ROM install Questions from a noob

[smashclash]

OK, I've rooted my epic and installed titanium and mIQ to make backups of apps, texts, contacts, etc. I THINK between those 2 programs all of my important info is now backed up. Please someone confirm if this is incorrect.

I am now considering installing a ROM but before I do so I have a couple of questions.

-When an update is released will I need to unroot or remove the ROM or do anything to my phone so my phone can receive the update and not screw something up?
-What about above but when Froyo gets pushed out to us?
-From what I understand when installing a ROM it wipes your phone of all the apps and information and "reinstalls" a "new, custom modified" version of android. Since new releases are constantly coming out for minor bug fixes do you have to constantly reflash the phone for the new ROM? That is, everytime I put update the ROM I have to delete everything on my phone and then reinstall via backup from titanium and mIQ?

 

[shaunpeezy]

- 1. no you dont need to unroot your phone and remove all your root access. however this means you wont be allowed to do an ota update. but typically people will post a zip file that will allow you tp update the firmware on your phone. for example, type in "di18 update for rooted epic 4g" and you should see a post on xda which has a few different files for people who are rooted who want the di18 update or for people who arent rooted too.
- 2. typically modders already have froyo incorporated with their custom roms/kernels before froyo even begins pushing ota. look up froyo captivate roms
- 3. you dont need to wipe your phones data if you dont want to. it can create some force closes on some apps, but it wont brick your phone. and if you do get force closes or something else happens (boot loop, etc) thats why they tell you to make a nandroid backup first. but if you just get force closes you can wipe your data and then flash the rom.
after you install a rom you can go into -bacup/restore>advanced restore>click on latest backup>restore data. thatl bring back all your apps and what not.

 

[smashclash]

thanks for the info.

is a nandroid backup a specific type of backup or was that a type-o?

 

[ragnarokx]

thanks for the info.

is a nandroid backup a specific type of backup or was that a type-o?

It is the type of backup you can create if you have ClockworkMod Recovery installed. After rooting the first thing you should do is install Clockwork and backup your phone.

 

[smashclash]

It is the type of backup you can create if you have ClockworkMod Recovery installed. After rooting the first thing you should do is install Clockwork and backup your phone.

is clockworkmod recovery necessary if I did/do backups using titanium and mIQ? Is clockworkmod a better backup product?

 

[ragnarokx]

is clockworkmod recovery necessary if I did/do backups using titanium and mIQ? Is clockworkmod a better backup product?

Clockwork is very different from normal backup programs. It's a recovery program that you can run before your phone OS even boots up. It's a must have fail safe program that you can use to restore your phone if anything ever goes wrong with a modification. Other backup programs just restore your apps and some data, but Clockwork saves a copy of your entire system.

 

[smashclash]

I'm having problems with the clockwork recovery. I downloaded the file and extracted everything and tried the run first and run last. After a few attempts it looked like it did something when it said "read 261113" not sure if the # is correct but it was something like that and it said it about 15 times and then stopped and the phone reset on it's own. then it had me wait 60 seconds and then i pressed another key and the dos prompt screen disappeared. Does this mean it fully worked?

If it matters I did not install the Java JDK nor the Android SDK. I'm downloading and installing them now and plan to run the clockwork program again. I'll copy and paste the results from the DOS prompt this time.

 

[shaundizzle]

uh im like 90% sure that android sdk is vital to rooting your phone.

you need to save the android sdk folder onto your hard drive of your computer. open up the start button>computer> and then save it on your "local disk".
then download the "one click root" and save the extracted files in the android sdk folder labeled "tools" by hitting start button>computer>local disk>android sdk>tools> then place the one click root folders in there.
do the same thing with the "one click recovery" (clockwork) folders.

then you can go ahead and root. if anything else weird happens post back. this time copy and paste what it says in the command prompt haha

are you even sure your rooted? when you isntalled and opened titanium backup did it ask for you to grant super user permissions?
do you have the superuser app? it should be in your app drawer and say "super user" should be an android crossbone thing - like a pirate flag

if not download it from the market. and then try and open titanium or wireless tether and see if it asks you for permission. wireless tether is probably more preferable as its straight forward. >>> when you click on activate wireless tether it should ask for permissions

 

[smashclash]

uh im like 90% sure that android sdk is vital to rooting your phone.

you need to save the android sdk folder onto your hard drive of your computer. open up the start button>computer> and then save it on your "local disk".
then download the "one click root" and save the extracted files in the android sdk folder labeled "tools" by hitting start button>computer>local disk>android sdk>tools> then place the one click root folders in there.
do the same thing with the "one click recovery" (clockwork) folders.

then you can go ahead and root. if anything else weird happens post back. this time copy and paste what it says in the command prompt haha

are you even sure your rooted? when you isntalled and opened titanium backup did it ask for you to grant super user permissions?
do you have the superuser app? it should be in your app drawer and say "super user" should be an android crossbone thing - like a pirate flag

if not download it from the market. and then try and open titanium or wireless tether and see if it asks you for permission. wireless tether is probably more preferable as its straight forward. >>> when you click on activate wireless tether it should ask for permissions

yes, superuser is installed. yes it asks and i grant permission when using wireless tether. i was able to run titanium which requires root and install wireless tether and was able to get it running on my laptop last night.

anyway, just tried the clockwork run first.bat file again and here are the results. after it showed all this it said system updated and rebooted the phone. does this mean it worked? if so, what do i do now?




one click installer and Clockworkmod Recovery v2.5.1.0 made by noobnl, skeeters
lint, and koush
Press any key to continue . . .
remove stock recovery patcher
rm failed for /system/etc/install-recovery.sh, No such file or directory
rm failed for /system/recovery-from-boot.p, No such file or directory
copy kernel and flasher
1154 KB/s (0 bytes in 313888.000s)
1846 KB/s (0 bytes in 5820868.003s)
flashing kernel
RedBend Update Agent 6,1,14,1

FOTA : Make Block Device Nodes
lcd_init(498): start!
lcd_init(507): fb0 open success
lcd_init(514): width = 480, height = 800
page_msize: 4096, phy_unit_size: 262144
src: /sdcard/zImage
dst: /dev/block/bml8 partition size: 0x780000
part_size: 0x780000
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 262144 bytes
read 53700 bytes
read finished
wait 60 second
cleanup
done
Press any key to continue . . .

 

[ragnarokx]

yes, superuser is installed. yes it asks and i grant permission when using wireless tether. i was able to run titanium which requires root and install wireless tether and was able to get it running on my laptop last night.

anyway, just tried the clockwork run first.bat file again and here are the results. after it showed all this it said system updated and rebooted the phone. does this mean it worked? if so, what do i do now?

It looks like it worked. To check, turn off your phone. Then simultaneously press and hold the camera + vol down + power buttons. If it boots into a screen with green text, that is Clockwork. If it has blue text, that is the stock recovery and your Clockwork installation didn't work.

 

[smashclash]

the whole clockwork install took less than a minute. when i ran titanium backup it seemed like it took well over 30mins.

ok, it installed and it shows the clockwork recovery green text options. i unplugged my phone from the computer prior to booting up in clockwork mode. now that i'm in the recovery screen how do i navigate to the options so i can choose "backup and restore" or are tehre any other options i should be running as well?

 

[smashclash]

ok, it looks like if i open the phone i can use the arrow keys on the keypad to choose the options. does the backup save directly to the phone or should i plug the phone into the pc first?

 

[smashclash]

ok, just selected the backup option without the phone plugged in and it did it's think. it took a few minutes to complete and then when finished i selected 'reboot'. so i assume now there is a good backup saved on the sd card in case i ever screw something up moving forward. correct?

 

[ragnarokx]

ok, just selected the backup option without the phone plugged in and it did it's think. it took a few minutes to complete and then when finished i selected 'reboot'. so i assume now there is a good backup saved on the sd card in case i ever screw something up moving forward. correct?

Yup, now if anything ever goes so wrong that you can't get your phone to boot up, you just boot into Clockwork instead and restore from your backup. Time to install a ROM!

 

[smashclash]

Yup, now if anything ever goes so wrong that you can't get your phone to boot up, you just boot into Clockwork instead and restore from your backup. Time to install a ROM!

any recommendations on a ROM? Doesn't look like there's all that much out there for the Epic at the moment.

 

[ragnarokx]

any recommendations on a ROM? Doesn't look like there's all that much out there for the Epic at the moment.

There are actually quite a few. If you browse this forum you should find a thread for each one. My favorite atm is Baked Snack.

 

[shaundizzle]

i like epic experience because it looks a little more stock.

but i kept the kernel from bakedsnack.

id use bakedsnack if he updated it more and if i was on his forums. because hes kind of a sneaky guy to follow

 

[wroedesk]

I'm new to this and I was using this thread to help complete the clockwork back up. I got it installed and everything came up ok, when I went to do the back up its been sitting for about 15 minutes now. Black screen, red light on top and all the bottom buttoms are lite on my epic. Should it be taking this long?

 

[ragnarokx]

I'm new to this and I was using this thread to help complete the clockwork back up. I got it installed and everything came up ok, when I went to do the back up its been sitting for about 15 minutes now. Black screen, red light on top and all the bottom buttoms are lite on my epic. Should it be taking this long?

Don't think so - the longest a Clockwork backup has ever taken for me is 2-3min.

 

[Tonio21]

I'm new to this as well. I have root ( used titanium backup and a wireless tether application which works) so that is confirmed. I flashed the ClockworkMod Recovery and have version 2.5.1.0 apparently. What am stuck on, is when I try to backup my ROM. It is stock, but has root access. I want to run a backup and make sure i have one before I dive into flashing and the like. When I try to backup my current ROM, I get this:
E:failed to verify whole-file signature
E:signature verification failed
Installation aborted.
I have the blue text system recovery which means stock from what I have read. I am using a epic 4g and want to start getting into the flashing world of android.

Can anyone help me step by step possibly ? Any help would be appreciated.