Related
I decided to write this to clarify a lot of the misconceptions around here. This is also good information for people who are new to modding their phones, the Evo in particular. I see a lot of the same questions being asked over and over so here is some information that some may find useful. I will also warn people if I know that what they are doing can potentially destroy their phone or cause it to stop working properly.
RADIO/WIMAX/PRI/NV UPDATES: I see a lot of questions concerning this. Like, "Oh wow, the new HTC build # 3.29.651.5 is out. I installed it and for some reason I still have the same Radio and PRI. What version should I have?"
Answer: The same! Funny thing is a lot of people asking this question have flashed a few ROMS and should know the answer. But still, updating any of the 4 stick regardless of what ROM you are running. Once you flash them, those are the versions you have until you re-flash to update them. ROMS and any of the 4 updates are a separate entity. (ROMS CAN contain radio updates within them, but none that I have found that are not custom have radio updates built it. It is just possible to do, for arguments sake.)
WARNINGS: KNOW THE DANGERS INVOLVED WITH WHAT YOU ARE DOING
1. Flashing radios from another handset can make your Evo stop working correctly. Only use radios made for an Evo. Period.
2. Common knowledge is to always use the latest radios for the best performance, battery life, and signal. I see this in a lot of ROM threads. While true, radio updates and the like can be tricky at times. Make sure you do those updates separate from any other installation. I do not recommend doing a ROM and radio flash at the same time.
3. Did you know flashing your Radio can break 4G? It can. Each phone has a unique encryption key for the 4G. So let's say Grace buys an Evo and I want her radio update. So I take the update off her phone and add it to mine. Well, it will probably work, but there is a chance it will overwrite my keys and then what happens? Well, if Grace is using 4G, I cannot use it at the same time since we have the same keys now! Now you have two handsets with one set of keys. There is a way to fix it (will update with link soon) but still, did you know you can mess it up?
4. While it is always best to use the latest, I suggest EVERYONE (regardless of anything else) should have a copy of a rooted 2.2 ROM. This way you can at least restore your radios to a working state in almost every case.
5. While there might be fixes out there listed (if you do screw it up), do you have the ability to use them? What if that fix does not work on your phone?
6. Ivide Infra brought this up, "Doesn't a Nandroid back up everything, including radios?" No it does not! I read that there is a way to back radios up using Amon RA recovery but not sure if it is true or not. I cannot seem to find that post again and I looked (didn't look hard, but still). This is a good example of a situation where you think you have a safety net but may find out there is none if something goes wrong.
The moral of the story? Read up on something before you do it, especially if it is something you are trying for the first time.
What ROM works best for me? I see this a lot.
Answer: I don't know, nor does anyone else. This is like asking your buddy at the party which girl you should try and hook up with.
You have to try a few because we all have our preferences. (ROMS, not the women!) Some like Sense, some hate it. Some want a stock ROM with added features, others want a totally customized ROM that is radically different that stock (like CM6). You know you have the right ROM when it has everything you want and everything you use works. You have to try as many as you can until you find the right one for you.
A better thing to do is tell people what you want in a ROM and ask what ROM they suggest after they get an idea of what you are looking for. Try their suggestions but still try a few that seem to be what you are looking for. The first post in all of the ROM pages on here have detailed information about the ROM; read up and find out what the ROM has to offer. If you need your phone for important stuff (like work), I highly suggest you do not use a RC (release candidate) or especially a Beta ROM (unless the description claims everything works). It may decide not to work at the worst possible moment!
If you are happy with your phone at stock yet want to have the benefits of being rooted with super user ability, use a stock ROM that is already rooted.
You also have to be aware that some ROMS can have issues. Sometimes stuff will not work when you try and use them (for example, 4G, HDMI, Cameras, and FM Radio to name a few). You really have to read the known problems and if it sounds like something you use will not work or if you want a completely 100% working device, do not use a ROM that says something is not working. Double that if it is something you use often.
Lastly, if you really want a ROM that has everything you want, you will have to learn how to make your own. Please do, I have released the second version of my ROM, feel free to check it out! (Link is in my signature)
After rooting, how do I install a ROM?
Answer: Through your recovery. It is always highly suggested to wipe data, cache, Dalvik. Here is the steps (this is how I do it and have not had any problems yet.)
Before flashing, ALWAYS do a Nandroid backup in case anything goes wrong! Do this periodically to keep your phone able to be restored in case of problems. I also suggest doing a full backup with Titanium Backup before you proceed.
1. Copy the ROM and optionally the radio/WIMAX/PRI/NV updates, kernel, and theme you plan on using (if any) to the root of your SD card. Hook up your USB cable to your computer, then on your phone switch from charge only to disk drive mode. Your phone's SD card pops up and then you can copy/paste your files onto there.
2. Make sure the transfer is complete and then power down your phone.
3. Reboot into recovery. Do this by holding the volume down key on your phone as you turn it back on.
4. Your phone will enter Hboot, let it load up for a few seconds, then use volume down to go to recovery. Press power to enter recovery. (NOTE: if you select recovery and your phone shows a disk icon with an exclamation mark your recovery is either missing or damaged and needs to be reflashed. That or you may not be fully rooted.)
5. Once in recovery (using Amon RA as my example) you go down to the wipe menu and hit your power button.
6. Once in the wipe menu, I usually do them in the order they are listed. First do a data wipe, then cache, then Davlik. I then tend to do a SD: EXT wipe, battery stats, and rotate settings as well just for good measure. Some recommend doing this twice, but I have never had to and think that is unnecessary.
7. Now you are ready to flash away (reminder, did you do a backup first? If not get to it before doing step 6!). Now you have a choice but I prefer to do it my way. You can flash everything at once, or reboot after each item. I do the reboot after each personally. Flash them in this order: ROM, kernel, theme, Radio/WIMAX/NV/PRI. You can try to flash the ROM and custom kernel afterwards only, then do the rest after rebooting.
8. If everything went well, your phone should take a long time to boot up the first time. Be patient. If it went well, within about 5-7 minutes or less the ROM should load up.
9. If your phone gets stuck on the EVO Screen or the boot animation repeats itself, that means the ROM did not take correctly. Do a full reset by taking out the battery for about 10 second and then reboot and see if it fixes the problem. If it happens again try and start over from step 6. Redo the wiping and flashing process. Also, if flashing more than one at a time, try doing each one, then rebooting before you flash the other.
10. If you do it again and still experience problems, check to see if you are fully rooted. If you determine you are indeed fully rooted, try and reinstall the rooted version of the stock HTC ROM and then try flashing your custom ROM again.
11. If no problems, congratulations and enjoy your new ROM!
What kernel works best for my EVO? This is another question you will often see. A variation is, "What kernel/ROM combo works best?"
Answer: Well, a stock HTC kernel is the short answer. It will work with everyone's phone (well) and likely have some of the best battery life. Now that the newest kernel was just released and has already been rooted, it will work better than the custom kernels overall (as far as being universally compatible). Now that they removed the 30 frame per second limit on the Evo with the 3.29.651.5 kernel, there is less reasons to use a custom one. There are exceptions, of course. But if you want your phone to behave like stock and work well with your phone, a HTC kernel is the only one you need (unless you want stuff like audio tweaks, multi-touch, overclocking ability, or the ability to customize more. In that case, a custom kernel is better). Use the new one with the FPS fix though!
For a custom kernel, again we do not know. A kernel is just above the hardware (speaking of the layers). It is more important than finding the correct ROM. A ROM is more like preference. With a kernel, it is very important to find the correct one for your phone. It has a lot to do with how smooth or fast your phone acts. A kernel that works good for my Evo can run like **** on your Evo. Some phones will work better with Netarchy kernels, others will be better with a Kingklick. Some phone will work well with HAVS, other may hate it. That is how this stuff works!
Sometimes you will know immediately that you have the wrong kernel for your phone. Your phone will act up, restart, connection problems, graphical glitches, and all kinds of funkiness! Other times it may take a day or so of using your phone to spot potential problems. You know it is definitely the wrong kernel if your phone refuses to bootup, even after a battery pull!
Kingklick and Netarchy are the two who make the best for Sense based ROMS, which is most of them. The only exception is Cyanogen. You need to run a kernel made for his ROMS (which are AOSP based, not Sense.) His is the only exception unless they are made from Cyanogen's ROMS (use it as a base).
If running Sense, I would try a few of King's and Netarchy's kernels. I suggest using their latest and working your way down until you find the right one for your Evo. You will know when you have the right one when your phone runs smooth (you have to run them for a day and use them, see what happens.) and you do not encounter any problems that were not present before you switched kernels.
If using CM6 or any Cyanogen ROM build (older, nightlies, etc.) you have to use a kernel made for that ROM. Snap is a popular one. Again, you have to experiment to find the right one.
So the answer is find one that works good for you, stick with it. Or just use a HTC kernel if using Sense and call it a night!
With kernels, what is BFS and CFS? Which would work better for my phone?
Answer: CFS stands for Completely Fair Scheduler. BFS stands for Brain **** Scheduler (sounds fun, right?). These are two different ways that the phone's CPU uses to schedule events. Without getting into the technicalities, here is what I have found for my Evo. Your mileage may vary and again, you have to experiment to find which works better for your particular phone.
CFS: Generally more consistent, use when you want consistent performance and/or if BFS kernels do not work well with your phone. Sometimes will appear to be smoother than a BFS kernel in overall use. The stock HTC kernel uses CFS and it is more standard than BFS.
BFS: Generally a bit faster but a bit more inconsistent (might appear to slow down more and such). Usually faster overall performance but will not look as smooth as a CFS kernel (in general).
Another way to put it, CFS is closer to a flat line, if you drew a performance map it would have less peaks and more consistency. With BFS, there would be more peaks and higher peaks with the faster readings and lower peaks with the slower.
You will find that one or the other may work better for you, or fit your needs better. It is a good idea to try both and see your results. My phone seems to heavily favor CFS kernels and I like the overall smoothness and consistency better. To me, BFS often appears to be more laggy than a CFS kernel. Again, each phone is different though and my results may not match yours.
I want to unroot my phone, what is the best way to do this? If you want to root using a different method, or need to return your phone to where you got it from for any reason, read on.
Answer: You need to download a RUU and install it. You can download an older RUU or get a newer one. This will unroot your phone and make it look like you never rooted it in the first place. You can even do a RUU if your screen is busted, just always keep USB debugging on. To use it, follow the instructions in the RUU executable and do what it says.
Is a full wipe needed when changing kernels? (Thanks to m4rk0358 for this!)
Answer: No, a full wipe is not needed to install a different kernel. I do suggest you go into your recovery and wipe the Cache and Dalvik before installing the new kernel though. In most cases, you can just flash the new kernel over the last kernel. But a full wipe is completely unnecessary (unless you are coming off a kernel made for CM6, in that case a full wipe and flashing a stock HTC kernel is recommended before switching back to a custom kernel).
Overclocking: "How much should I overclock, what should my SetCPU settings be set at?"
Answer: In this new age of phones, we are seeing them become faster and faster. Now with SetCPU readily available and overclock-ready custom kernels, a lot of people are overclocking their phones. These same people also wonder why they are having poor battery life. You see a few posts a day with something like, "Well, I tried the new (insert kernel here) and I overclocked but I noticed I am getting poor battery life!"
The HTC Evo has some really nice components, including the 1 GHZ Snapdragon CPU and the graphics chipset is plenty powerful. Do you really need to make it faster? Considering now that the FPS is unlocked, the phone is as smooth as butter as it is. Most apps work smooth on less capable and older handsets.
Again, all phones have the same components but results will not be the same at all (well, some can have slight differences..for example: the touch screen can be different). Mine may overclock to 1288 MHz without a problem, yours may lock up before you reach 1200 MHz. This is how it works
Most are only overclocking 10-12% or less. While benchmarking scores will increase, you will not see a major difference in overall use of your phone. In fact, you might not see a difference at all.
So yeah, if you want to impress people you never met, overclock and post your screenies! For me, my phone is more than fast enough and eating up battery for little to no perceivable gain is not worth it. This is not a computer with fans and a cooling system that can be upgraded!
But hey, if you really feel you need to run your phone 5-10C hotter just to make it a tad bit faster, knock yourself out! You can either have better battery life, or make your phone faster. Generally you cannot have both.
If using a kernel with HAVS, you do not need SetCPU to under clock. That is exactly what HAVS does, lowers voltages when your phone is idling. You are defeating the purpose by using SetCPU. This is why Kingklick himself tells everyone not to use SetCPU with his kernels.
Is a Task Killer needed for Froyo? (Thank to beatblaster for this!)
Answer: Believe it or not, Android 2.2 does a fantastic job managing apps all by itself. The Android OS is designed to kill apps/tasks as resources are needed and usually only does so when it's absolutely necessary. Using a task killer app can be handy when you encounter an app that freezes or is otherwise stuck but to use it as the primary task killer (instead of letting the OS do its thing) is contrary to the built in efficiency of Froyo itself. Try to trust the OS. Though a task killer is still recommended for the odd lot who are still using Android 2.1 or lower!
Which recovery should I use: Amon Ra or Clockwork? What are the pros and cons of each? Does Clockwork really wipe the Dalvik?:
Answer: Amon RA. Amon RA works, does everything you need it to do, and does it well! I highly recommend using Amon RA, it is generally considered the superior of the two and does a better job of wiping. Everything is right there and it is extremely easy to use.
Clockwork is pretty good too, but here are some pros and cons of each. (I will list a few, there are more differences but I will cover what I can think of offhand).
Clockwork Download here
PROS:
Able to use Rom Manager to flash ROMS and perform other functions (This is by no means necessary though, that is what a Recovery is for and it is generally safer)
Able to read ROMS stored in any folder.
CONS:
Does not seem to work as well as Amon RA in doing it's job.
Rumor that it does not properly clean the Dalvik cache when wiping. You hit it and it does not seem to do anything. Some claim that they checked the Davlik after using it and it is indeed wiped.
Some (including myself) find it a little more clunky to use.
Amon RA Download here
PROS:
Generally considered to be a superior recovery as it is based on Cyanogen code (who is really good, let us just put it that way!) and there are lots of posts where people switched to Amon RA because they were having issues with Clockwork.
Easy access to all functions, no need to scroll through 5 no selections to reach to a yes!
I find it better laid out and functions are nicely categorized.
It works better than Clockwork. Fewer reports of problems.
CONS:
You can only read ROMS and files on the root of your SD card.
It does not play well with the program ROM Manager. Most functions on ROM Manager are only usable through Clockwork (considering the overall poor experience with ROM Manager trying to download ROMS that no longer exist, bad checksum ROMS that I downloaded through it, and other problems....IMO NOT a con. Plus, safer to flash through recovery anyhow.)
Do the signal bars indicate signal strength for the 3G? (Thank to LovethyEVO for this!)
Answer: No. It indicates the connection for just the phone connection. You can have good reception for calls and still get slow download speeds. Generally if you have good signal, you will have good download speeds though.
How do you wipe the battery stats, or how do you increase your battery life?
Answer: As you may or may not be aware, you cannot trickle charge the battery on these phones as they will blow up! To counter this, the last 10% of your battery is going to be a bit flakey. What the phone does is once the battery reaches 100%, the phone software will let the battery drop down to 90% before it allows more charging to take place. That is why you often can use your phone after a full day's charge and immediately be at around 90% for no apparent reason. When you reset battery stats, you are effectively resetting the phone's software. it will take a couple of days for it to relearn your battery and give you a more accurate result and more efficient recharge.
Battery recalibration (Thanks to Cyanogen for this and to fachadick for bringing it to my attention).
If you're experiencing higher than normal battery drain, try the following:
1. Charge the phone to full battery; let it keep charging until the battery says it is fully charged. Do not just wait until the light is green, it isn't always fully charged, causing a lot of inaccuracies. (You can check by going to: Settings -> About Phone -> Status -> Battery Level = Full.)
2. Boot to recovery and wipe battery stats.
(To have the most accurate of battery stats, reboot the phone immediately after wiping the battery stats and wait for your ROM to boot completely to the desktop. Once your entire boot is done and you have full access to the phone, go ahead and pull the charger and continue.)
3. Do not charge the phone until after draining the battery completely, resulting in it automatically shutting off. Take out the battery, and keep trying to turn on your phone until it will not turn back on at all.
4. Recharge the phone completely and then use as you normally would.
This is a method that has been proven to work, I am sure there are other ways. My battery lasts longer after doing this and the reading is much more accurate. It might be advisable to do this after every ROM install if you want the most battery life and most accurate battery reading by the phone's software.
I will add more and reserve a couple more slots, but I think this is a good start. Please feel free to offer suggestions or your own misconceptions and answer.
MY Take on SetCPU
SetCPU is a great program, does what it says, author is good and keeps it updated. I have nothing against SetCPU, the author of it, or anyone who uses it. In fact, I have the purchased version, why would I pay for it if I thought it was garbage? I wouldn't. I also agree with you when you say it allows more control over our phones.
The problem with it is:
1) Too many people are messing with it and do not know what they are doing. They are just trying to mimic what they see others doing, which may or may not work for them. This is the biggest, most common, and most damaging problem with SetCPU.
2) It can cause problems and/or hurt battery life if it is set incorrectly.
3) You do not know it is set correctly or not until you use it for a while. You may be also permanently damaging your phone as you have it set wrong and not even know it (Too high of an overclock for your particular phone, phone getting too hot in a warm environment, etc.)
4) It can cause problems for people who are trying to switch ROMS and forget to disable it.
5) King himself told people not to use it because it can interfere with HAVS. Though yes, one adjusts frequency, the other voltage, they can interfere with each other. HAVS will read the lower voltage and set itself different than if you are at stock clocks, this can cause either problems or quicker battery drainage. Maybe both. Both are going to try ramping up and down constantly and this is what causes the problems and the quicker battery eating.
6) If you set your CPU too high or low and it locks up and you happened to set it to "Save settings on reboot" you may have to do a full wipe and reinstall. Your phone may even be fine for a few days, then decide it does not like the settings you have and then this problem emerges.
7) This is not a computer with a fan cooled case. It is enclosed and there is no easy way to modify the cooling system. Even with a computer it is always recommended to upgrade the cooling system from stock if you wish to overclock. Most are only able to achieve a measly 10-12% overclock. It will test faster, naturally but in use it is not going to blow you away. In fact, if it seems much faster it is more of a placebo, you will barely notice it, if you notice at all. Notice the FPS only goes up 1-3 points? You are not going to see that with your eyes.
8) I notice most people experiencing problems also happen to be running SetCPU. Coincidence?
9) For that measly 10-12%, you can running your phone 10C more or hotter, that is a BIG difference in heat.
So, as great of a program as it is, it is also dangerous in the wrong hands or if it is set wrong, purposely or accidentally. User error is a big issue with it.
I was a an avid user of it myself but now I do not want to use it and will advise others not to because frankly it is not needed unless you want to impress people with your Linpack score or want to see what your phone can do. Overclocking kills battery faster, common sense. Also, the candle that burns twice as bright lasts half as long, the long term effects are unknown.
But hey, if you want to use it...do so. Anyone can do what they want, I never said what I said was the end all/be all. Just remember if you have problems, it is one of the first things you want to disable to troubleshoot.
Hopefully this explains better why I advised not to use it. In case anyone thinks I have animosity towards it or questions why I advised not to use it.
++ Sticky!!!
Reserved for more information
When my 4g was said "broken" from adding a new radio all I did was update my profile in system updates and problem solved.
rutter9 said:
When my 4g was said "broken" from adding a new radio all I did was update my profile in system updates and problem solved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While that is good to hear, you got lucky!
The point is that it is a high risk thing to do and you stand to gain little or nothing from it.
Sometimes the encryption keys can be erased altogether. If you do not happen to have a backup of your keys with your original radio, you are more or less screwed. I know of a few members around here that have broken 4G thanks to this. It can be fixed, but then they will be using someone else's keys. An update will not fix this.
Another point is people do things blindly without knowing the dangers of what they are doing. Maybe this will cause more people to read up more before they do something.
IMHO this thread is great. Thanks for the contribution.
ricsim78 said:
While that is good to hear, you got lucky!
The point is that it is a high risk thing to do and you stand to gain little or nothing from it.
Sometimes the encryption keys can be erased altogether. If you do not happen to have a backup of your keys with your original radio, you are more or less screwed. I know of a few members around here that have broken 4G thanks to this. It can be fixed, but then they will be using someone else's keys. An update will not fix this.
Another point is people do things blindly without knowing the dangers of what they are doing. Maybe this will cause more people to read up more before they do something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
then why do most (if not all) of the devs put links to the newest radio/wimax with their roms? Do they strip out the keys so they don't overwrite yours? I don't see why so many developers would stress updating radios if it was potentially hazardous.
what about nandroid? when you do a backup does it backup your radio? if you flash a new one and it breaks 4g, when you nandroid back to your old rom will 4g work?
eurominican said:
IMHO this thread is great. Thanks for the contribution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you and I am glad to help. I hope to make this as useful as possible and add much more as I have time.
Like I said, please anyone else feel free to add your own entries to this.
ivide infra said:
what about nandroid? when you do a backup does it backup your radio? if you flash a new one and it breaks 4g, when you nandroid back to your old rom will 4g work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a good point, will have to update my first post. Nandroid does DOES NOT back it up. But I can guarantee a lot of people probably do not use Nandroid before they mess with stuff. Even if they do, what happens if your SD card messes up or there is a problem where your Nandroid does not back things up properly?
The answer: You will still have a broken whatever is broken
These phone are essentially computers with phone functions built in. As soon as you start messing with them, there is a good chance you can mess things up or that things do not work like they should.
I'm pretty sure that a nandroid does not backup the radios.
ivide infra said:
then why do most (if not all) of the devs put links to the newest radio/wimax with their roms? Do they strip out the keys so they don't overwrite yours? I don't see why so many developers would stress updating radios if it was potentially hazardous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because the developers know a heck a lot more about the phones than most of us do, including me. They know how to fix things if they get broke, and they have knowledge you may not possess. Like the inner workings of the phone.
They might not have been aware of the problems. I am sure you can fix almost any problem that comes up, but it if was not hazardous you would not hear people saying, "I have permanently broken 4G" or "I had to return my Evo because I messed it up."
It is like my mom, she knows how to use a computer to check her bank account and email, plus shop. But she freaks out when Firefox asks her if it is ok to update. Yet for us who know what that does, it is an after thought.
timtlm said:
I'm pretty sure that a nandroid does not backup the radios.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clockwork I am not sure about but I read that Amon RA backup does, not sure if it does it by default or if there is a way to do it.
That is another point, you may be relying on a Nandroid that does not have backed up what you think is backed up.
Id talk about clockwork vs amon...pros and cons...and insist people work with amon, perhaps provide a link
Id also add something about "Getting bootloops?" especially when people are flashing known, working, stable roms... clearly the problem is 99% in the wiping of caches.
evohnoo said:
Id talk about clockwork vs amon...pros and cons...and insist people work with amon, perhaps provide a link
Id also add something about "Getting bootloops?" especially when people are flashing known, working, stable roms... clearly the problem is 99% in the wiping of caches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny, you must have read my mind!
I will definitely do that and a good idea. I intend to add on whenever I can and provide as many answers as possible.
evohnoo said:
Id talk about clockwork vs amon...pros and cons...and insist people work with amon, perhaps provide a link
Id also add something about "Getting bootloops?" especially when people are flashing known, working, stable roms... clearly the problem is 99% in the wiping of caches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like using Rom Manager...I'd use it more if only it played nicer with Amon Ra.
firemedic1343 said:
I like using Rom Manager...I'd use it more if only it played nicer with Amon Ra.
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Click to collapse
Agreed. I, perhaps unfairly, associate Clockwork with the pecker heads who borked my 4G so I'll never be able to try Rom Manager as long they require it.
Thanks for the info. Well written and informative article. Thanks again.
Feel free to re-word this if the wording seems confusing.
Sense widgets and alternative home launchers (like ADW Launcher and Launcher Pro): My Sense widgets are missing!
Answer: Sense widgets require Sense. If you're running any home launcher except HTC's Sense you cannot use Sense-specific widgets (or anything else that requires Sense like HTC's default lock screen). There are very good alternatives to Sense widgets anyway such as SwitchPro Widget for quick access to radio toggles or Launcher Pro Plus' Facebook/Twitter/Friends widgets. Use Google to find more.
Hey, im sorry if I used the wrong term (hack) but I am not knowledgable in this field. I was wondering though what benefits there are to using "custom roms" (I think thats right).
The main complaint with my Desire is the extreme lack of internal memory and slow software updates from telus (froyo and honeycomb for example in case I used the wrong term again). If either of these issues could be fixed from hacking my Desire (primarily the memory one) I would more then likely go through with it. (I have 15 mb of free memory and its a Huge annoyance)
You see, I hacked my psp back in the day because I could play games for free , get cutom themes and all that cool stuff. I was wondering what special things you can do with a "custom OS".
Im sorry if I said anything wrong, blatantly obvious or if this topic has been made before. I just want my phone to be all it can be, thanks a million and all the best.
i do have desire too, have rooted recently , have tried, various roms , like , leedroid, starburst, coolz etc, now using gingervillian ,
i felt like you before but rooting will give you choice of OS to install and you dont have to wait OTA update to use gingerbread or latest OS.
if you need more space then starburst might be your choice.
I never regret rooting my phone, it is awesome! Really do recommend it!
Of course
It's better,faster,smoother,more space for apps
Yes, you should've.
Take a look on Leedroid ROM, its fairly easy to start with. Ofcourse you need to Root your phone first. (lots of guides on forum just search)
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Joshua3109 said:
Hey, im sorry if I used the wrong term (hack) but I am not knowledgable in this field. I was wondering though what benefits there are to using "custom roms" (I think thats right).
The main complaint with my Desire is the extreme lack of internal memory and slow software updates from telus (froyo and honeycomb for example in case I used the wrong term again). If either of these issues could be fixed from hacking my Desire (primarily the memory one) I would more then likely go through with it. (I have 15 mb of free memory and its a Huge annoyance)
You see, I hacked my psp back in the day because I could play games for free , get cutom themes and all that cool stuff. I was wondering what special things you can do with a "custom OS".
Im sorry if I said anything wrong, blatantly obvious or if this topic has been made before. I just want my phone to be all it can be, thanks a million and all the best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, you can "fix" your main complaints rooting your phone and installing a Custom ROM. The lack of internal memory can be fixed using App2SD+ or a clean AOSP ROM (like Oxygen, my current ROM) and a custom HBOOT partition (giving less space to the /system partition and a lot more space to /data). Of course, in this case you lost HTC Sense, but if you really like Sense just search for App2SD+. And Custom ROMs are updated a lot more than oficial, you can already have Gingerbread on your Desire and even Honeycomb (early and broke port, but it's getting better).
And a rooted phone is way more fun IMHO. You can use some great apps that will never work without root (like Titanium Backup, Root Explorer, ROM Manager, ShootMe, SetCPU etc) and you can do almost anything to the system. It's great.
Joshua3109 said:
Hey, im sorry if I used the wrong term (hack) but I am not knowledgable in this field. I was wondering though what benefits there are to using "custom roms" (I think thats right).
The main complaint with my Desire is the extreme lack of internal memory and slow software updates from telus (froyo and honeycomb for example in case I used the wrong term again). If either of these issues could be fixed from hacking my Desire (primarily the memory one) I would more then likely go through with it. (I have 15 mb of free memory and its a Huge annoyance)
You see, I hacked my psp back in the day because I could play games for free , get cutom themes and all that cool stuff. I was wondering what special things you can do with a "custom OS".
Im sorry if I said anything wrong, blatantly obvious or if this topic has been made before. I just want my phone to be all it can be, thanks a million and all the best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There isn't a single Desire running an official version of Honeycomb so you're not missing out there. 2.2 is out on Telus now so really don't know what you're on about!!
Anyway, yes a custom ROM is good but it's not the be all and end all. I've got over my ROM-flashing days and now only change when something is worth switching for. Otherwise I use my own ROM. That way I can add/remove what I want and not what someone else thinks I should be using
Read up a lot, ask questions (if you can't find answers) and don't let others dictate what you do. Root it because YOU want to, not because everyone says to
I unrooted my Desire recently, i realised that i dont need root anymore.
Froyo A2SD is good enough for me and i prefer Sense. Currently im waiting for the GingerSense update that ships in June. The leaked Saga ROM looks very promising - it even has a build in notification power widget.
You could use a GoldCard do debrand if you dont want to wait for Telus to push OTA updates.
The simple answer, in my humble opinion, is root your phone! I agree with the comment before mine and you should only mod your phone if your want to and are happy to tinker with it. Like the old days playing with PSP's and the like all mods carry risks of bricking but most answers I needed were in this forum somewhere. I have never regretted rooted my Desire and have helped several friends do theirs. Along the way I've tried different roms and made a few mistakes but I now enjoy my phone more than when I first got it. For rooting I would recommend searching out unRevoked it's one click rooting is brilliant although make sure you have the right adb drivers for your computer before starting! I first started with LeeDroid as the Apps to SD Card is already implemented for you so very little fiddling to do, you will need to be able to partition your SD card to use this function tho but you sound like you have some base knowledge so that shouldn't be too tricky. I'm now using GingerVillain 1.6 and love it, its quick smooth and meets all MY needs it might not be the one for you tho. Biggest tip? Read research and ask before starting anything there's normally someone out there that has done or about to do whatever you're thinking of so find out first before pressing enter and swearing for several hours!
I have been doing the trial and error method for the past 6 days with roms, hopefully finally finding the one for me to stick with for a while. (otherwise my wife may either divorce me or start digging my grave in the backyard)
My question is how many Nandroid backups should I keep? I currently have three in the Nandroid folder I show through ES file explorer. Are these safe to delete all but the most recent? What is the easiest way to make a backup of my current rom?
You can delete old ones so long as you know you have a solid one on there. You can also move themto your computer / external HDD to save space as they can add up. I keep a good one handy and store some other ones for various reasons.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Keep as many or as few as you want, or are limited by disk space.
If disk space is no concern, keep 'em all. For practical purposes, I'd keep the last 3 or 4. Append a meaningful description devoid of spaces to the bdes* directory name so you have some clue what's unique about that backup.
The most obvious feature of most roms is the way the UI is configured. Keep in mind, that using a third party launcher configured YOUR way, you can make almost any rom look like any other. Be more concerned with what's under the hood than pure appearance. I recently switched from the rom in my sig to cm7, but the UI is 99% unchanged because I'm using the same launcher I used in evio (adw ex). The difference is in the status bar, pull down, and most importantly battery life (better). ymmv
I have a good cm7 set up and a good mikefroyo set up. I always update the nandroid before I flash something new if the ROM im wiping out of is stable.
Thanks for the advice so far...I may need to move some to my PC soon until I upgrade to a bigger SD card....gotta get rid of 8GB card as with this phone I know I will want more space!!!
Hi,
[edit]
Skip to the last post to go into above topic. This part is outdated
[/edit]
I'm totally new to android and even to embedded systems and new to this forum. There are plenty information about everything, but there are no simple answers for my needs.
First of all, I'm quite happy as a linux developer to have android system. I've imagined it quite different (NDK is without GUI api, only SDK is good for application development and this means Java, not C++, rooting without exchanging flash and so on), but I'm still happy after using Symbian and WM6. The only two things I would like to do with the phone right now are:
1. 2 way call recording
2. permroot
But why I'm posting this...
Ad 1. Only easy solution I've seen for two way call recording is to flash everything with LeeDroid for example. There are big disadvantages - no further updates of the system (android 2.3), some reports that LeeDroid isn't perfect (I don't know that those rumours are true, but I've seen speed complains and some strange behaviors) and so on.
Ad 2. Here I would like to ask that AMT is a good way to do it (I mean "automagically") with below device description:
Device Model: Desire HD
Bootloader Version: 0.85.0007 SHIP HBOOT
Radio Version: 26.03.02.26_M
ROM Version: 1.32.405.6
Android Version: 2.2
CID: HTC__032
and secondly - why should I bother about S-OFF (what is this exactly? I dodn't get it right after reading about flashing), what is HBOOT, how exactly booting works, I mean... not for noob, more clearer for adv. linux user.
Best thing to achieve for me would be rooting (with r/w on the system mount) and a driver for two way recording without messing with the rest of supplied system/kernel/roms/etc... Or alternatively - can any of you convince me that LeeDroid or other "flashing package" is better than nandroid and won't beak anything in my phone?
I'm sorry for (as I suppose) another doubtful/stupid post, but I really need to know what all this means for the phone before doing anything smart/stupid, and the thousands of posts around are not very helpful yet (few days of reading).
I had the same problem, well almost I didn't think about any specific advantages of rooting my DHD and flashing custom ROM, I was just affraid that I might break sth. Seriously, LeeDroid is an awesome ROM, I use it on a daily basis with no problems. For now everything has been working way better than on standard stock ROM. If you need convincing than, let me tell you this. With LeeDroid you get all the stuff you have on stock ROM + many many many more and the OS doesn't lag like the standard one does, you get Rosie, HTC Sense 3.0, CPU OC...and the list goes on. If you read enough about rooting and flashing ROMs than belive me, it's easy. Also about updates, these are available through ROM manager which is included in the ROM.
krzych said:
The only two things I would like to do with the phone right now are:
1. 2 way call recording
2. permroot
But why I'm posting this...
Ad 1. Only easy solution I've seen for two way call recording is to flash everything with LeeDroid for example. There are big disadvantages - no further updates of the system (android 2.3), some reports that LeeDroid isn't perfect (I don't know that those rumours are true, but I've seen speed complains and some strange behaviors) and so on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LordMOD's kernel for AOSP allows for two way recording without all the SENSE crap that comes with LeeDroid, if you want a ROM with LordMOD kernel you could do worse than try HydrOG3n MOD
krzych said:
Ad 2. Here I would like to ask that AMT is a good way to do it (I mean "automagically") with below device description:
Device Model: Desire HD
Bootloader Version: 0.85.0007 SHIP HBOOT
Radio Version: 26.03.02.26_M
ROM Version: 1.32.405.6
Android Version: 2.2
CID: HTC__032
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Follow instructions here
krzych said:
and secondly - why should I bother about S-OFF (what is this exactly? I dodn't get it right after reading about flashing), what is HBOOT, how exactly booting works, I mean... not for noob, more clearer for adv. linux user.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your /system is currently in read only mode, without S-OFF (Security off) you are unable to change that and thus are unable to make permanent changes to /system, you can make changes but they are cached in RAM thus a reboot reverts them. Achieving S-OFF allows the /system to be written thus changes are permanent
HBOOT is analogous with BIOS on a pc, this controls the security status of your DHD, thus to achieve S-OFF you must replace the HBOOT with one that allows the security to be deactivated, there is a similar system protecting the Radios (there appears to be a backup radio, thus if flashing goes wrong the radio can run off the backup) hence you can also have Radio S-OFF.
krzych said:
Best thing to achieve for me would be rooting (with r/w on the system mount) and a driver for two way recording without messing with the rest of supplied system/kernel/roms/etc... Or alternatively - can any of you convince me that LeeDroid or other "flashing package" is better than nandroid and won't beak anything in my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wont recommend LeeDroid, and you need the Kernel modules to allow two way recording so either install cm7 or another AOSP based ROM and then one of LordMOD kernels or HydrOG3n MOD
krzych said:
I'm sorry for (as I suppose) another doubtful/stupid post, but I really need to know what all this means for the phone before doing anything smart/stupid, and the thousands of posts around are not very helpful yet (few days of reading).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A good starting thread is this one and don't worry we where all noobs once.
May I ask why exactly wouldn't you recommend LeeDroid? I've been using it for some time now with no problems whatsoever. Unless there is sth about this ROM that I don't know. I'm happy with Sense 3.0 (Rosie), it's smooth, doesn't lag, looks nice unlike some custom launchers.
Ghostofcain, thank you very much for quite a nice introduction. I can only ask the same thing to clarify what's really not nice in LeeDroid as haerigrek mentioned, and one of forgotten thing yesterday:
Can you describe me exactly how it works and if it's possible to completely backup whole hboot, radio and system to be _sure_ I can reverse all changes at any time assuming I won't brick the phone? (I think it will be something about clockwork, but I'm still confused)
And maybe anyone can post me most terrible or most often done brick reasons... to be more aware and maybe to be sure it's... safe if done right.
And in the meantime I will read all the links supplied here, so be sure any further posting will be read by me and is needed, but it will take some time before I speak again (busy week/weekend/next week but still, I plan to know something next weekend).
krzych said:
Ghostofcain, thank you very much for quite a nice introduction. I can only ask the same thing to clarify what's really not nice in LeeDroid as haerigrek mentioned, and one of forgotten thing yesterday:
Can you describe me exactly how it works and if it's possible to completely backup whole hboot, radio and system to be _sure_ I can reverse all changes at any time assuming I won't brick the phone? (I think it will be something about clockwork, but I'm still confused)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem with LeeDroid, in one word SENSE! If i wanted bling that slowed my phone down I'd have bought an iPhone, seriously a decent AOSP based ROM comes in at 70-80mb LeeDroid (and other SENSE polluted ROMS) 230-260mb and most of that is bloat I don't want. If you like SENSE and use all it's features by all means give it a whirl, but if you don't go for something a little lighter.
Depending on what ROM your currently running (OUK, Vodafone etc) your best bet if anything went wrong would be to restore with the appropriate RUU, which will put your phone back to Stock i.e Hboot, radio etc. Bricking the phone is actually very hard , even intentionally and until you've flashed the HBoot is prevented by S-OFF, when you have S-OFF be sure to carry out a NANDROID backup (which takes a system snapshot which can subsequently be restored reverting all changes you have made since) before you flash anything which will allow you to revert to your stock rooted ROM. In the main have fun
I agree with ghostofcain 125%.
Paradoxxx's 1.3.1 Benchmark Edition weighs in at an amazing 53MB. I have larger audio files. And yet it still does everything I need- Phone, email, sms, web & XDA.
So what you guys say is that it's a choice between a SENSE/NON-SENSE ROM. I mean seriously, I like SENSE, it does e'thing I need and more, and it looks nice, and I can't say anything bad about LeeDroid ROMs apart from the 3.1.7 Kernel which didn't have 2way call recording.
haerigrek said:
So what you guys say is that it's a choice between a SENSE/NON-SENSE ROM. I mean seriously, I like SENSE, it does e'thing I need and more, and it looks nice, and I can't say anything bad about LeeDroid ROMs apart from the 3.1.7 Kernel which didn't have 2way call recording.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if your a fan of SENSE stick with LeeDroid and you wont be disappointed, but if you regard SENSE as a disease to be eradicated look elsewhere.
Ok, now big picture looks more clear, but one thing to ask yet - where to find a page/thread that compares functionalities of some (most decent) mods if I decide to say good bye to HTC Sense...? I think it is crucial to have a good mail client, move/sound player, calendar, messaging, dialer, sliding gui, home screen with widgets (or something at least like start screen in WM - capable of informing, having status icons/bars etc.) or maybe even alarm clock ;-P :-D. I don't know what's inside Sense and what's outside (or what's possible to install free(ly) in android without Sense) and wikipedia says that all major apps are in it which I pointed out above.
There should be free conferences with possiblity of touching mods by yourself in person ;-D
From my experiences with Touch HD - yep, TouchFLO was slow, but it was also somehow better than bare WM. I used phone without, but at last, I turned it back on just because of missing convenient way to use all of the phone features. I hope not to flash a phone with something not convenient, coz flashing will scare **** out of me (no matter of a knowledge while doing), and I would prefer this situation happened only once :-D
PS. I hope that saying "sense" by you had nothing to do with proximity sensing? (or other sensors ;-) )... noob... noob... noob... :-D
krzych said:
Ok, now big picture looks more clear, but one thing to ask yet - where to find a page/thread that compares functionalities of some (most decent) mods if I decide to say good bye to HTC Sense...? I think it is crucial to have a good mail client, move/sound player, calendar, messaging, dialer, sliding gui, home screen with widgets (or something at least like start screen in WM - capable of informing, having status icons/bars etc.) or maybe even alarm clock ;-P :-D. I don't know what's inside Sense and what's outside (or what's possible to install free(ly) in android without Sense) and wikipedia says that all major apps are in it which I pointed out above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you flash a decent AOSP based ROM, the only functionality that you will lose is internet pass through (that is the ability to use your pc as a modem for your phone to connect to the internet) and the sense.com features but my experience and comments from others lead me to believe that sense.com is still very flaky. All other features are working as in the standard rom, granted SENSE widgets are not available but AFAIK they are all replicated by others, mainly, freely available on the market. All the examples you quote are still filled with the standard google apps, if there is any app / widget you need a definitive answer on PM me and I will have a look.
i don't know why I believe you just like that, but it's the fact ;-P :-D
Ok, to be completely sure, the interface (mean sliding, widgets and so on) is not HTC created or not part of a Sense UI? I'm digging this because on WM phone the "manila.exe" was the whole UI, not just a part of it and only way to speedup anything was to block it permanently. As far as I understood you till now, this is not the case of android UI, removing Sense will have no visible consequences as you suggests, right?
And I will ask again, anyone have a clue where can I go to see those roms in action? Pictures/videos/dunno... anything
Many thanks to you Ghostofcain
krzych said:
i don't know why I believe you just like that, but it's the fact ;-P :-D
Ok, to be completely sure, the interface (mean sliding, widgets and so on) is not HTC created or not part of a Sense UI? I'm digging this because on WM phone the "manila.exe" was the whole UI, not just a part of it and only way to speedup anything was to block it permanently. As far as I understood you till now, this is not the case of android UI, removing Sense will have no visible consequences as you suggests, right?
And I will ask again, anyone have a clue where can I go to see those roms in action? Pictures/videos/dunno... anything
Many thanks to you Ghostofcain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not quite, stopping SENSE will stop the SENSE widgets from functioning but a quick look in the market will let you find widgets that replicate the SENSE widgets function, and also there are many android widgets built in that do not rely on sense.
Video's
CyanogenMOD 7
LeeDroid
RCmixHD
Android Revolution HD
iOS, sorry Miui
Virtuous Fusion
Kingdom Gingersense
CoreDroid
Official Gingerbread
Comparison betwixt cm7 v Stock
Now you're my hero :-D. I'm still burried under applications (tons of it, just found VNC server which is a must for a almost-blind man as me ;-) ), but since this is almost enough what I already have, next step will be reading alot and watching alot as I see above. And those widgets are not important. Some may be even quite good, but still - the applications are what matters, even if I had only app links it would be enough with some of them, and with those more important I bet there are many substitutes maybe even better.
You're my local hero now . I hope I will have a chance to get even some day :-D
PS. Yup! I've even found "thanks" button! ;-D
No worries mate just trying to help a fellow user out, actually I was quite shocked at the lack of info on the videos that I could find on XDA, oh well that's sorted anyhow
Had leedroid earlier on my desire, but went for a aosp rom and i dont regret, its so much better.
Cyanogenmod is a very popular rom.
Sent from my HTC Desire
Hmm, its bad. After watching those movies, I think, I really like Sense. I'm not a speed freak definitely, but I like to have nice interface with as low power consumption as possible, but not at the sake of convenience. I've not decided yet, but as far as I watched it seems that Non-Sense ( ;-) ) mods has not quite mature GUIs... I have to google more videos, but not right now.
There's a thread which points out how to save power in which the author says to install CurrentWidget to see current output and he guarantees that this CurrentWidget does not drain the energy. In the same post he claims that Sense drains much if you don't remove your HTC account. It's funny coz I still have this account (only disabled sync, but with sync enabled it's not much a difference) and checked what he said. The results were VERY funny. Sense drains less than CurrentWidget, and CurrentWidget drains MUCH more than Cellphone in a standby! :-D I think I won't listen to this thread. Am I only person who noticed such a behaviour? (just to recall everyone - still on froyo, decided not to upgrade until permroot)
I need to have an info how to _really_ discover my actual froyo before I do a mod to have real data to compare gains and loss. As far as I see even here, most of the opinions are rather not authoritative I think (coz I can proove that my phone does not match).
Anyone has the idea about really good software package (I mean few really tested applications) to log system activity, power consumption, network activity and so on? I would be really happy to know anything _for_sure_. Best would be all in one app to save cpu processing while logging things.
Anyone had issues with Google Earth resetting phone? 8-O i was shocked, reset occured to me once but as far as I remember, i did that time much suspicius things, but yesterday, Google Earth reset my phone just like that (not much apps in background, only "strange" thing was that battery had 15% which is a limit to shout on me to connect charger, but whole system was fresh and steady).
Ok, I've decided that this weekend will be the last of the original unstable software. Some apps can reset the phone, so I hope that LeeDroid will help. Why LeeDroid? I just like the way of Sense, but I will not prefer it. If LeeDroid will not be enough, I will try best without Sense, but not without tests of Gingerbread and new Sense.
The results will be described here (I mean results of flashing), and then some time will pass to evaluate and then I'll be happy or I'll be describing a new try ;-). So, wish me luck this weekend ;-P :-D
===
Done. Radio S-OFF, Eng S-OFF, SuperCID, ClockworkMod. Ready to flash LeeDroid HD to check if it's what I want.
If anyone knows that there is better mod incorporating Sense 3 in more elegant, original or so, way then I would be happy to hear about it. I'm considering checking Android Revolution HD too, but I don't know that I will have time for this... (setting up everything again is a pain...), so I need opinions. Any opinions. And don't tell me that it is a matter of preferences - just strict facts like "AR has this, LD hasn't" - I can judge by myself that it's a feature or a bug ;-).
But I'm already grateful to all people that helped me to understand what I just did to my phone. Thank you all .
[edit]
Now I know, maybe it's good for other noobs, so I will say loudly what I've read or heard and is hard to find here in one place... (correct me if I'm wrong)
* Eng S-OFF is not necessary for all. It just enables USB flashing as far as I know comparing to Radio S-OFF (but both enables flashing roms).
* Radio flashing has nothing to do with call recording (if I was told correctly), it's just an upgrade for hardware, can improve few things like power consumption or range.
I still do not know how permroot was achieved (I just ran Visionary+ - it "rages" the cache - exploit, but I do not know how it achieves permroot in contrast to temproot - probably it has something to do with mounting /system r/w and changing 'something', but I'm not sure - just deducing).
[edit]
Hi again in this newbie thread. I'm not a newbie already, but I still have a problem. And if I'm not wrong, it's a bigger one. I told you already about google earth rebooting my phone. I just noticed AndroidKnight did the same and came here to recall if this was like same situation. Almost. When 3D goes mad, phone reboots...
Now... what I think and why some roms were instable... A hardware issue? Too low voltage because of faulty cpu or something? Anyone can help me diagnose this?
To be continued...
So I'm pretty new, well very new, to the custom rom/kernel/recovery/etc game since my last phone was a POS and there was no point trying to make it do anything special, but ever since I got my S III, I've been trying to learn everything about how it all works. I have a Galaxy Tab and put a custom ROM on it a long time back, but I was never all that crazy about the latest and greatest till this phone came along. Considering it's my sole source of communication, I obviously need it to be functional, but there's a side of me that says it would be very hard to truly brick this phone (and please don't correct me if I'm wrong :cyclops: ) Anyway, I've played around with a few ROMs out there and am currently running the latest Crimson build which I love so far. I have a couple questions for those educated in all of this. First, and probably simplest, I've noticed that after flashing a new ROM and signing in to my Google account, apps I've acquired from the market sometimes download and install right away and sometimes don't. Is this just a somewhat-random phenomenon or is it within my control? I always use the same settings (sync automatically, keep this device backed up, etc) but they don't always have the same effect and I'm curious about it. Second, what do you guys recommend in the way of backing up apps? Not program-wise, but theory-wise...I make Nandroid backups whenever I make a major change and occasionally make individual app backups with ROM Toolbox Pro, but I use Nova launcher and it seems that a simple backup of my desktop layout is enough to get back my original look with the new ROM (and then I just let the apps download from the market). Is there an even better way to do this that I'm unaware of? I know that backing up apps has the added benefit of backing up data as well, but in my experience, restoring both app and data to a new ROM seems to have adverse effects...I inevitably have to uninstall and re-download the app. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but, again, I'm new to this. My last and most important question is regarding something I read about custom kernels only being usable with the UVALEM baseband. I don't know anything about phone modems but heard some people were getting better speeds with UVALH3 so I decided to flash it. This may have been a convenient coincidence but I'd never before observed speeds above 7-ish Mbps (my area has pretty lousy 4g coverage) and my first speed test gave me 12. I'm a little confused because everything has suggested custom kernels are NOT COMPATIBLE (always emphasized, too) with any other baseband yet I have an overclocked custom kernel with the aforementioned radio and have had no problems. Have I missed something or is something unusual happening? Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long post!
tonesofheresy said:
So I'm pretty new, well very new, to the custom rom/kernel/recovery/etc game since my last phone was a POS and there was no point trying to make it do anything special, but ever since I got my S III, I've been trying to learn everything about how it all works. I have a Galaxy Tab and put a custom ROM on it a long time back, but I was never all that crazy about the latest and greatest till this phone came along. Considering it's my sole source of communication, I obviously need it to be functional, but there's a side of me that says it would be very hard to truly brick this phone (and please don't correct me if I'm wrong :cyclops: ) Anyway, I've played around with a few ROMs out there and am currently running the latest Crimson build which I love so far. I have a couple questions for those educated in all of this. First, and probably simplest, I've noticed that after flashing a new ROM and signing in to my Google account, apps I've acquired from the market sometimes download and install right away and sometimes don't. Is this just a somewhat-random phenomenon or is it within my control? I always use the same settings (sync automatically, keep this device backed up, etc) but they don't always have the same effect and I'm curious about it. Second, what do you guys recommend in the way of backing up apps? Not program-wise, but theory-wise...I make Nandroid backups whenever I make a major change and occasionally make individual app backups with ROM Toolbox Pro, but I use Nova launcher and it seems that a simple backup of my desktop layout is enough to get back my original look with the new ROM (and then I just let the apps download from the market). Is there an even better way to do this that I'm unaware of? I know that backing up apps has the added benefit of backing up data as well, but in my experience, restoring both app and data to a new ROM seems to have adverse effects...I inevitably have to uninstall and re-download the app. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but, again, I'm new to this. My last and most important question is regarding something I read about custom kernels only being usable with the UVALEM baseband. I don't know anything about phone modems but heard some people were getting better speeds with UVALH3 so I decided to flash it. This may have been a convenient coincidence but I'd never before observed speeds above 7-ish Mbps (my area has pretty lousy 4g coverage) and my first speed test gave me 12. I'm a little confused because everything has suggested custom kernels are NOT COMPATIBLE (always emphasized, too) with any other baseband yet I have an overclocked custom kernel with the aforementioned radio and have had no problems. Have I missed something or is something unusual happening? Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long post!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. As for apps downloading automatically from google; when you first set up your account again after flashing, there is an option asking you whether or not you want to back up and restore apps to google. If you check the restore option, it will download the apps that you already own that's been backed up. I usually just back up and restore my apps using TitaniumBackup so I always leave this option unchecked.
2. When I back up my apps using TiBa, I don't bother backing up the data. I just back up the apps, and then restore just the apps. All the apps data will have been saved and will be reloaded when you restore them. I've never used ROM Toolbox Pro so I can't say if it works the same with it.
3. People get different speed with the different radios. You just have to try the different radios and see which one works best for you.
4. I'm not really sure about the Kernel, but when I flash a radio, as long as it's OS and Carrier compatible, I just flash away. When I say OS compatible, I meant that I wouldn't flash JellyBean radio on a ICS ROM. Not sure if that would work, but I've never tried it. When I say carrier compatible, I wouldn't flash AT&T radio on T-Mobile phones.
I hope I've helped a little bit.