• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Root GPS Rom on HTC EVO 4G

I am new to the android forums, (i have been using MDL for a while though), but I was wondering if anyone had some ideas on running a custom rom for strictly as a GPS on the HTC EVO 4G. I upgraded almost a year ago to the GS3 (which I am very unhappy with, as i should have stuck with HTC), but i dont like my old evo just sitting in a drawer as a backup.

I was wanting to run a custom rom disabling all 3G and 4G networking, removing most stuff ie email, messaging, and the such. I would like to be left with a device that would boot in a few seconds into base android so that i could just useit as a speedometer and google maps. My big thing that I would like to see is that it can boot on power and load in less than the current 30-45 secs (hopefully 10secs).

I am also curious to know if I could just use titanium backup to delete some services, but as I am new to rooted android devices I dont want to brick my phone.

Also any other ideas on making this a phenomenal rom would be appreciated.

Many thanks and much love

nerdrage
 
I moved this to the All Things Root subforum. I don't think disabling the 3G/4G will help with booting faster, and it may be against FCC regulations anyway. Using TB you can freeze apps instead of removing them. If it causes issues, just unfreeze it. It may be worth doing incremental nandroid backups in case something you freeze causes a bootloop.
 
Upvote 0
I moved this to the All Things Root subforum. I don't think disabling the 3G/4G will help with booting faster, and it may be against FCC regulations anyway. Using TB you can freeze apps instead of removing them. If it causes issues, just unfreeze it. It may be worth doing incremental nandroid backups in case something you freeze causes a bootloop.
Would you recommend a certain rom to use then? A simple one with no bells and whistles which would cut down boot time...

And thanks for your quick reply O Master of the Droids
 
Upvote 0
Upvote 0
Welcome to AF nerdrage4life :)

As far as a rom strictly for GPS? Hmmm, not sure but if you are looking for a debloated, small footprint rom to run, I suggest Decks Reloaded. Based on AOSP, (close to pure Android) it wont have alot of the junk in it and is a very quick, sweet rom:) Found in that link provided by the "Master of the Droids" :p

As Unforgiven said, you can use TB to freeze apps first to see if your device runs good. If it does, make a backup of the app (from within TB, then remove it:) (just in case)

Also as Unforgiven suggested, nandroid backups are good, very good, and your best friend sometimes ;)
 
Upvote 0
I also wanted to thank ocnbrz, mikestony, and unforgiven for jumping on this so quickly. I will try and respond within a week (I have little free time and I havnt rooted the evo yet). If it is as easy as the gs3 Ill have the suggested rom on later this week and will do some stream lining. Thank you all again for the quick help and if you have any other ideas let me know. Ill see you on the other side.
 
Upvote 0
Thank you for your quick reply. I have a, hopfully, not to stupid of a question; by deactivated you mean no service from a carrier or if 3g and 4g were deactivated permanently on the device? I ask this because I thought most cell phones have agps rather than standard gps, which supports data through gps.

I also have a deactivated Evo 4G (yes, no service from any carrier, therefore no 3g or 4g) and the gps does not work without wifi. :eek:

I also wanted to thank ocnbrz, mikestony, and unforgiven for jumping on this so quickly. I will try and respond within a week (I have little free time and I havnt rooted the evo yet). If it is as easy as the gs3 Ill have the suggested rom on later this week and will do some stream lining. Thank you all again for the quick help and if you have any other ideas let me know. Ill see you on the other side.

No problem, we like to try to help:)
I would say that rooting the Evo involved a few more steps than rooting the S3.
This is the guide you would need to follow:
http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all...-rooting-gingerbread-2-3-5-dummies-guide.html

I will say that Ocnbrze has been a significant part of this whole Evo forum here and when I came on board with my Evo and rooting it, he played a big role teaching me the ropes:D

So, let us know how it goes, and don't hesitate to ask questions!!
Good Luck:D
 
Upvote 0
So, I have a question RE: GPS. Why would the GPS not triangulate without WiFi? I could see needing data to pull up the map of the coordinates.:thinking:

Well, from my limited understanding, doesn't GPS pull coordinates from wifi signals and locations to gain your location? (assuming the device is deactivated). I suppose gps would do no good on the highway, or where there are no wifi signals?
Unless you download maps to use offline.
 
Upvote 0
There is an array of sattelites in geostationary orbit around the Earth. the GPS antenna gets a lock on three or more and is able to exstablish a three dimensional position on Earth (latitude, longitude, altitude). From there, data needs to come in to surrond the dot (your position) with map data. I think the confusion may be that cell tower triangulation can be used for location as well as WiFi. I a cell tower has a range of X, and you are connected to that tower, the you are in X miles of that tower. Same principle with WiFi.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mikestony
Upvote 0
your gps will work without service, but as you move the map moves and the info from the map needs wifi connection. sometimes for me when i travel and i hit a dead spot for 3g or 4g, my cars position will move but the surrounding map does not get filled.......so technically it can tell you your position, but without the map, it kind of gets pointless.
 
Upvote 0
Well guys Im sorry and I feel like a jerk. I know it has been a little over a year since I started this post, but school, work and family put my homemade gps project to the side burner. But, how about a quick update? I did the HTC-dev Unlock since it was the easier of the three choices, but I do feel that a s-off is coming very soon. Someone pointed me to
[ROM][For inactive devices]Ubersonic RC3 is HERE!!! (yes its ICS 4.0.4)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1850220,
and for pointing this to me (I have been on so many forums lately I have no idea who, but you are a hero), I give so many thanks. I have verified that gps and WiFi still work with my phone on this ROM which is perfect for a simple gps device. This also seems great as a media player as well. The one drawback is the boot load time is still fairly long (~20-30 secs). But lots of nice things for unactivated phones.

The completely free GPS Nav I found is GPS Navigation BE-ON-Road. It doesn't seem to have any in app purchases and relies on OpenStreetMaps. The awesomely amazingly free speedometer I found is DigiHUD. It has a widget that will overlay the GPS. I have a new Anker 1700mAh battery in the mail and will see how this runs throughout the day. I am hoping that I can use it for 2-3 days between charges, but may have to decrease the clock speed on the phone to do so since the gps will be running occasionally.

I plan on in the next couple of days testing MazWoz 4.2.1 as it seems a little more responsive, and I could still pull off some of the phone and 3G features since I cannot use them (hopefully keep boot time the same). I also plan on playing with some wifi calling and google voice things to still keep functionality while im not driving (everywhere you go now you have wifi).

I promise that there is a 60% chance that I will for sure update this week, but this is my last semester for my undergrad, I have another baby on the way, and my bike that this phone is going on is almost done.

IMAG0232.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: EarlyMon
Upvote 0
Well I played around with ubersonic rc3. It was pretty and had nice extras like beats audio and Sony walkman, but I wasn't too excited about the extra crap that I didn't need or would ever use (speedometer and GPS apps are all I need). I was having crappy battery life but wouldn't find out until later that I need to put on airplane mode (The phone is constantly looking for data). I looked into madwaz, and lots of comments came with problems and unreliability.
I checked a few more forums and came back to the simple yet beautiful cyogenmod. It is running off android 2.3.7 if I recall correctly. It boots up reasonably fast and is pretty simple in some facets, but then has like a million settings for the os and default launcher (sorry if I seem a little hyperbolic with my description, but I couldn't find where to show battery life in percent except only in the lock window).
Like I said earlier, putting on airplane mode saves allot of battery life. It still allows gps and WiFi to be used, but it stops the stupid network signal for constantly looking. Went from barely a day off battery life to losing maybe 6% in a day. Also check out the anker 1700mAh battery. It is a phenomenal battery replacement as well as upgrade.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EarlyMon
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones