benefit of root ? - XPERIA X8 General

Hi guys. May i know what's the benefit of rooting a phone? Still noob on this
Btw, how to install those application downloaded from Market into Memory card eh? I found that the internal memory is getting smaller until not enuf to install tons of things already
I know app like angry birds can move to SD.
Hope to get some answer and thanks
ADDON: Mine now running 2.1 which updated around end of last month.

The Advantages are:
- Apps2SD
- Tethering (Wifi/USB/Bluetooth)
And basically this are the most important advantages if you get root on Android 2.1

But from what i read from the android dev forum, it seems that 2.1 still unable to get root, right?

You can also
- Remove pre-installed apps and demo versions (and timescape and default home screen if you want)
- Use Titanium Backup
- Use JiT (Just in Time compiler), which is a hack that is supposed to speed up your phone quite a bit. At least I can testify to my phone being quite snappy after finally getting everything right.
Pretty much a rooted 2.1 gives you a jury-rigged but well working version of 2 of the best features from 2.2... app2sd and JiT.
You can root 2.1 if you don't mind a bit of reading and manual labor. Or that is... you can't root the one you're already running. You have to wipe your phone and install a pre-rooted 2.1 image. Details in these threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=876868
and/or
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=880576
I'd go for the latter method. The image supplied in the first version is quite customized, and may not be to everyones liking.
I advise doing quite a bit of reading through those threads if you're completely new to this. It's not hard, but it's easy to screw up and end up back at square 1. Be warned that you have to setup your phone and re-install all apps once the process is complete.... unless you made a backup with Titanium on a rooted 1.6.

All right Will try to dig out some information from the development threads
Thanks for your info, too.
This is my gf's phone which i bought her and now she complained not enuf space, haha ...

Related

lucid Rem mod jf adp 1.5 or the dude cupcake 1.1?

I now have jf adp 1.5, but I want an apps2sd firmware, but I can't decide which one is the best! probably both are the best, I know!
which are the difference between Lucid Rem and the Dude?
JF's firmware comes already supporting Apps2SD. In fact you can do it all right from the terminal on your phone. And where did you d/l from again? Because I know for a fact JF not only states this fact on his blog (the page you probably got it from) but also links to a page of concise and easy to follow instructions. Personally I think you should try all 3 (be sure to READ everything TWICE when using any firmware w/ unionfs).
Also it dosen't hurt to search as I know EVERY freaking bit of this info is w/in the first 2 pages of this forum or on JF's site....RTFM
yes I know JF is compatible to app2sd, but the process to have apps2sd is not so concise and easy: lucid Rem and the Dudes seem to be more easy!
I'm sorry if I asked: I actually red the first 3 pages, not only 2, but it is not so easy to summarize tons of information!
i went through about 8 hours worth of wiping upgrading and testing the builds.
first thing i did was wipe the ext2 partition onthe card using gparted on linux. (i actually removed the partition and repartitioned it to do so. for more stability in case of bad partitioning from before] and then i wiped the phone. before upgrading.
- original JF 1.5 stable. but apps2sd was a bit complicated.
rewipe. repartition.
- thedude's rom is stable, but i found that i could not for the life of me install games. at all. it kept coming up as con.[game].whatever and i couldn't run any of them. [tested with jewellust and tangram pro]. also, the apps2sd is in collaboration with marcusmaximus and while i love the way he did the apps2sd, there wasn't much in instructions on how to make upgrading to thedude's build + marcus' app2sd work perfectly. [i got it to work, but it was w/o it's share of problems]
another rewipe. repartition.
- using Lucidrem's modded 1.5 + apps2sd steps laid out by mailman. simple perfect. 73mb free. apps2sd and stable as hell. i would recommend this.
but most of all, just wipe the ext2 partition for stability reasons. the move from rc33 to 1.5 was not a simple upgrade with apps2sd involved.
Exegence said:
i went through about 8 hours worth of wiping upgrading and testing the builds.
first thing i did was wipe the ext2 partition onthe card using gparted on linux. (i actually removed the partition and repartitioned it to do so. for more stability in case of bad partitioning from before] and then i wiped the phone. before upgrading.
- original JF 1.5 stable. but apps2sd was a bit complicated.
rewipe. repartition.
- thedude's rom is stable, but i found that i could not for the life of me install games. at all. it kept coming up as con.[game].whatever and i couldn't run any of them. [tested with jewellust and tangram pro]. also, the apps2sd is in collaboration with marcusmaximus and while i love the way he did the apps2sd, there wasn't much in instructions on how to make upgrading to thedude's build + marcus' app2sd work perfectly. [i got it to work, but it was w/o it's share of problems]
another rewipe. repartition.
- using Lucidrem's modded 1.5 + apps2sd steps laid out by mailman. simple perfect. 73mb free. apps2sd and stable as hell. i would recommend this.
but most of all, just wipe the ext2 partition for stability reasons. the move from rc33 to 1.5 was not a simple upgrade with apps2sd involved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
really thanks a lot! it answers to my question!
just a dubt: my G1 is from uk, so originally it had the RC9, and after few change I came up to adp jf 1.5., the sd card (a trascendent 8gb class 6) is brand new, I just partitioned it for making ext2 partition and I didn't write anything on it. Should I wipe it as well? if yes how I should do?
if lucid rem is rteally smooth I'll go for it!
Hey there, I have the same card, if you already partitioned it but havent written anything to EXT2 you should be good. As for Lucidrem I have been using the modded JFRC33 since day one and props to all the other methods and designers of apps to sd but lucid's was the easiest for me since I dont have a home CPU. I was able to use terminal emulator to run the commands and it was extremely quick & simple. If you're unsure or not able to run adb shell on a cpu like me I would definately go with his modded version
Just to add to this mess
I am using Dude's build (mainly because I had it since .05) and once you update the script in 1.1 your games and protected apps should be fine.
MarcusMaximus states that unionfs method is much more stable an powerfull but I am yet to be convinced in that. It has a HUGE potential (move individual apps back and forth, boot up without sd, etc) and I see why everybody seems to jump on that boat but the question is... do we need it? If you're putting your apps on SD you probably don't want them back on your phone, and, honestly, why do you need to boot your phone without SD? I also think (and this only MY opinion as noone else stated this) that unionfs slows down you system slightly, I could be wrong. At this point, I find it more of the hassle to use it so I'm going back to JF firmware and doing sym-links.
Re-inforcing Exegence's statement, I've used sym-links (Lucid's way) since December with absolutely no problems (app, app-private, dalvik-cache, and caches for market, browser, maps and streetview).
I may see where unionfs goes in few months but at this I'll stick with true and tried.
Good luck to everyone
borodin1 said:
Just to add to this mess
I am using Dude's build (mainly because I had it since .05) and once you update the script in 1.1 your games and protected apps should be fine.
MarcusMaximus states that unionfs method is much more stable an powerfull but I am yet to be convinced in that. It has a HUGE potential (move individual apps back and forth, boot up without sd, etc) and I see why everybody seems to jump on that boat but the question is... do we need it? If you're putting your apps on SD you probably don't want them back on your phone, and, honestly, why do you need to boot your phone without SD? I also think (and this only MY opinion as noone else stated this) that unionfs slows down you system slightly, I could be wrong. At this point, I find it more of the hassle to use it so I'm going back to JF firmware and doing sym-links.
Re-inforcing Exegence's statement, I've used sym-links (Lucid's way) since December with absolutely no problems (app, app-private, dalvik-cache, and caches for market, browser, maps and streetview).
I may see where unionfs goes in few months but at this I'll stick with true and tried.
Good luck to everyone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do agree that the dudes build is awsome but is it faster at first it was fast but now that i have almost 100 apps on my class 6 sd card I see the phone almost pausing when I oper certian apps. emample it I go to bettercut and try to change an icon and click on use icon pack if i have one or two icon packs its fine but if I have 6 or 8 it has a hard time opening the pop up window with the different icon packs... I have no tryed JF with apps to sd only without apps to sd and it was fine maybe i need to give it a shot and see which one is faster!!!!
borodin1 said:
Just to add to this mess
I am using Dude's build (mainly because I had it since .05) and once you update the script in 1.1 your games and protected apps should be fine.
MarcusMaximus states that unionfs method is much more stable an powerfull but I am yet to be convinced in that. It has a HUGE potential (move individual apps back and forth, boot up without sd, etc) and I see why everybody seems to jump on that boat but the question is... do we need it? If you're putting your apps on SD you probably don't want them back on your phone, and, honestly, why do you need to boot your phone without SD? I also think (and this only MY opinion as noone else stated this) that unionfs slows down you system slightly, I could be wrong. At this point, I find it more of the hassle to use it so I'm going back to JF firmware and doing sym-links.
Re-inforcing Exegence's statement, I've used sym-links (Lucid's way) since December with absolutely no problems (app, app-private, dalvik-cache, and caches for market, browser, maps and streetview).
I may see where unionfs goes in few months but at this I'll stick with true and tried.
Good luck to everyone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A slight oversimplification of my reasoning in using unionfs, so I'll try to explain my motivations here. My primary motivation was to make the process of moving apps to the sd card more stable. Unfortunately, I think many have misunderstood what I mean by that. I don't actually mean that it will have fewer problems, it pretty much has an equal amount from what I've seen.
What I mean by it is that in the case of a problem, the phone will still start. With the symlink method I was seeing constant problems of boot looping for no clear reason. It seemed to work *most* of the time but when it didn't the system crashed... hard. With unionfs it's extremely rare that I get any reports of problems causing the phone to not start, and when I do it's always a corrupted file system on the sd card. By far the most common problems have been certain specific apps not working(at this point togglesettings is the only one I know of that just straight doesn't work with this method... and it actually works, it just force closes on boot) and some apps having to be re-downloaded when the method is applied. There's no more than a handful of more serious problems(such as apps showing up perfectly in their correct locations on the filesystem but not showing up in the launcher... wtf) which I definitely couldn't say for the symlink method. Actually even problems with a corrupted file system are massively down from the symlink method now that mine won't let you move the app caches(responsible for every single freakin' report of stale nfs handles).
Aside from that was the ability to have some apps/storage on the sd card. This is primarily for stability reasons, just in case there's any apps that freak out(or go really slow) from being on the sd card, they can be moved to the internal memory without having to undo the whole process.
At any rate, I'm not mad at anyone(just in case anyone thought I'm upset about anything said about the unionfs method), just explaining my motivations behind making it a reality.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I really don't understand why there's umpteen different threads about moving apps to the SD card, why there are *paid* apps to do this, etc.
Is it really that hard to type:
cp -a /data/app /system/sd
cp -a /data/app-private /system/sd
rm -r /data/app
rm -r /data/app-private
ln -s /system/sd/app /data/app
ln -s /system/sd/app-private /data/app-private
Why do people make this complicated?
As for instability with the symlink method, I haven't experienced any, and I think it's specifically because I did NOT move the dalvik cache, and there are a number of good reasons for leaving it in place regardless of the method used.
ok, now everything is more... clear but complicate
another question (remember I'm a noob): what is the dalvik cache? why I shouldn't move it? is it huge?
anbd the last (for now ) which is the difference between unionsf and symlink methods?
iso67 said:
ok, now everything is more... clear but complicate
another question (remember I'm a noob): what is the dalvik cache? why I shouldn't move it? is it huge?
anbd the last (for now ) which is the difference between unionsf and symlink methods?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dalvik is the name of the Java VM on Android. It's what's used to run all of the Java programs.
Dalvik-cache is a directory on the filesystem that stores optimized versions of the dex files that are contained within an application's apk archive (think of the dex file as the executable and the apk as a zip file that contains the dex file and other files).
The reason moving it can cause problems is that if dalvik-cache is not accessible, no Java programs (including system programs) can run.
I have tried every combo of build and SD card mods and must say.........they all work, and I think 90% of problems are user error, I know 9 out of 10 of my mistakes were.
My biggest advice, if you dont understand what is happening you will always make dumb mistakes and be "that guy". Try to understand what you are doing before you do it and it you may be able to understand how to fix your own problem.
brandenk said:
I have tried every combo of build and SD card mods and must say.........they all work, and I think 90% of problems are user error, I know 9 out of 10 of my mistakes were.
My biggest advice, if you dont understand what is happening you will always make dumb mistakes and be "that guy". Try to understand what you are doing before you do it and it you may be able to understand how to fix your own problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I completely agree with you, I still think that this community needs to agree on whichever way is better and stick with it. This would make it better for developers and users.
I thinks that a pro (hint: MarcusMaximuss) needs to do some bench testing and see if both ways are equal in speed and reliability. If we prove that unionfs method is as fast as symlink onem and stays that way after few weeks of use we can conclude that it is ready for prime time and gear all efforts towards using only that method.
I am in the process of doing a so called "user test". Dude's 1.1a with unionfs apps2sd felt slow to me. At this point I switched to JF1.50 and did symlinks and it's blazing fast!!! Give me couple of days and I'll convert JFs build to unionfs and see if that stays that fast or slows down. I'll do the same thing on Dude's build once 1.2 comes out. But these will be just my impressions, no solid data to back them up.
As always, thank god for Nandroid and good luck to everyone.
I think MarcusMaximus does enough. He doesn't need more work, especially since he's not being paid (only donations).
I think another group interested in advancing these methods should come together and do a test that is more "third-party", so we can have clear and unbiased results.
Having said that, I feel that this method (unionfs) will continue to stabilize as he works on it. Especially since he has commissioned the guidance of the 3 top ROM devs. Very promising in its infancy and just needs to be refined.
cal3thousand said:
I think MarcusMaximus does enough. He doesn't need more work, especially since he's not being paid (only donations).
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed !!!
cal3thousand said:
I think MarcusMaximus does enough. He doesn't need more work, especially since he's not being paid (only donations).
I think another group interested in advancing these methods should come together and do a test that is more "third-party", so we can have clear and unbiased results.
Having said that, I feel that this method (unionfs) will continue to stabilize as he works on it. Especially since he has commissioned the guidance of the 3 top ROM devs. Very promising in its infancy and just needs to be refined.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well... I haven't quite gotten Haykuro on board yet.

Undo apps2sd?

Hi all...
I've been getting a lot of suspicious errors recently (force closes and app shortcut names disappearing) and I'd like to go from apps2sd back to just a normal setup with my apps on the internal phone storage.
Can somebody please verify that the instructions here are up to date? I'm a little nervous about wiping my data (or bricking my phone).
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Apps2SD
Also, can somebody tell me whether doing this will wipe out the (single) app I paid for from the Marketplace? If so, can I redownload it, or will I need to pay for it a second time?
I originally got apps2sd set up by using the recovery ROM prior to flashing Modaco's custom ROM v1.1.
The easiest thing to do would be to load the new RA 1.5.1 recovery image.
Then boot into it.
Go to Partiton SD
Select FAT EXT3 SWAP
and then set the partition sizes of EXT3 and SWAP to 0
Is there a reason you want to do this???
This runs a very very minimal chances of bricking your phone. The other method on that Wiki page has more potential to get you in trouble.
Did see the market place question.
There is a method laying around somewhere to copy all of your apps back to the phone instead of loosing them. Restoring a Nandroid backup would likly put them all back into the /apps/ directory sd card or not. apps2sd just changes the location of that directory really.
But the market does keep track of your google account and what apps you purchase, you wont have to re purchase (maybe on a totaly new handset).
hope my jiberish has made sense
jashdlfjasdhfjablgjkasgjlkasfhlajshf
At first I was interested in the whole apps2sd process, but have yet to implement it on my rooted, Fresh 1.0 Hero since so far, I haven't really seen a need for it.
But if you were to 'turn on' apps2sd and then decide later that you don't want it, there's a possibility of bricking?? Although I assume you can always reflash the RUU if something like that were to happen? Hopefully?
Think I'll stay away from the whole offloading applications thing for awhile.
mkhopper said:
At first I was interested in the whole apps2sd process, but have yet to implement it on my rooted, Fresh 1.0 Hero since so far, I haven't really seen a need for it.
But if you were to 'turn on' apps2sd and then decide later that you don't want it, there's a possibility of bricking?? Although I assume you can always reflash the RUU if something like that were to happen? Hopefully?
Think I'll stay away from the whole offloading applications thing for awhile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The possibilities of bricking the phone are very slim, but they still exist. If a phone is truly a brick, not even RUU can help. RUU has to be able to detect the phone is there in Windows, so if its beyond that RUU is useless.
Nothing to worry about as long as follow the *usually* very well written step by steps across the interweb.
If it makes you feel any better I have only heard of one or two people to brick the Hero. Most things are recoverable.
Yeah, sorry, I didn't expect it would brick the phone so much as badly mess it up - like if it expects to run apps from the SD card and they aren't there I could see the phone being tough to use as a phone, but it wouldn't really be "bricked" in the sense of not responding to user input at all.
As far as why I want to do this, I haven't really seen a huge need for apps2sd yet, and when I was recently helping an app developer to debug their app it was just one more weird variable that seemed like a possible source of problems. I'm also hoping to start developing apps myself soon, so having a more vanilla phone seems like a good idea. (I also was influenced by the Fresh ROM apps2sd rant, to be honest.)
Anyhow, thanks for your replies. I'll probably repartition the card from RUU and then restore from Nandroid at that point. Will a repartition wipe the card filesystems out, or is the partitioner smart enough to preserve the existing data?
What I did is RUUed back to 1.2, OTA updated to 1.6
Flashed to the 1.5.1 image
(At this point I went to mess with the partitions and there was no ext)
Flashed to Fresh 1.0

HELP ! ROM Update to Android 2.0 / 2.1

Hey Guys at first sorry for my english i'm not good in it. And I'm a Android newbie I just gained a bit exerience with my Touch Diamond but it's broken now..okay but that's not the probleme....
If got a question:
After about 2 days of searching for an android 2.0 or 2.1 ROM I was a little bit confused of the diffrent news everybody was talking about. I'm root on my Hero. That was the first an last thing I made with my device.
1. Everybody is gonna talk about MoDaCo 3.0 but when I was trying to download his ROM my browser never got a request. Is the site down, where that ROM is hosted ?? Could someone give me a working link with this ROM ??
2. Is there a ROM with Android 2.0 or 2.1 outside or even not ??? And if yes are they working well ???
Would be nice if someone can help me =) thanks a lot.
Please answer soon if you know something about that =)
Greetz BassdoxXx
you can get modaco's roms at his website, www.modaco.com.
in the android development section there are some 2.0/1 roms, none of them works flawless, see for yourself if it fits your needs.
Thanks a lot for your fast answer. =)
The problem that i couldn't open the modaco page was my isp -.- i downloaded it at school
BassdoxXx said:
Thanks a lot for your fast answer. =)
The problem that i couldn't open the modaco page was my isp -.- i downloaded it at school
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What? Does ISP's block that site? Lol, would never happened in Norway
there is a few 2.0+ roms out there for the hero.
most seem to be very usable now.
best sense ui would be lox/behnaam community release on 1.6.
http://htcpedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1448
there are two aosp roms worth looking at.
lox aosp ( im using that on a daily basis)
http://htcpedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1416
jnwhiteh aosp
http://htcpedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1528
Hello all,
I am having very specific request when it comes to choosing a proper rom for install on to my hero.
I am blind. Stock roms are only running Android 1.5. More robust accessibility features are available starting with Android 1.6 and improving even more with Android 2.0.
So for sure I am forced to upgrade my hand set.
There are various roms, some of their authors have even disable google specific features so I know I can't install such a rom.
All the accessibility efforts are being lead by the google developers.
Most likely these accessibility tools won't be usefull to most of you but please can anyone recommend me a rom where market is working and where the following applications can be installed and used?
- eyesfree suite of applications,
- talkback - the google screen reader for android,
- tts service.
All possible help is already appreciated.
sorry for the double posting. I've accidentally posted twice and I am unable to remove the post.
Hope anybody can help me please.
pvdeejay said:
Hello all,
I am having very specific request when it comes to choosing a proper rom for install on to my hero.
I am blind. Stock roms are only running Android 1.5. More robust accessibility features are available starting with Android 1.6 and improving even more with Android 2.0.
So for sure I am forced to upgrade my hand set.
There are various roms, some of their authors have even disable google specific features so I know I can't install such a rom.
All the accessibility efforts are being lead by the google developers.
Most likely these accessibility tools won't be usefull to most of you but please can anyone recommend me a rom where market is working and where the following applications can be installed and used?
- eyesfree suite of applications,
- talkback - the google screen reader for android,
- tts service.
All possible help is already appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i am on mcr3.0, i looked in the market, i can find 8 apps for eyesfree, tts is one of these. i didn't try to install one of these, but usually it works. the search for talkback returned nothing.
not that i want to be rude, but wouldn't you be better off with another phone if you are blind? i can not imagine a touchscreen only phone would be suitable for someone who is not able to see... especially because there are great devices out there that have a full qwerty keyboard, and come with android 2.0 out of the box... imho this would be a better solution.
again, the last thing i want to be is rude, but maybe this was your mistake: you posted in the htc hero section of this forum, the hero is a touch screen only device, including a virtual keyboard on the screen. it has only six buttons and a trackball, and two rocker buttons for the volume. just to make clear we are talking about the same device
if you are still up for the hero you could try the 2.1 rom from here: http://htcpedia.com/forum/showthread.php?p=30418&posted=1#post30418
best you try for yourself, it has some drawbacks, but maybe in areas you don't need (afaik syncing with exchange does not work for example, which wouldn't be a problem for me...). otherwise it might be worth to wait another week or two, we all are waiting unpatiently for the official eclair release from htc
keep asking if you need to know more, but maybe open a new thread, since your problems are very specific, and might drown between all the newbies question about "how to root my phone".
Hello,
Thanks for your reply and a great attitude.
Yes it may sound strange I have really got HTC Hero here. I know I'll be having problems with virtual keyboard but also I am afraid accessibility features of Android phones are not really such mastered one can use it daily. For example reading emails and content from the web browser is not yet possible. I just want to try how things work and I would also like to touch the virtual keyboard. If I can memorize computer keyboard and use it daily, typewriter keyboard, nokia mobile phone keyboard, then perhaps I might be able to make some use of this too.
I am sory but here are some more questions:
I haven't yet verified with some sighted friends but... is it possible my hero is running even older version of android like Android 1.5? I've based the assumption that it's most likelly running 1.5 because majority of the devices I was reading on the net are running it.
You've been triyng to locate eyes-free applications on the market but you were unable to find talkback. Are you sure you are running newer version of Android than 1.5?
Talkback is supposed to be installed with Android 1.6 andd 2.0 by default and you should be able to find it in the accessibility menu of your phone. I am not sure how well this applies to the custom roms.
Talkback requires google's accessibility api which is reported to be available on Android 1.6 upwards.
To tell you the full story first I've asked on the eyes-free google group whether some accessibility experts from there can help me but no one knowledgeable enough has replied to my query, so I'm trying my luck here then.
Oh I am really excited since I've got really well formed informative reply.
Thanks again
Edit:
Also, I've seen somewhere in the forums here this leaked HTC rom does not support the market. Has this been rectified already? You know if market does not work then most likelly I won't be able to install these applications I am tallking about.
Also you are mentioning possibility to wait a few weeks until HTC guys role out the official update for Hero. Wouldn't that break chances I will be able to root my device later?
Edit2:
Ooops, I should read better next time. Market works on this rom. The problem is paid apps can't be installed which is hopefully not a big issue for me since most of the accessibility enabled applications are free.
Which of the downloads from Hero 21 do I need?
63.18.55.06JU_6.35.09.26) or No Wipe Download. I will need a wipe I am sure but since this link says nowipe I am ehmmm. confused.
pvdeejay,
Unfortunately there is not an 'official' update for Android 1.6, 2.0 or 2.1 as of yet. There are rumours of one coming out soon, but nothing cast-iron yet.
You are correct in that the Hero runs 1.5. It does say it under Settings | About Phone (bottom item on list)| Firmware Version (bottom on list again), although without a working screen reader, there is probably little use in knowing how to find that.
If you did want to upgrade, I'm sure plenty of people could help find a ROM that would suit. The only issue with that is that you would need a rooted phone with a custom recovery image installed. Unfortunately, a lot of the procedures would not be easy for you, as the software that you might need to use to go through the procedure is probably not designed that well for accessibility tools. I don't know what kind of software you are using, but some of the instructions for making goldcards are quite complex, and involve editing some numbers in a 'table' which could be quite difficult for you, I would imagine.
I'm sure a friend would be able to help you out with making a goldcard/rooting if you did want to install a custom ROM (you'll probably be waiting a while otherwise ). They could even root their phone while doing yours (just share the goldcard between the devices).
Nonetheless, there is probably a ROM out there with little removed from it. I'll have a look just now, but you would need to have your phone rooted to do anything just now.
When it comes to rooting and installing custom recovery image. Do you thing the following instructions might work for me?
These instructions don't require a gold card:
- How to Root HTC Hero and Install Amon Ra Recovery Image
- How to install a custom rom on a HTC Hero
Hello,
Here are some numbers I've asked my friend to read from system -> about screen. The phone interface is in czech so I am unable to get some names translated to english, but I believe some of the geeks will understand these identifiers and might be able to help me what is best:
Code:
firmware: 1,5
63.118.55.O6U|6.35.04.25
2.6.27-a5504199
Build number: 1.76.405.6 146733 CL# 47214 release-keys
Software version: 1.0.0.A6288
pvdeejay,
to sum it up:
the hero definitly runs on android 1.5. there are no roms for older android versions, and a few homebrewn for newer versions, as we said already.
i searched for talkbalk on my 1.5 rom, so it is obvious that i couldn't find it...
about rooting of newer roms: it is just a matter of time, sooner or later there will be always methods of rooting a rom. what i meant by waiting is: wait until the official update is out, then wait a few more hours until the first rooted and customized rom is out
@pvdeejay,
I would have to agree with kendong2 that waiting for the official ROM is probably the best idea for you at the moment. There are no guarantees that an unofficial ROM would help, and it would be another user interface to try and learn.
@kendon,
I noticed he has the original, easily rooted version of the hero. IIRC, that is what I had on my G2 (and had the security unlocked bootloader out the box). If that's the case, would pvdeejay be able to 'fastboot boot' a full system img file for the purposes of testing it out to see if it meets the requirements.
The reason I ask is that I've only ever fastbooted my AmonRA recovery (I didn't flash it, because I never felt any need to). I'm guessing you could fastboot a full img, but I'm not sure about the practical issues of where it would be stored in memory...
Sorry guys originally I believed I am slowly getting into the matter and am begining to understand how flashing / rooting / upgrading home brew firmwares works on these phones.
After these 2 posts I feel like a total noob again.
Now again some very concrete questions:
What about these 2 guides I've posted links to?
Can I somehow got [Recovery] [13-Dec-2009] RA-hero-v1.5.2 installed so I will be able to do nandroid backup and then possibly flash some new roms?
Can I really brick my phone by trying to install amon ra?
Originally I thought the process works as follows:
1) get the custom recovery image installed (that's the amon ra in this case),
2) do a nandroid backup which will dump everything usefull on to the memory card,
3) backup and reformat the card,
4) download a rom, rename it to update.zip, put it onto the root folder of the cart, reboot the hero in recovery mode, do the wipe of the data partition, and run update,
5) reboot again and believe it's good.
Also some very significant bit is the thing you are all calling the radio. I am afraid I've not identified this bit thus it's missing in this summary.
Which files will I need to download if I decide to try Android 2.1 community edition 1.8? Are these files I've copied links to a few posts earlier both needed?
Can you please check this list, identify the things I am missing, and make suggestions and corrections why this may not work on my device based off of those number I tried to put down here?
Even if I won't be able to do this right now I'd be happy to get corrections as I can learn something new.
Of course I won't be doing all this on my own. I will ask my bro to read all the stuff to me and we'll do it according to your advices.
To give some bits about me and my computer skills, I believe I am a Windows power user, Basically I do also understand unix, I know what's bash how the files are arranged in a file system, can use command-line tools, telnet, ssh. I am working as a network administrator here so some background is there really.
Hi pvdeejay,
Answers to your questions here.
You can actually use fastboot to 'temporarily' load up the AmonRA recovery image into memory and run it from there. I do that on my phone, for the simple reason that I can't be bothered ) ) to flash the recovery. Once you get AmonRA running, the first thing you should do is make a Nandroid backup. It will be saved to your SD card, so then get the nandroid directory of your card and save it to your PC (just in case!)
So, here's how you'd go about this.
(Make sure you have the android sdk installed, and that adb and fastboot commands are working). USB cable should be plugged in throughout.
Before you begin, put the ROM you want (ie. Android 2.1 community edition 1.8) into the root of the microSD card (a .zip file).
Code:
adb devices
Should list your phone's serial number
Now turn off the phone, and turn it on with the back key held down (the one at the very bottom right of the device).
You should enter fastboot mode. Now type
Code:
fastboot devices
and you should see the serial number again.
Now type
Code:
fastboot boot AmonRA.img
where AmonRA.img is a file in your present working directory that is the filename of the latest custom recovery image. This does NOT flash your phone, it merely runs the image (pretty much as close as you get to risk free, other than sitting there with a tinfoil hat on )
See screenshot of the recovery image here:
http://www.sizzledcore.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/RA-hero-recovery-image-500x375.jpg
Make the Nandroid backup by choosing 'Nandroid Vx.x Backup' and waiting a while.
If your ROM needs a wipe first (most new ones do), select Wipe data/factory reset. You will lose all your user data on the device (but you've got a nandroid backup just in case)
You're now good to go. So choose "Apply sdcard:choose zip"
Now select the custom ROM zip file you downloaded. It doesn't even need to be called update.zip! Choose it from the list and push trackball.
Wait for the update.zip to go in. Do NOT turn off the device or pull the battery. First boot can take a very long time (upto 30 minutes). Just keep it plugged in via USB and wait...
As for radios, see http://android.modaco.com/content/h...-24-11-hero-roms-radios-in-update-zip-format/ and look at the section titled radios. The latest one is in bold. It is a .zip file as well, that you use these exact same instructions for to install (don't do the wipe or anything like that. Just install the .zip file)
anon2122 said:
@kendon,
I noticed he has the original, easily rooted version of the hero. IIRC, that is what I had on my G2 (and had the security unlocked bootloader out the box). If that's the case, would pvdeejay be able to 'fastboot boot' a full system img file for the purposes of testing it out to see if it meets the requirements.
The reason I ask is that I've only ever fastbooted my AmonRA recovery (I didn't flash it, because I never felt any need to). I'm guessing you could fastboot a full img, but I'm not sure about the practical issues of where it would be stored in memory...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is correct so far, i did the same, except i installed the recovery. i play a lot with my phone, the installed recovery image with the nandroid backup is the best i have ever seen for a phone...
@pvdeejay
you always write so much...
i try to answer everything:
the two guides you posted are good for your situation. i never tried flashrec, but from what i read it is safe to use. i installed my recovery image through fastboot, the guide is here: http://android.modaco.com/content/h...ng-the-patched-recovery-image-on-your-device/
i have no idea how this works out for you, but my honest suggestion would be that you have someone seeing assisting you, you CAN brick your phone, though it is not likely if you follow the instructions precisely. the process is not very time consuming at all, so you don't need to bother anyone for days of their time.
edit: and now i read your post to the end and saw that your brother will be helping you, so you are on the right track
once you have the recovery installed you can make nandroid backups, and i would suggest that you do this first thing after installing the recovery, better make a backup too much than one too less...
the 5 steps you described are correct, except there is no need to rename the zipfile anymore, you can select any .zip from your sdcard.
the radio part is the number that begins with 63.18.55.06, then comes two letters and then more numbers. as by now the version can be identified by the letters, with JU being the up-to-date one. in general you can say the newer the better, but you have to try for yourself. start with the newest one, if you have problems go back.
thanks this seems to be pretty doable plus I will easily be able to restore the current data backed using nandroid backup.
Which android SDK do I need the latest one?
The commands I need to type are supposed to be typed on the PC or on the phone? I assume on the PC but I just would like to ensure.
Hero21 1.8 community edition has a recommended radio listed in the first post. Is it necessary to install that one as well? What should I install first the actual rom or the radio? Do I need installing radio at all? Should i do the same with radio i.e. renaming it to update.zip and using amonra to install it?
Also will I be able to use this method even if I install another rom (running amonra without actually flashing it)?
Edit:
sorry guys did not realize renaming to update.zip is no longer needed.
Edit2:
is there an easy way on how to access sd card from windows? I can't just remove the card from phone and insert it into my laptop because I don't have the proper adapter. Previously my boss was using the hero and perhaps it would be nice to backup the sd card first.
Edit3:
uhmmm, installing android sdk is perhaps not as simple as it sounds.
I have just seen this article.
I am on a limited gprs internet connection, can you please suggest sdk features I won't need to save some download bandwith?
- you need only the adb binary (thats adb.exe for windows) from the sdk, the rest is not needed for this.
- install the radio from the 2.1community-rom-thread, it is the newest. install the radio first. DO NOT PULL THE BATTERY until the phone has rebooted completely. if you pull the battery during radio upgrade your phone will be dead. it takes a few minutes, do not panic!
- you can copy the contents of the sdcard via the usb-cable, plug it into your pc and pull down the notification bar...
Do I need to run SDK Setup.exe when I have downloaded android sdk for windows?
Or can I simply run that binary from the command-line without the installation?
Do I need any USB drivers so my phone can be recognized?

[Q] Updating Builds?

Hi all,
I've been lurking on these boards for sometime, taking in lots and lots of info. I have to say first of all that this place is great. Thanks to all the devs and hard working individuals who make our devices unique (esp. the HD2)
To get to the point, I have a TMOUS HD2 and had xbmod's WP7 and android on sd dual booting. all was running smooth (after A LOT of mistakes) and I vowed never to touch it again...well that didn't happen because I wanted to upgrade to xbmod's NoDo update. I read another thread on here that said you can backup partitions from the SD card to another hard drive, then copy them back to restore everything, but that did not work for me at all.
So the question is, is there a way to update between similar builds (in my case, xbmod 1.04 to 1.10) without losing data/apps/etc. I know that since it's on NAND it'll be tougher than SD Android but I figured I would ask. While we're on the subject...is anyone trying to develop running WP7 on SD? That'd be sweet. Thanks!
I would love to just update my rom too but I guess that is not possible for our HD2 as of yet or else everybody would be doing it. As from what I understand is that all your apps that you have downloaded from the market gets repopulated. Apps that were sideloaded are lost, but I believe if you search you can find that one person who made an app to automatically re-install all your apps once flashed to a new rom. As far as settings and other stuff you would have to redo them.
soapbox23 said:
Hi all,
I've been lurking on these boards for sometime, taking in lots and lots of info. I have to say first of all that this place is great. Thanks to all the devs and hard working individuals who make our devices unique (esp. the HD2)
To get to the point, I have a TMOUS HD2 and had xbmod's WP7 and android on sd dual booting. all was running smooth (after A LOT of mistakes) and I vowed never to touch it again...well that didn't happen because I wanted to upgrade to xbmod's NoDo update. I read another thread on here that said you can backup partitions from the SD card to another hard drive, then copy them back to restore everything, but that did not work for me at all.
So the question is, is there a way to update between similar builds (in my case, xbmod 1.04 to 1.10) without losing data/apps/etc. I know that since it's on NAND it'll be tougher than SD Android but I figured I would ask. While we're on the subject...is anyone trying to develop running WP7 on SD? That'd be sweet. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is a way of backing up the data for the appps but not the apps them selves, if you wait for a week there should be a backup utility that may work
im not talking full rom backups, i know they are there, im talking app and data backup....maybe will know soon
Any movement on this data backup scheme?
ojaidave said:
Any movement on this data backup scheme?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
aye its working fine, its in beta just now, i dont think him made a public release yet
it backs up all the DATA from each app, it doesnt however backup the apps them selves, so you would do the following
run the backup
flash your device
install all the apps you want
restore the backup
it does not backup SMS
i made a thread about doing this manually which works as well, but the app makes it a lot easier.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1082343
Haven't heard anything...still waiting also want my Mango already!

New phone, new brand, new questions!! (KIND OF URGENT)

Hello everyone, Ive been lurking around your little forum here for the sake of customizing/upgrading/etc my new e612g.
First of all, I may say that I am semi-well-versed on android stuff, but this being a whole new brand Im dealing with I am CONFUSED!:silly:
Ok so onto the questions:
First of all and my main regard here: The system partition is freaking full, only 4 mb left. Ive deleted most bloatware and moved some apps to sd, changed system to user apps someones, and all of the "usual" tweaking.
I am currently on stock 4.1.2 (20d-rooted-unlocked-cwm KDZ that is found here)
Next question: I have a big misunderstanding on KDZ files, can they be modded, if so how???, I mean can I use the kitchen to build/mod a say stock rom and somehow convert it to a flashable KDZ? (I really like the flashing software, much more informative and fool-proof than RSDlite)
speakin´ about flashin´... Is there any way I can flash a KDZ, and keep my apps and data? I I remember flashing CM updates on my moto devices w/o wiping and stuff...
Next question: from what I´ve heard, there is a kernel developed by chachasomeone (big thanks dude!) which I use, which is able to recognize and manage a swap file... Ive hear just using rAM expander something app you can create and autoload the script for loading the swap file at startup, but again Ive read a lot this two past days, and somewhere here on XDA a user of the e612 damaged his phone by using a swapfile, and another "lost" (if you can really think something as inexpensive as a microSD is lost!!!) his SD card by means of bad swapfile implementation...
any advice on this?
And finally, this is more a recommendation than a question, Ive observed that the information here is really, really, REALLY sprayed around forums and themes, no centralization like with other devices. To an unexperienced user, this will be hell. Heck even I was really confused on where to look for roms, answers, etc.
Anyway you guys could separate themes, maybe merge some threads and overall, on top of that "new" thread just for god's sake tell everyone that e610,e612 and all the alphabet after them are really the same phone!!!! Dude I freaked out last night when I was flashing that KDZ I have right now, and looked into my phone´s box and it said E612g, but the update said it was ONLY for e610...=
Obviously it worked just fine, buuut someone unexperienced will, and will always flood the forums with questions (the I cant find the search button syndrome)
Thanx for your attention, donlloreda out.
BTW I´m really satisfied so far with this phone, Snappy, fast, plenty of internal storage (though it´s crippled) the creen sucks but just go ahead, set the lcd density to 144, install a nice, clean font (like segoe UI, or Segoe WP, or Helvetica, or some Adobe font, and you´ll se the eye strain go down..)
BTW, just dont download any font, go to your build.prop and search at the bottom for a line saying something like lge.fonts=true, change it to false and voila, you now may choose from all the availible fonts installed. that line limits you to roboto and lg something.
Build.prop tweaks for this phone anyone willing to share and/or test????
Goodnite!

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