To ROM or not to ROM? and other questions (Evo 4)G

For whatever reason, my wife decided to go back to her old BlackBerry Bold from her Evo 4G, so I decided to scoop that up to replace my ridiculous Samsung Transform. Out of everything that I've read so far THIS has been the step-by-step guide that I feel the most comfortable following to root, it reads really well and isn't worded as if I should already know what I'm doing.

First of all, the HTCDev method seems pretty straight-forward, I have not read through the other two methods listed so far. From what I understand, the only real difference is that the HTC method retains a watermark on the bootloader? Does this method preclude me from doing anything in the future, should I decide I want to? I did stumble across a "one click" method to root and unlock nand or whatever, but I'd like to go through the long way to get a feel for what's really going on with the process.

Now, to the important portion. I understand the concept of using custom ROMs like extra features, different kernels, better performance, etc. I'm not opposed to flashing a new ROM, but I'm just not certain that I really need to. Basically what I want is to have root access so that I can have wifi tethering when I occasionally need it, and be able to delete stock apps that I know I will never use that may or may not run in the background automatically.

Are there any compelling reasons for running a custom ROM that I may be missing?

It doesn't sound like you need a custom ROM for what you are looking to do on the phone. I think rooting it will give you pretty much what you are looking for.

If it's the "Shift" version, see http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/HTC_Speedy.
Otherwise, see http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/HTC_Supersonic.

pejsaboy said:

I understand the concept of using custom ROMs like extra features, different kernels, better performance, etc. I'm not opposed to flashing a new ROM, but I'm just not certain that I really need to. Basically what I want is to have root access so that I can have wifi tethering when I occasionally need it, and be able to delete stock apps that I know I will never use that may or may not run in the background automatically.

Are there any compelling reasons for running a custom ROM that I may be missing?

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You can't remove stock apps that you will never use unless you flash a custom ROM, because those apps are included in the stock ROM. That also can be an issue when picking which ROM you want to use, because some authors have their own idea of what media player and such you should use, and hard-code those into their ROMs.

i have a rooted shift. I don't think you want to do the htc dev way if your phone is under any kind of warranty. I would look over at xda. There seems to be more complete resources over there.

petteyg359 said:

You can't remove stock apps that you will never use unless you flash a custom ROM, because those apps are included in the stock ROM.

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That makes sense, I'm not actually sure where I got the idea that I could delete stuff just by having root access :/ It might be time to start doing ROM research I guess... I hate having bloatware cached in RAM that I'll never use.

Any thoughts or comments regarding the use of Sense vs. AOSP ROMs? So far I'm enjoying the stock experience with the Sense UI, but I know zero about what AOSP has to offer at this point. I've been drowning in google searches and forum posts since about 10pm last night, and really have only figured out that it will be fairly easy to unlock the bootloader and gain root access.

i prefer sense. Apps and widgets seem to work better.
If you are used to the phone the way it is stock, you will probably prefer sense.
i like supreme sense. I don't know if there is a variation for the evo 4g. cyanogenmod seemed popular, but it was very buggy for me.
I have never rooted or done roms on anything besides the shift so ymmv.

I wouldn't say you need to flash a custom ROM to remove preloaded content on the phone. Even though it doesn't let you remove it through the standard install managers, there are ways around that once you are rooted and have access to the file system. There are programs such as Titanium Backup, which will remove or freeze those apps, or you could remove them by adb console commands when phone is connected through USB.

One of the reasons why I chose to use a custom ROM was to allow for use of non OEM batteries. There was a model with a 500mAh higher capacity that worked from a different brand, but would not charge.

Thanks, noxqzs. I'll look into both of those options and see if they might serve the purpose I'm after!

pejsaboy said:

Basically what I want is to have root access so that I can have wifi tethering

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One thing to note before you root it. A lot of carriers are currently in the process of hitting the rooted WiFi tethering apps with the banhammer... hard. It's next to impossible to find one that isn't already blacklisted. You could always write your own though, or find someone to do it. Although, at that point it's almost worth it to pay the extra $ every month.

It was the main reason I rooted my Droid Bionic, and afterwards I found out some of the carriers had started this mess only recently before hand.

How are they countering the wifi tethering apps? I run cyanogenmod, and haven't tried the wifi tethering lately (3g is slow), so I am just curious.

Thanks for the heads up cojac92. I'll do some digging on that and see how it looks before I actually go through with anything.

I.M.O.G. said:

How are they countering the wifi tethering apps? I run cyanogenmod, and haven't tried the wifi tethering lately (3g is slow), so I am just curious.

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Identifying signatures/definitions from known apps and then blocking a data connection. Every time another is found it's added to the block list. It's pretty dirty if you ask me.

I love the pre release Cyanogenmod 9 on my Galaxy S2

mjw21a said:

I love the pre release Cyanogenmod 9 on my Galaxy S2

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The Bionic still lacks support for it. :/

A shame, it's one truly great ROM. Mines one of the earlier releases, though I can't be bothered upgrading again until the go final with CM9.

I've heard a lot of good things about it. I'll probably have upgraded again by the time Bionic gets support. lol

Unless its one of the more popular handsets, I doubt it'll ever get support really.

If you end up running either CM7 or pre-release CM9 (I imagine it exists yes? HTC released the Adreno GPU drivers a few weeks ago. I don't know seeing as how I'm on my NS4G currently.) on your EVO you can use the native wifi tethering built into the Android system. As far as rooting, I say just do it. I started the exact same way. One night I rooted my phone, and within two months I was flashing something almost every night (it's fun!)

I don't so much anymore due to time constraints, but the things you can do to your phone man, it's SO worth it.

gear.h34d.2012 said:

If you end up running either CM7 or pre-release CM9 (I imagine it exists yes? HTC released the Adreno GPU drivers a few weeks ago. I don't know seeing as how I'm on my NS4G currently.) on your EVO you can use the native wifi tethering built into the Android system. As far as rooting, I say just do it. I started the exact same way. One night I rooted my phone, and within two months I was flashing something almost every night (it's fun!)

I don't so much anymore due to time constraints, but the things you can do to your phone man, it's SO worth it.

Click to expand...

CM7 looks like what I'm probably going to be leaning toward at the moment. It's pretty popular most places I've been reading, so I figure it can't be too bad to at least try out. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get my hands dirty this weekend, just no time to get it done during the week for me!

So I finally did my rooting on Sunday via a guide on xda that applied to the newest OTA, which my phone had. The guide used the HTCdev unlock to initiate the process, and followed up with the superuser app and busybox installer app to gain root access. Now, the only drawback to stopping at this point (which I have) is that the bootloader will always indicate that it was unlocked even if you return everything to stock, out-of-the-box configuration.

There are additional steps that can be taken to get around that, but I'm wondering if that's really necessary? If something legitimately fails, I want to be able to get a replacement through either warranty or the TEP insurance. Will a so-called "watermark" on the bootloader prevent either of those types of replacement?