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  • Galaxy S2 questions about rooting/flashing

Mara7ib chabeb, well i have a big list of questions concerning android/rooting/roms..... so i need some pro help here, and the answers could form a guide.....
Now i have a stock galaxy s2 i9100 unrooted, and i wanna root and install a custom rom, here come the questions :
1-whats the best way to root the s2 without flashing a kernel.

2-can i backup everything ? I mean i want to backup my contacts/messages/call logs/apps/apps data/whatsapp messages... and restore them in the custom rom, so, for example i want my finished career in nfs hot pursuit (that i got from applanet) to stay there in the custom rom, is that possible ? And how to do it ?

2-How to flash the rom ?

3-does google apps comes with the rom or do i have to flash them seperatly ?

4-can i restore evrything to the way it was before ? And how ?

5-whats the best rom for the s2 thats more stable than the stock one, with ics, and everything working ? (End user stuf )

Thanks alot for the help, and this is an awesome forum
2-Move everything to sd card everyhting will stay there. Don't forget to backup your recovry to in case you enter a bootloop or brick your phone.
5-Cynagon forgot the number but the latest probably one of the best custom roms
geekevo wrote2-Move everything to sd card everyhting will stay there. Don't forget to backup your recovry to in case you enter a bootloop or brick your phone.
5-Cynagon forgot the number but the latest probably one of the best custom roms
Well how am i gonna move call logs or angry birds scores, mmmm i was reading about titanium backup but not sure....

And yeah cyanigenmod is great the problem is only #9 supports ics, and its still nightly, not even beta...
1-actually the best way to root the s2 IS flashing a kernel.

2-first flashing a new kernel will not wipe any data,as for backups sync contacts with your google account and they will appear when you sign in to it after flashing a new rom,whatsapp usually backup messages automatically so it will ask you to restore em after you install it,search the play store for apps that backup messages and call logs there is a lot,after you root, you can use titanium backup to backup all your apps and their data.

3-flashing ROM's is super easy,once you are rooted you can use an app called ROM manager to insatall ROM's,or you can use CWM recovery,i recommend using the recovery it will give you more experience with android and make restoring easier in case of brick.

4-yes you can,download a stock firmware and flash it via odin and you will be back stock and unrooted.

5-there is no "best" ROM,there is plenty of ROM's you can check their features list and chose what you like.

i recommend checking xda-developers forums.
m.sabra wrote3-flashing ROM's is super easy,once you are rooted you can use an app called ROM manager to insatall ROM's,or you can use CWM recovery,i recommend using the recovery it will give you more experience with android and make restoring easier in case of brick.



i recommend checking xda-developers forums.
Never use rom manager don't even think about it it will brick your phone it happened before and it is not good at all may work first few times but it can brick your phone without you expecting it.
Thanks , yalla rooting, just looking for instructions, one more question if i rooted will i be able to upgrade to ics officially over the air ? Because i wanna root to disable the stupid double tap vlingo. But i dont want it to get in the way of the official 4.0.3
Shockwave wroteThanks, yalla rooting, just looking for instructions, one more question if i rooted will i be able to upgrade to ics officially over the air ? Because i wanna root to disable the stupid double tap vlingo. But i dont want it to get in the way of the official 4.0.3
If you keep the stock ROM you will be able to upgrade just fine, regardless if you have it rooted or not.
Great Great, well it looks like there is 2 great ics roms: the ics resurrection rom but it needs its own kernel, don't want to risk that, and cyangonemod 9, its still in beta, so i'll wait a week or 2 for it to finish and flash that b**** :P tahnks guys for all the help......
Both need their own kernels. You cannot use the kernels that were made purely for the stock ROMs on them.

Kernels are usually installed along with the ROM itself. Then, you are free to flash another kernel. Why are kernels risky? They are not. They are just a part of a larger procedure that itself is risky if you don't follow instructions or have no idea what you're doing. But even this risky procedure rarely leads to hard bricks, if you don't screw around too much.

My friend (he knows himself :P) flashed a KERNEL for i9100 custom ROM on an i9100G instead of flashing a ROM for i9100G. A 6MB file, getting flashed via ODIN, not the 300MB+ ROM. The phone only gave a caution sign that it needed to be connected to a PC, and we connected it, flashed a stock ROM back with ODIN, and that's that. Easy as pie.

You have to go TOO far before your phone is almost unusable / unflashable. And even then, there are solutions for extreme cases (I'm not sure if all of these cases) such as USB Jig and Riffbox.
my bro rooted his samsung note and it lost the arabic language(which is annoying because facebook statuses and occasional sms will not display correctly)

is there a way to keep arabic or to reinstall it?
Can anyone please explain to me what does "flashing the kernel" mean?
Thx.
yasamoka wroteBoth need their own kernels. You cannot use the kernels that were made purely for the stock ROMs on them.

Kernels are usually installed along with the ROM itself. Then, you are free to flash another kernel. Why are kernels risky? They are not. They are just a part of a larger procedure that itself is risky if you don't follow instructions or have no idea what you're doing. But even this risky procedure rarely leads to hard bricks, if you don't screw around too much.

My friend (he knows himself :P) flashed a KERNEL for i9100 custom ROM on an i9100G instead of flashing a ROM for i9100G. A 6MB file, getting flashed via ODIN, not the 300MB+ ROM. The phone only gave a caution sign that it needed to be connected to a PC, and we connected it, flashed a stock ROM back with ODIN, and that's that. Easy as pie.

You have to go TOO far before your phone is almost unusable / unflashable. And even then, there are solutions for extreme cases (I'm not sure if all of these cases) such as USB Jig and Riffbox.
Yeah yeah i get it, looks like there is bo escape from another kernel, well i did extreme stuf back in the old days with my n900 i uaed to get another kernel on it so i can overclock it, i also had android and windows 98 on it.... the good old days, im completly new to android, all what u had to root maemo 5 is to install an app thats simple......
It looks like im gonna be busy studying this week so nchalla will get my ass to work this week end.
Thanks mate....
user wrotemy bro rooted his samsung note and it lost the arabic language(which is annoying because facebook statuses and occasional sms will not display correctly)

is there a way to keep arabic or to reinstall it?
Well he can grabe the official stock not finware that supports arabic from Sammmobile.com and flash it via odin....
rahmu wroteCan anyone please explain to me what does "flashing the kernel" mean?
Thx.
Well im not an expert, but its like installing cpu drivers.....
well for my samsung galaxy s2 it says in the guides that I need kernels based on my firmware version(whatever that means)
and my version says jpkj2, and I cannot find versions for that :P

has anyone flashed a phone like that before that can help me out?
pfff I spent 5 hours reading how to root. and when I finally grew the balls to do it, it took 20 seconds...
user wrotepfff I spent 5 hours reading how to root. and when I finally grew the balls to do it, it took 20 seconds...
Thats great, how did u do it ? Flash kernel than root than flash recovery ?
I flashed once. It said in the tutorial that I should flash again to remove the interrogation sign but meh it doesn't bother me
I am on my phone. Not practical to open videos but yes I have super user application and faceniff