[HTC Wildfire S] izi501:
Now, you have your recovery... Let's speak about ROMs !

WHERE TO FIND YOUR ROMS

All the ROMs for the Wildfire S are here. You'll see, there are loads of ROMs for our phone ;)

HOW TO CHOOSE THEM

Ah, which ROM is the best... An endless debate in XDA forums !

By the way, many "noobs" post threads to know which ROM is the best, and it annoys a lot the Senior users. Here I will list the existing kinds of ROMs and what they are made for, so that you won't have to spam the forum anymore :)

Stock rom

There are a lot of modded stock roms. The most advanced is by [MENTION=5095490]Kevinjoa[/MENTION], and it can be found here. Moreover, it is a Marvellous rom !!!

Advantages : Very, very fast and an excellent battery life. Easily moddable and themable.

Drawbacks : Old Android version (2.3.5 :( ).

Sense 3.5 rom

These roms are based on the same Android version as stock rom, but with the latest Sense version (for Android 2.3). The fastest rom for the Wildfire S is EQDKP 5.2. There is also Marvellous Sense 3.5, and many other roms.

Advantages : Very fast, and good battery life. A very beautiful UI.

Drawbacks : one or two bugs. Old Android version (2.3.5).

CyanogenMod 7.2

CyanogenMod (cm) is the ultimate rom for all phones. It is based on pure Android (AOSP) and has a few more good features.

Advantages : very fast and an excellent battery life. Some mods that makes you forget that you have an old Android version : notification swipe-to-clear, flac support. Very themable : a lot of versions exist in the forum, modded to look like Sense 4, and all.

Drawbacks : a few bugs. Old Android version (2.3.7)

CyanogenMod 9.1

This is the Android 4.0.4 version of CyanogenMod. It is an excellent rom.

Advantages : Android 4 ICS. Very themable and moddable.

Drawbacks : it slows down the phone and has some bugs.

CyanogenMod 10

This is the Android 4.1.2 version of CyanogenMod, and is also a very good rom. Many versions exist in the forum, with a lot of mods and some derivated os.

Advantages : Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Very themable and moddable, with many derivated versions.

Drawbacks : few space in /system, so you can't install full Google apps (see later in the tutorial). It feels slow sometimes. It has some bugs.

CyanogenMod 10.1

The 4.2.2 version of CyanogenMod.

Advantages : supported by OWL team. Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Very themable too.

Drawbacks : very few space in /system. Also it is definitely slow. And it has bugs.

CyanogenMod 10.2

The 4.3.1 version of CyanogenMod.

Advantages : supported by Team Simplicit. Android 4.3.1 Jelly Bean. Very themable too.

Drawbacks : Well, there are very few features compared to CyanogenMod 10.1 :P And very few space in /system. Also it is definitely slow. And it has bugs, mostly sensors and camera.

CyanogenMod 11

The 4.4.2 version of CyanogenMod.

Advantages : supported by Team Simplicit. Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Very themable and has few bugs. It is faster than than previous versions thanks to Android optimization.

Drawbacks : There is few space in /system, and camera doesn't work.

Paranoid Android

Paranoid Android is a rom based also on pure Android but without cyanogenmod modificactions. We have two versions : Android 4.1 and 4.2. Both have bugs. The interesting features are in the per-app personnalisation feature : you can choose the size of each app, apply some statusbar colors per-ap, etc. Paranoid Android 3+ (Android 4.2) also has Pie feature and Halo.

Advantages : per-app functionnalities. Halo and Pie.

Drawbacks : bugs. Less features than CyanogenMod. few space in /system

MIUI

If you're a nostalgic of Sense, MIUI is for you. We have MIUI based on Android 2.3, 4.0 and 4.1. It is Android modded to be more beautiful.

Advantages : very beautiful UI.

Drawbacks : slow, and only in English.

AOKP

AOKP is based on pure Android and offers some new features like CyanogenMod. We have AOKP 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2.

Advantages : good personnalisation features.

Drawbacks : bugs and few space in /system.

AOSP

AOSP is the very pure Android with no bonus features.

Advantages : The one we have, by [MENTION=4960614]thehacka1[/MENTION], is very fast.

Drawbacks : few space in /system, no CyanogenMod features.

PAC-man

PAC-man is the ultimate rom for people who want loads of features, or basically for those who do not know which to choose between CyanogenMod, AOKP and AOSPA (Paranoid Android). It offers features from all these three roms.

Advantages : so many features ! Android 4.2

Drawbacks : No camera. For me, extremely fast battery drain.

OmniROM

A modded AOSP 4.4.2 KitKat.

Advantages : supported by Team Simplicit. Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Has a lot of nice features. It is faster than than previous versions thanks to Android optimization.

Drawbacks : There is few space in /system, and camera doesn't work.

The best way to choose your rom is to test all of them. But you certainly don't have time for that.

If you want performance, choose Sense 2.1/3.5 or cm7.

If you want a good UI, choose Sense 2.1/3.5 or MIUI.

If yu want the latest Android, choose cm10.1 or AOKP 4.2

If you want a lot of features, choose PAC-man ;)

And remember : you never need to flash any kernel except if the rom developer tells you so ! The rom already contains the good one ;)

GOOGLE APPS

When you've downloaded a rom, you'll also need to download google apps if they are not installed. They are installed in Sense and MIUI roms, but not always in other roms (the hread usuallly says it).

You can find the gapps package for your Android version at goo.im/gapps - only for Android < 4.1. For Android 4.1 use these lite gapps, and Android 4.2 use these ones. Sometimes, a link to gapps is provided in the rom thread. Use this link instead of mine.

HOW TO FLASH

Just put the rom zip and the gapps zip in your sdcard, boot into recovery, make a backup, wipe data, cache, dalvik cache, system and sd-ext (if you can) and select install zip from sdcard then go to your rom zip and flash. After that flash your gapps zip without any wipe.

Yoou can then reboot. Be careful, it can take some time.

INCREASE INTERNAL MEMORY

As you may have seen, the stock rom has very few space for apps. You can increase it with Int2Ext :)

First you must partition your sd card. You can use a tool like gparted. Reduce the size of the existing fat32 partition and create a new partition in ext4 format. Note : make sure you've done a backup of your sd card data ! This will erase all data on your sd card.

Then you can go to this page and choose the script that is made for you. Flash it right after gapps without any wipe.

In my mind, Int2ExtV2+ is the best. But it needs 150 MB of storage for 500 Mb of ext4 partition. Int2Ext or Int2Ext4 do not need that, but will slow down the phone a lot, even if you have a good sd card.

ABOUT BRICKING YOUR PHONE

A lot of people, when they start playing with their phone, are afraid to brick it, meaning that it doesn't work anymore and can go straight to trash. That is normal, I was thinking that too ;) But the risks are very low. If you are not S-OFF, it is difficult to brick your phone. I flashed more than 150 roms, installed kernels that didn't work, change 10 times of recovery and I never experienced a brick.

There are two kinds of bricks : softbrick and hardbrick. If your phone is softbricked, you can still go into recovery, wipe everything and install a new rom. If your phone is hardbricked, hmmm... there are very few chances of recovery, because it doesn't boot anymore :(