Finally getting around to rooting my Droid, which ROM to choose?

Dec 26, 2007
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I was leaning towards trying Bugless or Cyanogen first, but am curious about which would be good starting points to try until I find the one I like best.

Any suggestions?
 

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
cyanogen

For your first, cyanogen is going to have the most followers willing to help.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
No matter which ROM I load on my mine, I always end up coming back to Cyanogen mod. It has a wide range of features, its built from source, has a wide range of people running it for support, battery life doubles, and its incredibly fast.
 

Spoooon

Lifer
Mar 3, 2000
11,563
203
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I like Kangerade with Nex-theme.

I switch a lot though. Went back to Kangerade after messing with the latest Cyanogen.
 

notposting

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2005
3,498
33
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Don't forget to get Titanium Backup and probably Clockwork Recovery too.
And backups (of good clean functioning systems) are always a good idea.

And try out alternative kernels too. I've been pretty content with a 1.1GHz ULV ChevyNo1 kernel for a few weeks now, running with BB 0.4 and various themes.

edit: changed the ROM on my phone 3 or 4 times the last couple days. Always interesting to see what people have cooked up.
 

tatteredpotato

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2006
3,934
0
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With Rom managers that are available, switching roms is actually very painless (after the initial rooting that is).
 

Dream Operator

Senior member
Jan 31, 2005
344
0
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I'm running Sapphire 0.8.4 right now with P3Droid's 125-1100 kernal, and Alternate Dark theme (includes ADW Launcher). Best setup I've had on my Droid yet (Mostly ran BB, also Cyanogen, UD and a couple others). This rom is built from the ground up, including the vendor setup (most people use Koush's). There position is that Cyanogen is great, they just wanted to do it on there own (cvpcs is the main guy, along with sniffle).

Stays cool (idles around 25-30c, doesn't get above mid fourties) and feels snappy. I largely attribute that to the kernal and ADW launcher. ADW does take some configuring, but is really nice. Though I haven't tried the most recent update to Launcher Pro.

The rom is still in it's infancy and doesn't have a ton of features. It is very stable though. I expect great things to be coming soon. Good amount of themes already though. I follow the cvcps section at droidforums.net (in Custom Roms).

Not trying to sound like I'm on the payroll or anything :D. I just like the rom and the guys behind it.
 

Spoooon

Lifer
Mar 3, 2000
11,563
203
106
I tried putting Sapphire on mine but the install kept failing (can't remember what the error message was).

I go back and forth between ADW and Launcher Pro but seem to always go back to ADW. The gestures are too convenient.
 

Dream Operator

Senior member
Jan 31, 2005
344
0
76
Which recovery are you using? I believe there are some issues with the most recent CW. I used SPRecovery to install everything and it worked flawless. Also, it's in ROM Manager, but that didn't work for me and others. SPRecovery is the way for right now. There's a thread at droidforums.net about that specifically.
 

Spoooon

Lifer
Mar 3, 2000
11,563
203
106
I see, I tried with CW. I just put Cyanogen RC2 today, going to live with it for a bit before trying something else. Miss the Nex-theme from Kangerade though.
 

Phokus

Lifer
Nov 20, 1999
22,994
779
126
No matter which ROM I load on my mine, I always end up coming back to Cyanogen mod. It has a wide range of features, its built from source, has a wide range of people running it for support, battery life doubles, and its incredibly fast.

Cyanogen doubles battery life??
 

Spoooon

Lifer
Mar 3, 2000
11,563
203
106
Cyanogen doubles battery life??

I don't know about doubles. I have noticed improved battery life with different ROMs, but I don't know how much of that is due to the lower voltage kernels or the ROM itself.
 

trmiv

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
14,670
18
81
I just recently rooted my Droid and installed an a p3droid overclock kernel (1Ghz LV), but I can't decide if I want to install a different ROM or just stick with the stock one. I like how the phone works right now, so I can't decide if the benefits of a new ROM are worth the messing around. I don't want to deal with stuff being broken.

Just so I'm clear, when I install a ROM everything gets wiped, right? I installed Titanium Backup and backed up all my stuff, I can just restore it with that after?
 

Spoooon

Lifer
Mar 3, 2000
11,563
203
106
It depends on your current rom and what you plan on flashing.

You can use titanium backup to restore your settings and apps.

Really, just make a backup of your current rom with clockwork or sprecovery and try something new. If you don't like it, just restore. :)

Also, use an sms backup app if you want to save your texts. Can't remember if titanium saves those or not.
 

trmiv

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
14,670
18
81
I've currently just got the stock rom running, but I've got a p3droid 250-1000 LV kernel installed. On the p3droid page it has kernels listed for 2.1 only, and others for 2.2 only. Since I've currently got a 2.1 only kernel installed, can I install a 2.2 based ROM and then update to the 2.2 only kernel, or do I have to update the kernel first?
 

Spoooon

Lifer
Mar 3, 2000
11,563
203
106
You'll need to wipe if going from 2.1 to 2.2.

Once you flash the new rom you can try different 2.2 kernels.
 
Dec 26, 2007
11,782
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I ended up with Cyanogen for now. Upgraded to RC 2 over the weekend. I'm not a huge fan of it, there seems to be some instabilities with it (namely with Dolphin browser). I've had some weird things happen as well, and am going to try out BB or Sapphire next I think. Most likely will try Sapphire and see if that's better.

Cyanogen is much better than stock though. Be that due to Froyo 2.2 or due to the OC I don't know, but battery life has improved immensely and performance is a lot better for the most part (some issues still that I haven't figured out what the cause is).
 

trmiv

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
14,670
18
81
Going to try my first ROM tonight. Trying to decide between Sapphire, Cyanogen and BB. Leaning towards Sapphire.
 

Platypus

Lifer
Apr 26, 2001
31,046
321
136
Sapphire is a good ROM trmiv, give it a shot. I'd skip BB but that's my opinion.
CyanogenMod has a lot of useful features but each release that comes out gives me slightly less battery life.

I compiled my own version of CyanogenMod 5061 with some settings tweaks and my own low voltage kernel for it based on one of bekit's designs. I added some additional functionality to it. I get ridiculous battery life with this combination but it is lacking a few features since its relatively 'old' in the grand scheme of updates. I will eventually work on adding some of the newer stuff in but I've been too busy lately with work to do anything with it.
 

trmiv

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
14,670
18
81
Finally got up and running on Sappire. It's really fast! We'll see how the battery life is tomorrow at work. My battery life with a p3 kernel with the stock rom was absolutely horrible, so I'm hoping this works well. Can't really decide what theme I want to use. I like Alternate Dark, but it's not really setup to use with LauncherPro so it seems like a waste to use that.
 

tatteredpotato

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2006
3,934
0
76
I ended up with Cyanogen for now. Upgraded to RC 2 over the weekend. I'm not a huge fan of it, there seems to be some instabilities with it (namely with Dolphin browser). I've had some weird things happen as well, and am going to try out BB or Sapphire next I think. Most likely will try Sapphire and see if that's better.

Cyanogen is much better than stock though. Be that due to Froyo 2.2 or due to the OC I don't know, but battery life has improved immensely and performance is a lot better for the most part (some issues still that I haven't figured out what the cause is).

Are you on Dolphin or Dolphin HD? I'm running a nightly CM6 build for the EVO and no issues with Dolphin HD here.