I've spent quite a few days researching flashing a new OS having rooted using Universal Androot. I had been concerned as I had used Rom Manager to flash my recovery but it kept resetting after every reboot. I had assumed this was due to the fact that Universal Androot doesn't change the bootloader but after talking to some people on forums I discovered it was the Android OS and once Cyanogen is installed the recovery holds.
So... what happened next... *sigh*. I ran Titanium Backup, backed up my launcher pro settings, then used Rom Manager to firstly do a Nandroid backup then to wipe the phone and install Cyanogen.
2 minutes later I have a fully fledged Cyanogen Nexus one, restored my apps and settings using titanium backup and restored my desktop setting for launcher pro. Reboot and my phone is just like I left it, sms, call logs, bluetooth pairings, everything! Totally painless, other than the fact I had to redo all my widgets as the Launcher Pro backup doesn't work with those. Sorted!!!
I loved it! Moving most apps to SD was painless, no partitioning and it worked with 90% of the apps I tried. The boot graphic was awesome, there was just joy to be had everywhere!
Wait a minute... this was too easy.... I switched off wifi and... NO DATA CONNECTION OVER MOBILE NETWORK!!!! Damn it!!!!
Much tinkering and forum searching later I decide to restore back to my previous stock version using the nandroid backup. This was a full image of my system before I buggered with it. Still no mobile network... much more buggering, swearing and frustration until I had to go to bed (approx. 1AM).
Tired, and quite frankly proper pissed off, I went to work and the network returned and then dissapeared again. I messed with the settings for a bit then someone suggested I did a factory reset. Sod it, I have a backup, so I did it, still no joy! I really couldn't understand this as I'd restored the system to the state it was in before then did a factory reset. The good news here is that a Nandroid restore takes 2 minutes so flashing a new rom is easily and swiftly reversable, bad news is it didn't fix it!
Eventually I sought out a colleague on Orange and asked them if they had a data connection. Guess what? it wasn't my tinkering, it was Orange (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/19/orange_down/). A total melt down of the Orange network just so happened to coincide with me screwing with my phone at a fundamental level. My colleagues are convinced I caused this but I'm refusing to incriminate myself.
Where am I now? I got mobile data back on my stock rom late this afternoon. This evening I braved flashing Cyanogen again... no data! Now I'm not sure if Orange suck again or if Cyanogen RC3 doesn't work properly on my phone.
I've done a nandroid backup of my Cyanogen so I can go back to it swiftly if it turns out Orange has jumped on the fail express again.
I'm gonna try Cyanogen's latest nightly build and if that doesn't work go back to stock. If mobile is still missing I may just flush it down the toilet, I'll post a video if I do!
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Rooted!
Ok so I strapped a pair on and pressed the button in the Universal Androot app. It did some stuff and now I'm rooted.
And how did I celebrate my new found rootage? Titanium Backup and Clockwork Rom Manager!
Titanium Backup
One of the great things about Universal Androot is that you don't have to screw with your bootloader. No bootloader messing, no warranty inflingment and no phone reset and no need to reinstall all your data!!!
Once rooted I was able to backup all my apps and data and settings using Titanium. Rooting the old way would have wiped my phone and was one of the main reasons I resisted it previously.
I haven't used Titanium in anger yet, I've only backed stuff up but this seems to work well and the options and settings it backed up seemed comprehensive. It even backed up, my bluetooth pairings (I had a 'mare getting my Parrot to work) and links to the Android Market place so if I have to restore in the future market place updates will work.
There is a pro version that allows you to do a number of things including a one click restore of all your apps and settings, for when you've got a new phone or installed a new rom for instance.
Clockwork Rom Manager
This app is a must if you are going to flash your phone with a new rom as it takes all the hard work out of it. It will download the ROMs and flash for you, install a custom recovery ROM, and even do a totall backup of you ROM. By doing this you can install a new ROM, test it, and be back in your original ROM with all your settings intact in 30 mins.
Ok so I'm not using this to it's full potential yet, I've only used it to change my Recovery Image to Clockwork Recovery and to do a total backup of my phone. When CyanogenMod 6 is finalised I'll be flashing that, but I can wait....
And how did I celebrate my new found rootage? Titanium Backup and Clockwork Rom Manager!
Titanium Backup
One of the great things about Universal Androot is that you don't have to screw with your bootloader. No bootloader messing, no warranty inflingment and no phone reset and no need to reinstall all your data!!!
Once rooted I was able to backup all my apps and data and settings using Titanium. Rooting the old way would have wiped my phone and was one of the main reasons I resisted it previously.
I haven't used Titanium in anger yet, I've only backed stuff up but this seems to work well and the options and settings it backed up seemed comprehensive. It even backed up, my bluetooth pairings (I had a 'mare getting my Parrot to work) and links to the Android Market place so if I have to restore in the future market place updates will work.
There is a pro version that allows you to do a number of things including a one click restore of all your apps and settings, for when you've got a new phone or installed a new rom for instance.
Clockwork Rom Manager
This app is a must if you are going to flash your phone with a new rom as it takes all the hard work out of it. It will download the ROMs and flash for you, install a custom recovery ROM, and even do a totall backup of you ROM. By doing this you can install a new ROM, test it, and be back in your original ROM with all your settings intact in 30 mins.
Ok so I'm not using this to it's full potential yet, I've only used it to change my Recovery Image to Clockwork Recovery and to do a total backup of my phone. When CyanogenMod 6 is finalised I'll be flashing that, but I can wait....
Saturday, 14 August 2010
RANTS
Time for the first in an irregular series of rants, there is no way to dress it up.
First up Google's App Inventor. Genius! This thing is brilliant. Simple yet powerful. So what's my beef with it? Application sizes! I created my 1st app, a "hello world" style thing. It has 1 button and displays an message. IT'S 3.6Mb IN SIZE!!!!!!
I use my phone a lot and have it rammed full of applications, I often have to delete something after installing a new toy just to get rid of the annoying "low on space" notification. I had visions of creating dozens of tiny apps to do little tasks I wanted but I can't afford the space.
I understand there is some interpretation going on it the code but would it not be better to install the interpreter once then make all the apps smaller?
Second Rant, and also space related, is games programmers. There are some great games out there now and many of them are visually rich. This takes space, lots of space. This isn't a problem as, since Froyo, I can install apps to my 16Gb SD card. Oh hang on... that relies on the programmer enabling the option to store the game on the SD card (which apparently is trivial to do). SO WHY DO SO FEW OF THEM DO IT?
I like games but I can't have more than a couple of the big fellas on my phone at the same time.
I just don't get it, more people will install your game if they can install it on the SD card. It's easy to do so why not do it?????
Blood pressure at max... my work here is done!
First up Google's App Inventor. Genius! This thing is brilliant. Simple yet powerful. So what's my beef with it? Application sizes! I created my 1st app, a "hello world" style thing. It has 1 button and displays an message. IT'S 3.6Mb IN SIZE!!!!!!
I use my phone a lot and have it rammed full of applications, I often have to delete something after installing a new toy just to get rid of the annoying "low on space" notification. I had visions of creating dozens of tiny apps to do little tasks I wanted but I can't afford the space.
I understand there is some interpretation going on it the code but would it not be better to install the interpreter once then make all the apps smaller?
Second Rant, and also space related, is games programmers. There are some great games out there now and many of them are visually rich. This takes space, lots of space. This isn't a problem as, since Froyo, I can install apps to my 16Gb SD card. Oh hang on... that relies on the programmer enabling the option to store the game on the SD card (which apparently is trivial to do). SO WHY DO SO FEW OF THEM DO IT?
I like games but I can't have more than a couple of the big fellas on my phone at the same time.
I just don't get it, more people will install your game if they can install it on the SD card. It's easy to do so why not do it?????
Blood pressure at max... my work here is done!
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
National Rail
Ok so this app is a little pricey at £4.99 but the author has to pay to use the datafeed from National Rail. It's definately worth it if you commute or use the train a bit, but less so if you are just a casual rail user. I certainly wish I had this when I commuted, then again the carriages I travelled in were the same slam doors as the Hogworts express (and this was only a few years ago!!)
You can plan a journey or check on live departures and journey progress, it seems to do this all very well.
You can plan a journey or check on live departures and journey progress, it seems to do this all very well.
1-Click Universal Root
I've not had the guts to press the button yet but there is a new app about that will (apparently) root the following android phones without anymore fuss than sending a txt message.
Google Nexus One (2.2)
HTC Hero (2.1)
HTC Magic (1.5)
Dell Streak (2.1)
Motorola Milestone (2.1)
Motorola XT701
Motorola XT800 (2.1)
Motorola ME511
Sony Ericsson X10 (1.6)
Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro (1.6)
Acer Liquid (2.1)
Vibo A688 (1.6)
Unfortunately the following phones aren't supported:
Samsung i9000 (Galaxy S)
Samsung i6500U
HuaWei U8220
HTC Desire / Legend / Wildfire
I'm not one to quible but the fact there is a list of unsupported devices kinda makes the 'universal' claim a bit of an exageration. But hey the Nexus is supported so what do I care (sorry Tim!)?
Install the app from XDA Devs and click the button. You can unroot your phone using the same app.
Reading the XDA thread reveals that rooting your phone this way does not modify the boot loader so your warranty is intact, and you can unroot it so no one is any the wiser!
You can install new recovery images, new roms (like Cyanogenmod), or just root your phone to enable enhanced apps (screen grabs, full backups, etc).
A word of warning. This was on the Android Market but Google removed it as it exploits a vulnerability in the Android OS (allegedly). It is likely that future updates will patch this, but if you've installed a new rom or patched your recovery image this shouldn't be an issue.
2nd word of warning - If you brick your phone doing this or something rooty after doing it, it's not my fault!
Google Nexus One (2.2)
HTC Hero (2.1)
HTC Magic (1.5)
Dell Streak (2.1)
Motorola Milestone (2.1)
Motorola XT701
Motorola XT800 (2.1)
Motorola ME511
Sony Ericsson X10 (1.6)
Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro (1.6)
Acer Liquid (2.1)
Vibo A688 (1.6)
Unfortunately the following phones aren't supported:
Samsung i9000 (Galaxy S)
Samsung i6500U
HuaWei U8220
HTC Desire / Legend / Wildfire
I'm not one to quible but the fact there is a list of unsupported devices kinda makes the 'universal' claim a bit of an exageration. But hey the Nexus is supported so what do I care (sorry Tim!)?
Install the app from XDA Devs and click the button. You can unroot your phone using the same app.
Reading the XDA thread reveals that rooting your phone this way does not modify the boot loader so your warranty is intact, and you can unroot it so no one is any the wiser!
You can install new recovery images, new roms (like Cyanogenmod), or just root your phone to enable enhanced apps (screen grabs, full backups, etc).
A word of warning. This was on the Android Market but Google removed it as it exploits a vulnerability in the Android OS (allegedly). It is likely that future updates will patch this, but if you've installed a new rom or patched your recovery image this shouldn't be an issue.
2nd word of warning - If you brick your phone doing this or something rooty after doing it, it's not my fault!
Hoorar for Magically Repairing Trackballs
Should have blown some compressed air into it, there was obviously a bit bit of dust in it and it magically cleared itself!!!
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Sods Law!
So I decided to start a Blog for my Android obsession.... the very next day my phone developes a fault (track ball doesn't like left anymore since you ask).
Not a good omen. 10 day turnaround for repair... bugger!
Not a good omen. 10 day turnaround for repair... bugger!
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