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Root Some guidance for an old fart please!!!

Hi there,
I have an HTC Desire currently on 2.2.2 and I am running out of internal memory. I have read through the stickys and guides until my eyes bleed!!! I am intending to s-off and root using unrevoked, I need to choose between clockworkmod and amon-ra. I am favouring Amon-ra but I can't remember why? Is that a good choice?
Will I also need to flash a new ROM to solve this issue? If so, I like the sound of the MUIU but need the camera, I definitely want to retain the quality of the camera, so I guess I will need to use a SENSE ROM, is that correct? So, then, how do I choose which one? I guess all my answers are out there but I'm drowning in browser tabs!!! Thanks in anticipation. :eek:
 
2.2.2 will need Revolutionary rather than unrevoked. Is your phone GSM or CDMA? I ask because you talk about S-Off, which unrevoked only does for CDMA. It's also important as some things are different, and as most desires are GSM that is often assumed, so you need to watch out for this if you are CDMA.

There is a simpler choice for recovery - 4Ext. Otherwise the choice between CWM and Amon Ra depends on the erase size - if your device is GSM, PVT4 and erase size 40,000 you should not use CWM, otherwise you can choose. The faq describes how to check.
 
Thanks, I should have said that; Yes, it's GSM, I meant revolutionary :o I now have s-off but cannot upload a recovery image. I get this;

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Scott>"fastboot flash recovery C:\Users\Scott\recovery.img
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

I can't see any syntax errors, but I could be wrong (again). The recovery.img is the 4ext one.

Bloody phones!!!
 
Well,
I ended up re-starting revolutionary and installing clockwordmod through that, which worked...YAY!!!
BUT...can I now replace clockworkmod with 4ext? Do I need to and if so, how?
Any thoughts on flashing the ROM as mentioned earlier? Thanks for the help Hadron!
 
You should replace clockwork with 4ext but you'll have to root first (I.e flash the zip from the revolutionary site.

Then you can just install the 4ext updater app

You will need a new Rom to get the best out of internal memory and also to partition your sd card too.
 
OK, so I'm now rooted and s-off with revolutionay and the clockworkmod v4.0.1.4. If I download the 4ext.apk file, copy it to the SD card and download apps installer, will that replace clockworkmod with 4ext? What is wron with CWM? It shows me options to format / partition the SD card, is that not all I need to replace my ROM? Sorry for all the questions...
 
OK, so I'm now rooted and s-off with revolutionay and the clockworkmod v4.0.1.4. If I download the 4ext.apk file, copy it to the SD card and download apps installer, will that replace clockworkmod with 4ext? What is wron with CWM? It shows me options to format / partition the SD card, is that not all I need to replace my ROM? Sorry for all the questions...


You dont need apps installer. Any file manager such as estrongs can browse to the SD and install an apk.

No, the apk is a downloader that (if you're s-off and rooted) downloads and installs 4ext recovery over clockworkmod.

2.5.0.7 was the last official clockwork mod for the desire. Everything since has been a collaboration from various people, based on the original source code. Many of the experienced here have witnessed many distress threads from people using it.

4EXT is stable feature rich.

You can Partition sd from recovery. do NOT do it from Clockworkmod though. This uses an application called sdparted. Not good. 4ext is better at sd partitioning but we here prefer to use a linux tool called Gparted. Its a bit long winded as the best way to use it is in a virtual machine (i actually created a step - by - step for this in the "all things root guide"....

Once you are partitioned, you need a ROM that will have 2 things:

1) an a2sd+ Script (which uses that partition as extra storage)
2) support for running scripts at boot (needed for above to work).

Have a read of the root memory faq from the "all things root" sticky thread... Read about a2sd...

Then have a read of the rooting faq (i guess you know where that is by now)...

Yes its a lot of reading but its all essential knowledge. Between them, they will answer all your questions. We will happily elaborate if needs be. You may have read them before, but the more you absorb, the more the parts you dont understand - start to make sense.

Good luck :)
 
Thanks for that, I'm getting there slowly. I'm fairly literate on a PC / windows but this is ALL so new and I'm getting on for my 1/2 century so thanks for bearing with me!
 
You're going to have to try harder than that to pull the age card - plenty of people older than you around here (quite possibly including me ;))
 
Hmmm...I thought it was going so well!!! I replaced clockworkmod with 4ext and kinda got carried away formatting / wiping...my phone will now only boot to the white 'recovery' screen and I can only enter 4ext. I have a 16Gb SD card and have the following partitions;

Mount Point Device Size Free

System mtd3 250 MiB 248.8 MiB
Data mtd5 147.6 MiB 146.5 MiB
Cache mtd4 40.0MiB 38.9 MiB

Mount Point fs Size Free

SDCard fat32 12.8GiB 12.8 GiB
SD-Ext ext4 1025 MiB 975.8 MiB
swap swap 1025 MiB -

Current Rom: Unknown

So my guess is I have wiped the original RoM from the phone, now I need to install a new one. I have downloaded AceSmod007_v28_3D-cm7-stock,zip and I think I need to get this onto the SDcard and run the zip from 4ext. How? The SDcard / phone is not visible on my PC via USB cable? Do I need an adapter to mount the microSD into my laptop and transfer the file then? If so, does it go into the 'sdcard' partition?

Thanks again!!!
 
Sorry the specific wording is "Toggle USB Storage" from the main menu

Nope. selecting that only gives the option 'Disconnect' which, if selected, then entering toggle again, offers only 'Disconnect'. Still can't see phone / sd crad via usb. may have to try and buy an adapter methinks...
 
When you toggle it, you connect it. You only need a disconnect to unmount which is why its the only thing in the menu.

Reboot your computer, unplug the USB and plug it in another port on your computer, then when its all reconnected and rebooted, press the "toggle" menu item and leave it. It should appear in "My Computer"...

What exactly did you format? Did you format the sd card per chance?
 
What exactly did you format? Did you format the sd card per chance?

Errmm...if I said 'no', would you believe me? :o

I read that I should wipe / format everything twice, and a recent entry on my chosen ROM thread on XDA suggested the partition sizes.

Did I do bad? :confused:
 
Some people are excessive in the wipes they recommend. ;)

To change ROM you should do a factory reset then flash the ROM, that's all. I suppose that if someone wanted to be thorough then formatting the ext partition might be safe, if the ROM lives there, but I doubt it is essential unless the ROM has a lousy installer. TBH I have never formatted /system before doing a ROM flash.

You should never have to wipe the fat32 partition of the card for flashing. Remember also that that is where your nandroid & Titanium backups are, so if you do that you no longer have backups.
 
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