Root Which ROM?

[El Presidente]

I've decided to bite the bullet and I'm most likely going to root and install an alternative ROM at some point during the coming week. With a fair few available, I'm kinda undecided what route I want to go down. Do I keep it as close to stock as possible, just try to get a bit more beef out of it, or do I go with something totally different? Do I try a vanilla Android experience?

2 that stick out as being quite popular from the offset are Leedroid and Cyanogen. Can folk who've used either pass comment?

I've no real preference as to what I want out of it, I just fancy seeing what the handset is capable of.

 

[D-U-R-X]

I've decided to bite the bullet and I'm most likely going to root and install an alternative ROM at some point during the coming week. With a fair few available, I'm kinda undecided what route I want to go down. Do I keep it as close to stock as possible, just try to get a bit more beef out of it, or do I go with something totally different? Do I try a vanilla Android experience?

2 that stick out as being quite popular from the offset are Leedroid and Cyanogen. Can folk who've used either pass comment?

I've no real preference as to what I want out of it, I just fancy seeing what the handset is capable of.

Do it, do it, do it!

Glad to hear that there's another root convert!!!

I only rooted a couple of weeks ago... I'm on CM7 and think it's great - it's really slick compared to stock. I think I need to give it a little more time before deciding to change though!

I'm sure each ROM has it's advantages/disadvantages - but that's the beauty of rooting though isn't it... you can try different roms and work out which is best for you!

Let us know what you end up going for and what you think of it!

 

[El Presidente]

Thanks for that, CM7 does seem like the more viable choice.

I've read somewhere it's possible to dual boot? I wouldn't mind having that if possible, it makes it handy if folk are having issues with the stock ROM and I need to revert to that to help.

 

[D-U-R-X]

Thanks for that, CM7 does seem like the more viable choice.

No problemo!

As I say... only had it for 3(ish) weeks and I think you need to give a ROM a bit more time, so you can tell for sure if it's the right one for you... don't get me wrong - I may try a few other ROM's, then go back to CM7 - will have to wait and see really!

I've read somewhere it's possible to dual boot? I wouldn't mind having that if possible, it makes it handy if folk are having issues with the stock ROM and I need to revert to that to help.

I haven't heard that... it could be very useful to be able to do though. Could be worth looking in to... not necessarily for me, but worth knowing for future, if anyone else has this question!

 

[cracksquirrel]

Im using LeeDrOiD and it's amazing, Can even overclock the cpu while still using less power than a stock ROM, Everything just works on it for me and it's super fast even at stock cpu speed, It's still got sense aswell but if ya dont want that then you can easily use a different launcher, I use LauncherPro.

 

[Xyro]

Cyanogen 7 is definitely an excellent rom. You'll no doubt miss Sense at first, until you figure out how to replicate features you miss, but I think it's speed and customisation are worth it.

However, you could very easily give both of them a try - your previous rom is only ever a 5 minute nand restore away

 

[El Presidente]

Aye, I suppose once I'm rooted, messing about with ROMs etc is easy so there's no harm in giving either a shot.

Cheers

 

[freestyle_gus]

Using Android Revolution HD, really impressive and great support for it on XDA

 

[El Presidente]

I'll add that as another on the list to take a look at, cheers.

 

[D-U-R-X]

Using Android Revolution HD, really impressive and great support for it on XDA

I wanted to go for this one first, but it was suggesting flashing a new radio and, as I've not got loads of experience on the rooting/flashing front, I didn't want to screw my phone up.

I made sure when I rooted that I got Radio S-Off and Eng S-Off, so I can flash radios if and when I want to... think I wanna try either AR HD or LeeDroid HD next!

 

[freestyle_gus]

I feel your trepidation. I took the plunge on flashing the recommended radio because the battery life with ARHD wasn't great with my old radio.

To be honest it was a five minute job (after all the research) and went very smoothly, I used the 'tried and tested' approach which is only a handful of steps, as linked to on the ROM page. It's pretty straightforward.

Here's the page: [GUIDE] How to flash a radio.IMG Windows/Mac - xda-developers


Good luck if you take the plunge!

 

[D-U-R-X]

I feel your trepidation. I took the plunge on flashing the recommended radio because the battery life with ARHD wasn't great with my old radio.

To be honest it was a five minute job (after all the research) and went very smoothly, I used the 'tried and tested' approach which is only a handful of steps, as linked to on the ROM page. It's pretty straightforward.

Here's the page: [GUIDE] How to flash a radio.IMG Windows/Mac - xda-developers


Good luck if you take the plunge!

Nice one Gus... think I will be going for it - gonna give CM7 a couple more weeks first. Haven't really had any issues with it and, for now at least, I don't wanna fix what isn't broken!

 

[t3rm3y]

sounds liek me - i recently rooted and flashed a rom that was very close to stock with jsut the tweaks and cleanup. dont really notice much difference to bne honest, and now i have tried a flash and seen what to do i want to try another, my issue is which one - there are loads that seem to all look similar - with sense 3.0 aspects, and then the general clean up and stuff, and i see a variety of kernals used (no idea what these are for)
I came from touch HD, i only changed roms when something amazing was included or changed, otherwise they were pretty much identical.
I want to get a rom with sense 3.0 but keep see`ing different roms released daily hard to choose.

 

[Pothers]

I took the plunge yesterday and downgraded from 2.3.3 to 2.2. Rooted with visionary and then S-OFF ( both Radio & ENG ).

I then upgraded OTA back to gingerbread ( 2.3.3 ) and used Gingerbreak to re-root. And it all went flawlessly.

So I now have my DHD, rooted and running on stock gingerbread. Now to decide which ROM to install. Leaning towards Leedroid but wasn't able to download the file, so will try again later

 

[El Presidente]

I think I'm leaning towards leedroid as my first too. I've seen a few vids of CM7 and it does look nice, but for some reason, I'm drawn to test LD initially.

 

[Pothers]

I've been trying to download the LD zip from xda for 2 days on & off and all I've been getting is a blank page after clicking download file.

Tried using Firefox and it's now downloading on 1st attempt. Bl**dy IE.

Going to download CM7 before I make my mind up which one to go for.

They mention in the LD thread about changing to a recommended radio?
Show I be doing this also?

 

[El Presidente]

I'm gonna fire on with this tomorrow, I've a couple of questions before I do though.

1. I've read in another thread that downgrading is just the same as performing an OTA update, but obviously in reverse. Does that mean, as with an OTA update, I won't lose anything when downgrading (settings, Go Launcher, SMS etc)?

2. The guide for installing Leedroid recommends getting Radio S-OFF, however I've read in this guide it's not recommended unless you absolutely know why you want to do it. Is the process actually "dangerous" or is it not recommended that you do it because once done, having absolute root access to the device (ability to flash radios etc) makes your handset brickable.

3. I'm nervous, just so I'm clear as to what order to go about things, it's downgrade, S-OFF, Radio S-OFF, Install Clockwork (any decent guides on how to do this?), then install my chosen ROM.

4. If I go for Leedroid, they do recommend flashing a new radio; is this 100% mandatory?

Sorry for loads of questions, but I'm apprehensive about this. I've flashed a ZTE Blade before, but that was a 10 minute job and cost less than a fifth of the price of my DHD.

I feel like a total noob, apologies.

I've been trying to download the LD zip from xda for 2 days on & off and all I've been getting is a blank page after clicking download file.

Tried using Firefox and it's now downloading on 1st attempt. Bl**dy IE.

Going to download CM7 before I make my mind up which one to go for.

They mention in the LD thread about changing to a recommended radio?
Show I be doing this also?

From here yeah? I just wanna be sure that I'm getting from the right place too

 

[Xyro]

I'm gonna fire on with this tomorrow, I've a couple of questions before I do though.

1. I've read in another thread that downgrading is just the same as performing an OTA update, but obviously in reverse. Does that mean, as with an OTA update, I won't lose anything when downgrading (settings, Go Launcher, SMS etc)?

Unfortunattely not, you will end up with factory fresh 2.2.

2. The guide for installing Leedroid recommends getting Radio S-OFF, however I've read in this guide it's not recommended unless you absolutely know why you want to do it. Is the process actually "dangerous" or is it not recommended that you do it because once done, having absolute root access to the device (ability to flash radios etc) makes your handset brickable.

ENG S-Off is the more dangerous of the two. Radio S-Off is required to use custom ROMs, but ENG S-Off isn't. I beleive you can still flash radios even with just radio S-Off, but I'm not sure exactly how.

You might want to read this too, from the cyanogen forums: http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/forum-170/announcement-14-proper-way-of-flashing-radios/

As for the dangers of actually getting S-Off, I'm not sure.

3. I'm nervous, just so I'm clear as to what order to go about things, it's downgrade, S-OFF, Radio S-OFF, Install Clockwork (any decent guides on how to do this?), then install my chosen ROM.

The steps are:
- Downgrade
- Radio S-Off
- ENG S-Off (if you want)
- Perma-root using visionary.
- Install ROM Manager from the market.
- Once you open up ROM Manager, you just hit the very top option to install the latest clockwork recovery menu. You'll get a superuser permissions request, hit allow to grant ROM Manager root access and it should flash it for you.
- At that point you'll want to pick option two in ROM manager to boot to recovery (you can do the same thing by powering fof the phone and holding volume down + power).
- If that works, and you see the clockwork recovery menu, you're good to go.
- The next step would be to backup your current firmware, perform a factory reset and flash the new ROM. You can do that step by step in the recovery menu it's self, or you can chain the all up in ROM manager, which will have the recovery carry them all out at once.

4. If I go for Leedroid, they do recommend flashing a new radio; is this 100% mandatory?

I don't think so - generally it's just that the devs cannot guarentee you won't have issues unless you are using the same radio they used themsevles. But if you're not comfortable doing a radio flash, you can leave it out - chances are you'll be fine.

 

[El Presidente]

Spot on, thanks chief.

 

[D-U-R-X]

Actually gaining Radio and ENG S-Off isn't dangerous... there are 2 one click tools that do both for you.

I think that ENG S-Off can be dangerous but, from what I've read, it's only really if you loose power whilst flashing radios that it causes problems and can brick the phone!

 

[Sombre]

Thanks to this thread I've decided to give CM7 another serious go. Been a few hours and I'm slowly starting to appreciate it. I do love the fact that I could overclock my HTC DHD immediately to 1.2ghz with no issues. I'm going to miss Sense a bit (phone tracking) and also take some time getting use to the way Android users (besides Sense users) have to do things.

I'll keep reporting back here with my findings if you don't mind

Cheers,
Sombre.

 

[freestyle_gus]

Thanks to this thread I've decided to give CM7 another serious go. Been a few hours and I'm slowly starting to appreciate it. I do love the fact that I could overclock my HTC DHD immediately to 1.2ghz with no issues. I'm going to miss Sense a bit (phone tracking) and also take some time getting use to the way Android users (besides Sense users) have to do things.

I'll keep reporting back here with my findings if you don't mind

Cheers,
Sombre.

Good stuff

Lookout will track your phone anyway (for free), in my experience better than Sense does, so give that a go

 

[D-U-R-X]

Good stuff

Lookout will track your phone anyway (for free), in my experience better than Sense does, so give that a go

I've heard that about Lookout... I'vbe heard that it does the things that Sense should do.

I have read quite a bit about Lookout and loads of people complain about it eating battery - what is your opinion? Should I go for the free or paid version?

 

[freestyle_gus]

I've heard that about Lookout... I'vbe heard that it does the things that Sense should do.

I have read quite a bit about Lookout and loads of people complain about it eating battery - what is your opinion? Should I go for the free or paid version?

I've never noticed any problem with it consuming battery to be honest. Just sits there in the background and scans apps as you install them.

I use the free version, they were running a 30 day trial on the premium service, but I went back to the free option at the end of it. The essentials are there as far as I'm concerned.

 

[El Presidente]

I've heard that about Lookout... I'vbe heard that it does the things that Sense should do.

I have read quite a bit about Lookout and loads of people complain about it eating battery - what is your opinion? Should I go for the free or paid version?

It doesn't eat battery at all, certainly not on my handset or the other half's.

If you have data on permanently and you activate the phone finder online, it will switch GPS on for you, giving a more accurate location for your phone. As far as I'm aware, if GPS was off, Sense just used Wireless Networks. It will also send you an email with the GPS coordinates of your device.

The only thing you can't do with the free version is lock and wipe your device. If you want your device locked, you can install ES Security Manager which allows you to lock your device via text message, you can also set it up to send a backup of your contacts/SMS and pics. You need a gmail account to do so though.