first, im new to android so please bear with me. i've searched and cant find info on what i'm looking for, so if i missed it please just forward me to where i need to go.
i have an evo 4g that came with android 2.1, but i've updated to 2.2. i've read about rooting your android phone and i understand what thats about. i've also read only that you can root and remove the sense ui, just leaving the stock android platform.
once the phone is rooted, do you just uninstall htc sense? if not, do you need to load a different rom? if so, i've seen a poll that said cm6.1 and warm wyn or whatever were the top two. would i just flash that rom?
thanks for the help...
You can do both, either flash a ROM or uninstall sense
Sent from my PC36100
There are plenty of "non-sense" ROMS but if you want AOSP then you should just flash CM6.
there is a difference between no sense and aosp. non sense means the sense launcher is gone (you have a replacement from the market) which speeds up your phone by quite a bit. aosp is like what is on the nexus one. stock android. myn (not wyn) has the most highly respected non-sense rom for it's deep mods and slick tweaks. cyanogenmod is really held the hughest on the rom developer tower of respect for him and his team building a full on aosp rom from the ground up. it has many, and i mean many, things that were simply not put into android. it really is great. i switched away because i could not live without my sense widgets.
i perfer ava froyo (v10 is coming very soon) but it is sense, so boo hoo.
ok thats good. i like the look of cyanogenmod. as for uninstalling sense, i assume that i'll have to root to do that. has anyone actually done that?
i've been wanting to flash cyanogenmod, but have concerns. is there a way to save the rom that i have now before i flash? i want something to roll back to incase something goes wrong with the flash.
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.
Back story: I am coming over from the Epic. Don't want to talk about it, but as you may well know, the Epic is rather easy to use considering there are like 4 roms.
Current situation: Been reading this board for the past two weeks. There are so many roms and threads that my head is spinning. I figured out how to root. I rooted using unrevoked. I then created a backup in clockwork. All I have done at this point is used Titanium to remove(freeze) all the stuff I don't want. So far the phone is working superb. The GPS is fantastic, the apps are giving me no lag or problems, and everything just works. I have actually grown to like the Sense UI. I like the widgets and such.
Now, like most people on this forum, even though everything is working correctly, I get antsy and am completely against the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I have been reading about how CyanogenMod improves the Camera and Video. As the Evo is my main camera, it would be nice to have it up to its capabilities. However, I would prefer to stay on the sense UI. I would also prefer to stay on froyo for now. Oh, and battery life wouldn't hurt, even though I get pretty good battery life on stock.
Is this possible, or am I dreaming?
Lastly, I am kind of confused about WiMax, Radio version, and rom version. I am currently on rom version 3.70.651.1, radio version 2.15.00.11.19, and I am unsure of wimax version. When I go through the roms in dev section, it doesn't seem to mention anything about this. Does this mean that pretty much every rom that is not gingerbread is at my disposal?
And the real lastly, on the epic, Rom Manager does not work. You must flash roms from clockwork every time. Does it actually work on the Evo? Can I just switch back and forth from rom to rom through the rom manager?
TIA
swany
swanysto said:
Back story: I am coming over from the Epic. Don't want to talk about it, but as you may well know, the Epic is rather easy to use considering there are like 4 roms.
Current situation: Been reading this board for the past two weeks. There are so many roms and threads that my head is spinning. I figured out how to root. I rooted using unrevoked. I then created a backup in clockwork. All I have done at this point is used Titanium to remove(freeze) all the stuff I don't want. So far the phone is working superb. The GPS is fantastic, the apps are giving me no lag or problems, and everything just works. I have actually grown to like the Sense UI. I like the widgets and such.
Now, like most people on this forum, even though everything is working correctly, I get antsy and am completely against the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I have been reading about how CyanogenMod improves the Camera and Video. As the Evo is my main camera, it would be nice to have it up to its capabilities. However, I would prefer to stay on the sense UI. I would also prefer to stay on froyo for now. Oh, and battery life wouldn't hurt, even though I get pretty good battery life on stock.
Is this possible, or am I dreaming?
Lastly, I am kind of confused about WiMax, Radio version, and rom version. I am currently on rom version 3.70.651.1, radio version 2.15.00.11.19, and I am unsure of wimax version. When I go through the roms in dev section, it doesn't seem to mention anything about this. Does this mean that pretty much every rom that is not gingerbread is at my disposal?
And the real lastly, on the epic, Rom Manager does not work. You must flash roms from clockwork every time. Does it actually work on the Evo? Can I just switch back and forth from rom to rom through the rom manager?
TIA
swany
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get amon 2.3 you can do proper wipes so you won't have issues flashing roms. You already have latest radio and wi max stick to the latest roms mik froyo is sense based so is myn just don't download old roms from the bottom of the dev wiki there built and use old radios and wi max .
You can use gingerbread roms with out screwing with your radios such as CM 7 and so on .
This one looks like everything I want except the better camera stuff. Will it work with my setup, and it doesn't mention that it removes Swype(which I must have).
Manila Carbon Fiber 2.2
swanysto said:
This one looks like everything I want except the better camera stuff. Will it work with my setup, and it doesn't mention that it removes Swype(which I must have).
Manila Carbon Fiber 2.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will work fine and yes camera is good one stock cam use amon 2.3 to wipe before flashing and flash away.
Alright, I'm new to the whole Android thing.
Am I right in assuming, that without a front end GUI like Sense, Android is just another command line OS? Does it have an interface?
If it has an interface, why doesn't Google just release an end user install-able version of it so the user can do whatever they want with it? didn't the legality of unlocking and hacking your own personal device just get settled in congress? With that being said, I would like to be able to just simply download ICS and install it unmolested on my EVO. Hell, I would have liked to do that with Gingerbread too. I know there are different phones, different hardware platforms, but that's all driver related anyway. I thought it was all Open source?
Just an interesting thought I had, no real issues or nothing going on.
Sense is a skin put on top of standard Android GUI. There are some subtle differences. Just install a non sense Rom like cm 7, it seems to be very popular, I like the sense tweaks, calendar, messaging, contacts.
You should be able to dl ics and install it if u know how to port a Rom.
Sent from my Synergized Evo with aggressive Freedom using the XDA app
Just be sure and make a nandroid backup before you switch in case you want to go back to what you had and store a copy of it on your desktop hard drive or in some location other than your phone.
CM7 is what sparked this question. I installed it, and it broke my WiFi and my GPS. If Gingerbead was an out of the box solution, there would be drivers and portability. I don't understand why there has to be ports of roms and things from other phones to make the OS work. Thats where i think Google is dropping the ball. Why is there not some sort of driver repository where one could get all the hardware drivers for their device and simply load them into the OS and install it? That would make the most sense to me. It puts the ownage of hardware support back o nteh manufacturer to ensure its updated.
I don't know, something to rant about I guess.
I'm running decks rom rite now and never had any issues at all. Try that instead. Its in dev
Sent From My Pocket
There are ROMs out there that are just pure android with no UI overlay or anything, you might just have to look back a bit in the forums and settle for 2.3.3 or earlier. At one point there was a ROM called PureGB or something along those lines that was just as it sounds, pure GB - built right from the SDK. You have to understand that the EVO is manufactured by HTC and Sense is their baby so they are never going to give us a stripped down ROM... Google puts the SDK out there and devs create ROMs for individual devices so it's all about what the devs want to make.
The popularity of Sense 3.0+ and AOSP custom ROMs has steered devs away (for the moment) from creating super basic ROMs but it can be done.
There is a stock android 2.3 launcher, notification bar, messaging app and so on, it's just that the alternatives are entirely to lucrative to pass up for most people.
I hope that at least makes some sense (get it!?! Sense!?!... So lame...) and I'll try to find that Pure GB ROM and link it so you can dig it.
Which Android version takes up least space but still give 4g, I'm on froyo and it gives me an H, never seen H before lol and an E when I'm using 2g/edge. What is H?
What do you consider is the best overall version of android to be run on the G2? Doubt ICS will run well since I put it on my G1 and it was very slow and like you needed a "tap"/stylist screen rather than touchscreen.
Froyo, Gingerbread, and Honeycomb roms seem to be the best since they all have flash and HTML5 capabilities.
As for space, on these stock Gingerbread/Froyo there are a plethora of apps that I was never going to use on the phone pre installed, is there a way to uninstall/remove the ones I don't want to free up space? If not, then I would definitely want a rom that takes up little space.
Thanks in advance everyone.
Edit: All the roms I looked at say nothing about radios, for the G1 this was important, didn't know what it's for but followed what they said. Why is there nothing about radio version you need to be on and stuff?
Edit: Also I don't think I want Sense, doesn't look that great.
H = HSDPA = "4G" indicator. It is a feature of G2 GB update.
ICS actually runs well, quite faster than stock GB in my opinion, and I don't see the need to a stylus either.
If what you need is a long battery life, lots of space, good speed then a slim ROM where the developer strip every single unnecessary thing then something like this may meet you need
G2 Slim v1.6 -- OTA 2.16.531.5 NO BLOAT (this includes RADIO OTA 2.16.531.5 if you wonder what is that)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1324616
Radio wise: You do not need to worry about it. ROM usually include a safe, latest OTA radio. If you really want to, you may try different RADIO yourself.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=970809
Removing unnecessary apps: Usually developer would remove bloatware already.
If you want to remove more, you can consider something like
The ROM tool box lite
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jrummy.liberty.toolbox&hl=en
Great, I am trying out two roms coming from Xboarder 2.4, which only gives me 3g. Is there a way to get 4g/H on roms that disable/remove/don't have it?
The roms I am trying are:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1350492
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1324616
Couldn't install HyperNoSense ICS 1.5, will try another time.
HyperNoSense is a Sensation ROM. You have an HTC Vision. They're not interchangeable.
If I recall, the stock ROMs were very liberal in their display of "H" or "4G". Moving to custom ROMs I always saw a lot of pinging back and forth between 3G and HSPA+, but its something that never really bothered me as speed tests still showed the same as when I was stock. I'd just run some tests and make sure you are getting good speeds where you are and not nitpick about what data connection the ROM says you have.
That being said, favorite ROMs have been GB based Mexdroid AIO (the older version, not one of the newer) and Andromadus ICS Beta. I never ran many sense ROMs, but Revolution HD ran very smooth when I tested it, and T4Z's Sense 4.0 was nice when testing (T4Z has some good ports all around).