Root New to Rooting and nervous as hell

[Pissed Hippie]

Every couple of months I get so frustrated with the resource suck that is the standard mfg config of my Eris, I get on forums like this and consider taking control of my phone. However, the countless methods and ROM variations lead me to believe that I will be forced to constantly fiddle with my phone even more than I already do.

So

 

[doogald]

Every couple of months I get so frustrated with the resource suck that is the standard mfg config of my Eris, I get on forums like this and consider taking control of my phone. However, the countless methods and ROM variations lead me to believe that I will be forced to constantly fiddle with my phone even more than I already do.

So

 

[Pissed Hippie]

ROCKSTAR!

Thanks for the quick reply.

I was looking at the CM7 ROM and think I'll go for it tonight. A few questions and clarifications...

I don

 

[metlcat]

ROCKSTAR!

Thanks for the quick reply.

I was looking at the CM7 ROM and think I'll go for it tonight. A few questions and clarifications...

I don

 

[doogald]

I hear what you

 

[Pissed Hippie]

Okay... I'm officially hooked. As others have stated, it feels like I got a new phone. I'll be sure to try the settings tip you mentioned. I also like the added benefit of having the theme manager built in. Really opens up the customization possibilites.

As I begin to reload my phone with some of the apps I've gotten used to, I'm sure I'll have more questions. I still can't figure out how to retreive email attachments with the included email app. I'm sure I'll figure something out.

Thanks Again!

 

[Pissed Hippie]

First question...

Can I delete the gscript folder from my SD Card once the phone has been rooted and flashed? Will I be able to try other ROMs in the future if I do so?

And... What did Nandroid backup prior to flashing?

 

[doogald]

First question...

Can I delete the gscript folder from my SD Card once the phone has been rooted and flashed? Will I be able to try other ROMs in the future if I do so?

You sure can. There are ROMs that will actually create a gscript folder when you flash (xtrSENSE, xtrROM among them) to make it easier to alter some settings, but there is no real reason to keep it.

And... What did Nandroid backup prior to flashing?

It made an exact image of your phone at the time you ran it. If you run Nandroid restore, it will bring your phone back to that exact state - ie, running stock software, with all of your apps, settings, history, etc.

 

[Pissed Hippie]

Couple of hardware questions...

I've seen some partial references to a "battery conditioning" trick. Is this a real technique anyone's heard of?

I received some JPGs from a client that he had taken from his Eris. They looked much better than anything mine has ever taken. Are there improvements available that I can download or apply that might help, or is a thorough cleaning all I can do?

 

[doogald]

Couple of hardware questions...

I've seen some partial references to a "battery conditioning" trick. Is this a real technique anyone's heard of?

I think it's mostly a bunch of hooey myself, but the theory is that the battery data history stored, used to calculate the amount of battery life left, may incorrectly predict how much battery that you have left. So, people will tell you to do one of two things:

1. charge the phone completely (sometimes they say to power it off.) Leave it plugged in and start Recovery. Go to the wipe menu and wipe battery stats. Reboot the phone and then unplug it, and leave it unplugged until it runs itself down completely.

I think all of that is ok once in a while, with the exception of running it down completely. You should never run a lithium ion or lithium polymer battery down to the point where it no longer powers the phone. Running down until you get low battery warnings is just fine; just running it and recharging as you normally do is also just fine.

2. Knowing that the battery starts to trickle charge at 90% charge, and will often report this as 100% charged, people will tell you to power off the phone and charge until the green light comes on. Unplug it, then, after a count of a few seconds, plug it back in. If the amber LED comes on, continue to charge until it turns gren again. Repeat this until it stays green when you plug it back in.

This will probably give you a bit more battery life that one time, but long-term this is bad for the life of the battery. Battery cells, as they near full charge, do not perform well when they are subjected to the high temperature of charging, which is why it starts to do a low amp trickle charge (this is what is happening when the LED turns green.)

I received some JPGs from a client that he had taken from his Eris. They looked much better than anything mine has ever taken. Are there improvements available that I can download or apply that might help, or is a thorough cleaning all I can do?

Mine always look terrible, particularly the low-light ones. The Eris takes photos through a transparent plastic disk in the back cover. You could see if that is dirty, both inside and out - perhaps a cleaning will help. I recall somebody reporting that they found there was protective plastic film over that lens cover. That's worth a shot.

 

[PapaMeltin]

Just wanted to add my thanks here. I'm getting mighty fed up with the stock settings and think I'll try this root today.

Just out of curiosity, what are the major differences between PlainJane and CCM7, if it's not too much trouble?

 

[doogald]

Just wanted to add my thanks here. I'm getting mighty fed up with the stock settings and think I'll try this root today.

Just out of curiosity, what are the major differences between PlainJane and CCM7, if it's not too much trouble?

PlainJane is just the stock Eris software build with a couple of apps added - the SuperUser, or SU, app, which tracks and monitors which apps are allowed to run using root user authority. Actually, PlainJane is based on the older July 2010 Eris update. There are some other, close to Eris stock, ROMs that are updated to include the changes made in the March 2011 update. Anyway, if somebody handed you a phone running PlainJane, you would have a hard time trying to distinguish between that and a stock Eris. (PlainJane is also overclocked, meaning that it runs faster than a stock Eris.) Of course, PlainJane, because it is stock Eris, is running Eclair (Android 2.1.)

When I say stock Eris in this case I am referring to the customizations that HTC included to the stock Android 2.1 build, including a customized notification bar, dialer, browser app, camera app, photo gallery app, and, of course, the Sense launcher and widgets.

CM7 stands for CyanogenMod version 7. Cyanogen is a team of developers who are building a stock Android based off of the open source Gingerbread (2.3) based code. There are a few customizations to CyanogenMod, but it is far closer to stock Android than any of the HTC sense based builds are. You can find out a little more about CyanogenMod here: CyanogenMod | Android Community Rom based on Gingerbread (the video tour, by the way, is perhaps a joke. There is no video tour.) If you have ever seen a Nexus S, the software on the CM7 builds is far closer to that than to the stock HTC based Eris build.

In my own experience, the CM7 based builds will give you better battery life than anything based on stock Eris, and though perhaps the apps will feel a bit more sluggish than from an overclocked 2.1 stock ROM, it will still be faster than stock.

 

[PapaMeltin]

Great! Thanks for the explanation.

I just rooted and installed the CCM7 and it's great so far. That said, how much performance boost can one expect from overclocking? Is it worth it? Where does one notice the difference the most?

Again, thanks for all your help!

 

[doogald]

Great! Thanks for the explanation.

I just rooted and installed the CCM7 and it's great so far. That said, how much performance boost can one expect from overclocking? Is it worth it? Where does one notice the difference the most?

Again, thanks for all your help!

It's overclocked to 710 MHz by default. I generally do not suggest clocking higher than that, though some people do, and it works fine for them.

I would say that you will notice the difference most in those things that are more CPU-intensive, such as launching apps, answering calls, etc. Maybe playing games, though I don't actually do that with my phone.

You can change the settings in settings->CyanogenMod settings->Performance->CPU settings. I think if you change the defaults, you need to "set on boot" or something like that (I haven't looked at these settings in a while.)

 

[metlcat]

It's overclocked to 710 MHz by default. I generally do not suggest clocking higher than that, though some people do, and it works fine for them.

I would say that you will notice the difference most in those things that are more CPU-intensive, such as launching apps, answering calls, etc. Maybe playing games, though I don't actually do that with my phone.

You can change the settings in settings->CyanogenMod settings->Performance->CPU settings. I think if you change the defaults, you need to "set on boot" or something like that (I haven't looked at these settings in a while.)

Actually, I believe CCM7 is clocked 604. I always boost it up to 710, but I don't know if it makes much of a difference.

 

[CondemnedSoul]

Actually, I believe CCM7 is clocked 604. I always boost it up to 710, but I don't know if it makes much of a difference.

I keep it at 604 most of the time myself and notice the battery lasts longer there. But I also don't run much on it.

 

[jennahw]

That particular method recommends that you install a custom ROM called PlainJane. Rather than install that particular ROM, you will install a Gingerbread ROM called CondemnedSoul's CM7 instead. That is here:

[ROM] 7/28/11 Condemned CM7 V16 (2.3.5) - xda-developers

You will download the .zip file (I'm going to suggest that you start with the vanilla version; so, the link titled "Condemned CM7 V16 - Vanilla". After you have formatted your SD card, copy that .zip file to your SD card (I think that the Universal Eris Root for Dummies method walks you through that.)

Anyway, if you have any questions, ask away. After you get rooted and have that ROM set up, there are a few tweaks that you can do, but I'll let you know them after you let us know how it goes.

Thanks for this. I rooted with FroShedYo earlier this year, and it had been going downhill. Finally the other day, it rebooted and kept getting stuck in a loop at the Cyanogen screen.

Since I couldn't really get "in" to the phone (but could get in to the recovery settings screen), I was able to just load your recommended ROM onto my SD card, flash that, and start over. I assume I was able to skip past all the other steps because I was already rooted?

I'm liking this ROM better than the last one I had, anyway - seems like there are more options. The one thing I miss though, is the 'expose-like' behavior when you'd hit the home button while on the home screen, and all your various screens would get tiny so you could pick which one you needed without having to scroll through. Any way to get that back?

VERY glad I was able to fix it, since my husband's Incredible half-died on the same day. Luckily, his was still (barely) under warranty, so they're replacing. Saved ourselves buying 2 new phones there!

 

[doogald]

I'm liking this ROM better than the last one I had, anyway - seems like there are more options. The one thing I miss though, is the 'expose-like' behavior when you'd hit the home button while on the home screen, and all your various screens would get tiny so you could pick which one you needed without having to scroll through. Any way to get that back?

CS's CM7 ROM uses the ADW launcher by default. I am sure that option is buried somewhere in ADW preferences.

(Ok, it's menu->ADW settings->General Behavior->Home button binding. Change to "Move to default desktop/show previews" - that should be the option under the one it is currently set to. Also, FYI, you can pinch on a home screen to bring up the home screen previews as well.)