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Are there any FULL AOSP (no sense at all) ROMs other than CM6 RC1? I cant stand sense and have been looking all over for a AOSP rom with working 4G and 8mp camera.
Thanks!
I could be wrong, but i think they are waiting on the kernal for the 4G. I think i read that somewhere, but like i said, i could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.
CM6 has 8mp camera working. Has been since day 1. If you think it's not because it doesn't fill up the whole screen, you are mistaken. By default HTC sets it to widescreen, but at that ratio it is actually losing resolution. People need to turn the widescreen off to get the full 8mp. The 6mp (wide) setting in CM6 is comparable to the default stock HTC setting.
EDIT: and no, there isn't any other true AOSP roms besides CM6.
OT: Can someone tell me what AOSP is?
Android open source project
sent with my CM6 N8/2 EVO
Android Open Source Project
edit: Oops, you beat me to it. I should refresh more often before posting i guess
More specifically, it is the absolute base of the Android operating system. It is where all the phone developers start, but then they weave in a bunch of their own custom software. I think the phone manufaturers want to differentiate each other and give them more of a brand (i.e. Sense). It's all fine and dandy, but some people just like to have the true base of the Android system and then choose what apps they clutter it up with instead of it being cluttered up to begin with.
Awesome, thanks for the explanation. AOSP sounds EXACTLY like what I'm looking for as I want to build my own android from the ground up...
stillryan said:
I could be wrong, but i think they are waiting on the kernal for the 4G. I think i read that somewhere, but like i said, i could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cyanogen is waiting on the kernel for 4G? There are plenty of custom froyo roms with root access and working 4G but none that dont have sense. Am I really the only one who hates sense? I cant believe that every custom froyo rom has sense!
Just download any rom, and run ADW instead. The only thing you're losing is the space on your phone that sense takes up, big deal.
ADW is the launcher used in CM, so if you liked that, you can have your stock froyo and 4g.
Also, it's your phone, and that's why we are here, to make our phones look and perform how we want, but what is it about sense that you hate? I personally think it brings a more human feel to Android. I ran with CM6 for like 5 days, and while it's a great ROM, I just missed the things sense gives you. I actually got better benchmarks on DC 3.5 than CM6 too, even though there is no actual noticible difference between the two performance wise.
A lot of people say that Sense isn't needed since 2.2, but I disagree, it's not just about the functionality, it's about the form too. Sense just plain looks better. It give the phone a more polished feel. Stock android is very Spartan, very cold. Some people like that I guess.
I for one don't like the forced integration of things like facebook in sense. I run a very spartan (to use your terminology) setup... I like clean... Same with my desktop pc. I don't like desktop icons either
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
the HTC 4G stack is propriartary. CM is AOSP.
Clearwire released their 4G implementation a few weeks ago. someone is actively working to get it working on the EVO.
we are impatiently waiting for 4G. only ROM's that are Sense based currently have 4G. AOSP will not. perhaps this week
and no...you are FAR from the only one that is happy to be rid of HTC Sense.
What about getting the stock Froyo keyboard? How do we get that on a sense rom?
Some people made 2.1 roms that were sense, but had most of the AOSP apps swapped in and sense replacements removed.
There are a couple kinda like that for 2.2, Android Central has a stripped rom, and FroYo fusion has a senseless version, but I haven't used it or even seen screenshots, so I don't know what it is like.
Avalaunch started on an AOSP 2.1 build, but he kinda scrapped it for his custom Sense stuff.
Right now the CM team is implementing everything from scratch, which is why some things don't work like 4G, and HDMI. No other phones had this before. The reason all the Sense Roms work is because the sense framework has all the parts that are needed.
One nice thing about CM is if you don't install gapps, you can get the source code to every bit of the OS running on your phone.
clamknuckle said:
Just download any rom, and run ADW instead. The only thing you're losing is the space on your phone that sense takes up, big deal.
ADW is the launcher used in CM, so if you liked that, you can have your stock froyo and 4g.
Also, it's your phone, and that's why we are here, to make our phones look and perform how we want, but what is it about sense that you hate? I personally think it brings a more human feel to Android. I ran with CM6 for like 5 days, and while it's a great ROM, I just missed the things sense gives you. I actually got better benchmarks on DC 3.5 than CM6 too, even though there is no actual noticible difference between the two performance wise.
A lot of people say that Sense isn't needed since 2.2, but I disagree, it's not just about the functionality, it's about the form too. Sense just plain looks better. It give the phone a more polished feel. Stock android is very Spartan, very cold. Some people like that I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with sense you cant use wii controller
htc limit the capacities of you device i dont know why!!
-limit performance
-limit graphics
-limit bluetooth
limit limit limit!!!
the only thing missing on cm6 is 4g with that it will be perfect
Exchange support is missing from CM 6 also.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
kaokollaa said:
with sense you cant use wii controller
htc limit the capacities of you device i dont know why!!
-limit performance
-limit graphics
-limit bluetooth
limit limit limit!!!
the only thing missing on cm6 is 4g with that it will be perfect
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lulz.....
Yeah, don't get me wrong, I find it frustrating, but they do it because their target audience isn't people like you and me. They use a custom bluetooth stack so they have control over it, it is easier for them to make sure that everyone's expensive headset and car stereo work. They limit performance and graphics to get better battery life and stability. They created Sense to make the interface more appealing to people who would otherwise be turned off by AOSP and buy an iPhone instead (even though Android is WAY better for social networking integration).
I'm kinda bummed we haven't been able to just grab N1 roms and hack them over more often. It's kinda strange. The Aria (Liberty) had an AOSP Legend port within weeks of release. Here we are 2 full months out and we have ROMs based off HTC's work, and CM. That's it.
Antebios said:
Exchange support is missing from CM 6 also.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also FM Radio, HDMI output, updating PRL.
Not complaining about the team douche work, but more that we don't have other devs working on AOSP. I don't care much about the missing features, and run CM as my daily. Sometimes I'll flash to a sense ROM to get 4G for tethering to my PC, but this is rare, and nandroid makes it very quick to flash back and forth when needed.
Actually... I thought Exchange support was there but just having issues for some (possibly many) people.
Antebios said:
Exchange support is missing from CM 6 also.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is totally wrong. I live on Exchange daily for work. if CM6 were not able to get my exchange email or notify me properly I would be using it. I have been on CM6 since RC1 second day and most of the nightly builds since.
please check your resources before posting such statements.
clamknuckle said:
Just download any rom, and run ADW instead. The only thing you're losing is the space on your phone that sense takes up, big deal.
ADW is the launcher used in CM, so if you liked that, you can have your stock froyo and 4g.
Also, it's your phone, and that's why we are here, to make our phones look and perform how we want
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Youre right about ADW.. I already downloaded that launcher. However, I like the custom themes that come with the non sense ROMs. Such as CM6's music player, or the window pane (if you will) theme for the camera, etc. If you dont know how to program, which i dont, you are somewhat limited with what you can do in terms of customization.
DraginMagik said:
the HTC 4G stack is propriartary. CM is AOSP.
Clearwire released their 4G implementation a few weeks ago. someone is actively working to get it working on the EVO.
we are impatiently waiting for 4G. only ROM's that are Sense based currently have 4G. AOSP will not. perhaps this week
and no...you are FAR from the only one that is happy to be rid of HTC Sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sounds like GREAT news to me. I hope youre correct. I think im just gonna go back to CM6 for now. It was a great rom and I can only use 4G at work so its not that big of a deal to me. The only other issue I had with CM6 was the inability to split a >160 character text message into two messages.
Can anyone remind me if the 8mp camera was working? I cant remember which kernel cm6 used.
The 8mp camara works. When you click the settings on the right of the screen the settings within the box that pops out scroll. 8mp is selected by defult
Please include download link and instructions.
I like the widgets that come with sense. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I do.
Get a sense rom... CM6 wont get sense....
Edit:
I'm running Bakedsnacked 1.1 (no time to upgrade to 1.2 yet) and I like it alot for a sense rom.
CM is built off AOSP. I'm pretty sure the only way would be for Cyanogen to add it himself and that won't ever happen.
Sent from my FROYO'D EVO using xda App
If you're looking for an answer, it is impossible to have Sense on Cyanogen.
A CM6 rom with sense would be pretty cool, especially for those changing carriers, think it's possible with rom kitchen ?
Can I ask, what makes this impossible?
Background
The only reason I am interested is because I have my Evo on Alltel, sprint's network doesn't cover anywhere we adventure off to all the time, alltel and verizon plaster all the places we go. So, ... for us carrier switchers, we run into "data call failure" error messages because the stock sense rom sometimes calls out to Sprint, I have yet to find out what package in the stock rom is doing that or I'd just remove it and all would be perfectly fine. Running CM6, my evo on alltel switching from 3G to 1X perfectly fine, no issues at all. On the stock sense rom 3G works perfect, when 3G isn't available 1X doesn't connect, gives me sprint PCS failures. Changing the telephony.db allowed me to get MMS working.
CM6 has the terrible android OS camera, and I honestly like HTC's sense UI a whole lot along with their MMS app. MMS does not work in CM6 when editing the telephony.db The browser in the stock sense rom is much better, etc... I already tried transplanting and setting correct permissions to all of the HTC apps that seem to be required for HTC sense to function into the CM6 rom and it's a failure.
stevey500 said:
Can I ask, what makes this impossible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Short answer: it sounds like you are someone who likes Sense better, I would focus on finding a way to hack a Sense rom into working the way you want it, instead of getting sense to work on CM. It is a matter of hacking one thing instead of a whole system.
Long: CyanogenMod is an open-source, community developed project. It is taking the open source portion of Android (Android Open Source Project - AOSP) and modifying it for several reasons, that appeal more to power users. Other than the speed benefits, most of the reasons to use CM are greater configuration and additional utilities, not ease of use or looks. Then the closed-source (proprietary) Google Apps are added to the open source layer.
Sense is HTC's "special sauce" to get customers to buy their Android and WinMo phones instead of a competitors. I don't know much about how it works on WinMo, but on Android it adds an additional framework layer.
Applications you download from the market use the standard Android framework. That is why some applications only work on 1.6 and up or 2.0 and up, the older Android framework just didn't have the features used in the application. Most of the Sense components, such as the launcher, widgets, dialer, etc. use the Sense framework, which is why you can't just swap them into CyanogenMod.
The reason you won't see CyanogenMod officially support Sense widgets is two-fold. One is that Cyanogen simply doesn't like the look and feel of Sense. People tend to prefer either Sense or the AOSP look and feel. Additionally (perhaps more importantly) Sense is proprietary software with closed source. By using this framework HTC not only can add extra features (for instance, the stock Android framework doesn't support scrollable widgets) but it also lets them lock customers into their products. If Sense was open then Motorola and LG and Samsung would be able to use it on their Android phones, and it wouldn't give HTC a competitive advantage. This is why Motorola now has Blur, Samsung has TouchWiz, etc.
Is it really IMPOSSIBLE? Probably not. Of course if someone stole the code from HTC they could implement it, but with Java it is also possible to do some level of reversing compiled code to get close to the source code. You can find information on Smali/Baksmali here at XDA, which will do some of that. I don't know much about how it works or what all it can do, but when I was messing more with theming/ROM making I did try it out.
However in the end, it comes down to the fact that no one who has the skills to port sense out (which might not be possible, and will probably only work for existing widgets, not newer ones) has the time or desire to do it. If you like Sense, get a phone that supports it and do whatever modifications to Sense you need to. If they like AOSP, then instead of trying to merge AOSP code into Sense keeping 4G and HDMI support, they start with an AOSP rom, and we have slowly added back the functionality that the stock rom has.
laydros said:
Short answer: it sounds like you are someone who likes Sense better, I would focus on finding a way to hack a Sense rom into working the way you want it, instead of getting sense to work on CM. It is a matter of hacking one thing instead of a whole system.
Long: CyanogenMod is an open-source, community developed project. It is taking the open source portion of Android (Android Open Source Project - AOSP) and modifying it for several reasons, that appeal more to power users. Other than the speed benefits, most of the reasons to use CM are greater configuration and additional utilities, not ease of use or looks. Then the closed-source (proprietary) Google Apps are added to the open source layer.
Sense is HTC's "special sauce" to get customers to buy their Android and WinMo phones instead of a competitors. I don't know much about how it works on WinMo, but on Android it adds an additional framework layer.
Applications you download from the market use the standard Android framework. That is why some applications only work on 1.6 and up or 2.0 and up, the older Android framework just didn't have the features used in the application. Most of the Sense components, such as the launcher, widgets, dialer, etc. use the Sense framework, which is why you can't just swap them into CyanogenMod.
The reason you won't see CyanogenMod officially support Sense widgets is two-fold. One is that Cyanogen simply doesn't like the look and feel of Sense. People tend to prefer either Sense or the AOSP look and feel. Additionally (perhaps more importantly) Sense is proprietary software with closed source. By using this framework HTC not only can add extra features (for instance, the stock Android framework doesn't support scrollable widgets) but it also lets them lock customers into their products. If Sense was open then Motorola and LG and Samsung would be able to use it on their Android phones, and it wouldn't give HTC a competitive advantage. This is why Motorola now has Blur, Samsung has TouchWiz, etc.
Is it really IMPOSSIBLE? Probably not. Of course if someone stole the code from HTC they could implement it, but with Java it is also possible to do some level of reversing compiled code to get close to the source code. You can find information on Smali/Baksmali here at XDA, which will do some of that. I don't know much about how it works or what all it can do, but when I was messing more with theming/ROM making I did try it out.
However in the end, it comes down to the fact that no one who has the skills to port sense out (which might not be possible, and will probably only work for existing widgets, not newer ones) has the time or desire to do it. If you like Sense, get a phone that supports it and do whatever modifications to Sense you need to. If they like AOSP, then instead of trying to merge AOSP code into Sense keeping 4G and HDMI support, they start with an AOSP rom, and we have slowly added back the functionality that the stock rom has.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i get it now! i never knew why someone didnt just hack it in, but now i know thanks !
laydros said:
Short answer: it sounds like you are someone who likes Sense better, I would focus on finding a way to hack a Sense rom into working the way you want it, instead of getting sense to work on CM. It is a matter of hacking one thing instead of a whole system.
Long: CyanogenMod is an open-source, community developed project. It is taking the open source portion of Android (Android Open Source Project - AOSP) and modifying it for several reasons, that appeal more to power users. Other than the speed benefits, most of the reasons to use CM are greater configuration and additional utilities, not ease of use or looks. Then the closed-source (proprietary) Google Apps are added to the open source layer.
Sense is HTC's "special sauce" to get customers to buy their Android and WinMo phones instead of a competitors. I don't know much about how it works on WinMo, but on Android it adds an additional framework layer.
Applications you download from the market use the standard Android framework. That is why some applications only work on 1.6 and up or 2.0 and up, the older Android framework just didn't have the features used in the application. Most of the Sense components, such as the launcher, widgets, dialer, etc. use the Sense framework, which is why you can't just swap them into CyanogenMod.
The reason you won't see CyanogenMod officially support Sense widgets is two-fold. One is that Cyanogen simply doesn't like the look and feel of Sense. People tend to prefer either Sense or the AOSP look and feel. Additionally (perhaps more importantly) Sense is proprietary software with closed source. By using this framework HTC not only can add extra features (for instance, the stock Android framework doesn't support scrollable widgets) but it also lets them lock customers into their products. If Sense was open then Motorola and LG and Samsung would be able to use it on their Android phones, and it wouldn't give HTC a competitive advantage. This is why Motorola now has Blur, Samsung has TouchWiz, etc.
Is it really IMPOSSIBLE? Probably not. Of course if someone stole the code from HTC they could implement it, but with Java it is also possible to do some level of reversing compiled code to get close to the source code. You can find information on Smali/Baksmali here at XDA, which will do some of that. I don't know much about how it works or what all it can do, but when I was messing more with theming/ROM making I did try it out.
However in the end, it comes down to the fact that no one who has the skills to port sense out (which might not be possible, and will probably only work for existing widgets, not newer ones) has the time or desire to do it. If you like Sense, get a phone that supports it and do whatever modifications to Sense you need to. If they like AOSP, then instead of trying to merge AOSP code into Sense keeping 4G and HDMI support, they start with an AOSP rom, and we have slowly added back the functionality that the stock rom has.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Much of this is not news to me (now) but kudos for the very helpful and informative response.
Even though I knew most of this, you did a great job of explaining it!
Sent from my EVO using XDA App
Hello all,
I have my Galaxy for almost 2 weeks and the more I use it the more I realize that the Samsung interface is nothing short of idiotic. Today I compared it with an HTC device some colleagues at work and what I thought were just pure Android OS stupidity it turned out to be Samsung's
Just an example: In the dialer application, if I start typing a contact name, I get a match ONLY if I type the first letters -- I get no match in the middle of a word.
Also, when a match is found, I am not presented with all the phone numbers for that contact, only the first one.
That's _really_ bad -- even my old Omnia running WM6.5 can do better than that.
Needless to say same thing worked as expected on the HTC running Froyo.
So, the question is: Is there any custom ROM (ideally 2.2) that doesn't suffer from this stupidity ? Or -- even better -- is HTC Sense (or a similiar, sane interface) ported to the Galaxy ? Or maybe even a vanilla 2.2 GUI ?
Thanks...
do a market search on 'launcherpro'. it's as good if not better than htc sense (with all the built in widgets), at least until the newer version of htc sense from desire hd comes out.
this is not really android rom dev, is it?
As this seems to be a dialer problem for example, check out the alternative ones from the market, one may cover what you miss...
For example dialer one. It's at least way faster than the stock one...
Oh, and +1 to LauncherPro (Plus), unless you use Touchwiz widgets.
zenkinz said:
do a market search on 'launcherpro'. it's as good if not better than htc sense (with all the built in widgets), at least until the newer version of htc sense from desire hd comes out.
this is not really android rom dev, is it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip, will look into it.
Well, I'm not so sure it's not rom dev since I'm not sure how much TouchWiz is embedded with ROM, if there are "vanilla" ROMs without TouchWiz or other cooked ROMs with other (better) interfaces, etc. etc.
So you tell me if it's rom dev or if it's not
P.S. And yes, "HTC Sense" was just an example, maybe not the best. Maybe I should have said "a saner interface than TouchWiz"...
the dialer found in froyo rom will be able to search in the middle of the name, instead of just starting.
you can run launcherpro over touchwiz although you probably want to remove the touchwiz widgets as they are not accessible outside of touchwiz. (which means you need to have your rom rooted). But you can't remove touchwiz completely (unless things has changed in the last 1 month) as it's integral component to feature/function beyond shell interface (e.g. you need this if you want to use kies to connect to your galaxy)
zenkinz said:
the dialer found in froyo rom will be able to search in the middle of the name, instead of just starting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure which Froyo you are talking about, but the test above is on the XXJPH I have installed off this very forum (and seems "ho-hum" in terms of stability on my device).
Anyway, will take a look at LauncherPro -- maybe it will alleviate some of the issues with TouchWiz
zenkinz said:
the dialer found in froyo rom will be able to search in the middle of the name, instead of just starting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, it isn't. Is there a way to hack it?
Theres already a Bounty for porting HTC Sense/the full ROM to our phones. Search, got around $1000+ between both threads (one over in the other subforums), but we need someone to port it. There is someone who has semi done it, just need him to release it publicly.
if you really want something similar to htc sense then check out this awsome mod from JAguirre1231 here , its the closest thing to sense (at least for now) with azreils sense theme. Or if you want stock android, you can check this which includes stock everything but only 2.1 (no its not a port, it still has touchwiz framework but everything is stock even the phone app) . Hopefully devs are working on cyanogen and once thats out, you will get what you want. until then you can use these
Hope i helped
HTC Sense is consider warez on XDA if it is not on an HTC device. HTC already threatened to sue acouple of developers on the Motorola Droid for porting it.
When I start typing 626 the equivalent for "mam" I get more suggestions.
first is "mama".
I also get a girl with the name "oana" because 626 numbers also equals "oan".
And I get some random guy that it happens to have a number like 07 626 3xxxx
first, im new to android so please bear with me. i've searched and cant find info on what i'm looking for, so if i missed it please just forward me to where i need to go.
i have an evo 4g that came with android 2.1, but i've updated to 2.2. i've read about rooting your android phone and i understand what thats about. i've also read only that you can root and remove the sense ui, just leaving the stock android platform.
once the phone is rooted, do you just uninstall htc sense? if not, do you need to load a different rom? if so, i've seen a poll that said cm6.1 and warm wyn or whatever were the top two. would i just flash that rom?
thanks for the help...
You can do both, either flash a ROM or uninstall sense
Sent from my PC36100
There are plenty of "non-sense" ROMS but if you want AOSP then you should just flash CM6.
there is a difference between no sense and aosp. non sense means the sense launcher is gone (you have a replacement from the market) which speeds up your phone by quite a bit. aosp is like what is on the nexus one. stock android. myn (not wyn) has the most highly respected non-sense rom for it's deep mods and slick tweaks. cyanogenmod is really held the hughest on the rom developer tower of respect for him and his team building a full on aosp rom from the ground up. it has many, and i mean many, things that were simply not put into android. it really is great. i switched away because i could not live without my sense widgets.
i perfer ava froyo (v10 is coming very soon) but it is sense, so boo hoo.
ok thats good. i like the look of cyanogenmod. as for uninstalling sense, i assume that i'll have to root to do that. has anyone actually done that?
i've been wanting to flash cyanogenmod, but have concerns. is there a way to save the rom that i have now before i flash? i want something to roll back to incase something goes wrong with the flash.
So yeah, I have a crapload of questions.
I recently asked about rooting and keeping HTC Sense. In retrospect, I don't think I'll need Sense, I just tried out AppLauncher, and I have to say, I think I'm sold on it. I'm just wondering what exactly HTC Sense has? Is there anything it has that I'll really miss? So far the only thing I can think of is the HTC Sense website for a lost phone, backing up data, and the weather widget/FriendStream...though adding Facebook to HTC sense shows all my contacts in the Phone button which is a huge piss off, but meh.
So that being said, I think I'm about ready to give rooting a shot, but now I've been confused with even more things. And the more I read the more I get confused. Especially where I have to downgrade the firmware, I'm wondering if it's still okay to do this, since the guy at Bell told me if I didn't do / get certain updates I'd have to send my phone back to HTC for repair.
There's stock Android, Cyanogen, and it seems like a million other ROMs. Which is the best to use? If I want total customizability, but also good functionality?
Finally, I'm using a Bell-branded Desire Z on the the Bell network. So Whatever I do will need to work okay with it.
As I've said, I'm totally new to this, and I'm scared to hell of bricking my phone since I just signed a contract and don't to shell out $500 bucks for a new one.
There's just so much info on this forum and it's a bit overwhelming/confusing, not that a lot of info is a bad thing, I'm just lost lol.
EDIT: If anything I wrote seems too rambling or doesn't make much sense please specify that and I'll clarify it.
cant help you root your phone but just follow the instructions that the person who writes the threads say. It's not that easy to brick your phone unless you just completely dont follow directions.
1. Downgrade is perfectly fine, it's to allow you to use a certain method to root your phone.
2. Try out different roms to see what you like, it's like asking whats your favorite video game, how can you really choose, some will agree some wont. I personally like the Miui roms which is the iphonelike and android UI mashup. the apps built in are nice on the eyes, the physics of the phones movement is very smooth, it can oc to 1.5ghz, and you can just download a launcher to replace the original if you dont like it.
3. ask the dev's on the thread if your not sure. i have no idea about bell, but it would seem that it shouldnt have any affect on rooting your phone, just maybe the radio but that is different then rooting or flashing roms.
P.S. you might miss the small things from Sense like, it looks nice, turns on fast, widgets, the dialer to search contact, incoming calls doesnt disrupt navigation, and it's original live wallpaper lol.
So are you saying that I can't search by contact in the default phone app? That kind of sucks.
I guess more of what I'm asking is just based on people's experiences what the best route to go is. I know there are different tastes, I'm more concerned about reliability, so I'm sure people could help with a ROM choice with that criteria.
So downgrading firmware won't affect phone performance? And can it still be reverted to stock in case the phone needs warranty repair? Just trying to cover all my bases.
And thanks, I'll ask around in the deg thread.
Bloodlvst said:
So are you saying that I can't search by contact in the default phone app? That kind of sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are usually apps available that provide Sense functionality to non-Sense ROMs. In regards to the above, you can try DialerOne.
To help you with the ROMs think of them in terms of how different Linux OS's are setup (if you know a bit about this).
You have the base OS's such as Cyanogen. Now some one doesn't like the look of that so they change the Frameworkres.apk to give it defferent colors, transparencies, icons and so on. Now they want a few extra apps to be included in the install so they add them to the /system/app directory or add a /data directory. Repackage it and now they have a custom OS called WINNING ROM (or whatever). These are easy to do and can be completed in a matter of minutes since there aren't any big alterations in the base coding of the OS. This is why you see a lot of ROMs that look like Cyanogens and the developer usually (and should be) states what version of some one elses ROM it's based off of.
Then you have ROMs that tweak certain parameters for speed or add other functionalities to a ROM such as a custom kernel, audio/video codecs, a2ext, compcache/linux swap, and others. Plus a complete custom UI (launcher), port parts of other ROMs such as Sense to work on their ROM, and toms of other things. These take days, weeks, or even months and usually have release cycles and updates. Cyanogen, Virtuous, Enomther, Villain, and a few others make up these ROMs.
Hope that helps with your ROM quest. It can be a bit overwhelming but remember to ask, ask, ask, and then ask some more and also read, at least the OP (original post) and a few pages past that. Some people may get upset and flame you for it but most will be glad to help in any way.
If you flash a non-Sense ROM, you will miss the HTC camera app. Its far and away better than the stock Android one, and I haven't found any Market camera apps that measure up, either. Also, the camera button on the Sense builds seems much more responsive than on CM7.
Also, I'm not sure about this, but the Sense ROMs seem to have better or more hardware codecs for playing a wider array of video formats. Lots of the videos I've tried on CM7 and CM6 are only playable using software decoding (on a variety of players, but RockPlayer is my favorite) and end up super laggy (very low frame rate) and audio way out of sync. On stock Sense and Virtuous, those videos play fine, hardware decoding, silky smooth, and audio in sync.
There are some aesthetic stuff, like HTC does some pretty significant theme changes for Sense, and you will lose customizations like the HTC Skins. And you will lose the HTC widgets (like the clocks) and apps (stocks, weather). But as mentioned, there are lots of Market apps that pretty well simulate many of the Sense apps and widgets, or are very suitable replacements.
Thanks for the detailed replies guys.
KCRic, thanks for list of known ROMs that's basically what I wanted to know, and your Linux flavour comparison helped too
Redpoint, I'm not sure how often I'd ever use the camera anyway...when I get home I'll have to find some screens of the default camera. That being said, I see your ROM is Virtuous. Is that a Sense-like ROM in case I agree with you on the ca?era app?
Thanks!
Bloodlvst said:
Redpoint, I'm not sure how often I'd ever use the camera anyway...when I get home I'll have to find some screens of the default camera. That being said, I see your ROM is Virtuous. Is that a Sense-like ROM in case I agree with you on the ca?era app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, you don't use the camera? I use it all the time, for those "spur of the moment" snapshots, or to quickly take a pic that I can MMS to a friend or family.
Yes, Virtuous is mostly stock Sense, but with some optimizations and with some extra features added. Its also based on the 1.85 ROM, one of the more recent stock Sense versions.
Guides, links for just about everything you can ever think of is here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=916431
BTW, be sure to click the "Thanks" button if you found responses to be helpful!
ROM LIST
Sense ROMS
Gingerbread - Android 2.3
Shokouhi 2.0
Desire S G2 Port Sense2.1
Probably others.
Froyo - Android 2.2
Virtuous
Stock ROMS
Gingerbread - Android 2.3
CyanogenMod 7
Stock Gingerbread 1.7
iceandfire 1.7
Pyromod 1.2
GingerVillian 1.5
meXdroidMod
Froyo - Android 2.2
CyanogenMod 6
Others of unimportance now.
The Other ROMS
Gingerbread - Android 2.3
MIUI (The 2.3 one)
Froyo - Android 2.2
MIUI (The 2.2 one)
LiquidVillian (Or whatever it was called.)
I probably just wasted 10 minutes of my life doing this, but meh, it was something to do.
Now to kill myself since I had to listen to Nickelback through it. Damn 4Music.
I would hardly call CM7 (and ROMs based on it) "Stock".
Although "Non-Sense" is not a very good sounding name for that category, also.
redpoint73 said:
I would hardly call CM7 (and ROMs based on it) "Stock".
Although "Non-Sense" is not a very good sounding name for that category, also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AOSP Based.
There should be 2 categories. CM Based and AOSP.
But I don't think there are any AOSP ROMs. Which I hate, cos when people say they've built a stock ROM, but it's based on CyanogenMod.
redpoint73 said:
Wow, you don't use the camera? I use it all the time, for those "spur of the moment" snapshots, or to quickly take a pic that I can MMS to a friend or family.
Yes, Virtuous is mostly stock Sense, but with some optimizations and with some extra features added. Its also based on the 1.85 ROM, one of the more recent stock Sense versions.
Guides, links for just about everything you can ever think of is here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=916431
BTW, be sure to click the "Thanks" button if you found responses to be helpful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I'm guessing no one has cooked up a weird ROM that is like Cyanogen with the Sense camera app lol.
Anywho, I really only have a couple of questions now.
Would you recommend Gingerbread or Froyo? I'm guessing Gingerbread probably runs better / is better than Froyo, but it's hard to say.
Also, how easy is it to restore my phone to factory condition if I need to?
And finally, I read the wiki, it says to make sure I have the windows USB drivers installed...do I just throw those in my windows drivers folder?
EDIT: Wanted to add, the instructiosn for recovering to stock doesn't include the version. So any help there is appreciated.
Or you know, if any of you would be so kind to PM me / add me to IM if you've done this on a Bell phone in Canada that would be awesome too
The drivers go in your Android SDK folder, where ever adb resides. At least on XP and Vista that's the case - I'm not sure if the adb issue was ever resolved in Windows 7. You could always use VM linux or dual boot linux if you like, it's much easier imo. Wubi works too I think.
When it comes to Froyo vs. Gingerbread it's literally like a linux in the sense that one is completely stable and well known by this point (Froyo) an the other is bleeding edge, not stable at times, some things are just not compatible unless you port them, and peoples knowledge base on it isn't as thorough.
I've never returned this phone to stock, which I assume you mean s-on and no superuser permissions. So I have no idea how difficult it is, though I do know you need to make sure you 100% know what you're doing before attempting it - especially if you have s-off. It's a pandoras box if you mess it up.
Ah okay, I'll definitely stick with Froyo for now then. I've always stayed 1 version behidn with Fedora lol.
I did get the drivers working, made my gold card, about to downgrade my firmware.
Are the instructions the same for 1.84.666.2 ?
Edit: Successfully rooted. Now time to find a new ROM. thanks again for all the help. Quesiton though, I have no HSDPA icon anymore...do I need a new "radio" or something?
No, it will do that and some ROMs don't have either the 'H' or the 3G' icon - just depends on the developer. You can still flash a different radio - anyone listed in the G2 radio sticky will work, flash a few and see what works best for you.
There's also a radio version/.ril file issue being debated so you might check that thread too and flash the zip provided just to be safe. I think it's in the G2 questions forum but I can't remember.