Android Rooting and ROM guide ??

Emp_Fab

Does anyone know of any good websites that might have a guide to rooting and flashing (that sounds awfully rude !) Android phones ?

I've decided, on seeing Jelly Bean on Mrs Fab's new tablet that I want it on my phone.  I want something called the PacMan Rom.

I've spent hours skipping from site to site, but every one I've been on so far makes the same error - they all assume you have prior knowledge of the subject, making references to things like 'recovery' <software>, with no explanation etc.  If I'm going to dive in and risk bricking my phone, I'd like to go in fully armed and fully understand what I'm doing before I start !

So... do you know of a good guide for noobs ?

Muchos Diolch - as they say in Wales... (if you're Spanish).

monquixote

I had exactly the same problem when I did mine. 

Luckily I had someone who'd done it before who showed me what to do.

First you need to Root it for which there are various tools "Super one click" is one that's worth trying.

Titanium backup is something you will need for reverting back should you knacker things

You will also need "ROM Manager" which lets you switch between ROMs 

Emp_Fab

Wish me luck.... I'm going in.....

I've been meaning to do this for a long long time, but never had the cojones to tackle it.  I'm feeling brave today.

If my next post is littered with tears and frustration - you'll know I've bricked my phone.

ESBlonde

Good luck, my Sii is starting to get a bit slow loading some images and I want to stop half the crap samsung chosen apps clogging up the device. I had watched a video or two but not yet got up the courage to go at it. Let me know how it works out.

Grumpyrocker

Depending on your phone there's often a "one click" solution - ie someone has written some software that does it all for your. The best place to look is the XDA-Developers forum, where there is usually a forum for each device.

WYNIR0

Yup definitely go via XDA developers. Thats where I found the guide for doing my HTC desire a year or 2 back.

dafuzz

What phone?

I rooted my S3 recently and it's a doddle - running Omega Rom on it now, might try something else this weekend

Emp_Fab

It's a HTC Desire S on Orange.  I've made a goldcard, backed it all up, downloaded the ROM I want to use (PacMan) and currently downloading the Android SDK.  I've chickened out of "S-Off" - I can root and re-rom without that.  4 Minutes to operation 'Brick Phone'.....

Emp_Fab

It's this ROM btw...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9p9Suu5wg8

BadBoyKane

Just make sure the Rom you flash is specifically for your model of phone (not just the Desire S bit but the correct model number) and in some cases the country (usually US or International) as an incompatible rom can brick your phone (in most cases it just won't install if it isn't compatible)

Took me a while to find the correct one for my old S3, had to try and flash about 6 roms before I got one to work.

Tempted to root my HTC One but not decided on it yet.

Rooting on it's own without roms is worth it on it's own to get use of apps such as titanium backup, Overclocker, AdBlock etc.

digitalscream

Ah yes...I rooted and re-flashed my old Atrix (Android 2.3 -> 4.1) and suddenly discovered how badly it needed updating. Bricked it on a subsequent attempt, though, and ended up with a Galaxy S2 which needed rooting to unlock. I'm happy with it as-is, though...no need for CM or any of the other ROMs.

I think the first time I tried it on my Atrix, it took about 6 hours of frustration to get it going...

holnrew

I would do S-Off just to be on the safe side. Recovery software means something like 4Ext (which I use on my Desire) or clockworkmod.

Whenever I get my next phone I'll root it straight away, it's so useful.

Emp_Fab

Well, that wasn't what I would call fun.

I've done it.... but there were a few hurdles along the way.  One of those jobs where you end up with a dozen tabs across the top of your browser as you're searching for solutions !

My big problem was that I was trying to keep hold of the Orange Signal Boost app, which uses UMA technology to boost my signal at home via my wireless broadband.  Once I'd rooted it and reset it to factory defaults, the Google Play app disappeared, and I couldn't get it back.  I wanted to download Titanium Backup to see if I could backup the SIgnal Boost app to restore it later.  I flashed half a dozen gapps.zip files but none of the buggers worked with the stock ROM.  In the end, I gave up and just flashed the PacMan ROM (and in the process of searching for an older gaaps, I found the correct one for PacMan).

So far.... I haz Jellybean !!  (Basically Cyanogenmod 10.1 with something or other and thingywhatsit bolted on...  - you can tell I'm an expert at this can't you ? :-) )

I don't have Signal Boost anymore :-(  But.....  no bugger rang me at home anyway.

Now it looks just like Mrs Fab's tablet !  Apart from being a lot smaller !

digitalscream

Top tip - sign in to Google Play on the tablet/phone, then visit it on your browser (sign in with the same Google account). Then you can go to "my apps" and just click to install each of them instead of trying to remember what you had and searching for each one by hand.

holnrew

My Desire is still branded to O2, and has access to O2 apps and stuff, is it possible to re-brand your S and keep it rooted?

dafuzz

Emp_Fab said:

Well, that wasn't what I would call fun.

I've done it.... but there were a few hurdles along the way.  One of those jobs where you end up with a dozen tabs across the top of your browser as you're searching for solutions !

My big problem was that I was trying to keep hold of the Orange Signal Boost app, which uses UMA technology to boost my signal at home via my wireless broadband.  Once I'd rooted it and reset it to factory defaults, the Google Play app disappeared, and I couldn't get it back.  I wanted to download Titanium Backup to see if I could backup the SIgnal Boost app to restore it later.  I flashed half a dozen gapps.zip files but none of the buggers worked with the stock ROM.  In the end, I gave up and just flashed the PacMan ROM (and in the process of searching for an older gaaps, I found the correct one for PacMan).

So far.... I haz Jellybean !!  (Basically Cyanogenmod 10.1 with something or other and thingywhatsit bolted on...  - you can tell I'm an expert at this can't you ? :-) )

I don't have Signal Boost anymore :-(  But.....  no bugger rang me at home anyway.

Now it looks just like Mrs Fab's tablet !  Apart from being a lot smaller !

Good work!

Out of interest why did you factory reset it after rooting? Was that part of the instructions? The first things I do after rooting are usually: create a full backup using clockworkmod (so I can go back to rooted stock later if I want); then titanium backup (so I can transfer my apps and settings to a new ROM if I want - you could just reinstall them but you'll lose your Candy Crush progress); and then smsbackupandrestore (so I can keep all those messages I never responded to last month). Only then do I start thinking about a custom rom.

If you dig around you can find a standalone google play apk. I've not had much success installing google apps from zip using cwm unless I do it immediately after installing a custom rom and before factory reset / switching the phone on.

I recommend UCCW if you have the time and patience. Finding the perfect clock widget can be a real ball ache, much better imo to just roll your own.

Emp_Fab

Oh I was just blindly following instructions mate...  I have no idea why I was doing most of it !  I'll have a look at this UCCW you speak of.

I'm not really one of these phone-mad types who wants to fiddle and tweak.  I could never go reflashing different ROMs with the changing of the wind.  Bugger that... this one was stressful enough !  I just wanted a phone that works, that I can (finally) get shot of all the enforced bloat-ware crap Orange saw fit to force on me and looks pretty.  That'll do for me.  Pac Man seems to fit the bill on all of those fronts, even though it's the first new ROM I've ever tried.  And the last :-)

Emp_Fab

I take it all back it's rubbish. ">
I'm going to have to try other roms.
Is this how it all starts?

Sporky

I am much tempted to do something similar - I inherited Lady BMcH's HTC (no idea which one, but it's a good few years old) to replace my work Nokia (which was awful), but it's got a lot of stuff I don't want on it, taking up space - the Facebook, lots of HTC apps. I'd like to flush it all away and have a sleeker installation.

digitalscream

Sporky said:

I am much tempted to do something similar - I inherited Lady BMcH's HTC (no idea which one, but it's a good few years old) to replace my work Nokia (which was awful), but it's got a lot of stuff I don't want on it, taking up space - the Facebook, lots of HTC apps. I'd like to flush it all away and have a sleeker installation.

The good news is that HTC are among the best-behaved manufacturers in terms of rooting and unlocking the bootloader, which is often the most painful part of the process. They even provide instructions on how to do it for almost every model on their website:

http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader

Sporky

Ta chief.