Most people seem fairly happy with the stock pixel user experience, after all a main reason we purchase pixels is because of it's software.
in your experience, is there any benefit to any of the currently available custom roms that would increase performance and battery? I mean something bigger than just customisability and tinkering
I've been debating this too. I haven't rooted a device in 4 years. No real reason to anymore. I'm on the fence because I'm hoping for a true blackout theme and better animation transitions on a custom rom. Haven't pulled the trigger yet.
Performance, efficiency, and control over fast more than what Google chooses to provide.
ctfrommn said:
Performance, efficiency, and control over fast more than what Google chooses to provide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What roms are you referring to?
It has been scientifically proven that running custom kernels and/or roms helps to minimize E.D.
Mainly battery life. I have to charge my phone once every 1-1.5 weeks or so, vs every or every other day like most people.
*Keeping the screen brightness only as bright as you need it (i.e. not ecessively set or maxxed out--I keep mine around 1/4 maybe touch more, on the brightness slider.
smokejumper76 said:
I have to charge my phone once every 1-1.5 weeks or so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bruh, do you even use your phone at all? What ROM makes such a huge difference for your use to extend your battery life from 1 day to over 7 days?
fix-this! said:
What roms are you referring to?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Literally any?
GrapheneOS gets rid of all Google Services, thus (and overall) it's a lot more privacy-focused.
Performance isn't a huge issue on Pixel devices (imo), because the ROM they come with isn't super bloated, but you can always just use LineageOS, or any other barebones ROM if you don't need any fancy features, only sleek (slick?) performance.
I have always been a fan of ResurrectionRemix/crDroid, which are filled with TONS of features. Sure, depending on who you are, you might not care for most/some of them (double tapping on statusbar to lock the screen, changing the animation of quick settings tiles when you tap on them, blinking the flashlight when you receive a call, and many, many other small things).
Nowadays, even ROMs like this aren't hogging up your performance or ruin your battery life.
Besides flashing custom ROMs, rooting is still useful for me.
Yeah, getting SafetyNet to pass can be a bit of a hassle, but in exchange I get to use ACC to prolong my battery's health, I can get rid of the navbar pill, and I can use an lsposed module to disable secure flag in my transportation app, so I can take a screenshot of my ticket (should the inspector come when there's no cellular connection (and the app doesn't properly cache the ticket, because of great programming )).
None of these are deal-breakers, but as long as there's still an option for doing these, I wouldn't want to miss out.
Radjah2001 said:
in your experience, is there any benefit to any of the currently available custom roms that would increase performance and battery? I mean something bigger than just customisability and tinkering
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery life and performance is pretty good as is. The stock rom on Pixels isn't super bloated, so it's not like it has much of an effect on battery or the performance of your phone. With the stock kernel I lost about 0.6% of battery every hour overnight, with MVK kernel that number got reduced to about 0.4%. Does it make a difference? Not at all.
I guess you could root and use a kernel manager to downclock the CPU to gain some extra SoT, but that's about it. If you're not much of a tinkerer, and content with your current setup, there's no real reason to switch to something else.
Lada333 said:
Bruh, do you even use your phone at all? What ROM makes such a huge difference for your use to extend your battery life from 1 day to over 7 days?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really. I have no friends. <s>
I'll use it outside/on road but even then, phone conversations and internet browsing is not very much. Here and there, etc. Mostly texts or instant msgs.But calls here and there. I have it set to charge max 75% and will recharge when it gets to around 20%. Running LineageOS w/ the kernel it comes with it. Nothing fancy. I don't use any social media app (or social media or that matter), so I don't have to worry about that stuff draining the battery. WiFI and/or VPN will so I tend to keep them turned off until I need them. If I used phone more regularly, I could see myself having to recharge it maybe every 3-4 days maybe, I dunno.
Battery life can actually be worse on custom ROMs that do not have Google Play Services. When an app uses Play Svcs to handle push notifications, things like notification pushes get are managed and batched together by Play Services. If a phone does not have Play Svcs, apps that use cloud notifications may have to register their own persistent polling services which can chew up battery. And then you have to disable battery optimization for that app so it doesn't get dozed.
I've at least heard anecdotal evidence that battery life suffers on GrapheneOS because of this. Say, if you have an email client and messaging apps that require a persistent polling service to look for new messages.
Nowadays when I look up reasons to use ROMs or root, I get annoyed when articles list modules or features that serve to fix the issues that the act of making these changes cause (eg- hide root from other apps, force apps to doze, magisk bootloop saver, etc). I mean now you're spending the time managing the problem you've created for yourself. It's silly. Unless there are practical reasons to customize, I see no compelling reason to do so.
jawz101 said:
Battery life can actually be worse on custom ROMs that do not have Google Play Services. When an app uses Play Svcs to handle push notifications, things like notification pushes get are managed and batched together by Play Services. If a phone does not have Play Svcs, apps that use cloud notifications may have to register their own persistent polling services which can chew up battery. And then you have to disable battery optimization for that app so it doesn't get dozed.
I've at least heard anecdotal evidence that battery life suffers on GrapheneOS because of this. Say, if you have an email client and messaging apps that require a persistent polling service to look for new messages.
Nowadays when I look up reasons to use ROMs or root, I get annoyed when articles list modules or features that serve to fix the issues that the act of making these changes cause (eg- hide root from other apps, force apps to doze, magisk bootloop saver, etc). I mean now you're spending the time managing the problem you've created for yourself. It's silly. Unless there are practical reasons to customize, I see no compelling reason to do so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very well said. I've been thinking the same. Google does there optimizations pretty well and they have given even more options to even tinker with a lil more effecient as per your need. There's no need to go out of the way replace the whole rom. even if you do you should have a very good reason and it should have some very noticable difference that can be seen to any one... Though i always have a soft corner for the modding community. Because of their push oems are stepping up their game.
Interesting. I do have Gapps installed and regarding polling the servers, while I myself haven't had battery drain, I can definitely attest to custom roms possibly messing with polling. On my old M8 (which also had Lineage), if the phone was on standby for a long time, I would not get ANY text or IMs unless I turned on the screen, THEN I'd get a bunch of messages. Or even if the phone was on, I would have to send a text message to myself and then I'd get a bunch back from people. So, yes at least on that phone there was serious polling issues I opened myself up with.
Currently I am on the newer phone(s), which I don't experience those issues, but you are absolutely right about them.
smokejumper76 said:
if the phone was on standby for a long time, I would not get ANY text or IMs unless I turned on the screen, THEN I'd get a bunch of messages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've also experienced that issue on my 3T running.. any custom ROM, basically. I think it's mostly fixed on newer ROMs though. YMMV.
Radjah2001 said:
Most people seem fairly happy with the stock pixel user experience, after all a main reason we purchase pixels is because of it's software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speak for yourself. I bought pixel for the HARDWARE, and specifically the fact that it isn't crippled (locked) and is properly supported in AOSP. The factory prebuilt software is utter trash with one purpose and one purpose ONLY: To track everything you do.
In order to safely use the hardware, it is NECESSARY to wipe the spyware from it. Either build AOSP from source yourself, or use a security focused distribution like GrapheneOS.
Lada333 said:
Besides flashing custom ROMs, rooting is still useful for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Add possibly Viper4Android on A13 some day and its perfect.
Safetynet / play integrity & hide root is pretty easy on stock, but did you have success on custom Roms?
My banking app doesnt even rely on Safetynet / play integrity and checks for root itself, but shamiko takes care of that, but I suspect it would detect a custom Rom and refuse to work.
An entire Rom would probably much harder to hide than just root.
G5-User7080 said:
Add possibly Viper4Android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never really saw the need/use for v4a.
G5-User7080 said:
Safetynet / play integrity & hide root is pretty easy on stock, but did you have success on custom Roms?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure. Never had issues. Besides adding my banking apps to the DenyList, I also had to hide the Magisk app. What I've found is that some apps may look for the Magisk app being installed on your device (you don't even necessarily need to be rooted, just have Magisk installed).
Love the warped perspective a few posts up. Reminder to all on the risks of oxygen deprivation at birth
Lada333 said:
Never really saw the need/use for v4a.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really hope someone finds out how to make it work on A13 soon, luckily my music app has an eq so its not like it sounds bad, but what I mostly miss is replay gain ig, when I'm outside music with a wider dynamic range is a bit of a problem, the quieter parts just drown in the outside noise.
Sure. Never had issues. Besides adding my banking apps to the DenyList, I also had to hide the Magisk app. What I've found is that some apps may look for the Magisk app being installed on your device (you don't even necessarily need to be rooted, just have Magisk installed).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, mine do, hideMyApplist takes care of that, for some reason when I hide magisk App, it gets picket up by AppListDetector (well not by my banking app at least).
I kinda wanna try a custom ROM but flashing an entire new ROM is a lot scarier than just rooting stock, like some apps might not be working cause they rely on google services etc, maybe when I buy a new phone in a few years and this one doesnt get updates anymore I could try that.
DB126 said:
Love the warped perspective a few posts up. Reminder to all on the risks of oxygen deprivation at birth
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With all the scandals involving big tech all the time, do you really wonder why people distrust google & co?
In the end it's probably never as bad as you fear and never as good as you hope.
A13 has some nice privacy protecting features built in, like Android System Intelligence all happens on device, then again, gboard, google app, etc don't, ig u get a little bit of everything.
You can never be completely private, and for that reason some of my friends say "Well then it doesn't matter anyway, just know everything about me idc" and some others be like "ill just stop using all their services alltogether"
In the end everyone can do what they want cant they?
G5-User7080 said:
like some apps might not be working cause they rely on google services etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
um, so?
Even if the ROM of your choice doesn't come with GApps preinstalled, you can always just sideload MindTheGapps.
Related
Does anyone have a full listing of every app removable from the stock rom without killing it? I've frozen lots of stuff that I don't believe should impact general performance, but end up having to completely wipe and reinstall due to something I've frozen rendering my screen unusable. I think it's in the Samsung apps, but haven't done enough testing to determine which apps it NEEDS to have running in order to work.
The tablet can boot up just fine but as soon as I go to unlock it, it just sits at the homescreen unresponsive to any button or touch input.
nickhimself said:
I've frozen lots of stuff that I don't believe should impact general performance ... The tablet can boot up just fine but as soon as I go to unlock it, it just sits at the homescreen unresponsive to any button or touch input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not a "bloatware" issue (and it kills me when people go hunting for this stuff, unused software really has minimal impact).
You may be suffering from a problem I'd discovered with the Samsung kernel (namely, it doesn't reserve enough memory that the Android framework needs in order to do InterProcess Communication).
Can you try this kernel (rename the file to "boot.img" and flash it with either Odin or Mobile Odin) and tell me if that fixes anything for you?
The meaning of my quoted sentence in your post was central to the freezing issue I had following a reboot after I'd disabled apps. I didn't disable them because I thought my tablet was running slowly, I disabled them because I didn't want 200 applications installed because some guy in Samsung's marketing department said "well they have to have twelve different notepad applications, nine clocks, four calendars, several methods of backing up data to various cloud services, and also put a whole bunch of wallpapers in there for no reason because I really like cats and flowers so other people probably do too."
Also, sorry to tell you this kcrudup, but... I'm already using your kernel anyway
nickhimself said:
... following a reboot after I'd disabled apps ... I'm already using your kernel anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, as long as this is a case of "shooting yourself in the foot", then.
BTW, wallpapers (as just one example) take up NO resources if not used, and since you're not going to be installing anything in /system anyway, what's the point?
(BTW, it's not just you I'm talking to here- it's all the other Quixotic "bloatware" folks out there. Unless something like "Better Battery Stats" are showing multiple wakelock instances and/or Alarms, y'all are wasting your time on that; eliminating "bloatware" is the "ATK" of ICS+)
kcrudup said:
OK, as long as this is a case of "shooting yourself in the foot", then.
BTW, wallpapers (as just one example) take up NO resources if not used, and since you're not going to be installing anything in /system anyway, what's the point?
(BTW, it's not just you I'm talking to here- it's all the other Quixotic "bloatware" folks out there. Unless something like "Better Battery Stats" are showing multiple wakelock instances and/or Alarms, y'all are wasting your time on that; eliminating "bloatware" is the "ATK" of ICS+)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's more carryover from working with windows for so long. I'm used to, possibly even trained, on expecting the first steps after a new install to be Clean Out Everything and Trim Services ASAP.
I just don't like feeling like I have no power over a stock ROM through removing any and every piece of software I just don't want.
nickhimself said:
I just don't like feeling like I have no power over a stock ROM through removing any and every piece of software I just don't want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, I get that. One thing to remember (and I've worked on a number of Android devices over the years for a number of manufacturers and carriers) is that no manufacturer (nor carrier, believe it or not) wants to do anything that reduces overall performance (even predatory ones like VZW who'd rob your Grandmother if there's a dime to be made off her).
What's instructive is to run BBS and check on "Alarms", "Network" and "Partial Wakelocks" at the reference "Since Boot" after the tablet's been on a while- you'll see that all this "bloatware" isn't even a factor in the parts of the system that count.
Basics
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1634624
jje
Just got my N5 yesterday and I love pretty much everything about it. One tiny thing I miss coming from CM 10.2 on my old phone, is the ability to customize the "tiles" in the notification curtain. You know, when you do a 2-finger pulldown and it shows tiles to toggle wifi, airplane mode, bluetooth, etc... what do you call that anyway? Is there an "official" name for it?
Anyway, a few of my old favorites are missing, and there's no way I can find to change what's there. I'd especially like a "torch" (flashlight) toggle -- I used to use that all the time. I know there are some apps that can install a toggle bar at the top of the notification curtain in older Android versions, but it seems silly to have 2 separate groups of toggles, one on each "side" of the curtain, just because the one that's already there can't be customized, and I don't know how well those play with KitKat anyway.
Ghengis042 said:
Just got my N5 yesterday and I love pretty much everything about it. One tiny thing I miss coming from CM 10.2 on my old phone, is the ability to customize the "tiles" in the notification curtain. You know, when you do a 2-finger pulldown and it shows tiles to toggle wifi, airplane mode, bluetooth, etc... what do you call that anyway? Is there an "official" name for it?
Anyway, a few of my old favorites are missing, and there's no way I can find to change what's there. I'd especially like a "torch" (flashlight) toggle -- I used to use that all the time. I know there are some apps that can install a toggle bar at the top of the notification curtain in older Android versions, but it seems silly to have 2 separate groups of toggles, one on each "side" of the curtain, just because the one that's already there can't be customized, and I don't know how well those play with KitKat anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'd need root. Why can't you root?
root + Xposed Framework + GravityBox Xposed module
rootSU said:
You'd need root. Why can't you root?
root + Xposed Framework + GravityBox Xposed module
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just spent a few hours setting up the phone, and it would be nice not to have to do all that over again when I unlock the bootloader (and thus lose all my data...). I guess it's only one evening's setup time, so not *such* a big deal, but the other thing is that I want to keep stock firmware / OTA updates if at all possible.
As fro Xposed, I have some concerns:
* I switched to ART just after getting the phone, because I read it improves battery life (Xposed has no plans to support ART in the near future)
* I've heard that it can have stability issues -- the reason I want OTA / stock is so I can spend as little time futzing with the phone as possible and just *use* it
* Xposed opens up some security issues, IMHO
I think if it comes down to root + xposed or just using a "plain" widget, I'll probably go with the widget.
Ghengis042 said:
* I switched to ART just after getting the phone, because I read it improves battery life (Xposed has no plans to support ART in the near future)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. For me, the experimental ART feature is not worth losing Xposed for.
Ghengis042 said:
* I've heard that it can have stability issues -- the reason I want OTA / stock is so I can spend as little time futzing with the phone as possible and just *use* it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No stability issues here
Ghengis042 said:
* Xposed opens up some security issues, IMHO
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on what information?
You didn't address the setup-time issue -- that's one of the big ones for me. I usually have at least 40 apps installed (and yes, I actually use them!) and reconfiguring them is time consuming. I *could* futz with Titanium Backup or similar to automate some of that re-setup process, but I'd rather just avoid it in the first place if possible.
rootSU said:
No stability issues here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to hear, at some point I might still investigate -- it's going to come down to how much customization / tweaking I really *need*.
rootSU said:
(Security issues...) Based on what information?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess it's about as "dangerous" as rooting -- basically, Xposed gives modules carte blanche to do absolutely anything on your phone, and since the modules aren't distributed through a controlled / centralized store (like Google Play) and as far as I can tell aren't (always) open-source, I don't have any way to be sure they're not doing something malicious. Of course there's a bunch of other attack vectors, but installing a framework that touches every corner of the device, that then runs scripts / mods that I downloaded from some forum somewhere (no offense, guys!) on a phone that holds sensitive personal data... it just worries me a bit, y'know?
rootSU said:
You'd need root. Why can't you root?
root + Xposed Framework + GravityBox Xposed module
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What he said.
Ghengis042 said:
You didn't address the setup-time issue -- that's one of the big ones for me. I usually have at least 40 apps installed (and yes, I actually use them!) and reconfiguring them is time consuming. I *could* futz with Titanium Backup or similar to automate some of that re-setup process, but I'd rather just avoid it in the first place if possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't think it needed addressing? Yes you'll lose everything as we all did. You can backup with Helium to an extent. Maybe even it backs up everything. I have 300+ apps
Ghengis042 said:
I guess it's about as "dangerous" as rooting -- basically, Xposed gives modules carte blanche to do absolutely anything on your phone, and since the modules aren't distributed through a controlled / centralized store (like Google Play) and as far as I can tell aren't (always) open-source, I don't have any way to be sure they're not doing something malicious. Of course there's a bunch of other attack vectors, but installing a framework that touches every corner of the device, that then runs scripts / mods that I downloaded from some forum somewhere (no offense, guys!) on a phone that holds sensitive personal data... it just worries me a bit, y'know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xposed modules are still apk's and list permissions as you install them. The same sense applies as installing any apk. Read the permissions, consider the source and either install it or not. The framework doesn't touch every corner of the device. It runs everything in isolation (which is the whole point of it) but yeah that's not really relevant.
All the xposed apps are distributed via XDA, google Play or teh Xposed repo http://repo.xposed.info/module-overview - if something malicious was going on, the module wouldn't exist.
Anyway I'm not here to convince you to install it. There aren't any apps that do it though.
Hi,
Maybe not all will be functional without root but take a look at this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.j4velin.notificationToggle or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.painless.pc.
Try these apps to see what you can/can't do with the quick settings without root.
But like it has been said, rooting your device is the best way to have (almost) all what you want.
viking37 said:
Hi,
Maybe not all will be functional without root but take a look at this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.j4velin.notificationToggle or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.painless.pc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know if installing a settings bar on the curtain like this will interfere with... what's the term? Extended notifications? Some apps (Pocket Casts is the first that comes to mind) will show media controls (play/pause/skip) in the notification tray, but only if they're the first entry in the list -- if anything comes above them, you can't use the controls. Is that a problem with these apps?
Re,
I'm sorry but I don't know (not tested and I'm rooted)... The best is to test by yourself and see. I just provide you a link to try to help...
Ghengis042 said:
...so I can spend as little time futzing with the phone as possible and just *use* it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that doesn't sound like much fun at all.
Ghengis042 said:
You didn't address the setup-time issue -- that's one of the big ones for me. I usually have at least 40 apps installed (and yes, I actually use them!) and reconfiguring them is time consuming. I *could* futz with Titanium Backup or similar to automate some of that re-setup process, but I'd rather just avoid it in the first place if possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, TB Backup's fail when I backup 400+ apps and want to restore them altogether. Who would click Next and Install for 400+ times!!! For your point, ADB backup's are slow they really help for Unrooted devices and Guaranteeing safe apk+app-data for sure...
I've spent literally days and days reading through threads about various ROMs, I'm hoping someone who has more experience with OPO ROMs than me can point me in the right direction - looking for a solid ROM with these features baked in:
Good ad blocker
Privacy guard
Best or close to best battery life
Can set system font
Solid : doesn't crash or have nasty wakelocks / memory leaks - want a phone that spends most of it's time nicely SLEEPING when it's in my pocket
Most of the ROMs I've looked at seem to be missing one or more of those basic features? I was thinking CM 12S will be good, but then was reading about layers and they were saying the CM theme engine is not so good in terms of security or efficiency compared to the layers theming system?
I like CM 11S pretty well at this point, but I realy want to get behind (support/use) a great ROM that comes with something like AdAway pre-installed because I want to see good ad blockers included (built into) more ROMs and I want to support that. It's deeply discouraging to me when I can't find a great ROM with ad blocking baked in. Same with Privacy Guard - I don't think any ROM should come without Privacy Guard or equivalent baked in!!!
Thank you so much for your help/advice - believe me, I HAVE searched and read many threads, but I expect there are thousands of other people who have had their OPOs for weeks or months longer than me and can give me some solid advices!
Please resist the urge to simply tell me "Just try ROMs for yourself bro!" - I have done that before (on my Galaxy S3) I probably tried about 30 - 40 diff ROMs on that phone. At the moment, I look and read when I can, but before I flash I'd like to know if there are least a couple that at least have those basic features, and if not, I wonder why?
My best guess at this point is, I will need to stay with CM 11S and ad Xposed? I used Xposed a couple different times, but most recently it broke - the device still works, just Xposed was no longer compatible once it got an OTA update... I haven't put Xposed on my OPO yet as I didn't have much time for making backups/restoring re-flashing the phone in case it gets messed up because I have my kids over spring break for the next week and a half.
The only issues/missing features I'm currently experiencing with 11S are: haven't figured out how to set my system font (or perhaps my old type of font file is no longer compatible?), don't have adds blocked in apps yet, and I want to change the color of my clock in the status bar. I will go ahead and read through threads about putting Xposed on OPO - hopefully it can be added on 11S without causing any glitches?
Oh, and my [stock/unlocked/rooted CM11s] phone is not yet working for LTE - I have Walmart Family Mobile and I recently read that they have begun supported LTE. Sometimes it's just 3G and sometimes it's H+. I will call their support sometime over the next couple days because so far all I did was move the SIM card from my S3 to the OPO and perhaps it's not properly "provisioned(?)" for LTE yet? I say that because I watched one video on Youtube where a guy had to take his OPO to the AT&T store and put his SIM card in another LTE phone, then when he put the SIM back in the OPO, LTE started working on it.
Try Vanir-Exodus, there's a link to it in my signature. It has all those features except setting the system font (which I think you'll have a hard time finding as a stock feature in a ROM anyway), and the battery life is fantastic. Plus, it's mostly original development unlike a lot of the other ROMs out there which just cherry pick commits.
Transmitted via Bacon
Thank you for responding timmaaa,
timmaaa said:
Try Vanir-Exodus, there's a link to it in my signature. It has all those features except setting the system font (which I think you'll have a hard time finding as a stock feature in a ROM anyway), and the battery life is fantastic. Plus, it's mostly original development unlike a lot of the other ROMs out there which just cherry pick commits.
Transmitted via Bacon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was all set to try Exodus - but then I read some users mentioning some problems, and I think there was some important feature(s?) I wanted missing, so then I thought - oh, well I'm actually mostly happy with 11s.
The only things missing from 11s for me ATM are 1)haven't found how to change the system font yet,Adaway doesn't seem to block all the in app ads, and it doesn't come with Xposed "baked in".
If Exodus comes with Xposed pre-installed, then wouldn't that let me change the system font?
Basically I want to: set different system font, make the status bar clock green, and not give up Privacy Guard or Profiles - and of course not have to use a ROM with poor stability or poor battery life. My purpose is for the phone to be most enjoyable and useful to use, not to try a different ROM each week and find lots of bugs/glitches/wakelocks/missing features. I went through that with the S3...
critofur said:
Thank you for responding timmaaa,
I was all set to try Exodus - but then I read some users mentioning some problems, and I think there was some important feature(s?) I wanted missing, so then I thought - oh, well I'm actually mostly happy with 11s.
The only things missing from 11s for me ATM are 1)haven't found how to change the system font yet,Adaway doesn't seem to block all the in app ads, and it doesn't come with Xposed "baked in".
If Exodus comes with Xposed pre-installed, then wouldn't that let me change the system font?
Basically I want to: set different system font, make the status bar clock green, and not give up Privacy Guard or Profiles - and of course not have to use a ROM with poor stability or poor battery life. My purpose is for the phone to be most enjoyable and useful to use, not to try a different ROM each week and find lots of bugs/glitches/wakelocks/missing features. I went through that with the S3...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, I haven't had a single issue on Exodus. It doesn't come with Xposed pre-installed, but I'm not sure any ROM actually does. It has Privacy Guard, and it has Profiles. Battery life is excellent and it's as stable as they get.
Blisspop, or basically any ROM with CM themes do let you change the system font (it's part of themes).
like Team Nocturnal's latest ROM. Smooth, no bugs other for me. Never tried to set the font as of yet.
Every 5.1 or higher ROM I've tried had been buggier than EVERY 5.0.2 or 4.4.4 ROM I've tried.
I'm really hoping that some 5.1.x ROM comes out soon without apps crashing, graphics glitches, or wakelock problems.
critofur said:
Every 5.1 or higher ROM I've tried had been buggier than EVERY 5.0.2 or 4.4.4 ROM I've tried.
I'm really hoping that some 5.1.x ROM comes out soon without apps crashing, graphics glitches, or wakelock problems.
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Click to collapse
I've tried several 5.1 ROMs that are completely bug free, you might need to look at your setup.
Transmitted via Bacon
timmaaa said:
I've tried several 5.1 ROMs that are completely bug free, you might need to look at your setup.
Transmitted via Bacon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which ROMs?
"Setup"? You're not suggesting that I should try without choosing a more reasonable DPI or give up on using the system font that I always use, or put up with ads or wakelocks, are you? Those are what I see as "basic and essential features".
I do "clean" installs and the only app I restore using Titanium Backup is "A Better Camera Unlocked". I use features such as Profiles, Users, and (hopefully) the ROM's built-in AdBlock (otherwise I use AdAway).
If a ROM requires that a third party patch be used to fix wakelock problems, then I'd consider it an "Alpha" at best?
critofur said:
Which ROMs?
"Setup"? You're not suggesting that I should try without choosing a more reasonable DPI or give up on using the system font that I always use, or put up with ads or wakelocks, are you? Those are what I see as "basic and essential features".
I do "clean" installs and the only app I restore using Titanium Backup is "A Better Camera Unlocked". I use features such as Profiles, Users, and (hopefully) the ROM's built-in AdBlock (otherwise I use AdAway).
If a ROM requires that a third party patch be used to fix wakelock problems, then I'd consider it an "Alpha" at best?
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Click to collapse
No I'm not suggesting that at all. I use a custom DPI (370). I use Adaway. I don't use a custom font though. Keep in mind that certain DPI's can and do cause major issues, so you might need to tweak that a little. As far as wakelocks go, no, I wouldn't consider them an Alpha at all. Wakelocks can be found in stock ROMs from the major OEM's, and isn't always caused by the system, quite often they can be caused by third party apps, and apps from within the gapps package.
I have never had this issue on any other device with 5.0+ and wonder if it is unique to the X2
I can do any app that says start at boot up, e.g., Smart Unlock, and any autostart app, and oftentimes the service will not start at boot up
I have downloaded and tried a number of apps and utilities (about 4 init.d utilities and bootcomnand) and unfortunately no dice. "Autostart and Stay" is the latest.
Not only will the service not startup at boot, even manually started (which like Pavlov's dog I have trained myself to do), it does not "stay" ie keep the apps persistent or working in the background. Padlocking the apps (pulling down vs zooshing up in the multifinder/square box background tasks doesn't keep things executing.
This is a big hassle. I'm rooted and would do a single command line type command in boot shell pro, but don't have a command I can toss in to start the process or app and/or keep the process persistent.
Any help appreciated.
Rudolpht said:
I have never had this issue on any other device with 5.0+ and wonder if it is unique to the X2
I can do any app that says start at boot up, e.g., Smart Unlock, and any autostart app, and oftentimes the service will not start at boot up
I have downloaded and tried a number of apps and utilities (about 4 init.d utilities and bootcomnand) and unfortunately no dice. "Autostart and Stay" is the latest.
Not only will the service not startup at boot, even manually started (which like Pavlov's dog I have trained myself to do), it does not "stay" ie keep the apps persistent or working in the background. Padlocking the apps (pulling down vs zooshing up in the multifinder/square box background tasks doesn't keep things executing.
This is a big hassle. I'm rooted and would do a single command line type command in boot shell pro, but don't have a command I can toss in to start the process or app and/or keep the process persistent.
Any help appreciated.
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Click to collapse
Go into phone manager then settings then shortcuts and add the Dropzone shortcut to your home screen. Then open the shortcut and enable everything in dropzone.
That is great advice. There are still nuances about this phone I need to explore. The nuanced nuance was I needed to have the dropzone shortcut (the service was already turned). I also had to protect it so it would run in the background during sleep (?!?) and after that third reboot it booted the service correctly. It seems like a combo of science and mysticism. But it works & thank you!
Rudolpht said:
That is great advice. There are still nuances about this phone I need to explore. The nuanced nuance was I needed to have the dropzone shortcut (the service was already turned). I also had to protect it so it would run in the background during sleep (?!?) and after that third reboot it booted the service correctly. It seems like a combo of science and mysticism. But it works & thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's check your energy saving level. Any level higher than lowest one makes problems with prematurely switching off apps.
Energy saving mechanizms are pretty nasty in X2. I have great issues with notifications from WhatsApp and other communicators till I switched energy saving level to the lowest.
trurl3 said:
Let's check your energy saving level. Any level higher than lowest one makes problems with prematurely switching off apps.
Energy saving mechanizms are pretty nasty in X2. I have great issues with notifications from WhatsApp and other communicators till I switched energy saving level to the lowest.
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Click to collapse
Thank you. I have the energy savings set to "Normal" as the next level seemed to save only 5%. I'm learning something new every day. Thank you.
I'm trying to research the wonders of dropzone. The best I can find is that it allows a small set of apps to allowing floating notifications. Doesn't really explain the ability to get autoboot things to work or other magic. I'm grateful that this and some of the protected app changes are making this androud work like it should (or like other phones) . A slight more battery drain but a worthy tradeoff for tearing my hair out.
Rudolpht said:
I'm trying to research the wonders of dropzone. The best I can find is that it allows a small set of apps to allowing floating notifications. Doesn't really explain the ability to get autoboot things to work or other magic. I'm grateful that this and some of the protected app changes are making this androud work like it should (or like other phones) . A slight more battery drain but a worthy tradeoff for tearing my hair out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you don't mind losing the No Disturb mode, you can delete the whole system manager app from system/app if you're rooted and you won't ever have to deal with the permission problems again.
I'm up for that. Would that kill the app lock also? Would a Titanium freeze do the same? Guess I can give it a shot.
And… it works. App Lock just as if it didn't exist. Will keep Phone Manager frozen for now. Thanks!
And it seems much faster/smoother, which is saying something since it was snappy to begin with.
Rudolpht said:
And it seems much faster/smoother, which is saying something since it was snappy to begin with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah when it's removed it even seems like the battery lasts a little longer. It's something I wish wasn't even included as just a task manager app would have sufficed. You can always delete the PhoneDiagnose and PowerGenieEngine as well. I can also remove them from the Super Slim KangVIP ROM as well if the majority would like that. My goal is a flashable ROM with no bloat that runs fast, gets great battery life and makes it easy for everyone. In fact, I'm going to remove them from my stock debloated ROM's and the KangVIP ROM's from now on due to the fact that a lot of us are having permission issues. I'll have three ROM's for each. A stock original bloated one, a medium debloated one with most of the Chinese apps we don't use removed but all the stock apps like Email will remain and a maximum debloated ROM and all the Huawei apps that can be removed will be.
ajsmsg78 said:
Yeah when it's removed it even seems like the battery lasts a little longer. It's something I wish wasn't even included as just a task manager app would have sufficed. You can always delete the PhoneDiagnose and PowerGenieEngine as well. I can also remove them from the Super Slim KangVIP ROM as well if the majority would like that. My goal is a flashable ROM with no bloat that runs fast, gets great battery life and makes it easy for everyone. In fact, I'm going to remove them from my stock debloated ROM's and the KangVIP ROM's from now on due to the fact that a lot of us are having permission issues. I'll have three ROM's for each. A stock original bloated one, a medium debloated one with most of the Chinese apps we don't use removed but all the stock apps like Email will remain and a maximum debloated ROM and all the Huawei apps that can be removed will be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really think the third option, thinnest + gaps + ROM switching would be my winner. Thanks.
I could find and freeze Power Genie 5.6.1.11 to freeze but no Phone Diagnose
Ditched (froze) Swype also
Rudolpht said:
I really think the third option, thinnest + gaps + ROM switching would be my winner. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I updated the thread with an Ultra Slim KangVIP and SIM switching fix.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/mediapad-x2/development/rom-kangvip-5-1-1-b108-t3215851
Cool. I have transparent weather clock back working, without phone manager nonsense. This thread has really changed my X2 experience.
Rudolpht said:
That is great advice. There are still nuances about this phone I need to explore. The nuanced nuance was I needed to have the dropzone shortcut (the service was already turned). I also had to protect it so it would run in the background during sleep (?!?) and after that third reboot it booted the service correctly. It seems like a combo of science and mysticism. But it works & thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having the same problem with some services at boot (I'm not rooted yet). I'm not sure I understand what you're explaining here. I created the shortcut to the dropzone and made sure everything was allowed in there. What do you mean by "I also had to protect it so it would run in the background during sleep"? (How do i do that?) Thanks!
AJ is the expert. Freezing phonemanager was easiest, but may require root. Search under settings (there is a search bar at the top) for "protect" services you can unprotect services that don't need to run in the background. Protect the ones you want to run, but they will use battery. May be in the phone manager app if not under setting
Thanks, I already tried that but I still don't get all the services to start at boot. Looks like rooting and freezing phonemanager is gonna be the only way... Thanks anyway for the help!
Killing phonemanager was the best thing that returned the X2 to an actual android-like device. There are a couple other services to freeze you can go through thread that also help.
I wanted to root my Nord, but I started to wonder is it worth it? What benefits I can aquire by rooting my phone? It has a lot of space anyway (I own 12/256 variant) so I don't care about additional space I can aquire by debloating.
Also I'm pretty happy with Oxygen OS, so I don't care about other ROMs, which can be bugged even more than OOS.
I was thinking about degoogling, but can we do a real degoogling, or it's just some kind of placebo, because they're everywhere
Other thing I was thinking was a proper call recording, can we do that with root access?
What's more there are some issues from banking apps etc.
Any other benefits? What do you guys think?
Well, that's up to you
Perhaps this similar thread helps:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/rooting-worth-it-or-hassle.4364757/
Personally, I'd say yes.
And as for google: Better to be touched inappropriately in one spot once then gang-raped for years and left to die on the harbor's bottom, eh?
Sounds harsh? Well, a googly friend did request his data some time ago - unzipped it was some 30GB and, among other things, contained his location ever since 2013 and just that meant roughly 2 location fixes every minute...
But, please, don't believe me, check their data on you for yourself:
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190?hl=en
But can you really get rid Google from your phone? It's I was thinking about some time ago. Except flashig a LineageOS rom-like...
Alas, not really... but it does make a huge difference to not have your device bound by an account.
(BTW, Aurora is a nice replacement for the playstore!)
Even LineageOS has some hardwired G-crap... after all, android is google's child. For example, every single time you log on to your wifi, android tries to verify internet.
Still, I do prefer to minimize such bad behavior than to give up entirely.
I still prefer to root for using
- AdAway
- AFWall+
- Titanium Backup
- Clocksync
- Automate lots of things with Tasker
Even without a proper TWRP available so far the root process is not that much of a hassle if you read the instructions properly and as long as you know how to unpack the boot.img from a full OTA.
Ramihyn said:
I still prefer to root for using
- AdAway
- AFWall+
- Titanium Backup
- Clocksync
- Automate lots of things with Tasker
Even without a proper TWRP available so far the root process is not that much of a hassle if you read the instructions properly and as long as you know how to unpack the boot.img from a full OTA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the first and second I use AdGuard. I find it way more better than Adaway in terms of blocking ads, trackers etc. Also, you can firewall apps with it too.
To be honest it's only TB and its mighty backup/restore/root/debloat abilities makes me still considering rooting my device.
I have a patched boot.img ready to flash since about two weeks. I'm sure I can manage this, but still not sure if I really want/need to.
AdAway and AFWall+ have the huge advantage compared to Adguard (Blokada would be another alternative) that they do not consume the VPN "slot" and thus almost no battery at all.
I am using my phone regularly to dial home using my own OpenVPN server (e.g. to access my music on my NAS instead of using Spotify and co.), so I cannot use VPN based ad-removal services.
wonsky21 said:
I wanted to root my Nord, but I started to wonder is it worth it? What benefits I can aquire by rooting my phone? It has a lot of space anyway (I own 12/256 variant) so I don't care about additional space I can aquire by debloating.
Also I'm pretty happy with Oxygen OS, so I don't care about other ROMs, which can be bugged even more than OOS.
I was thinking about degoogling, but can we do a real degoogling, or it's just some kind of placebo, because they're everywhere
Other thing I was thinking was a proper call recording, can we do that with root access?
What's more there are some issues from banking apps etc.
Any other benefits? What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Degoogle....
I tried /e/Os and hope half of their marketing is true.
3/4 banking apps are running (because banks are less evil than google).
The only disappointment is not to get 48mp frontcam (like (all?) custom roms for nord).