Flashing ..Where do i start ?

[whipuras]

Ok i have been browsing this site for over 2 hours now. I love what you guys are doing with these roms. I am noob when it comes to flashing my PPC. Where can i find an easy tutorial on exactly how to flash the rom. I have downloaded a few roms but they only contain these .nb files and a readme that doesnt say how to do anything. From the begginning like, connect PPC to laptop and copy ... to your SD card or something? what do i do, thanks for the input and sorry for being a noob, i have searched and search and maybe im just reading too much into it.
Thanks

[necorbin]

Well, from noob to noob, it never hurts to search the forum... !

Initial warnings aside, take a look at the post from konceptz about Custom Roms compiled for you. Download one of the roms from there, which are pre-packaged, so all you really need to do is run the .exe file. (I'd post a link to the thread, but can't, as I haven't posted enough yet. Anyways, it's stickied, so it should be one of the top few posts in this forum.)


Happy flashing!!!!!

[diableri]

I'm in much the same boat as the OP.

The thing I'm concerned about (and I'm not done reading and searching yet) after reading for two days all this great stuff is if a Hard Reset will just bring the phone back up to out the door state. Since the term flashing the ROM is what's used, I'm 99% sure that is not the case. I would assume that I'd need an "image" (AKU? or ROM?) of it's out the door state to reflash back to.

I picked up my XV6700 from VZ on the 3/12/06 and have been furiously reading all the excellent forums and posts about modding it and it's been tough to wait. I just don't want to get myself where I can't put the phone back into it's original state.

I also haven't found any clear details on what would need to be done to use the phone and EVDO etc after flashing. I've found several conflicting posts at various boards about that. Since this is my work device (I own it, I just depend on it hourly) I'm a bit leery is all.

Thanks to all of you for the incredible work you've done with all these devices, applications and general common sense that the manufacturers and/or service providers seem to lack. Hacking at it's best.

[Jmckinney1976]

Ok here's the scoop on how to flash your phone.
1. Figure out whose version you want to use. I'd highly recommend Saridnour's ROM (it has a lot of goodies pre-installed) or the Clean and Simple ROM if you just want the bare bones.
2. Not everyone does this but I always hard reset my phone prior to installing a new ROM. Hard reset by holding down the two soft keys while using your stlyus to press the reset button. It will ask you to confirm the hard reset. Follow the instructions and allow your phone to completely reboot.
3. In most cases you need to download the ROM you want to use on your PC. For now use ROMs that have an .exe - they're much easier to install.
4. You now need to put your phone into bootloader mode to accept the update. Do this by holding down the power button on the top of your PPC along with the camera button on the left side while using your stylus to press the soft reset button. The screen will look black but if you put it up to a light you should see where it says "Serial 2" in the background. Now connect the PPC your your PC using USB (not a USB hub). The dark background should now say "USB."
5. Double click the .exe file on your PC and a screen will pop up to walk you through the rest of the process.
6. You have the option of whether or not you want your carrier to add their own customizations. Being new you should probably go ahead and let it customize for now and you can always hard-reset in the future and only allow certain programs to install. You can search the forum for this info too.

On a side note, if you are a Verizon customer do not try and upgrade your radio version. I think 1.10 is the latest version. The only person who I've seen recently who bricked their phone was a Verizon customer who tried to update their radio to a higher Sprint version of the radio and ended up throwing their phone away.

Hope this helps.

[diableri]

Thanks a bunch! Going to give the clean and simple a try in just a few minutes. =)

[diableri]

Well, I was unable to get the Clean and Simple done due to the Country Code error that others have experienced. I've been searching on it and reading about it and haven't found any solutions other than try again later so that's what I'll do. Hopefully it's just an intermittent issue that will self resolve as that's the only thing I can figure out now but I'll keep reading and hope an answer has already been posted. =)

[Sparky2]

Jmckinney,

I have been reading for months in forums about the process of the various ROMs and have been waiting for others to blaze the trail and get the bugs out. It looks as though finally this weekend I will go for it.

Thanks for the guide. It seems fairly complete, but it may be missing something. The problem for me is, most of these threads that try to explain "how to" start out simple enough, but then grow so long that they finally die from their own weight - then a new one starts. By that I mean, someone will tell the noob, "Just follow these steps........." Then, a couple of posts down someone will say, "I did that but now my phone does not work." or some other issue. Then someone else will chime in and say, "I followed the instructions, but I can't get......." Then a more knowledgeable user will say something like, "You need to hard reset the phone prior to flashing. Do that and then re-flash" This is great, but the original instructions never seem to get updated. Then, someone will say, "I tried all of this and even reset my phone before flashing, but it now locks up when I......" A few others will chime in with either similar issues or some other problems before someone else finally says, "You have to hard reset the 6700 first thing after you flash the new ROM" This is also great, but again, the original instructions do not get updated.

Then a few posts later (which is by now near the bottom of the second page) someone says, "I can't use my old contacts and the old contacts file cannot be read." After a few others mention the same thing and then a few other noobs give the wrong advice, someone finally says that the instructions should have said, "First thing, sync via activesync to your PC or else....." Which is again great advice, but sadly the original instructions do not get updated which invariably leads to page three and later page seven getting filled up with more stories of lost lists of contacts.

Then someone will say that they cannot even get started with the operation and it will finally be brought out that they are using Vista and there are problems with that. This will be discussed for a half a dozen posts that are interspersed with 5 or 10 other problems caused by any one of the first three problems mentioned above. The thread is now 4 or 5 pages long and the original instructions have not been updated. There are many people with open questions and few others trying to answer them and the thread is turning into a jumbled mess.

Then someone says, "I thought that this ROM was suppose to........" and some helpful member will say, "Well, you were first supposed to flash with the stock ROM before you......." This again is helpful, but this valuable information gets buried on page 8 and the thread is now on page 10 trying to solve someone's problem of how they followed the on-screen instructions when they should not have. And again the original instructions in post #2 on the first page does not get updated.

This results in the thread dying out and, in a few days a new one starts. It really does not matter if the thread is "How do I program my 6700" or if it is a particular thread about "BillyBob's Custom ROM," many seem to end up about the same.

Please note, I am not talking about subjects that are particular to certain user installed programs such iGuidance, or BlueTooth DUN, or "I can't get streaming .wmp files to work at MyDownLoads(dot)com using my Opera browser with..........." but rather just the "general instructions" kind of questions that are either for one ROM or all ROMs. Particular issues can easily be searched for. These general instructions cannot.

Do not get me wrong, I am extremely grateful to those in this forum and the other popular forum that take the time to give directions, but when doing so, there is a bit of responsibility incurred by the one who is instructing to be sure that their answer if not complete is at least made that way should future editing be required. I know that I have spent dozens hours on this one subject on these forums and still have not found a complete list for installing. The problem is I have been doing it an hour at a time and really do not remember where all of the "nuggets" were hidden. There are stickies for how to customize, cook, and build, but none for just installing. A Wiki article on this would be perfect because it could be corrected and added to (hopefully) as new information came to light. I guess I will just have to "take the plunge" and learn by trial and error as most of you did. I was just hoping to avoid all of that as I am sure all of the information is here somewhere.

[diableri]

Sparky,

I've actually started that document. Whenever I work on a new project (I'm a database guy for a group of hospitals) I take some pretty obsessive notes since it usually saves me a ton of time troubleshooting later.

I promise that if I am able to get a build to work that I will post detailed logistics of each step in a thread and see if it's WIKI worthy. This board is a fantastic resource and I'd love to be able to contribute in even a small way such as that.

I hope to get the clean and simple build working on my XV6700 soon. If that works out well, I'll dive in and try building my own because there are still a few things I'd change I think with that build.

In short, I feel your confusion and hope to at least address a part of it. =)