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I have my first android phone, an HTC Desire and I am very happy with it.
But the only thing that is annoying is the low memory notification when I installed a few apps. So I search the internet found that I can "root" my phone and install a custom rom and have the possibility to use apps2sd.
Now I am a bit scared to root my phone because its just new and I dont want to brick it and I dont know if I void warranty when its rooted.
My desire came with the 2.2 froyo update it has HBOOT 0.93 on it so I don't know if this possible? I think I have the SLCD version because there's nothing of AMOLED write on the box of my phone.
So then I found a patch that can do apps2sd without root but only for 2.2 froyo so I did that and I think it worked well, only if I connect with the pc and use to set the sd card to put files on it,
put it out the pc and some widgets don't work anymore that are installed or moved to the sd card? Is this also with a rooted rom or something like that? What can I do more if I root?
Do I need to install a custom rom or root and stay on the standard 2.2 froyo rom (with I am very happy with) and then install apps2sd or something like that?
Do I notice improved performance with a custom rom? Do I lost all my settings and data when I root or install a custom rom?
Oh and if I install a custom rom will it work in my country (Belgium) because I heard about a radio version or something?
Sorry if I ask to much or all the questions are noob but I am totally new to all this and I want to know more about it.
Thanks in advance
There are two A2SD version.
The one, which is integrated in Froyo and which you currently uses, allows you to manually move parts of apps to the SD card, thus freeing up some precious internal memory. However, you shouldn't move widgets or apps which run as a service in the background, else they don't work properly any longer, just as you noticed yourself. Still, with this method you should be able to significantly extent the possible amount of installable apps.
It's also possible that you have an odd app installed which just collects a lot of trash and stroes this on the internal memory as 'data'. With the app 'DiskUsage' you can see how much each app needs and, if necessary and possible clear the data of a specific app.
The other A2SD version is only available if you root your phone and install a custom ROM with A2SD+. This method also requires an EXT3 partition on your SD-Card, next to your normal FAT32 partition. After that all the apps (including widgets), the complete apps, get automatically installed on the EXT3 partition on your SD-Card, only the 'data' which gets produced by the apps over the time, gets stored on the internal phone memory. You don't have to move some apps around, they just get installed on the EXT3 partition, which is 512MB big or larger.
There are two groups of custom ROMs:
#1: It is based on the HTC modified Android source code of, often called Sense ROMs, which you use at the moment. Developers took it, added some features like A2SD+, root, removed some bloatware, tweaked the kernel, ... So it's identical to your currently installed ROM just a bit faster, lighter and has some more features and customizable possibilities.
#2: It's is based on the original Android source code, often called AOSP ROM. (CyanogenMod is one of the most famous ones, DeFroST is based on CM) Those lack all the Sense features (Sense widgets, HTC Sync, comfortable copy paste, ...) but are much lighter, often have much more additional features and the latest tweaks.
Rooting and installing such a custom ROM means you'll have to start from the beginning on. So you'll lose everything. That's why you should backup your contacts, ... to restore them later, if possible.
Best is to install all apps manually again, and do the configuration from scratch. Later, you can easily flash updates of the specific custom roms on top of that.
You can flash two parts. The ROM and the radio. If you flash a custom ROM the radio stays untouched. However, some radios give you better battery life, signal strength, ..., also in Belgium, just take a look at the specific threads about the radios to find the best for you. But it's not necessary to flash the radio. The ROMs will work with your default radio, too.
UpSpin said:
There are two A2SD version.
The one, which is integrated in Froyo and which you currently uses, allows you to manually move parts of apps to the SD card, thus freeing up some precious internal memory. However, you shouldn't move widgets or apps which run as a service in the background, else they don't work properly any longer, just as you noticed yourself. Still, with this method you should be able to significantly extent the possible amount of installable apps.
It's also possible that you have an odd app installed which just collects a lot of trash and stroes this on the internal memory as 'data'. With the app 'DiskUsage' you can see how much each app needs and, if necessary and possible clear the data of a specific app.
The other A2SD version is only available if you root your phone and install a custom ROM with A2SD+. This method also requires an EXT3 partition on your SD-Card, next to your normal FAT32 partition. After that all the apps (including widgets), the complete apps, get automatically installed on the EXT3 partition on your SD-Card, only the 'data' which gets produced by the apps over the time, gets stored on the internal phone memory. You don't have to move some apps around, they just get installed on the EXT3 partition, which is 512MB big or larger.
There are two groups of custom ROMs:
#1: It is based on the HTC modified Android source code of, often called Sense ROMs, which you use at the moment. Developers took it, added some features like A2SD+, root, removed some bloatware, tweaked the kernel, ... So it's identical to your currently installed ROM just a bit faster, lighter and has some more features and customizable possibilities.
#2: It's is based on the original Android source code, often called AOSP ROM. (CyanogenMod is one of the most famous ones, DeFroST is based on CM) Those lack all the Sense features (Sense widgets, HTC Sync, comfortable copy paste, ...) but are much lighter, often have much more additional features and the latest tweaks.
Rooting and installing such a custom ROM means you'll have to start from the beginning on. So you'll lose everything. That's why you should backup your contacts, ... to restore them later, if possible.
Best is to install all apps manually again, and do the configuration from scratch. Later, you can easily flash updates of the specific custom roms on top of that.
You can flash two parts. The ROM and the radio. If you flash a custom ROM the radio stays untouched. However, some radios give you better battery life, signal strength, ..., also in Belgium, just take a look at the specific threads about the radios to find the best for you. But it's not necessary to flash the radio. The ROMs will work with your default radio, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your answer and time to explain this! So if I got it right I need to install a custom rom to enable the apps2sd feature. I heard about unrevoked that can root my desire (also if i bought it with 2.2 froyo already on it, no need to downgrade)? but the unrevoked install also an other recovery? Do I void warranty if I install another recovery? It sounds a bit dangerous?
Are there roms that improved performance while recording in 720p? no framedrops etc? or its just the camera from the device is not that good for recoding in HD? Is it worth it to root and install a custom rom?
Thanks in advance
If you root your device you will void your warranty but there are ways of unrooting.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
an Android device has different sections you can flash, like the rom, radio, recovery, ...
If you use unrevoked it will automatically flash a new recovery, necessary to perform backups, partition the SD card, ...
Yes, you'll void the warranty, but you can flash a HTC original image to unroot, install the default radio and rom, in short, set it back to the defaults.
How well the camera works depends on the rom you use. Take a look at the specific rom, like LeeDroid, and check how well the camera works.
Is it worth? For some yes, for others no.
Because you get limited by the internal memory, it is worth for you to use a custom ROM with a2sd+.
Thanks for all advice! Now its up to me if I should root or not. I am thinking about it. Thanks to all who spend time to reply all my questions!
When you flash a new ROM, is it a complete reinstall of the OS, or just changing certain items while still keeping many basic elements as-is? Put another way, when you flash (and select to wipe data in ROM Manager), does it reformat the OS partition and then reinstall a fresh copy of the OS?
I've been rooted for quite a while (just for the free wifi tethering) but haven't flashed custom ROMs until today. I've been having a problem with all my media players' (ACast, Astro, the stock player) pause function since I installed Froyo. Essentially, after I pause a track, the player will hold the place. But just after I resume, the track restarts from the beginning. Because it's on all my players, it seems to indicate that there's an issue in the OS. It's been driving me nuts, and finally got me to flash my first ROM (Virtuous) in hopes that it would eliminate the problem. Everything worked fine, but the pausing issue remains, which would indicate that either every version of DInc Froyo has this problem or that errors that were in my original install of Froyo have been carried over to this custom ROM.
While I've seen mention of this problem with multiple DInc users, it doesn't seem to be widespread. I'm hoping to do a "fresh install" to see if that would get rid of the problem. Sorry if my terminology is too computer oriented, but flashing ROMs is still new to me.
Flashing does not reinstall Android, the OS.
ROMs, a set of instructions/code, sits on top of Android.
Hence, each ROM has it's own set of instructions (apps/features), driven by Android.
There are several ROMs out and about w/ some pretty slick/modded audio players - take a look through the Development thread and the feature list(s) for ROMs with tricked-out audio players.
You could try winamp player, I find it to be one of the best media players.
If you've already flashed Virtuous then I don't see how another ROM could help the problem but perhaps smtom is right as there may be another ROM out there with better audio players.
Thanks to both of you for your reply. Winamp also suffers from this problem for me. Unfortunately, I think that all the media players seem to be built on top of the same area of the Android OS (that appears to be corrupt for me). Since flashing ROMs won't work, is there a way to reinstall the OS?
Would running a RUU work?
Well ...you could try taking it back to stock and start over ...
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
smtom said:
Well ...you could try taking it back to stock and start over ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried to do this - I ran the original Froyo RUU (not the latest) which took me out of root (although I still had S-OFF). The first thing I did (before installing a bunch of apps, rooting, etc) was to try to play media and pause...the problems persists. So frustrating.
chaint said:
I just tried to do this - I ran the original Froyo RUU (not the latest) which took me out of root (although I still had S-OFF). The first thing I did (before installing a bunch of apps, rooting, etc) was to try to play media and pause...the problems persists. So frustrating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK - color me out of ideas on this one then...
Assume you have read thru the threads of the ROMs you've flashed (CM particularly - not because that's the cause or even that you flashed it, rather that ROM uses SD for lots of stuff) to see if anyone else is encountering this?
Have you tried flashing an AOSP (not a Sense-based) ROM to see if this happens on those too?
Those media players are pure android; some of those ROMs offer players in addition to the pure android player
To be fair, sense ROMs have sense-based players as well as android media players - just a thought to try an AOSP ROM.
Try CM, Ruby, UltimateDroid - lots of choices. I can attest, the media player(s) on UltimateDroid are unlike anything I've used before, although I cannot say whether they'd solve what ails your device unless you try some other stuff.
btw - is your music loaded on the internal memory, or on the SD? Speculation, but have you tried moving it from where it is, to the other (internal to SD or vice-versa) and the issue remains? And, is your radio updated to at least 2.15.xx?
Best of luck - please update if/when you resolve this, so the learning/knowledge can be shared.
smtom, I've seen a few other users mention this problem as well, but as you point out, it doesn't seem to be very widespread. I ran the new Verizon update (supposedly with Bug Fixes) last Friday and that hasn't helped either. Very frustrating.
I found this thread - LINK - that mentioned that the problem may be linked to the Facebook for HTC program.
As a quick background, I haven't flashed any ROMs other than Virtuous, and that didn't help. I'll try CM and report back.
Also, I have music on my stored on my internal drive and podcasts on my SD card. It seems to make no difference.
Do you use any Facebook app? And if so have you tried uninstalling any/all of them and does the issue persist?
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
This does pose an interesting question on completely fresh installing android. Wouldn't a nand flash be a complete resintall? usings pb1331.img?
I was running uncommon sense v1.1 up until last week. A few weeks ago the camera stopped saving photos to the gallery. A few days ago I was playing with new roms and discovered my camera worked fine on a stripped sense rom. Well, I didn't like the rom and now I've got my Skyraider Vanilla all set up except for ive encountered the same camera problem again.
I've tried clearing caches and data in both camera and gallery. Pulling out my battery and rebooting, and nothing is working.
Any help would be appreciated.
Where were your pictures originally getting saved to? If they were going to the emmc, they may now be getting saved to the SD card.
they were getting saved into my DCIM in the SD card. I've formatted my SD card but still no luck. I wipe data and cache every time i get a new rom.
wait, do you mean that the camera doesn't work (black screen/wont take pictures) or that you take a picture, go into the gallery and it isn't showing up.
If its the 2nd, have you tried going though the sd card/emmc with astro or another file manager and see if you can find it manually?
g00s3y said:
wait, do you mean that the camera doesn't work (black screen/wont take pictures) or that you take a picture, go into the gallery and it isn't showing up.
If its the 2nd, have you tried going though the sd card/emmc with astro or another file manager and see if you can find it manually?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2nd.
Yes, and I've connected my phone as a disc drive and open the folder on my desktop and the folder is empty.
Bryan949 said:
2nd.
Yes, and I've connected my phone as a disc drive and open the folder on my desktop and the folder is empty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
both the sdcard/DCIM/100media and emmc/DCIM/100media folders are empty?
I would flash back to the newest stock OTA and see if it works, if not... i'm not really sure. Maybe take it back to verizon and get a replacement???
g00s3y said:
both the sdcard/DCIM/100media and emmc/DCIM/100media folders are empty?
I would flash back to the newest stock OTA and see if it works, if not... i'm not really sure. Maybe take it back to verizon and get a replacement???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. And like I said, I don't think they're going to help me since I'm rooted and running a different ROM. I just don't understand how I can go from one rom and the camera doesn't work to another sense rom where it works perfectly to this rom which I actually want to stay with but the camera doesn't work again.
Bryan949 said:
Yes. And like I said, I don't think they're going to help me since I'm rooted and running a different ROM. I just don't understand how I can go from one rom and the camera doesn't work to another sense rom where it works perfectly to this rom which I actually want to stay with but the camera doesn't work again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what sense rom are you talking about where the cam doesn't work...it could be that the camera is still a broken feature on that rom or a different kernel needs to be flashed
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Hello everyone! I have been trying to flash a google edition or no-bs rom like AOKP, and I have been able to get them flashed successfully at times. I have been having a few problems with things such as rom flashes not working (sticks on Samsung logo) and having to odin stock again even when it says it was successful, and TWRP not getting past the logo screen when I boot into recovery about 50% of the time. Overall, this phone has just been an absolute nightmare to flash roms on compared to my gs3. If you know how to address any of these issues, please let me know. But anyways, I am mainly wondering about the data connectivity issues. I have tried several different roms - cyanogenmod, google edition 4.3 (what I wanted) and aokp 4.2.2 but nothing works right. The rom runs smoothly and fast, but the data works intermittently at best. It seems fine right after I flash sometimes, but often I won't even be able to sign in to my account to download my apps without wifi, and it rarely works when I'm out and about but yet somehow it connects well enough to stream music without freezes or interruption via google music. It's been showing "H" and "DC" in the signal bar, instead of H+ or LTE like I'm used to... Could I have screwed the modem or the radio up? If so, what do I do to fix it? While I wait for responses I will flash stock 4.2 touchwiz to see if it works better.
Thank you all.
P.s. If this is just a known problem with the roms, does anyone know of a 4.3 google edition rom that works, and is pre rooted or rootable?
re: flashing custom roms
beefee102 said:
Hello everyone! I have been trying to flash a google edition or no-bs rom like AOKP, and I have been able to get them flashed successfully at times. I have been having a few problems with things such as rom flashes not working (sticks on Samsung logo) and having to odin stock again even when it says it was successful, and TWRP not getting past the logo screen when I boot into recovery about 50% of the time. Overall, this phone has just been an absolute nightmare to flash roms on compared to my gs3. If you know how to address any of these issues, please let me know. But anyways, I am mainly wondering about the data connectivity issues. I have tried several different roms - cyanogenmod, google edition 4.3 (what I wanted) and aokp 4.2.2 but nothing works right. The rom runs smoothly and fast, but the data works intermittently at best. It seems fine right after I flash sometimes, but often I won't even be able to sign in to my account to download my apps without wifi, and it rarely works when I'm out and about but yet somehow it connects well enough to stream music without freezes or interruption via google music. It's been showing "H" and "DC" in the signal bar, instead of H+ or LTE like I'm used to... Could I have screwed the modem or the radio up? If so, what do I do to fix it? While I wait for responses I will flash stock 4.2 touchwiz to see if it works better.
Thank you all.
P.s. If this is just a known problem with the roms, does anyone know of a 4.3 google edition rom that works, and is pre rooted or rootable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To make your long story a lot shorter, I have seen dozens of posts just like yours.
The only way to solve problems such as you are having is simple, only flash Samsung M919 Galaxy S4
Touchwiz 4.2.2 based custom roms. Stay away from any of the aokp/aosp/cm10 or google and other ported roms.
(Wicked v6 and Darthstalker v8 are both excellent custom roms)
Download a custom rom, copy to internal sdcard, boot to twrp/cwm recovery, be sure to do a "factory reset", "wipe cache",
"data", "dalvik cache" and "system" before you start flashing. If you do all of the above, you will have no further problems.
Good luck!
Misterjunky said:
To make your long story a lot shorter, I have seen dozens of posts just like yours.
The only way to solve problems such as you are having is simple, only flash Samsung M919 Galaxy S4
Touchwiz 4.2.2 based custom roms. Stay away from any of the aokp/aosp/cm10 or google and other ported roms.
(Wicked v6 and Darthstalker v8 are both excellent custom roms)
Download a custom rom, copy to internal sdcard, boot to twrp/cwm recovery, be sure to do a "factory reset", "wipe cache",
"data", "dalvik cache" and "system" before you start flashing. If you do all of the above, you will have no further problems.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's what I've been trying to do. I really wanted to try 4.3, but really I just want to escape the bloated, sluggish stock rom. It's so slow, and I know that this phone is blazing fast, and I want to be rid of the pesky, space hogging bloat but when I tried to remove it I had all sorts of problems (such as gallery not working, forcequits out the wazu, and excessive battery use). On that note, and since I've been an AOKP Junkie since I was rocking a GS1 captivate, could you possibly recommend a rom that is more or less a streamlined TW? I like things such as swipe contact to call and the swipe any direction lock screen but i don't need any of the gimmicky samsung stuff. It would be nice if I could still use the airview stuff, though.
re: free space
beefee102 said:
Well, that's what I've been trying to do. I really wanted to try 4.3, but really I just want to escape the bloated, sluggish stock rom. It's so slow, and I know that this phone is blazing fast, and I want to be rid of the pesky, space hogging bloat but when I tried to remove it I had all sorts of problems (such as gallery not working, forcequits out the wazu, and excessive battery use). On that note, and since I've been an AOKP Junkie since I was rocking a GS1 captivate, could you possibly recommend a rom that is more or less a streamlined TW? I like things such as swipe contact to call and the swipe any direction lock screen but i don't need any of the gimmicky samsung stuff. It would be nice if I could still use the airview stuff, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like you want a lot of the bells and whistles of the stock 4.2.2 touchwiz rom but 1GB of unusable wasted space is more
important to you. ... If you would do a bit of investigating of how the phone allocates free and used space you would quickly
change your mind.
All of the Android phones have a partition of a pre determined size dedicated for the rom/firmware only so regardless
of how little space certain roms use the extra free space you would gain is not useable by the end user unless the phone
is re-partitioned with a custom bootloader which would involve a lot of very technical knowledge to do.
Even if you could do it yourself, what would you gain?? 850-950MB more or less, not even 1GB ?
The two custom roms which I suggested are already de-bloated as much as possible without hindering performance and during
flashing both of those custom roms have options of adding features and apps which users want to be included or skipping those
apps and or features which the user does not want or need.
Go to the playstore and download a free app called Antutu Benchmark after you restore your nandroid backup of
your stock rom, or re-flashing your stock rom and then run the benchmark, write down your score.
After doing that either flash one of the Google edition roms or any of the Cyanogen roms and run another benchmark
so you will see with your own eyes that the 2 scores will be very similar, no big or noticeable difference in daily usage.
If you're a good boy perhaps Santa will give you a 64GB microSD card for Xmas.
Gaining 1GB more or less would hardly make a difference anyway even if was feasible to do. (which it's not)
Misterjunky said:
It looks like you want a lot of the bells and whistles of the stock 4.2.2 touchwiz rom but 1GB of unusable wasted space is more
important to you. ... If you would do a bit of investigating of how the phone allocates free and used space you would quickly
change your mind.
All of the Android phones have a partition of a pre determined size dedicated for the rom/firmware only so regardless
of how little space certain roms use the extra free space you would gain is not useable by the end user unless the phone
is re-partitioned with a custom bootloader which would involve a lot of very technical knowledge to do.
Even if you could do it yourself, what would you gain?? 850-950MB more or less, not even 1GB ?
The two custom roms which I suggested are already de-bloated as much as possible without hindering performance and during
flashing both of those custom roms have options of adding features and apps which users want to be included or skipping those
apps and or features which the user does not want or need.
Go to the playstore and download a free app called Antutu Benchmark after you restore your nandroid backup of
your stock rom, or re-flashing your stock rom and then run the benchmark, write down your score.
After doing that either flash one of the Google edition roms or any of the Cyanogen roms and run another benchmark
so you will see with your own eyes that the 2 scores will be very similar, no big or noticeable difference in daily usage.
If you're a good boy perhaps Santa will give you a 64GB microSD card for Xmas.
Gaining 1GB more or less would hardly make a difference anyway even if was feasible to do. (which it's not)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I did mention them but I'm less concerned about the usage and performance than I am getting rid of all the bloody bloatware. It infuriates me to no end that I can't uninstall lookout and all those other apps that I'll never use and that give me constant pesky notifications. Plus, I did try a 4.3 rom and it may not actually be faster, but it definitely felt snappier and cleaner. I like that, even if it is an illusion. But since everyone is saying to stay with tw roms, I was asking for one that doesn't have all the garbage apps but still has the ability to support the phone's special functions. Oh well. I found a 4.3 that seems to be working so I'll stick with that.
As far as connectivity goes, check that the APN settings are right. I had the exact same issue with no LTE, slow or no connection, etc and the APN settings from the ROM flashed were wrong. It needs to be the fast.t-mobile APN, not the epc.tmobile APN. Also, not all ROMs have the icon for LTE, so you might be getting it and you just dont know it. Try a speed test to confirm. Hope that helps!
EDIT: I ran the CM10 nightlies on mine with no issues at all. I have also ran a few other ROMs. Right now I am simply running a deodexed rooted stock ROM that is in the development section that allowed me to flash a debloater and/or remove the bloat I don't want, yet keep all the stock touchwiz features, WiFi calling, etc. Simple and easy.
Misterjunky said:
To make your long story a lot shorter, I have seen dozens of posts just like yours.
The only way to solve problems such as you are having is simple, only flash Samsung M919 Galaxy S4
Touchwiz 4.2.2 based custom roms. Stay away from any of the aokp/aosp/cm10 or google and other ported roms.
(Wicked v6 and Darthstalker v8 are both excellent custom roms)
Download a custom rom, copy to internal sdcard, boot to twrp/cwm recovery, be sure to do a "factory reset", "wipe cache",
"data", "dalvik cache" and "system" before you start flashing. If you do all of the above, you will have no further problems.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This seems awfully drastic. The AOSP based 4.3 ROMs work fine.
As for the OP's concerns about DC and H in the signal bar, that's normal.
I'm running Lollipop InsertCoin on my M8 on AT&T. I'd avoided early Marshmallow because the external SD Card access was broken. If external SD Card access, without integrating into the ROM (so I can still use the card in a reader) is working now, is there a thread comparing the current InsertCoin, Cynanogen, LeeDroid, ICE, etc ROMs?
Thanks
I know of no such thread.
SD access was broken on CM13, but AFAIK fixed around early March. I say "AFAIK" since it was a problem on CM13 across all devices; and I don't use CM on my M8, but do on my Samsung Tab Pro 8.4. It was fixed on CM in general, so I assume it was also fixed on CM for the M8.
SD access was never broken (per se) on Sense ROMs. But with MM, by intention, you do need to grant access to individual apps (either when prompted upon opening the app, otherwise you need to do it in Settings>Apps). This leads some folks to think SD access is "broken".
Fantastic answer! Do you have a suggestion as to how one should choose between the current top ROMs, if SD access will work regardless?
Wotta said:
Fantastic answer! Do you have a suggestion as to how one should choose between the current top ROMs, if SD access will work regardless?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its a highly personal decision. Everyone has different preferences, likes, needs, etc.
If you like Sense, but want more customization options, pick a Sense based custom ROM. If you want something different from Sense, try GPE or AOSP ROMs.
Beyond that, its largely a matter of reading the ROM descriptions, see what features appeal to you the most. Then flash the ROM and try it out. Before flashing a ROM, make a TWRP backup of your current setup; then you can easily revert, if you don't like the ROM you flashed.
I also recommend to read (at a minimum) the most recent couple pages of the ROM(s) you want to flash, to see if there are common bugs, issues or tips.