Root About to take the plunge... just a few questions left

[supercopter]

Hi guys,

I've rooted my N1 since I own it (about 5 months), but I'm new to installing ROMs. I'm reading tutorials for a week now, and I think I'm (almost) ready by now... The "almost" is because of a few remaining questions ;-)

I'm planning to install a Rooted / deodexed but stock FRG83 ROM.

The reasons I want to install a stock ROM other than the one I'm running now is that in France, SFR (the French Vodafone) try to make us pay for tethering. They've changed our ROM and from what I've read on French forums, when enabling tethering, it opens a PDP Context, setting in a new APN that they track to make us pay. To avoid this extra-billing, the easiest method is to trash this damn SFR ROM to install a stock US ROM. And of course our Android updates are really slow to come (months after US), as Vodafone has to modify any OTA before (eventually) releasing it to us...

From tutorials I've read, I've understood that a Wipe isn't necessary when using the same ROM "family" (like when installing a Cyanogen on top of a Cyanogen).
So, as I have a stock FRF91, can I install an "almost stock" (stock but rooted) FRG83 Rom without a wipe ? ... and, depending on your answers : What is the risk of not wiping even if recommended ? And if I run all the wipes, what will I lose ? Will the games I play remember my achieved levels ? Are there ways to save things that will be wiped ?

Thanks in advance for the help !

 

[Talderon]

Good News and Bad News...

Bad News... You'll need to wipe for your first Stock (non-rooted) to Stock (rooted). Even though they are the similar "Family" (being Stock), they are not the same.

First, I would suggest you install ROM Manager (Free). This will allow you the easiest way to install a custom recovery. Personally, I am not a huge fan of using it to install a ROM, but it does make it nice and handy.

Your first time through, I would manually boot into recovery and go from there.

Let's break it down:

1. Install Rom Manager (Linked above)
2. Install Clockwork Recovery (via ROM Manager)
3. Download chosen ROM and copy to SD Card
4. Reboot to recovery
5. Wipe EVERYTHING (Data/Cache/Dalvik-Cache/Rotation & Battery Settings)
6. Flash ROM
7. Reboot into ROM (First boot can take longer than normal, just let it sit (as in, sometimes it can take 5+ minutes, so just wait))
8. Setup initial settings and let it boil for a few
9. Once it has settled and synced and whatnot, it's always a good idea to give it another reboot to let it settle

Once all of that is done, you should be good to go.

Hope this helps!

 

[supercopter]

Thanks a lot Talderon, I was aware of most steps but this is a nice summary and your comments have given me a few more clues and will even made this less stressful to realize ;-)

Btw, my actual stock FRF91 ROM is Rooted but I guess you're right, this European ROM is not the same as an US stock FRG83... So OK I'll need those wipes... :-(

But again, what could happen if I try nevertheless without wiping ?

In fact I'm not even sure of what will be wiped... What will I lose ? applications settings ? The APN configuration of my carrier ? SMS ? Cache moved to SD ? ...and are there ways to backup and restore most wiped things on my new ROM later ? Can a Titanium Backup restore make this painless ?

Sorry for insisting but that's the part I don't like and that's preventing me for installing a ROM for a month now ! I may be a bit maniac but I'm not happy with this idea of loosing settings I've made perfect for me...

Thanks for any clarification !
I should have named this Topic "afraid of wiping" ...

 

[Talderon]

Hey, not a problem at all, glad I could help and make things more clear and easier.

For the APN Question, use APN Backup & Restore from the market to make sure you have yours saved. Most of the ROM's (including Stock ones) include a pretty big APN List. If you want to know for sure, then ask the Dev.

Using Titanium Backup and Restore is great, however, the issue that I have run into is sometimes the ROM Dev will put things in different places and just cause some mayhem.

To make life easier, I do a few things to make restores easier for me.

1. Let Google backup your apps (which means it will keep a list of your apps, so if you wipe, log in with your google account, launch the Market, it will re-install your apps). I do this over Wi-Fi whenever I can to make installs faster.
2. Use the Google Services for all your Contacts and Calendars. The Account Sync's will restore it all with little to no intervention.
3. Whenever possible, if the app allows saving settings to SD, do so, easy restore (the key ones for me are Launcher Pro and Touchdown).

If you try to flash without wiping, the WORST thing that will happen is you will end up in a boot loop or hung boot or a VERY unstable phone. In ANY of those cases, just boot into recovery, wipe, re-flash and boot.

Wipe will pretty much wipe any and all data on the device that did not come stock with the device (Content, Apps, Settings and everything else).

Let me know which ROM you want to try and I can help ya with more details.

 

[supercopter]

Thanks again Talderon !

Thanks for APN Backup & Restore, I've found that the same developer also has apps for restoring SMS and Call Logs. From there I also found another for restoring bookmarks and the latest restoring app I found seems quite handy and may be the ultimate anti-wipe tool : MyBackup ;-)

For now, I plan to use the "Rooted / deodexed / busybox / trackball alert with radio update" FRG83 from Android @ Modaco.

I was also interested in the ROM here @ XDA but there's just too many files to flash (and in the correct order) !

 

[supercopter]

Hi again!

Hehe, I finally crossed the Custom Recovery line!
I now run a 2.2.1 FRG83 Nexus One (while French N1 are still officially on Android 2.1)!

As I've asked a few questions here, I thought I could now post this first-time ROM-changing experience. I hope it can help those who, like I was, are afraid to take the step.

First thing to say is that it was really easy and not stressful at all. It all went very smooth and all was easily done from the phone (I don't even know about sdk and adb stuff) with Universal Androot and ROM Manager.

About avoiding loosing data (my main fear), it went quite well too, even if that was less automatic and took longer than I thought...

Once the ROM was flashed, I connected to WiFi and opened the Android Market. Maybe I was not patient enough but the Market never re-install my apps. I waited about 10 minutes, re-connected WiFi several times, opened and closed the Market to make the "download" page re-load, nothing.

As I didn't want to wait anymore, I used Titanium Backup to restore my apps. I asked it to restore all apps + data (206 packages) and first thing I noticed is that you have to click "Install" and "OK" once it's done for each package! That's touching your screen 412 times during half an hour to restore all your apps!

About these Titanium restores, there's one good and one bad thing : the good is that I didn't loose any state/setting/data/high score/achievements in any app! Yeah! ... The bad thing is that Titanium didn't recall that most apps where installed on my SD card... so after installing the first 100 packages, my N1 was full! I had to manually move all the apps (the irony is that's it's Titanium Backup that initially moved my apps to SD!) before finishing restoring+moving to SD the hundred left... it almost took me half a day!

Note that I use the free version of the Titanium Backup, so maybe these inconvenient don't exist anymore when you use the donate version (?).

Also note that the app I was happy to have found : MyBackup, is a total FAIL, at least in it's trial version. It is said to be free and fully functioning during 30 days but in reality after wiping your phone, installing your ROM, restoring MyBackup+data you'll get a "trial version has expired or we couldn't authenticate your version" message.

Thanksfully SMS, call Logs and Bookmarks were easily restored using dedicated apps.

Overall, it was quite easy (even if quite long ) and I now consider trying custom ROMs... That will be my next big step!

 

[ironass]

Go for it supercopter!

I did at the weekend and don't regret it one bit.

See here:-

http://androidforums.com/nexus-all-things-root/207808-cyanogen-6-1-rc1-out-now.html

 

[zombiedad]

Good News and Bad News...

1. Install Rom Manager (Linked above)
2. Install Clockwork Recovery (via ROM Manager)
3. Download chosen ROM and copy to SD Card
4. Reboot to recovery

Great instructions. They worked perfectly for me right up until step #4. No matter how many times I've reinstalled Clockwork Recovery via ROM Manager (and I know it worked because I've successful backed up my existing ROM), when I reboot after step 4 to wipe, I just get the android with the exclamation point.

Any constructive suggestions for this noob would be gratefully accepted and appreciated.

 

[zombiedad]

"No matter how many times....", well you know how it goes. N+1 did the trick. Happily running Cyanogen now, in the midst of reinstalling stuff via Titanium.

 

[supercopter]

Zombiedad, I think it's normal to be stuck at the "android with the exlamation sign".
Loading the Recovery requires to press Vol Up + Power when this screen shows.

 

[AnotherFatalEpic]

Zombiedad, I think it's normal to be stuck at the "android with the exlamation sign".
Loading the Recovery requires to press Vol Up + Power when this screen shows.

Not sure if the stock recover will work.

I noticed that once I flashed a custom recovery, the following reboot would revert back to the stock recovery. I read that there is some file that does this. I just had to make sure that everything was in place, flash the custom recovery with fastboot, then flash the mod before any reboots that would revert the recovery.

 

[Rusty]

There are 2 files that cause the stock recovery to be re-flashed.

/system/recovery-from-boot.p
/system/etc/install-recovery.sh

Rename/remove them and you're golden.

 

[supercopter]

Just a little update : Thanks to Talderon's advices, I'm now running on the FRG83D Geo's ROM with the Blackbar addon and I'm sooooooooooo pleased with it (I scored 1551 on Quadrant Benchmark) !

Now waiting for a stock/rooted Gingerbread ;-)