[ROM][32A] CaSense 1.2 - official Sense UI etc. (upd. Jan 19th)

This ROM was originally based on MyHero 2.0.2, but now is going its own separate way. This is (at least for now) still pretty much just vanilla Sense UI 32A ROM with just some minor adjustments to be more to my liking.

Now, let me thank a few people:

Big thanks to redglasses for creating and improving the great MyHero ROM, to hotweiss for the very same reasons with his HoFo ROM and to eugene373 for using my 32A kernel package with his Magic 3G UnI ROM and therefore making it easier for me in return to use it with the official Sense UI update.

Special thanks to Cyanogen for creating and sharing his kernel source code and to TigerTael for creating his 32A kernel offset patch.

Also thanks to Amon_RA, chris-steenkamp, eViL D:, maxisma, Radix999, bcrook, Qteknology and many others and of course to XDA itself.

Changelog and misc. other info in the second post, please read it.

Downloads:
CaSense 1.2 full ROM (MD5: f7b895b98251ce7cfc9852ce9edd198c)
CaSense 1.2 no-wipe update (MD5: 87de487512816532b0e2d4a686a79e37)
CaSense 1.1.1 no-wipe update (MD5: ca4e772a33e23188aa9eba2c15f4f4b3)
CaSense 1.1 (MD5: ae68d79ba93f8844f61067838b85de92)
CaSense 1.0 (MD5: 83f6024558f3535caf9e069ae5a434b8)
CaSense add-on for v1.1 (MD5: 6ee7dae1dff0050ec51b12e5756d0dd6) Contains AK Notepad, Stocks+widget, Footprints+widgets, Plurk+widget, KKBOX, Learn More, HTC Sync.
Add-on for v1.0 - CaSense add-on for v1.0
Add-on contains all the apps and widgets removed from the main ROM. Install from recovery after you install the main ROM. Do not wipe before flashing! Or just extract the file and push the apps to /data/app_s manually.
Add-on for all CaSense versions - CaSense Pulse Clock add-on (MD5: f5d49b2c3e11bf14a05ea25f7b1baf68)

Kernel packages for v1.1.x - explanation in the second post
2.6.27, 2.6.27 log
2.6.27 BFS, 2.6.27 BFS log
2.6.29 BFS, 2.6.29 BFS log

Mirror
CaSense folder on Mediafire

If you like my work, buy me a Pepsi

v1.2
- Available as either a no-wipe update for 1.1.1 or full ROM
- New 2.6.29 kernel with BFS-313 and RNDIS wired tethering support (many thanks to Zinx and Cyanogen), logcat support enabled
- Because this update is 2.6.29 only, there's no bluetooth support AT ALL - if you need bluetooth, just stick with 1.1.1 as the changes in 1.2 are pretty much kernel related only anyway (but it should be possible to use 2.6.27 kernel package for 1.1.1 to "downgrade" the kernel in 1.2 to get bluetooth working, I just didn't test it yet)
- Added Wired tether app by harry_m
- Updated User Conf editor, Market Enabler and Wireless tether to their latest versions
- Pulse Clock add-on for all CaSense versions now available (not included in 1.2 by default), see below for explanation

v1.1.1
- Apply on top of v1.1 without wiping
- Misc. minor maintenance
- Linux swap (swappiness 30) now enabled by default if your third partition ( /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 ) on SD card is type linux-swap. I don't recommend using swap partition larger than 64MB.
- Added UserConf Editor 0.2 app by AndroidAppCritic for easier editing of user.conf file. Please note that user.conf is located at /system/bin/user.conf in this ROM, not at the default location this app expects it.
- Added some notification sounds and ringtones
- All notification sounds and ringtones converted to Ogg for better ring/notification response. After applying this update and rebooting, please verify ALL your ringtone/notification settings! That's the price of no-wipe update.
- Trackball glow notification (hopefully) finally works now.

v1.1
- Defaulting to kernel 2.6.27 from HTC sources now because of bluetooth issues with other kernels. Hopefully, this is just temporary, because it's slower. You can choose different kernel though, see below for explanation.
- Full Chinese support included in the main ROM this time - both localization and text input.
- Bluetooth should be working fine this time with the default kernel (both A2DP and HSP).
- A2SD disabled - there should be no more problems during first startup if you have ext2/3 partition. Ext2/3 support is still available in all the kernels, ext4 is supported only with 2.6.29 kernel.
- Alternative kernel packages will be available later (including logcat enabled kernels)
- Changes in the APN list. If it does not work for you, provide me the correct APN settings so I can change it.
- Removed Learn More (does anybody need it?)
- Spare Parts working now
- Added Blur animations

Known issues:
- Duplicated entries under ringtones/notification sounds.

v1.0
- Cyanogen-based kernel with BFS304 and my own config (new Case kernel v1.3)
- Root finally works! This means that everything that needs root hopefully works as well (wifi tethering etc.)
- LEDs, GPS, multitouch, camera, prediction works fine, as far as I can tell
- Protected apps should download from the Market just fine
- Multilanguage
- APN list for automatic APN config at setup. Added Vodafone CZ to the list, of course
- Log is disabled in the kernel for speed improvements. I can offer log enabled kernel as an update if there's someone who wants it.
- ROM is compcache/swap ready. I've disabled both by default, but you can easily change that in /system/bin/user.conf if you wish. I personally think that even on 32A, Sense UI needs some form of swap to run properly. YMMV. It should also be A2SD ready, but I didn't really test that - I don't use A2SD, as I think on 32A it just slows the phone down.
- Removed some apps I really don't use at all: AK Notepad, Stocks+widget, Footprints+widgets, Plurk+widget, KKBOX, HTC_CIME, HTC Sync. These are available separately as an add-on.
- Added some apps: Superuser permissions (of course), Market Enabler, Spare Parts (broken in v1.0), More locale, Wireless Tether. Apart from Superuser they should be uninstallable.
- Usual shell scripts available (rwsystem etc.)
- Bluetooth does not work properly.
- Chinese input does not work.

Kernel packages explained:

Apply the kernel package of your choice AFTER you've flashed the main ROM. No wipe! If you want to use the first, plain 2.6.27 kernel, you just need to flash the main ROM, it's already included in it.

2.6.27 - default kernel included in v1.1. Compiled using the official HTC sources. This package is provided so that you can get back to default kernel without flashing the full ROM if you've tried some other kernel package. Contains backported squashfs 4.0, loadable modules include compcache 0.5.4, CIFS support, IPv6 and quite a few other options. No BFS. Full (A2DP/HSP) bluetooth support with v1.1 ROM. Slowest of the three, but pretty much full-featured and stable (hopefully).
2.6.27BFS - Compiled using the official HTC sources. This kernel is pretty much identical to the first one, but contains backported BFS304. That means it's a little faster than the first one (YMMV), however, as BFS304 was never meant to be used with 2.6.27, it's also somehow unstable. The critical moment, as it seems, is during the "unlocking SIM card" phase on the first boot, especially if you've flashed the main ROM, addon package and kernel package in one go without rebooting. So, applying this kernel package over ROM that is already configured seems much safer right now. But as I've said - it's considered unstable, so bear that in mind. Full (A2DP/HSP) bluetooth support with v1.1 ROM. Most unstable of the three.
2.6.29BFS - Compiled using Cyanogen sources. This kernel is without a doubt the fastest of the three, however, as of right now, it doesn't support bluetooth. AT ALL. If you try to enable bluetooth with this kernel, it'll just say "turning on" forever and never finish. So, before applying this kernel package, make sure you've got bluetooth disabled (if you want to flash this kernel after the main ROM in one go, it's OK, bluetooth is off by default). This kernel is recommended for those that don't need bluetooth. Most advanced and fastest of the three.
log alternatives - They're the same as the plain kernels except with logcat enabled for debugging purposes, which means they're also a bit slower than the plain kernel.

Pulse Clock add-on explained:
This is just very minor add-on for all CaSense ROM versions. You just apply it without wiping over your current CaSense install. This add-on simply replaces the plain default Android analog clock I prefer to use (the widget available through Android widget - Analog clock, with the white "Malmo" clockface - not the HTC clock) with the analog clock from T-Mobile Pulse. I like the Pulse clock better and I think it fits with Sense UI much nicer than the default Android analog clock. YMMV.

Higgins12 said:

Sounds interesting i give it a try and report back. Just in case , do you have a NON-BFS Kernel ? From my Experience BFS slows the UI down a lot :-( ... but i try first before i complain :-D

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Click to collapse

Yes, I can provide non-BFS version of the kernel (don't have one ready for my 1.3 kernel yet, but that's quite easy to fix).

lokto7 said:

Thanks Case_

Hopefully the CIME update will be available soon.

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Click to collapse

The addon is up.

Krzysiec said:

Hmmm must try But i`m wondering ... Are U planing to release version with those widgets U removed? I mean version as close to original as it can be (Multilanguage and rooted) ... Because i use twitter and other widgets ... Thanks for reply

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Click to collapse

Twitter widget is in the main ROM. However, the addon contains all the apps and widgets I've removed from the main ROM, so if you install it, you've got everything that's in the vanilla Sense UI ROM (and then some ). I've modified the text so it is clearer, it was a bit cryptical before, yes.

truemagic said:

sorry for being a noob, should i just push let's say, HTC_CIME.apk to /data/app_s without the need to install it from ASTRO?



also I think we would appreciate if u could include the best sdcard environment (eg. FAT32+linux-swap or ???) so i can use the same for best performance -> FAST

I wonder if for my 32A, do we still need a dedicated linux-swap as a 3rd partition on our sdcard? because sdcard with FAT32 only did work smoothly for me but I read everywhere else that addition 3rd partition will smooth things even more.....

pls offer me your 2cent

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I think the only way to install odexed apps is directly, by using adb push, not with Astro or other app manager, but I may be mistaken. Anyway, you most certainly need to push BOTH HTC_CIME.apk and HTC_CIME.odex to app_s, otherwise it won't work.

As for the SD card setup, I'm using FAT32+64MB linux swap with swappiness at around 30 for some time and I'm quite satisfied with it. But for all the tinkering with ROMs and kernels and regular work I didn't even find much time to test compcache properly, so I can't really say that objectively what is best. And I certainly didn't have time to check the speed and memory requirements this new Sense UI properly.
However, as I've said, I find that Sense UI in general simply needs more memory, even on 32A (and even on Hero, according to my friend). Without swap i was quite often getting hiccups and slowdowns after only a few hours of use - even though I'm in the habit of closing the unneeded background apps regularly, I was still getting something like 20MB of free memory quite soon. And the phone doesn't really perform that great once you go below something like 25-30MB free RAM. Swap most definitely helped me to solve these issues and Sense UI runs great for me - no major slowdowns and need to reboot to clear memory for days, if I REALLY need to.
So yes, as I've said, I most certainly recommend at least some kind of swap for Sense UI.