Develop Bugs

[Q] Why should I root my desire?

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!

[Q] New to ROMs and all that jazz. Help a guy out?

Hey all,
So as it says in the title, I'm new to custom ROMs, kernels and all of that stuff. I've had my G3 since it came out, and with the G4 around the corner, I thought it couldn't hurt to start experimenting a bit with my G3 and see what more I can get out of it.
I've been on LGs stock ROMs since I got the phone, I've been too scared of bricking it or voiding the warranty to try flashing a custom ROM. But, digging around the dev section for the G3, I'm seeing all these custom ROMs and how well they're improving peoples performance, and I figured I might as well ask how to go out switching to one.
I had an old Google Nexus S (Yes, I know VERY old) that I had running stock with a custom kernel, but I only used that to toy around with. My G3 is my phone, it's my daily driver I use it for everything from my Music to communication, social networking, gaming, pretty much everything. But lately, a few factors have been driving me closer to wanting a different experience, namely:
- I seem to only have around 1.1GB of RAM free (I'm on the 3GB/32GB D855 Variant) after booting up, and after a few hours I get down to around 600MB free. This isn't ideal, and lag is a player after I open a few apps up. I'd like to get rid of the bloatware that comes with the phone that I can't force-close in the task manager.
- Battery life (Yes I know it's a QHD screen but still, I'm seeing people doubling their SOT with custom ROMs, and I'd like to be one of them!)
- General performance (The stock ROM is only so good)
- A few niggles I have with the stock ROM, just things I find personally annoying.
Now, basically what I want to know is the following:
- What's a good ROM to start off with and try on my device? I've heard good things about BlissPop v2.2, CloudyG3 2.2, ChupaChups ROM, and a few others but they're the main ones I'm interested in. I'd prefer a ROM that comes without all the bloatware on the phone, as I don't want to root to have to do this myself if possible.
- Do I have to root to do this? I'd MUCH prefer to not have to root my phone myself (even though I'm aware there's some good tweaks for the phone that lengthen battery life etc. but one step at a time, lets just start with a custom ROM) but I'm unaware if I need to root to install a custom kernel or ROM if it's needed for the phone (The Nexus S was given to me from a friend who'd already rooted it, I just wiped it and played around with it). If there's a ROM that requires root but can do it itself on install, that would work for me. (CloudyG3 has something like this I believe)
- How easy is it to keep the ROM/ROMs up to date? Is it like updating the stock ROM? Can I do it just by downloading the new version of the ROM and flashing it to the phone without having it wipe all my data (Like you do when updating the stock rom (From like V20A - V20B) Or do some ROMs have a built-in update feature ( think ChupaChups ROM has a built-in OTA update feature)?
- Is there any chance of me bricking my device and it being unrecoverable if I do this?
- Is there a guide to how to move from the Stock ROM to a Custom ROM somewhere here on the forums, or is it specific for each ROM? Mainly for the reason above, I want to avoid making my phone unusable so I want a good, solid guide if they're available.
- When I sell my phone in the future, am I able to restore the stock ROM and Kernel? Mainly worried about the kernel here, I know I can just factory reset and flash the stock ROM but not sure how I'd go about flashing the original kernel. If I could completely backup the original kernel and everything and then save that to my computer for later on, that would work well, I've saved backups of all my .kdz's for each ROM version.
- Is there a complete guide for backing up everything that is stock on the phone (ROM, Kernel, Userdata, etc.) and then starting over from scratch (Like a step-by-step process)
- *Optional* Does anyone know if I could restore my app data from the stock ROMs built-in backup tool in settings to the custom ROM if it supports it?
So that should be pretty much it, I'm really just looking to move to something more from my phone, and there's some good options out there, I'm just concerned regarding the things above. A huge thank you to anyone that's able to offer me help, you'll be doing me a HUGE favour. I don't think I'll be able to afford the G4 when it comes out I'm looking to get everything I can out of my G3.
Thanks!

I can't take the time for all the answers, but to get you started, look for the LG one click root thread in one of these sections.
Sent from my VK810 4G

Some guides >> http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g3/help/help-thread-lg-g3-question-t2947298 <<

[Q] Lollipop and storage / SD card use?

One major problem I have with my Tab S 8.4 is the limited storage. I mainly install games, and they can't move their data to the SD card, nor can I use the SD card with programs like AGS, because of KitKat security limitations. I'm holding off upgrading to Lollipop because the upgrade screen warns me that I'm going to lose at least 950MB of storage (and I know from my Nexus 7 2012 that Lollipop does indeed add quite a bit to storage use).
What I'd like to know is how Lollipop handles the SD card. If I can move game data to it, that would be great, instantly worthy of an upgrade. If the download folder can be moved to the SD card on Lollipop, that would also be quite good. Even if I could only move AGS data to it (without it becoming read only) that would be interesting enough to consider the upgrade.
So I'd love it if someone could tell me from experience whether the SD card is more useful with Lollipop. It's annoying to have a 64GB card that's mostly empty while internal storage is constantly full.
(I hope that someone can help answer me this question. Haven't been able to find someone to answer me this elsewhere, and looks like others on the XDA forum asked this for other devices and didn't get an answer, so I'm not all that hopeful, but I'll be very grateful if I get a good answer. Thanks in advance!)

Root your device and your problem is easily solvable. Without even on lollipop there are still restrictions.
I am running lollipop but not stock, I'm running iron Rom. Which is practically stock without all the bloat, runs great and it shaved at least a gig off the stock Rom.

Thanks for the reply. What does using a custom ROM solve (from what I mentioned above: installing game data on SD card, download directory, SD card access by apps), and is that an expected part of any custom ROM I install (assuming I pick one listed on this site) or would I have to do anything extra or pick a specific ROM?

Like I said Iron Rom is lighter compared to stock so that's an extra internal storage, plus it comes prerooted so you can then give write access to the sd card and install Link2sd.

Thanks. People who already know all the things sometimes don't remember that others have no clue. So thanks a lot for mentioning Link2sd. If I understand correctly, all I need is to root the device and install Link2sd and then I can move apps to the SD card. No need to install a custom ROM for that, right?

ET3D said:
Thanks. People who already know all the things sometimes don't remember that others have no clue. So thanks a lot for mentioning Link2sd. If I understand correctly, all I need is to root the device and install Link2sd and then I can move apps to the SD card. No need to install a custom ROM for that, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's correct.

Thanks. I'll have to look into how rooting affects my tablet's warranty, but if there's no problem with that then I'd likely go that way.
I would still be interested in knowing whether Lollipop by itself improves anything over KitKat in terms of handling the SD card.

You will lose warranty with root, but if you are kitkat you can try the latest version of kingroot as it won't trip Knox.
Before using Link2sd you need to create an ext2 partition on the sd card.
Look on Google there are plenty of guides how to use link2sd.

I did not know that i will loose 950MB of my tiny 16GB storage when i upgrade to lollipop, is this true? , we not Samsung hauled over the coals in the press a few months ago because of the amount of free storage space left to the user after the system was installed, If i will loose 950mb, that is another reason not to upgrade to lollipop, things just seem to get worse, somebody give me a nudge i must be dreaming or is this a nightmare.
John.

As far as lollipop goes, if you go to Settings>Applications>SD CARD you can see a list of Apps that can be moved to the SD card. Not all apps will be able to be moved. As far as games go, I will have to test that out and get back to you. I have no games installed at the moment. any specific one in mind?

Tinderbox (UK) said:
I did not know that i will loose 950MB of my tiny 16GB storage when i upgrade to lollipop, is this true? , we not Samsung hauled over the coals in the press a few months ago because of the amount of free storage space left to the user after the system was installed, If i will loose 950mb, that is another reason not to upgrade to lollipop, things just seem to get worse, somebody give me a nudge i must be dreaming or is this a nightmare.
John.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I upgraded to Lollipop last night and there was no warning that I would lose 950MB of storage. There was a warning that I needed at least a couple GB free in storage so that the system could proceed with the update. The U.S. lollipop OTA update itself is about 925.21MB. Other versions will be more or less around that number. Maybe he was mistaken the update size with losing that amount of storage space.

So it only needed`s a couple of gb of free flash space from my 16gb temporarily, while doing the update and then i will get it back, once the update is complete and the temp files are delete, is this what it looks like, I intend to do a reset before and after i upgrade to lollipop whenever we get it in the UK
I just hope lollipop is as stable as kitkat, as i bought my T800 10.5" just before Christmas, and it has never been rebooted or turn off, crashed or anything in 196 Days according to the battery history.
John.
LakersDroid said:
I upgraded to Lollipop last night and there was no warning that I would lose 950MB of storage. There was a warning that I needed at least a couple GB free in storage so that the system could proceed with the update. The U.S. lollipop OTA update itself is about 925.21MB. Other versions will be more or less around that number. Maybe he was mistaken the update size with losing that amount of storage space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Custom ROM for Galaxy S5 Neo (G909-W)

Hello guys, as you can see I am new here
I heard that custom ROM allows you to remove system apps and clearing some bloatware as well as changing how everything looks. Basically my phone internal storage only has 11GB of storage, most of it for some reason gets occupied by the system leaving me with only 1-2GB left on top of apps that I installed but can not be moved to my 64GB micro SD card.
CyanogenMod is a popular choice fron articles I've read but it has been cancelled and replaced with Lineage, other ROMs seems to be mixed review and doesn't look cool or doesn't have support for my phone.
I don't really care for bricking stuff and voiding warranty, I have jailbroken many iOS devices in the past.
My question is, what's a good custom ROM for my S5 Neo? Would CyanogenMod still ok to use despite being dead? Anything to look out when flashing ROM? If you can't tell I am doing this for the first time.
Oh and my phone is rooted already.

Could I get advice on a Rom to flash please

Ok so I have a HTC ONE M8, it says it has Android 6 and Sense 7 and I am in UK.
I have unlocked the bootloader, installed TWRP 3.2.3-0 (and backed up) and Rooted with SuperSU 2.82
So all I need is a rom...
I have been looking for hours trying to decide which rom to try but I am at a loss.
My needs are simple...
1. The newest version of android I can get (just to annoy my dad)
2. I must be able to blacklist calls and texts (without needing an app)
3. No bloatware, I don't want my phone doing anything unless I want it to.
4. Things like blinkfeed are totally not wanted.
5. I am not even sure what sense is, I am pretty sure I don't use it
That will do it, thank you for looking. Suggestions?

alphalvr said:
Ok so I have a HTC ONE M8, it says it has Android 6 and Sense 7 and I am in UK.
I have unlocked the bootloader, installed TWRP 3.2.3-0 (and backed up) and Rooted with SuperSU 2.82
So all I need is a rom...
I have been looking for hours trying to decide which rom to try but I am at a loss.
My needs are simple...
1. The newest version of android I can get (just to annoy my dad)
2. I must be able to blacklist calls and texts (without needing an app)
3. No bloatware, I don't want my phone doing anything unless I want it to.
4. Things like blinkfeed are totally not wanted.
5. I am not even sure what sense is, I am pretty sure I don't use it
That will do it, thank you for looking. Suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, you need to know there is no "golden rom" that will make everyone happy. You have to try them out yourself and see which one you like the most.
Anyway, to answer your questions:
1. Lineageos 16 currently is the only rom with android pie. However it's very early release, so minor and major bugs are to be expected. I'd recommend you lineageos 15.1 instead - oreo isn't that old and the rom is very stable.
2. It's possible on lineageos 15.1 and roms based on it, should also be possible on 16. Not sure about sense roms.
3. Almost all of the custom roms don't have bloatware. Also you can get root and delete apps you don't need.
4. Blinkfeed is only in stock roms. You can disable or uninstall it.
5. You're using it 100% of the time. Sense is the name of android skin on htc devices. It includes changes in look, feel and some functionality compared to stock android. You should know there are sense based roms - they are based on the stock rom, retaining sense functionality and look and custom, pure android roms - those have only minor changes in them and feel and look like stock android.

Great answers in the previous reply. Just wanted to add:
What qualifies as "bloatware" is completely subjective. The goal of the makers of these built-in apps (whether it be a manufacturer, carrier, or even Google themselves) is to provide useful apps. But that doesn't always work out, and certainly not always for everyone. However, what qualifies as "bloat" to one user, is a useful or even necessary app for another. So you say "no bloat" doesn't mean too much; without you being specific about what you want/need and what you don't. Therefore, there are various approaches/answers:
- If you refer to HTC specific apps, these won't be present in any of the more current ROMs. By definition, HTC stopped supporting this device with OS updates at Marshmallow. Anything after that, will be non-HTC and therefore AOSP or "pure Android" based.
- The AOSP based custom ROMs will often allow (even require) you to flash Google apps (gapps) separately from the ROM. This also allows you to choose which gapps package to install, and therefore tailor to your own needs. From minimal installation to get Android to work; to full suite of Google apps (many of which, a lot of users will consider bloat).
- Any pre-installed apps can be disabled or removed with root. Although you should take caution, as removing some bloat apps may break other phone functions. Unless you research and know the specific app is safe to remove, better to disable or "freeze" it with a root app like Titanium Backup. Then test the phone for a while, to see if there are any resulting bugs or issues.

Thanks, I have never really got into the whole Android and Iphone thing. My best ever phone was a Nokia N-gage and I only stopped using it recently due to my eyes not being what they once were.
My last phone was a LG nexus4 and I have only switched it up to the M8 as i saw it in a friends house with a broken screen.
I can already see it is a tad more responsive and to be honest the stock rom is probably fine for what I do (nothing + odd game) but where is the fun in that
Going to download lineage 15.1, sounds like a good start.
one last thing my M8 is 16GB of which 6GB was used, then I backed it up and that sucked up another 4GB so what happens exaclt when i install a rom does the original 6GB become free again? i have installe roms before back in the early days but my memory like my eyes aint what it once was
OK so i just jumped in and followed the 15.1 instructions (i think) Installed the rom, the suggested superuser thing and that went ok, but when installing the gapps (nano) it failed with lack of space. Doing something wrong??
The rom is starting with pink balls so I am almost there......and it is working. I went back and tried to flash gapps nano again and it actually says there is insufficient space on the system partition.
Resized it, then it seems to have worked. thanks guys i love it so far.

alphalvr said:
one last thing my M8 is 16GB of which 6GB was used, then I backed it up and that sucked up another 4GB so what happens exaclt when i install a rom does the original 6GB become free again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No storage is going to free itself up, from flashing a custom ROM. You will have to free it up yourself. You can delete the LOS ROM zip, once it has been installed. Although, I like to keep copies of custom ROMs on my computer for a while, just in case I need it again in the future.
If you have an SD card installed to the device, you can have your TWRP backup on the SD card, which will free up a lot of space. As you've seen, the TWRP backups take up a ton of storage! Having a backup on the device (either SD or internal storage) is "best practice" in my opinion; so it is handy in case you need to restore that backup.
You'll never get all 16 GB of storage. A significant amount is taken by the system (OS) and other uses. I think something like 12 GB of user-accessible storage is all you will ever see on a 16-GB device. And this starts to be eaten up the moment you start installing apps and using the device.

You guys have been a great help, I ordered a 2nd m8 off ebay and a genuine HTC dot matrix case although I now realise the dot thing is part of sense which I no longer have. whoops
I didn't realise at the time because everything seems to work but when i was installing I kept seeing a red line of text. iirc it was something about unable to access dalvik partition? I only realised it shouldn't have been saying that when I watched a youtube video of installing a rom that wasn't plagued by this line.
I need to do it again to try and figure what was going on.