Soullighter’s

I finally decided to go with CyanogenMod as the day-to-day ROM that I will use for my Desire. I have played around with OpenDesire and a few other custom roms but CyanogenMod with its extensive guides and relative stability is my pick.

The Wiki entry for updating the Desire details the simple steps to be followed to install the ROM on your rooted phone. Do pay attention and follow the backup section of guide as it can save you the hassle of recovering any sms messages, wireless and mobile APNs and call history. I settled on CyanogenMod 6.1.1 rather than the 7.0RC as the latter seems to be missing the proxy settings for wireless connections.

Towards the screenies and highlights of the features that CyanogenMod has provided over the stock ROM.

I have been hounding the Android forums for a bit before deciding I was confident and knowledgable enough to root my HTC Desire. As mentioned in the previous post, rooting an Android phone used to be quite tedious, but luckily there is one-click solutions to this now.

The method I used to root mine is through an application called Unrevoked. Using this method, I only had to download the application, plug in my phone to my computer through the USB connection and the application takes care of the process. As a general guide, using unrevoked involves the rooting process and installing a custom recovery image to allow backup and restore of the current vanilla settings so that if anything goes wrong, you can restore it to the original configuration. Unrevoked installs a recovery image called ClockworkMod Recovery.

Now to the process. I actually started to do the rooting using Windows 7. However, complications with the HMOD USB driver made me switch to Ubuntu to do it instead.

1. In Ubuntu, you would need to run unrevoked as the root user(Rooting as root -_-U).

2. Before that though, make sure to first turn on the USB Debugging mode in your phone by going to Settings>Development>USB Debugging.

3. Connect your phone to the computer using the USB cable. Make sure HTC Sync is not running.

4. unrevoked will then detect the phone being connected and proceed to root the phone and install ClockworkMod.

5. Your phone will reboot for a few times during the process. Unrevoked will inform you once the rooting has finished.

6. Verify ClockwordMod has been installed by selecting Recovery option in the HBOOT menu.On the Desire, the method to get to the HBOOT screen is to press the power button together with Volume down button. This may vary in other phone models.

7. Backup your current settings using ClockworkMod before you do anymore tinkering. NOTE: Make sure you have space on your SDCARD before doing this. Restart the phone through ClockWork after it finishes.

8. OPTIONAL STEP:IF YOUR PHONE GOT STUCK IN LOADING SCREEN AFTER BACKING UP THE SYSTEM, DO A RESTORE THROUGH CLOCKWORD MOD.

9. Verify that root settings has been unlocked by going to the App screen and seeing whether there is a new icon called Superuser Permissions.

10. Congratulations, your Android phone has now been rooted.

The next step(s) is to install custom apps or ROMs which can introduce tweaks and new features to your phone. Will write more on this in the next post.

I am not much of a phone enthusiast over the years. My first phone was Nokia 3310 back in the early college days which was phenomenal for its time. Its still kicking around back with my parents and still quite usable for its age. After the 3310, I have only changed phones every 2-3 years. Not that my last phone has died or something, but I finally saved some money and got interested to get a smartphone.

I realise that IPhones seems to be the rage nowadays with each new iteration of the model getting soldout reviews and sales. I can’t say I’m not impressed with the iPhones. They are capable and functioning devices but somehow the whole fanfare and hoohas about it just put me off. That’s when I first discovered the birth of Android OS from from Google. I have dabbled a bit with the early versions of Android but what strucked the chord was when Google Nexus One was announced. Issues with imports didnt manage to get me to try to buy one though. Not until its HTC equivalent, the Desire was released last year.

Right the HTC Desire! I finally got it! The Desire is essentially a HTC branded Nexus One with few changes and addons such as proprietary UI HTC Sense. I am actually quite late in the game, as the Desire’s new iteration has just been released, namely the Desire HD and Z. The current price and early adapter issue made me go for the original Desire though. I ordered it through Mobicity.com.au and got it delivered yesterday.

So, what do you do when you have an Android powered phone? Root it! Although plain vanilla Android and in my phone Android supplemented by the Sense interface is fine by itself, I like the fact you can do further tweaks and improvements to it. To do that though,you must actually unlock the superuser permissions in your phone first.

Basically, in a normal Android phone, you’re running as a basic or guest user that has limited administrative access and permissions. Similar to to the concept of the superuser in Unix/Linux environments, rooting allows system level changes and allows script executions normally blocked by the normal user permissions.

Rooting an Android phone is by far not a very hard process. It used to be that it has to be done manually, but as the Android modder community matures, one-click solution has been introduced to allow fast rooting to be done. It is s however still a bit of a daunting process. You have to be confident and calm as it has its “Eeek!” moments. The end-result? You have a perfectly capable phone Android phone that can be modded with custom features and tweaks.