Android Rooting Terminology – Part 2
If you’ve straight away landed here, then Please click here to read the Part 1 of my article.
11. Bricking Device / Brick
When you flash wrong firmwares or ROMs which were not intended for your device or model or when you are stuck on bootscreen, this situation is known as bricking device or simply bricked. So it means that you’ve turned your device into a brick. In easy words, when your device is not booting up or is stuck in boot screen, boot loop etc. then your device is bricked.
This type of situation can be fixed depending that you have a nandroid backup and that you can enter recovery mode and flash that backup, restoring your device. There are also ways to fix such situations without nandroid backups, to carry out that, a Google search or go to xda developers forum. I’m not going to explain that here because this post is intended for terminology only.
12. Boot Loop
When your device is stuck in boot screen and is booting again and again without actually booting your device then it is said to be in a Boot loop. Boot loops are never ending, your device won’t start and your device will keep booting again and again and the only way to turn off your phone is to pull the battery out.
These situations can be fixed by restoring nandroid backup or flashing stock firmware (un-rooting device)
13. Stuck at Boot Screen
When your device is stuck at the company logo or boot animation and is not turning on. For example a Samsung device is stuck at samsung start up logo and the device refrains from starting on.
14. Kernel
A kernel is a component that links your software and hardware together. A kernel communicates with your hardware through software. By flashing custom kernels, one can even overclock CPU and speed up the device. Flashing wrong kernels can brick your phone, so think before doing anything.
15. Superuser (SU)
Superuser or SU means the one who has full control over device and has the authority to allow / block apps and tweaks to access root. When you root your android device, you become admin (Superuser) and everything is under your control, with the help of Superuser app, you can give permission to apps to access root.
16. Overclock
Overclocking means increasing the CPU (processor speed) by using a custom kernel. Manufacturers clock the processors to a certain speed to avoid overheating, if you overclock it using a custom kernel then the process will go beyond the limit and will improve performance. Overclocking can overheat your device and in some situations can make your device unstable, so learn how to properly overclock first. Overclocking often uses more battery and thus making battery faint faster.
17. Underclock
Same as overclocking, underclocking is the exact opposite. When we reduce the processor speed below than the manufacturers limits. Underclocking will make your processor run at slower speed giving you more battery life.
18. APK
Apk is the file format of Android application which can be installed into your phone. Apps downloaded from Google Play are Apk’s.
19. Mod
Mod means modification, a mod can bring new features and functionality to your device which wasn’t possible without rooting. Mods are flashable ZIP files which can bring new widgets, tweaks or even customize your device interface.
20. ADB
The full form of ADB is Android Debug Brigde, it’s a tool which comes with the Android SDK. The purpose of ADB is to let you modify your device using a computer. ADB is for developers and is not for newbies, developers use ADB for developing new tweaks and mods. So beginners, stay away from it.
21. Baseband / Modems
Baseband / Modem is a firmware which lets your device connect to wireless network. This includes cellular network, Wi-Fi, GPS etc.
22. EFS
Encrypting File System or EFS is a folder down in phone system which carries all the vital information like IMEI number, Serial Number etc. Flashing custom ROMs can corrupt EFS which means, you can lose IMEI number and other vital files and end up without cellular network. EFS is unique for every device and EFS for one device can’t be used with another device.
The only way to fix corrupt EFS is by restoring it with the backed up EFS. So before flashing any Custom ROMs, make sure you’ve backed up the EFS.
This was the end, Part 1 and Part 2 of the article will help the beginners to embrace some basic concepts. If you’re a developer then I’m sorry, these terms won’t help you. Thanks for reading, do leave you feedback below.
Source from http://www.thegeekdaily.com
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