Root to Rom: My Adventure

[jmcsmith]

Alright i have managed to root and rom my HTC Droid Incredible and i thought i would share my experiences with you.

Rooting:
I used the Root in 10 minutes video on youtube (Here) in conjunction with help from an XDA post to get into adb shell (Here)
It took me about 3-4 hours to get into adb shell and root the phone. Using the XDA method i waited about 7-7.5 seconds before inserting the SD card (8GB Sandisk SDHC card). After i was in the adb shell i followed the directions on the youtube video and root was successful and i had SU and wifi tether.

Roming:
I referenced a bunch of videos and posts but this was very helpful in explaining the order things should be done in.
After rooting was finished i used unrEVOked2 to flash ClockworkMod.
I then used Titanium Backup to backup all my installed applications and their respective data.
****Notes on Titanium: if it says you need Busybox, click problems and you can install busybox from within the application.
****If you are going to Rom your phone: I made the mistake of backing up all applications and their data and then also restoring them all. This seemed to cause problems and made things stop responding and crash. I would reccomend only restoring the applications that you downloaded from the market and maybe your messaging DATA, not the app, so you have all your SMS messages.

Next i exported my contacts to my SD card using the build in export.

I then used Rom Manager Premium ($4 on the market) to backup my current Rom. This backs up all user data so that when/if you want to restore this Rom everything is in the same place and all the data is present. Its like you never left.
Rom Manager Premium then let me install the most recent Nightly Build of the Cyanogenmod port for the Incredible.
Once the Rom is installed and the phone reboots you should see stock android OS (like is on the N1)

I then restored the applications i wanted using Titanium (you can pick which apps to restore from backup) and imported my contacts using the built in import.

I have noticed two things that do not work as intended on the Cyanogen port. The first is the camera (see screenshot below), it seems that the drivers are not correct for the incredible. Second is the wifi tether, it errors and will not start (again see below for screenshot)

Besides those two issues everything seems to be working correctly. It is very fast with JIT enabled. I ran Linpack and got a high of 38, a low of 6 and an average of 34 or so. (screenshot attached)

Thanks to everyone for their help and for creating apps that make this possible.

 

[sklemp]

Great writeup jmcsmith. Glad to see you got rooted and rommed and are enjoying everything. I wish I could run the CM6 mod but I use my camera WAY too much. Once that's fixed, I'm all over it.

 

[jmcsmith]

i have now also installed the Sky Raider Rom (1.7) mentioned on these forums and on XDA. Its very nice and still allows me to use the HTC widgets that i like so much.
It does have the same two major problems that Cyanogen 6 does, neither the camera or the wifi hotspot work.
There is one update, to 1.8 which i have to figure out how to install since it is not a full rom, only an update.

 

[sklemp]

i have now also installed the Sky Raider Rom (1.7) mentioned on these forums and on XDA. Its very nice and still allows me to use the HTC widgets that i like so much.
It does have the same two major problems that Cyanogen 6 does, neither the camera or the wifi hotspot work.
There is one update, to 1.8 which i have to figure out how to install since it is not a full rom, only an update.

Download the zip to your sd card. Reboot into recovery and choose "install zip from sd". Find the zip and install it. The restart the phone. Not sure if you need to clear the cache or not, but I would just in case.

 

[sklemp]

Correction, I just read the post with the 1.8. You DON'T need to restart.

 

[Panthersfan86]

need a little help??

hey just wanted to no if you could give me the link to use xda to get into the adb shell, and if you could reccommend a mod where everything works, camera, 3g mobile hotspot, etc. and that i can still use the htc widgets i want?? Also this droid incredible is my first android phone so i dont know alot about rooting all though i've read a ton so any other help you could offer would be great?? thanks.

 

[_JKK_]

hey just wanted to no if you could give me the link to use xda to get into the adb shell, and if you could reccommend a mod where everything works, camera, 3g mobile hotspot, etc. and that i can still use the htc widgets i want?? Also this droid incredible is my first android phone so i dont know alot about rooting all though i've read a ton so any other help you could offer would be great?? thanks.

Just use Unrevoked 3.1. Follow this guide would be my advice: Howto: Root the HTC Droid Incredible – Technology – Jonamerica.com