r/androidroot • u/47th-Element • 1d ago
Humor Yes, I'm that old.
Only OGs will recognize this.
57
u/No-Judgment5352 1d ago edited 1d ago
Right there with you
EDIT: For a bit more detail, the first device I ever rooted was a Samsung Galaxy Spica back in 2010. It came with 1.5 or 1.6 out of the box. I think there was a custom ROM of 2.3 which I wanted and that's how I got in to unlocking/rooting etc.ย Clockwordmod, Busybox, apps on the SDcard, etc. Fun times
5
u/Neat2Setup 1d ago
My first android was a Galaxy Spica too! It was so easy to install custom roms on it!!
42
u/Imperial_Bloke69 1d ago
Stericson's busybox apk. Did you pair it with chainfire supersu
23
u/47th-Element 1d ago
Yep, I think that's how most of us rooted back in the day, except for some suckers who went with KingRoot which was basically Chinese malware ๐ญ
20
u/Imperial_Bloke69 1d ago
Supersu become sus when some shady company bought it.
You missing our favourite link2sd too.ย
17
u/47th-Element 1d ago
I think the rooting scene is much better now with everything being open source and transparent. Yet SuperSU was the real deal before Magisk took over, good times!
6
u/Imperial_Bloke69 1d ago
Right, however the moment we got a decent capable devices, manufacturers go hard on unlocking bootloaders. And only a handful of brands we can still own literally.
3
u/digitalchaos1980 1d ago
I STILL load up and use Link2SD with every new device I get. Not for linking anything to the SD card, but because it has the ability to delete all app cache (at once) which you can no longer do in any new android version, that I know of anyways. ๐
5
u/Best_Cattle_1376 >Nabu> <Android, Fedora with niri, Windows 11 triboot> 1d ago
andd i went with kingroot ๐ญ
3
u/47th-Element 1d ago
You're not alone, Ha! I remember when I was young, I tried to educate my dad about rooting, I was already rooted with SuperSU, he on the other hand also went with KingRoot (because SuperSU involved flashing while KingRoot relied on one click exploits, I guess he felt it was easier).
Surprisingly it worked for him. It just spawned some icons in his launcher with Chinese names but I guess my dad didn't mind it ๐๐
4
u/oppai_seven 1d ago
My phone didn't have strict bootloader but stock ecovery wouldn't let you flash unsigned binary. So way to root was KingRoot. When I'm rooted with KingRoot, I flashed custom recovery with rasher and then I flashed my original ROM using that recovery. This way I get rid of KingRoot and flashed magisk from recovery.
4
u/47th-Element 1d ago
That's clever, I guess AVB wasn't a thing yet yeah? Try doing that on a modern device (with a modern exploit obviously), and it will boot to "System is destroyed" ๐ญ
4
2
3
u/NateDevCSharp 1d ago
or kingo root lmaoo
3
u/47th-Element 1d ago
The difference between them is that KingRoot works but adds adware or spyware, Kingoroot only does the spyware part ๐ญ
2
2
u/Serialtorrenter 1d ago
I used to download z4root from the Android Market and use it to temp root my dad's Samsung Fascinate so I could use Barnacle Wi-Fi Tether to create an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network to connect my iPod Touch 4th gen on road trips.
15
u/Zeraora807 1d ago
superuser, busybox and apps2sd on cm6 running on android dev phone 1, good times
back when you could root with one apk, flash clockworkmod recovery and just backup and install cyanogenmod + gapps without any of the bullshit.
16
u/ForceTheDragon 1d ago
This whole thread is a walk down memory lane.
I had an LG G3 the I rooted with Towelroot. I had a blast just opening root checker and seeing that success message. Also, all of the applications I could finally mess with: superuser, BusyBox, lucky patcher, game guardian, and ROM toolbox.
I thought I was a badass hacker lol
3
u/47th-Element 1d ago
Same feeling! I wasn't sure of half what I was doing back then, and had way less understanding of root and android than I do now, but I enjoyed every little bit of it haha
2
1
u/Intelligent-Bee-9021 1d ago
Lucky patcher works without root too, but since it can't mount apk normally after patching all game progress is lost
11
u/IGambleNull 1d ago
Oh bro. Even as a now 24 year old I remember that time. It was also one of the moments in life when I learned English so fast like never again. I was like 11 to 13 and complaining that nothing was in German so I just got through it.
1
u/47th-Element 1d ago
Same! Around the age of 13 years old, I was already working on my English and learning android development, made my first APK when I was 17, and then my second very recently, still in the process of publishing it on play store but I already published it on third party stores. I guess love for tech grew up with me and never died. Even though I'm actually a physician, don't work in IT.
3
u/IGambleNull 1d ago
That sounds create! I made my first apk with 12. round about one year after I started to develop Minecraft server plugins. I never made something big until now. I am currently doing a fan App for the light stick from the artist Ado. I just never had a good idea. But it is really nice that you have already published stuff :D
Right now I am working myself into the Lineage OS source code and I already got a hello world service to run in my custom build but fucking hell is it hard to work into the AOSP. Googles documentation mentality really was "who needs documentation. We are developing android mainly for yourself and other manufactures. We can just ask each other"
And hey, even tho you are a physician, it does not matter what you like in your freetime. I just decided "hmmm after my computer science university/Software developer day how about I just continue coding at home" xD
1
u/47th-Element 1d ago
I'm impressed! Good for you :)
2
u/IGambleNull 1d ago
Thanks thanks. But I am also impressed by you. Not many non IT people develop apps and so on :D
9
u/IShunpoYourFace 1d ago edited 1d ago
First phone i ever rooted/installed custom rom was alcatel one touch 995. It was fun trolling friends that i had android 5.0 before it even existed ๐
Oh and unbeatable record in temple run ๐๐(and later subway surfers)
Having cheat engine(gameguardian) on android was like having a phone on whole new level
2
u/47th-Element 1d ago
Speaking of games, I still remember the very first game I installed on Android. It was Farmville, back then farming games were very popular especially with the launch of Facebook web games.
2
u/IShunpoYourFace 1d ago
I dont remeber it anymore. I was somwwhere around 12yo when i rooted my first phone. I used to play games, i dont even remeber which ones haha.
2
u/Dr_Laziness 1d ago
T-Temple Run? Shit, I'm old.
1
5
4
u/INocturnalI 1d ago
Idk if it's old or not. But anyone remember Link2SD?
3
u/47th-Element 1d ago
Anyone who used a phone from that era must have used Link2SD or a similar app, phones had very limited storage and half of it was already taken by the system.
1
3
3
3
u/Ok_Relation8247 1d ago
Im NOT an og and DONT recognize this but the skeuomorphism hits my heart so badl6
3
3
u/Teddy_0209 6h ago
Same, the golden era of Android where i spend most of my time on xdadevelopers using tapatalk.
2
2
u/YTriom1 1d ago
Y'all needed an entire app to install busybox? it's not that hard to do manually lol
1
2
u/Quick-Abrocoma-2608 1d ago
Only getting older baby i been thinking about you lately does it even drives you crazy just how fast the night changes
2
u/bigthickd82 1d ago
The good old days. 1st android I rooted was a galaxy s3. Then I bought a HUGE battery that lasted for like 5 days. God I loved that phone!
2
2
u/TigleLive 1d ago
my first phone to root and rom was "galaxy y s5360" man good ol days, I had pushed that device to it's absolute fullest...
2
2
2
2
2
u/Mutcheff 1d ago
yeah, I remember this, good ol' times.
I had to install busybox to my Galaxy Y TV (yes, it was a Young) (and yes, it had a TV antenna).
2
2
2
u/dawidececk 22h ago
You remind me my old days, with Xperia X8, and the word "kernel" - was like something unreachable and terrifying.
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
2
u/Farisiyah 1d ago
I remember install Busybox Pro on my Infinix during 2016 ~ 2018
And now still not understand what that app function is
2
u/47th-Element 1d ago
BusyBox is literally like a small box of Linux/Unix tools, things like ping, mount, grep, etc.
It's useful, back in the day I would install it just because some other app or root tool requires it, but now I set it up because I personally use it in scripts, and also other root tools still depend on it.
1
1
1
2
u/cfultz 1d ago
The first phone I modified was a Motorola Milestone (basically the first Droid in VZW terms I believe). Ended up getting a job in tech support at the local telco that sold the device and made a forum dedicated to rooting and roming them. I miss nTelosDroid and all the folks that made that community special. This admin still thinks about you all from time to time.
1
2
u/digitalchaos1980 1d ago
Don't forget the Ultimate Backup tool everyone loved and used back then too! I cannot recall the exact name, unless that was its name lol. You could freeze and unfreeze apps, move them from /system to /data or vice versa, etc etc. I also miss custom kernels that allowed over clocking and changing of the governors lol.
2
u/Upstairs-Category571 1d ago
I'm not an Og but still recognize it. I love flashing cyanogenmod and old Roms on ym parents old phones.
1
1
u/Just_Badger_4299 17h ago
Oh yes I remember now! Thanks for the trip down memory lane! ;-)
Althoughโฆ you just might be able to help me, u/47th-Element : Iโve put my hands on a ancient Samsung Galaxy Pocket 2 that Iโm trying to root.
Would you have an idea how to proceed?
Iโve written it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Magisk/comments/1v8ubh5/root_a_samsung_galaxy_pocket_2_smg110h_running/
1
1
u/taneyshere 4h ago
Anyone here as mature as me that sold my iPhone to get the Nexus One?
1
u/47th-Element 4h ago
I never had an iPhone haha, overpriced garbage. You can easily get a much better performance for buck Android device for way less so I don't see the point.
1
u/taneyshere 4h ago
Iโve had every iPhone since the iPhone 7 ๐
I always want to switch back to Android but with Googleโs tighter restrictions, I end up venturing back to iOS.
At this point, I have loyalty to none but usability and practicality brings me back here until another player enters the market. ๐
1
u/taneyshere 4h ago
GrapheneOS sounds so cool but if I canโt use my banking apps then itโs more problematic than useful
1
u/47th-Element 3h ago
Bro, google restrictions are nowhere near a locked down iOS. Restricting sideloading from unverified developers for a period of 24 hours for example, is still way better than no sideloading at all like iOS.
1
u/taneyshere 3h ago
On the surface, yes ๐ฏ. But after dabbling in it and especially now, itโs a completely different ball game. Side loading on iOS is on a whole different level. Letโs just say itโs very โvanillaโ now and everything works like stock.
1
u/-saajan- 1d ago
Ahh, when you would decompile an apk to edit smalli for modding a game, not related to rooting but used to do it back then
1
u/47th-Element 1d ago
Me too! Lucky Patcher was also very relevant back in the day, the modded play store, Game Guardian was also on every old phone I had.
2
u/-saajan- 1d ago
Ikr, I still remember people trying to mod coc with lucky patcher and tricks like that, and be confused why nothing works haha
1
u/47th-Element 1d ago
Those were the days! ๐
2
u/foxrobo13 1d ago
Yeah, that lowk was me๐ญ. On my gpower Motorola was so sad why I couldn't get unlimited coins on brawlstars with lucky patcher
67
u/gib_me_gold 1d ago
Back when it was SD card or gtfo on cheap devices