Root Picking a ROM and kernel and other rooting questions

[Tempusfugit]

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****My questions below have mostly been answered. I'm still open to suggestions on ROMS and kernels, but now I have questions about partitioning, dalvik to SD, and App2SD.



Is there a list of functionalities/improvements/stability for kernels and ROMs on the EVO?

If not, can someone suggest a ROM and/or kernel for me based on:

1)De-bloated - everything. Google apps can stay.. anything HTC/sprint that isn't necessary for the phone to function needs to go.
2)Stability. My phone has ENOUGH space for me, and the battery is more than fine. I want the phone to work like it does now, including 4g/gps/navigation, etc
3)I'd like to repartition the internal memory to increase available memory. I'm pretty sure I read this was possible and might be included in some ROMs.
4)Battery saving
5)I wanna keep sense

If 1 or 3 can be done manually, then they aren't a requirement for a rom/kernel set up.

4 is kind of an open box. I'd like overall battery savings, but I'd also like to be able to overclock and run faster if I choose. This might be all handled by SetCPU, but I was under the impression some kernels run more efficiently in general, and could be slightly quicker and save battery.

I like sense, but its not a deal breaker. I guess it works for me and I'm comfortable with it. Does sense take a lot of battery or run slowly compared to sense-less ROMs? If there is a drastic difference in battery or speeds, and is there an alternative with as much "real estate" - I like the 7 screens, but if some ROM allows me to pack 7 screens into 4 or 3 (or whatever) just as efficiently I could see myself switching from sense.



So on to actual rooting questions -

a)rooting for dummies has a note - unrevoked 3.3 had problems flashing custom roms, I'm guessing 3.32 does not have this problem?
b)fastboot - in the rooting guide, section 2, step 3 - I see fastboot after I hold power and VolumeDown when the phone is off, but at that point in the directions, the phone is on, and just holding voldown doesn't do anything. So should that step actually be, unplug micro USB, turn phone off, THEN fastboot, or am I reading something wrong.
c)OTA updates - it says not to uninstall bloatware, but couldn't I just go back to stock with nand and then install the update??
d)nand backup is only available after rooting?

I think that's it for now.. lol

 

[akazabam]

Unfortunately, nobody has really put together such a list. The best you can do is browse this:

HTC Supersonic/ROMs - XDA-Developers

And view the posts for each ROM. You can read about what each one offers. As for your specific ROM/kernel questions:

1) This kind of depends on to what extent you want to "de-sense" the phone. You obviously don't want AOSP if you want to keep all functionality. Almost all custom Sense ROMs, though, have at least the basic bloatware removed (Sprint apps, blockbuster, etc.). There are a few ROMs, such as Sprint lovers, that have almost nothing removed. The purpose is to allow users to decide what they do and don't want. There are also some ROMs that have as much of Sense removed as possible, but are still based on Sense (4g, hdmi, etc. all work). These are a couple examples:

[ROM] VaelPak 3.0 [01/01/11] - NonSense - [SBC-NOHAVSv8] - 3.70.651.1 OTA - xda-developers
[ROM]EVO-NonSense(UPDATED 12/31)AOSP+Gingerbread Elements,OTA 3.70.651.1 - xda-developers

These, however, probably have more of sense removed than you want. If I'm not mistaken, they don't even include the Sense launcher (rosie). That being said, aside from the two extremes I just listed, you can browse that first link for any ROM sense based (look in the fourth column to see what each ROM is based on). Some popular examples are Fresh, Calkulin's EViO, Myn's Warm, etc. All of them have the basic bloatware removed, but still use sense. Anything you want removed after that can be removed using titanium backup or root explorer, but be very careful with the latter method.

2) Generally speaking, most sense ROMs are going to offer the same stability (assuming the ROM developer doesn't mess anything up too bad). You *might* notice some issues with some ROMs that try to incorporate as many AOSP elements as possible, but for the most part, everything should be fine. It's the kernel that you need to watch out for. As you look at the different available ROMs, you'll see what kernel the developer has included. Most devs include the stock HTC kernel that came with whatever base OTA they are working off of. HTC #15 is the latest for OTA 3.70. That being said, you have your choice of a couple. Netarchy, kings, and ziggy's are among the more popular ones.

3) This is what you're looking for:

[ MOD ] Custom MTD Partitions by Firerat (resize Cache, Data & System) - xda-developers

Really consider if you think this is worth it. It's not your typical mod. There are arguably some better ways to increase available space on the /data partition. The most common way is with a2sd. By partitioning the sdcard with an ext partition, this allows you to:

a) Move whatever apps you want to the sdcard. It doesn't work like built-in foryo apps2sd. It allows you to move whatever you want without the same concerns of froyo apps2sd.
b) Move dalvik cache to the /cache partition or the sdcard. This is a big one. You will gain 50-100 MB just by doing that.

Keep in mind that both the partition mod and a2sd don't depend on what ROM you're using, but if you want to use a2sd, you should pick a ROM that a2sd support already so that you don't need set it up from scratch. Myn's, Mikfroyo, etc. for example, already have built in support. Browse that first link, again, and developers will say if it's built in.

4) This depends more on the kernel than the ROM. Of course, keep in mind you need to avoid battery hogging apps, etc. etc., but that is the case across all ROMs. Back to the kernel, you're basically looking a few factors:

a) The actual kernel choice - each kernel offers certain stability, speed, and generic battery life. The most popular is netarchy. It's known to be quite stable. Ziggy's is also a good choice, but I've found it to be a little unstable. Note that that was only my experience. Others may be fine with it. I never liked King's kernels because they were always unstable. Some people love them. Your best bet is to stick with stock HTC on any kernel you switch with for a day or two, then try different custom kernels and see what you like.

b) HAVS/non-HAVS - This is hybrid adaptive voltage scaling. It means that as the CPU frequency scales up and down, the voltage supplied to the CPU goes up and down with it. It's meant to save battery life, especially when the phone is idle. Note that not all phones can handle HAVS, so you should try it, but you may have instability. Netarchy, for example, has both a HAVS and non-HAVS version (along with other versions).

c) CFS/BFS - you can look this up elsewhere. Theoretically, CFS offers better battery life, while BFS is faster. It's all theoretical. All phones work a little differently, and your phone will probably prefer one over the other. Personally, BFS drains the battery faster than CFS, to the point where I've given up on BFS.

d) Governor choice - kernel developers include different governors, and it's up to you to pick which one you want. The most common are on-demand, smartass, and conservative. This has been discussed elsewhere, so I'll be brief - on-demand has the best performance, but the worst battery life. Conservative has the best battery life, but may not have the best performance; yrmv on that one. Smartass is meant to be a tradeoff of both, and should offer good performance with better battery life than on-demand. It shouldn't be used with setcpu profiles, as it does those things for you.

d) Setcpu - you should always try a kernel without overclocking first. If it's running smoothly, there's usually no reason to overclock, unless you want to brag about your Quadrant score, which really doesn't mean much. If you feel that you can gain some real-world performance out of overclocking, then go for it. As a general rule, when testing the limits of your phone with overclocking using setcpu, leave the option to set at boot unchecked until you know the phone is stable. You don't want to get stuck in a bootloop. Also, you'll need a custom kernel to do this. Even with perflock disabled, you cannot overclock the HTC stock kernels.

5) Sense really isn't dependent on the ROM. Either the ROM has the sense launcher or it doesn't. You can still have a Sense-based ROM with the sense launcher removed. If you want something other than Sense, you can just use launcherpro, adw, etc. If you do want the sense launcher, stick with one of the many Sense ROMs that include it. Other than a possible theme, the launcher will behave in the same exact way. You will still have 7 screens, etc.


Rooting questions:

a) The reason for the flashing problems was because unrevoked 3.3 flashed Clockwork 3.0 for recovery. Since Clockwork 3.0.x.x only supports edify, most flashable zips (not just ROMs) didn't work right. Clockwork 2.6.x.x has since been included, and works great. Even if you do end up with Clockwork 3.0.x.x at some point, it's very easy to switch recovery versions. For now, though, as long as you use(d) the latest version of unrevoked, you're fine.

b) The point of that step is to just reboot the phone normally. You should be in hboot. All you're doing is rebooting the phone. Can you please explain what the problem is? I'm not quite sure what you're saying.

c) There are two points here - 1) You shouldn't accept an OTA update while rooted. There is a section in the rooting for dummies guide on how to get everything you need out of an OTA update without accepting it. However, if you stick with the stock ROM, and want to accept an OTA update, you need to a) flash the stock recovery back, and b) have all the apps still in /system/app. So, yes, you souldn't just uninstall bloatware, but 2) you are correct. You can just make a nandroid backup before removing/freezing anything (most definitely do that), then restore it to get everything back. That being said, it's always safer to freeze bloatware with titanium backup, or use root explorer (or the terminal) to rename the apks in /system/app that you want to "remove" by just renaming the extension from .apk to .bak. they will stop running, and will not show up in the app drawer after that. Note that you have very little to gain by actually removing the apps here. Most custom ROMs have them removed because you're not working off stock, and you can just get them off the sdcard later. With stock, though, if you remove them, unless you saved them, you have to find them elsewhere. I say it's not worth removing them because they are on the /system partition. Unless you remove, for example 30 MB worth of apks, then use the partition script linked to above, you won't see any more free space on /data. If you ask me, it's not worth it for such a little amount of space.

d) Yes, you can only create a nandroid backup after you have rooted (or at least have a custom recovery, which is part of the process). You can, however, make a backup with something like mybackup pro to backup as much as possible. It will be far from a full backup. You don't *need* to wipe before rooting with unrevoked, though. You only need to if you run into problems, and nothing else fixes it. You *could* also use something like z4root to temporarily root the phone, then install titanium backup, backup apps, app data, and settings, then reboot to lose the z4 temp root, then root with unrevoked, having made a slightly more comprehensive backup (but still not as complete as nandroid). Keep in mind that that last part is theoretical. I haven't tried it, but it should work.

Let me know if any of this didn't answer any of your questions, or if you have any more questions.

 

[flyjbaker]

The BOMB has spoken!!!!

 

[Tempusfugit]

3) This is what you're looking for:

[ MOD ] Custom MTD Partitions by Firerat (resize Cache, Data & System) - xda-developers

Really consider if you think this is worth it. It's not your typical mod. There are arguably some better ways to increase available space on the /data partition. The most common way is with a2sd. By partitioning the sdcard with an ext partition, this allows you to:

a) Move whatever apps you want to the sdcard. It doesn't work like built-in foryo apps2sd. It allows you to move whatever you want without the same concerns of froyo apps2sd.
b) Move dalvik cache to the /cache partition or the sdcard. This is a big one. You will gain 50-100 MB just by doing that.

I see. Do apps run slower if the whole thing is on SD, same question for dalvik cache.

b) The point of that step is to just reboot the phone normally. You should be in hboot. All you're doing is rebooting the phone. Can you please explain what the problem is? I'm not quite sure what you're saying.

I figured it was just a reboot, the part I'm confused about - The phone is on, it just says unplug from computer, and then hold vol down. If the phone is on and I hold vol down, it turns the volume down and then vibrates.. lol I think the directions are just missing a "turn off device" somewhere.

I was doing a "dry run" on rooting, going through the steps without actually loading anything, to make sure I understood every step completely. I THINK I get what this step means, just not 100%

edit: Does installing drivers step install something on your phone that makes it go to hboot? This might be my confusion




Everything was incredibly helpful, thanks.. more reading and researching, then back for more questions

 

[akazabam]

I see. Do apps run slower if the whole thing is on SD, same question for dalvik cache.



I figured it was just a reboot, the part I'm confused about - The phone is on, it just says unplug from computer, and then hold vol down. If the phone is on and I hold vol down, it turns the volume down and then vibrates.. lol I think the directions are just missing a "turn off device" somewhere.

I was doing a "dry run" on rooting, going through the steps without actually loading anything, to make sure I understood every step completely. I THINK I get what this step means, just not 100%

edit: Does installing drivers step install something on your phone that makes it go to hboot? This might be my confusion




Everything was incredibly helpful, thanks.. more reading and researching, then back for more questions

1) It shouldn't really be that noticeable. Moving dalvik just to /cache makes no speed differences, and give you extra space on /data.

2) Yep, you should be in hboot at that point . I see where you would get confused. Sounds like you got that figured out.

 

[Tempusfugit]

3) This is what you're looking for:

[ MOD ] Custom MTD Partitions by Firerat (resize Cache, Data & System) - xda-developers

Really consider if you think this is worth it. It's not your typical mod. There are arguably some better ways to increase available space on the /data partition. The most common way is with a2sd. By partitioning the sdcard with an ext partition, this allows you to:

a) Move whatever apps you want to the sdcard. It doesn't work like built-in foryo apps2sd. It allows you to move whatever you want without the same concerns of froyo apps2sd.
b) Move dalvik cache to the /cache partition or the sdcard. This is a big one. You will gain 50-100 MB just by doing that.

What is the problem with partitioning? Do I just need to check the size of the roms I flash on /data /system etc and make sure the partition is big enough before I do it?

I did some googling on dalvik>SD, and for now I think I'm gonna leave it.. Read too many problems and slow downs.

I guess I missed the part on partitioning the sd card with /ext to make A2SD actually work. Is there a link to do this?



I just rooted last night.. Started out with myn's twopointtwo. No problems rooting or flashing. I'm gonna wait for a kernel for now..

I'm over my sense kick, using ADW currently.

 

[akazabam]

What is the problem with partitioning? Do I just need to check the size of the roms I flash on /data /system etc and make sure the partition is big enough before I do it?

I did some googling on dalvik>SD, and for now I think I'm gonna leave it.. Read too many problems and slow downs.

I guess I missed the part on partitioning the sd card with /ext to make A2SD actually work. Is there a link to do this?



I just rooted last night.. Started out with myn's twopointtwo. No problems rooting or flashing. I'm gonna wait for a kernel for now..

I'm over my sense kick, using ADW currently.

Right, there's really no problem with the different partitions. If you really need the extra space go for it. But you're going to see any benefits from it other than...well...bragging rights. You will get more than 100 MB back, but you can regain a lot of space by doing simpler things such as moving dalvik to /cache or the sdcard.

As for dalvik, you might have some speed issues if you move it to the sdcard. A better solution would be to move it to /cache, just be careful doing both that and lower the amount of available space on /cache.

For a2sd, see this link:

[Script][A2SD] Darktremor Apps2SD 2.7.5.3 Beta 03a (01/25/2011) - xda-developers

Up at the top, there is a link for instructions. Keep in mind that if you're using myn's, you already have a2sd; you just need to partition the card.

 

[Tempusfugit]

The benefit I'm looking for is keeping heavy use programs on internal, and everything else to SD, and still having lots of space open on both(ok I guess a little for bragging rights)

So I'm backing up my SD card right now, I'm gonna partition it in a little..

few more ?s

1)backing up a backup - can i just copy the clockwork mod folder, and all of my nand backups will be backed up on the computer? I'm thinking of just having my stock backup and current rom zip on the SD, and everything else backed up on the computer and online backup.

2)boot animations - I've seen multiple ways of changing boot animations... I'm looking to use the one here:

xda-developers - View Single Post - [ROM] Myn

 

[akazabam]

The benefit I'm looking for is keeping heavy use programs on internal, and everything else to SD, and still having lots of space open on both(ok I guess a little for bragging rights)

So I'm backing up my SD card right now, I'm gonna partition it in a little..

few more ?s

1)backing up a backup - can i just copy the clockwork mod folder, and all of my nand backups will be backed up on the computer? I'm thinking of just having my stock backup and current rom zip on the SD, and everything else backed up on the computer and online backup.

I do something very similar. I keep the zip of my current ROM, and the last known good nandroid backup (generally of the same ROM or the last one) on the card. The rest I copy to the computer. I'm using RA, but there's no difference when it comes to copying them to your computer. If that's what you want to do, go for it. It's a good way to save space and still have the right backups readily available.

2)boot animations - I've seen multiple ways of changing boot animations... I'm looking to use the one here:

xda-developers - View Single Post - [ROM] Myn