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[Q] Custom rom on tablet vs custom rom on phone

Hey guys,
I have been through a plethora of custom ROMs on my galaxy s captivate - ranging from CM7 to MIUI and what not.
Some major features of those roms are:
-removed carrier bloatware
-improved speed
-custom user interfaces (such as CM7 and MIUI)
However, given the fact that the transformer does not include carrier crapware, does not suffer from performance issues, do you guys deem it worth it to install a custom firmware?
On a phone, once rooted you can easily flash between firmwares and such; however on this table you do need to go through the trouble of un-rooting for a simple software update.
Can you guys convince me that it is actually worth my time to install a custom firmware?
P.S. as the transformer pad stock firmware is already very snappy, do you notice performance improvements?
thanks a lot

Looking at the prime 1.8.2 page, there doesn't seem to be any jaw-dropping features. That is very unlike some phone custom roms;
where the moment you see the thread, you might twitch on the ground foaming at the mouth untill you get it running on your phone.

mediumsteak said:
On a phone, once rooted you can easily flash between firmwares and such; however on this table you do need to go through the trouble of un-rooting for a simple software update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its no different on a tablet. I have never unroot to update firmware. My tablet was 3.0 when I bought it, its now ruining 3.2
You simply wait for the rooted/custom rom to implement the update than you flash. On the phone when you run custom rom you don't get ota update, you flash an updated version of the rom you are running its like that also on the tablet.
As far as different in rom between phone and tablet.
-phone custom rom usually get features and functions ported from other devices or they get lots of stuffs that's not native to the phone.
Take Cyanogen for ex, rich in features and functions. S truer custom rom.
-most tablet custom rom doesn't get much ported over but some does get things stock rom don't have. Example is rooted/custom rom like Prime, we've been enjoying netflix for a while now but stock rom just now getting it.
Tablet rom are mostly tweaked stock rom
I do wish there was cyanogen for the tf

Actually, CM7 doesn't have any ported UI, it uses ADW Launcher from the market.
Also, we may get touchwiz UX port very soon, there is a thread in the developers' subforum

I just rooted mine a couple days ago, then installed Prime for the NetFlix. Then the update comes out! Come on!! Not that I'm unhappy with the overclocking ability now... but COME ON! (in the voice of Gob).

There's not really a need to install a custom ROM since they're just slightly modded versions of the stock firmware. They usually just provide little fixes and updated firmware, which you'd get eventually anyway.

mediumsteak said:
Hey guys,
I have been through a plethora of custom ROMs on my galaxy s captivate - ranging from CM7 to MIUI and what not.
Some major features of those roms are:
-removed carrier bloatware
-improved speed
-custom user interfaces (such as CM7 and MIUI)
However, given the fact that the transformer does not include carrier crapware, does not suffer from performance issues, do you guys deem it worth it to install a custom firmware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Part of the reason you aren't seeing really tweaked out ROMs on tablet is the fact that Google has not, and will not release the source code for Honeycomb. Once ice cream sandwich comes out and Asus releases the source watch the ROM love'n come flooding out of the gates. But until then meh. I'm on the fence on rooting mine since I desperately want Netflix on my transformer, but meh. Rather not brick it right now just to get another rebaked existing ROM.

[Q] Why we don't have more custom roms for our p6200/6210 device's?

I am sorry if this is stupid noob question, but why we don't have many custom roms since that our device's sharing same exynos 4210 hardware, like Samsung galaxy SII?
I own SII for myself and there is every day something new in development thread, and here nothing
My P 6200 is crying for fix WiFi problem and some great custom rom :crying:

spanjeli said:
I am sorry if this is stupid noon question, but why we don't have many custom roms since that our device's sharing same exynos 4210 hardware, like Samsung galaxy SII?
I own SII for myself and there is every day something new in development thread, and here nothing
My P 6200 is crying for fix WiFi problem and some great custom rom :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using Android since it was released and have collected various devices. This is just me, there is nothing better than stock rooted and tweaked rom. Just debloat the rom and you will be ok. My P6210 is amazingly fast with NO error or any single issues. I got both apple and Samsung products and my P3113 and my P6210 are my main tab. It is a must for me to go stock rooted and tweaked. Just me.
Cheers

I always asked myself the ssame question too... but it turns out we dont hhave so many devs here and this device wasn't a hit like the S series from samsung. Making custom roms isn't so hard but it needs alot of learning if ur a biggener. I tried making custom roms myself but what else do u need from a custom rom if you already have CM9, cm10, paranoid android and soon to be AOKP? But who knows we might see new stuff I mean I bought this tab before there was even a functional cm9 build and I was thinking of selling it. But it pulled through aand I must say his device is rock solid we just need to nail the wifi issue.
Sent from my GT-P6200 using XDA Premium HD app

ben_2g0 said:
I have been using Android since it was released and have collected various devices. This is just me, there is nothing better than stock rooted and tweaked rom. Just debloat the rom and you will be ok. My P6210 is amazingly fast with NO error or any single issues. I got both apple and Samsung products and my P3113 and my P6210 are my main tab. It is a must for me to go stock rooted and tweaked. Just me.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have any problems with speed and stability on stock 4.0.4 but wifi issue is bothering me so much I try almost everything, now I m on cm10 and problem is still here...

spanjeli said:
I don't have any problems with speed and stability on stock 4.0.4 but wifi issue is bothering me so much I try almost everything, now I m on cm10 and problem is still here...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had wifi problems as well on stock ics (UK version).
It all disappeared when I flashed the US version, give it a try...
This said, cm, aokp and stuff are nice but not stable enough for my taste yet, I don't like bugs (I am not a very patient character) and for me so far there's nothing like a good home tweaked, rooted and deodexed stock ics rom.
When cm10 is completely stable then I will eagerly flash it, I check xda every day waiting for that day to come

unclefab said:
I had wifi problems as well on stock ics (UK version).
It all disappeared when I flashed the US version, give it a try...
This said, cm, aokp and stuff are nice but not stable enough for my taste yet, I don't like bugs (I am not a very patient character) and for me so far there's nothing like a good home tweaked, rooted and deodexed stock ics rom.
When cm10 is completely stable then I will eagerly flash it, I check xda every day waiting for that day to come
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have actually did a lot of things with the ICS stock rooted but never have wifi issues. Anywhere I go with wifi access, I never have problems or any issues. Would it be router related? With my P3113, its fine but with my YP-G70, there was. I have to install another stock rom to solve it. Otherwise, everything works fine with me. These products are actually very nice IMHO. I'm just waiting for the JB update for my P6210 and P3113, if there will be.

Early in ANdroid the stock ROMs were often terrible and there was a lot of room to make easy improvements. Now the stock ROMs are really quite good and there is not much that can be improved on easily. IF you like a different style you have the CM based ROMs with some UI differences but not much in the way of performance improvements and you lose stability and some hardware features like IR Remote. Even with the Nexus, by the time some individual developer takes the time to customize a ROM, Google has new features out in the stock ROM so its just not worth it to build from scratch.
SO called debloating is mostly a placebo because the new devices like this tab have lots of memory and apps you don;t use aren't doing anything or taking resources.
Curious to know if you have found anything unique and useful in SII development. TO me it seems like all retreads of repackaged stock or CM based stuff with a few different apps from samsung or sony thrown in for good measure.

DigitalMD said:
Early in ANdroid the stock ROMs were often terrible and there was a lot of room to make easy improvements. Now the stock ROMs are really quite good and there is not much that can be improved on easily. IF you like a different style you have the CM based ROMs with some UI differences but not much in the way of performance improvements and you lose stability and some hardware features like IR Remote. Even with the Nexus, by the time some individual developer takes the time to customize a ROM, Google has new features out in the stock ROM so its just not worth it to build from scratch.
SO called debloating is mostly a placebo because the new devices like this tab have lots of memory and apps you don;t use aren't doing anything or taking resources.
Curious to know if you have found anything unique and useful in SII development. TO me it seems like all retreads of repackaged stock or CM based stuff with a few different apps from samsung or sony thrown in for good measure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock rom is full with unneeded application.
Custom rom bring more speed and space.
I'm currently running custom rom based on JB leak on my Samsung SII, which is full with super functions from S3 and Note 2. Above all that rom is great for daily use For me that is enough

[Q] Is it even worth rooting/modding?

Is the Shield Tablet even worth rooting. I mean, it is stock android with Nvidia stuff. And rooting it just takes away the Nvidia logo when turning it on, and its few apps that do more good than harm. Is there a mod out there that will beat out Lollypop? Only thing I can really think of is Carbon KitKat, and I'm not sure if the Tablet runs crappy because of the hardware or because of the software. I haven't been in the scene for a while (and when I was I wasn't there for long), but my swag snapback wearing friend put Cyanogen on his phone (yes, they're evolving) from the Cyanogen website. Has this in it's essence killed the development for systems since they made it easier to run the OS? Much of the ricing vocabulary is jargon for me, so please explain it instead of avoiding it, for example I don't know the difference between a root vs. recovery vs. rom vs. kernel and TWRP vs ClockworkMod, Unofficial mods vs official.
What do you guys run? What do you recommend visual appeal, and what do you recommend for performance? Can I possibly run Carbon Kitkat while keeping the nVidia apps?

Mehhh I only rooted for xposed modules... honestly stock lollipop with a ntfs SD card to get around the SD card issues and root really isn't a factor in performance. Just using like gravity box and an ad block. I think if you have a lte version it may be more useful so u can mess with radios but I can't vouch for that.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

I only rooted for viper audio. Major improvement then without

I'd say its definitely worth it for the fact that you can move all your games off of the internal storage onto the SD card using virtualized directories (ie FolderMount) so the data appears on internal storage but actually resides on your SD (load times have been fine for me with a 64 GB class 10, HL2, Portal, TT Games, etc.)...although I'd probably root either way just for a few specific root apps and the fact I root every android device I ever get.
Side note: PLEASE don't use NTFS on flash storage (unless you absolutely have to)...it doesn't know how to cope with it and over time will have degraded performance. Use exFAT, it was pretty much made for this purpose. I've heard people having issues with exFAT on the shield (specifically 128 GB SDs it seems), but my 64 GB worked perfectly on KitKat and now on LolliPop

Since you're not familiar to the terminology, I'll give you the "concise" (I sometimes ramble...) summary of my understanding:
1. Rooting is giving yourself full administrative power over every single file and operation on your phone. Use this power responsibly, meaning think twice before executing a command and bear the consequences like an adult (or enjoy the benefits like a giddy goof!)
2. Recovery is a partition on your device's storage. Stock recovery usually only automatically performs the one task of factory reset/wipe of your device's data, but a custom recovery can allow you to flash (install) programs or even a customized version of the whole operating system (a custom ROM).
3. ROM technically stands for "Read-Only-Memory" but these days it refers to the actual operating system that's residing within that read-only-memory. You've heard of the Cyanogen ROM, which really means Cyanogen's customized operating system for your read-only-memory.
4. Kernel is basically a magical piece of software that tells your device's hardware how to function. So, if you use the wrong kernel, your device's hardware won't know how to function properly and you'll run into problems. But using a customized or optimized kernel will allow your hardware to function much more efficiently or unlock abilities that your hardware didn't know it could do (e.g. undervolting to save power, communicating with USB devices via USB on-the-go, etc.)
5. TWRP and ClockworkMod are both examples of very popular recovery partitions. Some people prefer one over the other. I personally like TWRP because it has an easier to use interface for me.
6. Unofficial vs official mods are best discussed using an example like a cyanogen ROM. An unofficial cyanogen mod means that it's not officially made by the Cyanogen team and is therefore not supported so you can't go crying to Cyanogen if you've messed up your device using an unofficial mod. Official mods are the stuff officially released by Cyanogen and will be fully supported by their team.
I hope the above helps with your understanding of some terminology. Below, I describe my opinions on whether rooting / custom ROMs are worth it.
I'm currently using the nVidia stock firmware, so I'm not using a custom ROM. The downside is that I miss out on the great customized features like clearing all recent apps from memory, or holding the Overlay button to switch to my last-used app, etc. The upside is that I get to use the nVidia-specific features, such as stylus-only mode (I use it a lot for annotating PDFs / research papers / drawings etc.) or the Console Mode for when I hook up the tablet to the big TV. I've tried a custom ROM and loved the somewhat increased smoothness and extra features, but I personally wanted the nVidia-specific features more than the custom features.
That said, I have rooted my stock nVidia firmware because I wanted to block ads without downloading or purchasing an additional app. I've used the root privileges to allow me to modify my hosts file to redirect ad URLs to 127.0.0.1, which gives those ads no data therefore effectively blocking them. That's all I use my root privileges for, and some of you might think "that's it?!?!" and to that I say "yyyyyyup".
Long post, but congrats for making it this far and thanks for reading!

amartolos said:
The downside is that I miss out on the great customized features like clearing all recent apps from memory, or holding the Overlay button to switch to my last-used app, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you're rooted, check out the app "Recently" from Chainfire - it provides much better control over the stock 'recents' menu as well as the option to clear all.
Sent from my SGH-I337M using XDA Free mobile app

An Droid said:
Since you're rooted, check out the app "Recently" from Chainfire - it provides much better control over the stock 'recents' menu as well as the option to clear all.
Sent from my SGH-I337M using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
neat, i didn't know they made such an app! thanks =)

ben.nesheim said:
Mehhh I only rooted for xposed modules... honestly stock lollipop with a ntfs SD card to get around the SD card issues and root really isn't a factor in performance. Just using like gravity box and an ad block. I think if you have a lte version it may be more useful so u can mess with radios but I can't vouch for that.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing I do. I rarely flash a custom ROM if the device is stock or near stock android. Simply rooting, installing an adblocker and installing xposed framework is good enough for me.
Sent from my SM-N900V

Evolve
Rooting is Evolving
To me for buy the shield tablet is going beyond on your imagination, why don't try something new, come on is a piece of hardware, you just installing a software and why not with a such powerful device,you don't want more juice and control.
My ST LTE root and some utilty and tool apk got between 60000 and 62000 in antutu performance and stability, but careful in what you do.

I see many people doing modifications and having many issues and then spending a lot of time having to mess with their devices in order to get them back in order. If that's your thing great and I used to be one of you ...
... but these days I try and consider very carefully everything I do so everything works rather than spending hours basically being a mechanic if you want to use a car analogy. I want to drive my car not spend most of the time fixing it.
I see people with a lot of issues after they've done a lot of "do it because it can be done" modifications, their devices become unstable and then they don't know what caused it due to having five or ten major modifications.
One at a time:
1. Nandroid Backup.
2. Do 1 modification
3. Use your device for a day
4. If everything is working, go to 1, otherwise see 5.
5. If everything is not working restore backup from 1. and start at 2. again.
Now my opinions (as a half interested longtime Android user and a new Shield Tab user) are:
TheSkywayBridge said:
Is the Shield Tablet even worth rooting. I mean, it is stock android with Nvidia stuff. And rooting it just takes away the Nvidia logo when turning it on, and its few apps that do more good than harm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends - if there is some added functionality that you cannot have any other way then yes.
Rooting by itself actual does nothing to the ROM but it allows other applications that might change your boot logo. What will change your boot logo usually is using a custom ROM or kernel.
But you can absolutely make any firmware better by rooting your device for example by installing Viper4Android which will improve sound quality and a ton of other stuff.
TheSkywayBridge said:
What do you guys run? What do you recommend visual appeal, and what do you recommend for performance? Can I possibly run Carbon Kitkat while keeping the nVidia apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After a few devices it's been my preference to use stock ROM's with custom kernels (sometimes) because I mainly use my phones and tablets to play games and with some rare exceptions the dev community doesn't get to the performance level when I benchmark them.
If I never played games then CM and other custom firmware is better.
Unless I'm mistaken there is no CM based ROM that allows Nvidia Shield Controller usage so for me personally it's even less appealing as a prospect on the Shield Tablet to not run stock.
Since I'm a new Shield Tablet user I've only used some LP version (which arrived with the tablet) then had an awful experience with Nvidia's OTA update when I attempted to update to MM after no mods :|
However I went back to LP v5.1.1 and it's an amazing tablet again which doesn't surprise me as it usually seems you need to stick 1 major version behind on Android if you want to customise it and run apps you like sometimes.
I'm now going to apply a custom kernel onto stock firmware as this has often been the "winning" combination if you want to evaluate ROMs using benchmarks.

The ROM Request... or Idea ;)

I've had my Shield Tablet for some time now, but since I received my Recall replacement (LTE Model) I finally re-realized that this is in fact a fantastic little tablet. I haven't used my shield in about 4-5 months and I stopped using it because of the wifi issues and Horribly slow kit kat stock roms (as in, my tablet's IO was such a pain). But now that my recall replacement has the latest 5.1.1 and great wifi range, I again realize that this is still an impressive Gaming tablet (Emulators mostly).
So my question/request is this: I have added TWRP,and rooted the device but I can't seem to get Viper4Android to work (might be a BusyBox issue) even with SELinux set to permissive and I hate the AT&T/Phone app Bloat. So where are the Debloated Modded Stock ROMs?
I see the CM 12 based roms, but those are having issue with nvidia app (console mod) which I use. I'm just looking for a Debloated Stock 5.1.1 rom, rooted, with ViperAudio installed, and possible other mods (kernals, etc.)
I am in no way unappreciative of what we currently have, I know devs spend a lot of time on their roms :good:, but seeing that the Shield Tablet is still one of the most powerful tablet of the market, I figured there would be more choices (Spoiled with Nexus phones).
Maybe this already exists,if so please point me to it. If not I'll do what I can on my own for now, but I wanted to ask and see if others fell the same way.
Either way, sorry for the rant.
Thx everyone

I just rooted my tab and completely debloated it. Find that pure and clean stock runs best for games but with all the not needed google apps removed in system, its about 600~700 mb of bloat. And if you still need some of the G-apps you can easily download them from the Play Store!

cyraxx84 said:
I just rooted my tab and completely debloated it. Find that pure and clean stock runs best for games but with all the not needed google apps removed in system, its about 600~700 mb of bloat. And if you still need some of the G-apps you can easily download them from the Play Store!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What did you use to debloat? Did you freeze/disable or actually uninstall bloated app? Also have you got Viper Audio to work?
Thx

Start here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=60961960

[Q] Should I manually debloat or use a 3rd party stock rom?

Hi,
I need som advice, and sorry If this is the wrong sub forum, for any admin please move the thread if that's the case.
I am waiting for two Xperia Z3 for me and my wife to arrive. I am currently using Samsung S2 (w/ CyanogenMod) and she is currently using iPhone 4s. Two of the main reasons we opted for Z3 was the waterproofness, battery life as well as the camera.
If I have understood it correctly, we will lose some camera functionality if we were to flash it with a non-stock based rom. My impression is also that battery life often works better due to the tuned hardware drivers etc in stock based roms.
So what we are after:
At least as good battery life as in stock rom
Removal of unneccersay bloatware
As good camera features as in stock rom
If possible, enhanced privacy and security features
Root
How would you guys choose? To go for some third party rom or use stock rom but debloat it with TianiumBackup, adb or similar?

You should use a stock based rom, they are really good and mostly debloated. If you need debloat with titanium, but mostly it is not needed.
Also do not unlock bootloader, you loose drm.keys and many features. Once deleted you cannot restore them. It is possible to restore some parts, but it is complicated.

nimonimo said:
Hi,
I need som advice, and sorry If this is the wrong sub forum, for any admin please move the thread if that's the case.
I am waiting for two Xperia Z3 for me and my wife to arrive. I am currently using Samsung S2 (w/ CyanogenMod) and she is currently using iPhone 4s. Two of the main reasons we opted for Z3 was the waterproofness, battery life as well as the camera.
If I have understood it correctly, we will lose some camera functionality if we were to flash it with a non-stock based rom. My impression is also that battery life often works better due to the tuned hardware drivers etc in stock based roms.
So what we are after:
At least as good battery life as in stock rom
Removal of unneccersay bloatware
As good camera features as in stock rom
If possible, enhanced privacy and security features
Root
How would you guys choose? To go for some third party rom or use stock rom but debloat it with TianiumBackup, adb or similar?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have two Z3s (Dual). I've unlocked bootloader on one of them before root was available. For now I stick with stock Roms that are prerooted already and debloat using Titanium. I use Nova launcher which gives me pure Android look and some extra features. I don't notice any significant difference between Z3s with unlocked bootloader or without. Photos look comparable in quality (I admit, I'm half blind anyway). Once Sony stops updating Roms, I'll unlock bootloader on second Z3 and start using cooked Roms.