The Dangers of Tool Kits and One Click Root Methods + Mini Rant

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I don't create threads on xda very often and 95% of my posts are me trying to help people out, but this is something I wanted to get off my chest.

It seems like everyday in this forum there are about 5 new threads of people "stuck in a bootloop" or "stuck on Google screen." The majority of these people don't know the difference between adb and fastboot or bootloader and recovery.

I bought the G1 on launch and there weren't tool kits. We had to use telnet and command prompt to do everything manually. I knew nothing about linux or coding, but I followed instructions and learned what was happening when I entered these commands. Through owning the G1 and then moving on to the Nexus One I don't remember seeing so many threads about people "soft bricking" their device. I think the reason for this is the tool kits and other scripts that make it almost too easy to unlock and root your phone. While I respect the people who write these scripts (and I think they do serve a purpose in some situations) I think it's causing more harm than good.

The people who are using these scripts aren't learning what is actually happening when they press 1 on their keyboard. Boom, their phone is unlocked, su-binaries and cwm recovery installed. Then, they flash a rom without creating a nandroid. What happens if something goes wrong and they didn't place any safety nets to help them? They post a thread saying their phone is bricked. People take time out of their day to help these people out, but since the user doesn't understand what the helper is talking about, they can't fix it.

Just last weekend I spent 30 minutes replying to a PM with step by step instructions how to flash stock images and including links to files and resources. The person replied back. Instead of fixing his phone himself, he said he "claimed his phone as stolen and will be getting sent a new one lol". WTF?! Not only is that morally wrong, it's also insurance fraud. And we wonder why carriers and OEM's are trying as hard as they can to lock down non-nexus phones.

Please, take the time to learn how to get yourself out of a mess before you are in a mess.

Weigh in with your thoughts, criticisms or tl;dr comments.
Thanks.

EDIT 8/9/12: Link to efrant's Android Galaxy Nexus 101 guide. All the info you need to know. http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1812959

EDIT 11/14/12 My Thank you & Goodbye post.

I agree that it's lack of research that causes the problems. But don't knock the toolkits, they're designed for ease and they work perfectly with an understanding of what's going on. I can go thru adb and unlock and root because I researched the absolute **** out of it and know how to use adb but I used a toolkit. Like I said, if they don't want to research then bad on them. Gotta learn somehow be it by mistake or research. But the toolkits aren't the enemy.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

There's always a bigger fish. Like little man syndrome , be careful before you develop big man syndrome. " I'm taller than you "
PS even with research, " you can't fix stupid " so just let it go. A poor craftsman blames his tools. Simple as that.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Leaving good enough alone.

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It's getting pretty comical when you see a "help me" post and before you even start reading the post you can correctly predict that the post will start something like this: "so I flashed *****'s custom ROM and now my phone's f****d".

This thread is so full of #winning. The easy way is not always the best way.

I used the manual methods for my Atrix so now after getting a good feel for Fastboot and ADB, the GNex Toolkit was really painless to use.

I understand what you're saying though. I guess some people just want easy routes to get what they want, completely scrolling past the giant red text that tells them exactly what could (and most likely will) happen.

Originally Posted by phaze one

I agree that it's lack of research that causes the problems. But don't knock the toolkits, they're designed for ease and they work perfectly with an understanding of what's going on. I can go thru adb and unlock and root because I researched the absolute **** out of it and know how to use adb but I used a toolkit. Like I said, if they don't want to research then bad on them. Gotta learn somehow be it by mistake or research. But the toolkits aren't the enemy.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

I'm going to second this, as long as the toolkits are well documented (showing what they did where, and why it was done) they can save people time typing the commands and looking them up if they forget them.

It's very similar to creating a GUI front end for a program. If done properly they're nothing but useful and time saving.

Im guilty of using the wugfresh kit. I could have easily done everything myself, but it contained everything I needed.

I agree with pretty much everything you said though. I see people offering money for them to root their phone over team viewer, etc. Those are the same people that warranty their phone that they, themselves messed up.

Thanks for your feedback everyone.

I just wanted to clarify I'm not ripping toolkits. They are a great way to get where you want to go quickly. If you know what you are doing by all means use it. But, to me it seems like they are just the cheat sheet to the test. Yeah, you aced the **** out of the test, but when asked to apply what you should have learned from that test in a real life situation; you are screwed.

How to unlock, root, and be done with it.

adb reboot bootloader
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot reboot
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img (clockwork)
fastboot reboot
adb reboot recovery
flash rom
reboot
profit


Not hard at all.