Root just a double check before i instal new app please

[davo26]

going to have a bash at installing leedroid gb in the morning, and just want to check im ready for it. ive read the stickies but not sure of these specific questions.

1. firstly, where can i get it?? had a look on the xda site and cant actually find a file to download.

2. ive backed up my data using mybackup, and also titanium. am i corrrect in thinking this will replace all my app data, rather than just the apps? so if ive got specific fitness data, itll just open it all up as before on the new rom?
i believe that when you move apps to sd card, it leaves part on the phone memory, so if i wipe for a new rom, wont it wipe part of the apps? do i just download em again and my data shows from the titanium backup?

3. i did a nandroid backup last time i installed a rom (cm7) but didnt like it and reinstalled the nandroid backup. if i do another backup now, will it overwrite the last one (like a clipboard), or do i just get extra backups to choose from every time i do one?

4. also, im thinking ap2sd+ might be a good idea. would it be better to instal and partition sd card first etc, or is it no great shakes to do it later. i ask this as obviously all my backed up data is on my sd card, so itd be wiped when i do the instal.

think thats all i need to know for now

cheers

 

[Hadron]

going to have a bash at installing leedroid gb in the morning, and just want to check im ready for it. ive read the stickies but not sure of these specific questions.

1. firstly, where can i get it?? had a look on the xda site and cant actually find a file to download.

Should be a link in either first or second post of the thread. It may be a link to Lee's download site rather than a direct download link.

2. ive backed up my data using mybackup, and also titanium. am i corrrect in thinking this will replace all my app data, rather than just the apps? so if ive got specific fitness data, itll just open it all up as before on the new rom?
i believe that when you move apps to sd card, it leaves part on the phone memory, so if i wipe for a new rom, wont it wipe part of the apps? do i just download em again and my data shows from the titanium backup?

Titanium will back up apps and data. You can restore both, or just app, as you prefer. If the app is already there you can choose to just restore data.

Wipe will wipe the apps completely - android knows where the apps that have been moved to sd are, and will wipe that area too.

3. i did a nandroid backup last time i installed a rom (cm7) but didnt like it and reinstalled the nandroid backup. if i do another backup now, will it overwrite the last one (like a clipboard), or do i just get extra backups to choose from every time i do one?

It makes a new one each time. The nandroid is stored in clockworkmod/backup on your sd card (don't know location for amon ra), in a directory whose name is the date and time it was made. When you select restore it will ask you which one you want.

4. also, im thinking ap2sd+ might be a good idea. would it be better to instal and partition sd card first etc, or is it no great shakes to do it later. i ask this as obviously all my backed up data is on my sd card, so itd be wiped when i do the instal.

Partition first. And as you say, back up your sd first as it will be erased when you partition.

Note - if your card is a goldcard you must re-gold after partitioning.

 

[davo26]

thanks for all that. looks like ill do an ap2sd+ first then, so need to back up my sd card. sorry for appearing a bit dim, but how do i do that? connect to pc by usb, open the removable drive and just copy and paste it to pc or something? or try and pick certain folders to back up?

thanks

 

[Hadron]

No, just that: connect to PC via USB, copy everything. Make a folder on the PC for it, copy entire card into there, then when you've done the partition just copy everything from the PC back onto the card.

You can just back up certain files or folders if you wish, as long as you know which are the ones you want, but it's simplest to just do the lot. Make sure you get the whole content of the card, including hidden files with names starting with "." (such as .android-secure).

 

[davo26]

No, just that: connect to PC via USB, copy everything. Make a folder on the PC for it, copy entire card into there, then when you've done the partition just copy everything from the PC back onto the card.

You can just back up certain files or folders if you wish, as long as you know which are the ones you want, but it's simplest to just do the lot. Make sure you get the whole content of the card, including hidden files with names starting with "." (such as .android-secure).

is there a tick box or anything to make sure i copy those files? how can i be sure itll include those?

thanks again

 

[SUroot]

It's drag and drop. Select all or some of the folders and drag them over. Make sure hidden files are visible

 

[Hadron]

I don't use Windows for this, so am not 100% sure there (I use unix terminal commands for this type of thing). If your file explorer shows you files starting with "." on the sd card thenyou just copy them. If not, maybe the show system/hidden file option needs to be turned on? Or perhaps you can just drag the whole sd card icon to the PC and that will copy the lot?

Edit: ah, beaten, but you get confirmation.

 

[davo26]

thanks a lot for your help, ill give this a bash tomorrow

 

[davo26]

just started the ball rolling by going to the sticky to follow the step by step. but it says i need a rom that supports init.d not a custom rom. well mines the original that came with the phone, that i restored by nandroid.

so i followed the link to enable init.d which calls for a zip file to be downloaded depending on which software number ive got. but mine doesnt apply to any of the options.

my software number is 2.33.161.2.

where do i go from here? my gut feeling tells me to do the ap2sd+ thing when ive actually installed a new rom that supports it. would you agree?

thanks

EDIT: i did a back up by usb connection, mount as disk drive, then opening files and folders at the prompt. i couldnt see a specific folder that said sd card, so i copied everything as advised above. is that the actual card only then that shows? or card and phone together?

 

[Hadron]

You don't need to worry about trying to add a2sd+ to your current ROM, but the advice is to partition the card before installing a ROM that supports a2sd+. The reason is that while most modern ones will also work without a2sd+, some that use older a2sd+ scripts will not boot unless the necessary partition is there. Hence it's safer to prepare the card before flashing the ROM.

But yes, it is probably simpler to install a ROM with a2sd+ than to bolt it onto your current ROM.

And yes, when you mount the phone as a usb storage device you can only see the sd card, not the phone's internal memory.

 

[davo26]

You don't need to worry about trying to add a2sd+ to your current ROM, but the advice is to partition the card before installing a ROM that supports a2sd+. The reason is that while most modern ones will also work without a2sd+, some that use older a2sd+ scripts will not boot unless the necessary partition is there. Hence it's safer to prepare the card before flashing the ROM.

But yes, it is probably simpler to install a ROM with a2sd+ than to bolt it onto your current ROM.

And yes, when you mount the phone as a usb storage device you can only see the sd card, not the phone's internal memory.

thanks for the advice. ill partition it first then using gparted. thing is.....im sure ive read a step by step on it, but cant find it anywhere!! i can nly see a video guide with no talking in it, and its a bit blurry too so not that clear exactly whats going on.
im not cracking up am i? i did read a step by step somewhere??

thanks again

 

[Hadron]

It's in here, under "a2sd+" then "If I wanted to do it, is there a step-by-step process".

 

[davo26]

yup, got it thanks

2 things just strike me first. firstly, ok i make a cd with the gparted file on. but then i boot up my PC using the cd?? do i understand that right? im not sure of that. how would i do it, and what effect does it have on my pc? will i have normal access to it or does something take over it? and how would i revert it back to normal use?
oh and connect in recovery mode. i assume i then have phone switched off, connected to pc by usb. then just switch phone on in recovery mode by vol down and 'on' yep?

and secondly, what size partitions would you recommend for a 4Gb card?

thanks for your help

 

[Hadron]

It takes over - your PC boots and runs from the CD. Reboot the PC normally and it reverts to normal. No lasting effect.

And yes, you get into recovery by booting while holding volume down key, then select recovery from the hboot menu. Then go to the mounts and storage menu and mount usb.

Partition size depends on what ROM you wish to run. I use a 512MB partition and have nowhere near filled it yet, but some ROMs require 1GB because they put part of the ROM there (those using newer Sense versions, which don't fit in the standard internal memory).

 

[SUroot]

I would suggest if its the 4GB class 2 that comes with the desire, then a ROM that runs partly from SD would not be the most suitable.

 

[davo26]

I would suggest if its the 4GB class 2 that comes with the desire, then a ROM that runs partly from SD would not be the most suitable.

oh no, not something else i dont understand! yes itll be the standard sd card in there, but whats class 2 and whats better, and more to the pont, why??

can i just confirm im understanding the process here? the normal card is all FAT32. ap2sd+ partitions it into mostly FAT32 but a smaller linux partition to automatically send all the apps i download.
thats the bit i dont really understand. why would they need to go on a different format when they were perfectly happy on FAT32 before?

and roms running partly from sd? why would they do that? why not all on phone? and ok, if they do have to run partly from sd, then why isnt class 2 good enough,and what roms would be suitable?

for what its worth, im fairly happy with my stock rom, just rooted really to try and alter settings to save my rubbish battery life. i dont really understand all the techy stuff (surprise eh? ) but dont mind trying different roms more out of interest.
the CM7 i tried seemed too basic, i was thinking itd have lots of clever 'things' in it that made me go wow. but i was underwhelmed so reverted back.
i was advised leedroid may be more to my liking, so that was going to be next. is that suitable for my class 2 sd card?

thanks again for your help, it really is much appreciated. ive honestly read the stickies, but i spose theres still a lot in there that i dont understand.

cheers

 

[Rastaman-FB]

oh no, not something else i dont understand! yes itll be the standard sd card in there, but whats class 2 and whats better, and more to the pont, why??

can i just confirm im understanding the process here? the normal card is all FAT32. ap2sd+ partitions it into mostly FAT32 but a smaller linux partition to automatically send all the apps i download.
thats the bit i dont really understand. why would they need to go on a different format when they were perfectly happy on FAT32 before?

and roms running partly from sd? why would they do that? why not all on phone? and ok, if they do have to run partly from sd, then why isnt class 2 good enough,and what roms would be suitable?

for what its worth, im fairly happy with my stock rom, just rooted really to try and alter settings to save my rubbish battery life. i dont really understand all the techy stuff (surprise eh? ) but dont mind trying different roms more out of interest.
the CM7 i tried seemed too basic, i was thinking itd have lots of clever 'things' in it that made me go wow. but i was underwhelmed so reverted back.
i was advised leedroid may be more to my liking, so that was going to be next. is that suitable for my class 2 sd card?

thanks again for your help, it really is much appreciated. ive honestly read the stickies, but i spose theres still a lot in there that i dont understand.

cheers

ext is a linux format, android is a linux derivative even though its not part of the tree.
were talking about a file system the os can be efficient in linking too not simply storage space. it reads this ext file system as if it was part of the physical phone memory and not the SDcard


not all roms run partly on SD but the likes of some of the HD, sense 3.0 roms do as they are so big they cannot fit on the physical phone memory and as such have to use ext on the sdcard to fit.

leedroid is basically a stable sense rom with a few tweeks for speed, it will fit on a normal device. and doesnt put anything on ext unless you chose the a2sd+ version which only puts user apps on there and not parts of the rom itself

class is quite important though. a class 2 card is very slow and not really that good for anything but a2sd+ and even then you might get slow downs when accessing the larger apk's

 

[Hadron]

Class 2 refers to the read/write speed of the card. Higher is faster. A ROM that lives partially on the card might run a bit slow on a class 2.

LeeDroid won't require anything fancy, as long as you stick to the a2sd+ version. The "Data++" version may be more demanding on the sd, as said above.

Why a different format? The version of "a2sd" we're talking about here redirects some directories from internal storage to the ext partition - to the android operating system they look like they are still in the internal storage (unlike the google method). Since Android is based on linux, a linux filesystem format is needed here.

Why some ROMs live partially on SD? Because they are trying to fit in the more recent versions of Sense from the Desire HD, or Desire S, or ... Those phones have more internal storage, so some of these ROMs don't fit within the Desire's internal memory. LeeDroid a2sd+ version does not need this, because it uses the Desire's version of Sense, just on a Gingerbread OS.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

hadron, always late

 

[Hadron]

Ah, there were only seconds in it this time!

 

[Rastaman-FB]

driver, you 33 seconds late

 

[davo26]

Class 2 refers to the read/write speed of the card. Higher is faster. A ROM that lives partially on the card might run a bit slow on a class 2.

LeeDroid won't require anything fancy, as long as you stick to the a2sd+ version. The "Data++" version may be more demanding on the sd, as said above.

Why a different format? The version of "a2sd" we're talking about here redirects some directories from internal storage to the ext partition - to the android operating system they look like they are still in the internal storage (unlike the google method). Since Android is based on linux, a linux filesystem format is needed here.

Why some ROMs live partially on SD? Because they are trying to fit in the more recent versions of Sense from the Desire HD, or Desire S, or ... Those phones have more internal storage, so some of these ROMs don't fit within the Desire's internal memory. LeeDroid a2sd+ version does not need this, because it uses the Desire's version of Sense, just on a Gingerbread OS.

excellent answers chaps, even a technophobe like me sort of understands a bit better now

ill press on with making the gparted cd and try leedroid then, see if i notice a difference.

just out of interest, what sort of card should i look for in future to upgrade? any particular class or make?

thanks a lot

 

[Hadron]

just out of interest, what sort of card should i look for in future to upgrade? any particular class or make?

Desire can handle speeds up to class 6. A faster card (e.g. class 10) will still work, but you won't see any speed advantage in this phone (maybe the next one though...).

Most important is a reputable seller - a lot of fakes on EBay (cards that have been rigged to report themselves to the OS as being larger than they really are).

 

[Rastaman-FB]

amazon or play

 

[SUroot]

Yeah amazon is fine usually. Not a fan of play. Whenever I want something, theyre sold out.