Some questions about Cyanogen and other ROMS

[FC1032]

Hi!

I currently have stock froyo running on my phone, and so far, it been great! There are many apps that bring root features without rooting for real (like flashlight, trackball notifications etc)

I'm holding out for Cyanogen 6 (the final build not the current RC) and will root and install then.

But I have a few questions...

1. What happens to my current apps? more specifically the paid ones. Its not hard to find all my free apps in the market. But how will the paid ones be handled?
2. I've been reading about themes and additional add ons (such as the desire cam settings and desire wallpaper) but they aren't "installed" its "flashed" is that kinda like how we apply manual updates but with other files?
3. I'm pretty much sure I'm going to install cyanogen rather than mocado (well cyanogen first at least , mocado later), cyanogen has a built in updater right? so if they have updates, they arrive OTA like the official ones from google no?
4. A few cyanogen specific questions: I've read from the changelog that the status bar is customisable, is that like changing the colour and opacity? (this is in the settings right?)
5. Whats the camera app like in cyanogen ATM? is it like the stock one but with 720 recording? or is it like the desire one with touch focus? I really want a cam with touch focus and 720 recording!
6. Are those trackball settings in the menu too? (like breathing light, missed call LED, email, low battery... or will i still need blink?)
7. Finally, if I don't like it, can i go back to what i have now? Is backing up going to make a brief copy or a detailed one, meaning i can restore and everything will be where it is literally?

Sorry I'm just throwing questions everywhere... I don't want to do all this without preparation, I've heard horror stories of people not reading/preparing enough and screwing up their phones.

Thanks in advance!

[killerbender]

1- Your paid apps is associated with your google account, so you can always install in a phone that has your google account signed in, without paying it twice.

7- You can always roll back to the version that you have, but you need to make a backup. BUT if you unlock the bootloader (voiding your warranty) you will NOT BE ABLE TO LOCK IT AGAIN. (there is a method on rooting without unlocking http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=710842 but seems so complicated to me)

[pendo]

Originally Posted by FC1032

Hi!

I currently have stock froyo running on my phone, and so far, it been great! There are many apps that bring root features without rooting for real (like flashlight, trackball notifications etc)

I'm holding out for Cyanogen 6 (the final build not the current RC) and will root and install then.

But I have a few questions...
[LIST=1][*]What happens to my current apps? more specifically the paid ones. Its not hard to find all my free apps in the market. But how will the paid ones be handled?

afaik, all of your apps you have now will behave the same way. Now some apps that you install after you root can be different, but not always.

[*]I've been reading about themes and additional add ons (such as the desire cam settings and desire wallpaper) but they aren't "installed" its "flashed" is that kinda like how we apply manual updates but with other files?

There are currently 3 ways to alter the appearance of your phone. Flash an update that you put on your sd card. This is done by the custom recovery image that you install as part of rooting. There are a couple popular ones (Amon_Ra and ClockworkMod) but you'll learn more about that later.

The second is through a program called MetaMorph. It manipulates the same parts of code that a flashed zip update would, but it is a little less "invasive" than the flash update. A reboot is still required, and there is no way to 'turn off' the theme, ie the only way to get rid of the theme is to reflash to a prior state via nandroid (once again you'll learn about that with the recovery console)

The third way is to push different files overwriting the existing ones. This is very easy to do (and my personal preferred method) but you need to learn command line operations to use it. It's called Android Debug Bridge aka 'adb'
The 'adb push' command pushes whatever you want from your pc to the phone. So if I just want to change the color of the notification bar, I take a modified framework-res.apk file and push it to the phone and reboot.

That last method is a little deeper than the average joe wants to go, and I get that but if you do get into it a little bit, it's pretty easy.

[*]I'm pretty much sure I'm going to install cyanogen rather than mocado (well cyanogen first at least , mocado later), cyanogen has a built in updater right? so if they have updates, they arrive OTA like the official ones from google no?

I don't know for sure as I currently haven't tried much from CM (I did try RC1 for a few hours but quickly came back to Enomther's rom) but I do believe they support updates. One of the recovery programs I mentioned earlier, ClockworkMod, has a section in it for rom makers that do offer updates

[*]A few cyanogen specific questions: I've read from the changelog that the status bar is customisable, is that like changing the colour and opacity? (this is in the settings right?)

Once again, I'm not too familiar but I've read some references from different themes about how to adjust certain settings to accomodate the CM color changing abilities

[*]Whats the camera app like in cyanogen ATM? is it like the stock one but with 720 recording? or is it like the desire one with touch focus? I really want a cam with touch focus and 720 recording!

don't know

[*]Are those trackball settings in the menu too? (like breathing light, missed call LED, email, low battery... or will i still need blink?)

These are still evolving a little bit. There's a program in the market called Trackball Alert that works with several roms but not all. Also, there is a trend developing that rom builders put that functionality in with there rom. These settings vary from program to program but include the ability to have different colors for each app, and there's also a mod that allows the alerts to flash in succession for each different alert you have. So if you saw it flash 3 different colors (of your choosing) before repeating the pattern, you'd know which 3 different types of notifications you have. The succession flashing is not universal yet, but I *think* the cyanogen final release will have it. It does cause a little bit more battery drain, but I don't know how much for sure.

But whatever trackball alerts are offered, yes you can adjust the settings. Handcent offers some neat stuff in their app where you can adjust not only the colors but the flashing frequency.

[*]Finally, if I don't like it, can i go back to what i have now? Is backing up going to make a brief copy or a detailed one, meaning i can restore and everything will be where it is literally?

Yes you can. Once again you'll learn more about this when you root the phone, but you'll flash what is call a recovery image to the phone. It is a program that you access before the OS boots up. On the Nexus you do this by holding power and volume down at the same time, use the volume rocker to select 'RECOVERY' and then select that option with the power button. The phone reboots in recovery mode and there are several options. Now this is where the custom recovery image comes in to play.

This is like the golden rule of flashing your phone:

----ALWAYS PERFORM A NANDROID BACKUP BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY CHANGES-----

And I frequently update my nandroid backups as I add apps that are keepers. That way if/when I do something that either I don't like or screws up (happens to me all the time as I'm trying to learn stuff) then it's easy to return to where you were.

Hope this helps!!



Oh and for your last comment:

Sorry I'm just throwing questions everywhere... I don't want to do all this without preparation, I've heard horror stories of people not reading/preparing enough and screwing up their phones.

Thanks in advance!

I was kind of the same way. I had previously jailbroke my iphone, but returned it to native as the phone slowed significantly. I expected similar things here. And also the process of unlocking the bootloader and rooting IS more complicated than jailbreaking an iphone. But it is doable...I'd never even operated an android phone before getting my N1 at the end of April, and now I'm fairly comfortable with several of the command line stuff for developers, and I barely knew what a command prompt was before that. To the best of my knowledge, the big danger that can be unreversible (bricking) is if you remove power from the phone while a radio image is being flashed. This has nothing to do with flashing roms or themes. Now there was a recent radio update (4.06.00.12_7) that is required for certain roms, but you probably already have that pushed from google. From what I've seen it's not a very regular thing to change radios, but there is that precaution when doing it.

Root that baby!! It will smoke...especially with a good rom. HIGHLY recommend Enomther's latest. Here's a link in case it's not already here

[FC1032]

Thanks Pendo!

Your answer was top notch! (this forum needs a thumb up/thank you thing...)

As mentioned, I'll go with Cyanogen for now since its the most common. I'll work my way from there, I don't want to overload myself

I'm actually very keen in rooting and installing roms, but official froyo dropped by when i was still in the honeymoon period. So now that I've calmed down alittle, its time to go to the deep end

I've spoke to another Nexus user (one from facebook ) about froyo... and he said to me that he basically rooted and installed custom roms the day he got the phone. I've also heard rom flashing is addictive addictive stuff is good no?

Anyway, Thanks again, if anyone else wants to chime in feel free I'll be patiently waiting for CM6...

[pendo]

You're welcome

I've also heard rom flashing is addictive

Yes.....very

addictive stuff is good no?

Depends on who you ask, lol. I know I've been spending an inordinate amount of time with it lately as I'm in that honeymoon stage again at the moment as I'm trying to learn more about the mod side of things...




Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

[FC1032]

Originally Posted by pendo

Depends on who you ask, lol. I know I've been spending an inordinate amount of time with it lately

Haha, i spent alot of time with my nexus even during exam period :P not good...

thanks for your response!!

[pendo]

Originally Posted by FC1032

Haha, i spent alot of time with my nexus even during exam period :P not good...

thanks for your response!!

PHY 2034 final tomorrow morning...

[enforcerman]

Originally Posted by pendo

PHY 2034 final tomorrow morning...

haha, add me to that list. I have a national medical board exam tomorrow morning for my psychiatry rotation....

yet for some reason I'm on this forum learning how to root
I just cant wait to get some extra battery life out of this thing

[pendo]

I think I'm about done for the prep finally....yay!

...now back to changing .smali files...

[FC1032]

hope you guys did well!