Develop Bugs

Gnex Alternative

I have been using the Nexus for about 2 months now and I must say I absolutely love the phone. Its completely open and hackable which is huge for me and it does everything I want except...
The signal absolutely blows. It doesn't work in 80% of the stores I'm in. My wife has my old incredible and her phone works just fine everywhere mine fails to work. Its not just the signal bars either. The phone will continually cut out when streaming audio while driving. I constantly lose data connectivity. Its fine when i'm at home but i'm right next to a 4g tower and I usually have -83db there but its a roll of the dice everywhere else.
I talked to a number of others who also have the gnex and I have compared their signal strength to mine (using db, not just signal bars). They have the same complains and their signal is right on par with mine. It appears that this is a problem with pretty much all Gnex phones. If you have good signal then they work great. If you have so so signal then you are screwed.
As much as I love the phone I can't justify keeping a phone that doesn't work reliably when I leave the house. Can anyone suggest a good alternative that will allow me to root it and load ICS on. I love messing with Android so a phone I can't modify won't cut it. I don't think I can go back to gingerbread after making the jump to ICS.

I can't think of a high-end android phone that CANNOT run a custom built ICS rom now...

Honestly, if you can wait, I recommend just getting the Galaxy S III. It will pretty much be the "standard" high-end android phone. I'm sure whatever you get will be outshined by the Galaxy S III, but you do have to be a bit patient.
For now, I think they've been able to get a stable ICS rom on the note, which would be my next recommendation. It's large, but future proof, and can make a suitable substitute for the Gnex. Go browse around the Gnote forums, see if they have a rom that you like.

MilkPudding said:
I can't think of a high-end android phone that CANNOT run a custom built ICS rom now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about that. The Razr has a locked bootloader and while they have some working recovery options I have yet to see a stable ICS build that works on the CDMA Razr. The same is true for the Rezound. There are builds out there but they are far from stable if they work at all. Most says data or phone doesn't work.
I previously had the Razr and I liked it but the lack of custom ROMs and recovery options was the reason I exchanged it for the Nexus.

pastasauce said:
Honestly, if you can wait, I recommend just getting the Galaxy S III. It will pretty much be the "standard" high-end android phone. I'm sure whatever you get will be outshined by the Galaxy S III, but you do have to be a bit patient.
For now, I think they've been able to get a stable ICS rom on the note, which would be my next recommendation. It's large, but future proof, and can make a suitable substitute for the Gnex. Go browse around the Gnote forums, see if they have a rom that you like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a little soured on Samsung. Everyone I have talked to about the Nexus issues has said the same thing. "Thats just how Samsung is. Their radios are the worst."
I should also specify that I am a Verizon customer so I will need a CDMA/LTE option. To the best of my knowledge the Galaxy Note is GSM.

trevoryour said:
I have been using the Nexus for about 2 months now and I must say I absolutely love the phone. Its completely open and hackable which is huge for me and it does everything I want except...
The signal absolutely blows. It doesn't work in 80% of the stores I'm in. My wife has my old incredible and her phone works just fine everywhere mine fails to work. Its not just the signal bars either. The phone will continually cut out when streaming audio while driving. I constantly lose data connectivity. Its fine when i'm at home but i'm right next to a 4g tower and I usually have -83db there but its a roll of the dice everywhere else.
I talked to a number of others who also have the gnex and I have compared their signal strength to mine (using db, not just signal bars). They have the same complains and their signal is right on par with mine. It appears that this is a problem with pretty much all Gnex phones. If you have good signal then they work great. If you have so so signal then you are screwed.
As much as I love the phone I can't justify keeping a phone that doesn't work reliably when I leave the house. Can anyone suggest a good alternative that will allow me to root it and load ICS on. I love messing with Android so a phone I can't modify won't cut it. I don't think I can go back to gingerbread after making the jump to ICS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried flashing another radio?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=20312089&postcount=6
pastasauce said:
Honestly, if you can wait, I recommend just getting the Galaxy S III. It will pretty much be the "standard" high-end android phone. I'm sure whatever you get will be outshined by the Galaxy S III, but you do have to be a bit patient.
For now, I think they've been able to get a stable ICS rom on the note, which would be my next recommendation. It's large, but future proof, and can make a suitable substitute for the Gnex. Go browse around the Gnote forums, see if they have a rom that you like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, if the rumors about the Galaxy S 3 are true, then I'd rather keep my Nexus.

dario3040 said:
Have you tried flashing another radio?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=20312089&postcount=6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am running the 4.0.4 radios currently. Believe me I have exhausted all the software solutions available. The radios did help my battery life but not my signal. My PRL is also up to date.

pastasauce said:
Honestly, if you can wait, I recommend just getting the Galaxy S III. It will pretty much be the "standard" high-end android phone. I'm sure whatever you get will be outshined by the Galaxy S III, but you do have to be a bit patient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're assuming that the GS3 will have a superior radio to the GNex which, as far as I am concerned, is a big assumption...

Agreed. Samsung makes nice screens but crap radios. So no other suggestions? Are we really stuck with a subpar radio if we want an unlocked phone?

Galaxy Nexus choppiness

Hi folks,
I got myself an Galaxy Nexus GSM version. Currently running stock ROM (IMM761I) which I have unlocked and rooted using Gnexus Toolkit avail here on xda.
Since day one, the phone seems to be laggy in most part. I ran alot of benchmarks and most of them are below expection, especially the latest version of Quadrat which I ran like 10 times so far and I got 2000-2150 at most. Comparing this to the average Gnexus posted by others in Quadrant, Am scoring approximately 400-500 less which is not much but I can definitely feel it on day-to-day lagging.
Do you guys think I should get another ROM or maybe I can tweak the stock ROM?
Save a newbie!
Regards,,,

Benchmarks are useless. Could you better explain where you're seeing choppiness?

Mainly during starting/closing of app's. Basic App's like Phone dailer , messsaging as well as games.
Am thinking about flashing the CM9 maguro or AOKP , what do you think ? and what's the difference between the different builds of AOKP ?
Regards,,,

I ran stock for months and decided to root the other day. After doing so, I too am seeing general laggyness. So much that I wished I'd never rooted.
I did hop around a few ROMs and Kernels before just settling on stock rooted w/stock ROM (nandroid backup immediately after rooting). The only thing I did was flash a new radio and it works better than ever (data speeds and reception). The general OS is choppy at times, something that was never the case prior to rooting.
Yes, I did full wipes/clear cache/ DALVIK, all that jazz. Maybe it was my Titanium restore of 90 some odd apps? Something just doesn't "feel right."
Oh well. Not a show-stopper but slightly annoying.

I just flashed the AOKP B37 and it's looking very nice already. Things are slight faster but I LOVE how customizable this ROM is!
As far as Radio modding, Iam running GSM version on HSDPA network, not sure If that will help me get more bars. My network provider is superb, in terms of coverage and data connection. Do I really need to modd it ?
Also, Do you know how I can install themes for the B37 ROM with Nova launcher ?
Regards,,,

Flashing radios for the Nexus Maguro - Is it worth it ?

I just got my G Nex about 2 days ago. I absolutely love the phone, and manually updated it to Jelly Bean. It is a stock maguro phone, with the baseband/model being IM something something. Now, Has anyone flashed a new radio post jellybean ? and see any better speed with Data ?
I have Tmobile, and it seems almost like my HD2 data speed.

Theoretically it should be better. Give it a shot and see what happens.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

tr4656 said:
Theoretically it could be better. Give it a shot and see what happens.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYP.
There's no perfect radio. If your phone is working fine, just leave it be with the stock Jelly Bean radio (xxlf1).

saadkhan07 said:
I just got my G Nex about 2 days ago. I absolutely love the phone, and manually updated it to Jelly Bean. It is a stock maguro phone, with the baseband/model being IM something something. Now, Has anyone flashed a new radio post jellybean ? and see any better speed with Data ?
I have Tmobile, and it seems almost like my HD2 data speed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also on Tmobile US and I got the XXLF1 radio with my JB ROM. When I did speed tests they were definitely very similar to my old radio on 4.0. However, I did notice that it would often lose connection with the Google servers (signal bars turn grey) and reconnect. I flashed the UGLA4 radio and I get the same speeds, but without the connection recycling. Not sure if you've had this problem but UGLA4 has always worked the best (or tied for best) so I stick with it. Flashing radios is easy as hell too, no reason not to (unless your service degrades, but then it's just as easy to flash back).

[Q] Same carrier, two different phones, difference reception

I have my Galaxy S3 and my coworker has an HTC Evo. Both of us have Sprint and yet his phone gets 3 bars of reception whereas mine only gets 1, 2 if I'm very, very lucky.
AFAIK, he's running stock, unrooted and I'm running rooted with latest LiquidSmooth 2.9 with the MD4 modem. No idea what modem he has.
What could be the reason why he's getting better reception? Better antenna build in the Evo?

Volknochi said:
I have my Galaxy S3 and my coworker has an HTC Evo. Both of us have Sprint and yet his phone gets 3 bars of reception whereas mine only gets 1, 2 if I'm very, very lucky.
AFAIK, he's running stock, unrooted and I'm running rooted with latest LiquidSmooth 2.9 with the MD4 modem. No idea what modem he has.
What could be the reason why he's getting better reception? Better antenna build in the Evo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some of it has to do with the rom. Some aosp roms show a more accurate bar reading...which is why your's is fewer. I wouldn't really get to worked up over it. They both probably get similar reception and data speeds on 3g

lvpre said:
Some of it has to do with the rom. Some aosp roms show a more accurate bar reading...which is why your's is fewer. I wouldn't really get to worked up over it. They both probably get similar reception and data speeds on 3g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, my data is absolute sh!te and it's a pain to load nearly anything. I get data transfer speeds in the very low kbps.

lvpre said:
Some of it has to do with the rom. Some aosp roms show a more accurate bar reading...which is why your's is fewer. I wouldn't really get to worked up over it. They both probably get similar reception and data speeds on 3g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to agree Ivpre. I would not get worked up over it. Unless of course it is necessary for you to have more Bars showing then him :silly: . You do most likely get the same Data Speeds.
Volknochi said:
Actually, my data is absolute sh!te and it's a pain to load nearly anything. I get data transfer speeds in the very low kbps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would suggest Updating PRL / Profile. Maybe even trying a different Modem. Not everyone gets great reception on MD4. You may have to experiment to see which works better for you.

If you want to properly know if your device is getting less of a signal you need to flash a TW rom, preferably one which is close to stock update prl and profile. Then check your signal and data speeds compared to your friends. AOSP roms remember are built from leaks, and ported from other devices. There is no true aosp source for the Sprint S3. So there's lots of patches and coding which goes into getting the cdma radios working.
Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4

prboy1969 said:
I'm going to agree Ivpre. I would not get worked up over it. Unless of course it is necessary for you to have more Bars showing then him :silly: . You do most likely get the same Data Speeds.
I would suggest Updating PRL / Profile. Maybe even trying a different Modem. Not everyone gets great reception on MD4. You may have to experiment to see which works better for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We've actually done a Speedtest together and his had a higher data rate than mine. I've had different modem with the earlier builds of Liquid Smooth as well, but still low reception. I've also updated my PRL/Profile in the past in hopes that it'll help but sadly no.
I'll look into having a TouchWiz ROM versus this one. I just love how LiquidSmooth is, so hoping I can find a TW ROM that's just as fun.
EDIT: I don't even know how to find a TouchWiz ROM. I figured it would say "TW" along the subject line, the same way AOSP does, but alas I cannot find that. I have heard of Goodness, is that a TW ROM?

Volknochi said:
I have my Galaxy S3 and my coworker has an HTC Evo. Both of us have Sprint and yet his phone gets 3 bars of reception whereas mine only gets 1, 2 if I'm very, very lucky.
AFAIK, he's running stock, unrooted and I'm running rooted with latest LiquidSmooth 2.9 with the MD4 modem. No idea what modem he has.
What could be the reason why he's getting better reception? Better antenna build in the Evo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some devices just get better reception than others. Better internal antennae.
My mom's old photon always got better reception than my 3d & s3
Sent from my SPH-I710 using xda premium

Volknochi said:
I'll look into having a TouchWiz ROM versus this one. I just love how LiquidSmooth is, so hoping I can find a TW ROM that's just as fun.
EDIT: I don't even know how to find a TouchWiz ROM. I figured it would say "TW" along the subject line, the same way AOSP does, but alas I cannot find that. I have heard of Goodness, is that a TW ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most likely cause all the roms which do not say AOSP or CM or AOKP or something like that are TW roms. I would recommend MOAR or TPR The People's Rom.
Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4

OP,
Unless you're being very careful with your comparisons and using quantitative, and not qualitative, data like db, seeing more "signal bars" means nothing.
Sent from my buttered S3

You must also keep in mind, that even after you switch to a TW Rom. There is no guarantee that you will see better reception. IE more bars. There are quite a few variables involved. What you should concentrate on is making your device the best it can be for you. As CNexus stated. When comparing you have to compare Apples to Apples, and Oranges to Oranges.
TEAM MiK
MikROMs Since 3/13/11

Bananas to bananas
Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4

To all Verizon Galaxy Nexus peeps! on 4.3

I have read conflicting reports that some say 4.3 is GOOD on battery for our VZ nexus and some say it was horrible....
what are your findings? better? worse? same?

Most battery comments are subjective in nature.
If you perceive worse battery life then try a different kernel or get a new battery.

dvigue said:
I have read conflicting reports that some say 4.3 is GOOD on battery for our VZ nexus and some say it was horrible....
what are your findings? better? worse? same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its always subjective. Try it yourself.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

I tried 4.3 and it was faster and with different kernel like mpokang it had good speed and battery life compared to 4.2.2. You just need to make sure you turn off wi-fi scanning even when off and something else in search or 4.3 will suck the battery down. My only complaint is my favorite ROM it's still 4.3 and the 3G to 4G tower switching doesn't work properly and as I travel allot this is a deal breaker for me as it drops calls so had to go back to 4.2.2 ROM. I heard the ROM's that are updated to 4.3.1 don't have the radio issues. This issue is also only on Verizon due to no new radio's yet from what I understand.

I've been using the Galaxy Nexus strictly on wifi for a while now. I recently updated it to 4.3, and while performance is GREAT, battery life is suffering, but I've felt no need to change anything because I'm always near a charger.

For me it's only been a bit of an improvement during regular every day use. Although If I try I can actually go almost a full day with one charge.

When i charge it peeps my phone

I was using 4.3.1 and battery seemed stellar. The radios is the big problem. It doesn't like bouncing between cells and 4G didn't seem to work.
http://droid-hive.com/index.php?/to...-aokp-sabermod-49-03-optimizations-11113-431/
His Rom was here but he recently moved.
-sent from my LG G2 using XDA Premium 4

I revisited slim 4.3 build 2 seems to be working good will see Monday when I go to work and start jumping towers. Really want to be on PA but didn't work good for me and hasn't been updated in awhile. Hopefully Verizon releases 4.3 and they will revisit and fix it. I think us toro users are not going to get a good kit kat because of Verizon radio deal
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Lmao @4.3. Try 4.4 on ART. I've been on it all of a day but wow! You should have flashed 4.3 a long time ago. Its old news. Battery AND speed are crazy with ART. Could be placebo so I'm gonna wait a week or two to pass judgement but so far so good.

Mandelbrot.Benoit said:
Lmao @4.3. Try 4.4 on ART. I've been on it all of a day but wow! You should have flashed 4.3 a long time ago. Its old news. Battery AND speed are crazy with ART. Could be placebo so I'm gonna wait a week or two to pass judgement but so far so good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that a Verizon rom? Because it's the Verizon that was only updated to 4.2.2 and has issues with 4.3+
I looked through the Verizon Dev forums but nothing as you described. If a 4.3+ rom has a fully working non-wonky cellular radio, then please link.
-sent from my LG G2 using XDA Premium 4

player911 said:
Is that a Verizon rom? Because it's the Verizon that was only updated to 4.2.2 and has issues with 4.3+
I looked through the Verizon Dev forums but nothing as you described. If a 4.3+ rom has a fully working non-wonky cellular radio, then please link.
-sent from my LG G2 using XDA Premium 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes its a Verizon ROM. I don't think any of the 4.3 ROMs had RADIO issues. The Verizon Nexus was Updated to 4.3 through asop including Binaries so there shouldn't be radio issues.
A couple people are reporting issues with 4.4 but it looks like they didn't flash new radios.
Maybe we aren't talking about the same thing? Could you link what you are talking about?
If you want me to link all the ROMs with working radios on 4.3+ that would be to many ROMs.

The problems I have is low signal areas if I have good signal I have no problems on 4.3
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

tshelby73 said:
The problems I have is low signal areas if I have good signal I have no problems on 4.3
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is probably true. I don't have any problems in my home town but in was in another big city and I had great signal but often kept finding my phone unable to grab a data connection. I had to keep resetting to restore it. Toggling airplane mode wouldn't resolve it.
The only I could think of is I was going through a nonserviced area and dropping data and it never reconnecting.
-sent from my LG G2 using XDA Premium 4

Mandelbrot.Benoit said:
Lmao @4.3. Try 4.4 on ART. I've been on it all of a day but wow! You should have flashed 4.3 a long time ago. Its old news. Battery AND speed are crazy with ART. Could be placebo so I'm gonna wait a week or two to pass judgement but so far so good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure where the 4.4 comment came from...especially since there aren't any stable 4.4 Roms for the GNex yet.
I have bad battery on 4.2 and 4.3. Performance is better though.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Mpokang with nephelims seem to give me better battery life on 4.3 vs 4.2.2 might be that you can only use 1080 version on 4.2.2 I use cm version on 4.3
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

nnbengboy2 said:
Not sure where the 4.4 comment came from...especially since there aren't any stable 4.4 Roms for the GNex yet.
I have bad battery on 4.2 and 4.3. Performance is better though.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some slight graphical issues and reboots but for being dropped by Google the 4.4 ROMs aren't bad. Hopefully with the new GPU Binaries from TI those issues can get fixed.
The 4.4 comment came from the fact the OP is asking about 4.3 while 4.4 is being tested. I was pointing out he's a little late to the game and to get on it!! :silly:

Feels the same to me, same crappy GNex battery life lol
But it's not worse if that's what your wondering OP

Back on 4.2.2 4.3 still had some small data issues in low signal areas. Really the only thing I want is Bluetooth from 4.3 it works right and id tags come through to my stereo. Wonder if it can be back ported.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I've had my Galaxy Nexus almost since the beginning, and I've tried a lot of roms.
You probably notice a lot of stuttering and general slowness on your Gnex. The Gnex was fine on 4.0. Something happened in 4.1, and it became slow as death. The only thing that ever seemed to fix this was doing a factory reset on your phone, wiping the data, and reinstalling your rom. People came up with varying ways to fix this slowness problem (root always required, of course), including modifying the dalvik heap growth limit and readahead sizes. Other people used a program called LagFix in the Play Store that basically was a manual TRIM, because there was a problem with certain Samsung phones where they refused to trim the filesystem.
Jelly Bean 4.3 fixed all of that. Google committed some changes to the source that built trim into Android. To put it in perspective, my random read speeds on my phone were 0.4 Mb/sec before installing 4.3. My speeds now are 1.6 Mb/sec. Sequential read/write improved by an order of magnitude.
If you're not on Android 4.3, yet, you really need to do it. Android 4.3 helped my battery life not necessarily because it inherently consumes less power, but because it dramatically improved my I/O speeds; when my phone wakes, it doesn't have to wake as long to access random pieces of storage.
On top of this, ever since I can remember, the radio switchoff between Wi-Fi, 1X, 3G, and 4G on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus has been atrocious. Ever since I got the phone, it would regularly take me 30 seconds to a minute for data to come back up as soon as the phone switched to a different wireless standard. The latest Shiny rom (10/11/13) finally was able to fix that, so my radio switches happen in less than 10 seconds, now.
Finally, I've tried random kernels, including Franco, Trinity, Lean, Tiny, Golden, and GLaDOS. All of them have affected battery life and speed marginally and in various ways (and some of them caused me a lot of reboots after a week, or so, of use), but the one that has really--actually--improved the snappiness of my phone has been the BIGMEM version of Fancy Kernel. Fancy Kernel's thread is here; I'm running on version pre44-3-big.