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I have a relatively new Aria that I have been considering rooting. Several reasons.
1. Not impressed with the onboard memory and would like to delete bloatware such as Peep, AT&T Maps/Navigator/Hot Spots, Footprints, Friend Stream, IM, Latitude, and a few others. A few of those apps keep showing up in my ATK list, so I'd like to just get rid of them, as I have no intent to use them...why let them wreck my RAM?
2. Speed. I've read enough forum posts to believe that my device will run selected apps faster. Make it so.
3. Use MicroSD card for apps. Hate to be limited to the internal capacity. I expect to partition the new SD card, 1GB dedicated to apps. New card likely to be 8GB.
Here are the questions...
1. I'll be getting a new SD card before the rooting begins. How important is the whole Class 2/4/6 thing. Is Class 4 good enough?
2. If I simply swap out the SD card with a new one before the root, what would I lose besides the photos, movies, music that I have manually transferred to the existing SD card?
3. How do I go about backing up the phone for restoration if the rooting thing doesn't work out?
4. What apps/functionality will I find in the phone after the rooting?
5. Is there a list of apps/files that should not be deleted after the rooting?
6. What is all this "flasing ROM" talk about? How do I chose what I should be flashing? What are the differences and does my device model matter in this decision?
I saw your post in the android forums also and will try to help you out. I can't help you much with your questions about just rooting it, as I switched to a CM6 ROM right after I rooted mine. I am also new the the Aria/hacking world and have only had my Aria for 4-5 days. With that said, I'll help with what I can. If anyone sees my n00b mistakes, please correct me.
1. For an Aria a class 4 MicroSD will be plenty. From what I've read, the classes only relate to write speed and not read speed. Class 4 writes at 4MB/s Class 6 at 6MB/s. I believe this means you would just have to wait a little longer for the files to write to the card. Also, read speed is always faster than write speed. I've also read that the speed rating is not universal. Some companies list their Class rating as their read speed instead of write speed. I've read that Kingston is one of the ones that actually list it as write speed. With this knowledge, I decided to buy a 8gb class 4 MicroSD from Kingston.
2. Before you root, I would format the new MicroSD card and move everything from the old one onto the new one.
I'm getting tired... it's nearly 2am and I can't answer your last questions without researching into all of it. I'll quickly type up what I can answer though.
3. When I rooted my phone, I was walked through using the Ubuntu LiveCD in the IRC. I think I made a backup using Clockwork Recovery, but I'm not totally sure if this program comes on the phone or if I put it there. I've read about unrooting some phone, but know little about it. I do suggest using the Ubuntu LiveCD method for rooting though. It definitely was simple. I also suggest going into the IRC if you are unsure of anything in the rooting process. They are really helpful there even though they don't have to be. Here's a link to the Ubuntu LiveCD root method. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=741824
4. Like I said, I switched to the CM6 ROM right after rooting so I am not familiar with a stock Aria that's just been rooted. I am pretty sure that it doesn't install any apps and just gives you superuser access to modify the programming.
5. Don't uninstall anything that you aren't sure of unless you make a nandroid backup in Clockwork first. I don't believe it's that simple to just go in there and delete important files anyway. I know that on CM6 I had to access the adb to delete some things. I won't get further into that.
6. A ROM is sorta an emulator. Think how people play Nintendo games on their computers. The ROM emulates a Nintendo system on your computer, so a ROM for your phone emulates another operating system on your phone. (in this case Android 2.2 would being emulated on your phone) You don't have to install a new ROM after you root your phone. You can if you want, but you don't have to. As far as what version to install... I do not know the exact differences in each ROM. I am running CM6 Liberty A012 and don't have problems with it. The different builds of CM6 just fix bugs, I believe. I don't think they are 'theme specific', for lack of a better term, meaning that one isn't better than the other for gps use or whatever. Finally, as long as you have an HTC Aria, your device will work for any mod listed in this Aria forum.
Hopefully I didn't confuse you more and hopefully I didn't give the vets of this forum more work to fix my mistakes. I also hope that what I wrote is at least a little better than letting it go unanswered, as I assume you are as impatient for information as I am.
Anthony1s, your post is spot on except for a bit of confusion on what the term "ROM" really means. You basically have the idea right except that it really has nothing to do with emulation. You aren't emulating an operating system on your phone; you are running it natively!
The "ROM" (in terms of how it applies to an Android phone) is basically the main operating system and a collection of apps necessary for the phone to function. When you "flash" a ROM, you are replacing what is currently on the phone with a new version of the operating system. That's all you really need to know as far as Android ROMs are concerned.
For the Aria, there aren't a ton of options yet on which ROM to use. The Liberated ROMs by attn1 are created by taking the default ROM that comes with the phone and making minor adjustments -- namely, deleting a few built-in apps that most people don't want and removing boot up sounds. If you use this ROM, your phone will appear to function virtually unchanged from the way it comes out of the box. Everything will look the same, it will still have Sense UI on Android 2.1 (Eclair), etc. If the only thing you want is to remove some of the "bloatware" apps, I suggest using one of the Liberated ROMs instead of trying to delete the apps manually. It's a lot simpler this way.
There's also the CM6 Froyo ROM. You can read the thread on it to see all the differences, but it uses Android 2.2 (Froyo) with the default Android UI (not Sense UI). Also, if you install this, you have to do a complete reset on the phone to clear all settings/etc., which is not necessary with Liberated. The CM6 ROM is still in an early development stage which means there are probably some bugs that you will encounter although it may not be anything too significant, whereas the Liberated ROM seems to have almost everything working correctly. The main advantage of this build is the fact that it uses Froyo which has some speed improvements for apps among other new features.
Hopefully that answers all your questions.
Thanks Drumist. I got a question that I've had on my mind for two days. I've read that the Nexus One gets more MFLOPS because froyo 2.2 uses a JIT compiler. Does the CM6 ROM use a JIT compiler or is that something we have to wait for in the official release? I don't mean to hijack, but your knowledge reminded me of my question.
Yes, the CM6 ROM has the JIT compiler. It's one of the reasons the benchmarks for the Aria on CM6 are almost double that of the stock rom. You can actually turn it off as well if you hit Menu > Cyanogen Mod Settings > Performance Settings.
Okay, before I get flamed, I searched and read, a lot. Didn't find the answer to my specific questions on this issue -- at least a definitively clear enough statement to assuage my lingering fears as I flash things to my new Epic.
Quick context-setting: I'm a very experienced hacker, SW engineer, over 25 years developing drivers and apps on Unix, Linux, Windows NT and derivative platforms; I've hacked for years on Winmo, have developed apps, drivers, and other things there as well. I'm new to Android.
So, here's my issue: I'm not clear on what is getting changed when I flash a ROM, vs. a KERNEL, vs. a MOD. In all cases I use the same procedure -- put the zip on my SD card, boot into clockwork, update via the choose zip interface.
Everything's cool so far. But I get nervous every time, because I don't know with certainty what is being changed via the ad-hoc definitions of these terms.
Here's what I think is the case: [ROM[KERNEL[MOD(s)]]].
That is, a ROM is a complete change of the entire platform -- that is, the kernel, and the software layers that sit on top of it. This is the equivalent to what a "ROM" is in the Winmo hacker world.
A KERNEL flash is something unique to Android as compared to Winmo. Because Android and Linux are open-source, we hackers can modify and build Android device kernels, and replace just that part (the core operating system, minus the Andriod layers above -- frameworks, apps, etc.), leaving the rest intact. So, when I flashed the MixUp kernel and replaced the stock DI18 kernel, my phone looked the same, configuration and customization wasn't changed, all files, apps, messages, etc. were still there, configurations preserved, etc. HOWEVER, there were some noticable differences, exactly as intended, by the kernel developer (allows OC to 1200Mhz, brightness controls are different at the endpoints, voodoo color changes are there, some other stuff). We can't easily do this in the Winmo world because it's not opensource.
A MOD is pretty much the same as mods offered in the winmo world. Can consist of any combination of config changes/tweaks, applications, modified stock apps, etc. The key point is that when applied, it adds/changes/fixes something without replacing the fundamental nature of the installed kernel and the Android layers that sit on it. In winmo, mods are usually deployed through CAB files, and installed on a fully booted device (sometimes requiring reboot). Mods on Android can be deployed through the bootloader update mechanism, hence my nervousness for those I've applied
So, is that it? If so, I will flash MODs with much more comfort.
I think you got ROM and kernel right. I say "think" because I am in the exact same situation: not used to being able to change them independently (WM) and have a new Epic. Haven't heard of 'mods' though, unless you are referring to the general term that applies to tweaks and whatnot.
Without derailing, are the overclock kernels actually safe? Aside from the fundamentals of overclocking, which I am totally fine with, I do not understand how a single profile can be assumed safe for every phone in every situation.
There's a convention in the xda Android forums for prepending the subject title with [ROM] [KERNEL] or [MOD] to identify the type of change. Check it out.
As for the MixUp OC kernel, I've been using it for only 24 hours, but have had no problems with it at all (other than being a bit annoyed with the brightness changes, but it's a minor gripe), and it definitely improved overall performance.
So, I've noticed that there are a number of Android builds for the HD2, but every one I've tried has some quirk or some festure I can't change. (e.g. the vertical slider to answer calls on Sense-based builds is about the dumbest thing I've ever seen...)
It seems to me that there should be two components to Android builds: the kernel and the user environment.
Now, I understand that the kernel has to be fairly specific to the HD2. It includes all the modules and drivers to make the hardware work. In fact, I've swapped the kernel on various builds several times in an attempt to get a combination that just "works".
The user environment, however, seems to always be some sort of tweaked version of an existing image (desire, various sense builds, evo, etc.) Cyanogen mod seems to be the closest to stock that I've seen, but still doesn't seem to quite work, and has a bunch of "non-stock" extras and mods.
The thing that seems to be missing is a direct "port" of Android to the HD2. Shouldn't it be possible to just download the source from the Android project, set up a build environment, build, combine with a kernel, and then boot? I used to do this with various iPaq distros some years ago.
BTW, I'm willing to try doing exactly what I've proposed here. Just that with so many people contributing, I'm surprised no one is actively doing this. Which is why I think I'm probably missing something....
Then again, if you'll kindly point me in the right direction, I'll be happy to give it a shot.
I need to link 6 buttons to 6 different activity's for navigational purposes. I've tried some example blogs and tutorials but nothing works!
I'm on API 17 (Latest), and my target and minimum SDK is Froyo(2.2), but it's compiled with 4.2 Jelly Bean, of course.
A few extra questions:
How do I add Holo theming on a Froyo(2.2) device?
Can I get this simple app done in less than 3 days?
How do I add a splash page BEFORE my main_activity?
How do I save inputs (Entered text, setting, etc.)?
Thank you so much! You guys on XDA have been life savers for me. This class im in is pretty much the only one im passing(Bearly though) and if I don't have something to show my teacher i'm screwed!
Thanks for the help, but I didn't get it finished due to personal reasons. I still passed the class though! ....with a D-....
Check the HoloEverywhere library and maybe ActionBarSherlock.
A splash screen? Just call startActivity for the new one after some time.
You can use a Timer with a TimerTask and the schedule method of timer for making it wait some time.
Read about SharedPreferences for short texts.
crazy4creationstudios said:
I need to link 6 buttons to 6 different activity's for navigational purposes. I've tried some example blogs and tutorials but nothing works!
I'm on API 17 (Latest), and my target and minimum SDK is Froyo(2.2), but it's compiled with 4.2 Jelly Bean, of course.
A few extra questions:
How do I add Holo theming on a Froyo(2.2) device?
Can I get this simple app done in less than 3 days?
How do I add a splash page BEFORE my main_activity?
How do I save inputs (Entered text, setting, etc.)?
Thank you so much! You guys on XDA have been life savers for me. This class im in is pretty much the only one im passing(Bearly though) and if I don't have something to show my teacher i'm screwed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just let us know what exactly you want to achieve. You can display a splash screen using Thread and run it for say '5 seconds' then start main activity using an intent.
crazy4creationstudios said:
I need to link 6 buttons to 6 different activity's for navigational purposes. I've tried some example blogs and tutorials but nothing works!
I'm on API 17 (Latest), and my target and minimum SDK is Froyo(2.2), but it's compiled with 4.2 Jelly Bean, of course.
A few extra questions:
How do I add Holo theming on a Froyo(2.2) device?
Can I get this simple app done in less than 3 days?
How do I add a splash page BEFORE my main_activity?
How do I save inputs (Entered text, setting, etc.)?
Thank you so much! You guys on XDA have been life savers for me. This class im in is pretty much the only one im passing(Bearly though) and if I don't have something to show my teacher i'm screwed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. ActionBarSherlock
2. yes u can..
3. edit manifest.. call ur splashactivity as launcher.. and then on java splash file.. make some thread..
4. setting.. use sharedpreferences.. or sqlite :good:
Create one main activity in your project. Add 6 buttons and 6 activities to it. Launch the particular activity on a particular button's click . that's it, as simple as that.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda app-developers app
Android KitKat was a pretty hecking good android version and it's such a distant memory. Someone should make a GSI of android KitKat to get nostalgia on times when we weren't depressed bois looking at memes. Tell me you didn't like the little house in the navigation bar and the light grey tone of the settings menu.
Run it in a VM
Treble is supported since Android 8.0. We cant make a GSI of android versions lower than 8.0
Useless thread.
Maybe, but a KitKat theme and icon set would be eminently do-able.
I actually did some testing of Trying to boot an android image in a VM, Ive tried an x86 cm14 image in limbo_x86, got to the bootloader then nothing, I've got limbo (non x86) installed, but just need to find an arm android image to see if it will boot, if anyone has a link to one, it can't be a GSI though, needs to be a bootable iso
Twisted Prime said:
Android KitKat was a pretty hecking good android version and it's such a distant memory. Someone should make a GSI of android KitKat to get nostalgia on times when we weren't depressed bois looking at memes. Tell me you didn't like the little house in the navigation bar and the light grey tone of the settings menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You cant run an android version which is older as the android version as the device was released.
matze19999 said:
You cant run an android version which is older as the android version as the device was released.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You actually can. I managed to successfully boot 7.0 on a phone that was running 7.1 out of the box ?. Or even lollipop on MM device although everything was constantly crashing.
But booting KitKat on Oreo device etc. Not gonna happen. We would need probably a lot of kernel changes and new vendor made specifically for KitKat.
And don't forget that only Oreo has GSI support. Adding it to KitKat would require millions of lines of code changes. And even if some Dev wanted to do that.. he wouldn't be able to do it by himself.
There are more reasons why it won't happen but yeah.
I'd love to see it too and sometimes I work on porting some older apps to newest Android versions. If You PM me on Telegram, I can send You Android Donut (I think) Settings app that works (60-70%) even on Android P
I could even probably release a hybrid rom that would contain most Android 1.x apps and it would be based on Phh rom so that it would work on most devices. But there would be things that would most likely never work.
Those are:
System UI
Settings would be kinda broken.
And lots of other bugs that would annoy an average user.
What should work:
Settings(basic functionality + UI)
1.x Apps like camera, calendar, calculator, browser etc
Ringtones
Wallpaper
Maybe launcher
Themed Status bar and navigation bar with some old icons
Maybe system in general could be themed slightly to look more old.
Old Android Market and old YouTube etc but they could be buggy because of server changes etc.
I think I'll try it tomorrow just for fun and will post screens to my group.
ProtoDeVNan0 said:
You actually can. I managed to successfully boot 7.0 on a phone that was running 7.1 out of the box . Or even lollipop on MM device although everything was constantly crashing.
But booting KitKat on Oreo device etc. Not gonna happen. We would need probably a lot of kernel changes and new vendor made specifically for KitKat.
And don't forget that only Oreo has GSI support. Adding it to KitKat would require millions of lines of code changes. And even if some Dev wanted to do that.. he wouldn't be able to do it by himself.
There are more reasons why it won't happen but yeah.
I'd love to see it too and sometimes I work on porting some older apps to newest Android versions. If You PM me on Telegram, I can send You Android Donut (I think) Settings app that works (60-70%) even on Android P
I could even probably release a hybrid rom that would contain most Android 1.x apps and it would be based on Phh rom so that it would work on most devices. But there would be things that would most likely never work.
Those are:
System UI
Settings would be kinda broken.
And lots of other bugs that would annoy an average user.
What should work:
Settings(basic functionality + UI)
1.x Apps like camera, calendar, calculator, browser etc
Ringtones
Wallpaper
Maybe launcher
Themed Status bar and navigation bar with some old icons
Maybe system in general could be themed slightly to look more old.
Old Android Market and old YouTube etc but they could be buggy because of server changes etc.
I think I'll try it tomorrow just for fun and will post screens to my group.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.x GSI
dylanneve1 said:
1.x GSI
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hybrid 1.x GSI.
But hey! Every Dev project is a fun project!
Edit: 1.6 was kinda buggy and boring so I decided to make a "Hybrid KitKat GSI" If anyone's interested, check my group for screenshots .
Edit2: Posted an early alpha in my group. (Not going to post it on XDA just to avoid breaking rules, if there are any)
ProtoDeVNan0 said:
Hybrid 1.x GSI.
But hey! Every Dev project is a fun project!
Edit: 1.6 was kinda buggy and boring so I decided to make a "Hybrid KitKat GSI" If anyone's interested, check my group for screenshots .
Edit2: Posted an early alpha in my group. (Not going to post it on XDA just to avoid breaking rules, if there are any)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Link?
MAME Arcade said:
Link?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
XDA doesn't allow posting Telegram links anymore. So just find one of my rom threads and it hopefully still contains a link to my group. But I think that we can get best kitkat experience by buying some older phone for cheap. KitKat launcher doesn't even support 19:9 aspect ratio so it looks kinda ugly on some devices. I know it would be cool to run KitKat on latest smartphones but Android has changed so much that even theming it to look like KitKat is pretty difficult. And some images need resizing cause they were designed to work on let's say 720p screens and lower. So when You use them on 1080p or 1440p device, icons look tiny.
You could probably create AVD with KitKat, install VNC on it and stream it to Your smartphone.
Twisted Prime said:
Android KitKat was a pretty hecking good android version and it's such a distant memory. Someone should make a GSI of android KitKat to get nostalgia on times when we weren't depressed bois looking at memes. Tell me you didn't like the little house in the navigation bar and the light grey tone of the settings menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I SUPPORT UR iDEA!
btw,i miss the xperia's UI of ICS 4.0.4
ProtoDeVNan0 said:
You actually can. I managed to successfully boot 7.0 on a phone that was running 7.1 out of the box . Or even lollipop on MM device although everything was constantly crashing.
But booting KitKat on Oreo device etc. Not gonna happen. We would need probably a lot of kernel changes and new vendor made specifically for KitKat.
And don't forget that only Oreo has GSI support. Adding it to KitKat would require millions of lines of code changes. And even if some Dev wanted to do that.. he wouldn't be able to do it by himself.
There are more reasons why it won't happen but yeah.
I'd love to see it too and sometimes I work on porting some older apps to newest Android versions. If You PM me on Telegram, I can send You Android Donut (I think) Settings app that works (60-70%) even on Android P
I could even probably release a hybrid rom that would contain most Android 1.x apps and it would be based on Phh rom so that it would work on most devices. But there would be things that would most likely never work.
Those are:
System UI
Settings would be kinda broken.
And lots of other bugs that would annoy an average user.
What should work:
Settings(basic functionality + UI)
1.x Apps like camera, calendar, calculator, browser etc
Ringtones
Wallpaper
Maybe launcher
Themed Status bar and navigation bar with some old icons
Maybe system in general could be themed slightly to look more old.
Old Android Market and old YouTube etc but they could be buggy because of server changes etc.
I think I'll try it tomorrow just for fun and will post screens to my group.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow!
Have u build it?
Btw, i also like this idea!