[How To][Links] ROMs/Themes and Kernels ~# Updated 3/20/11 #~

[PJnc284]

Does that back up mms too? I like MyBackup Pro as it gives you the option to back up call logs, sms, mms, etc along with backing up apps and app data (gotta save my angry birds progress). Best $4.99 I've spent.

 

[Suicide Shift]

Absolutely, I will spread the word. I have already primed the post with cred to you.

Orange Explosion has not been updated for some time (at least since SC 2.5).. Framework incompatibility will be evident

Theme updates have slowed. Some have stopped; and I have removed links that are dead.

Orange Explosion is fine

I found a way to change themes. I tested and found the following:

If you do your nandroid backup then apply the first theme it will work. If you then restore your nandroid no them backup and apply another it FC's during boot animation and never loads.

This was NOT a theme issue I found a way around it! The below steps are if you are going from an already installed theme to a different one and you have a clean nandroid backup already...

So basic steps here and let me know if you need more detail:

1. Make sure you have a non themed nandroid backup and backup any data contacts sms messages etc...

2. download your theme if not already on SD Card (duh)

3. In RED Recovery restore your clean NO THEME nandroid backup

4. To Prevent the FC loop at boot up you need to Flash your ROM / Kernel again... I flashed my SC2.9 voodoo after restoring my clean nadroid backup

5. Apply new theme

6. Boot and enjoy

Something must get stored by the themes that is not part of the nandroid backup that causes an issue. So between theme changes after nandroid clean restore just flash your current SC.X ROM / Kernel and without rebooting flash your new theme.

Works for me

 

[JaeKar99]

Suicide Shift:
Your fix now occupies Post #9 in this thread with a link in the instructions post. If you find you want to edit or change the directions PM me and we can work out editing or I can direct link instructions to the post #305 that you can update and/or edit..

Thanks Man!! Welcome to the "clique".. As Landshark and others have called it.. cadre works for me..

 

[Landshark]

Orange Explosion is fine

I found a way to change themes. I tested and found the following:

If you do your nandroid backup then apply the first theme it will work. If you then restore your nandroid no them backup and apply another it FC's during boot animation and never loads.

This was NOT a theme issue I found a way around it! The below steps are if you are going from an already installed theme to a different one and you have a clean nandroid backup already...

So basic steps here and let me know if you need more detail:

1. Make sure you have a non themed nandroid backup and backup any data contacts sms messages etc...

2. download your theme if not already on SD Card (duh)

3. In RED Recovery restore your clean NO THEME nandroid backup

4. To Prevent the FC loop at boot up you need to Flash your ROM / Kernel again... I flashed my SC2.9 voodoo after restoring my clean nadroid backup

5. Apply new theme

6. Boot and enjoy

Something must get stored by the themes that is not part of the nandroid backup that causes an issue. So between theme changes after nandroid clean restore just flash your current SC.X ROM / Kernel and without rebooting flash your new theme.

Works for me

Oh boy. Hold the phone there Suicide, not so fast. I think I know why that worked. When you flashed the ROM again, you wiped away any other zip files you had in your nandroid backup so you were just rebooting with the ROM and the theme. I know this happens because I tested if for someone wanting to get rid of a theme, but keep the mod zip file that removed the clock from the notification bar. I already knew you could get rid of a theme by just flashing the ROM by itself. But when I had the ROM, theme, and mod installed, booted to recovery, flashed just the ROM, rebooted and both the theme and mod were wiped away. So if your nandroid includes any additional patches or mods, when you restore your nandroid then flash just the ROM, you wipe away the patches and mods. As of right now I have had no problem restoring my nandroid of 2.9 with the nuance patch, then adding in the NitroDark theme. Further testing to continue.

 

[Suicide Shift]

is there a quick way of removing a theme once applied, other than a CWM backup?

Not when you flash themes. These themes get their files copied directly to the system folders to overwrite data.

You can flash a NEW theme however if Theme A had certain elements that the new Theme does not they will not be overwritten and will remain. This causes you to have a mixed theme that is not consistent or desired at least by me.

Other option is to use a Launcher Theme and download themes from the market however these are limited and you won't get certain customizations that you can with flashing themes.

 

[Suicide Shift]

Oh boy. Hold the phone there Suicide, not so fast. I think I know why that worked. When you flashed the ROM again, you wiped away any other zip files you had in your nandroid backup so you were just rebooting with the ROM and the theme. I know this happens because I tested if for someone wanting to get rid of a theme, but keep the mod zip file that removed the clock from the notification bar. I already knew you could get rid of a theme by just flashing the ROM by itself. But when I had the ROM, theme, and mod installed, booted to recovery, flashed just the ROM, rebooted and both the theme and mod were wiped away. So if your nandroid includes any additional patches or mods, when you restore your nandroid then flash just the ROM, you wipe away the patches and mods. As of right now I have had no problem restoring my nandroid of 2.9 with the nuance patch, then adding in the NitroDark theme. Further testing to continue.

Ahh you are correct. I did not look at the whopping (2) mods I added being Nuance and Thinkfree. Those are both gone and will need to be flashed again.

They are on the SD Card already or should be (I organize my SD Card with directories such as Apps, Themes, ROMs, Kernels, and Kernel_ROMs) and can be easily flashed again after flashing the Kernel / ROM....

Good to note. I'll be playing with this more and seeing what other gotcha's I may find.

I was able to however go to Orange Explosion then to Blue Steel without issue. Now I just need to flash my Nuance and Thinkfree which if I knew needed to be done could have been done while I was in recovery before.

*edit*

On second thought maybe the nadroid backup is not "NEEDED". I like to have one in case I feel like going without a theme for a while. I'll have to see if I can skip the restore and just flash the kernel / rom, mods, then new theme in one shot.

 

[Landshark]

Not when you flash themes. These themes get their files copied directly to the system folders to overwrite data.

You can flash a NEW theme however if Theme A had certain elements that the new Theme does not they will not be overwritten and will remain. This causes you to have a mixed theme that is not consistent or desired at least by me.

Other option is to use a Launcher Theme and download themes from the market however these are limited and you won't get certain customizations that you can with flashing themes.

Sorry Suicide but I have to correct you again. As I said in my other post you can easily remove a theme to go from having a theme to not having a theme by booting to recovery and flashing everything you want except the theme. Just want to make sure everyone has the correct info.

 

[Suicide Shift]

Sorry Suicide but I have to correct you again. As I said in my other post you can easily remove a theme to go from having a theme to not having a theme by booting to recovery and flashing everything you want except the theme. Just want to make sure everyone has the correct info.

NP I posted that before I saw your post then went on to testing further and forgot to correct it.

Thanks

 

[Landshark]

Ahh you are correct. I did not look at the whopping (2) mods I added being Nuance and Thinkfree. Those are both gone and will need to be flashed again.

They are on the SD Card already or should be (I organize my SD Card with directories such as Apps, Themes, ROMs, Kernels, and Kernel_ROMs) and can be easily flashed again after flashing the Kernel / ROM....

Good to note. I'll be playing with this more and seeing what other gotcha's I may find.

I was able to however go to Orange Explosion then to Blue Steel without issue. Now I just need to flash my Nuance and Thinkfree which if I knew needed to be done could have been done while I was in recovery before.

*edit*

On second thought maybe the nadroid backup is not "NEEDED". I like to have one in case I feel like going without a theme for a while. I'll have to see if I can skip the restore and just flash the kernel / rom, mods, then new theme in one shot.

Answer would be probably not. JaeKar and I have both tried loading everything up in one recovery session and rebooting and ended up in a fc loop at boot animation. I think we are on the right track with creating a nandroid of everything we want except the theme, then just restoring the nandroid and flashing the new theme. Every time I have flashed the ROM by itself first, rebooted, booted back into recovery then added in the theme and any patches and mods I have been fine. So far the only test I've been able to do today was creating my nandroid of ROM and nuance, reboot, boot to recovery, add in theme, reboot, no problem. Further testing to commence

 

[Landshark]

NP I posted that before I saw your post then went on to testing further and forgot to correct it.

Thanks

NP. Between the three of us we will figure this out and when we do you know what that means? Nobel Prize, champagne flowing, money falling from the skies

 

[Suicide Shift]

Answer would be probably not. JaeKar and I have both tried loading everything up in one recovery session and rebooting and ended up in a fc loop at boot animation. I think we are on the right track with creating a nandroid of everything we want except the theme, then just restoring the nandroid and flashing the new theme. Every time I have flashed the ROM by itself first, rebooted, booted back into recovery then added in the theme and any patches and mods I have been fine. So far the only test I've been able to do today was creating my nandroid of ROM and nuance, reboot, boot to recovery, add in theme, reboot, no problem. Further testing to commence

good to know you will save me testing a path you have already gone down.

 

[JaeKar99]

I am going to start loading up themes over the next couple of days.. will update as things roll out. I have been lucky - have not duplicated a FC; FC loop or boot loop at this early stage with SuperClean 2.9..

 

[Landshark]

I am going to start loading up themes over the next couple of days.. will update as things roll out. I have been lucky - have not duplicated a FC; FC loop or boot loop at this early stage with SuperClean 2.9..

SWEEEET, me neither.

 

[nyunker]

nitroglycerine33....NITRO DARK now NITRO COMB!!! Your themes are effin sick man!!! keep up the good work!!

 

[mengineer]

You can scratch Nitrocomb and mob87's last post on xda of Honeycomb off the list of need testing with SC2.9nv, both work perfect. Tried them both separately and didn't have one problem. Then I flashed Honeycomb on top of Nitrocomb, because I like Honeycomb a little more but it's missing a few things, and that's where I'm currently at now for a few hours and haven't had one problem. It turned out to be a good mash up too because they're so similar you can't tell what's from what.

 

[Landshark]

You can scratch Nitrocomb and mob87's last post on xda of Honeycomb off the list of need testing with SC2.9nv, both work perfect. Tried them both separately and didn't have one problem. Then I flashed Honeycomb on top of Nitrocomb, because I like Honeycomb a little more but it's missing a few things, and that's where I'm currently at now for a few hours and haven't had one problem. It turned out to be a good mash up too because they're so similar you can't tell what's from what.

Great to hear mengineer. Thanks for the help and the info.

Jaekar and everyone else following this, here are the results of the limited testing I have done so far:
I have been successful at doing the following which is a good sign. Made my nandroid with ROM and nuance, rebooted, added theme, themed market, tw clock package, and a few other packages, booted to recovery, made a nandroid of that, and rebooted from recovery with no problem. I have not been able to do that on any EB01 build until now. I think 2.9 is a super stable ROM, and combine that now with only using the cwm-recovery-all and we are looking real good. I'm now going to test switching themes, then if everything goes well with that I'm going to test throwing everything in at once during the same recovery session and see if I can reboot with no force close issues.

 

[JaeKar99]

Testing part A:
Clean load 2.9 non voodoo, EB01 kernel, - Backed up using CWM 2.5.1.x (red)
Cleared cache partition and D-Cache: Flashed NitroComb v1.0
Backed up - NitroComb 1.0
Cleared cache partition and D-Cache: Returned to nandroid of SuperClean 2.9: No issues
Returned to NitroComb v.1.0: No issues
Cleared cache partition and D-Cache: Flashed Steel Blue 1.4 over NitroComb v 1.0 - No issues.. Installed multiple market updates.
Backed up Steel Blue v1.4.
Returned to first back up of SuperClean 2.9 - Re-installed market updates..

I think we may have cleared a hurdle here with SC 2.9.

I have added no apps and no add-ons, patches, or the media scan accelerator.

I cannot draw any conclusions yet. I will flash back to Steel Blue in couple of hours and report back.

 

[10001110101]

Just flashed mob87's Honeycomb on top of SC2.9v... it's beautiful. No FC issues at all. Will keep you all posted if there are...

 

[Landshark]

Testing part B:

Flashed back to sc 2.8 with no themes, add ons, or mods
Wiped cache and dalvik
Flashed sc 2.9 nonvoodoo, nuance patch, tw clock package, reboot, no problem
did nandroid of that base package, reboot, no problem
Flashed NitroDark v2.2, black/green market, and NitroDark grey circle accurate battery, rebooted, no problem
Nandroid backup of that whole package, reboot, no problem
Flashed NitroComb v1.0, reboot, no problem.

I also did a nandroid of just 2.9 nonvoodoo and the nuance patch. Tonight I will try restoring all my different nandroid backups. I have only wiped cache and dalvik that one time going from 2.8 to 2.9 and I have not had one single force close. No gapps force close, no LP force close, no email force close, NONE. Everything has been super smooth, no extra vibrations, first boot seems to take a while, but then after that, pretty quick. I think 2.9 is a super stable ROM and Adrynalyne really outdid himself here. That paired with our ability to boot directly to red cwm-all and only using that cwm I think has solved all our issues. If I am able to restore all my nandroid backups with no issues I will try loading everything together all in the same recovery session - 2.9, theme, patches, mods, add ons and see if I have any problems. I think we are there boys and girls and we owe it all to Adrynalyne.

 

[k rock]

What's a "nandroid" and when and why do we make one? Still trying to learn everything here.

Edit: found what it was. Everytime before we flash anything we should make a nandroid back up?