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CyanogenMod Drops ROM Manager In Favor of OTA Updates
sfcrazy writes "There's some great news for CyanogenMod fans. The CM team has decided to drop ROM manager, which was the de facto standard of getting CyanogenMod updates."
Instead, the CM team is building its own updating method, explained (with screenshots) at Android Police.
For those who were as confused as I was:
CyanogenMod is a community-maintained, enhanced version of Android, which you can replace the regular Android operating system on tablet and smartphones with, by flashing the ROM.
ROM Manager is an app for, well, managing Android ROMs. Until now, CyanogenMod has relied on it for installation and updates. However, it is 3rd party and not open-source.
OTA, contrary to the implication, is not a CyanogenMod-specific technology, but a general way of manufacturers pushing updates to their smartphone/tablet ROMs. See here.
CyanogenMod will now be using OTA updates to update its ROMs, so it should look to users more like a "regular" phone, which updates itself through the normal mechanism, instead of relying on this third-party ROM manager. (At least, that's my attempted decoding of this story; corrections welcome.)
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
That's not true at all. You need a custom recovery, like Clockwork Mod Recovery (same dev as ROM Manager, but not the same thing), Team Win Recovery Project, or 4EXT (etc.), but you don't need to have ROM Manager installed at all to use any of these (they can be flashed from the terminal or ADB). Also, you can revert to stock by placing an update.zip on the root of the SD card and booting into HBOOT on most phones, or by using Odin on Samsung phones as previously mentioned.
As a non-supertechie Android user, I sure would welcome a more simplified way to root and install these files. I attempted it a month ago, following instructions laid out on Androidforums for my LG Virgin Mobile phone. Got it right up until the final step when it refused to accept the code that I know I was inputting exactly. Had to give up in frustration, glad it wasn't bricked, though. I'd love to have full control over permissions on my device, and to securely lock it down from any hack attempts. Thanks to /. for this heads up story.
Just disassemble the bootloader starting at breakpoint 0x10C08000 and look for the argument to CLD R0.
Once you've found that, you only have to patch the configuration file with the new value and reassemble the kernel userspace.
Then just flash the ROM with the resulting srecord file and you're good to go.
Anyone can do it.
That's because stupid people don't put CM on their phones. Stupid people do, however, buy iPhones.
I hate grammar Nazi's.
That's because stupid people don't put CM on their phones. Stupid people do, however, buy iPhones.
They also know to lie to the CSR about what they did when there is a problem.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon