I am currently working on this: It is a work in progress. Many things will be updated as this goes on. I will publish it before it is ready mainly for you to know that I am doing this and to delete it before it is too late if you think it just isn't as good as I imagine it.
It could be useful to note that the dictionary may not be exactly correct, I can make mistakes and you can correct me too, if you are sure of what you say. Also, keep in mind that I define the concepts by what I understand from them and simplifying the language as much as I can for EVERYONE to understand every word.
Credits:
ShortFuse.org - SuperOneClick
ClockWorkMod Installer - rect2409, xda user
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Dictionary -In permanent update as needed-
3. Getting started
/3.1 - Rooting
/3.2 - Getting your Recovery - CWM Recovery
/3.3 - Avoiding Baseband issues --Uncomplete--
1. Introduction:
Hey there, x10 Mini Pro community. First of all, the cheesy part, I would like to say thanks to the developers that have been in the main scenario since I came here, D4, slade, paul, nAa, TheMiltos, and lots of them whose usernames I should start looking for, but it is not like I do not recognize them. First, you may ask why would I make this thread if there is already another one, made by not less than one of the users I mentioned before. Well, I started on this community like on January 2011, when slade's Gingerbread was brand new and the Froyo ROMs were just getting a bit stable and ready for everyday use. I found it pretty difficult to start, since I've noticed that the support for newbies isn't kinda.. "the way" of xda. At least, when I was one of them, I felt pretty alone on this unknown roads, and also felt guilty to send a PM asking for help, not being able to post - and that was just when I finally decided to create an account... I spent hours and hours searching on Google, watching videos on Youtube, trying to understand what did they meant with all this technical language -disregarding the fact that my native language doesn't help at all (Luckily, my English is pretty good)-, reading blogs, and so on. I had to keep this intensive study for several weeks to, finally, get my very first custom recovery installed. And that was just the first step. Besides my own experiences -which are, by the way, the main reason for me to start thinking about a thread like this-, I noticed that all the particular problem solution threads just get lost within a month.
So, what am I looking for with this thread? What are the objectives?
-Full and friendly support for newbies to ask and be answered.
-Freedom to PM.
-Detailed step-by-step instructions, maybe even with screenshots later on.
-Some kind of a "dictionary" with words all over the Android development spectrum.
-Updated information.
-Make all of those lost tutorials and guides spread all over the x10 Mini Pro forums be compressed in one simple and extensive help center.
-End with the experienced ones complaining about newbies questions infinite cycle by creating this "encyclopedia".
-Maybe, just as an early idea, we could create a support team, whose purpose is pretty self-explanatory.
-Hope to add more objectives on the future.
2. Dictionary:
-Android Versions: Check Wikipedia for closer details on each version.
--> Cupcake 1.5: First public version of Android.
--> Donut 1.6: Initially the Stock version for our phones.
--> Eclair 2.1: Updated Stock version for our phones.
--> Froyo 2.2: Follow up to Eclair with some modifications
--> Gingerbread 2.3.x: Most widely used version by the moment.
--> Honeycomb 3.x: Version mostly for tablets
--> Ice Cream Sandwich: 4.0.x: Hybrid version, designed to unify Cellphones and Tablets OS.
--> Jelly Bean 4.1.x: It is still a rumor and it has not be released nor even confirmed yet, but it is still very likely to be true.
-APK: File extension used for Android-based applications. You can use them to install a specific application if you want to install it manually and not from the Market.
-Back-Up: It is a file made via Recovery that saves the ROM along with all the user data (Settings, applications, contacts, text messages...) on your SD to recover it later, just in case that something went wrong. It is sometimes referred as NAND Backup. NOTE: Every Back-Up is pretty heavy, and if you make another does not delete the previous one, so I recommend to delete the old/unneeded ones to save space on your SD.
-Boot: To turn on your phone.
-Bootloader: It is a part of the operating system that boots up your device and sets everything up to load Android, so your phone can boot and start as usual. Unlocking it allows us to flash custom kernel, which usually come with improvements compared to stock one.
-Brick: A Bricked device is a device that won't boot. It can be a full brick, when the phone just does not turns on, or a partial brick, where it turns on but it can not get to fully boot. A partially bricked phone can behave in many different ways while booting, for example, sometimes they get frozen at the Bootloader or sometimes they make a Bootloop. To Unbrick your phone means to get it back to normal from this state.
-CyanogenMod: Most commonly called by it's abreviation, CM. It is the most famous Android-based custom ROM, with both official ports to many devices and unofficial ports to almost every Android phone.
-Flash: To flash. It means to install something on your phone, this something can be a ROM, a Module for that ROM, can be almost anything. Any file we want to flash will be on a ZIP format, and it is made through your phones Recovery.
-Google Apps: Or GApps. Some of the apps developed by Google. They come in packages to flash them via Recovery. These apps include Android Market/Play Store, Google Maps, Youtube, Gmail, etc.
-Launcher: It is the application that is used by Android to show up your apps, homescreens, wallpapers, widgets, etc. Home Replacement Apps are alternative Launchers for you to install on your phone, and they can offer a major UI change (often used for more personalization).
-Overclocking: Commonly abbreviated OC. To overclock something means to make it run faster than the default speed set by the manufacturer. On computers, it can be applied to almost any component, on phones, it almost always is talking about the processor.
-OS: Short for Operative System. It is the "everything" of a computer. Mac and Windows are two really famous OS's you probably have used more than once. Well, Android is an OS too, and there are other OSs alternatives for phones too like Windows Phone, iOS and Symbian. The difference is much more than in the appearance thou, but it doesn't really matters to go further on this. Android haves different versions, and just like Windows haves Windoes 97, Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7; Android has 1.6 Donut, 2.1 Eclair, 2.3 Gingerbread and 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (These are just examples, there are more).
-PC Companion, Flashtool, SEUS:
These are three common tools for your computer to update, flash or un-brick (alias revive) your phone.
--> PC Companion: Program by Sony Ericsson to update and save your Rom or parts (settings etc.) or to send media on your device
--> Flashtool: User-made program (credits to Androxyde and Bin4ry) to root, flash and set up many more things on your device.
--> SEUS (or Sony Ericsson Update Service): Program by Sony Ericsson to update or repair your official ROM. This is often the last chance to revive your bricked device, making me think if the "S.E.U.S." acronym is unintended or if it is actually made it to sound like the mythical god Zeus.
-Port: A ported ROM is a ROM, both custom or stock, that is available to some specific phone and someone manages to make it work for another device. Usually it includes changes like matching the desired device's screen and supporting it's own hardware.
-Reboot: Just turning off your device and then turning it back on, waiting patiently for it to completely load everything.
-Recovery: I usually call it a BIOS for my phone. It is not an application like Facebook or SMS, it is a program that can be optionally started while booting by pressing a certain key, in our case, we have to button-mash the "Back" button (Gamers will get that, it means to repeteadly tap the button). Your phone will enter a menu with black background and orange letters. Touch screen is not available here and the Menu button, the left one, serves no purpose at all. To control everything, you use the volume buttons at the side of your phone as Up/Down respectively, the Home button (the middle one) works as Enter and the Back button, the right one, is used to go back, as you might imagine. Recoveries are used to flash any flashable file to your phone. To exit and return your phone to normal, just back until the main menu and select Reboot Phone. It will reboot normally, and CWM will not show up unless you call for it with the back button.
-ROM: Its basically the OS that we install in our phones. It can be Custom or Stock: Stock ROM is the version that came with our phone, created by Google and then modified by your phone's brand company and then by your carrier, to go to your phone on it's original closed package. Also we have Custom ones, that are user-modified versions of Android. Every ROM in xda is a Custom ROM because they are developed by the user who uploaded it. We call it ROM because it resides in the ROM (Read-Only Memory) of our devices.
-Root: The first thing you must do over any Android device to get the full potential of itself, is rooting. Android, in basic terms, is based on Linux. Yes, that OS for computers you've probably heard of (If not, don't worry. You don't need to know about it.). And it is running just in your hand. On Linux, you need to get SuperUser permissions over a set password to make changes on the computer like installing programs and such things. On Android, you do not get his password and by default it is blocked, and rooting your phone means that you get this SuperUser access. Yes, if you are the one who goes exploring the phone 'till the last folder and modifying everything you possibly can, you will surely mess your phone up. But don't worry, if you just Root your phone and let TRUSTED apps to do their stuff, you are safe. What do I mean by trusted? With Root permissions you can do whatever you want on your phone, and so do Applications. You should just install applications whose developer you know you can trust, such as xda or market developed applications. Remember to always check the comments or posts people do reviewing their experience with that application, and beware if anyone tells so. Anyways, people is not that dumb and they have made the phone ASK for your permission before giving any new app the so called Root access.
-Run: To open a certain program or app. Can be used as "Running" for a certain program or app that is actually open, and so on.
-Stock: It refers to something that comes pre-installed on our devices, available when we just get them from the manufacturers.
-UI: The User Interface is the system shown on the screen of a device for you to interact with it.
-Undervolt: Usually abbreviated UV. It is the opposite of Overclocking, and, on phones, it consists of lowering the default voltage of the processor to make it run slower and thus decrease battery consumption.
3. Getting Started:
3.1 - Rooting
Steps:
-You can't imagine how easy and quick rooting can be. The first step, is to enable "USB Debugging" on your phone. I am going to be honest, I don't know what the **** is this, but keep it enabled. Always. Hehe. To do this, go to Settings and then under the Applications tab. Then, scroll down and go to Development. And there it is, you should tap "USB Debugging" once to get it checked and activated.
-Then, you need this software (Don't worry: it is free and very light, and you can just delete it after root). It is called SuperOneClick and this is the lastest version (2.3.3) until now. This is a screenshot of the interface that I grabbed from the original site. Install and open SuperOneClick, and continue to the next step.
-Now, with the USB Debugging enabled on the phone and SuperOneClick running on your computer, grab your USB cable that should have come along with your phone as your charger and connect with it your PC and your phone. On the phone it should show a message asking what to do, you should tap the option to charge the phone (This option is kinda "do nothing", it is the same as charging it from the wall). Now, go to SuperOneClick and click the big "ROOT" button. It should do all the work, so your task is to wait. Wait until it says it is ready and rooted, and then reboot your phone.
-Voile! Your phone is now rooted.
3.2 - Getting your Recovery - CWM Recovery
Steps:
-First, download this little program. It is a small Batch file (Commands for Windows) made by a user on this community called rect2409. On the original thread -Link under credits- you have a Linux version of this program, but I'm afraid have never used it and you will have to figure it out by yourself (Linux experienced-users encouraged to review over here). Extract the ZIP file and go into the folder you just extracted.
-Open install.bat. Batch files can be dangerous on the wrong hands but very useful on the right ones, so if any anti-virus or some kind of a security system tries to block this from working, tell them it is safe. You have my word (It wasn't even uploaded by me, so you can be sure I'm doing no trick here
). It will open a small black window with white text, follow it's instructions and answer it's questions. When it asks you for yes or no (Y/N), you have to write Y for yes or N for no and then press enter.-When it says "If no errors are listed above then CWM has been installed. Finished.", you can close the window and delete everything you downloaded if you want. Everything you need on your phone is now there, so there's no problem if you want to delete this stuff.
-If you want to access CWM (That's how your new Recovery is called), you have to reboot your phone and at the "Sony Ericsson" text screen, press the "Back" button several times.
3.3 - Avoiding Baseband issues --Uncomplete--
Intro:
Your Baseband is a pretty large code that can be checked on your phone by going to settings and scrolling sown to "About phone". There, just like it says your Android version on a grey section, it should say your Baseband version on another. It should be a large code using both letters and numbers in a format like this ?????-????????-????? (? representing anything and - being itself, whatever it is called -I don't know it's english name-). What really matter are the last three digits, that have to be -015. If you have that, skip this step, because you are already done: The problem is when you have -006 (Like I had) or anything else, if it is possible. The point is that you NEED -015 Baseband version.
Steps:
-Of course, first make sure you have a wrong version of the Baseband, if you have the correct one, skip section.
-When you are sure you need to change your baseband, you have to change your "build.prop". Build.prop is a file hidden by the system, accessible via Root, that holds and manages some information and configuration about the phone. So, the first thing you need to do, is to get...
---To be continued---
Users who have helped:
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