Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with root

Fancy Tea

kittensofthenight — Sun, 05 May 2013 13:49:01 -0800

Any recommendations for a tea with strong licorice flavor that isn't fruity or sweet? I have been getting into non-tea teas, like Dandelion Root and Tulsi.
I also REALLY like Traditional Medicinal's Throat Coat tea, especially because of the licorice flavor.

I'm looking for a new tea that combines the earthiness of the former with the medicinal kick of the latter. Caffeine is just fine. I love Yerba Mate. Mixed with real tea leaves would also be just fine. I don't want to eliminate a possibly awesome tea.

Specific brands or just ingredient recs are both great. I am working in between the International District and Pike Place Market in Seattle, and therefore have access to some amazing tea options.

For the love of god, help me root my (not-so) Incredible

csox — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:29:19 -0800

I'm failing miserable at rooting my Incredible. I'm very, very new to the whole rooting concept, but the low storage space detailed here is unacceptable, and I can't afford a bigger SD card or new phone. Help? I'm trying to follow the instructions given here, but can't seem to get past the first step of getting my command prompt to "c:\miniadb_inc>" When I follow the instructions exactly as given, all I get is "Invalid Directory." I'm stuck, and no one in my house/time zone seems to be able to help. Can you?? Alternatively, do you have a different "fool proof" way to root?

me want magic screen box

FirstMateKate — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:28:57 -0800

I would like to purchase an off-brand tablet computer from a discount electronics website. I know nothing about components or specs or anything- the only info I have to go on is bigger number is good. Please help me. (sorry but this post got way too long, you've been warned.) Hello people who have decided to help! (and those of you who also might need help)

I want to purchase a tablet, but I don't want to pay for a name brand product. I've heard good things about dx.com from you mefites, since they have pretty reliable product reviews. The shipping time is quite long, though, and I've found that Light in the Box and Focal Price seem to be the same thing, but with better processing times.

Here's what I want it for:
•ereading (all of my textbooks are ebooks and dragging my laptop into the lecture hall is dumb because it's bigger than the fake tiny desk we're given.)
•reading metafilter (srsly is what I do most of the time on the internet.)
•showing digital portfolio pieces. (these will mostly PDFs that I'd be showing people. So much easier than getting prints of my work, but I do want to make sure the picture quality is good so it doesn't make my work look crappy.)
•watching netflix/ TV on network sites.
•tumblr (don't judge me)
•I know there are sketching apps out there. This could be fun.

Here's some tablets that have (a lot of) great reviews and seem to be what I'm looking for. Can you help me pick the best one/find a better one in the same price range (>$175)

•#1 is 8g and 1.66hz (thats a good number, right?) It supports flash, apparently. And it's a multi-point capacative screen. ( I read that capacative screens are better. Please tell me if I'm wrong.) It also says this :"Support Extend Card 32GB". I do not know what this means. Does it have SD storage? It also has a built in microphone. So, like, I can skype I guess? It also has a dualcore processor. I assuming this is better than a single core processor.

•#2 is ver similar, but it does not support flash. It does support SUB 3G, but my smartphone has (remarkably good) wifi hotspot, so I don't think I need this feature.

•#3 specifically states that it has access to android market. I know that this has been an issue with off brand, non google supported devices.

Those are I think the best options, I'm only going for items that have more than 50 reviews, for safety reasons.

If you see another tablet that is better, please, by all means, let me know.

I do have some other questions

With it being a non-supported device, what kind of trouble will I run into? Updates? Security? Lack of access to apps? Not being able to watch TV on like cbs.com? How do I bypass these problems? If I root it, how? I am not tech savvy, but I'm a smart lady, so if theres a good, simple, step-by-step guide I can do it. Or, alternatively, I purchased a used smartphone from a local electronics store that was rooted, and they seem to be hardcore software guys, and could do it easily. I'm sure if I paid them they would. If rooting is vital, would you suggest I get it done by a "professional"?

Should I root my wife's Kindle Fire 2?

4ster — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:44:42 -0800

I gave my wife a Kindle Fire 2 (7") for Christmas, and I am thinking about rooting it for her. She does not seem to be too enamored with the Amazon interface, and is thinking she might like a standard, stock Android OS. I know that if we do this, we will likely lose Amazon Prime Instant Videos, which she does not use. If you have rooted a Kindle Fire 2, please share with me what you like and/or dislike about your new set-up. Thanks!

I broke my jailbreak!

pdb — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:51:17 -0800

My Verizon Galaxy Nexus is unlocked, but I also broke it. Help me put it back together again! Like most Verizon customers, I got impatient waiting for VZW to push out Android 4.2, so I used Wug's Toolkit to unlock and root my previously unrooted VZW Galaxy Nexus. The unlock and root worked fine, I then installed CyanogenMod 10 and the Google Apps package, and that's where my problem is.

Cyanogen loaded fine, but I apparently used a bad/incompatible version of gapps, so what happens now when I fire up the phone is I get the Google logo with the unlock icon (so far so good), then I get the Cyanogenmod boot screen (so far so good again), but then after that I get a message saying "the process com.google.process.gapps has stopped", which I cannot get out of; I dismiss the message and it reappears, I dismiss it reappears, etc. The only way to stop this loop is to yoink the battery out. After taking the battery out, I started back up in recovery mode, cleared all data/cache (including the dalvik cache), and tried again - and got the same problem.

I believe Cyanogenmod is installed correctly, but that gapps isn't; if my troubleshooting is correct, I think what I need to do at this point is to load the right version of the gapps .zip file (which I have now) onto my phone and install it from there. That's my second problem, though - my computer(s) won't recognize my phone. I've tried my XP machine, I've tried my iMac, and neither of them will recognize my phone at this point, and I don't know why.

So at this point, I have a completely unusable phone about which I'm panicking a little bit, because I have no idea how to get it to a point where it's usable again. I am extremely new at unlocking/rooting and not particularly technical, so if you could explain things to me like I was five I would really appreciate it. Thanks all.

Android 4.2: errors when trying to upgrade Galaxy Nexus

dobbs — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 10:32:14 -0800

I'm trying to update my rooted Galaxy Nexus to Android 4.2 and I keep getting errors: "failed to verify whole-file signature", "signature verification failed". I have Googled the errors and ended up at XDA and similar sites but do not understand the solutions offered in the slightest. Can you help me by explaining the steps to me like I'm an idiot? First off, a few things: I only get offered the 4.2 update when I've used the "erase data and reset" option. If I don't do that, I don't get offered the update.

As far as I know, I am not running a custom ROM. The phone is just rooted. I do own Rom Manager, however.

I thought maybe I could turn off the sig verification option (something that can be done in Recovery Mode), however, to do that I think I need Rom Manager installed so after I blank the phone and install Rom Manager and turn off the sig verification, I never get offered the update.

How to (or can I) limit permissions for Android apps?

Angharad — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 14:43:02 -0800

Android and intrusive permissions - can I find a limited-permission SMS blocker, or should I just root my phone? I just bought my first smartphone, a Galaxy S II running Android 4.0.4. It's very pretty and shiny - but most of the apps I've looked at want permission to dial my phone, wake it from sleeping, send texts without asking me first, etc. I'm not doing much with the phone because of this, which I'm okay with, but I do get a few spam texts that I'd like to block.

So I have two questions: 1) is there an SMS blocker that doesn't require these permissions, or at least can't make calls? and 2) could I gain more control over permissions for apps if I rooted the phone?

Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

How to root, upgrade to jelly bean, and carrier unlock my galaxy nexus SC-04D locked to docomo?

crawltopslow — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 18:07:41 -0800

How to root, upgrade to jelly bean, and carrier unlock my galaxy nexus SC-04D locked to docomo? My end goal is to be rooted, running jelly bean 4.1, and sim card unlocked so I can use my phone anywhere in the world.

Which order do I have to do things in, first root, then upgrade to jelly bean, then sim card unlock? And how do I do these things exactly? best online guides?

Help me Flash Recovery and / or root my Nexus...

You Should See the Other Guy — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 09:07:34 -0800

Help rooting and/or flashing Recovery on a Galaxy Nexus (Jelly Bean) on a Mac? I'm stuck. So I followed these instructions / video and all seemed to be going well until I got to Step 7. I tried to enter Bootloader Mode and choose Recovery but then my phone just gives me a sad Android with a red triangle and a ! in the middle of it.

I emailed the person who wrote those instructions and he wrote back "If you can’t get into recovery, try re-flashing recovery then go straight into recovery. What happens is that stock Android OS has a security measure that overwrites your custom recovery upon reboot. If this happens to you, simply re-flash recoery and boot into recovery right away without reboot."

I have no idea what he's talking about. I tried to google reflash recovery and was not comfortable with the instructions I found which made even less sense than the email.

Suggestions?

My HTC Evo Shift is feeling cramped

youngergirl44 — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:11:27 -0800

My HTC Evo Shift 4G (two years old?) keeps telling me I'm running out of internal storage. Right now there is only 51.59MB free in the internal storage, while my SD card has over 14G free. It's getting to the point that system apps can't be updated because there is not enough space. What can I do to free up more internal space? Possibly relevant system info:

* Android version 2.3.4
* HTC Sense version 2.1
* Kernel version 2.6.35.10-g48a7653 | htc-kernal@and18-2 #1
* Build number 2.77.651.3 CL259408 release-keys
(I really have no clue what all of this means)
* No system updates are available

The largest applications on my phone seem to be ones that are part of the system - Kindle, Internet, Flash Player, Facebook, Maps, etc. - and I cannot move them to the SD card or delete them. I do frequently use the 'Manage Applications' function to clear data from these applications, but that only seems to help temporarily.

The Dialer Storage and Contacts Storage are also very large in size. The majority of my contacts are synced with my Google contact list (there are only 4 listed as being only stored in my phone) or come from Facebook. I love that my contacts are linked with my FB account, but I suppose I could unlink them if this is causing a storage space issue. I'd love to tell the phone to store all of this info on the SD card, but don't know if it's possible or how to do it. My SMS messages are limited to 200 per conversation, so older messages are automatically deleted.

Maybe rooting is the answer? I have read this thread in the Android forums about rooting my phone, but it's all very overwhelming and I'm very afraid that I will bork my phone or loose everything. Also, if rooting is the answer, can someone tell me why it would help and/or explain how to do it like I'm five?

So how on earth do I free up more internal space?

How to root Android Optimus V

lewedswiver — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 10:10:03 -0800

LG Optimus V on Virgin Mobile -- this phone sucks. Or maybe it's the operating system? Anyways, tell me about rooting it. A lot of apps are forced to go on the phone and not the SD card, making the phone's memory fill up VERY quickly. The phone freezes all the time -- it takes a while to send one text message, and if I try to send two text messages in a row, it will freeze for a minute or two. All sorts of apps freeze and crash all the time (granted, this could be on the apps and not the phone, and some of the apps I'm talking about are big hulking beasts that are known to be buggy, but who knows...).

Anyways, I'm sick of it. I want to root Android 2.2 and get the latest version of Android. There are some questions on askmefi about androids that are rooted, or specific other phones... but I can't see anything as straightforwardly obvious as "How do I root this phone?" [My one other option I would consider would to buy an unlocked iPhone off craigslist, but I'm not sure if it's possible to get that to work on your Virgin Mobile number. I don't really want to buy the new iPhone Virgin is offering, for price reasons.]

Via Google, it seems that this is a good reference to start with. Unfortunately, this is NOT very clear for non-techy people. (For example, there's an early warning that you need to find out if you have Android 2.2.1 or 2.2.2, but then the link that is a guide to finding that out immediately jumps into things that would only make sense AFTER you've rooted.) The more links I click on the more that site seems to be taking me into a rabbit hole of techy-speak I can't understand. Has anyone here rooted this phone? How? Is there an easy step-by-step guide?

TL;DR: I want to update my Android 2.2 Optimus V on Virgin Mobile to the latest operating system, presumably Android 4.0, so that it will work better and more smoothly and crash less often. How can I do this?

Bricked my Samsung Galaxy S3

AMWKE1984 — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 14:28:33 -0800

I think I may have "bricked" my new Samsung Galaxy S3. Please help! I just bought a new Samsung Galaxy S3 from T-mobile. I thought I would go ahead and try to "root" it so I could delete some of the bloatware. I have never rooted a phone before. I used Odin with a CF root. While rooting, it failed, now when I start my phone, it just says that firmware upgrade encountered an issue and to select recovey mode in kies and try again. The phone will not connect to Kies.

Please help me save my new phone!!

Word sans-prefix is word no more?

Geppp — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:44:30 -0800

What are some English words that contain a prefix, but the root is either not a word or is substantially unrelated to the prefixed word? My friends and I were talking wondering this question earlier. For example, the word disgruntle with out the prefix is gruntle, which is basically the opposite of disgruntled. We are looking for words in the form of [prefix][root] where [root] has nothing or little to do with the prefixed word.

The closest we have, kind of, is "overwhelm" or "underwhelm", but the root, whelm seems at least pretty related to the word itself. Words that are basically associated with their prefixed word and where the root fallen out of favor with modern English are welcome too (I think [dis]gruntle falls into that category)

Help me learn a very selective slice of Greek and Latin words.

Kirn — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:00:55 -0800

Is there a resource where I can learn about the Greek and Latin words that commonly underlie words and names in English? I don't want to learn Greek or Latin, I'm talking about only the words which are commonly useful as 'clues'. Some examples (these probably aren't all correct): mortis (death), chronos (time), cryo (ice), pyro (fire), pelagos (sea), didymos (twin), dysprositos (hard to get). These kind of words and more crop up when you Wikipedia the etymology of a name and I enjoy when I'm able to spot them first, so I'd like to expand my stock.

Any books, websites, anything you can point me to? Or does nothing like this exist?

So I ordered it, paid for it, it's been shipped, but now I realize that it's not exactly what I wanted. What next?

Blue_Villain — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:52:17 -0800

I just bought a 32 GB Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, despite the fact that I was trying to buy a 32 GB Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with 3G. What now? Return it and get what I wanted, or root my phone, save some cash, and move on? Brain fart, cognitive dissonance, either, both, whatever. I knew the price seemed too good to be true, but now what do I do?

I do a bit of travelling here and there, a couple times a year. Sometimes it's by plane, others by car, but it seems like it's almost always outside the range of wi-fi. So I figured I wanted a 3G tablet, despite the fact that 90% of my time will be within range of a decent wi-fi signal. (Yes, I know 3G doesn't work on planes, but it does work in those airports that don't offer free wi-fi, of which I have at multiple layovers in the next few months)

I have a phone that I can probably root for the occasional 3G fix, which I guess would make more sense financially, but it's not without it's drawbacks. I currently have a grandfathered unlimited data plan from AT$T, which I never really even get close to 4 GB of data, but I'd like to not have that taken away. And of course Occam would not be happy about having to maintain multiple devices and their cables while on the go. (dang you micro/mini USB standards) Also, that phone's kinda buggy and is still under warranty, so should I try to get the phone replaced before I try these shenanigans?

So my two part question is whether or not it's worth it to send back what I ordered but didn't want, and if so then can I do that now or should I wait until after it gets here. It was through an Amazon partner, because I'm sure that makes a difference.

So any advice, suggestions, shared experiences, age old wisdom, tall tales, even limericks and/or haikus would be appreciated.

You might as well burn that $200

mrs. taters — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:01:13 -0800

So I've got a Kindle Fire - I don't need an interface to the Amazon ecosystem so I'll probably never use it - unless.... I root it. So... I'm tech savvy enough, but no experience with Android anything and I know enough to ask what I should be thinking of before I take a breath and do it.

I like the idea of a $200 tablet - I haven't bothered with an iPad as I've got a touch and an iPhone, and for ~$600 I'm not interested.

I like that I'd have access to the Android marketplace, what else might I be able to or want to do?

And why might I not do it? (I'm okay with voiding the warranty and not being able to see Amazon video content, and I understand I could brick it. I'm looking for reasons it just wouldn't be useful or fun to bother with it.)

How to re-root a Nook Color which was messed up by 1.3 udpate

cuddles.mcsnuggy — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 08:00:39 -0800

I have a Nook Color which came with the stock 1.2 version of the BN software. I rooted it successfully to Cyanogenmod 7 (Froyo). Everything was great; birds sang, unicorns frolicked, and all was right in the world. Then a couple of weeks ago BN decided to push the 1.3 update over the air, and while I was using the Nook, the machine rebooted itself with the update, annoying me at the time because I was in the middle of using it. I put it aside for a while due to travels & such, and yesterday just picked up the Nook to realize that the 1.3 update busted my root. Most of my installed apps are gone, Android Market is completely nonfunctional, gmail and talk are dead. How do I fix this? I've done loads of googling and poked around XDA forums, but I can't find any clear answers in the noise. It seems like a lot of people had this problem with the 1.3 update. All I want to know is how to most efficiently get my root back? My Nook shows software 1.3.0 in the device info and has .95 free of 1GB storage. It seems to be still "half rooted" because I can still get to my Android home screen and apps screen, it's just that a lot of apps are missing or nonfunctional & it won't let me uninstall the BN bloatware that came with the 1.3 update. The BN home screen & functions seem to work fine. Just not the Android stuff.

Do I really need to unroot it entirely and go back to the stock 1.2 to start over from scratch? Or is there a way to fix the root with the 1.3 that's currently installed? Possibly complicating matters: I managed to uninstall Android Market by mistake, and now can't get it back on.

There must be a fix somewhere, right? I just can't seem to find a clear, concise list of instructions for "This is what you must do to have a functioning rooted Nook Color after 1.3 broke your machine." I'm no uber-geek so manually futzing with lines of code is a no-go.

Halp?

I've taken the Android tablet as prescribed... now what?

Admira — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:40:15 -0800

I recently bought an Acer Iconia A500 Android tablet. I had two questions about it though: Does anyone have any Android tablet (honeycomb) specific app recommendations, and should I root the device and why?

Best way to prepare a rooted cellphone for its new owner?

FormerMermaid — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 08:04:42 -0800

I have one of the first Android cellphones that I recently rooted using SuperOneClick so that I could install Wireless Tether. I did not install a new ROM. I now want to sell this phone and I'm wondering, if I perform a factory reset, will that "unroot" it also? I'd like to advertise the phone as being rooted and having Wireless Tether on it, but I also need to remove all the personal info stored on it. What is the best way to keep it rooted but also wipe out all my stored passwords, pictures, etc. ? If it matters, it's a Tmobile MyTouch 3G. Thanks in advance!

Do I need this root canal?

I_love_the_rain — Tue, 17 May 2011 22:08:58 -0800

Do I really need a root canal on a tooth that has no symptoms, but that the dentist is suddenly *very* concerned about? I've recently been told by my dentist that he thinks, although he is not sure, that I may need a root canal on a premolar. This tooth has a large filling in it, and has not caused me a lick of trouble since the filling was put in about 7 years ago. I went in to a new dentist a year ago, who took x-rays and never said anything about that tooth. Two weeks ago, her colleague looked at the x-rays and told me he thought he spotted an abcess on the tip of the root (!), and that the tooth seems dead to him, needs a root canal, all that. So he's referring me to an endodontist, who I will see tomorrow. My question is, is this common? In the research I've been doing, teeth that need root canals make themselves known, and I just don't know what to think. I certainly don't want to have work done that doesn't need to be done. Does anyone have any experience with invisible abcesses that don't cause pain? Also, is there anything I should ask my endodontist when I see him? I don't know what I'm supposed to ask in regards to this procedure.

Best way to root a Motorola Droid and use it as a mobile hotspot?

Rhaomi — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:47:15 -0800

Is it possible to turn an original Motorola Droid into a mobile wireless hotspot by rooting it? If so, what's the easiest way to do that? I've got a first-generation Motorola Droid smartphone on the Verizon network. It's currently unrooted, running Android 2.2.2, build number FRG83G.

In the past, I've had success using my phone's data connection on other devices. By downloading the app PDANet to my phone and installing the relevant software on my laptop, for instance, I can browse the web on my laptop through my phone's data connection. And while Verizon has refused to enable official tethering support on older phones due to alleged technical issues (I'm guessing to encourage upgrading to newer models), they apparently either doesn't notice or doesn't care about this unofficial tethering, so I haven't run into any problems there yet.

This setup isn't very flexible, however. You need to download software on both devices, and you need to use a USB connection. What I'd really like to do is convert my phone into a mobile hotspot, so any WiFi device (like a laptop without PDANet or a WiFi-only iPad) can get online through it wirelessly.

I think this is do-able by rooting the phone and using an app like Barnacle, but I'm not at all sure. With the constant over-the-air system updates (and similarly-named successors like the Droid 2), it's hard to find up-to-date information on the best way to root the current version of the original Droid. For instance, there used to be a Marketplace app that would do it all automatically, but it was removed months ago. And some of the latest OS revisions have made earlier rooting methods obsolete.

So, my question is: Is it technically possible to use a rooted Motorola Droid to create a local WiFi network? And if so, what's the most current, most hassle-free way to do this on Android 2.2.2 build FRG83G?

How do I learn more about root cause analysis?

just.good.enough — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:23:20 -0800

Root cause analysis. What exactly does it mean in the context of an engineering job and how can I prepare for this interview? So I have a job interview coming up for a hardware mechanical engineer position. One of the requirements is the ability to do root cause analysis, documentation, and recommendation.

I can't say I've done formal root cause analysis beyond general troubleshooting (this thing is broken so I should fix it). How can I best prepare myself and demonstrate that I can do the job?

Are there any books/articles/websites on this topic? I want to show that I'm proactive in my willingness to learn.

The chicken or the egg?

Glendale — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:32:03 -0800

Did the word "evolve" exist before Darwin came up with the theory of evolution?

You don't have to brush all your teeth - just the ones you want to keep

TravellingCari — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 09:38:37 -0800

Help me figure out next steps with regard to the mess that is my mouth, specifically my teeth short version: atrocious teeth. Now that the big stuff is over, what next?

Longer version: I've changed dentists since but not because of this mess. I have a wonderful new dentist who handles my dental anxiety well and is very good at explaining what he's doing/treatment plan, etc. I've been seeing him about a year and he's fixed the worst of the messes (broken crown, root canals, etc) that were causing pain.

Now we're onto the next steps. Not cosmetic or anything but not immediate. I have a space on my lower left from a tooth that was removed probably 15 years or so ago. It's the 2nd tooth from the back. I have no wisdom teeth. Teeth are shifting so the space is smaller but it doesn't impact chewing. I have some money in my flexible spending account but not enough to cover anything big. He knows this and is very good at working with me to be sure I don't pay too much out of pocket so it's not a question of fleecing. I just don't know if it needs to be done and how to determine which is better, bridge or implant. In either case, something would need to be done with the back-most tooth because there's a ginormous filling.

I'm kind of hesitant to do something this big and costly for two reasons. One, no guarantee that the teeth around it will survive and I'll eventually need a bigger replacement. My teeth are horrid due to genetics, weak enamel, etc. Two, I've been having bite issues over the last few years. Likely due to crowns and having a more "normal" bite. It has made my TMJ flare up. I don't know that this will improve that at all and fear it will make it worse. Dentist has made this clear this is my choice, I just don't feel educated enough to make the choice.

Any ideas/experiences etc? Thanks!

Can't be rooted?

the noob — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 04:05:18 -0800

A friend bought an Aigo N700 tablet back from China as a gift. It's nice, but because it's not a Google sanctioned device, it lacks Chat and Market and other Google things. I would like to "root" it but afraid I might "root" it. What are the specifics in doing this to an unsupported device? The Hardware is all pretty stock low end tablet. I was thinking about using something like this...

Has anyone had experience with this particular device? Also it does not seem to recognise any SIM card (AU Vodafone if that makes a difference). Would different firmware possibly alleviate that issue? This is such a new device that google only really reveals reviews.

Lack of Market is the real pain.