jdmc

Last night I lost my "root" virginity... I rooted an Android phone for the first time. — Namely, my LG Ally. I've also managed to install the new Velocity 0.4 firmware (thanks, Trident!). Unfortunately, I've had some problems along the way, and I'd like to ask for some help if I may.

I used z4root to actually root the phone — temporarily a few times at first, then permanently. (It didn't work at first, until I powered down the phone, removed the battery, and then reinserted the battery and started over.)

First I used ROM Manager to install the Clockwork Recovery and to create three partitions on my 4GB Class 6 MicroSD card: a general-use partition, a 512MB apps partition, and a 32MB swap partition. Next I used it to make a backup of my stock ZVC firmware, saved to the SD card's general-use partition. Then I used it to attempt to install the Velocity 0.4 ROM file I'd previously downloaded. The instructions I was following at the time told me to check the "Wipe Data and Cache" option, so I did. I then proceeded with the ROM installation... which failed. When I rebooted my phone, it suddenly looked just like it did the first time I'd ever turned it on, and I was dismayed to find that all my apps and user data were gone!! Boy, was I pissed. I now gather that this was a direct result of checking the "Clear cache and data" option in ROM Manager — an option which I had initially assumed would clear only transient data such as cache contents, not my REAL data and apps! I sure wish the instructions had included a warning about this.

Turns out the ROM file I had downloaded was corrupted. I downloaded a fresh copy of the ROM and tried again, and this time it installed successfully. Of course, my apps and data were still gone, with no apparent means of recovery. I reinstalled the AppBrain app from the Market, then used AppBrain to re-download and re-install all the apps I previously had on my phone.

The problem I'm trying to solve now is that, although the release notes for Velocity 0.4 say "Automatic Apps2SD - just make an ext partition on your SDcard and we'll do the rest!", this has apparently not happened in my case. All apps are still resident in the phone's main memory. Can someone please help me troubleshoot this?

Thanks,
~ Justin

Last edited by jdmc; January 3rd, 2011 at 10:16 AM.

k.c.cole

I would start by reformatting your SD, you don't need a swap. If all of your apps are currently on main memory you probably need to do the following.

Reflash velocity4
Wipe you data, cache, dalvik cache, and SD Ext.
Reboot
The setup should then move your apps onto the SD automatically.

You must wipe the SD ext before rebooting to the new ROM. Welcome to the darkside.

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jdmc

Based on what I read in this post by jmartino5920, I'm going to try flashing the alternate Amon-RA recovery and then using it to wipe/reformat the SD apps partition.

UPDATE: Well, once I got to the Amon-RA recovery menu, the phone was completely unresponsive to my pressing of any buttons at all. I had to remove the battery to reboot. It booted normally, and then I used Quick Boot to reboot into recovery again. It did so, and again the phone would not respond in any way to button input. *sigh*

UPDATE 2: I used ROM Manager to flash Amon-RA recovery a second time, then rebooted to recovery to try again. Phone is still unresponsive.

UPDATE 3: I used ROM Manager to flash back to the Clockwork Recovery, then rebooted to it. The phone buttons worked as normal. After rebooting to the normal system, I was about to try something else when the phone spontaneously rebooted. It got back to the home screen, then spontaneously rebooted again. I think I'm beginning to feel some rooter's remorse...

UPDATE 4: I opened ROM Manager and tried to flash back to Amon-RA again. The app just hung, and eventually I force-closed it. Reopened the app and tried again, this time reported success. Rebooted into recovery. Amon-RA again would not respond to any key presses. THEN, however, I got the bright idea to slide out the keyboard and try pressing keys on the keyboard, rather than those on the exterior of the phone. Whaddya know, the D-pad left and right arrow keys worked to move the selection up and down, and the Return key (strangely, not the "OK" key on the D-pad) worked to select. Talk about violating the principle of least astonishment!!! — Anyway, now that I've finally got Amon-RA working, I'll see what I can do.

UPDATE 5: OK, I used Amon-RA to wipe and repartition the SD card — this time with a 512MB apps partition but no swap partition. Next I used it to wipe "ALL user data". Then I copied the Velocity 0.4 ROM file to the SD card from my computer, and finally used Amon-RA to re-flash it. The result, this time, is that everything appears to be working flawlessly, complete with apps on the SD card!! Hooray for Amon-RA! (And thanks also to savoxis for this helpful post about partitioning.)

I would just suggest that the author of Amon-RA change its menu controls to those used by Clockwork Recovery — namely, Volume-Up and Volume-Down to move the menu selection bar, Send to select the highlighted option, and End to return to a higher-level menu. Amon-RA's current menu controls are very unintuitive, which caused an hour of frustration and wasted effort. Other than that, Amon-RA gets a big thumbs-up from me!

Last edited by jdmc; January 2nd, 2011 at 09:08 PM.

netizenmt

Or maybe Clockwork Recovery could edit its controls...

Not every software package works like every other one. Sometimes you have to experiment a bit with all the keys, look for menus etc. That's just the way it is. Amon-Ra is a great product. I'm glad you finally figured it out. In the future if you have problems, try using the IRC chat. It's a great way to learn. And welcome to the world of Custom ROMs!

socobandit

I had trouble figuring out amon-ra at first too...was using clockwork first. amon-ra is a much better recovery though imo, just had to figure out the controls.

Slug

Okay fellas, take a deep breathe and step back before somebody says something they will regret.....

Yes, I agree that going from Amon-Ra to Clockwork can be confusing - I used the former for over a year on my Hero before getting a new handset which is only supported by the latter. There's a good reason for this though - Amon-Ra's work dates back to the G1/Hero/Nexus One and to change his code now would break support for these older devices with their different input methods.

Rather than fight over which is "better" you should be rejoicing that you have a choice. That, after all, is the Android Way.

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jdmc

Well, perhaps the author of Amen-RA could tweak his code to allow for the use of either set of controls — the existing ones that require the keyboard to be slid out, or the Clockwork-style Volume-Up/Volume-Down/Send/End. Then everyone could be happy.

GRZLA

If it were that easy then this conversation would not be happening.

jdmc

Maybe it is that easy, only no one has asked for it before? Forgive my ignorance, but I don't see why it would be a problem for the program to listen for input from a few extra keys.

I realize we're drifting from the original topic of this thread. If someone could suggest the best way for me to submit a feature request to the developer to add these additional control options, I'd appreciate it.

Slug

Remember that these aren't simple programs - the recovery interacts with the hardware at an extremely low level in order to do what it does. I'm pretty sure that, given the length of time Amon-RA has been on the development scene, he's got a solid reason for doing things the way he does.

That said, I also know that he's responded positively to user input in the past and made additions/alterations to the recovery, so contacting him might very well prove fruitful. I don't have an email addy for him but you could PM him at the XDA forums here, or DM him via Twitter.

Matt's 175

I think the button controls are fine the way they are. When I went from Clockwork to Amon-Ra, I figured it out in like 2 seconds. It wasn't rocket science.