Back in the day - rooting Android phones and installing custom ROMs were such a big part of Android. I remember so well using titanium backup and Greenify and Cyanogenmod and the list goes on.
Is it still necessary to root in 2023 though?
I have been on vanilla Android without root access for the past couple of years and at this point most root features have made it into the vanilla Android OS. What are your thoughts?
Can’t root, breaking Safetynet destroys about 30% of what I use my phone for.
What? There is a module for that called SafetyNetFix. I am fully rooted and can usw any App I want.
You’re basically playing cat and mouse with these fixes; I don’t want to be stuck without access to apps for a day or two, and what I gain isn’t that great anyway.
If that is your mindset, you’re definitely better without root. My phone is rooted for three years now and never had any issue. I never had an app fail with my methods to hide Magisk. I even got GPay and contactless payment working when I still had Google services installed. Without them, it is impossible unfortunately.
I ran a Lineage OS on a Mi 5 for 2.5 years, there were definitely some days when my banking app would fail and then Magisk would come up with a fix a few days later. Given the prevalance of digital systems I’m not wanting to go without.
Feel like I’m being attacked for not wanting to root, in a thread asking people whether they root or not. This feels like people being asked if they believe in Jesus and those who say no are swamped by believers who then chastisise them.
What does it break? I’ve always had a rooted phone and outside of Google pay, have never had anything not work.
Fixing safetynet is just another magisk module (or two, it’s been so long I don’t remember anymore).
Have you tried KernelSU? Also if you’re careful with magisk you can get SafetyNet to work, even Play Integrity API (but only Basic and Device integrity as Strong requires locked bootloader (or a really bad implementation of security mechanisms as seen here))
As said above, don’t want to be stuck without access to payment apps and ID apps even for a day or two. Risk not worth the reward.
That’s your decision. I experience no issues with my setup, but you do what you want.
KernelSU? Hadn’t heard of that one before.
Do you get proper compliancy with the Integrity API?
It’s relatively new, few months old at most and started as a joke.
Screenshot_20230804-134241_Play Integrity API Checker
Feel free to ask more questions if you need. For me getting to this point was quite an experience, so I’d be happy to help.
I’m very interested! Which device is this and how did you get to this stage? I believe GKI only really exists for devices running kernel version 5.10 and over. My device is running 5.4 so I can’t use this. I hope that in a couple of years KernelSU will become mainstream and I can reap the benefits of SafetyNet without having to deal with Magisk + Zygisk + LSPosed and a bunch of other stuff.
That was 3 months ago.
My phone is Redmi Note 10 Pro (global version) running a custom ROM (AOSP based).
You can install KSU on non-GKI devices: https://kernelsu.org/guide/unofficially-support-devices.html. I was probably using this one, but there are multiple KSU kernels available for my device and you can probably find some for yours in the telegram groups.