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Root Bit of help needed choosing a new ROM for my Desire....

S

stevep94

Well-Known Member
It's been a looong time since my Desire found it's way out of my desk drawer because I've moved on to other phones since but a friend of mine needs a replacement handset as her's is being sent in for repair!

Anyway, it's a rooted Desire with, if I recall correctly, a 2gb ext4(??) partition for extra app installation space!

I guess what I'm after is a decent, smoothish ROM recommendation but also I'd like a way to check that a) the ext4 partition is still there and b) what to run to make sure that apps install there as opposed to the tiny internal storage!

Thanks for any help guys...
 
Gingerbread ROMs are best for the desire. ICS & JB ones are not really suited to the hardware although there are a few available.

Mildwild has done some excellent work updating a number of old favorites. His ROMs can be found in the ROM list within the root guide sticky. His Cyanogenmod ROM requires the app link2sd to make use of your ext partition while the others will use it by default.

If titanium backup can see your partition then it's working.
 
Thanks for the reply and thanks for the suggestions!

Since my original post my friend doesn't need my Desire but my SGS2 has decided to give up the ghost so I'm looking for a ROM for me!

I appreciate that the Desire's spec's lend themselves to a GB ROM but the currently loaded ROM doesn't seem to want to let me install much, well pretty much anything, from the market as it says my device isn't compatible!

The current ROM is an Xperia based one (xnlooooo_stock.zip)

I'm thinking then that I need a more up to date ROM for the apps in the Play Store to work??

I'm looking at this one: [ROM] CyanoMod007 (CM10.1.2 | JB 4.2.2 | A2Ext+) [STOCK | CM7] [v31 | 07/08/13]

Does this one look to be an up to date enough ROM for the other apps to work on??

The other issues are:

1) I have "ClockworkMod Recovery v2.5.0.7" - is this OK to simply download the new ROM and install it or will I need something newer nowadays??

2) It mentions updating the "radio" - I never dabbled with this before and would like to avoid it this time too - is this possible?

3) Does this ROM support the installation of apps in the partitioned ext3 section or do I need to run something to make it work?

4) Since it's been so long since I've done this, could someone give me the "baby steps" again (I remember something about wiping dalvik cache etc??)

5) I'm fairly sure my phone has a 2gb "ext3" partition but I'm never sure whether it is wiped out when you do a "full wipe" in ClockworkMod??? Is there a way I can check this? (for some reason I can't install Titanium Backup due to an error in the Play Store!?!?!)

Thanks for any help guys!!
 
stevep94 said:
Thanks for the reply and thanks for the suggestions!

Since my original post my friend doesn't need my Desire but my SGS2 has decided to give up the ghost so I'm looking for a ROM for me!

I appreciate that the Desire's spec's lend themselves to a GB ROM but the currently loaded ROM doesn't seem to want to let me install much, well pretty much anything, from the market as it says my device isn't compatible!

The current ROM is an Xperia based one (xnlooooo_stock.zip)

I'm thinking then that I need a more up to date ROM for the apps in the Play Store to work??

I'm looking at this one: [ROM] CyanoMod007 (CM10.1.2 | JB 4.2.2 | A2Ext+) [STOCK | CM7] [v31 | 07/08/13]

Does this one look to be an up to date enough ROM for the other apps to work on??
Click to expand...
If that's the reason for the incompatibility (rather than processor, screen resolution, or just that the developer left the device out for some reason).

I can't tell you whether that's a good JB ROM. The only one I ever used was Nikez's ROM, and that only for a day (basically so I could run Helium to back my stuff up and transfer to a - then - non-rooted device). But that one seemed fine, if a bit slower than dGB.
The other issues are:

1) I have "ClockworkMod Recovery v2.5.0.7" - is this OK to simply download the new ROM and install it or will I need something newer nowadays??
Click to expand...
It should be fine.
2) It mentions updating the "radio" - I never dabbled with this before and would like to avoid it this time too - is this possible?
Click to expand...
Leave the radio alone unless you have problems.
3) Does this ROM support the installation of apps in the partitioned ext3 section or do I need to run something to make it work?
Click to expand...
Probably. Most do - CM does not out of the box, but this isn't CM, it's somebody else's ROM based on CM source.

The ROM's XDA thread probably says whether it does or not.
4) Since it's been so long since I've done this, could someone give me the "baby steps" again (I remember something about wiping dalvik cache etc??)
Click to expand...
Back up all of your data. Titanium Pro can back up everything (including contacts, messages, which it can save as XML). Otherwise, Titanium what you can of user apps and data, and make sure contacts, messages are backed up separately.

Copy the ROM zip to your SD.

Go into recovery and take a backup from there also. If the ROM fails or is rubbish, you can restore this recovery and be back where you were.

While in recovery, but after the backup, do a factory reset.

The install zip from SD.

Reboot, log in to Google, reinstall your backup apps, restore your data.

Do not restore system settings from Titanium on a different ROM.
5) I'm fairly sure my phone has a 2gb "ext3" partition but I'm never sure whether it is wiped out when you do a "full wipe" in ClockworkMod??? Is there a way I can check this? (for some reason I can't install Titanium Backup due to an error in the Play Store!?!?!)
Click to expand...
The full wipe will erase the ext partition.

Inability to install Titanium is bad news, because that's your best bet for backups. I assume it's a ROM problem, because it's certainly not compatibility. You can back up your data with Google, but for app data I prefer to have a Titanium backup as well.
 
Update on this process...

I managed to re-partition my sd card with GParted (2GB in "ext3" format at the "end" of the card - ie. the main 14GB or so at the beginning)

I wasn't bothered about my existing ROM or settings etc so just booted into recovery and installed the CyanoMod I referenced earlier.

It all seems to have worked OK but it's quite sluggish (although I'm obviously used to a far faster phone so it's probably not that bad!) so what I'd like is a "streamlined" ROM that is still quite up to date. (ie. a recent enough Android version so as not to have issues with app's not working!)

I managed to get the downloads from the Play Store to work by removing my Google account and clearing the data & cache for the Play Store and one or two other Google services!

How do I go about doing a "full wipe" without it deleting my GParted ext3 partition??

*edit*

I took a chance and did the full wipe, wipe dalvik cache etc and installed MildWild MW-12.5 Based on Redux2 TEST and so far it's a lot snappier!!

I'm just wondering though if my ext3 partition is still there for app installs?? When I go to "Manage Applications" the bar at the bottom says 6.8MB used and 141MB free so this doesn't appear to show the 2GB partition for apps to be installed to. However, in Titanium Backup at the bottom it says:

System ROM: 262MB (164MB free)
Internal: 154MB (147MB free)
SD card: 13.8GB (13.3GB free)
SD card (a2sd): 2.06GB (1.99GB free)

So on here it appears that the ext3 partition is still there but which do I believe??

Thanks for the continued help....
 
Those Titanium figures show it's working as intended.

Internal memory will still fill up over time with app data.
 
nicka3200 said:
Those Titanium figures show it's working as intended.

Internal memory will still fill up over time with app data.
Click to expand...

I thought the whole point of the process was so the phone thought that the 2GB partition was part of the internal memory!?!?!? :confused:
 
Yes and no.

It does think that the partition is part of the internal memory. The key here is "part of". So what it thinks is the directory /data/app is really on the card. But /data/data is still in internal storage.

There are scripts that move more or less stuff to sd. There are even some which move the entire /data area, but the cost of that is a slower and less reliable phone, so most do not do that. Hence with an a2sd script you will stilll use internal space, just more slowly than you would without.
 
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