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SuperSU, a Popular Root App For Android, Disappears From Google Play Store (androidpolice.com)

Posted by msmash on from the end-of-an-era dept.

Corbin Davenport, writing for AndroidPolice: For years, SuperSU was one of the most popular root applications for Android. Chainfire, the creator of SuperSU, handed over development to CCMT in 2015. He ended his involvement with the app last year, so CCMT has been in full control of it since then. For reasons currently unknown, SuperSU has now vanished from the Play Store. The app's Twitter and Google+ accounts for SuperSU haven't made a post since last year, the Facebook page has been inactive since March, and the official forum is currently offline. As such, it seems like the app was largely abandoned. The latest version available from APKMirror was published in January. Further reading: End of an era: Chainfire is halting development on all root-related apps.

66 comments

  1. A story about APKs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Here we go again

  2. Magisk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Magisk with Magisk Manger has been a nice alternative for me.

    1. Re:Magisk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      With how phones are going, a systemless root like Magisk is just the next step in the process. Hopefully Magisk can carry the torch from where SuperSU left off, so people can still run their stuff like Titanium Backup, firewalls, and other apps.

    2. Re:Magisk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your right, but your reason is not. Chainfire invented system-less root in SuperSU before Magisk did so (though it was "beta" for a long time it seemed). What switched me over to Magisk was Chainfire sold SuperSU, which isn't open-source, while Magisk is, transparency won.

  3. There's always Superuser on F-Droid by gti_guy · · Score: 3, Informative

    https://f-droid.org/en/package...

    1. Re:There's always Superuser on F-Droid by JackieBrown · · Score: 2

      Which was last updated on 2016-01-21

    2. Re:There's always Superuser on F-Droid by higuita · · Score: 2

      and still works fine...

      --
      Higuita
    3. Re:There's always Superuser on F-Droid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So does SuperSU.

    4. Re:There's always Superuser on F-Droid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Somebody at work told me at work that they removed it because some trolls are using mobile reverse proxys to hit YouTube and other Google services.

      View my twitter feed about this here:
      https://twitter.com/cdreimer

      Thanks to all decent Slashdot users for your support against the trolls! WE will win this battle because we never give up!
      --
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    5. Re:There's always Superuser on F-Droid by Shikaku · · Score: 2

      I don't think the issue is whether it works. It might be good enough as a utility but for what it does, which is give root system permissions and do some very powerful tasks, it needs a patch if a security issue/bug arises, and someone has to code that. I saw some good alternatives in this comment section though and I'll keep that in mind; I am just warning people that this is a possibility.

  4. You Will NOT BELIVE this but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Brett Kavanaugh's WIFE felt me up while I was standing on line at the bank. She grabbed my junk and said something like she would squeeze if I said anything. So I didn't say anything.

  5. fris(t psot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    AAsh0les, as they

  6. Why was it ever on the Play Store? by jtara · · Score: -1, Troll

    Why was this ever on the Play Store in the first place? Why do a small but vocal minority of Android users insist on being able to fsck with their phone's OS, and then complain wah-wah-wah when they are hacked?

        - A confused iOS user

    1. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Stay in your walled prison, coward.

    2. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by ArchieBunker · · Score: 2

      I'd rooted my old Android phones because there is no other way to remove the factory installed bloated apps and spyware. I also rooted my iPhone because iTunes is so shitty and terrible. I just want to access the phone like a flash drive. But you can't even do that because iOS mangles all the filenames.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    3. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd try to explain it to you, but you've admitted to owning an iOS device. This means you're incapable of understanding the answer, sadly.

    4. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because some of us wanted to buy an open handheld computing platform that happens to make phone calls that we can have complete control of instead of an overpriced shiny status symbol.

      Don't worry, all iOS users tend to be confused when it comes to actually doing anything interesting with computing equipment. Shouldn't you get back to bending over for Tim Cook while he tells you what you want, need and deserve as well as how much you're going to pay for it?

    5. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 2
      Well, some of us are even the creators of some of the software on those phones as Open Source, for example Busybox is widely used, and we're quite competent to manage our own devices. The main reason is that we wan to be in control. Who wouldn't? We want to be able to run our own software, we want to be able to do things that the OS doesn't allow by default. Some of the most simple functions of the device seem to be locked away from normal applications, not always for the best reasons.

      We also want to be able to load an alternate OS, like LineageOS, when it becomes available for our devices. Meaning we need to be able to re-write the firmware, which root can do.

      --
      Bruce Perens.
    6. Re: Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Iâ(TM)ll bitchslap you, you sad twat with your phone for broke loser bitches

    7. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do a small but vocal minority of Android users insist on being able to fsck with their phone's OS

      1. We want to pretend we still "own" our hardware.
      2. Manufacturers and carriers fsck with Android, we would like to have the option of installing alternative AOSP - based operating systems.
      3. There are many benefits to being rooted - even on "stock" android. System-wide adblocking comes to mind.

      Don't knock it until you've tried it. But hurry, the manufacturers and carriers are making things harder and harder to actually be in control of your own device.

    8. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Megane · · Score: 1

      But you can't even do that because iOS mangles all the filenames.

      Nope, that's just iTunes. That happened on the iPod before iOS even happened. They just wanted to appease the music companies that you wouldn't be able to yank the files out for easy piracy, no matter how silly that may sound now.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    9. Re: Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LUL. An Apple user bitch slapping someone? Yea right.

    10. Re: Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Sounds like a bunch of fucking criminals to me.

    11. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by PmanAce · · Score: 1

      Hey troll, please link proof about rooted android users complaining about being hacked. I don't think you understand what rooting actually does.

      --
      Tired of my customary (Score:1)
    12. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by segin · · Score: 1

      Let me draw you an ASCIIart Venn Diagram: ( people who root ) [a gap] ( people who get hacked ) Does perhaps that explain it?

    13. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who let the submissive out of his cage?

    14. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      - A confused iOS user

      You repeat yourself.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    15. Re: Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (people who have android phones) [a gap] ( people who get laid)

    16. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do a small but vocal minority of Android users insist on being able to fsck with their phone's OS, and then complain wah-wah-wah when they are hacked?

      They don't. We're still waiting for the first one to complain. What's going on is that you were exactly, perfectly wrong about "vocal." From there, your error rate went silly due to the goofball premise, sort of like a compiler that bitches about a hundred lines of bad code when really there was just a typo on line 4.

    17. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I'm impressed how even you missed OP's "A confused iOS user", clearly intended as a sarcasm tag. I suppose it just shows that nobody hears you being sarcastic on the internet. But thanks for the explanation anyway.

      I remember the days when rooting Apple products was a thing, but by today Apple has trained all their diehard loyalists not to want that, and even think it's better without. Basically, "I'm so glad I'm an Apple".

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    18. Re: Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Watch out, it could be one of them hippo sized, rainbow haired CoC SJWs...

    19. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 1

      I do this stuff pretty quickly. So yes, I can miss sarcasm tags.

      --
      Bruce Perens.
    20. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It doesn't explain which version of reality you pulled that Venn diagram from.

    21. Re: Why was it ever on the Play Store? by nnull · · Score: 2

      I decided to try to do work on a trip recently with just an iPad. Suffice to say, I will never do it again.

      Try to transfer files from an SD card on an IPad? Ahahah Good luck, frustrated me to no end. FileExplorer ftp server saved me here.

      File handling in IOS is absolutely absurd.

      My productivity went down dramatically on an iPad as many applications that claim to be similar to their desktop counterparts are not even close. Most of them are completely useless. Doing simple things like organizing things in windows to see my notes is very time consuming.

      Eventually I got so tired of it that I connected to my vpn to remotely connect to my desktop. Lack of a mouse made things annoying, but I became more productive again. I'm in Japan with fast internet so it works fine.

    22. Re: Why was it ever on the Play Store? by nnull · · Score: 2

      Oh to my point. If I have to root my device to be able to do simple tasks as above and then the manufacturers do everything to prevent me from doing so, it's a damn useless device to me.

    23. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm impressed how even you missed OP's "A confused iOS user", clearly intended as a sarcasm tag.

      That isn't nearly as clear as you or the original poster may believe it is.

      I have heard that exact claim, on occasion those exact words, completely seriously spoken by far far too many people to even have any inkling of suspicion of sarcasm anymore.

      There are millions of people who are not content with simply desiring to do different things and proceeding to do those different things, but must go far out of their way to point out how you don't do or think or want exactly what they do.

      How many awesome fun hacks have been posted on this very site were the top level comments are full of "But why? I'd just do this instead" ?

      If the original post was serious, it deserves being criticized and belittled.
      If the original post was a joke, it was about as funny as trying to drown your best friend and responding "It's just a prank bro" and so also deserves being criticized and belittled.

    24. Re:Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Online sarcasm was deprecated in 1987

    25. Re: Why was it ever on the Play Store? by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Wait, you're hoping your cell phone is going to get you laid?!

      I met a guy who believed that, but it was 1996 and still true then.

  7. im gay... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    just call me GAYpk

  8. creimer gorges on buffets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's gone? Did creimer eat it and its developers?

  9. Perhaps they're trying to uproot it by penguinoid · · Score: 1

    Someone should get to the root of the problem.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  10. SuperSU fixed my useless Samsung Galaxy Tab by MobyDisk · · Score: 2

    I have an older Galaxy Tab that was useless out-of-the-box. I should have returned it because it was so slow that it literally couldn't keep up with my typing, even after a factory reset. It scrolled at 5 fps. After it fell into disuse for years, I rooted it with SuperSU, and used a task manager find and delete two processes that were eating 80% of the CPU. No idea what they did, but the tablet has been fine since then.

  11. Magisk had replaced SuperSU a long time ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Magisk had replaced SuperSU a long time ago.

    Chainfire is an absolute master and his SU applications impeccable

    But with the latest revisions of Android, Magisk had begun to replace what SuperSU and other SU applications provided.

    1. Re:Magisk had replaced SuperSU a long time ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      KingRoot has its own su bundled.

      (Not associated with the application....just saying.)

    2. Re:Magisk had replaced SuperSU a long time ago by Thelasko · · Score: 1

      KingRoot has its own su bundled.

      It's also malware.

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    3. Re:Magisk had replaced SuperSU a long time ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed, Kingroot and Kingoroot are well known, well documented pieces of malware s#!+.

    4. Re:Magisk had replaced SuperSU a long time ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I did use it to root my phone, it was the only way to root a Virgin Mobile LG G3 variant. But then I installed a custom bootloader, wiped, installed Lineage, and never loaded KingRoot again. But without it I couldn't have installed TWRP.

    5. Re:Magisk had replaced SuperSU a long time ago by johnsie · · Score: 1

      Rooting your phone with any software is risky. Nearly all rooting software looks for exploits in your phone that allow them to gain root permissions (ie take over your phone). They upload a bunch of software to your phone that is now completely writable. Most people who root their phones have no idea what they are uploading to their phones. There could be malware, proxy software, bots, trojan horses, you name it Then of course there's the fact that there's only the superuser app between preventing any apk (play store or external) from having full access to your phone. That's a lot of trust to put in one third party app. Remember, not all malware announces it's existence. Some malware likes to go quietly undetected while it does it's thing. I wouldn't touch a rooted android device with a bargepole. A non-rooted device already gives app developers way too much access and information.

  12. Sad. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My acer tablet is SU rooted.

    So nice being able to remove all the COMPLETELY USELESS SHIT RUNNING.
    You can't even disable the acer crap without root. Let alone remove completely and gain back almost 11 gig of onboard space.

    Massive boost to battery life as well. From 2 days to 7 days between charges.

  13. LineageOS doesn't need this. by The_Dougster · · Score: 2

    Instead, LineageOS https://lineageos.org/ provides a su option zip that can be flashed along with the main image and opengapps. After it is installed, you can toggle root access via the developer options and control which apps can get it.

    The list of devices officially supported is not huge, but there are some unofficial builds available now for select others. LineageOS is rather nice if you can run it.

    --
    Clickety Click ...
    1. Re:LineageOS doesn't need this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amazingly, I installed this thinking I'd not need it. It turned out (on my phone anyway)
      - LineageOS doesn't include an FM radio app
      - the one in F-droid requires root permission to run
      (it still doesn't work correctly : can't switch the sound output from jack to the phone speaker)

      I'm still new to these things and with no hardware keyboard investigating the shell(s) to find out what is possible is painful.

  14. Android root is essential by thomn8r · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't own an android device without rooting it

    1. Re:Android root is essential by johnsie · · Score: 1

      I use your rooted phone too. Thanks for rooting it. Oh, you didn't know there was an extra wee package pushed to your phone during the rooting process?

  15. Magisk by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 2

    Magisk has made SuperSU irrelevant because SuperSU needs to modify the system partition and Android since version 7 doesn't quite like it to the point that many functions stop working completely.

  16. Don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hard to understand why any Android user would use a device without root

    You just get a gimped version of wannabe ios

  17. Mod up Re: LineageOS doesn't need this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seconded. I won' uy a new phone now unless it is supported by lineageOS with its included su solution. Top notch!

  18. MVNO root is essential by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some MVNO phones aren't easily root-able for obvious reasons.

    1. Re:MVNO root is essential by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

      Some MVNO phones aren't easily root-able for obvious reasons.

      What is the non-obvious, obvious reason?

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    2. Re: MVNO root is essential by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What?

  19. I don't even bother rooting since 4.3 by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    I stopped rooting, when 4.3 came along...it was "good enough" and, I try to buy phones outright, NOT from the carrier branded, feature stripped, locked down, bloated garbage from the carrier stores. My last 4 phones, 3 Huawei Mates & the Essential PH-1 have been "good enough" they didn't need rooting, and what few apps I didn't want, were easy to install. I leave my phone alone, and don't jack with it. Install Nova Launcher Prime, the 8-10 apps that I use other than the defaults and pretty much leave it alone.

    1. Re:I don't even bother rooting since 4.3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Imagine how much better they would be if you could remove half the shit you'll never ever use but is running anyway.

    2. Re:I don't even bother rooting since 4.3 by johnsie · · Score: 1

      It's not worth rooting. A person who admits rooting pretty much admits they have no idea about tech security. There are very few things that would make rooting worth compromising the security of your phone and/or networks.

    3. Re:I don't even bother rooting since 4.3 by johnsie · · Score: 1

      That would be great if you knew the software that was exploiting a security hole in your phone to root it was 100% legit. You know, if you knew for sure that wasn't also secretly installing some hidden presents in the background.

    4. Re:I don't even bother rooting since 4.3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Privacy. Rooting is the only option if you want a smartphone but don't want Apple's walled garden or google's totalitarian nightmare. Of course there are security implications but the solution to not worrying about getting hacked is not to have anything worth hacking on your phone.

  20. I never had a device that supported LineageOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Call me when anyone can actually use LineageOS.
    Especially now that everyone has a phone by a small Chinese manufacturer.
    They mostly use one of a few common chipsets (mostly MediaTek I think).

    Given one can simply use the kernel inside the installed Android, and put the LineageOS userspace on top, I don't know what the big problem is anyway.
    Apart from the rooting of course. But since MediaTek chipsets allow you to flash the internal storage even when it is completely bricked, making it extremely well-protected from accidental bricking, (and extremely prone to somebody installing spyware :/), this should not be a problem.

  21. Last SuperSU built by Chainfire by Malk+McJorma · · Score: 1

    Chainfire once said that 2.76 was the last version he personally built.