Metropol

OK, well... I've struggled with this and done quite a lot of Googling, but I have achieved a rooting of the Desire.

Not helped by the fact that the Beta Key is presented in a font that doesn't allow you to see the difference between l1I O0

This helped... http://desirefanatics.wordpress.com/201 ... -tutorial/

So now not sure what ROM to go for...

I've managed to get cyanogen and done that nice little trick that Jake linked to.

I now have a phone that is running perhaps about 3% slower, but has 90MB of free space, AFTER the apps have been installed.

Everything working ok in Cyanogen? Any issues or irritations?

not really no. auto brightness is a bit on the dim side so i've switched it off but aside from that its fairly easy.

pairing contacts with FB is not as easy as in sense, unless I've not worked out how to do it yet.

Browser and keyboard are much more up to date

OK, have improved matters and done something that I didn't know was possible.

Rooted phone. Installed SuperUser.

Was then going to change the ROM to CyanogenMod (as Pete did) but instead I have left the HTC Gingerbread build on there.

I created a 1GB EXT2 partition on the SD card using the guide here, using the software suggested: (it says to make an EXT3 partition but this didn't work in the Desire for me, changed it to EXT2 and it did)

http://android.stackexchange.com/questi ... ng-why-how

I didn't lose any data on the SD card, though I did back it up in case.

An app called Link2SD then allows you to treat the EXT2 partition to be internal memory. It creates links to the apps on the genuine internal memory, but the apps and their caches are then actually on the EXT2 partition of the SD card.

So, I still have the original ROM with HTC Sense UI but have got myself up to 70MB free...

[edit] ... it now stays at around 70MB free because all new installed apps are on the EXT2 partition of the SD card.

I wasn't aware you could even do that with the stock rom. Marvellous.

I think my gizmo S2E is basically doing the same thing, making a link to the partition on the SD card to fool the phone.

Would consider returning to Sense but have become quite fond of a few features on Cyanogen, namely the vastly superior camera app and - sad as it is - the little CRT style flash as it goes into lock.

But yay @ us for making our desires work again.

Pete wrote:I wasn't aware you could even do that with the stock rom. Marvellous.

It isn't something that I've seen documented anywhere.

I have just learned that at least one of the custom ROMs lets you switch the screen on using the centre select button rather than the annoyingly out-of-the-way power button. Tsk @ me for giving up so readily.

Sput wrote:I have just learned that at least one of the custom ROMs lets you switch the screen on using the centre select button rather than the annoyingly out-of-the-way power button. Tsk @ me for giving up so readily.

oooh mine does that. how fab.

Also lets you set the volume buttons to trigger the camera and nice little things like that

http://boingboing.net/2012/01/14/cyanog ... um=twitter

Now CyanogenMod is toying with the idea of a Banned Apps store, consisting of apps that were banned from Google Marketplace for "no good reason" (generally because they threatened Google or the carriers in some way). It's hard for users to get upset about functionality restrictions that they don't know about, but once their friends get the ability to do more, they'll clamor for it, too.

Having gone to the staff room today (which I never do) I discovered three of my colleagues also own HTC phones (desires and wildfires).

All of them, said they adored their phones, except for the fact they run out of memory all the time. I found it interesting they all - despite being of the "oh my god Pete you've fixed the computer that didn't work for three months because nobody checked if the ethernet fell out the back, you're so clever with computers" technical level - knew the various techniques for going in and clearing data (and backing up beforehand).

I'd offer to fix their phones marksi style. But obviously I don't really give a toss.