Database Users

[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

Android Home Phone, Binatone iDECT iHOME / Motorola HS1001

There doesn't seem to be a thread on XDA Dev for this exciting home phone, so I thought I'd create one. Quite weird actually, the first Android powered home phone and no ones talking about it!
I first caught wind of this just before Christmas 2010 and I thought WOW this looks cool! It does sound cool right?!
When I looked into it I thought it could have a bit better specs, but it's the first one out so I can only guess they are just publically testing the concept. Around November/December last year there were a lot of sites talking about it, but no one really had a hands on review, I though I'd wait till the new year, around January/February time till people have had a good mess around with it, but that time has been and gone, and a quick search on Google reveals no new news on it since early January
I don't actually have one myself but I would really like to get one just to try it out. But for £100 it's a tad to expensive for me at the moment. Its sold at Argos, Homebase used to sell it, but they don't list it on their website anymore.
If anyone has one please speak up!
Here are the quick stats:
-Android 1.6
-256MB internal memory
-SD Card Slot
-2.8" resistive touch screen (320x240)
-Wi-Fi
Argos link (+reviews): http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produ...5|Digital+phones+single+handsets|14418986.htm
Amazon link (+reviews): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Binatone-iH...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1299183948&sr=8-1
Binatone link: http://www.binatonetelecom.com/products/android-products/ihome-phone
From what I gather the Motorola HS1001 is practically the same phone.
There are some videos on youtube of the HS1001 in action.
Now I'm no Android expert but I'm no dunce either, so this question goes out to the real hardcore Android hackers out there:
When you get a brand new device and you want to 'open it up' to get different ROMs on there etc, what the first thing you do?
Do you find out how to get in the bootloader?
Do you hook it up to your PC and run ADB or Fastboot or some other tool?
Or something else altogether?
I'd guess it's easier if its a new HTC device or another well known manafacturer as you would assume it's quite like the HTC devices that have come before it, but what about if it's a new device from a newish manafacturer? Would you see if anyones hacked any devices that company have made before? I'm guessing it's also easier if the company releases the source for their phones version of Android.

Lol, I think the lack of response answers a few of my questions
If there are any devs browsing this topic, I would still like some answers regarding the 'What do you do with a totally new device' questions.
I am looking at getting one of these phones eventually, and it looks like I will be the only one with it, so I'll be doing all the dev work myself from scratch

Thanks for the info.
I never thought an "Android" "housephone" existed!
since im all go for converting the world to Android I would seriously LOVE to own one.
there is one left in the argos near me, but as you rightly stated £100 is a lot of money.
if i do invest in one i will post further information, just dont hold your breath!!
Thanks again.

I bought one of these phones last night and first impressions are pretty good! Its a little slow, but I'm comparing it to my SGS2
Is there anyone else out there with this phone?
Whats the deal with Binatone not releasing the source code like the big phone companies do? I thought it was a requirement of the GPL?

[Q] How to identify a "clean" HD2

Hello HD2 forum
I am planning on purchasing a HD2 second hand, to ultimately dual boot windows phone 7 and ICS.
I am buying it from a local trade in store for good prices and warranty, ideally i would like to power it on in store before the purchase to check its clean and ready for me to follow the tutorials available.
Other than identifying that the phone is still running windows mobile, is there any other way for me to check that the phone has not previously been messed with? Something in the settings? Maybe i should check for a secondary mode with certain key combination on boot?
Thanks a lot!

You kinda need to define what you mean by "clean"...I assume you mean stock (and never been modded, but these are 2 different things totally unrelated to each other, more to that in a minute).
IMO the best thing you could do would be to read up on the flashing process. This will tell you what to look for, if you're looking for a stock never-been-modded phone.
But back to your question...the first major sign I'd look for would be HSPL. I'm not going to go into detail about how to find out if it's installed. You'll have to do your own homework. Read every 'how to' and 'newb' (or noob) guide on xda. XDA is an awesome site and the dev's here write awesome documentation. Do them the favor of reading it. I mean, I don't know what you're an expert on but it might get on your nerves if I ask you simple questions about that topic cause I'm too lazy to do the research myself. The research is easy, the reference material is all contained here in various forums, depending on what you want to do. I show my appreciation for that by taking advantage of it, and don't forget to thank the dev's if something is especially helpful...they like that.
As far as checking to ensure that it's still running WinMo...that's gonna be about as effective and informative (about the phone being virgin-stock) as whether or not it's raining that day or not. What's that got to do with anything? Exactly. Nothing. My HD2 is running (at the moment) a WinMo 6.5 build. But it's been flashed more than a hundred times. My daily software is an SD Android build. Before I flashed my HD2 for the first time, I probably spent about 30 hours just reading about the process and trying to understand the process of what I was going to be doing (while reading, I usually had video tutorials playing on my 2nd monitor...I'd give up the reading when it got interesting). So that's it, really...read read read. It's not fail safe. I can't tell you how many times I waited on pins and needles to find out if I had ****-canned my new €400 phone. If you have a heart condition, you just shouldn't ride this ride. ;-)
I just got a SGS2, cause I prefer Android to WinMo. WinMo's a full time job, as is flashing. Something was always not performing the way I wanted it to (efficiency or performance etc), which was why I started flashing, but it gets to be like a drug. Nothing's ever good enough, cause you wind up wanting the best. I'd flash a ROM and install all my **** (manually, one cad file at a time) and then flash a different one and have to reinstall everything again. It was even worse if I had set up my homescreens, and folders the way I wanted them...to that end, I'd highly recommend that you also research mass-installer programs. I can't think of the name of it right now, but you pack all of your cad's in one folder and this program installs all of them (which means like 65% typically, cause invariably about 1/3 will fail for one reason or another).
Even still, looking for HSPL (which is required to flash anything on the HD2) is not very indicative as to whether or not it's been previously modded. When I got my phone it was virgin/stock, of that I'm sure. I bought it from a person, and the person was not capable of performing such tasks (he wasn't so technically inclined). But in your case, you're going to have no idea. It is not only possible but also very easy to return the phone to stock by removing HSPL leaving virtually no trace of it having ever been modded (I say virtually, cause I don't THINK that it can be traced when HSPL has been removed, but I'm not a dev and not a guru). So even the absence of HSPL doesn't even really tell you that it's never been modded, it only says that if it was- then the modder was smart enough to cover his tracks.
Basically, I don't think there's an answer to your question. There are clues that say YES THIS PHONE HAS BEEN MODDED. But there's no definitive sign to look for that say THIS PHONE HAS NEVER BEEN MODDED, and you dunno if someone's gonna lie to you. But I am inviting you to prove me wrong, read the documentation and get back to me.
Good luck flashing, don't **** it up though. You'll be pissed if you brick your ****, which is easy to do. Hell, it's probably a thousand times safer to buy a phone with HSPL installed, then you can flash all you want with no risk. The main risk, is ****ing something up in the HSPL installation process, but there are ways to minimize the risk...which all amount to: read, read, read.
And if you decide you'd be interested in previously modded HD2 (with HSPL already installed), let me know, make me an offer. Mine's just a wifi media device at the moment and I'll probably be marketing it in the near future regardless. It currently has HSPL, and I haven't decided to remove it before sale or not. I saw one on Amazon last week that was at a premium price, cause the seller had Android running on it. It's a great phone if you like WinMo, but I find Android to be much less 'high maintenance' and I used to be a huge WinMo fan (I'm a 10 year WinMo user, if you can believe that!).
Regardless, this is getting long. Those are my 2pence. Be easy.
[EDIT] Hell, if you were closer I'd let you borrow mine for a few weeks to see if you like the phone. I'm a nice guy like that.

There is no way of knowning to be honest, unless you go into bootloader and you see the firmare on it has been tinkered, ( i.e. Hspl, radio, rom ) and depending if it is a eu or tmous version. good luck tho!

[OFFTOPIC][DISCUSSION] Your first hacking experience!

XDA Developers is a great place for people who want to put their phone to the max a.k.a HACKING!
I'm pretty sure a lot of people have hacked their phone before; rooting, download scripts, kernels, roms etc. So the purpose of this thread made is to share your hacking experience; how you started it, how did it go, what was the first thing you hacked inside your phone, did it work,did you screw up your phone etc. You should also state why you hacked and was it worth the hack. Also, another purpose of this thread is to encourage people to not be scared of hacking and try hacking their phones. (although is really up to you!)
So I shall start mine, right now!
So, after getting good results in my exam, my parents gifted me a Samsung Galaxy S Plus I9001 last year. It was one of the best smartphones I ever had(only had one....). So, the place where I bought the phone, the salesman said the phone had 1+3 years warranty. So, at that point I said to myself; I'm not going to modify,hack or install unnecessary stuff in my phone (to preserve my warranty).
Boy, was I WRONG! After I had 6 months with the phone, had a lot of apps installed and my phone began to slow down. I deleted apps by apps and still my phone was super slow. I realised, 4 years is too damn long to preserve. So, the first hack I did was rooting my phone. The reason I did that because there's this app called Screencast required me to root the phone in order to use my phone.
Of course, I was scared to hack my phone. So, I did a thorough research and go on with rooting. With enough balls and courage, I tried it. After following all the correct procedure. So, all goes down to my phone. Will it reboot or not? That's the question. So, I waited. And wait. And wait. THEN SUDDENLY, BAM! PHONE WORKS! I was so happy, there are a lot of apps that required root.
A few months later, I was a bit daring and tried to install a ROM this time (cause my friend using ICS on his S2, felt totally jealous . Also GB sucks, no offense). Opened Galaxy S Plus I9001 Android Dev page. BAM! Roms, and roms and a hell load of roms! I tried the most safest ICS ROM, Acro86's ICS CM9 ROM. Again, was scared to tried, but then again my warranty is a done deal. So I went for it. BOY IT WAS FREAKING WORTH IT. Didn't really know my phone could run ICS/JB. Phone really smooth, lots of apps I used before now is smooth. It was really worth the shot.
Long story short, You SHOULD try hacking, because you can get all the awesome stuff in your phone. I say you should try hacking because it is a load of fun!
Now, I'm currently using hypnos17's BioHazard V5 with TWRP recovery. Really nice and smooth.
So, now. What is your first hacking experience? Please share it to everyone! This thread may help a lot of people people out there! :victory: :fingers-crossed:
Acro86 CM9 ROM: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1650615
Hypnos17 Biohazard ROM: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1917906
TWRP Recovery: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1694617
Credits to the guys who made these roms! :highfive:

Nice story! Mine-
When I first got the SGS it was already a bit old, the SIII was already on the market. I heard about people upgrading their Android to something better than what the cellular company gives you, and I knew I wanted to do it. I knew nothing about it, so I went to my brother in law who also has an SGS.
He rooted my phone and installed the latest nightly version of CM9 at the time. After a while my friend also learned how to do it, so I tried CM10, CM9 again (a stable version), switched to Slim Bean, etc. One time my phone didn't boot after a flash and I thought it died, but in the end I managed to get back into CWM.
I don't think I'm going to try anymore roms (just update my Slim), because it's way too much work every time and I don't have the energy for that... So unless I find what I'm looking for in a rom (a good and fast rom, that looks like Samsung's, and one that syncs the Facebook friends with the contacts without having to use a third-party app)., I'm not going to change it again.

J327p Galaxy J3 Emerge Virgin: Debloat, custom ROMs and other Questions

L9Hello guys and thanks for having me in your forums. This is my first post, I'm a big fan but I never registered, just lurked and read posts lol.
I've got a Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge J327P from Virgin US, it's rooted using the method listed on this forum for it with TWRP and supersu, but I'd like to kill the bloatware, stop mother fuc*ing Google from always running location services stuff(I'll post screen shots) in running services under developer options, increase my battery life and generally soup up my phone a bit with cool stuff. I'm not some bad ass Hax3r elite script kiddy but the pentest apps have always fascinated me and I've got a few installed and they're helping me learn this old dog a few new things. but I'd also like some more that are ofc not gonna be on app store so if you have any of those as suggestions pls hook me up. Also custom Roms, what's the deal? Do they have any for my phone and what can they help, where do I get and how do I install? Now that I'm rooted does anyone​ have any suggestions what to do next?
I used to work for Motorola and Nextel back in the day as an entry level wireless engineer straight out of the Army, but that was freaking years ago and I'm pretty out of the loop. That being said I'm not a completely moron and I'm pretty handy with hardware and software and I've written a few apps which are one app store.... But I did that with some help and as a project for online classes I take in my dotage to stay busy. I'm catching on pretty quick here though and​ i think my experiences and schooling and what not could be a good asset to the underground communities if I take the time to learn.... And Also... well mostly...because Ii really like mobiles and wireless **** fascinates me so hook me up. Feed me knowledge and where to look and learn and I'll donate the 200 or so dinosaur brick sized phones bi have in storage to your museum lol.
thanks guys,
Grandpa (or at least I feel that way right now) catguy

Srsly? 49 views yet not a single reply? Not even an insult cuz I wrote this High on pain pills? Wtf guys. Come on here and give a guy w hand. Tbf I figured out most of it on my own, I'm writing my own operating system here you all can have for free,since lineage isn't up. And yes I can do that. I'm old not stupid. I read this independent phone maker was making military grade tough bad ass smart phones, does anyone know they're name at least? Deleted my history. OR can help me kill some bloatware, or should I say tell me what is okay so I don't have to go through the steps doing it while I tinker out this code?

Sorry I can't be of help
Sorry that I have nothing to add on the ROM department, as I'm far less knowledge than yourself and about 98% of the individuals on here (the other 2%, smh. Just wow). The reason for me taking the time to reply is because A) I feel on the trying to teach an old dog new tricks; it takes me 20 minutes looking up what the meaning is of the lingo, then 40 minutes on how to implement it. Ironically I also worked for Sprint/Nextel but mine was the far less glamorous call center job. And totally random, & tbh with myself) none of my business, but I couldn't help but notice your mention about meds and regaurdless if it was one time thing, recent injury, old injury/condition, just whatever the situation look into (if your not familiar with it) mitragyna speciosa (kratom) its all natuarl plant, 100% legal (I think its 2 states miscategorized as a synthetic), its related to the coffee plant, and although its not perfect and not for everyone, its better than any pharmaceutical. There are quite a bit of Vets that are big advocates of this botanical. And sorry it's off topic (like 100%) but it changed my life, so I know it can for others too.

Catsandcodeguy said:
Srsly? 49 views yet not a single reply? Not even an insult cuz I wrote this High on pain pills? Wtf guys. Come on here and give a guy w hand. Tbf I figured out most of it on my own, I'm writing my own operating system here you all can have for free,since lineage isn't up. And yes I can do that. I'm old not stupid. I read this independent phone maker was making military grade tough bad ass smart phones, does anyone know they're name at least? Deleted my history. OR can help me kill some bloatware, or should I say tell me what is okay so I don't have to go through the steps doing it while I tinker out this code?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't take it personally, for the most part people here don't reply unless they have something constructive to add or say, it keeps the boards from getting flooded.
Since you're rooted I was going to suggest looking into porting, if you can get Lineage 14 running on your device (I have no idea what specs your model has off the top of my head to know what's possible for it) then it would give you a good jumpstart on porting 15 when that's released you could set up a race with the other J3 Devs and see who wins haha.
I seem to remember reading something about that phone too, iirc the article I read had it with a special case with Kevlar weave (which sounds badass on its own), I'll see if I can find any info on it again.
A lot of bloat can be eliminated by creating a nandroid backup (or TWRP if you have it) and taking it out that way, failing that titanium backup will let you get rid of a lot of bloat.

I just picked up a j327p for Sprint yesterday. I immediately wanted to flash Lineage onto it, but everything I'm seeing suggests that's not possible. (I wasn't able to do research before the purchase; it was an emergency replacement).
I found your post because I came here looking for the same information. I haven't flashed recovery onto my device yet, so I may try to return it to the store instead. It sounds like you got TWRP on there okay. Are you just stuck with the OS?
EDIT: there is this thread, which everyone in the universe was probably aware of but me, it just took me a bit to locate it: https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...nt/wip-custom-rom-j3-emerge-sm-j327p-t3634206

I built a rom for Sprint / Virgin / Boost check it out

How do you flash a zip from twrp? I know how with Odin but I downloaded one of the custom roms from cad tried to flash without help but the only thing that seemed to change was my xposed wasn't installed anymore I must have done something wrong can someone show me what roms are best and give me instructions for flashing the right way