Psychology of Technology: Fear of Flashing

Looking at flashing a rom for the first time. My biggest issue is how to select which one to flash? Is there some way to find out what the highlights are for each rom? A video review would be really cool.

@Scott: A very common question and a very personal answer. There are tons of great ROMs out there. No way to really make an informed decision on what is best for you. Likeliest approach is to just ask others.

I’m partial to EnergyROMs and our very own Herg’s ROMs. For your first flash probably best to stick with a tried and true one, e.g., EnergyROM Phoenix version. NRG’s latest ROMs, Magic and Mercury, still report quite a few bugs. I’m using his 61209 build and it is very stable. The reality is that it’s still pretty unclear to most of us how the newer ROMs are that much better than the established ones.

BTW, it’s easy to flash a ROM, but, if you’ve tweaked your set up a lot, that is the time consuming poart.

When your phone wouldnt connect to your pc did you try to go to: Start menu/Settings/System/USB Settings

Uncheck “Enable faster data synchronization”

This solved my issue with that in the past.

So i figured it was about time for me to try and flash a rom on my phone, i go to hook up my phone to the pc and low and behold active sync won’t work, so then i go an try to download active sync from microsoft website, and it wont download it gets stuck. so now i can’t sync my phone and i dont know what to do

See dOc comment above. Are you running XP or Vista? If XP, download Activesync. If Vista, download Windows Device Center (or some such).

Try to reboot your PC and your phone.

Restarting my computer did the trick, thank you very much

Quote:drjim
BTW, it’s easy to flash a ROM, but, if you’ve tweaked your set up a lot, that is the time consuming poart.

I get the sense that a lot of Fuzaholics flash, just for the sake of flashing, not really knowing or expecting anything to be different. basically in it for the hunt! (Hence, the term flashing whore) I did my fair share of flashing with previous phones/PPC’s (primarily OEM updates) so I don’t fear it, but I do a lot of tweaking to my device and when I get it where i like it I don’t really want to start over. I have looked over several ROM’s and it seems like each chef has their own recipe, adding a little of this and a little of that, basically creating bloat that I may not want or need. I know there are other ROM’s that are stripped clean, but then why am I bothering to update. Other issues I have read involve not being able to; sync email, access wi-fi, text, make calls. It usually gets resolved (typically be flashing another ROM), but all of those things have worked for me since I got my device.

I tried a new beta app launcher last night and it froze up my Fuze. After a battery pull and three soft resets I was reviewing the instructions for a hard reset (and thinking, this may be the night I flash) when I finally gained access to the start menu and was able to delete the offending program and try again. Better results the second time, but the darn birds were awake before I called it an night again.

Hey, at least I can still test applications and let you know if they will run on a stock Fuze. Somebody has to do it.

Advice from a Fuze flashing whore (jimski’s words, not mine!)

When I took the dive and flashed my first ROM, I did it the ActiveSync way. What a nightmare! It would always seem to lose the connection at the worst possible time.

The advice? Invest in a cheap 2gb MicroSD card. Once I started flashing from SD there was no going back. It’s faster, smoother and much safer. The $10 card has paid for itself over and over in time saved.

I think I’d had my Fuze for 2 weeks when I discovered fuzemobility’s Tips & Tricks page, which sent me to xda-devs and I discovered “flashing.” After about a MONTH of reading (and re-reading and re-reading) the flashing-for-noobs sticky I was ready to try it. I was soooo scared, I waited for the kid to be put to bed, and then my husband brought me Ben & Jerry’s (hey, ice cream works, guys! And for the curious, it was Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream). And, of course, it was easier than I thought and not so scary. I’ve stuck it out with EnergyROMs and am a bit of a flash whore. I really should try some others, I suppose, but then I’m content with EnergyROMs, so meh. (Wednesday, my husband came to pick me up, saw my Fuze hooked up to my desktop and said, “Flashing *again*?” lol!)

It’s kind of strange because I’d call myself pretty risk-averse; I just like gadgets more I suppose!

Next I *really* need to tackle UC…

@bitbucket: Great to hear a woman’s voice here.

I’m with you on UC (or Sashimi). I just flashed yesterday and have probably spent about 6 hours getting my Fuze back up to speed. I tried to learn Sashimi some time ago, but I found it so confusing, I figured the time I spent learning it could be better spent just setting my Fuze up. And I don’t plan on flashing very often.

I don’t find installing all of my apps time consuming. Rather, the hard part is recreating new folder (e.g., tools, applications) and moving all of the reinstalled apps into their appropriate folder in the start menu (slow cut-and-paste process). Then setting up my email, Internet, camera, communications, etc. I’ve pretty much given up on registry tweaks I used to have (not sure they work with 6.5 or work at all).

Can UC or Sashimi take care of those?

One of the big issues with Flashing for me is the ‘reconstituting’ my phone with all the apps and configurations that were there previously.

If there were a seamless way to flash a new ROM but keep all of your apps and data intact, I think flashing would become a much more common activity.

@Jon: I totally agree. I think developers should make this process their next priority. If we can back up all our apps, tweaks, and settings, flashing would be a piece of cake.

Does anyone have a known set of tools that can replicate this restore function? I have that backup application, but it ususally doesn’t work so well across different ROM and OS versions!

@drjim: I haven’t really started to look into UC or Sashimi seriously (in fact, how the heck do you GET Sashimi?? I went to the site that everyone points to, but didn’t see anything that said, “Hey stupid! Download THIS!” I think maybe you have to register on the site?), so I’m not sure how deep it goes. I think that comments I’ve seen on the XDA-devs forums imply (to me) that you can even save registry tweaks and restore them.

I flash a little often, but I don’t have a ton of apps and tweaks to perform, so I’m okay with doing it manually so far (the biggest annoyance are my RSS feeds… I need to keep a running list of the ones I add to it). It still is not habit enough that I keep an OpenOffice document on my desktop that reminds me what to add, in what order, and how to make sure things work properly (some things need some settings put in).

I have recently been considering flashing a cooked ROM for the first time (after having so many problems with the new AT&T ROM and reading all the great things said about the Ahen ROM (with the wood panel background)). But reading this article makes me more hesitant. I rely on my phone so heavily for work that I can’t risk having it screw up while I’m out in the field. I talk, text, and use the email, contacts, calendar, and tasks (synced over an Exchange server) throughout the day. I also keep documents on it that I read information from while in front of customers, so basically I’ll take the time to get it set up right, but after that, it’s got to be reliable. Also, I don’t have time to be constantly tweaking it, nor do I want to.

Can anyone ease my fears or tell me not to waste my time? I read the comments on xda-devs from people having problems with ROMs, but is that the norm or are there plenty of happy users that have no reason to comment?

@KCMatt: My article wasn’t meant to intimidate, but rather to educate and prepare. Though there are no statistics that I know of, I have never heard of someone bricking a phone (though I’m sure it does happen infrequently and usually because someone doesn’t follow the procedure).

Two key issues. First, for your purposes, pick a ROM that is tested and stable. I am partial to EnergyROM 3.0, Phoenix builds, meaning most in June.

Second, be prepared to spend time setting up your phone again with your apps, tweaks, comm info (e.g., email, texting). That can be time consuming. If you have a simple setup, it can be quick and easy. It sounds like your set-up would be easy because syncing would take care of most of it and downloading some docs is easy. However, if you have many apps, tweaks, etc. it can take awhile (I just flashed yesterday and it took me about 5 hours to get it back up to speed; fortunately, I work for myself!).

So, as my post suggests, have no fear. Educate yourself, have everything ready to go, and follow the process to the T.

Of course, as a disclaimer, shit does happen, but the probability is low.

I use this link for flashing instructions. Simple and clear.

Good luck and have fun.

Oops! Forgot to paste link:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=448008

@KCMatt, PM me on the forums and I will walk you through any questions you have…

I personally power use my Fuze (LOL little rhyme) but I do notuse exchange. The 6.5 ROMS are very stable and heaps faster.

We have this thread in our forums specially built for ROM Flashing questions: http://www.mobilitydigest.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=57

I wrote this in the forums for the easiest means to flash the Fuze/TP:
http://www.mobilitydigest.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13290&postcount=482

Thanks guys. To clarify, it’s not the flashing process that I’m worried about it’s the fear of having usability issues afterwards or down the road. If my email or calendar stopped working during an important day, I could be screwed. Plus, I don’t want to have to be screwing with my phone all the time.

I’ll take the plunge and try NRG’s 3.0 Phoenix ROM. And Doug, I’ll PM you if I have any questions.

Thanks!!!

I think you can be comfortable with builds 61209 or 61309 or thereabouts.

OK, not trying to dispute the effectiveness of flashing, but I did some quick math. If I flash a new ROM once a month for the next six months and it takes me 6 hours per flash to; backup essential info, flash, reload apps, tweaks and essentials (I have a lot of stuff to reconfigure), that’s 36 hours or 2,160 minutes dedicated to flashing. This works out to 11.868 minutes per day (182 days) or 712 seconds. If I access my phone 50 times per day that’s an allowable 14.25 second lag per session. I know I am running slower with a stock ROM, but not 14.25 second slower.

The above calculations don’t take into account; connectivity problems or losing expected applications after flashing, which I have read about in several threads. They always get resolved but it takes a greater investment of time. I guess unless I have to, or unless the features of a new ROM (not just a few seconds faster) are overwhelmingly apparent, I will stick with my stable stock Fuze.

@jimski

if you automate your post flash setup like with Sashimi or UC all you have to do is sit back and watch your phone do the work.

@Derekw,

So I checked out Sashimi and the demos, and I cannot for the life of me understand how this would ‘reconstitute’ my FUZE the way it is now with my existing apps and data.

What I was hoping/looking for was an app that would sniff my FUZE, capture all the apps and custom settings that are set, and then put them back the way it found them post-flash.

To me, this operation would more-or-less replicate the flashing solution Apple provides its customers with the iPhone.

If I am to understand Sashimi right, I need scour my FUZE, find all the cabs that made it what it is, and then pre-load them into Sashimi? Is that correct? How about all my custom reg settings (for performance, etc.) that I totally don’t remember where they are?

How about data files? I can use MS My Phone to restore text messages, etc, I suppose, right?

So I guess a big help here from a “pro” would be to help outline the specific types of assets that one should be thinking of backing up before reflashing. Here’s my start of a list:

1. Inventory your apps (and put them into Sashimi?) (yeah, world, WinMo has “apps” too! )
2. Backup your contacts/texts/cal/etc. data on MSFT My Phone
3. Write down (or put them into Sashimi?) your settings for your email accounts
4. For those of us who have nicely customized their “programs list” their start menus in TF3D2…. somehow catalog this (screen captures?)
5. For those of us who use TF3D, somehow capture your fav contacts (write it down?)
6. Jot down or save your Opera/IE favorites
7. For every app that has its own custom settings you want to remember… go into each app and write those down (?)

As you can see, this becomes QUITE a chore if I’m looking at this the right way.

Any help?
Thanks!
Jon

Doug is going to start an online flashing service, and I’m going to start an online Sashimi service.

I would totally pay someone to create a Sashimi or UC program for me!!!

What would an online sashimi service do, exactly?

If someone could figure out a way to store and restore custom settings, then reflashing could become quite a more ‘mainstream’ activity.

Imagine if this were in place… with “one-press OS upgrades” leveraging the vast, innovative “beta ROM” culture that WinMo has.

Who in the “mainstream media” would have seen this coming? Microsoft’s Mobile Platform trumping Google in the “beta” game for Mobile… Buy a WinMo phone, and leverage a vast community of innovators who can instantly give your phone more features — the feature you want — all in “beta” forever… but all designed to get you more out of your phone.

With iPhone, you need to wait for Apple to give you an upgrade.
With Android, well, not much is going on there in terms of in-place upgrades.
With Palm, you need to wailt for Palm to send you an upgrade.
With WinMo, an open-source community is constantly offering new OSs for your phone… just “one click” and you can enjoy new features, functions and entirely new experiences if you desire.

With this “one click” upgrade, it could transform WinMo from an also-ran smartphone environment to the new hotness.

Just sayin’

Jon

Great vision, Jon, but I think Farmer Ted was kidding. He’s known to be a smartass around these parts.

Farmer Ted can kid or not kid… but what I’m advocating we all know is possible. We just need someone to figure out all the nooks and crannies in WinMo to store the existing settings and then restore them post-flash. And that app would be the first thing and last thing that runs during the Flash process.

I understand that not every reg setting will work with a new ROM. So there would obviously be a few left-overs, but if someone could get the mainstream stuff nailed, that would be huge.

I also still want to know if my check-list is valid, or if I’m approaching this the wrong way. I’m frankly confused when I read about people who flash all the time. Do they never use their phones? It seems like a lot of work to catalog and restore customizations…

There’s not going to be any magic program that finds all your custom settings. You have to be willing to do some reading and thinking up front-it will quickly pay off. This is not the first time I’ve posted this, but suck it up and get sk tools and sk tracker. Use tracker to find reg settings and settings files for a particular app. Use sk tools to re-pack installed programs into custom cabs that retain your reg settings and settings files as well as custom start menu shortcuts (if for whatever reason you can’t figure out how to export a reg key with regedit). Then use sashimi to install the cabs. If you’re capable of copying a cab into a file named CAB, then you can run sashimi. If you can’t do that….

FarTed,

While I am perfectly capable of doing what you said above, the whole notion of well-designed software is to defer tasks that can be better automated by technology than manually by a human. Humans can do a lot more productive work than this administrata, and this attitude of “if you work at it, you can do it” is true with everything… yet people no longer do a lot of technical things due to well-designed software doing these tasks for people. This idea of calling well-designed software “magic” will never allow or enable the expansion of the community, and never spread the value of the chefs’ masterpieces beyond the hard-core community.

Clearly, that’s OK by a lot of people in the community. I was just trying to open the box up a bit so that the less “determined” (i.e., more normal people) could benefit from the innovation and hard work happening in the XDA/FM community.

Also, I’ve never heard of sk tool and sk tracker before. And I’m all over XDA forums and FM. So it’s not like this is really front-and-center info to even the moderate enthusiast.

This kind of feeling you portray about my “magic app” does help us understand the value of Steve Jobs — he demands that his engineers develop the ‘magic’ so that customers can just enjoy their latest innovations without investing a ton of energy to do so.

Even Sashimi is too much effort, frankly. I’m 1/2 tempted to just stick with my AT&T ROM because I’m a busy fellow who doesn’t want to spend 4 hours on a weekend to figure all this out. Not that I can’t (and I still might), but it’s all about time management. I’ve got a few blogs to maintain, a consulting company to run, a full-time job, and a fiancee to keep happy. I might have time to flash a ROM, but maybe not the time to track down two sk tools, configure sashimi and then still deal with all the post-flash restoring of my data files. It’s great if flashing your FUZE is your hobby, but not for us who just would like to utilize the hard work being done in the chef community. It’s like saying that in order to go to a 4-star restaurant for some good food, I need to pass a test and help clean up afterwards. I’d rather just pay and enjoy the latest creations.

Again, this all helps explain the iPhone and BlackBerry smartphone market share, and why the best WinMo experiences are limited to only the most hardcore, technically-savvy enthusiasts.

This, in a nutshell, is the problem Microsoft has created.

@ Jon Deutsch: I totally agree with you. When I previously did periodic ROM updates, I created a 12 page Notepad document that listed every setting I had changed on my device, plus things like email setups (as you mentioned). One little thing like Outgoing SSL=No, could save a half hour in setup, trying to figure out what was wrong with an mail account. Agenda Fusion used to be the worst, with a hundred+ feature settings. They did have a way to backup settings for awhile, but that went away with Agenda One. It used to be quite an effort to maintain this document, but it made reconfiguring my device much easier, although time consuming.

With that experience, now I change as few settings as possible so that should I lose everything, I won’t have much to do. My bigest beef with WinMo and PC’s in general, is that there is no easy way to restore program setting changes. Why can’t there be a file labeled; .set or something like that which can store all the settings for a program and be restored easily. It seens like every application handles this differently. What would be wrong with a standard. Want to rebuild your machine, or loadup a new device, just backup all your .set files. Old version of the program does not match the new one, show all your .set(tings) side by side and choose how to deal with the exceptions.

I guess some users are happy with the defaults, but I am not one of those people. I like to customize my apps to make them work best for me. More than anything, the lack of application setting restoration is my primary reason for not flashing each time the weather changes. Restoring CAB’s is the easy part.

Probably 90% of the settings that you want to keep are stored in 5 areas: hkcu\controlpanel, hkcu\software\, hklm\software, the application data folder and within the program files directory for your app. Developers have different ways of storing settings, and most don’t consider ease of rom upgrade when they develop an app. Honesty, why should they? The majority of their customers never even consider upgrading their rom, in all likelihood.

It’s really not that hard to find and store most settings. Like I said above, sk tracker does all the leg work for you on your device. You just have to export the registry keys into a folder named REG yourself, and copy the settings files properly. If you need help with the latter, there are threads here where you can ask for it. And if you have sk tools, you don’t even have to save your cabs (as long as they’re uninstallible)-it will make them for you.

http://www.s-k-tools.com

One other tip: don’t just grab cabs and install them randomly. I think it’s always better to know what a cab does first. You can analyze cabs with WinCE CAB Analyzer on your pc and find all the files it contains and what directories it sends them to. You can also see the reg keys it creates on installation. Sometimes, reg keys and settings files are created when the program boots up the first time, but you can get a lot of info from the cab. You can also analyze the cab contents on your device with sk tools, and do a deep scan to find additional reg keys. As always, it requires work on your part, but it’s simple to do. This is the cost of having a device that is customizable and not stamped out in a cookie cutter, like the iphone.

Thanks for the pointers. I was looking through SK Tools last week and was impressed at how it analyzed a cab.

I guess I still need to weight the effort vs. the benefit. Now TF3D 2.5 looks interesting. Getting that in a stable ROM might just convert me.

I actually flash my FUZE for the first time today and had everyhtin up and running in about 45 minutes. I test a lot of software so i hard reset on a regular basis. Because of this I keep an 8gb memory card in my phone and I store all the cab files for the software I use. This way I can easily reconfigure the phone and if I forget something it is easy to rectify in the field. Emails and contacts get taken care of by Exchange.

So all you really need to do if research the ROM you want to try and plan ahead and it will be a smooth and simple process.

Well, first I would have to record all the changes I have made in; Advanced Config, Diamond Tweak, Diamond TF3D, SK Tools, AE Button Plus, Touchback, Weather DB Edit, Sensor Scroll Setup, Custom Scroll, etc. Then I would review and record all the changes I have made to my apps; ListPro, Pocket Express, ThumbCal, Sprite Backup, GPRS Monitor, PhatNotes, Core Player, TCPMP, Today Agenda, SPB TV, iContact, Webcam XP, Nitrogen….. After my flash, I could restore all the cabs which I do keep on my 8GB SD card. After restoring all of the cabs (assuming they all work with the new ROM), I can then restore all of the settings and tweaks I had previously recorded. From there it would be resetting my four email accounts (sorry, no exchange), setting up IM, Note2Self, and a few other apps that require setup to connect. Then I can go about trying to restore my customizations (like Manila Today Page and Manila TV Player)to TF3D2 or 2.1 or whatever, if that will even work. Oh yeah, then restoring the HTC Action Screen and the customization to each of the launch buttons, and all of the changes made with AE Button Plus. Then the SSMaHo relinking. Then there are the wi-fi connections and I am sure I have missed a couple other things, like Opera, and Iris favorites, restoring my program launcher, etc.

On second thought I think I will forget about flashing, open a cold beer, put my feet up and watch a ball game, while playing with my overly tweaked Fuze of course.

I tryed to go 6.5 but keep getting an error and it never finishes little bar stays at 0% till error shows on computer. Searching the forums is almost impossable, after a few hrs you just give up trying to find a way to get it done..