Root New to Thunderbolt, some quesions...

[Fruban]

First of all, I apologize for this repost from the regular thunderbolt forum, but this is probably where this post belongs anyway!

So I just got the thunderbolt today. I'm coming from a rooted LG ally with the latest version of velocity. This is my second android phone, but I can already say I'm missing the hard keyboard!

The ally was a good transition phone (as my first android) from a decent dumbphone, and it will take a lot of getting used to the thunderbolt for me. I liked my ally quite a bit after velocity was on it, but recently my touch screen stopped responding altogether so I bought a new phone. Yeah there were a couple really annoying quirks with the ally but I felt pretty good about it after i tweaked it to my preferences. Maybe I got lucky with mine compared to some others with major issues.

So I have a few questions or things to say about my new phone so far.

Call me crazy, but I'm not a big fan of HTC Sense UI. I like simple, and Velocity custom ROM really hit it home for me. Can I get a nice Velocity ROM on the Thunderbolt or anything comparable? What are some less obvious things from sense that I'd be missing out on if I installed something like Velocity or a similar ROM?

Also, I dislike the default virtual keyboard. I type so fast that the keyboard doesn't keep up with me, the autocorrect is annoying, and i noticed that the way i type, being fast, made me realize that the keyboard doesn't register two button presses at once. Is there a keyboard out there that recognizes two simultaneous touch points?

That's about all I can think of at the moment, but as I explore my new phone and customize it further, I'm sure I'll have some more questions for this forum! Thanks.

 

[Yeahha]

What launcher does velocity use? You can get a nonsense launcher and use launcher pro or go or adw or whatever else you are used to.

As for the keyboard try hacker keyboard from the market, it works the best for a non swype type keyboard that I've used and it is free. Or try a slide/swype keyboard it opus better with a touch screen than most other keyboards I've used, I personally like the slide keyboard with chingy's roms

 

[Fruban]

What launcher does velocity use? You can get a nonsense launcher and use launcher pro or go or adw or whatever else you are used to.

As for the keyboard try hacker keyboard from the market, it works the best for a non swype type keyboard that I've used and it is free. Or try a slide/swype keyboard it opus better with a touch screen than most other keyboards I've used, I personally like the slide keyboard with chingy's roms

I'm not highly experienced with ROMS, since I've only had to install velocity twice on the same phone (different versions) so I'll just post the source of my last ROM that I used. You should find the information about it there. Sorry I can't be more specific, I'm only slightly higher than a noob on the totem pole when it comes to ROMS... All I can say is that it's based on Froyo.

From android forums:

http://androidforums.com/velocity/2...ly-android-2-2-1-froyo-super-fast-stable.html

If you know of any ROMs similar to what you find in here describing Velocity, that'd be great. I didn't see "velocity" on the sticky thread with all the ROMs.

 

[jreed2560]

Best thing I can tell you is to try all the roms out for yourself. Seems like youre more a fan of the vanilla experience (plain Android). Start with the senseless/stripped/aosp type roms. Most of us were where you are at one point in the last couple of years. Some of this stuff still flies over my head. Nothing wrong with diving in head first as long as you follow the directions be patient and make backups. Don't be afraid to stop when things get confusing and ask questions. Thats what makes AF so great. Lots of support here without the judgement.

 

[Fruban]

Best thing I can tell you is to try all the roms out for yourself. Seems like youre more a fan of the vanilla experience (plain Android). Start with the senseless/stripped/aosp type roms. Most of us were where you are at one point in the last couple of years. Some of this stuff still flies over my head. Nothing wrong with diving in head first as long as you follow the directions be patient and make backups. Don't be afraid to stop when things get confusing and ask questions. Thats what makes AF so great. Lots of support here without the judgement.

Yeah you could say that. I dislike bloatware, want the ability to tether for free, overclock and mess with other internal stuff like that, and enjoy improved performance just from whatever the developer does that makes it run better. Velocity had a nice gui that allowed you to overclock, go into the console and use the hard keyboard to download custom themes that changed even the smallest details like the color and icons in the windowshade bar at the top, change the splash startup screens, change the pixel density and resolution, and even had over-the-air script and version updates. If anyone could point me in the right direction for something like that, it would be a big help!

Diving in head first seems a little daunting with the huge list of ROMs up there without any summaries or descriptions of their main features. Then again, I haven't clicked on them; do they link to descriptions? I gotta sleep, so I can't check them out right now. I'll check back when I wake up!

 

[scotty85]

Best thing I can tell you is to try all the roms out for yourself. Seems like youre more a fan of the vanilla experience (plain Android). Start with the senseless/stripped/aosp type roms.

What launcher does velocity use? You can get a nonsense launcher and use launcher pro or go or adw or whatever else you are used to.

As for the keyboard try hacker keyboard from the market, it works the best for a non swype type keyboard that I've used and it is free. Or try a slide/swype keyboard it opus better with a touch screen than most other keyboards I've used, I personally like the slide keyboard with chingy's roms

the ally is listed as a google experience device. its been so long since i had one,its hard for me to remember how it looked as jreed says,he will prolly prefer something like cm7 or OMFGB. might also try tesla coil,its got a very AOSPy feeling,and he might even try a good sense rom like bamf or perfect storm/gingeritus to see if he might like sense. i dont understand it,but alot of folks do

like yeahha said,any sense rom that youre on,you can make it a little less "sense-y" by running something like adw or launcher pro. adw is small and simple,launcer pro is highly customizable. theyre both excellent launchers.

i used to be the exact same way about the keyboard,prolly even a little worse. i got a droid 1,whose physical keyboard is terrible(at least IMO) and found myself using the virutal kb instead of sliding it open. i love my TB... and if youd have told me a year ago id buy a phone with no keyboard id have laughed in your face point is,the virtual qwerty isnt so bad and in time youll get used to it. i do appreciate that i dont have to take up space on the face for a keyboard(can use it all for screen!) and not having it cuts out the extra complexity of the sliding/flipping/whatever mechanism and does make the phone hardware much simpler.

swiftkey is another good 3rd party keyboard you might want to try. my personal favorite is the gingerbread android keyboard. i guess i should mention that there are alot of big fans of the stock htc IME keyboard. if you can get used to numbers button being on the wrong side it does work well... im constantly hitting the keyboard down button instead of 123

Diving in head first seems a little daunting with the huge list of ROMs up there without any summaries or descriptions of their main features. Then again, I haven't clicked on them; do they link to descriptions? I gotta sleep, so I can't check them out right now. I'll check back when I wake up!

like jreed said... best thing is really to check em out yourself. lick the links... spend some time on xda reading the desctiptions and lookin at screenies. if you got any questions ask away

 

[solo65impala]

I posted in your other thread before getting to this one, but I believe everyone covered what i said. Enjoy your Thunderbolt to the fullest. Here's a link to XDA's goodies for this thing.
Thunderbolt Android Development - xda-developers

 

[Fruban]

Thanks for the great info everyone! First thing I need to do still is root my TB, lol.

BTW, what exactly is AOSP and what does it stand for? The scope of the ROMs for TB is impressive; I've only had to deal with Velocity for Ally and it had none of these acronyms!

 

[jreed2560]

Just Google Android Open Source Project. It's a broad scope of topics that range from app development to building an OS from scratch

 

[Fruban]

Just Google Android Open Source Project. It's a broad scope of topics that range from app development to building an OS from scratch

oh, cool! And those are the ones likely to be more vanilla in flavor huh?

 

[jreed2560]

Exactly

 

[Fruban]

Woot, I rooted it! The ROMs mentioned here so far, are they all on ROM manager?

 

[Kenjuu]

Personally I would look thru here or XDA fourms and find a brand that fits and flash it yourself. I have found some of the roms on ROM manager a little sketchy (for me anyway).

 

[Fruban]

Personally I would look thru here or XDA fourms and find a brand that fits and flash it yourself. I have found some of the roms on ROM manager a little sketchy (for me anyway).

I think I'll actually crosscheck some of them I find here with some on ROM manager. I already saw one, dasBAMF, which I know is on here. That will likely ensure quality, I should think. And convenience for installing!

 

[scotty85]

Personally I would look thru here or XDA fourms and find a brand that fits and flash it yourself. I have found some of the roms on ROM manager a little sketchy (for me anyway).

i would go a step further and reccomend that you do not use rom manager at all. remember,it is an app in a working rom,and there will be situations where you CANNOT use it. it is unreliable,IMO,and its much safer to manually wipe/backup/flash in clockwork recovery.

if you feel you need to use rom manager(for whatever reason) i WOULD VERY HIGHLY RECCOMEND that you become comfortable manually doing things and manipulating the menus in clockwork recovery FIRST.

when things go wrong with rom manager,the only fix will be clockwork,so knowing what to do first will help eliminate that helpless "oh crap what do i do now" feeling when your phone is just looping,and looping,and looping...

lecture aside,congratulations on your root,your jacket and cigar are on the table have fun trying out some new roms!

 

[Fruban]

After looking through some of the ROMs, I think I'm going to try CM7. Any good guides to install CM7 you can point me to? Also, Whats the diff between RC1.1 FOR MR2/MR2.5 RADIOS and the one for MR1 radios only? Basically I just don't know anything about the radios it's referring to.

EDIT: Oops, didn't see your post before I posted! MAN you are a quick responder. I like that!

 

[scotty85]

see the sticky how to thread if you need some tips in downloading,or flashing in recovery. as for the radios:

MR1=first OTA
MR2=2nd OTA(leaks at this point... hasnt happened yet)
MR2.5= a second leaked radio that could be in the next MR2. i presume the ".5" was added simply to distinguish it from MR2. MR2.5 is not an official thing from vzw/htc.

id prolly reccomend sticking with the radion on your phone,for now. most of us are having great luck with them,i just cant see much reason to do the potentially damaging hboot flash at this stage in the game. IMO there would be little benefit. just use the cm7 mr1 download if you want to give it a shot. maje sure to flash gapps right after flashing cm7 while youre in recovery

 

[Fruban]

see the sticky how to thread if you need some tips in downloading,or flashing in recovery. as for the radios:

MR1=first OTA
MR2=2nd OTA(leaks at this point... hasnt happened yet)
MR2.5= a second leaked radio that could be in the next MR2. i presume the ".5" was added simply to distinguish it from MR2. MR2.5 is not an official thing from vzw/htc.

id prolly reccomend sticking with the radion on your phone,for now. most of us are having great luck with them,i just cant see much reason to do the potentially damaging hboot flash at this stage in the game. IMO there would be little benefit. just use the cm7 mr1 download if you want to give it a shot. maje sure to flash gapps right after flashing cm7 while youre in recovery

Heh I actually found the sticky shortly after posting but never went back to edit the last post.. But thanks for the info about the radios, that helps.

On another note, I did something stupid and long story short, I downloaded the OTA update from verizon after rooting and now I'm in a reboot loop as it tries to apply the update! I was able to quickly use ROM manager to get into the recovery console to break the loop temporarily to figure out how to fix this but I have no idea what to do. But, when I exit out of the recovery console, it keeps trying to apply the update and gets stuck. I didn't make a backup, even though I should have done that first and basically the first thing I did was try to download the OTA thing (should've known that wouldn't work!) to fix the slow GPS lock issue.

So what are my options here to fix this this little issue? I've still got the PG05IMG from the last part of the root process on the SD card. Should I do something like a wipe and reflash it with that or what? Just tell me what to do (hopefully with a lot of specific detail) and I'll do it!

 

[scotty85]

Your best bet is to mount USB storage in recovery,and transfer a rom to your SD card and then flash it. Doesn't matter what,really,just make sure you use something that's mr1 or newer based.

Do not do anything with hboot or pg05img files.

 

[Fruban]

Your best bet is to mount USB storage in recovery,and transfer a rom to your SD card and then flash it. Doesn't matter what,really,just make sure you use something that's mr1 or newer based.

Do not do anything with hboot or pg05img files.

You da man! I followed the flashing guide, deleted the old PG05IMg as per the instructions, wiped, and flashed CM7 with gapps and I'm back in business! One little thing though, I do get 4g in CM7 RC1.1 right? I'm not getting any 4g signal for some reason. I had it on the stock root before flashing though

 

[scotty85]

One little thing though, I do get 4g in CM7 RC1.1 right? I'm not getting any 4g signal for some reason. I had it on the stock root before flashing though

yes,you will get it. the RIL(radio interface layer) is still not quite right,and handing off from wifi to data can sometimes not happen smoothly.

when you dont have 3g or wifi: try toggling airplane mode on for few seconds. if you dont have 4g: go to settings/wireless and networks/mobile networks/network mode. toggle on 3g(CDMA/ EvDo auto) and wait untill you get a solid lock and a green 3g. now toggle back to CDMA+LTE/EvDo auto. these things work for most of us reliably. for me,id say 99% of the time. there is an app called "LTE switch" that you can get from the market to make it easier. i honestly dont have to do it that often,

also,sorry for the shortness of my answer earlier,i was at work. glad you were able to get somethig flashed and running without much trouble.

however,its lecture time again:
-first and foremost for attempting to recieve an OTA on a rooted phone. you can only safely install an OTA with the stock recovery. on other devices,clockworkmod will block the installation of the OTA so that what you experienced doesnt happen. obviously,our clockwork is not doing this for us.

NEVER,EVER,ATTEMPT TO RECIVE AN OTA WHILE ROOTED.if you do start getting notifications,click install later. turn your phone off if you want to it doesnt keep pestering. but immediately seek advice on what to do.

please note that if you pay attention to the forums,we know when OTAs are coming out. they will be leaked prior,and developers will have rooted stock versions you can run,as well as incorporate the OTA into their custom roms. by staying on top of the OTAs,and using roms based on the most current firmware,OTAs should NEVER be an issue.

-second,for not using the most current guide. you were likely in this mess because you used an outdated guide that left you on rooted 1.12.605.6 or 1.12.605.9 firmware,wich triggered the OTA notification. you would have been fine,if you had simply flashed a new rom right away. this is one of the big reasons i asked you in the rooting methods thread what firmware you were on,when i saw you had used an outdated guide.

ok,lecture over. im not directing this at you,im sure the scare you got while looping drove the lesson home,lol... i mainly wanted to get this up here so folks in the future can learn from your mistake.

now on to enjoying your phone. i hope cm7 works as well for you as it does for me. i tried OMFGB for a couple days,but for the most part CM7 has been my daily driver for some time now.

 

[Fruban]

Lesson definitely learned lol.

My brother actually showed me LTE switch (yellow icon right?) I tried toggling the LTE on and off like you said to do before you actually posted ^_^ but id still didn't catch any 4g signal. 3g was fine though, as long as it was on CDMA+evdo and not the option that included LTE as well. Also, I couldnt get a GPS lock or have the phoen find my location. I just moved to a new home in a new place and state, so having reliable GPS is of the utmost importance. I read through some of the fixes for the GPS and location finding on the dev's thread but I couldn't find anything that helped.

I tried BAMF Gingerstripped 2.1 beta briefly but I got a lot of FC on setup that apparently should not have been there, and even after doing a fix permission in the recovery as indicated on the OP, it did not solve the issue. Since I had no connection to anywhere I couldn't sync anything and basically just said screw it. I'm recovering to CM7 now and when it's done I'll edit into this post what version of the root im using.

Edit: I have baseband version 1.16.00.0223r. Is that what I'm looking for? If not, where exactly do I go to see what root version I have?

Edit 2: I checked in the bootloader for some numbers and I see the radio version number there again, as well as Hboot version 1.04.2000, and eMMC-boot feb 23 2011. Hope that helps.

The md5sum from the files I used to root from here: http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/0...he-htc-thunderbolt-and-unlock-its-bootloader/

... are the same as the md5sum for the files listed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=996616

Which is what you linked to in your rooting post =)

 

[scotty85]

well,actually,they are not the same. the files for the downgrade RUU and the exploits files are the same,but the custom RUU md5 from android police is: 31478f109a56be3eb7068d97a7e9b11b while the md5 from the xda page custom RUU is: 7960c7977c25b2c8759605be264843ea

this is where you got yourself into trouble using the outdated guide(dated 4/21 vs 5/12) the custom ruu was 1.12.605.9,and not 1.13.605.7. the updater in your phone recognized the older firmware,and did its job and tried to update you. this guess is further supported by the radio that you have- the 1.16.00.0223r radio was used in the shpping firmware(1.12.605.6) and the 1.12.605.9 firmware(a minor OTA). if you had used the xda guide,youd have been running rooted mr1 and had the 402 radio at the end of the root process,and your phone would not have tried to update. trust me- your guide was outdated. like i said,it would have been ok if you had simply flashed a 1.13.605.7 based rom instead of accepting the OTA. the first parts,that got you root, were indeed the same.

but thats neither here nor there,since you have gotten it worked out.

yes,that number is the radio. you are on the shipping firmware radio,and id recomend that you leave it for now. stick with cm7 or some other mr1 based roms for now,untill youve gotten some more expereince flashing and manipulating your phone.

i also need to point out that these stock radios are not compatible with the GB bamf ram,so if you didnt flash new radios,then you werent going to get a cell signal. as far as your force closes, the wrong radios didnt help,but are prolly not the cause. the biggest things i see people do that results in FCs are:
1)trying to restore system data. the safest way to use titanium backup is th only restore "user apps+data"
2)not wipin data/cache and dalvik before flashing
3)flashing gapps on a sense based rom that includes them allready

its also possible that you maybe had a corrupt or incomplete download... did you verify the md5? did you maybe do one of the other 3 things?

yes,the yellow LTE app was the one i was refering to. if yu got 4g where you currently are before,im not sure why youre not getting it now. did you let the 3g turn green before toggling 4g back? this is an important step.

as far as gps... a common "fix" is to restore a stock backup,and get a solid gps lock. then boot to recovery and restore your cm7 backup. you can try it if you want,but its not worked for me,and the idea that gps settings somehow survive a wipe,flash,and reboot to me is pretty absurd

what i do after a fresh install,or if i have trouble after,is to use a market app called "gps stats". if you clear the stats,then let the app get a good,solid lock on 7+ satelites,you should find your location accurate to within a few meters in maps,and it should lock on within a couple seconds for navigation. again,this has worked great for me. one thing i do that may help,isafter i get a lock, i leave gps on all the time. prolly does suck the battery down a lil more,but i like apps like white pages,places,and weather to use my gps location,and not just an entered,constant city or zip code. i like it to change when im somewhere else

hope that helps

 

[Fruban]

the biggest things i see people do that results in FCs are:
1)trying to restore system data. the safest way to use titanium backup is th only restore "user apps+data"
2)not wipin data/cache and dalvik before flashing
3)flashing gapps on a sense based rom that includes them allready

its also possible that you maybe had a corrupt or incomplete download... did you verify the md5? did you maybe do one of the other 3 things?

I haven't actually used titanium backup at all, I've just been using the recovery console's backup and letting the google sync feature back up my apps which has been doing its job in restoring my apps on every new flash so far =) I'm also very adamant about wiping the three important location every time I flash! And the only time I've flashed gapps was right after flashing cm7 before booting up, since none of the others indicated that I'd need to since im reading every OP thoroughly before trying any ROM I find on the thread. I remember verifying the md5 at least a couple of times. I cant honestly remember if I checked every single one, but I am pretty sure I checked most of them

what i do after a fresh install,or if i have trouble after,is to use a market app called "gps stats". if you clear the stats,then let the app get a good,solid lock on 7+ satelites,you should find your location accurate to within a few meters in maps,and it should lock on within a couple seconds for navigation. again,this has worked great for me. one thing i do that may help,isafter i get a lock, i leave gps on all the time. prolly does suck the battery down a lil more,but i like apps like white pages,places,and weather to use my gps location,and not just an entered,constant city or zip code. i like it to change when im somewhere else

Well I did switch to BAMF 1.8 remix which seems very stable, so im making that my solid backup for now while I try other ROMs. I got a quick and solid GPS lock on that one anyway. But, cm7 was still my favorite ROM so far, as far as look and feel and interface. *if only the 4g and gps worked flawlessly!* I'm going to try your suggestion. I don't want to fiddle with stuff too much so if I just cant get these things to work with ease after a little more im going to try something else til it's fixed and wait impatiently for the next (and hopefully more stable) cm7 build! Here's hoping your suggestions works! Thanks again!