Completely lost: Flashing ROM, theme'ing, MetaMorph, BusyBox.... too complicated.

[Volknochi]

[This post will be long, I apologize beforehand, but I'll do my best to keep it detailed to the point to explain my problem(s).]

Hello all.

I have a problem, a continuing one, actually, so I'm hoping someone will be able to point out what I might be doing wrong or what the problem is. I also have a few questions.

I have found that having to customize the HTC Hero is harder than it looks. After spending 6 hours trying to figure out how to root my Hero, I've finally rooted my phone and created a recovery image. Doing countless searching through this forum, theunlockr, and XDA, I stumbled across this thread: How To Root The Sprint CDMA Hero.

So, all was good there. Got one task out of the way.

Now, the confusion starts over again: flashing a ROM, theme'ing, etc...

From the main HTC Hero page for ROMs and Themes, I found this link:
Metamorph App: theme your phone without having to reboot into recovery mode and flash some kind of update.

Seeing how it said you don't need to reboot, I figured that was how I can flash a ROM and changes my themes and whathaveyou. So, I go through the link and download MetaMorph. MetaMorph says that I need to have BusyBox installed. Alright, so I go into Market to find BusyBox, only to find that it is no longer in there. But, further searching on the XDA Forums presented me with a thread that contained the file, so I downloaded it from there. So, everything was good there, I got BusyBox.

Then, it came time to install it into the phone. Now, a new problem for me. I went by the directions of this XDA thread and ran into a snag:

How do I get it to work properly? This XDA thread says to move it into /system. I tried the commands given but it still did nothing; either it said "no such file or directory was found" or "not found". I must be doing something wrong but I don't know what.

So, now I'm stuck. It's definitely proving to be confusing and aggravating to customize my phone to my liking when so many instructions can be vague and run you all over the place across the interwebs. And, believe me, I've done some extensive researching to find answers but so far, I've found nothing.

Side question #1: When someone says "make sure you are root/rooted", does that mean root into your phone with CMD every time with the commands found here? I take it there's not a simpler one-button-click program to gain instant root access?

Side question #2: When they say to access /system, are they meaning to actually go into the phone (and not the SDcard) and changing stuff in there? If so, I sure haven't found anything to allow me to do that.

Side question #3: One thread I read said to get Terminal from Market. I looked and did not see Terminal anymore. I saw Terminal Emulator (which doesn't have an on-screen keyboard) and Command Executer.

Side question #4: Do I have to flash a ROM in order to change out my theme and add in non-market apps? I've looked on this page (from the main sticky) and didn't really see much on anything useful for what I'm wanting (or am I missing something?).

Side question #4: Could someone please help me out in figuring the proper steps to get my phone to look and do what I like? I've already rooted my Hero and removed some bloatware, so that's all good. But, knowing which method is the best to do what everyone else has already accomplished (changing themes, putting in app's, etc) is really taking my head for a spin.

If someone could help me out here by making a "Customizing Hero for Dummies" (seriously, I tend to get confused easily when there're so many variants on How To's), I'd really appreciate it. Oh, and please don't suggest that I search more cause I've been doing that for the past two hours. My Firefox browser has had up to 10 tabs open, all devoted to getting me to progress further but only causing me to get lost.

-Volk

[theresthatguy]

1. they just mean you're phone needs to be rooted
2. /system is a directory in which the android OS is kept. not sure what guide is telling you need to go in there do whatever.
3. Terminal Emulator is a terminal for your phone... go figure. The free one is kind of sheisty. Press and hold menu key to bring up the keyboard. You don't need this though.
4. no
4. if you want to use metamorph with stock rom. i suggest you use this flashable zip form this thread.

all custom roms for cdma hero currently have busybox already pre-packaged with the rom, so you could always do metamorph after flashing custom rom however there aren't really any metamorph themes for cdma hero. most devs create them as flashable zips. which might i add is really simple just enter recovery mode. and select zip, press home to confirm install.

with that said it is not harder to install flashable themes imho

with that said, i think you're making this way harder on yourself than needs to be

[snowplow54]

great thread, theres so many different things going on for android its easy to get lost. some things work for 1.5 some things work for 2.1, some arent compatible with sense. apps2sd can be tricky. who knew an OS by Google would involve so much Googling?

[bradart]

Originally Posted by snowplow54

great thread, theres so many different things going on for android its easy to get lost. some things work for 1.5 some things work for 2.1, some arent compatible with sense. apps2sd can be tricky. who knew an OS by Google would involve so much Googling?

Thats just what they planned on. "Hello, unique visits and ad revenue".