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Root ultimate ascend customization guide.

You have to be rooted in order to install ClockworkMod Recovery to flash CM7 but once you flash CM7 its already rooted. Rooting is the first step to flashing but once you flash its already rooted so there no need to use z4 or gingerbreak.

Heres Gingerbreak to get you started on your journey to CM7: GingerBreak-v1.20.apk
 
Gingerbreak... And there have been thousands of posts with the EXACT same issue.
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That tickled my funny bone :)

I will admit I didn't look too deeply into the issue last night as I've been doped up on TheraFlu for 3 days now and was insanely tired, but now that I'm feeling somewhat on the mend I can focus a bit better.

You have to be rooted in order to install ClockworkMod Recovery to flash CM7 but once you flash CM7 its already rooted. Rooting is the first step to flashing but once you flash its already rooted so there no need to use z4 or gingerbreak.

Heres Gingerbreak to get you started on your journey to CM7: GingerBreak-v1.20.apk

Thanks for the help, I hate that I spent the money on Titanium without getting anything out of it but I'm going to consider it a lesson learned. On the flip side I'm excited about going to CM7!
 
That tickled my funny bone :)

I will admit I didn't look too deeply into the issue last night as I've been doped up on TheraFlu for 3 days now and was insanely tired, but now that I'm feeling somewhat on the mend I can focus a bit better.



Thanks for the help, I hate that I spent the money on Titanium without getting anything out of it but I'm going to consider it a lesson learned. On the flip side I'm excited about going to CM7!

I saw your name and couldn't resist. LOL.

It's not necessarily a waste of money, but Root Explorer is a much better purchase. Once you use Gingerbreak to root your phone, you will be able to use TiBU. I used it for a while, but found that it was just causing problems in the long run and making me work harder to troubleshoot. Since I uninstalled TiBU and purchased Root Explorer, I haven't had any of the problems I had with TiBU.
 
I just read through all of the Icarus install thread, this thread, and several other posts/threads around the site/wiki. I took notes and downloaded files as I went along so hopefully 1) I'm not about to ask something already answered and 2) have all the files I need for which ever route I decide to go (and for the record, that uploading.com site is bloody awful, I can has mediafire?). I'm hoping you lovely peeps can answer some clarification questions that came up as I was reading so that I can pick with better insight.

Currently I'm sitting on a z4rooted 2.1 Cricket phone. I still only have the stock SDcard. Upgrading this is not an option for budget reasons (seriously, I have no dollars all of those great deals you know of will not help me at all). Nor is buying the paid version of any apps (Titu, etc.) for the moment. I'm leaning towards CM6 because I want 2.2 and some specific problems mentioned for CM7 would bug the bejeebus out of me.


Apps 2 sd options (Icarus, CM6/7)
This is both the biggest reason I'm looking to flash to a new rom and potentially the biggest problem with my doing so. I have three apps that are either widget based or cannot be run off the sdcard (Widgetsoid, Minimalist text, ColorNotes). These apps are deal breakers; if I can't have them functioning correctly I'd rather stay with stock 2.1 and whine about how little room I have. So I'm trying to figure out if there's anyway to use this option that allows me to pick which apps will move so that those three don't. A post a few pages ago references the fact that there's a way to do this but doesn't go into any specifics.

My other thought was that I'd like to see if I can force an app back to the phone if it is automatically moved.

Since the various guides for the roms repeatedly state that not all apps are moved to the SD card, are these three exempt from moving? Does one of the roms allow me to choose with apps I move? Is there an alternate app I can use to overwrite the ones in the different roms? Should I just go with Links2SD (which works for android 1.6 and above) in the marketplace? Is it possible that using darktremor's app would work since (quote from related thread) "It's the way that he wrote the code, everything thinks it's on the phone but it's really on the sd card"?

CM6 questions
Just to clarify, since I use GoLauncher, I can uninstall the launcher that comes with CM6 and reinstall mine, correct? I tried them all and liked Go's the best.

CM7 questions
The gapps link is borked in install post. I found it elsewhere by googling the file name in the link (and someone posted it above but I didn't know that yet when I googled).


Is the camcorder thing still a problem? Everything in this thread says no camcorder but the wiki says the camcorder works. I don't actually use it often but I'd like to play with the barcode scanner eventually so the option would be nice.

Other misc questions
Is the headset thing still a problem with CM6/7? I almost always use it for calls because the speakers on the Ascend kind of suck.

I saw the specific partition recommendations for all of the rom install instructions but they all seemed to be working with bigger cards than mine. My SD Card is 1.83G according to my PC. Recommended partitioning sizes (does this vary with the different roms)? I'm not an uber apps junkie (though I'm full up at the moment) so the small amount of space doesn't bother me.


So yeah that should be it... Any help and clarification you guys can provide would be great. Major kudos to everyone working on all of the roms and guides. I've been lurking here since I got the phone and pretty much figured out everything I've done with it so far through you guys. Despite how it may seem with my overly wordy post, I think y'all are excellent at providing nice clear instructions. Rock on.
 
CM6 questions
Just to clarify, since I use GoLauncher, I can uninstall the launcher that comes with CM6 and reinstall mine, correct? I tried them all and liked Go's the best.

CM7 questions
The gapps link is borked in install post. I found it elsewhere by googling the file name in the link (and someone posted it above but I didn't know that yet when I googled).


Is the camcorder thing still a problem? Everything in this thread says no camcorder but the wiki says the camcorder works. I don't actually use it often but I'd like to play with the barcode scanner eventually so the option would be nice.

Other misc questions
Is the headset thing still a problem with CM6/7? I almost always use it for calls because the speakers on the Ascend kind of suck.
.
the headset thing in cm6 is fixed, well it works for me, and you can uninstall the launcher it comes with, just download the free version of titanium backup and make sure to download another launcher and make it a system app by Root Explorer .
The camcorder on CM7 works, but the camera applications does not, and will not work for the ascend. In my experience of having a phone for 3 years, i didnt really use camera apps, i just upload it on the PC and edit them.
 
THanks Kevin. I don't really use many camera apps either but I do take a lot of pictures. Or I would if I had more room. I left the photobucket app that came with it on the phone so that my pics would auto backup online for me (my PB ccount is strictly for personal storage so this worked out nicely). I'm notorious for forgetting to pull my pics off my phone so that way I can download and edit them if I have a bonehead moment with the delete button. Does your statement mean that this method won't work for me anymore?


Someone got back to me in PM and suggested a particular build of CM7 to address my apps to sd issue. They suggested I go with one of Bob z's early builds and use the Links2sd app from the market. That's something I had been looking at already so I think it's what I'll try first.

I'm honestly kind of surprised that I'm not finding more threads with people talking about selectively moving apps to the SD card instead of all/nothing. Widgetsoid and Minimalist text are pretty popular apps so I'd have thought there be more futzing around to get those to stay put (colornote too for that matter). Or maybe they just aren't moved over by Icarus and CM6/7 and I haven't figured that out yet? either way, my search fu is failing me, for a change. :( I can has better keywords?

When I finally figure out how I'm doing this (i.e. in a couple of weeks when I'm back on my own PC) I'll post back here with my results/testing/decision. It seems like question someone else might have so I'll drop it in in case someone else runs into it.
 
THanks Kevin. I don't really use many camera apps either but I do take a lot of pictures. Or I would if I had more room. I left the photobucket app that came with it on the phone so that my pics would auto backup online for me (my PB ccount is strictly for personal storage so this worked out nicely). I'm notorious for forgetting to pull my pics off my phone so that way I can download and edit them if I have a bonehead moment with the delete button. Does your statement mean that this method won't work for me anymore?


Someone got back to me in PM and suggested a particular build of CM7 to address my apps to sd issue. They suggested I go with one of Bob z's early builds and use the Links2sd app from the market. That's something I had been looking at already so I think it's what I'll try first.

I'm honestly kind of surprised that I'm not finding more threads with people talking about selectively moving apps to the SD card instead of all/nothing. Widgetsoid and Minimalist text are pretty popular apps so I'd have thought there be more futzing around to get those to stay put (colornote too for that matter). Or maybe they just aren't moved over by Icarus and CM6/7 and I haven't figured that out yet? either way, my search fu is failing me, for a change. :( I can has better keywords?

When I finally figure out how I'm doing this (i.e. in a couple of weeks when I'm back on my own PC) I'll post back here with my results/testing/decision. It seems like question someone else might have so I'll drop it in in case someone else runs into it.

keep us posted and good luck. :)
 
I've always wondered about selective moving of apps too, just never asked. :/

As for ColorNote, that is also one of my main apps, and the widgets and everything work just fine from SD using DT'sA2SD. Same goes for MinimalistText. I've never used Widgetsoid though...
 
man i tell ya those thank buttons arent enough! so i wanted to comment and tell u that u guyz...rock! i was able to root and install cm7 for the first time (ever) and without any problems, ur step by step instructions were great and cant thank u enough! thank u all! :D
 
man i tell ya those thank buttons arent enough! so i wanted to comment and tell u that u guyz...rock! i was able to root and install cm7 for the first time (ever) and without any problems, ur step by step instructions were great and cant thank u enough! thank u all! :D

Congratulations on your brand new phone! It can now do things you never would've thought it was capable of.

Welcome to AF! :cool:
 
are all of these steps up to date and still good to go? my phone is rooted and i would like to make it an Ultimate Ascend. i have a Huawei Ascend M-860 rooted.
 
INSTALLING CLOCKWORKMOD (CWM)
open the cwm.zip and extract the files
open the cwm folder
open the following files (you may see the dos box open briefly, this shows it worked all file are labeled according to os, choose for your os)

adb
fastboot
install recovery

When I run the install-recovery-mac.sh it just opens in TextEdit. I tried copy & paste the text into Terminal, & it keeps giving me error messages.

mymac:~ mymac$ ./fastboot-mac flash recovery recovery-RA-ascend-v1.6.2.img
-bash: ./fastboot-mac: No such file or directory
mymac:~ mymac$ fastboot-mac flash recovery recovery-RA-ascend-v1.6.2.img
-bash: fastboot-mac: command not found
mymac:~ mymac$ fastboot flash recovery recovery-RA-ascend-v1.6.2.img
-bash: fastboot: command not found
 
When I run the install-recovery-mac.sh it just opens in TextEdit. I tried copy & paste the text into Terminal, & it keeps giving me error messages.

mymac:~ mymac$ ./fastboot-mac flash recovery recovery-RA-ascend-v1.6.2.img
-bash: ./fastboot-mac: No such file or directory
mymac:~ mymac$ fastboot-mac flash recovery recovery-RA-ascend-v1.6.2.img
-bash: fastboot-mac: command not found
mymac:~ mymac$ fastboot flash recovery recovery-RA-ascend-v1.6.2.img
-bash: fastboot: command not found


Are you trying to run the Mac shell on a windows computer?
 
No, definitely not. I've had problems before trying to translate commands to work with Terminal on my mac. I'm running Snow Leopard on a Macbook Pro. I tried running the .bat for windows, but it wouldn't do anything. All the Linux files worked the same as the mac files.

I found an older version of RomManager that saw my phone correctly & am now running CWM 3.0.0.5 on it. I thought it still didn't work, but I just had to hold VOLUME UP + SEND for almost a minute to boot into CWM recovery the first time. It works much quicker after that. While I did get it working, I'm left wondering if there's something wrong/different with my machine 'cuz there have been a couple of times I followed instructions for Terminal commands & they didn't do anything.
 
No, definitely not. I've had problems before trying to translate commands to work with Terminal on my mac. I'm running Snow Leopard on a Macbook Pro. I tried running the .bat for windows, but it wouldn't do anything. All the Linux files worked the same as the mac files.

I found an older version of RomManager that saw my phone correctly & am now running CWM 3.0.0.5 on it. I thought it still didn't work, but I just had to hold VOLUME UP + SEND for almost a minute to boot into CWM recovery the first time. It works much quicker after that. While I did get it working, I'm left wondering if there's something wrong/different with my machine 'cuz there have been a couple of times I followed instructions for Terminal commands & they didn't do anything.

I always had issues using Macs with my ascend (or really any android) I have found than windows XP (rev3 I think...) and windows 7 are the least troublesome.
 
I have a new problem. I followed directions exactly, but when I got to the "install cm6.zip" it failed
E:signature verification failed
Installation aborted
Now I'm stuck. Did I just brick my phone?

Edit:
Did the restore in CWM, going back to stock. I almost skipped the backup at first 'cuz it was taking too long. I'm SO glad I didn't.
Does the .zip need to be named exactly "cm6.zip" or something like that? Mine is "cm6-ascend-metropcs-04212011.zip" and the gapps download link in the cm6 part is outdated. It says something like "Couldn't find the file you requested, check these out." I got "gapps-mdpi-20110501-signed.zip" from the Cyanogenmod wiki for CM6.
 
I have a new problem. I followed directions exactly, but when I got to the "install cm6.zip" it failed
E:signature verification failed
Installation aborted
Now I'm stuck. Did I just brick my phone?

Edit:
Did the restore in CWM, going back to stock. I almost skipped the backup at first 'cuz it was taking too long. I'm SO glad I didn't.
Does the .zip need to be named exactly "cm6.zip" or something like that? Mine is "cm6-ascend-metropcs-04212011.zip" and the gapps download link in the cm6 part is outdated. It says something like "Couldn't find the file you requested, check these out." I got "gapps-mdpi-20110501-signed.zip" from the Cyanogenmod wiki for CM6.


Click "toggle signature verification" or whatever it is on cwm. That should keep it from looking for one.
It may not work.... just an idea
 
I've had my phone running Icarus for close to a year now, but I really want to flash my phone from Icarus to Cyanogen. The only problem is my ClockWorkMod is version 2.x and Cyanogen only works on 3.x.

Icarus is android 2.1 so rommanager is unavailable from the market since it only runs on 2.2 and up. I found RomManager 3.0.0.7 on 4share but it says "an error occurred while flashing your recovery."

I'm considering flashing to PlayfulMod which is android 2.2 so i can download RomManager, upgrade CWM to 3.x, then flash Cyanogen.

If anyone knows any easy way to flash CWM3 so I can skip over flashing PlayfulMod, I would really appreciate it. I've been at this for the last two days and I'm getting desperate.
 
I thought I included a link to the cwm 3005 image.... just replace the old recovery.img in the cwm flash package and run the required files...
I explain manually flashing cwm in there somewhere.
 
I thought I included a link to the cwm 3005 image.... just replace the old recovery.img in the cwm flash package and run the required files...
I explain manually flashing cwm in there somewhere.

I tried that once, but for some reason it didn't work. I had to retry several times and it eventually worked. Thanks for the help. Cyanogen isn't working for me though. I have the latest build "CM7.2-Ascend-09132011-signed.zip" and it stays at the boot screen, then eventually reboots and gets stuck again. I'm guessing that's a boot loop? I've tried reflashing, but maybe I have an extremely stubborn ascend? Is there another build I should use?

Edit: I guess it's because I didn't get google apps. Downloading it now. I'm also going to try BobZ build for lazy ascends.
 
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