Database Users

[Discussion] NAND boot Android on HD2 (No it doesn't exist, just development)

So, I figured with Android getting ported quite nicely and is fairly well along, we should start working on getting it flashed directly to NAND. Eliminate Windows Mobile all together. So here are my notes. All this stuff combined in some order and sense will make it able to flash NAND with Android. But for some reason I just can't piece it all together and make the puzzle fit. I am posting this in hopes that someone with enough skill can take the information and build what is needed.
Working Tinboot - This is what the core of NAND android flashing is.
NBH for installation (Examples) - Needed to install android. Flash nbh, install android, reboot
To test all of this we need the RESUMEADDR of the HD2. Then we can pass RESUMEINTOBOOT to haret. Then we can check if there is enough low-level hardware support to even boot Android yet. This can be gotten by using haretconsole. But I have yet been able to get the RESUMEADDR because of issues with my computer.
Thanks goes to dzo for pointing me in the right direction for all of this.

They still need WinMo to boot to initialize some of the hardware... that's why most winmo phones that have android ports can't flash to nand yet... and the couple that do have flashable roms took a long time to develop.
What's the big deal about flashing it to nand anyways? Do you really want to take away your phones ability to run 2 os's to make it just another android phone that doesn't run it as well as a native android phone? Flashing to nand doesn't improve performance much, if any. Some people think that haret emulates android and thatg winmo is still running in the background, but that's not true. HaRET shuts down the windows kernel and starts the linux kernel. The only speed increase that you would see is the difference in data transfer speed from the nand or memory cards to ram, which would probably only be noticeable during certain tasks, but probably even then wouldn't make much of a difference.
I would prefer to have a dual-booting powerphone than to make it just another android phone that doesn't run as well as native android phones. If I wanted just android on my phone, I'd get an android phone.

i agree but...
zarathustrax said:
They still need WinMo to boot to initialize some of the hardware... that's why most winmo phones that have android ports can't flash to nand yet... and the couple that do have flashable roms took a long time to develop.
What's the big deal about flashing it to nand anyways? Do you really want to take away your phones ability to run 2 os's to make it just another android phone that doesn't run it as well as a native android phone? Flashing to nand doesn't improve performance much, if any. Some people think that haret emulates android and thatg winmo is still running in the background, but that's not true. HaRET shuts down the windows kernel and starts the linux kernel. The only speed increase that you would see is the difference in data transfer speed from the nand or memory cards to ram, which would probably only be noticeable during certain tasks, but probably even then wouldn't make much of a difference.
I would prefer to have a dual-booting powerphone than to make it just another android phone that doesn't run as well as native android phones. If I wanted just android on my phone, I'd get an android phone.
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Click to collapse
i agree with you, but this guy is asking for help do do a certain task.
I second you on your idea but there are people that would prefer to have a win mo. phone running android even if it runs slower or worst because some people just dont like wm. software.
By the way i cant help you jmztaylor because i just dont know...

zarathustrax said:
They still need WinMo to boot to initialize some of the hardware... that's why most winmo phones that have android ports can't flash to nand yet... and the couple that do have flashable roms took a long time to develop.
What's the big deal about flashing it to nand anyways? Do you really want to take away your phones ability to run 2 os's to make it just another android phone that doesn't run it as well as a native android phone? Flashing to nand doesn't improve performance much, if any. Some people think that haret emulates android and thatg winmo is still running in the background, but that's not true. HaRET shuts down the windows kernel and starts the linux kernel. The only speed increase that you would see is the difference in data transfer speed from the nand or memory cards to ram, which would probably only be noticeable during certain tasks, but probably even then wouldn't make much of a difference.
I would prefer to have a dual-booting powerphone than to make it just another android phone that doesn't run as well as native android phones. If I wanted just android on my phone, I'd get an android phone.
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Click to collapse
well running android from sd card creates higher battery consumption. Am I right? this is a good argument.

jojo_angelov said:
well running android from sd card creates higher battery consumption. Am I right? this is a good argument.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, that is true. Reading about the nand ports for other winmo devices show that battery is improved, but it still isn't no where near as good as winmo is with batteries. Power management is one of the issues that almost all android ports have.
At this point, i don't believe nand flashing is possible for the hd2... like i said, they need winmo to initialize many things. Also, once it is possible to flash nand, it probably won't have as much working hardware as the haret version until they get drivers that initialize all that hardware. If you look at some of the other nand flashable ports on other phones, things like wifi, bluetooth, camera, gps, etc don't work while they work when you use the haret bootable version. We're still a long way away from booting from nand... at least a version functional enough to want to get rid of winmo.
I'm really curious as to what peoples reason is to want a nand flashable version so bad.... I've heard people say that winmo is still running in the background with haret, but thats just not true. You generally have a much more functional android when run of storage card than the nand flashable ports are. There may be a small increase in battery life and small increase in speed when flashed to nand, but you will lose a lot of functions until they find ways to initialize the hardware without winmo. And from what i've seen with the hd2 ports so far, I don't think we will have any issues with speed like they did with other devices, so I don't see nand being needed to increase speed.

cmon people, lets support the motion.. remember we are dealing with one of the best htc-winmo devices here, the one of a kind htc-hd2..
for me the point is not "what is the need of doing this", the point is "it can be done "
maybe one shouldnt rush to start flashing android on hd2, thats why alpha and beta versions are made, where one understands the risks but does it anyways for the fun experience.. n remember this is just the beginning of android on hd2, i think there is room for a whole lot of improvement

zarathustrax said:
Yeah, that is true. Reading about the nand ports for other winmo devices show that battery is improved, but it still isn't no where near as good as winmo is with batteries. Power management is one of the issues that almost all android ports have.
At this point, i don't believe nand flashing is possible for the hd2... like i said, they need winmo to initialize many things. Also, once it is possible to flash nand, it probably won't have as much working hardware as the haret version until they get drivers that initialize all that hardware. If you look at some of the other nand flashable ports on other phones, things like wifi, bluetooth, camera, gps, etc don't work while they work when you use the haret bootable version. We're still a long way away from booting from nand... at least a version functional enough to want to get rid of winmo.
I'm really curious as to what peoples reason is to want a nand flashable version so bad.... I've heard people say that winmo is still running in the background with haret, but thats just not true. You generally have a much more functional android when run of storage card than the nand flashable ports are. There may be a small increase in battery life and small increase in speed when flashed to nand, but you will lose a lot of functions until they find ways to initialize the hardware without winmo. And from what i've seen with the hd2 ports so far, I don't think we will have any issues with speed like they did with other devices, so I don't see nand being needed to increase speed.
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Click to collapse
why dont we just have it running from internal memory without flashing? it would solve the speed and battery problems and we would still get to keep winmo . or is there a reason this cannot happen?

Well, knowing that android builds (system and user data) take about 530MB, it would be a tad hard to stuff in the HD2's 512MB, of which about 300 are used by Winmo...
Maybe on the 1GB TMOUS though....

kilrah said:
Well, knowing that android builds (system and user data) take about 530MB, it would be a tad hard to stuff in the HD2's 512MB, of which about 300 are used by Winmo...
Maybe on the 1GB TMOUS though....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but most of us have the 512 mb version

i would be interested in getting android stored on the device memory (Not a ROM flash). NRGZ28 released a winmo version that is very small (50 or 60MB) leaving me with 800Mb+ of internal storage. what must be changed to get HaRET to look in internal storage for the files and store information there?

This should be a very good discussion..btw ive been running off of sd card for a while now and battery consumption isn't that bad at all

As far as I see it, a major problem is for any non TMOUS HD2 owners an SD card will always be mandatory. Even if you are able to fit the whole system into the half sized NAND, there wouldn't be much room left for anything else.
And even on the TMOUS, it would be good to put Android and the Apps on internal memory, and have everything else on the storage card, like pics and such.
Main reasons I see for doing this, is once it's working a version that doesn't need to use WinMo can boot faster, and might be able to solve some issues eventually, like not needing a specific file in WinMo or specific ROM just to get calls working correctly.
As well, It gets annoying when even with bootloader it takes longer to boot back up, and I still sometimes get a voicemail or text message while HaRET is loading, and I have to reset, boot windows mobile, remove CLRCAD, reboot, and check the voicemail and texts. If I don't clear it in WinMo, sometimes I get a voicemail message notification every time I boot android even if I don't have any voicemail.

cavemaneca said:
as far as i see it, a major problem is for any non tmous hd2 owners an sd card will always be mandatory. Even if you are able to fit the whole system into the half sized nand, there wouldn't be much room left for anything else.
And even on the tmous, it would be good to put android and the apps on internal memory, and have everything else on the storage card, like pics and such.
Main reasons i see for doing this, is once it's working a version that doesn't need to use winmo can boot faster, and might be able to solve some issues eventually, like not needing a specific file in winmo or specific rom just to get calls working correctly.
As well, it gets annoying when even with bootloader it takes longer to boot back up, and i still sometimes get a voicemail or text message while haret is loading, and i have to reset, boot windows mobile, remove clrcad, reboot, and check the voicemail and texts. If i don't clear it in winmo, sometimes i get a voicemail message notification every time i boot android even if i don't have any voicemail.
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Click to collapse
agreed..then maybe after studying the 1gig version they can find a solution for the 512 version

Battery life isnt great on current builds but it is usable. Much of the issue is due to it being an a sd card. Once they put it on nand, battery life will be even better. As good as winmo? You never know until you try.
I dont get why people are all too ready to rain on someones parade. I say, if there is a possibility of making android boot on this thing, why not try it? WinMo is dying, some of want to jump ship and take our hd2s with us.
It seems that getting nand to run is a priority to devs. Check out the first 7/23 post at http://robsbay.co.uk/
These guys have been making a port much faster than others have anticipated. According to doom-sayers, we shouldnt have been at this point for another few months at least. Im willing to bet this thing will be booting on its own and running efficiently well before the doom-sayers would have expected us to even have this thing running on a sd card.

zarathustrax said:
What's the big deal about flashing it to nand anyways?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- Reliability
- Speed
- Battery life.
- Access to memory card as a removable device while Android booted.
Even a class 10 card can't compare to the speed of the internal nand.

Pagnell said:
- Reliability
- Speed
- Battery life.
- Access to memory card as a removable device while Android booted.
Even a class 10 card can't compare to the speed of the internal nand.
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Click to collapse
I completely agree. As others have noted, the main issue is initializing hardware. As an interim step to 100% Android, why not build an extremely slim WinMo with Android cooked into the NAND ROM.
I'm using desire v5 with latest Cotulla zImage it's pretty fast even off of a class 2 microSD. I really think my HD2 would be just as fast as my wife's EVO if the same thing were on the NAND.

nand boot tmous
any tmous user actually copy all of the files over to their phone's memory and try and boot haret? Or would this be detrimental to the life your WM phone?

I am a T-Mobile HD2 user and I think flashing from NAND would have many benefits. Lets do it up.

I am a T-Mobile HD2 use and this is great because we can boot both winmo and android from the nand, which is insane. All the non US users want to shut this down, because they are left out.

Leader2light said:
I am a T-Mobile HD2 use and this is great because we can boot both winmo and android from the nand, which is insane. All the non US users want to shut this down, because they are left out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so have you booted it from the nand with your hd2?

[Q] Continued support for dual booting?

ok, Ive been using both android and WM 6.5.3 and frankly i couldnt think of a better combo, Ive spent months try to decide which one to move too and in all cases neither one wins out overall, then it hit me, why do i need to have one OS!
Android does everything i need socially, and WM covers everything i need for work and roaming the mountains so Id love to keep both
I guess what im asking you developers given that progress getting android and NAND working is this, will there be continued support for having android running from SD
so over to you guys!

interesting point, but i think android running from SD is sufficiently well progressed that if there were no more releases it would not be a major problem.
There current builds a very good for day to day use.
I would like to see WM ruinning from SD on android devices, because like many here I have inversted alot of time with winmo and have many apps that can not be easy replaced on android.
And because there is very slim chance of there being annother winmo 6.5 device ionly see a future with my next phone being android, so it would be great to have the option to roll back to WM every once ina while to use that app that you cant get anywhere else.

that is a good point, i hadnt considered that option but makes perfect sence as well, like yourself i have many much needed WM apps whichwill never exist on android so that option would equally be valid, my only issue would be i couldnt test this out for any length of time as i do need WM apps almost daily, after hours and out of work its always android running

is there anyway to dualboot android from nand? people dualboot windows and linux on a pc without needing to use a live cd every time. i don't know the specifics, but personally, i'd love to dualboot windows and android both from nand. while i just about always use android, there are times when i need winmo (few, but they do exist). that said, i'm still keen toward the benefits of having android running from nand (better battery life, no need to boot into winmo to transfer files, etc.)

I think NAND installation should be more important when an actual build will behave like it does on an Android native phone. HD2 with Android still can't record video at 720p and it still have occasional problems with camera flash. Sometimes 3G connection disconnects. When we will have a 110% working Android build for HD2 we should seriously think about flashing Android to HD2 NAND.

How well does your HD2 run?

Well, I got my HD2 to run Android okay, I guess. It does run better then the Vibrant. . .
But, my battery life sucks and I have no file transfer while running Android due the damn OS being on the SD card.
The WMO has all kinds off little glitches. . . . The battery life is half decent. But, there are no apps and it feels like Windows.
Anyone out there with a HD2 running at 100%? And if there is, it is hard to believe.

Uh...yeah? Mine runs pretty damn great with a custom WinMo ROM applied(Energy)...haven't soft reset in weeks. And there are applications for Windows...you just have to think outside the market

Well, the Wmo runs way smoother over time. . .
I am also running a Energy ROM. . . It's still has some glitchiness to it though.

samson_420 said:
Well, I got my HD2 to run Android okay, I guess. It does run better then the Vibrant. . .
But, my battery life sucks and I have no file transfer while running Android due the damn OS being on the SD card.
The WMO has all kinds off little glitches. . . . The battery life is half decent. But, there are no apps and it feels like Windows.
Anyone out there with a HD2 running at 100%? And if there is, it is hard to believe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine runs awesome on the stock 3.14 ROM. It also runs awesome with a stripped 3.14 ROM and the Bluetopia 1.0.4 Android Build. I am getting about 12 hours of heavy use and more than a day if I turn off my data when I'm not using it. These phones are what you make them. You just have to try a lot of things out.
Out of the box with the stock rom they weren't awesome. Touch response was great, but it froze a lot. Then they updated the rom and it had ****ty touch response but didn't freeze. So people cooked ROMs with 2.10 touch drivers. Then they came out with 3.14 and everything worked.
On top of this, there are a ton of stable Winmo cooked ROMS to choose from.
And as of recent, there are flawless Android builds out there that run perfect with 3.14 stock ROM and lot of cooked ROM's as well. I prefer a stripped down 3.14 ROM for Android only use.
If Tmobile ever comes out with an Android native phone that is as nice as my HD2, I'll pick it up. Mostly because I know that WinMO 6.5 is dying and because the Android market is WAY bigger with better programs and utilities. I would end up keeping my HD2 and running WinMO only on it. I would also continue to play with it. I love to get my nerd on and the HD2 is the perfect phone for tinkering. But, I don't know when that will be. Not losing my screen size or the build quality/hardware awesomeness and I haven't seen anything comparable yet.
I don't mind rebooting into Windows to transfer to my SD card, but I'm also fine with shutting it down and pulling the card out and using an adapter. I guess it would be easier if you could just do it through Android but this isn't an Android native phone and it seems acceptable to me.

In the beginning my leo was a worthless pos, somehow over time it has begun to operate much smoother. A few downloads from this and a few other sites have straightened out some flaws
Be careful posting "issues" with your leo, you'll find that some loose cannon members on forums become extremely unstable and will begin kung fu flaming you until you never want to see another smartphone ever again.
then tear into your mom.
kick your dog/cat
etc.

Lol. . . . Flaming I can take. . .
Well, a few ROM's later I seem to have my HD2 running even better.
The file transfer is weak but like stated above, it is what it is.
A stripped down ROM really seems to best way to go for running Android.
I was also having major battery issues and today I finally found out why. I was using HandCent SMS. What it did was, it would wake up the phone and stay stuck at a 60 mA draw.
Removed the app and installed GO SMS, which has less then 1/3rd of the features of HandCent, but it does not hang up my phone.
So, it is getting better with time.
As far as hardware the HD2 is only second to the HD7(which just looks amazing).
But, the software is what makes the HD7 a 4.3" display having paperweight.

What are you guys talking about ? You can transfer files while booted in Android even if it is in the SD card.. Pull out your SD card while Android is on and it will still work.. I can transfer files fine.. Just change the mode from charge to disk mode..

MarlinFF said:
What are you guys talking about ? You can transfer files while booted in Android even if it is in the SD card.. Pull out your SD card while Android is on and it will still work.. I can transfer files fine.. Just change the mode from charge to disk mode..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel like a dumb ass. I didn't even notice the disk drive option. Thanks.
Is it safe to do since everything is installed on the card to copy to it while the OS is running? I assumed it didn't work and would not be a good idea. I didn't try to transfer anything, but it does work. I guess since the OS is actually running off the internal memory after you run Haret that it's cool. I just never really thought that much about it.

crisisinthecity said:
I feel like a dumb ass. I didn't even notice the disk drive option. Thanks.
Is it safe to do since everything is installed on the card to copy to it while the OS is running? I assumed it didn't work and would not be a good idea. I didn't try to transfer anything, but it does work. I guess since the OS is actually running off the internal memory after you run Haret that it's cool. I just never really thought that much about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My HD2 runs great. I use Core Cell Evo v4.1 on the WinMo side and use Darkstone Froyo Sense v3.2 on the Android side...works great for me.
I transfer files quite a lot and no problems.
If you eject your sd card it will continue to work but, when you install sd card again most things won't work and, then will lock up (I tried that and I have to pull battery, then reboot).
I did notice if you leave it hooked to your PC (disk drive) and don't use the default ringtones, they will default to them in Disk Drive mode.

My HD2 runs so well using BlueTopia that it has replaced my G2 as my primary.device I carry two phones, 1 for work and 1 for personal use.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

[Poll] When was the last time you used wm6

Now that we have CWM Recovery and NAND Android our HD2's are like a native android besides the fact that there is a windows button on it. So, when was the last time you used wm6? Personally for me its been a month

I had 6.1 on my Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) until last night lol. Only ever used it to transfer files from my pc to my HD2's sd card, cause my HD2's usb port is busted. I figured flashing Android to the Kaiser would result in faster file transfer, since it'd be acting as a usb device, bypassing activesync. Went to the trouble of flashing Android on it only to find out usb doesn't work in Android on the Kaiser. Back to WM i guess.
So I suppose I use WM still, kinda.
Sorry for writing a bit of a novel, I'm a little buzzed right now lol.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

It has been more than 6 months, i still remember those painful ways to search the internet for .cab files..thank god we have android now on our beloved hd2..

I am still using it, dual boot with SD Android....

Since 1 day after my ht2 was arrived i'm using android, first dual boot in sd and then in nand
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

I still using wm6 inevitably, because l have problem with GPS & Battery drain in android.

The sd versions of android were to buggy for me...so i stayed with wm6.5 and CHT until the release of magldr. Since then I'm a happy HD2 Android user...and I Don't want to miss it anymore - wm6.5 is nothing compared to android in my opinion and I can't understand how people can longer stay with a more or less outdated wm6.5
hamidnz2 said:
I still using wm6 inevitably, because l have problem with GPS & Battery drain in android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS is not working fine as in wm, cause of the lack of AGPS support. But it's ok for me if I get a lock in 1-2 minutes...my navigon is not really faster with booting, loading pois and finally searching for gps sats - it took even longer.
Can't confirm really battery drainage, generally it's a bad installation or missusage...

Last time I had WM on this phone is about 8 months ago. Works so much better with Android.
Sorry, I have to say last time I used WM is 8 months ago. But I flashed NAND the day it came out.

I use WM, Android and WP. Switching when I got bored.
It is good that every OS support Sync with Googleaccount. So it only takes an hour to have everything set up.

Just today, and yesterday, and the day before..
believe it or not, WinMo is still my everyday OS! Android works fine for me in general, but with power management on WinMo, and most of my irreplaceable apps on it, I still use it, and will do so until some similar apps are availabe for android.

j4n87 said:
The sd versions of android were to buggy for me...so i stayed with wm6.5 and CHT until the release of magldr. Since then I'm a happy HD2 Android user...and I Don't want to miss it anymore - wm6.5 is nothing compared to android in my opinion and I can't understand how people can longer stay with a more or less outdated wm6.5
GPS is not working fine as in wm, cause of the lack of AGPS support. But it's ok for me if I get a lock in 1-2 minutes...my navigon is not really faster with booting, loading pois and finally searching for gps sats - it took even longer.
Can't confirm really battery drainage, generally it's a bad installation or missusage...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just think that you might not yet find the right SD Android
I have been using SD Android lately (2 months). (Before, I used NANDROID).
In fact I dont have problem with SD Android (MCCM GB v.3.0)
This version is very stable. I rarely go back to Winmo.
cheers

[Q] HTC HD2 Newbie in the UK - What do you suggest?

Well sort of. Had the phone for about 15 months now, and at the pub the other day, a friend of a friend sees my phone and says "visit xda-developers.com" and find out what you can do with your phone.
Currently - Phone stock standard with UK Voda, been updated once running WM 6.5. (simply to get a longer battery life - voda uk arent too proactive at updates)
I use the phone as
1. A phone (calls/texts etc) and a wireless router for a laptop (when out of the office and no internet connection)
2. Sync with my outlook on pc (W7/ outlook 2010) (to keep recent emails on record for work)
3. Retrieve emails (work account and hotmail) on the move. Guess its important to have office software and some PDF software.
4. Web Browsing (Opera)
5. Camera and Camcorder
6. Occasional Facebook uploads of photos (re: new years eve drunken photos)
7. Sometimes access messenger (live) msn
8. I have a Skype account (not ever used it on the phone)
9. Occasionally run the odd game or you tube to waste time
10. Have never bothered to put music on the phone, but would be good when I run once a week to listen to some decent tunes or radio.
I have briefly looked around the site (well done) and see a multitude of options for things I never really knew I could do on the phone. (For reference I had one of the old PSP 1.5v which I continually played around with to update (flash rom) to use homebrew applications - so can follow instructions quite well)
So here are my questions...
In an ideal world, what would you suggest would be the best course of action for the phone and why? I guess this should cover os/radio/software etc. I have no preferences.
Any issues to consider with Voda UK? - (this is my phone with a company sim, and its out of warranty)
I have looked around for a thread similar to this, as I wouldn't have posted if there was one. If there is one, please point me to it.
Wifey has an Iphone (dont ask) so I wouldnt mind having an all singing all dancing HTC HD2 to dazzle any Iphone owners with its brilliance.
Oh, and I am all for donating beer monies for those that can give me the best answers I seek
Cheers

I have gone down the dual boot windows Phone 7 and Sd Android route. There is a good video tutorial by 96Edwy.
I dont think your Mrs will be impressed by you spending hours on the computer/phone when you could be doing something useful!
I have found that no matter what you do with this brilliant phone, iphone users will still think theirs is the best.
Still, that said, its all good fun innit

well i think you should try out android.
all the points you mentioned are covered by the os so you can do everything you want.
the difference to wm 6.5 is the much greater number of software that is available.
i really liked wm 6.5.5 on my hd2 with sense but since i am using android i'm really happy with my phone. just because developement on android goes on.
and it's running so smooth on the hd2 and everything works.
you should make a full backup of your wm6.5 rom with spb backup or something like that and just try it out.
windows phone is also great but i think the lack of a good display driver for multitouch is more noticable on windows phone than on android.
but just try it out and decide on your own. if you flashed everything one time it's really fast and you can try everything in one day.

I think it is a must to at least try dual booting Windows Phone 7 and Android. I am currently running Windows Phone 7 (NoDo update) and Android (AOSP CM7 - AmericanAndroid) and I LOVE it. You can get the power and customizability of CM7 at any time, and at the press (or a few presses) of a button you can go back to the smooth, elegant, sleek interface of Windows Phone 7 if you want simplicity and a more robust/unique UI. I never find battery life to be too draining on the SD Android, and there are tweaks to get it respectable on Windows Phone 7. And, this is of course all with the amazing MAGLDR, which allows us to dual boot this. I even have a couple other builds (MIUI and/or Sense) of Android I will switch to sometimes with just a few extra button presses in MAGLDR. So, I guess you could say I'm tri-booting even. Moral of the story, you can do so much more when you dual boot. The only thing I am missing out on Android being on SD (that I know of) is Clockworkmod recovery, which isn't as necessary since you can drag and drop from your SD card to back up system and data images. Well, I've rambled far too long and hope this helps you. Good luck!

I'd suggest you read this guide to get started. It'll help you understand all the terms and what nots in this HD2 world.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1021837
And as they say above, if you want an experience, go for dual booting. Though you need to find yourself two sd cards and be carrying them. xD

Kailkti said:
I'd suggest you read this guide to get started. It'll help you understand all the terms and what nots in this HD2 world.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1021837
And as they say above, if you want an experience, go for dual booting. Though you need to find yourself two sd cards and be carrying them. xD
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there's no need for two cards just the right partitioning.

I suggest you to use the phone as is on Windows Mobile 6.5 till you get used to it. The HD2 is awesome even on the Windows Mobile. Next when you feel you need to do more, you need more updated apps, and more functionality on the HD2, you can switch to Android, which is available in various flavors- Sense & Stock. You will have the options to chose a ROM which would give what you need, and there will always be updates to the OS, to the apps it uses and also the functionality enhancement.
If Windows Phone 7 gets more apps and developers produce something good, you'll have additional choice here. WP7 is really slick on HD2, just the lack of apps and several bugs, specifically related to battery, etc.
Concerning outshining the iPhone, you have got wonderful widgets to outdo the iPhone Springboard. Similar apps are also available on the Android Market. Moreover you will have extra functionality like Bluetooth transfer between any devices, use of your phone as storage (pen) drive, for tethering (USB & WiFi) on laptop, transfering music, data or other content from any PC, no iTunes.

As mentioned above, you do not need 2 SD cards. I have my 16GB partitioned where Android gets ~8GB and WP7 gets ~8GB. Also, Hamsn, I believe the OP is already at this point, seeing from his first post that he's had it for 15 months and is now looking for suggestions on where to go from WM6.5. Either way, OP, I think you will be pleasantly surprised regardless of which route you take. There are so many options for the HD2 that it really is like a computer in your pocket. Just how you can load pretty much any OS on a laptop without big corporations locking it down, that's how the HD2 is (and how every smart phone should be!). This is off topic, but on that note, I suggest every HD2 owner go "like" the HTC page on Facebook and leave a post telling them how they better revise their new bootloader policy (with the locked EVO 3D, etc.) or we will never buy HTC again. We will never have a worthy successor to the HD2 if they keep this up.

Spot on drewden123. I am looking for something different than 6.5 (as been on this almost 17 months now). I think I will go down the dual boot route, (WP7 and Android) just getting myself a larger micro SD card to handle it. (as noted I will follow the partition instructions using a 16gb card)
I already know that WP7 will probably do my nut if it causes battery issues (this is the only bad thing I have to say about the whole phone since I had it), but I wont know until I try it.
I guess I will finally end back on a likely 6.5 /Android dual boot.
Just wanted to know if people thought I should not even try WP7 considering the need for activation being a slight pain vs what WP7 actually delivers on this phone.
Thanks for all input so far.

i just tried it for some time without activating and sideloaded some apps. just to see how i like it. but then i went back to android on nand without dual boot to be able to use cwm recovery.
i would suggest you doing the same and if you like wp7 you can activate and install dual boot. but if you don't know if you will like it you shouldn't do the whole work with partitioning sd, activating and everything.
i went back because the multitouch on wp was much worse than on android and the battery drain was just too high. also i was not able to get an activation code.

Foxmanuk said:
Well sort of. Had the phone for about 15 months now, and at the pub the other day, a friend of a friend sees my phone and says "visit xda-developers.com" and find out what you can do with your phone.
Currently - Phone stock standard with UK Voda, been updated once running WM 6.5. (simply to get a longer battery life - voda uk arent too proactive at updates)
I use the phone as
1. A phone (calls/texts etc) and a wireless router for a laptop (when out of the office and no internet connection)
2. Sync with my outlook on pc (W7/ outlook 2010) (to keep recent emails on record for work)
3. Retrieve emails (work account and hotmail) on the move. Guess its important to have office software and some PDF software.
4. Web Browsing (Opera)
5. Camera and Camcorder
6. Occasional Facebook uploads of photos (re: new years eve drunken photos)
7. Sometimes access messenger (live) msn
8. I have a Skype account (not ever used it on the phone)
9. Occasionally run the odd game or you tube to waste time
10. Have never bothered to put music on the phone, but would be good when I run once a week to listen to some decent tunes or radio.
I have briefly looked around the site (well done) and see a multitude of options for things I never really knew I could do on the phone. (For reference I had one of the old PSP 1.5v which I continually played around with to update (flash rom) to use homebrew applications - so can follow instructions quite well)
So here are my questions...
In an ideal world, what would you suggest would be the best course of action for the phone and why? I guess this should cover os/radio/software etc. I have no preferences.
Any issues to consider with Voda UK? - (this is my phone with a company sim, and its out of warranty)
I have looked around for a thread similar to this, as I wouldn't have posted if there was one. If there is one, please point me to it.
Wifey has an Iphone (dont ask) so I wouldnt mind having an all singing all dancing HTC HD2 to dazzle any Iphone owners with its brilliance.
Oh, and I am all for donating beer monies for those that can give me the best answers I seek
Cheers
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New knowledge to me. Thank you ... (sorry... should hit the thanks button...)

Foxmanuk said:
Spot on drewden123. I am looking for something different than 6.5 (as been on this almost 17 months now). I think I will go down the dual boot route, (WP7 and Android) just getting myself a larger micro SD card to handle it. (as noted I will follow the partition instructions using a 16gb card)
I already know that WP7 will probably do my nut if it causes battery issues (this is the only bad thing I have to say about the whole phone since I had it), but I wont know until I try it.
I guess I will finally end back on a likely 6.5 /Android dual boot.
Just wanted to know if people thought I should not even try WP7 considering the need for activation being a slight pain vs what WP7 actually delivers on this phone.
Thanks for all input so far.
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Click to collapse
Well, fwiw I do not have that much of a battery drain on WP7, and most ROMs have a bug/fix where if you go into camera, switch it to camcorder, then switch back the battery drain is fixed. Also, activation is a breeze if you do it over MS chat (say you're from US though, I think). The good thing about having the dual boot is that WP7 is only going to improve and get more modern from here. If you dual boot with WM6.5 the OS gets more and more stagnant and outdated. We should be getting Mango sometime in the coming months and I think DFT will have a way where you can actually update your phone directly from Zune like it's an HD7. And, of course, you can always keep a nice CM7 or MIUI for your Android boot option. Maybe I'm just so dazzled by having both the awesome UI of WP7 and the power of CM7 that I think it's the best way to go, but it all comes down to personal preference. If you need the features of WM6.5 go for it. But, WP7, like I said, is just getting better and better, and the only difference from NAND Android and SD is that you don't get clockworkmod. With WP7 and Android you can basically have an HD7 and an EVO in one device.

Thanks for all the help on this thread. I have successfully dual booted WP7 and SD Android on first attempt.
For fellow newbies out there, read, read, read, and then take things slow.
I made sure I knew as much as I could and things went through easily.
WP7 was a 3 min job over MS chat. All working well.
Just getting used to both OS. Think I will use WP7 at work, and Android later in the day. I will post back about practicalities of having both as dual boot options.
I can see already there are a few things I need to get used to on both OS.