Noob has rooting questions about xperia play

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Hi all im new to the forum and have a few questions about rooting my xperia play and wondered if some of you in the know could help?...

im interested in using gingerbreak v1.20 to do the root, i have read the tutorial and understand most of it and from what i have read on the forums other XP users have had varied success.

my questions are...

1. my phone is on a vodaphone contract and im not sure if its sim locked (to that specific network) and does this effect the root?

2. my phone had some kind of update downloaded to its software from vodaphone about 1 week ago gingerbread 2.3.2 build number 3.0.A.2.184 other people with this version root ok?

3. so just to clarify i was wondering if that update ive had has hindered my chances of the rooting also if my phone being locked to a specific network (e.g vodaphone) is a problem?

4. last but not least, if my phone fails to reboot after the rooting process, how hard is it to put it back to original version? (like do i need more software to fix the failure or can i just remove the battery wait 30secs and itll be back to normal)?

i know these may seem very basic questions to u veteran rooters, but id like to get involved i just wanna have more knowledge myself before i jump in, and would appreciate your feedback, loving my xperia play and i want to improve it and not brick it

cheers in advance

I am with tmobile and also received the ota update before I rooted.

SIM lock doesn't effect root.

I can tell you that the update won't effect running Gingerbreak at all.

You shouldn't have any worries using Gingerbreak as is.
It is purely an apk and will either successfully root your device or will not.

This is the easiest method of rooting i've ever used.

I was an android n00b when I got my hero & had to go through the method of creating a gold card & reverting to an older build & flashing flashrec!

To be honest, now my play is rooted in probably won't even bother using custom roms in the future.
I did all that with my hero and am happy with the plays UI.

I just wanted root to free up more space.

I'd also recommend researching setinstalllocation2 on here.

Doing this natively installs everything to sd and is worth the time.

cheers for the speedy reply DeadlyDazza, yeah id like to remove some of the stock rubbish to free up some space i was also hoping to do a small overclock, is this possible with a basic root? using the android overclocking apps?

im still nervous about the reboot and it not coming back on :S

@DeadlyDazza did you use gingerbreak on an empty/formatted sd card like described in the tutorial or does it also work with a sd full of installed apps? ( i really dont want to delete all my apps and data)

cheers covux

I have a fair bit of installing custom Roms on Android phones and i can honestly say this -

Unless you are rooting the phone in order to help develop custom roms and tweaks there really is no point in rooting it at the current moment.

Gingerbread is excellent at managing apps and the Xperia Play is designed so that games run independently from your homescreen.

"Trimming the fat" will offer almost zero benefit at the moment.

My advice is to wait a while, let the experts put together some custom Roms and gain access to the Kernel, allowing us to overclock.

Until then, i do not see a reason to root at all.

Unless you just, like me, wants to get rid of bloatware and ads in various apps and other benefits with root access

+1 on liking the XP UI and don't want to flash and mod this phone as I did with my HTC desire hd

If you just want that, root it now and keep your locked bootloader and enjoy the XP as it is

Regards Dousan...

Rooting does have many benefits, which mine was to free up more space on a device that, although is designed for gamers, seems to fall very short of.
Also to use root enabled apps such as cache mate.

Apart from the space issues, which have now been resolved by rooting & setinstalllocation2, I'm more than happy with my Xperia Play.

Will I be saying the same in 6 months? Probably not, I'll probably be wanting a fresher feel.
But that depends on how much support SE give the Play (my last device was the Hero & HTC was very slow with their support).

In answer to the question about running Gingerbreak with blank sd.
I had a spare 8gig that I formatted & used.
I didn't want to risk losing any data & couldn't be bothered to back up the 14gig on my card.
Although I have heard a few people say that running Gingerbreak is completely safe & won't erase any data.

Didn't erase anything on my sdcard when I rooted my XP, would still recommend a backup before using gingerbreak I was just lazy and went ahead without doing a backup. Did one today...

Regards Dousan...

@DeadlyDazza, @Dousan thanks for the info, i think i will also use a spare blank sd.

Originally Posted by dsswoosh

IXperia Play is designed so that games run independently from your homescreen.

How exactly?
Whenever I navigate home away from a running game (such as to check a text) my XP shuts down the game.