Why I might ditch the iPhone for Android...

TheDoc · 28-08-2010 8:16pm

Would have come in this topic sooner but been away for the last few days and will be for some more.

But to update, been using voice actions now since release, and ive pretty much stopped using normal method of text and tapping for when im on the bus maybe or in a crowded area.

Everywhere else im using this and its great, recognises my voice fine and its so quikc and handy.

dvdfan · 29-08-2010 4:09am

Sorry to slightly Hijack, i got my desire HTC today and i literally spent 12 hours trying to root it so i could use market enable. It wouldnt root on 2 different PCs due to different problems but eventually worked on the 3rd PC.

Anyway i want to try this google voice app but you need 2.2 and i only have 2.1 so i understand i need to install a rom, i dont really mind which one it is as long as its simple to do, anyone got any links.

I have a HTC desire
Hboot 0.83.0001

Ive rooted following this method
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=748618
and i downloaded and ran market enable

It looks so easy but that honestly took me 12 hours to find the correct one as theres so many versions around but anyway if anyone has a link to a simple way to upgrade from 2.1 to 2.2 so i can try out that app id really appreciate it

Im on an 02 phone if that makes a difference

Chet T16 · 29-08-2010 12:18pm

I'd flash MCR r8 with A2SD+ from here (r8 ROM with default MoDaCo additions and A2SD+)

Install rom manager first to partition your sd card (backup to pc first) then flash the rom using rom manager, you don't need to wipe but it may be more reliable if you do. If wiping use titanium backup first

The modaco roms are the most stable i've found and essentially tweaked stock htc 2.2 roms.

Ask if you have questions, like you say, theres so much information its hard to find the answers you want

Chet T16 · 29-08-2010 4:08pm

Goodshape wrote: »

- Apps like 'Tasker'. Lets you automate actions (pretty much anything you could imagine the phone could do) based on any number of rules, like where you are, the time of day, state of the phone (battery maybe), actions you perform (turn on GPS when I open maps, turn off when you exit)... possibilities are pretty endless.

I got Tasker after reading this post, absolutely fantastric app and i haven't even scratched the surface of what it can do so far!

dvdfan · 29-08-2010 6:55pm

Ok thanks for the help, much appreciated but im running into some problems.

1) First i downloaded titanium backup just to be sure if anything went wrong. Heres the error i get each time

sorry i could not acquire root priveliges. This application will *not* work. Please verify that your rom is rooted and includes BusyBox and try again.

Now it is rooted as i can access paid apps and there is a superuser app on it. I dont have BusyBox so i went to download it and it said that it doesnt work for the desire?

So since this isnt essential i followed your next bit of advice to download ROM manager and partition the SD. After completing that i went into the app, lots of things i didnt understand but i seen the option to "Partition" SD card and clicked on that and i get this message.

Flash ClockworkMod Recovery. You must have ClockworkMod Recovery installed before continuing. Install the recovery through ROM Manager first.

When i click that it doesnt seem to do anything but i can see a refresh icon working away in the top right corner. If i come back to it in a while i get this message

The application ROM Manager (process com.kushikdutta.rommanager) has stopped unexpectedly. please try again and there is a force close button.

This happens again and again.

Start of ramble

Its a pity you have to go to this length to get the phone working as you would like. Im good with computers but having never used an android or Iphone until yesterday its a lot to figure out, i would have gladly paid someone to do this if that service was available as ive wasted over 12 hours now. I would imagine non techy people wouldnt have a hope in hell of figuring this out. It wasnt the solution was difficult but there is just so many variations of the instructions out there and because i had HBoot 0.83 i needed a specific set of instructions.

I also had some issues with the adb driver, wouldnt recognise it on any of my PCs, i eventually found a driver online, it worked on 2 pcs but wouldnt work on a 3rd and my main PC although it installed the driver correctly eventually it wouldnt let me root it with that PC because when i went into boot mode (power+back when turning on) it didnt pickup the USB connection so i couldnt install the android driver to root it. I probably just got unlucky but its quite a difficult process but should be worth it in the end!!!

end of ramble

Anyway sorry to ramble on, when i get through the partition problem i have one more question. Heres a quote from the link you gave me

http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-desire-desire-modaco-com/316565/24-aug-r8-modaco-custom-rom-for-htc-desire-with-online-kitchen-2-2-froyo/

Requirements

In order to use this ROM on your device, you must be rooted and be able to launch the custom recovery image using the supplied scripts in the root package. You can read more about how to root and launch the CRI on your device in this topic.

I have rooted but i dont understand about launching the recovery images in the rootpackage, i presume it means something to do with this in the rooting instructions i followed:

9. Go to File > Custom Recovery and select the ClockworkMod v2.5.0.1 SLCD recovery image.

I also guess that has something to do with the problem im having with ROM manager? Any help is very much appreciated

Chet T16 · 29-08-2010 8:22pm

dvdfan wrote: »

Ok thanks for the help, much appreciated but im running into some problems.

1) First i downloaded titanium backup just to be sure if anything went wrong. Heres the error i get each time

sorry i could not acquire root priveliges. This application will *not* work. Please verify that your rom is rooted and includes BusyBox and try again.

Now it is rooted as i can access paid apps and there is a superuser app on it. I dont have BusyBox so i went to download it and it said that it doesnt work for the desire?

Firstly make sure titanium has root permission by checking in your superuser app. Then within titanium click 'problems', from there it will download the correct busybox

So since this isnt essential i followed your next bit of advice to download ROM manager and partition the SD. After completing that i went into the app, lots of things i didnt understand but i seen the option to "Partition" SD card and clicked on that and i get this message.

Flash ClockworkMod Recovery. You must have ClockworkMod Recovery installed before continuing. Install the recovery through ROM Manager first.

When i click that it doesnt seem to do anything but i can see a refresh icon working away in the top right corner. If i come back to it in a while i get this message

The application ROM Manager (process com.kushikdutta.rommanager) has stopped unexpectedly. please try again and there is a force close button.

This happens again and again.

Its strange that it should say that as part of the rooting instructions involve flashing clockworkmod recovery

When you click on 'Flash ClockworkMod Recovery' it should popup asking you to confirm your model. Is it getting that far? You could try a reinstall of rom manager if its still FCing otherwise i'd go with a factory reset.

Start of ramble
Its a pity you have to go to this length to get the phone working as you would like. Im good with computers but having never used an android or Iphone until yesterday its a lot to figure out, i would have gladly paid someone to do this if that service was available as ive wasted over 12 hours now. I would imagine non techy people wouldnt have a hope in hell of figuring this out. It wasnt the solution was difficult but there is just so many variations of the instructions out there and because i had HBoot 0.83 i needed a specific set of instructions.

I also had some issues with the adb driver, wouldnt recognise it on any of my PCs, i eventually found a driver online, it worked on 2 pcs but wouldnt work on a 3rd and my main PC although it installed the driver correctly eventually it wouldnt let me root it with that PC because when i went into boot mode (power+back when turning on) it didnt pickup the USB connection so i couldnt install the android driver to root it. I probably just got unlucky but its quite a difficult process but should be worth it in the end!!!
end of ramble

I couldn't get the driver working yesterday even tho it had been working, very annoying and i have no idea why it stopped.

Anyway sorry to ramble on, when i get through the partition problem i have one more question. Heres a quote from the link you gave me

http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-desire-desire-modaco-com/316565/24-aug-r8-modaco-custom-rom-for-htc-desire-with-online-kitchen-2-2-froyo/

I have rooted but i dont understand about launching the recovery images in the rootpackage, i presume it means something to do with this in the rooting instructions i followed:

9. Go to File > Custom Recovery and select the ClockworkMod v2.5.0.1 SLCD recovery image.

I also guess that has something to do with the problem im having with ROM manager? Any help is very much appreciated

Once you have rom manager working you can use that to flash whatever you like.

Titanium not working shows a problem somewhere, when we have that working hopefully the rest will fall into place

dvdfan · 29-08-2010 10:26pm

Thanks once again, once i used the problem button and it installed the program the backup worked.

Then the partition seemed to work (not sure how to know if it worked or not but it restarted so i presume it did)

So i downloaded one of those zip files. I went into the install rom from SD card option and chose the zip file and it restarted again but it seems froze at the O2 bubbles screen. Its like that for the last 10 mins, i guess it didnt work?

Thats not the exact instructions from that link but i presume rom manager makes that easy for me, when it freezes like that is it possibly loading the new Rom or should it go into another screen?

Chet T16 · 29-08-2010 11:04pm

Did you wipe?

dvdfan · 29-08-2010 11:15pm

No it gave me 2 options, to backup current rom and wipe i believe was the other, i had such problems getting it rooted that i didnt really want to wipe. Am i right in saying that if i wipe i have to root again and install rom manager etc all over again?

If not im happy to wipe, dont mind losing any apps etc.

edit////

Just left it running for a while there and now a picture of some guy with modaco.com is appearing so i guess i just thought it was froze but i just needed to be patient, how long does this usually take, any ideas what happens when that screen disapears?

Chet T16 · 30-08-2010 12:18am

It shouldn't take that long. First boot can take a while tho. Maybe a flash to Modaco r5 (2.1 based) first would have been a good idea but it shouldn't matter

dvdfan · 30-08-2010 12:25am

uh oh, it just stuck on that screens for ages, tried rebooting and got stuck again, tried removing the sd card and same thing it just gets to the screen with HTC quietly brilliant and it also has the modaco.com logo and it wont go past that. Is there any way to do a factory reset or something? Am i fcuked?

If i hold back and power on and choose recovery it just goes blank every time but doesnt give me any recovery options or do anything so right now i can only just reboot and get stuck:(

Chet T16 · 30-08-2010 12:40am

You're rarely beyond hope with them. Can you reflash the recovery using unrevoked?

dvdfan · 30-08-2010 12:51am

thanks for staying with me, right now i have only 1 option which is loading into the boot menu via Power+back button.

In there there is a recovery option, when i select this the screen i get the 02 welcome screen and it just sticks on that. When i click on recovery should i get some other options? So as i see it i can only do 2 things

1) Boot normally via power which freezes at the HTC screen
2) Boot via Power+back button which gives me an option to choose recovery, fastboot etc but choosing recovery just freezes as the 02 welcome screen

any ideas? you mention reflashing, how is that done considering my options are limited?

Chet T16 · 30-08-2010 12:55am

Is going into recovery giving a blank screen or the one with the red exclamation?

dvdfan · 30-08-2010 1:19am

Havent seen any red exclamation marks, it just went blank (think it restarted) and the welcome screen came up but it didnt pass by that

Now it wont turn on but that might be because the battery ran out so im trying to charge it now

dvdfan · 30-08-2010 3:10am

Is this the reason recovery wasnt working for me?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=748580

And if so following post no 3 and using that image will work?
I done a factory reset for now so i would at least have a phone and i might try from scratch tomorrow

dvdfan · 30-08-2010 3:50am

This is really weird, after doing the factory reset i have 2.2. I noticed some new apps i didnt have like the flashlight etc and a new superuser, went to the app store and was able to download voice search no problem.

Very strange but hey if it works......
It has potential voice search, but its quite buggy, the send to text doesnt work unless i switch to english US, it opens the text and usually gets what i said wrong and crashes if i try and say anything more, maybe it just doesnt want to listen to me which is understandable:D

Chet T16 · 30-08-2010 7:07am

dvdfan wrote: »

Is this the reason recovery wasnt working for me?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=748580

And if so following post no 3 and using that image will work?
I done a factory reset for now so i would at least have a phone and i might try from scratch tomorrow

A blank screen in recovery would suggest you weren't using the correct clockworkmod recovery. The rooting guide did specify the right one but rom manager may have overwritten it

dvdfan wrote: »

This is really weird, after doing the factory reset i have 2.2. I noticed some new apps i didnt have like the flashlight etc and a new superuser, went to the app store and was able to download voice search no problem.

How did you get in to wipe? Did titanium restore ok?

If you download quick system info from the market it will tell you if your a2sd partition is there and how much is being used

dvdfan · 30-08-2010 11:14am

Im not sure, what i did was just to click back+power on and instead of choosing recovery there is a CLEAR STORAGE option, when you choose that it gives you the option to do a factory reset, i presumed it would have reset to how i originally got the phone but although all my settings were gone like email settings, location, wifi etc it had 2.2 installed and was rooted.

Im happy enough now as thats all i wanted in the end so no need to rock the boat now

Chet T16 · 30-08-2010 12:43pm

Glad you got it sorted

dvdfan · 31-08-2010 12:31am

Yeah me too and thanks a million for all your help with it, it was a bit unconventional but we got there in the end, much appreciated

Zascar · 31-08-2010 9:08am

So I got a Desire yesterday and I'm fairly blown away so far. SOOOO glad I did not get the iPhone 4. Really love so many things about it. The one thing I have not been able to get so far is the Voice Actions - I even got Google to send me a text with the link but it just says "The Requested item cannot be found". Any ideas?

Abelloid · 31-08-2010 9:29am

Zascar wrote: »

So I got a Desire yesterday and I'm fairly blown away so far. SOOOO glad I did not get the iPhone 4. Really love so many things about it. The one thing I have not been able to get so far is the Voice Actions - I even got Google to send me a text with the link but it just says "The Requested item cannot be found". Any ideas?

Is it running on 2.2? Not sure if this is the issue though..

Zascar · 31-08-2010 9:32am

I just checked and its 2.1 - is the 2.2 update out yet? How do I update? I'm on 02

Idleater · 31-08-2010 10:13am

Zascar wrote: »

I just checked and its 2.1 - is the 2.2 update out yet? How do I update? I'm on 02

official o2 2.2 update is still "on the way" but you can DIY the update yourself by 1) unlocking (if required) 2) debranding and 3) flashing a new ROM.

there are other options than stock 2.2 to flash, some of which allow Root access etc.

bbor005 · 31-08-2010 10:16am

Zascar wrote: »

I just checked and its 2.1 - is the 2.2 update out yet? How do I update? I'm on 02

O2 haven't released an official 2.2 update yet (typical) but if you root your phone you can very easily install one of dozens of custom ROMS with full 2.2 functionality. Head over to the XDA developers forum for more info.

evolutionqy7 · 31-08-2010 12:00pm

haha i love the way this post turned out why i might ditch the iPhone for Android

the answer: so i could root my HTC Desire

jay93 · 31-08-2010 8:37pm

wow that is cool something ive always wanted a phone to do obey my voice and not press stupid buttons the whole time!!!obviously it needs to be worked on this app but its a start to abolish all damn buttons on mobile phones :D

Zascar · 31-08-2010 8:57pm

nereid wrote: »

official o2 2.2 update is still "on the way" but you can DIY the update yourself by 1) unlocking (if required) 2) debranding and 3) flashing a new ROM.

there are other options than stock 2.2 to flash, some of which allow Root access etc.

So if I root my desire I will be able to update to 2.2, is that correct? I saw the thread on "One Click Root" but I'm a bit scared to try it really... When I root do I need to put on a new ROM? Or is that just an option? Should I? What's the difference? Is it risky? I really don't want any hassle with this. My iPhone was never the same when I jailbroke it...

I know there are lots of posts already on this but can anyone point me to a complete newbie's guide to rooting - and putting on a new rom? I read in other threads that some of the roms are tweaked so they are the same as the stock ones just better with more apps like Google voice actions. Sorry for the newbie question but can anyone help? Thanks

Abelloid · 31-08-2010 9:05pm

Zascar wrote: »

So if I root my desire I will be able to update to 2.2, is that correct? I saw the thread on "One Click Root" but I'm a bit scared to try it really... When I root do I need to put on a new ROM? Or is that just an option? Should I? What's the difference? Is it risky? I really don't want any hassle with this. My iPhone was never the same when I jailbroke it...

Rooting just gives you full access to the file structure on the phone, it shouldn't change anything else. You can wipe and install a custom ROM to enable/add extra features etc. but you don't have to.

It's pretty difficult to really mess up your phone, you can easily go back one step and start over, I have tried a good few different ROMs and when I had to return it under warranty just un-rooted it and installed the stock ROM.

Why I might ditch the iPhone for Android...

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