Guide to ROMS and rooting?

[Guest elpelco]

Ok. People come here (and to other android forums) all the time, asking about ROMS and rooting. I'm one of them.

My question is, IS there a guide on the internet for people who want to root their Hero (or G1 or whatever) and add a custom ROM to it? Because I'm sure you're all very tired of answering the same questions over and over. And by that I mean is there a site that EXPLAINS things, not just tells you how to do it. I haven't found such a thing and all the guides I've come across assume a starting knowledge that a lot of people don't have.

What I've found is that it's very difficult to learn how to do this kind of thing or gather any knowledge at all about the subject, and people who WANT to learn are often dismissed and/or sneered at because they don't know things. And yet how did the people doing the sneering learn? We learn by asking questions, and it's unfair to look down on people becuase they don't know certain things.

If there was/is a site that explains rooting, installing a new ROM, and has, I don't know, a glossary or something, that would be very useful for someone like me, because trying to get anywhere with this has been like banging my head against a brick wall.

Obviously I don't expect someone to do it for me, I want to do it for myself, which is why I want to KNOW about it.

Am I expressing myself clearly? It's a genuine question.

[Guest kendon]

let me explain why i think that this is not possible, mainly for two reasons:

- where do you want to start? if you want to explain EVERYTHING you would need to start with electrical energy. then go via ohm's law and the usual suspects on, pass the integrated circuits, oh and while your at it don't forget chemistry, your screen isn't made out of glass and colours... a site that wants to explain everything has no starting point.

- people have different interests. while there might be some out there like you (and me too), that want to actually know what it does and how it works most of the people just want features. they don't care why. for the first group you'd need to explain the universe, for the second there should be a button "root me". better yet "do it", less letters and you don't need to know the word "root". and better no button, less work.

if you want to keep it on a real scale (of course you don't need to explain the universe in the context of mobile hacking), a problem here is that many ppl are lacking basic linux knowledge. you'd need to explain multi-user os, unix filesystem permissions, filesystems in general, the special filesystem /proc, /sys, /dev etc, the linux concept of mounting, remounting, loopmounting, config files and so. at the latest when you come to apps and modding there is programming (in general and particular for java/android). back to application signing and we have cryptographic algorithms, which leads us down to mathematical concepts...

you see where i am going here? there is a lot of stuff where just need to know THAT it works, and take that for good. make your way from the top down. find out how to install a custom rom. then start examining that custom rom and find out what the structure, the essential parts are, what is responsible for configuration etc. if you have specific questions (like "what is option xy in file 123 good for?") you will get answers. in case of android a lot of these questions can be answered from some kind of linux documentation (manpage, community, documentation itself) or the official android documentation.

i started with some linux knowledge (of which i was taught some, but most of it gained myself by using and tweaking ubuntu on my laptop), but zero knowledge about programming and never have compiled a linux kernel before. as i am writing this my hero is running my own self compiled kernel, to which i added a patch that i had to port from an older version of the kernel. all this together in a (slightly) modified version of the mcr2.9 rom. i was able to create an ubuntu installation in an imagefile on my sdcard, just by looking at it how it was done with debian.

what i want to say is: you can not learn everything at once, get to know what you need to know to fulfill your task, then look at it and begin to question its inner working.

[Guest sinnadyr]

Agreed, but I will probably make a "total newb guide" some time myself, but I promise you; if you read a little bit everywhere, e.g if you find

...then use adb to push file on to SD-card.

Well then, google for adb and find out what it actually is. Do some research instead of just looking for guides that writes about -everything-, that would just be to much work.

One more thing tho, if you haven't any knowledge at all, then rooting and fiddling with your phone might just want to wait a little before you seriously break something because of the lack of "common" knowledge...

[Guest elpelco]

That's my point. I HAVE been googling, and the information online is sparse, and difficult to find.

I'm not saying a detailed guide for every little thing, but since I'm clearly being misunderstood here, I won't waste any more time trying to explain myself.

[Guest pillock]

I don't think you're being misunderstood - you're after a guide that caters for your level of knowledge, that explains the parts that are alien to you but glosses over the bits that you don't need to know.

Trouble is, that's quite a personal thing. To you, it'd be the perfect guide but to some people it'd be patronisingly oversimple. To others, it'd still be way too confusing. There's a massive range of knowledge here, and out there in the wider world, and it's far far easier for you to fill the holes in your knowledge than it is for someone to correctly guess the level of information you need, and write a guide just for you.

I too knew nothing of Android 5 weeks ago. Not a clue how it worked. So between here, xda-dev and androidforums I've pieced together enough to figure out what rooting is/does, how to achieve it, what all those commands do and so on. There wasn't a guide, there was search boxes and Google and some questions asked. It wasn't particually easy in my case since I started with the latest UK T-Mo firmware, so I had to play with goldcards, but I got there. You can too.

[Guest kendon]

I'm not saying a detailed guide for every little thing, but since I'm clearly being misunderstood here, I won't waste any more time trying to explain myself.

give us an example of questions you have and claim not to find answers from google, and i will show you the information. especially about android there is everything out there. google's documentation alone can solve so many questions...

[Guest agent-5]

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Edited December 7, 2009 by agent-5

[Guest pina]

Firstly, let me say how grateful I am for people on these types of sites. If I have a problem, I post a question and wait patiently for an answer. I don't know everything about everything and am learning about Android/Linux myself. I too have asked some stupidly simple questions (and been ripped apart for it). However, what people must realise is that sites like these are kept alive by enthusiasts. We don't work for Google/htc or get paid for spending our time and effort to answer posts. We do it to further the community, solve common issues and better the Android experience.

It is totally understandable that people will get annoyed at the hundredth post of 'HOW DO I ROOT MY HERO?’ The information is out there, so search for it. The trick is to know how to perform accurate searches and use the information which is already in existence to achieve what you want. Just remember, there's not going to be an idiot-proof guide for everything. When I rooted my Hero, I used a G1 guide and fumbled my way through... experience is the best teacher. So get your hands dirty and start messing around. If you brick your phone, who cares? Just think of Thomas Edison’s approach to failure and start again.

just go to theunlockr.com -> how to -> htc hero/g2

I rooted my hero thanks to their complete guide :)

[Guest shenshang]

theunlockr.com comes with amazing step by step instructions and a video to help you along. it even shows how to downgrade and then load a rom. you will learn about adb as you go along the process.

[Guest epicurean]

theunlockr.com comes with amazing step by step instructions and a video to help you along. it even shows how to downgrade and then load a rom. you will learn about adb as you go along the process.

Does theunlockr.com guide applies successfully to non Sprint Hero too? eg GSM Hero?

[Guest agent-5]

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Edited December 7, 2009 by agent-5

[Guest Nazgulled]

(...)So get your hands dirty and start messing around. If you brick your phone, who cares? Just think of Thomas Edison’s approach to failure and start again.

I believe the people that wasted a good amount of money on the phone will care...

That's why they ask questions first and start messing around later. I understand the frustration of some people responding or even just reading the same question all over again but the information for messing around with rooting and flashing is all scattered, there is no central place for every newbie to the Android scene to read and understand.

Please note that I'm not complaining, I'm just saying, pointing out the obvious. That's all.

[Guest eleven_nt]

honestly speaking, everyone above this post has a point. but it would be quite exceptional if we have a stickied thread which is mainly the process of what's going on.

this was how i learned to play around with my ipod nano 1st gen and get it to play video, there was a step by step basic guide. after i followed it, i understood what was going on and i was able to mess with my nano for no reason. now for android mods, i get what elpelco is saying cause i am also having the same problem. i HAVE been googling the last few nights just to get things done and things are still confusing and i haven't rooted my hero yet. i went over this site's guide for the nth time and still nothing and i don't know what i am doing wrong because i know that i am following the guide carefully.

another thing is, for user guides and things like these the writer should never assume that the reader should already have most of the needed knowledge for following through the guide, because if the reader does, then what's the point of writing a tutorial?

[Guest Nazgulled]

@eleven_nt

I was in the same situation as you a few days ago, but kendon was very helpful in responding to all my questions. It's not a guide but I think it consolidates a bunch of important-to-know information about rooting and flashing, try to take a look in this topic and see if it helps you:

http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero...-flashing-roms/