[G Tablet General] sudermatt:
I receive my GT in a day or so an plan to go to work on it immediately. I will post my steps and experiences here . sort of my own personal wiki. It will be part historical notes to myself....part useful info for y-all...part ***** session.

I will start with my Shipping experiences:

Ordered on the 23rd (like all wooters) around 4:30 pm Pacific

Got my Tracking number yesterday, 29th, around 12:30. Clearly part of the 2nd or 3rd tranche.

FedEx first showed info around 10pm last night.

Mar 29, 2011 2:27 AM - Left FedEx origin facility - Austin.

I've seen others where it goes from Austin to Huchins ... hope mine doesn't have that extra stop..unless that's a plane :D.

I've done some reading in here on ROMs and bootloaders and recovery...sounds like an AA meeting.

The Tools

NVFlash : utility written by NVidia to facilitate changing the partitions in the memory structure.

ADB : a generic utility used to facility communication between a computer (your PC) and an Android device (your GT).

Apparently, getting ADB running for the GT is a little different than for our phones.

Here is an ADB Guide for windows users I found that has stuff for W7 x86 and x64.

Here is an NVFlash guide for window users...also has x64 stuff.

on Recovery

I've read a couple different posts relating to recovery...to Clock or not to Clock? I've read many posts on how to install Clockwork, other posts that say do NOT install Clockwork. The issue seems to revolve around the fact that Clockwork does NOT modify the bootloader, while the Stock Recovery can. However, Clockwork allows you to clear user data but Stock does not. I think that gAdam ROM has both.

From what I can gather....the bootloader is sort of like the BIOS of your computer. It sort of sets up your GT tab for whatever you're running on it. Some ROMs use different memory partitions in different ways, and the bootloader needs to match it.

roeBeet's post on Recovery has great info.

The recovery issue is confusing. The second post in the above thread indicates to not install the Clockworkmod app...only install bekit's .8 recovery...of which there are two versions...read the post. I've read it 4 times and am still confused.

Firmware

3389 - first batch of woo-Tabs

3588 - most common version

3991 - potential next step from Viewsonic

What do these number represent? I think it's firmware version...which is different than bootloader. I haven't got a good sense of it yet .

I read in the Shipping receiving thread that someone got 3588. Maybe the second batch is different. That would be good...almost worth the wai.....naw....:rolleyes:

The first "version" post for the wooters was This one.

"shipped with version 1.1-3389"

On page 2 of that thread roeBeet writes :

"It's not a requirement, but I think it's a good idea to flash to 3588 first. The reason is that you'll get the latest bootloader and recovery, which ROMs like VEGAn don't touch.

Recovery is the one that concerns me, as 3588 recovery seems to be a kind of "gateway" recovery that might (and I stress "might") be needed to get you to a future firmware level. So, imo, I would flash to 3588 first, THEN start using ROMs if you want. It's a safer bet, again imo."

Update: I saw this post in the Shipping Thread:

"Just got mine! Not sure what firmware i started with, but as I turned on wifi I was prompted to update to 3588."

So, it looks like you will be updated to 3588 as soon as you enable wifi....RoeBeet says this is the best starting point...so I guess everything should work out as we need it.

On ROMs & Kernels

Here's a sticky post with links to Video Reviews of All ROMs.

Personally, I will try some other ROMs....but Culkulin had the most stable stuff back in the TouchPro2 days. and I've read great reports on his v1.1 ROM. I will give that one a run early.

Kernsls are different than ROMs. Honestly I don't have a complete grasp on it all ....but I'm pretty sure the ROM runs on top of the Kernel. You can run different Kernels on the same ROM and it will run differently. I think the kernel may control the I/O between the ROM and the hardware.

What I've Done

Initial steps

Well it finally came yesterday.

1. Hooked up to Wifi

2. OTA Update immediately loaded...I obliged

I mistakenly turned on the TNT desktop...what a mistake...i just didn't like it.

So now I'll just load clockwork. But wait we said we weren't suppose to. I honestly didn't see any way around it. I needed to load a ROM but couldn't get the thing into the standard recovery mode. I was short on time and really needed to get a ROM in there fast.

I used the Stick Post as a guide. I had some issues at first. I could see recovery being installed, but I could never get CWM to come up. 5 times I pressed Power- Volume+ and it would just boot. Then I started looking at the folders and files and figured it out.

The instructions are to pick internal or external memory install type and download the proper file. I picked external and dropped it on SDCard. duh.

There are two SDCard folders!

SDCard is the internal ROM

SDCard2 is my card.

Once I figured that out, everything's been jake.

CWM is working I loaded a ROM and am rockin the house!

I'm running Culkulin's 1.1 and love it. I know this guy's roms from the TouchPro2 days. I always built very solid kitchens and I would always use his ROMs. So I'm doing it again. Thanks Cullie!

Tablet's need HC

However, it won't be good enough. I've run Honeycomb on my Nook Color and love it. I will put up with a little performance hit to have that great interface. I just like always have some navigation ON THE BOTTOM. Seriously, if you haven't seen HC, check it out.

So now I'm going to try to find an HC ROM and compare it with Cully's ROM.

I will also try CM7.

However, all this will have to wait. I have a big Boy's Ski Weekend in Tahoe this weekend....I'll be back next week.!

Ginger requires some getting used to :

(Updated 4/6/2011)

I loaded up a CM7 build and got lost at first....maybe it's just the recovery I'm using..

Froyo ROMs like Culkulkin, have the memory in the device as SDCard....the external card is SDCard2

Gingerbread ROMs like CM7, have the memory in the device as emmc...the external card is SDCard.

Now, switch between these can be interesting, because, all the browsers put downloaded files....like kernals or gapps, in the download folder on SDCard. Recovery, also looks to SDCard when you want to "apply a zip".

So, If you were on Froyo, everything is great...download from apps in the device and recovery all look at the same place.

BUT in Gingerbread, you have to move the zip file, from SDCard -> emmc....before you go into recovery....so that recovery will see it.

This is probably because of the version of recovery I'm using. But to me, it's a small price to pay.

I haven't tried going back to Froyo from GB, so I'm not sure how it will work....