[Q] Most efficient way to update my GS3 - AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III

http://imgur.com/EgzxWFI
I think this screenshot should have all of the relevant information. I would tried this sooner, but it was end of college, I got my first full time job, etc etc.
My main issue with this phone is that it does random "soft" resets where everything just comes down and it reboots to the lock screen. This is especially fun when I'm driving and using this as a GPS :laugh:. I'm pretty sure the kernel is involved somehow, but I honestly don't know.
I want to know:
1. What do you guys think would be the most efficient way for me to update both the ROM and Kernel?
2. Is there any way to do this without having to re-root?
3. Would I be better off just choosing a non-stock ROM in order to get to the latest version of the android OS more easily?
That's about it, pretty simple. Just some directions would be nice as I'm quite out of the loop. Thanks.

If you don't want to do the research or take the time to go through the trouble of reading through these forums, then the most efficient way will be to remain stock unrooted and update via the approved methods from your carrier and/or Samsung (OTA and/or Kies usually). All software versions from ICS on up (non international S3s are now officially on KitKat) have been covered extensively by now so I doubt anyone is going to entertain your direct request for information. There are many things you need to be aware of, such as but not limited to how the new bootloaders and KNOX, as well as how custom roms and kernels, are working together in the big picture of things.
NOTE: Regardless of which route you take, no one in this forum, including myself, is responsible should anything happen to your phone. Anything you do to your phone is at your own risk, including official updates from your carrier and Samsung.

xshadowinxbc said:
http://imgur.com/EgzxWFI
I think this screenshot should have all of the relevant information. I would tried this sooner, but it was end of college, I got my first full time job, etc etc.
My main issue with this phone is that it does random "soft" resets where everything just comes down and it reboots to the lock screen. This is especially fun when I'm driving and using this as a GPS :laugh:. I'm pretty sure the kernel is involved somehow, but I honestly don't know.
I want to know:
1. What do you guys think would be the most efficient way for me to update both the ROM and Kernel?
2. Is there any way to do this without having to re-root?
3. Would I be better off just choosing a non-stock ROM in order to get to the latest version of the android OS more easily?
That's about it, pretty simple. Just some directions would be nice as I'm quite out of the loop. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can get all the info you need here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1725839
As for having to re-root, you won't if you flash a custom ROM. Getting the OTA (or Kies) update will require a re-root which can be easily done with Towelroot.
As for the "most efficient", just follow the ROM's OP instructions to a T - it''s usually straight forward and easy to follow.

BWolf56 said:
You can get all the info you need here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1725839
As for having to re-root, you won't if you flash a custom ROM. Getting the OTA (or Kies) update will require a re-root which can be easily done with Towelroot.
As for the "most efficient", just follow the ROM's OP instructions to a T - it''s usually straight forward and easy to follow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the reply
Okay so basically the most (time) efficient way for me to update is to get some custom ROM. That's fine, all I need to work on my phone is a few programs nowadays. Namely Google maps and the phone (well and the browser). Is Kernel updating the same? What's one of the good kernels and roms these days for the purposes battery life?
The main reason I'm making this topic is I'm fine with just going out and following directions, but I'm updating from such an old version that I'm wondering if there are any "gotchas". Like I update it to this with my old kernel and the thing is suddenly bricked. That's really what I'm worried about.

xshadowinxbc said:
Thank you for the reply
Okay so basically the most (time) efficient way for me to update is to get some custom ROM. That's fine, all I need to work on my phone is a few programs nowadays. Namely Google maps and the phone (well and the browser). Is Kernel updating the same? What's one of the good kernels and roms these days for the purposes battery life?
The main reason I'm making this topic is I'm fine with just going out and following directions, but I'm updating from such an old version that I'm wondering if there are any "gotchas". Like I update it to this with my old kernel and the thing is suddenly bricked. That's really what I'm worried about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kernel will be overwritten in the flashing process. All you gotta do is make sure you recovery is up to date if you go the custom ROM way.
We don't make suggestions as for what ROM/kernel to use to avoid flaming and it also comes down to user preference. Although, I do suggest starting to look at some custom ROMs (most of them come with their own kernel but can also flash another one). It will most likely come down to AOSP vs TW (stock) base.
The closest to a suggestion I can make is to look at the top threads in the Dev section, those are the most "popular" ROMs/kernels.

Alright, looking around at the various threads in the development section I see that most of them look pretty simple to install. Just download the zip, reboot into clockwork and install after doing some resets.
I notice that some of these require a new bootloader/modem, though... I haven't seen those terms when I last did this. What are the general installation instructions for those; the same as custom roms? Can they brick your device (assuming that I even pick the one for my device)? I'll probably just install something that doesn't need me to update the bootloader/modem to make things simple.

For the most part, if you've updated to 4.3 you will be able to flash any available roms. The catch is once on 4.3, you cannot downgrade your firmware.
Firmware is updated either by ota or flashing with Odin.

I went ahead and got the Slimkat because the instructions for it were pretty easy. There are some unpleasant changes about it that I would like some assistance on, but I suppose that would go in the dev thread to ask about those. Thanks for the info, it helped give me some confidence about just trying it out. Like I said a little iffy about some of the things but overall I like. At least it hasn't randomly crashed on me yet, and getting all of my apps back was as easy as having TitaniumBackup extract them from my Nandroid backup.

Related

[Q] Newbie doing homework before flashing rom

I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but I just wanted to make absolutely sure I'm ready before I flash, so I don't brick my phone. I have been reading the forums for a few days now. I have an S3 (i747M) with Fido. I'm not totally sure which ROM to go with. From what I understand so far, I'm thinking StockMOD or Dandroid. I want a fairly minimalistic OS, latest version (4.3 vs 4.4?), so I can play the occasion game on it and get good idle battery life. I believe I have rooted my stock rom and I have disabled some of the bloat through the "Application Management" option under settings. Any advice on flashing? I have spent many years building, modding and generally tinkering with windows pcs but I haven't done anything with phones, android or linux. Any advice? Obviously do the backup of my current phone with the app mentioned on the related ROM installation page. I assume I can restore my phone back to this stock ROM is the new one fails? After the backup, do a full phone wipe and default restore. Then hook the phone to my PC via USB and use the related program to flash the phone? Thank you for any and all replies in advance. :good:
Kwijybow said:
I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but I just wanted to make absolutely sure I'm ready before I flash, so I don't brick my phone. I have been reading the forums for a few days now. I have an S3 (i747M) with Fido. I'm not totally sure which ROM to go with. From what I understand so far, I'm thinking StockMOD or Dandroid. I want a fairly minimalistic OS, latest version (4.3 vs 4.4?), so I can play the occasion game on it and get good idle battery life. I believe I have rooted my stock rom and I have disabled some of the bloat through the "Application Management" option under settings. Any advice on flashing? I have spent many years building, modding and generally tinkering with windows pcs but I haven't done anything with phones, android or linux. Any advice? Obviously do the backup of my current phone with the app mentioned on the related ROM installation page. I assume I can restore my phone back to this stock ROM is the new one fails? After the backup, do a full phone wipe and default restore. Then hook the phone to my PC via USB and use the related program to flash the phone? Thank you for any and all replies in advance. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in my opinion or anyone will say that 4.3 is the most stable right now, and 4.4 is only available for CM based roms.....Samsung Touchwiz will always be the last to update their devices to 4.4 while custom roms AOKP, SLIM BEAM, PAC ROM, BEAN STALK, CM, PARANOID, ETC they will always have nightlies on latest the Android version but will take sometime for stable roms to be released
1st before you think of flashing please research and know what you're getting into
2nd read all the info. ROOT your i747m with cf-auto root (i recommend it cuz its the simplest, easiest, safest way to root)
3rd install custom recovery there are two that i know of but am confident and comfortable with clockworkmod recovery....u can try TWRP
4th yu can either wish to stay stock touchwiz, 2types of stock
-one that comes from samsung all bloated and no tweaks and
-the one that is taken by devs debloated, modded, customized, xposed mod, minimalistic, faster and better.
--OR you can go completely Android vanilla stock, which has nothing but the normal google staff (ITS LIKE A NEXUS DEVICE from Google) you dont have any bloatware, or features/addons just plain stock
5th Once yu know the basic, the universe is yours, with Android comes endless customization and possibilities just like Microsoft Windows, Linux, ubuntu or even OSX
6th wish to become a DEV its your choice, wish to modify, play with the filesystem its your choice but without knowledge of what you're doing bricking is easy as just deleting a file yu think its not important
7th help the rest with android as you do with PC
PS am learning to code now but one thing at a time so am starting with Web design, plan to learn some computer languages, hacking, etc computer science :laugh: maybe yu can help me out
everything you need to know about what i said or root http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1725839
Thanks for the reply. It's been a while since I originally posted this. I decided to hold off on a custom ROM at that time but I find myself back again, still wanting to customize my phone (especially now that my contract is about to expire). I figure that if I do brick my phone beyond repair, I'll just get another phone anyways so not so worried about it now.
Anyways, one concern I have about flashing a custom ROM on my S3 is can I go backwards in Android versions? I can confirm that I am running the stock (Rogers / Fido) Android 4.4.2 which I believe is Kitkat? I am very interested in going either StockMOD or Dandroid, which as far as I can tell are 4.3 Jellybean? Can I do that?
Yes, you can run a 4.3 rom on your phone as long as you do not try to downgrade the bootloader.
You can go back to completely stock Rogers by using Odin to flash as stock kk rom from sammobile.com.
audit13 said:
Yes, you can run a 4.3 rom on your phone as long as you do not try to downgrade the bootloader.
You can go back to completely stock Rogers by using Odin to flash as stock kk rom from sammobile.com.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. Regarding the bootloader, the versions of Android I'm looking to install say they need the 4.3 bootloader. How can I check which bootloader I am running on my phone?
If you're phone is running stock Rogers kit kit, you have a kit kat bootloader which you can't downgrade.
If the rom needs a 4.3 bootloader and since you have a newer bootloader, you can probably load the rom.
Kwijybow said:
I'm not totally sure which ROM to go with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using the most recent build of the most popular ROM has it's advantages.
cm-12.1-20150807-NIGHTLY-d2att.zip
fast, light, stable, secure, supported

[Q] Suggest a ROM for CWM that has Android 4.4.3 on HTC One Verizon m7

Hi there geniuses of XDA! (somewhat of a noob here)
Need some help. I want to update my VZW HTC One (m7) to the Android L version (I think its out now, maybe not though, if not 4.4.3). I currently have Android 4.2.2. I am rooted, unlocked, and S-Off. I am running ClockworkMod Recovery and have a nandroid backup in that, that I would like to maintain in case things go wrong. It is my understanding that if I were to switch to TWRP my backup would not work, so I would like to stay with CWM. So can anyone provide a suggestion of a good ROM to get that will bring me up to current version and will still work with CWM?
Thanks, your help is greatly appreciated.
Steve
Also let me point out that I am still on Firmware 1.10.605.8. How do I get this updated? Looks like most of the current ROMs require later firmware. Basically I rooted last year, day one when I got the phone and have not updated anything since then. So I really need some help on getting current. Step by step instructions would be most helpful.
Thanks
lostnsound said:
Also let me point out that I am still on Firmware 1.10.605.8. How do I get this updated? Looks like most of the current ROMs require later firmware. Basically I rooted last year, day one when I got the phone and have not updated anything since then. So I really need some help on getting current. Step by step instructions would be most helpful.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See people's response in your other question thread. Furthermore, I would like to add that after you update your firmware from santod's thread - you will want to update to the latest ROM. We do not have L as you have requested. There is a preview floating around in the international forum, but it is not for daily use and not for VZW. I suggest - if you want stock to either use Santod's stock rom's as they are stock completely or Andybone's which are stock with minor tweaks. Outside of that there are stock based ROM's that have an abundance of tweaks - NuSense, Ecliptic, Viper, etc.
If you run into recovery issues (due to potentially outdated CWM) - I suggest trying Philz. It is CWM based but easier to use. You should be able to access your backup. You can also pull the backup off your phone and save it on a computer. It will be saved in clockworkmod/backups or something.
brymaster5000 said:
See people's response in your other question thread. Furthermore, I would like to add that after you update your firmware from santod's thread - you will want to update to the latest ROM. We do not have L as you have requested. There is a preview floating around in the international forum, but it is not for daily use and not for VZW. I suggest - if you want stock to either use Santod's stock rom's as they are stock completely or Andybone's which are stock with minor tweaks. Outside of that there are stock based ROM's that have an abundance of tweaks - NuSense, Ecliptic, Viper, etc.
If you run into recovery issues (due to potentially outdated CWM) - I suggest trying Philz. It is CWM based but easier to use. You should be able to access your backup. You can also pull the backup off your phone and save it on a computer. It will be saved in clockworkmod/backups or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the assistance brymaster5000. This is all very helpful information.
lostnsound said:
Hi there geniuses of XDA! (somewhat of a noob here)
Need some help. I want to update my VZW HTC One (m7) to the Android L version (I think its out now, maybe not though, if not 4.4.3). I currently have Android 4.2.2. I am rooted, unlocked, and S-Off. I am running ClockworkMod Recovery and have a nandroid backup in that, that I would like to maintain in case things go wrong. It is my understanding that if I were to switch to TWRP my backup would not work, so I would like to stay with CWM. So can anyone provide a suggestion of a good ROM to get that will bring me up to current version and will still work with CWM?
Thanks, your help is greatly appreciated.
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would recommend Viper for sense 6 / 4.4.2, Santod's GPE 4.4.4 for gpe, or CM11 4.4.4 for a great aosp experience.
Just one thing to point out - if you move away from sense roms, you will lose some camera function. Only the sense camera(which only works on sense roms) really works well. If you go GPE or AOSP you will see a noticable drop in camera boot times, focus times and flash timing.

Haven't flashed in years, is there anything I should know before....

venturing into these waters again? I have an old T-Mobile Galaxy S3 that I'm basically trying to turn into a gaming phone, just to play games on for my niece. However this thing hasn't been updated in forever and some of these newer games won't run on the firmware I have installed currently. I'm sitting on Android 4.1.1, running an old version CMW recovery. I just want to update to perhaps KitKat so that the games will run. As it stands now, trying to install leaves certain apps hanging on installation or simply incompatible with my version of android. I've been reading various threads in this forums and I'm seeing things about needing certain recoveries to upgrade, so forth and so on so I wanted a little expertise knowledge before I tried anything.
Would I be ok just picking a KK Rom, doing the wipe routine, flash and be good to go? Or have things changed and more steps are necessary, or newer versions of recoveries and what not are needed? Really don't want to brick this S3 so any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I've found you need to update the recovery or you have install errors when trying to put a newer ROM on the phone. It might also be worth updating the modem even if you never use data or the phone features. So, yeah you kinda need to update everything or else you run into issues since a newer rom relies on features that might not exist in older firmware.
Thank you for the reply, my recovery was severally outdated and I wonder what took me so long to upgrade to TWRP. It's great. I was able to flash with no issues and glad I did.

Wipe to update/reflash...or ODIN.

I posted a thread a while back but I apparently posted the wrong type of thread. This one should be the right of the right type and in the right place.
On the Samsung devices I've had in the past, the boot loader was always a big deal when flashing new versions of android. I've had this tablet for a while now and haven't updated it since I bought it...and Odin flashed/rooted/installed TWRP on it.
From reading the megathreads, from threads, flashing threads, etc...it's not very clear if this is like the other Samsung devices I've had, or if this is like the EEEpad Transformer and Nexus 7 I had...and could move freely between android versions, stock roms...and nonstock ROMs, etc.
I'm running 5.0.2 and I play hearthstone competitively. I bought this for the display mainly, and now that I've loaded it with some crap, I'd like to flash a custom from/update. It seems my crap+samsungs crap saturates the ram quite well. Can I pretty much flash what I'd like? Or do I have to ODIN from stock to the latest build and then worry about number versions.
Also...I used to run an all that kept my TWRP version up to date. Goomanager I believe...but there are dozens of apps that claim to do this now...can I get a trusted suggestion?
Rooted on stock.
Android Version: 5.0.2
Kernel: 3.4.106 IronKernel V2.0 (mainly for s tweaks to boost audio)
Build LRX22G.T800XXU1BOC3
Forget about using an app to flash twrp.
Do it manually and be safe. Plus the official updates are lacking in features compared to the unofficial builds. Just check out the dev section and you'll see what I mean.
Thanks for the advice. And as far as flashing roms...can I pretty much flash what I'd like? Ex: go back and forth between Cm and stock builds...and between version builds while ignoring the boot loader? I'm basically trying to see if I've missed something critical since I rooted and flashed so long ago.
Jamesyboy said:
Thanks for the advice. And as far as flashing roms...can I pretty much flash what I'd like? Ex: go back and forth between Cm and stock builds...and between version builds while ignoring the boot loader? I'm basically trying to see if I've missed something critical since I rooted and flashed so long ago.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as you don't flash a firmware build that is incompatible with your current bootloader you can flash what you want back and forth.
ashyx said:
As long as you don't flash a firmware build that is incompatible with your current bootloader you can flash what you want back and forth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what I figured. I'm running the stock rom rooted. I don't know what boot loader I'm on, or how to get to the latest one. I have all the access in the world-- recovery, root. But there isn't a place here...or anywhere that clearly says what am going on. I have a charging issue and would like to foahh a new Kernel, and I might as well update in the process,...by there is no "Upgrade from Xxx while on the stock rooted ROM" guide. Plus my laptop has a crappy USB port, so If I need to Odin something on here, itd be quite the process.
Ive asked around for months, literally. I've never been in this position before. Have always kept up to date. But once you fall behind, in forums like these (especially given the fact hat there are multiple devices in this section), you need something explicit to get back where you need to be.
Last time I looked, there weren't any instructions. Ill look against today to see if I can just download the latest..zip of a 10.5 stock ROM from somewhere in the dev section and then wipe, and flash that. If you know if its alright to just wipe and flash a new ROM, lemme know. Or if I have to Odin to a new one in order to get a new boot loader before I flash the latest Kernel, which I think then one I'm trying to use his BOJ. IRONKernel. I use it for S Tweaks, the sound, and a few performance tweaks.
You have to flash the bootloader with Odin they are posted in the bootloader thread.
You can flash the stock firmware with flashfire.

How to best go about backing up stock/installing a custom ROM

Hi,
After doing some reading on here I am a little unsure on the best way to back up my HTC One M9 (GSM) stock recovery/system. My software number is 3.50.710.1 (Android 6.0) and it came from Optus (Australia). I cannot seem to find an RUU file for this firmware anywhere online; only earlier versions are available. My understanding of this is that I need an RUU file for my specific firmware as a fail-safe in case I mess something up and need to return to stock?
My questions are:
1) Can I get my phone back to the current complete stock firmware and be able to receive future OTA updates without turning s-off and without copying anything from my phone before I flash TWRP and a custom ROM?
2) If not is there anyway that I can back up my phone it its current stock state that will allow me to go back to this state if I want to go back to my stock Optus firmware or to install OTA updates? (Including the stock radio/recovery)
3) Reading this post as well as others leads me to believe that I may stop my mobile radio working by flashing a custom ROM (especially as the linked post has the exact same firmware as me). How can I avoid this, or fix it if it happens to everyone?
I am ideally looking for a custom ROM which improves over the stock firmware. My priority is maximum battery life, with customisation and HTC 10 system UI/apps a secondary focus. Any recommendations would be great, as well as tweaks and kernels which help give the maximum battery life.
Cheers!
You can't backup your firmware (and that includes your radio). However if you read my google sheet you'll find instructions for backing up your current boot.img, your system and the stock recovery. If you do it correctly those files will suffice for recovering the ability of installing OTAs. No personal data will be backed up so maybe you want to share your backup with us afterwards.
There is a custom kernel for CM/AOSP roms which is said to repair the signal problems. As far as I read some sense rom users reported that flashing the stock boot.img recovered their signal. However this doesn't seem to work for every user. So you'll need to try by yourself.
Flippy498 said:
You can't backup your firmware (and that includes your radio). However if you read my google sheet you'll find instructions for backing up your current boot.img, your system and the stock recovery. If you do it correctly those files will suffice for recovering the ability of installing OTAs. No personal data will be backed up so maybe you want to share your backup with us afterwards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much! I have managed to find the guide you mentioned to backup the stock boot image, system image and recovery. By the looks of it the tab to the right is the guide to return my phone to its original state, which is good. I'm more than happy to share the backup once I do it.
Flippy498 said:
There is a custom kernel for CM/AOSP roms which is said to repair the signal problems. As far as I read some sense rom users reported that flashing the stock boot.img recovered their signal. However this doesn't seem to work for every user. So you'll need to try by yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, well I am planning on keeping s-on at this stage, so I'm left with Sense based ROMs I believe? I have read that LeeDroid is the best for battery life, does this sound right? If so I am unsure if I can flash it as it says "Please make sure you have the latest HTC Hima 3.35.XXX.XX Marshmallow firmware installed prior to installing this ROM" because my software number is 3.50.710.1?
Thanks again!
Da Doom Lord said:
Okay, well I am planning on keeping s-on at this stage, so I'm left with Sense based ROMs I believe? I have read that LeeDroid is the best for battery life, does this sound right? If so I am unsure if I can flash it as it says "Please make sure you have the latest HTC Hima 3.35.XXX.XX Marshmallow firmware installed prior to installing this ROM" because my software number is 3.50.710.1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read that several times in the near past and I actually don't understand it. You never needed S-OFF for flashing none-sense based roms as long as I started using Android/HTC phones and that was back in 2012. Why do so many people think they need S-OFF for AOSP?
I personally prefer the Viper rom. But taste differs and in the end the best advice I can give is try it out by yourself. Everyone has different needs and is using his/her phone in a different way. The best rom for person a might be an awful choice for person b since he/she has completely different needs.
I can't tell you whether you can use Leedroid. Test it and report back. That's how xda works. You might be able to use it after you flashed your stock boot.img but I don't know whether you really are or not. The warning is written so that people don't start flashing that rom with a lower firmware version. On older HTC phones flashing an "older" rom has never been an issue on newer firmware versions whereas flashing a newer rom on an older firmware never goes well (even on the M9). However many things have changed since the M9. There is no hboot anymore, the Download Mode got introduced, google changed the way OTAs are checking whether your system is modified, and so on. (Just to mention a few changes.) Those issues with the lost signal didn't even exist on pre-3.x firmware versions of the M9. Therefore users like you who use a not so common firmware (in comparison to the user numbers of the most common firmware bases: international, taiwanese and the developer firmware) have no other choice but trying out by themselves or getting S-OFF and changing to a more common firmware.
Flippy498 said:
I can't tell you whether you can use Leedroid. Test it and report back. That's how xda works. You might be able to use it after you flashed your stock boot.img but I don't know whether you really are or not. The warning is written so that people don't start flashing that rom with a lower firmware version. On older HTC phones flashing an "older" rom has never been an issue on newer firmware versions whereas flashing a newer rom on an older firmware never goes well (even on the M9).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have followed your guide and now have the latest stable LeeDroid ROM installed and TWRP. Just as I predicted the radio was not originally working. When I restored my stock boot.img from the original backup I performed it began to work. Thanks so much for your help! I'll upload the backup to cloud storage when I get access to a decent internet connection and then I'll share it to help others out.

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