Typically stupid newbie question (re: AKU updates)

DaveNagy · #1 (**permalink**) 01-30-2007, 07:57 PM

Hi everybody,

First post, so yeah, I'm sure I'll come to regret it. I'll attempt to limit myself to two questions. I just signed up last night for a Sprint (SERO) plan, and I ordered a 6700. I've spent several hours over on the SprintUsers forum, and a couple hours here. So, I'm definitely still in the "Knows just enough to be dangerous" phase right now. Here are my questions:

Is this the best forum "out there" for technical issues having to do with the PPC-6700? It seems to be the best one I can find, but I've already admitted my ignorance on, well, just about everything.

From what I can gather, updating the AKU requires a hard reset. And according to the 6700 manual I downloaded last night, a hard reset wipes out pretty much everything you've done/installed to that point. So, would it be wise to upgrade to a more recent AKU as soon as I receive my phone? You know, since I wouldn't be losing anything at that point? (Okay, not right away. I'll want to wait a week or so to make sure the hardware is working okay.)

Rats, one more related question. If you were to advise me to "get the AKU upgrade over with early", which AKU would you recommend? 3.3 might be a bit bleeding-edge, eh?

Thank you kindly. I look forward to becoming a more productive part of this forum.

vboyz103 · #2 (**permalink**) 01-30-2007, 08:02 PM

Sup Dave and welcome to the forum.

I don't know that if this is the "best" (depend on how you describ best) forum but people in here are ROM hackers, so I'm pretty sure they are technical and knowledgeable enough to answer questions about PPC6700.

Yes, a hard reset will wipe out everything you had installed and put the PDA back to default stage. If you are interested in testing ROMs, or cooking ROMs then I recommend you build yourself a stable ROM on your PDA, and use backup tools such as Sunnysoft Backup Manager, or sprite backup premium edition, etc. and store that on your storage card. So in case you want to go back, just reflash with the stable ROM you started with when you built your stable backup and restore the backup, and you should be back to normal in less than 10 minutes. That is how I do it.

One note though, in using backup software, you might want to go into its settings and check anything that said "Create self extract executable" so that it becomes a .exe where you don't need to install the software upon a hard reset to restore the file. Think of it just like WinRAR, you can create a .rar file which requires Winrar to be installed in order to extract, or just create a .exe (SFX) and you don't have to have winrar installed.

**luv2chill** · #3 (**permalink**) 01-30-2007, 08:12 PM

My advice to you would be to take some time to learn about your PPC first before getting too hard-core into the test ROMs. Though a lot of progress has been made, it has been very recent (as in the last month or so) so there really hasn't been a whole lot of time to iron the bugs out. If you are at all new to Windows Mobile (or even just new to this device) I would highly recommend sticking with the latest official ROM until you're comfortable enough with the basics, then move on to the new stuff.

However if you're the type of person who just likes to jump right into the fire (and I admire that if you are) then by all means, hang out here, download helmi_c's or colonel's AKU 3.3 rom (or one of the others, they are multiplying like rabbits!) and dig in. Just be prepared to do lots of reading and bug squashing, and to go for long periods of time where your phone will be out of commission.

The ideal scenario is if your 6700 is just for fun and you don't depend on it for calls. I wish that were the case for me right now. I've got lots of stuff I want to do with my 6700, but I need it for work right now so I can't do a whole lot to it at the current moment.

But in any case, enjoy your new device. They are cool little machines, but have their fair share of frustrations as well. Things are definitely looking up though, even as they're being discontinued and abandoned by the carriers! Stay tuned to this site!

**jamaa124** · #4 (**permalink**) 01-30-2007, 08:31 PM

i personally think that it would be a good idea to upgrade to a newer rom. i would start out with the aku2.2. i use it myself. its an official release, its easy to use and most of the bugs have been worked. once you've become fimilar with that, then you should move on to aku3.3. as mentioned by luv2chill, you should take some time to learn your 6700. its a cool device and i'm sure that you'll like this site. we try to answer as many questions as we can.

DaveNagy · #5 (**permalink**) 01-30-2007, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vboyz103

Yes, a hard reset will wipe out everything you had installed and put the PDA back to default stage. If you are interested in testing ROMs, or cooking ROMs then I recommend you build yourself a stable ROM on your PDA, and use backup tools such as Sunnysoft Backup Manager, or sprite backup premium edition, etc. and store that on your storage card. So in case you want to go back, just reflash with the stable ROM you started with when you built your stable backup and restore the backup, and you should be back to normal in less than 10 minutes.

By "build yourself a stable ROM", do you just mean I should tweak settings and install various utilities and such? And then I somehow back up that "state" to a file that can be restored after something goes bad? I definitely haven't gotten to the point where I can "roll my own" ROM, ala the various Kitchen posts. Give me a week.

I will check out that Sunnysoft product. That will likely answer many of my questions. Thanks for the tip about setting the backup to be "self extracting".

DaveNagy · #6 (**permalink**) 01-30-2007, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luv2chill

My advice to you would be to take some time to learn about your PPC first before getting too hard-core into the test ROMs. Though a lot of progress has been made, it has been very recent (as in the last month or so) so there really hasn't been a whole lot of time to iron the bugs out. If you are at all new to Windows Mobile (or even just new to this device) I would highly recommend sticking with the latest official ROM until you're comfortable enough with the basics, then move on to the new stuff.

Good advice. I'm new to all of this. Windows Mobile, smartphones in general, the 6700 in particular. I do test software for a living, (test, not code) so I should be able to pick things up pretty quickly, but right now I don't even know what questions to ask!

I was just concerned that the version of the ROM that Sprint will deliver was horribly old and busted. If so, I figured there would be no better time to nuke it back to the bare metal. It sounds like things are pretty usable out of the box.

Quote:

Originally Posted by luv2chill

The ideal scenario is if your 6700 is just for fun and you don't depend on it for calls. I wish that were the case for me right now. I've got lots of stuff I want to do with my 6700, but I need it for work right now so I can't do a whole lot to it at the current moment.

This will be my only cell phone, so I don't want to break it before I get to play with it a bit. On the other hand, it's not a work phone, so I should be able to screw it up, and only my wife will yell at me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by luv2chill

But in any case, enjoy your new device. They are cool little machines, but have their fair share of frustrations as well. Things are definitely looking up though, even as they're being discontinued and abandoned by the carriers! Stay tuned to this site!

Thank you, I'm sure I will. I agonized about buying a phone that was reaching the end of its life, but it seems like a fine phone as far as I can tell from my reading. BTW, Sprint says it shipped!

DaveNagy · #7 (**permalink**) 01-30-2007, 09:43 PM

Alrighty, I'll just play it by ear for a while. I'll get the phone, learn to use it's basic features, install a few things just to learn how -- but stay aware that I will be losing those installs once I upgrade ROMs. So, nothing too crazy. Then, after I've spent more time reading, I'll see about that 2.2 ROM. Is it significantly "better" the the default? (I know, I know. Read.)

**Perasite** · #8 (**permalink**) 01-30-2007, 09:53 PM

I got mine a year ago. I read up on the forums as much as I could so that I could get it tweaked just how I like. Just within the last month or so, the 6700 has progressed to where I love it like it were new again. If it were me, I would spend a week or two getting to know it, and then dive in to one of the new AKU 3.3 ROM's. Worst case scenario, you hate it. Just re-flash the phone with the official Sprint ROM and you're back to day one! This site definitely has lots of developers on it, and the people know their stuff, so hang out, and if you have questions, feel free to ask. We've all had them, too, most likely, so one of us should be able to answer.

firegeek · #9 (**permalink**) 01-31-2007, 03:34 AM

Welcome,

This is the most complete site I've found so far. I too am fairly new to the PPC 6700. A Treo 650 convert. I love it, and I haven't looked back!

My 2 cents, just jump in. I found with Colonel's 3.3 beta 1, life is great. I went with Helmi's stock 3.3 a few days after it came out. It scared the crap out of me to do it. But it went sooooo smooth. Then liked Colonel's idea, and am loving it even more. WOW. It takes me 1.5 hours give or take to be back up and running, with only 20 min plus or minus, of no phone. I cannot live without it. But 20 mins in an evening no worries. I am holding off for a day or so, on the next beta, see what bugs get worked out.

Above all have fun. If you love tweaking, as I do, This IS the phone.

E.