Setting up Phone the right way

[trailjunkee]

OK guys. First off I'd like to say thanks to all of you who contribute so much around here. I've been lurking for several months now and I've started moving into rooting my phone but I'm not sure now that I've done things right and I want to try several new things. To start with I read and used the directions from Root any Droid 1 and had good success. I was rooted, installed wireless tether and used it within about 20 minutes. Had a nandroid backup through SPrecovery to. I think I did everything right. Then installed Titanium Backup and backed up system data and user apps. So far so good. Everything worked fine and I was happy so a couple of days later I decided to try a rom. Downloaded Rommanager and started taking a look around at roms and decided on the Sapphire rom with the standard voltage 1ghz kernal. Noticed at this point that I couldn't access SPrecovery on an "x" restart (I'm sure that has a name). So I was a little worried about that because I like the idea of the root I had from the Root any droid 1 thread and now I'm worried that I might get an update that might reset everything to stock. Downloaded Sapphire anyway and followed the directions using rommanager which required a Clockwork recovery backup. So now I've got a clockwork recovery image that I assume will do the same thing as SPrecovery. And I'm guessing the reason SPrecovery doesn't work now is because Clockwork replaced/interfered with it. Am I right? Went ahead an installed sapphire 1.1.1 and was a little worried at first because it froze for 30 minutes a couple of times and never loaded and I knew SPrecovery wouldn't load but I took a chance at loading it and realize, "hey there's clockwork and it looks like it does the same thing". So I wiped cache and data and sapphire loaded like a champ and I've been enjoying it for several days.

Now I'm ready to improve my install. From what I see everything I've done at this point can be done through SPrecovery with no need to use Rommanager. I'd like to go back to that root method from the root any droid 1 since it's supposed to ensure that I don't get any unwanted updates. If I'm right I can uninstall Rommangager and go back and just follow the directions for root any droid 1 and get SPrecovery back and have the root set so it won't update right from where I'm at today. I'm guessing this will put me back at a stock rom. Am I correct? Then I plan to use SPrecovery to install sapphire 1.1.1 after I rename it update.zip and place it in the root of my sdcard. Then I reboot and make sure everything loads,right? Then I grab google apps from somewhere (where?) and add it to the root and name it update.zip and install it with SPrecovery. Reboot and check things, reload apps from titanium backup and sign back in to google. Then I can start changing kernals. I'm guessing I use the same method with SPrecovery and rename it update.zip and run each kernal to find one that works. Then I can do the same things with themes. Does everything like roms, themes, and kernals install as update.zip or am I missing something?

OK that was longer than I wanted and I think I'm more confused than a minute ago. But all these threads and the info in them are just starting to run together. If there's a How to Root, Rom, Kernals and Themes for dummies thread somewhere let me know and I'll go read it and leave you guys alone. But if you help, be aware I have more questions.

Thanks
Bryan

 

[trailjunkee]

Ha! Reply to myself and answer one of my own questions. Gapps can be downloaded from the sapphire release page.

 

[wingdo]

If you installed ROM Manager, and used that for the sapphire install, you then now have ClockWork Recovery instead of SP Recovery. They both function similarly. You should be able to boot into your current recovery (whichever it is) by long-pressing the power button, choosing reboot and then choosing "recovery".

You can also reflash SPRecovery from Rom Manager by choosing the option "flash alternate recovery" near the bottom. This will put SPRecovery back on and you'll be able to get to your old nandroid backup.

 

[Armyof2]

Nice thing about clockwork is you don't need to rename anything to "update.zip" otherwise they're pretty similar

 

[trailjunkee]

Thanks Wingdo. I think that's where I'm at now although through a little different method. I went ahead and uninstalled ROM manager and then used Motocache's method of rooting and that got me back to SPrecovery with no visible changes to the droid. Seemed like I stayed right at Sapphire 1.1.1. Seems like a little more drawn out than your method but I think I'm in the same place. Does anybody see a problem with what I did?

I did go ahead and download 7x125-1000LV kernal from the sapphire page. I put in the root and renamed it to update.zip. Restarted in recovery mode and installed the update file. It seemed like the messages said that the kernal installed but is there a way to tell that I actually did it correctly? I found a kernal version in the about phone window but I don't see a correlation between the version number in the kernal version and the actual file name.

Thanks Armyof2. I didn't realize that. That's another one of those pieces of info I may have read somewhere. I'll try to remember it this time. Now that I'm back at SPR maybe I would have been better to stay with clockwork. Too many choices.

Maybe next I'll try a theme. Although I like stock and I really like the image that I originally got when I installed sapphire of the ocean. When I rebooted it went back to an old image and I can't find the ocean one now. I did find a cool beach picture, though.

I have a couple of other questions but I've got to go back and look at the names of the programs before I ask.

Thanks
Bryan

 

[trailjunkee]

OK I found them. SetCPU and Launcher Pro. For these 2 programs what's the advantage, need, benefit to running them in Sapphire? I had SetCPU for about 10 minutes and didn't really see much different from what I could do in the Gem settings unless I wanted to run different profiles and I'm not sure I know enough to do that yet. Launcher Pro I know even less about other than it looks like it replaces the stock application "menu?" (is that the right word?). Plus it sounds like it takes more effort to implement since it looks like you need to delete the stock menu and I haven't seen info about how to do that yet (although I haven't looked yet). Not asking for a step by step for how to do either, I'll look, just a why should I use them question.

Thanks again. I'll try to refrain from asking more questions for a while. I've just finally gotten to the point where I understand what questions to ask and just enough to really mess something up. Hope it's true that this thing is basically unbrickable.

Bryan

 

[illmatic636]

Thought this was informative.

This should have been titled "How do I set up my phone the right way"

 

[Armyof2]

OK I found them. SetCPU and Launcher Pro. For these 2 programs what's the advantage, need, benefit to running them in Sapphire? I had SetCPU for about 10 minutes and didn't really see much different from what I could do in the Gem settings unless I wanted to run different profiles and I'm not sure I know enough to do that yet. Launcher Pro I know even less about other than it looks like it replaces the stock application "menu?" (is that the right word?). Plus it sounds like it takes more effort to implement since it looks like you need to delete the stock menu and I haven't seen info about how to do that yet (although I haven't looked yet). Not asking for a step by step for how to do either, I'll look, just a why should I use them question.

Thanks again. I'll try to refrain from asking more questions for a while. I've just finally gotten to the point where I understand what questions to ask and just enough to really mess something up. Hope it's true that this thing is basically unbrickable.

Bryan

SetCPU will give you a bit more control over the overclock...you can set profiles based on your phones state of being and it will help extend battery life in many cases. It is no longer necessary with the GEM settings controlling this stuff (in the gem settings under performance is where you can check to see if you kernel took correctly but if there were no errors you should be set)
but you can squeeze out a bit more battery life by setting up some profiles to down clock when screen is off and things like that.

LauncherPro replaces your home application, you don't need to do anything other than install it there is no deletion of the stock home app. It gives you a bit more customization as far as the bar along the bottom and the number of available screens for you to put stuff on, things like that. And the paid version gives you some widgets as well (twitter, FB, calander, etc)


Someone did find that beach picture stashed somewhere on the ROM but can't remember who it was or where they said they found it.

Never be afraid to question things. We're all happy to help. We all remember what it was like to be doing this for the first time, it's scary especially with the knowledge that if you screw something up bad enough you can end up bricking your phone

 

[trailjunkee]

Thanks Armyof2. I appreciate the advice. I did look under GEM settings and performance but could not find a reference to what the power setting was for the Kernal. I've got my sliders for clock speed. Things seem to be running really well so I'm questioning whether I actually got the low voltage kernal installed or if I'm still with the standard.

Thanks again
Bryan

 

[Armyof2]

Ah, I misread your question. I'm not sure honestly I've looked around trying to find some indication of the LV, but I'm not having any luck either. Do you still have the file you downloaded? It will have either SV IV or LV in the filename. Thats the only way I know how to check it out. Otherwise we'll have to wait on a wiser person than I.

 

[trailjunkee]

Yea the file name has LV in the name but I don't see any difference in the phone itself. I was really expecting it to not work well since a lot of people seem to have problems with it. I was just looking for a way to verify it. For now I'll just go with it.

Thanks

 

[Armyof2]

Yea the file name has LV in the name but I don't see any difference in the phone itself. I was really expecting it to not work well since a lot of people seem to have problems with it. I was just looking for a way to verify it. For now I'll just go with it.

Thanks

If you flashed the LV you should be safe assuming that's what you got. The thing with these phones is the hardware can differ slightly and some just don't work with the LV kernels or kernels with certain speeds. It's a funny side effect of mass manufacturing, the end products aren't always as identical as we think they are, the companies work with a range of standards. The caveat to this is that some units won't be up to snuff, they may work ok in normal situations, but they can't handle the stress of lowering the voltages or cranking the clockspeeds up. If you don't notice any problems then you are good to go and should enjoy the battery benefits that come with the LV kernels

 

[litso]

Also, you may have some misconceptions on the true meaning of Low Voltage/SV. The reason that there are several different voltages to choose from in kernels is because not every chip is exactly the same. A 1GHz LV and a 1GHz SV kernel will theoretically perform exactly the same, some chips are capable of running at higher speeds with less power. Other chips might require slightly more power to achieve higher speeds. If this was the case your phone would be having noticeable issues on the LV kernel, and you would want to try a SV kernel. The benefit to a LV kernel is that it theoretically runs cooler (which is better for your chip), and uses less power (better battery life). Whenever I install an OC kernel I try the low voltage version first. if that doesn't work I load up the equivalent SV kernel. If it still doesn't work, its time to try a slower speed =).

Also, there is almost no difference between SPRecovery and Clockwork Mod Recovery, excepting that CWM is slightly newer and more feature rich. It does not require you to rename files to update.zip to install them, which means that you can have kernels, roms, and themes all named appropriately on your SDCard and install them easily. There are also some other advantages to CWM, but it should provide you with anything that SPRecovery does and more. The only real reason to use SPRecovery is if its just what you're used to.

LauncherPro is a replacement for the stock launcher. Like Armyof2 said, it will provide you with far greater customization options for your homescreens and app drawer. It may also make your home screens respond better, make them feel snappier. Personally I recommend trying ADW Launcher, as it is completely free. There is actually a version of ADW launcher built into sapphire. If you're interested in trying it I can walk you through the steps of installing it.

Hope this helps! Armyof2 is doing a great job so far, thought I would just add on my $0.02.


EDIT: My post is kind of redundant now that Armyof2 beat me to the punch.

 

[trailjunkee]

Hey guys thanks. Litso I think I've got my head wrapped around the voltage stuff. I guess my concern is that I know I've got the 125-1000 speed installed but I'm unsure if I actually changed from the standard voltage to low voltage or if I did something wrong and am still at standard since I can't see any difference. I know it's probably changed just hoping I could be sure. I guess I'll just have to see if the battery seems to last longer. I might just download one of the kernals for one of the higher speed low voltage setting to see how that runs. Then I can be sure since I haven't had one of the standard voltage 1.2< kernals. BTW maybe one of you can answer this question. Why not just download one of the kernals with the widest range of speeds and adjust the speed to what you need to get the phone to work from within the GEM settings? What's the purpose of the kernals that max out at a lower speed? Is it so you can have more precision in setting the speeds when you find the max speed that works? I assume you really only get 7 options for speed for min and max since they're called 7 slot kernals.

So far things are going good now. I've got Sapphire 1.1.1, the 125-1000 kernal, SPrecovery (with backups), Titanium Backup, the excutive theme and Launcher Pro. Phone runs smooth and fast. No force closes yet.

Litso, talk to me about why you like ADW better. I don't want to make the same mistake I did going from clockwork back to SPrecovery. I guess once I get the kinks worked out I'll probably go back to clockwork.

Thanks
Bryan