[Hero CDMA Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kingdazy:
n00b, but not an idiot here. been playing with handhelds for many years, new to android though.

I've been watching this forum (CDMA Hero sect.) since I got my Hero, been learning quite a bit. Held off on rooting until there was a official 2.1 release for the device that a ROM could be built around (I wanted full function of the phone and software), did the stupid thing of running the RUU (leaked official), and had to wait until Regaw (thanx!) gave us root...

It would seem the tone of this forum has changed fundamentally since the release of the EVO and an official 2.1 for our Heros. I can understand that perhaps the "thrill" is gone, and since we can all get 2.1 now without rooting, I guess it's "why bother"? (see questions below)

Aaaaanyway...

just did my first root, my first nandroid BU, my first rom flash (hated the rom), and then my first nandroid recover ;-) (what an amazing function, what a relief!) About to try out a 2nd ROM, see if I like it better...

(as an aside to the point of this post, the ROM i tried was DamageR, found it too "messy" for my tastes, and while I can appreciate the work put into it, the options it offers... not my style. was thinking on Damageless, waiting for a "rerelease" of his final. :( Or perhaps the Aloysius...)

Now that I have my caveats and excuses out of the way, I had a few n00b questions?

1) while I think I have figured out what JIT is, why is it "enabled" in many new ROMs? Is it not an included part of Sense 2.1 from HTC on the Hero?

2) When I was wiping before flash, I was unable to wipe davlik (sp?), insisted I had to do through adb. Is this "normal"?

3) could someone explain what "push" an APK is? Since I have rooted, will I be unable to use the application installer in the HTCsync? (haven't actually tried yet...) And how to "flash" a file? (Example: Dammageless' LWP fix...) I am sure it's something very simple that I am just not getting dues to being unfamiliar with the jargon here.

4) I would really like to use the A2SD feature, and in the recovery screen (where one does the nandroid BUs) it gives me the option to create partitions. I was of course clever enough to BU all data on the card before doing Anything re: root/flashing/etc, but I would like to know if this was needed? Will it just use empty space already present on the card? And in general, I would love to know what I am doing re: A2SD in general, I know "search is my friend", but would someone point me to a quick and succinct link to the "instructions" of doing this? And the different kinds of partitions (ext2? ext3?ext4? huh? why?) I need to know about?

5) And, so why bother rooting now? I know this sounds like a dense question, but really since I don't know enough about it, I guess I am looking for a list of "the obvious reasons" that would not occur to me, or other Android nooblets. LWP will be nice i guess, other launchers, A2SD, bootscreens, OCing... what else?

5) Personally, I am hoping people will rise to the Froyo challenge. ;) While being ignorant of most things involving "programing", or compiling (cooking?), my understanding is that 2.2 runs several times faster due to (a new?) JIT (admitted ignorance again), so does this mean "more efficient"? Would something like a Hero be able to take advantage of that? I realize that we (due to CPU) will never have the highend features (OpenGL, gaming, LWPs being sluggish), so please correct me if I am grossly missing something, besides it not being written for this HW, I see that many other versions written for other devices have been ported to this device.... is this being actively worked on, seen a worthy challenge? Or even a possible one? One that has any benefits?

7) And the n00best question of them all: ROM suggestions? I happen to like Sense, or thought I did because of the 7 screens and other neato features in the UI, but it seems from further reading I can get most features and function out of just about any of them... As an example, what will I gain from flashing Damageless as opposed to the stock RUU? (While Damageless' ROM seems to be the most popular, it is also the least described in his post re: features added/removed, and it's benifits. It would seem like his ROM was "da bomb" when we didnt have 2.1 officially, but since we do now... do I bother with his? Or move to something "more exciting"?

Thank you for your patience. :D

/n00b-rant