General questions about rooting

[astrovale]

Hello, just got my Z4 after my old Z just got in the hand of my 2-year old son

I had rooted and installed a custom rom on that one (CM 12), but I never bothered with Sony own "things" such as the Bravia engine and all.
Now, given that there are not yet any interesting roms for the Z4 and that the developers' scene has never been so active for Sony's products (hence we won't probably see anything interesting for a while, in terms of rom), what are the true disadvantages of JUST rooting the device to install stuff like adaway, titanium backup and the rest of the goodies that rooting allows? Will I lose OTAs by simply unlocking the bootloader and rooting? Since the TA partition will be gone forever, what else are the side-effects of the rooting procedure?

Thanks for any help to a semi-noob.

Luca

 

[jelbo]

Hello, just got my Z4 after my old Z just got in the hand of my 2-year old son

I had rooted and installed a custom rom on that one (CM 12), but I never bothered with Sony own "things" such as the Bravia engine and all.
Now, given that there are not yet any interesting roms for the Z4 and that the developers' scene has never been so active for Sony's products (hence we won't probably see anything interesting for a while, in terms of rom), what are the true disadvantages of JUST rooting the device to install stuff like adaway, titanium backup and the rest of the goodies that rooting allows? Will I lose OTAs by simply unlocking the bootloader and rooting? Since the TA partition will be gone forever, what else are the side-effects of the rooting procedure?

Thanks for any help to a semi-noob.

Luca

Apart from the minor Sony stuff that gets lost with the TA partition, I think I read you'll indeed lose the OTA updates abd the only way to upgrade your ROM is with Flashtool (from flashtool.net). Which is also no big deal, really. Just inconvenient, especially on Windows 8+, which you'll have to boot into a mode in which it accepts installation unsigned drivers needed for the tool.

Another potentially big disadvantage is warranty-related, of the bootloader unlocking. Depends on country and vendor.

 

[astrovale]

Thanks a lot for your help Jelbo. Don't worry too much about using flashtool (done already). I remember though that there used to be a tool to backup TA partition. I'll look into it, but I guess that, if it's not here....
Never worried about warranty as well. I just hope I'll be lucky, I guess!

 

[alex009988]

Apart from the minor Sony stuff that gets lost with the TA partition, I think I read you'll indeed lose the OTA updates abd the only way to upgrade your ROM is with Flashtool (from flashtool.net). Which is also no big deal, really. Just inconvenient, especially on Windows 8+, which you'll have to boot into a mode in which it accepts installation unsigned drivers needed for the tool.

:crying::crying::crying: Another drawback which I haven't known. Meybe it's more comfortable to use virtual machine with flashtool.

 

[jelbo]

Thanks a lot for your help Jelbo. Don't worry too much about using flashtool (done already). I remember though that there used to be a tool to backup TA partition. I'll look into it, but I guess that, if it's not here....
Never worried about warranty as well. I just hope I'll be lucky, I guess!

Backing up your TA is only possible when you have acquired root on your device without unlocking the bootloader. This is impossible as of now on the Z4 Tablet. Well, technically it might be possible, but no one has found an exploit yet. Maybe one will be found someday, but I wouldn't wait on it.

:crying::crying::crying: Another drawback which I haven't known. Meybe it's more comfortable to use virtual machine with flashtool.

Haha, don't see things so badly. There's lots to enjoy on the Z4T right now.

Running Flashtool with the flashmode driver in a VM is impossible I think. The driver thing on Windows 8+ is really easy tough.

 

[astrovale]

Thanks Jelbo. I went and researched the subject and the first I read was that you need to be rooted to backup your TA partition (indeed I used for my Z the doomlord tool). Well, I guess I'll wait as much as I can, but I really miss adaway most: I hate those ads everywhere cluttering my apps!
Eventually, I'm afraid I'll root and forget about it! I was just wondering also what is the meaning of loosing the bravia engine, but I'll research that too and see. All I know is that I guess I lost it on my Z...but never missed it anyway, so I guess it isnt' that fundamental to enjoy a good tablet like the sony Z4!
Bye
Luca

 

[jelbo]

Thanks Jelbo. I went and researched the subject and the first I read was that you need to be rooted to backup your TA partition (indeed I used for my Z the doomlord tool). Well, I guess I'll wait as much as I can, but I really miss adaway most: I hate those ads everywhere cluttering my apps!
Eventually, I'm afraid I'll root and forget about it! I was just wondering also what is the meaning of loosing the bravia engine, but I'll research that too and see. All I know is that I guess I lost it on my Z...but never missed it anyway, so I guess it isnt' that fundamental to enjoy a good tablet like the sony Z4!
Bye
Luca

You won't miss the image 'enhancements' that are lost, especially when you care for color accuracy.

A cool thing I found out is that the Z4T supports 'KCAL', which enables you to tweak all kinds of image parameters using a tool like Kernel Adiutor.

Apart from killing ads, the thing I'm second most happy about with being rooted is the ability to permanently hide the soft keys using a build.prop edit, while keeping the ability to type anywhere. I mapped the back and home controls to sliding gestures from the left and right screen edges using a GMD app.