Why whole ROMs?

[frankwhite8536]

I've been rooted and ROM'd for a while now, and I now have a pretty good grip on how to flash ROMs, Themes, and Kernels.

But I'm coming from a Palm Pre. There was a program that included all this in one package: Preware. Maybe someone with the same experience can speak on this.

My question is why do I flash whole ROMs and OS's basically just to modify a portion of how my phone works? My example is that if I wanted to add new snooze times to my alarm app, Preware has a patch for that. You just load the patch. (I'm pretty sure it just modifies some code, ie addes some times to the original coding. And this goes for all kinds of modifications. There are patches for everything. From boot animations, to scrim background, ALL kinds of stuff...

So why do I have to reflash the entire "system" just to modify something? Like I'd like to combine parts of ROMs or be more specific as to the modifications I'm doing.

For instance, why do we remove the bloatware? I'm not talking CIQ, but just NFL crapapps and the like. Do they negetively affect performance by existing?

Even when I flashed a new kernel it didn't seem to have much difference in speed. When I flashed a kernel and overclocked in Preware, it made a difference.

I'm just a little confused on this. I am not a programmer, coder, or anything. I rely on the wonderful minds here and at PreCentral to come up with the how to's. I greatly appreciate and admire their work. It's just that it seems everyone is reinventing the OS, when we could focus on the existing OS and modify it.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

Much of what you ask can be done without a full ROM. Check out XDA, they have a themes and apps section. Kernels and roms are in the development section. and yes, it makes a huge difference when you modify the kernel on the epic. I for one, never will go back to RFS file system. There is a group also building a kitchen, where you make your own rom based on features you want.

 

[Paul627g]

I've been rooted and ROM'd for a while now, and I now have a pretty good grip on how to flash ROMs, Themes, and Kernels.

But I'm coming from a Palm Pre. There was a program that included all this in one package: Preware. Maybe someone with the same experience can speak on this.

My question is why do I flash whole ROMs and OS's basically just to modify a portion of how my phone works? My example is that if I wanted to add new snooze times to my alarm app, Preware has a patch for that. You just load the patch. (I'm pretty sure it just modifies some code, ie addes some times to the original coding. And this goes for all kinds of modifications. There are patches for everything. From boot animations, to scrim background, ALL kinds of stuff...

So why do I have to reflash the entire "system" just to modify something? Like I'd like to combine parts of ROMs or be more specific as to the modifications I'm doing.

For instance, why do we remove the bloatware? I'm not talking CIQ, but just NFL crapapps and the like. Do they negetively affect performance by existing?

Even when I flashed a new kernel it didn't seem to have much difference in speed. When I flashed a kernel and overclocked in Preware, it made a difference.

I'm just a little confused on this. I am not a programmer, coder, or anything. I rely on the wonderful minds here and at PreCentral to come up with the how to's. I greatly appreciate and admire their work. It's just that it seems everyone is reinventing the OS, when we could focus on the existing OS and modify it.

Alot of what your asking can be done simply by flashing a add on/mod or even a custom theme. Problem is if you take your say stock Froyo EC05 and root it, there is only a limited amount of things you can really do to it because even though its rooted its still a "odexed" system which there are very few things you can change on a odexed system. Even if you go the route of flashing a deodexed ROM on your standard RFS filesystem which would be basic root and CWM 2.5.1.0 installed you still only have limited support for even the RFS system.

Basically what I'm saying is 90% or better of the mods/themes/apps/add ons/ROMs are all based on you rooting your device and then converting to EXT4 filesystem/CWM 3.0.0.6. That is where all the "action" is and what all the devs make everything for is EXT4 support because it is the most efficient of the two filesystems.

So that is why you see everyone getting pushed into going EXT4 and running a custom ROM to achieve the things they want to do. Rooting your stock ROM is good for removing the bloatware, using backup apps and wireless tethering and thats about the extent of it.. There are a few kernels that support the RFS filesystem but its not as efficient as EXT4.

A few more questions of yours, why do we remove bloatware? It takes up space, and space is always an issue with people and it just cleans up the device not having Sprint/Sammy software that many people care not to use. Most devs offer packages to restore whatever bloatware you want back onto your device.

Any other question, please feel free to ask...

Much of what you ask can be done without a full ROM. Check out XDA, they have a themes and apps section. Kernels and roms are in the development section. and yes, it makes a huge difference when you modify the kernel on the epic. I for one, never will go back to RFS file system. There is a group also building a kitchen, where you make your own rom based on features you want.

No need to go to XDA when we have a nice Froyo EC05, EB13 and even older DK28 based threads here full of all the most popular ROMs/themes/kernels/mods, etc... ?

[Index] Froyo EC05 ROM's, Kernels, Themes, & Other Mods [Updated 4/20]

[Index] Froyo EB13 ROM's, Kernels, Themes, & Other Mods [Updated 3/22]

Compendium of Froyo DK28 Themes & Add-Ons | Last Update 2/18

All you have to do is search my friend...

 

[chad4359]

I miss so much about my Pre everyday but unfortunately the lack of third party support for things like apps is just not there. I love the guys over at WebOS Internals but they are pretty much the only developers for all those mods and homebrew. My Epic is super fast and even though it may be a little more difficult to do the root and flash ROMs I still like it. Hopefully HP will be able to help Palm grow and give Google and Apple a run for their money but for now I'll be right here with my Epic, but I'll still pull my Pre out of my drawer and play with it every now and then.

 

[WesR6]

I have a rooted phone/ext4 file system and SFR 1.1. Since installing that I've added a custom ASOP lock screen, boot and shutdown animations, transparent messaging, transparent android market apps, and a things that I can't remember at the moment. All of these were done one at a time.

-Wes

 

[frankwhite8536]

Thank you very much for the responses. Especially Paul. It was like a lightbulb went off, one of the ah-ha moments where you get inspired to try new things. I appreciate all the info I get here from everyone.

The way you put it, makes a lot of sense going to EXT first to open up to a new file system. Then from there use the custom ROMs and add ons to add what you want. I may have not put it correctly, but I believe I have the idea in my head of what we're acheiving here.

I do have another question, but it may require a new thread. I am rooted, running Twilight Kernel 1.1, I know I'm on CWM 3, But I did not flash a ROM that specifically stated it is EXT4.

I remember when CWM 3 booted up and it seemed to show the same DOS windows to covert to EXT4 (I've done it in the past). then I flashed the Twilight Kernel, but did not flash a ROM. Unfortunately, I cannot fiind the link right to the ROM right now, (It was a tar file flashed through Odin), but it was a version of stock and did not expicitely say it supported EXT4.

Is there a way definitive way to tell if I'm EXT or not?

 

[Paul627g]

Thank you very much for the responses. Especially Paul. It was like a lightbulb went off, one of the ah-ha moments where you get inspired to try new things. I appreciate all the info I get here from everyone.

The way you put it, makes a lot of sense going to EXT first to open up to a new file system. Then from there use the custom ROMs and add ons to add what you want. I may have not put it correctly, but I believe I have the idea in my head of what we're acheiving here.

I do have another question, but it may require a new thread. I am rooted, running Twilight Kernel 1.1, I know I'm on CWM 3, But I did not flash a ROM that specifically stated it is EXT4.

I remember when CWM 3 booted up and it seemed to show the same DOS windows to covert to EXT4 (I've done it in the past). then I flashed the Twilight Kernel, but did not flash a ROM. Unfortunately, I cannot fiind the link right to the ROM right now, (It was a tar file flashed through Odin), but it was a version of stock and did not expicitely say it supported EXT4.

Is there a way definitive way to tell if I'm EXT or not?

Sounds like you used one of the prerooted/EXT4 Odin packages for EC05. If you went through the conversion process when you booted into CWM3 and then your running EXT4.

As far as all the info goes, no problem thats what were here for...

 

[Sprintguy1376]

I miss so much about my Pre everyday but unfortunately the lack of third party support for things like apps is just not there. I love the guys over at WebOS Internals but they are pretty much the only developers for all those mods and homebrew. My Epic is super fast and even though it may be a little more difficult to do the root and flash ROMs I still like it. Hopefully HP will be able to help Palm grow and give Google and Apple a run for their money but for now I'll be right here with my Epic, but I'll still pull my Pre out of my drawer and play with it every now and then.

Man, I completely agree. I miss the software on my Palm Pre.. That phone.... That phone... So good. I remember overclocking it from 500MHZ to 1GHZ from the WebOS Internals kernel. It was pretty awesome.

Unfortunately, their hardware was pretty horrendous... and I had to get a new Pre almost every month. It was bad. I miss WebOS. Wish it could be ported to the epic or something, or even running in a virtual environment on the phone. Really hope Sprint gets the Pre 3... and that it actually has good battery life.

Until then, I like the Epic 4G and I definitely don't regret switching from the Pre to Epic. The hardware alone is reason enough. And the amount of developer support, both XDA and Marketplace Apps is ridiculously good.