Database Users

So, is 2.2 on the Fascinate better than 2.1?

I haven't read too much praise about the 2.2 update. My impression right now is it's just nice to have the latest and greatest even though nothing really stands out.
So what do you like about 2.2 vs 2.1? Give me a reason to go through the process of flashing 2.2

My opinion so far: Not ready for prime time.
The recent drops of EA28 (Eclair DL09 Dailer Fix) and EB01 (FroYo update of unknown content) tell me that DL30 will not be the final release. My personal usage backs that up.
My main problem with stock DL30 is the battery life. It's quite frankly horrible for me. Even using tasker to adjust some things that should help save battery life, I can't get through the day without hitting the charger. I could go all day and end up plugging in for the night with anywhere from 35-60% left on my battery depending on what time I went to bed and how much I messed with my phone during the day.
I'm currently restoring my DL09 nandroid backup so I can wait it out.

If you need a reason, then dont flash 2.2?
With kernels and roms that support them yet to come, I dont find that much difference between 2.2 and 2.1.
Some people experience horrible battery life, others better or same (my battery is better with 2.2). Some experience a lot of different problems once they changed to 2.2 while others people experienced 0 problems.

I don't think anyone here should really be saying too much about how 2.2 works on the Fascinate (sans the people with EB01- possibly). The DL30 version is, quite apparently, a very rough version with lots of problems, so not an accurate portrayal of Froyo (and Kaosinate, I believe, is still running an older kernel with v4... and no JIT).
Just find stuff comparing Android 2.1 with Android 2.2, that isn't phone specific, to see why 2.2 will be better once our roms & kernels have a chance to mature. Anything Fascinate specific, at this point in time, will be highly implementation-specific, and not a good representation of 2.2.

DL09 - Stocke 2.2 leak - Superdark Rom
Exchange feature - company requires Android 2.2 Roms to use company email (+1)
GPS - Does not lock as fast with 2.2 (-1)
Flash (+1)
getting ready to test app2sd on 2.2 - should work (+1)
if you have to ask - do not flash

AlexDeGruven said:
My opinion so far: Not ready for prime time.
The recent drops of EA28 (Eclair DL09 Dailer Fix) and EB01 (FroYo update of unknown content) tell me that DL30 will not be the final release. My personal usage backs that up.
My main problem with stock DL30 is the battery life. It's quite frankly horrible for me. Even using tasker to adjust some things that should help save battery life, I can't get through the day without hitting the charger. I could go all day and end up plugging in for the night with anywhere from 35-60% left on my battery depending on what time I went to bed and how much I messed with my phone during the day.
I'm currently restoring my DL09 nandroid backup so I can wait it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been doing a lot of my own investigations on EB01, and found something interesting about WIFI battery usage. First, there are lots of posts that tell you to change the WIFI sleep policy to "When screen turns off" or "Never when plugged in" in order to get back to DL09 type WIFI battery performance. However, even when I did this, I still lost lots of battery with WIFI enabled and phone inactive (screen off). I found that going into Location & security and disabling "Google location services" makes a big difference. With this disabled, I now get the extremely slow battery loss (< 1% / hr) when phone is inactive and WIFI enabled. Of course, if WIFI sleep policy is set to "Never", the power consumption goes way up. Note, in all cases, I'm leaving "Mobile data" enabled. Now then, GPS is another issue. Whenever I enable that, even though I have no background apps or active apps using GPS, it still drains the battery in a way DL09 never did. That I don't know how to solve.

Its awesome
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

onemotodroid said:
DL09 - Stocke 2.2 leak - Superdark Rom
Exchange feature - company requires Android 2.2 Roms to use company email (+1)
GPS - Does not lock as fast with 2.2 (-1)
Flash (+1)
getting ready to test app2sd on 2.2 - should work (+1)
if you have to ask - do not flash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My GPS is fine. The phone isn't as snappy as it was with the custom kernels on 2.1 though, and 2.2 is still buggy. Both issues are Samsung's fault, not our devs, though.
What it boils down to is that if you want flash, you have to upgrade. If you want your phone to run super fast and stable then stay on DL09 with custom kernels until FroYo matures.

Hyatt updated this morning. Everything seems better so far. Battery seems at least a little better. Gps locks just as fast if not a little faster. Overall everything seems to be far more fluid and faster.
Came from blackhole latest dl09 to superclean 2.3 eb01.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

It's nice having Flash again. And I see apps in the Market that I couldn't on 2.1. And it's noticeably faster in day to day use. At the same time, it can also be "choppy". I can't wait for custom kernels to fix this.

2.2 is great... especially when combined with a Voodoo kernel. The only thing that I miss about 2.1 is Voodoo sound and maybe slightly better battery life.
Also having access to Flash and Adobe Air apps is great.

Just put EBO1 on my phone yesterday. For me the changes to the stock theme are almost reason enough. Just a lot of small ways they have toned it down a little bit. Plus lots of little ways it works better or you get more options.
I installed it to get better at flashing, and wanted more experience with different ROMS before OTA is released. I'm glad I did EBO1.
Today I'm going to start playing with it, loading accurate battery stuff like that and will most likely try super clean in the next day or so.
But if you are happy with your phone and there is no Froyo feature you want, then no there is no strong reason not to wait for OTA.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

shorto85 said:
2.2 is great... especially when combined with a Voodoo kernel. The only thing that I miss about 2.1 is Voodoo sound and maybe slightly better battery life.
Also having access to Flash and Adobe Air apps is great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto on all that. Coming from DL09 Super Clean with Voodoo, EB01 Super Clean without Voodoo was horribly laggy. After reinstalling Voodoo though, EB01 SC is flying! The few remaining lag points I used to have are now gone, such as the entering the helicopter view in LauncherPro, waking the phone up (pretty much instant on now, used to be a few second lag), etc. Also, the theme I installed added a ton of fancy animations, and I haven't noticed any lag on any of them. Whatever CPU enhancements Froyo brings are definitely an improvement.
The only real problem I have is noticeably reduced battery life (can still make it through a day at least, most of the time anyway). Oh, and I'm definitely missing the Voodoo sound driver. I had to crank the EQ in PowerAmp way up to compensate, and it's just not the same, since that increases audio distortion to audible levels.

Thanks SamSprint! (words I thought I'd never say)

So, I don't post too often, but I lurk a lot and like to think I'm pretty experienced with different ROMs. I've used Midnight, ACE, Bonsai, Frankenstein, and a few others. All of them pretty great in their own way. The devs involved are dedicated and brilliant and when you think of the base they were working from, they did nothing short of dark magic. I can't wait to see what they do with this amazing release.
Today, I'm officially back to (rooted) stock. Here's why:
The things I look for in a ROM are battery life, speed, and stability. I think that's a pretty standard list for your average XDA member. EF02 meets and exceeds every item on that list.
First for foremost is battery life. I see that some users are reporting atrocious battery life and some (like me) amazingly (ridiculously good!) battery life. I've been using the phone almost non-stop for 5.5 hours now and I'm still at 58%. That's with some netflix, Rdio streaming, calls, tons of txts, Doggcatcher through the main speaker at full volume, and endless configuration, installs, and tweaking. I'm coming from Bonsai which has some pretty amazing battery life, but it's (seemingly) geared more towards "standby" battery endurance and always drained quickly when I was using my phone a lot. I thought this might be a fluke, but I've rebooted twice now and battery stayed within 2%. All I did was plug in over night and ran battery calibration (the market app) this morning.
Other than that, everything just WORKS. GPS locks stupid fast (after clearing a-data state). 3g/4g. Almost no FCs. Wi-Fi doesn't disconnect. No volume stuttering. No bluetooth weirdness. Nada. It just WORKS!
I was playing asphault, Backbreaker football, and recording HD video today, everything was snappy and flawless. When you consider it's RFS, stock speeds, with bloat and no governor or scheduler tweaks I really am in awe of what the Epic has under the hood and how solid SamSprint have made this.
There's been a lot of contention about how to apply this. There's a flashable rooted/deoxed version out now, but just by nature of that install procedure, I think you're best to use Odin to flash the EF02 tar and then the CWM tar and then flash the su in recovery. Those are the steps I did and I'm running rock solid.
My setup:
EF02 Odin'd
Launcher Pro w/ twitter and gmail widgets (although TW was feeling great when I was tweaking the phone)
Rdio widget
Data and background sync enabled
Screen timeout 30 seconds
Wi-Fi on most the time
SwiftKey (although the new Swype is pretty great)
PS I flashed the zip version last night and had endless issues. Battery heat, no GPS, no audio, wonky data, and eventually a boot loop of death. Odin the way I described above got rid of all the issues.

Ya. Samsung... Thnx u skanky sweaty hog! U pissed with off with the delay on froyo. But u made it up with ginger. I was already convinced froyo would be the end. So thxs u hor.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

I have to agree. I followed the OP steps myself as soon as it launched. I am debating on flashing the kernel out but will wait till something else is out. I prefer more app space so staying on odex for now. I have been removing bloat apps that I dont want slowly to ensure nothing is acting funny. I didn't have to clear agps o nothing for my gps to work properly with that set up. I am running ef10 modem.

[Q] noob with atrix on alien4

Hello, i just bought an atrix on ebay with alien4 and was wondering if i should stay with this rom or not? I have no mod experience on this phone. I would like to get better battery life and get rid of blur if possible. It might just have a weak battery, but it goes down fast when im not even using it. I believe it is unlocked bootloader. I dont want to go crazy, just like a nice setup thats fast and good on battery life. Thanks!!

Try the current rom out for a while, and then give CM7 a shot...
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

There are a few different choices. Definitely get comfortable first with flashing ROMs. Use the guides here in the forum to teach yourself how to do it. After reading the guides, read them again. You do not want to end up bricking your phone.
A few I myself have tried are CM7, HomeBase and Aura. I use HomeBase as my daily driver. My battery life has been pretty good. I usually get around 36 hours with pretty heavy usage of streaming music and videos.

wsison23 said:
There are a few different choices. Definitely get comfortable first with flashing ROMs. Use the guides here in the forum to teach yourself how to do it. After reading the guides, read them again. You do not want to end up bricking your phone.
A few I myself have tried are CM7, HomeBase and Aura. I use HomeBase as my daily driver. My battery life has been pretty good. I usually get around 36 hours with pretty heavy usage of streaming music and videos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
36 hours?? wow, mine was full 2 hours ago and its already down to 68% and i havent really done anything on it except going thru menus and settings and things??

You probably need to re calibrate your battery,
xploited's guide really helped my battery life out, try it
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1198333

foxrivertrekker said:
Hello, i just bought an atrix on ebay with alien4 and was wondering if i should stay with this rom or not? I have no mod experience on this phone. I would like to get better battery life and get rid of blur if possible. It might just have a weak battery, but it goes down fast when im not even using it. I believe it is unlocked bootloader. I dont want to go crazy, just like a nice setup thats fast and good on battery life. Thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im still useing alien v4 for me it just works best with my custom webtop
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium

I would give HomeBase a spin, but just remember that the de-blurred Moto ROM's do have certain things missing just have to read about whats there and see if you can live without it. I personally use HomeBase 2 which is slightly de-blurred and it looks and feels like a vanilla ROM. Some blur is good. Definitely read through a few posts and guides in the Development section to get a handle of whats going on and then start trying things out. I don't know what recovery you have but I would suggest first going to this link and learn a little:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=Motorola_Atrix_4G
Then going to this link to get the latest recovery (it will save you some headaches):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1204500
As for the battery thing, try calibrating. If that doesn't work, it could need a battery with it being a used phone.

I tried Homebase and Aura a couple days ago, and I went back to Alien#4. Couldn't put my finger on why I didn't like them. But you should try all the ROMs you think you might like and see what works best for you.
I get really good battery with light-medium use, and my phone is very smooth. So if it helps, here's my setup:
Alien#4
Faux's OC Kernel 2.0 (to 1.3GHz)
Undervolted (75, 75, 75, 75, 100, 100, 100)
SetCPU "Screen Off" Profile to clock down to 456000Max
The biggest battery killer by far with that setup is the screen. There's a mod in the development forums that can lower the brightness much more than the stock minimum, but I haven't bothered with it. I only use my phone in quick bursts most of the time; check an email, send a text, etc. so it's not that big a problem for me. I can go couple days without needing a charge.

mvgc3 said:
I tried Homebase and Aura a couple days ago, and I went back to Alien#4. Couldn't put my finger on why I didn't like them. But you should try all the ROMs you think you might like and see what works best for you.
I get really good battery with light-medium use, and my phone is very smooth. So if it helps, here's my setup:
Alien#4
Faux's OC Kernel 2.0 (to 1.3GHz)
Undervolted (75, 75, 75, 75, 100, 100, 100)
SetCPU "Screen Off" Profile to clock down to 456000Max
The biggest battery killer by far with that setup is the screen. There's a mod in the development forums that can lower the brightness much more than the stock minimum, but I haven't bothered with it. I only use my phone in quick bursts most of the time; check an email, send a text, etc. so it's not that big a problem for me. I can go couple days without needing a charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im runnin alien v4 here is my batt info cence last charge currently 13%left im useing cpu master NOT set cpu
3profiles most inportant screen off
456mah max216-min fauxs v2.0 set to boot at 1200 mahmax
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium

[Q] Any reason *NOT* to do the OTA Gingerbread update?

First, a bit of background. My wife won't let me root her Epic, mostly because she's had to return it 3 times for hardware failures and it's annoying to have to wipe the phone each time.
I told her to hold off on downloading the OTA update to Gingerbread, to make sure there aren't any crippling bugs that show themselves after the masses get a hold of it.
Is there any reason that she should stay away from the OTA update?

None go ahead and update
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

I'm not rooted, updated to GB, but I'm getting random reboots and freeze ups (had to pull battery each time). Other than that it's good to go. Battery lasts longer, but WI-FI range decreased.

If she won't let you root it and put on a GOOD ROM then the next best thing is the OTA so go ahead. It is easier to root on froyo and then flash a GB ROM though. I know a few "stockies" and they love it. No issues with their phones at all.

Before I rooted, EI22 was fast and stable. But I was getting problems keeping the GPS connected and WIFI was not as stable as in froyo. The only other problem I noticed is not being able to change the volume while the phone is next to my ear. Rooting and installing ACS ICS solved most of these

Don't wipe you're phone after the
Update, it will break wifi.
Sent from my Epic 4G using Tapatalk

Ha-ha. My wife is the same with her epic.
Upgrade to gingerbread. It's much better even in stock form.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I'm on stock GB, lets see ..
1. weak GPS (i've never had gps issues before)
2. keyboard lag on physical keyboard
3. screen likes to come on during calls and then my cheek hangs up on people (lots of fun)
4. screen loses responsiveness randomly
at this point i'm ready to drop kick the phone out a 5 story window. so my personal recommendation is if you aren't going to use a rom, stick with froyo. also word just came out that there is a already a new 2.3.6 version of GB coming for the epic. Hopefully this update will fix some of these issues.

wife did OTA upgrade to gingerbread without my approval.
My wife has the original Epic and did the OTA upgrade herself, but has been complaining that battery life is far worst. It's been about 2 weeks maybe.
So I did a factory reset and so far so good. However, it's only been a few hours since I wiped it so only time will tell. I'm told wifi is buggy now from reading other posts, and will report back on that aspect.
If the battery life still suck, I'm going to be forced to root this damn thing and flash it with a battery saving rom.
Any suggestions? I'm new to the OG Epic when it comes to modding.... I'm on a rooted EpicTouch via Starburst.
going to start looking for a stable rom.....
thanks!

Thanks everyone. I kinda figured that there would be some common issues with gingerbread that they'll need to release a maintenance update for in a couple weeks.
I've been running CleanGB on mine and it's been awesome.

oh yeah i forgot to mention weak wifi. i can be 10 feet from the router and get 1 bar on wifi.

I used the flash update for GB that was posted here a while back and I can't say I've noticed any considerable improvements or diminution in quality apart from the GPS which appears worse than before. Battery life may be a bit better than it was under Froyo but there's no real incentive to upgrade from Froyo as far as I can tell.
A friend who installed via the OTA has been dealing with very poor battery life ever since - he says that Android System usage is up over 64% and is awake time is considerably longer than the time is screen is on for whatever reason. He told me he normally leaves GPS on all the time but the usage shows very minimal resources going to GPS. also, he never turns on WiFi and he's in a very strong signal area.

Wifi is fine here. Solid connection from a story away. If. I'm in the same room I get full bars and 65mbps link.
Also zero reboots on two household epics since the update.
But dude, you've got to put on a kernel to fix the keyboard. My wife thought I was a god when I did that for her on froyo, there was no question it had to be done again in gb. She sends hundreds of texts a week (over 2k texts in a month not uncommon) and the keyfix saves what must add up to hours a month in retyping.
Running swupdate or odin takes 5 minutes, tops 10...
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I just got the message that I could install Gingerbread, but then it failed. Not sure why but Clockwork broke it.
So my question is, does GB fix the bluetooth problem involving wiimotes?

If she won't let you root it, then go ahead an OTA, if she has issues *let's hope so* then you'll be able to root and fix her issues.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I have the same issue. My wife has an Epic and she doesn't want me to change from stock. We just did the OTA GB update about a month ago and it broke a WHOLE bunch of stuff.
1) Random mic feedback/squealing.
2) 3G turns off unexpectedly, so when 4G isn't available we get no data service.
3) Gmail contact sync broke, getting google.apps. error message.
About to throw this thing off the roof. Maybe I'll convince her to let me go to Cyanogen 7.

I think most had all these issues because ota updates imo are a horrible and unreliable way to update. Especially updating over existing data from a previous build of android. Yea it sucks starting over, but... when you do it wipes everything clean and I rarely hear of people have those issues when it's done that way. I had issues myself at one point. Did a fresh odin install, formatted data, updated, formatted data again, then reinstalled everything fresh and haven't had any issues since. Like no issues at all.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

I updated from Stock EC05 (Froyo) to stock EI22 (GB) as soon as the google download was available. That should be the same as OTA. I was in a rush b/c I tought the stability of GPS and bluetooth was bad on Froyo. I was wrong. The GPS was completely unusable after the update--GPS apps usually froze within 5min (GPS Status & CardioTrainer) and required multiple reboots to fix. Just a mess.
I was planning to do a factory reset and a clean install, but then I stumbled across GPS_fix for EI22. So I flashed the GPS_fix and it was stable after that.
After investing the time with time making sure I understood the process and how to back up and restore everything that was important to me. It is pretty painless.
Initially I did not consider rooting b/c that would preclude software support by Sprint. Well the couple times I went to the store for that, I was not impressed. If I know zero, I they know less than zero. So that is worthless. So why suffer for $100/mo when I don't need to. And Sprint still gets $100/mo, a Win-Win.
CWM5/CleanGB 1.0

Root it and throw CleanGB 1.0 on it in the middle of the night after backing up everything so she doesn't know you did anything to it. After she says how nice the new "Update from Sprint" is, then tell her you rooted it.
Problem solved!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Battery Life on different ROMs

So after toying around with a large number of the ROMs on the Aria, I've found a couple things:
The gingerbread ROMs, including CM7, always suck my phone dry the fastest. I'm trying to get ~2 days out of it, but it just doesn't happen. With setCPU and some different profiles, along with minimal usage (~30 minutes talk time/day, maybe 30 minutes on the internet, and pretty much everything off, and maybe an hour of music) I get down to 30% or lower by the end of the day.
The GingerSense ROMs are the worst; I rarely make it through a full day with the same stats described above.
However, I've been running Liberated Aria (a FroYo ROM) for the last week and I've found it to be spectacular in terms of battery life. I'd go to bed and set the phone down with 60% battery; wake up and it's at 55%. Gingerbread would never let me go through a night without taking at least 10% of the battery.
So that's what I've found. What are your thoughts?

I haven't used any of the CM* ROMs but I have used the liberated brand ROMs. As you have found out, if you want a sense based ROM, GenePoole's Liberated 2.2.2 is the way to go. With out a doubt it is the most polished ROM with spectacular battery life. If you use it in conjunction with the Set CPU program to dynamically underclock and overclock your phone, you can't go wrong. You will get ~2 days of battery life.
I'm not sure why it isn't included in the ROM list in the pinned guide... It's the evolution of liberated 2.2, which, should be depreciated in all honesty. There is no reason to use liberated 2.2 instead of 2.2.2.

Well, 2.2 does have a much cleaner look to the status bar, and is more customized than 2.2.2 is. Also, I've run into less problems on 2.2 than I have on 2.2.2, and although it's not a big deal, it's the small things that I've seen that make me happy about 2.2 versus the later variant.

I must have misread your original post. I thought you were using 2.2.2 instead of 2.2.
Anyway, based on my own personal testing, 2.2.2 has better battery life than 2.2, so that's why I used it. But, I never really ran into any real problems on either ROM.
This place has sure got quiet in the last couple of months...

I found CM 7.2 stable to be pretty good with battery life. With moderate usage, I would get about a day and a half out of it. This was much better than earlier versions of CM7 and all CM6 ROMs. I have had the same experience with GingerSense. Never used Liberated or FR008 ROMs.

ECEXCURSION said:
I must have misread your original post. I thought you were using 2.2.2 instead of 2.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am waffling between the two, but 2.2 has seemed nicer to me, especially the deodexed version; is there a deodexed 2.2.2?

Adam_J_T said:
I am waffling between the two, but 2.2 has seemed nicer to me, especially the deodexed version; is there a deodexed 2.2.2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if there is or not, I haven't really been following the dev progress since I broke my phone in January.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I think it's just an Android issue coupled with ancient battery technology. Battery life between ROMs has been abymsal, regardless of tweaks. Personally, I am a CM fan, so I've been using it almost exclusively since version 6. Liberated Aria is a great ROM for those who like Sense, but it doesn't do anything CM cannot (excluding the obvious). FWIW, I have found that the typical "tweaks" (brightness, syncing, vibrate, etc) help here and there, as well as underclocking your kernel. V6 SuperCharger also provided good results, but I recommend that regardless of your ROM.