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I know it may be tempting to flash Fascinate or Showcase (or Vibrant, or i9000, etc) ROMs and Kernels especially since the Fascinate is starting to get some Froyo alpha builds. It is also probably a bit confusing as to why (since we PRETTY MUCH have the same hardware) it wouldn't work. [Unless you can confidently recover from a soft brick without breaking a sweat on your palms and are willing to risk the small chance of a hard brick] Don't.
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I would like to clarify a few things. It takes a perfect combination of Kernel, Ramdisk, and ROM etc. to get a properly booting system. Usually, swapping one or two of these for software from another device will cause your phone to stop booting, but won't cause any irreparable damage. Sometimes the device may even boot or seem to function properly. Or -- you might get a lovely brick. Even with a seemingly functional phone, you will most likely have carrier specific settings and other carrier or device (or radio or filesystem) dependent crap in the ROM that will prevent your phone from functioning 100%.
Let me also say this, what works for someone else may not necessarily work for you. What did the last sentence say? When you flash a kernel you don't format the entire device. The device may retain some old configurations or files; the master boot record is left untouched, etc. Flashing a ROM usually wipes your entire system directory. The point is, the way most of these update packages work, you can get different results simply by changing the order in which you flash things or by starting from a different image (what software was previously on your device). I have found this device to be rather finicky. Sometimes, things don't even work for me when I go through the exact same steps or the seemingly "proper" steps. Sometimes things only work after an Odin restore to stock. Regardless, my interactions have caused surprisingly unpredictable results.
I am sending this message because I have seen a few users recently put themselves in frustrating situations after flashing software for the Fascinate. First, I hope you NEVER flash software for another device altogether (Vibrant, Nesux S, i9000, Droid..). With the Fascinate, there is a little more breathing room because there are strong similarities between the devices, but if you don't know what you are doing, I still strongly advise against it. Even the same hardware can have a different partitioning system, master boot record, configuration scripts, etc!
I would like to let you know, WE ARE WORKING ON PORTING OVER the AWESOME FROYO WORK that has been done on the FASCINATE. I am relatively new to the Android scene so it's taking longer than I would like or than I expected (I've also been rather unlucky and encountered some stupid error or silly mistake almost every step of the way). I know you all are getting antsy, but don't worry, be patient, we are working on it. AND, if worse comes to worse and we can't get an alpha build out to you all, I have no doubt we will get at least a beta and a final Homebrew Froyo out there for you all.
Best,
dcow
Listen to the wise man, for those who are patient get to enjoy the spoils of these great developers work, with the least amount of headaches (not to mention the headaches and time saved from dev's not having to help those who make those bad decisions to begin with).
I wish us showcase guys could get our own section
den0ts said:
I wish us showcase guys could get our own section
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Click to collapse
But until then you have to sit in our sandbox and play with us.
So I'm an Iphone convert. I got an infuse, and love the freedom to customize and do cool things with apps and the like. I've spent a lot of time customizing etc.
Now I'm reading more and more into the whole custom ROM thing. I'm just looking to get an idea of what to expect from the process of changing to a new ROM
Will it be faster and have better battery life if I switch from stock to CM7?
Will I have to reinstall all my apps?
How will future software updates and stuff be handled?
When installing a new custom ROM you need to look at it as a fresh install of a new OS. In other words, yes you will lose your installed apps, however there are plenty of apps available which can help you with the restore process. One that i like to use is Titanium Backup, however you will need to be rooted for this to work. If you have not already rooted your stock ROM, then you may want to download an app from the market that creates an "app list" rather then an actual backup of the apps themselves.
One thing to keep in mind though if you are using Titanium Backup, when restoring make sure to only select the "restore App" option, rather then "App + Data". Restoring data will attempt to restore app data that references your previous ROM, which will almost always break your installation and cause things to go wacky. Installing app only basically does a fresh install on your new ROM without causing any issues.
Will it be faster? It depends on which ROM you install, but the short answer is most likely yes. I can tell you that CM7 and MIUI will be faster as i have tried them myself. Benchmarks will show this to be true, but take this with a grain of salt. The real test is "real world snappiness", and i can tell you that in practical real world application, CM7 and MIUI feel a heck of allot smoother and responsive then the stock Rogers ROM that i was coming from.
Will you get better battery life? I don't know, it depends again on what you install. But my current experience is that i am getting better battery life on MIUI vs stock. I did however disable some of the built in extras on MIUI like network data monitoring, and battery monitoring. You may or may not have to do this, but i found that turning off any background monitoring processes provided me with the longest battery life. About 20+ hours to 5 -10% with moderate to heavy usage.
Future updates. This all depends on the cook or dev of the ROM. Generally though you will want to follow their install instructions to the letter to avoid any issues. Many times though when updating from one version of MIUI to newer version of same MIUI, you can simply install without "full wipe" and this will keep your installed apps intact. However if the dev specifically calls for a full wipe, then you should do it to avoid issues that could otherwise be avoided.
One thing to keep in mind however, is that when installing custom roms you need to understand that you are joining a community of testers. You should always approach it as such, and keep in mind that for the most part these releases are coming from people who do this as a hobby. You also need to keep in mind that you may likely run into bug's, so if you absolutely don't want to deal with this, please stick with stock. However if your adventurous and don't mind a few possible issues while trying out the latest and greatest that the community has to offer, then dive right in! When reporting issues, please do so with the utmost respect and keep this in mind that the Dev's do this on their spare time for our benefit, and they do not get paid for it. So please try to keep the reports as constructive as possible for everyone's benefit!
Lastly, welcome to the android community agent888 and glad to hear you dropped the iphone and left the collective for a community that offers you freedom of choice!
I got Infused 1.6 installed. I chose this one because I found a nice how to video on youtube and followed it step by step. I think it was a nice way for a first timer like myself to do so, to get me over those initial gut wrenching fears of bricking the phone.
All in all, I am more satisfied every single day that I've chosen android over iPhone.
agent888 said:
I got Infused 1.6 installed. I chose this one because I found a nice how to video on youtube and followed it step by step. I think it was a nice way for a first timer like myself to do so, to get me over those initial gut wrenching fears of bricking the phone.
All in all, I am more satisfied every single day that I've chosen android over iPhone.
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First rom I installed as well. It's a great beginners rom and I never had any issues with it.
Ok, so im moving from the htc sensation XE to the HTC one.
During my time with the sensation, i pretty much put on every rom/kernal/patch etc and the in the end, im posting this from a stock rom.
Why?
Well, i found that not one custom Rom worked 100%. The CM ROMs especially, with poor camera, poor scrolling and poor telephone.
ARHD became unbearable, with FC's and Permission bugs, the Sense 4 ROMs were slow and on and on.
Coming back to stock, after using ROMs which (apparently ) have been super optimised, I don't notice much difference in performance tbh. Battery life is similar, speed is similar etc.
YMMV on this one, but whatever.
In fact, the stock Rom just works
So, fast forward to two more iterations f the smart phone, and I believe the immense power now available should mean that the "optimization" ROMs, CM etc are becoming pointless. There is ample power to run the stock Rom no matter how bloated it is.
Some exceptions would be a slow roll out of updates from your carrier though.
Anyway, after flashing so much, and reverting back to stock, I'm not going to be in a rush to put a custom Rom on the One when it comes.
Even rooting it, I may hold off for a while. I'm just not sure these days what the point is.
Why knacker up the warranty?
Pah!
Different people have different uses/needs. All custom ROMs pretty much worked on my HD2 (although it's an exception since it originally had WinMo) and all of them work smoothly on the N4. Different devices also have different bugs, so you can't base the entire decision on your experience with only one device. As for why you'd want to flash one if you're OK with performance, the answer is that some of them have tonnes of features and UI enhancements. Take PA over stock 4.2.2 for example, or an AOSP based ROM over TouchWiz.
I have been thinking the same for all the reasons mentioned. I would like Titanium and Nandroids and some status bar themes. But, otherwise, for me, custom roms may not offer much. And, they do seem to have their own quirks. The stock roms and better processors now days can stand on their own for most folks. Having flashed hundreds of roms, there has been many occasions were I did something and said "Oh S--T" I am bricked. Luckily I have always been able to recoup. I am looking at the One and S4 and may root after a bit, but may not flash a custom rom. My One S had no issues running with the bloatware. But, who knows after so much flashing it may be hard to stop.
Superpiper1972 said:
Ok, so im moving from the htc sensation XE to the HTC one.
During my time with the sensation, i pretty much put on every rom/kernal/patch etc and the in the end, im posting this from a stock rom.
Why?
Well, i found that not one custom Rom worked 100%. The CM ROMs especially, with poor camera, poor scrolling and poor telephone.
ARHD became unbearable, with FC's and Permission bugs, the Sense 4 ROMs were slow and on and on.
Coming back to stock, after using ROMs which (apparently ) have been super optimised, I don't notice much difference in performance tbh. Battery life is similar, speed is similar etc.
YMMV on this one, but whatever.
In fact, the stock Rom just works
So, fast forward to two more iterations f the smart phone, and I believe the immense power now available should mean that the "optimization" ROMs, CM etc are becoming pointless. There is ample power to run the stock Rom no matter how bloated it is.
Some exceptions would be a slow roll out of updates from your carrier though.
Anyway, after flashing so much, and reverting back to stock, I'm not going to be in a rush to put a custom Rom on the One when it comes.
Even rooting it, I may hold off for a while. I'm just not sure these days what the point is.
Why knacker up the warranty?
Pah!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is where alot of people get confused. The point of making a custom rom was never for everyday people to be flashing them, They were for developers to try new things and see what they could make happen. Does this break things? Yeah from time to time but that is all part of learning.
That's all true also DK. It does depend what we want from phone and if we want the risks of flashing. I have done it long enough and maybe just getting old and tired. It takes a lot of time to keep up with the roms and not have to rely on others for all your info. Although XDA was/is a dev forum, it has also benefited in member growth with all the people now interested in flashing.
I think it is more likely with the new phones that some will not see the need to flash a custom rom as much as they wanted/needed to say 3-4 years ago.
Either way it is still a personal choice and more than likely I will still flash whether I need to or not--
rugmankc said:
That's all true also DK. It does depend what we want from phone and if we want the risks of flashing. I have done it long enough and maybe just getting old and tired. It takes a lot of time to keep up with the roms and not have to rely on others for all your info. Although XDA was/is a dev forum, it has also benefited in member growth with all the people now interested in flashing.
I think it is more likely with the new phones that some will not see the need to flash a custom rom as much as they wanted/needed to say 3-4 years ago.
Either way it is still a personal choice and more than likely I will still flash whether I need to or not--
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Oh trust me If it wasnt for the crapware and bloat OEMs added to their devices and the absolute UGLY look to them I may not feel a NEED to flash a custom rom but with the listed things for me it is still very needed. Mainly the UGLY. I can deal with a bit of lag but it better be good looking while it lags lol
agreed--
Hi all! I'm a noob to the site and a noob to smartphone modifications, so please forgive me for my questions and concerns. I've used forums for years on many topics and found the knowledge base to be incredible, so I hope you guys will help me out, too.
So, while my Skyrocket has generally worked very well for the past 2+ years, I have always felt it's not living up to its potential. I've read numerous threads on many forums to see what my fellow Rocketeers were doing. I think I've come to the conclusion that flashing a new ROM is the way to go, but I am a bit wary since I've never done this nor know anyone who has. My thinking goes along the same lines as my experience with computers... If you buy a Dell, HP, etc., you get the garbage that the manufacturer bundles in along with Windows. If you wipe the HD and install your own clean copy of Windows, you can usually get better performance without all that other stuff. Hence, the idea for a new ROM for the phone.
A few things have me wondering, though... There seem to be more ROMs available than flavors of Linux! I know choice will end up being a personal thing. My goal is really simple... I just want a clean OS that is stable, efficient, and runs the basic functions I am accustomed to. So, I am not looking to experiment or push the envelope. I want a phone that doesn't crash at the worst possible time, and one that can actually make phone calls! I assume that I will still be able to use the Google Play store to download apps (after installing the plugin thingy). My phone is from AT&T and is unlocked. Will it say unlocked after flashing a new ROM? Will Visual Voicemail still work? I occasionally use FoxFi to create a mobile hotspot. Will I still be able to use it? Or do other ROMs already have this feature unlocked (or bypassed)? I use apps on my phone mostly for email (Yahho/Gmail), calendar, FB, Instagram, YouTube, taking photos/video, viewing forums, and the like, besides making phone calls. In other words, what should I expect from a new ROM? How will things be different? I'm really trying to gauge if this is a worthwhile endeavor for me.
Sorry for the long post. I appreciate your opinions and experience.
It's always worthwhile.
The Skyrocket, to me, was always a case of OEM software that limited its potential. If you really sit down and tweak it, custom ROM, new governor, overclock, it's a beast of a phone that can still keep pace today. You'll have to balance performance with battery life--overclocking and switching to a more aggressive governor doesn't do you any favors there, and some ROMs are better about battery life than others. It's a great phone with a lot of life left, though, much more so than the vanilla S2 because the Rocket has LTE capability.
To hit your other questions, any app that is available on the Play Store will work. If a ROM needs a second gapps flash to get the Play Store (along with everything else Google ships) back, that will be made available and is a very easy install. I've never unlocked a phone, but I don't believe that a new ROM would lose that. Wait for someone else to reply, but I'd be shocked if it did. As far as what you want, there's a ROM to suit any desires. Most ROMs are pretty basic and look and feel like you'd expect a Skyrocket to. Some are designed to feel a little more like iOS, some are designed to be stripped-down (and faster as a result), and some are based on stock firmware and very closely replicate the original experience. It's up to you to read through the dev forum for the Rocket and pick the experience that's best for you.
As far as how difficult it is, spend a couple hours reading about flashing, how it works and why it works. Once you have that basic understanding of it and can follow a few simple instructions that are pretty universal across ROMs, you're set.
Well, I'm giving this a try tonight. Fingers crossed!
One piece of advice: when you pick a new rom from "Android development" read the WHOLE thread associated with that rom, with special attention the the first couple of pages. Make sure you understand the process and any potential pitfalls.
First rom I tried I spent probably six hours reading. It was worth it.
Success!!! I now have the latest CandyKat running! It ended up being not too bad at all. Now I need to figure out how things are different from the AT&T Jelly Bean this replaces.
Thanks for the advice and thanks to everyone who contributes to the site,
I have Kandykat. It seems to be a good solid rom. The Google Now launcher is buggy though. I changed to Nova launcher. Other than that it's been fine.
Thanks for the tips, Chris. I've been using Launcher3. What's the difference between these launchers? Everything seems to be running fine on my rocket now. Any tips on increasing battery life? Any tips on some nice customization?
Google Now launcher seems to have the annoying habit of forgetting the screen setup (app positioning) during reboot. Launcher 3 also exhibited the same problem. Launchers are a matter of taste, but Nova launcher seems solid and looks right to me. YMMV. It's easy to try a few.
For years I have rooted my phones, and have had just about all the OEM's at one time or another. Since I've had my Pixels, not so much. So I decided to Root my Pixel, and run a custom ROM for the weekend, and today, I had had enough, and went back to stock. It's just not for me anymore. I like for everything to work, and what I get from stock is just perfect for me. Why is everyone else still holding on?
I miss being a flash-a-holic lol. I would always flash alot of custom roms also and my fav was Pure Nexus. i'm currently stock and fine with it well i wanted to try Q so. I still wanted a Pure Pixel rom but it never happened.
I think pretty much the ability to properly backup and restore using Titanium Backup. Otherwise, I as well would be done with root. Sure would make the monthly updates easier...
I have always rooted my devices. From Nexus 6p, Pixel XL, Pixel 2XL, I never felt I needed to, they always ran great and did exactly what I needed. My favorite, including a 2 days battery was Pixel 2 XL.
However, with Pixel 3 XL, the battery, and now the lagging, has been a nightmare. It's like I am dealing with samsumg all over again, like it was with samsumgs, pockets pcs, etc...
I was about to root and flash a custom until I saw your post... which means, not even the custom roms will fix this horrible phone... thats sad... I always buy my pixels on launch date, but I will eagerly wait for the next one, but only buy it 3 or 4 months later, if I buy it. For now, I am now researching between the latest samsung, OPO and Huawei to replace my P3XL, I really can't take it anymore. What a waste of money in this phone, and is not even worth half of what I paid now....
I use a custom rom for customization (changing statusbar color, accent colors, customize reboot menu, change statusbar icons, etc). Use root so I can disable navbar and use pie controls, use tasker and other apps properly, enable fingerprint pay where it is not allowed, and many other things.
I admit on stock you can use tulsadiver's mods to change most of the things a custom rom does, but you have to redo it on every update.
Stock with root and ElememtalX kernel for the extra high brightness mode. Need it because I mount my phone to the handlebars of my motorcycle for Nav. It's ok without it, but so much better with it.
I held off for years before putting a custom ROM on my Pixels, but I finally relented because of some lag on my 3XL. Now I'm running the latest AOSiP with Kirisakura kernel, and everything works beautifully and better than stock. Those of you who are having issues and have nothing to lose should definitely try a custom ROM. I haven't yet found anything that doesn't function better than stock. It's been totally stable and fully functional for me. With better performance and more features, of course.
There are still a couple reasons that keep me flashing custom. Not as many as there used to be. I still enjoy it though. Just like switching Linux Distros. I do it when I'm bored. It's fun.
For me. It's roms. Kernels. Titanium. And ad blockers.
There are lots of reasons to still root. But to each there own.
What finally drove me away from custom ROMs is that devs would stop supporting my device as soon as a new flashier, newer, c00l3r device came out. Basic bugs wouldn't get fixed. They'd be switching forums every few months (XDA? Telegram? Google+?). I'd donate $100 and a month later my favorite features would stop working or be dropped.
In short, lack of long term (6-9 months "long term"?) basic stability in favor chasing the latest new toy. I get it, it's their free time, but that's why I donated, and this is why I left.
This is the first Android device I've had I've kept stock with exception to rooting and a few Magisk modules like ViPER4Android. Other than that, I have to admit I am pretty content with the stock experience.
After almost 3 years (starting with the OG PIxel and XL), I finally installed a custom ROM on the 3XL but left the 3 stock and rooted. I may go back to stock and rooted with Q coming. The biggest reason for me to quit swapping custom ROMs on these devices is that TWRP has really become nothing more than a zip flasher. Multiple slot issues and no real Nandroid functionality makes it so that a custom ROM just replaces stock if you are happy with it and support continues. The time to completely wipe and reconfigure after a custom install just isn't worth it more than once for me.
Data backs up fine on TWRP and restoring it gets back all your settings.
Ad-blocking, ad-blocking, and ad-blocking.
I just can't use a phone that shows adverts - they p1ss me off no end. Not only the fact they take up half the screen, and steal bandwidth, but the tracking is basically illegal but still done relentlessly.
21cdb said:
I held off for years before putting a custom ROM on my Pixels, but I finally relented because of some lag on my 3XL. Now I'm running the latest AOSiP with Kirisakura kernel, and everything works beautifully and better than stock. Those of you who are having issues and have nothing to lose should definitely try a custom ROM. I haven't yet found anything that doesn't function better than stock. It's been totally stable and fully functional for me. With better performance and more features, of course.
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Active edge, and Pixel stand doesn't work as it should. Also with all the custom ROM's I flashed they would just reboot randomly.
djcrystals said:
There are still a couple reasons that keep me flashing custom. Not as many as there used to be. I still enjoy it though. Just like switching Linux Distros. I do it when I'm bored. It's fun.
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I get that. It's one of the reasons that got me into it in the first place.
cantara256 said:
What finally drove me away from custom ROMs is that devs would stop supporting my device as soon as a new flashier, newer, c00l3r device came out. Basic bugs wouldn't get fixed. They'd be switching forums every few months (XDA? Telegram? Google+?). I'd donate $100 and a month later my favorite features would stop working or be dropped.
In short, lack of long term (6-9 months "long term"?) basic stability in favor chasing the latest new toy. I get it, it's their free time, but that's why I donated, and this is why I left.
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Honestly that's actually one of the advantages of still Rooting. Getting the latest software on a device that is no longer supported.
krs360 said:
Ad-blocking, ad-blocking, and ad-blocking.
I just can't use a phone that shows adverts - they p1ss me off no end. Not only the fact they take up half the screen, and steal bandwidth, but the tracking is basically illegal but still done relentlessly.
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dns.adguard.com
jmartin72 said:
Active edge, and Pixel stand doesn't work as it should. Also with all the custom ROM's I flashed they would just reboot randomly.
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Both features work great in the latest AOSiP build. Also haven't had any random reboots.
jmartin72 said:
dns.adguard.com
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That only works on wifi right? On mobile data it uses your providers DNS?