Related
New Users and folks New to Android:
First let me say, "Been there. Still working on it!" But on to some practical suggestions and comments:
1. If you are new to all this, don't try to move too fast. Read these forums and you will find many messages saying "I don't know what I am doing, but I just finished doing it all and my tablet looks dead! Help?!" If you are new to all this, read these forums for a good while and make sure you understand before you leap. Definition: A "good while" is not minutes to an an hours -- how about a day for experienced Android people and a bunch more for the rest of us.
2. Learn the factory setup first. I can understand some of the early adopters moving too fast because the early gtabs had a mess for software and some of it worked really poorly. But whatever you buy now should flash to OTA (Over the Air Update) 3389 fairly quickly, and it is usable. You can use it to find out where all the settings, bells and whistles are to get what you want done.
3. Go a step at a time. When building computers or working with software, it is always better to work with and prove something before introducing complications. If you are burning a ROM (say CWM -- ClockWorkMod -- for example), don't just install it and move on. When you get it installed, learn it and test the functions and see what is there to be used -- before moving on. If it's not working right or you don't undestand it, don't move ahead -- look for answers or fixes.
4. Read the manual. Learn what you can from the paper and online manuals. There is a Vega site -- I have a thread posted in "Development Forum" which tells where the manual for the Vega tablet it and it does a fair job of introducing the Vegan ROM look and stock features. Viewsonic's G-Tablet site also has this kind of info. And the devs here have put together countless FAQs, guidelines, etc........
5. When things don't go right, take a breath and don't panic. I have had G-tabs for over a month now and I don't honestly know of any that were totally bricked. (I know many have been given up on and sold or returned or ???). I would say that by now most all the iterations of G-Tab failures that can happened have turned up in these Forums. Search and find answers. Ask questions about what you don't understand about the fixes. Then fix it.
6. REMEMBER WHAT THIS PLACE IS!!!! I have read any number of folks who have come here, messed up their tablet and then gotten angry with someone (or all of us) here about it. Remember that this is a place where private individuals are developing alternatives that are on the bleeding edge and sometimes even beyond!! If you are using anything except stock here, you have to assume the risk that all of us assume in trying to do something neat!
Don't fuss. Ask for help.
This post probably has been too long. But I have been developing hardware and software (not Android) since 1979 and I know a bunch about making mistakes!!! Also about preventing mistakes.
I hope the principles I suggest above will help you keep it together and accomplish something great!
Rev
Have you been spying on me?
This describes my situation exactly and I appreciate your input and advice.
I've never used Android, don't even own a smart phone. I'm in the situation of not knowing what I don't know, if that makes sense.
I managed to accidentally add some icons to the home screen and it took me a day and a half to figure out how to remove them.
I've been hesitant to try to make any changes but I realized that I've only been using the tablet to play Angry Birds and do some light surfing. The gtab has so much potential and I have barely scratched the surface.
I will be taking the plunge this weekend with some of the mods that are available, but as you've suggested I need to keep reading. Lots of reading.
Thanks again for the tips,
Neudle
Another thing I would emphasize is when doing something like flashing recovery or loading a new ROM make sure you follow all the instructions. I've had more than one friend come to me asking for help with their phone because they skipped a few steps when flashing a ROM ("Oh, well that didn't seem important so I didn't do it"). I can so far say that with my Nexus One and my Gtab I have never had an issue when I followed the exact steps for flashing/installing.
Also, if something does go wrong, don't go into full out panic, quite often there is a way to recover and a bit of searching or asking nicely for help will have you back up and running. Don't forget, backups are your friend. Before doing anything substantial I always back up my apps and data with Titanium Backup then boot into recovery and do a Nandroid backup.
Different people move at different speeds.
I am brand new to android, brand new to tablets.
Have had this a week.
Days 1-3 "yea ok this 3389 update works"
DAYS 4-5 "LOVE this peformance pack and fixed market"
DAY 6 "lets try vegan 5.1" followed by "I bricked it into a boot loop and none of the fixes worked. Can i take it back" followed by "nv flash is AWESOME, i can recover my gtab from ANY screw up!!!!!
DAY 7 VEGAN 5.1 INSTALLED (and invented my own modified way of flashing/recovery that is not exactly the same as the totorial why identifying which of the steps CANT BE skipped/Altered (WHAT i refer to as the "7-10"))
DAY 8 WHY wont vegan 5.1 acknowledge my new micro sdcard i bought today and do i need to format this or something?
By the way feel free to answer my day 8 issue before i start a new thread.
#8 MicroSd Card
The GTab calls internal storage sdcard and any microsd/microsdhc cards you install sdcard2. Look in your file directory under /sdcard2 or /mnt/sdcard2 and you will see your microsd card. You don't need to format the card first.
I just read a post by roebeet (well known dev who put together the TNT Lite ROMS) and something he said made enough sense to me that I thing everyone needs to hear it.
If you are going to flash and try everything you find on this site -- you run a real risk have having problems. Everything you flash adds, changes and deletes stuff from your tablet and some of that gets carried over from ROM to ROM to program.
Just because you partition/erase/delete/overwrite does not mean your tablet content is destroyed. There are a bunch of partitions on your tablet (12?) and some are preserved and some are modified depending on what you do.
So am I saying "Don't mod you G-Tablet" or "Don't try out new stuff." NO.
1. Make real sure you know what you are doing. Too many people just rush ahead and wind up with real problems.
2. Read directions and read all the posts about others who have done the same thing you want to do.
3. When you are making changes, do them one at a time and make sure it's working right before moving on. When you change a bunch of stuff it's hard to tell what the problem/problems is and where it came from.
4. IMHO, too many people see the modding as a game and then they get mad at the dev or people who are trying to help them -- when all the time it was their own fault!
I think it would even be a good idea if someone knowledgeable could help us see if we could put together a flash which would actually delete/erase what's on a
troubled tab so it could be rebuilt. Sorry, but I don't talk enough Android yet to do that.
Think about it.
Rev
butchconner said:
I think it would even be a good idea if someone knowledgeable could help us see if we could put together a flash which would actually delete/erase what's on a
troubled tab so it could be rebuilt.
Rev
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would recommend running a format zip before any reloading on a Gtab whether a new rom or the stock. Just like all the computers I work on for people the first thing I do is run a program to erase the hard drive to make sure nothing old can interfere with a new reload of the operating system
Calkulin has this format zip from his rom thread or you could use the other one from here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=974422
Start fresh don't just overwrite!
ale
Calkulin's Format all is awesome
Exactly. Calkulin's format all is a life saver. It is much cleaner and faster way than to do three or four steps to clean stuff out (Invariably one forgets one of the steps which causes all the problems).
I have used this file to solve many problems going from rom to rom... Good stuff.
[Q] Should I step back and use the format zip?
notsob2002 said:
I would recommend running a format zip before any reloading on a Gtab whether a new rom or the stock. Just like all the computers I work on for people the first thing I do is run a program to erase the hard drive to make sure nothing old can interfere with a new reload of the operating system
Calkulin has this format zip from his rom thread or you could use the other one from here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=974422
Start fresh don't just overwrite!
ale
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two days ago I reset my gtab to stock. I have the 3389 zip saved and installed that using clockwork. I also used clockwork and did the data wipe/factory reset right before actually applying the rom.
Loading the stock VS rom removes clockwork and after reboot it pulled the OTA update and currently running the 3588 version.
I did this in anticipation of the upcoming VS update. The tablet seems to be running fine and as I said it's able to find and apply OTA updates.
Would you still recommend running this format zip, and then re-apply the 3389 I have saved?
Thanks,
Neudle
** Would like to point out there is a comment in the referenced post concerning using this format zip..."So this is a "detox" program for our gtablet that we can choose to run prior to NVflash process. And this process should not be done unless absolutely necessary, right?" "Yes, exactly..."
Neudle,
If you were at 3389 and did 3588 via OTA, I would try my recovery. If it does not
come up with your old CWM, then it should be stock recovery and you should be
good to go.
If needed, you always have the option of manually loading recovery and the 3588 update.zip into /sdcard and flashing stock again.
Rev
butchconner said:
Neudle,
If you were at 3389 and did 3588 via OTA, I would try my recovery. If it does not
come up with your old CWM, then it should be stock recovery and you should be
good to go.
If needed, you always have the option of manually loading recovery and the 3588 update.zip into /sdcard and flashing stock again.
Rev
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the response.
Actually I think my tablet is fine. Unless I'm really confused (which is certainly possible) 3389 was the update from late december/early january. The 3588 is the update that came up in like febuary. Isn't 3588 the most recent?
This isn't the first time I've reloaded the stock rom and it seems it always over-writes/removes the clockworkmod.
I was simply more curious if you folks do feel it's always best to use the format.zip when swapping roms?
As I said, I'm simply prepping and anticipating the upcoming update from Viewsonic and not worried about clockworkmod for the time being. From what I've seen the update includes a recovery that looks similar.
Thanks again,
Neudle
I think the OP makes an excellent point for all us weekend tinkerers. The G-Tab is my first experience with an android device and although I have experience with rooting and flashing roms and kernals on another platform (WEBOS on my Palm pre), I have spent my first few weeks with this device just reading as much as I can on these forums before trying anything myself.
I was fortunate enough to get a great deal on this tab second hand from somebody who had already flashed it with Vegantab ( I believe 5.1.1). As it stands, it pretty much does everything I need it to do and there is no reason to break what alreday works...... except that I am a weekend tinkerer...... and I am thinking that I would like to try Calkulin's rom.
At the moment, I am not sure that it represent's an upgrade over what I have and I may wait for something gingerbread or honeycomb based that people report to have a signifigant benefit over Vegan 5.1.1...although I am sure I will convince myself differently at some point.
I know that I have CWM installed and that I can use this to clear up caches and personal info before flashing another ROM. Does Calkulin's format erase this? If so, does it need to be re-installed before putting on a new ROM? I am reading posts about people flashing back to stock and receiving updates before flashing a new rom. This completely confuses me as I don't understand the benefit unless, as the OP seems to indicate, there are bits that are left over from the old ROM when a new one is flashed. Is this desirable?
Sorry if I am asking so many questions in this thread. I know that there are bits and pieces of info scattered among many threads but some of it seems contradictory and some I am sure is outdated.
Can someone either outline or point me in the right direction to a step by step that outlines the most current and least likely way to brick upgrade from Vegan to Calkulin's ROM?
Thanks
butchconner said:
2. Read directions and read all the posts about others who have done the same thing you want to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's my problem. Where is the step by step, this is how you take a GTab you just bought, to ROM "XYZ" the correct way? There are lots of "how to"s scattered all over this forum, but no one sticky at the top that says "Here's a step by step". Right now, I'm reading through everything again, before I try and mod my tablet, and it's a mess. It would be nice is someone+moderator made a nice, straight forward LOCKED thread that is stuck, that explains it all. The FAQ isn't quite the information necessary (in my eyes).
I'm pretty technical (engineer by trade) and if it takes me a bit to figure out how to do something, the general n00b is going to screw something up.
Just my thoughts.
h3llphyre said:
Here's my problem. Where is the step by step, this is how you take a GTab you just bought, to ROM "XYZ" the correct way? There are lots of "how to"s scattered all over this forum, but no one sticky at the top that says "Here's a step by step". Right now, I'm reading through everything again, before I try and mod my tablet, and it's a mess. It would be nice is someone+moderator made a nice, straight forward LOCKED thread that is stuck, that explains it all. The FAQ isn't quite the information necessary (in my eyes).
I'm pretty technical (engineer by trade) and if it takes me a bit to figure out how to do something, the general n00b is going to screw something up.
Just my thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't found that to be the case at all. In fact, I've seen nothing but repetitive reinforcement of proper procedures from every knowledgeable source. If the ROM Creator says use clockworkmod to install then wipe data... well do it. If he/she says use standard recovery... well... This isn't rocket science. I've installed and tested every ROM listed here with no failures by following the included instructions. I can't believe that is an anomaly.
If you want to be truly successful, learn what each of these tools (clockworkmod, nvflash, etc.) does and more importantly what they do not do. When you educate yourself to their proper use you won't be finding yourself using a hammer when you need a screwdriver.
hotfire!,
I think that's one of the points I hoped to make in this thread.
I appreciate the "format" tips -- but I have not used it and none of the folks whose opinion I watch for have put their stamp of approval on it -- so my opinion of it is still
in the making. I will use it only cautiously until I have confidence it is good.
But as you have said, we do have a hodgepodge of stuff here. People try to do
too much too fast -- and others suggest stuff that doesn't need to be done.
For example -- if somethings crashes on my G-Tablet, I go back to a basic CWM/ROM combo that I know is good so I have a solid place to start and then rebuild. Takes a little longer, but I think it save me a lot of anquish.
So like a lot of others, I just help where I can. But I do try to be conservative and consistent making suggestions the will not "snow" the new or offend those who think
they know what they are doing.
And to everyone I suggest the wrong thing, OOOOPs, and apologies. To those who
help me an give others good help -- thank you.
Rev
K J Rad said:
I haven't found that to be the case at all. In fact, I've seen nothing but repetitive reinforcement of proper procedures from every knowledgeable source. If the ROM Creator says use clockworkmod to install then wipe data... well do it. If he/she says use standard recovery... well... This isn't rocket science. I've installed and tested every ROM listed here with no failures by following the included instructions. I can't believe that is an anomaly.
If you want to be truly successful, learn what each of these tools (clockworkmod, nvflash, etc.) does and more importantly what they do not do. When you educate yourself to their proper use you won't be finding yourself using a hammer when you need a screwdriver.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But therein lies the problem. There *is* a great thread on installing CWM and then ROMs using that. Step by step, it's fantastic. Installing a new kernel *is* found in some of the threads, but I wish that great thread with the CWM and ROM installation also had Kernel info.
Regardless of if you know how these tools work, it's nice to have a step by step to follow, just to ensure you're doing everything in order. I do it at work when I'm working with a new system (I write it myself) just to make sure I follow the same procedure every time. It helps when problems arise.
I'm just saying, for the n00bs, it would be nice to have a "one size fits all" thread. I was able to successfully install CWM and Vegan without a single problem, as I've been reading this forum for MONTHS, but I'm not a normal person (nor are most of the regulars here).
One thing I try to do, is demystify technology. Make it easy, explain it in simple ways while still being effective as describing what is going on, and then you don't get "stupid questions" later. Essentially, trying to run in the opposite direction that most Linux forums tend to be. Threads buried 2 years back have the info, everyone screams at the n00bs saying "USE THE SEARCH".
Love this forum, the people here are REALLY helpful, but there is room for improvement. That's all I'm saying.
h3llphyre said:
But therein lies the problem. There *is* a great thread on installing CWM and then ROMs using that. Step by step, it's fantastic. Installing a new kernel *is* found in some of the threads, but I wish that great thread with the CWM and ROM installation also had Kernel info.
Regardless of if you know how these tools work, it's nice to have a step by step to follow, just to ensure you're doing everything in order. I do it at work when I'm working with a new system (I write it myself) just to make sure I follow the same procedure every time. It helps when problems arise.
I'm just saying, for the n00bs, it would be nice to have a "one size fits all" thread. I was able to successfully install CWM and Vegan without a single problem, as I've been reading this forum for MONTHS, but I'm not a normal person (nor are most of the regulars here).
One thing I try to do, is demystify technology. Make it easy, explain it in simple ways while still being effective as describing what is going on, and then you don't get "stupid questions" later. Essentially, trying to run in the opposite direction that most Linux forums tend to be. Threads buried 2 years back have the info, everyone screams at the n00bs saying "USE THE SEARCH".
Love this forum, the people here are REALLY helpful, but there is room for improvement. That's all I'm saying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Short answer: Great idea! When will you have it ready? ;-)
Long answer...
I understand what you're saying. What I'm saying is that there isn't a one size fits all answer to this "problem" (certainly not since the addition of TwoTapsX). The step by step instructions for installing ROMs, kernels, other hacks, etc. exist in the threads that contain the product (and most of those are stickied) because they aren't always identical. One "Superpost" meant to encompass all of those instructions would grow to be much too large and include far too many logical branches to be effective when you take into account the individual caveats for each. However, the methods for installing many of the products is similar in most cases even if the tools are not identical. Understanding which tool to use and how it works is the key to a successful experience.
For example are the recent cases of problems with TwoTapsX (formerly TnTLite 5.0.x). The instructions in the thread clearly stated that the users should start from a clean Viewsonic ROM without CWM (very different from other ROMs). It even stated an nvflash might be necessary if you had any problems with the install (also not usually necessary with other ROMs). Still, the overwhelming majority of users that had problems had failed to follow the instructions correctly and were unprepared to do an nvflash. These were generally not people that were new to the process, either. In cases where they were, a simple search for the error message they were getting or the condition they were experiencing turned up an answer within the first two or threes responses and virtually all of them were addressed in the original instruction thread or another recent thread with a similar title.
Another example, I still see threads daily about someone recently installing VEGAnTab 5.11 and all of a sudden their media disappears from their sdcard. This is a well known and very well documented problem with a long used successful work around. It isn't a case where their particular installation went awry, it's a known issue with the ROM. How many of those issues would need to be addressed in the "Superpost" in order to be effective and yet not be cumbersome?
To complicate things further, we now have indications that the next official release may change recovery to be incompatible with previous methods. It's possible we'll see further forking of these processes based on the developers preference of recovery which would reinforce the need to customize instructions for a particular product.
Room for improvement? Sure. I just think education is better than hand holding. I always encouraged my engineers to learn more and develop their own processes because they might actually be better, cheaper, more efficient, than whatever we currently had. I understood that MY answer might not always be the best one and I preferred to empower my associates.
All that being said... I'm all for anything that improves the community and more importantly helps its members. If you feel that it would be helpful then feel free to put something together or team with a few others to produce a document to address the issues you've identified. I'll be more than happy to link people to it if it fills a need for them just as I have to others in previous threads ;-)
Modding
You know normally I just read and lurk around here, but I can't keep my mouth shut any longer.
**WARNING** Not that I expect anyone to notice because apparently half of you can't read or don't comprehend what you do read, but anything past this point is probably not contributing to the conversation in a constructive way and should be considered as me ranting.
I have had my tab since December and have flashed every single Rom found on this forum at one time or another and the problems I see people have just amaze me. It's amazing because 9 out of 10 times it's because they didn't bother to read/comprehend the darn instructions or they are to lazy to search/read/comprehend on how to fix it or start over.
I am by no means a rocket scientist/programmer/developer/modder myself but I can read something 3-4 times first to make sure I comprehend before I go off deliberately voiding the warranty on a $400 device. And if I break it? Guess What?? There are instructions for that to if people would bother to look. Granted the information can be scattered around but if you can't be bothered to search/read then you should probably not be using a android device.
Last thing and I'll shut up. The entitlement I see coming from alot of people really makes my blood boil. You are an early adopter of bleeding edge technology, there are going to be problems and alot of them! If you didn't do research on the tab before you bought it you have no right to complain. The devs are not paid except by an occasional donation. They do this on their own time with their own equipment for the community. THEY DO NOT OWE YOU A THING, AND YOU SHOULD WORSHIP THEM SINCE WE ALL GET TO BENEFIT FROM THEIR HARD WORK!!!
Be Contented....
After tried two ROMs (TnT and NI) and finally sticked to NI, am well contented and satisfied. I think being contented may less your problem...
K J Rad said:
Short answer: Great idea! When will you have it ready? ;-)
<Plus lots of other stuff you said>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As you can see from my post count, I'm historically a lurker. I've literally read every single thread in the GTab section since December. The problem for me, mostly came down to once I bought the device (I research stuff to death before I pull the trigger) and was ready to try a new ROM, it was information overload. There *is* a good thread about ROMs and CWM as I said, so I followed that, after reading it 6 times to ensure there were no gotchas.
I want to try out Pershoot's kernel, but I don't feel like I've read the procedure enough times to feel confident I'll be able to do it without having to fix something I broke. So, I'll read it a few dozen times, research the tools used, and finally get to it.
End of the day, I'll probably ask the person who did the ROM thread if they wouldn't mind added text that I've put together for the Kernels (as a supplement to what he did). I do want to give back to the community.
Also, you'll hopefully be seeing some hardware mods coming soon from me, fully documented. My true love is hardware, so I'll leave the ROMs and Kernels to the software guys, and focus on improvements on the physical side of things.
Thanks for keeping the conversation friendly. Always great to hear other people's opinions on matters.
Hardware mods would be VERY cool. Just remember to put something in the thread about how to talk your wife into letting you replace the smoldering mess on the kitchen table so I'll be covered... ;-)
h3llphyre said:
Also, you'll hopefully be seeing some hardware mods coming soon from me, fully documented. My true love is hardware, so I'll leave the ROMs and Kernels to the software guys, and focus on improvements on the physical side of things.
Thanks for keeping the conversation friendly. Always great to hear other people's opinions on matters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I speak for everyone here when I say "Bring them on!"
2 cents to add
I have worked in various areas of IT for over 30 years. Unfortunately android has not been one of them but the basic ideas are always the same. As one reader noted (with a little bit of steam coming from his ears) no one owes you anything here. You aren't paying and you're pretty lucky to have so many talented people making their efforts available to you. I, for one, am very appreciative. I do see the point however about documentation. I have been slowly (and painfully) coming up to speed on the various facets of this g-tab experience. What I find most frustrating is not the lack of directions (there are plenty if you look) or even responses (Clemsyn responded to my request for kernel updating info) but the lack of basic information. I recognize a linux type structure when I snoop around the file system. What is the relation of the ROMS to that? What exactly does clockwork do and where does it live? When you "clear caches" what exactly are you clearing? etc. I'm not expecting answers to these questions here but I think that is the problem a lot of us "caught in the middle guys" have. Sure, we can follow directions and usually everything works just the way it is supposed to but we don't know WHY. If you just blindly follow directions that makes you a "user" not an "admin" and who wants to be a user???? ha-ha What I really want to know is how/where do the more experienced people here (including devs) get their base information to know how to tinker with kernels, ROMS, etc? Where is the G-Tab Development for Dummies book hiding????
enigmas 0456,
You will find that lack of documentation is the hallmark of Android -- not just
here but everywhere. Probably more info here than most places.
Rev
I'm not into the cell phone scene, so I don't know about "rooting" there -- but with the G-Tablet it's no big deal.
First, with the G-Tablet all you have to do is D/L (from a market or sideload) the
program "z4root". After installing z4root you touch on button to root the tablet
permanently. Done.
Second, if you do go on and mod your tablet using the ROMs put out by our devs, you will find most of them come with "root" installed.
And....the main thing I have observed root does for you when getting started
with the G-Tablet is that it lets you run "Root Explorer", a good file management program -- and "Titanium Backup", a good backup too. (Others many prefer other tools besides these. I just mention them because lots of folks use them here.)
I've read comments from several folks fretting over rooting and just thought I should say it's no big deal.
Rev
Seems like the G-tab is much easier to Root compared to HTC G2 which needed ADB and other tweaks to get it to work. Even then it took me 2 hours to get root access, Load CM 7 nightly build, Customize device with apps and tinker. So i would imagine the G-tab will take 1hr-1.5hr to do everything including customizing and downloading apps and such. It is nice to see members with experience putting up new threads and such with information on how to root and load roms. I think if someone has some good links and guides that would help the community a-lot and have a safe starting point for all instead of having 10,000 new bricked G-tabs added to the community.
Is it just me or does every thread here get closed "before it gets out of hand" ?
I have been on this forum for years, along with hundreds of other and I have never seen a thread where the mods are this controlling and close threads like it is going out of style.
faiz23,
Thanks for the post. It confirms that a phone root is what I thought it would be!
I am happy to help folks, but I have to tell you I will be among the contingent telling
new folks to move slow, be cautious, read and study until you understand, ask
questions, and make good decisions. Did I mention read and study and understand?
I don't know of anyone who has absolutely bricked their G-Tab (there may be one or two, but I don't know anything about them). But I sure know of a pile of people who
have sweated blood and wanted to pound their head with bricks after messing one up
and having to look at their $400 useless technology for a while.
IMHO, too many people move too fast -- and if enough people mess up it makes it
really hard for the "helper" folks on the forum to keep everyone up.
Good luck. Oh, and did I mention read and research and study until you understand?!
Rev
darkrift,
Just read the forums and you will see why things are a little tight.
One of our devs, roebeet, brought out a new ROM based on what we call UAT 3991 (an update that hasn't been published). It has a new generation of software in it (not
Honeycomb) that changes some of the key software. IF YOU DON'T READ AND UNDERSTAND AND DO THE INSTALL RIGHT, IT WILL SEMI-BRICK YOUR G-TABLET AND
REQUIRE ADVANCED MEASURES TO RECOVER.
A lot of people tried the new update and a pile of folks semi-bricked the tablets. I am reasonably experienced and in spite of doing everything "right" my test tablet started
boot looping and I had to do an advanced recovery. All the ROMS, software, mods, etc. you do "can" have a cumulative effect on future mods -- so the more you play the
more it increases the risk.
Lot of the folks semi-bricked because they didn't do it right, and it has really made it hard to get everyone fixed and keep everybody running.
So I think everyone that cares about the G-Tablet here on the forums is making an effort to upgrade docs, keep things from getting too complicated, encourage folks to
be cautious -- and in general provide better stuff to work with.
We all want to play and have fun. It's keeping it from NOT being fun that's the problem. Read and read and read and you will understand.
My opinion, anyhow.
Rev
P. S. -- Sorry if it sounds like I'm lecturing you. Didn't mean to -- it just
goes with my vocation. With your experience I know you will understand.
if you are doing a wipe and the roms are packaged properly, there should be no cumulative effect. are the devs building partial roms that stack on top of the current roms instead of releasing full self contained images? something doesnt sound right about that, but regardless.... rom flashing is risky, to the flasher. if they cant take the risk, that is their problem. doesnt mean we need to be closing threads where users are talking calmly because we are scared they might e-riot at any time.
darkrift,
I don't think it's the devs fault. Their ROMs are good.
The best way I know to say it is that when you format, erase/delete, recover, etc. you cannot count on everything being blanked. There are 12 partitions in the G-Tablet and they don't all get changed all the time -- say loading a ROM.
I NVFlashed once to fix a problem and loaded and update afterward and still wound up with files in memory left over from the pre-problem setup!
Only in the last couple of weeks have a couple of folks been addressing the "format" issue (from the standpoint of a clean wipe) and while I'm reading and learning, I haven't had time thorougly follow what they are doing yet.
As for closing, I understand what you are saying, but I also understand where the moderators are coming from too.
Rev
Darkrift said:
if you are doing a wipe and the roms are packaged properly, there should be no cumulative effect. are the devs building partial roms that stack on top of the current roms instead of releasing full self contained images? something doesnt sound right about that, but regardless.... rom flashing is risky, to the flasher. if they cant take the risk, that is their problem. doesnt mean we need to be closing threads where users are talking calmly because we are scared they might e-riot at any time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The term "cumulative effect" may be a bit misleading. However, some of us have experienced issues with the partitioning of the internal sdcard that we believe may be related to heavy modding. Over time we'll start to get unexplained errors reading and writing to user spaces that should be relatively untouched by the flashing process. Repartitioning usually resolves the issues. We've also seen situations where experienced modders have followed directions precisely and still ended up with unexpected results. Subsequent attempts result may result in success or failure in what seems to be random selection. This is usually seen on devices that have been previously modded but it's difficult to say to what degree since no one has really been able to collect enough data to be useful but it is certainly in large enough numbers to have been a concern for some.
I may be imagining it, but it seems like there's a steady increase of "help, I bricked my gtab" threads as people are starting to receive their woot's gtabs. Please stop and think. Have you ever done something like modding an android device before? Is it worth it?
If it ain't broken, don't try to fix it.
I currently got 2 gtabs. One I have modded the hell out of and the other I'm keeping the stock rom. What you can do is go to settings and set it to classic. The annoying weather TnT thing will go away and your gtab will work just fine. Very fast. Very sexy. Love you long time.
I beg you, please help yourself and consider just staying with the classic stock rom. I've been playing with it and I see nothing wrong with it. Works wonderfully.
One user on here came and said when he first started playing with the gtab in office depot he was expecting the worst screen ever because of all the negative reviews about the screen. But to his surprise, it turned out to be very pleasant. Why? Because people on the internet like to exaggerate.
And in this case, people really did exaggerate the unusability of the stock rom. If you're not doing aerobics and yoga with the gtab, you won't notice it. Please do yourself (and us all) a favor by not simply plunging into modding as soon as your gtab arrives. Play with the stock rom first. Make sure you set it to classic. Give it a couple days before you decide to whether put a custom rom on there or not.
Please think about what I just said. Amen.
+1 good advice!!!!!!
x2. And please read up on things like adb and nvflash BEFORE you you start modding. Imo, anyone modding their device should have these tools handy, in advance.
"adb", for example, is almost a standard requirement in other Android phone forums. But for some reason it's not stressed here - I am guilty of that as well. I think that, if you are taking the risk (and it IS a risk) to mod your device, you should have the tools to save yourself from yourself. There's a nice writeup on nvflash that I posted (and "Rev" wrote) and adb instructions are all over the place, not just here.
Thanks!
i dont understand where all the problems come from. if you do it just like the guide tells you, shouldnt it work? i havent dont it myself but ive read and reread the guides. arent they all exactly the same out of the box if there ota version is the same? is it people are just not following directions? cause its seems pretty simple to me even though i havent done it before.im planning on doing it and if i follow the directions exactly and it doesnt work, im just gonna throw it out the window.
Also, I forgot to add.
I work in a research lab. Even though I'm an engineer, I'm really the acting tech guy. As a side job, occasionally I make house calls to fix people's computer problems.
It is my experience that not-so tech savy people always manage to find problems that us techies would never find. Not only that, not-so tech savy people most of the time can't remember what they did and can't verbalize what they did. This makes it 100x harder on us techies.
You see, there are unspoken rules in the world of tech. For example, dealing with system files is risky. Deleting them is bad. Things like that. Not-so tech savy people don't know these rules and so they just stumble all over the place finding and creating problems that the tech people would never find.
What I just said above means that when you find (or create) a problem and you didn't follow the proper procedures, you're not always going to find someone that knows a solution. Why? Because the rest of us never dared to go down that dark narrow alley that you decided to run into. We don't know what's in there. And if you manage to find a 3 headed troll, how are we to know what to do since we've never been down that alley?
Take it for what it's worth. If I haven't detered you, at least have adb and nvflash ready. And make sure you know what you're doing with those.
fridge011 said:
i dont understand where all the problems come from. if you do it just like the guide tells you, shouldnt it work? i havent dont it myself but ive read and reread the guides. arent they all exactly the same out of the box if there ota version is the same? is it people are just not following directions? cause its seems pretty simple to me even though i havent done it before.im planning on doing it and if i follow the directions exactly and it doesnt work, im just gonna throw it out the window.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(1) Not-so tech savy people like to take short cuts for whatever reason. They also sometimes skip important steps in a procedure even though it's right there in front of them. At least one wooter has already bricked his gtab without backing up.
(2) No, they're not all exactly the same out of the box. Nothing is ever all exactly the same out of the box.
(3) Everything seems simple to me, too. But according to my experience, what seems simple to someone with experience isn't always simple to everyone else.
Just last week, I went to a woman's house to help her with computer problems. She made it sound like life and death on the phone. The only reason I tolerate her is because she might be my in law one day. Anyway, it turned out that the problem was she thought the monitor was the computer. We have explained to her over and over that it's only the monitor and that the box sitting below is the computer. Seems silly to us, but there it is.
fridge011 said:
i dont understand where all the problems come from. if you do it just like the guide tells you, shouldnt it work? i havent dont it myself but ive read and reread the guides. arent they all exactly the same out of the box if there ota version is the same? is it people are just not following directions? cause its seems pretty simple to me even though i havent done it before.im planning on doing it and if i follow the directions exactly and it doesnt work, im just gonna throw it out the window.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My transition from stock 3588 to tnt lite 5 now twotapsx went smooth as butter however some devices moving from other mods back down to 3588 and then to twotapsx had problems!!! The biggest issue was a confusion on using clockwork mod recovery as those who tried it with the ttx mostly found themselves semi-bricked which led to a literal borkathon . Most issues were from user error but on some cases there were oddball problems that just popped up!! So my point is that in Modding your tablets to anything other than stock you are risking a BORK but if you follow directions and have the proper backouts tools ready such as nvflash and adb you should be ok.
goodintentions said:
(1) Not-so tech savy people like to take short cuts for whatever reason. They also sometimes skip important steps in a procedure even though it's right there in front of them. At least one wooter has already bricked his gtab without backing up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+100 on this one. I have a friend that I had to help with rooting her evo and Gtab, and had to ask her every step she took to make sure she actually took them. Luckily she learned early on to use Nandroid and keep a backup of the stock rom and any working roms before you switch to another one.
fridge,
I've skipped posts after yours to answer you, so I apologize if I duplicate something.
YES, if you do everything right bad things CAN happen:
1. Android is not a well-documented operating system and something you just "think" your doing it right.
2. The G-Tablet can be cranky. Unexpected things happen. The other day my pristine, perfect tab
was shut down properly. Next time I turned it on I had huge
"android.process.acore" errors and I had to fix it.
3. I don't know of anyone who has revealed themselves on this forum that thoroughly
understands the structure of the OS software on the G-Tablet. Read all the posts
on boot.img and partition structure. It really would help us all if we knew more.
4. There are a lot of good people who "help" others on this forum Most give good
advice most of the time -- but those of us that are human make mistakes once in a while.
And honestly, some helpers may not give good advice -- don't do it if you don't
understand and feel good about it.
5. Some people don't abide by good IT practices. I saw someone trying to get help
the other day that had barely gotten started with the G-Tab and already had CWM and had
tried three or four ROMS and other related software -- and had a soft-brick!
People need to move slow and check things out more carefully.
6. And some of the software posted here for your use may not even work right. I know a
couple of programs I have seen associated with lots of crashes. If a program
is listed in the threads with lots of crashes around it -- you better be careful!
I could go on for a long while further. If you REALLY read the forum and what's going
on instead of just looking for things to install, you will see these patterns.
Rev
Agreed completely with the intention of this post but I don't think the increase of people messing theirs up is due to woot just yet. I ordered one from the woot sale and i am fairly sure that it hasn't even shipped yet, the email said within 5 days. They aren't the fastest at shipping stuff.
It's probably more so just due to the dropping price in general.
People who have not done any moding of other android devices before should absoltely so slow and wait on loading whole roms until they get familiar with it and read up a lot and do their homework otherwise they will risk breaking their device.
Sent from my ACS frozen Epic
May or may not be Wooters but several *have* posted that they have recieved them.
Adding one small thing I've learned over the years: sometimes an install/upgrade/mod just doesn't take the first time. Or the second. Or the third. Patience is a key to sucess in these things. If it doesn't work the first time, come back the next day and try it again.
Repeating again: READ the forums and all the old threads. Go back and read them again.
And if you don't do backups, I have no pity for you.
iamchocho said:
Agreed completely with the intention of this post but I don't think the increase of people messing theirs up is due to woot just yet. I ordered one from the woot sale and i am fairly sure that it hasn't even shipped yet, the email said within 5 days. They aren't the fastest at shipping stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, mine from woot is due to arrive tomorrow. May be that's because I ordered mine 10 minutes after midnight.
But regardless, people need to think twice before deciding to take the plunge.
Edit.
And I'm just cranky because I just found out this morning I've been a victim of credit card fraud. Someone's been doing a lot of shopping online with my credit card. Mostly games, so I'm guessing it's some spoiled brat somewhere who got lucky at hitting random numbers and got mine.
roebeet said:
x2. And please read up on things like adb and nvflash BEFORE you you start modding. Imo, anyone modding their device should have these tools handy, in advance.
"adb", for example, is almost a standard requirement in other Android phone forums. But for some reason it's not stressed here - I am guilty of that as well. I think that, if you are taking the risk (and it IS a risk) to mod your device, you should have the tools to save yourself from yourself. There's a nice writeup on nvflash that I posted (and "The Rev" wrote) and adb instructions are all over the place, not just here.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been lurking on the gTab forums here for the last several days, and have been trying to absorb all of the info I can. I tend to research everything in depth before I plunge into anything. While much information is here, it is fragmented, and what is easy to follow for a developer is not as easy to follow for others. roebeet, you do the best of any I've seen, and I appreciate it. I've done a lot of searches which have helped some. I'm not new to Android (or XDA) as I have a stock Droid Incredible, but I am new to mods to Androids. I have also used Linux in the past, and modded kernels for newer drivers using cookbook approaches, so little scares me if I have enough information. I've sort of figured out how to install and use nvflash, ADB, and CWM using the various guides, but I'm missing some fundamental knowledge on WHEN and WHY I should really be prepared to use them. I've also tried to do some reading on Nandroid, but have found little pertinent to the gTab. So here goes:
1. What is the primary use of each of the following tools, nvflash, ADB, and CWM? When should I expect to have to use each of them? Are there gTab specific guides to their uses and the options for each outside of ROM installation guides, etc? Specific examples of when I should use each, and even more important, when NOT to use them, would be helpful. I've read all of the ROM, nvflash and ADB installation guides, and the various FAQs, and I understand HOW to install each of, just want to understand the best practices for each.
2. After reading a lot, it appears that having a complete backup of my particular ROM would be a good idea since partitions seem to differ even on stock gTabs. I've read posts here that refer to Titanium, and the use of ADB and CWM to do backups, and others that refer obliquely to Nandroid. What is the use of each of the above to do backups? It appears that Nandroid is a piece of CWM, but I may be mistaken. And if I install TnTlite using roebeet's guide, I'm not supposed to use CWM anyway. So how do I do a backup?
3. I plan to use my gTab as I get it, allowing it to do OTA updates only, for a few days, playing with the TNT and normal Android interfaces. I understand that a major OTA may be imminent anyway, possibly based on the leaked 3991 ROM, so my current plan is to wait for it, at least for a week or two. I plan to explore the guts of the file system carefully to fully understand the various instructions I've found here. Is there a way to safely install nvflash and ADB and explore more, or do I need to have an already rooted ROM installed on the GTab.
4. Some people recommend updated to newer or tweaked kernels. I've found the kernels, but haven't found any good step by steps on how to install them. Any links you can point to?
As an aside, I think roebeet's idea of a good wiki for this forum is a good one. The main XDA wiki is about useless. I would expect to see beginners guides to nvflash, ADB, CWM, etc.
Thanks for your help.
Jon
Suggestion. If you are going to install a ROM, pull the detailed instructions from one of the reputable Devs here, paste it into a word processor and add a check box before each step ( can use bullet tool) Then make sure you go thru one step at a time and check the box just in case you get interrupted. If you are unclear on a step ( ie clear cache) research it before you do anything.
thanks for your replies guys, it is definitely good to know that even if i do it perfectly it might still not work the 1st time. ill just nvflash it and try again. this is a really informative forum.
I think a centralized FAQ and / or Wiki is needed, for all the concerns you stated.
"How do I setup adb? What is it used for?"
"What is nvflash? How do I backup all my partitions?"
"What's the difference between clockworkmod and standard recovery? What are the pros and cons of both?"
"What are the difference ROMs available and what are their differences?"
"What is a customized kernel and why would I use it?"
"I have an error <fill in the blank> -- what do I do?"
etc etc. With potentially hundreds of Woot users about to jump into XDA, I think this would be a fantastic thing to have. Heck, it would a good thing to have for ALL of us, myself included.
It's NOT an easy task, however. I would argue that it's a very arduous task and something that would need to be ongoing. But I think it would ease some of the repeat questions here, and give new users a good guide to understand some of the basics.
lamchocho,
Wrong! The wooters are here!
And as the days go by there's going to be more.
Gonna be interesting.
Rev
jonalowe said:
I've been lurking on the gTab forums here for the last several days, and have been trying to absorb all of the info I can. I tend to research everything in depth before I plunge into anything. While much information is here, it is fragmented, and what is easy to follow for a developer is not as easy to follow for others. roebeet, you do the best of any I've seen, and I appreciate it. I've done a lot of searches which have helped some. I'm not new to Android (or XDA) as I have a stock Droid Incredible, but I am new to mods to Androids. I have also used Linux in the past, and modded kernels for newer drivers using cookbook approaches, so little scares me if I have enough information. I've sort of figured out how to install and use nvflash, ADB, and CWM using the various guides, but I'm missing some fundamental knowledge on WHEN and WHY I should really be prepared to use them. I've also tried to do some reading on Nandroid, but have found little pertinent to the gTab. So here goes:
1. What is the primary use of each of the following tools, nvflash, ADB, and CWM? When should I expect to have to use each of them? Are there gTab specific guides to their uses and the options for each outside of ROM installation guides, etc? Specific examples of when I should use each, and even more important, when NOT to use them, would be helpful. I've read all of the ROM, nvflash and ADB installation guides, and the various FAQs, and I understand HOW to install each of, just want to understand the best practices for each.
2. After reading a lot, it appears that having a complete backup of my particular ROM would be a good idea since partitions seem to differ even on stock gTabs. I've read posts here that refer to Titanium, and the use of ADB and CWM to do backups, and others that refer obliquely to Nandroid. What is the use of each of the above to do backups? It appears that Nandroid is a piece of CWM, but I may be mistaken. And if I install TnTlite using roebeet's guide, I'm not supposed to use CWM anyway. So how do I do a backup?
3. I plan to use my gTab as I get it, allowing it to do OTA updates only, for a few days, playing with the TNT and normal Android interfaces. I understand that a major OTA may be imminent anyway, possibly based on the leaked 3991 ROM, so my current plan is to wait for it, at least for a week or two. I plan to explore the guts of the file system carefully to fully understand the various instructions I've found here. Is there a way to safely install nvflash and ADB and explore more, or do I need to have an already rooted ROM installed on the GTab.
4. Some people recommend updated to newer or tweaked kernels. I've found the kernels, but haven't found any good step by steps on how to install them. Any links you can point to?
As an aside, I think roebeet's idea of a good wiki for this forum is a good one. The main XDA wiki is about useless. I would expect to see beginners guides to nvflash, ADB, CWM, etc.
Thanks for your help.
Jon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm quoting Jon's post in its entirety because he both perfectly articulates a number of my questions as well as captures my sense that after days worth of information mining on this site, I'm semi-well-informed enough to do the kind of damage that will surely add to the confusion you all seem to realize is imminent here.
I may be able to help with question 4. Buried in Clemsyn's kernel thread (52 pp!) ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=895825
...is this:
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:
1. ROOT, Flash CWM Recovery (if you haven't done this yet)
2. Create a FULL nandroid backup (optional since its just a kernel)
3. Download a kernel of choice
4. Put the kernel on root of sd
5. Boot into Clockwork MOD recovery (either from ROM Manager or manually- hold volume up and down at same time and press power button, then select "apply sdcard: update.zip"
6. In recovery select "Install zip from sd card"
7. Select "Choose zip from sd card"
8. Navigate to the kernel file and select it
9. Let it install, it will take a few minutes...screen will go weird (black with big blue letters) then take you back to recovery.
10. Reboot phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
goodintentions said:
Just last week, I went to a woman's house to help her with computer problems. She made it sound like life and death on the phone. The only reason I tolerate her is because she might be my in law one day. Anyway, it turned out that the problem was she thought the monitor was the computer. We have explained to her over and over that it's only the monitor and that the box sitting below is the computer. Seems silly to us, but there it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a fair warning, they (the in-laws) never change.
A little note as to why we'll probably start seeing a lot of uninformed people here is because Viewsonic actually has a link to XDA on the "Favorite gTablet Apps and Resources" page of their site, which is accessible from the main G Tablet home page
It's in the developer resources section, but as everyone already knows that doesn't stop some people.
I wanted to root my htc one s so i could put a custom rom on it. I unlocked the bootloader and then I flashed a custom recovery. So i rebooted into twrp recovery and wipe data, cache and dalvik and then proceeded to install cm 10. It installed and then i installed the gaaps which also installed sucesfully. So i rebooted and now all it does it just goes to a white screen with the htc logo. I did have s on but does that make a diffrence. I also tried making s off but it doesnt work since i have no rom.
Help!! My phone is basically useless now!!!
genardas said:
I wanted to root my htc one s so i could put a custom rom on it. I unlocked the bootloader and then I flashed a custom recovery. So i rebooted into twrp recovery and wipe data, cache and dalvik and then proceeded to install cm 10. It installed and then i installed the gaaps which also installed sucesfully. So i rebooted and now all it does it just goes to a white screen with the htc logo. I did have s on but does that make a diffrence. I also tried making s off but it doesnt work since i have no rom.
Help!! My phone is basically useless now!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You obviously didn't read/followed the install instructions. Read it again.
Then please tell me what you missed.
Verstuurd van mijn One S met Tapatalk
Seems you didn't flash the boot.img separately...
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
Ah, now he doesn't have to look troby--:laugh: jk
I just downloaded someone else backup and restored to it all is well!
Sent from my SGH-T999
That's the easy way--you cheated--
If you don't learn not only how to do it correctly, but why, you will always have trouble and have to rely on nice guys like troby86 for help. They won't always be there. Most of us spent dozens, if not more hours, learning all this stuff. And continue to learn. Since you invested a lot of money in the phone, you should spend some time learning how to flash stuff safely/correctly.
Sorry for preaching, but just trying to prevent you from having more and maybe unrecoverable phone issues--
rugmankc said:
That's the easy way--you cheated--
If you don't learn not only how to do it correctly, but why, you will always have trouble and have to rely on nice guys like troby86 for help. They won't always be there. Most of us spent dozens, if not more hours, learning all this stuff. And continue to learn. Since you invested a lot of money in the phone, you should spend some time learning how to flash stuff safely/correctly.
Sorry for preaching, but just trying to prevent you from having more and maybe unrecoverable phone issues--
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Care to explain/show us what you mean?
I don't know anyone's skill level by just reading posts like on this thread. You may know more than me on Android. And, the info is not, and never has been in one place in Forum or Web.
Here is a link in our Forum with a tutorial on rooting.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2140967
You may already know all that.
A lot can be gleaned from tutorials and videos on web like youtube.
I used all those sources and bookmarked dozens of links till I started to piece it together and have it make sense.
I had to Google Android terms just to find out what rom/nandroid/flash etc even meant. At least as far as Android was concerned. I was familiar with terms like those from engineering classes 40 years ago. But, take on new meaning here.
Anyway, I believe all should download and install Android SDK and become familiar with adb/fastboot. Most experienced users will agree it is best and safest way to flash boots/radios etc. You can also push and pull files from and to phone. Some restrictions apply to those things like flashing radios which depends on your phones hboot on our One S. I was lucky with an early phone and low hboot and can do almost anything with or without adb/fastboot. But, being able to use it can help getting things to phone when other means won't work. Getting in trouble is easy but "understanding" how to get out of it is essential.
My second piece of advice would be to skim threads and find ones that offer this info from others asking these questions.
I would always have a nandroid and a recent sdcard bu on your pc.
Read the threads OP page completely and first and last 20 pages, at least, of the thread. Even after doing this for years, I have done this and have read posts that alerted me not to flash the latest, listed rom version or some other file on OP. Some threads, I believe, still don't state if rom is for s3 or s4. Maybe listed kernel had some issues not found on OP, but 10 pages back into thread.
Also, when flashing new rom or update with framework or major changes always wipe all including System 3X. Once or three times is up for debate. But, I do this and rarely have ever had flashing issues on any phone/rom.
Flash Image GUI is an app from Market that lets you flash boots independent of hboot. Never used it. But, many swear by it. Still think when you are in real trouble, adb/fastboot experience can be a life saver.
This is all pretty basic so don't know if I wasted time typing this. And not sure what exactly you wanted. No one will write a book on how to do all this flashing stuff. So, like mentioned you have to gather it from a lot of different places. We have become a society of "give it too me now and I don't want to know how you didi it".
But, maybe someone just starting will have some of this help in some way.
Believe me I looked up guides and guides and couldn't find what was wrong. Still don't know how to do it right but it's fine since I just sold the phone. On the s3 it's so much simpler u root it via some program by picking a file. Then just flash roms through recovery. This phone I thought you just unlock the bootloader and then just install super user and that's it. Just flash roms through recovery. But then some stuff came up with s on and s off and I tried figuring that out but I just got lost at hex editor. Anyways it doesn't matter just know to not get HTC phones.
Sent from my SGH-T999
HTC has made it harder than some other phones. I did have a Nexus One before the One S. Google, but still HTC. Still, I think is important to understand a lot of this. Since, you can get in trouble on any phone.
The procedures you are describing are what was/is called one-click rooting. Became popular on Nexus One. But, some found rooting by that method restricted them on doing certain things they wanted to do and troubleshooting and getting out of soft bricks. I think they could not use either adb or fastboot and needed that to restore phone.
Anyway, good luck on new phone--
rugmankc said:
I don't know anyone's skill level by just reading posts like on this thread. You may know more than me on Android. And, the info is not, and never has been in one place in Forum or Web.
Here is a link in our Forum with a tutorial on rooting.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2140967
You may already know all that.
A lot can be gleaned from tutorials and videos on web like youtube.
I used all those sources and bookmarked dozens of links till I started to piece it together and have it make sense.
I had to Google Android terms just to find out what rom/nandroid/flash etc even meant. At least as far as Android was concerned. I was familiar with terms like those from engineering classes 40 years ago. But, take on new meaning here.
Anyway, I believe all should download and install Android SDK and become familiar with adb/fastboot. Most experienced users will agree it is best and safest way to flash boots/radios etc. You can also push and pull files from and to phone. Some restrictions apply to those things like flashing radios which depends on your phones hboot on our One S. I was lucky with an early phone and low hboot and can do almost anything with or without adb/fastboot. But, being able to use it can help getting things to phone when other means won't work. Getting in trouble is easy but "understanding" how to get out of it is essential.
My second piece of advice would be to skim threads and find ones that offer this info from others asking these questions.
I would always have a nandroid and a recent sdcard bu on your pc.
Read the threads OP page completely and first and last 20 pages, at least, of the thread. Even after doing this for years, I have done this and have read posts that alerted me not to flash the latest, listed rom version or some other file on OP. Some threads, I believe, still don't state if rom is for s3 or s4. Maybe listed kernel had some issues not found on OP, but 10 pages back into thread.
Also, when flashing new rom or update with framework or major changes always wipe all including System 3X. Once or three times is up for debate. But, I do this and rarely have ever had flashing issues on any phone/rom.
Flash Image GUI is an app from Market that lets you flash boots independent of hboot. Never used it. But, many swear by it. Still think when you are in real trouble, adb/fastboot experience can be a life saver.
This is all pretty basic so don't know if I wasted time typing this. And not sure what exactly you wanted. No one will write a book on how to do all this flashing stuff. So, like mentioned you have to gather it from a lot of different places. We have become a society of "give it too me now and I don't want to know how you didi it".
But, maybe someone just starting will have some of this help in some way.
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+1000
The first time I tried to flash a ROM on my phone I softbricked it since I didn't follow directions. I searched the web for at least a couple of hours trying to figure out 1) what happened to my phone and 2) How to fix it. I eventually found a thread on here and a separate thread on another Forum with the solution to my problem. I learned UNIX in school so I had some knowledge with the commands to help me. I'm not a big fan of the All-in-One tools because as the poster above me said you don't learn and are bound to make the same mistake as a result. The knowledge also transfers across whatever Android device you're using so I think it's quite relevant to learn as much as you can
IntelligentAj said:
+1000
The first time I tried to flash a ROM on my phone I softbricked it since I didn't follow directions. I searched the web for at least a couple of hours trying to figure out 1) what happened to my phone and 2) How to fix it. I eventually found a thread on here and a separate thread on another Forum with the solution to my problem. I learned UNIX in school so I had some knowledge with the commands to help me. I'm not a big fan of the All-in-One tools because as the poster above me said you don't learn and are bound to make the same mistake as a result. The knowledge also transfers across whatever Android device you're using so I think it's quite relevant to learn as much as you can
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Click to collapse
I don't understand what there is to learn. Could you enlighten me as to what I am supposed to learn. From what I gather, all you are supposed to do when flashing a rom is flash the boot.img, factory reset and wipe data/cache a few times, install the rom and then wipe cache again. Isn't it all done then?
Well, I guess you got it figured out and I wasted my time on a lengthy post--
eLiTeOneS said:
... factory reset and wipe data/cache a few times, install the rom and then wipe cache again. Isn't it all done then?
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Click to collapse
I'm using Android on several phones and tablets for a while, but there's one thing i still don't understand. Why should i wipe more than once before installing a rom? I often read that, never did that and never had a problem. And: ain't factory reset and wipe data/cache the same?
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
That is topic of discussion and disagreement for many. Most devs will recommend multi wipes. I have had on occasion issues with one wipe. Never with multi. If you don't wipe System, some remnants of previous rom can be left behind. Same for only one wipe for data. Caches I normally only do once or twice. All this is very quick to do. My analogy is doing a quick fomat as opposed to a full format on a disk. It is my opinion that one wipe does not get it all. Others can have a different opinion. But, I will continue to wipe all multi times. After 3 years and hundreds of successful flashes, I don't plan to change. If i have an issue I can't fix, normally an sdcard reformat works. Some files there are tied to the phone also and if become bad/corrupted can still cause issues even with multi wipes. I have read many posts where someone with problems got sorted after multi wipes and/or an sdcard reformat.
All imho--
You may continue to have no issues and great. My problem with the other poster is that after asking for advice and reading my post still thinks all you do is wipe data/caches, flash boot then rom and nothing else to know. My point is you need to read, read, read before flashing theses roms. You have an investment to protect. You also should know why you are doing things and there consequences and how to get out of trouble. I see many posts by people you just did what the other member mentioned, never read OP or any part of thread and wound up soft bricked, bootlooped etc. Not even paying attn to whether the rom was for an S3 or S4.
Again, I have no idea of anyones expertise here. And most know more than me. That is why I am cautious and respect tips/advice from more knowledgeable users. It took me a long time to force myself to learn adb/fastboot. Even with a lot of prodding by a much more learned member. Glad I finally did.
What I hate to see is someone asking a question answered one page back or "hey, just got phone. can someone give me a step by step on rooting/flashing. no I haven't read anything yet"
Anyway my 2 cents--
Sorry for rant, must be bored today--
rugmankc said:
That is topic of discussion and disagreement for many. Most devs will recommend multi wipes. I have had on occasion issues with one wipe. Never with multi. If you don't wipe System, some remnants of previous rom can be left behind. Same for only one wipe for data. Caches I normally only do once or twice. All this is very quick to do. My analogy is doing a quick fomat as opposed to a full format on a disk. It is my opinion that one wipe does not get it all. Others can have a different opinion. But, I will continue to wipe all multi times. After 3 years and hundreds of successful flashes, I don't plan to change. If i have an issue I can't fix, normally an sdcard reformat works. Some files there are tied to the phone also and if become bad/corrupted can still cause issues even with multi wipes. I have read many posts where someone with problems got sorted after multi wipes and/or an sdcard reformat.
All imho--
You may continue to have no issues and great. My problem with the other poster is that after asking for advice and reading my post still thinks all you do is wipe data/caches, flash boot then rom and nothing else to know. My point is you need to read, read, read before flashing theses roms. You have an investment to protect. You also should know why you are doing things and there consequences and how to get out of trouble. I see many posts by people you just did what the other member mentioned, never read OP or any part of thread and wound up soft bricked, bootlooped etc. Not even paying attn to whether the rom was for an S3 or S4.
Again, I have no idea of anyones expertise here. And most know more than me. That is why I am cautious and respect tips/advice from more knowledgeable users. It took me a long time to force myself to learn adb/fastboot. Even with a lot of prodding by a much more learned member. Glad I finally did.
What I hate to see is someone asking a question answered one page back or "hey, just got phone. can someone give me a step by step on rooting/flashing. no I haven't read anything yet"
Anyway my 2 cents--
Sorry for rant, must be bored today--
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Click to collapse
I'm actually glad you told me all this. I've been through many bootloops, but I don't really see how learning A LOT about all of this is required. Don't you just need to fullwipe/cache after booting into recovery and then just recover your device? Sorry if I come across as arrogant or something, I'm really not trying to be. I have read around about this, but none of the sites/tutorials I went to discussed ANYTHING about spending a long time researching the matter. I thought it was as simple as following the instructions from Developers.
No problem. The actual steps are relatively simple. But, not all Dev's give all needed steps. Some leave out wiping System, as an example. My only point is not only know the steps but why you are doing them and what to do if you get into trouble. The threads are sprinkled with folks just doing the steps and getting into trouble and not knowing how to get out of it. Then they want the easy step by step to get out of trouble and still don't want to understand the why's of what they are doing.
As I mentioned, you may not be one of them. It is hard to ascertain someone's skill level or true meaning just by the post itself. So, my comments are just general fyi.
Since XDA is a development forum, there won't be extensive how to's. But the wiki's and stickies do contain a lot of info. And, scanning certain threads that have subject matter you are interested in can give a lot of insight also. Lots of You Tube videos too.
Good Luck--
rugmankc said:
No problem. The actual steps are relatively simple. But, not all Dev's give all needed steps. Some leave out wiping System, as an example. My only point is not only know the steps but why you are doing them and what to do if you get into trouble. The threads are sprinkled with folks just doing the steps and getting into trouble and not knowing how to get out of it. Then they want the easy step by step to get out of trouble and still don't want to understand the why's of what they are doing.
As I mentioned, you may not be one of them. It is hard to ascertain someone's skill level or true meaning just by the post itself. So, my comments are just general fyi.
Since XDA is a development forum, there won't be extensive how to's. But the wiki's and stickies do contain a lot of info. And, scanning certain threads that have subject matter you are interested in can give a lot of insight also. Lots of You Tube videos too.
Good Luck--
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Click to collapse
Thanks, it's just the way you put it unnerved me quite a lot. I mean, I don't see how there is a LOT of skill required to do this, isn't most of it common sense? I mean, that's how I approach many things; by figuring them out. But if I'm doing everything right, then there's no problem
Cool--
Sounds like you got it all figured. Didn't mean to upset. But, it is hard to read btwn lines on posts. Mine included So, sometimes things are not taken correctly.
In time you will see more of the posts that make some of us scratch our heads and wonder why the question was even asked.
For now have fun and Nandroid--and backup sdcard to PC. Those are very important things I still see some not doing--
rugmankc said:
Cool--
Sounds like you got it all figured. Didn't mean to upset. But, it is hard to read btwn lines on posts. Mine included So, sometimes things are not taken correctly.
In time you will see more of the posts that make some of us scratch our heads and wonder why the question was even asked.
For now have fun and Nandroid--and backup sdcard to PC. Those are very important things I still see some not doing--
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I did one of them, but that was a silly mistake on my behalf. Anyway, if you were to backup your SD Card on your PC, what good would that do?