Rooting for Cellular South Hero... Should you?
Cellular South HTC Hero Rooting. "The Goods, The Bads, The Answers"
I have made this thread to spread a little light on the long lost "Should I root my phone" question that even I faced before making the commitment. This thread will tell you ALL you need to know about Rooting the Cellular South HTC Hero, so you can see if Rooting is for you or not.
Let's start with the basics. What is "Rooting"?
Rooting is a simple as this. Carriers may block certain features on your phone that might strain the network (Like Tethering you phone [We will get into that in just a sec]), that might break your warranty (Like installing your own ROM [Kinda like how computers have OSes]), or features that Cellular South just do not offer (Like turning your phone into a Wi-Fi hot spot [That's right, I can do that LOL]). The way to unblock all of this, is to Root "i.e. Administrator" your phone (So that you can have TOTAL control of your phone)
Now you are wondering, "What are the risks of Rooting your phone?"
- Cellular South may deny you warranty claims
- You will not receive voicemail notifications (because we must used Sprint based ROMs... You can just use Google Voice like I do. "asmith001" has a thread on that in "General") ALSO: This will be fixed when Cellular South released the 2.1 update, or I get my hands on a leaked version
- Currently, there is no way to UNROOT your phone (Like I said, we will be able to UNROOT our phones when the 2.1 update comes out, which will also allow you to take it to the store and Cellular South will never know you were Rooted :D)
- A couple of Cellular South users lose their data connections when roaming
- Lastly, you could brick your phone (Only if you do something dumb like try to install a Droid ROM on your phone or something)
- You can turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hot spot (Which means you can use your Cellular South 3G service to connect your Laptop, iPod, PSP etc. to Wi-Fi. Where ever you get Internet Service on your phone, you can send a Wi-Fi signal for anyone to connect to! Or you can password lock your Wi-Fi hot spot)
- You can customize it HEAD-TO-TOE. Look at this to see TON of cool themes/lockscreens/etc that you can use ONLY if you are rooted! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=588351
- You can tether your phone using the Built-In Mobile Network Sharing feature (That's right, I have unblocked that on my ROM lol)
- You can even make your OWN ROM! (You will need to get into Android Developing)
- You can now get all apps FREE DIRECTLY FROM THE MARKET!!! (Yep, you can see this tutorial on how to do that if you are rooted http://bit.ly/bMD7dy)
- You can have a custom bootscreen
- You can get any "ROOT USERS ONLY" app
- You can have MULTIPLE ROMs using the Nandroid backup feaure
- You can use the A2SD feature that allows you to install all of your apps on your SD Card which saves you a TON of Internal Phone Storage space, which speeds up your phone
This is the guide on how to Root your Cellular South HTC Hero: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=581869
NOTE: I would do Step 1 regardless of if you do step 3 or not! If your internet connection was to ever mess up because you made a mistake later on, it will be your fall back to have those numbers!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, I hope this helps you all! Also, congrats csouthforums.com for the 1000th post!!! :D
WHEW...kyleisthebeast....I would change that name to something more like KYLEISTHEMAN!!! Boy, you are some smart person....I have been researching for months before I purchased the HTC Hero, have seen a lot about rooting, wondering wtf, then you come along in a cellularsouth forum and explain it so easily!!!...........good on ya!........I understand it all now, thanks to you, although I am not quite ready to do this.......I know there are a lot of adverturers out there who would love to have this knowledge!!! Cellular south needs to hire you big time!!!.........thanks...now can you tell me how to send a text message to more than one person at a time? lol.........I know you are laughing...but can't find it anywhere!!!............hahaha
gillthan where did you get the 1.5 ruu?
I have a long time friend that's pretty deep within cellsouth..... He placed trust in me that if he could get me a copy, that I wouldn't release it. Sorry guys I wish I could. Even he had to pull some strings to get it from development. If it got out, there'd be no question where it came from.
Piece of my email exchange with him (3/12/10):
"It is the 1.44 (build) but I do have the 2.1 beta but it is jacked up. It is watermarked and just crap. It has about 63 noted issues. I will get it to you as soon as they get it corrected. Should be soon!"
And on a lighter note...."I was told that we are having 6 more androids coming out this year including the droid which has alittle more power."
I've rooted mine, tried 2.1, and gone back to 1.5 (I have the CS ruu). 2.1 still has issues on the hero. I'm waiting for the CS release. June.... no biggie.
-gillthan
I've flashed 4 or 5 different 2.1 roms listed on the xda "CDMA Hero Roms" page
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=CDMA%20Hero%20ROMs
It looks really nice and all but I was having problems with phone audio, and would have to reboot the phone constantly. Reverting back to fresh 1.1 for now. Then I found this "100%" audio fix but it doesnt work for me, tested on fresh 2.0d and others:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=657244
anyone out there got a 2.1 based rom working on their cs hero yet?
i've been using damage control for about a week now with no issues with normal use.
I can't hit the camera button from the gallery or the gallery with FC, but that's an issue with all the cooked roms now.
There is a rom that is supposed to be tailored to non-sprint CDMA heroes, but I think it's sorely in need of a update ;)
Quote of the Day: 6 more androids coming out this year including the droid which has alittle more power
YES!!
I have a long time friend that's pretty deep within cellsouth..... He placed trust in me that if he could get me a copy, that I wouldn't release it. Sorry guys I wish I could. Even he had to pull some strings to get it from development. If it got out, there'd be no question where it came from.
Piece of my email exchange with him (3/12/10):
"It is the 1.44 (build) but I do have the 2.1 beta but it is jacked up. It is watermarked and just crap. It has about 63 noted issues. I will get it to you as soon as they get it corrected. Should be soon!"
-gillthan
Awwww, we'll keep it in the family, it's not like it's "getting out" :D
I flashed Aloysius 2.0.6 (2.1 based) last night and so far the only issue is wifi, but there are workarounds...I'm documenting some stuff today (if I find time) about my experiences.
i've been using damage control for about a week now with no issues with normal use.
There is a rom that is supposed to be tailored to non-sprint CDMA heroes, but I think it's sorely in need of a update ;)
-ogboot
Yeah I tried the "non-Sprint" rom (can't think of the name) it and the setup app force closed and went into an infinite loop, no thanks :P
six more android devices this year I wouldn't hold my breath we'll be lucky to see one.
six more android devices this year I wouldn't hold my breath we'll be lucky to see one.
-cyberwaste
haha, I forgot they said that! That's funny stuff. I just want 2.1 for the one and only Android device they have do have. Blame HTC, or blame CS?
I flashed Aloysius 2.0.6 (2.1 based) last night and so far the only issue is wifi, but there are workarounds...I'm documenting some stuff today (if I find time) about my experiences.
Yeah I tried the "non-Sprint" rom (can't think of the name) it and the setup app force closed and went into an infinite loop, no thanks :P
-steve
LOL You mean BitterSweet? Ya, that's my ROM. I made it with NON-Sprint users in mind. The reason you might have experienced problems is because you might not have wiped your phone, or you might not have wiped your Dalvik data. I am updating this SOON.... So be expecting an update. ;D
I've attempted to create a gold card with three different micro sd's with no success. Anyone have ideas on what the prob could be?
@kyle
yeah I was talking about BitterSweet. I always wipe my Dalvik cache and the phone before flashing any new ROM.
Anyway I got Aloysius 2.0.6 working and its super slick. Not sure if I want to play around with anything else right now. I'm not a multi-ROM addict, I like to find something cutting-edge, but reliable
I've attempted to create a gold card with three different micro sd's with no success. Anyone have ideas on what the prob could be?
-asmith001
figured it out... feel like an idiot. Thanks for the help, Steve. Do you prefer Aloysius over Fresh?
only preferring Aloysius over Fresh 2.0d at this point because I couldn't get Fresh to work. The audio problems persisted even after flashing the patches. With Aloysius the audio had no issues so I'm just staying with it until I see some significant updates coming out of the other ROM camps.
Glad you got it working, welcome to the world of root :D
Guys i would suggest that you stick with aloysius for the moment because is optimized for OUR hero and i have noticed that with damage control 2.0.8 and especially with fresh 2.0d we loose data connection and the bars keep coming and going. Our problem is that our baseband does not work great with the 2.1 OS leak and i tried to update the baseband from fresh website and tried each one of them hoping that i would get better signal quality but with no luck. Now i am back to our stock Baseband and i have no problems.
Aloysius 2.0.7 is very optimized and does not have the Sprint crap in it(saves time).
I gotta be honest, I'm not digging the UI elements of Aloysuis from the screenshots I've seen. I also feel the same way about Fresh, to an extent. No offense intended, but that's one of the biggest parts of customization for me.
Do not get Fresh 2.0d. The reason why is because he has a "auto-PRI" feature that isn't really an auto-PRI. Its a "most recent Sprint" PRI. If you have flashed Fresh since he added this feature, then you need to reset your PRI and all. If not, you will have problems.
