6

I have an Evo and I'm kind of frustrated at the space limitations on the internal memory, the crapware that came pre-installed (Blockbuster and Nascar, Really?) and some performance issues. I was thinking that the right ROM might solve those problems. It seems like I read somewhere a while back that rooting/ROMs cause some dealbreaker problems that I didn't want to have. I can't find that article again, so I figured I'd ask you.

If I root my phone and install a custom ROM, can I:

  • Use the Android Market like normal?

  • Use the standard GMail, Google Maps, GTalk, and other social networking apps without a problem?

  • Use the Google Voice app fully integrated like I do on the stock ROM?

I know this will void the warranty. Are there any other limitations I should be aware of?

Improve this question
1
  • UPDATE: I rooted with Unrevoked3 and installed MikFroyo, and everything seems to be working just fine. Google Voice, Android Market, Swype, and all of my other apps are working better than they were before. My Evo is now running much better overall.
    – J.W. Mosley
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 1:59

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

I can't speak for the Google Voice App being fully integrated - I only use it for the voicemail feature. However I have a fully rooted Evo (Fresh Rom 3.5) and I still have access to the market and all the normal Google Android Apps. In fact I find that rooting gives me more features like free wireless tether and with Fresh 3.5 the power manager is integrated into the notification drop down (which I find really cool). Google Voice still works perfectly for voice mail.

As far as I know the only limitation is the one you have listed: it will void the warranty. However if something goes wrong there is a huge community over at XDA to help you out or you can unroot and see what happens when you bring your device in to Sprint ( I haven't had to do this yet so I can't speak on that part).

Rooting (for me) has also made my battery life WAY better and gotten rid of those Sprint apps that I don't want.

Edit: I can't comment on eldarerathis's post otherwise this would have gone there: I had forgotten about hardware limitations of using AOSP Roms like CM. eldarerathis is correct though that with certain roms HDMI and 4G won't work. When I had the HTC Hero and first loaded CM I think the Camera didn't work but in time this was fixed and this is why I have avoided the CM Rom so far for my Evo.

If you want the HTC Sense experience though don't go with CM or AOSP roms - these are essentially stock Android.

Hope this helps

Improve this answer
2
  • Thanks for the info. It helps a lot. I've been researching it this morning and I think I'm going to try MikFroyo when I get home from work. If the other stuff all works I don't see why the Google Voice dialer would not.
    – J.W. Mosley
    Commented Feb 16, 2011 at 21:33
  • @J.W. Mosley You're Welcome. I agree about the GV - I don't see why not. Good luck with rooting and MikFroyo
    – Daniel
    Commented Feb 16, 2011 at 21:44
4

You might be thinking of the limitations on ROMs that are based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) such as CyanogenMod. The difficulty for these developers is that they don't have access to the source code for some of the device drivers of the EVO, and use only code that is available from the AOSP (as well as home-built modifications and code, of course). These drivers are also closely coupled with HTC's proprietary Sense UI, which was a contributing factor to some of the difficulties.

The big dealbreakers for these have always been WiMax/4G and HDMI output. These have actually seen a lot of development as of late, however. For instance, you can get an alpha/test version of CM7 which supports WiMax now. I personally run this on my EVO and it has been very stable, albeit buggy in a few fairly trivial ways. It's definitely fine for daily use at this point, and I have been using it since it came out without any actual issues. It's also slated as a feature for the final release of CM7.

HDMI is a very different beast, and didn't see as much development from the start because there was seemingly less demand for it. However, a few pictures have been posted by devs recently that seem to indicate that progress might be gaining momentum. One such picture can be found here.

If you flash a custom ROM that is based on an HTC ROM, then these concerns essentially go away. The basic rule of thumb is that any Sense UI ROM will support both WiMax and HDMI out, and any AOSP ROM will not (excepting the recent test versions of CM7).

Also, CyanogenMod doesn't come with Google's applications pre-installed due to licensing issues. They are permitted to distribute a separate package, however, so you just have to flash them separately after you flash the ROM itself. Beyond that, everything else functions as normal, and many additional things become possible with root.

Improve this answer
2
  • Thanks for this. I'm not married to the idea of an open source rom, so I'm gonna try MikFroyo, which I understand is just a modified stock Evo ROM.
    – J.W. Mosley
    Commented Feb 16, 2011 at 21:31
  • @J.W.: I've never heard of anyone complaining about it not working on a custom ROM, so I'd imagine you're probably in the clear on that one. I use GV for my Voicemail on CyanogenMod 7 and it works just like it did on the Sense ROMs I tried, but I don't use it for calling.
    – eldarerathis
    Commented Feb 16, 2011 at 21:33

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .