Related
Can anyone tell the important and practical advantages of rooting and installing Infused ROM? I Am just looking for a useful reason to waste my time
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
Read the change logs in the very first post, if nothing there appeals to you than don't bother, if nothing makes SENSE to you, read more like I did before diving in lol.
Short answer is, because its fun, addicting, customizing, unlocks features, removes bloatware.....makes it YOUR PHONE, not AT&T's (assuming you don't have Rogers.) Things like Wi-Fi tethering and GPS lock on times are fixed or improved. Stuff like that, plus the whole process can be somewhat addicting. Lol
Infused
Hehe..... So, no usefulness in rooting I guess.... Can you post the link by the way...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
Not sure how, on my phone. Lol, but if you go to the infuse developers section, you CANT miss it. Big huge title says something along the lines of, [Infused, V2.#.# (gingerbread) blah blah blah] haha.
But ATM the download portion is down because the Canadian release doesn't use 4g, so he's fixing a little quirk with it right now, than it'll be back up I'm sure, gtg is pretty quick.
Also, rooting is different than flashing a Tom, rooting gives you complete control over your phone, gets rid of market branding (I think), and allows 3rd party apps (be carefully)
Flashing a ROM is replacing the current operating system with the SAME one but streamlined and bareboned, or a better one that's streamlined and bareboned. (Or at least that's how I think of it.) Usually involving better apps, updates, and unlocked features.
So yes there is a benifit I guess lol.
Infused
So, what is infused ROM? I suppose it is custom ROM... Right?... So, what the hell is CWM then?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
All of this info is readily available, when I first got my android I was a little confused to, hell, I still am =P
But here is the skinny,
Root simply means you are granting the phone or yourself super user access. What does that mean you ask... well, it pretty much gives you ultimate admin rights. From here, you can theme, mod, install roms, alter/move/delete system files etc.
Roms are the creations of enhanced versions of the stock os all ready available, and sometimes not available ie gtg's gingerbread rom. The benefits to these"aftermarket" roms vary from rom to rom. You will need to research each one specifically to see what fits your desires.
Although your question seems simple, it its infact a big question that is far to vague, simply put, custom roms made by experienced developers will 99.9% always be superior to stock, but for different reasons. So please research and you will see that there are varying types of directions... Unless you want gb on infuse, kinds only one direction for that at the moment.
Infused with gingerbread **** thanks GTG465X
Thanks, you articulated my thoughts better lol.
CWM is ClockWorkMod, used commonly for its rom manager feature, it helps make flashing the rom's easier, and can install a clockwork recovery mode that replaces the stock 3e recovery the phone comes with, and is far more useful.
Infused
You need root. Normally I'd suggest going with a ROM, but right now the only ROM actively being developed is Infused. However, this is the first ROM where I have gotten very bad response from those who develop the ROM, as well as backlash for the community when I bring up bugs on the releases. Any other phone has developer communities that are helpful and very nice, and receptive to constructive criticism, but it's like Apple sent their goons over for Infused, and both the developers and the fanboys of the developers act like it's some gift from god. Everything released from the Infused team has had some fairly significant bugs, right now the bug is poor data speeds (kinda silly since we bought the phone for it's "4G" being the primary function), but as always, enter at your own risk.
Seriously bella? the only issues I have seen with this community has been antagonized by you. Hell, out of curiosity I check done of your post history... Surprise surprise, most of the post are you complaining. This thread case in point, seriously had to drag your bull **** to another thread, grow the hell up.
just get your sg2 already and take your negativity to another forum. All you ever do is ***** like a whiny baby. Good luck and good riddance, we won't miss you.
Infused with gingerbread **** thanks GTG465X
Krant, don't let Bella's bs confuse you, this phone has to notch devs, with fantastic roms and kernels. Apparently if the devs can't part the seas and build a rom that get 100 hours of staight heavy use batt life then they don't deserve to give us free development
Infused with gingerbread **** thanks GTG465X
Krant, welcome to the forums.
I disagree with Bella - we have an excellent community here, the only problem is that we have an unusual number of people who post in the ROM threads in development when it is clear they have not even read the first post of the thread. We also have people who complain about a ROM without any evidence to back up their complaint, and get hostile when a dev asks them to run a specific test.
On the positive side, the level of coordination we have between developers is FAR better than most other devices. That's why right now you don't really see any junky "hey look I can deodex too!" ROMs.
So far you're off to a good start, you didn't post in the dev forum and you're making an effort to learn. I suggest you take some time to do some research and Googling.
Another thing adding to the confusion here is that with Android, there are two portions of the system that can be separately customized. The kernel is the base operating system, with hardware drivers and such. The ROM is actually what us kernel hackers call "userland" - the stuff layered on top of a kernel to produce a nice usable system.
Most ROMs include a custom kernel, but in many cases you can flash other kernels over it.
Never flash a ROM/kernel intended for another device. (An exception to this rule may eventually come for userland ROMs, but for now that's the rule.)
CWM is a low-level "recovery" tool that allows new files to be flashed to your device that often can't be flashed to a running system. It's most often used for flashing new ROMs, but can sometimes be used for flashing tweaks to a ROM.
And things like that will only scare people away from these forums, i sincerely feel like there are an alarming number of negative, rude people on XDA, and those who AREN'T, are usually Dev's or working with them, Hence my post from like, a month ago in an ENTIRELY different subject lol. And also why i try so hard to be informative, even with what little knowledge i have. please dont go because of a few bad apples, ive seen it ruin peoples experience with there phones.
Hellion_zk said:
Ive cruised these forums for about 8 months now, and i have to say, out of all the forus ive ever been apart of, (PC, Truck, Motorcycle, you name it) this is filled with the worst ratio of rude, abrasive people ive ever seen on a forum, and am surprised that the mods make no attempt to instill respectful comments to one another.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And it got Thanked,... twice... and it wasnt even by the people getting chewed out, (Although for a valid reason. DONT post nonsense in a Dev thread....oh my GOD they take that seriously here lol)
theraffman said:
All of this info is readily available, when I first got my android I was a little confused to, hell, I still am =P
But here is the skinny,
Root simply means you are granting the phone or yourself super user access. What does that mean you ask... well, it pretty much gives you ultimate admin rights. From here, you can theme, mod, install roms, alter/move/delete system files etc.
Roms are the creations of enhanced versions of the stock os all ready available, and sometimes not available ie gtg's gingerbread rom. The benefits to these"aftermarket" roms vary from rom to rom. You will need to research each one specifically to see what fits your desires.
Although your question seems simple, it its infact a big question that is far to vague, simply put, custom roms made by experienced developers will 99.9% always be superior to stock, but for different reasons. So please research and you will see that there are varying types of directions... Unless you want gb on infuse, kinds only one direction for that at the moment.
Infused with gingerbread **** thanks GTG465X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the raffman explained root acces well indeed. I heard another explain it as gaining root access to your phone is the same as logging in to your computer with admin rights; you can make all sorts of changes. However, not having root access to your phone is like logging in to your computer as guest; you can change very little.
I rooted my phone a few days out of the box. Don't get me wrong; I was impressed with its performance. Since then I've flashed roms, kernels, bricked my phone, brought it back to life with odin3 many times. It is exciting and wicked fun to push this phone to its limits. Props to all the devs that enable my habit. Root and flash and I am sure you will never look back.
Root and flash and I am sure you will never look back.[/QUOTE said:
And make sure you do tons of research on how to unbrick it, and know what NOT to do.
Infused
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Entropy512 said:
Another thing adding to the confusion here is that with Android, there are two portions of the system that can be separately customized. The kernel is the base operating system, with hardware drivers and such. The ROM is actually what us kernel hackers call "userland" - the stuff layered on top of a kernel to produce a nice usable system.
Most ROMs include a custom kernel, but in many cases you can flash other kernels over it.
Never flash a ROM/kernel intended for another device. (An exception to this rule may eventually come for userland ROMs, but for now that's the rule.)
CWM is a low-level "recovery" tool that allows new files to be flashed to your device that often can't be flashed to a running system. It's most often used for flashing new ROMs, but can sometimes be used for flashing tweaks to a ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Entrophy512,
I've had my superInfuse for over a month now, I have it rooted, flashed Infused 1.53, 2.0Beta1,2,3,stable2.00, 2.01, 2.02 and used CWM, SGS Kernal Flasher, etc. I thought I understood this all pretty well but you summed it up excellently!!! Thanks so much for that!
I am a jailbroken iPhone convert. I am loving this phone so far and have heeded the warnings to not mess with the phone too much. My question is, when is it safe to use the roms that are available? Is there that big of a difference in performance? I jailbroke my iPhone to get features Apple wouldn't allow our have. what do I gain with custom roms? Thanks for all that has been done so far and look forward to what its to come.
I don't know of there is a time period to use them but most custom roms freshen up your desktop icons as well most of them improve battery life and add the ability to overclock.
You can gain quite a few features with Custom Roms. Such as overclocking, custom ui's, much better performance (snappier). I highly recommend flashing a custom ROM. Currently CM9 and CM7 are a work in progress and should be released sooner than later, (CM7 is currently in it's testing stage). Also to do all of this you have to root your device. A guide can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1327741&highlight=how+to+root Keep in mind many features can be gained once rooted, but as you probably know the warranty is voided.
Thanks for the help so far. The only question still remaining for me is; at what point are these roms considered stable enough for someone new to start using. I have read the warnings and really don't want to have to reinstall everything over and over again because of instability issues. thanks
ed20910 said:
Thanks for the help so far. The only question still remaining for me is; at what point are these roms considered stable enough for someone new to start using. I have read the warnings and really don't want to have to reinstall everything over and over again because of instability issues. thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really all depends on what you are after.
I will say that even the stock ROM on the Atrix 2 is not that stable, and there are a TON of bugs in it.
All the ROMs that are here are in a beta format and are not even at a 1.0 revision yet. If you are not technical at all, and don't really like playing with your device a lot, and flashing ROMs, to try and get a feature that the stock ROM is missing, then I totally advise against flashing anything. These "ROMS are completely safe and stable enough", but both lfaber06 and are I always trying to "improve" on them, no matter what revision that the ROM is at, as well as requests for new features. That really is why it may seem that people are flashing all the time, not really because of instability.
Since he and I are really the only two devs in here right now, there is not going to be a lot of choice in ROMs and since this phone is still fairly new, everything is still "new" and in beta/alpha. Since you are coming from the iphone, and flashing ROMs is not really something that you do, I say you wait until you find something you really want that is not available in the stock ROM, and has been put into one the ROMs available here, then try flashing that. Until then just hang tight for a while. There are plenty of hacks that can be done to the stock ROM, to fix things, and make that better at this time. Also take some time to learn a little about android and flashing and how it all works, not intimately, or on a very technical level, but that might save your "you know what", if you have an issue during a flash or while running an unfamiliar ROM.
Thank you VERY much. That was the answer I was looking for. I am technical savy, just haven't done much with android so far. I am one that likes to tinker and get the most out of any of my electronics.
Hi guys sorry for the several topics in my subject line but there are several questions that I have.
So I just signed up because I'm a bit confused and I'm quite new to the scene. I actually posted this on another forum which I'm already a member of, but I felt it would be better posting here since this is obviously more specialised.
After reading the rules, I've realised that it's quite hard to do a search for existing topics with my questions. I've already tried to do individual searches on each topic though, with varying success.
I've just rooted my Nexus S (i9023, AUS version) for the first time simply because I wanted to be able to use DroidWall (to only allow certain apps to use data).
1) If I manually update to ICS, will I lose root?
2) Does installing a custom ROM cause you to lose all your data? - I've done some searching on this and it seems to depend. Some do and some don't. I don't quite get it though.
3) Kernels - seem to control battery life and how the operating system runs. This slightly confuses me because it makes me think, what affects battery life more: the kernel or the ROM?
4) Most people like to overclock their phones in the interest of power. Would it be reasonable to underclock it in the interest of battery life? Sometimes I don't think I really need 1GHz.
5) It seems like the OTA for ICS for i9023 has not been released yet but has been for i9020?
I'm trying to find the best 2.3.6 Custom ROM from here but none of these are 2.3.6 based! All of them are 2.3.4 or older. I'm hesitant upgrading to ICS for three reasons:
1) Hasn't been released OTA officially
2) Worried of app compatibility
3) Worried of shorter battery life
For these reasons, I'm looking for a 2.3.6 based custom ROM otherwise I'd be happy to look at ICS custom ROMs.
None of the ICS ROMs seem to have any distinctive features about them, especially after watching the video reviews. It's all pretty much "it's a great ROM that doesn't lag when browsing the web and it's fast". Nothing really distinguishes one from another.
Sorry for the mildly long post, but I'd rather ask as many questions as I can at a time rather than making a couple of threads for each. Hope I can get some help =)
Thanks in advance!
I bought 9023 in hk. Upgraded to ics by ota.
If you want, you may do it manually. Flash the rom by yourself. Ota is no longer available. Check it out at nexusshack.com
I don't have battery problem. But don't know why.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
xdaillum said:
Hi guys sorry for the several topics in my subject line but there are several questions that I have.
So I just signed up because I'm a bit confused and I'm quite new to the scene. I actually posted this on another forum which I'm already a member of, but I felt it would be better posting here since this is obviously more specialised.
After reading the rules, I've realised that it's quite hard to do a search for existing topics with my questions. I've already tried to do individual searches on each topic though, with varying success.
I've just rooted my Nexus S (i9023, AUS version) for the first time simply because I wanted to be able to use DroidWall (to only allow certain apps to use data).
1) If I manually update to ICS, will I lose root?
If it is the update you probably will (not 100% sure), if it is the full OTA you certainly will. But it is not a major issue either way, and i would actually recommend backing up with TB (AND a Nandroid), wiping everything and then installing the Full OTA ROM and just root again, then restore your backup.
2) Does installing a custom ROM cause you to lose all your data? - I've done some searching on this and it seems to depend. Some do and some don't. I don't quite get it though.
They will generally lose any system data, apps, modifications, etc. Titanium Backup will copy over most of it anyway, particularly apps and their settings/data. Keep in mind that you should always have a CWM backup (Nandroid) ready in case something goes wrong.
3) Kernels - seem to control battery life and how the operating system runs. This slightly confuses me because it makes me think, what affects battery life more: the kernel or the ROM?
Both. ROMs can do more or different functions which can cause battery drain. Kernels allow you to change your own settings (most of the time) to actually balance performance and drain. I would say at the moment with ICS, the kernel and the settings you give it is the biggest contributor.
4) Most people like to overclock their phones in the interest of power. Would it be reasonable to underclock it in the interest of battery life? Sometimes I don't think I really need 1GHz.
That is correct. Many people can get the same speed with a lower voltage, lowering battery drain. Others also use something called "LiveOC" and increase the clocks by 10% (or more), changing the bus speed and giving similar speeds to 1000mhz at only 880mhz, again saving power. Just remember every CPU batch has different variations - some can undervolt and overclock like crazy, whereas some struggle with a 5% increase.
5) It seems like the OTA for ICS for i9023 has not been released yet but has been for i9020?
The i9023 and i9020T has been released. The i9020A has not, and the same with the Nexus S 4G (D720 i believe). It sometimes doesnt show up though. Either try a manual command which i can't remember in the dialpad or just update manually (manually is best ).
I'm trying to find the best 2.3.6 Custom ROM from here but none of these are 2.3.6 based! All of them are 2.3.4 or older. I'm hesitant upgrading to ICS for three reasons:
1) Hasn't been released OTA officially
2) Worried of app compatibility
3) Worried of shorter battery life
For these reasons, I'm looking for a 2.3.6 based custom ROM otherwise I'd be happy to look at ICS custom ROMs.
None of the ICS ROMs seem to have any distinctive features about them, especially after watching the video reviews. It's all pretty much "it's a great ROM that doesn't lag when browsing the web and it's fast". Nothing really distinguishes one from another.
Sorry for the mildly long post, but I'd rather ask as many questions as I can at a time rather than making a couple of threads for each. Hope I can get some help =)
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lots of words, i'm getting a little confused up there. Anyway, if you are rooted (and i assume your bootloader is unlocked), there is nothing to worry about as long as you backup. I personally love ICS and have no issue with it, as do many others. A minority of people however tend to have some problems, whether its battery or force closes. My experience so far has been that a proper wipe fixes most of these anyway.
ICS is still new. Once Cyanogenmod 9 is officially released i'm sure we'll see much more variety than the same look and feel, as alot is based off their code. And also, practically no phones have ICS yet. I've not found app compatibility a problem though, i think the main gripe is viber (which should work soon).
I hope this can help you, just let us know if there is anything else you're after. Also, there is a TON of information around the site (and Nexus S forums in particular). A good amount of reading and going through a couple of pages of some of these threads can go a long way. That is why you came here after all, isn't it?
I got the OTA for ICS back around 20th Dec 2011, but I chose not to update it because I was going to be away from a computer for a few days and had no backup phone. When I wanted to update it a few days later, the update had disappeared from my phone so I looked it up online. Apparently the OTA disappeared for Nexus S's due to some bugs or incompatibility issues. I've never seen the update come up on my phone since. Even when I go to Settings->About phone->System update, it says "your system is up to date". So I've always been under the impression that ICS for Nexus S (at least for my variant, i9023) has never been re-released to us OTA.
Harbb, thanks for your answers. The only one I'm not so sure about is the underclocking one. It seems a little beyond me in terms of technicality. I am definitely interested in doing it though. Would you be able to tell me if adjusting clock speed requires an app?
I am rooted and bootloader is unlocked (I thought you could only root if bootloader was unlocked?).
So does that mean all these custom ROMs around at the moment are mostly based around Cyanogenmod, which is why they're very similar? As I was saying, I was looking at getting a custom ROM installed and noticed most of them are ICS custom ROMs, and the video reviews all say "this ROM is fast and does not lag when web browsing. It's a great ROM and it's fast and smooth."
The custom ROMs just don't seem to be "promoted" too well because I can't see what makes one better than the other, or what features of one custom ROM are intended to be the standout ones.
I notice you (Harbb) are using Stock ICS 4.0.3 (according to your sig) - so you are not using a custom ROM? Am I able to install a custom ICS ROM without first installing ICS? I am still running 2.3.6 at this point.
Viber does not work at the moment? That's not too bad. I can live with that.
I've done quite a bit of reading so far. It has certainly helped, but still a long way to go, but thanks for giving me a great start!
I will start backing up my apps using TB and CWM (Nandroid)!
xdaillum said:
I will start backing up my apps using TB and CWM (Nandroid)!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best line i've read in days
I have tried several custom ROMs once they started surfacing but i didn't feel like they gave me anything special enough to switch to right now and Stock is setup and running very nicely. Stock ICS colours are fine and other apps now can provide Notifications Widgets. I havn't noticed any particular differences in speed either.
Brainmasters ICS tweaks, custom kernel and Flavours of ICS runs beautifully. The OTA varies with where it shows up. To force a check, type this in dialer: *#*#checkin#*#* [AKA, *#*#2432546#*#* ]
If you are rooted it won't work anyway. Just update manually. There is no need to currently on ICS to flash custom ICS ROMs. I would advise that when going from GB to ICS though (and often between some custom ROMs) that you go into CWM and do a factory/data wipe and format /system. After backing up of course.
At the moment most are not based on CM9, however several do use bits and pieces of code (ie. notification power widgets) from it. Not sure why most ROM descriptions are the same
First thing i'd consider is getting a custom kernel, and then the NSTools app (market). Lots of stuff to mess around with and full control of the CPU (governors, IO, overclocking, undervolting, etc).
Harbb said:
Best line i've read in days
I have tried several custom ROMs once they started surfacing but i didn't feel like they gave me anything special enough to switch to right now and Stock is setup and running very nicely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agree with u. for 4.0.3, stock is my favorite, sad to say that.
for 4.0.4, while stock for NS not available, IMM26 ROM ported from NS4G seems good, if you like the stock rom feel.
Hmm I bricked my phone.
I've done the Nandroid and Titanium Backup and have it sitting on my computer ready once I recover this damn thing. Following the backups, I attempted to manually update to ICS with the zip file on this page: http://www.androidcentral.com/how-manually-update-your-gsm-nexus-s-ice-cream-sandwich
Now I'm following these two threads to try and recover the phone:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1397393
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1396056
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=20382688&postcount=16
Hopefully I will get this back up and working. I'm still confused as to why it got bricked though. Updated via clockworkmod "update from sdcard" and then rebooted system. After that, it just bricked. Can't get any lights to come up on the device whatsoever. Plugging it in to computer, wall charger, pressing all the buttons, taking the battery out and putting it back in.
Odd. Best of luck getting it working, i'm sure the resurrector will work for you so don't stress too much. That's the right file so i'll probably just put the issue on a bad flash or bad download (wise to hash check before flashing). At this point i'd say it's wise when you get it working again, just flash the Full OTA file, and do a wipe of /data, /cache, /system and /boot beforehand.
Sad to hear about your troubles buddy.
So it looks like everything worked out for me. I managed to restore my phone with the help of the threads above. I have to admit though, the guides given on this forum aren't too "complete" - there's always a step or two missing from the guide that the reader has to figure out themselves. And not all the files are provided in the topics either! I'm also kind of concerned why it seems so many people ended up bricking their phone like that. Quite concerning.
In the end, I managed to reflash the stock ICS ROM for i9023 Nexus S which I found in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1445635
So I scrapped the one that I downloaded initially from Android Central. The difference in size was surprisingly roughly 30MB (160MB instead of the 130MB Android Central one).
I'm just using stock ICS, but rooted. Downloaded a few apps which require root, but haven't tried adding any mods or kernels. I might look into that later. But it seems like with 4.0.4 coming out, there might be some interesting new additions!
Thanks for all your help!!
Did you flash this ics from stock recovery?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Congratulations on resurrecting it! Are you guys saying that there is a risk of bricking a phone, while installing official update? I did a manual update, 3 weeks ago, unrooted, and ICS has been nothing but amazing for me.
I have a question. In case, I ever brick my I9023 (hope not).
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=20382688&postcount=16
This post states that I must be running Ubuntu on my PC. Does that mean I can't use Windows? And if I must use Linux, can I just do it with Wubi, or with Online Server?
This is going to be a long post, but please bare with me. The reason for this post is too hopefully reduce the number of "Help me choose a rom" threads, as they seem to get posted quite frequently, and ask basically the same questions. So in this thread ill be going through some of the basics, as well as some highlights of each type of rom
Introduction
I wrote this thread in an effort to make things easier for "noobies" or "new users" whichever you'd like to call them, so that they can have a better understanding of what the various types of Rom's are out for the Galaxy SIII or may be out in the future. Here's a very common question, what is a rom? A rom on our android phones is like the operating system on your computer, it controls the user interface, what you see and what you can do. Thankfully we have developers who have taken the stock rom's and changed them up and made them 'better' so that we the users can unlock the full potential of our phones. In this thread i will do my best to give you a brief outline of what you can expect with the different types of roms, and what bugs you may encounter. What i will not do is make any claims as to what the 'best' rom is, or tell you what you should be running. I am simply going to give you the information that you need to better help understand what can be included with each rom type
***Disclaimer: Anything you do after reading this thread is on you, what you decide to flash or not to flash is on you. I am not to be held responsible for anything that you do to your phone. This is simply information to help guide you and teach you a few things about roms.***
What you won't find in this guide, but should familiarize yourself with:
These guides don't have to be read, but i highly recommend you at least glance over them to familiarize yourself with a few things, before flashing your first rom. They all contain important information that you should know
*Any instructions on rooting your phone or how to install a rom, those can be found here
*Any rom download list, that can be found here
*A way to get Google wallet to successfully work on your Verizon SIII, that can be found here
Important ------>*A guide to backup your IMEI, that is here<------ Important
Important ------>*An IMEI repair guide/tool, that can be found here<------ Important
*A way to unbrick your softbricked phone, that's can be found here
CHAPTER 1: Touchwiz Roms
***Based on samsung's touchwiz.
Section 1: Stock Rooted Roms
These roms are exactly how its said stock and rooted they are the OTA's that verizon puts out, the only difference is that they've been pre rooted for the rooted users who want to be rooted but just want that basic stock experience. They may come in two flavors: Odex and Deodex, the difference between the two is the way that applications (apk files) are packaged. Odex is the stock way, and Deodex is repackaged, if you're looking to make minor modifications or do a little themeing then you want Deodex because 99% of theme's are built for Deodexed ROMS. There isn't much to be said for stock rooted roms, you're going to get that stock experience that comes with the phone but with root capabilities (titanium backup, wifi tether, overclocking, etc)
-Is this for me? If you want that exact samsung touchwiz stock feel with nothing added in then yes this is for you.
Section 1A: Debloated Stock Rooted Roms
These roms are going to be "debloated" meaning most if not all the fat is taken out of them. In the SIII's case you're going to lose most of the samsung apps and verizon apps. With this you may also lose some of those touchwiz features (smart alert, direct call, etc) or verizon features (NFL mobile, my verizon, etc). The benefit? You're still going to be mostly stock, and you may notice a speed increase due to there being less fat in the rom. There are various levels of debloating as well, some are more extreme and have had everything removed except for the essentials, and some will only remove a few things. Its best to read the original post with each rom to have an idea of what has been removed.
-Is this for me? If you want the barebones experience without using AOSP the yes this is for you.
Section 2: Modified "Stock" Roms
These roms, are going to be the touchwiz rom's made for verizon phones, the base (what the rom is built on) will either come from OTA updates or from leaks. These roms are modified in someway, some more than others. The modifications can include a wide variety of things from the basic speed tweaks, enhancements, and themes to including custom kernels, removing the wifi notifications, extra toggles in the notification bar, 4 in 1 reboot menu, and many other things. They are in a sense stock, but at the same time not. Think of it as a developer taking something 'good' and making it 'great' they've added in the stuff that should have already been there from the start. They will generally be deodexed already, may or may not have been debloated to a point, and generally will have a lot of 'under the hood' enhancements.
-Is this for me? For most people this is for you. You'll have a lot of the touchwiz features that you've come to love such as the camera, smart alert, direct call, and other features, while also getting a much faster and generally better experience. You'll be able to flash themes easily (make sure to double check that the theme is compatible with your rom) root app's will work and you'll be happy.
Section 3: Leaked Roms
These roms, are built off of leaked builds/bases. They may be ICS, Jellybean, etc. These rom's generally may have bugs to begin with depending on the leak itself. Some leaks are a little more stable than others, generally the only time leaked builds have major bugs is when its a leak of the next android version (a leaked JB Touchwiz build for verizon) otherwise they'll generally be almost bug free. There isn't much to say about any leaks of the current version (SIII shipped with ICS Touchwiz) because those will generally just get merged into the custom builds and such. Leaks for future versions generally have bugs, some big, some small, but usually get worked out quickly depending on the bug.
Is this for me? If you're looking to get that future android feel before its official then yes its for you. But you have to be willing to accept that everything may or may not work, and may or may not get fixed before an official release happens. You'll have the latest and greatest though and be able to brag to you're friends about having it before they do.
Section 4: Ported Roms
These roms are ports, meaning they could come from a different carrier (Example: AT&T JB touchwiz on verizon), different manufacturer (Example: Sense 4.0 on SIII), etc. These rom's will almost certainly have bugs to begin with. They are in a way like leaked roms because they aren't "official" for the SIII, but also vastly different because they may not even be mean't for the SIII. These rom's generally require a lot of work to even get booted up because its based off something that's not even mean't for the verizon SIII and a lot of work goes into them. Bugs could range from little things like screen flickering to GPS being completely borked, to your phone not even booting up. After they've had some work hammered into them and testing done, they can be really functional as a daily driver.
Is this for me? If you're looking to have something different or the latest and greatest then yes its for you. But like i said with leaked rom's you have to be willing to accept that you may encounter a vast variety of bugs that may or may not get fixed quickly or at all depending on the bug.
CHAPTER 2: AOSP (Android Open Source Project) Roms
What you won't find in AOSP: Any touchwiz features, yes this includes the camera as well. This is because touchwiz features and apps require the touchwiz framework which is not in AOSP and probably never will be. You also will find that verizon apps tend to be hit or miss as well, most of the time they won't work either, yes this includes NFL mobile and My Verizon.
Known issues when going from ICS touchwiz to AOSP JB:
*GPS may not work correctly, the fix? Before flashing to AOSP JB make sure you have a full gps lock (i personally download gps status from the market and wait until almost all satellites are locked) then from in the app boot into recovery and do your usual wiping/flashing.
*NFC may not work correctly, the fix? Ensure NFC is turned on before flashing to AOSP JB (i personally don't use NFC so i can't comment on whether that works or not, but i've heard it does)
***Based on pure android, you won't have any kind of carrier/manufacturer features added in. If you've ever had a Nexus device then you'll know what this is.
***Themeing is also super simple, with AOSP you get the Theme chooser, which makes changing themes as simple as a few clicks, just download a theme chooser theme off the market and then go into theme chooser and apply it. It really is that simple, if you want to change back just apply the "system" theme, and bam you're back to normal
Section 1: CyanogenMod (CM)
The one's who started it out, they've been around for what feels like forever. This rom will be built straight from the latest source, and it'll be fast from the get go. You'll immediately notice that you've got a lot more RAM free off the bat and this is because there is absolutely no bloat in it at all. You'll have the pure google android experience, it'll be a love or hate thing. For CyanogenMod they generally have nightly builds for those who love to flash, and it'll have added in whatever they added/fixed for that day. These builds may be stable or may not be stable, today's nightly might suck while yesterday's was great. For these if you know what features the latest android version has most likely they'll be in CM, so if you stay up to date then you'll be good to go. Some features are added in though such as notification widgets/toggles, speed tweaks, various other shortcuts. They will generally keep it mostly stock android but also give you some treats that make it better. Bugs are hit or miss, especially for the SIII because pure AOSP android was not built for it originally so some things may be a little iffy (GPS, data, nfc, mms, call volume, etc) it doesn't mean they are all broken, but it's possible they are hit or miss at times, and you're miles may vary. For one person GPS might be fine and the other it could be broken.
Is this for me? If you're looking for that pure android experience without any manufacturer crap in it then yes its for you. Just know that you may encounter bugs that don't get worked out right away, some of them take time.
Section 1A: Unofficial CM Builds
These builds are based off of CM but they are unofficial because a developer wants to make nightly changes, and add in there own modifications, themes, fixes, enhancements, etc. They come with the same risk as official CM builds, but any bugs found in them should not be reported to the official CM bug tracker because then these are unofficial builds. There isn't anything wrong with them being unofficial, its just a developer wanting to add there own twist to the CM builds.
Is this for me? If you're looking for that pure android experience without any manufacturer crap in it then yes its for you. Just know that you may encounter bugs that don't get worked out right away, some of them take time. Please read the OP's thread to understand what changes they have added in.
Section 2: Android Open Kang Project (AOKP)
Almost just like CM but with a little more added in. Its based off the android source code and again won't have any manufacturer crap added in. With AOKP you'll get added in modifications that may not be found in CM, as well as other kinds of toggles, status bar mods, notification mods, etc. I can't say everything because its still based of android source and comes with the same risk as CM which is certain bugs or things not working (GPS, data, nfc, mms, call volume, etc) They know there stuff though and have "Builds" released from anywhere from day to day or weeks apart these builds are more major releases with various fixes, modifications, etc.
Is this for me? If you're looking for that pure android experience without any manufacturer crap in it, and more modifications than CM then yes its for you. Just know that you may encounter bugs that don't get worked out right away, some of them take time.
Section 2A: Unofficial AOKP Builds
These builds are based of off AOKP but they are unofficial because a developer wants to make there own changes, and add in there own modifications, themes, fixes, enhancements, etc. They come with the same risk as official AOKP builds, but any bugs found in them should not be reported to the official AOKP bug tracker because then these are unofficial builds. There isn't anything wrong with them being unofficial, its just a developer wanting to add there own twist to the AOKP builds.
Is this for me? If you're looking for that pure android experience without any manufacturer crap in it, and more modifications than CM then yes its for you. Just know that you may encounter bugs that don't get worked out right away, some of them take time. Make sure to read the OP to understand what has been changed in the build though.
Section 3: Paranoid Android
This rom is a phone/tablet hybrid rom. Its based off of pure android source just like CM, but has made vast changes to it. You'll be able to modify how each specific app shows up on the screen (want tablet mode only for youtube then you got it, want facebook to look bigger or smaller then you got it) and you'll get a wide variety of modifications as well. If you've ever watched a video of a tablet then you'll have an idea of what can happen. It truly is a phone and tablet hybrid, bringing the best of both worlds to your phone. It'll feel like pure android source and will have those features that come with that android version just with the tabletness added in. It comes with same possibility of bugs as other AOSP roms (GPS, data, nfc, mms, call volume, etc) these bugs are not guaranteed and may or may not occur. User A might have data issues but user B may not, your miles may vary with AOSP. Its a bit harder to explain everything for this rom, but i'm doing my best.
Is this for me? If your looking for pure android goodness but with a major overhaul of added in phone/tablet mode hybrid then yes its for you. Just be willing to accept that you may encounter bugs along the way.
Section 4: Other AOSP Roms
The reason i have this section is because its impossible to describe every kind of AOSP roms, especially when more can be added and such. But other AOSP rom's will come with the same pure android source as well, and will have those features. A lot of them merge in code from other various developers (with permission of course) but also add in there own toolkits, setting menus, etc. They are all great roms, but its hard to give every single one a section because its there all based off the same source and have some of the same kind of modifications added in. They all come with the same risk as other AOSP roms in terms of bugs (GPS, data, nfc, mms, call volume, etc) For these rom's you'll have to pick and choose, if you love a certain developer that makes AOSP roms, or have used a developers AOSP rom on a different phone then you'll know what to expect from that rom/developer. Again there is nothing wrong with these rom's its just hard to give all them all there own section when most of the information is going to be the same and repetitive.
Is this for me? If you're looking for that pure android experience without any manufacturer crap in it then yes its for you. If you follow a specific developer then yes its for you. Its going to have more modifications then regular CM or AOSP roms. You really have to test them out for yourself, just read the thread and see what they've changed/modified/added in. Just know that you may encounter bugs that don't get worked out right away, some of them take time.
Section 5: MIUI Rom
Miui is AOSP based but it won't look like it is. This is because with MIUI you get an entire different user interface experience. It's got its own custom toggles in the notification pulldown, its own theme engine (theme's have to be designed specifically for miui), its own camera app, and many other apps that are designed specifically for it. The main miui team puts out a rom in chinese once a week every friday, and it then gets ported to various devices including the SIII. The downside to miui is some things take a lot longer to get worked out in terms of bugs, this is because its ported to our phone but also because its a completely different interface with many applications that have to be worked on before they'll work flawlessly. Its got the same possibility of bugs as other AOSP roms. I've personally used it before on another device and ill tell you its definitely one of a kind, and fun to play with.
Is this for me? If you're looking for something completely and totally different then yes this is for you. Just know that because the larger builds are released once a week it may take time for some bugs to get worked out, but again you'll have something that's completely different from any of your friends as long as you can accept a few bugs here and there.
Section 6: Various Issues and Solutions
NFC Issues: Grayed out, won't turn on, etc. This is NOT a problem with rom itself, to solve this issue you will need to go back to a touchwiz rom and turn NFC on. Then boot into recovery and flash your respective rom choice If that still does not work flash this zip here in recovery after flashing your respective rom.
GPS Issues: Again not Rom related entirely, its more or less AOSP related. This problem again can be avoided by ensuring a full gps lock and leaving gps turned on prior to flashing. If you still have issues after that download GPS status from the market and use that to help with the gps lock. You can also flash this zip file here to help solve the issue
CHAPTER 3: Kernels/Battery life/Radios/Jelly Bean 4.2 Storage System
Section 1: Kernels
Okay kernels are one of the biggest advantages to rooting. They can be used to increase performance vastly, increase your battery life, make your phone faster, increase ram, etc. You can modify the clock speeds using apps to overclock or underclock the cpu, you can increase or decrease the voltage, etc. They are also what makes your phone boot up (flash a kernel mean't for touchwiz on AOSP and its not going to boot up) Kernels are built on two main bases for the SIII: Android Version (ICS, JB, etc) and Touchwiz/AOSP. This means that these kernels are used for specific rom bases and android versions. You have to make sure you read what the specific kernel is built for so you don't flash the wrong one and mess up your phone. Kernels are always your miles may vary, a kernel that works great for me and doubles my battery life, might make yours worse. You really can't guarantee any of that until you flash it on and modify the settings to your liking. Always make a backup before flashing a kernel so just incase your phone doesn't bootup you can easily restore the backup.
Section 2: Battery Life
This is another question i see asked all the time "What's the battery life like?" Battery life is based on a few things:
1. ROM Choice - Some roms might have better battery life than others. Your miles again will vary. You'll never get the same experience as another user.
2. Kernel choice and settings - some kernels work better than others in terms of battery life, what works for you may not work for me. But you can modify your cpu speed settings to help with this. Settings screen off profiles can help as well. I personally decrease the cpu to 384mhz while the screen is off, and it helps me, will it help you? I have no idea.
3. Personal Use - Self explanatory, if you're constantly using your phone, browsing the web, sending emails, playing music, gps, this and that then the battery might drain faster than somebody who doesn't use there phone as much. If you manage to get 3-4+ hours of screen on time then your battery life is fine. How quickly you reach that is based on your use. This also includes whether your still on the stock battery or not, if you've got an extended battery in your phone then your battery life may very well be a lot longer than somebody with the stock battery. You have full control over your personal use.
4. Coverage and Signal - If you're constantly in areas with terrible signal then your battery life will suffer. My suggestion? If you're near wifi turn it on, that way your signal won't matter as much because all your syncing and such will be done through wifi. There isn't much a rom or kernel developer can do about this, its just based on where you live.
5. Wakelocks and syncing - Make sure to download betterbatterystats, why? Because if your battery life sucks then your phone may not be going into deep sleep and this app can help tell you why. Wakelocks are anytime that your phone is awaken from deep sleep, the more wakelocks you have the less deep sleep you get which equals less battery life. Some of these wakelocks can be controlled because many are caused by syncing. If you have apps syncing every 10 minutes, don't expect super great battery life because your phone is constantly being awaken. Control your syncing, if you don't check twitter every 10 minutes then don't have it sync every 10 minutes. A lot of those apps will automatically sync upon being started.
6. Perception - I put this here because its true. Everybody expects something different with there battery life, so they perceive it that way. Some users want over 24 hours whereas some don't. For me personally i consider great battery life to be being able to leave for work at 6:45am, then go to class, then go to the gym, then do whatever else and come home. If i can make it from 6:45am to 8 or 9pm without being forced to charge then i consider that great battery life. Why do you say its great when its only 14 hours without charging? Because i charge my phone every night before going to bed, it may not even be less than 50% less but i still charge it so that's good enough for me since i made it through my day. Everybody has different expectations so don't always assume battery life sucks when somebody says it does because its based on there own perception of what's "great" and what's "bad"
Battery life is and always will be your miles may vary because there are just too many factors to consider. Some people who say "The battery life on this rom sucks" just have a runaway app killing there battery life and don't even realize it. The only true way to gauge battery is based on what you consider to be great battery life.
Section 3: Radios
Another question asked "What's the best radio?" Radios are always your miles may vary, its all based on your signal/coverage area. But there's also a big placebo effect that comes with radios, the second you flash a new radio, you expect the signal to be better so you see it that way. It might actually be better or it could be worse or exactly the same. Some users will get increased speed on one radio and somebody else might get decreased speed, but you can't base your radio stats right after flashing it because you need to test it in real world scenarios, not just sitting around looking at the dbm. I didn't originally plan on having this section but its necessary because in the future you may or may not need a specific radio for a specific rom to work. As of right now (10/22/2012) the radio you choose to use will work on any rom (make sure its a verizon radio) in the future though you may have to use specific radios for specific roms depending on the versions of android that come out, and when that happens you'll have to make sure you're using the right radio otherwise you may not get any kind of signal at all. Remember that radios are mostly user experience based, and what works for you might not work as well for somebody else.
Section 4: Jelly Bean 4.2 Storage System
Alright i'm going to do my best to explain this in the simplest way possible. With the introduction of 4.2 Jelly Bean, the storage/file system changed as well. What i mean by this is at least on AOSP roms when you flash a 4.2 Rom you'll get a "0" (zero) folder with everything from your internal SD card in it. The reason for this is because with the multi user support its the new way Android sorts stuff. Now many of you are probably wondering "Ummm... this is confusing" or "is this bad?" it is confusing at first but honestly its not that bad. The /storage/sdcard0 now points to /storage/emulater/legacy folder which is then emulated by the 0 folder. Easy version: Even if you put stuff in /storage/sdcard0 it'll automatically show up in those other folders anyways. It may look like you've got stuff duplicated, but its really not. Whatever file is on the sdcard0 (Internal card) is only there once.
The good news, if you update your recoveries to the latest versions, then you won't have to worry about any 0 folder nonsense anyways. You'll still have a legacy folder, but that's not a big deal. Just don't mess with it and your phone will be fine.
***If anybody has a better explanation for that, PLEASE let me know and i'll update/add it in ***
I really hope that this thread can help reduce the number of questions asked about which rom to use and such. I put a lot of time into typing all of this out to help you guys, so hopefully it'll do just that and help
Also i spent a lot of time writing this up, so please do not copy and paste it on another forum and claim it as your own work. I realize its just a guide and relatively public information, but still i'd rather it not get copied and pasted onto other forums/threads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
***MODS: feel free to move this if its in the wrong place or something***
Mine
****Change Log****
3/14/2013
Chapter 3:Section 4: Jelly Bean 4.2 Storage Added
12/2/2012
Made backing up your IMEI "Important" to read
Added an AOSP common problem and solution section
10/25/2012
Added another IMEI backup guide to the top.
Added encouraging words for reading other guides.
10/24/2012
Added in links for other useful guides at the top
Added in known issues when going from ICS Touchwiz to AOSP JB
10/23/2012:
Added in Miui (Section 5 under AOSP Roms)
Added in Introduction and Disclaimer (very top)
Began fixing grammar errors
Super! Thx for this contribution
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Super write up. Thank you very much.
Great info. Thanks. - noob
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
How do people have time to write this ****? Lol!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Awesome write up for the noobs bro.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
I was just thinking we really needed a single source to track the progress of each ROM category. This makes a great framework for tracking that information. Thanks for putting this together.
My suggestion would be to add a few bullets below each ROM category that note the most prominent long-term bugs. I think that could significantly reduce the same question being asked over and over within each topic.
Example: all of the AOSP 4.1.x ROMs currently suffer from low video recording volume, poor voice command recognition, and limited in-call volume range (as of this post). Just a suggestion. Keep up the good work!
DroidHam said:
How do people have time to write this ****? Lol!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really have no idea, i was just sitting and thinking "man i answer the same questions almost everyday, if only there was a single thread for the answer" and well... now its here
apet8464 said:
I was just thinking we really needed a single source to track the progress of each ROM category. This makes a great framework for tracking that information. Thanks for putting this together.
My suggestion would be to add a few bullets below each ROM category that note the most prominent long-term bugs. I think that could significantly reduce the same question being asked over and over. Example: all of the AOSP 4.1.x ROMs currently suffer from low video recording volume, poor voice command recognition, and limited in-call volume range (as of this post).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion I actually considered that and may add it in within the next few days, we'll see what happens.
Neverendingxsin said:
I really have no idea, i was just sitting and thinking "man i answer the same questions almost everyday, if only there was a single thread for the answer" and well... now its here
Thanks for the suggestion I actually considered that and may add it in within the next few days, we'll see what happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After thinking about this concept more, a community-maintained wiki might actually be a better medium for efforts like this. Ensuring accuracy, keeping everything up to date - and remaining relevant as a result - always seems to be the greatest challenge.
This thread was well over due. Thanks for taking the time to write it up.
Sent from my Galaxy SIII
Very helpful. I think you may have repeated yourself somewhere in there
Shh! maybe I'm just paranoid, but I think people are listening....
Well thanks man!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Thank you!
Super!!! Thank you! :good: :good: :good: :highfive:
Sticky!
FrostyOrDie said:
Very helpful. I think you may have repeated yourself somewhere in there
Shh! maybe I'm just paranoid, but I think people are listening....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure i did lol
Samsung.Galaxy.S3 said:
Super!!! Thank you! :good: :good: :good: :highfive:
Sticky!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
apet8464 said:
After thinking about this concept more, a community-maintained wiki might actually be a better medium for efforts like this. Ensuring accuracy, keeping everything up to date - and remaining relevant as a result - always seems to be the greatest challenge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mhmmm. Thats why i tried to keep this as "basic" as possible and just going over the general stuff. I'm able to keep up with a lot but only to a certain extent.
Neverendingxsin said:
mhmmm. Thats why i tried to keep this as "basic" as possible and just going over the general stuff. I'm able to keep up with a lot but only to a certain extent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True. Fortunately, the ROM categories themselves are fairly constant, so this thread should be pretty low maintenance. Hopefully it will get stickied or merged with a stickied thread so it remains visible to noobs.
apet8464 said:
True. Fortunately, the ROM categories themselves are fairly constant, so this thread should be pretty low maintenance. Hopefully it will get stickied or merged with a stickied thread so it remains visible to noobs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah thankfully they are I've just got a few more things to add and a little cleaning to do with this thread.
great writeup...this needs merged with the download list thread.
I have high demands for my phone and I need a rom and kernal that can perform very well. Ideally I need to have options for theming, no less than all the stock settings, and ability to overclock to at least 1.8. Myblast phone didn't have nearly as many options from developers which made it somewhat easy to decide. Here I'm seeing a whole lot and don't really know where to start. I have a family and a job where I work at least 50 hours every week so honestly its hard to find time to read up on a lot of developments. Could you suggest a good rom and kernal for me to start with?
theres a guide somehwere but i cant seem to find it. you should look for it. i think neverendingsin wrote it up. It discusses AOSP vs TW in detail if i remember correctly.
original development - CM10, cyanogenmod roms mostly in here. these are built on AOSP.
development - roms based on touchwiz
both offer a unique set of customizations and modifications. I suggest trying a few and see what works for you.
Someone post up that guide if you kno what im referring to.
Thanks for the word. Ill probably start with cm10.