New to custom roms, looking for advice - Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Windows Mobile General

Like the title says im new to all this custom rom stuff and looking for some insight on whats the best cooked rom for my tilt 2. ive been through 3 fuzes and now 2 of the tilt 2's so im no stranger to windows mobile. Just looking for some help. Thanks in advance

there are honestly thousands of threads with people asking for the best ROM. Here are some guidlines:
1) Best will be a personal opinion
2) Any Sense 2.5 ROM will be less responsive than Sense 2.1
3) Pick a rom that best suits your needs (eye candy, functionality, responsiveness, etc)
Go to the rom forum and sort by most posts, latest post, and most views to get an idea of what everyone else is using and what they like/dislike about it.
Also make sure you flash the correct SPL and Rom (GSM or CDMA).

burtonsnow8 said:
there are honestly thousands of threads with people asking for the best ROM. Here are some guidlines:
1) Best will be a personal opinion
2) Any Sense 2.5 ROM will be less responsive than Sense 2.1
3) Pick a rom that best suits your needs (eye candy, functionality, responsiveness, etc)
Go to the rom forum and sort by most posts, latest post, and most views to get an idea of what everyone else is using and what they like/dislike about it.
Also make sure you flash the correct SPL and Rom (GSM or CDMA).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the help! I guess i should have been more detailed on what i use my phone for. I text alot, talk of course, use the interned, the weather option, blue tooth and on occasion the wifi, i want something that responds well and is fast. Normally after about 90 days of using a WM phone the lag is just horrible. i just exchanged my phone through ATT for the above reasons. i want something that runs fast yet is stable at the same time.
I know i know i know, have my cake and eat it too to some extent lol

Dieseltorkin said:
thanks for the help! I guess i should have been more detailed on what i use my phone for. I text alot, talk of course, use the interned, the weather option, blue tooth and on occasion the wifi, i want something that responds well and is fast. Normally after about 90 days of using a WM phone the lag is just horrible. i just exchanged my phone through ATT for the above reasons. i want something that runs fast yet is stable at the same time.
I know i know i know, have my cake and eat it too to some extent lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would suggest going with the NRG Pheonix rom. A lot of people have that as their favorite and it seems to be very stable/speedy. Most of the newer Leo Sense 2.5 roms have slight messaging problems (especially with landscape mode). Never used it but you can rest assured that it is one of the better roms available.

burtonsnow8 said:
I would suggest going with the NRG Pheonix rom. A lot of people have that as their favorite and it seems to be very stable/speedy. Most of the newer Leo Sense 2.5 roms have slight messaging problems (especially with landscape mode). Never used it but you can rest assured that it is one of the better roms available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok thanks! Ill do some research on the NRG Pheonix and give it a try! Thanks again!

burtonsnow8 said:
I would suggest going with the NRG Pheonix rom. A lot of people have that as their favorite and it seems to be very stable/speedy. Most of the newer Leo Sense 2.5 roms have slight messaging problems (especially with landscape mode). Never used it but you can rest assured that it is one of the better roms available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where can i find the Phoenix 2 download? thanks

Dieseltorkin said:
Where can i find the Phoenix 2 download? thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NRG Pheonix:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=553506
Valkyrie (another popular rom):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=569507
Roms sorted by most viewed (basically the most popular roms):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=490&daysprune=-1&order=desc&sort=views

Great! Thanks for all the help! If im reading right here, i need to run a sim unlocker then Hard SPL then install the rom? Correct me if im wrong here, this will be my first attempt. Thanks

I was using energy roms since i got my TP2 and just recently tried the leo cell roms and i am in love with them. They put alot of detail to the small things with the rom but i havent tried the phoenix roms so i cant compare the 2.

Dieseltorkin said:
Like the title says im new to all this custom rom stuff and looking for some insight on whats the best cooked rom for my tilt 2. ive been through 3 fuzes and now 2 of the tilt 2's so im no stranger to windows mobile. Just looking for some help. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out htis site maintained by one of the members on this forum, he seems to favor the Energy Roms but has an overview of some other popular ones as well.
http://thewingster.com/tp2gsmroms.aspx
It is somewhere to start at least.

Related

Legend ROM port, better for our Heros instead of official 2.1?

Hi,
Most Hero ROMs try to port FriendStream, News and Live Wallpapers from the Legend/Desire to our Heros but wouldn't be better to just use a Legend port?
I've read about a few problems in the past, when we were still waiting for the official 2.1 update for the Hero and the Legend/Desire were just being released, about doing stuff like this that it would never be 100% like the current official 2.1 update for the Hero (well, it's not 100% either, but you know what I mean).
But now we have official RUU updates from the Legend (the most similar to the Hero of the new phones) we also have the source for the Hero 2.1 kernel, wouldn't that be enough to create a good and fully working port for the Hero? Wouldn't be better instead of using the official Hero 2.1?
I'm not as experienced as most devs here, that's why I'm wondering if this would be better and if there's some problem porting the Legend ROM that I'm overlooking...
No one has an opinion on this?
Nazgulled said:
No one has an opinion on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There was this ROM called Legendroid, I don't remember who was the developer But the ROM was pretty fast and stable.
Dr.dre said:
There was this ROM called Legendroid, I don't remember who was the developer But the ROM was pretty fast and stable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, but that doesn't really "answer my question"
I mean, we know have the source code for the kernel, which we didn't back then when such ROMs were released...
I'm wondering if that makes a difference...
Changing the kernel is not enough.
You could be more explicit...
I'm not a dev, but as a user I can say, that those were slow and battery sucker.
But if you do one what is speedy, uses battery at least as good as the official based ones, and it'll have more features....
Hero community will love you C:
liljom said:
I'm not a dev, but as a user I can say, that those were slow and battery sucker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am pretty sure this was caused by the lack of the .29 kernel it should be better now.
Well I can't really see why a Legend ROM would be better than a Hero ROM, but I would like the News Reader Widget, I find it dumb how HTC wouldn't give the 2.1 Hero this widget but whatever.
OH btw don't take this as discouragement by all means go for it since most people ditched their Legend ROMs so if you can do it I don't see why not variety is good .
i thought the only problems transferring features from the legend ROM was the friendstream widget as everything else was ported over to normal Hero ROMs one way or another before the official 2.1 RUU came out.
it would obviously be easier to port the extra stuff from the legend ROM to the Hero ROMs
I don't think it would cause the Legend ROM has more things than the News and FriendStream widgets... For instance, the browser has quick actions for selected text which is cool, the mail widget has 3 variants (Hero's only have 1). And I'm sure there lots of other tiny little details...
It's a pain to port all these things one by one, it's just easier (I think) to port the whole thing with a Hero kernel (but I'm not the one to do it).
And I'm sure there are other "hidden" stuff that our Heros lack, it's just their way to differentiate their phones. It sucks for customers, but it's good for them.
Nazgulled said:
I don't think it would cause the Legend ROM has more things than the News and FriendStream widgets... For instance, the browser has quick actions for selected text which is cool, the mail widget has 3 variants (Hero's only have 1). And I'm sure there lots of other tiny little details...
It's a pain to port all these things one by one, it's just easier (I think) to port the whole thing with a Hero kernel (but I'm not the one to do it).
And I'm sure there are other "hidden" stuff that our Heros lack, it's just their way to differentiate their phones. It sucks for customers, but it's good for them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If we take a legend port suppose would you be able to modify the Hero kernal to work on the port with OC.
As I said, it is not only the kernel that needs to be changed. But... we already have a Legend port... Fallah
I don't want to be rude but cloud you please stop saying that changing the kernel is not enough without explaining why and/or what else is needed?
You're not being very helpful like that...
And that Legend port is not based on WWE, so it would be a no go for me.
Nazgulled said:
I don't want to be rude but cloud you please stop saying that changing the kernel is not enough without explaining why and/or what else is needed?
You're not being very helpful like that...
And that Legend port is not based on WWE, so it would be a no go for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have u tried asking the author of Fallah about it?
you guys got some response at least. good try.
my post in june just got rejected and ignored about the same exact thing
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=698053
should have free time in the coming months and i'm going to try make a legend port. i'm not a "dev" i know a little but i cant do what a lot of these guys do by any means. if its stable i might share
still use my G1 for random development as well as a magic 32b and now i got the desire i can try be brave and try out things on the hero.
logcat is your friend
There is a legend ROM on this Swedish forum. But the ROM should be wwe.
http://www.swedroid.se/forum/showthread.php?t=8217
Nazgulled said:
I don't want to be rude but cloud you please stop saying that changing the kernel is not enough without explaining why and/or what else is needed?
You're not being very helpful like that...
And that Legend port is not based on WWE, so it would be a no go for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried using Legendroid 1.0.1 with Behnaam .29 kernal Ben 23 with OC, It works very well except for the Browser it lags a bit rest all is fine
Dr.dre said:
I tried using Legendroid 1.0.1 with Behnaam .29 kernal Ben 23 with OC, It works very well except for the Browser it lags a bit rest all is fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
could you please add links to each post where we can download those two flashable files?
Also, has anyone tried fallah or the swedish rom yet? I downloaded them both just now but am running the just released updated cronos froyo rom right now and don't want to reflash until I've tested this baby thoroughly.
what I miss most about the old legend ports was the FAR superior text selector system with zooming etc. Is that part of these roms or was that a bit of a hack in the older roms? it sure was sweet....
It really should be part of android, but considering it's similar to the apple copy/paste concept, I'm wondering if there might be some patent infringement going on there which might explain why it's not used by HTC in other roms than the legend stuff. But that is just a rumor I pieced together myself so it's probably wrong.
anyway, it's the best text selector system on android. froyo's selector comes close but isn't still as good imho.
Azure465 said:
There is a legend ROM on this Swedish forum. But the ROM should be wwe.
http://www.swedroid.se/forum/showthread.php?t=8217
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks hacked with a different theme, I'm not very fond of that... Thanks for sharing though.
I might try to do a port myself when I get the chance, similar to the Nebulae (my own ROM) features and see how that goes...
Nazgulled said:
It looks hacked with a different theme, I'm not very fond of that... Thanks for sharing though.
I might try to do a port myself when I get the chance, similar to the Nebulae (my own ROM) features and see how that goes...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have ported a legend rom, newest ruu from shipped roms...
it works pretty good, exept wifi, need a modified libhardware_legacy.so, so it use the wlan.ko instead of tiwlan_drv.ko :/
have to make a alfa corner, so we maybe can work on the problems together...
but all that when i come back from my vacation...

[Q] Which Rom and Why?

Hi All
I know I'm prob not the first to think of this but I'm like to know who's using what roms and which is the most popular at the momement. Maybe after a week or so, I'll do an update with a tally of the most popular Roms long with the overview of why.
For me I'm using DJ Droid 1.5. Its seems to be nice and stable I've not hit any major bugs apart from the weather module which will not allow me to save the option to update automatically.
I.
Reverved for me
I choose AuraxTSense v7.8.1 as my first ROM.
Reasons: seems stable, has camera, nice complete package, no weird langauge issues to be expected.
MIUI looks nice too, that's gonna be my next one to give a try.
Moved to Q&A as not development.
These threads are pointless as ROM choice is completely subjective. Just because I used an HD ROM doesn't mean everyone else wants to use it
You just have to try different ROMs and see what works for you
What I am trying to do is get an overview what what's the most popular and why. Like the rest of us we all have been trying different ones for different reasons. I'm just trying to get a overall picture of what and why. Maybe there is one out there I've missed and I'd like to have a go at.
EddyOS said:
These threads are pointless as ROM choice is completely subjective. Just because I used an HD ROM doesn't mean everyone else wants to use it
You just have to try different ROMs and see what works for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which HD ROm are you using do you have a link so I can try it?
RCMixHD v0.8
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=789830

Questions about ROMs

Hello, I am a complete newbie. I have only had my phone for about a week and a half, almost 2 weeks. Once the unrevoked team released the new fix to root my phone I wanted to check out a few things first.
I wanted to check out the ROMs that are available, maybe get some suggestions and etc. I guess my thing is, I like the way the normal stock is however I want to get rid of some bloatware apps that I have no use for at all. Here are some questions that I am running through:
What ROM is the closest to the stock version 2.2 but allows more customizations and is free of any bugs?
What are your recommendations to ROMs for a noobie?
Would I be able to design my own themes when using a ROM?
I think that is all I can think of for right now. But if you have some insight on something I should know, please let me know I would highly appreciate it.
I answer these with
1. Virtuous
2. Virtuous
3. You can but its not overly simple.
Virtuous is the stock rom but with fixes to give better life and it has the never needed stock apps removed with options to delete more preinstalled apps easily through virtuous buddy which is an app it comes with for easy customization of some things.
Shorte85 said:
Hello, I am a complete newbie. I have only had my phone for about a week and a half, almost 2 weeks. Once the unrevoked team released the new fix to root my phone I wanted to check out a few things first.
I wanted to check out the ROMs that are available, maybe get some suggestions and etc. I guess my thing is, I like the way the normal stock is however I want to get rid of some bloatware apps that I have no use for at all. Here are some questions that I am running through:
What ROM is the closest to the stock version 2.2 but allows more customizations and is free of any bugs?
What are your recommendations to ROMs for a noobie?
Would I be able to design my own themes when using a ROM?
I think that is all I can think of for right now. But if you have some insight on something I should know, please let me know I would highly appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shorte85 said:
Hello, I am a complete newbie. I have only had my phone for about a week and a half, almost 2 weeks. Once the unrevoked team released the new fix to root my phone I wanted to check out a few things first.
I wanted to check out the ROMs that are available, maybe get some suggestions and etc. I guess my thing is, I like the way the normal stock is however I want to get rid of some bloatware apps that I have no use for at all. Here are some questions that I am running through:
What ROM is the closest to the stock version 2.2 but allows more customizations and is free of any bugs?
What are your recommendations to ROMs for a noobie?
Would I be able to design my own themes when using a ROM?
I think that is all I can think of for right now. But if you have some insight on something I should know, please let me know I would highly appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Virtuous is very good, and very close to stock (maybe a little too close). This is all opinion of course, the best thing you can do is try them for yourself. I recommend Skyraider Sense, it has a few added features and is super stable. I was one of the beta testers on this ROM and even in the pre-release stages it was very stable. It's fast, smooth and can be customized quite a bit. Also check out Chad's kernels, I have links for my setup in my signature if you want to check them out. The most important thing is to have fun and find something you enjoy. Happy tweaking
Everything come down to personal taste. Uncommon Sense has been bug free, I second Virtuous and would add Redemption to your list.
You should read each ROM's thread to see what people are saying about it. I realize that some of the Threads may have a few hundred pages of posts to read through, but it is well worth the time.
As you read through the threads, you will get a feeling for the developer, how they respond to queries as well as the members that are using the ROM.
I have been using ROMS created by Hey Its Lou (Redemption and Redemptive) exclusively now for about 6 weeks. He alsways seems to be releasing revisions as soon as he gets his hands on newly leaked code (as do some others).
As far as theming goes... It really depends on your ability to find the right tools and programs.

Is there a comprehensive guide to Roms?

Noob evo rooter I installed Fresh since I was told it's a solid rom with lots of bloatware gone.So now i just wanted to see what the differences between diff roms are & figure out which one is right for me but, each rom has thousands of posts & that would be impossible.
Is there somekind of a summary?
thanks in advance!
There is a stickied thread right in the subforum you (wrongly) posted this in.
Not to jump on a "noob" but this shouldn't have been posted and this should've been in Q&A anyways.
At this point, I would recommend MikFroyo v4.3
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=883026
if you are looking for super-fast Sense w/ full functionality. The GB roms are going to be too developmental and buggy for you.
rstuckmaier said:
There is a stickied thread right in the subforum you (wrongly) posted this in.
Not to jump on a "noob" but this shouldn't have been posted and this should've been in Q&A anyways.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks I just looked & maybe i'm not seeing it but it just lists the roms not what's special/different about them???
help a girl out
mitchellvii said:
At this point, I would recommend MikFroyo v4.3
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=883026
if you are looking for super-fast Sense w/ full functionality. The GB roms are going to be too developmental and buggy for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so it's just faster than fresh?
I dont know what I am looking for thats why i wanted to see what exactly each one offers?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=653
It is the FIRST thread.
"Detailed ROM Wiki (developers please update)"
rstuckmaier said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=653
It is the FIRST thread.
"Detailed ROM Wiki (developers please update)"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw it, saw the rom names, versions, release dates, root methods
that isnt my question though, what is the difference between them? advantage of one over the other?
The difference would be how they look. The kernels would be for how they perform.
from my EVO using XDA app.
I seriously doubt someone is going to post all the differences of all the Rom's on here and tell you what each one does best. Every Rom is different on every phone. Sense based Rom offer all options like 4G and HDMI. AOSP Rom's are based on Open Source Android and are not build on HTC Sense and some things don't work in them like 4G, HDMI, video recording, etc...I have flashed many, many Rom's and have read many many threads. The way I learned about them is by reading the OP of the Rom thread to see what all the dev says about the Rom and what's included and what isn't. Then I will go through and read like the last 5-10 pages of the thread to see what kind of problems and/or what people are saying about the Rom. I will also read other pages of the thread if I am interested. I then flash the Rom I am interested in, play with it for a few days and if I don't like it I try something else. For some reason I always come back to CyanogenMod even though HDMI and 4G(stable) are not working yet.
No one can tell you which rom is best for you or your phone. Every person has a different personality and even every EVO is a little bit different about how it reacts to certain kernels and Rom's. Maybe if you tell us what you are looking for in a Rom we could point you in the right direction to certain Rom's that offer what it is you want.
Hey all I'm an epic user who is getting an evo next week and I have a more specific rom choice quetion. Having never owned a sense device but always sort liking the sense clock and lockscreen I was thinking of trying myns rom (don't remember if that is the dev or the rom). However, with not having wimax in my area or the desire to output video through my phone the progress of cm7 seems very tempting.
I suppose what I'm asking is whether or not cm7 is really at the point where it could be a daily driver (and which one to use) and whether or not you can get the real sense clock/lockscreen on it and if not how good performance/battery wise is myns? Thanks in advance!
Sent from my ext4 Epic 4G running Bonsai4all 1.1.3!
kenvan19 said:
Hey all I'm an epic user who is getting an evo next week and I have a more specific rom choice quetion. Having never owned a sense device but always sort liking the sense clock and lockscreen I was thinking of trying myns rom (don't remember if that is the dev or the rom). However, with not having wimax in my area or the desire to output video through my phone the progress of cm7 seems very tempting.
I suppose what I'm asking is whether or not cm7 is really at the point where it could be a daily driver (and which one to use) and whether or not you can get the real sense clock/lockscreen on it and if not how good performance/battery wise is myns? Thanks in advance!
Sent from my ext4 Epic 4G running Bonsai4all 1.1.3!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't think you can get the Actual sense clock for CM7, but I use a free widget from the market called Sense Analog Clock which is a skinnable clock that looks a lot like the HTC clock, but not only shows the weather, but can show system info as well like battery %, free sdcard available, free ram, free Rom and Battery Temp. Very nice. As for CM7 being a daily driver, I have been using Lithid's daily compile's of CM7 for a couple weeks now and never had a problem. There are a few quirks and bugs here and there, but for the most part it does what it should and is very fast. Give it a try and if you don't like it flash a Sense Rom. That's the best part of being rooted. You are not stuck with one choice on your phone's OS.
housry23 said:
Don't think you can get the Actual sense clock for CM7, but I use a free widget from the market called Sense Analog Clock which is a skinnable clock that looks a lot like the HTC clock, but not only shows the weather, but can show system info as well like battery %, free sdcard available, free ram, free Rom and Battery Temp. Very nice. As for CM7 being a daily driver, I have been using Lithid's daily compile's of CM7 for a couple weeks now and never had a problem. There are a few quirks and bugs here and there, but for the most part it does what it should and is very fast. Give it a try and if you don't like it flash a Sense Rom. That's the best part of being rooted. You are not stuck with one choice on your phone's OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh ya I love flashing. However its a lot easier to try them all when there are just 9ish good ones like on the epic. The evo has just hundreds (or at least it seems so). I suppose that is the benefit to having froyo source. I've used the sense clock from the market as well as beautiful widgets. Thank you so much for your input! I was definitely leaning towards cm7 but
I hadn't found that release. Ill take a gander at it now.
Sent from my ext4 Epic 4G running Bonsai4all 1.1.3!
psixichka said:
Noob evo rooter I installed Fresh since I was told it's a solid rom with lots of bloatware gone.So now i just wanted to see what the differences between diff roms are & figure out which one is right for me but, each rom has thousands of posts & that would be impossible.
Is there somekind of a summary?
thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to read all the thousands of posts. Just usually the first two or three where the dev describes the rom and the changelog and how to flash.
It's hard to keep a summary up to date. There has been attempts to summarize roms and/or kernels and they all just change too often.
For now, the roms seem to fall into four groups:
SENSE based with full Sense: Myn, Fresh, MikFroyo, Sprint Lovers, Calkulin's Evio
SENSE based but little or no Sense: EvoNonSense, Valpaek, EvoNeo, Burnt Droid
AOSP - 2.2 Android: CM 6.1.2, MIUI
AOSP - 2.3 Android: Gingerbread
It's easier to just browse the development section because there are a lot of ROMs. I just listed the ones I've tried at one point and can remember.

[Q] A Crapload Of Questions

So yeah, I have a crapload of questions.
I recently asked about rooting and keeping HTC Sense. In retrospect, I don't think I'll need Sense, I just tried out AppLauncher, and I have to say, I think I'm sold on it. I'm just wondering what exactly HTC Sense has? Is there anything it has that I'll really miss? So far the only thing I can think of is the HTC Sense website for a lost phone, backing up data, and the weather widget/FriendStream...though adding Facebook to HTC sense shows all my contacts in the Phone button which is a huge piss off, but meh.
So that being said, I think I'm about ready to give rooting a shot, but now I've been confused with even more things. And the more I read the more I get confused. Especially where I have to downgrade the firmware, I'm wondering if it's still okay to do this, since the guy at Bell told me if I didn't do / get certain updates I'd have to send my phone back to HTC for repair.
There's stock Android, Cyanogen, and it seems like a million other ROMs. Which is the best to use? If I want total customizability, but also good functionality?
Finally, I'm using a Bell-branded Desire Z on the the Bell network. So Whatever I do will need to work okay with it.
As I've said, I'm totally new to this, and I'm scared to hell of bricking my phone since I just signed a contract and don't to shell out $500 bucks for a new one.
There's just so much info on this forum and it's a bit overwhelming/confusing, not that a lot of info is a bad thing, I'm just lost lol.
EDIT: If anything I wrote seems too rambling or doesn't make much sense please specify that and I'll clarify it.
cant help you root your phone but just follow the instructions that the person who writes the threads say. It's not that easy to brick your phone unless you just completely dont follow directions.
1. Downgrade is perfectly fine, it's to allow you to use a certain method to root your phone.
2. Try out different roms to see what you like, it's like asking whats your favorite video game, how can you really choose, some will agree some wont. I personally like the Miui roms which is the iphonelike and android UI mashup. the apps built in are nice on the eyes, the physics of the phones movement is very smooth, it can oc to 1.5ghz, and you can just download a launcher to replace the original if you dont like it.
3. ask the dev's on the thread if your not sure. i have no idea about bell, but it would seem that it shouldnt have any affect on rooting your phone, just maybe the radio but that is different then rooting or flashing roms.
P.S. you might miss the small things from Sense like, it looks nice, turns on fast, widgets, the dialer to search contact, incoming calls doesnt disrupt navigation, and it's original live wallpaper lol.
So are you saying that I can't search by contact in the default phone app? That kind of sucks.
I guess more of what I'm asking is just based on people's experiences what the best route to go is. I know there are different tastes, I'm more concerned about reliability, so I'm sure people could help with a ROM choice with that criteria.
So downgrading firmware won't affect phone performance? And can it still be reverted to stock in case the phone needs warranty repair? Just trying to cover all my bases.
And thanks, I'll ask around in the deg thread.
Bloodlvst said:
So are you saying that I can't search by contact in the default phone app? That kind of sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are usually apps available that provide Sense functionality to non-Sense ROMs. In regards to the above, you can try DialerOne.
To help you with the ROMs think of them in terms of how different Linux OS's are setup (if you know a bit about this).
You have the base OS's such as Cyanogen. Now some one doesn't like the look of that so they change the Frameworkres.apk to give it defferent colors, transparencies, icons and so on. Now they want a few extra apps to be included in the install so they add them to the /system/app directory or add a /data directory. Repackage it and now they have a custom OS called WINNING ROM (or whatever). These are easy to do and can be completed in a matter of minutes since there aren't any big alterations in the base coding of the OS. This is why you see a lot of ROMs that look like Cyanogens and the developer usually (and should be) states what version of some one elses ROM it's based off of.
Then you have ROMs that tweak certain parameters for speed or add other functionalities to a ROM such as a custom kernel, audio/video codecs, a2ext, compcache/linux swap, and others. Plus a complete custom UI (launcher), port parts of other ROMs such as Sense to work on their ROM, and toms of other things. These take days, weeks, or even months and usually have release cycles and updates. Cyanogen, Virtuous, Enomther, Villain, and a few others make up these ROMs.
Hope that helps with your ROM quest. It can be a bit overwhelming but remember to ask, ask, ask, and then ask some more and also read, at least the OP (original post) and a few pages past that. Some people may get upset and flame you for it but most will be glad to help in any way.
If you flash a non-Sense ROM, you will miss the HTC camera app. Its far and away better than the stock Android one, and I haven't found any Market camera apps that measure up, either. Also, the camera button on the Sense builds seems much more responsive than on CM7.
Also, I'm not sure about this, but the Sense ROMs seem to have better or more hardware codecs for playing a wider array of video formats. Lots of the videos I've tried on CM7 and CM6 are only playable using software decoding (on a variety of players, but RockPlayer is my favorite) and end up super laggy (very low frame rate) and audio way out of sync. On stock Sense and Virtuous, those videos play fine, hardware decoding, silky smooth, and audio in sync.
There are some aesthetic stuff, like HTC does some pretty significant theme changes for Sense, and you will lose customizations like the HTC Skins. And you will lose the HTC widgets (like the clocks) and apps (stocks, weather). But as mentioned, there are lots of Market apps that pretty well simulate many of the Sense apps and widgets, or are very suitable replacements.
Thanks for the detailed replies guys.
KCRic, thanks for list of known ROMs that's basically what I wanted to know, and your Linux flavour comparison helped too
Redpoint, I'm not sure how often I'd ever use the camera anyway...when I get home I'll have to find some screens of the default camera. That being said, I see your ROM is Virtuous. Is that a Sense-like ROM in case I agree with you on the ca?era app?
Thanks!
Bloodlvst said:
Redpoint, I'm not sure how often I'd ever use the camera anyway...when I get home I'll have to find some screens of the default camera. That being said, I see your ROM is Virtuous. Is that a Sense-like ROM in case I agree with you on the ca?era app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, you don't use the camera? I use it all the time, for those "spur of the moment" snapshots, or to quickly take a pic that I can MMS to a friend or family.
Yes, Virtuous is mostly stock Sense, but with some optimizations and with some extra features added. Its also based on the 1.85 ROM, one of the more recent stock Sense versions.
Guides, links for just about everything you can ever think of is here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=916431
BTW, be sure to click the "Thanks" button if you found responses to be helpful!
ROM LIST
Sense ROMS
Gingerbread - Android 2.3
Shokouhi 2.0
Desire S G2 Port Sense2.1
Probably others.
Froyo - Android 2.2
Virtuous
Stock ROMS
Gingerbread - Android 2.3
CyanogenMod 7
Stock Gingerbread 1.7
iceandfire 1.7
Pyromod 1.2
GingerVillian 1.5
meXdroidMod
Froyo - Android 2.2
CyanogenMod 6
Others of unimportance now.
The Other ROMS
Gingerbread - Android 2.3
MIUI (The 2.3 one)
Froyo - Android 2.2
MIUI (The 2.2 one)
LiquidVillian (Or whatever it was called.)
I probably just wasted 10 minutes of my life doing this, but meh, it was something to do.
Now to kill myself since I had to listen to Nickelback through it. Damn 4Music.
I would hardly call CM7 (and ROMs based on it) "Stock".
Although "Non-Sense" is not a very good sounding name for that category, also.
redpoint73 said:
I would hardly call CM7 (and ROMs based on it) "Stock".
Although "Non-Sense" is not a very good sounding name for that category, also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AOSP Based.
There should be 2 categories. CM Based and AOSP.
But I don't think there are any AOSP ROMs. Which I hate, cos when people say they've built a stock ROM, but it's based on CyanogenMod.
redpoint73 said:
Wow, you don't use the camera? I use it all the time, for those "spur of the moment" snapshots, or to quickly take a pic that I can MMS to a friend or family.
Yes, Virtuous is mostly stock Sense, but with some optimizations and with some extra features added. Its also based on the 1.85 ROM, one of the more recent stock Sense versions.
Guides, links for just about everything you can ever think of is here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=916431
BTW, be sure to click the "Thanks" button if you found responses to be helpful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I'm guessing no one has cooked up a weird ROM that is like Cyanogen with the Sense camera app lol.
Anywho, I really only have a couple of questions now.
Would you recommend Gingerbread or Froyo? I'm guessing Gingerbread probably runs better / is better than Froyo, but it's hard to say.
Also, how easy is it to restore my phone to factory condition if I need to?
And finally, I read the wiki, it says to make sure I have the windows USB drivers installed...do I just throw those in my windows drivers folder?
EDIT: Wanted to add, the instructiosn for recovering to stock doesn't include the version. So any help there is appreciated.
Or you know, if any of you would be so kind to PM me / add me to IM if you've done this on a Bell phone in Canada that would be awesome too
The drivers go in your Android SDK folder, where ever adb resides. At least on XP and Vista that's the case - I'm not sure if the adb issue was ever resolved in Windows 7. You could always use VM linux or dual boot linux if you like, it's much easier imo. Wubi works too I think.
When it comes to Froyo vs. Gingerbread it's literally like a linux in the sense that one is completely stable and well known by this point (Froyo) an the other is bleeding edge, not stable at times, some things are just not compatible unless you port them, and peoples knowledge base on it isn't as thorough.
I've never returned this phone to stock, which I assume you mean s-on and no superuser permissions. So I have no idea how difficult it is, though I do know you need to make sure you 100% know what you're doing before attempting it - especially if you have s-off. It's a pandoras box if you mess it up.
Ah okay, I'll definitely stick with Froyo for now then. I've always stayed 1 version behidn with Fedora lol.
I did get the drivers working, made my gold card, about to downgrade my firmware.
Are the instructions the same for 1.84.666.2 ?
Edit: Successfully rooted. Now time to find a new ROM. thanks again for all the help. Quesiton though, I have no HSDPA icon anymore...do I need a new "radio" or something?
No, it will do that and some ROMs don't have either the 'H' or the 3G' icon - just depends on the developer. You can still flash a different radio - anyone listed in the G2 radio sticky will work, flash a few and see what works best for you.
There's also a radio version/.ril file issue being debated so you might check that thread too and flash the zip provided just to be safe. I think it's in the G2 questions forum but I can't remember.

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