Is there a newbie guide to Apache ROM upgrading?

[DaveNagy]

Hi everybody,

It seems like there should be such a guide, but so far I haven't run across it. Does anyone have a link? I'm looking for something that explains:

• What (if anything) needs to be done prior to upgrading? How do I tell what ROM I've got now? Does anything need to be backed up? Like, my contacts maybe? What software (if any) should one acquire and install prior to starting the upgrade process?

• Exactly how does one "do" the upgrade? What exactly is "bootloader mode", and how does one get into it? What indications should you look for to confirm that the process is working correctly?

• What the heck is an ext.rom? Why do I need it, where do I get it, and is it a vital part of the upgrade process?

• Post-upgrade, are there any gotchas to watch out for? Common problems? Are there things that should, or must, always be done after upgrading? (Besides re-installing all your 3rd-party apps?) How do you tell what ROM you are running?

I've got some guesses about most of those topics, just from reading this forum for a couple weeks, but I'd really like to see everything spelled out in one spot, in excruciating, almost insulting, detail.

(This doc must exist. Otherwise, you'd be getting these same questions, over and over, which would suck. If this is something that needs to be created, I could certainly help do that, but sadly, only after I find out all the answers!)

For context, I've only had my PPC-6700 for about a week. But, I'd like get the ROM upgrade (I'm thinking Colonel's latest-greatest) "out of the way" before I spend a lot of time installing and customizing stuff. The trouble with that is, I'm wanting to do an "advanced" technique, while I'm still a proto-newbie. I need a lot of hand-holding.