Database Users

[POLL] Apps2SD experiences

Hello everybody
By now, most of us use some kind of apps to SD. We have some pros (LucidRem, MarcusMaximuss, Cyanogen, others) who paved the way and take gread deal of time to teach those who don't quite have a good grip on it. Everybody's mileage varies, and I think the way people run their roms has an impact on how Apps2SD will perform. Some people switch roms every so often and others stick with a rom for a while. I would like to see how Apps to SD perfrom in the long run. Hopefully it will be helpfull to developers as we may potentionally uncover some patterns here.
FYI: I am looking to get at least 100 votes on this before it can be considered helpfull to MarcusMaximuss or other devs so don't be shy
Feel free to post your individual experiences but PLEASE, DO NOT GO OFF-TOPIC!!! IF YOU NEED TO ASK A QUESTION- PLEASE DO SO IN THE RELATED THREAD. QUESTIONS WILL NOT BE ANSEWERED HERE!!!!
Thanks for looking and don't forget to show respect and donate to real pro's here... they are the one's that keep XDA going strong.

By the way..... for those of you who may wonder why there's no "I keep having force-closes and other problems with my Apps2SD" poll options: It is because once it's up and running you REALLY shouldn't have that kind of problems with it. If you do- you're rather an exception to the rule then a rule itself.
Good luck to everyone still trying to figure it out.

Have had my apps on the SD card since the instructions came out.....all via command line...no GUI. Was *never* able to get /data/data moved to SD without all sorts of problems. But just the apps worked fine.
It's been a mostly positive experience. I have about 120 apps installed at the moment. I've pretty much stopped using my laptop entirely and instead use my phone for a lot of stuff I do.
I also stepped up to the unionfs method about 3 weeks ago. It worked flawlessly for one week, then my phone seemed to perform a self-wipe.
At that time I reflashed to TDOL with built-in support for unionfs and have been using it ever since. Friday I upgraded to 1.2b.
Apps are a tad slower to launch, even on a class 6 SD. But that's a small price to pay for having the space to install so much.
One of these days I have to move the caches back over. Never did re-do that after moving apps to SD.

Well, I must say that lucid's version with the symlinks was by far the easiest to set up and use.
I had a very difficult time getting Apps to SD 2 working and find it harder to manage but it is going strong.
I am now using Apps to SD 2 on an ext3 partition and it seems ok so far.
I wish there was an easier way but if anything gets messed up with Apps to SD 2 it means format and start again

Getting a MyTouch (32b) in 30 minutes, need advice!

I'm getting it in a few minutes at the post office and I'd like some quick advice...
FIRST STEPS
What should I do in order after the unboxing?
ROOTING
Best way to do so? Tips and tricks?
RECOMMENDED ROM
Best stable ROM for an Treo + iPod Touch switcher?
GAMES
Picked my top software, a lot of games, but I'd enjoy some advice on good games to try. I'd love Snake as on the old Nokias, without the obstacles.
OTHER TIPS?

First steps: Set up your google account. Transfer all your contacts from your sim card onto the phone and allow it to sync with the google account so it will be there once you have set everything up.
Best way to root: The unlockr's one click root. There are videos on youtube and the unlockr.com all the instructions are there as well as the videos. You will have to downgrade to 1.5 from the 1.6 that it will more than likely come with, but the unlockr's site will show you how to do that as well.
Best rom: In my opinion it would be Cyanogen's latest in the dream forum (4.2.9.1). Many others will also agree with me.
Games: Free games just look in the market once you have everything set up and look at the top free games. There are some really good ones. Some of the paid ones are also well worth the money. In the free section, there is a snake game, so you're in luck!
Other tips: When rooting your phone, READ TWICE, THEN DO ONCE! Also, consider upgrading your memory card from the 4gb class 2 that comes with it to a class 6 card. Oh and if you are going to immediately root the phone, don't download any games as you will lose them all once you root your phone. Oh and if you plan on downloading a ton of apps, you might want to partition your sd card, or if you plan on running a sense, or hero rom, or if you are going to be taking advantage of linux swap.

A few more questions:
Do you recommend Hero or Eclair ROMS?
As for the ROM version, where can I find this? It turns out the post office doesn't have it yet (should be there monday), but I'd like to take advance on downloading what's needed.

I have used Hero roms and i love them, but they are no where nearly as quick as a modified stock rom like cyanogen. Our phones simply do not have enough ram to allow it to keep up with it. Eclair roms are considerably quicker than hero roms, but they do not have camera/video recording working at the moment. So if that doesn't bother you go for it.
The Cyanogen rom is located in the dream android development. You can download it from there, as well as Eclair roms like Eugene373's or manup456's. Those are the best 32B in my opinion.
If you wanna try a hero rom, I suggest the sensehero, also located in dream, or qtek's that's located here in the sapphire android development section.

[Q] Intro and a uple ??s

Hi people,
I am a noob as far as Android goes, but I am pretty good at PC stuff. I run a 3D CAD department and I've been the "unofficial" tech guy at every job I've had in the last 10 years.
That being said, I just got the HTC Hero from Sprint last weekend, Android 2.1, update 1. I have always wanted to play with Linux but have never really had the time. So, this is my first encounter with Android or Linux.
So ..... , as much as I'd love to root the phone, I'm afraid to brick it. Is there any way to get rid of all the bloatware without rooting my phone? Also, what are the chances of bricking the phone? I've read a couple "how to root" articles on the net and it doesn't seem like it would be that hard, but I LOVE this phone so far (other than battery life) and I honestly can't afford to go buy a new one at full price if I end up killing my phone.
Another question; I've seen a few people in other posts who have the HTC Hero and say they're running 2.2. How is this done? Is this something else that I would need to root the phone to accomplish?
Also, I just ordered an 8GB microSD card. My laptop has a card slot, so I'm figuring I can put the new card in the slot, connect my phone via USB, and copy everything on the phone to the new 8GB card, then just swapping the cards.
Am I correct thinking this should be as simple as it sounds, or is there more involved?
I appreciate you taking the time to read my post, and I look forward to reading/posting here on a regular basis.
Thanks,
Eric Mortenson

Hey, welcome to XDA!
It is VERY HARD to brick this phone, so don't worry....about the only way we've seen that is by flashing a GSM radio to it, so just don't do that and you'll be fine trying anything else.
There are a couple rooting methods here, and there won't be any problems at all as long as you follow the instructions. It's not as daunting as it may first seem. You do have to root to get rid of bloatware, it can't be done without rooting. I recommend this guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=694572 although there are 'one-click' and 'universal' methods out there too.
The ones running Android 2.2 are doing it through a custom ROM called Cyanogenmod. Check out the Development section to find it. It doesn't have the HTC Sense UI though, so it will look and feel different than your stock 2.1. But lots of people here are using it and loving it. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=755795
And yes, you should just be able to swap out the SD cards with no problems.

chromiumleaf
Thanks for the quick and helpful reply. It is greatly appreciated.
I think I am going to try to root my phone. Pre-installed "bloatware" on PCs is one of my biggest pet peeves. So, the biggest reason I have right now for rooting my phone is to get rid of the stuff I don't want/need/use.
I will probably leave the 2.1 on the phone because I love the phone so far and if as you say, it will look and feel different. Maybe I'll keep digging through the site and change my mind later. Thanks for the "heads up".
Please do me one favor, and I hate to sound ignorant (I did say earlier I was new at this), but what does "flashing a GSM radio to it" mean, and is it something I could do my mistake?
Sorry, tried doing a search so I wouldn't have to bother you but I'm just not sure.
Thanks again.
Eric

Eric_1966_FXE said:
...what does "flashing a GSM radio to it" mean, and is it something I could do my mistake?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To "flash" some code means to burn it into your phone's read-only memory. A number of things can be flashed to your phone's memory, including the radio operating code, high-level operating system code, and "kernel" (system "core") code.
What the poster meant by "flashing a GSM radio" is "downloading the code that operates the phone's radio". Our Sprint Hero phones have what is called CDMA radio hardware, while European Hero phones have GSM radio hardware. The two different radios are not compatible with each other's operating code. So if you ever download ("flash") the wrong radio code (GSM code) into your CDMA phone, that will render your radio inoperative, which will effectively brick your phone.
With that in mind, just read carefully any information relating to any system code you're considering flashing to your phone, and make SURE it's for a CDMA phone, and you'll be fine.

I loved sense and was all against even trying an aosp rom( vanilla/ stock android), but once I flashed CM6 and found beautiful widgets and launcher pro plus and dialer one I haven't looked back. The speed of my phone and the overall appearance is far better than Sense UI. Rooting the 2.1 is far easier than it was when I got mine. You had to download and type in a whole bunch of crap, now its as easy as installing an app and running it.

Thanks
Thank you to all three of you for your quick (and more importantly useful) answers.
You guys are awesome.

Go for it
I have 4 Hero's here at my home on a family plan,and mine is the only one running CM6-RC1 and they are all jealous. Every one that has a Hero at work or a different Android running 2.1 that has seen mine including a few Evo users loves the way mine looks and how fast it is. I thought in the beginning I wouldn't want to loose Sense and feared I would brick my phone as well,but these guys here are great and are a very supportive Hero community and walked me through the process. It is a lot easier now with the universal 1 click method than before,so that was what I did. The nice thing is if you do everything correctly,you can revert right back to you stock phone if you ever have to take it in for service.
Taking your time and researching all of this pretty good before deciding what to do is a good thing,but I can honestly say, there is so much more you can do once you unlock your phone than just downloading apps and bloat ware...you can actually make it work and do what you want it to do.
The chiefs here at XDA are working hard to bring us stable working Roms for everyday use,and I tip my hat to all of them and I certainly am loving how my Hero is now compared to what it was when it was stock.The RC-1 build I am running is awesome and (knock wood) haven't crashed 1x with it where I needed to do anything nor have I had any shutdowns or unexpected forced closed programs that were installed correctly.
So I say... Don't be afraid and just go for it.. you can still have it similar to what it is now,or you can see what aosp is all about like many here have and try it.That's the beauty of Rooting...YOU have the choice of what is on your phone..not someone else.
Good Luck
Mac

Thanks Mac
And Thank you to all who responded.
Like I said in my intro, I am a tech geek when it comes to PCs but this is my first venture into this kind of forum.
You have all been extremely helpful and have made me feel welcome.
I only hope that I can return the favor at some point to others on XDA.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend.
Thanks again,
Eric

We need a ROM Bible

Hi there all, I dont want to upset anyone but there are so many roms too download and there too much to read trying to find one thats suits. Could someone start a thread Bible listing :-
- Type of rom ie CM7, sense etc.
- Memory consumption ie does it require an SD card partition, how much mem left after install on a 512mb or 1024mb NAND?
- Extras supported by Kernel ie cifs, Ext4 etc etc
This would make it easy to narrow down to a few roms when looking for specific things.
Anyway if no likes the idea no doubt this will disappear .

the_mouse said:
Hi there all, I dont want to upset anyone but there are so many roms too download and there too much to read trying to find one thats suits. Could someone start a thread Bible listing :-
- Type of rom ie CM7, sense etc.
- Memory consumption ie does it require an SD card partition, how much mem left after install on a 512mb or 1024mb NAND?
- Extras supported by Kernel ie cifs, Ext4 etc etc
This would make it easy to narrow down to a few roms when looking for specific things.
Anyway if no likes the idea no doubt this will disappear .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do we need that? IMHO it will waste time.
It is better to experience each rom by oneself.
I remember at the beginning of the rise of HD2. I flashed every ROM every day
Now, is the beginning of the dawn of HD2. Custom ROMS are not as many as before to flash.
I now only flash one or twice a month
Cheers

Don't think, that anyone will take the time and make such a "ROM Bible" u asking for.
Have a look here, may be that's usefull for you:
http://android.hd2roms.com/
The most popular roms for HD2 are typhoon cm7 from twyeen, hyperdoid cm7 from pongster and the NexusHD2 from tytung.
If you sort the topics by the count of posting you will see that these roms got most of them...so you can nearly ensure that this roms are stable/smooth/ bugfree etc. and also suits to your needs.
Tested all three of them, all of them are nice roms, but I like the cm7 mod an always up2dated rom, so typhoons rom fity perfectly for me.
Consumption of all three is between 2 and 5 mah.
Which rom you will prefer you have to test yourself.

the_mouse said:
Hi there all, I dont want to upset anyone but there are so many roms too download and there too much to read trying to find one thats suits. Could someone start a thread Bible listing :-
- Type of rom ie CM7, sense etc.
- Memory consumption ie does it require an SD card partition, how much mem left after install on a 512mb or 1024mb NAND?
- Extras supported by Kernel ie cifs, Ext4 etc etc
This would make it easy to narrow down to a few roms when looking for specific things.
Anyway if no likes the idea no doubt this will disappear .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Have you seen this:
http://android.hd2roms.com/
Very close to what you want...
EDIT:sorry,duplicate.
My bad

It is beneficial. But is it worth it? Personally, if you want one so badly, then why not do it yourself? Can't always be relying on people, can you?

Fair Comment I would not know where to start. I notice most chefs dont list all the info so with out testing every single one or asking them all I would be lost.

This idea comes up every few months, and has done since time immemorial, in all the different phones threads, (there are probably 5 or 6 threads with the same idea in the hd2 winmo section, i wouldn't be surprised if there isnt one lurking in the wp7 section by now) and they rarely ever go anywhere. Sometimes they get started, but tail off after a month or two.
The problem is usually one of two things.
Either
a/ you are relying on all/most of chefs to update some database somewhere, , , which 99% of them won't do, , , they spend far too much time building the next rom, eating cake or sleeping,,,
or
b/ you are relying on updating the database yourself, which means you are flashing all the roms anyway, and several times a day, especially with teh nightly cm7 builds, which come out every day or two,, which is kinda what you wanted to avoid.
There are some almost lists, such as the one in post 3, but thats probably as good as it will get.

From my experience id say overall that Hyperdroid CM7 by Pongster is most definitely the best of them all, as regards Froyo id say Sergio Coredroid 1.6 is the best there but Gingerbread (not Ginger sense too buggy) on the HD2 is the way to go although ill be selling my HD2 when i eventually purchase the Samsung Galaxy S2.

the_mouse said:
Fair Comment I would not know where to start. I notice most chefs dont list all the info so with out testing every single one or asking them all I would be lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I think it is fair to say everyone else is a human being, like you. Most of us go to school, have a job, a social life, etc. Meaning, like you, we are all constraint by time. So, like you, all of us would be lost too, if we do not test them all, and as said, do we have the time? So, it still narrows down, are you willing to do it yourself?

Well as you said time can be an issue, if there was a way to get the Chefs to give me the info I would happily spend the time to put it all together for everyone.

hehe, and we're back to being dependent on the devs spending time, albeit just a few minutes, several times per week, filling in a DB.

It was just an idea I know the devs work hard. Just delete the tread, I kinda thought it might upset some.

Questions for smart people

I want to buy an HD2. Maybe.
I have several questions.
1. I HATE APPS2SD!!! i'll never use it on a phone like the HD2. How does this limit my rom choices? I know some HUGE sense 3.0 roms won't fit. Is that an issue? are there any sense 3.0 roms that fit? (512mb version t9193)
2. I don't know how much the average user is affected by having only 512 vs 1024, so this is a similar question to the one above
3. does anyone see a reason for me NOT to buy the HD2. Is it dying? is Development slowing down? Money isn't an object, but i'm stingy. The only reason I'm considering the phone is for the great development.
4. What phones is the HD2 faster than? could it compete (running a sense rom) with a Desire HD? (less ram, worse snapdragon, I know, but what's the difference really?)
I might have more later. I hope some people actually read and respond to some (if not all) of these.
I'll thank you with the button
jcarrz1

I'll try and remember each of your questions but I might have to revisit when I'm by my comp.
1st I don't use apps2sd either, I do put some apps on SD that appmonster shows me to be ok to move. There are several sense 3 builds that fit but they use a partition of your SD to kind of "fit" the Rom in. Leo 512 for example will need a 1gb ext2/3/4 partitioned on your SD card. Also all sense 3 builds have a few glitches on the hd2, you can go on YouTube and see videos of what I am talking about. "i believe" if we get a new gingerbread kernal that's compatible that could fix the issue.
2nd I can't really comment since I have T-Mobile 1024.
Uh..3rd I can't see a single reason not to switch to the hd2. I almost feel its got like a type of cult following behind it and I don't see the development slowing down in the near future.
I'll have to check back later because its hard to remember all the questions.
4th this phone runs about the same as the desire. Yes I know it is a slight bit slower but it can run five different operating systems..that shows there is enough power to get the job done. I will say though if you posted this question in the evo section someone else will be telling you why to get an evo. It all comes down to what your looking for in a phone. If you want the newest best screen and speed then this ain't the phone for you, if you want something that's highly customizable then this is the perfect phone.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

WHY IS a2sd SO COMMON?
why is it that a random gingerbread (aosp or cyanogen) rom had a2sd support? this is very unsettling. People shouldn't automatically have their roms use a2sd. it should be an option because it's so slow... 512 is plenty of room.
anyone have insight? on this or my OP?
thanks