ROM Questions

[jstrick5]

Hey guys. I'm a software developer with pretty good tech knowledge and skill however I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to ROMS and android. I've got a couple questions that I'd greatly appreciate anyone with more experience than me answering!

1) After installing a ROM, are future versions of that ROM incremental or are they full reloads (for lack of a better term). My concern is that I install a new ROM, set my phone up the way I like it then a week later a new version is released and given my nature of wanting the "latest and greatest" I'm back to rebuilding my phone again, redownloading all my apps, setting up exchange, etc.

2) If every ROM install is a fresh start, is there an enviornment backup utility(s) to avoid this? I use LauncherPro and can back up those settings but what about more system wide settings and accounts?

3) *More Specific to me* I have a droid X, anyone know if there's an actual AOSP ROM out there or something completely "Blurless" that is stable? I went from the Droid I to the X and am disgusted with what motorolla has done to what used to be an awesome experience to the point where I never really gave serious thought to loading a ROM on the Droid I. Currently I'm leaning toward either RubiX, ApeX, or Fission

Thanks ahead of time for any informative feedback!

 

[ballmore]

Hey guys. I'm a software developer with pretty good tech knowledge and skill however I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to ROMS and android. I've got a couple questions that I'd greatly appreciate anyone with more experience than me answering!

1) After installing a ROM, are future versions of that ROM incremental or are they full reloads (for lack of a better term). My concern is that I install a new ROM, set my phone up the way I like it then a week later a new version is released and given my nature of wanting the "latest and greatest" I'm back to rebuilding my phone again, redownloading all my apps, setting up exchange, etc.


1. It really all depends on the progress of the rom developer. Roms can be developed and then not updated (seemingly) for a few months. Or roms such as The Ultimate Droid and Cyanogen have "Nightly Builds." Ofcourse with both of those you don't have to get the nightlies. You could always just download the latest stable rom that they have to offer for your phone. Usually if you find a rom that you like and don't switch around a lot you can get by with flashing the new rom over top of the old one. When Blackdroid did an overhaul and rebuild of The Ultimate Droid he made an anouncement that it would be safer to start over again and get rid of the original rom all together. No matter what though, you will always want to make backups of your system settings and apps before hand which leads to the next part of your post.

 

[jstrick5]

Hey guys. I'm a software developer with pretty good tech knowledge and skill however I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to ROMS and android. I've got a couple questions that I'd greatly appreciate anyone with more experience than me answering!

1) After installing a ROM, are future versions of that ROM incremental or are they full reloads (for lack of a better term). My concern is that I install a new ROM, set my phone up the way I like it then a week later a new version is released and given my nature of wanting the "latest and greatest" I'm back to rebuilding my phone again, redownloading all my apps, setting up exchange, etc.


1. It really all depends on the progress of the rom developer. Roms can be developed and then not updated (seemingly) for a few months. Or roms such as The Ultimate Droid and Cyanogen have "Nightly Builds." Ofcourse with both of those you don't have to get the nightlies. You could always just download the latest stable rom that they have to offer for your phone. Usually if you find a rom that you like and don't switch around a lot you can get by with flashing the new rom over top of the old one. When Blackdroid did an overhaul and rebuild of The Ultimate Droid he made an anouncement that it would be safer to start over again and get rid of the original rom all together. No matter what though, you will always want to make backups of your system settings and apps before hand which leads to the next part of your post.

Thanks Ballmore... one followup question. You say " You can get by with flashing the new rom over top of the old one" Does this mean all of my homescreen widgets, contacts, basically everything customized on my phone would remain as is pre-flash? Or will this wipe me clean with the newest version of the same ROM?

Thanks again.

 

[ballmore]

2) If every ROM install is a fresh start, is there an enviornment backup utility(s) to avoid this? I use LauncherPro and can back up those settings but what about more system wide settings and accounts?

2. Not every rom install is a "fresh start" but you should treat it as such. You should always make backups before flashing Roms, Rom updates, Themes, etc. you probably should set a schedule to update your backups on a regular basis. Download Titanium Backup from the market to backup your apps and system data. This is one of the top apps that almost all rooted users have on there phones. The free version actually has a 5 star rating. Not many apps can claim that type of success. Then you might want to install Rom Manager so that you can do either a Clockwork Mod Recovery or an SPrecovery. That way if you have problems with installing a rom or theme (or if you just don't like what you installed and want to go back to what you previously had) you can do a Nandroid backup and reflash back to an older version of your phone settings. It will even restore the text messages that you had on your phone and whatnot. Do the backups before ever trying to install your first rom. No matter how much tech experience you anybody has we all mess up the process a few times and get caught in a dreaded bootloop. Just having the wrong kernel that doesn't like your phone and rom mixture will cause a bootloop. Then if you have backups you can restore back to your previous setup download a new kernel (or regroup) and try again.

 

[ballmore]

Thanks Ballmore... one followup question. You say " You can get by with flashing the new rom over top of the old one" Does this mean all of my homescreen widgets, contacts, basically everything customized on my phone would remain as is pre-flash? Or will this wipe me clean with the newest version of the same ROM?

Thanks again.[/quote]

that depends really..... some widgets will make you reload them onto the screen again the settings should already be set to what you had before hand. A lot of widgets have backup and restore options within there own settings and the ones that don't restore automajically. Make sure that you do backups in everything that you can. Do backups in your launcher app. Backup your widgets. And do those backups with Titanium and Rom Manager. Then you just have to reload the widgets and it's all the way that you want it set.

 

[ballmore]

3) *More Specific to me* I have a droid X, anyone know if there's an actual AOSP ROM out there or something completely "Blurless" that is stable? I went from the Droid I to the X and am disgusted with what motorolla has done to what used to be an awesome experience to the point where I never really gave serious thought to loading a ROM on the Droid I. Currently I'm leaning toward either RubiX, ApeX, or Fission

Thanks ahead of time for any informative feedback![/QUOTE]

3. As far as roms go I don't have an X so I don't know what all is availabe for it. I do know that The Ultimate Droid is available and it is one of the best if not the best rom out there so you shouldn't need to worry about others unless you don't like it. From what I can tell about the Droid X version of his rom there is no mention of having moto blur on it and I didn't see it in the screen shots.

 

[born2golf]

Thanks for starting this thread, and for the responses. I have been wondering about this too. I have considered installing a new ROM, but really have no desire to set my phone up all over again.

 

[ballmore]

Remember to do a backup of everything before attempting to install roms, themes, metamorphs, new tires, kitchen sinks, ..........etc.

 

[ballmore]

There are even settings in the Ultimate Droid rom that lets you do backups of applications, data, and UD extras but I still use the T.B. and R.M. apps as my main backups.

 

[jstrick5]

Awesome, thanks again for the help... I'll look further into Ultimate Droid. I've come across it a few times but need to do some more research!