Develop Bugs

New to Android, Some Questions

I have been a long time Cell phone modder, and I have just gotten my first Android Phone, the HTC Evo 4G.
I have been reading androidforums.com and these forums for about a week now trying to get my head wrapped around things, but I still have some lingering questions.
I feel I have a good grip on how to get my phone rooted/nand unlocked, but its the what to do after that, which bothers me.
What I would like to accomplish:
More customized look and feel
Better battery life (without disabling half the features of the damn phone)
Free Wifi Hotspot
Removal of the pre-packaged crapware
Froyo
What I would not like to lose in the process:
Any of the phones functionality, including GPS/4G/Camera/Video/Bluetooth/etc.
Nice features that Sense has, such as Facebook contact syncing
Reliability or usability of the phone in general
As I have gotten older, my desire to mod has become less and less, and I get more tempted to just leave the phone alone and wait for OTA updates to come out, but when I just tried to do the wifi hotspot and learned I would have to pay an additional $30 on top of the $10 "premium data access" I made the decision to root. That being said, I don't want my phone to be something I am flashing every day. I want it to be as stable as possible so that I can get it all set up how I want without having to worry about re-flashing and losing all my data week after week to keep up with bugfixes and such.
What I don't understand is the differences between all the roms. The opinion at large seems to be that CM6 is the way to go, but it seems a lot of stuff is broken in CM6 atm, like 4G among other things.
Since this is my first android phone, I am already getting used to the Sense UI, but I have seen some other peoples home screens that just look amazing.
I guess what I am looking for is some advice, or a bit of a rundown (since I cant find all of this information in one place) about what is the best course of action to get from point A(stock phone) to point B(customized rooted phone which is "stable") over a path of least resistance.
Thanks in advance!
[also making this same post on androidforums.com]

You can accomplish everything you mentioned except froyo. If you do not want to lose any functionality then flashing a froyo rom is out of the question right now because they all have small issues. CM6 is a froyo rom.
The difference between roms is some are based on 2.2 (froyo) and others are based on 2.1 (stock for evo). Then they also differ in terms of what comes pre-installed, some remove all bloatware even sense and others do not, and then there are some in between. Any rom based on 2.1 will likely have everything working. I can tell you from experience that Damage Control and Backed Snack worked very well on my phone. The best thing to do is just try them out. Once your phone is rooted it is very easy to switch between roms.
Lastly the easiest way to achieve root is using simple root program which can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=720565 (that link is assuming you have latest OTA update, if not search for simple root and you will find the one pre update)

try dc 3.2.3 very stable release(has all the features working; 4g, camera, ect) and has good battery life(don't need to disable half of your phones features), it also allows for a lot of customization(DCupdater allows you to download themes and flash them straight from your phone), and you can pick and choose what bloatware to remove using DConfig, a froyo release is suppose to come out sometime this weekend.

Another option for you is to root and then flash the latest rooted "stock" rom. then flash the latest radio and wimax. then you can use a file manager to remove bloatware. I use "root explorer" from the market. be careful what you remove as removing some things can cause problems. I am currently running this on one of my evo's with no problems everything works and battery life will get me through a day. if you need more info as removing the bloatware feel free to pm me and ill help with what i can. I'm sure using the stock rom will be sufficient for you. On the phone i have running i have all features enabled and am pushing my pop3 accounts through gmail, 4g wifitether, all works just fine.

Common misconceptions and other useful information (Updated 10/12/2010)

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.
Click to expand...
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.

[Q] Will rooting to 2.3 disable htcsense.com?

Hi! I got my shiny new Desire HD yesterday (upgraded from an iphone) and by god do I love it, just perfect for me.
Although with it comes a lot of.. junk that I simply do not need (scrolling through a good 30 apps just to get to my most used), plus I heard that 2.3 (Specifically Cyanogenmod 7) brings with it better battery, better performance and with it being rooted, more features.
I'm looking to root it as soon as possible before I start putting a lot of things on it, rather than do a lot with it now and then have to do it again a couple months down the road.
My main question is, I love htcsense.com and I love the extra features it gives me, especially being able to track the phone, gives me much needed peace of mind, if I root to a 2.3 ROM (probably cm7) will htcsense.com no longer work?
Thankyou for any/all replies, oh and a little quickie at the end, I'm planning to go with cm7 because it seems the most basic and customizable for my needs, and battery life is a huge plus for me as I'm planning to use this beauty in and around college, is cm7 a good idea?
Thank you and have a great day.

If that HTC feature relies on having the app on the phone then it wont work as CM7 is not a Sense ROM and contains no sense applications.
Neither do I believe simply installing the apk, if possible, would work.
Be nice to be wrong though.
Sent using witchcraft via XDA Developers Premium App.

Ahh, so in short, no?
Fair enough, is there a way to install the part needed for it to work after rooting it with cm7?

Probably not. Again, hope I'm wrong because it is a great utility that would otherwise cost you (Wavesecure app for example and I believe one of the anti-virus apps provides same functionality).
If anyone has the apk I'd happily try it but IIRC the apps rely on the Sense framework.
Bear with me, just checking this out.
Sent using witchcraft via XDA Developers Premium App.

Confirmed. Without the apk installed the phone can't communicate with the HTC servers.
Sent using witchcraft via XDA Developers Premium App.

Hi there,
i've recently rooted my Desire HD (and upgraded to 2.3.3) & I can tell you that HTCsense still works. No idea about if it still works on non-sense roms such as CM7 or not.
I've been using RCMix and Android Revolution roms in the past week & both of them are a lot better than the stock Froyo that my phone came with though.

Did a search and found an apk but it is confirmed that it will not run on AOSP ROMs such as Cyanogenmod.
The only option you have would be to run a Sense based ROM then install something like ADW.Launcher which has categorised app drawer (meaning you can choose what apps appear).
Sent using witchcraft via XDA Developers Premium App.

Thankyou for the replies you've really helped.
Does sense rom mean, a rom that has HTC sense enabled? I assume it does.
Also, if I want to get 2.3+ android with sense so I can use the htcsense.com service, which rom would be best to root too? I've only ever heard of cm7, that's about it.
Thanks again!

Coredroid is a sense ROM. Pretty good too. If your main concern is tracking your phone, why don't you try Lookout from the marketplace. its free and is also a very good virus checker too!

h3dfuk said:
Coredroid is a sense ROM. Pretty good too. If your main concern is tracking your phone, why don't you try Lookout from the marketplace. its free and is also a very good virus checker too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it improve the battery life at all?
Oh also, is it easy to change back to the original ROM that came with the phone in-case of any warranty issues? Coredroid just doesn't look as.. polished as cyanogen, I could be completely wrong though.
If so, I'll root it today! Love the community by the way, I can't say anything bad about the iPhone community really, although they seem to care a lot less.
Does rooting to an Android 2.3 ROM bring everything that normal Android 2.3 brings and then depending on the ROM, special things? So it doesn't matter what ROM I get that's 2.3 they'll all have 2.3 Android features?

Do a backup in Tom manager in case you want to go back to your previous rom. Coredroid is a very fast rom IMO, but its dependent on how you use it much like any other rom really.
batery life is better than stock but again you will need to be mindful of gps and wifi etc. An awesome gingerbread kernel to improve battery life does not yet exist.

Fantastic, I'll give CoreDroid a try then, thankyou for your help, you've been very useful and informative.
One last thing before I begin the process, what is Tom manager? I did a quick google search and a look into the market but found nothing, did you mean Rom manager?

my bad. I have auto correction on. I meant ROM manager.

h3dfuk said:
my bad. I have auto correction on. I meant ROM manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh, I got it and I'm trying to backup my current ROM but I need to install "clockwordmod recovery" and whenever I try I get a "An error occurred while attempting to run privilged commands!" which is a shame.
Oh, and is there an up-to-date guide on how to root? Pardon my ignorance.

You need root first.
There's several "how to's" in the development forum. More information than we could put here (or should).

Sorry, I'm being incredibly silly, I keep getting ROM's and rooting mixed up, I'm in the process of rooting it now then I'll install a ROM, I haven't decided which yet but I might.. shop around, sorta speak.
Thanks for the help guys, take care.

Because sense apps aren't running in background, Cyanogen should be less stressful on the battery. However stock roms are usually not developed to maximize battery life in the same way custom roms are (afterall, battery life is a bugbear for developers too!). With this in mind, Coredroid even with sense is still better on your battery life than stock sense. Its all dependent on how you use it though (turn off GPS and wifi when no longer required etc..). Intensive use will naturally drain your battery sooner than conservative use. If you find battery life a pain with any rom, you could try juice defender free to automatically regulate consumption of battery.
Best advice, try a number of mods every week or so, and settle on one you like once you've experienced them. You souls also download battery calibrator from market and use after every flash to help you with the battery.

After a little soulsearching I'm going to give RCMixHD a try, it seems very popular which is usually a good sign, it has sense 3.0 and 2.3.3 Android so it's practically perfect.
The only thing I'm puzzled by now is "radios" I've worked out that they determine call reception and 3G+HSPDA whatnots, but do I actually need a new one before/after flashing to a new ROM? There seems to be a lot of radios out there and I have no clue which to go with and what they do.

Oh, also, does overclocking your phone as you have done have a huge impact on the battery life? I assume it has atleast some impact.

Only certain roms currently support overclocking, with some having the ability only after a kernel flash. CM7.0.2 however comes with ability without need to install anything else. You will need SetCPU to overclock and select a governor to regulate how power is maintained. You need to set minimum frequency when phone is idle etc.. It's easier than it sounds but do read into the overclocking threads for dhd we have here if in any doubt.

Kernel question and a few other things...

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.

Worth rooting?

I just bought a oneplus 3 (offerup $200 use). Havent been in the rooting scene for a while thanx to the gs7 edge. Now that i do have a device that can be root and bootloader unlock i know there're great support.
The thing is, this device seems the snappier device i ever own. Little to non bloware and really fast. Cant imaging been faster. There any reason to root this device. If u did. Why and what rom r u using?

eduardmc said:
I just bought a oneplus 3 (offerup $200 use). Havent been in the rooting scene for a while thanx to the gs7 edge. Now that i do have a device that can be root and bootloader unlock i know there're great support.
The thing is, this device seems the snappier device i ever own. Little to non bloware and really fast. Cant imaging been faster. There any reason to root this device. If u did. Why and what rom r u using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i am using the freedom os because of its preinstaled apps like xposed, viper4android, a theme engine. basicaly stuff that i could not get working on OOS. and there is supose to be better battery life i havent seen that (maybe because of my extreme usage). i get 4hrs SOT

eduardmc said:
I just bought a oneplus 3 (offerup $200 use). Havent been in the rooting scene for a while thanx to the gs7 edge. Now that i do have a device that can be root and bootloader unlock i know there're great support.
The thing is, this device seems the snappier device i ever own. Little to non bloware and really fast. Cant imaging been faster. There any reason to root this device. If u did. Why and what rom r u using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OP3 is the first phone that I didn't root to achieve extra performance, but to improve Android. After using a rooted phone for the last 2 years I can't live without AdAway and a combination of Greenify/Disable Wakelock/Xposed/Amplify to control what my phone is doing, not to mention really useful things like Tasker, customizing the Alert Slider and many many more. Nowadays, flagship phones aren't rooted for performance.
That being said, I am disappointed by the responsiveness of the OP3. On OOS 3.2.7 it is LESS responsive than my 2year old OnePlus One running CM14.1 nightly. Disappointing, but getting my hopes up for when the CM14.1 nightlies for the OP3 get good. Which is the biggest plus point in my opinion - software updates. If you have root, you can have the newest version of Android anyday, not having to wait for OnePlus to update it (which they take way too much time for).
All in all, if you know what you are doing, root your phone. It is worth it.

PivotMasterNM said:
The OP3 is the first phone that I didn't root to achieve extra performance, but to improve Android. After using a rooted phone for the last 2 years I can't live without AdAway and a combination of Greenify/Disable Wakelock/Xposed/Amplify to control what my phone is doing, not to mention really useful things like Tasker, customizing the Alert Slider and many many more. Nowadays, flagship phones aren't rooted for performance.
That being said, I am disappointed by the responsiveness of the OP3. On OOS 3.2.7 it is LESS responsive than my 2year old OnePlus One running CM14.1 nightly. Disappointing, but getting my hopes up for when the CM14.1 nightlies for the OP3 get good. Which is the biggest plus point in my opinion - software updates. If you have root, you can have the newest version of Android anyday, not having to wait for OnePlus to update it (which they take way too much time for).
All in all, if you know what you are doing, root your phone. It is worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
U got me pretty much convince to root mine. The only other stock android experience for me has been nexus 6p and this phone stock is much faster and fluid. Im concern about instability of using a rom like CM or other rom that has so many tweak to improve it but mess uo other things. Have u try cm14.1. Or how about CM.13 how solid is that right now?

I'm not rooted....running community build stock...3.5.5 is stable, great performance...get 5hr SOT with 15% left...over 24 hrs... phone is a great performer...

I root all of my Android devices, tablets and phone, primary for customizations and backup. I like having a full nandroid backup incase something ever goes wrong. This way I am assured that I can recover to a previous working state. I know you can often find factory image out there for just about any phone, but I will also backup at a point in time once I have everything exactly as I like. Again, this allows me to roll back to exactly how things were before I started tinkering. Running Xposed and theming, is another big reason to root. However fiddling with these can sometimes go bad so having a nandroid backup is handy.
For me, I am still running stock on 3.2.7. I find it extremely fast and stable. Been looking at the other roms, but have not found a need to switch from stock yet. I am getting 4 - 5 hrs SOT consistently, stock so again, have not found compelling need to switch roms, but am playing with different Xposed modules so that alone is reason to root.

Oh yes for sure... Adaway alone makes it worthwhile
Also check out Android explained on YouTube.. Very well explained, instead of just following some tutorial and not really understanding... Android explained breaks everything down so now I have an understanding of how my device operates.

There's a lot of great stuff you can do with root. For me the best features are: much better battery life, GUI customization, and OGYoutube (basically YT Red for free, and yes, there's a nonroot version but the root is better).

Root....
IT bus corp guy and like others said AdAway, Youtube ad blocker, TB to backup apps and be able to save app come back previous version when dev mess it it....all just a must have for me.
I am on Resurrection Rom not OOS so still have that Android Nexus experience since I came from 6P and not slow with any responses...quick, stable

Install xposed and enjoy Google assistant, N-ify, YouTube background player etc.

Personally i'm not rooted, for the first time in years, someone earlier mentioned nandroid backups they require TWRP but not root.

My concern with rooting is the updates. I hate setting up the phone after clean install since we dont have anything like icloud. I know ubcan dirty flash the updates but there so much there up to a point that u would have to clean install and update. Like going from MM to nougat. Quote if im wrong but i havent been in the rooting scene for a while. I remember titanium backup use to break alot of things when i did a restore

eduardmc said:
My concern with rooting is the updates. I hate setting up the phone after clean install since we dont have anything like icloud. I know ubcan dirty flash the updates but there so much there up to a point that u would have to clean install and update. Like going from MM to nougat. Quote if im wrong but i havent been in the rooting scene for a while. I remember titanium backup use to break alot of things when i did a restore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used Titanium Backup once, didn't work at all, I was really disappointed. Although this was years ago, I never tried it again and don't want to. Anyway - when switching ROMs, I always make sure that Whatsapp syncs everything with the cloud, all accounts in the 'accounts' setting menu of the system have synced, that my Google Photos are synced and then copy pretty much everything from /root/sdcard (your internal memory) to my computer. Then I completely wipe my phone (= wipe system+data+cache+internal storage), install the new ROM, boot it once to see howwell its working, power it down, factory reset it (wiping data) and then copy all of the data of my computer back to the phone, set everything up with my google account and let google download everything. If you have correctly configured the app-backup function of Google, then everything will be about 95% the same, and nothing will be missing. Be sure not to forget to make a TWRP backup of EVERYTHING before full-wiping the phone, so you can always go back if you really need to.
I prefer this method to anything else because you will never any problems with restoring from the cloud or performance issues of certain file-structures being different or whatever. It is clean and works.
---------- Post added at 19:23 ---------- Previous post was at 19:19 ----------
eduardmc said:
U got me pretty much convince to root mine. The only other stock android experience for me has been nexus 6p and this phone stock is much faster and fluid. Im concern about instability of using a rom like CM or other rom that has so many tweak to improve it but mess uo other things. Have u try cm14.1. Or how about CM.13 how solid is that right now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not tried CM13, and I will ait until sultanxda brings his goodness to CM14.1, then I will switch but - as I have used sultanxda's ROMs on my OnePlus One I can definately recommend t Install his version of CM13 on the OnePlus 3 instead of the nightlies, his optimisations und his update frequency are fantastic and he is a great ROM maker. His ROMs on the OnePlus One made me rediscover the full potential of the device, it's truly amazing.

PivotMasterNM said:
I have used Titanium Backup once, didn't work at all, I was really disappointed. Although this was years ago, I never tried it again and don't want to. Anyway - when switching ROMs, I always make sure that Whatsapp syncs everything with the cloud, all accounts in the 'accounts' setting menu of the system have synced, that my Google Photos are synced and then copy pretty much everything from /root/sdcard (your internal memory) to my computer. Then I completely wipe my phone (= wipe system+data+cache+internal storage), install the new ROM, boot it once to see howwell its working, power it down, factory reset it (wiping data) and then copy all of the data of my computer back to the phone, set everything up with my google account and let google download everything. If you have correctly configured the app-backup function of Google, then everything will be about 95% the same, and nothing will be missing. Be sure not to forget to make a TWRP backup of EVERYTHING before full-wiping the phone, so you can always go back if you really need to.
I prefer this method to anything else because you will never any problems with restoring from the cloud or performance issues of certain file-structures being different or whatever. It is clean and works.
---------- Post added at 19:23 ---------- Previous post was at 19:19 ----------
I have not tried CM13, and I will ait until sultanxda brings his goodness to CM14.1, then I will switch but - as I have used sultanxda's ROMs on my OnePlus One I can definately recommend t Install his version of CM13 on the OnePlus 3 instead of the nightlies, his optimisations und his update frequency are fantastic and he is a great ROM maker. His ROMs on the OnePlus One made me rediscover the full potential of the device, it's truly amazing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Last question. Any bugs that needs to be fix from the CM 13 rom

Not for me. I am no longer OCD about my phone.. don't care what color the signal strength font is, etc... The phone works so well stock, that there isn't much I would change other than adding some functionality with the camera and some good video editing software...
I played with a few ROMs, they were ok, but once the newness wore off(2 days) I went back to stock, and am now running the Community builds and like them the best.
Fast, stable, great battery life... no complaints...