Customize android?

Question

Question, I have a HTC Hero with Android 1.5.

The buggy (speed <= 10 kb) network driver bothers me since a long time. (I saw it can serve 50 kb/s or more, but only temporarely, but then, after a few seconds, it slows down to < 5kb/s and takes about an hour to come back to 50 kb/s...) Now HTC is working on 2.1, but whatever... I don't know what takes soooo long.

Basically, what I would need to do is just cross-compile the android kernel for ARM and maybe some installed native apps wouldn't work anymore afterwards.

Is it possible (without big riscs) to compile my own custom android?
Or will I be unable to use the phone afterwards if anything goes wrong ?

Answer 1

I don't know of any such bug re: speed, but I also don't own a hero but a Magic.

It is very much possible to compile android on your own. If this is a radio or driver problem though, I don't see how that would help: Afaik some drivers are closed-source so they wouldn't be helped at all.

Answer 2

If you are willing to do your own custom build, I'd suggest you see if you can use cyanogenmod in your Hero. They are doing custom android builds for a long time.