[Nexus One Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ktanriverdi:
hey thanks for the quick response. you've given me lots of good info to wrap my mind around. and now i am back with more questions!!! i am slowly figuring this out!!!

Also i have some programming experience (very good at C/C++/JAVA etc.) but i dont know if what i know is enough to make something useful but maybe some day i'll start making apps or useful tools...

I also have 3 partitions on my laptop, Linux, Windows 7, and Storage. but i am a Linux newb i just use it in a basic way. and ifeel that the google android documents are not worded in the best way for me. i think i had trouble following it but i'll give it another go.

ok lets regurgitate some info and then ask more questions...

Partitions:

recovery - stock allows OTA (with stock ROM) but cant handle zip, Amon_RA's handles zip but no OTA

boot - root is granted by modified kernel here - [assumption] bootloader resides here?

system - system information and ROM resides here

cache - factory reset wipes this

userdata - login, user settings - factory reset wipes this

does SPL = bootloader? for other devices i see the term "SPL" used more often is it the same thing? what does it stand for? what is hard and soft SPL?

despite not receiving OTA with non-stock recovery, we can usually turn it into a zip to be manually installed right?

by that logic "flash zip from sdcard" also has the word flash in it and yet it does not flash but merges? so in effect "flash zip from sdcard" is a bit of a misnomer, no? or do i have the wrong definition of "flash"? i thought flash to be synonymous with "format" is this correct?

this makes it sound like SPL and Radio have their own partitions, and yet in the partition list they are not listed. I thought (provided SPL=bootloader) that SPL was in the boot partition and Radio in the system partition can you clear this up?

also does this mean that Amon_RA's recovery detects the files within the zip and then determines which partitions get flashed? meaning if a certain zip contains folders named "boot" and "system", Amon_RA's recovery will detect this and only flash the appropriate partitions? his(or her) recovery is built to detect this?

actually upon further investigation, i see that the zip files contain folders and images like "radio.img" so im more confused now.

what i meant was, if a phone was sim locked and the user inputs the unlock code and then wipes or flashes or installs a new ROM, will the partition containing the information that locks/unlocks the sim be overwritten and force the user to input the code again? or is the sim lock/unlock completely unaffected by these processes? perhaps in the "misc" partition since i have not yet seen that partition used or affected as of yet.

what does "signed" mean/indicate? i see written on the ends of some file names...

i will try to classify all of the most popular files in a logical manner to aid myself (and other noobs alike) in understanding.

Tools

Tools folder of the Android SDK - used to run fastboot and adb commands - used to unlock bootloader and flash

USB Drivers - needed for computer to recognize your device.

MD5 Summer - when a new file is posted the MD5 hash is posted along with it - if the file on your computer has the same hash value then it is the same folder with no corruptions or changes

Updates / Addons

Stock Recovery - 2 files - secure stock images zip contains all the images including recovery

..........Modaco's ERD79 - 22607-ERD79-update-nexusone-stock-images.zip

..........Football of xda posted the exact same as above - PASSIMG_Passion_Google_WWE_1.01.1700.1_ERD79_release_signed.zip

Amon_RA's Recovery - 1 file - better recovery tool - a must install for modders

..........recovery-RA-nexus-v1.5.3.img

Radio 4.02.02.14 (old) - 1 file - DONT MESS WITH RADIOS

..........Enomther's post - TheOfficial_Nexus1_Radio_Update_4.02.02.14.zip

Radio 4.03.00.21_2 (new) - 3 files - they're all the same - DONT MESS WITH RADIOS

..........Modaco's - update-nexusone-radio-32.24.00.22U_4.03.00.21_2-signed.zip

..........Cyanogen's - radio-ERE27.img

..........Enomther's - TheOfficial_Nexus1_Radio_Update_4.03.00.21_2.zip

ERE27 - 4 files - update that gave multitouch

..........Modaco's stock - update-nexusone-ERE27-signed.zip

..........Modaco's rooted himem - boot.ERE27.superboot.himem.img

..........Cyanogen's rooted -mt-addon-CM5-beta4-signed.zip

..........Cyanogen's rooted with Google Apps - gapps-passion-ERE27-2-signed.zip

Cyanogen's Addon 0.1 Makin' Bacon - 1 file - grants root

..........nexus-addon-0.1-signed.zip

Modaco's Superboot - 3 files - grants root - automates process - to be extracted and used

..........ERD79 - 1.1-ERD79-nexusone-superboot.zip

..........ERE27 - 1.0-ERE27-nexusone-superboot.zip

..........ERE27 with himem - 1.0-ERE27-nexusone-superboot-himem.zip

Complete ROMs

Modaco's ERD79 - unrooted - stock - vanilla...

..........22607-ERD79-update-nexusone-stock-signed.zip

Enomther v1.5.1 based on ERE27 - rooted - has lots of goodies within it

..........TheOfficial_Nexus1_v1.5.1_update.zip

CyanogenMod 5 beta 4 based on ERD79 - rooted - must manually upgrade to ERE27 - has lots of goodies within it

..........update-cm-5.0-N1-beta4-signed.zip

CyanogenMod 5 beta 5 based on ERE27 - rooted - has lots of goodies...

..........update-cm-5.0-N1-beta5-signed.zip