Customize android?

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 开发者_如何学JAVAabout 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 ?

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.

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.