Root Delete .zip file after Kernal flash?

[Philadelph]

This should be a pretty simple answer, but I haven't found it while searching... So I recently rooted my Evo and am running the stock Rom with Amon RA recovery (awesome by the way). I wanted better battery life, etc. so I flashed a Kernal (backup then wiped Cache, Dalvik, etc. first) and it all went smoothly- everything is running great. My question is- should I leave the original Kernal .zip file on the root of the SD Card, or remove it? I know that when I installed Amon RA, I had to remove the .zip file after so it wouldn't keep asking to install in bootloader or whatever, but with a Kernal is it the same? If it doesn't matter, is there an advantage to keeping it there? I guess the same question could be asked for ROMs too- so feel free to offer suggestions for that too. Thanks for the great advice- Rooting has opened up a new world for me!

 

[evoX2]

I like to keep roms and kernels around for just a little bit after flashing just incase I run into a problem. I'll wipe and reflash just incase I got a bad flash or anything like that.

Once you get it how you like you like it and it runs smooth then once you do a nandroid backup then there really isnt a need to keep the roms at least. The kernels can be used on other roms so i might keep those.

Thats just how i roll. Im sure you'll get different answers from each person. But it will all be great advice from the people here.

Oh and welcome to the forums.

 

[novox77]

Nothing wrong with keeping your kernel on the SD card. it's a relatively small file. The custom ROM with a whole OS is much bigger. It's simply a matter of managing your space on the SD card.

If I happen to like a particular ROM/kernel combo, I'll nandroid it. Later, I just restore the nandroid if I want to come back to that combo, rather than reflash the ROM and kernel. When my list of nandroid backups gets long, I move them off the SD onto my PC. Actually I have a full backup of my nandroids on the PC at all times, but I keep a few on the SD... the ones I'm likely to go back to for tinkering purposes.

 

[akazabam]

Welcome to the forums . Just a quick distinction - when you flashed RA, it sounds like you used a PC36IMG.zip file. Those are flashed through hboot, which is your bootloader. Those PC36IMG.zip files can contain img file(s) to overwrite the entire contents of whatever partition(s) you specify. It is somewhat limited in that respect, as it's not very selective. It's either the whole partition or not at all. In any case, you flashed over the whole recovery partition, which is what you wanted to do in that case. These PC36IMG.zip files must be removed when you're done with them, as you found out, or hboot will find it and prompt you to flash it every time you go to hboot. If you want to keep those around for emergencies, rename or move them. They can be removed, though, as you know

Recovery is different. It's at a higher level than hboot, as it's basically a mini operating system all on its own, which you boot to from the bootloader. You use it to flash entirely different zip files. These zip files have a script and any number of files. The script tells recovery where to copy these files. Once the files have been copied, they are on the system, and it never looks at the zip file again (unless you repeat the process, and flash it again). That being said, evoX2 is correct in that it's a good idea to keep them around sometimes. I usually keep my current ROM/kernel zips around just in case. Anything older I either move to a different directory on the card or just remove altogether. The reason I keep the zip of my current ROM ready to go at all times is because it's usually the fastest way to fix something. It can be faster than restoring a nandroid backup, and will fix *almost* all problems you can run into. This is obviously not always the case (and takes longer if you have a lot of mods, as they will get wiped when you reflash the ROM).

EDIT: See, we all do things a little differently .

 

[Mr. Ed]

novoxx77 that is exactly what I do (after realizing that roms and nandroids take up A TON of space)

I typically have 3 nandroids and 3 kernels on the phone at all times. Roms are only there for flashing..once a nandroid is made after setting everything up I take the Rom off ..it and older nandroids are backed up in the OMG phone crap folder on the laptop

and I second renaming your recovery image. for whatever reason I have had to flash mine on more than one occasion and it is as simple as renaming them back to pc36img and booting back in to bootloader

 

[novox77]

The reason I keep the zip of my current ROM ready to go at all times is because it's usually the fastest way to fix something. It can be faster than restoring a nandroid backup, and will fix *almost* all problems you can run into. This is obviously not always the case (and takes longer if you have a lot of mods, as they will get wiped when you reflash the ROM).

EDIT: See, we all do things a little differently .

good call. I have a ton of mods under /system, and I wouldn't want to manually put it all back unless I really had to (e.g. Gingerbread rooted stock is out).

Though sometimes I have the urge to unroot my phone just to root it with unrevoked to see what people these days go through. But personally, I like my ENG bootloader and oldschool S-OFF for no good reason

 

[Philadelph]

Thanks guys- makes complete sense. Sorry if I was a little confusing in terms of using "bootloader" when I should have used "recovery" etc. So you usually rename the recovery image on your SD Card? I'll have to do that. I definitely keep the nandroids on my computer also along with the original files of stuff for the phone. Anyone ever keep the Original HTC Kernal as a .zip on their root just in case also?

 

[Mr. Ed]

yup

 

[akazabam]

good call. I have a ton of mods under /system, and I wouldn't want to manually put it all back unless I really had to (e.g. Gingerbread rooted stock is out).

Though sometimes I have the urge to unroot my phone just to root it with unrevoked to see what people these days go through. But personally, I like my ENG bootloader and oldschool S-OFF for no good reason

You could root unroot, root with unrevoked, then downgrade to the eng bootloader, if you want. Just stick with unrooting to hboot .97 or under, otherwise it's a pita. Then you'd have s-off with unrevoked and with the eng bootloader (of course, it's meaningless with eng bootloader in that case, as unrevoked supersedes s-off at the bootloader level).

Thanks guys- makes complete sense. Sorry if I was a little confusing in terms of using "bootloader" when I should have used "recovery" etc. So you usually rename the recovery image on your SD Card? I'll have to do that. I definitely keep the nandroids on my computer also along with the original files of stuff for the phone. Anyone ever keep the Original HTC Kernal as a .zip on their root just in case also?

1) Right, just take the PC36IMG.zip file you used to flash recovery, and name it something else (PC36IMG.zip_whateverrecovery) so that you know what it is, and can reuse it quickly if need be.

2) You would have to get the stock HTC kernel from a boot.img. As long as you're sticking with the stock ROM, you can just take the boot.img from a RUU, package it in a PC36IMG.zip, then flash it. I don't expect you to understand exactly what I just said at this point. Basically, if you want to go back to the stock kernel, just restore your nandroid. If you're on a custom ROM, never flash a stock kernel as a boot.img. You'll overwrite all kinds of changes the developer added, more that likely. Custom kernels are always provided in a more modular format, so they don't overwrite an entire boot image. There aren't a lot of stock HTC kernels floating around in that format, so they can't just be flashed.