n00b question: which rom?
 

I've read through a few pages of this forum and haven't found an answer. A friend at work has an Apache device from Sprint. After seeing some of the custom roms I've installed on my Wizard, he is interested in doing the same for his phone. I don't know that he is into it enough to cook his own ROM and I'm not willing to do it myself and risk killing his phone, so I'm going to help him with one of the pre-made ones. That way if he ends up bricking it, it's not on my head. Thing is, I'm not sure which one to go with. There seem to be several and, being new to this forum (found it through XDA), I don't know who makes the best complete ROMs for this device. E.g. I'm currently using Faria's 3.3 ROM on my Wizard, which of the 3.3/3.5 ROMS would be somewhat equivalent to that?

I am looking for a ROM that does not have a lot of trial version software that he will have to remove when it expires. I suppose if it still works but just nags you to purchase, it would be okay. Otherwise I would prefer to stick with full/free apps. He also tethers his device so good data and tethering support is essential. The ROM needs to allow calls to go through even if he is using the data connection instead of going straight to voicemail. I believe that issue is fixed by the newer radio/AKU versions on the Wizard so I would imagine the Apache is the same.

So how bout it? Based on what I've given you, which ROMs would you recommend. Also is there any unlocking that needs to be done like on the Wizard? I did not see any sort of sticky about needing to do so before flashing.

At this point in time all of bugs haven't been fullly worked out of the AKU 3.5 ROMs. So look at one of the AKU 3.3 ones. Colonel's is pretty polished at this point.

But I think the most stable is probably wideawake's AKU 2.2 ROM.

The ring-thru problem is only an issue with the Apache on EV-DO networks and was fixed by PRI 1.18_003 and 1.19_003. If you look in settings->device information you will see the current PRI version. As long as its one of those it is fixed--and none of that has anything to do with the CE ROM at all.

No unlocking necessary.

I think some bugs would probably be okay. I will try to find the details on Colone's ROM and see what he thinks about it.

I'm guessing the PRI = Radio ROM? and CE ROM is just the o/s? (Similar to how Faria's AKU 3.3 ROM only affects the the o/s and now the Radio ROM or bootloader?

Current versions:
ROM 2.06.00 WWE
Radio 1.27.00
Ext ROM 2.06.303 WWE
HW ver 0041
PRL ver 20224
PRI 1.19_003

So I guess that PRI is not the radio ROM after all?

Yeah PRI = Product Release Instructions. It's a CDMA thing, so there's no equivalent in the GSM world. It only exists because the CDMA carriers aren't bound to follow the same standards, unlike GSM. Each carrier customizes the NVRAM inside the CDMA chip to function with its own CDMA network. The PRI contains various settings that make up that customization. PRI updates are additive and tend to be released with each carrier's official ROM in the form of a "silent" cab file that runs on the device without the end user's interaction (or even awareness).

Anyway, he's already on the latest official ROMs and PRI, so you're good to go. The only files you will be dealing with here are the nk.nbf (CE ROM) and the ms_.nbf (Extrom)--although the extrom isn't strictly necessary. The Sprint extrom he currently has on his device will work fine, but you need to prevent the auto install of all those cabs and pick and choose just the essential ones to install.

Is the colonel's 3.3 not a full rom/ext already.

I'm not sure where colonel is at in his progress. Check out his thread for the nitty gritty. IIRC he did customize a Sprint extrom that has all the bad stuff removed.