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howdy peeps i have an idea of how maybe we could solve the speed issues with the hero rom but my programming skills have not reached java as of yet, i am learning as we speak, but heres my idea...
im thinking of a program that sits in the background that basically controls the priority of certain programs running on android like rosie.apk.
for instance if the home button is pressed not only is the rosie apk brought to the front but is given more cpu priority over other applications running which in affect should speed up delays. a bit like when you do it in task manager on windows.
i am trying to figure out how to write this with java and the android sdk but wondered what your views are on this and if anyone can actually implement this quicker and better than i will be able to lol
look forward to hearing your views
I'm no programmer but this seems plausible so this would be a program that would prioritize all programs running in the foreground and background or all programs?
dont you think running this program in the background would use up alot of cpu usage also?
even in the background apps of rosie already use up alot of power...this would just take up more space and room and slow stuff down.
if it does get made it would have to be extremely lightweight
good luck
looking forward to what develops
redmdc said:
howdy peeps i have an idea of how maybe we could solve the speed issues with the hero rom but my programming skills have not reached java as of yet, i am learning as we speak, but heres my idea...
im thinking of a program that sits in the background that basically controls the priority of certain programs running on android like rosie.apk.
for instance if the home button is pressed not only is the rosie apk brought to the front but is given more cpu priority over other applications running which in affect should speed up delays. a bit like when you do it in task manager on windows.
i am trying to figure out how to write this with java and the android sdk but wondered what your views are on this and if anyone can actually implement this quicker and better than i will be able to lol
look forward to hearing your views
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can figure out a way to edit the fameworks in /system/framework you'll be fine.
This is called cpgroups - and Cy's ROM and xROM already do this.
The problem with Hero/Mytouch is that the framework is odexed and we have no way to unodex them, edit the files, then remake them.
I love this community. i have confidance that this thread will turn into something good.
im running jaxhero 1.2 and it doesnt lag for me at all. im running compcache with a linux swap
I think this problem is partly due to lack of memory and possibly poor coding.
Hero UI on Dream is slow. Hero UI on Hero is faster, but still not smooth. The extra RAM on the Hero obviously helps since it's the same hardware besides more RAM.
There's a lot of work ahead to get it to run faster. Perhaps work with the NDK instead of the SDK. I assume when an application goes into the background it stops and writes data to memory, the services don't stop. I think to make Hero UI work faster, the code needs to be improved for less memory usage and then optimized more for efficient code. Not a simple task.
I'm not sure if prioritizing tasks will make it faster. It may make it faster to get to Home (once), but once you are there and if you want to start another application it will still need to do what it originally needed to done before it got de-prioritized.
Think of it as cooking, each time you cook something and you want to start something else you can clean up dishes or just leave them in the sink. If you clean up your dishes after each project, you take some time before starting the next one. If you don't clean up the dishes, you can start the new project quickly. However, soon afterward you'll have a sink full of dishes and you can't continue and they need to be cleaned and will take a long time. Thats how I view the problem. Get a bigger sink and more dishes (RAM) or optimize the process so it doesn't use as much dishes or it's quicker to wash them..
Maybe it'll be easily solvable when much fast sd cards are out that we can swap out a lot without slowdowns.
Good luck to anybody who is tackling this.
jad011 said:
im running jaxhero 1.2 and it doesnt lag for me at all. im running compcache with a linux swap
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
compcache is not supported in 1.2
You can remove some of the bloat by reducing the home screen to 5 or even 3 desktops. This should be hex editable, but I don't know enough about HTC ROM to do this.
I also see a lot of improvement in responsiveness of the ROM if I install spare parts from market and turn off window animations as well transition animations. This reduces my battery consumption a lot (passes my overnight standy test: thou shall not use more than 5% battery while on standy overnight for 8 hours) because it seems to be using some sort of graphics hardware accelaration and/or CPU, which makes battery deplete faster.
For my usage, I have been observing the swap usage with swappiness of 30 and I seem to need about 30-35MB most of the time. Now, since this ROM runs slow on Hero also, it seems like the RAM is only a part the problem because Hero does provide more than 35MB RAM on top of Dream. So, the conclusion is that its the inherent bloat in the source code and optimizations which need to be done to reduce the CPU usage. But only HTC can do that.
am i the only one not having any issues w/ the speed? Friend of mine has Cy and im able to keep up with him even though i have 6 big widgets. Only issue is getting in and out of contacts.
imbonez9 said:
am i the only one not having any issues w/ the speed? Friend of mine has Cy and im able to keep up with him even though i have 6 big widgets. Only issue is getting in and out of contacts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YES!
Experienced open source fellow about to chime in here,
Speeding up hero is basically poking around in the dark and hoping that we do the right thing. Unfortunately, because hero (and soon to be raphael and blur as well) are closed source and odexed and whatnot. It's just like windows-vs-linux. At first windows was shinier, but linux eventually caught up because they established a big enough codebase. The problem with hero is that most of it is EXTREMELY hard to "code" or "recode" for the average dev. For this reason the "community" that we have faith in can't do very much, as only one or two people have the knowledge required (not me btw), and they have the sense to promote open source instead of hacking closed source.
Bottom line, and this isn't a flame as much as a lifestyle guide, if you want your phone to be better, and have all the nice hero features, develop for ANDROID. Don't try to hack hero. Dev'ing for android makes things better for EVERYBODY involved.
That's my too sense. As shiny as hero may be....I'm never going to install it.
P.S.
If it explains anything, I'm the kind of person who donates to the FSF. Sorry if that makes me polarized.
[edit]
I apologize for disrupting the purpose of this thread. I'm going to take this to q/a where it belongs. Mostly because I have some questions as to the legality of "hero hacking"
Sorry
sha.goyjo said:
Experienced open source fellow about to chime in here,
Speeding up hero is basically poking around in the dark and hoping that we do the right thing. Unfortunately, because hero (and soon to be raphael and blur as well) are closed source and odexed and whatnot. It's just like windows-vs-linux. At first windows was shinier, but linux eventually caught up because they established a big enough codebase. The problem with hero is that most of it is EXTREMELY hard to "code" or "recode" for the average dev. For this reason the "community" that we have faith in can't do very much, as only one or two people have the knowledge required (not me btw), and they have the sense to promote open source instead of hacking closed source.
Bottom line, and this isn't a flame as much as a lifestyle guide, if you want your phone to be better, and have all the nice hero features, develop for ANDROID. Don't try to hack hero. Dev'ing for android makes things better for EVERYBODY involved.
That's my too sense. As shiny as hero may be....I'm never going to install it.
P.S.
If it explains anything, I'm the kind of person who donates to the FSF. Sorry if that makes me polarized.
[edit]
I apologize for disrupting the purpose of this thread. I'm going to take this to q/a where it belongs. Mostly because I have some questions as to the legality of "hero hacking"
Sorry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
two important things my momma taught me.
1. Don't say anything if you can't say anything nice
2. Don't do anything you are gonna apologize for later.
I, unlike Mr.Negativity who seems to have some underlying hate for life itself, want a faster Hero rom. Thank you all the dev's that have contributed and will contribute to this cause in the future.
Here's what I have done and seen a good pick up in speed with hero builds, I have an 8 gig cl 4 card but I guess you can do this with a 4 gig card too. make your linux swap partion 128
From what I understand the swap runs kinda like ram. I ordered a 8 gig class 6 card and I will try a linux swap of 256, but I think that will hang bad I'll let you all know in a few days.
But try linux swap set at 128 its much better
sha.goyjo said:
Experienced open source fellow about to chime in here,
Speeding up hero is basically poking around in the dark and hoping that we do the right thing. Unfortunately, because hero (and soon to be raphael and blur as well) are closed source and odexed and whatnot. It's just like windows-vs-linux. At first windows was shinier, but linux eventually caught up because they established a big enough codebase. The problem with hero is that most of it is EXTREMELY hard to "code" or "recode" for the average dev. For this reason the "community" that we have faith in can't do very much, as only one or two people have the knowledge required (not me btw), and they have the sense to promote open source instead of hacking closed source.
Bottom line, and this isn't a flame as much as a lifestyle guide, if you want your phone to be better, and have all the nice hero features, develop for ANDROID. Don't try to hack hero. Dev'ing for android makes things better for EVERYBODY involved.
That's my too sense. As shiny as hero may be....I'm never going to install it.
P.S.
If it explains anything, I'm the kind of person who donates to the FSF. Sorry if that makes me polarized.
[edit]
I apologize for disrupting the purpose of this thread. I'm going to take this to q/a where it belongs. Mostly because I have some questions as to the legality of "hero hacking"
Sorry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great advice.....is anyone willin to teach me how to make my own rom??
That_Guy_19033 said:
Here's what I have done and seen a good pick up in speed with hero builds, I have an 8 gig cl 4 card but I guess you can do this with a 4 gig card too. make your linux swap partion 128
From what I understand the swap runs kinda like ram. I ordered a 8 gig class 6 card and I will try a linux swap of 256, but I think that will hang bad I'll let you all know in a few days.
But try linux swap set at 128 its much better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey guy are you running 128 swap on 1.2? I ran 128 on all the others and they ran super smooth. For whatever reason I had lots of lag with 1.2 and lowered it to 96 which made it run smoother
Naw i got 1.2 but didn't flash it i might skip 1.2 and wait on 1.3 but thanks for the reply and input
ccyrowski said:
If you can figure out a way to edit the fameworks in /system/framework you'll be fine.
This is called cpgroups - and Cy's ROM and xROM already do this.
The problem with Hero/Mytouch is that the framework is odexed and we have no way to unodex them, edit the files, then remake them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wouldn't it be possible to baksmali the odexes, then smali them to a dex and put it inside the apk?
jubeh said:
wouldn't it be possible to baksmali the odexes, then smali them to a dex and put it inside the apk?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly only baksmali does not work. There is a way to undex but not as simple to compile as a dex when done.
Seoulboy1 said:
two important things my momma taught me.
1. Don't say anything if you can't say anything nice
2. Don't do anything you are gonna apologize for later.
I, unlike Mr.Negativity who seems to have some underlying hate for life itself, want a faster Hero rom. Thank you all the dev's that have contributed and will contribute to this cause in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No one needs to apologize, everything that was said is true. You just don't consider it to be "nice" because you want a faster ROM which you know you probably won't get because of the reasons that were stated. Take the blue pill or the red pill, your choice...
I have a question that turns me on the head a few weeks, but there is a real alternative Home? .. I mean, almost two years now I have the hands on my HTC Dream, I must admit that I've seen very few, and try less. The question arises, there really is a programmer who is working on a real alternative to classic and multiple ROM that you see around? or we will always have many copies of already cooked ROM with only small changes that can range from icons, graphics or small settings to improve performance? Well i notice I'm not complaining about the excellent results we are getting our programmers, who try to keep pace with each new release, ported to every device imaginable (almost all with small donations) etc etc. but I doubt that I'll never have a real alternative as it could be TAT Home or easier SlideScreenPro ..
Sorry for my bad English
deleted...
sorry why?..
Good point, wrong section.
You're totally right about devs who only change or pimp Cyanogen's work. I think it's dumb and pointless. I understand amount of work etc, most of android devs on XDA are very talented people, but after trying 34 or 67th custom rom i saw there's nothing better than CM. Of course, there were several awesome roms like SuperD or sth like that, but after all it's just another pimped CM.
Speaking about home replacements - the greatest apps are those which are modified stock launchers. I don't like a fact, there's no really good other home replacement, but i'd rather use perfect-working ADW or LauncherPro than incompatible, slow, unstable, blablablah, etc. home like TAT, SlideScreen or Zune. And of couse most of those super-extra-special-unique home replacements (which don't even work stable) are paid. There's nothing more to say.
in the pre-CM5 era, there were lots of roms not based on cyanogen
anyone remember open eclair? it had the BEST boot animation ever.
Make your own Simple as that. If you're not capable hire someone. Or lastly, learn to code so you may make your own. Don't think any of the three are worth it, then maybe your idea isn't worth it. Just saying. A last option or rather possibility is having someone more talented than you(coding wise) do it out of their own free will because they share your thoughts.
asb123 said:
in the pre-CM5 era, there were lots of roms not based on cyanogen
anyone remember open eclair? it had the BEST boot animation ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got that right. The only real reason all our ROMs are based on CM now is because almost everyone has moved on to a better phone. As soon as the N1 came out it started and hasn't stopped. Also, for that reason, this topic is pretty pointless. If this were occurring way back when Android was new and everyone copypasta'd cyanogen then it would make sense. That was never the case.
And there is nothing wrong with tweaking Cyanogen ROMs. Open source is meant for this. Cyanogen modifies AOSP then themers and file pushers share their optimizations on top of that.
And about a real home replacement: ADWLauncher is a real home replacement that kicks major a**. Ander states that his work is open source as well... So you can take his wheel and make your own little bike, dude. Peddle on...
I've been wondering for a while now why nobody has come up with a better method to copy and paste in Android. I've seen devs do amazing things with Android in general and some other devs make fantastic apps but I haven't seen anything worth looking at in the way of a good, solid and workable "copy / paste" solution.
I know that Gingerbread brings improved copy and paste but even that seems inconsistent and fiddly. The HTC Desire HD has a pretty good implementation of it but that's limited to the Sense UI. All this leaves me to ask the question I have already in the subject line. Is it really difficult to improve copy and paste? I dislike the iPhone for a lot of reasons but one thing I think they've done well is copy and paste. It still has issues but it's far above what Android has to offer right now. Even the improved version in Gingerbread is just for text selection. Is anyone up to the task?
Well I'm glad that I managed to get such a big response to this issue >_> Seriously though, nobody can improve on what we have? We have kernels that blow the stock ones out of the water, replacement launchers that make people weep in joy, mods like CyanogenMod that make everything run super smooth but nobody has ever touched copy and paste functionality.
Because it works. Yes it could be there for improvement but it's something that already works and is decent enough. You make it sound like that it needs such a vast improvement. Android is for phones, not desktops. I see no problem in using copy and paste because it works fine. Devs have other issues to be getting on with like making stable roms, kernels, so on.
The same could be said about a whole heap of stuff like the default launcher, the default widgets, kernel etc. They all work but have been vastly improved by the dev community. I'm just wondering if there's a better reason than nobody has bothered yet. You might think it's decent enough, frankly I think it's a pretty weak point in Android.
There are lots of legacy devices that won't see 2.3, some won't see 2.2 and others that won't even see 2.1 but are still very capable phones. I can live with how it works in 2.3 and when HTC use it to improve their 2.2 copy and paste it'll be even better but as I said not everyone will have that ability. I honestly think that anyone who came up with a better solution for older phones could make a fair amount on the market. If I had the programming skills to attempt it myself I would.
I guess Google made decisions to sort of "cut back" on their dev like widgets and launcher because they wanted a nice dev community. And guess what, they've got one. Go ask a developer directly. I don't think that they would of seen this post. Personally, I think that Android is such an awesome OS to use and I can't really say anything bad about it. To be honest, all the stuff that Google does is free and is a great service.
If this is in the wrong section please move it instead of deleted it. Thanks y'all are awesome
So, what I want to is make my own Ice Cream Sandwich ROM.
I want to take stock android and:
-Make everything work right (camera, buttons, drivers for proper graphics and stuff, etc)...
-Use a good boot animation (I already have in mind which one)
Stuff like that. Would my old server with a dual dual-core Intel Xeon CPUs (total of 4 cores), 6GB RAM, and RAID SCSI disks be good enough, to compile it? Do I even need to compile it? or just unzip and zip?
Thanks!
PS: can I use Windows or would Ubuntu work better? I've also got a MacBook Air that I guess I could use
I won't touch on the driver thing (simply because it's not an easy thing as you suggest). Not only are there various 'work arounds' for the camera issue... but... eh.
Also, I will say that boot animations are nothing more than a text file and a bunch of images... no compiling done there. Just google around and you'll find the 'needed' format VERY easily... and probably even suggested software to make it easy.
Be careful, as you have a condescending style about how things that are easy but aren't, and aren't easy but are... while you haven't even really done any research. These things... they do not go over well here.
Ok as stated it is not as easy as it sounds. Compiling from source is not easy and making everything work is not easy either as the drivers are not released for this device. As all the source is ported from another device. Some of the best minds on XDA have been working for months trying to get the camera to work but with the new rules to the AOSP source from Google it is a huge undertaking. No longer can you build a full working rom from AOSP as the OEM drivers are no longer included due to being closed source and not released.
There are walk thru videos out there but like the Gentlemens above me said it is not a simple task. If you look at the developers it's a collaboration of several members making a team just for one ROM. But you can play around with several ROMs like I did:
Some Ice Cold Sandwich with a little salt from Redemption and a little pepper from Zues and BOOM my perfect ROM for me. (My Frankenstein)
BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. Dont get me wrong I'm not saying you can take bits and pieces from different ROMS and create your own and offer it here cause thats stealing from developers without their permission. But only for your enjoyment and PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
2. you can't ask for help from developers when you alter their ROMs.
GOOD GOD!!!! Hope my phone don't die with so much flashing and testing (lmao)
Sorry if I made it sound like I didn't realize how huge of an effort good ROM development is. I do!
However, if I just take AOSP then attach the device drivers then add the features I want, I can release it as mine, right?
I'm bored with web design and development, so I figured hey let me try android stuff!
Maybe I should learn how to make an Android app first I have a feeling my basic Java knowledge won't be enough.
Would it be better to start with that, then progress to the more complicated stuff?
And I appreciate the time you are all taking to answer my random questions
I wish I could make Android apps with HTML, CSS, PHP, and Javascript. LOL!
Reinaldo33897 said:
GOOD GOD!!!! Hope my phone don't die with so much flashing and testing (lmao)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HAHA yeah sometimes I wonder if it's bad for it
But I've dropped it about 20 times and it still works no damage except for a tiny scratch in the screen so I'd say flashing ROMs is much safer for it than dropping it. LOL!
Hi all! I'm a noob to the site and a noob to smartphone modifications, so please forgive me for my questions and concerns. I've used forums for years on many topics and found the knowledge base to be incredible, so I hope you guys will help me out, too.
So, while my Skyrocket has generally worked very well for the past 2+ years, I have always felt it's not living up to its potential. I've read numerous threads on many forums to see what my fellow Rocketeers were doing. I think I've come to the conclusion that flashing a new ROM is the way to go, but I am a bit wary since I've never done this nor know anyone who has. My thinking goes along the same lines as my experience with computers... If you buy a Dell, HP, etc., you get the garbage that the manufacturer bundles in along with Windows. If you wipe the HD and install your own clean copy of Windows, you can usually get better performance without all that other stuff. Hence, the idea for a new ROM for the phone.
A few things have me wondering, though... There seem to be more ROMs available than flavors of Linux! I know choice will end up being a personal thing. My goal is really simple... I just want a clean OS that is stable, efficient, and runs the basic functions I am accustomed to. So, I am not looking to experiment or push the envelope. I want a phone that doesn't crash at the worst possible time, and one that can actually make phone calls! I assume that I will still be able to use the Google Play store to download apps (after installing the plugin thingy). My phone is from AT&T and is unlocked. Will it say unlocked after flashing a new ROM? Will Visual Voicemail still work? I occasionally use FoxFi to create a mobile hotspot. Will I still be able to use it? Or do other ROMs already have this feature unlocked (or bypassed)? I use apps on my phone mostly for email (Yahho/Gmail), calendar, FB, Instagram, YouTube, taking photos/video, viewing forums, and the like, besides making phone calls. In other words, what should I expect from a new ROM? How will things be different? I'm really trying to gauge if this is a worthwhile endeavor for me.
Sorry for the long post. I appreciate your opinions and experience.
It's always worthwhile.
The Skyrocket, to me, was always a case of OEM software that limited its potential. If you really sit down and tweak it, custom ROM, new governor, overclock, it's a beast of a phone that can still keep pace today. You'll have to balance performance with battery life--overclocking and switching to a more aggressive governor doesn't do you any favors there, and some ROMs are better about battery life than others. It's a great phone with a lot of life left, though, much more so than the vanilla S2 because the Rocket has LTE capability.
To hit your other questions, any app that is available on the Play Store will work. If a ROM needs a second gapps flash to get the Play Store (along with everything else Google ships) back, that will be made available and is a very easy install. I've never unlocked a phone, but I don't believe that a new ROM would lose that. Wait for someone else to reply, but I'd be shocked if it did. As far as what you want, there's a ROM to suit any desires. Most ROMs are pretty basic and look and feel like you'd expect a Skyrocket to. Some are designed to feel a little more like iOS, some are designed to be stripped-down (and faster as a result), and some are based on stock firmware and very closely replicate the original experience. It's up to you to read through the dev forum for the Rocket and pick the experience that's best for you.
As far as how difficult it is, spend a couple hours reading about flashing, how it works and why it works. Once you have that basic understanding of it and can follow a few simple instructions that are pretty universal across ROMs, you're set.
Well, I'm giving this a try tonight. Fingers crossed!
One piece of advice: when you pick a new rom from "Android development" read the WHOLE thread associated with that rom, with special attention the the first couple of pages. Make sure you understand the process and any potential pitfalls.
First rom I tried I spent probably six hours reading. It was worth it.
Success!!! I now have the latest CandyKat running! It ended up being not too bad at all. Now I need to figure out how things are different from the AT&T Jelly Bean this replaces.
Thanks for the advice and thanks to everyone who contributes to the site,
I have Kandykat. It seems to be a good solid rom. The Google Now launcher is buggy though. I changed to Nova launcher. Other than that it's been fine.
Thanks for the tips, Chris. I've been using Launcher3. What's the difference between these launchers? Everything seems to be running fine on my rocket now. Any tips on increasing battery life? Any tips on some nice customization?
Google Now launcher seems to have the annoying habit of forgetting the screen setup (app positioning) during reboot. Launcher 3 also exhibited the same problem. Launchers are a matter of taste, but Nova launcher seems solid and looks right to me. YMMV. It's easy to try a few.