questions about rooting

[angelatwork]

I have been thinking of rooting my Samsung s4 and s3. (I'm Tired of the turning on off GPS through the action control UI fails every other time ).
If you root, does that mean the internal programs that comes with the phone are wiped out? I see some questions here at the forum about actions that I at least have built-in in my phone?
Have you any preferences for what brand of root that I'd the "best"?

Appreciate any input from the forum

[kintrupf]

I can't say anything specific to rooting a Samsung Devicem but I rooted my Google Nexus 4 and Nexus 5.
The factory installed programs survive the initial rooting of the phone. They are only wiped out if you install a custom ROM afterwards (which is not necessary).
But normally all user data (your installed programs and data) are gone, so you should backup as much as possible (which is not so easy without root )

[angelatwork]

Thank you kintrupf, for your swift reply !
If I initially skip installing a new rom. Could you maybe point me to a web page? Where it explains how to only root the phone? I think I have only found web pages discussing rooting combined with different new rom.

[kintrupf]

Thank you kintrupf, for your swift reply !
If I initially skip installing a new rom. Could you maybe point me to a web page? Where it explains how to only root the phone? I think I have only found web pages discussing rooting combined with different new rom.

I'm sorry, but I can't help you there specifically since I don't have a Galaxy s3 or s4 and thus don't know anything about rooting that phones. I used a toolkit named "Nexus Root Toolkit" to unlock my phones, but this toolkit works only for Nexus devices...
Those pages you've found should be a good starting point. You can normally just omit the installation of a custom ROM if you want to keep the original ROM, so any page that completely explains how to install a custom ROM onto a locked phone must also have a complete description of rooting the phone.

If I recall correctly you usually need to:
1) unlock the bootloader (that's where all your user data is wiped)
2) install a custom recovery
3) root the phone
4) install a custom ROM (which is optional)

[angelatwork]

Thanks so much ! ! I think I found some pages