Related
I am sure this topic has been beaten to death already but I still wanted to share my experience with custom ROMs and finally going back to the STOCK ROM. If beginners want to try out Custom ROMs, may be they can read this beginner's post.
First the ritual - Android community is great. ROM developers are great minds at work! Thanks for doing all the hard work and showing me whats in the Custom ROM world.
I started out with simple rooting of my phone to get tethering (cheap on my part but I think I pay more than what my carrier offers). After rooting, custom ROM was just so tempting. So I tried a few - CM, AOKP, Carbon. Honestly, out of all, CM10.0 was the most stable for me. Things I loved:
1. Battery Life - Can't say enough. There is so much junk that runs in background on STOCK ROMs.
2. 4.2.2 JB - Better than 4.1.2 but then, not by miles.
3. Ability to flash ROMs over the weekends You know it.
4. Utilities like Titanium backup and others that needed Root access.
5. Tether - super like.
Things I hated:
1. Force closures - OMG I couldn't understand how the STOCK ROMs are so robust or Is it that the Apps are tested on Stock ROMs very well that they don't crash. Countless failures for Instagram, Email, Camera, BT etc.
2. Camera functionality - I give 10 out of 10 to Samsung in creating great camera app. I am a heavy smartphone camera user. The 4.2.2 camera app was so laggy on my GS3. The user interface sucked (circle). No meter mode. Bad panorama mode, HDR mode and worst low light photos.
3. On one of the custom ROMs, I had horrible issues with making and receiving phone calls (Yes it can go that bad).
4. Bluetooth pairing with devices. BT crashed a lot while music was interrupted with incoming calls.
All in all, I am now happy that I am back to the STOCK ROM with This Link Many thanks to the Member.
There is a lot of excitement and good things about the Custom ROMs but if you are like me who is not a super power user, there is a lot to consider before jumping.
Happy Monday!
In CM 10.1, the FC issues were fixed for me. This applies for most current AOSP roms. I have not had any issues with camera lag either. I will admit that the stock camera is more robust with options but there are third party apps that help minimize the feeling of loss.
Regarding testing, this is what goes on here. The difference is you see the testing phases while you do not with the manufacturer. In addition, many of the drivers and hardware info is proprietary so developing drivers that are stable can be a hit and miss affair.
On the same note, not every phone and user is the same and the experience will be different for each. ROMs will possibly work differently across the same models of phone due to minor variations in quality which are nearly impossible to catch during the manufacturing process due to nearly microscopic differences.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747
aybarrap1 said:
In CM 10.1, the FC issues were fixed for me. This applies for most current AOSP roms. I have not had any issues with camera lag either. I will admit that the stock camera is more robust with options but there are third party apps that help minimize the feeling of loss.
Regarding testing, this is what goes on here. The difference is you see the testing phases while you do not with the manufacturer. In addition, many of the drivers and hardware info is proprietary so developing drivers that are stable can be a hit and miss affair.
On the same note, not every phone and user is the same and the experience will be different for each. ROMs will possibly work differently across the same models of phone due to minor variations in quality which are nearly impossible to catch during the manufacturing process due to nearly microscopic differences.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agree with the slight variations in experiences with Custom ROMs. But for some reason, my jump to 10.1 was not smooth with FCs and I quickly made a u-turn to 10.0 and then ultimately to the STOCK ROM. Camera Apps like Camera Zoom are very good and they do provide more options like Metering and time lapse (missing in STOCK), they are still not complete (simple example - I can't enable Panorama from CamerZoom). Nevertheless, the experience can be really amazing when things work out but really frustrating when they don't. STOCK has its problems like I am missing my Solid Battery life today :crying:
I think I'm about to go back to stock as well. While I love all the extra features that custom roms offer, all the tinkering and occasional bugginess can take away from the overall experience. At least for me, anyways.
I also had been doing it long enough that I felt really comfortable with all the flashing that I was doing, but would still make the occasional mistake (look at the hilarity I posted in the stupid questions thread today). I'm thinking I'll play it safe, at least for now, before I do something I regret.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app
newmind02 said:
I think I'm about to go back to stock as well. While I love all the extra features that custom roms offer, all the tinkering and occasional bugginess can take away from the overall experience. At least for me, anyways.
I also had been doing it long enough that I felt really comfortable with all the flashing that I was doing, but would still make the occasional mistake (look at the hilarity I posted in the stupid questions thread today). I'm thinking I'll play it safe, at least for now, before I do something I regret.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is in my opinion that even the stock roms have bugs. At seemingly random times, my alarm clocks on my AT&T S3 just didn't work when running stock. I was almost late for work 3 days in a row because of it (my alarm is set to repeat 5 times a week every week at the exact same time. I never turn it off). In addition, I get the occasional random battery drop that seems to have something to do with the switch between H+ and LTE when on a phone call.
I stuck with the stock rom for a while but now that AOSP roms are stable, I have switched. Whatever bugs are present do not affect me or they are so minor I work around it. It really comes down to what you find to be acceptable for you.
As far as being comfortable and making mistakes, I have done it as well. Being a flashing fiend has made me overconfident a few times and I botched several installs. Luckily I have been so busy of late, that my flashing desire has been on hold.
Never had any force closes.
Never had any lag
Never had any problems on custom Roms.
If you're experiencing and lag, force closes, you're MORE than likely doing something wrong on your end.
This phone doesn't lag. It should lag whatsoever. 1.5Ghz and 2Gs of ram does not create lag.
Touchwiz runs a LOT more stuff in the background.
Just follow instructions on how to flash, what to flash, and what to tweak. And I can guarantee you an awesome experience.
The camera as well. Just took some amazing lightning shots with 4.2.2 camera, on burst mode with 20 pictures taken in less then 3 seconds. No lag what's so ever.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
jayRokk said:
Never had any force closes.
Never had any lag
Never had any problems on custom Roms.
If you're experiencing and lag, force closes, you're MORE than likely doing something wrong on your end.
This phone doesn't lag. It should lag whatsoever. 1.5Ghz and 2Gs of ram does not create lag.
Touchwiz runs a LOT more stuff in the background.
Just follow instructions on how to flash, what to flash, and what to tweak. And I can guarantee you an awesome experience.
The camera as well. Just took some amazing lightning shots with 4.2.2 camera, on burst mode with 20 pictures taken in less then 3 seconds. No lag what's so ever.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I concur
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747
techmine said:
I am sure this topic has been beaten to death already but I still wanted to share my experience with custom ROMs and finally going back to the STOCK ROM. If beginners want to try out Custom ROMs, may be they can read this beginner's post.
First the ritual - Android community is great. ROM developers are great minds at work! Thanks for doing all the hard work and showing me whats in the Custom ROM world.
I started out with simple rooting of my phone to get tethering (cheap on my part but I think I pay more than what my carrier offers). After rooting, custom ROM was just so tempting. So I tried a few - CM, AOKP, Carbon. Honestly, out of all, CM10.0 was the most stable for me. Things I loved:
1. Battery Life - Can't say enough. There is so much junk that runs in background on STOCK ROMs.
2. 4.2.2 JB - Better than 4.1.2 but then, not by miles.
3. Ability to flash ROMs over the weekends You know it.
4. Utilities like Titanium backup and others that needed Root access.
5. Tether - super like.
Things I hated:
1. Force closures - OMG I couldn't understand how the STOCK ROMs are so robust or Is it that the Apps are tested on Stock ROMs very well that they don't crash. Countless failures for Instagram, Email, Camera, BT etc.
2. Camera functionality - I give 10 out of 10 to Samsung in creating great camera app. I am a heavy smartphone camera user. The 4.2.2 camera app was so laggy on my GS3. The user interface sucked (circle). No meter mode. Bad panorama mode, HDR mode and worst low light photos.
3. On one of the custom ROMs, I had horrible issues with making and receiving phone calls (Yes it can go that bad).
4. Bluetooth pairing with devices. BT crashed a lot while music was interrupted with incoming calls.
All in all, I am now happy that I am back to the STOCK ROM with This Link Many thanks to the Member.
There is a lot of excitement and good things about the Custom ROMs but if you are like me who is not a super power user, there is a lot to consider before jumping.
Happy Monday!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tend to go back and forth between CM10.1 and Stock.
The biggest thing CM misses for me is the camera. Call me a fanboy but I really like what Samsung did to their camera optimizations in TW.
That being said, I don't like TW very much but a custom launcher and a few minor tweaks can make TW tolerable.
For apps running in the background I highly recommend Greenify for keeping apps dormant when you're not using them.
Titanium Backup also has a feature called Freeze that basically does the same thing as Greenify except it takes the app and prevents it from being used at all.
This is good for apps that you never use that come preloaded on the GS3 (AT&T and Samsung bloatware).
At the moment there is no stable and reliable Android 4.4 ROM yet, but I hope this will soon change.
Perhaps we can compare the different ROMs here. Please note that I am not asking for best performance or lowest RAM requirement. These are secondary issues. The most critical issue is reliability.
The Google ROMs have always been the most stable and reliable. They were never perfect, but at least we could expect them to run for a week or longer without any significant error and without rebooting. In my experience, other ROMs, like the admirable CyanogenMod, came close, but never quite reached that same level of reliability. Given that the CyanogenMod crew works for free and in their free time, the quality they delivered has been astounding and admirable.
Nonetheless, reliability remains the biggest issue among the third-party ROMs.
So, if you install any of the Android 4.4 ROMs on your Galaxy Nexus, please report what you find. Please try to judge whether that ROM can be recommended for general use or whether the newbies had better stand back and wait for the next version.
Another question is: How user-friendly is the install procedure? Can you keep your apps and app data?
It is very unfortunate that the gnex community is not supported anymore due to 'hardware issues' or the 18 month timeframe. It is true that the ROMs made these days are not so 'reliable' and they may be buggy and cause force closes on certain applications. The new roms may never support cleanly and as stable as stock factory images by Google but its all the Gnex community can rely on from now. Personally, I feel the slimkat 4.4 ROM is acceptable considering it is only about less than a week old. They have been fixing bugs such as GPS tracking and such. I will be using it as my daily driver from now and just hope that the developers can make it as stable as the stock android ROM.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
a taste of kitkat perfect aosp leaked rom
i''ve installed yesterday a taste of kitkat with mpokang 1080p kernel.. some glitches when rotate screen but only one reboot using google now (i don't use gnow so it's not a problem for me) and i've a crash only on fifa14... battery good performance, no lags, no problems, trickstermod overclock to 1.4ghz no problems, facebook, whatsapp, viber, tango, hangout, 3G, Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS alla working without problems.. and now i'm testing battery..
Toro Plus
For us sprint (or Ting) users the 4.4 ROMs are not even installable. There have been two threads started and each one was locked after it became apparent that the developers did not have booting builds. I appreciate all the work devs do, but this keeps getting my hopes up. Hopefully, someone will get one working soon and we won't have any more false starts.
They are just alpha builds, experimental builds. Most of them have some glitches. They are not for daily use.
If you do not have necessary knowledge and do not have time to report bug, then I suggest you should back out on those alpha builds.
They're not even a week old. Give time and reap miracles afterwards
Sent from Samsung Galaxy Nexus @ CM10.2
It's a Nexus device. Things will improve over time.
I've been running the most recent SlimKat alpha build and it's been pretty solid. Phone feels rejuvenated. It is my work phone and worked flawlessly all day. The only restarts were Hangouts last night and when I was fiddling around with wallpaper settings after work, and forgivable graphics glitch during screen rotation. Otherwise, it has has felt like a new-ish phone today.
Thanks for the good information!
I think, when the builds go from alpha to beta and there are no obvious glitches any more, then would be the time to do some more thorough testing, particularly:
GPS, including track recording with My Tracks, Locus, or a similar app
Cameras with all their functions
Compass, gravity, and other sensors
Tethering via USB, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth
Radio functions, particularly LTE and the general behavior with a weak or frequently interrupted signal
OTG with USB mass storage device, keyboard, etc.
I would recommend to report all defects not only here, but also to the maker of the ROM.
For now, they are pretty unstable, but I would keep an eye out for linaro's builds as well:
http://www.cnx-software.com/2013/11/06/android-4-4-kitkat-on-galaxy-nexus-rom-linaro-and-petition/
idk what you're talking about OP. i've run these custom roms more tha n week and they've been good. only reason the counter will reset is because I flash a new rom or flash an update or a mod.
These ROMs are very stable.
4.4 ROMs. give it some time. it's amazing that in less than 24 hours after the release of 4.4, we got a semi daily usable ROM from people that don't even work for Google.
I've been on SlimKat for a couple hours now. Clearly a ton of the SlimRom features are missing but considering that its an Alpha its not that bad.
Other than some graphical glitches here and there, which are very rare actually, there arent any other instabilities that I can see. Everything works fine. I dont know who is starting this rumor about 4.4 being unstable. Some ROMs may work better than others but thats due to different developers working at different paces. Bottom line is, 4.4 is perfectly fine for a daily driver. It just needs some ironing out.
Yeah, I'm running the SlimKat ROM, and its beautiful
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus running the Forbidden Update using xda app-developers app
Running Shiny 4.4. Good taste of KitKat. Sounds crazy, but I'm using it to test stuff out before it goes on the N5.
Biggest glitch seems to be with graphics, in that overlays of menus and random black boxes over some text in gmail and Chrome, make things unreadable and useless. Not to mention the random reboots when you can tell something happened that the GNex doesn't like.
IMO, they are not ready for use on a primary device. As in, at the end of the day, when I'm home, I pop my simcard out of my MotoX and out it in my GNex/3.4 to tinker. No maps to crash at the wrong time, I have other devices at the low-ready to surf on and more time to tinker. My gf loves me for this routine I've made for myself
Definitely a good taste of KitKat. Considering today would mark 1 week since release, on an unsupported device - its actually pretty stable.
LCD Density
I'm on SlimKat and my old eyes can't deal w/ the tiny text - even when changing default system font to HUGE in the display settings. build.prop has a value of 240 but I can't edit in ES Explorer even though the file props say it's writable. Tried an app but it loops and doesn't make any changes. Any ideas?
xMoment said:
I'm on SlimKat and my old eyes can't deal w/ the tiny text - even when changing default system font to HUGE in the display settings. build.prop has a value of 240 but I can't edit in ES Explorer even though the file props say it's writable. Tried an app but it loops and doesn't make any changes. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use rom toolbox, it worked for me
Inviato dal mio Nexus 7 con Tapatalk 4
xMoment said:
I'm on SlimKat and my old eyes can't deal w/ the tiny text - even when changing default system font to HUGE in the display settings. build.prop has a value of 240 but I can't edit in ES Explorer even though the file props say it's writable. Tried an app but it loops and doesn't make any changes. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.Root first using chainfire SuperSU v1.65
2.Install RE(Root Explorer)
3.Hit Mount R/W
4.Open build.prop and change density to 320.:highfive:
Thanks - I was rooted already and made sure root explorer was on. Tried to change permissions in terminal, didn't work. Booted into recovery and mounted system, rebooted and hung at the google logo...so flashed FML and the DPI is 320 so I'm fixed
joytsay said:
1.Root first using chainfire SuperSU v1.65
2.Install RE(Root Explorer)
3.Hit Mount R/W
4.Open build.prop and change density to 320.:highfive:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wanted to let everyone know for the past day or so ive been testing out the Color OS 2.0 for the I9505, here are some of those results, screenshots, and how to install for yourself.
So, the reason im bringing this up to get started is that for the past year or so i was unable to install this rom on my S4 i assume from not having the correct version of TWRP required for the install (AND the install will fail a few times for random reasons if SU is not installed (rom or not)...I found this out after a full wipe and it not letting me install the rom until i rebooted back into TWRP and told it to root my phone because it found no root access.
So the initial install went like this
Wipe...
Install...
fail halfway...
wipe...
install...
fail haflway...
reboot to recovery from recovery...
tell twrp to root....​back in recovery....
wipe...
install...
success...
Now the rom does include its own gapps package so there isnt a need for that, It also includes its own kernel that because of how heavily modified Color OS is from stock cannot be changed (unless you can find one that will work, the AOSP Ktoonz kernel didnt work and that was the only test i really attempted as i had to re-install the rom (wouldn't boot)
So, once the rom is installed it asks you to pick a language and looks a lot like regular AOSP (dark) but as soon as you do it prompts for wifi and settings FC's, then you move on to accounts and accounts FC's
So to get through this just skip ALL setup processes and type in your name with the built in keyboard (it has to be changed back to full qwerty or your gonna come up wth some weird things)
Then you can go into settings and apply your accounts and things like that to get your contacts and everything back per the usual.
Now onto my impressions of the rom so far...
This is the fastest rom i have ever put on my phone and yes it does come at a cost but from what i could see it is the most overall fluid rom especially when it comes to animations.
It has a lot of cool features i am still learning to use (gesture panel pull up from bottom, lets you draw a shape to preform action and set your own custom...looks cool as hell) and none of them even when enabled slow the device down.
The cost however is battery life...you WANT to have an extra battery or a fast charger on hand because this thing loves to suck power. Im alright with it currently with how fast the thing moves i am going to use it as my daily driver but i went from 50 to 2 in about an hour and a half with screen on. Screen on time isnt that awesome on this phone but standby seems to be pretty good.
Its a nice break from AOSP and Touchwiz, thats all that needs to be said really. Its much faster than either AOSP or Touchwiz even with custom kernels you can take that from me being a crack flasher, ive gone through every kernel made for the device, learnt about them, customized them, and then moved on to test another kernel.
This rom has ceased development but will currently be remaining my daily driver until i can find something else unique, i would say give it a shot guys and see how much you like it
For my install i needed TWRP 2.7.1.0
It will fail, do some troubleshooting to find out why (such as change to RM -rf formatting in settings in twrp) and after you wipe reboot to recovery and let TWRP do the root thing even though there is no rom (i dont know why this mattered at all -_-;;;; but it did) do another wipe when you get it and you should be able to install the rom and it will boot. (THERE ARE NO SIGNAL BARS TO INDICATE SIGNAL STRENGTH when you get in) and once you are finally in make sure you run to your APN settings under Mobile network and then go down to the T-mobile LTE APN and modify it, remove the password and the server info thats in there (for some reason) and change the APN protocol to IPv4/IPV6 and the roaming protocol and then save it so you have good data speeds and such (just to make it set up the same as a standard T-mobile rom)
in this rom ive noticed you CANNOT have wifi on and send MMS so to send pictures ensure you are off of wifi.
There is also a problem being noted in the comments on the rom page with Whatsapp...i dont use it >.> i know what it is but whatever it doesnt bug me at all.
Alright SO TO CLEARLY LIST THE STEPS
1. Wipe phone
2. Attempt to install rom
3. (IF FAILS on install) wipe phone
4. (IF FAILS on install) reboot from recovery to recovery
5. (IF FAILS on install) tell it to root
6. repeat steps 1 and 2.
7. when successful, boot into rom
8. select english and FC your way to the end of setup
9. enter your name or a random name into phone owner
10. setup your account in settings (or just open play store and it will prompt you)
11. Match your APN to T-mobiles standard (Settings>mobilenetworks>APn> T-mobile Us LTe)
--------Remove Password, Server, Change APN protocol to IPv4/IPv6, same with roaming, save and use that apn-------------------
You will not be able to send MMS with WIFI on. (you can if its off)
You WILL have to change keyboards (the one that comes with the rom is absolute ****, use enter to keep what you type english...)
There is a FIX for Whatsapp inside of the roms official forums ( i dont use it though )
ALSO unsure if USB file transfer is working right >.> sure there is a fix for that but it doesnt but me either. (i use wifi file transfer anyways >.>)
YOU CANNOT INSTALL A CUSTOM KERNEL (unless your willing to find one that works)
So far i havnt found any problems for my use, this is one of, if not the, fastest and smoothest roms ive ever used so i am attempting to show others the awesome
link to rom forum below (MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD THE NEWEST ONE, old one borked and buggy)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2748022
NEWEST VERSION (Taken from OP) http://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=23487008491964142
Just for those of you who didnt know this was out there, or were like me and gave up trying to install it at first.
SCREENSHOTS (CLICK FOR FULL RESOLUTION) (TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM PHONE) (VIA OPPO 3 FINGER SWIPE UP (customizable to change to anything i believe))
Now to get dual tap to wake download an app called Knokr <- from the playstore (its part of the Oppo screen so this is the only way to emulate)
igotlostintampa said:
I wanted to let everyone know for the past day or so ive been testing out the Color OS 2.0 for the I9505, here are some of those results, screenshots, and how to install for yourself.
So, the reason im bringing this up to get started is that for the past year or so i was unable to install this rom on my S4 i assume from not having the correct version of TWRP required for the install (AND the install will fail a few times for random reasons if SU is not installed (rom or not)...I found this out after a full wipe and it not letting me install the rom until i rebooted back into TWRP and told it to root my phone because it found no root access.
or were like me and gave up trying to install it at first.
SCREENSHOTS (CLICK FOR FULL RESOLUTION) (TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM PHONE) (VIA OPPO 3 FINGER SWIPE UP (customizable to change to anything i believe))
Now to get dual tap to wake download an app called Knokr <- from the playstore (its part of the Oppo screen so this is the only way to emulate)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
o.o was i the only one excited feels bad being the only crack flasher here.
Is it stable? If yes, will like to give it a try
dunhillpanda said:
Is it stable? If yes, will like to give it a try
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I really like it once its got a new keyboard. Havnt had a force close or random reboot. The thing is so much smoother than any other rom ive tried its crazy. And after about a day the battery drain has gone away. I honestly am thunkibg about keepimg the thing if it keeps going this well as a perm backup.
The onky issues ive seen i listed in the OP but they arent problems for me really
Looks interesting. Props on the info, I'll look into this soon
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Free mobile app
All Functional
IT seems everything i use the phone for is functional on this rom. I have seen no issues at all with everything that i regularly do and with some added functionality from the android general section (acid audio (i prefer it >.>)) I dont see any reason to change off the rom o.o it has some of the best touch response i have seen on a rom (less lag on inital jerk from finger than touchwiz/aosp) the only thing its missing is the over the top customizations some roms have that will be kinda stock in android L o.o so i think im going to wait for either an L rom or color os 2.5 > 3
>.> <.<
unless another rom peaks my interest before then but im so tired of AOSP and Touchwiz xD and that seems to be the majority of this forum o.o like ive googled a lot of other roms... >.> MIUI and XUI both exist for this phone as does Color OS and many hybrid Touchwiz/AOSP roms exist over in international, as well as many roms that just never make it to our forum because they are being undercut by the popular roms for our device and immediately jump to the end of the forum..some of which are more stable than some of our most popular roms >.<
Sorry i ranted, just overal kind of curious what the Samsung user Obsession is with Touchwiz and AOSP when better than both exist for the devices we use >.> i mean i get liking the style of a rom but im not used to entering a forum here where other roms dont exist o.o i wonder what roms the nexus devices get.
Ooh! This looks fascinating! Im pretty new here but ive lurked forever and I have been looking for a new rom to try. It looks like we value the same things in a rom and the bugs wont be a problem for me either (almost never ever turn on wifi for instance) so im excited to try a rom that youve decided will be your DD.
Ill let ya know how it worked.
Oh man. This ROM is cool...
My phone played nice with it upon install for whatever reason. On my first wipe it took. Most of the setup crashed like you said, for some reason the google log in part didn't crash. After changing the APN settings everything seems to be working great. It really is fast and responsive ( there is a scroll slide effect kinda like iOS that makes lists feel slick)
My small qualm is that it shows that you have no service at all times. Even the weather app says "no service" in it so having that on the home screen and in the status bar is bothersome.
My large qualm is battery. This ROM is freaking gorgeous, I seriously want a phone beefy enough to run like this for a long time, I can't stress how pretty this is for anyone who hasn't tried Oppo's stuff. But I'm getting roughly what OP did on battery though, it feels like only a bit over 1/3 the longetivity of most other Roms I've tried... Reminds me of my old iPhone 4 after 3 years of use. So that really bites. But hell if it isn't pretty.
Another user said the battery problems go away after the ROM settles so imma give that a bit and if it does... I couldn't possibly change it. The weather effects on the home screen are addicting and I love how the rain/snow will fall on icons and splash or accumulate. It feels like a ROM in step with the future.
---------- Post added at 11:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 AM ----------
Scrawlerism said:
Oh man. This ROM is cool...
My phone played nice with it upon install for whatever reason. On my first wipe it took. Most of the setup crashed like you said, for some reason the google log in part didn't crash. After changing the APN settings everything seems to be working great. It really is fast and responsive ( there is a scroll slide effect kinda like iOS that makes lists feel slick)
My small qualm is that it shows that you have no service at all times. Even the weather app says "no service" in it so having that on the home screen and in the status bar is bothersome.
My large qualm is battery. This ROM is freaking gorgeous, I seriously want a phone beefy enough to run like this for a long time, I can't stress how pretty this is for anyone who hasn't tried Oppo's stuff. But I'm getting roughly what OP did on battery though, it feels like only a bit over 1/3 the longetivity of most other Roms I've tried... Reminds me of my old iPhone 4 after 3 years of use. So that really bites. But hell if it isn't pretty.
Another user said the battery problems go away after the ROM settles so imma give that a bit and if it does... I couldn't possibly change it. The weather effects on the home screen are addicting and I love how the rain/snow will fall on icons and splash or accumulate. It feels like a ROM in step with the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh shoot I forgot to mention, sorry to spam this thread! Some apps return "package file invalid" and you flat out can't install those apps. This was fixed for me by wiping the caches in recovery but I've read this doesn't always work. In the end I personally got every app I wanted installed so idk if that will be a problem but yeah.
My issues with battery life so far have greatly dimmed, I am unsure if it was just the rom getting used to itself or the kernel setting itself up...but my battery issues have gone down greatly.
THOUGH I will mention that it is still worse than AOSP and Touchwiz, just not by nearly as much as previously thought. (EDIT: THE BATTERY LIFE, I actually don't think ill give this rom up
Also I did also have the problem with "Package File Invalid" and I also wiped the caches to get everything to install properly, but I also found that a full storage wipe of the phone (copy everything important off first) prevents that issue with most roms, I may try it with this one if I decide to ever uninstall it in the first place. The rom is kind of amazing...
Normally I would be experiencing some kind of stability issue with an app or something by now or maybe a keyboard...but not with this rom, not at all. It is still running as amazing as when I first turned it on.
OH I have to mention I guess that I did turn on some power saving settings so that may have been what effected the battery life so dramatically. In honesty I think now it lasts me quite a while...I may actually think I get better battery life in the last 15-20% than AOSP or Touchwiz, touchwiz being the only one with a decent power saver setting (with ROM)
but yeah I love this rom and wish there were more like it for our device....I know miui is available and I might look back into it for more of a full themeing effect, but I love the gesture panel and im gonna try to port it over to the miui rom >.> and see if it will load. Seems to be an app that's built into the phone but im unsure how deep rooted it is.
MIUI+ColorOS = Amazing combo.
Thanks though guys for looking into this! glad to see some other crack flashers around.
This rom does seem to be taking kind of a large leap, but at least its forward.
igotlostintampa said:
My issues with battery life so far have greatly dimmed, I am unsure if it was just the rom getting used to itself or the kernel setting itself up...but my battery issues have gone down greatly.
THOUGH I will mention that it is still worse than AOSP and Touchwiz, just not by nearly as much as previously thought. (EDIT: THE BATTERY LIFE, I actually don't think ill give this rom up
Also I did also have the problem with "Package File Invalid" and I also wiped the caches to get everything to install properly, but I also found that a full storage wipe of the phone (copy everything important off first) prevents that issue with most roms, I may try it with this one if I decide to ever uninstall it in the first place. The rom is kind of amazing...
Normally I would be experiencing some kind of stability issue with an app or something by now or maybe a keyboard...but not with this rom, not at all. It is still running as amazing as when I first turned it on.
OH I have to mention I guess that I did turn on some power saving settings so that may have been what effected the battery life so dramatically. In honesty I think now it lasts me quite a while...I may actually think I get better battery life in the last 15-20% than AOSP or Touchwiz, touchwiz being the only one with a decent power saver setting (with ROM)
but yeah I love this rom and wish there were more like it for our device....I know miui is available and I might look back into it for more of a full themeing effect, but I love the gesture panel and im gonna try to port it over to the miui rom >.> and see if it will load. Seems to be an app that's built into the phone but im unsure how deep rooted it is.
MIUI+ColorOS = Amazing combo.
Thanks though guys for looking into this! glad to see some other crack flashers around.
This rom does seem to be taking kind of a large leap, but at least its forward.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly the battery did get better after a couple days. Aosp has probably spoiled me. I really really liked this ROM.
Edit: and I know what you mean by "forward thinking" this ROM feels like the future.
And yes, definitely a crack flasher here. Even now that I have a ROM that I always fall back on I'm still flashing at least a few times a week, and trying new Roms on weekends. >.<
Will try this soon
this is a really nice rom for the s4 , i didn't have to reflash at all, one wipe flashed the rom, it was succesful and booted right up on the first try. Thanks for this, i tried the newest 9/6 debloated version from the link in the OP but it seemed to be a lil glitchy, the one in OP works fine. Thanks again
Hi to all of you. I recently did buy a LG G3 with KitKat 4.4.2. Phone is awesome, battery lasts a lot for this screen over a day and a half (medium usage), without lagginess, maybe after restart it takes about 1 second to find everything but generally i am very happy with my purchcase. I have some questions though. Recently i got a OTA update about sth vcalled 20e. Its an update ~555mb and after some search i found out that this is the Lollipop official firmware. After plugging my phone into the LG PC Suite, i found out that even a newer version is available the 20f firmware ~over 1gb. Here starts my questions. Is it worth to go from kitkat to jellybean? Or is it better to stick with kitkat until they fix all the bugs i found out on forums. (So far i saw battery doesnt last so long, wireless charging has problems, lte doesnt work on most devices, others said about lagginess, most apps do not work with the new ART system). So what are your thoughts about this? Also i want to remove some google apps like google drive, and i want to remove this McAfee. Is there any possible way to do that easily without ruining my phone?
SotosTzam said:
Hi to all of you. I recently did buy a LG G3 with KitKat 4.4.2. Phone is awesome, battery lasts a lot for this screen over a day and a half (medium usage), without lagginess, maybe after restart it takes about 1 second to find everything but generally i am very happy with my purchcase. I have some questions though. Recently i got a OTA update about sth vcalled 20e. Its an update ~555mb and after some search i found out that this is the Lollipop official firmware. After plugging my phone into the LG PC Suite, i found out that even a newer version is available the 20f firmware ~over 1gb. Here starts my questions. Is it worth to go from kitkat to jellybean? Or is it better to stick with kitkat until they fix all the bugs i found out on forums. (So far i saw battery doesnt last so long, wireless charging has problems, lte doesnt work on most devices, others said about lagginess, most apps do not work with the new ART system). So what are your thoughts about this? Also i want to remove some google apps like google drive, and i want to remove this McAfee. Is there any possible way to do that easily without ruining my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stay on 4.4.2. Most of your research is correct - 5.0 is laggy, drains battery faster, there is "while on wireless charger, screen turns itself on constanly after charge reached 100%" bug, etc.
No, on 5.0 you can delete mcafee only via code from their support. And there is no way to delete Gapps wout root, which can only be obtained by flashing prerooted rom.
About apps - 99.9% of apps do work with ART. However, some - like Webkit-based apps - do crash sometimes.
About lte - only affects people who bought phones that were intended for different region. Region can be changed, btw, so it's not a real problem - it's just a ton of n00bs whining about "bug" they brought on themselves.
YaDr said:
Stay on 4.4.2. Most of your research is correct - 5.0 is laggy, drains battery faster, there is "while on wireless charger, screen turns itself on constanly after charge reached 100%" bug, etc.
No, on 5.0 you can delete mcafee only via code from their support. And there is no way to delete Gapps wout root, which can only be obtained by flashing prerooted rom.
About apps - 99.9% of apps do work with ART. However, some - like Webkit-based apps - do crash sometimes.
About lte - only affects people who bought phones that were intended for different region. Region can be changed, btw, so it's not a real problem - it's just a ton of n00bs whining about "bug" they brought on themselves.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you propose to stick with KitKat 4.4.2 and wait a couple of months until Lollipop gets better?, because i also heard the new art system is faster and more reliable. And generally the Lollipop is meant to be faster than kitkat. If you all advise me so, i will keep this thread open so that i can reply back or even ask more when the time comes
SotosTzam said:
So you propose to stick with KitKat 4.4.2 and wait a couple of months until Lollipop gets better?, because i also heard the new art system is faster and more reliable. And generally the Lollipop is meant to be faster than kitkat. If you all advise me so, i will keep this thread open so that i can reply back or even ask more when the time comes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, i do advise to stick to 4.4.2 until LG fixes 5.0. However, there are thousands of members on xda. You may want to hear other's opinions before deciding anything.
P.S.: ART is faster than dalvik, there is no compilation-in-runtime overhead.
I'd wait and see if it eventually gets to 5.0.2. In earlier versions of LP, there is a memory leak that causes the system to slow down after awhile. 5.0.2 apparently fixes this. However, I have 5.0.2 on my Nexus 7 tablet and after awhile, I still notice performance issues that require a reboot, so I don't know if they really have the memory leak fixed or not. That's a pretty nasty bug that needs to be fixed before I install it on this phone.
Currently, KK runs great. And, if you want the LP look, you can do a few things:
Install Nova launcher and switch to LP icons
Install Xposed (which won't work on LP) and there is an Xposed module to give you the LP nav bar icons
KK on this phone runs great for me. No issues and I have no reason to go to LP at this time. Until they get the memory leak fixed, no dice for me. I love having a phone that doesn't require a reboot.
Agreed with most of the above. I actually upgraded mine to Lollipop. The experience was horrific. I went back to Kitkat and absolutely have no issues with the phone. It's a dream compared to Lollipop.
I also rooted and use the Tweaksbox to add lollipop styling. I won't be moving to lollipop again any time soon.
SotosTzam said:
Hi to all of you. I recently did buy a LG G3 with KitKat 4.4.2. Phone is awesome, battery lasts a lot for this screen over a day and a half (medium usage), without lagginess, maybe after restart it takes about 1 second to find everything but generally i am very happy with my purchcase. I have some questions though. Recently i got a OTA update about sth vcalled 20e. Its an update ~555mb and after some search i found out that this is the Lollipop official firmware. After plugging my phone into the LG PC Suite, i found out that even a newer version is available the 20f firmware ~over 1gb. Here starts my questions. Is it worth to go from kitkat to jellybean? Or is it better to stick with kitkat until they fix all the bugs i found out on forums. (So far i saw battery doesnt last so long, wireless charging has problems, lte doesnt work on most devices, others said about lagginess, most apps do not work with the new ART system). So what are your thoughts about this? Also i want to remove some google apps like google drive, and i want to remove this McAfee. Is there any possible way to do that easily without ruining my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My advice is go for it. In my experience with the lollipop update all those little hick ups that appear occasionally (especially in animations and while pulling down notification bar) are gone. Lollipop is fluid and smooth, and rock stable. So far i haven't faced any FCs, glitches etc.. Everything is working fine (well, at least on my phone) and better than what it used to be on kitkat. Battery life is as good, if not even slightly better on lollipop.
I came from a nexus 5, and have been a nexus user for the last 3 generations, so i have high standards when it comes to lag and performance.
P.s. i have the 32gb/3gb RAM and i'm on stock firmware.
As an answer from LG Hellas, i got this: That the phone is working whole better and faster than kitkat (as lollipop), and that all errors are fixed. Also the lollipop update can use the whole processing power of the phone and as a result toghether with the art system, the phone is working better and faster with less battery drain than before. Also downgrading to their lg shops costs :/ . That was their answer to me.
I have a question for you guys. When i play a song sometimes particular songs show wrong album arts. And the correct are blurry. What size should i make them in order to show as good quality?
EDIT
Anything from 1000x1000 up to whatever you like you have some decent and good quality on any song. Because i found a problem and i think many of you out there have this problem as well. If some album arts display wrong, change that track's album to something.
We're all here because we want better roms than what our phones came with, upgraded roms etc. Idealy we'd want the most stable version with the last junk so it's the most responsive. As I upgraded more and more roms, I started to feel that the phone is showing it's age in processing power, and just like computers, you can't just install a newer stronger OS on older hardware, at some point you aren't gaining performance, you start to lose it because the hardware is struggling to keep up. I went from stock to 4.2 roms, then 4.4 roms, (pacman, mokee, CM, etc etc ). I eventually went back to 4.4 stock and it gave me the least trouble and quite snappy. Of course it had the OEM bloat from Verizon. Its been going strong for maybe a year, and now it too is starting to crash with a lot of bugs, probably from installing so many apps, but also I see a lot of built in apps taking up memory. So my main question is, if you still the Razr M and still using roms, what have you settled with ? What has been the most stable and fastest for you so far? For me so far it turned out to be the stock 4.4.2. So my options are to start over again with a fresh 4.4.2 or maybe a stripped 4.4.2, or one of the new 5.1 builds. I mainly use it for Navigation + music + calls, generally nav + music at the same time. Someone mentioned that CM12.1 couldn't handle that because of memory issues so that scared me off, but I love the CM12.1 on my galaxy tab pro. I do use the Bluetooth when im riding, and the camera from time to time, and the stock just had everything working.
If I can't find a stable build/rom, it might be time for me to move on to a newer quad core 2ghz + phone, browsing on the razer m is ok, but admittedly a little slow. The battery isn't what it used to, but it still gets through the day, and there are (albeit dodgy quality ) replacement batteries on amazon to hold out longer... The phone was basically free over 2 years ago, I've never been one to shell out $300 for a phone, but that oneplus one is mighty tempting to switch carriers for. ATT failed me on signal at this house so Verizon has been great, but i'd be willing to try tmobile if im forced to pick a new phone.
TLDR: Which rom has been the most stable for you ? ( rom name and build/version ).
vo_danh said:
So my main question is, if you still the Razr M and still using roms, what have you settled with ? What has been the most stable and fastest for you so far?.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock 4.1.2 (with uninstalled bloatware), as 4.4.2 has broken audio on (some?) Rev.B phones.
I have been on stock jelly bean, rooted stock kitkat (debloated with permissions removed for batt life), cm12.1 (our device is just too limited) and now cm11 snapshot 12 on kitkat boot loader. So far cm11 is my favorite.
Sent from my DROID RAZR M using XDA Free mobile app
For me stock kitkat debloated runs smoother, although is very sluggish sometimes: for example when I'm swapping messenger, whatsapp and running music player at the same time, it's almost impossible...
Ice tested cm when was 5.0,and was terrible. Pac man Kk, not as good as stock.
Sorry for this ugly link, I'm on my phone, but this post and the thread overall has a lot of good tips:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=53724034&postcount=17
In the last 2 and a half years I've been through:
Stock 4.1.2 (rooted after 1 day, debloated, Safestrap)
Eclipse Rom v1.2 (Safestrap)
CM10.1 (Unlocked BL)
CM10.2 (Unlocked BL)
CM11 (Unlocked BL, JB Kernel)
Stock 4.4.2 (rooted, debloated)
CM11 (Unlocked BL, KK Kernel)
CM12.1 (Unlocked BL, KK Kernel)
Best user experience for me? Sad to say but I had it with the Stock 4.1.2: overall smoother than all the rest. Then after some months my Razr M started a bootloop, so I unlocked the bootloader and tryed the CM ROM: the CM Power Widgets were an overkill at the time (mainly the 2G/3G toggle)...
After all the CM ROM that I've used, the second place goes to CM11 (with JB BL).
Right now I'm testing the latest CM12.1 builds, and they seems ok. I've installed onlyt the apps that are strictly necessary to me (gmail, maps, onenote, osmand, dropbox, wikipedia, Room Toolbox Pro, SuperSu, calendar, meteo, etc...). Everithing seems fine but I liked more the old KK style (lockscreen, quick settings). Everything is working, even if sometimes the data, Wifi and GPS signals are erratic. The performance are acceptable too.
So far a vote for CM11, and stock unlocked debloated. That's what i was heading towards too, stock debloat, and probably 4.1 it still has the best performance really. I mean the custom roms look great and all, but at the cost of performance which, after the initial wow factor, I think we would all prefer performance. Back when I had my HTC my favorite and most stable rom was jacko's most basic slim version ( he had like 1-5 tiers of peformance and features ). If I go back to stock and it lasts me another year or two i'll take it.
I'm trying out CM11 Snapshot 12 right now. I was already on 4.4.2 stock with unlocked kk bootloader so it made sense to try it first. Its already a lot smoother than what it was, freeing up half the memory. I noticed the dialer doesn't go all the way up sometimes, you have to push back and hit the keypad icon again. Otherwise very smooth so far. I'll report back after I get some use out of it and if I ever decide to go back to 4.1. I might need a new battery though, if I'm using it it doesn't last through a day.
*Update - I went from having basically no free memory left to about 50% free memory. I think my battery life increased dramatically with so much less running in the background. Maybe by 20-50%.
I took one phone call and updated a few apps, about mid day through the work day. was 12h by the end of the day and a few calls and some browsing w/o having to charge. Definitely gave new life to the phone. Very minor dialer bugs, sometimes the number pad doesn't come up correctly the first time.
Android 4.1 has various security issues that won't be fixed anymore, so that's not really an option.
But I don't think there are big differences in battery life anyway (see this).
After testing a lot of CM11, using Performance settings, changing memory settings, having a very poor battery performance, I've come back to the 4.4 backup with all the apps I had. The difference was incredible, now my phone feels snappier than an iPhone, and sincerely, i don't know why!! I think that doing a restore sometimes can help a lot.
Yeah the last time I did a fresh install of 4.4.2 stock it was great. After a while though with all my apps installed + the oem bloat the phone had very little memory left and became sluggish. My best options right now seem like going back to stock, either 4.1 or 4.4 and trying to do manual debloat.
I did a fresh install of CM11 again but still didn't fix it. I still had the occasional dialer error and wifi would only work upon boot, after disabling, it never reconnects to any wifi. Battery was still horrible. I went back to stock 4.4.2. RSlite would not work on any version on windows 8.1 64 bit. I had to do msfastbootv2 and was able to restore to stock 4.4.2 However upon booting, it wanted to update to 183.84.15 but failing. It would say there's an update, download it, reboot, and automatically boot into recovery. I would select reboot and it boots in, sometimes saying update complete but it hasnt' actually updated anything. I eventually gave up and started over, this time using stock recovery, not logging into my google account so it doesn't start downloading all my apps, no supersu, no gapps, and it successfully updated to 183.81.15. At that point using mfastbootv2 I installed twrp 2.8.5, rebooted into recovery, installed gapps and supersu. Then used titan to debloat using http://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-razr-m/general/complete-debloat-list-droid-razr-m-t3045731 , removed most of the things on that list, particularly anything I didn't use that I saw running. I also installed Greenify. After about a day I started noticing the google play services issue using a majority of my battery. I downloaded App Ops to disable google play services wake permissions. I am amazed at what happened. I feel like I have the original batteries back. I received 2-3 short calls today, and 2 browsing sessions, installed some apps (facebook lite), and I still have a lot of battery left, normally it would be over half gone. Going home after that much use and still having over 70% of battery left is nothing short of amazing and I no longer feel like getting a new phone. I was very close to trying the Droid Turbo.
TLDR: Got original usage/battery back with stock 4.4.2 + debloat (backup & Uninstall with titanium ) + App ops to fix google services wake battery drain + Greenify. I don't know how much Greenify is doing, I attribute most of my gains from debloat + fixing the google services issue. Before App Ops you'd see a giant bar at the top of Google Services instead of screen.
Still odd you having WiFi issues. I don't I did learn recently that my Bluetooth does not seem to be fully functional.
Sent from my GT-P3110 using XDA Free mobile app
So far, all I've tried (and stuck with) are stock 4.1, stock 4.4.2, and CM 12/12.1.
Stock ROMs were fairly snappy, but I was always a little fearful (irrationally, but still) of trying to debloat while on 4.4 (and I remain fearful of downgrading the bootloader). This is my daily driver, though, and it must remain so until I become eligible for a newer phone in December (or I can pick up something better, used, for extremely cheap ...).
I have been toughing it out on CM 12 since late January. I like several of Lollipop's UI changes and new features (as well as CM's additions over stock), so despite some frustrations with bugs and somewhat-laggy performance, I haven't felt terribly compelled to try CM 11, or to go back to stock 4.4.2. (At least, not all the time; there have been moments of extremely slow response times where I've wanted to wipe /system right then and there and flash CM 11. I have stuck with 12 so far in hopes of improvements on the way to the first snapshot.)
Also, vo_danh, I was the one who reported about the issue with simultaneously running Maps and Play Music. I don't think I've ever gotten a phone call while trying to run those, but suffice to say that I have enough trouble with (occasional) lag when a call comes in.
If you're already on the kk boot loader like me, you don't need to downgrade the boot loader for cm11. Its been almost a week and i am still just amazed at how well this config is working for me. The battery life is like new again. Don't be afraid of debloating with titanium, since you can back it up first before unisntalling, if anything goes wrong, simply reinstall the backup. As a safety, after I restored to stock 4.4.2, updated to 183.84.15 OTA, I created a TWRP backup, so if anything goes wrong I can just restore it with TWRP instead of doing through all the steps to go back to stock. I didn't remove everything that was on that debloat list, just most things from verizon or anything I raw under 'running' list that I didn't need. It's so stable and fast. I would only move to a stock + debloat rom now for this phone for now. If I had a stronger phone there's no doubt i'd be using Cm12.1 but for now, this phone isn't meant to handle it smoothly and the wifi issues i had with Cm11 just make it not worth it. All wifi issues are gone now on stock. I didn't have wifi issues on any of the other roms either.
vo_danh said:
We're all here because we want better roms than what our phones came with...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. One that the phone came with, with a little tweaking. 4.1.2 deodexed and debloated. Best usability and battery life. Slows down with heavy games tho so i unlocked the BL.
2. KK debloated. 4.4.2 i think. better in many respects but I sorely miss the Jb camera. It was wonderful. Battery life had come down a couple of notches.
3. Currently running the Bliss rom (5.1). My earpiece and mic doesn't work with the latest update. lol.
Edit: Call issues in the Bliss rom have been fixed. It's a solid rom and deserves a strong recommendation.