explain it as you would to a child.

[ionekoa]

ok. so i just rooted my phone the other day. now im looking for a rom to install froyo.

here's the problem. while i do love my phone, and i would rate myself ever so slightly above average in my knowledge of "what android is and does"i am by no means a developer, nor do i comprehend a lot of the technospeak revolving around roms and whatnot. so, when im looking for a simple link that says "here is a good 2.2 Rom for the sprint hero" all the talk of "nightlies" and "which kernal" and all that is very confusing and frankly a bit intimidating.

the guide DB in AZ was kind enough to provide me with this link

http://androidforums.com/sprint-hero-all-things-root/162943-how-flash-custom-rom.html

however before i leap off the high-dive i want to make sure im going to be able to swim so to speak. so can anyone explain to me in plain terms(don't be afraid to dumb it down) what exactly im getting myself into here. things i feel i need to understand better are

ROM: i thought i understood this, but now im not so sure. if i run CM6 is that getting rid of sense(if so it's not a big deal)? because i figured it would but some things i've read are so ambiguous it makes me wonder.
Kernal: what is it and how does it differ from a ROM
nightly: i know this has to do with releases, so, do i have to update every night?

i know that these sound like stupid questions, but i am an absolute noob trying to wade into this thing and the people that i know have even less knowledge than i do(ie i have no one here to walk me through it and teach me.)

 

[Joehunni]

Here is where you can get the nightlies Index of /cm/nightly/heroc/ here is the last major stable release candidate [ROM] CyanogenMod-6 for Hero CDMA - V6.0.0-RC1 (08/15/2010) - xda-developers and here is the "uncapped kernel" which eliminates the screen wake lag and lock screen lag [Kernel] BrainFuct Kernel - UncappedKernel [09/14/2010] - xda-developers.

 

[ionekoa]

Here is where you can get the nightlies Index of /cm/nightly/heroc/ here is the last major stable release candidate [ROM] CyanogenMod-6 for Hero CDMA - V6.0.0-RC1 (08/15/2010) - xda-developers and here is the "uncapped kernel" which eliminates the screen wake lag and lock screen lag [Kernel] BrainFuct Kernel - UncappedKernel [09/14/2010] - xda-developers.

i absolutely appreciate that, and will be using it, but can you kind of explain what im doing here? teach me to fish, to play off the old proverb.

 

[JB in AZ]

CM6 is a ROM based on Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) It does not include Sense...which is the user interface you see on the phone, and is an HTC product. CM6 is "ported", or converted form a NON HTC phone to be able to work on the Hero... so no Sense. . There are several "home" replacement apps available in the market that you can use with the CM6 rom. Some like them, some miss Sense.

CM6, does not require you to do nightly updates, but since this is a "beta" rom, the nightlies fix bugs found in previous versions. I have not used CM6. I currently use Fresh 2.3.3, with an overclock kernel (don't ask me exactly what a kernel is, as i don't really know!) It speeds the phone up when it is awake, and slows it down when it sleeps.

BTW, there are no stupid questions!

DON'T FORGET TO MAKE A NANDROID BACKUP before flashing any rom!

 

[Joehunni]

These are all aosp so they don't have Htc Sense UI, the kernel is a go between that can optimize the rom and usually includes overclock settings (the reason you don't need OC widget or Setcpu) and/free memory tweaks (adjusts the points at which Android kills off apps in the background). The nightlies and random, computer generated builds with no changelogs, they basically fix some small bug every day. While you don't have to update them everyday, you can freely flash nightlies over each other or over the RC1 rom itself without having to wipe data (this means you don't lose all your apps and contacts).

 

[ionekoa]

CM6 is a ROM based on Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) It does not include Sense...which is the user interface you see on the phone, and is an HTC product. CM6 is "ported", or converted form a NON HTC phone to be able to work on the Hero... so no Sense. . There are several "home" replacement apps available in the market that you can use with the CM6 rom. Some like them, some miss Sense.

really, the only thing i liked about sense was the "scenes" and the weather widget. i believe they use beautiful widgets which i can download seperately, and as for scenes i don't travel very much and that's why i liked them, so i could have a "travel" scene(for things i would use on the road) and an every day scene, without having to completely reconfigure my "desktop" every time. so that's not a big loss. thank you for the info. that puts my mind at ease some

These are all aosp so they don't have Htc Sense UI, the kernel is a go between that can optimize the rom and usually includes overclock settings (the reason you don't need OC widget or Setcpu) and/free memory tweaks (adjusts the points at which Android kills off apps in the background). The nightlies and random, computer generated builds with no changelogs, they basically fix some small bug every day. While you don't have to update them everyday, you can freely flash nightlies over each other or over the RC1 rom itself without having to wipe data (this means you don't lose all your apps and contacts).

i think i understand what you are saying about the kernal and overclocking. with those links you gave me can i customize the settings of the clockspeed for overclocking(when in use) and underclocking(when not, to preserve battery) or is that built in and static?

 

[Joehunni]

The kernel that comes stock with CM6 will scale between like 245mhz and 691mhz I believe on-demand, the uncapped kernel allows you to use Setcpu to take it all the way up to 768mhz and takes away all hints of lock screen lag. You can use Setcpu or OC widget to adjust your screen on/screen off frequencies on any build.

 

[ionekoa]

CM6 is a ROM based on Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) It does not include Sense...which is the user interface you see on the phone, and is an HTC product. CM6 is "ported", or converted form a NON HTC phone to be able to work on the Hero... so no Sense. . There are several "home" replacement apps available in the market that you can use with the CM6 rom. Some like them, some miss Sense.

CM6, does not require you to do nightly updates, but since this is a "beta" rom, the nightlies fix bugs found in previous versions. I have not used CM6. I currently use Fresh 2.3.3, with an overclock kernel (don't ask me exactly what a kernel is, as i don't really know!) It speeds the phone up when it is awake, and slows it down when it sleeps.

BTW, there are no stupid questions!

DON'T FORGET TO MAKE A NANDROID BACKUP before flashing any rom!

can you shoot me a link to fresh? im going to be using cyanogen, at least for now, but a friend of mine is considering rooting his phone(he's waiting to see how mine turns out) and i figured i would have everything set up to give him choices of ROMS. also, is there a place where i can get a side by side comparison of ROMs to help with that decision making process?

 

[eduede]

can you shoot me a link to fresh? im going to be using cyanogen, at least for now, but a friend of mine is considering rooting his phone(he's waiting to see how mine turns out) and i figured i would have everything set up to give him choices of ROMS. also, is there a place where i can get a side by side comparison of ROMs to help with that decision making process?

I'd check out this blog. There are a bunch of posts in the Archive that deal with flashing ROMs, doing nandroid backups, etc. I'm pretty sure that it is written "as if for a child".

I know that there is an Zen Aria post and a CyanogenMod post.

Android Phones: Rooted

Good luck!