(Please read the entire post before starting!)
I've had several people PM me in the last week about how to flash specific ROMs onto their phones. So I decided to benefit a bigger audience and keep my typing and re-typing to a minimum I would cover it here in public.
So you want to flash a ROM? Well first thing is first, you need a rooted phone. There are a number of methods and topics about it, but simple matter of fact if you need unRevoked 3.1 which can be found here: unrevoked
Follow the prompts in unRevoked and let it do it's thing. If you are already rooted great we can get started!
The next step is to find a ROM you want to flash to your phone. There are a few out there to pick from so you need to decide what will fit your needs and wants. Do you want to try Froyo(there will be bugs as of this writing like no working camera, some can't see the internal phone memory or use the GPS. Keep that in mind) or are you happy with 2.1? Do you want to still have Sense UI or do you feel like being a purist and using a Vanilla install? Do you not care about any of that and just want something different?
Well go here and look through these ROMs: incredible ROMS | roms, news, and other cool stuff
You have the option, as of this writing, from that site to use Binny, Jager, Koush, Ozzeh, Stock, or Yetti. Whats the difference? I'll try and make this simple.
Binny: Based off the stock ROM so you still have Sense UI. However it does use a different kernel so you will have 802.11n instead of g so if that's important keep that in mind. Facebook is uninstallable with this ROM and CityID has been removed. And obviously it has busybox and superuser installed.
Jager: With this one you have the option of installing the Chocolate(Sense UI) or Vanilla(Regular no Sense UI) version. There is also the option to use the OTA version for people who have installed the leaked 720p OTA. It has K-9 mail and handcent SMS pre-installed for you. Either version still has the HTC dialer, phone book etc, so it's still got about 15-20% Sense in there.
Koush: This is the famous or infamous Cyanogen Mod. This is Froyo 2.2 with JIT and all those delicious goodies. Keep in mind the Camera isn't working in this build so if you like to use the camera mark it off the list for now.(As of this writing) It has a plain vanilla, no Sense UI, launcher and no HTC Widgets. Lean and mean as it gets right now as far as Froyo goes.
Ozzeh: Leanest of all 2.1 ROMs. EVERYTHING HTC is removed. This is basically what you would get with a Nexus 1 if that's what you are looking for. So don't expect the fancy dialer, phone book or widgets that came with your phone stock.
Stock: Just what it implies, a Stock rooted ROM. This is mainly for the people that didn't do a nandroid backup before flashing!
Yetti: You can try it if you want, but it doesn't have working Bluetooth and some people have reported force closes on apps.
Now for the ROMs not covered on that site. Over at XDA some really great Devs have been putting together some really nice work for us.
Blue/Red v4: This is mainly a purely Stock ROM but has all the buttons and menus re-colored to, you guessed it red or blue.
Sky Raider 1.9 Beta: Froyo 2.2, no Sense UI, working GPS,Blue Tooth WIFI,MMS not to mention mounted internal memory! But no working camera!
And last but not least, the one that has worked the best for me!
pmf v1.2 YASR: 2.1 rom with no Sense UI, everything works, has a vanilla lock screen unlike the others. Perfect ROM excellent performance etc. This one is a must have in my opinion.
Ok so now we have picked the ROM we want to give a whirl. First things first. Go into the market and find ROM manager. Once it has completed the download and installation open it up. Select "Backup Current ROM". This will create a nandroid backup on your SD card in case you ever decide to go back stock or something else goes wrong! (It will reboot your phone don't panic) When it gets done restart the phone if it doesn't do it for you.
Once booted back into the phone mount your SD card as a disk drive. Copy over the ROM of your choice as a zip file anywhere you can find it on your SD. I put mine in the root for simplicity. And then change your phone back to charge only.
Re-open ROM manager. Select "Install ROM from SD Card". Select the zip you just placed on your SD card and also select the option to "Wipe Data and Cache". You phone will now reboot and begin flashing the new ROM. This will take a bit.
Re-setup your phone and you are off! Enjoy your new ROM.
If you want don't want to have to re-download all your apps, lose your high scores etc you can get Titanium backup and save everything and just reload your backup. However I've had bad experiences with doing it with force closes etc after a restore, unless you go on at a time to restore things(I'm too impatient for that!). I suggest you just get appbrain and sync it that way it remembers what apps you have and just start fresh!
You can also do all this manually through clockworkmod. Here is the quick way to do everything I mentioned above.
1. Put ROM on the root of your SD card.
2. Shut down your phone.
3. Hold volume down + power to boot into hboot.
4. Select 'recovery' using volume button down then hit your power button to select.
5. Volume down/optic joystick down to select 'wipe data/factory reset'.
6. Select 'Install zip from sdcard'
7. Select your ROM.zip
8. Let it do it's thing.
9. Reboot phone and set it up.
10. Enjoy!
Remember to always wipe your data/factory reset when installing a new ROM. If you don't either your phone with boot loop or you will have a huge number of force closes!
In the end it's not a huge thing to do, is relatively easy, and highly addictive. Don't be afraid to try each ROM out for a hour or so and determine which one you like best. I suggest everyone start out with the pmf ROM because it is the best in my opinion. But it's just that my opinion what I like and find tolerable may not fit you! (I've tested ROMs for almost a month before I found the right one!)
And like any other of my posts, if you have questions comments or felt like I left something out let me know and I will help you etc as much as possible! (As I'm sure the other forum members will).
Welcome to the wild world of ROMS!
I've had several people PM me in the last week about how to flash specific ROMs onto their phones. So I decided to benefit a bigger audience and keep my typing and re-typing to a minimum I would cover it here in public.
So you want to flash a ROM? Well first thing is first, you need a rooted phone. There are a number of methods and topics about it, but simple matter of fact if you need unRevoked 3.1 which can be found here: unrevoked
Follow the prompts in unRevoked and let it do it's thing. If you are already rooted great we can get started!
The next step is to find a ROM you want to flash to your phone. There are a few out there to pick from so you need to decide what will fit your needs and wants. Do you want to try Froyo(there will be bugs as of this writing like no working camera, some can't see the internal phone memory or use the GPS. Keep that in mind) or are you happy with 2.1? Do you want to still have Sense UI or do you feel like being a purist and using a Vanilla install? Do you not care about any of that and just want something different?
Well go here and look through these ROMs: incredible ROMS | roms, news, and other cool stuff
You have the option, as of this writing, from that site to use Binny, Jager, Koush, Ozzeh, Stock, or Yetti. Whats the difference? I'll try and make this simple.
Binny: Based off the stock ROM so you still have Sense UI. However it does use a different kernel so you will have 802.11n instead of g so if that's important keep that in mind. Facebook is uninstallable with this ROM and CityID has been removed. And obviously it has busybox and superuser installed.
Jager: With this one you have the option of installing the Chocolate(Sense UI) or Vanilla(Regular no Sense UI) version. There is also the option to use the OTA version for people who have installed the leaked 720p OTA. It has K-9 mail and handcent SMS pre-installed for you. Either version still has the HTC dialer, phone book etc, so it's still got about 15-20% Sense in there.
Koush: This is the famous or infamous Cyanogen Mod. This is Froyo 2.2 with JIT and all those delicious goodies. Keep in mind the Camera isn't working in this build so if you like to use the camera mark it off the list for now.(As of this writing) It has a plain vanilla, no Sense UI, launcher and no HTC Widgets. Lean and mean as it gets right now as far as Froyo goes.
Ozzeh: Leanest of all 2.1 ROMs. EVERYTHING HTC is removed. This is basically what you would get with a Nexus 1 if that's what you are looking for. So don't expect the fancy dialer, phone book or widgets that came with your phone stock.
Stock: Just what it implies, a Stock rooted ROM. This is mainly for the people that didn't do a nandroid backup before flashing!
Yetti: You can try it if you want, but it doesn't have working Bluetooth and some people have reported force closes on apps.
Now for the ROMs not covered on that site. Over at XDA some really great Devs have been putting together some really nice work for us.
Blue/Red v4: This is mainly a purely Stock ROM but has all the buttons and menus re-colored to, you guessed it red or blue.
Sky Raider 1.9 Beta: Froyo 2.2, no Sense UI, working GPS,Blue Tooth WIFI,MMS not to mention mounted internal memory! But no working camera!
And last but not least, the one that has worked the best for me!
pmf v1.2 YASR: 2.1 rom with no Sense UI, everything works, has a vanilla lock screen unlike the others. Perfect ROM excellent performance etc. This one is a must have in my opinion.
Ok so now we have picked the ROM we want to give a whirl. First things first. Go into the market and find ROM manager. Once it has completed the download and installation open it up. Select "Backup Current ROM". This will create a nandroid backup on your SD card in case you ever decide to go back stock or something else goes wrong! (It will reboot your phone don't panic) When it gets done restart the phone if it doesn't do it for you.
Once booted back into the phone mount your SD card as a disk drive. Copy over the ROM of your choice as a zip file anywhere you can find it on your SD. I put mine in the root for simplicity. And then change your phone back to charge only.
Re-open ROM manager. Select "Install ROM from SD Card". Select the zip you just placed on your SD card and also select the option to "Wipe Data and Cache". You phone will now reboot and begin flashing the new ROM. This will take a bit.
Re-setup your phone and you are off! Enjoy your new ROM.
If you want don't want to have to re-download all your apps, lose your high scores etc you can get Titanium backup and save everything and just reload your backup. However I've had bad experiences with doing it with force closes etc after a restore, unless you go on at a time to restore things(I'm too impatient for that!). I suggest you just get appbrain and sync it that way it remembers what apps you have and just start fresh!
You can also do all this manually through clockworkmod. Here is the quick way to do everything I mentioned above.
1. Put ROM on the root of your SD card.
2. Shut down your phone.
3. Hold volume down + power to boot into hboot.
4. Select 'recovery' using volume button down then hit your power button to select.
5. Volume down/optic joystick down to select 'wipe data/factory reset'.
6. Select 'Install zip from sdcard'
7. Select your ROM.zip
8. Let it do it's thing.
9. Reboot phone and set it up.
10. Enjoy!
Remember to always wipe your data/factory reset when installing a new ROM. If you don't either your phone with boot loop or you will have a huge number of force closes!
In the end it's not a huge thing to do, is relatively easy, and highly addictive. Don't be afraid to try each ROM out for a hour or so and determine which one you like best. I suggest everyone start out with the pmf ROM because it is the best in my opinion. But it's just that my opinion what I like and find tolerable may not fit you! (I've tested ROMs for almost a month before I found the right one!)
And like any other of my posts, if you have questions comments or felt like I left something out let me know and I will help you etc as much as possible! (As I'm sure the other forum members will).
Welcome to the wild world of ROMS!
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