[Hero, G2 Touch General] Zebwen:
Thread updated 17/01/2011 (d/m/y) to include FlyKernel 12a and a download for AngryBirds 1.3.5 for those who needed it. thread has also been cleaned up and old content removed. Instructions have been updated accordingly. Please let me know of any bugs or tweaks that need to be made.

Install for fully working Android Gingerbread Keyboard and newest Market at the bottom of this post!

This is a collection of packages that can be found around these forums that I believe amounts to the perfect Hero Setup. I am NOT a developer (although I have been known to make some themes and do some graphics work in the past), and I do not claim to have created any of this content. Instead what I am bringing you is a kind of gathering of the choicest picks from the Hero development forums, as well as the CyanogenMod 6.1 Final base. Most of this post is entirely optional, so this will allow you to build your own device, based on your preferences. Leave out things you feel you do not want, or add in extra steps if you feel you need them. Either way this will allow granular control of your Hero, for you to set it up just the way you want.

If nothing else this should be treated as a learning experience, if however you are unsure, and the post below looks a little daunting, you should consider flashing Floyo (created by the very talented erasmux) which is a complete packaged ROM. A lot of the content here has been taken from offerings that he has made available.

I take no responsibility for you destroying your phone. But for ME, my Hero is now the fastest it has ever been, with much better signal (and hugely faster browsing speed) with a theme I really love. So, presuming your Hero is already rooted, do a FULL wipe of everything, and then:

1) Flash Cyanogen Mod 6.1 FINAL in recovery (no need to reboot yet).

2) Flash Cyanogen Google Apps Addon.

3) Reboot your phone, log in and go through the initial setup. Once this is completed, reboot into recovery again.

4) (UPDATED) Flash Flykernel 12a (HUGE thanks to erasmux, this kernel is amazing). The version linked here is the one I have found to work best with this particular Hero setup (352-576, as such this is not overclocked, but performs exceptionally on my hero and doesn't have the annoying wake up issue, info on how to rename the file to overclock the kernel can be found at the erasmux flykernal post if you wish to do so). NOTE: Do NOT use the "-noatime" switch as this caused reboot loops for me in CM6.1.

5) Flash this notifications fix (provided by erasmux) which should fix some slightly hinky notification issues (jogball etc). This should now not be required with the newest Cyanogen build, I will do more testing and completely remove this section if this is confirmed.

6) Boot phone and let it get to the homescreen.

7) Reboot into recovery for the final time.

8) Flash The Latest Radio from this thread.

9) Reboot the phone (this may take a while after the radio installation).

OPTIONAL SETTINGS!

10) If you like using the HTC_IME mod, you can install it by manually installing the Clicker and then THIS version of the HTC_IME mod created using the AMAZING theming tool provided by gIMpSTa. I have created a theme that suits the feel of this CM6.1 based ROM using his tool, and it is working perfectly on my phone.

11) Enable JIT by going in to Settings > CyanogenMod Settings > Performance Settings > TICK "Use JIT" - And then reboot your phone (You can turn this off if you have issues with it turned on). In the latest Cyanogen 6.1 FINAL JIT is working perfectly, so unlike with RC1, I would now recommend having this turned ON!.

12) If you have issues fixing GPS sats, or if GPS does not update correctly when using it to navigate etc then you can try flashing THIS FIX (GPS libraries taken from FroydVillain and provided by erasmux as a fix for his Floyo ROM). If you are having issues actually fixing satellites you can also try flashing either the Europe, US or Asia sat-packs which can help GPS lock speed in your continent (if everything is already fine, you might want to avoid flashing these). Personally, I DO NOT use GPS on my device, so I can't comment on how well any of this works, but erasmux really knows his stuff, so I'm sure it will work if you are having problems.

13) CM6.1 comes with the NEW (official) Apps2SD built-in. However, the app needs to support this method or it will not allow you to move the app to the SD card. For those of you that prefer to use the OLD STYLE Apps2SD you can download it and flash it separately to enable this feature on this build of CyanogenMod.

That's the main setup sorted. You MAY have an issue with the Market following the radio installation (I did). If this happens, follow the instructions in this thread, the first fix (clearing the data) worked for me.

OK! Now on to apps. There are a few apps that really are a must if you want your Hero to both look and feel smooth as silk. So head over to the market, and download the following:

1) LanucherPro (Cyanogen comes with ADW, but I MUCH prefer LauncherPro). I use the XTG mod created by signals23 which has much more attractive widgets (if you have purchased the LP-Plus edition (I strongly recommend you do). You can, of course, use ANY homescreen, but LP is definitely my choice for beauty and speed. I actually DELETED ADW using: adb shell - rm /system/app/ADWLauncher.apk once I had LauncherPro installed, so it was no longer on the phone at all.

2) Beautiful Widgets - You have to pay for this, but trust me, it is absolutely worth the small amount of money. Once you have it, you can install any clock theme you like, such as SwirlClock made by yours truly :P

3) SMS Popup. Seriously, this app is amazing. Go into the default messages app, and turn off notifications. then head into the SMS Popup settings, and go into additional settings, turn ON "Quick Reply" and turn OFF "Screen on for Popup".

3) Youlu Address Book. I no longer recommend DialerOne on the Hero, as I find it too slow, especially when using the T9 "Dialer Search" function to call contacts using the numeric keypad. I find Youlou to be much faster, with a nice interface with an easy to navigate tabbed UI.

4) Advanced Task Killer. Once installed, open it up, turn off the notification bar icon in settings, and add your most frequently used apps to the ignore list (so the killer always leaves them running for speedy access). I usually leave: Messaging, Email and DialerOne in the ignore list.

5) SyncMyPix. Lets you properly sync your facebook contacts pictures so that they show up in DialerOne and LauncherPro.

6) Facebook app, or, whatever :P

7) Photoshop Express. I only add this here because there is no way of uploading multiple images to Facebook using the standard "Gallery" app, but you can do this using Photoshop Express, pretty nice little app, but this feature makes it worth having.

8) THEME! If you want to change the stock theme from white to black, go to: Settings > CyanogenMod Settings > User Interface > Tweaks Extras > Select a Theme and change your theme to STOCK_Black and then reboot your phone. This makes all of the theme a very nice gloss black effect WITHOUT having to flash a seperate theme ROM over Cyanogen (which is a much better way of doing things, as you are not replacing the newer .apk's with older, themed ones... Yes, I know the browser icon kinda sucks, but you can always download the nicer icon .png from here ;)

9) Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Keyboard. If you want to install this keyboard, it will overwrite the existing Android 2.2.1 Keyboard (and currently there is no way of going back). The Gingerbread keyboard is FULLY FUNCTIONAL, this version now has working dictionary and autocorrect. You CAN still use the HTC_IME keyboard with this installed though, so if you hardly use the stock Android keyboard anyway, there shouldn't be much harm installing it and giving it a shot. HERE it is for those of you that just can't wait :P

10) The newest Android 2.2.6 Market. Flash in recovery, tested working great on my Hero, very lovely interface and nice and fast :)

11) (NEW) Angry Birds 1.3.5. for those of you who were wondering how I got angry Birds to run pretty well on the Hero, use this version rather than the latest one available on the market :)

DONE. Of course, you can modify this in any way you like, but after completing all of this you will have your own, pieced together ROM, without any strange extras or crap you don't really need. On top of this, you can head in to the ROM manager that comes with Cyanogen and install ClockworkMod recovery (if you are still using an older Amon-Ra or something), which is nice and easy.

Also, I'm not joking. It's fast... The screenshot below is with common apps (messages, emails, dialerone) running, and I still have 86mb of free memory. The battery life is fantastic, signal is great, call speed, wifi locking etc all seem faster than I have had them before. So, let me know your results (I have not tested GPS!).

And there yo go, your own freshy squeezed Hero, complete with all the trimmings. Baste lightly in your own choice of apps and serve.

Zeb

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This post will be updated as newer packages are released.

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