Currently on Sprint with an Epic 4G Touch. I'm planning to switch to Ting once my contract is over this month to save money. I also wanted to use the E4GT was a back up phone. So i'm looking to buy a used Sprint S3 soon. Just a few questions:
1. Does the S3 have custom recovery baked into the kernel? I'm asking because the E4GT was built that way. I don't know if its just a Samsung thing. My plan with the S3 was to use TWRP as my custom recovery. Would flashing other kernels/ROMs overwrite the custom recovery? Or do I have to flash TWRP every time?
2. Any particular caveats when flashing with the S3 to avoid issues? For the E4GT, we would have to temporarily flash a "safe" kernel/recovery to minimize any risks of bricking when flashing between TW ROMs and AOSP based ROMs. (Its been patched now, thanks to AGAT and other great devs).
2. Any issues with this phone hardware wise that's been a common theme? With the E4GT, there were GPS lock issues, phantom menu button clicks, power button failure after a year or so. Is there anything I should be aware of for the S3, especially if I'm buying a used one?
3. Any one using Ting with their S3? Was activation smooth? Everything working out the box? I know you have to edit the APN's for the MMS to work. 4G LTE fully working?
s9amme said:
Currently on Sprint with an Epic 4G Touch. I'm planning to switch to Ting once my contract is over this month to save money. I also wanted to use the E4GT was a back up phone. So i'm looking to buy a used Sprint S3 soon. Just a few questions:
1. Does the S3 have custom recovery baked into the kernel? I'm asking because the E4GT was built that way. I don't know if its just a Samsung thing. My plan with the S3 was to use TWRP as my custom recovery. Would flashing other kernels/ROMs overwrite the custom recovery? Or do I have to flash TWRP every time?
2. Any particular caveats when flashing with the S3 to avoid issues? For the E4GT, we would have to temporarily flash a "safe" kernel/recovery to minimize any risks of bricking when flashing between TW ROMs and AOSP based ROMs. (Its been patched now, thanks to AGAT and other great devs).
2. Any issues with this phone hardware wise that's been a common theme? With the E4GT, there were GPS lock issues, phantom menu button clicks, power button failure after a year or so. Is there anything I should be aware of for the S3, especially if I'm buying a used one?
3. Any one using Ting with their S3? Was activation smooth? Everything working out the box? I know you have to edit the APN's for the MMS to work. 4G LTE fully working?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Custom Recovery does not have to be flashed every time you change ROMs.
2a . Same issues with All phones. Read OP thoroughly and follow instructions.
2b. I personally don't have any issues with mine. Buying used... That's up to you
To check before buying.
Related
I'm planning to use this guide to flash the phone to Cricket and then have it activated in-store.
Does anyone know what problems I can expect? Obviously the MMS if I do it that way, which I'm 100% fine with. But I'm thinking problems like ROMs. Can I still flash different ROMs? Can I use new modems as they're released? Can I use my current ROM (Blazer, if it matters), or will I need to go back to stock for this to even work?
Anyone with thoughts?
So...I was going to save my upgrade subsidy for when the Galaxy Nexus or SGS3 hit sprint later in the year but the charger in my Evo died today and it wasn't the known USB port issue (mine had gotten chipped on the little bit of plastic inside where the contact pins are) so they couldn't do a repair or swap for free. Anyway, I had kinda wanted this phone anyway and with discount and selling back my Evo it only cost me like $110 plus tax.
I had hacked and rooted my Evo every which way but I'm now back to being a noob. I got a prompt to update my software on first boot but I don't want to update anything that will make it harder to root or mod later on once I get familiarized with the new handset.
My software version is EG30 right now. Do I want to avoid any ota updates like on most devices? What should my course of action be? I see all of the different builds mentioned on the forums but I'm not sure which ones to go for and which ones to avoid. Do people recommend rooting and flashing a specific build for now? I tend to go stock for a week or so when I get a new phone and then flash a new rom once I know what's available. With the update prompts I might want to jump ahead on that process now.
By the way, my sprint store people were awesome. When they wanted to test my Evo I kinda worried about it being rooted and running cyanogen. I couldn't flash back to stock since it would not charge and I didn't have a spare battery. They just said "well htc supports unlocked bootloaders now so as long as its not a software issue we can try to fix it. If its a software issue we would just need you to flash back to stock". Turned out to be a hardware issue but I must say that was a refreshingly fair attitude. Some places won't even look at a rooted/unlocked phone even if there is no software issue.
I also came from the EVO. I love this phone!!!! Everyone here is very helpful. As far as ROMS go, I would start with Calkins with the Rogue Kernel if you plan on using TW. That is what I am running with the optional ICS theme. Love the way that it looks. I can't say enough about how great this phone is. Great performance and batterylife. I tried the EVO3D for all of 3 days and returned it for this phone. Night and Day difference. Welcome to the E4GT family
I would go take a look at qbkings videos on how to everything. and also sfhubs auto root thread.but it doesn't lock you out of being able to do anything by upgrading like htc does. by the way calkulin has the el29 rooted stock. then after getting that I would odin the el29 modem. el29 is the current update for this phone. welcome to the community tho! happy flashing!
patrao_n said:
I would go take a look at qbkings videos on how to everything. and also sfhubs auto root thread.but it doesn't lock you out of being able to do anything by upgrading like htc does. by the way calkulin has the el29 rooted stock. then after getting that I would odin the el29 modem. el29 is the current update for this phone. welcome to the community tho! happy flashing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if I let the OTA update go through I won't be screwing myself over for later in the week when I want to start trying out new roms? Just wanna make sure
On Evo it seemed to mostly consist of getting root, installing custom recovery, then you could try out any new kernel, radio, or rom you wanted. Is it relatively similar on the sgs2? Is there anything I want to avoid now to save on headaches later?
Thanks for the tips and the welcome! Between my girlfriend's brand new iPhone getting stolen on Friday and my charger breaking this weekend it's been a bad phone week for us.
nope. I however wouldn't even deal with the update. I would just odin a kernel then from the recovery you could flash any rom you want to try out. I definitely recommend calkulins 2.8.1 or blu kuban v1.1.2 odexed. they come with kernels already installed. then I would either odin or flash a modem. I used recovery to flash all my stuff. if you want a purely stock rom, then in the dev section calkulin has a stock rooted el29 rom. which is just the rom plus root. remember almmost all roms are flashed through cwm. so definitely odin a kernel first. there is a wiki sticky thread in dev section that has all the stuff. btw with odin make sure to ONLY flash kernels through pda. if you put kernels or roms in phone it Will brick it. also never disconnect your phone while odin is flashing.
---------- Post added at 02:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:49 AM ----------
also to answer your other question once you get a kernel on your phone you can flash whatever you want. I a tually prefer it to using odin. radio kernel rom. btw unlike htc new recoveries have to be bundled in with kernels. so if you wanted a different recovery like rogue u have to grab a rogue kernel. I love the newest rogue kernel. it has a touch clockwork mod recovery in it. its called rogue "hitman"
so i'm just about ready to root my phone and i noticed that there is a random chance of losing data or losing service when rooting the phone or flashing different ROMs?
i've seen a few threads that explain how to restore data, where you have to inject your IMEI or APN? fix radio?
examples:
IMEI injected, stuck on Edge
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1860012
LTE/4g gone on all custom ROMS
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1853615
[FIX/TOOL] Backup/Restore/Fix IMEI Data Restore Tool Updated - Updated 9/04/2012!!!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1801997
i've never seen stuff like this with all of my past phones (see sig). basically, my questions are, what can i do to avoid this from happening? and besides this, what other issues can arise from flashing ROMs? (i'm the type of user that likes to flash one ROM and be done with it- no further setup/customization until that ROM specifically receives an update)
This site explains very well all the info you should need and this is the link I used to root my phone - http://rootgalaxys3iii.com/root-at-t-galaxy-s3/
in my experience of rooting it is just to get a admin access to your phone to change things around, its getting a higher user and the risk for losing information isn't high. There is always a risk but in my experience it is low.
When you start flashing and installing third party roms is when you will lose everything and have to have a backup cause your basically reinstalling the OS just like you would on a laptop and everything gets wiped.
Its_Dave said:
This site explains very well all the info you should need and this is the link I used to root my phone - http://rootgalaxys3iii.com/root-at-t-galaxy-s3/
in my experience of rooting it is just to get a admin access to your phone to change things around, its getting a higher user and the risk for losing information isn't high. There is always a risk but in my experience it is low.
When you start flashing and installing third party roms is when you will lose everything and have to have a backup cause your basically reinstalling the OS just like you would on a laptop and everything gets wiped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The fun part after rooting is flashing ROMs, unfortunately the risk of losing your IMEI is when you start flashing, but IMO if you stick with ICS, or Touchwiz ROMs and you flashed the correct CWM you should be ok.
I've attached the ODIN and the CWM that I've used and so far so good.
cue_32 said:
The fun part after rooting is flashing ROMs, unfortunately the risk of losing your IMEI is when you start flashing, but IMO if you stick with ICS, or Touchwiz ROMs and you flashed the correct CWM you should be ok.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you for the info. so it's really flashing JellyBean ROMs where this issue comes up? and/or having a 'bad/weird/incompatible' version of ClockworkMod?
i wanted to start flashing JellyBean on my Galaxy S3. i loved the JellyBean experience when i had my rooted VZW Galaxy Nexus.
I use TWRP instead of CWM and I've flashed a ton of ROMs. Most JB AOKP builds from task as well as a bunch of ICS TW ROMs and I've never lost my IMEI, but I also have a backup of my IMEI just in case.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda premium
mrhomiec said:
thank you for the info. so it's really flashing JellyBean ROMs where this issue comes up? and/or having a 'bad/weird/incompatible' version of ClockworkMod?
i wanted to start flashing JellyBean on my Galaxy S3. i loved the JellyBean experience when i had my rooted VZW Galaxy Nexus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed the JellyBean port off the TMob leak made by Smartguy. Its good enough as a daily driver, that can be your option if you want the Touchwiz kind. Otherwise, AOSP is your Galaxy Nexus alternative. (CM10)
Hello. I know that there might be a thread for this already, so if you wouldn't mind pointing me to it, I'd appreciate it.
Anyhow, I am trying to flash a custom 4.1, 4.2 ROM to a Boost Mobile Epic 4G Touch. I've done this w/o problems to a Sprint-versioned phone, but all of the ROMs I've been trying for the Boost phone barf on install, obviously sensing that I don't have a Sprint phone.
Any and all help greatly appreciated.
Thank you, in advance.
Max
I was under the impression that if you flash a jellybean rom onto boost epic 4g touch, that was once on sprint, you have to make sure you also flash/use a jellybean kernel and modem, NOT a GB or ICS kernel or modem.
Also you have to manually update the prl. There are threads for manually updating prl.
Good luck
robosiris said:
I was under the impression that if you flash a jellybean rom onto boost epic 4g touch, that was once on sprint, you have to make sure you also flash/use a jellybean kernel and modem, NOT a GB or ICS kernel or modem.
Also you have to manually update the prl. There are threads for manually updating prl.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello there, I think I can help because I have a Boost Mobile Epic 4g touch phone. Anyways in case if you haven't got an answer yet, the epic on boost is almost identical to the sprint phone, with the exception of the boot up screen, the scroll down window saying boost or sprint, and the boost id apps etc. What matters when flashing Roms is two things..1. First off make sure that the Rom is specified for your device under the model number SPH-D710........ 2. Second check your Android version and Software version. The Android version is simple, if it ways 4.0.x (the x being whatever) you know your on Ice Cream Sandwich, but if it says 4.1x then your on jelly bean. So the next thing to know is your software version which can be displayed under different places (Baseband, kernal, and Softwhere version). Its usually 4 digits, For example FI27, FI18, etc, I have GA10 and am running jellybean. IMPORTANT: Picture texts and other multi media devices do not work after flashing a sprint rom however, there is a simply solution which can be flashed into your phone by a custom recovery such as AGAT. Here is the link to do the trick. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1758735 What that does is change your APN settings to the correct one to your boost device. I've tried many methods, this is the only thing that has worked for me and your do not have to mess with the APN settings or download anything for the market to correct the problem. Any questions and I'll be happy to help
~RockingFreely
Hello all. Been a computer geek for 25+ years, and an android geek for a little over a year. I have done numerous flashes on Continuum, Fascinate, Nexus, and various other phones. I cannot seem to get a "clear and defined" answer on this question:
I have a TOTAL nandroid backup via ClockworkMod Recovery v6.0.1.2
I have a TOTAL system & app backup via Titanium Backup Pro 6.0.1
I am rooted with Chainfire's SuperSU v1.34
Phone
Sprint Samsung Galaxy S3 SPH-L710
Android Version:
4.1.2
Baseband Version:
L710VPBMD4
Kernel Version:
3.0.31-1130792
Build Number:
JZO54K.L710VPBMD4
Hardware Version:
L710.14
I did ALL the OTA updates from 4.0.1 to 4.1.2 prior to PagePlus flash. Had phone flashed to PagePlus with 100% working 3G, text, talk, and MMS. IF I flash a custom ROM (ie: CyanogenMod Nightly build, MOAR, etc...) will it render my PagePlus inoperable or require reflashing to PagePlus with every custom ROM flash? At $50.00 per flash that can get expensive. IF it DOES screw up the PagePlus flashing, can I just do either of the previously mentioned backups, and have my PagePlus flash settings magically re-appear? Or will it require a visit to my local PagePlus retailer for another flashing? My previous phones didnt require "flashing to PagePlus" since they were verizon phones and can be updated by simply dialing *228 or *22890.
Short answer: No
You don't lose your phone number when flashing roms, right?
APN settings may need to be modified manually though for MMS, etc
PagePlus flashing woes.....
TODAY 11:20 AM
CNexus
Short answer: No
You don't lose your phone number when flashing roms, right?
APN settings may need to be modified manually though for MMS, etc
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I knew you didnt lose your number or carrier settings when you flash a custom rom to a verizon based 3g phone (not sure about verizon 4g LTE phones tho), since PagePlus uses verizon towers, and to update roaming capabilities, and PRL is easily accomplished by the *228 or *22890. BUT when using a Sprint based 4g phone, if you flash a new rom, or go backwards to an older oem rom, I was under the impression that EVERYTHING goes back to the default Sprint settings, and that the PagePlus side of things is forever gone. But noone can give me a definitive YES or NO on this, and at $50 a pop for mistakes can get expensive quickly
I have flashed the following Verizon phones with with "multiple" OEM & Custom ROMS with NO problems: Continuum SCH-I400, Fascinate SCH-I500, Droid X, HTC Incredible, HTC Vogue Touch (installed android instead of win 6.x), Verizon Nexus SCH-I515 . None of these required anything other than OTA programming to work 100% with Page Plus (except the Nexus which I could NEVER get on PagePlus no matter how hard we tried).
You may want to check out THIS THREAD.
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Questions and help issues go in Q&A and Help section
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Page Plus Mystery Solved?
First off..... sorry for posting in the "general" area with a question. I'll try to be more careful in the future......
Second.... Answer to my own question, and for anyone else in the "not knowing".
I bit the bullet yesterday and flashed 3 custom roms. Cyanogenmod, Miui, and MiBox, and then flashed back to my nandroid oem 4.1.2 JB I had 100% working Talk, Text, and MMS on ALL 3 roms, as well as the oem.
So, the answer to my question, YES, you can flash custom roms without losing PagePlus flash. I did NOT do an Odin flash, but I did do a factory reset, and still had all my settings intact.
Thanks to all the helpful people who gave opinions/pointers. Your work with the devices is GREATLY appreciated!!!! Keep up the good work.
Al
alaneddy said:
First off..... sorry for posting in the "general" area with a question. I'll try to be more careful in the future......
Second.... Answer to my own question, and for anyone else in the "not knowing".
I bit the bullet yesterday and flashed 3 custom roms. Cyanogenmod, Miui, and MiBox, and then flashed back to my nandroid oem 4.1.2 JB I had 100% working Talk, Text, and MMS on ALL 3 roms, as well as the oem.
So, the answer to my question, YES, you can flash custom roms without losing PagePlus flash. I did NOT do an Odin flash, but I did do a factory reset, and still had all my settings intact.
Thanks to all the helpful people who gave opinions/pointers. Your work with the devices is GREATLY appreciated!!!! Keep up the good work.
Al
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm hoping you can help me with my similar question. I have a used Verizon Galaxy Nexus (SCH-I515) that I successfully programmed to use Page Plus. (I have no idea what I actually did, but I was able to follow the instructions I found online with no problems.) It's currently running JB 4.2.2 and Paranoid Android 3.6, and I'd like to get JB 4.3 on it.
I don't really understand flashing and all that (for instance, what ODIN is or what the ramifications of different operations are), and I can't seem to get an answer to my question.
Ideally, I'd like to get JB 4.3 on it (either stock/rooted or using one of the stable ROMs out there (CM 10?)), AND I'm hoping I don't have to reconfigure all the settings I've spent the last two weeks setting up.
Any insight? Thanks!