Related
Note: I'm hoping this is the correct place for this thread, hopefully others with this same phone would benefit from it, as this sub-forum seems barren of any guides on what I am looking for
After Christmas, I decided to get my first smart phone, the D2G. I ordered it through Newegg and had it linked to a family account on Verizon.
So what I currently have now is Android 2.2, System Version 2.4.330.A956.Verizon.en.us, and tons of Verizon branded bloat.
My goal is that I would like to install a vanilla version of gingerbread. Being my first smartphone, and my first time on these forums, I'm greatly lacking in knowledge of these phones and how to get from where I am at to where I want to be. What I do have, however, is an understanding of operating system architecture, UNIX experience and good technical knowledge of PCs. I understand what rooting means, what apps are, what a bootstrap does, however I know nothing of how to get or use these things on this phone, nor any idea where to look for this information. Because this phone is on contract (and thus only paid $150 for it), I'm hoping to minimize the risk of bricking it, or otherwise costing me more money.
What I am looking for: any information/guides/links that will help me to get me from Android 2.2 to a vanilla version of gingerbread on the D2G. From what I have gathered from other threads is that I need to root it (by installing z4root I read), boot in recovery mode, then install ROMs. None of those things I know how to do right now. I suppose helping me learn how to do those would be a great start.
tl;dr I need a layman's guide to get gingerbread on D2G
Thanks in advance for any help
To begin you won't be able to get Gingerbread until Motorola releases an update. The Droid 2 (and D2 Global) have a locked bootloader which means the kernel can't be changed except by Motorola. Without a kernel upgrade Gingerbread will remain out of reach.
You can, however, grab some things that have been backported from Gingerbread like the keyboard and theme. As time goes by more and more external things from Gingerbread will become available for non-GB users, but certain things that rely on the GB kernel will be elusive.
Now as for FroYo, there currently isn't a completely working AOSP (Android Open Source Project) ROM yet. Fission and GummyJAR strip away as much Blur as possible and work towards AOSP. Unleashed, Ultimate Droid, and Tanzanite are all AOSP ROMs in development but are lacking full functionality at the moment. Basically you've got to pick your poison: AOSP-like that works or AOSP that's not quite done.
Given that you have a D2 Global I'd personally hold off on changing ROMs at the moment. The D2G SBF (System Boot File) hasn't been leaked yet so if anything were to go wrong while changing ROMs your phone would be bricked until the SBF is released. A SBF allows you to revert your phone back to its out-of-the-box state should anything go wrong; your phone can be in a boot loop but you can turn it on in a way that will allow you to get things back to square one at least. Without the SBF you're really taking a gamble.
Alright, so I take it I just got too new of a phone then ~_~
thanks
Don't be too upset that your phone is too new yet...
Just be very careful with what you try for now.
It is just over a year since I got my first Droid and while there were plenty of hacks and roms for that back then, few were really STABLE. It didn't take long before not only were stable roms available, they were far better and included features that were not supposed to be on the phone.
Including overclocking it to twice the stock speed.
The D2G is in a similar place right now but the whole "eFuse" thing makes hacking a lot trickier. Its much easier to brick a D2/DX than an original Droid.
BUt progress is being made and there is little doubt in my mind that all the devs out there will make this phone what it should be just like they did with the Droid.
Gingerbread will get to us eventually, but for now Fission rom has already improved my D2G 100% over stock.
rogerdugans said:
Gingerbread will get to us eventually, but for now Fission rom has already improved my D2G 100% over stock.
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Click to collapse
Interested in Fission, but as I have previously stated, I'm quite clueless for the time being
Is this something that is safe?
Kenshin- said:
Interested in Fission, but as I have previously stated, I'm quite clueless for the time being
Is this something that is safe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want 100% safe- leave your phone exactly as you received it.
Seriously.
There is risk in doing this stuff, even when we are simply taking advantage of the very risky work done by devs to figure out HOW to modify our phones.
Generally speaking, the longer you wait the less risky it is, but the fact is that there is never ZERO danger to it. Even if all the mods and hacks you use are time tested and there has not been a single bug found by anyone- flashing a rom can go wrong and leave a device bricked.
Even flashing a manufacturer provided BIOS on a computer has risk.
All of that said, if you want to minimize risk, wait just a little while for the bugs to be worked out more thoroughly.
I just saw that there is now an SBF for the D2G last night- that helps provide a buffer for accidents (disaster recovery!) but I don't know how well tested it is. We should know fairly soon- quite a few folks with bricked phones have been waiting for it!
I would say that right now the D2G has risk in the "moderate" range- new phone, not that much dev time, etc.
The only other phone I have personal experience with is the original Droid- risk on that is "minimal." Hard to kill those things.
All that said, I have accepted the risk and did so before the sbf was out. I have had no problems at all so far.
IF you choose to do so, I highly recommend following instructions exactly and making sure you know what you are doing and why.
I don't mean to talk you or anyone else out of improving their smart phone, but I do believe that realistic risk assessment is a wise thing to do before starting.
I used the SBF to flash my phone 2 days ago, with no issues.
rogerdugans said:
Generally speaking, the longer you wait the less risky it is, but the fact is that there is never ZERO danger to it.
...
All of that said, if you want to minimize risk, wait just a little while for the bugs to be worked out more thoroughly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a D2 and I got it pretty new a few months ago it was my first Android phone but I watched the forums and learned as things became available how to do it all. I watched as the device everyone thought wasn't even going to get root access got it, then the ROMs came; it wasn't easy and they aren't like the ROMs that came for previous devices because of the locks Moto put on the phone. But, we were happy with it and I've been pleasantly surprised at what the devs have come up with and have been running custom ROMs so long I don't remember what stock was even like. I just know it wasn't as cool as the custom stuff I'm running.
So hang in there and read all you can about your device or similar devices (D2, DX, DPro) so that when something comes along that you want to try you know what to do to make it work and what to do if it doesn't go as planned.
Can anyone tell the important and practical advantages of rooting and installing Infused ROM? I Am just looking for a useful reason to waste my time
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
Read the change logs in the very first post, if nothing there appeals to you than don't bother, if nothing makes SENSE to you, read more like I did before diving in lol.
Short answer is, because its fun, addicting, customizing, unlocks features, removes bloatware.....makes it YOUR PHONE, not AT&T's (assuming you don't have Rogers.) Things like Wi-Fi tethering and GPS lock on times are fixed or improved. Stuff like that, plus the whole process can be somewhat addicting. Lol
Infused
Hehe..... So, no usefulness in rooting I guess.... Can you post the link by the way...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
Not sure how, on my phone. Lol, but if you go to the infuse developers section, you CANT miss it. Big huge title says something along the lines of, [Infused, V2.#.# (gingerbread) blah blah blah] haha.
But ATM the download portion is down because the Canadian release doesn't use 4g, so he's fixing a little quirk with it right now, than it'll be back up I'm sure, gtg is pretty quick.
Also, rooting is different than flashing a Tom, rooting gives you complete control over your phone, gets rid of market branding (I think), and allows 3rd party apps (be carefully)
Flashing a ROM is replacing the current operating system with the SAME one but streamlined and bareboned, or a better one that's streamlined and bareboned. (Or at least that's how I think of it.) Usually involving better apps, updates, and unlocked features.
So yes there is a benifit I guess lol.
Infused
So, what is infused ROM? I suppose it is custom ROM... Right?... So, what the hell is CWM then?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
All of this info is readily available, when I first got my android I was a little confused to, hell, I still am =P
But here is the skinny,
Root simply means you are granting the phone or yourself super user access. What does that mean you ask... well, it pretty much gives you ultimate admin rights. From here, you can theme, mod, install roms, alter/move/delete system files etc.
Roms are the creations of enhanced versions of the stock os all ready available, and sometimes not available ie gtg's gingerbread rom. The benefits to these"aftermarket" roms vary from rom to rom. You will need to research each one specifically to see what fits your desires.
Although your question seems simple, it its infact a big question that is far to vague, simply put, custom roms made by experienced developers will 99.9% always be superior to stock, but for different reasons. So please research and you will see that there are varying types of directions... Unless you want gb on infuse, kinds only one direction for that at the moment.
Infused with gingerbread **** thanks GTG465X
Thanks, you articulated my thoughts better lol.
CWM is ClockWorkMod, used commonly for its rom manager feature, it helps make flashing the rom's easier, and can install a clockwork recovery mode that replaces the stock 3e recovery the phone comes with, and is far more useful.
Infused
You need root. Normally I'd suggest going with a ROM, but right now the only ROM actively being developed is Infused. However, this is the first ROM where I have gotten very bad response from those who develop the ROM, as well as backlash for the community when I bring up bugs on the releases. Any other phone has developer communities that are helpful and very nice, and receptive to constructive criticism, but it's like Apple sent their goons over for Infused, and both the developers and the fanboys of the developers act like it's some gift from god. Everything released from the Infused team has had some fairly significant bugs, right now the bug is poor data speeds (kinda silly since we bought the phone for it's "4G" being the primary function), but as always, enter at your own risk.
Seriously bella? the only issues I have seen with this community has been antagonized by you. Hell, out of curiosity I check done of your post history... Surprise surprise, most of the post are you complaining. This thread case in point, seriously had to drag your bull **** to another thread, grow the hell up.
just get your sg2 already and take your negativity to another forum. All you ever do is ***** like a whiny baby. Good luck and good riddance, we won't miss you.
Infused with gingerbread **** thanks GTG465X
Krant, don't let Bella's bs confuse you, this phone has to notch devs, with fantastic roms and kernels. Apparently if the devs can't part the seas and build a rom that get 100 hours of staight heavy use batt life then they don't deserve to give us free development
Infused with gingerbread **** thanks GTG465X
Krant, welcome to the forums.
I disagree with Bella - we have an excellent community here, the only problem is that we have an unusual number of people who post in the ROM threads in development when it is clear they have not even read the first post of the thread. We also have people who complain about a ROM without any evidence to back up their complaint, and get hostile when a dev asks them to run a specific test.
On the positive side, the level of coordination we have between developers is FAR better than most other devices. That's why right now you don't really see any junky "hey look I can deodex too!" ROMs.
So far you're off to a good start, you didn't post in the dev forum and you're making an effort to learn. I suggest you take some time to do some research and Googling.
Another thing adding to the confusion here is that with Android, there are two portions of the system that can be separately customized. The kernel is the base operating system, with hardware drivers and such. The ROM is actually what us kernel hackers call "userland" - the stuff layered on top of a kernel to produce a nice usable system.
Most ROMs include a custom kernel, but in many cases you can flash other kernels over it.
Never flash a ROM/kernel intended for another device. (An exception to this rule may eventually come for userland ROMs, but for now that's the rule.)
CWM is a low-level "recovery" tool that allows new files to be flashed to your device that often can't be flashed to a running system. It's most often used for flashing new ROMs, but can sometimes be used for flashing tweaks to a ROM.
And things like that will only scare people away from these forums, i sincerely feel like there are an alarming number of negative, rude people on XDA, and those who AREN'T, are usually Dev's or working with them, Hence my post from like, a month ago in an ENTIRELY different subject lol. And also why i try so hard to be informative, even with what little knowledge i have. please dont go because of a few bad apples, ive seen it ruin peoples experience with there phones.
Hellion_zk said:
Ive cruised these forums for about 8 months now, and i have to say, out of all the forus ive ever been apart of, (PC, Truck, Motorcycle, you name it) this is filled with the worst ratio of rude, abrasive people ive ever seen on a forum, and am surprised that the mods make no attempt to instill respectful comments to one another.
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Click to collapse
And it got Thanked,... twice... and it wasnt even by the people getting chewed out, (Although for a valid reason. DONT post nonsense in a Dev thread....oh my GOD they take that seriously here lol)
theraffman said:
All of this info is readily available, when I first got my android I was a little confused to, hell, I still am =P
But here is the skinny,
Root simply means you are granting the phone or yourself super user access. What does that mean you ask... well, it pretty much gives you ultimate admin rights. From here, you can theme, mod, install roms, alter/move/delete system files etc.
Roms are the creations of enhanced versions of the stock os all ready available, and sometimes not available ie gtg's gingerbread rom. The benefits to these"aftermarket" roms vary from rom to rom. You will need to research each one specifically to see what fits your desires.
Although your question seems simple, it its infact a big question that is far to vague, simply put, custom roms made by experienced developers will 99.9% always be superior to stock, but for different reasons. So please research and you will see that there are varying types of directions... Unless you want gb on infuse, kinds only one direction for that at the moment.
Infused with gingerbread **** thanks GTG465X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the raffman explained root acces well indeed. I heard another explain it as gaining root access to your phone is the same as logging in to your computer with admin rights; you can make all sorts of changes. However, not having root access to your phone is like logging in to your computer as guest; you can change very little.
I rooted my phone a few days out of the box. Don't get me wrong; I was impressed with its performance. Since then I've flashed roms, kernels, bricked my phone, brought it back to life with odin3 many times. It is exciting and wicked fun to push this phone to its limits. Props to all the devs that enable my habit. Root and flash and I am sure you will never look back.
Root and flash and I am sure you will never look back.[/QUOTE said:
And make sure you do tons of research on how to unbrick it, and know what NOT to do.
Infused
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Entropy512 said:
Another thing adding to the confusion here is that with Android, there are two portions of the system that can be separately customized. The kernel is the base operating system, with hardware drivers and such. The ROM is actually what us kernel hackers call "userland" - the stuff layered on top of a kernel to produce a nice usable system.
Most ROMs include a custom kernel, but in many cases you can flash other kernels over it.
Never flash a ROM/kernel intended for another device. (An exception to this rule may eventually come for userland ROMs, but for now that's the rule.)
CWM is a low-level "recovery" tool that allows new files to be flashed to your device that often can't be flashed to a running system. It's most often used for flashing new ROMs, but can sometimes be used for flashing tweaks to a ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Entrophy512,
I've had my superInfuse for over a month now, I have it rooted, flashed Infused 1.53, 2.0Beta1,2,3,stable2.00, 2.01, 2.02 and used CWM, SGS Kernal Flasher, etc. I thought I understood this all pretty well but you summed it up excellently!!! Thanks so much for that!
I am a jailbroken iPhone convert. I am loving this phone so far and have heeded the warnings to not mess with the phone too much. My question is, when is it safe to use the roms that are available? Is there that big of a difference in performance? I jailbroke my iPhone to get features Apple wouldn't allow our have. what do I gain with custom roms? Thanks for all that has been done so far and look forward to what its to come.
I don't know of there is a time period to use them but most custom roms freshen up your desktop icons as well most of them improve battery life and add the ability to overclock.
You can gain quite a few features with Custom Roms. Such as overclocking, custom ui's, much better performance (snappier). I highly recommend flashing a custom ROM. Currently CM9 and CM7 are a work in progress and should be released sooner than later, (CM7 is currently in it's testing stage). Also to do all of this you have to root your device. A guide can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1327741&highlight=how+to+root Keep in mind many features can be gained once rooted, but as you probably know the warranty is voided.
Thanks for the help so far. The only question still remaining for me is; at what point are these roms considered stable enough for someone new to start using. I have read the warnings and really don't want to have to reinstall everything over and over again because of instability issues. thanks
ed20910 said:
Thanks for the help so far. The only question still remaining for me is; at what point are these roms considered stable enough for someone new to start using. I have read the warnings and really don't want to have to reinstall everything over and over again because of instability issues. thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really all depends on what you are after.
I will say that even the stock ROM on the Atrix 2 is not that stable, and there are a TON of bugs in it.
All the ROMs that are here are in a beta format and are not even at a 1.0 revision yet. If you are not technical at all, and don't really like playing with your device a lot, and flashing ROMs, to try and get a feature that the stock ROM is missing, then I totally advise against flashing anything. These "ROMS are completely safe and stable enough", but both lfaber06 and are I always trying to "improve" on them, no matter what revision that the ROM is at, as well as requests for new features. That really is why it may seem that people are flashing all the time, not really because of instability.
Since he and I are really the only two devs in here right now, there is not going to be a lot of choice in ROMs and since this phone is still fairly new, everything is still "new" and in beta/alpha. Since you are coming from the iphone, and flashing ROMs is not really something that you do, I say you wait until you find something you really want that is not available in the stock ROM, and has been put into one the ROMs available here, then try flashing that. Until then just hang tight for a while. There are plenty of hacks that can be done to the stock ROM, to fix things, and make that better at this time. Also take some time to learn a little about android and flashing and how it all works, not intimately, or on a very technical level, but that might save your "you know what", if you have an issue during a flash or while running an unfamiliar ROM.
Thank you VERY much. That was the answer I was looking for. I am technical savy, just haven't done much with android so far. I am one that likes to tinker and get the most out of any of my electronics.
Hi guys sorry for the several topics in my subject line but there are several questions that I have.
So I just signed up because I'm a bit confused and I'm quite new to the scene. I actually posted this on another forum which I'm already a member of, but I felt it would be better posting here since this is obviously more specialised.
After reading the rules, I've realised that it's quite hard to do a search for existing topics with my questions. I've already tried to do individual searches on each topic though, with varying success.
I've just rooted my Nexus S (i9023, AUS version) for the first time simply because I wanted to be able to use DroidWall (to only allow certain apps to use data).
1) If I manually update to ICS, will I lose root?
2) Does installing a custom ROM cause you to lose all your data? - I've done some searching on this and it seems to depend. Some do and some don't. I don't quite get it though.
3) Kernels - seem to control battery life and how the operating system runs. This slightly confuses me because it makes me think, what affects battery life more: the kernel or the ROM?
4) Most people like to overclock their phones in the interest of power. Would it be reasonable to underclock it in the interest of battery life? Sometimes I don't think I really need 1GHz.
5) It seems like the OTA for ICS for i9023 has not been released yet but has been for i9020?
I'm trying to find the best 2.3.6 Custom ROM from here but none of these are 2.3.6 based! All of them are 2.3.4 or older. I'm hesitant upgrading to ICS for three reasons:
1) Hasn't been released OTA officially
2) Worried of app compatibility
3) Worried of shorter battery life
For these reasons, I'm looking for a 2.3.6 based custom ROM otherwise I'd be happy to look at ICS custom ROMs.
None of the ICS ROMs seem to have any distinctive features about them, especially after watching the video reviews. It's all pretty much "it's a great ROM that doesn't lag when browsing the web and it's fast". Nothing really distinguishes one from another.
Sorry for the mildly long post, but I'd rather ask as many questions as I can at a time rather than making a couple of threads for each. Hope I can get some help =)
Thanks in advance!
I bought 9023 in hk. Upgraded to ics by ota.
If you want, you may do it manually. Flash the rom by yourself. Ota is no longer available. Check it out at nexusshack.com
I don't have battery problem. But don't know why.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
xdaillum said:
Hi guys sorry for the several topics in my subject line but there are several questions that I have.
So I just signed up because I'm a bit confused and I'm quite new to the scene. I actually posted this on another forum which I'm already a member of, but I felt it would be better posting here since this is obviously more specialised.
After reading the rules, I've realised that it's quite hard to do a search for existing topics with my questions. I've already tried to do individual searches on each topic though, with varying success.
I've just rooted my Nexus S (i9023, AUS version) for the first time simply because I wanted to be able to use DroidWall (to only allow certain apps to use data).
1) If I manually update to ICS, will I lose root?
If it is the update you probably will (not 100% sure), if it is the full OTA you certainly will. But it is not a major issue either way, and i would actually recommend backing up with TB (AND a Nandroid), wiping everything and then installing the Full OTA ROM and just root again, then restore your backup.
2) Does installing a custom ROM cause you to lose all your data? - I've done some searching on this and it seems to depend. Some do and some don't. I don't quite get it though.
They will generally lose any system data, apps, modifications, etc. Titanium Backup will copy over most of it anyway, particularly apps and their settings/data. Keep in mind that you should always have a CWM backup (Nandroid) ready in case something goes wrong.
3) Kernels - seem to control battery life and how the operating system runs. This slightly confuses me because it makes me think, what affects battery life more: the kernel or the ROM?
Both. ROMs can do more or different functions which can cause battery drain. Kernels allow you to change your own settings (most of the time) to actually balance performance and drain. I would say at the moment with ICS, the kernel and the settings you give it is the biggest contributor.
4) Most people like to overclock their phones in the interest of power. Would it be reasonable to underclock it in the interest of battery life? Sometimes I don't think I really need 1GHz.
That is correct. Many people can get the same speed with a lower voltage, lowering battery drain. Others also use something called "LiveOC" and increase the clocks by 10% (or more), changing the bus speed and giving similar speeds to 1000mhz at only 880mhz, again saving power. Just remember every CPU batch has different variations - some can undervolt and overclock like crazy, whereas some struggle with a 5% increase.
5) It seems like the OTA for ICS for i9023 has not been released yet but has been for i9020?
The i9023 and i9020T has been released. The i9020A has not, and the same with the Nexus S 4G (D720 i believe). It sometimes doesnt show up though. Either try a manual command which i can't remember in the dialpad or just update manually (manually is best ).
I'm trying to find the best 2.3.6 Custom ROM from here but none of these are 2.3.6 based! All of them are 2.3.4 or older. I'm hesitant upgrading to ICS for three reasons:
1) Hasn't been released OTA officially
2) Worried of app compatibility
3) Worried of shorter battery life
For these reasons, I'm looking for a 2.3.6 based custom ROM otherwise I'd be happy to look at ICS custom ROMs.
None of the ICS ROMs seem to have any distinctive features about them, especially after watching the video reviews. It's all pretty much "it's a great ROM that doesn't lag when browsing the web and it's fast". Nothing really distinguishes one from another.
Sorry for the mildly long post, but I'd rather ask as many questions as I can at a time rather than making a couple of threads for each. Hope I can get some help =)
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lots of words, i'm getting a little confused up there. Anyway, if you are rooted (and i assume your bootloader is unlocked), there is nothing to worry about as long as you backup. I personally love ICS and have no issue with it, as do many others. A minority of people however tend to have some problems, whether its battery or force closes. My experience so far has been that a proper wipe fixes most of these anyway.
ICS is still new. Once Cyanogenmod 9 is officially released i'm sure we'll see much more variety than the same look and feel, as alot is based off their code. And also, practically no phones have ICS yet. I've not found app compatibility a problem though, i think the main gripe is viber (which should work soon).
I hope this can help you, just let us know if there is anything else you're after. Also, there is a TON of information around the site (and Nexus S forums in particular). A good amount of reading and going through a couple of pages of some of these threads can go a long way. That is why you came here after all, isn't it?
I got the OTA for ICS back around 20th Dec 2011, but I chose not to update it because I was going to be away from a computer for a few days and had no backup phone. When I wanted to update it a few days later, the update had disappeared from my phone so I looked it up online. Apparently the OTA disappeared for Nexus S's due to some bugs or incompatibility issues. I've never seen the update come up on my phone since. Even when I go to Settings->About phone->System update, it says "your system is up to date". So I've always been under the impression that ICS for Nexus S (at least for my variant, i9023) has never been re-released to us OTA.
Harbb, thanks for your answers. The only one I'm not so sure about is the underclocking one. It seems a little beyond me in terms of technicality. I am definitely interested in doing it though. Would you be able to tell me if adjusting clock speed requires an app?
I am rooted and bootloader is unlocked (I thought you could only root if bootloader was unlocked?).
So does that mean all these custom ROMs around at the moment are mostly based around Cyanogenmod, which is why they're very similar? As I was saying, I was looking at getting a custom ROM installed and noticed most of them are ICS custom ROMs, and the video reviews all say "this ROM is fast and does not lag when web browsing. It's a great ROM and it's fast and smooth."
The custom ROMs just don't seem to be "promoted" too well because I can't see what makes one better than the other, or what features of one custom ROM are intended to be the standout ones.
I notice you (Harbb) are using Stock ICS 4.0.3 (according to your sig) - so you are not using a custom ROM? Am I able to install a custom ICS ROM without first installing ICS? I am still running 2.3.6 at this point.
Viber does not work at the moment? That's not too bad. I can live with that.
I've done quite a bit of reading so far. It has certainly helped, but still a long way to go, but thanks for giving me a great start!
I will start backing up my apps using TB and CWM (Nandroid)!
xdaillum said:
I will start backing up my apps using TB and CWM (Nandroid)!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best line i've read in days
I have tried several custom ROMs once they started surfacing but i didn't feel like they gave me anything special enough to switch to right now and Stock is setup and running very nicely. Stock ICS colours are fine and other apps now can provide Notifications Widgets. I havn't noticed any particular differences in speed either.
Brainmasters ICS tweaks, custom kernel and Flavours of ICS runs beautifully. The OTA varies with where it shows up. To force a check, type this in dialer: *#*#checkin#*#* [AKA, *#*#2432546#*#* ]
If you are rooted it won't work anyway. Just update manually. There is no need to currently on ICS to flash custom ICS ROMs. I would advise that when going from GB to ICS though (and often between some custom ROMs) that you go into CWM and do a factory/data wipe and format /system. After backing up of course.
At the moment most are not based on CM9, however several do use bits and pieces of code (ie. notification power widgets) from it. Not sure why most ROM descriptions are the same
First thing i'd consider is getting a custom kernel, and then the NSTools app (market). Lots of stuff to mess around with and full control of the CPU (governors, IO, overclocking, undervolting, etc).
Harbb said:
Best line i've read in days
I have tried several custom ROMs once they started surfacing but i didn't feel like they gave me anything special enough to switch to right now and Stock is setup and running very nicely.
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Click to collapse
agree with u. for 4.0.3, stock is my favorite, sad to say that.
for 4.0.4, while stock for NS not available, IMM26 ROM ported from NS4G seems good, if you like the stock rom feel.
Hmm I bricked my phone.
I've done the Nandroid and Titanium Backup and have it sitting on my computer ready once I recover this damn thing. Following the backups, I attempted to manually update to ICS with the zip file on this page: http://www.androidcentral.com/how-manually-update-your-gsm-nexus-s-ice-cream-sandwich
Now I'm following these two threads to try and recover the phone:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1397393
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1396056
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=20382688&postcount=16
Hopefully I will get this back up and working. I'm still confused as to why it got bricked though. Updated via clockworkmod "update from sdcard" and then rebooted system. After that, it just bricked. Can't get any lights to come up on the device whatsoever. Plugging it in to computer, wall charger, pressing all the buttons, taking the battery out and putting it back in.
Odd. Best of luck getting it working, i'm sure the resurrector will work for you so don't stress too much. That's the right file so i'll probably just put the issue on a bad flash or bad download (wise to hash check before flashing). At this point i'd say it's wise when you get it working again, just flash the Full OTA file, and do a wipe of /data, /cache, /system and /boot beforehand.
Sad to hear about your troubles buddy.
So it looks like everything worked out for me. I managed to restore my phone with the help of the threads above. I have to admit though, the guides given on this forum aren't too "complete" - there's always a step or two missing from the guide that the reader has to figure out themselves. And not all the files are provided in the topics either! I'm also kind of concerned why it seems so many people ended up bricking their phone like that. Quite concerning.
In the end, I managed to reflash the stock ICS ROM for i9023 Nexus S which I found in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1445635
So I scrapped the one that I downloaded initially from Android Central. The difference in size was surprisingly roughly 30MB (160MB instead of the 130MB Android Central one).
I'm just using stock ICS, but rooted. Downloaded a few apps which require root, but haven't tried adding any mods or kernels. I might look into that later. But it seems like with 4.0.4 coming out, there might be some interesting new additions!
Thanks for all your help!!
Did you flash this ics from stock recovery?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Congratulations on resurrecting it! Are you guys saying that there is a risk of bricking a phone, while installing official update? I did a manual update, 3 weeks ago, unrooted, and ICS has been nothing but amazing for me.
I have a question. In case, I ever brick my I9023 (hope not).
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=20382688&postcount=16
This post states that I must be running Ubuntu on my PC. Does that mean I can't use Windows? And if I must use Linux, can I just do it with Wubi, or with Online Server?
i have got a samsung omnia7 and was thinking about using the sammy rainbow custom rom, what are the pro's and cons doing this?
atm i have interop unlocked it but as i am still under warranty was curious of the effects.
advice would be grateful
It varies heavily ROM to ROM. However, there are a few common things.
Advantages:
More device control. With the policy system disabled, you can modify almost anything.
More homebrew apps, and more powerful ones (things like bazaar).
Native homebrew apps and ported WinMo apps.
Install XAPs directly (such as from IE), instead of using a PC.
If you find a bug, you can directly talk to the devs about fixing it (or possibly fix it yourself).
You may get updates before your carrier would provide them normally.
Disadvantages:
Higher risk of bugs since the ROMs get a lot less testing than official ones.
Updates may come later because you have to wait for a custom packaging of the update.
Not all custom ROMs are updatable; you might need to replace it with a new version which means you'll lose all your data.
Turning off the policy system increases your risk of malware if you arent' careful what you install.
Custom ROMs may have malware built in (not saying any of them do, but it's a risk).
Currently, I'd suggest waiting a little while to see where the Samsung ROM scene goes, what bugs are found and how quickly they're fixed, what features are available and how useful they are. However, it's pretty much always possible to go back to a stock ROM (unless you somehow really badly mess up your phone) so if you want to experiment or be an early adopter, go ahead. Otherwise, I think it'll be pretty clear what ROMs are good and where the custom ROM scene is going (support- and feature-wise) within a month or so.
so i would be safer to wait and see what the dev of the roms is going to do in the case of bugs.
thanks
That's my take. Note that I'm a dev working very hard on hacks that works with stock ROMs though - somebody who spends their time developing custom ROMs may well give completley different advice. There are certainly lots of advantages to going with custom ROMs, even at this relatively early point (it helps that a lot of the experience from HTC custom WP7 ROMs carries over to Samsung ROMs as well).
it seems as though the custom roms for omnia 7 are coming on leaps and bounds, what with MIRO's ROM http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1499102
there seems to be very little on the way of bugs with his atm so i think i will give that one a shot. i know i am new at this but if you don't ask then you never find out things right
thanks for your advice and input....much appreciated