Feeding the Eris Gingerbread

My HTC Eris is coming up on two years old and I decided it was time for a change.  Tiring of waiting for the Nexus, and aggravated by laggy phone experience, I decided to try the root and ROM route.  And now this is what I have: gingerbread 2.3.7 and a whole new outlook on life.

Not too shabby, eh?

So how do you get there?  Pretty easily it turns out.

Step 1: Backup your phone.  I used Titanium Backup to backup everything, then copied the backup folder over to my PC.  I didn't concern myself too much with stored information such as addresses since I save everything to my Google account.  It might be helpful to make a list of apps you've downloaded, because you will need to reload them from the marketplace.

Step 2: Root your phone.  Download the one-click Eris root app. If you have the stock version 2.1 on your phone, as I did, there is no reboot option - when the directions say "reboot", simply power the phone off and then back on.  I found this video on YouTube helpful (however, don't bother trying to load Rom Manager on your phone, it is not supported on 2.1 - as I discovered).

Step 3:  Choose a ROM.  I chose the Condemned CM 7.1 ROM, which is based on Android 2.3.7.  I chose the "vanilla" CCM ROM.  Download this ROM to the root folder of the phone's SD card. Shut the phone off and then restart it,  holding down the power and volume up keys.  This will load the recovery screen.  Next, follow these steps as cribbed from the HTC Eris: Full Update Guide.

• Once you enter Recovery, maneuver by scrolling up & down with the trackball.  Use the trackball button to select options.
• Select the option to create a Nandroid backup 
• Select Wipe, then Wipe data/factory reset.  
• Select Flash zip from sdcard.
• Select the CCM7_V21_Vanilla.zip.
• Once the installation has finished, select Reboot system. The HTC Eris now should boot into the new ROM.

It will take a few minutes for the phone to start back up again.  Eventually the phone will come back to life and brings you into the home screen and will ask for your Google username and password.  Once that is finished you can go about the process of reinstalling your apps from the marketplace. 

After playing around with themes and wallpaper I finally settled on the landscape wallpaper as displayed above, which I downloaded from here.  I missed the HTC clock/weather applet but couldn't find a replacement I liked.  Instead I went minimalist, and used the BeWeather applet to display the weather using the smallest size available.

So how is it all working?  In short - it's like having a new phone.  It's much more responsive, the battery life is better, and the revised apps and interface are all improvements.  The Car Home applet is a great idea and much appreciated.  No complaints about the apps so far, they seem to be nicely refined from 2.1. The only thing I miss is the old friendly HTC weather applet I mentioned above.  But in its absence I am enjoying the pared-down aesthetic.

A hearty thank you to all the folks who made this possible, you are doing amazing  things.