Root So I've Rooted, now what? Confused about ROMs.

[mikey1969]

OK, so after 4 hours last night, and 2 or 3 hours this morning, I have CyanogenMod working on my Incredible. To listen to the buzz, I'm now part of a magical elite group of people, but I'm a little unimpressed, or else I just don't have this right.

Here are some of the issues I ran into, maybe someone has some advice, since the ROM thing is 'supposed' to be relatively easy.

I downloaded ROM Manager and Flashed the ClockworkMod Recovery, and they say to do first. First off, what does this do? Is this what gives me the better bootloader screen?

Next, Cyanogen wasn't loading, it would boot right into my normal Sense environment. Finally, I had to do a factory reset and then when I reinstalled Cyanogen(7.0.3, latest stable version), I got stuck on the bootloader. Did the install again, finally got into Cyanogen, but had no Google apps, even though I had originally had it install those.

Now I have apps like SPB Shell that aren't working, I realize that I may just have to live with this. Moving on...

I decided to try another ROM, since switching these is supposed to be easy as well. Do I need to download Gapps as well every time, or can I just navigate to where it was downloaded before? Is there special versions for each ROM, is what I'm asking.

I lost a ton of internal App space, wen from 400 MB available to somewhere around 150 MB, is this from backups and stuff? If so, this seems to be on the built in memory on the phone, how do I clear that out?

Last, once I download these ROMs, if I DO want to switch, do I just use the ROM Manager and switch around all day, or do people usually just keep one on their phone and throw the rest away?

Thanks in advance for any help, hope I didn't make this post too rambling and confusing.

 

[wayrad]

I'll have a stab at some of your questions, since nobody else has been along yet. Somebody please correct me if I've made any mistakes.

Clockworkmod recovery gives you the environment in which backups ("nandroids"), restores, and flashing of ROMs, kernels, etc can be done. You had a version already after rooting, but possibly not the latest one. ROM Manager is sort of a front end to clockworkmod recovery, as well as letting you download ROMs. It is a handy way to update your Clockworkmod Recovery and to download ROMs, but is generally not recommended for actually installing them. Fewer things tend to go wrong when you go into recovery manually to do the flashing, and to make nandroids or restore from them.

GApps does not come with CM7 (they don't have permission to include it), but ROM Manager will fetch it for you along with CM7 if you tell it to. After you flash CM7 in clockworkmod recovery, you must then flash GApps in order to have access to the Market so you can get your Google apps.

Some things to remember that will make the process go more smoothly:

Always read the ROM developer's instructions for flashing a ROM and follow them religiously. This often involves following links to other sites, but should never be skipped.

Make a nandroid before doing anything, and make sure you have a good Titanium backup.

Do a full wipe (data, cache, and Dalvik cache) before flashing when coming from a different ROM, unless the developer specifies you don't need to.

Wipe everything three times because clockworkmod recovery doesn't always wipe things completely. Then flash the ROM. Then flash any extras (without wiping again!) like GApps if you are using Cyanogenmod, and maybe a different kernel or font if you want. Then reboot the device.

If you flashed Gapps you will be prompted to go download the individual apps from the Market.

First thing to do after that is to download the free version of Titanium Backup and then restore your user apps. DO NOT restore system data or you will be in a world of hurt and will likely have to wipe and reflash again.

Hope this helps.

 

[iowabowtech]

Some great points in the previous post. You only use Gapps for AOSP (Android Open Source Project) roms. For the most part, that means Cyanogenmod and a few others. For roms that are based around Sense, the additional loading of Gapps is no longer required as all that stuff is integrated into the rom itself.

Like wayrad, I like to flash everything in CWM directly. This gives you the option for multiple flashes, more options in general, and imo, makes an overall more trustworthy flashing experience. So the exact steps I would take when flashing CM7 directly in CMW are:

Wipe data > Wipe cache partition > (advanced menu) Wipe dalvik cache. Now you're all ready for the loading portion so with the rom and any additional downloads already placed on the sd card...

Install zip from SD card > Choose zip from SD card. Navigate to your zip, select it and flash. As soon as it's done flashing, if you have another one to flash, do it back to back. Once everything is flashed, choose the option to "reboot to system" and your new rom should boot up.

Caveats:
1.) New rom flashes sometimes take a long time to boot up for the first time. Don't be impatient and start pulling the battery. Be willing to wait up to 10 minutes although it typically doesn't take that long, I have had a few that have certainly pushed that timeframe. After the initial boot, subsequent ones will be typical of any rom.

2.) When navigating in hboot, you use the power button to select items. When navigating in the CWM menus, you use the TRACKPAD button to select items and the power button brings you back one menu. If when you get done flashing you zips in CWM and you don't see the menu item for "reboot to system" for example, press the power button once. You probably just ended up one menu forward of that option (and others).

I don't switch back and forth between roms on a regular basis. I usually end up using one until I want to move on. That'd be way to much work for me. If you are going to do that, you'd want to make nand backups (in CWM) of each one because then you can just restore to an exact fully set up and operational rom including all settings, the works. Do a nand restore and it's like you never left. I tend to only keep one or two recent nand backups on my card at any give time but only b/c I have limited card space and I'm too cheap and lazy to go buy a larger card.

I would recommend looking into Titanium Backup if you do not already have it. If you would like more info on tips for this app, check out this writeup:
http://androidforums.com/incredible-all-things-root/233251-how-titanium-backup-tips.html

 

[mikey1969]

Thanks guys, this helps out... I finally decided that apps weren't working(possibly) due to my backup I made with---MyBackup. Not really all that impressed with the app. I tried it before I even tried the flashing, and 'most' of my stuff restored, but not all. I think out of 113 apps, I went down to about 98, and then a few of those were there, but hosed. A couple others were installed, but weren't actually showing up. I went to re-download them in the Market, it said they were already installed, so I opened from there, and they were then n my list of apps. Next, after flashing Cyanogen the first time, I tried restoring the backup from MyBackup, and had even MORE issues.

So as it stands now, I have Cyanogen installed, running fine, and I have Gapps running, but I kept having issues with the most recent version of Gapps, so I went back one version and that one worked. I have been spending the last two days re-downloading, organizing and configuring, so I have everything just as I want it, then I will back up.

Correct me if I'm interpreting this wrong, but it looks like a two-part process... Back up the ROM using Clockwork Recovery, and then back up my apps and their settings/configs using a separate app such as MyBackup(Although not impressed), or Titanium Backup, correct? Is there any reason to run Clockwork Recovery on a regular basis, or does the data it backs up stay pretty much unchanged after you install the ROM? If I DO want to do it frequently, is there some kind of app or tool that automates the process and cleans up the space, maybe only keeping 1 or 2 total backups?

Lastly, using both these messages in conjunction, this does pretty much mean that a restored backup WILL make everything be set up just as before and laid out/configured just like it was at the last backup, right? My desktop will be arranged, my games and browsing history at the state when the last backup was done, all that jazz?

I definitely think I'm going to try Titanium, since the general consensus is pretty evenly matched between which ones people like, but I did my time with MyBackup, and walked away not impressed.

Thanks for the help guys! I can't believe I waited this long to root the phone, it was just so cool to begin with, I wasn't in any particular hurry, but to not have all the Verizon bloatware is worth the time and stress just in itself, not to mention all the other cool stuff and the higher level of control over the phone...