ROMS are basically different operating systems for your phone. So if you want to change the way your phone works, or looks or something like that you could change roms.
Installing a ROM is rather simple. Find one you like (I'm fond of the Vanilla, Shadow Rom or Ultimate Droid, etc.) download it to your phone and boot into recovery.
There are great instruction manuals for installing roms all over the place. And everyone here is happy to help. Just do a search for a relevant help guide.
Be patient. Installing ROMS can be fun. Good Luck

 

First, are you rooted? Rooting your phone is required before you can install ROMs.

If you aren't, I'd suggest doing more reading before jumping into it - rooting will void your warranty, and while changing ROMs is a blast (I just flashed one for the first time myself), it requires considerable preparation and research.

P.S. If you're not rooted - what changes do you want to make? Have you investigated any of the aftermarket launchers and theming apps in the Market? There are quite a few things that can be done without root.

 

Youll want to bookmark this page:
The Incredible List

You can find all ROMs, radios, kernals, themes, etc.

Dont do anything until you fully understand what to do, and not do .. ask questions if you need to

 

EDIT, sorry double post

 

always backup, no need not to. If space ever becomes an issue just delete older ones.

Certain radio/kernal/rom combos will give better speed or battery results. I dont think any rom requires a specific kernal or radio, and usually comes packed with the recommended kernal already.

Id like to suggest that you dont touch the radio right now, only because theres really no need.

Using Rom Manager download and install SkyRaider3.3 and then go back into his section and download the service packs as they fix a couple things.

Flawless ROM in my experience, and will be good experience for you.

 

Dont be sorry for any questions.

A backup basically freezes your phone exactly as it is right this moment. Call history, browsing history, navigation history, settings, etc.

If you flash a rom and dont like it, you flash right back to your backup and its like nothing has changed.

Its for this reason a lot people will probably have a backup folder looking something like this:

Backup: Stock, before root
Backup: Stock, after fresh root
Backup: SkyRaider 3.2 (fully setup)
Backup: SkyRaider 3.3 (fully setup)
Backup: SkyRaider 3.3.1 (fully setup)
Backup: Virtuous (fully setup)
Backup: MIUI (fully setup)
Backup: SkyRaider 3.3, KK#5 Kernal
etc etc

This helps in a few ways ...

1. If your on a ROM that you like, and all of a sudden get a bug out of nowhere, you flash back to before the bug happened

2. If you flash a new rom and it puts you in a boot loop, or gps doesnt work, or you dont like it for whatever reason, you flash back to the one you liked

3. You can test new rom/kernal/radio options with little effort, make the change and see if its good, otherwise flash back

etc, you get the idea

 

its really no problem, im glad i can help! I remember when i first started and i was so nervous. I didnt have a clue where to begin!!

If you have any issues, or questions, feel free to post

 

a good example, but shows im a dumbass for not taking my own advice ..

Just now i decided to flash a few mods.

Copied circle battery, booted into recovery and flashed it, rebooted. No problem.

Copied 6bar signal meter, booted into recovery and flashed it, and was stuck at the bootup screen for several minutes.

Now luckily i was patient, and it ended up booting up. But for a minute i thought it messed something up and i would have been screwed with no backup of my most recent state.

if i had a backup, and it messed something up, i could just revert my phone to exactly how it was just before i made the change.

Lesson to be taken, before making any change, even minor, make a backup!! lol

Another tip, when doing the backups through rom manager, name them!! you get a popup asking to confirm the name of the backup ... change it!!

My last one is named "Fresh Skyraider3.3"

 

Yes, that is right.

 

You install a theme just like you would a rom but don't do a wipe.

 

download it, then reboot into recovery. Then go to "Install zip file" or something. Then go to "Select zip file from sdcard"

then browse to the zip file, and select it .. usual steps from that point on

 

Well, you can download AND install with ROM Manager, or you can download with ROM Manager and then install manually with clockwork recovery. And, no, there are no consequences I know of for downloading it twice except that if the install files get downloaded to two different locations then you would use up your storage capacity quicker.

 

personally, i suck at moving files around using a file manager. So what i do is manually download anything i can, and place it right where i want it on my SDCard

Im an organized freak, so if you open my sdcard you will see just 1 folder named MiscFiles, then 2 sub folders separating my personal stuff, from my root stuff i keep on hand. The tree such as this:

MiscFiles
- RootStuff
--Radios
--ROMs
--Kernals
--MODs
--MiscAPKs

- PersonalStuff
--Music
--Videos
--Photos

 

So I have (rooted) rom manager.....so what I need to do is install rom..then flash clwrkmod...then reboot into recovery...install from zip...and go from there....Im still new at this...sorry guys...

 

You could do it all through Rom Manager, download that from app market.

click "Download Rom" or something like that. Browse for one you want, then click install it. It will ask if you want to backup, and also if you want to wipe data and cache. I usually say yes to both.

Once you hit submit, it will reboot and do all the work for you. The next time the phone boots it will be your new rom

 

Thank you sooo much.....okay i will you guys know how it went...I love this place!