Hi there,
first of all, many thanks to all the talented people here, who give their time and energy to serve pda enthusiasts! I'm new to the htc smartphone world, just bought a Magician, a Prophet (G4), and a Universal to get a nice introduction into the mobile world. So far, I've read tons of materials before first deciding on changing ROM on my Magician, with success. Well, it's a risky business, and so many times you read alarming posts from people who wracked their nice working devices just by lack of knowledge. In fact, it all reminds me of walking on a ground stuffed with landmines. There are leaders who find a safe path (write an instruction), tell the others to follow, but never miss saying "remember, we don't take any responsibility".
I think the instructions are fine, but what I would really appreciate is to have some light shed on how the things work, so that I know what I'm doing, not just following the footsteps of someone who knows. I'm desparate to see some real piece of knowledge, but they are scarce. Take, e.g. a paragraph I found here (http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=FAQ#faqOsPhone) on IPL/SPL:
"IPL: Initial program load - usually paired with Secondary Program Load (SPL), is the boot loader of your phone, much like the BIOS is the boot loader for your PC. Note: IPL/SPL are highly hardware dependent, flashing the wrong IPL/SPL is much more serious than a flashing the wrong ROM. It may be noted that, sometimes a ROM package also contains the IPL/SPL which will be flashed into your phone. Hence be extra careful what you are flashing. Note: although a ROM may also contains the IPL/SPL, `ROM` usually refers just to the OS (eg. the Windows Mobile 5, not the IPL/SPL) and the ExtRom."
Well, it looks like this stuff is absolutely vital to anyone who ventures beyond entering the bootloader screen of their device, but why the fundamental questions raised there are left without answers? Some of such questions are:
1. Why do some ROMs contain IPL/SPL, if IPL/SPL are hardware dependent?
1. How do I know if a specific ROM I'd like to flash on my device contains the IPL/SPL? And then - can I flash its IPL/SPL on my original IPL/SPL?
2. What does it mean "flashing the wrong IPL/SPL"? How do I find out which ROM is suited for the IPL/SPL on my phone?
3. How do I find out the IPL/SPL for my Magician, if it's not desplayed neither on the spash screen, or in device information tab?
Please have some understanding for those newbe's questions. Maybe they are naive, but I don't want to learn the hard way... My question is: do you know any good site (or hardcopy materials) with regular knowledge to learn from about the mentioned and other important issues on pda modding/upgrading? I'll be really grateful for some guidance tips on how to guide myself
Many thanks in advance,
greg
I'm sure I'm going to get attacked for posting this since it's probably been answered in 3000 other posts, but that's actually part of the problem. There's too much information and too much of it is different and confusing, so a noob like me gets lost quickly. I would like to take the stock Verizon ROM and add just a couple of things to it. I don't want to use "Bob's super special ROM" that he's added a ton of crap to and I don't want to use "Bob's super special ROM lite" that has just about nothing in it. I'm OK with what's in the stock ROM for the most part, but I want to include a few other things.
So first off, can I take the Verizon MR1 upgrade for my XV6800 and extract, uncook, whatever the term is the ROM out of the setup - or - can I get the ROM off of my XV6800 that already has the MR1 upgrade applied to it?
Second, assuming I can do that, how do I cook the ROM. I understand I need a kitchen, which I've actually played with PPCKitchen a little, but what else do I need, or is there a better kitchen?
Third, where can I go to get simple, concise, and intelligible instructions for taking my stock ROM I extracted from the setup or the phone itself, and add a couple of applications and then flash it back to my phone.
One other thing, do I have to flash another radio or if I'm OK with how the phone works after the MR1 upgrade, can I just leave that alone?
For the people that are going to abuse me for asking question that have already been asked before, sorry, it's just too much and too scattered. For those who understand the confusions and frustrations of being a noob, thanks for the sympathy .
bump....
Ouch. One last attempt at a shameless bump...
Go to ppc geeks. their forums are divided up by phone. also you will find (usually at the top of list as a stick note) step by step instructions. Easy to follow.
Thanks. I forgot about that site.
Hi Guys,
I have an Unlocked T-Mobile G2 Touch - AKA - HERO !!!
I have installed new firmware / roms on Nokia phones numerous times but Android is new to me - however i wont go back to Nokia as the Hero is great...
CAN SOMEONE ON HERE POST AN IDIOTS GUIDE MAYBE WITH VIDEO ON HOW TO DEBRAND / INSTALL ORIGINAL HTC HERO ROM
I have tried and failed reading numerous posts and there are plenty of newcomers here that are after the same.....
Please, Please help us newbies to ANDROID out...
Thanks
Checkout this link:
http://android.modaco.com/content/h...and-your-orange-t-mo-etc-device-via-nandroid/
Explain
packetlss said:
Checkout this link:
http://android.modaco.com/content/h...and-your-orange-t-mo-etc-device-via-nandroid/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi - Thanks for that but i got lost on the keep original name etc..... - I think i must be an idiot !!! HELP - someone put a step by step guide up please...
I'd second this request.
Looking through posts on modaco and here it's not obvious what you have to do and why you are doing it.
What is nandroid and recovery image etc ?
cheers
And if it could be Mac and Windows information, not all of us are Windows based here
joemax said:
And if it could be Mac and Windows information, not all of us are Windows based here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly!!!
A lot of us are Linux users too!!!
No offense, but please get more into adb and all the tools needed for reflashing.
Making things idiot proof is useless in my opinion. If you have no idea how to use adb, why upgrade anyway? Chances are you won't understand most custom upgrades/tweaks anyway..
All releases by HTC will be idiot proof, no doubt about it, but installing a custom rom takes skill, knowledge and patience.
In general, an idiot posseses none of the above.
Second, there are no custom roms available for the Hero.
If you want to install custom roms in the future, take some time to understand things. Spoonfeeding this info won't learn you anything.
Sykow said:
No offense, but please get more into adb and all the tools needed for reflashing.
Making things idiot proof is useless in my opinion. If you have no idea how to use adb, why upgrade anyway? Chances are you won't understand most custom upgrades/tweaks anyway..
All releases by HTC will be idiot proof, no doubt about it, but installing a custom rom takes skill, knowledge and patience.
In general, an idiot posseses none of the above.
Second, there are no custom roms available for the Hero.
If you want to install custom roms in the future, take some time to understand things. Spoonfeeding this info won't learn you anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Sykow, I understand your point but it wasn't helpful. It's comments like these that can deter a newbie from asking questions. A person must ask questions to learn.
No doubt some of the skills needed to load custom firmware or even stock HTC firmware to de-brand your Hero are needed in order for many of us here to upgrade to the rumoured minor update and major update coming soon.
Having a handset from the telco on contract and then having to wait for weeks or even forever to get a bug fixed / performance enhanced firmware update from HTC is not something I want to have to suffer.
As soon as HTC release updated firmware, I will want to know how to load it via my Mac running OS X (preferred) or booted into my Windows partition (not preferred).
All without drama and with little risk of toasting my Hero.
Its not too much to ask surely
joemax said:
No doubt some of the skills needed to load custom firmware or even stock HTC firmware to de-brand your Hero are needed in order for many of us here to upgrade to the rumoured minor update and major update coming soon.
Having a handset from the telco on contract and then having to wait for weeks or even forever to get a bug fixed / performance enhanced firmware update from HTC is not something I want to have to suffer.
As soon as HTC release updated firmware, I will want to know how to load it via my Mac running OS X (preferred) or booted into my Windows partition (not preferred).
All without drama and with little risk of toasting my Hero.
Its not too much to ask surely
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I can tell, it is pretty straight forward, just like the first time you flash a phone, a bit never racking, and a bit foreign. A co-worker of mine has assured me it is as easy as a WinMo phone.
Nice to be easy as a WiMo phone... but I've had Nokia for years.
Easy to de-brand.
Use Nemesis.
Change Product Code to one like a generic EU code.
Go back to Nokia Software Update.
Download new manufacturer direct firmware... Orange as far as I know, never approved new firmware while I used an N95, N82, N85.
Android de-branding seems to involve a complex trip to a command line editor, a download of firmware that you don't really know where it came from and a large dose of prayer and crossed fingers and toes...
I guess I will wait until someone posts how to load the upcoming updated firmware from HTC so I will end up with a more reliable, stable and faster performing handset... like the one I thought I'd signed up for.
joemax said:
Nice to be easy as a WiMo phone... but I've had Nokia for years.
Easy to de-brand.
Use Nemesis.
Change Product Code to one like a generic EU code.
Go back to Nokia Software Update.
Download new manufacturer direct firmware... Orange as far as I know, never approved new firmware while I used an N95, N82, N85.
Android de-branding seems to involve a complex trip to a command line editor, a download of firmware that you don't really know where it came from and a large dose of prayer and crossed fingers and toes...
I guess I will wait until someone posts how to load the upcoming updated firmware from HTC so I will end up with a more reliable, stable and faster performing handset... like the one I thought I'd signed up for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am getting my Hero sometime mid-september... I will post up a walk through when I get some personal experience.
Sweet
That sounds like a plan...
Sykow said:
No offense, but please get more into adb and all the tools needed for reflashing.
Making things idiot proof is useless in my opinion. If you have no idea how to use adb, why upgrade anyway? Chances are you won't understand most custom upgrades/tweaks anyway..
All releases by HTC will be idiot proof, no doubt about it, but installing a custom rom takes skill, knowledge and patience.
In general, an idiot posseses none of the above.
Second, there are no custom roms available for the Hero.
If you want to install custom roms in the future, take some time to understand things. Spoonfeeding this info won't learn you anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A touch patronising.
I Flash Roms all the time on my Blackstone, and manage to use the custom upgrades/tweeks....
Android is a new OS, and has a new set of terms and abreviations etc, As the OP says, there seems to be little out there to explain things
When there are pages and pages of wikis for the Hero/Android then yes, I can understand being frustrated about noobie questions, but until there IS threads/stickies/Wikis out there then I'm afraid there will be questions put forward like this.
Correct. But those things need time. How long has the Hero been out now? Couple of weeks? C'mon..
And a person doesn't learn by asking questions. At least, not here. There are TONS of threads around. All the things you need are in there. It's just a matter of looking, taking the time to actually learn and read. If you still don't get it after the proper research, ask questions. Give the exact problem so we can tailor the reponse to it.
I flashed my old Wizard so many times.. Then I got on to the iPhone 2G, making it work in The Netherlands. I took the time to read all the reports, stickies and the necessary info to make it work. With some motivation and some common sense every person can do this.
I'm completely new to Android and I managed to root, update and tweak my Hero within 1 hour.
I just have a problem with these guys coming here, "demanding" a guide for idiots, making no effort at all to understand the complexity of it all.
This device hasn't even been out for a month! Chill out! When the stuff is ready, it will come.
Hmmmmm
Sykow said:
Correct. But those things need time. How long has the Hero been out now? Couple of weeks? C'mon..
And a person doesn't learn by asking questions. At least, not here. There are TONS of threads around. All the things you need are in there. It's just a matter of looking, taking the time to actually learn and read. If you still don't get it after the proper research, ask questions. Give the exact problem so we can tailor the reponse to it.
I flashed my old Wizard so many times.. Then I got on to the iPhone 2G, making it work in The Netherlands. I took the time to read all the reports, stickies and the necessary info to make it work. With some motivation and some common sense every person can do this.
I'm completely new to Android and I managed to root, update and tweak my Hero within 1 hour.
I just have a problem with these guys coming here, "demanding" a guide for idiots, making no effort at all to understand the complexity of it all.
This device hasn't even been out for a month! Chill out! When the stuff is ready, it will come.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sykow - thanks for your comments, please dont call us "demanding idiots !" Like you I and many others are new to Android and yes its a huge learning curve, I have rooted my HERO and Tweaked it but merely wanted advice on some of the explanation given as i did not think it was that clear !!!
I have programmed, tweaked and installed numerous roms on blackberry and nokia previously and wanted advice on Android - you were not born with the knowledge you had to learn it....
Anyway after a polite request at least someone was polite enough to assist and it is sorted - bring on the cooked roms.
I have to agree with Sykow here to a degree. Rooting, flashing and backing up isn't for the weak of heart, and one wrong move could mean that the same newbie comes back to this forum crying about a bricked phone and bad instructions, and that would just distract people from the real point of this sub-forum, i.e. actual ROM hacking, stuff like what Haykuro is doing in the background.
Here's a starting point that worked for me:
Rooting the Hero: http://theunlockr.com/2009/08/08/how-to-gain-root-access-on-your-htc-hero/
After that, if you're looking at replacing built-in apps and cooking your own ROMs, you're better off looking in the Dream Android Development sub-forum where it all started. If you're having problems looking for technical pointers in those sub-forums and instead finding that most questions are about how-do-i root/flash/etc, you'll start to understand where Sykow is coming from
Me, I don't think you're an idiot. I just think it'd help to spend your time with the Android SDK as well as searching the other Android Dev sub-forums in XDA for what you're looking for. If you're confident enough after that to come up with a How-To of your own for the benefit of newbies, feel free to go ahead, but from what I have seen from time to time, it can be a thankless job when newbies fail to follow the instructions to a T, brick their devices then come back crying or *****ing, and expect someone to fix it for them.
I found the HTC Dream wiki section on rooting/hacking etc quite informative:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Dream_overview_and_useful_information
I managed to work out how to make a backup last night, using files from Paulatmodoco's rooting guide:
http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero-hero-modaco-com/291397/12-08-1-4-modaco-hero-patch-a2sd-root-busybox-much-more/
Simply follow his instructions up to stage 5. Then you will be in the recovery image menu and you can select to make a nandroid backup.
If I have some time later, I'll write up a dummys guide to making a nandroid backup, which is one of the most important steps I reckon And rooting using paul's system is then very, very easy. as is flashing a new ROM.
I must also agree with Sykow. I only recently got my Hero and had no knowledge of rooting. I'm sure a step by step guide would be lovely but actually it is possible and it pays to read up about it yourself.
I knew the Android SDK was needed, so I downloaded and installed that as per Android website, read about what adb and fastboot did. The files and commands were easy to source from here. About and hours reading and a complete Android noob was rooted and away. I do feel that some folk maybe can't be bothered with the reading part, but think - if something goes wrong in the process, you aren't going to know why or how to fix it.
My sentiments exactly.
Hi Guys,
I just acquired my first android phone (after years using apple products) and I would like to ask you 2 questions:
1 - Is there a guide about all the terminology and procedures step by step to update the phone with the latest software? I'm really overwhelmed by all this terminology and variety of stuff to install: kernel, radio, rom, root, etc.
2- Based on your opnion what is the best setup for a beginner? i.e. which kerner, rom to install, etc.
Thanks in advance!
1. Read the stickies, there are a lot of guides in there including a directory with all the guides you need.
2. Best for a beginner? Just stay with stock and have some fun with it. Get comfortable with stock WHILE at the same time do additional reading on how to do everything and what it is before you actually do it.
zephiK said:
1. Read the stickies, there are a lot of guides in there including a directory with all the guides you need.
2. Best for a beginner? Just stay with stock and have some fun with it. Get comfortable with stock WHILE at the same time do additional reading on how to do everything and what it is before you actually do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Stick with stock until you have the "bells and whistles" figured out and how the phone should feel. Then geek the 'F' out and root that pig.
Thanks guys.
Is there a place where I can get an overview of the differences between all the kernels/roms etc?
There are so many options that is really hard to know what to install.
I will stick with stock for a while, but not too long
brazas said:
Thanks guys.
Is there a place where I can get an overview of the differences between all the kernels/roms etc?
There are so many options that is really hard to know what to install.
I will stick with stock for a while, but not too long
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you go, brother:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1399802
When you do decide to start customising then here is a guide to get you through the awkward stuff.
ALL credit for this guide goes to Jubakuba
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1529058
brazas said:
Thanks guys.
Is there a place where I can get an overview of the differences between all the kernels/roms etc?
There are so many options that is really hard to know what to install.
I will stick with stock for a while, but not too long
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best bet if you are looking for information about ROMS/Kernels/etc is simply to go over to the appropriate Dev section and just start reading different threads. You'll find that there is obviously always talk about the pros/cons of the specific ROM/kernel, but also often discussion about differences to others. Either way, by just reading you start to get a feel for what different options offer.
Also, as per your question about a source of information, I found a thread in the Tab 7.7 section that has a lot of useful information for new users:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25189362#post25189362
While some of the information is device specific, there is a lot of useful information in there such as terminology. I'd bookmarked it in case friends jumped on board Android.
Hope that helps.