Root new user with questions please help!~ :T

[Gimmick]

so I'm pretty freakin' new to the android phones, or anything better than a blackberry pearl. I was just wondering if anyone could help me out here, I'm no rocket scientist but i can figure things out okay.

I just rooted my samsung vibrant a little while ago and.... now what? I saw a screenshot thread that had people with AMAZING looking displays and how do i do all of this? Or could i get directed somewhere to get started ?

please help!

 

[Gimmick]

like, how do i get certain things to display? ( different looking icons, backgrounds, etc), how do i overclock my phone? should i? How do i flash a rom? what does that even mean?!
haha, sorry for the newbie questions, I've just been looking around and I get so lost sooo fast!

any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[bootsie]

A rom is basically like changing the os. They take all the bloatware of the image, tweak it and then package it so you can load it on the phone. In the simplest terms of course

There are a few launchers you can try out. ADW and Launcher pro are the most popular each have their own goods and bads. Do a search for launchers for android on google and that will help you

As far as over clocking the standard program to change settings is setcpu in the market. The stndard image will only let you go to 1000 But if you flash the bionix image it will allow you to go to 1200

Welcome aboard and I am kinda new as well so if I misspoke hopefully someone will correct me

 

[w_bovine]

so I'm pretty freakin' new to the android phones, or anything better than a blackberry pearl. I was just wondering if anyone could help me out here, I'm no rocket scientist but i can figure things out okay.

I just rooted my samsung vibrant a little while ago and.... now what? I saw a screenshot thread that had people with AMAZING looking displays and how do i do all of this? Or could i get directed somewhere to get started ?

please help!

Pretty good advice from bootsie in the prior post. Care to do some reading today? Go check out this thread on xda:

[REF]***Vibrant Directory (Bible)***(9/24/2010) - xda-developers

 

[shaahinjjj]

Install SetCPU, Titanium, Rom manager, AutoKiller Memory, and a lag-fix IF you're experiencing any lag at all. There is no rom for the vibrant YET, or if there is, it has some bugs. Basically the stock rom is the best rom around at the moment. That's pretty much all you can do right now with you rooted vibrant. good luck

 

[w_bovine]

Install SetCPU, Titanium, Rom manager, AutoKiller Memory, and a lag-fix IF you're experiencing any lag at all. There is no rom for the vibrant YET, or if there is, it has some bugs. Basically the stock rom is the best rom around at the moment. That's pretty much all you can do right now with you rooted vibrant. good luck

There is a ROM for the Vibrant with which many are having success. It's called Bionix. You can check out the (very long) thread here:

[ROM] Bionix1.3 - 3 Flavors [Stock Kernel, Voodoo b4, KingKlick Kernel] *09/20/10* - xda-developers

And shaahinjjj lists some great apps. SetCPU is mainly for overclocked ROM's. You may not see much benefit with it with a stock ROM. Titanium Back and ROM Manager...essential for a rooted phone as far as I'm concerned.

ROM Manager - Android app on AppBrain
Titanium Backup ? root - Android app on AppBrain
SetCPU for Root Users - Android app on AppBrain

Can't say I'm familiar with AutoKiller.

AutoKiller Memory Optimizer - Android app on AppBrain

 

[Gimmick]

thanks a whole bunch guys, that really helps. So if i'm trying to download something to my phone from my computer how do i do it? can i just move the files from my computer to my phone via mass storage?

 

[bootsie]

Some people use double twist to move files like iTunes. I hated it. I just use mass storage

The bionix ROM runs super fast and silky smooth so far

I also ran the Eugene ROM and that was good but kinda lagged

 

[Gimmick]

sorry i guess my last post wasn't clear, i meant if i were to transfer a program or app, and i downloaded it off of a website to my computer. how would i get it to my phone?

 

[bootsie]

sorry i guess my last post wasn't clear, i meant if i were to transfer a program or app, and i downloaded it off of a website to my computer. how would i get it to my phone?

Mount your phone to the pc, create a file called "APK" the put your downloaded files in there. Then on the phone go into the market and Install a program called app installer it will see all your apks on the phone and allow you to pick and chose what you install

 

[Gimmick]

Thanks for the help guys, just went on a downloading frenzy and am going to have a headache figuring everything out, first smart phone ftw?
also~

What is quadrant? It seems like something used to measure performance or something of the sort but I can't figure it out.

What is the whole flashing concept about? I assumed it was when you launch a new ROM with an app like launcherpro, so you could maybe switch back and forth between that and the stock ROM, but I guess I'm wrong there

And, if I want to say.. change my display? Saw some screen shots in this thread ( http://androidforums.com/samsung-vibrant/170514-post-your-vibrant-screenshots.html ), which had some absolutely AMAZING looking backgrounds, icons, and everything else displayed on their phone, (one even had a weather app open on their screen as part of their background I believe) and i was wondering, how would I go about doing that, or finding some place to learn how to do all of that. This all just seems so far out of my reach right now it's frustrating haha
especially links people post there, all of that goes right over my head >.<

 

[Gimmick]

also, checking that website you linked earlier on the xda forums.
What are mods and theme metamorphs?

sorry for all the questions I'm pretty damn new to all of this smart phone stuff


EDIT: haha, so..after I rooted my phone, to my understanding you are supposed to have two new apps, Superuser and busybox. I can't seem to find busy box anywhere in app form, did i do something wrong? and is there a free version of setcpu? i'm still in highschool and my parents pay for my phone, meaning my parents don't like me buying stuff for my phone !!also, my ROM manager is saying it needs a clockworkmod recovery app but i can't see where to find it.

 

[w_bovine]

Thanks for the help guys, just went on a downloading frenzy and am going to have a headache figuring everything out, first smart phone ftw?
also~

What is quadrant? It seems like something used to measure performance or something of the sort but I can't figure it out.

What is the whole flashing concept about? I assumed it was when you launch a new ROM with an app like launcherpro, so you could maybe switch back and forth between that and the stock ROM, but I guess I'm wrong there

And, if I want to say.. change my display? Saw some screen shots in this thread ( http://androidforums.com/samsung-vibrant/170514-post-your-vibrant-screenshots.html ), which had some absolutely AMAZING looking backgrounds, icons, and everything else displayed on their phone, (one even had a weather app open on their screen as part of their background I believe) and i was wondering, how would I go about doing that, or finding some place to learn how to do all of that. This all just seems so far out of my reach right now it's frustrating haha
especially links people post there, all of that goes right over my head >.<

Quadrant is a benchmarking tool, that is, to give a relative indication of how "fast" your phone is. From all I've read it's overrated. I'd ignore it if I were you. If your phone is responsive, leave it at that and be satisfied.

ROM's...a whole story in itself. Lot o' reading to do. I'm using Bionix right now. You don't use LauncherPro to switch between ROM's. You need ROM Manager:

ROM Manager - Android app on AppBrain

For Bionix:

[ROM] Bionix1.3 - 3 Flavors [Stock Kernel, Voodoo b4, KingKlick Kernel] *09/20/10* - xda-developers

Be sure to check out the Vibrant Bible as well:

[REF]***Vibrant Directory (Bible)***(9/24/2010) - xda-developers

As far as changing the display goes, you can get other wallpapers, there are apps like ADW and LauncherPro that let you do customizing (I think you can get themes for ADW) and there are places to get custom icons, though I don't much bother with any of that.

MetaMorph is for applying themes. For example, I used Metamorph to apply a custom theme for Swype.

MetaMorph - Android app on AppBrain

Once BusyBox is installed you should see an icon that says "BusyBox installer" in the app drawer. If you don't, you could always install it.

BusyBox - Android app on AppBrain

 

[Gimmick]

okay thanks again for all of your help i really appreciate it! It's a pretty daunting thing to be faced with all of this and trying to learn it within 2 days

And also, i tried to download a mod that would change my battery look, so i downloaded the version i wanted, and copied the file ( still zipped ) to my L: drive which my computer took to be my phone. Then using ROM manager i rebooted my phone in recovery mode and selected 'reinstall update' ( EDIT : the instructions said to "Flash your chosen update.zip" original post here [MOD] Blue Circle & Segmented Green Battery with Accurate % (2 versions) - 9/19/2010 - xda-developers ) It said i couldn't find the folder and open it and then now my ROM manager isn't working, it force closes every time i try to open it any ideas what i just did to my phone? haha

EDIT: force close was because my phone was still mounted as mass storage to my computer

I assumed that i copied the files to the wrong place, same thing happened when i tried to root my phone that way (ended up having to use oneclick root, unroot my phone, then root it), so am i not copying it in the right place? I assumed that my L: drive, which was my phone storage drive, would be the internal SD card or wherever it was you're supposed to store all your mods and whatnot.

 

[w_bovine]

okay thanks again for all of your help i really appreciate it! It's a pretty daunting thing to be faced with all of this and trying to learn it within 2 days

And also, i tried to download a mod that would change my battery look, so i downloaded the version i wanted, and copied the file ( still zipped ) to my L: drive which my computer took to be my phone. Then using ROM manager i rebooted my phone in recovery mode and selected 'reinstall update' ( EDIT : the instructions said to "Flash your chosen update.zip" original post here [MOD] Blue Circle & Segmented Green Battery with Accurate % (2 versions) - 9/19/2010 - xda-developers ) It said i couldn't find the folder and open it and then now my ROM manager isn't working, it force closes every time i try to open it any ideas what i just did to my phone? haha

EDIT: force close was because my phone was still mounted as mass storage to my computer

I assumed that i copied the files to the wrong place, same thing happened when i tried to root my phone that way (ended up having to use oneclick root, unroot my phone, then root it), so am i not copying it in the right place? I assumed that my L: drive, which was my phone storage drive, would be the internal SD card or wherever it was you're supposed to store all your mods and whatnot.

Anything you want to flash in Clockwork Recovery should be on you internal SD drive, not external. Be sure you know which is which when you hook the phone up to the PC. You should see two memory areas when you mount mass storage.

If you still have the external SD card that came with the phone, it's easy to check. Click on the drive properties and look at the size. The external card will be 2GB and the internal 16GB. I know, it's confusing. Took me a while to get used to it.

When you use a file explorer (I suggest Root Explorer) the internal SD is at /scdard, and the external memory is at /sdcard/sd

 

[Gimmick]

EDIT: got it to work! although i'm not sure how -.-, i chose to reboot my phone with ROM manager and when it rebooted i was broought to a screen i've never seen before, i think it was clockwork recovery. From there i clicked through some screens and now it works, thanks for your help!! And could you still tell me what nandroid is?

I still am not sure what I'm doing wrong. From what you're saying I'm assuming I'm saving the files into the correct folder, I then reboot into recovery and click on reinstall update, which my phone then says it can't find/open the folder, any ideas? Also, what is a nandroid backup?

 

[w_bovine]

EDIT: got it to work! although i'm not sure how -.-, i chose to reboot my phone with ROM manager and when it rebooted i was broought to a screen i've never seen before, i think it was clockwork recovery. From there i clicked through some screens and now it works, thanks for your help!! And could you still tell me what nandroid is?

I still am not sure what I'm doing wrong. From what you're saying I'm assuming I'm saving the files into the correct folder, I then reboot into recovery and click on reinstall update, which my phone then says it can't find/open the folder, any ideas? Also, what is a nandroid backup?

Are you sure you have Clockwork Recovery installed? Open ROM Manager and click Flash ClockworkMod Recovery. A popup will appear asking you to verify your phone model. Pick that and Clockwork will be installed.

After you've done that, in ROM Manager select Reboot into Recovery. The phone will reboot and you'll see the Clockwork screen (green text). It looks different from the stock recovery screen (blue text).

Once in Clockwork, look for the option to install an update, then look for the option to select which update you want to install. Pick your update, install and then when it completes look for the option to go back one screen. There you will see the option to reboot the phone normally.

A nandroid is essentially an image of the current state of the phone. You can make them with ROM Manager. To use it select Backup Current ROM from within ROM Manager.

 

[Gimmick]

Yeah, I got clock work recovery and got it to work with the reboot ( Green text )
thanks for the nandroid explanation i will do that soon. Thank you SO much for helping me with my newbie questions and helping me out with all of this, my battery icon is now a circular display

 

[w_bovine]

Yeah, I got clock work recovery and got it to work with the reboot ( Green text )
thanks for the nandroid explanation i will do that soon. Thank you SO much for helping me with my newbie questions and helping me out with all of this, my battery icon is now a circular display

Cool! And you're welcome. I love the circular battery icon too!