[HOW-TO] Simplified Root + Recovery + Custom ROM

[Whyzor]

Hi all,

I'm a bit late to the Optimus V rooting party but are the steps in the OP here still the best/easiest way to do this? I want to try it this weekend but want to make sure I have everything in order first.

Please let me know if I can just follow the steps in the OP and if that will be all I need or if there are modifications that have come up in the past few months I should know about.

Thanks!!

Yes everything is still valid, the only thing you should be careful is the newer OV's might come with a different screen, so make sure to read up on the link about that.

 

[bigsupersquid]

Yes everything is still valid, the only thing you should be careful is the newer OV's might come with a different screen, so make sure to read up on the link about that.

you might mention in the op, the BobZhome iho recovery from the iho wiki binary>recovery page, works on old and new ov screens. Harmonia also works with iho recovery now, too.
oh, and, the return-to-stock is taken from a first-gen ov, so it'll black out newer models.

 

[AndroidForDummies]

HI All! I am also a complete NOOB re: android phones. Got my first one 2 weeks ago. Optimus VM670 running android 2.2.2, and my home PC is running WindowsXP. I love everything about it with one glaring exception: NO Flashplayer. I've already read, re-read & took notes on how to install but, of course, I have to do the Root, Recovery & custom ROM first. I've been studying threads for over a week now and want to make sure I have the most up-to-date info and that I understand it. PART ONE: Here's what I'm going to do to ROOT it (please let me know if you see any missed steps, possible conflicts or potential problems): 1)Download Windows drivers to my PC from this link LG VM670 Optimus V Cell Phones & Mobile Phones - LG Electronics US. 2) download [26.04.2011][v1.2] GingerBreak APK (root for GingerBread) - xda-developers to PC. 3) turn on USB Debugging and connect phone via USB cable to PC, turn on my phone, check that windows can read it and copy Gingerbreak.apk to the original 2gb MicroSD card. Unmount & Disconnect the USB. 4) Select ?allow unknown sources? in my phone?s settings for applications, locate ?gingerbreak.apk? on my SD card, select it, and install (does my phone automatically give me an option to install when I select it or do I have to download something else to install it?). If I understand correctly, the phone should do the rest itself and be rooted in about 10 or 15min. If it fails, turn off the phone, then hold down the home button, the volume down button, and the power button at the same time to reboot manually. 5) Use my phones ?android market? app to download ?busybox? to sd card and run it. Am I understanding these procedures correctly?

 

[Whyzor]

HI All! I am also a complete NOOB re: android phones. Got my first one 2 weeks ago. Optimus VM670 running android 2.2.2, and my home PC is running WindowsXP. I love everything about it with one glaring exception: NO Flashplayer. I've already read, re-read & took notes on how to install but, of course, I have to do the Root, Recovery & custom ROM first. I've been studying threads for over a week now and want to make sure I have the most up-to-date info and that I understand it. PART ONE: Here's what I'm going to do to ROOT it (please let me know if you see any missed steps, possible conflicts or potential problems): 1)Download Windows drivers to my PC from this link LG VM670 Optimus V Cell Phones & Mobile Phones - LG Electronics US. 2) download [26.04.2011][v1.2] GingerBreak APK (root for GingerBread) - xda-developers to PC. 3) turn on USB Debugging and connect phone via USB cable to PC, turn on my phone, check that windows can read it and copy Gingerbreak.apk to the original 2gb MicroSD card. Unmount & Disconnect the USB. 4) Select ?allow unknown sources? in my phone?s settings for applications, locate ?gingerbreak.apk? on my SD card, select it, and install (does my phone automatically give me an option to install when I select it or do I have to download something else to install it?). If I understand correctly, the phone should do the rest itself and be rooted in about 10 or 15min. If it fails, turn off the phone, then hold down the home button, the volume down button, and the power button at the same time to reboot manually. 5) Use my phones ?android market? app to download ?busybox? to sd card and run it. Am I understanding these procedures correctly?

Yes, and paragraphs are your friends You've only rooted your phone, to get flash player, you need to install a custom ROM, which means installing custom recovery & IHO CM7 ROM, and make sure to get the gapps.zip onto the sdcard to flash after the ROM, just like the instructions say on the first page.

 

[AndroidForDummies]

Yes, and paragraphs are your friends You've only rooted your phone, to get flash player, you need to install a custom ROM, which means installing custom recovery & IHO CM7 ROM, and make sure to get the gapps.zip onto the sdcard to flash after the ROM, just like the instructions say on the first page.

OOPS, :-[ sorry about the paragraphs. Didn't want to take up the whole screen with my problems. Thank you for your reply and your patience.

I haven't rooted my phone yet. I haven't done anything yet. Just wanted to make sure that I knew how to root it before I even tried. When I select "Gingerbreak.apk" on my sd card, will the phone give me the option to install it or do I have to download something first?

Thank you for suggesting the ROM & Kernel, can you recommend a recovery that will be compatible with my phone (to avoid the BLACK screen of death) and that won't conflict with Flashplayer 10.3?

 

[AndroidForDummies]

OK. Got my phone rooted. I couldn't connect my sdcard to computer through USB, so I used my card reader to put "Gingerbreak.APK" on my card. I then had to download and install a file manager from app market onto my phone. I was able to use the file manager to select and install "Gingerbreak" on my phone. I ran it and the whole process took less than a minute. I downloaded a terminal emulater to check that the phone was rooted correctly, and it was. I now intend to use the terminal emulator to flash the custom recovery and ROM.

 

[Whyzor]

I recommend flashing BobZHome's IHO recovery on the wikipage and the IHO ROM:

https://github.com/inferiorhumanorgans/android_device_lge_thunderc/wiki/Binary

 

[AndroidForDummies]

Thanks. Phone is working beautifully.

The only other obstacle I had to overcome was getting an error when I tried to flash recovery: "Flash_image not found". I found the work around to that in another thread and everything went smoothly after that (and fast, too). Thanks again!!!

 

[topheredward]

Should I be factory resetting before using Gingerbreak?
Or does it really matter?

 

[bigsupersquid]

it doesn't matter, just don't ever use the factory reset after you install a custom recovery.
with the stock rom and recovery you're fine, but a factory reset with a custom recovery will cause a nasty bootloop.

 

[topheredward]

Thanks for the quick reply! :-D
Also, I looked around for the correct forum for this, but didn't find one...

After rooted and while removing bloatware, can I remove swype to download a newer beta?
Or is it part of the stock rom that shouldn't be messed with?

 

[b.roid]

can this guide work using ubuntu? or using a virtualbox?

 

[Whyzor]

Should I be factory resetting before using Gingerbreak?
Or does it really matter?

I would suggest NOT doing factory reset before using Gingerbreak (but you can), because you want to be able to backup your ROM before flashing a new one. So the sequence is, 1. Gingerbreak, 2. install custom recovery. 3. Backup the current Froyo ROM. 4. Install new ROM. So then if something goes wrong or you want to go back you can restore to your current settings.

 

[Whyzor]

can this guide work using ubuntu? or using a virtualbox?

I believe as long as you can place the Gingerbreak.apk, ROM flashable zip, and gapps.zip onto your phone's /sdcard then it should work.

 

[b.roid]

I believe as long as you can place the Gingerbreak.apk, ROM flashable zip, and gapps.zip onto your phone's /sdcard then it should work.

thats what i thought just wanted to make sure. thanks!

 

[Kelemvor33]

OK, Nevermind. I guess 4th time was the charm. Got GingerBreak installed and moving onto the next step

 

[Kelemvor33]

OK, so I'm to the point of flashing a ROM. What is the benefit of the CM7 mod vs the regular 2.2 setup that I have now. And also, at the link to github, there are 2 CM7 mods listed. DOes it matter which one I get?

All I really NEED to be able to do is uninstall the stock programs that VM put on the phone and I'd like to be able to use the WiFi tether whatever it's called program for when I'm somewhere with no wifi for my laptop.

So, maybe I don't need to flash anything?

Let me know.

Thanks!

 

[b.roid]

ok i installed busybox from the market. what does this app do? how do i verify the rooting worked? im going to be installing IHO will rom manager work ok?

 

[Killmon]

Hey all, I am trying to do this (just got the phone, first Android, but am not a noob to tech stuff).

When I turn on debugging, mass storage turns off and I no longer have access to the drive form my pc.When I turn debugging off, mass storage pops up on my phone asking me if I want to turn it on.

So, I copy gingerbread to my SD card with debugging off, eject, turn on debugging and open the file manager and select SD card, and ..... nothing is there. I also turn debugging back off and ginger bread still doe not show up in the app manager. I installed all the suggested drivers in the beginning of the sticky... Any ideas? :-\

 

[cobalt513]

Thanks for the great guide! I've been trying to get BACKside to work for a little while now and It turns out I just hadn't wiped all my partitions. On a related note, If everything wipes correctly besides /sd-ext (or something similar) you can move ahead anyway.