Develop Bugs

Flashing ROMs (Newbie)

Alright... I've pretty much lurked around here for the past month or so, reading everything I can about the subject, but I still have a few questions I haven't been able to find answers too.
1- If I flash my rom... will a hard reset return it to the original firmware, or whatever I flashed with? If not, is it possible for me to backup my original Telus firmware before flashing?
2- As noted above, I'm on Telus, but I see most roms are based upon Sprint, is this a problem?
3- What are the real advantages, honestly. I know picking and choosing your apps and such, "de-branding" the phone, but is there any performance enhancements, new features, etc?
Thanks for the time, and I appologize if this has been asked before. I did use the search button, I swear =D

Hi,
I too have a similar query. I tried finding it using the search function, but was unsuccessful in finding out how to backup my O2 XDA Trion ROM, as well as how to go ahead with installing a new one (an english ROM on a German XDA). Any tip will be helpful. In the meantime, I will go ahead and search some more. Thanks.

Depending on which rom you choose, you will be replacing the firmware on your phone. So if you ever want to go back, you will need to re-flash with the OE data/file.
OE roms consist primarily of 6 things:
1. SPL/bootloader
2. Radio
3. First splash screen
4. Second splash screen
5. Operating System
6. Extended Rom (carrier customizations)
Typically, to unlock a device, you will replace the bootloader with a hacked version that allows you to install roms that were not signed by the manufacturer for your device.
Most of the roms you'll find floating around are just OS and ExtRom updates, although some also include the radio. The splash screen is fairly irrelevant, and some cooks will replace it, while others don't even bother.

BobSlob said:
...1- If I flash my rom... will a hard reset return it to the original firmware, or whatever I flashed with? If not, is it possible for me to backup my original Telus firmware before flashing?...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
alright, as for backing up your telus rom, be sure to check out dcd's vogue rom thread here, the last page says for you to pm him, and he will help you out there. there may now be one on the ftp however, since at least two others have already requested that he help them with the rom dump.
and no, a hard-reset will not restore your rom to the original. flashing your phone goes farther than a hard reset, and that is sort of one of the beauties of a custom rom as well; you can hard-reset at any time (to clear out footprints, screwed up files/reg keys/etc...) and not have to worry about installing all your apps again, re-setting up your email, re-editing your registry...etc.
hope that helps a slight little bit.

Question on newbie with rom update

okay, guys, I have a few question that I am hoping it can be answered before I advernture ito flashing my rom.
First of all, I relaly appreaciate all of the people who work so hard getting the rom updated. You guys rocks.
Now, this is the first time I am going to flash to my tilt 2. As I have read the flashing the GSM phone guide (which I am hoping that's the guide I should be following to flash). I am just a bit confused as to how to do it.
It appears to me that I must flash the SPL unlocker in order to flash to the any rom am I correct? Just curious what exactly does it do? If I flash it, would tehre be any issue if I decided to go back to the original rom. I saw that at HTC's site, they have stock rom for ATT phone (http://www.htc.com/us/support/tilt-2-att/downloads/)so if I want to go back, can I just use that file and flash it back? Or I need to flash to a diff HardSPL? before I can use it?
Also, i am curious as to are there any program that will let me keep all of the settings and stuff up to date. in my past where I have the hp's ipaq. I had a tool where after I flash teh rom or do a hardreset, I can run that tool to revert all of the program and configurations (of course, I had a backup file first).
Let me just double check:
basically
1-hardspl
2-rom
3-all set
again, my phone is ATT tilt 2, I would really appreciate any information.

The SPL is kind of similar to the BIOS in your computer; it performs very low-level functions, and functions as a bootloader, among other things. The SPL is responsible for flashing new ROMs to the device, and the SPL that comes on your device won't let you flash ROMs not signed by HTC. HardSPL is a patched SPL that removes this ROM signature check, allowing any ROM, official or custom, to be flashed. The way HardSPL is designed also makes it more difficult (though not impossible!) to brick your device.
If you ever want to restore your original SPL (for warranty purposes,etc.) there are a few threads which explain how to do this, and the HardSPL thread has all the SPLs available for download. If you flash the package from AT&T, your ROM will be the original ROM, but the SPL will still be HardSPL, which isn't okay if you're returning the device for warranty purposes since they check for that. As I said, there are a few threads which have full tutorials for restoring your AT&T Tilt2 to stock.
For backup, there are tons of solutions out there such as the User Customization types (XDA User Customization and Sashami), as well as the full backup and restore suites (Sprite backup, SPB backup). I've automated everything on my device with XDA User Customization, so I don't know much about the full backup and restore suites, though a backup and restore suite might be more what you're looking for based on your description.
Lastly, you have the order of flashing correct. Optionally, you can flash a radio ROM later on, but if this is your first time flashing, you might want to wait awhile until you're more comfortable with flashing.
OMGHAX 900th post!

[Q] Just ordered my phone, want some input before i start messing with it.

Hello there,
I have been lurking these forums for a while now, I originally planned on getting an Evo around july but stuff happened and so ive been putting it off till now. I just ordered it off SERO so yay, super excited…but to the point. I read these forums everyday when the evo came out up until mid july when I knew I wasn’t getting one so I knew about that cdma trick to improve battery life and rooting via toast etc etc. However, skimming through the threads I see Froyo is officially out now and there are many types of ways to root out there. Also , there are tons of roms compared to a few months ago.
I understand there are many threads out there (ive read a lot + all the stickied threads) but I just want to get some outside input before I go to town on my phone when it arrives. I know these questions have probably been answered in some form or another on this forum and XDA but honestly, there is an overwhelmingly large amount of information and I just need answers to a few simple questions and I hope people understand that.
1. The first thing I want to do is root the phone and flash a custom rom before downloading apps and entering phone numbers and the such. Is this a good idea? Or should I enter my stuff and download my apps and use Titanium Backup (do people still even use that?) to save my crap before I root and flash?
2. The order of flashing a custom rom would be …root (unrevoked 3.2.1) > nandroid backup > flash custom rom. Is this Correct?
3. I also noticed that some of the custom roms require different versions of hboot (whatever that is) and older versions of software. I don’t want to deal with the downgrading stuff if possible, so my question is which rom can be flashed on the most up-to-date version of froyo? Any suggestions? (i notice a lot of people use Fresh)
4. Ive also noticed that some roms require you to update the radio/PRI or whatever. What exactly is the radio? I googled it and it has to deal with signals and stuff…does that mean the custom roms break the radio and I have to update to a custom radio for me to get reception/data?
Thanks for your time.

i got the Evo when it came out, when i got the evo in the mail i went to the sprint both on base and transfer my numbers from my tp2 to the evo..... then i rooted it " the old fasion" way.. i cant speak for unrevoke but i guess you can do that... and yes, you want to do a nandroid back up before you flash your 1st rom.. if things dont work you can use that to restore your phone... once you have at least one nandroid you dont have to do one every time you flash a custom rom... it doesnt hurt to have more than one back up tho.. keep some in your pc incase your sdcard get damaged or lost.
as far as apps and setting the phone... i dont think it matters.... the contacts get backed by gmail ( if you set that up, you should)... the apps you can use tittanium ( what i use, paid) but the onces you buy will be in your download section from the market place. havent lost one app yet but you have to allow goggle to sync with your phone... you can also use dropbox and other places.. a lot of options.
as far as radio goes.... you can upgrade everything one time.. some roms may include it but most wont... if its a stock rooted rom then it may include the radio since its something new. but you can find everything seperate..
flashing a rom wont change the radio endless it says it will.
anyways, hopes this helps and didnt comfuse you more lol

As soon as you get it charged up and activated .... root it. Don't do any updates, downloads, etc....
You are on the right track. You have done the smart thing, doing all of your homework.
As far as I am concerned Fresh is the only way to go on the rom
The radio and pri need to be updated for 2 main reasons 1. The fresh rom that you use whether it is the latest and greatest or an older version will be tweaked for a certain radio and pri version. You will find that on the site instructions. And 2. Updating the radio and pri will increase battery life and signal.
Ofcourse this is just my opinion and you will get many more I am sure........ get the latest/greatest FRESH you will love it
Sent from my custom EVO PC36100 Using XDA app

hello,
thanks for the quick replies.
regarding the radio issue, after reading the stickied thread in this forum "Common misconceptions and other useful information" im a little scared to mess with the radio. I notice that Fresh has a radio update posted so my question is this...Are all radio updates the same? like the one posted on fresh's website will work with most roms or just his particular rom? I also live in an area with 4g coverage and i plan to use it! so i definately dont want to lose that (its why im not considering using CM6)
sorry, im trying hard to understand how this works...this will be my first smartphone ive ever had so there is a learning curve for me. thanks again for your time.

The radio thing has me worried too, I don't want to lose 4G. I rooted mostly to get the bloat out and to gain 5 point multitouch. I'm still not positive what to do to NOT break my 4g and lose my radio ID.
I did the unrevoked root a little while ago, quick an easy. OP should do it right away.

I'm on current Fresh 3.3.0.1 with KingKlick CFS #10 custom kernel and all the updated radios. Everything working great for me. Definitely nandroid first before you flash any custom rom. And if you have apps + data that you want to save, use either Ti or MyBackup Pro to restore them. After you do a full data/factory + cache + dalvik cache wipe, flash the new rom then boot into it to make sure everything is running. Reboot back into recovery and flash the current radio update. By the way, I recommend Amon Ra recovery for all your flashing needs because it just works better than ClockworkMod imho.
Shameless plug: Check out Jabbawalkee's MattedBlues theme because it's just sexy like that but there are definitely other theme options out there besides the stock Sense look.

No not all radios are created equal. Usually the rom that you will be flashing will tell you what radio to use. The Fresh rom has always made strides to be efficient and up to date. I have yet to have any problems with any of the versions he has put out. Don't let the words radio, baseband, services, etc... worry you. flashing them are simple and and painless. No worries!
Sent from my custom EVO PC36100 Using XDA app

Unrevoked + forever is the hands down easiest and best way to root your phone except it leaves you with clockwork recovery which isn't as good as ra recovery but that is a very simple switch. Pretty dman simple on a pc just install drivers and click on root. Then copy forever to you SD card and flash it. Even easier on MAC no drivers required.

ok great thanks for all the input guys i really appreciate it!

Didn't see anyone answer your hboot question yet. Here's how that works. Hboot is the screen that let's you actually run recovery (either amon ra or clockwork), and the only Rom that requires a certain version of it (as far as I know) is cyanogen. This is important, because you can't restore a nand backup that you made on version 0.93 (which I think is the current one) when you're running version 0.76 (which is what you would have to change to in order to flash CM). So if you backup on 0.93, then change to 0.76 to load cm, you'll have to reinstall 0.93 in order to restore that backup. This is apparently pretty tough to do correctly, although I think its been simplified over the last few days. Note that once you go to 0.76 there isn't really any reason to change back to 0.93 unless there's a specific nand backup that you want to restore.
Sent from my blah blah blah blah

First timer; please double check my learning.

I've spent some time on another area in this forum, as an owner of an HTC Touch Pro 2, running WinMo and booting into Andriod from there. On that side of the world all I had to figure out was if I wanted a cab installer or a rar'd installation, and how to work up a startup.txt file.
Quite the different ball game over here.
My new phone comes in the mail tomorrow and I've spent the last few days digging through this place, google, wikis, all over trying to absorb some of this info. Here's what I think I know so far, I would appreciate your knowledge and tell me if I'm on the right track.
1. First I will want to root my phone with unrevoked3, then do a nandroid backup, which I believe is like a backup image of my current setup that I can fall back to if I have issues.
2. Next I would do an unrevokedForever which is like a full and permanent root, and sets my phone to S-OFF to allow for potentially disastrous things to happen.
3. Third step is I may or may not want to update the radio, which may make connections, call quality, and download speeds better or may make them worse.
[Q] - Do some roms require a certain version of radio firmware?
4. Radio updated or not, I would choose which rom I want to run. Lots of choices, seems like a few good standouts for a new user to learn the ropes with.
5. With a rom loaded, I may or may not want to update the kernel to something other than what was released with the rom package.
[Q] - From what I read, it looks like people run kernels from different developers, not necessarily from the dev(s) of the full rom, correct?
I hope I'm off to a good start. Any tips you can send my way is much appreciated.

Sounds good to me. You got the steps down.
And yea kernels are usually not by the rom dev. Just make sure your using a sense rom with a sense kernel or aosp rom with aosp kernel.
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App

Answers/responses in red below
ramma2 said:
I've spent some time on another area in this forum, as an owner of an HTC Touch Pro 2, running WinMo and booting into Andriod from there. On that side of the world all I had to figure out was if I wanted a cab installer or a rar'd installation, and how to work up a startup.txt file.
Quite the different ball game over here.
My new phone comes in the mail tomorrow and I've spent the last few days digging through this place, google, wikis, all over trying to absorb some of this info. Here's what I think I know so far, I would appreciate your knowledge and tell me if I'm on the right track.
1. First I will want to root my phone with unrevoked3, then do a nandroid backup, which I believe is like a backup image of my current setup that I can fall back to if I have issues.
Correct - PRE-ROOT - you may want to make a complete copy of your SD card on your PC first, and ensure you have ample room on the SD. Further, you should verify your contacts are synched to Google, not saved as phone contacts. Absent that, back them up to the SD before copying SD contents to PC - then they'll be on device and PC.
2. Next I would do an unrevokedForever which is like a full and permanent root, and sets my phone to S-OFF to allow for potentially disastrous things to happen.
Not correct - the current version of UnrEVOked does S-OFF for you - users have no choice in this.
3. Third step is I may or may not want to update the radio, which may make connections, call quality, and download speeds better or may make them worse.
Recommend you wait on this to see how your newly rooted device does with different ROMs, then read all you can find about radios, then consider whether you like what you have, or consider a different radio.
[Q] - Do some roms require a certain version of radio firmware?
Radio requirements, if any, should be stated in the ROM specifications/features listing - required radio upgrades are few/far between
4. Radio updated or not, I would choose which rom I want to run. Lots of choices, seems like a few good standouts for a new user to learn the ropes with.
5. With a rom loaded, I may or may not want to update the kernel to something other than what was released with the rom package.
[Q] - From what I read, it looks like people run kernels from different developers, not necessarily from the dev(s) of the full rom, correct?
Recommend reading up on kernels. Note that there are 2 types of ROMs - Sense and AOSP - only Sense kernels run on Sense ROMs and vice-versa. Kernels are a personal preference depending on whether you want battery life, speed, etc. etc. They vary, so reading up on this will benefit you.
I hope I'm off to a good start. Any tips you can send my way is much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Recommend backing up the SD card to the PC every 6 weeks or whatever frequency seems right to you. Why? SD cards fail, and when they do, you have a quasi-recent backup of your card.
hth

[Q] Question about Kernal/Radio use and roms together

When flashing a rom, are all the kernals and radios that are in the GSM section (that is what my phone is) usable interchangeably with each other? I wanted to make sure about this before I go ahead and do it and then find out the answer is a no and then have a broken phone.

You can pretty much flash anything to anything(roms,kernels,baseband). Different roms with radios and kernels etc... Some will result in good performance, some will result in bad performance. Its always good to try and find a good combo that works best for you. Whatever you do just make a backup of your primary rom in case you dont like what you did and you can easily revert back. Something that may help you better is reading people signatures. I have tried different combos and im still testing as i go along because new updates of everything comes frequent here. Just give some things a try. You will be suprised.
Also have you rooted and unlocked your bootloader etc?