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Root For Clarification Purposes - On rooting need help

S

Schmidty850

Newbie
Alright now first thing is first, I know there are probably a billion threads about this in some form or another, but they are all hazy to me. So I figured I would ask all the questions I need to know so that maybe it won't be hazy anymore.

I am a potential first time rooter, I have the Inspire 4g running the OTA update from August (Android 2.3.3).

The biggest concern I have is my data.
Question 1. Can I root my phone keeping ALL of my data (everything on the card, everything on the phone including app data etc.), then use Titanium Backup to keep all that data, flash a rom such as CM7, MIUI, or Android Revolution, use Titanium Backup to restore and then have all my original data back such as app data and for example level progress in certain games?

Question 2. In what cases does your phone get bricked and in what ways if bricked would I be able to return my device back to working condition if at all.

Question 3. Based on personal preference, which do you like better: CM7, MIUI, or Android Revolution?

Question 4. What would be the BEST way to root without losing my data, not necessarily the easiest (also ties in with question 1)

Question 5. Would all of my installed apps remain if I rooted (meaning not having to go install them again)?
 
I've only jumped into the rooting pool a couple of weeks ago, so I may not have definitive answers, but I'll answer best as I can based on what I've discovered.

Question 1: From what I've done, I'll say yes to this. The latest Advanced Ace Hack Kit will root your phone and restore your existing ROM without losing data. It automatically creates the gold card necessary w/o destroying the existing contents of the sd card. However, you should back up the sd card before you start just in case. Just copy everything over to your computer. Once you are rooted, install Ti Backup, ROM Manager & ClockworkMod Recovery. Use Ti Backup to backup your apps and data. You should also create a nandroid backup of your existing ROM using ClockworkMod Recovery.

Question 2: From what I've read, one way to brick your device is by flashing a corrupt radio img. Not sure how one would go about fixing that, if it's possible at all. I'll leave this to the developers to answer. If you run into problems while rooting, the best thing to do is go over to xda and jump into attn1's irc channel and folks there should be able to help you through it.

Question 3: I haven't flashed any of those yet so can't give any useful opinion. I did flash CoreDroid briefly. Ran into a couple issues so for now I'm back to my stock ROM.

Question 4: Definitely the Advanced Ace Hack Kit is the way to go. Virtually a one-click process now. Just be sure to read the effin manual carefully and prep your computer exactly as instructed.

Question 5: If you use the AAHK, then your existing ROM, including all apps & data will remain intact. However, once you flash a new ROM, you will essentially wipe away the existing ROM. The contents of your sd card should not be affected. You will need to reinstall your apps (at least the ones not included in the ROM), sync your contacts, and restore data from your Ti Backup. Many apps from the Market will automatically download and install. For the ones that don't you can go to My Library in the Market and push them to the phone.

Hope that helps.
 
Question 6. Is root reversible? (If for some reason I change my mind can I return my phone to normal as if nothing ever happened?)
 
Schmidty850 said:
Question 6. Is root reversible? (If for some reason I change my mind can I return my phone to normal as if nothing ever happened?)
Click to expand...

Yes. The AAHK has an option to restore your phone to stock if necessary. I had to do that once and it worked. It returns to phone to S-ON and installs the stock ATT ROM. You can even choose if you want to install Gingerbread or Froyo.
 
I like sense, so Im giving android revolution a test run. Played with cm7 for a few minutes and wasnt really a fan. But Im completely new at this so my opinion is worth very little.
 
I'm using Ninja Rom...its a take off of CM7, but with less bells and whistles...its all about efficiency and battery savings! So far so good! I'm a fan of Sense 3.0, but all i've flashed with that is CoreDroid. Super Rom...not good on the battery though!
 
Thanks for all the help, finally rooted my phone today (although I did have a couple of hiccups)
It all worked out good and I probably would have never figured it out with your guy's help (including the hiccup)
 
Schmidty850 said:
Thanks for all the help, finally rooted my phone today (although I did have a couple of hiccups)
It all worked out good and I probably would have never figured it out with your guy's help (including the hiccup)
Click to expand...

What was the hiccup? How did you resolve it?
 
The hiccup was that I had initially rooted my phone with ace hack kit, and after everything was done it would go to the first htc white screen (the one that doesn't say quietly brilliant) and then it would fade away to a black screen, though the phone was still on.

After reading through a bunch of posts on this forum I came to the conclusion that it wasn't bricked and I could still do something. So then I opened up HBOOT and realized that my phone still had S-ON, and then decided I should run Ace Hack Kit again, rooting my phone.

After it was done the second time, everything worked and it was set to S-OFF and my phone was good as rooted. Everything worked and all my data was kept (which was a big deal for me)

I do have one more question though,
Question 7.
Does anyone know of any cool metamorph themes for your pattern lock? And if so can you tell me where to find it? (such as a WORKING link)
 
Schmidty850 said:
The hiccup was that I had initially rooted my phone with ace hack kit, and after everything was done it would go to the first htc white screen (the one that doesn't say quietly brilliant) and then it would fade away to a black screen, though the phone was still on.

After reading through a bunch of posts on this forum I came to the conclusion that it wasn't bricked and I could still do something. So then I opened up HBOOT and realized that my phone still had S-ON, and then decided I should run Ace Hack Kit again, rooting my phone.

After it was done the second time, everything worked and it was set to S-OFF and my phone was good as rooted. Everything worked and all my data was kept (which was a big deal for me)
Click to expand...

Interesting. I wonder what the cause of that hiccup was, since you didn't have to change anything to get it to work the second time. I guess I should be thankful mine completed fine the first time through. First time rooting for me and I was nervous as hell.

Don't know anything about themes so can't help you there. There is a sub-forum on xda specifically for themes and mods for the Inspire. Did you have a look through there?
 
Yes it is odd that that happened, just like you I was super nervous rooting for the first time. I don't know why that worked but it did and that is all that matters at the current moment.

I have looked at the theming area off xda but most of it is not what I want.
 
i'm curious to know which rom you chose...my last post said i was running Ninja, but i've since switched to Android Revolution. I really do like sense better than the CM7 based roms. Mostly because I like the sense media player better.
 
I am still trying to decide which ROM I am going to use, I am really caught up on it. I am between MIUI, CM7, and Android Revolution. I like the whole sense 3 of android revolution but don't really care because I could get the sense 3 lockscreen with widgetlocker after it's update to 2.2.1 recently.

It then takes me down to MIUI and CM7, and I don't know what to choose. What the launcher/lockscreen looks like doesn't matter because I am going to replace them with GO Launcher and Widget Locker respectively.

What I really want is good battery life, although right now I have good battery life on the stock ROM, but I would like better. I also want the really cool effects/animations such as the old TV style CRT animation and dialog box pop-up animations as in YouTube user Zachh Frosty's videos. I also would not mind a performance increase and definately want something that boots faster than the stock ROM, it takes me about 3 minutes to turn my phone on from off.

So in this comes the next question,
Question 9.
What ROM do you feel would best fit my wants/needs and why? Remember I am still new to all this rooting stuff so I would appreciate a simple process, nothing involving adb as I have not even touched learning that yet. I have done a few minor things but would like to start to go more in depth and that is where I want to go with a custom ROM.
 
Schmidty850 said:
I am still trying to decide which ROM I am going to use, I am really caught up on it. I am between MIUI, CM7, and Android Revolution. I like the whole sense 3 of android revolution but don't really care because I could get the sense 3 lockscreen with widgetlocker after it's update to 2.2.1 recently.

It then takes me down to MIUI and CM7, and I don't know what to choose. What the launcher/lockscreen looks like doesn't matter because I am going to replace them with GO Launcher and Widget Locker respectively.

What I really want is good battery life, although right now I have good battery life on the stock ROM, but I would like better. I also want the really cool effects/animations such as the old TV style CRT animation and dialog box pop-up animations as in YouTube user Zachh Frosty's videos. I also would not mind a performance increase and definately want something that boots faster than the stock ROM, it takes me about 3 minutes to turn my phone on from off.

So in this comes the next question,
Question 9.
What ROM do you feel would best fit my wants/needs and why? Remember I am still new to all this rooting stuff so I would appreciate a simple process, nothing involving adb as I have not even touched learning that yet. I have done a few minor things but would like to start to go more in depth and that is where I want to go with a custom ROM.
Click to expand...

I'm kinda at the same point you're at. I tried CoreDroid for a few days earlier this week and it drained my battery 5x faster than the stock rom and slowed down my network speeds by 45%....I'm looking at Absolution right now. Haven't flashed it yet, but everyone is posting that it has great battery life and really smooth. It's based off of CM7. Looks kinda cool, but I'll be running GO Launcher over pretty much anything I flash, so for me that's not as important...Anything I use will have to give me at least the same battery life and download speed that I get with the stock ROM.
 
I would appreciate the input of more than just sharksfan. The reason I posted this here was so that I could get some response from multiple people not just one person. I really and truly need your guy's help with this.
 
Schmidty850 said:
I would appreciate the input of more than just sharksfan. The reason I posted this here was so that I could get some response from multiple people not just one person. I really and truly need your guy's help with this.
Click to expand...

So, what, my opinion isn't good enough for you?! :D

Have you taken a read through the threads for Absolution on xda? From what I've read I get the impression it's really solid. Everyone is saying that the battery life is excellent. That's seems to be the most common comment. And the devs seem really open to questions and respond quickly...and are relatively civil and helpful about it.

Since you already know what Sense is like, might as well try a non-Sense ROM to see what those are like. CM7 seems to be the standard for those. Personally, MIUI is too iphone looking for me.

I'm sure everyone will have differing opinions on every ROM. I chose CoreDroid b/c someone here said it was smooth and fast. Didn't turn out to be the case for me. You should just pick one and try it out for yourself. Just make an nandroid of your current setup, and flash away. If you don't like it, restore your nandroid until you can pick another one. That's what I did when CoreDroid didn't work out. Haven't had time to flash Absolution and go through all the setup and tweaking. But unless I stumble upon another ROM that's promising, Absolution will be the next one I flash.

Good luck and have fun with it.
 
It's not that your opinion isn't good enough, it's just that I can't create a good bank from which to pull information from from just one person, but multiple.

I really like the stock ROM and really all I am searching for in a new ROM is more customization, equal or better battery/performance, and really cool special effects. If there was a way I could add cool special effects to stock I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE the person who posted that.

I am really skeptical about flashing a ROM. I just tried a editing of the framework-res for something I was customizing and after I restarted my phone started boot looping. I fixed it one hour later (after I realized I took my backup off my phone to save space) and now I am leery of doing and root work for a while.

With my new knowledge and better understanding of what I want I bring you guys my next question;
Question 10.
What are some apps that you guys like for customization and why? Are there any cool apps you have for adding cool effects or any cool tweaks to the OS I could do to add these effects?
 
I was just bustin' your chops, man. I know what you're going for. I'm in exactly the same boat. I had my phone for two months before I rooted, mostly because I didn't know what a lot of it meant. As many times as I read threads on how to root and how to flash, none of it made sense until I actually just did it. Once I actually got into ClockworkMod and seeing how it all works then a lot of the "mystery" went away. I'm still hesitant to go messing with radios, and when I finally did attempt to flash one, it stalled on the reboot and kinda freaked me out. Fortunately it didn't FUBAR my phone.

So far the actual flashing of the ROM has been the easiest part. Just make sure to back up your current ROM with ClockworkMod before you do anything. I found a great guide that explains step by step how to flash and also explains what each function in CWM does. (Like, what is Dalvik cache & why do I need to clear it?) That was really helpful in clearing a lot of things up for me. I don't know what the rules are on posting links to other android sites or forums, so if you'd like the link just pm me and I'll get those to you.

My biggest fear is doing something that will completely brick the phone. Through my own trial and error I realized that if you somehow have a bad flash and the ROM isn't working for you, and if for some reason you're unable to restore a backup through CWM, as long as you can power the phone on you should be able to use the AAHK to fully restore your phone back to the stock ROM. And then it's just starting over from scratch. That happened to me the very first time I flashed a ROM. Yes it made for a stressful night, but at least I didn't lose the phone and eventually I got it back to like new. Since then I've flashed a couple more times w/o problem. However, I keep coming back to my stock ROM.

As for customizing, just the other day I learned how to create and replace the splash screen and also replace both the boot & shutdown animation. When I flashed CoreDroid, I really hated the default system font that it used. I found an app called Font Changer to set the system font to something else. But I'm pretty sure that can be changed w/o an app if you know what files to edit. I've yet to delve into editing the framework or cooking things in the kitchen. I think for that info you might get more useful responses if you post that question in the theme and app forum over at xda. The developers there might be able to give you more in depth info on how to tweak things in the system. I would love to be able to add the CRT animation and screenshot capabilities to stock. Don't know if that's possible and if it is, I think it may take a bit more code writing than I'm willing to undertake.
 
Well that's what caused my scare last night was XDA. I was editing the framework to hopefully add CRT animations but when I added the framework I couldn't change my wallpaper anymore. I then placed the first framework-res back and I think I forgot to change the permissions when I stuck it back into the framework folder, which might have caused the problem.

I have almost religiously been reading both this forum and XDA in hopes of finding how to add any of those cool effects so maybe I will just start a new thread and ask, it seems all their questions get answered so it'll be worth a shot.

One thing I want to know is how did you get a splash screen on your phone? I know how to change boot/down animations but I haven't figured out splash screen yet, I really want to change it.
 
Schmidty850 said:
Well that's what caused my scare last night was XDA. I was editing the framework to hopefully add CRT animations but when I added the framework I couldn't change my wallpaper anymore. I then placed the first framework-res back and I think I forgot to change the permissions when I stuck it back into the framework folder, which might have caused the problem.

I have almost religiously been reading both this forum and XDA in hopes of finding how to add any of those cool effects so maybe I will just start a new thread and ask, it seems all their questions get answered so it'll be worth a shot.

One thing I want to know is how did you get a splash screen on your phone? I know how to change boot/down animations but I haven't figured out splash screen yet, I really want to change it.
Click to expand...

Yeah xda can be pretty scary at times. :D I saw that article on adding the CRT animation and that was just too much programing for me. I'll leave that work to the devs. I just wish someone would put together a .zip package I could flash to add that code. Until that happens I'm content on not having that until I find a custom ROM worth sticking with. What other effects are you looking to add?

As for the splash screen, there's a thread on the first page of the Inspire Theme & App forum on xda. It explains how to create the image and then create a flashable .zip. You need to install adb to convert the image to a usable format. Once the image is converted you package it in a zip and flash it through HBOOT just as you would a radio. If you'd rather, you can just post the picture you want to use in that thread and someone can convert it and create the flashable zip for you. I can do it for you if you want. But you sound like someone who'd rather figure out how to do it yourself. It's pretty simple once you get adb set up.
 
I have been back and forth between sense roms and cm7 based roms...I'm running Android Revolution right now, but just downloaded Runnymeade Sense 3.5 that i plan on flashing tonight. I had the same problem with Coredroid, in that the battery life and data speeds sucked. All the CM7 roms that I've used are pretty good...I'll vouch for Absolution. I really liked it, the only thing that gets me about any CM7 rom is the standard video player. I'm not an expert by any means...I just can't seem to find a player to replace the CM7 one...i hate it that much! lol

Android revolution has been really good to me though...no complaints!
 
Ok I did see that splash screen one in the past, I was just hoping for something different than flashing it. But if that is the easiest way then that is what I will do then.

The effects I want are ones similar to what YouTube user ZachhFrosty has, but he is running MIUI and I hear there are a lot of problems with MIUI.

I have actually recently looked at the runnymeade and it looks good. When you flash it you'll have to tell us the specks on it (battery/performance)

I think I might flash CM7 but I really like the stock os. I still don't know what I am doing yet so I might end up not flashing a ROM. I don't know.
 
If you prefer running command line over flashing through HBOOT, there are instructions on how to change the splash screen using adb. But you need to have ENG S-OFF to do so. And from what I've read that opens you up to really screwing things up if you're not careful. Flashing a splash screen through HBOOT is just a matter of holding the vol-down key and power button. Once HBOOT loads, it'll automatically detect the file & ask if you want to update. Vol-up to confirm and power to reboot. Done. Don't even need to go into ClockworkMod. Seriously, it's crazy simple.

The nice thing about flashing ROMs is if you don't like the ROM you can always restore your backup and you're back to where you were before you flashed. And when you restore from your nandroid, it's not like putting back a fresh, like-new version of the stock ROM that you need to set up all over again. It's exactly as it was when you created the backup. All apps, data, settings are restored.

Just follow the steps in the guide I pointed you to. Check the MD5sum of the ROM download before flashing, make a backup of your current ROM, and go for it. Once you try it the first time, you'll be more comfortable with flashing and trying out different ROMs to find the one that works for you.
 
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