Hi guys,
I know this is somehow a dumb question for you all gurus here. But I am new to upgrading ROM although I have been using PPC for more than 3 years already. I normally only installed softwares, but when I came across this forum, I realised that there are so many cool things that you can do with your PPC and one of them is to upgrade your ROM to make it a better device. This will definately save me monies from buying a new unit (if i am not looking for better speed or memory)
My questions are:
1. How do I upgrade the ROM? Do I need a special software to do it? Or it is a simple CAB file installation
2. Is upgrading ROM legal? I am the kind that support buying the softwares that I need rather than installing the cracked version. I believe this will help the growth of a better development.
3. When I upgrade into a new ROM, would my existing data (such as texts, contacts, other data) be gone? How do I backup these data? I am already planning to buy SPB backup software and I am not sure whether this will be able to help me when I upgrade into a new ROM.
4. How do I revert back to my original ROM if ever I am not satisfied with the new ROM?
5. I know these are basic questions and I too had searched the forum, but I can't just seem to find the right answer to my worries.
thanks guys. . .
cooldude_no1 said:
Hi guys,
I know this is somehow a dumb question for you all gurus here. But I am new to upgrading ROM although I have been using PPC for more than 3 years already. I normally only installed softwares, but when I came across this forum, I realised that there are so many cool things that you can do with your PPC and one of them is to upgrade your ROM to make it a better device. This will definately save me monies from buying a new unit (if i am not looking for better speed or memory)
My questions are:
1. How do I upgrade the ROM? Do I need a special software to do it? Or it is a simple CAB file installation
2. Is upgrading ROM legal? I am the kind that support buying the softwares that I need rather than installing the cracked version. I believe this will help the growth of a better development.
3. When I upgrade into a new ROM, would my existing data (such as texts, contacts, other data) be gone? How do I backup these data? I am already planning to buy SPB backup software and I am not sure whether this will be able to help me when I upgrade into a new ROM.
4. How do I revert back to my original ROM if ever I am not satisfied with the new ROM?
5. I know these are basic questions and I too had searched the forum, but I can't just seem to find the right answer to my worries.
thanks guys. . .
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Click to collapse
Since you didn't give an exact make/model of your PPC, I can only give you some generic answers.
1) Depends on what device you have. Generally, you don't need any special software to do it. Generally, it is not just as simple as a CAB installation.
2) I don't really care to get into that. But, if you think about it, why would you come onto this site to get a "hacked" ROM if your device's manufacturer supplied one for you? What I'm really getting down to is, who would you pay? If you get a "hacked" ROM from here, it's most likely because your device's manufacturer has determined not to supply you with updated ROMs--why then would you send them any more money? Somebody else can try to answer that more appropriately, if they care to.
3) Generally, (again, I can't say anything specific without knowing your device) most ROM updates will format your internal storage. So, yes, you would lose any unsaved data. Backup software like SPB will backup most of your files for you. Go to their site to get the details on that. Essentially, most of your data (contacts, e-mail, tasks, etc...) are referred to as PIM data. Almost any backup software for a PPC will backup PIM data. PIM data, generally, can be restored into almost any WM version. You probably would not want to backup your system data (registry, system files, etc...) and restore it into another version of WM (if it is a major revision change...ie, WM5 -> WM6). That being said, most all of your current programs would need to be re-installed, as a general rule.
4) Did your device come with a "restore disc"? Did you happen to check with the manufacturer of your device to see if an original image (ROM) is available?
5) I'm surprised you didn't find answers to most of these questions, honestly. These are fairly common questions that would be asked in most ROM related threads on this forum. Unfortunately, there is some level of "you just have to try it for yourself" that is usually involved in a ROM upgrade.
I'm pretty sure if you throw out a make and model of your device in this thread, someone with something similar (if not the same thing) will be able to give you more specific answers to your questions.
sorry, i din realise the make and model of my PPC makes a difference. Mine is o2 Atom (black) with WM5.
cooldude_no1 said:
sorry, i din realise the make and model of my PPC makes a difference. Mine is o2 Atom (black) with WM5.
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Click to collapse
??? Would you repair a VW Jetta the same way you would repair a Chevy Cavalier or a Passat or a Subaru WRX? Sorry to sound condescending, but of course the make and model makes a difference! But, now that we know what you have, perhaps someone can give you some more specific details to your device. I personally don't know anything about your particular device. Hopefully someone can clear up your questions for you.
cavyman said:
Since you didn't give an exact make/model of your PPC, I can only give you some generic answers.
1) Depends on what device you have. Generally, you don't need any special software to do it. Generally, it is not just as simple as a CAB installation.
2) I don't really care to get into that. But, if you think about it, why would you come onto this site to get a "hacked" ROM if your device's manufacturer supplied one for you? What I'm really getting down to is, who would you pay? If you get a "hacked" ROM from here, it's most likely because your device's manufacturer has determined not to supply you with updated ROMs--why then would you send them any more money? Somebody else can try to answer that more appropriately, if they care to.
3) Generally, (again, I can't say anything specific without knowing your device) most ROM updates will format your internal storage. So, yes, you would lose any unsaved data. Backup software like SPB will backup most of your files for you. Go to their site to get the details on that. Essentially, most of your data (contacts, e-mail, tasks, etc...) are referred to as PIM data. Almost any backup software for a PPC will backup PIM data. PIM data, generally, can be restored into almost any WM version. You probably would not want to backup your system data (registry, system files, etc...) and restore it into another version of WM (if it is a major revision change...ie, WM5 -> WM6). That being said, most all of your current programs would need to be re-installed, as a general rule.
4) Did your device come with a "restore disc"? Did you happen to check with the manufacturer of your device to see if an original image (ROM) is available?
5) I'm surprised you didn't find answers to most of these questions, honestly. These are fairly common questions that would be asked in most ROM related threads on this forum. Unfortunately, there is some level of "you just have to try it for yourself" that is usually involved in a ROM upgrade.
I'm pretty sure if you throw out a make and model of your device in this thread, someone with something similar (if not the same thing) will be able to give you more specific answers to your questions.
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cavyman;
BRAVO!!!
Very comprehensive,authoritative,justifiable and meaningful approach.
I wud just like to add here in a nutshell in my own way,no harm meant to anyone,no hard feelings plz & I quote, :-
" Hey ! ya'all ,what are you doing here,why u'all scratching you heads for,with wide opened sleepless eyes starring at the Pc monitor and jumping to your PDA's,go get some rest man,give yourself a break man ,look your wife is annoyed,your children yelling,your boss might kick you out,why you have to sneak out in the night to work on this project,just forget it,it's not worth it... WHY! cuz here I'm MR.RICHIE RICH, I got the dough, I can get every device which comes out after every six months,so why take this trouble of upgrading, with this,OH **** HACKED SOFTWARE,when we have with us Mr.Silly $ator, Long Live Micro$hoft..huh!"
cooldude_no1
With my due apologies,no harm meant to you,but how many people in the world,do you think can buy a new device which comes out with new features and new applications every year,well perhaps 10 to 20% at the give and take average.
secondly, software owner's,vendors,device manufactures and carriers who launch their products dont give a **** after the sale of products,never care and provide support and upgrades to their products,if they did than no one wud have come here and how then will they launch new products.why shud all those people suffer who had paid there hard earned money to buy these devices and than they are deprived of their rights.
We all complement all the techies,gurus and hard working staff of xda forums for their relentless,priceless,reward less and with no monitory gains,the way they are serving the community.All credit goes to them ! Infact,if you go through all of their work,applications,software and cooking of latest Roms,one must say,they are even doing a much better,perfect and excellent job than manufacturers and vendors themselves,THUMBS UP
Ok if your are really interested to upgrade your device,there's a whole thread for your device,for your guidance and upgrade.see in the link below:-
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=297
Good luck,have fun
Bye
Hi all have a new HTC Niki, have memory card and now wanting to tamper without causing damage. How do i do a reliable backup of all things i need to restore if things go wrong? I have been reading through the threads so getting to grips with bits and pieces but still unsure where to start. Should i do a hard reset and start backing system files etc from there? I say doing a hard reset because i have already tried a couple of apps on the phone and found that some didn't work that great(probably just neede some tweaking on my part!)so uninstalled them and maybe there are still traces of them in the registry? Apps tried: S2U2, slide setting, i fonz, pocketgpsmap,ppc.YGoNet, mobile live messenger. Do any of these leave registry traces when deleted?
Anyway, given my objectives any help regarding the things i need to back up,programs needed to do this and programs required for the cube development would be much appreciated.
On a final note as i am new to all of this and the forum/developers etiquette can anybody tell me what a typical/ acceptable 'donate' gesture is and in what currency? Is Euro's the norm? Reasons for asking about this are i saw a skin that i liked and i didn't know how much to donate without causing offence.
Thanks all for any help
what I do is that when I find my pocket pc is perfect on a a certain day specially after installing certain programs then I do backup on that day...of course you backup in the memory card ...somebackup programs may do backup on aregular base like spb backup...
I'm expecting delivery of the Desire soon, having had a range of WM5, WM6 and WM6.1 handsets so far. Now one of the big problems I experienced with WM was the inability of the OS to protect itself from deep-level rogue code -one app from the Windows Marketplace screwed the last phone considerably, leading to a series of crashes, black screens with ominous warnings about not powering off correctly and so on. Thankfully I had Sprite Backup to haul back a working fileset. On the whole it felt as wobbly as a Win98 install with the wrong version of several core files.
How does the Android OS protect itself from rogue stuff? (especially the newest 2.1 release in the Desire, if it's any different from earlier versions). Does it sandbox the apps and do some heavy brokering of any multitasking? There are thousands of apps to try and I'd rather not knacker things up if one turns out to be a bit flaky...
I've used Linux for years (have mostly had Kubuntu for the past 2yrs, though used to run Suse, Slackware and ZipSlack) and have busted a Linux install just by adding the nVidia kernel drivers - I think that was within a minute of first boot in that case. I know that root access is needed for these sorts of mods - what's the score there on Android handsets?
BTW - couldn't find anything about this on the Search, and am dropping it here because I'm getting the Desire - apologies to Mods if it belongs somewhere else!
- in the market you will see bad ratings and comments if an app is really malicious (obviously the developers can't edit/delete comments from the market)
- apps don't have root access so they can't alter data on the system partition.
- apps need to have permission declared in order to have access to some functions, for example if an app is sending text messages, or modifying contact data you will see this when you install the app
Thanks. I always treat the user ratings with a pinch of salt - the one that messed my Raphael up was a 4*-rated app! I think the thing there was that WM doesn't protect the OS in any special way, and I'm glad that Android is using partitions. Sounds just like a standard Linux distro in that respect, most of which will create 3 partitions unless told otherwise.
Yeah I guess if the app has no root access, then no serious harm can be done to the phone.
Also, try to create a habbit of checking what permissions the app has before installing it. That shows just before installing, or press Menu and then Security. For example, a Game will not need access to contacts, or make calls... etc.
Before I install something I heard nothing about, I always scroll users comments and look for low ratings and see what they have to say about it. But remember that old comments (good or bad) sometimes don't count as apps get updated.
The Market should show when the application was last updated by the developer. I think Apple store already shows that.
Cheers! I'll check it out just as soon as the new phone gets here! Normally I'm dead paranoid about stuff, and don't let anything out to play unless I'm sure - maybe I'm letting one bad installation colour things a bit too much...
Hi folks,
I just purchased my HTC Evo 4G and used this forum to modify the living hell out of it.
Thanks to all the developers here for making things easy and possible; for I thought I was doomed when I found out that NASCAR couldn't be removed (no offense to NASCAR fans).
I've successfully rooted my phone with Android 2.2, updated my radio and some other things, and installed the Cyanogen 6 mod on it. I'm very pleased with my phone so far, but I have a few questions to anyone who has knowledge of the concerned subjects here.
I tried using the search feature in this forum, but all I found were convoluted messes of things that only had the words of what I'm searching for in them.
1.) First things first, I noticed that my HTC Sense clock and calender were gone after installing the Cyanogen mod. So! I just downloaded Beautiful Widgets on my desktop and I'm ready to install my phone. I know how to install the .apk file, but the package also came with a 'data' folder. To which directory should I place this data folder in the micro SD card?
2.) In the Cyanogen Mod, the 'Talk' and 'End' sliding keys were changed from the original operating system. Is there a modding section here or any website that focuses on modifying those keys, or other keys in general?
3.) I'm thinking about upgrading my micro SD card. Mine is currently a Class II 8 GB card. What is the difference between different classes of cards and how does it effect the Evo 4G?
4.) I noticed that with installing the Cyanogen 6 mod, that I get a pesky text message from 9016 whenever I get a voicemail. I've used an app to blacklist and ignore these messages.. but is there any other way?
5.) The Cyanogen 6 mod comes with a music player widget. This widget seems to bug out from time to time. If I end up rotating my phone, the widget bugs to where the album art is gone and the skip-track and play buttons become inoperable. This will also happen if I plug earphones in. Is there a solution to this?
That's all the questions I have. I'm sure some of these issues were addressed throughout the forum.. and I answered several of my questions with the search feature. This list is simply what I have left. Thanks in advance!
.data folder? How about you pay for the software! if you pay for and install from the market these things don't happen. Piracy is a big issue and its ruining android.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Alas, I did pay for it. Unfortunately, when I messed something up and started from square one in modding my phone, I forgot to do a nandroid backup and lost it. So! I'm simply trying to take back what was mine (and that I foolishly lost).
apologies. umm market downloads are stored within your gmail account so when you reflash you can re download free of charge?
Hello everybody,
So these days I've been interested in theming MotoBlur since I had PS skills and wanted to put them to use since being 17 and with so much free time I said it might not be THAT hard.
However, **** happened.
Finding out those pesky MotoBlur apps wasn't that hard - found it rather easily after checking up a system backup.But finding out the MotoBlur apps wasn't the problem - the problem were the apps.
This is how a simple .apk file (MotoBlur Phone app) folder looks like:
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk125/secretalex125/untitled.jpg
See that little thing there? Yeah, you're seeing right - that is the Motorola FlipFlop (or how it's named) phone. But God, why?
Don't ask me; ask Motorola. This may be the reason why they ended up making a striped version of their newer phones' skin/OS updates' skin.
Not to mention these images come up with .xml files. Now, as a dumb idiot with relatively limited text editing (.xml / .ini / whatever coding files) knowledge, but still a basic one enough to know not to screw up with the position of some text, I know that checking up ALL these files would be a damn hard task. Not to mention editing them properly. However, I'm in for the images. And I'm somehow sure that some of these files are pretty much useless. So they should be deleted. But then, when you have 2 apps called "BlurContacts" and "BlurPhone" and notice both of them feature pretty much the same images in some folders, you know you're screwed.
But this is only the foreground idea. The background, the immense sea of files is what is annoying. How could someone be able to create an entirely new skin? All that comes in my mind is that he must be a masochist.
So questions pop up:
1. Did anyone else try to skin ALL the files?
2. Did anyone try to remove files?
3. I know that out there is only one more GB skin. One more. But is it any better?
4. Are there replacements? How easy is to replace these files? Would simply removing these Motoblur apps make my life easier and revert me to classic Gingerbread?
4. I think there's more on my mind, but it doesn't come up right now.
All in all, I don't like what I'm seeing.
I was able to theme almost all motoblur apps when I was on ms2ginger rom, so it was the gb version of defy. I didn't remove any of the files, but yeah it takes some time to understand where goes what.
Sent from my ICS Defy