Related
Okay, I'm really on the fence here. I've got ADB working, I've read the warnings, I've flashed my previous WinMo phones about a hundred times. I am also getting annoyed at the missing market apps and the incredibly awful 3G uplink speed of the 2.2 test build in my area. My phone looks in no way shape or form likely to crap out, needing the warranty. So the round is in the chamber, hammer is cocked, finger is on the trigger.
Only thing holding me back is the idea of the official 2.2 update coming out tomorrow (or really any point in the first half of the week), and having to reverse everything I did (unlocking aside, I get that it's permanent, for now at least). Which all revolves around extra work. I'm not looking to flash other ROM's at the moment, just get access to tweak a few things.
So...3 questions
1) Since I'm just going to root the stock ROM, and edit a few things in build.prop, do I need to disable the online app and info backup? I'm 99% sure I read somewhere that unlocking the bootloader wipes the phone, but that's not a concern as I could just let the thing boot after unlocking it and pull my info from the cloud. This is for AFTER I root (though if you're responding, you probably already know that).
2) Any way to backup a complete system image, so that I can revert to that when the official 2.2 comes out?
3) Which SU/Rooting method do you, the knowledgable and expert [insert additional groveling] reader, suggest for FRF50? I've seen Cyanogen's and the one on Modaco ( http://android.modaco.com/content/g...-erd79-frf50-superboot-rooting-the-nexus-one/ ) I'm guessing this is a "doesn't matter," but I figure why not ask.
Was this the wrong section for this kind of thing?
I'm no expert, just have had my n1 for a couple of weeks but:
1. Can't help you there, no idea, sorry.
2. nandroid backup.
3. I've read a lot about this and I'd go with Cyan's method and amon_ra's recovery. It seems like they do the job well. Plus if you search around, you'll see instructions on going back to stock recovery from amon_ra's, but I'm not sure about the other recovery image (or whether it would be the exact same procedure)
1. I really don't understand the struggle here. Why you would want to disable app backup in the first place? It's not like Google is persecuting people who unlock bootloaders that they might cut you off if they see you're rooted. Just leave it running so you don't have to install everything manually. Unlocking does wipe everything, so it'll be convenient.
2. Well yeah... Make a nandroid the way your phone is now and go back to it whenever you like. And if you like, you can restore just the system.img from fastboot.
3. I prefer the cyan method with .34 kernel. There were some people complaining that Froyo was really slow for them, but I haven't noticed that at all.
^
1) Was because of things I've read, that if you do X, you should turn off backup syncing to keep from screwing things up. I certainly have no desire to turn it off. I love it.
2)Thanks.
3) Thanks
EDIT: Done. That was stupid-fast. From installing the fastboot drivers to installing SU was 90 seconds. Add 20 more for AmonRa's recovery.
Titanium backup installed.
build.prop edited to allow protected apps and fixes to the missing ril info.
Glad it turned out okay!
I'm so glad to be rid of Twitter!
Thanks you for your input.
I’ve just updated from MoDaCo’s 1.5 ROM to the CM6 2.2 ROM and since it’s been so long (over a year) since I’ve rooted my phone and dived into all the information involved in doing so. Back then it wasn’t as easy as it is now with some of these rooting methods. In fact I remember it being a real mess ha. (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=583291)
So basically, I’ve managed to do quite a lot of things and I want to help a friend out but I want to make sure all my info is right.
ALL of this is basically on giant question. I just word it as if I know what I’m talking about. But please help me correct everything that is wrong (and I know there is a lot), help answer some of my questions, and even let me know where I’m right. I didn’t type everything up as questions so that it reads easier. If I need to repeat some sections to get clarification I can.
Customizing you Phone
The first step is to gain root access via installing (flashing) a recovery program (image).
This program (image) is only accessible via boot (boot into recovery). It allows you to make a back-up of the phone in its entirety, restore said back-ups, allow PC access connectivity (via USB), flash programs/files (“installing” in a sense), partition an SD card, perform various wipes, and some miscellaneous things.
Ok – I’ll pause here to get some info. Wipe Data/Factory Reset; this means erasing everything off the phone and it resets the current ROM back to its native state. Wipe Dalvik-cache… I’m not sure what this does exactly but I assume it has something to do with the programs installed or the SD card. Furthur, why would I want to ‘wipe battery stats’ or ‘rotate settings’ ? And wipe SD:ext partition has to do with Apps to SD?
Also, when you do these wipes and flashes and re-do your phone from scratch, the only thing that is never touched is the recovery image. It’s fair to say, when you flash the recovery image during your rooting, it’s the only set in stone thing on your phone… that is until you re-root your phone or flash an alternate recovery.
Apps2sd – When I first rooted my phone and installed MoDaCo’s ROM, I ventured into the land of Apps2sd. This too was a PAINFUL process partitioning my SD card and learning all about the ext2/3/4 and I’ve already forgotten everything. After going through all that to clear up what little space I had on my Hero, I then read all kinds of people saying Apps2SD is bad cuz it’s slow and blah blah. So I took it off. Now it seems that Google has made an Apps2sd native? I just need updated on the whole Apps2sd thing both in general and for the Hero.
Ok – Back. Some of the things you can flash are custom ROMs (a ROM is the Operating System essentially), data that tells the computer to work differently such as custom kernels (what makes the phone work, basically communication between hardware and software), new radios (what retrieves and uses signals), and battery stuff (what would it be called? “Battery kernel info”? haha). You can even flash programs right to the phone (apk files).
The biggest reason to root your phone, is to install a custom ROM. Custom roms typically cut out a lot of bloat that the stock OS would have such as un-removable programs (Sprint NFL and NASCAR… Thanks but no thanks Sprint) and OS things. Many developers have even tweaked ROMs to optimize performance and battery life. Why would the stock ROM not do this? And why would it seem the dev’s (developers) making custom ROMs are better than the devs at Google/Sprint/Samsung/etc.? Certain applications also require rooted phones (or just simple ‘root’) due to their extended abilities or required securities (such as WaveSecure?).
Reminder – everything is a question even tho some things have ‘?’ and some don’t. I know that I do not know what I’m talking about. I just want to confirm what I do know, and learn where I’m wrong!
Now some straight up questions:
When you get a custom recovery, ROM, and kernel on your phone… you’ve just about altered all major parts of your phone (software speaking of course)?
When you want to put on a custom ROM, you first wipe everything then flash the ROM. Then you may flash additional items such as gapps (google applications pack), custom Kernals, etc. When you want to change roms, do you have to undo everything and start from scratch and put new gapps back on, a new kernel, etc? What about just updating a ROM? What if you have a ROM you like, but just want to un-install(un-flash) gapps – possible?
[*]So example, If I needed something I forgot on an old setup – like a text message or file from EasyNote, I would have to nandroid backup, wipe everything, flash old ROM and additional files, restore OLD nandroid, grab the files, wipe everything, flash back newer ROM and additional files, restore new nandroid that was just created to be back where I started? (I actually have to do this too haha – want to make sure that’s right.) Basically I’m making sure I’m right about nandroid. It back’s-up all data and setting type files for current ROM?
What would happen if I tried to restore a nandroid back-up created during another ROM?
MoDaCo’s old custom ROM had WaveSecure installed with it so that it could not be removed. Is it possible to still do this with other ROMs?
Why do some people talk so negatively about gapps? Is there something wrong with them?
Back when I first tried learning all this a year ago, the Hero’s messaging app was known to be a real battery-eater and never slept so it was recommended to switch to a 3rd party and disable the stock app’s notifications. What’s the development on that?
I still have a whole paper full of other questions, but I think this is already getting loooong… so I’ll leave it here for now. The point of all this is to yes, educate myself so that I may help others…. But I plan on writing up a real all-inclusive guide to android and rooting and the like. I’ve searched a lot and learned a lot, but nowhere (including the wiki) did I find a nice, chronological guide of information. Hopefully I can fill that niche once I know exactly what I’m talking about, and even then I’ll need some peeps to clean my stuff up a bit. I also happen to be a filmmaker so I’d like to make a good video on this as well. It won’t be one of those videos where you can barley understand the person talking, shot in the basement with all the lights off, camera held in hand and shot with web-cam, etc. (Note: Just today I saw the XDA-TV post… sorry I missed it) D:
LAST NOTE:
Ok I promise I’m almost done. I just wanted to say that if anyone would not mind talking on the phone… I would love to just blow through this stuff a lot faster and be able to have a convo with some 1 on 1 feedback allowing me to get lots of questions answered. Even just 10 minutes would help me out tons! So if anyone who is a genious on this stuff (like devs… ) and wouldn’t mind chatting for a few – please PM me. I can do Skype as well.
I hope someone will take the time to answer you, it will help me too LOL. Last thing I rooted was the G1 years ago, & just yesterday rooted the Hero (& flashed CM6 today) I got off of Craigslist. Seems like some phones have better wikis than others.
I haven't been in the rooting/flashing game for a while since I've owned tons of different devices before & after the G1. Since then the only flashing I did was flashing Android onto a WM device LOL. Never bothered flashing the Vibrant, Epic, or Evo (sold, sold, & sold.)
Anyway, yeah, I hope someone answers! You have my support!
Root and recovery are two totally separate things - you can root your phone and not flash a recovery, it's totally up to you. Root gives you access to things on your phone, that you would otherwise not have - like flashing recovery, ROM(s), apps that need root access, etc. Goto the wiki there's a link which gives a high level idea of what root gives you.
Recovery - gives you features such as Nand backup/restore, wipe cache, dalvik-cache, flash stuff (ROMs, kernels, etc.,)
Apps2SD - allows you to install apps to the SD card. If you are using android 2.2 or above, this feature is available natively, so you don't need something line apps2sd
Now, answers to your "Straight up questions..."
1. Yes, once you root, flash recovery, flash ROM... you have altered your phone from a software stand point. You can return it to "out-of-the-box" state by running any official RUU provided by HTC/Sprint (for HTC Sprint Hero)
2. This varies from ROM to ROM, you should read the specific instructions provided by the ROM builder. About removing gapps, it is pretty easy to remove any apps once you have root access - read up the wiki or search for removing apps
3. Depends on what you want to get back - for all your daily needs, there are backup applications that can help you backup stuff from the phone, which you can then restore, once you have the app running and backup available
4. If you restore a nand backup, it will put your phone to a stage when you had created the backup
5. You will have to read up about MoDaCo ROM, that is a ROM specific thing
6. There's nothing wrong about the gapps - not sure what you are referring to
7. There are multiple messaging apps - handcent, chomp, google voice, etc. It all depends on your personal preferences
I would honestly recommend you to search on the forums and also visit the wiki. There's a whole lot of information about everything here. Also, Hero being a bit old phone, more often than not, the problem you might be facing... might have been already answered. Yes, it is time consuming, but will surely help you. The more you read, the comfortable you will feel.
Hope this helps. Let me know if I can help you further. Again, I started the same way as you, rooted the phone, flashed CM6, played around, something went horribly wrong, then had to RUU, root, flash... everything. But, that taught me a lot.
Enjoy!
So basically, I’ve managed to do quite a lot of things and I want to help a friend out but I want to make sure all my info is right.
Customizing you Phone
The first step is to gain root access via installing (flashing) a recovery program (image).
This program (image) is only accessible via boot (boot into recovery). It allows you to make a back-up of the phone in its entirety, restore said back-ups, allow PC access connectivity (via USB), flash programs/files (“installing” in a sense), partition an SD card, perform various wipes, and some miscellaneous things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure which phone you are working with, but I'm pretty sure, as a general
rule, you need root before you can flash the recovery image. Could be mistaken
on that, but that's how it was for my hero. Once you have the recovery image
flashed, you are correct, you can make and restore backups, you can access
the phone's internal storage and SD card, push/install apps, remove apps, etc.
Ok – I’ll pause here to get some info. Wipe Data/Factory Reset; this means erasing everything off the phone and it resets the current ROM back to its native state. Wipe Dalvik-cache… I’m not sure what this does exactly but I assume it has something to do with the programs installed or the SD card. Furthur, why would I want to ‘wipe battery stats’ or ‘rotate settings’ ? And wipe SD:ext partition has to do with Apps to SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wipe/Factory Reset basically formats the various partitions in the phone's
internal memory, if you do a wipe and reboot your phone, you'll boot loop, as
the phone no longer has an operating system. To restore back to original,
you would need to use an official RUU as andythegreenguy stated. You can
get the official rom upgrades (RUU's) from your carrier's website.
I'm still learning a lot of this myself, but the Dalvik-Cache is basically the OS's
cache, which has files randomly dumped into it and removed from it. Wiping
the Dalvik-Cache is beneficial (and sometimes required) when making
modifications to your rom. It can help improve your performance under some
circumstances, but will make your phone boot slower while the cache is being
recreated. SD:EXT only applies if you have partitioned your SD, for example,
to be used with Apps2SD. If you have no EXT partition, you can't format it.
If you are using Apps2SD, and have partitioned your SD card, this will erase
the EXT partition.
As a general rule that I follow, whenever I am making major changes, and
especially when I am flashing between different roms, I wipe everything, and
repartition/format my SD card. This helps me to know that any problems I run
into are not caused by something from a previous rom that didn't get erased.
I've never messed with wiping rotate, but wiping battery stats can be useful.
Lithium batteries have a little controller board that basically stores the battery
state. Sometimes this can get messed up, and a perfectly healthy battery will
think it's out of power a lot faster than it should. Resetting the battery info
can sometimes fix this issue. A recommendation I saw was to run your battery
down, reset the battery state, let the phone die, then do a full charge/discharge
cycle. Never had to do this, myself..
Also, when you do these wipes and flashes and re-do your phone from scratch, the only thing that is never touched is the recovery image. It’s fair to say, when you flash the recovery image during your rooting, it’s the only set in stone thing on your phone… that is until you re-root your phone or flash an alternate recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorta.. hboot and the radio are both beyond the recovery, and messing with
either of those without knowing what you are doing can cause your phone to
become a brick. Any recovery you flash should remain in place unless you use a
RUU, flash a different recovery, flash a rom that includes a different recovery,
(haven't run across that except for the RUU's), or mess with the MTD partitions.
Apps2sd – When I first rooted my phone and installed MoDaCo’s ROM, I ventured into the land of Apps2sd. This too was a PAINFUL process partitioning my SD card and learning all about the ext2/3/4 and I’ve already forgotten everything. After going through all that to clear up what little space I had on my Hero, I then read all kinds of people saying Apps2SD is bad cuz it’s slow and blah blah. So I took it off. Now it seems that Google has made an Apps2sd native? I just need updated on the whole Apps2sd thing both in general and for the Hero.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apps2SD is fine, any speed issues would primaryly be loading delays on slower
SD cards. Apps2SD also requires your SD card to be properly partitioned. The
Apps2SD that is in Android 2.2 is a little different, in that from my nderstanding,
it uses the Fat32 partition on the SD card, and thus does not require you to
partition your SD card. It is also to my knowledge only available on roms based
on Android 2.2.
A lot of custom roms have some form of Apps2SD now, but they require you to partition the SD card, and, as far as "speed" issues, I have ran my apps from
a class 2 card just fine, but moving the Dalvik-Cache to the SD card will cause
lag if you have a slow card. Class 4 or higher is recommended for moving your
cache.
Ok – Back. Some of the things you can flash are custom ROMs (a ROM is the Operating System essentially), data that tells the computer to work differently such as custom kernels (what makes the phone work, basically communication between hardware and software), new radios (what retrieves and uses signals), and battery stuff (what would it be called? “Battery kernel info”? haha). You can even flash programs right to the phone (apk files).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, you can flash ROMS, Kernels, Radios, apps (if packaged properly),
apk files that aren't packaged in an update.zip will either have to be pushed
via ADB, or can be installed from your SD card with a file manager.
The biggest reason to root your phone, is to install a custom ROM. Custom roms typically cut out a lot of bloat that the stock OS would have such as un-removable programs (Sprint NFL and NASCAR… Thanks but no thanks Sprint) and OS things. Many developers have even tweaked ROMs to optimize performance and battery life. Why would the stock ROM not do this? And why would it seem the dev’s (developers) making custom ROMs are better than the devs at Google/Sprint/Samsung/etc.? Certain applications also require rooted phones (or just simple ‘root’) due to their extended abilities or required securities (such as WaveSecure?).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as the biggest reason to root your phone, I would have to say that the
answer to that would vary from person to person. Most users root to install
custom roms, but rooting gives you full control of the operating system. Since
android is Linux, having root access on your phone will allow you to change the
things that you otherwise could not. Utilities like Titanium backup can be used
to back up and restore your apps and data, performance benefits are always
a huge consideration. Companies like HTC and Sprint don't take performance
concerns into consideration because they are providing a product that is in their
opinion disposable, and "generic enough" for most users. Asking why they don't
fix the performance issues is like asking why every car on the road can't run 160
miles per hour while getting 40 miles per gallon. Some people don't care to have
the fastest, most efficient phone, and some people can't stand having sluggish
and unresponsive phones.
Now some straight up questions:
When you get a custom recovery, ROM, and kernel on your phone… you’ve just about altered all major parts of your phone (software speaking of course)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With a recovery, rom, and kernel, you've flashed all of the major software components
that you will be concerned about. Performance gains are all found in the ROM
and Kernel, and so most people have no need to go further than that. Basically,
think of the Kernel as the brain, and the ROM as the rest of the operating system
The recovery is important, but is transparent to the function of the phone once
everything is up and running.
[*]When you want to put on a custom ROM, you first wipe everything then flash the ROM. Then you may flash additional items such as gapps (google applications pack), custom Kernals, etc. When you want to change roms, do you have to undo everything and start from scratch and put new gapps back on, a new kernel, etc? What about just updating a ROM? What if you have a ROM you like, but just want to un-install(un-flash) gapps – possible?
[*]So example, If I needed something I forgot on an old setup – like a text message or file from EasyNote, I would have to nandroid backup, wipe everything, flash old ROM and additional files, restore OLD nandroid, grab the files, wipe everything, flash back newer ROM and additional files, restore new nandroid that was just created to be back where I started? (I actually have to do this too haha – want to make sure that’s right.) Basically I’m making sure I’m right about nandroid. It back’s-up all data and setting type files for current ROM?[*]What would happen if I tried to restore a nandroid back-up created during another ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try to answer these in one shot. It's recommended that you always wipe
everything before installing a custom rom, except if the rom you are installing
is *SPECIFICALLY* an update for the rom you are running, and the dev states
that a wipe is not necessary. Generally, you want to make a nandroid backup,
wipe, install the rom, make sure everything is fine, nandroid, install the kernel,
check things over, rinse and repeat.
In my case, I generally return to configs that I've already tested, so I skip some
steps, but the order is ROM, Kernel, then the other parts.
If you forgot a text message from another rom, as long as you have the nandroid
you should be OK. You can boot into recovery, make a nandroid backup of your
current configuration, then wipe everything, restore the nandroid from the
old configuration, retrieve your message or data, Then you can reboot, wipe,
and restore the nandroid from the new configuration. Keeping multiple nandroids
can be userful if you are using an AOSP rom as your daily rom, since on the
Hero, to my knowledge, you can only update your PRL under a Sense based rom.
A lot of users will restore the sense backup to update their PRL, then restore the
AOSP rom.
[*]MoDaCo’s old custom ROM had WaveSecure installed with it so that it could not be removed. Is it possible to still do this with other ROMs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never used WaveSecure, but as a general rule, if you can download the APK, you
should be able to install it on any rom.
[*]Why do some people talk so negatively about gapps? Is there something wrong with them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some people like fat chicks, and some people don't. The argument about
gapps is akin to asking what's better, PC or Mac, Linux or Windows, sports cars
or station wagons. It's all personal preference. What's right for you might not
be right for your best friend.
[*]Back when I first tried learning all this a year ago, the Hero’s messaging app was known to be a real battery-eater and never slept so it was recommended to switch to a 3rd party and disable the stock app’s notifications. What’s the development on that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The messaging app had a bug that would lock the dialer and prevent the phone
from sleeping. This bug was supposedly fixed in the 2.1 update, but 2.1 also
introduced a whole plethora of other bugs. Some people still prefer third party
messenging apps, but I use the stock app with no issues. on a good day I can
get 27 hours on a charge, but I do a lot and so most days I get 12 hours or so.
Hope this has helped.
LAST NOTE:
Ok I promise I’m almost done. I just wanted to say that if anyone would not mind talking on the phone… I would love to just blow through this stuff a lot faster and be able to have a convo with some 1 on 1 feedback allowing me to get lots of questions answered. Even just 10 minutes would help me out tons! So if anyone who is a genious on this stuff (like devs… ) and wouldn’t mind chatting for a few – please PM me. I can do Skype as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This may sound strange from a guy with a cellphone, but I actually hate talking
on the phone. Feel free to send me a PM now and then with questions. If I know the answer, I'll help out.
I'm not as knowledgeable as any of the devs, I'm still learning all of this myself. My answers might not be
'correct', but they work for me. most things related to android have no 'correct' or 'definitive' answer, but
that's the beauty of a platform that can be customized to taste. We can all make recommendations, and
can even tell you our reasoning or logic behind them, but we can all also learn a few things.
andythegreenguy said:
Root and recovery are two totally separate things - you can root your phone and not flash a recovery, it's totally up to you. Root gives you access to things on your phone, that you would otherwise not have - like flashing recovery, ROM(s), apps that need root access, etc. Goto the wiki there's a link which gives a high level idea of what root gives you.
Recovery - gives you features such as Nand backup/restore, wipe cache, dalvik-cache, flash stuff (ROMs, kernels, etc.,)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah! So the recovery is a nice, built-into-phone way of flashing, whiping, etc; otherwise you would need to use the command prompt. (Correct?)
andythegreenguy said:
Apps2SD - allows you to install apps to the SD card. If you are using android 2.2 or above, this feature is available natively, so you don't need something line apps2sd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent. But does running apps from the SD card cause the apps to run slower or open slower? Should I keep primary apps or most commonly used apps on the phone or it doesn't matter?
andythegreenguy said:
If you restore a nand backup, it will put your phone to a stage when you had created the backup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So the Nand-Backup saves ALL information including flashed ROMs, Kernels, BatteryTweak, etc? What about information on the SD card especially not that apps can be moved there)?
andythegreenguy said:
There are multiple messaging apps - handcent, chomp, google voice, etc. It all depends on your personal preferences
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand this, but I just wanted to know If it's a mistake to be using the stock texting app - if the messaging app in CM6 is even the stock one. I have tried Chomp and Handcent and I actually love handcent, but it's just WAY to slow.
I have searched the forums and wiki quite a lot, thats how I got this far. I try to search for some as many things as I can, but it's just hard to get some real clarity on some things and especially the broad things. That's why I plan on taking the results of this thread and making a nice 'general' guide and possibly a video.
Thanks a lot andythegreenguy. Appriciate the help a lot
To moxlon69:
moxlon69 said:
you need root before you can flash the recovery image
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you are right. I was a bit mixed up on that (even though I've done it twice! haha)
moxlon69 said:
Wipe/Factory Reset...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lot of good clarification there. Very good, thanks!
moxlon69 said:
Sorta.. hboot and the radio are both beyond the recovery...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah. What is hboot? Had some trouble finding general info on it. What is there to know about the radio? I haven't done it nor think i need to, but isn't changing the radio just the same as flashing something? (http://geekfor.me/faq/flash-radio/)
moxlon69 said:
Apps2SD is fine, any speed issues would primaryly be loading delays on slower SD cards. Apps2SD also requires your SD card to be properly partitioned. The Apps2SD that is in Android 2.2 is a little different, in that from my understanding, it uses the Fat32 partition on the SD card, and thus does not require you to partition your SD card. It is also to my knowledge only available on roms based on Android 2.2.
A lot of custom roms have some form of Apps2SD now, but they require you to partition the SD card, and, as far as "speed" issues, I have ran my apps from a class 2 card just fine, but moving the Dalvik-Cache to the SD card will cause lag if you have a slow card. Class 4 or higher is recommended for moving your cache.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if I have a 2.2 ROM... would I need to make a partition? I never read anything about needing it in CM6 threads. What was all the jazz about making different ext-s? Like 2, 3, or 4? I guess it's not relevant any more.
How do you move the Dalvik-Cache to SD?
Quick note:
AOSP and PRL are not on the wiki - not that many people don't know what they are... but why not?
Q: Why do some people talk so negatively about gapps?
A:Some people like fat chicks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said haha. The whole analogy was good.
Thanks a million moxlon69 - That helps out more than you can imagine. I'm going to begin working on a write up of all this, but I do still have lots of questions. I'll probably continue posting in this thread for a while to keep it simple... unless I have an embarrassingly stupid question I can't find an answer for then I'll PM ya!
Thanks again moxlon69 and andythegreenguy.
Edit: This thread is going to become the tl;dr thread! haha
One more try.
I know it's a lot of reading, but any help you guys can offer is much appreciated and will be returned in the form of a video. You could then just send all the newbies to the video and hopefully many of their questions will be answered.
I just don't want to make the video without being precisely accurate. I have more questions, but I should probably wait for the current queue of my questions to go down.
Thanks again for the help thus far!
Hey all,
So I'm am effing fed UP with Samsung. My Captivate is a hardware powerhouse, and with the stock Eclair firmware and all their bloatware, it's laggy, bogged down, and just not the device I wish it was. And with the talks that the Galaxy S phones are virtually unbrickable, I have decided to seriously consider ROOTing my phone and flashing the Cognition 3.02 ROM. I have watched a lot of videos, done my research, but I still have a few lingering questions for those of you out there who have recently flashed this ROM, preferably for those of you that this is the first or near-first ROM you've flashed. I know how the process works, but some specifics are bugging me and holding me back.
Ok, so I've listed some of my major questions below. Feel free to answer some or all of them if you've got the time, or DM me if that's easier. lf I think of any other Qs I have I'll post them in subsequent replies.
1. First and foremost, what process did you use to root and flash cognition on your Captivate? I've been looking at the MobileTechVideos three part tutorial on youtube which most people seem to recommend. Is this what you used? Was it as easy as simply following the instructions word-for-word? Did you run into any problems along the way?
2. I know to use Titanium Backup to backup my apps and stuff, but I've read a lot of places that I should only use it to restore those apps, and not to backup and restore user data like settings and contacts. How did you do it? My major concerns are about my contacts/phone book, which I have synced to my google account, but I also have syncs to my facebook and twitter accounts, and my phonebook is nicely linked and everything across all three. I'm afraid to forfeit this organization, so I just want to know that I'll be able to get everything back the way it was without too much trouble. I know you can export your contacts to your SD cards, and I could presumably import them from their after flashing, but I just want to be clear on how that all works.
3. Do you use your phone as a digital music player? I do, and I use iSyncr to sync it to my iTunes. If you do as well, did flashing screw any of this up? Playlists, etc? Will I need to re-sync or will it all be there once the phone scans my external SD (which wont be wiped since I'll remove it beforehand)?
4. In your first few days of use, what are the biggest improvements you see in the Cognition ROM as far as daily use is concerned over the stock firmware? Any problems you've come across? What's the selling points here, in layman's terms.
5. Do you have any regrets about flashing?
Thanks guys, and any other advice you think would be helpful that wouldn't come under any of the questions would also be GREATLY appreciated.
4. No problems for me. Phone is smoother and faster now.
5. Not at all.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
1. manually rooting is overrated. most, if not all, custom roms automatically root your phone for you, so there really is no need for you to do it yourself. except the first time: root your phone using the one click since it's simple, grab rom manager from the market and use it to download an update.zip containing clockworkmod recovery for the captivate and leave that update.zip on your phone and never change it or delete it. it makes flashing new roms so much easier and there is really no need to ever remove or change it. boot into recovery, reinstall packages twice, install zip from sd card, and pick your rom. also, you will never need to use rom manager again unless you lose that update.zip.
2. I use titanium backup in batch mode (hit the menu softkey and hit batch). click backup all user apps and system data, but uncheck everything that is in red text, therefore backing up only things in green text (useful system settings, contacts, calendar, messages, etc) and white text (user installed apps). then run batch operation. install new rom, use batch to restore all missing apps and system data. to re-backup newer settings, app data, or updated apps, use backup all new apps and newer versions, and then either redo old backups or forced redo of all backups.
3. yes, but I just copy and paste my music files over instead of syncing them. also your internal sd is never wiped unless you use master clear on odin, which I have never done, nor do i ever wish to, because in my opinion there is no reason to. therefore both your playlists and your music would not be wiped whether you put them on the internal or external sd. (unless of course, you decide to use master clear)
4 & 5. I agree with faroid.
Be sure you have the correct odin set up and recognizing your phone on your pc. Eventually you will need to use it for one reason or another. The most common is the odin3 one click jf6 but some newer builds cannot be flashed to firmware older than jh2.
1. To root i use one click root/ unroot vary simple plug in and press root then install clockwork recovery from the market its free with clockwork recovery you can flash your cognition
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
4. The best thing is froyo 2.2 then lagfixes and overclocking
5.no regrets, expect when i bricked my phone but the jig method fixed that
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
yokozuna82 said:
4. The best thing is froyo 2.2 then lagfixes and overclocking
5.no regrets, expect when i bricked my phone but the jig method fixed that
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you use the full MobileTechVideos method when your phone got bricked? Or did you flash without reflashing to stock and wiping everything?
newter55 said:
Be sure you have the correct odin set up and recognizing your phone on your pc. Eventually you will need to use it for one reason or another. The most common is the odin3 one click jf6 but some newer builds cannot be flashed to firmware older than jh2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So how do I know which one I should use? Is it based on the ROM I flash, or my hardware (Captivate)?
Which odin stock firmware is based on the build (four digit number under battery such as 1006) and what version your phone came with when new, such as jf6 or jh7.
newter55 said:
Which odin stock firmware is based on the build (four digit number under battery such as 1006) and what version your phone came with when new, such as jf6 or jh7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you by chance know which one I'd need off hand? I'm at work and don't feel like pulling my phone apart, but I can tell you that I bought my Captivate the day it came out, so presumably it came with the oldest firmware the Captivate ever came packaged with.
1. No need to root. That's an extra step you don't need. My method, get the update.zip for clockwork mod, just search the Dev section, no need to even install Rom Manager or anything. Take that update.zip and put it on the root of your internal SDcard (just the normal phone storage, not an external SD. Then using adb or button method reboot into recovery, choose reinstall packages. The phone reboots into stock recovery. Choose reinstall packages again and this time you get Clockwork. Wipe data, install zip from SD, choose zip file, pick Cog, install and done.
2. I use titanium for user apps only, ie, things I got from market. All my contacts are synced with google, so once I add my google info under accounts they are back. Sorry, i don't mess with facebook or twitter so i can't answer that. As far as settings, you just have to manually do that, ie, ringtones, wireless networks, etc.
3. Yes I do. And I also use iSyncr. No problems whatsoever. As long as you don't do a MasterClear. That option under Odin will wipe your internal SDcard also. The Wipe Data under Clockwork recovery just wipes out installed apps and settings but leaves your internal SD intact.
4. Honestly, it's just a much better experience overall. The phone is faster, smoother, and more responsive. Plus DG has taken the liberty of removing all the ATT crap and un-needed apps.
5. Not one.
My only advice would be to "be prepared". My sure you have button recovery available ahead of time. Check your Rev version of phone, ie, the date under the battery. It seems newer Revs require a different version of stock Odin One-click. Some people have had issues running the original One-click. If you have any doubts about your phones ability to go to download mode, in case you need to go back to stock, spend the $1 on building a USB Jig.
You will find that flashing is easy. Recovering from unexpected errors can be easy if you are prepared.
bobbylx said:
1. No need to root. That's an extra step you don't need. My method, get the update.zip for clockwork mod, just search the Dev section, no need to even install Rom Manager or anything. Take that update.zip and put it on the root of your internal SDcard (just the normal phone storage, not an external SD. Then using adb or button method reboot into recovery, choose reinstall packages. The phone reboots into stock recovery. Choose reinstall packages again and this time you get Clockwork. Wipe data, install zip from SD, choose zip file, pick Cog, install and done.
2. I use titanium for user apps only, ie, things I got from market. All my contacts are synced with google, so once I add my google info under accounts they are back. Sorry, i don't mess with facebook or twitter so i can't answer that. As far as settings, you just have to manually do that, ie, ringtones, wireless networks, etc.
3. Yes I do. And I also use iSyncr. No problems whatsoever. As long as you don't do a MasterClear. That option under Odin will wipe your internal SDcard also. The Wipe Data under Clockwork recovery just wipes out installed apps and settings but leaves your internal SD intact.
4. Honestly, it's just a much better experience overall. The phone is faster, smoother, and more responsive. Plus DG has taken the liberty of removing all the ATT crap and un-needed apps.
5. Not one.
My only advice would be to "be prepared". My sure you have button recovery available ahead of time. Check your Rev version of phone, ie, the date under the battery. It seems newer Revs require a different version of stock Odin One-click. Some people have had issues running the original One-click. If you have any doubts about your phones ability to go to download mode, in case you need to go back to stock, spend the $1 on building a USB Jig.
You will find that flashing is easy. Recovering from unexpected errors can be easy if you are prepared.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So do I not need to be rooted to use Ti-BU? I thought I saw that under the product description in the marketplace.
Also, under #1, when you say "Wipe Data" you are referring to an option in the Clockwork Recovery menu, not an Odin MasterClear, right? Will this wipe my internal SD?
If you got the phone on release you likely have a 1006 build with working 3 button recovery and can safely use the odin3 one click jf6.
Sent from my Liquid Metal using XDA App
TiBu needs root. I rooted using one click, then backed up user apps and data (used built in contact export to save contacts and smsbackup for texts).
Then I just ran the update.zip for CWR and flashed Cog - was my first flash too and pretty painless. TiBu returns your apps as if you never changed them.
Make sure you can access recovery and dl mode though.
GerStud101 said:
So do I not need to be rooted to use Ti-BU? I thought I saw that under the product description in the marketplace.
Also, under #1, when you say "Wipe Data" you are referring to an option in the Clockwork Recovery menu, not an Odin MasterClear, right? Will this wipe my internal SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, forgot you would want to backup before installing a new ROM. Yes, to use Tibu on your current ROM you will need root.
As for wipe data, yes it's a clockwork option. Like I said in #3 wipe data just removes user installed apps, and changes all settings to stock, but all data on your internal store will stay there, pics, music, etc.
Master Clear is the Odin option, which I never use by the way, that will completely delete everything on your internal SD, bye bye music, pics, etc.
This is all EXTREMELY helpful by the way.
Quick question about USB Jigs--is it easy to build one myself or should I splurge on the ~$15 one MobileTechVideos sells? There's seems pretty fancy, and I can't afford to be phoneless as I putz around trying to jimmy myself a jig.
I can't speak from experience but there's a thread here in QA that makes it seem easy. Just get 3 x 100kohm resistors, wire them in series, twist it to look like a horseshoe, there you go. If you have a radioshack or other electronics store near you it's worth a shot. Like I said, I think all 3 resistors cost may $1 total. You can also test it on your phone to make sure. Touch the jig to the 2 leads, if it goes into download mode instantly you did it right. Pull battery and reboot and all is well.
Edit. Jig link,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=889128
bobbylx said:
I can't speak from experience but there's a thread here in QA that makes it seem easy. Just get 3 x 100kohm resistors, wire them in series, twist it to look like a horseshoe, there you go. If you have a radioshack or other electronics store near you it's worth a shot. Like I said, I think all 3 resistors cost may $1 total. You can also test it on your phone to make sure. Touch the jig to the 2 leads, if it goes into download mode instantly you did it right. Pull battery and reboot and all is well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I saw that thread, I'll have to try my hand at it before I do this process. Better safe than sorry. Thanks.
Ok, so, the plan = build working jig and DL proper Odin just in case, one-click root, Ti-BU, move clockwork update.zip and cognition zips to my root folder, reboot in recovery, reinstall packages/flash clockwork, then wipe and flash cognition. This sound correct?
That sounds about right. Really the only thing different i do is on the root of my storage I create folders for ROMs. So I have a Cog folder with the rom in it. Once you have Clockwork installed and you are choosing to flash, it will let you navigate to different folders. That's just my preference because I don't like to have too many individual files on my SD. Minor thing, just thought I would mention it.
bobbylx said:
That sounds about right. Really the only thing different i do is on the root of my storage I create folders for ROMs. So I have a Cog folder with the rom in it. Once you have Clockwork installed and you are choosing to flash, it will let you navigate to different folders. That's just my preference because I don't like to have too many individual files on my SD. Minor thing, just thought I would mention it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, appreciate the advice; I like a little organization in my life as well.
Sounds like you've flashed a few different ROMs. Have you ever bricked your phone to the point where you needed a jig? Or has it always been smooth sailing?
I guess I'm just trying to figure out why one person's phone would brick and anothers wouldnt. It kind of makes me assume that if you brick your phone, you've done something wrong, and if you just do the process right, everything should go smoothly. But maybe that's naive of me.
How to install a custom rom (eg. CM9, Ice Cream Sandwich, Liberty, Maverick, SteelDroid) to a Bell XT860 without losing the ability to revert to stock later.
Why this guide?
I noticed over time that my phone has become slower and more frustrating to use. For example, long pauses when trying to open a program - sometimes it takes an easy 10 or more seconds to open the dialer and dial a number.
I wanted to try a custom rom, but was concerned about the ability to get back to stock, if something goes wrong, or to be able to take advantage of a Bell update if they release a new one. Thanks to the hard work of many on this board, I have discovered how to make this possible and wanted to share with others.
Big thanks to DoomLord, HashCode, Enderoid, Rick#2, Dasilva333, Willis111 and others. Please feel free to make corrections to these instructions.
Note: This has been tested with an XT860 on Bell 2.3.6 firmware. This will probably NOT work on v2.3.4 So if you have 2.3.4, upgrade to 2.3.6 and then these instructions should work. When I first got the phone, it was at 2.3.5 and later was updated OTA (Over the air) by Bell to 2.3.6. To check which firmware you have, Home Screen / Settings / About Phone
Needed:
1. Windows pc (someone else more knowledgeable could probably tell you how to make this work on a Mac)
2. USB cable for connecting your phone.
3. Rooting tool, I highly recommend zergRush method by DoomLord found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1321582
4. Safestrap by hashcode
http://hash-of-codes.blogspot.com/p/android-downloads.html
5. Custom rom of your choice.
Step 1:
Root your phone using the DoomLord tool. I used version 3. It was really easy, just follow the instructions on the link above.
Step 2:
Backup existing user programs that you might want to restore on a new system. I used Titanium Backup Pro but there are others.
Step 3:
Please read this page carefully
http://hash-of-codes.blogspot.com/p/how-to-safestrap.html to download and install safestrap v1.08. Note, you should remove any other type of bootstrap (eg. ClockworkMod, ROM Manager) before installing Safestrap.
Step 4:
Now you should be ready to download and try a custom rom. Make sure to do a backup (“Nandroid” backup) of your working system before you try a custom rom so you have something to fall back on in case something goes wrong or you want to return to stock.
Find a rom, download it and save it to a location on your sdcard or ext-sdcard. There’s lots of good candidates for you to test and a good thread with some reviews here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1384676
To do this, power down your phone after you have run safestrap and clicked to make recovery active. If you did it right, when you turn it on again, you should see a different splash screen that gives you a few seconds to enter the recovery menu by pressing the “menu” button on you device.
You should see “Safestrap Recovery v1.08” and below that “Safe System is: DISABLED”
on a black screen with some green menu choices.
Use the volume keys to scroll up/down and select “backup and restore” by pressing the power button.
The screen should change to show the Nandroid backup menu. You need to make a Nandroid backup of your existing (working) system, which is simply a snapshot of the exact system with all programs, settings, sms’s, call logs, etc. It’s like a snapshot in time in case you need to revert. Select “backup”, then select Internal or External SD Card for the location (I’m not sure it it matters for the location).
Safestrap will backup your system to a Nandroid backup. It takes a few minutes.
After the backup is complete, you can enable the Safe System where you will install custom roms. Scroll down and select “safe boot menu”, then “Toggle Safe System”, then on the next screen confirm your selection. It will backup the original system to a safe area where it can’t be modified (unless you are an advanced user and install a different version of Safestrap but that’s beyond the scope of these instructions).
After Safe System is: ENABLED, scroll down to “Install zip from sdcard”, select your rom, install, reboot and enjoy.
To revert back to your original system, follow these steps:
1. Turn off your phone and reboot into SafeStrap recovery menu.
2. Turn off SafeSystem. (Safe boot menu -> Toggle Safe System)
3. Restore your nandroid backup and reboot.
If you wanted to go further back to stock you could uninstall Safestrap and even unroot using DoomLord’s zergRush tool, which would put you back to stock.
I think that’s it. Hopefully this guide will be helpful to others who want to try a new rom without losing the ability to revert back to stock Bell.
ncho2233 said:
How to install a custom rom (eg. CM9, Ice Cream Sandwich, Liberty, Maverick, SteelDroid) to a Bell XT860 without losing the ability to revert to stock later.
Why this guide?
I noticed over time that my phone has become slower and more frustrating to use. For example, long pauses when trying to open a program - sometimes it takes an easy 10 or more seconds to open the dialer and dial a number.
I wanted to try a custom rom, but was concerned about the ability to get back to stock, if something goes wrong, or to be able to take advantage of a Bell update if they release a new one. Thanks to the hard work of many on this board, I have discovered how to make this possible and wanted to share with others.
Big thanks to DoomLord, HashCode, Enderoid, Rick#2, Dasilva333, Willis111 and others. Please feel free to make corrections to these instructions.
Note: This has been tested with an XT860 on Bell 2.3.6 firmware. This will probably NOT work on v2.3.4 So if you have 2.3.4, upgrade to 2.3.6 and then these instructions should work. When I first got the phone, it was at 2.3.5 and later was updated OTA (Over the air) by Bell to 2.3.6. To check which firmware you have, Home Screen / Settings / About Phone
Needed:
1. Windows pc (someone else more knowledgeable could probably tell you how to make this work on a Mac)
2. USB cable for connecting your phone.
3. Rooting tool, I highly recommend zergRush method by DoomLord found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1321582
4. Safestrap by hashcode
http://hash-of-codes.blogspot.com/p/android-downloads.html
5. Custom rom of your choice.
Step 1:
Root your phone using the DoomLord tool. I used version 3. It was really easy, just follow the instructions on the link above.
Step 2:
Backup existing user programs that you might want to restore on a new system. I used Titanium Backup Pro but there are others.
Step 3:
Please read this page carefully
http://hash-of-codes.blogspot.com/p/how-to-safestrap.html to download and install safestrap v1.08. Note, you should remove any other type of bootstrap (eg. ClockworkMod, ROM Manager) before installing Safestrap.
Step 4:
Now you should be ready to download and try a custom rom. Make sure to do a backup (“Nandroid” backup) of your working system before you try a custom rom so you have something to fall back on in case something goes wrong or you want to return to stock.
Find a rom, download it and save it to a location on your sdcard or ext-sdcard. There’s lots of good candidates for you to test and a good thread with some reviews here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1384676
To do this, power down your phone after you have run safestrap and clicked to make recovery active. If you did it right, when you turn it on again, you should see a different splash screen that gives you a few seconds to enter the recovery menu by pressing the “menu” button on you device.
You should see “Safestrap Recovery v1.08” and below that “Safe System is: DISABLED”
on a black screen with some green menu choices.
Use the volume keys to scroll up/down and select “backup and restore” by pressing the power button.
The screen should change to show the Nandroid backup menu. You need to make a Nandroid backup of your existing (working) system, which is simply a snapshot of the exact system with all programs, settings, sms’s, call logs, etc. It’s like a snapshot in time in case you need to revert. Select “backup”, then select Internal or External SD Card for the location (I’m not sure it it matters for the location).
Safestrap will backup your system to a Nandroid backup. It takes a few minutes.
After the backup is complete, you can enable the Safe System where you will install custom roms. Scroll down and select “safe boot menu”, then “Toggle Safe System”, then on the next screen confirm your selection. It will backup the original system to a safe area where it can’t be modified (unless you are an advanced user and install a different version of Safestrap but that’s beyond the scope of these instructions).
After Safe System is: ENABLED, scroll down to “Install zip from sdcard”, select your rom, install, reboot and enjoy.
To revert back to your original system, follow these steps:
1. Turn off your phone and reboot into SafeStrap recovery menu.
2. Turn off SafeSystem. (Safe boot menu -> Toggle Safe System)
3. Restore your nandroid backup and reboot.
If you wanted to go further back to stock you could uninstall Safestrap and even unroot using DoomLord’s zergRush tool, which would put you back to stock.
I think that’s it. Hopefully this guide will be helpful to others who want to try a new rom without losing the ability to revert back to stock Bell.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good writeup. As a note when your switch back to nonsafe you don't need to restore a nandroid. Actually with safestrap you should rarely have to restore a nandroid as its next to impossible to screw up your device so bad that a restore is required. The stock bell /system stays nice and untouched
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium
Dont you just root, install safestrap and flash paritions to preinstall from stock(to avoid not being able to return to true stock) and not flash the og /system? Obviously works on 2.3.4, 2.3.6 etc any rootable rom capable of running safestrap. You should be able to even use my rom to return to stock deodexed by flashing to /system(non-safe) and removing any custom recovery. It should be very easy to convert that or the og dumps into a system.img for use with rsdlite and even the rest of the stock img files. I'll take a look at it this aft. Thanks for the write up, hope some of this info helps.
Maybe this is the wrong place to ask, but XT860 threads are few and far between in this droid 3 section. But I've got a few questions about this method.
First off, how safe is this from start to finish? I'm by no means new at the whole installing custom roms thing, but there have most definitely been times on all three of the devices I've installed roms on (Nook Color, Milestone, Transformer) where I've gotten a non-booting device that was fixed either because it was so easy to just go into CWM or RSDlite and flash a new rom or revert to stock. Doing anything (I'm not even rooted yet) on my XT860 kind of scares me, because we don't have an sbf or anything. This method seems like its the closest thing we've got, but new things are scary.
Secondly, I read somewhere that ICS uses a different kernel than GB. Would this method be able to deal with that or are we boned (i.e. stuck with the GB kernel and hackarounds) until Moto randomly decides to unlock the bootloader and we can rewrite everything?
And lastly, we can root on bell now? Last time I'd looked into it, I seem to remember flashing firmware from another country and without an easy way to get back to stock, that kind of killed it for me.
Once again, sorry that some of this is kind of off topic, its just kind of hard to know where to read while we're piggybacking on the droid 3 forum.
Tyfighter said:
Maybe this is the wrong place to ask, but XT860 threads are few and far between in this droid 3 section. But I've got a few questions about this method.
First off, how safe is this from start to finish? I'm by no means new at the whole installing custom roms thing, but there have most definitely been times on all three of the devices I've installed roms on (Nook Color, Milestone, Transformer) where I've gotten a non-booting device that was fixed either because it was so easy to just go into CWM or RSDlite and flash a new rom or revert to stock. Doing anything (I'm not even rooted yet) on my XT860 kind of scares me, because we don't have an sbf or anything. This method seems like its the closest thing we've got, but new things are scary.
Secondly, I read somewhere that ICS uses a different kernel than GB. Would this method be able to deal with that or are we boned (i.e. stuck with the GB kernel and hackarounds) until Moto randomly decides to unlock the bootloader and we can rewrite everything?
And lastly, we can root on bell now? Last time I'd looked into it, I seem to remember flashing firmware from another country and without an easy way to get back to stock, that kind of killed it for me.
Once again, sorry that some of this is kind of off topic, its just kind of hard to know where to read while we're piggybacking on the droid 3 forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes we can root, there is no need to flash any other countries fastboot files as long as you are on bell 2.3.6. While bell doesn't have a fastboot package yet(sbf) if you borked your device you can use motofastboot to flash just /system from the fastboot package of another country, and then restore a backup, thus everything stays bell stock.
The best advice is to use safestrap and only flash the safemode. You should always be able to get into CWR with safestrap
And yes we are stuck with the GB kernel for now, which is part of the reason developing ics roms has been so painful
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium
This process does not work for me...
When I load SafeStrap 1.08, I get Recovery State: Not Installed
I try and click the "Install Recovery" button and it goes through a process (preparing something, obtaining root, etc) but the Recovery State never changes
I have an XT860 from Bell (2.3.6) that is running on Rogers (unlocked).
Root works fine for TiBu and Root Explorer....The SuperUser entry for SafeStrap lists allowed and logs a whole bunch of "granted".
Any thoughts?
Caz666 said:
This process does not work for me...
When I load SafeStrap 1.08, I get Recovery State: Not Installed
I try and click the "Install Recovery" button and it goes through a process (preparing something, obtaining root, etc) but the Recovery State never changes
I have an XT860 from Bell (2.3.6) that is running on Rogers (unlocked).
Root works fine for TiBu and Root Explorer....The SuperUser entry for SafeStrap lists allowed and logs a whole bunch of "granted".
Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps you don't have su binary properly installed. I've had this happen with bootstrap. Check that you have su in both /system/bin and /system/xbin
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium
Close...it was busybox. It was present, but borked. Nuked and reloaded..problem fixed.
Many thanks to hashcode for the pointer to busybox being most likely.
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium
Caz666 said:
Close...it was busybox. It was present, but borked. Nuked and reloaded..problem fixed.
Many thanks to hashcode for the pointer to busybox being most likely.
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now that you say that I remember someone else having the same issue and it turned out to be busybox. I had nearly the same problem with the bootstrap and it ended up being su missing from xbin
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium
OK I tried this and it works perfectly. Thanks man. This is what I needed.
Finally got around to trying this. I'd been in the middle of a move with my pc in a box, but now I've got ICS fully up and running (save for the whole camera thing). Panicked halfway through when I got into a bootloop, but then I wiped everything (forgot the cache the first time) and then everything worked.
I got wifi tether working with the app that was included in the rom, but have any of you had any luck with doing it natively through the settings? I only ask because being able to trigger it from the status bar would be pretty sweet.
edit: did some looking around and it looks like maybe its an issue with shoehorning GSM into a CDMA rom. At least that's the feel I've been getting, I'd love to be wrong.
Thanks for this thread! I hadn't realized there had been developments for the XT-860.
I had unlocked (for use on the Fido network)/rooted my phone and it was working great, then the OTA update from Bell came and I installed that. Now, I seem to have lost root privileges (I guess, obviously).
So, I guess I'm pretty much back to square one.
I would love some advice on how to proceed! I'm thinking of following your directions, and am interested in recommendations for which ROM to install.
What is the problem with the camera with ICS? I use the camera on our phone pretty often so I want a ROM that doesn't break it. Does anyone have some links to some good ROMs to try that work with the XT-860?
twitchcity said:
Thanks for this thread! I hadn't realized there had been developments for the XT-860.
I had unlocked (for use on the Fido network)/rooted my phone and it was working great, then the OTA update from Bell came and I installed that. Now, I seem to have lost root privileges (I guess, obviously).
So, I guess I'm pretty much back to square one.
I would love some advice on how to proceed! I'm thinking of following your directions, and am interested in recommendations for which ROM to install.
What is the problem with the camera with ICS? I use the camera on our phone pretty often so I want a ROM that doesn't break it. Does anyone have some links to some good ROMs to try that work with the XT-860?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use zergrush to root 2.3.6. Picture camera works in ics but you can't record or view video. There's some good gb roms. Give me a few and il shoot you some links
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium
Starting the process now. Can someone please send me a link or two to a good ROM for the XT-860?
I would prefer ICS (I want Chrome on my phone), but if that causes to many problems, a GB recommendation would be fine.
Bell SBF available at the following URL:
http://sbf.droid-developers.org/umts_solana/list.php
ncho2233 said:
How to install a custom rom (eg. CM9, Ice Cream Sandwich, Liberty, Maverick, SteelDroid) to a Bell XT860 without losing the ability to revert to stock later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If there was any interest at all I would have just made a 100% stock bell 2.3.6 that you flash with CWM and then remove the recovery to be 100% stock but the deodex version seems to be good enough, especially to get a phone with a physical problem past bell/motorola reps. I'm downloading and mirroring that bell sbf right now, very nice find pfak! I made a new thread since you didn't but just linked to your post.
twitchcity said:
Starting the process now. Can someone please send me a link or two to a good ROM for the XT-860?
I would prefer ICS (I want Chrome on my phone), but if that causes to many problems, a GB recommendation would be fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are many roms on this part of the sub-forum, just look around or try a search with [ROM] as your query (might not work so hot in the d3 dev subforum )
I
twitchcity said:
Starting the process now. Can someone please send me a link or two to a good ROM for the XT-860?
I would prefer ICS (I want Chrome on my phone), but if that causes to many problems, a GB recommendation would be fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Willis111 said:
If there was any interest at all I would have just made a 100% stock bell 2.3.6 that you flash with CWM and then remove the recovery to be 100% stock but the deodex version seems to be good enough, especially to get a phone with a physical problem past bell/motorola reps. I'm downloading and mirroring that bell sbf right now, very nice find pfak! I made a new thread since you didn't but just linked to your post.
There are many roms on this part of the sub-forum, just look around or try a search with [ROM] as your query (might not work so hot in the d3 dev subforum )
I
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a number of xt860 adapted roms on my computer. Give me a few days to contact the devs and such and I'll see if I can get a stickied thread with xt860 ready roms to make it easy for new comers. Also willis, ignore my other post to you, I'll include that info in aforementioned thread if I can get it going
Sent from my GT-P5113 using xda premium
Endoroid said:
I have a number of xt860 adapted roms on my computer. Give me a few days to contact the devs and such and I'll see if I can get a stickied thread with xt860 ready roms to make it easy for new comers. Also willis, ignore my other post to you, I'll include that info in aforementioned thread if I can get it going
Sent from my GT-P5113 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can just use one of the patches (small xt860 patches) to get any rom working on our phones as far as I know.
pfak said:
Bell SBF available at the following URL:
http://sbf.droid-developers.org/umts_solana/list.php
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you for this it will help a ton of peeps
I have had my Bionic for a while now and have been thinking about rooting it. I finally got the ICS update but have been using GO Launcher too much to even notice it. Anyway, like I said, I want to root my phone. I am current on all updates. For some reason it's running at a tenth of it's memory tho not much is running that I can see. This leads me to believe there's things running in the background that I can not see. I am reluctant to get rid of all my apps, but I also don't want anything that's eating all my resources either. I kinda want to start new but kinda don't. I guess I just don't like letting go of anything.
I know this is selfish of me, but I am hoping that this thread will stay clean of others chiming in asking about their issues. I just don't want the thread to lose focus since this is about what I hope to get from my phone.
Ok, so here are my questions or favors to ask:
Since my phone is fully updated, do I need to do some other updated steps for rooting my phone or is rooting always the same no matter the build or version?
When I go to root my phone, I back up everything first and then I get it back, right?
I read somewhere that it's possible to brick the phone. What precautions should I take to avoid that?
Can I get all the benefits of a rooted phone without a ROM?
Are ROMs really that awesome that I should get one, or three?
I am interested in a ROM after some posts and pages I read. I was attracted to CM at first but so is everyone else probably at first. Does CM even work on the Bionic? And if it does, does everything work like the camera and Bluetooth?
As I said earlier, I use GO Launcher. One of the things I really like about it is the folders I can make in the App Drawer. Now CM is based off of ADW Launcher, but no options to make folders in the app drawer? Is it possible in any way if I choose CM as my main ROM?
Is CM overrated? Liberty and Eclipse look nice too. I also read a little, very little, about AOKP. Any suggestions? I want to get rid of a lot of extra processes and bloatware but I don't want to lose some of the apps pre-installed like Google Maps and Navigation, etc. Unless there are other, much better replacements that anyone knows of.
I know most of this is personal preference but I am hoping to find a comprehensive way at figuring out what's best for me.
I had more questions but I will wait and ask more as the thread continues.
Oh, I don't really need answers in step by step unless I ask. A simple link would suffice unless it's not covered anywhere.
Thanks for reading this, I hope I am not frustrating anyone as I am sure similar posts have been made.
You're basically asking to have this entire forum summarized into one post...
Spend some time reading, then ask smaller, more concise questions.
Not trying to sound like a ****, but i could spend an hour answering all of that. Half of those questions could be answered with some reading of the ROM specific threads.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
Ok, I know that SOME of the questions are answered somewhere else. The thing is that after I read one thread only to find it unsolved, I read others that are are 50 pages long going nowhere as well. I haven't seen anything about my phone being fully updated and I am not going any further until I know for sure from someone like a DEV that I can.
Some of these questions are yes/no questions, which wouldn't take long at all to answer, maybe even less time it takes to write a complaint about my post. I certainly don't expect one person to write for an hour on every topic I asked about. I thought it would be a collective effort.
I guess I will take this slowly.
Since my Droid Bionic is updated to the current versions, do I need to do this differently than others have used in the past to root this phone?
Where is the best method to do this?
Before I start, I have to backup everything, right? If so, what's the best way to go about backing up everything?
I read somewhere that there are 3 things you should do to make sure you avoid bricking. I have since lost it. Does anybody know a surefire way to do this.
Please be gentle.
CycoPuppet said:
Ok, I know that SOME of the questions are answered somewhere else. The thing is that after I read one thread only to find it unsolved, I read others that are are 50 pages long going nowhere as well. I haven't seen anything about my phone being fully updated and I am not going any further until I know for sure from someone like a DEV that I can.
Some of these questions are yes/no questions, which wouldn't take long at all to answer, maybe even less time it takes to write a complaint about my post. I certainly don't expect one person to write for an hour on every topic I asked about. I thought it would be a collective effort.
I guess I will take this slowly.
Since my Droid Bionic is updated to the current versions, do I need to do this differently than others have used in the past to root this phone?
Where is the best method to do this?
Before I start, I have to backup everything, right? If so, what's the best way to go about backing up everything?
I read somewhere that there are 3 things you should do to make sure you avoid bricking. I have since lost it. Does anybody know a surefire way to do this.
Please be gentle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1st question . No, your phone is not special since it is updated what worked for others will work for you.
2nd follow this link and the instructions to the letter http://www.droidrzr.com/index.php/topic/4026-samurihls-house-of-bionic/
3rd . Since you are stock. I would suggest using Verizon's back up services. TiBu requires root. IMHO I wouldn't bother because Google automatically backs up contacts and most roms require you to do a full data wipe.
There is no magic formula to keep from bricking your phone. Just follow directions and if you can't tolerate the risk don't do it.
From my EVOLVED bionic
Obsidian_soul said:
1st question . No, your phone is not special since it is updated what worked for others will work for you.
2nd follow this link and the instructions to the letter Can not post links
3rd . Since you are stock. I would suggest using Verizon's back up services. TiBu requires root. IMHO I wouldn't bother because Google automatically backs up contacts and most roms require you to do a full data wipe.
There is no magic formula to keep from bricking your phone. Just follow directions and if you can't tolerate the risk don't do it.
From my EVOLVED bionic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That link no longer works
Also I found an article named "Learn How-To Root, Custom Recovery, Backup, And De-Bloat Your DROID BIONIC" while searching around for ROM ideas and such. Anyway, after reading this, it almost seems as if I don't need to do factory reset. Is this ok?
CycoPuppet said:
That link no longer works
Also I found an article named "Learn How-To Root, Custom Recovery, Backup, And De-Bloat Your DROID BIONIC" while searching around for ROM ideas and such. Anyway, after reading this, it almost seems as if I don't need to do factory reset. Is this ok?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just last week I started with a stock ICS Bionic and followed this guide to root: http://droidbionicroot.com/droid-bionic-root/how-to-root-ics-on-droid-bionic-and-motorola-android/
That went very well. I wanted to try out JB 4.2.2, so I installed SafeStrap and an official CM 10.1 nightly. The net result was that I had a very unstable phone until I did a factory reset . As of this writing, however, it's behaving extremely well. YMMV.
Ratamacue said:
Just last week I started with a stock ICS Bionic and followed this guide to root: Can not post links
That went very well. I wanted to try out JB 4.2.2, so I installed SafeStrap and an official CM 10.1 nightly. The net result was that I had a very unstable phone until I did a factory reset . As of this writing, however, it's behaving extremely well. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, so you flashed the ROM, didn't work so well, then you did a factory reset. Doesn't a factory reset wipe the phone? If that's the case, doesn't it wipe out the ROM?
Oh one more thing. Following this link, does this wipe the data from my phone? Anything I should back up before doing this? Should I do any updates before flashing CM 10?
CycoPuppet said:
Ok, so you flashed the ROM, didn't work so well, then you did a factory reset. Doesn't a factory reset wipe the phone? If that's the case, doesn't it wipe out the ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, a factory data reset doesn't wipe the ROM, but it does require running the initial setup (as if you were setting up a brand new phone).
CycoPuppet said:
...one more thing. Following this link, does this wipe the data from my phone? Anything I should back up before doing this? Should I do any updates before flashing CM 10?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You definitely want to back up everything you're not willing to lose. I ran a backup the very first thing after installing SafeStrap, and it was a good thing because with all my messing around I managed to bork my stock ROM to the point that it wouldn't boot. Fortunately, all I had to do was restore it from a backup.
My phone on CM 10.1 had enough issues with freezing and crashing that I decided this morning to try a different ROM. So far, I've had really good results with Icarus HD (a custom ICS ROM). I really don't know if my experience with CM 10.1 was typical.
OK, so I want to root. Now does rooting wipe any data? Regarding Safestrap, I install that first before rooting?
Rooting doesn't wipe any data. Root first, then install SafeStrap.
Okay, I will be rooting and installing safestrap when I get home for work today. I will still have more questions I am sure. I do have a few before I actually start rooting or right after.
I know safestrap makes a backup/recovory, but is it full recovery only or can I recover portions, like say my Dolphin browser with the settings and bookmarks?
I read that when making a backup of stock ROM, use sdcard, I'm sure that means external but when flashing a ROM, will that wipe data from the external card?
When setting up slots for multi booting ROMs, gernally how much storage do they need?
If I have two different ROMs, does it act like user accounts in Windows, would I have to download the same app on each ROM or do both ROMs have access?
Can one ROM have stuff I don't want the other ROM to have visible?
CycoPuppet said:
I know safestrap makes a backup/recovory, but is it full recovery only or can I recover portions, like say my Dolphin browser with the settings and bookmarks?
I read that when making a backup of stock ROM, use sdcard, I'm sure that means external but when flashing a ROM, will that wipe data from the external card?
When setting up slots for multi booting ROMs, gernally how much storage do they need?
If I have two different ROMs, does it act like user accounts in Windows, would I have to download the same app on each ROM or do both ROMs have access?
Can one ROM have stuff I don't want the other ROM to have visible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. SafeStrap is full recovery only. Use Titanium Backup for backing up apps and data.
2. Flashing a ROM won't do anything to your external SD card.
3. When you set up ROM slots, you'll be asked how much room you'd like to allocate for data. The choices are 1, 2, or 3 GB. I started off allocating 3 GB to the stock ROM slot and was never able to load more than 3 separate ROMs before I ran out of room. I'd start with just using 1 GB for data.
4. Each ROM is an island. You have to download the apps separately (unless when you go through the initial setup you tell the system to restore apps and settings from the Google servers.)
Cool. I rooted and got safestrap but it's version 3.05 and not 3.11. Some ROM I was interested in said must have 3.11, which I am assuming that's the newest one so far. I did watch a tutorial about getting the current version, so no question there.
So the ROMs are separate islands and during flashing they can be in slots allocated up to 3GB. Does that mean that's the only amount of storage I can have when running that ROM? Say I like taking lots of photos and didn't save them to my external card, could I essentially run out of space or is the storage allocation just for the ROM itself and any updates it may have?
Sorry about these series of questions, just want to make sure I am doing it correctly in case I might make a mistake for future's sake.
The storage allocation is for the ROM, apps, and data that haven't been assigned to the external SD card. You can definitely run out of space if you load several ROMs and don't save any of your data to the external SD card.
Also, keep in mind that when VZW sends the OTA update to 4.1 next week, the only way to keep root is to root in ICS and use Voodoo OTA Rootkeeper to protect root before you take the OTA. If you flash the system image, you will lose root, and there is no known working root exploit for the Bionic JB release.
Lost Root
Hey, I used Voodoo before flashing the 4.1 update, but forgot to update the binary beforehand, and therefore lost root. Anyone have any luck yet with an exploit for the OTA?
And there's no working FXZ before this now, correct? This software is now the earliest version I can FXZ to?
auglove3rd said:
Hey, I used Voodoo before flashing the 4.1 update, but forgot to update the binary beforehand, and therefore lost root. Anyone have any luck yet with an exploit for the OTA?
And there's no working FXZ before this now, correct? This software is now the earliest version I can FXZ to?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not root exploit yet for bionic JB. And if you try to FXZ back to an earlier version, you will brick your phone.
OK, so I rooted, got safestrap tho still not updated to 3.11, got TBU (free), got Voodoo. I had to race the clock today cuz it was updating android, or at least downloading the update. The root process I used gave me SuperSU and didn't tell me the version for the SU binaries. I searched around and all I could find was info on SuperUser in regards to backing up root. I uninstalled SuperSU, kinda. I just told it to use a different SU cuz when I used SuperUser and updated the binaries, SuperSU wanted to update them, then I opened SuperUser and the binaries reverted back. I was worried so I just told SuperSU to use a different SU. Was that ok? I didn't update to JB yet. Has there been luck with the Bionic using voodoo and keeping root after the JB update?
All this back and forth means I'm making a full image backup, then trying various ROMs. I've tried CM10.1, too many issues (no car dock, trouble installing lots of apps, no speakerphone). Next is... Whizzed Bean?
EDIT: Seems Speakerphone issue was fixed in the 0420 nightly. Will have to try it again.
AND I copied all the backups to my PC, so I can restore them at will (provided the phone still boots, that is... )
If I can't find a JB ROM I like I guess I can do HouseofBionic reflash (which did NOT cause me to lose data, as I upgraded to ICS that way) then allow the JB OTA to go through.
*sigh*... So much bull**** in these updates.
Hope someone sees my question above. I still haven't updated to JB yet. Once I do I will be flashing ROMs. I am interested in CM, Liquid Smooth, Icarus Hd and Wizzed Bean or Synergy (executioner ) Both WB and Synergy look indentical. What is the differences.
CycoPuppet said:
Hope someone sees my question above. I still haven't updated to JB yet. Once I do I will be flashing ROMs. I am interested in CM, Liquid Smooth, Icarus Hd and Wizzed Bean or Synergy (executioner ) Both WB and Synergy look indentical. What is the differences.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WB is a fork of CNA (codename Android) 4.1 JB (which is itself based on AOSP)
while Synergy is a fork of the standard Moto ICS (.246).
Yes, they look identical because they both used the Samsung UI elements.