port by, i think, arco68)

I also think that flashing cranium v6 switched my recovery back (from cwm) to feamod, but Im not sure (just ignore that part, I preffer feacore)

You are in the Nexus One subforum----------

I know, but my phone only has a android decelopment section in which I cannot post... I found out what the problem was, thanks anyway...