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Custom ROM (Frequently Asked?) Questions

jvoegele

Newbie
Oct 22, 2009
17
8
I am considering rooting my Hero and installing one of the available custom ROMs for it, such as "Fresh" or "Modaco". However, never having done this before, I have some initial questions about the benefits and drawbacks of doing so. If these are frequently asked questions, I do apologize and will be happy if you can simply provide a link to answers. Otherwise, I would greatly appreciate answers to the below.

If I root my Hero and install one of the custom ROMs...

  1. Am I still able to install any and all applications available from the Android Market?
  2. Am I still able to use the HTC and/or Sprint custom applications, such as Sprint Navigation?
  3. Will I still have the HTC "Sense" UI, or will it be the stock Android UI?
  4. Will there be any limitations as to what I can do on the Sprint network?
  5. If I decide I'm not happy with the custom ROM, what can I do to go back to the original ROM provided by Sprint/HTC?
Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.
 
I am considering rooting my Hero and installing one of the available custom ROMs for it, such as "Fresh" or "Modaco". However, never having done this before, I have some initial questions about the benefits and drawbacks of doing so. If these are frequently asked questions, I do apologize and will be happy if you can simply provide a link to answers. Otherwise, I would greatly appreciate answers to the below.

If I root my Hero and install one of the custom ROMs...

  1. Am I still able to install any and all applications available from the Android Market?
  2. Am I still able to use the HTC and/or Sprint custom applications, such as Sprint Navigation?
  3. Will I still have the HTC "Sense" UI, or will it be the stock Android UI?
  4. Will there be any limitations as to what I can do on the Sprint network?
  5. If I decide I'm not happy with the custom ROM, what can I do to go back to the original ROM provided by Sprint/HTC?
Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

YES to everything. Go for it. Modaco is nice
 
Upvote 0
So far it seems that rooting and installing custom ROM is the way to go! :D

Is there a step by step guide for doing this, starting with the very first steps of rooting and then taking a backup, and then (by baby steps) proceeding to installing a custom ROM?

I am on Ubuntu Linux 9.10 if that makes any difference.
 
Upvote 0
So far it seems that rooting and installing custom ROM is the way to go! :D

Is there a step by step guide for doing this, starting with the very first steps of rooting and then taking a backup, and then (by baby steps) proceeding to installing a custom ROM?

I am on Ubuntu Linux 9.10 if that makes any difference.

Hero CDMA - xda-developers

That forum should help you out quite a bit for rooting purposes
 
Upvote 0
Hero CDMA - xda-developers

That forum should help you out quite a bit for rooting purposes

Thanks for the link!

I've gotten as far as rooting my phone, but after doing just that and not even installing any custom ROMs my phone already seems less stable than it was before. Google Voice now crashes on startup, and its icon is no longer present in the "All Applications" screen, even after uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Also, the phone has spontaneously rebooted itself when I tried to unlock it after it had gone to sleep.

Wondering if I did the right thing by going rogue? :thinking:
 
Upvote 0
Thanks for the link!

I've gotten as far as rooting my phone, but after doing just that and not even installing any custom ROMs my phone already seems less stable than it was before. Google Voice now crashes on startup, and its icon is no longer present in the "All Applications" screen, even after uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Also, the phone has spontaneously rebooted itself when I tried to unlock it after it had gone to sleep.

Wondering if I did the right thing by going rogue? :thinking:

Weird. I wonder if there was a step you didn't quite do right or something? I've rooted and unrooted my phone half a dozen times, and flashed ROM's a dozen or so times, and haven't had any problems
 
Upvote 0
Weird. I wonder if there was a step you didn't quite do right or something? I've rooted and unrooted my phone half a dozen times, and flashed ROM's a dozen or so times, and haven't had any problems

It is quite possible I did something wrong. At one point, I had USB Storage enabled and therefore the phone SD card was mounted on my laptop computer. This caused some steps in the rooting procedure to fail, although I eventually figured that out and was able to proceed.

How do I "unroot" the phone to get it back to the way it was? I'd like to back up and start the process over from scratch.

Thanks!
 
Upvote 0
It is quite possible I did something wrong. At one point, I had USB Storage enabled and therefore the phone SD card was mounted on my laptop computer. This caused some steps in the rooting procedure to fail, although I eventually figured that out and was able to proceed.

How do I "unroot" the phone to get it back to the way it was? I'd like to back up and start the process over from scratch.

Thanks!

If you are indeed rooted, you should be able to flash back to stock. XDA has quite a bit of info on doing just that. Read up, do a little research, and try again.
 
Upvote 0
Thanks for the link!

I've gotten as far as rooting my phone, but after doing just that and not even installing any custom ROMs my phone already seems less stable than it was before. Google Voice now crashes on startup, and its icon is no longer present in the "All Applications" screen, even after uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Also, the phone has spontaneously rebooted itself when I tried to unlock it after it had gone to sleep.

Wondering if I did the right thing by going rogue? :thinking:

Just be careful on following xda-dev forums.. chances are if this is your 1st time, there's a probability that you might do some errors on the process...

try and try until you succeed, just don't cook it.
 
Upvote 0

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