Hi Thanks for joining Android Forums!

I'll write you a guide when I get home (in about 1 hour), just finishing work. It's all quite straightforward so hopefully you'll have a new ROM in no time

 

Take a look at CyanogenMod 7.2.

 

Ok i'm back.

As I can see, you have already done some reading on rooting, but I would just like to make a quick disclaimer here -

Spoiler

We are not responsible for anything that happens to your phone in this rooting process. Things can go wrong (but that is very unlikely), but we will certainly help you out of something does.

With that out of the way, let's get to it. I apologise if I sound condescending at any point, I am not sure how much you know about this.

A good thing to read first is the All Things Root Guide which will give you a run down of pretty much everything you need. Some more information is below -

First of all, the tool that will root your phone is the Advanced Ace Hack Kit. The link for this is here,. This tool will root your phone, install superuser and Clockworkmod Recovery, and SIM unlock your phone (but I can see that you don't need that.)

Basically, what will need to happen is that since you are on Sense 3.0, the AAHK will have to downgrade to an earlier build of Gingerbread to root the phone. HTC patched the software a long time ago so that it couldn't be rooted easily.
The problem with this however, is that it will wipe the entire of your phone when you root it. Everything except your SD card will be wiped, so if you decide to do this, make sure you back up everything important. There are apps like SMS Backup & Restore on Google Play which will backup your texts, and your contacts should be backed up to your Google account, but if not then you can find a contact backup app.

In the zip file that contains the AAHK, there should be a .html file called the 'effin manual'. This is the guide on what to do when you run the kit. Read it at least 4 or 5 times, it is important to understand it inside and out before starting.

What OS are you running on your computer? The preferred ones are either Mac OSX or Linux, as Windows can cause some issues when trying to root. (I did mine on a Mac and it worked first time. Windows can take a few tries longer but I think for most people it works eventually.) Linux is the best one, and you can always download a Linux distro, burn it to a CD and then boot it on your computer without installing it.

[This next section might need some tweaking, and hopefully someone else can chime in, as I don't actually have the phone anymore, so i'm out of the loop with ROMs ]
Now, as for ROMs, what are you looking for? The most up to date version of Android is 4.1.1 Jelly Bean. I believe it is fairly stable on the DHD, but if not there is the next one, 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

With Jelly Bean and ICS you can have a 'pure vanilla' Android, like you get on the Galaxy Nexus. For ICS I used IceColdSandwich which was very good.
I think the best JB ROM is this one, but maybe someone can say if there are any better ones.
Please note that these ROMs are likely to have a lot of bugs in them. They will be good enough for everyday use, but you might encounter the odd graphics glitch, or sound not working properly etc.

If you a want rock-solid ROM, you can always go for Gingerbread. The best for this is Cyanogenmod 7, which is probably the most popular ROM there is. It is currently on version 7.2, using Android 2.3.7, and is fast, has good battery life and lots of nice tweaks to make it look nice and perform well. It is based on the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) and looks like Android is without the manufacturers adding their own skins etc on.

You say you want a basic Android OS, so these above are probably the best choices.

Now, if you root and want to flash a new ROM, you would download the ROM and put it on your SD card (not in any folders). Once you've done that, you can start backing up all your stuff. With root, you can download apps like Titanium Backup (the pro version is definitely worth it!) which will backup all your apps and the data they have on them, so that you can restore it all on your new ROM without losing anything. The most important backup however is the Nandroid backup from Clockworkmod Recovery [CWM]. This will backup an exact image of the ROM you are on, so if there is ever a problem you can restore it and everything will be back to how it was. If you change anything about the OS (new ROM, kernel, radio etc) you must backup your ROM. I cannot stress that enough

---I need to take a break to do some things, but i'll be back! Please let me know if any of that is too vague or needs more info!---

 

A quick look n all seems good there. Am on my phone at the moment n will have a proper look when I get in

 

looks good to me too, mate :smokingsomb:

jp007,just holler if you have any questions

 

Hey,

Sorry I haven't replied - I haven't forgotten about you! I've just been crazy busy with work the last couple of days I will get some more info to you soon. Maybe it would be good for us to go through it step by step when you are ready to give it a go.

 

Hey Whenever you want to go through the process we can do that.

A very basic version would go something like this -

- Run Hack Kit on phone and get root
- Run a 'Nandroid' backup of your current ROM
- Backup your apps with Titanium Backup and your sms' etc with other apps
- Download the ROM of your choice (any from here) and put it on your SD card
- Once everything's definitely backed up, enter recovery and wipe the phone, and then install the new ROM
- Reboot and enjoy

Of course there's a little more to that, but that's going to be the main process for doing it.

If you want to go step by step then that's fine, or I can write out the whole process in one and if you get stuck you can always ask along the way I'm happy to do either.

Do you have an idea of what ROM you would like? We can start from there as some ROMs have slightly different install methods.

 

Are you looking for a Sense ROM (as in one that looks like the standard HTC ROMs) or a 'Vanilla' one? Cyanogenmod is a very good 'Vanilla' AOSP ROM, I used it for quite a few months and never really had a problem with it. There's a video here which gives you a good idea of what it looks like and the features (video is in french though, I can't find a better video in English.) I think if you want a stable ROM then that is the one to go for the start with.

Of course, once you're rooted you can flash as many ROMs as you like until you find the perfect one

Within Cyanogenmod there are a few versions. The place to get the ROMs from is here and you'll notice that under 'Type' there is 'Nightly' 'RC' and 'Stable.
*Nightly builds are ROMs that have been built automatically by a buildbot, and are generally released every day or week. These are the most up to date versions, however since they are built by a bot there is no telling if they will be stable or not.
*RC - Release Candidate ROMs are ones that are nearly stable but may have some things that need fixing before it is considered stable. I believe that there will be no more RC's built for the Desire HD.
*Stable - This is the one you want. The most recent stable version is CM 7.2.0 which you can find sixth down on the list in the link above. This one is fine to use, I used it for a few weeks and it was good. Has some extras from the previous versions such as a T9 dialler (which I find really useful.)

 

In my experience the best Sense 3.0 ROM is Android Revolution, which doesn't offer anything visually different and doesn't have loads of tweaks - it's the stock ROM but massively modified under the hood to get the best performance. So it will look identical to the one you have now, but will have better battery life, it will be faster and smoother to use, and you always have the option to add extras on if you want to.

There are some good Sense 3.5 ROMs (which is an updated version of the stock HTC launcher, such as the ability to change the amount of home screens, a different bottom bar where the phone is and some others), the best in my experience being Virtuous Affinity.

I think Sense 3.0 ROMs are likely to be better overall, as they are designed for that phone and have all the correct drivers etc (rather than a Sense 3.5 which is a port from the HTC Sensation.)

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT perform an OTA update when you are rooted... all sorts of badness can happen (including the end of the world)... in all seriousness, it can cause some real issues if you do!

You can give any ROM a go... it depends what you want. If you would like something similar to HTC's Sense UI, then perhaps go for Android Revolution HD. Once you have the hang of things, you'll be flashing every other day (eh, ral? ) and we're here to offer help and advice too

 

A full wipe could go as far as deleting everything but your SD card will delete everything, but the new ROM will include a Super User app at least. You can download a Busy Box installer from Google Play if one has not been provided.

Before you do a full wipe just make sure you have a Nandroid backup (a backup of your current ROM) just in case.

If you are thinking about installing Blackout ICS I have a thread (which is basically me talking to myself) on that ROM.

GL

 

ROM dev's generally include all you need (Superuser/Busybox) in their ROM.

You should perform a full wipe each time you flash a different ROM, else you may suffer with compatability issues. Usually a ROM dev will tell you where you download your ROM from whether or not you need to do one - sometimes, if you are going from one version of a ROM to an updated version of the same ROM, you don't need to.... again the ROM dev will tell you

 

I think ral is talking about his thread - http://androidforums.com/desire-hd-all-things-root/604780-blackout-ics-incredible-v3-x.html

 

Finally... someone will actually use it

 

Go with the defaults for now... you can always change later anyway!

I'd go for the Sense theme, as you said want it to look as much like stock as possible

 

The theme is only the theme to be used by the installer. It wont affect the them of Blackout ICS once installed.

Yes. Let it format. Leave the default clock speeds alone. Leave all the options alone as default. If you opt to back-up apps, app only. No data.

If the touch screen becomes unresponsive, volume to navigate power to select.

AND DO NOT LET AROMA REBOOT FOR YOU.

GL. Your in trouble now (I started a month ago, and as I type this I am booting into custom ROM #5).