My Root Journey...with questions!

[drummerj80]

I came from a Blackberry Curve and jumped in the Android deep-end when I purchased a T-bolt for my wife and I. It came down to the Iphone 4 as well. Glad I'm here!! Rooted and flashed BAMF Cubed 1.0.5 from Rom Manager. Everything came back, no loss of photos (very important!) or contacts. I want to flash the updated cubed rom. This is where the questions come in: (mainly because I've been on so many forums reading that my head is about to explode!)

Do I always have to flash clockwork recovery and do I always need to do a nandroid backup? The radio seems to be working fine, but do I need to flash a radio as well? Showed my Wife my "new" T-bolt and she said once I'm more comfortable with flashing roms to "fix" her phone! I have to thank Cyber Warrior, Cory Streater, and countless others I could flood this post with.

 

[project.in.process]

just make sure CWMR (clockworkmodrecovery) is installed. this can be done 1 of 2 ways:
1) download ROM Manager, open it, 'flash CWMR' (and can boot into CWMR from this app, too)
or
2) TURN OFF FASTBOOT in settings. power off phone. hold volume down & then Power button for about 10 seconds. phone will vibrate, show a white screen (hboot), using Volume keys--select Recovery, press power to confirm, CWMR should start up
**once you flash it once, you're good to go. however, i've had odd instances in which i had to manually flash it (via ROM Manager, the easiest way for me) in order to access the Recovery screen. if you can't access Recovery, then install ROM Manager & flash it. try again & you should be able to access it.

**always always always do a nandroid backup of any ROM that you have customized & have working the way you want it. before i flash any ROM, even an updated version of the same ROM, i create a backup of my customized version just in case the new version stinks. backups can take up some space, so delete the backups you know you don't need. after a few days, i delete the actual zip i downloaded from the developers site--since i have that same zip in a customized version Backup.
**CREATE A NANDROID OF YOUR STOCK ROM! you've already flashed a different ROM, but for future use (other phones), create a Stock backup just in case. this doesn't unroot by flashing this backup, but it can give you a stable operating platform if one of your ROM flashes goes haywire & you can't get the phone to function.

**most of the radios available now will work across different ROMs. for instance, MR 2, MR2.5, MR3 (difference being told in the baseband version under software information in phone settings) will work with most any ROM you come across--except for some older CM versions which require you to flash a specific radio.
((as long as you're flashing a GB compatible radio with a GB ROM, you're mostly safe))
flash the radio once--and you're good until you decide to flash a different one.
nandroid backups do NOT backup radios. remember this.
**there are some threads here, on xda, and rootwiki dealing with radio versions & how to tell which one you have. some radios work well for some ROMs, but give poor battery life for other ROMs. for instance, i'm using one CDMA radio from one release & an LTE radio from a different release. this solved a common problem of not receiving texts. your results may vary, obviously.

radio/rom/kernel post with applicable download links & instructions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1048128

sidenote: keep Fastboot option turned off. yes, it boots up phone quick--woop-dee-doo. if you ever have a problem &* need to access Recovery, you can't boot into Recovery if fastboot is enabled. unless you're really familiar with ADB commands, keep Fastboot off.
fastboot on=phone starts up quick, but can't access Recovery....phone bootlooping? can't resolve the problem until you can connect to a computer, use ADB commands.
fastboot off=phone starts up normal pace, can access recovery...phone bootlooping? hold volume down & power, flash a Nandroid backup & have a functional phone within 7 minutes of the problem.

welcome to the fun

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

I came from a Blackberry Curve and jumped in the Android deep-end when I purchased a T-bolt for my wife and I. It came down to the Iphone 4 as well. Glad I'm here!! Rooted and flashed BAMF Cubed 1.0.5 from Rom Manager. Everything came back, no loss of photos (very important!) or contacts. I want to flash the updated cubed rom. This is where the questions come in: (mainly because I've been on so many forums reading that my head is about to explode!)

Do I always have to flash clockwork recovery and do I always need to do a nandroid backup? The radio seems to be working fine, but do I need to flash a radio as well? Showed my Wife my "new" T-bolt and she said once I'm more comfortable with flashing roms to "fix" her phone! I have to thank Cyber Warrior, Cory Streater, and countless others I could flood this post with.

To give a simple answer to your questions, no, you do not *always* have to flash clockwork recovery (CWR). Once flashed, it's there. There may be situations where you need to reflash it (it won't boot into recovery) or udpate it (ROM Manager will tell you there's an updated version available).

Keep in mind, that if you do run an update to CWR, there is good chance that previously made nandroid backups won't be able to be restored. Only flash a CWR update if you're sure you won't need to revert a recent nandroid.

Now, onto a few other things that you mentioned...

When you flash a ROM, there are times when you will want to do a full wipe your phone before-hand. Keep in mind that stuff like pictures and media and stuff on your SD card is NOT affected by a full wipe (sytem restore). Also, for most, things like contacts, calendar, and apps are synced via your google account, so while they will be deleted during a wipe, they will be restored once you do the initial setup and log into Google.

As far as radios go, any post-MR2 radio will work with Gingerbread. You may want to update your radio, you may not. If you loaded BAMF cubed and your radio works, then at the very least you have a compatible radio.

I HIGHLY recommend to read the post on backing up/restoring data and apps when installing ROMs that is in my signature. Hopefully that will demonstrate how to make sure no data is lost, as well as how to restore it when you load new ROMs.

Also, just we're all on the same page when it comes to terms, here are the common options in CWR referred to when flashing ROMs:

- wipe cache: This is pretty harmless, similar to deleting "temporary files" in windows. you should always do this before installing a new ROM or update to a ROM.
- wipe dalvik: This again is fairly harmless, and is another system cache that should be cleared prior to installing any ROMs and/or updates.
- wipe data/factory reset: This is the big one. A.K.A "Full wipe". This will wipe all data on the phone's internal data storage. This includes apps, data, contacts, sms/mms, settings, etc... Many ROMs will insist that you do a full wipe prior to installing, and this is why it's important to do a backup/restore. Yes, this does make the process a bit more of a PITA, but in the long run, it can help you avoid bugs and glitches that can be the result of carrying data over from one ROM to another. THIS DOES NOT WIPE THE SD CARD.