Database Info

[Q] Used Xoom, rooted and ICS

Hi All,
A few questions about my xoom, but first here are the details
-Canadian Wi-fi Xoom, but flashed to USA for ICS update
-Rooted of course, I see Rom Manager, CWM, and Adfree as programs the previous owner has added.
-Looks like stock rom: Android 4.0.3,
-Kernel 2.6.39.4-gf03a679 , [email protected]#1
-Build number IML77
Since I am new to this, and my android education will come to flashing and optimizing my setup, should I change anything about what I currently have?
So far everything seems to work properly, would I be able to accept OTA updates without risk of bricking things?
Seems the previous owner removed his account info, but would I have any security concerns from things he may have left behind?
It seems I am going to spend more time learning the platform than actually using it, and this greatly interests me. I thank all in advance for your help.
Cheers

Canadian owner here also
Official OTA's will not install on a rooted device, as for security concerns. You could always do a fastboot erase userdata/cache/system reinstall an official motorola from (available on their website).
Use the universal root for Xoom, flash the recovery and use one of the currently available rom (rogue, EOS, Alfonso). Im pretty sure any left over from previous owner will be gone by then!
Pretty much all of it explained in the thread: Xoom Heaven: Rooting, Roms, Kernels... You Name It!
That's just me tho!

Or just flash the correct EOS nightly (wingray) followed by the newest GApps (10.5).

[Q] Total newbie on Android, some simple quesitons.

Hi people of XDA-Developers, I have a few questions to ask about Android, I've been an iOS user for around 3-4 years and I was very familiar with jailbreaking, iOS softwares, and almost everything. I knew what to do on exactly every situation but then I got bored of iOS and then I thought of switching into a better OS and I thought Android was good. Now I'm in Android and I don't understand a single thing about it. Compared to Android, iOS is a lot simpler, easier but also boring. You can play around with the Android but I really don't understand much. By miracle I didn't brick my phone after attempting to Root it, I was so lucky that it worked because I didn't know what I was doing . So here are my info and some questions.
Phone:
-Samsung Galaxy S4 (T-Mobile)
-SGH-M919
-Android 4.2.2
Questions:
1- Ok, so I have Android 4.2.2 on SGH-M919 which is on T-Mobile, I bought the phone on the US but then I left to another country (Panama), I want to upgrade from 4.2.2 to 4.3 and I want to know if it is already available because some websites say that it's coming on the 18th of November. I want to know if it is available.
2- If so, why can't I download it? When I do software update it says that: "Your device has been modified. Software updates are not available", I already used Triangle away to reset the times flashed and it's already on the "System: Official" (it was on "System: Modified") , I've already erased the cache and even factory reset.
3- I've seen somewhere on Google that you can manually update it (with Odin and/or with an external SD card)
4- Not that I really care THAT much about updating but what I want to do is to flash it to a ROM, in this case, the PACman ROM. But it says PACman 4.3 and I don't know if it is possible to use the 4.3 version on the 4.2.2 Android and I won't risk it so I want to know if there is a way around it. I really want to flash it before moving everything from my iPhone to my Galaxy.
I would really appreciate if you answered these questions, the simplest way possible, please and thank you in advance.

Phone:
-Samsung Galaxy S4 (T-Mobile)
-SGH-M919
-Android 4.2.2
Questions:
1- Ok, so I have Android 4.2.2 on SGH-M919 which is on T-Mobile, I bought the phone on the US but then I left to another country (Panama), I want to upgrade from 4.2.2 to 4.3 and I want to know if it is already available because some websites say that it's coming on the 18th of November. I want to know if it is available.
IIt is available from some carriers now via OTA upgrade and more carriers are releasing it currently.
2- If so, why can't I download it? When I do software update it says that: "Your device has been modified. Software updates are not available", I already used Triangle away to reset the times flashed and it's already on the "System: Official" (it was on "System: Modified") , I've already erased the cache and even factory reset.
3- I've seen somewhere on Google that you can manually update it (with Odin and/or with an external SD card)
4- Not that I really care THAT much about updating but what I want to do is to flash it to a ROM, in this case, the PACman ROM. But it says PACman 4.3 and I don't know if it is possible to use the 4.3 version on the 4.2.2 Android and I won't risk it so I want to know if there is a way around it. I really want to flash it before moving everything from my iPhone to my to my Galaxy.
You can run PACman 4.3 on the S4, but going from 4.2.2 to 4.3 you should do a full wipe first to prevent any install issues. 4.3 is just an upgraded version of 4.2.2 and is still in the JellyBean series.You can find the PACman Development thread here:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2295673

Lord of the Droids said:
Phone:
-Samsung Galaxy S4 (T-Mobile)
-SGH-M919
-Android 4.2.2
Questions:
1- Ok, so I have Android 4.2.2 on SGH-M919 which is on T-Mobile, I bought the phone on the US but then I left to another country (Panama), I want to upgrade from 4.2.2 to 4.3 and I want to know if it is already available because some websites say that it's coming on the 18th of November. I want to know if it is available.
IIt is available from some carriers now via OTA upgrade and more carriers are releasing it currently.
2- If so, why can't I download it? When I do software update it says that: "Your device has been modified. Software updates are not available", I already used Triangle away to reset the times flashed and it's already on the "System: Official" (it was on "System: Modified") , I've already erased the cache and even factory reset.
3- I've seen somewhere on Google that you can manually update it (with Odin and/or with an external SD card)
4- Not that I really care THAT much about updating but what I want to do is to flash it to a ROM, in this case, the PACman ROM. But it says PACman 4.3 and I don't know if it is possible to use the 4.3 version on the 4.2.2 Android and I won't risk it so I want to know if there is a way around it. I really want to flash it before moving everything from my iPhone to my to my Galaxy.
You can run PACman 4.3 on the S4, but going from 4.2.2 to 4.3 you should do a full wipe first to prevent any install issues. 4.3 is just an upgraded version of 4.2.2 and is still in the JellyBean series.You can find the PACman Development thread here:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2295673
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ohh now I get it, now I updated from 4.2.2 to PAC 4.3.1. I think I understand how this works. The PAC 4.3.1 is just like an update, I thought you had to be on the same version to flash ROMs. Thank you for your response :good:
There's one more question, now that I have PACman, it comes with Trebuchet, I want to know if it's possible to organize the apps in my App Drawer in a custom way, not my name or by the date installed. If yes, how. If no, is there a way around it? If yes, which one. Thank you in advance.

[Q] Is there a way to learn when you last changed rom?

Is there a way to learn when you last changed rom or flashed an image ?
I would like to know how long I stayed on one rom but I can't remember when I flashed it.
So I would like to know if there's a way to know when the OS was installed (similar to the uptime in fact)

There are probably several ways to do this, like checking when a system folder was created or edited, but I think the easiest way is to just check your Google account security settings for when your device was authorized, assuming you logged into your account the same day you set up your new ROM.
And by the way, questions should be posted in the Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting subforum

The ROM you flashed, if it was current when you flashed it, will have a build date in settings/about device.

Installing a ROM of a different Android Version

I'm planning on replacing my stock 4.4.2 touchwiz ROM on my rooted I9505 Galaxy S4 but I want to get a custom ROM that is running Android 6 or higher. I have never done this before so I'm wondering if there are any precautions I should take.
To my knowledge the standard process for installing new ROMs is:
1. Get into your custom recovery
2. Make a backup of your current ROM
3. Wipe system, data, dalvik cache, and cache
4. Flash the new ROM
I heard somewhere that if your current device is running some android version (in my case 4.4.2), and the new ROM you're flashing is a different android version (6.0.1 or 7.0), then when you try to restore your original ROM there might be problems.
I also read somewhere that for new roms you also want to update your radio and bootloader? None of the big youtube tutorials I've watched even mentioned these things. If someone could elaborate that would be amazing!
One last thing, if anyone knows of good ROMs that's compatible with my S4, please let me know I'm looking for something that is running the more recent android versions (6 or higher), very stable so that it can be my daily driver, and has a good camera app (I hear a lot of custom ROMs have really bad camera apps).
Thanks for the help

Couple of general Android update / bootloader / custom ROM related questions

Not sure if this really should be going to the noob friendly thread, but since it is a couple of questions covering various Android related issues, I figured that I will make it a separate thread after all.
1. Sometime updating an Android version would also end up updating the bootloader, at time rendering it impossible to downgrade again. Can this also happen in custom ROM (e.g. Lineage). I am asking this because I am thinking of custom ROM with newer Android version on my Galaxy S7, but may want to revert to a relatively old Android 7.0 after I am done testing.
2. Do file systems (the way application, application data are stored in the system and other information) etc. tend to stay the same as stock for a given Android version? For example between stock Android 7.1 and Lineage 14.1.
3. Same question as question 2., but between major Android versions (e.g. stock 7.1 and stock 8.0).
4. On rooted devices, can you usually update major version update without losing any data, and is it usually trouble free?
Feel free to skip reading this part, but for some background information, the reason I am asking all those questions is because one of the app I tried to restore via Titanium Backup and Swift Backup both failed. The application itself launches properly, but as soon as I restore the data, it would instantly crash and close. My guess is that this is probably caused by attempt to go from Android 6.0 to 11.0. Maybe it is the backup software or maybe something changed in the way files are stored, but whatever the reason, it just won't work.
So I am thinking that my best option is to try it to restore it on an Android 7.0 phone that I have (also on the way to be retired, and if it works, update to Android 8.0. Since Android 8.0 was the last officially released major version for that phone, and I was thinking that if it does work, perhaps I could alternatively go for an early Lineage ROM, then make gradual updates up to Android 11.0 and see if it helps the app remain unbroken. And then if it does work, perhaps I could then make a backup then restore it on the other new Android 11.0 phone that I have.
All in all, it is a silly amount of work to do just for one app.. but it is important to me, so I will exhaust every option that I can think of to find a solution.
Thanks!