Database Info

{KERNEL-SOURCE} GoDmOdE-EVO-2.6.29 {Make Shift Kernel}[SENSORS-LIGHTS-PANEL-FIXED]

THIS SOURCE WILL WORK ON ALL CURRENT HTC EVO'S!!!
i found the board files for the EVO a while back but wanted to wait til we at least had the release RUU to release it. now the actual kernel itself isnt a EVO kernel. its actually an Incredible kernel source with the EVO board files in it. that said i had to mod the board files a little to get it to compile. anyhow link below and remember to fork as it helps github and everyone. thanx
GoDmOdE-EVO
Commit log:
Sat May 22, 2010 - First-commit-0_o = first commit
Sat Jun 19, 2010 - Fix the wimax LED, capella prox sensor. Add epson panel support for supersonic
(panel_type=0), which is present on
hardware revision 3. Implement 9bit spi. - by Joe Hansche (maejrep)
Sun Jun 20, 2010 - Add some more epson vs novatec fixes - by Joe Hansche (maejrep)
Mon Jun 21, 2010 - Fix proximity sensor and Implement wimax LED control. These commits also fixed issues with all other sensors, and enabling them to all work!!! - by Joe Hansche (maejrep)
THIS IS A UPDATE.ZIP THAT CAN BE USED WITH FRESH ROM, TO BOOT THIS KERNEL WITHOUT WIPING. PLEEEEEESE DO A NANDROID BACKUP BEFORE FLASHING THIS UPDATE.ZIP. SO U CAN JUST NANDROID RESTORE UR DEVICE BACK TO NORMAL AFTER UR DONE PLAYING . ANYHOW CAMERA IS NOT WORKING AND THERE SEEM TO BE WHATS THOUGHT TO BE VSYNC ISSUES. ANYHOW ENJOY!!!
http://link.geekfor.me/godmodefreshhh
of course dont turn this thread into a this is broke can u please fix it thread.
IF U WOULD LIKE TO HELP OUT OR BUILD UR OWN KERNEL FROM THIS SOURCE, PLEASE FORK. THIS IS ADVISED BY GITHUB AND ALSO BY ME. AS IT MAKE PULLING CHANGES TO AND FROM BRANCHES MUCH EASIER. THIS IS A GOOD THING FOR U AND ME. IF I MAKE A COMMIT U WANNA ADD U CAN EASILY SYNC UP WITH ME AND VICE VERSA. WORKS OUT GREAT FOR EVERYONE AND KEEPS US COMPLETELY OPEN, AFTER ALL WERE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM.

ToAsTcFh For MOD!!!! This is genius

Im a little too buzzed atm. What exactly is this and what does it mean for us? explain and ill understand it in the A.M.

Trying to take over the Evo forums already Toast? ha ha Good to know we are going to have good devs on this board. Still running your kernel on my Hero. That is until my Evo arrives today and I start trying to root it

chuckhriczko said:
Trying to take over the Evo forums already Toast? ha ha Good to know we are going to have good devs on this board. Still running your kernel on my Hero. That is until my Evo arrives today and I start trying to root it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how're you getting your evo today??

so far i know a lot of good devs coming over. im pre-ordered so as soon as it shows up at best buy ill be struggling for root again.

justinisyoung said:
how're you getting your evo today??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ebay? Craglist?
ppl from the google i/o event selling them

YoungAceAtlanta said:
Ebay? Craglist?
ppl from the google i/o event selling them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. eBay. It's a Google I/O device. Paid a HEFTY premium for it but it's worth it to get it two weeks early for me.

toastcfh said:
so far i know a lot of good devs coming over. im pre-ordered so as soon as it shows up at best buy ill be struggling for root again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome. Who else that you know of? I know I stopped devving for the Hero but I can't wait to start devving for this thing. This community is going to be epic!

Right on toast, this is awesome.

fantastic toast

can this kernel be loaded onto one of the google I/O event EVOs to test?

The device isn't root yet

toastcfh said:
The device isn't root yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
now i see the catch 22...sorry im new to all this and dont have an EVO to experiment with...
could this kernel be combined with the standard ramdisk into a boot.img, packaged into a signed update.zip and installed through the stock recovery?

joeykrim said:
now i see the catch 22...sorry im new to all this and dont have an EVO to experiment with...
could this kernel be combined with the standard ramdisk into a boot.img, packaged into a signed update.zip and installed through the stock recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. You can't flash anything worthwhile until the phone is rooted. Once this happens expect this forum to explode.

No we need root and the ability. To flash a custom recovery. Basically. The catch 22 is we need root before we can do anything custom

By flashing an updated NBH, doesn't that overwrite both the Kernel and the OS on the NAND? If so, couldn't we replace the Kernel with one with root, and also provide for our own (AOSP, etc.) builds of Android?
Essentially, I'm wondering what the breakdown process is for recovery. The bootloader (Power + Volume on boot) is stored on the ROM, so regardless of "bricking" your device, you should always be able to get back to the bootloader to recover, correct?
If that's the case, what stops us from simply building an NBH with the current (locked) Kernel, but with modified system files for our own ROM?

Shidell said:
By flashing an updated NBH, doesn't that overwrite both the Kernel and the OS on the NAND? If so, couldn't we replace the Kernel with one with root, and also provide for our own (AOSP, etc.) builds of Android?
Essentially, I'm wondering what the breakdown process is for recovery. The bootloader (Power + Volume on boot) is stored on the ROM, so regardless of "bricking" your device, you should always be able to get back to the bootloader to recover, correct?
If that's the case, what stops us from simply building an NBH with the current (locked) Kernel, but with modified system files for our own ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
we're thinking alike here. some of this terminology is new to me and some isnt. hopefully this makes sense. im gonna reword but ask the same question as above (at least i think same question) plus another question. im doing a lot of research and tryin to word things correctly...
this might be the same question as above, are we able to trick the supersonic RUU released here into loading our own rom.zip file (NBH)? (we were able to do this with the samsung moment)
if not, are we able to use the fastboot-bootloader mode (samsung moment doesnt have this) to install a custom recovery? if so, we are then waiting on a custom recovery to be developed?

I think we are heading down the same path.
My understanding is that flashing a new "ROM" via NBH will replace both the Kernel and the OS (Android) files on the NAND, as both live there. The only item that lives in the ROM itself is the bootloader, which should always persist. With this understanding, even if you totally destroy your Kernel and/or Android OS, you should always be able to power the device to bootloader mode (Power + Volume) to flash (and therefore replace/restore) a new Kernel/OS to your phone.
If that's the case, then root access isn't necessary. All root access will allow us to do is some fancy side operations, like running a ROM (OS) manager inside Android--and who really wants to do that? Most of us want to be able to load a single custom build of Android, optimized and designed the way we want, right?
My thought process is this:
HTC should be releasing the EVO Kernel source on developer.htc.com by the official launch. With that, we can compile the Kernel ourselves (if we can't otherwise find it compiled) and theoretically bundle that with our own OS compilation of Android into a .NBH. This .NBH could then be flashed via the bootloader, replacing both the stock OS and the Kernel with what we've bundled.
This would seem to mean we wouldn't have root access, but we wouldn't need it, as we could simply update the OS files, build an .NBH, and provide it to users to flash. This could mean that custom distros would be a single contained file--one file to flash and that's it, you're updated.
Thoughts? Is this accurate?
If this is the case, we should start looking at the Kernel and the .NBH format rather than obtaining root, because once we understand the .NBH, we can load whatever we want (including a Kernel with root access, if desired.)

Shidell said:
I think we are heading down the same path.
My understanding is that flashing a new "ROM" via NBH will replace both the Kernel and the OS (Android) files on the NAND, as both live there. The only item that lives in the ROM itself is the bootloader, which should always persist. With this understanding, even if you totally destroy your Kernel and/or Android OS, you should always be able to power the device to bootloader mode (Power + Volume) to flash (and therefore replace/restore) a new Kernel/OS to your phone.
If that's the case, then root access isn't necessary. All root access will allow us to do is some fancy side operations, like running a ROM (OS) manager inside Android--and who really wants to do that? Most of us want to be able to load a single custom build of Android, optimized and designed the way we want, right?
My thought process is this:
HTC should be releasing the EVO Kernel source on developer.htc.com by the official launch. With that, we can compile the Kernel ourselves (if we can't otherwise find it compiled) and theoretically bundle that with our own OS compilation of Android into a .NBH. This .NBH could then be flashed via the bootloader, replacing both the stock OS and the Kernel with what we've bundled.
This would seem to mean we wouldn't have root access, but we wouldn't need it, as we could simply update the OS files, build an .NBH, and provide it to users to flash. This could mean that custom distros would be a single contained file--one file to flash and that's it, you're updated.
Thoughts? Is this accurate?
If this is the case, we should start looking at the Kernel and the .NBH format rather than obtaining root, because once we understand the .NBH, we can load whatever we want (including a Kernel with root access, if desired.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok.. the bootloader isnt gonna let us flash anything that isnt for the phone that ive heard of at least. the bootloader is only gonna let us flash rom.zips signed by htc unless we have a engineering spl. if we had that we could fastboot whatever we want. but it is also my understanding that the new engineering spls will not let us flash to certain major partitions (ie rocovery, and boot) anyhow this i think was an issue for the desire that modaco rooted and he found a way around it. we need a recovery for sure. as starting a new with no backups and such would be nothing more then a pain. we should focus i think on obtaining a engineering SPL from someone nice who wants to hook us up or a exploit of some sort. we need to gain read/write access to system, boot and recovery partitions. we do that and we can do what we want with the device. were not gonna be able to just flash a kernel, boot.img, system, or update.zip thats not official without the ability to gain access to the recovery partition.
in an exploit we would have root user status and we would have write perms on system at that point we could possible add flash_image to bin, chmod it and use that to flash a new recovery. write access is all we need. if ur idea was possible all we would need to do is flash a distro with root access and then flash the recovery partition with a custom recovery. a custome recovery will give us the ability to flash, backup and restore whatever we want. so long story short we need root user status in any event so we can gain access to recovery partition.

[Q] Samsung Galaxy Gio (S5660M, not S5660)

Hello,
I have bought a North American (Canadian, to be exact) Galaxy Gio (S5660M, with an additional "M" from the European model).
There are lots of tutorials about S5660 rooting and unlocking, but none for S5660M. There has been some reports that flashing S5660 firmware on S5660M to root and unlock made their phones unusable (randomly changing screen brightness, etc).
I tried searching on google and XDA, but could not find any relating to S5660M.
Is it too early to see any rooting/unlocking on S5660M?
Thank you very much!

Hello,
After some reading on here to compare unlock methods, I decided to take the leap into the unknown. I used the one published in this thread. (EDIT: Check out this one instead, perfectly safe.) (It turns out that the Gravity Smart, Galaxy Q, 551, 550, Mini, Ace, Fit, and Gio are siblings in a few respects. They all share Qualcomm 7x27 family SoCs.)
One deviation from the above linked thread is that SuperOneClick does not work on the 2.3.4 MUGK3 firmware. Updated versions of SuperOneClick do work with the firmware. Worst case scenario the program won't finish gracefully, but you'll have a root shell and you can work from there.
I've uploaded my modified superuser zip that'll work with the 5660M. Install through recovery mode. Removed - the superuser files within were long obsolete. Get the current ones through proper channels.
I wouldn't risk flashing the ROMs posted here until we can get a complete backup ROM, either from samfirmware.com (they don't have one yet) or through efforts here. I'll be starting another thread here for that purpose. Backup made a long time ago and SamMobile has had an official Odin image for some time as well.
There's been some issues reported with the 5660M, ranging from odd screen brightness behavior to bricking. (Many ROMs initially posted for the 5660, left "as is" also flash both the kernel and radio: not good.)
Goodbye,
Darkshado

Thank you for the reply! I have successfully rooted & unlocked using the modified zip. I am not sure if it was your's (I have done it prior to looking at your reply... ), but it worked!
thank you!
Darkshado said:
Hello,
After some reading on here to compare unlock methods, I decided to take the leap into the unknown. I used the one published in this thread. (It turns out that the Mini, Ace and Gio are siblings in a few respects.) Make extra sure to follow the steps intelligently, especially the bit right after you get your code.
One deviation from the above linked thread is that SuperOneClick does not work on the 2.3.4 MUGK3 firmware.
I've uploaded my modified superuser zip that'll work with the 5660M. Install through recovery mode.
I wouldn't risk flashing the ROMs posted here until we can get a complete backup ROM, either from samfirmware.com (they don't have one yet) or through efforts here. I'll be starting another thread here for that purpose.
There's been some issues reported with the 5660M, ranging from odd screen brightness behavior to bricking. (The ROMs posted for the 5660, left "as is" also flash both the kernel and radio: not good.)
Goodbye,
Darkshado
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

could you tell me how I could unlock my phone too.

New tonight
Just picked up a GIO here tonight.
BTW Future Shop in Canada has these on for $80 right now.
I think this is a great deal, for a very responsive 2.3 android phone.
OK,
So S5660m - is the version in canada it would seem.. I think there are going to be quite a lot of owners because of the pricing.
We should use this thread or another to setup a difinitive list of what works.
1. How to root the phone.
2. Unlocks that work - I have heard some methods brick Ms very easy. What is the best unlock method specific to the M
3. What ROMs can we use? do we need to have our own set of modified roms because of the modem portion?
4. Overclocking.. I have heard these can clock up to 1100 and run awsome!!
This is my wish list.
James

Hello James. Welcome to XDA.
Whoa there early thread starter! Use the search engine before even thinking of starting another thread. We don't have a dedicated Gio forum at the moment so things are scattered all over. Advanced search is handy as it outputs threads instead of posts.
Biker1bob said:
1. How to root the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same as a lot of other phones, apply a zip file through CWM. You could also flash an already rooted ROM with Odin.
2. Unlocks that work - I have heard some methods brick Ms very easy. What is the best unlock method specific to the M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The bml5 method is safe. I noticed I had left a link to the older and unsafe stl5 method in my post above and removed it.
And keep your unlock code accessible somewhere on the phone. This phone is known to relock itself to Bell in some specific scenarios.
3. What ROMs can we use? do we need to have our own set of modified roms because of the modem portion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and no. If you only flash system.rfs, and maybe boot.img, it should work based on what others have reported.
I've cooked up a ROM for the 5660M that's called ArpegGioMod if you want to have a look.
Another point to consider if you want to run your phone in French: the Eurasian ROMs may or may not have that locale, and will likely have an AZERTY keyboard instead of a QWERTY one.
Do not flash radio (AMSS) or the other bootloaders from the Euro 5660. The former will make you lose all cellphone connection, the latter is unnecessary and increases your chances of bricking.
4. Overclocking.. I have heard these can clock up to 1100 and run awsome!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where'd you get that? The only kernel mods I've seen so far for any Gio are all ramdisk modifications that left the stock kernel untouched.

Just to clairify darkshadow, by "bml5 method" you mean this ?
0) brand new locked GT-S5660M phone frome the store
1A) root the device using this zip
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=16962635&postcount=2
simplest method :
1.1 To begin, download the zip file from the link above and copy it to the root of your SD card.
1.2 Power the phone off.
1.3 Boot into recovery mode by holding the middle button and pressing the power button.
1.4 Once in recovery mode, select update from sdcard and choose the update.zip that you copied to your SD card.
1.5 Let the file flash and once done, reboot your phone.
OR
1B Follow EDIT2, for temp rooting on same URL below
2. Follow exact instructions as per here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17148825&postcount=334
(with the slight modification for HEX code to search specified here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17311381&postcount=358 )
Question: Does it matter if there is a SIM card in the phone when following these instructions ?
Any thoughts about "Network Lock Control Key" ?? ( ... would appear that this shows up as a separate issue for some users some time after unlocking see:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=992564 )
THANK YOU so much for confirming I got this right....I just want to make sure I am not missing anything, and these instructions are really safe as far as you know before attempting anything.

Darkshado said:
Hello James. Welcome to XDA.
Whoa there early thread starter! Use the search engine before even thinking of starting another thread. We don't have a dedicated Gio forum at the moment so things are scattered all over. Advanced search is handy as it outputs threads instead of posts.
Same as a lot of other phones, apply a zip file through CWM. You could also flash an already rooted ROM with Odin.
The bml5 method is safe. I noticed I had left a link to the older and unsafe stl5 method in my post above and removed it.
And keep your unlock code accessible somewhere on the phone. This phone is known to relock itself to Bell in some specific scenarios.
Yes, and no. If you only flash system.rfs, and maybe boot.img, it should work based on what others have reported.
I've cooked up a ROM for the 5660M that's called ArpegGioMod if you want to have a look.
Another point to consider if you want to run your phone in French: the Eurasian ROMs may or may not have that locale, and will likely have an AZERTY keyboard instead of a QWERTY one.
Do not flash radio (AMSS) or the other bootloaders from the Euro 5660. The former will make you lose all cellphone connection, the latter is unnecessary and increases your chances of bricking.
Where'd you get that? The only kernel mods I've seen so far for any Gio are all ramdisk modifications that left the stock kernel untouched.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so i'm pretty new here... i have a gio n my usb port is messed up.. i wiped tha phone the other day n the network lock came back on.. so seeing that i can't use any usb what should i do?
thanks in advance
IMEI: Mod Edit: IMEI # Removed...not a great idea to post them on a public forum

Let me start with things you shouldn't do:
-Resurrect two year old, stale, threads.
-Post your IMEI for everyone to see.
Exactly *how* is your USB port messed up? Just not talking to the computer or not working at all?
Are you rooted? If not, get that sorted out by using one of the exploits that worked on Gingerbread. You'll have to do it manually, no SuperOneClick for you. (Although the binaries included might come in handy.)
It is possible to do the commands to get bml5 via a terminal emulator app, and then transfer that file over wi-fi. (Samba, WebDAV, FTP, Dropbox, etc...)
I'm not sure anymore if this is possible in GB, look into using ADB over wi-fi instead of USB. I've sold my Gio months ago, and all of my current devices run 4.1+.

[GUIDE][INFO] The beginner's info thread (aka. the noob helper)

This guide is intended to be an all-in-one resource for people coming to Samsung phones after using other devices. It is a general introduction to the S4 and a glossary/explanation of terms you may see here in the forums.
This thread is slightly out of date but the info is still good, I will be updating again soon!!! Remember to hit thanks if this was useful
Disclaimer "Just because I am trying to be helpful does not make me responsible for anything that you do to your phone. Playing with any of this stuff could destroy your phone"
The layout of this post is as follows:
Welcome
FAQ
Glossary of terms
First off, welcome to XDA
The XDA community is home to the most talented and helpful phone developers on the planet.
These developers spend lots of their free time working on making all of our phones better. You should be nice and respectful to them and follow the rules. WHY? If the statement above isn’t enough reason then think selfishly, the less time they are dealing with redundant questions, the more time they have to develop stuff for all of us!
Help them help you by following the following basic rules:
1.If you are confused or have a question, the first thing to do is READ! Read lots, look things up both on xda and using google.
2.If after searching you still have not answered your question, then post in the Q&A forum.
3.Asking for ETAs on ROMs, updates, etc. is considered rude.. DON’T DO IT!
4.Don’t report bugs to a developer unless:
a.You know 100% that it hasn’t already been reported,
b.You know how to reproduce it
c.You can get a logcat of the problem (more on this later)
Some advice if you are new to all this and don’t want to ruin your phone:
1.Be patient. Don’t be the first or even the tenth person to flash anything. Wait until you see others using whatever Rom or kernel with success.
2.If you have any doubts about what you are doing, read more. Don’t flash.
3.Make sure you are in the forum for your device, not some similar or related device.
FAQ:
Q. Is my bootloader locked?
A. Only if you have an AT&T or Verizon phone
******* Info for AT&T users *******
Q. What is LOKI?
A. Loki is an exploit for phones with locked boot loader that allows us to bypass the locked boot loader in order to install custom roms or recoveries. More Loki info down below
Q. Whats the deal with MF3?
A. MF3 is the current firmware from AT&T that comes on any new phone. Your phone may also auto update to MF3 if you are not careful. MF3 patched the ability to use Loki to install custom roms/recoveries so if you are on MF3 things are much more difficult.
Q. How can I keep my phone from updating to MF3?
A. If you want to avoid the update, you should root your phone and freeze the following three apps using titanium backup or some similar app.
1. AT&T Software update Vxx_x_xxxx_x_x
2. FWUpgrade x.x.x
3. LocalFOTA vx_xxxx_x_x​
Why flash?
by flashing your device you can make your phone act differently, look different, and enable new or disabled options. you could ,for example:
enable native tethering
enable call recording
change the look of your phone
add custom toggle buttons
overclock or undervolt
increase battery life
etc..
Kernel vs Rom vs Recovery vs Modem
Kernel is the layer between the phone hardware and the rom. it controls things like Wi-Fi power, touch sensitivity, possible range of screen brightness, phone logging, and processor max and min speed. kernel must be designed not only for your device but also for the type of rom you are using (Sammy rom or Aosp) some kernels support all roms, others are specific.
Rom is the operating system of your phone. there are three main categories of roms.
roms that are based off of the Samsung stock rom (Sammy rom)
roms that are based off of Android open source project aka AOSP (AOSP, AOKP)
roms based off of the miui project (these used to be a branch of AOSP but recently they have also used Sammy base for miui)
recovery is a partition that you can access at boot by holding down a combination of keys. (volume up and home button in the case of our sgs4) every phone has recovery stock but it doesn't do much. you can replace stock with clockwork mod recovery which is extremely useful for flashing all kinds of things and making backups before you do. There are other alternative recoveries besides clockwork but that seems to be the most common. TWRP is also gaining popularity these days. You can easily switch between recoveries and or upgrade your current recovery. All that needs to happen is for a new image to be flashed onto the recovery partition. See the rooting guide for more info on how to flash a custom recovery.
modem is a file that controls the cell radio of the phone. Helps determine what frequencies to use and settings for a particular network. It is important when flashing a radio that you flash a radio that is for the AT&T sgs4
Methods for flashing files - Odin vs mobile Odin vs. clockworkmod(cwm) vs adb
Odin is the internal Samsung tool for flashing. I believe it only exists on Windows platform. This tool is mostly used to initially flash an insecure kernel or rooted kernel, OR to return to completely stock rom.. Files for flashing in odin generally should end in .tar or .tar.md5 although sometimes they come zipped and the tar is inside the zip. Read more about Odin before using it as it can easily break your phone. !!!as a general rule make sure you never check the "partition" checkbox EVER!!!
Mobile Odin (THIS TOOL DOES NOT SUPPORT ALL S4 MODELS...make sure you check that it specifically works with yours first. I think at this time it works on your phone unless you have locked bootloader but STILL DOUBLE CHECK) is a phone based version of Odin made by the very talented developer Chainfire. It can be installed on a rooted phone and used to flash the same .tar based files as the desktop version. Mobile odin has a few advantages. 1 you can use it from your phone. 2 it can auto root a stock rom (nice if you want to try out a brand new update that has not been rooted yet)
clockworkmod(cwm) or TWRP is recovery based tool that can make backups of your entire phone, flash new roms, kernels etc.., and do many other useful tasks. Once you have this on your phone my guess is that most of your flashing will be done through this tool. The files for flashing through clockworkmod are .zip files.
ADB is the android develpment bridge. It allows for command line interface with your phone through its debugging options. ADB can do most anything as I understand it. In my several years of flashing I have only had to use it once, and i could have waited for someone to come up with another solution. In general as a noob i recommend you stay away from ADB.
open source vs Samsung base(aka Touchwiz or TW) vs miui
Open Source Roms such as AOSP/AOKP are built using Google's open source android code as a base. The developers then add functionality specific to the device. The advantages of these builds are that they often have tons of options built in to the rom that change the behavior and look of the phone. They usually allow you to change the toggles in your notification pull down, change the battery display, make all kinds of adjustments to sounds, vibration etc... Some people also prefer the "vanilla" android look and feel. These roms often provide "bleeding edge" concepts, design, and modifications. The Disadvantages of these roms is that some of the hardware coding is done closed source by the phone manufacturers, which means that things like Infrared, bluetooth, camera, video recording, and MHL video out often don't work or take much longer to get working by the developers. Basically anything that relies on the Samsung framework will not work in an open source build. This means Svoice, Snote, and the Samsung camera app will not work.
Samsung based roms (aka Touchwiz/TW) are taken from the Samsung original phone software and modified by the developer. Usually, these roms are modified in order to be faster and to make changes to some of the features. Expect to see changes to the stock rom like: debloated (ATT and samsung software removed), de-odexed (explained later), enable tethering, unlimited sms recipients, added notification toggles, etc. Most of these changes are made to: make the phone faster, improve battery life, make the phone easier to theme. The advantage of these roms is that they still use the Samsung framework so all the proprietary stuff like camera, bluetooth, MHL still work, the disadvantage is that they will never be as customisable as open source roms.
MIUI is a rom that focuses on theming. Official MIUI (Chinese) gets updated weekly on Friday and then there are lots of miui developers who adapt it to other languanges and make some tweaks to it. MIUI can be built from AOSP source or Samsung source and depending will have different features. The first MIUI rom for our phone just appeared in these forums and it is based off of AOSP. MIUI has a unique look and is also highly customizable through theming. There are tons of themes available for download through the rom itself and you can mix and match any part of any theme you want. This includes icons, lockscreen style, etc.. Some people criticize while others praise MIUI for being very "iphone like". This is because the icons look more iphone like and there is no app drawer in the MIUI launcher. However, you can still use any launcher you like within MIUI.
odexed vs de-odexed
odexed is how the phone comes stock from Samsung. Odexed means that system files and apps are split into two pieces and kept in different places on the phone. This is done to speed things up a bit. However, it makes it harder to theme the phone because the apps are split up. Most custom roms choose to de-odex (basically regroup the files back into one) so that custom themers can make themes more easily for the phone.
Flashing "dirty" vs flashing "clean"
Clean
Doing a clean install of a rom means erasing or formatting all the data from the previous rom before you flash the new one. This is the prefered way to flash a rom to ensure that it will run smoothly. It is necessary if you are switching from one rom type to another (CM to Samsung base). In order to do a clean flash you need to boot into recovery and select the following options: wipe user data (this wipes all apps and personal data, but not your photos/videos), wipe cache, advanced>wipe dalvik cache, storage/mounts>format system. This will ensure that no trace of the former rom is left on the phone. Beware that at this point your phone will not boot until you install a new rom. I suggest using titanium backup to backup apps and smsbackup+ for texts to make getting your new rom configured easy.
Dirty
Doing a dirty install means just flashing a new rom right over the top of the old one without wiping any data. The advantage to this is that you don't lose any apps or account info. The disadvantage is that you open up the possibility for problems. Generally you only want to flash this way if you are upgrading a rom (CM10 nightly to the next nightly, or from one samsung based rom to another). If you decide to flash over the top and have any issues, you should not report bugs, but try flashing clean first.
Logcat
Logcat is a way to access the android system log for everything that is going on behind the scenes. This tool is used to help developers pinpoint problems in a rom. If you want to actually be helpful to a dev when reporting a bug, you should really learn to use this tool. I am no expert on logcat but you can find some good information in this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1726238
What is the Bootloader?
The bootloader is basically what it sounds like...it loads the boot image of the device. Basically it is one of the first things to run on the phone and it shows the phone where to find the boot image and how to start. The bootloader is also responsible for allowing access to the recovery part of the phone.
Locked Bootloader?
This seems to confuse a lot of users so here goes: The AT&T and Verizon versions of our phone have a locked bootloader. What does this mean? To the noob, it means that the devs had to figure out how to bypass or unlock this part of the phone in order to be able to boot custom recoveries such as CWM and TWRP. Getting a custom recovery means being able to backup the phone as well as flash custom roms. Luckily for us, Djrbliss (make sure and thank him! his thread is here:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2292157) figured out how to bypass the locked bootloader. The exploit he used is known as Loki. Please remember that the loki exploit is not the same thing as unlocking the bootloader, it is a bypass/trick. AT&T and Verizon have fixed the exploit that allowed loki to work in there newest firmware. Loki patch will not work for MF3 firmware or later.
Loki
refers to the exploit that allows us to run custom recoveries as well as custom roms. You only need to have a loki'd rom if you have a model with a locked bootloader (AT&T). Thankfully, you can install a custom recovery that will auto-Loki any rom you flash so that you can install almost any rom built for our model phone (see below). I strongly recommend flashing an auto loki recovery if you have a phone with locked bootloader. I use this one here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2291956
Compatible Roms
you should be able to run any rom built for AT&T, TMobile, or the I9505 international model (NOT I9500!!) as long as you flash with an auto loki recovery. You can check out this thread for more info. Make sure and thank TheAxman! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2295557
You may have to manually set the APN. If you encounter problems with the rom look in that roms thread for answers.

Sticky!!

Well damn, I thought I knew a lot, but after reading this thread, I really didn't. Well done. :good:

Incredible resource for those coming in from a different ecosystem.
Thanks much!!

Thread stuck!! Nice work!

Got my new At&t Samsung Galaxy S4 and this will definitely help me!!

this is another thread that really helped me as well these two have really helped me so far i have rooted several divices and just relied on everyone else and not i am starting to take a lot more of an interest ant these threads have been the most helpful
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=42055644#post42055644

WoW
Great work! I'm sure this thread will be very helpful to a lot of people (Myself included). Tanks bro! :victory:

More! More! :d

I've been searching high and low ive read everything and maybe im not understanding but after I root my phone how do I do the whole loki thing??... I'm eager to start flashing roms... Ive read of some recoveries that do this is that an accurate assessment??

KINGDROID25 said:
I've been searching high and low ive read everything and maybe im not understanding but after I root my phone how do I do the whole loki thing??... I'm eager to start flashing roms... Ive read of some recoveries that do this is that an accurate assessment??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly are you trying to do?
If you want to install a custom ROM or kernel, you need a custom recovery. The ROM or Kernel developer will have LOKI-fied it for you.
For TWRP (my custom recovery of choice) Download GooManager from the Play Store and install.
Inside the goo.im app, go to menu>Install OpenRecovery Script
then you can boot into recovery to apply kernels, ROMs, etc to your hearts desire

joeybear23 said:
What exactly are you trying to do?
If you want to install a custom ROM or kernel, you need a custom recovery. The ROM or Kernel developer will have LOKI-fied it for you.
For TWRP (my custom recovery of choice) Download GooManager from the Play Store and install.
Inside the goo.im app, go to menu>Install OpenRecovery Script
then you can boot into recovery to apply kernels, ROMs, etc to your hearts desire
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its tht ez just root and add custom recovery??.. The whole loki thing is what's been throwing me off
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

KINGDROID25 said:
Its tht ez just root and add custom recovery??.. The whole loki thing is what's been throwing me off
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes... the difficult part is if you are a developer. They make our lives much easier.

joeybear23 said:
Yes... the difficult part is if you are a developer. They make our lives much easier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx ima root tonight I jus need to get a copy of the stock firmware
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

KINGDROID25 said:
Thanx ima root tonight I jus need to get a copy of the stock firmware
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock Firmware:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2261573
That is a HUGE download, but the process is simple.

im not a newb but i need to boost my post count lol...soooo spam

KINGDROID25 said:
I've been searching high and low ive read everything and maybe im not understanding but after I root my phone how do I do the whole loki thing??... I'm eager to start flashing roms... Ive read of some recoveries that do this is that an accurate assessment??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have updated the OP to explain Loki, hope that helps :good:

Noob here first time posting I rooted my phone and installed cwm using casual method, created backup and installed mint rom love it but after a couple of post I see I didn't backup EFS should I be worried?

I'm not sure what the deal is with backing up the IMEI number on our phones yet. I have not seen anyone post about losing their IMEI yet so I wouldn't be too worried. On the s3 only the international model phones could be backed up by saving the efs folder. The backup process for AT&T phones was much more complex. I assume the same holds true on the s4. Will update when I find out more
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium

I wanted to make sure Thx. Is it to late to back EFS or can I just restore my backup and do it?

Flashing roms from different variants

feed my curiosity if you can:
In theory, transplanting the modem file from a sprint rom to the rom from another variant and flashing a matching kernel would give me a functioning rom for me to use? I have a sprint variant but i'm overseas and do not care about CDMA at all.
I'm doing it later today when i come back from work, but i'd like to confirm if my assumption is correct.
Thank you!

I'm a bit curious too. I guess you won't be able to install it straight due to differences in partitions mapping (partition names and size may differ) but if it happenes to be the same your theory looks reasonable to me.

lorendroll said:
I'm a bit curious too. I guess you won't be able to install it straight due to differences in partitions mapping (partition names and size may differ) but if it happenes to be the same your theory looks reasonable to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was able to boot an international variant rom but had no service. flashed the modem using twrp, no dice.

Are MediaTek 6563 and 6567 ROMS interchangeable?

I have an RFinder B1+(14) that works fantastic, it has the 6567 chipset. I also have an RFinder B1 Classic with a 6563 chipset that will not boot into Android 8 on the way, and the ROM has not been easy to find.
I suspect they are NOT compatible, but if I did flash the older radio with newer firmware, I'd be able to reverse the damage as long as I didn't overwrite the preloader.
If the two are, in fact, compatible, it would save me some time.
Are they compatible?

N
shadow460 said:
I have an RFinder B1+(14) that works fantastic, it has the 6567 chipset. I also have an RFinder B1 Classic with a 6563 chipset that will not boot into Android 8 on the way, and the ROM has not been easy to find.
I suspect they are NOT compatible, but if I did flash the older radio with newer firmware, I'd be able to reverse the damage as long as I didn't overwrite the preloader.
If the two are, in fact, compatible, it would save me some time.
Are they compatible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not without porting them from one to the other, "IF" the sources to do so are available(either stock firmware for the two devices or at least the stock source code for the device the ROM will be flashed on.

I have tried without success to compile software. Of course it can be done, I just haven't got the hang of it (I need to learn though).
If there are other things I can do, learn, etc from this thread, I'm all ears. If not, thank you for the info.

shadow460 said:
I have tried without success to compile software. Of course it can be done, I just haven't got the hang of it (I need to learn though).
If there are other things I can do, learn, etc from this thread, I'm all ears. If not, thank you for the info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There really isn't a 100% all in one get it right the first time guide out there. There are lots of guides that give a general idea of how to port stock ROMs but it will still require trial and error to iron out the details. Do some research to see if there are any specific security features preventing the ported ROM from flashing/booting then see if there are any tricks to bypass those specific features. You may need to unlock the bootloader and dig into trying to modify the bootloader.img located in the copy of your devices currently installed stock firmware file(or the last "official" firmware that was installed on your device before you tried to modify it).