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Root Simple Question !

E

exkaraokeman

Newbie
I am in the UK, on 02 (although they factory unlocked it when I vented my anger at them for dragging their heels for the 2.2 update!)
so - i got the new OTA update the other day, so I am running version 2.2 software 2.14.207.3

Can I root this phone, and flash it to Gingerbread ?
All the guides i see/watch are all months old,are they relevant for me?
Gutted there is not a simple install and click a box option !
I am quite adept at unlocking iphones (well upto the 3gs, cos i gave mine to the mrs when I got my Desire!) and I still love my deisre, but its chinking away at my love for it, like having low memory,even though my apps are on SD, and the constant battery power woes, which is ok cos I bought an extra battery from the off, after joining this forum !
 
I am bemused by all the custom roms out there, but can't see a gingerbread one,or is the rom and system software two different things ?
Thanks for trying to help me !
 
Many many thanks Lecter , i followed the guide , all the bells rang and the whistles blew :D
I do believe im rooted now (according to unrevoked) , but now heres another stoopid question , how can i tell !
 
You can let those apps which need the permissions have them.

No special instructions: if an app needs the permissions, the SU app asks you whether they should be granted.

Edit: and Gingerbread? Sure, see my sig. Unless you still want Sense as well as Gingerbread, in which case you'll have to wait.
 
Zeroth thing: there are a couple of FAQs linked from SUroot's sig. Since nobody in this thread has pointed you at them yet, let me be the one to do it ;)

First thing: take a nandroid backup (a backup made from recovery) before you try to flash anything. If something goes wrong, it's the simplest way of having a working phone back.

Second: installing gingervillain is going to require a complete wipe of your phone. So you want to install Titanium Backup and make a full backup of your apps and their data. I'd also suggest MyBackup as a simpler way of backing up SMS/MMS/call logs (there are other apps that can do this as well). Although Ti does back up these things, it most likely does it as part of the system data or data from an HTC app which you can't restore on GV. If your contacts/calendar are all synced with Google then your fine there, otherwise you need to make sure those are backed up too. HTC sync won't work with GV, so don't rely on that.

Since low space was one of your motivations, you'll want to use the a2sd feature in GV. So you need to partition your card. See the apps2sd faq and Lecter's sig for information on this. This will wipe the SD card, so copy everything off that first (including your nandroid backup! If unsure, make another of those after partitioning).

That's a lot of stuff to digest in one go, so do it at a speed you are comfortable with.
Better to make sure you know what you are doing first - easier than fixing things afterwards.

Once you've done all of the preparation, the actual installation is easy: load the ROM .zip onto your SD card, boot into recovery, complete wipe/factory reset (if you want to be sure, wipe cache and dalvik also - one of these is under "advanced"), choose "install zip from SD card", select zip and confirm. First boot after a fresh install is long (can be 10 mins easily), so don't panic. Once booted, you can restore your apps and data from Titanium (but don't restore system settings), and other stuff from MyBackup or whatever. Read the first couple of posts of the ROM thread (especially the bit about typing 2 commands into a terminal emulator to move dalvik to the SD partition, as that's not common to most ROMs so may be left out of guides).

If there's anything you are unsure of, please ask - we were all new to this once.
 
Thanks for all the advice, but i think i will stay on 2.2, i need htc sync to organise my work duties , i put them into outlook, print a copy to stick on the fridge, then sync it to my phone, i would be lost without that !
 
HTC sync only works with Sense ROMs. There may be 3rd party solutions for outlook sync, but as I don't use outlook I know nothing about them.

There are various Sense-based ROMs with a2sd, so you can still do something about the storage. And if you want something a little more adventurous I expect that HTC sync would work with a Sense HD ROM (i.e. ported from the Desire HD).
 
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