Upgrading plain vanilla HTC Hero.

mayhem#

I have a bogstandard HTC Hero (ex-Orange but unlocked) with Android V 1.5 & 2.73.61.5 fw on it.
Fed up waiting for the OTA upgrade to happen and would really want to upgrade it to the latest version of Android that it will take.
Don't need any customs ROM's if they complicate matter.
Looking for a fairly straightforward how-to-guide
Can anyone help?

R28

First you'll need to root the phone.

http://theunlockr.com/2009/08/27/how-to-root-your-htc-hero-in-one-click/

Is a good and relatively easy to follow method of rooting.

Once it's rooted and the recovery image installed, do a nandroid backup (just in case you mess things up-it's not very likely but if you do a nandroid backup you can very easily reload the system back to when it worked.

Then you can get on to installing custom roms. It's just a matter of deciding which version you like, putting the .zip file into the sdcard (not into a directory on the sdcard, just as a file directly in the sdcard directory). Then turn off the phone, turn it on again and boot it into recovery mode by holding down the home and power buttons and flash the zip from there. There's a few good guides around, do a google search for one that suits you. There's a few good ROMs to choose from though so look around for one that suits you. I'm using froydvillain which is a froyo (android 2.2) ROM. It's the best rom for the hero I've seen, but it doesn't have sense, which some people like to keep.

Once you get used to it, you'll be flashing ROMs a few times a week!

mayhem#

Cool, thanks.
Will give it a go this weekend.

mayhem#

@R28 I followed the intructions on Unlockr, however after I flash the phone and select "reboot" it boots as far as the black screen with the word "Android" on it...
It's been stuck on that for a while.
Would appreciate suggestions on how to restore it..

NOTE: I can boot the phone into the bootloader by holding down the power & home button and in the other mode (screen with Android on skateboard) by holding down power & volume down button.

Lost for ideas what to do and could really do with some help..

Mr E

How far on the guide did you get, mayhem? Did you get as far as the video link on step 13?

mayhem#

I did and I also completed the process outlined here: http://theunlockr.com/2009/08/27/how-to-load-a-custom-rom-on-your-htc-hero/

As far as I can figure out I completed the whole process but something went wrong during the last reboot..

Mr E

What ROM did you use?
Did you do a nandroid backup before installing it?

mayhem#

Is that what you do using the FlashRec program?

Mr E

Flashrec is for flashing the recovery console. You also need to install a ROM.

Hook up your SD card to your PC by whatever means, and download a ROM (Modaco's is a safe and stable one to start with - you can experiment with others later!)

Once you have that on your SD card, reboot the phone into the recovery console (power on while holding home).

Do a nandroid backup (should be an option within the recovery console). Always do this before installing a new ROM.

Then use the flash update from SD card option (or install from SD card or something like that). It will list all zip files in the root of your card - select the one you copied earlier (the modaco rom if you went with that) and follow the steps to install it.

Once installed, reboot the phone. It can take 10-15 minutes for first boot while it unpacks and configures itself, but will boot quickly from then on. When it boots for the first time, you'll go through the setup wizard (set up gmail account etc.)

Let me know how it goes....

mayhem#

Thanks, was already thinking in that direction.
Desperatly trying to find a micro-SD card adapter ;-)

tonyj_mc

i'm gonna give this a blast meself - if your stuck for an adaptor i can post ya one on monday have a few lying around here

mayhem#

Still looking for a link to the latest release of froydvillain though...

Mr E

mayhem# wrote: »

Still looking for a link to the latest release of froydvillain though...

Latest release: http://www.villainrom.co.uk/releases/FroydVillain1.4.0/download.php

Info Thread: http://www.villainrom.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?2000-FroydVillain-1.4.0-quot-Smoother-than-a-cashmere-codpiece-quot

mayhem#

Woohoo, my phone is back in the land of the living!!!
Thanks for the help everyone!

neacy69

mayhem# wrote: »

Woohoo, my phone is back in the land of the living!!!
Thanks for the help everyone!

Did you go for FroydVillian? how you finding it?


I've recently updated to VillianROM 12.0 and think the battery life is pretty poor so im thinking about FroydVillian

Anybody miss any of the Sense stuff?

donspeekinglesh

neacy69 wrote: »

Anybody miss any of the Sense stuff?

Not even a little bit. LauncherPro is a great replacement.

kiki

Using Froyodvillian 1.4.4 (andriod 2.2) on hero - Its fast (Linpack scores 4.9) stock 1.5 andriod was 1.8 score afaik, dont miss Sense UI in any big way - launcherpro does the job, some small gripes - the time app with sense was slightly better, the fb-contacts picture sync was slightly better in sense and the dialler doesn have the aphabet/contacts dial function - but there are apps for all these anyhow.

mayhem#

I ended up flashing it with MoDaCo in the end just to get the phone going again.
Tried to flash it to FroidVillain and it did the same damn thing again (hang at the "Hero" screen). Luckily I had a backup and restored it without a problem.
Still would like to give FroidVillain a go though...

mayhem#

Just wondering after I flash my phone with FroidVillain and reboot it how long should it take to install?

docentore

mine was booting for around 5 minutes for the first time. Just be patient, go for a pint or something

mayhem#

I left it running for over an hour and eventually just did a restore...

Mr E

Mayhem - what recovery console are you using? If using AmonRa, did you wipe everything first (including Dalvik and Ext?)

mayhem#

OK, have FroydVillain running for a few days now and like it.
the only (main) problem seems to be that AppaMarket refuses to download anything. I can find apps, click on it, select OK, the download starts but not a bit is downloaded.
Is this a known issue?

Mr E

Have a read of this, mayhem. It was horrendous last week (nothing would download), but its fine for me now (a few apps updated this morning).

If you have items that are stuck on "downloading", try cancelling them and restarting.

mayhem#

Thanks, looks like I'll just have to wait.
Kinda annoying as I didn't get a chance to reinstall any of my apps after my last flash...

Just out of interest in the plain vanilla Android ROM available for download anywhere?