Database Users

[Q] Stick with Tiamat, or do the 3.1 upgrade?

Have been very happy with Tiamat 1.4.0 since it lets me use my Bluetooth keyboard with no issues, and it did give SD Card support.
I gather if I do the 3.1 upgrade I lose the Tiamat kernel, and so may gain some things and lose others.
So, would you recommend the 3.1 upgrade anyway, or stick with Tiamat and 3.0 until there is a 3.1 compatible version of Tiamat?
Thanks!

3.1, it's worth it. Plus look in the dev section. I have my sd card working on 3.1.
Sent from my Thunderbolt using XDA Premium.

OK, I have done the deed. Will have to see if my Bluetooth keyboard problems reappear going back to stock or not.
Anything in particular I should look at to convince myself this was the right thing to do?
Thanks,
Ewan

Well other people have reported on the general forum that 3.1 actually does is worse on the keyboard than 3.01
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App

I haven't installed 3.1 because I love the speed that overclocking gives me. For me, there doesn't seem to be an awful lot to gain from 3.1 worth giving that up.
I'm interested to read your opinion, since you were also on the fence about it.

Well, for me it gives me in stock the two main things I installed Tiamat for - Bluetooth keyboard that works, and SD card support. I hardly ever use the stock browser, so the changes there don't really affect me. Hopefully I will see some improvement in video playback.
FWIW...

I'd recommend going ahead with the update (which I think you already did, but I'll write this for future users who have the same question). The reason is because the whole system feels snappier and more responsive (to me anyway). Scrolling is MUCH smoother and feels more like my android phone, which I love. I'm still getting a bit of stuttering when playing back HD flash files, but I had that when I was overclocked to 1.5ghz too. Once the next version of the Tiamat kernel comes out for 3.1, and we'll be able to overclock, 3.1 will be far and away better than 3.0.1. These guys are normally pretty quick about coming up with new kernels. I'm kinda surprised we haven't seen a few already, but I'm sure they're working hard on it.
Either way, you're gonna have to upgrade eventually, so you might as well get it over with. That's basically the way I saw it.
Best of luck to you with whichever you decide.

I also recommend upgrading to 3.1. It's just so smooth that I don't even miss the overclocking on the hacked kernels. Also, two days with no FC's on the stock browser etc. Smooth HQ youtube videos, and no problem with BT keyboard either. Everything to gain and nothing to lose. 3.1 with SD support from BRD FTW!
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App

Which firmware to use daily and why

Hi people,
Maybe we can make a poll to say which firmware we are using daily and try to explain which are the main advantages/why-to-use and disadvantages/bugs.
This might help new users to decide which firmware to use in different situations based on our experiences

I go with the VegaComb, its fast, quite stable(its still a beta), good interface. I also tried the Corvus, but I like Vegacomb better, because of the speed and interface.

Vote for Paul's, it gives me the widest set of features i need. The others lack something here and there: connectivity, drivers, etc...

I´m using VegaComb at the moment. You can see that this version is made for tablets so it´s far more intuitive.
There are still plenty of bugs (bluetooth, camera, some apps compatibility) so I´m looking forward to get another update and see the evolution of this

I'm with vegacomb right now and in the coming days or weeks a faster version should come out but its personal experience just try each rom and see which one suits you best and remember the Vega is not brickable!!!! (BEST TABLET IN THE WORLD LOL)

I use Corvus 5
+fast
+stable
+no errors
For me in the moment the best rom. I use it without overclocking.

I'll second the corvus5!!!
It was my first rom I flashed, there has been others, good others, CM7, R8mod even lil miss glitzy vegacomb, but my heart still goes back to my first love...

I'm running corvus5 sp1 seems great I'm going to try vegacomb today as aparantly gameloft games are running on it so that. Would be a big plus for me

I've been using corvus for some time but I can't fin any good firmware to get my bluetooth Keyboard working, not even corvus.
Maybe 2.3.4 will have a better chance for bluetooth HID devices.

I have only had my Vega a few days but have tried most of the roms out there.
Modaco R8. Quite nice. Seems fast and stable and would be my main rom if Corvus5 didn't exist.
Vegacomb. Looks beautiful and I will use it as my daily rom as soon as a few oddities are ironed out - amazing work!
CM7. The couple of nightlies I tried seemed buggy and had essential items missing.
Corvus5. The most enjoyable, complete and stable rom and I've always come back to it.

i have a hard time with Corvus5
My tablet is called Loongpad, advent vega clone
I tried Corvus5 2 or 3 times.
Every time I reboot it, I got a unresponsive screen but the buttons are still working luckily. The other drawback is the battery life. Compare to VegaComb 1.7, Corvus5's battery life sucks. No insults.
Currently Stick with VegaComb 1.7 although the camera is not working yet. The rest are pretty working well.
Cheers.

Since vegacomb has moved to 3.2, its the best rom for the vega. Far faster than stock. Just the camera and Bluetooth not working, but i am sure they will be fixed shortly. For anyone who has not tried it, flash it now, its a must for the vega. Fantastic work by TeamNewCo.

VegaComb looks nice in our Vegas, and with software acceleration is super-fast

Started with Paul's. Took me ages to get it working (newbe), but when I did, I was euphoric.
Got clockwork (easy install) and moved onto corvus5. Settled on corvus, and thought things can't get better than this. So smooth and fast.
And then vegacomb 3.2 came up. I taught myself how to flash roms again, and can't believe how good it is. Upgraded to build 7 this morning. Amazing.

I don't expect my vega to be a macbook, so after trying all the roms i've gone back to the stock as it's bug free.
best mod rom is Corvus5 sp1 or what ever they call it in my humble opinion ..
gonna have a go at setcpu app using the accompanying kext some one wrote, on the stock some time see if that works, if it does it will be fast...
edit: yup setcpu works fine on the stock a steady 216 khz out put, (you need to reference the vega kext on first start up) sorry but i can't remember where i got it from now, googleing should find the link.
p.s you can get setcpu apk free on an android developers rom site, forgot which one that was as well now but it saves you a £ odd.
add zeam launcher instead of the lousy stock and it's un-moveable icons.
>still waiting for a bug free vegacomb<
>>Since vegacomb has moved to 3.2<< has it? oh i'll add that profile to my sdk & avd manager. thanks for the up..
p.s any developers here use any other android editor other than eclipse?

I used the stock 1.10. Not the Advent VEGA version but the one delivered with the Point of View Mobii2, which arguably is much nicer to work with. Rooted pretty quickly and added market + google framework to it. Tried VegaComb a couple of weeks / months ago, it surely wasn't ready for primetime. But this weekend I tried VegaComb again and the latest 3.2 build 8.1 really is usable. Okay, it doesn't do USB host yet and the bluetooth still is somewhat shaky but the thing flies like it hasn't done before and overall it has pretty much matured. I think I'll stay with HC, at least for a while!

jevdroid said:
I used the stock 1.10. Not the Advent VEGA version but the one delivered with the Point of View Mobii2, which arguably is much nicer to work with. Rooted pretty quickly and added market + google framework to it. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To this point I did exactly the same.
First thing I did when I received my POV Mobii, I rooted it (same thing with my phone) and added the Google Experience (GMail, YouTube, Talk, Market, Reader, Maps, Earth, Translate,...).
The tablet is not mine so I won't put any custom ROMs on it... for now...

Best custom rom to go with?

I will be getting my tablet tomorrow as soon as Fed Ex gets here , what I am wondering is which custom rom available for the a500 is the best one to go with? Personally I am a heavy wifi user, and will be using my tablet a lot for browsing, social, RDP, advanced experimenting, etc. I want to make sure I choose the best rom for that is fairly stable and will not have issues with the above mentioned things.
I am no stranger to roms, I have done many many phones and devices from WebOS devices to hacking some WinCE GPS units, so I am not afraid of a rom being slightly more technical to use.

I'm using honeyvillain 3.1. Very fast and stable. I'm also using opera web browser instead stock one because i think is more powerful and useful. With virtousxoom i cannot connect any usb hd. I've tried virtous picasso. It was good but sometimes iconia doesn't wake up from standby. I need to force reboot my tablet using reset button.

ibietto said:
I'm using honeyvillain 3.1. Very fast and stable. I'm also using opera web browser instead stock one because i think is more powerful and useful. With virtousxoom i cannot connect any usb hd. I've tried virtous picasso. It was good but sometimes iconia doesn't wake up from standby. I need to force reboot my tablet using reset button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honeyvillain was one of the ones I have been considering, any quirks you find with it? Anything that should be done to it in your opinion once installed?

Also one of the reasons I am not just going with honeyvillian is no longer being supported... So I am not sure because I want to make sure whatever rom I go with will be supported .

Galaxy v1.0.5 very stable pretty fast,can see SD card,screen shoot button,good battery drain with airplane mode on and wifi.Try them all then you have the feel for each one just like most of us on here did.

I think I've tried just about every ROM on the boards , and while much of it is personal preference, ie: eyecandy and video with Virtuous Galaxy , good all around ROM Virtuous Picasso, and HoneyVillian, Virtuous Xoom which is a good solid ROM with no great battery drain, and iirc deejay has straightened out the USB storage issue. But my all time favorite so far is Virtuous Thrive, only out in it's second iteration, it's already the most stable ROM I've personally used. Like I said though, a lot of it is just personal preference.

Yeah I am sure I will probably end up trying them all out anyway. I just looked at my tracking, it's only 300 miles away now!

matcatsc said:
Yeah I am sure I will probably end up trying them all out anyway. I just looked at my tracking, it's only 300 miles away now!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol don't know where you're from, but Target has them on sale for $399.99 with a $50.00 Target gift card included, making it $349.99 for the tablet.

kjy2010 said:
lol don't know where you're from, but Target has them on sale for $399.99 with a $50.00 Target gift card included, making it $349.99 for the tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I seriously thought about going to the local target, but after local sales tax it would of been almost $440 out the door, and then $50 of that savings I would of made would be limited to target. I got one on ebay for $395 + Fedex 2 Day shipping, not too bad. With the roughly $45 I saved in real cash I am weighting out the current case options.
I am considering getting the one I think I saw you got, could be wrong though. On ebay they have those $20 ones that ship out of hong kong with a USB Keyboard, though on amazon and a few other e-retailers you can get them shipped from state side for roughly $30. I figured I could hold off on the case for a little bit and give the after market some time to get some accessories out and let some of the prices drop.
I really love the idea of the case with the keyboard, I do a lot of programming and typing based stuff so for me having a keyboard would be ideal, though I am not a fan of those KB cases in the fact that they are not designed very well, any tablet fitted into one can slip right out if tipped (nothing stopping it from sliding upward), though I imagine I could easily engineer a fix for that , though I also want to find a nice sling bag or backpack for traveling about, it's a tad bit too big for your pocket.
One of the first projects I want to work on is getting ubuntu or backtrack running, I've seen installers on the market and from what I understand they seem to work fairly well, I really hope too that someone manages to port WebOS to the a500, I imagine it would be quite possible. Maybe just a bit of a hassle with some drivers.

Have not tried the thrive yet - i just always end up back at the galaxy, hard on the juice a lot of needless apps seem to run in the background (mdj!) but it just is so smooth no browser screen ripping and its the fastest so far according to:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1175600
MJ-12

Just got my device 30 min ago, as soon as I connected to the wifi on the initial setup it asked me to download the new 3.1 update , which it is currently installing. Then I will do a backup and try the thrive rom.

Got my device flashed to Thrive, sofar it's pretty nice, want to try to find the games that came with it NFS and the other one... I tried the XDA app but when I tried to click my profile in it it crashed

I recommand honeyvillian its the most stable from ever I hate the galaxy I do no how its fast as they say when I install it its so slow and the keyboard layout is really ugly... anyway its just me I guess... I love the honey villian
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

demmo81 said:
I recommand honeyvillian its the most stable from ever I hate the galaxy I do no how its fast as they say when I install it its so slow and the keyboard layout is really ugly... anyway its just me I guess... I love the honey villian
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I tried the thrive all day, and I found it to be not that stable. A lot of times the gallery would hang, trying to use other players for video would all hang, and an annoying bug with hitting the power button and the device going off, and then back on. I am downloading honeyvillian now.

hi ..... has nobody here tried taboonay with thor kernel... opps i mean with the kernel from he who shall not be named... fast, responsive, great battery life, etc, etc, etc,

Here's my personal take.
Each ROM has it's strengths and weaknesses. Luckily, all of the following support 5MP camera and 2MP front-facing camera, so that's not an issue.
Note that the SD card slot will mount differently in each of the following ROMs.
Virtuous Picasso - Acer-based HC3.1, picasso-hc-kernel. Very close to stock, assume everything will work the way it's supposed to. Major downside (IMHO) -- WP7 fonts. Install Fontchanger and revert back to stock.
Virtuous Galaxy - Galaxy Tab base HC3.1, picasso-hc-kernel. Really snappy, very nice overall. Galaxy UI reminds me of Windows 95; I'm not a fan. Overall very pleasant to use.
Virtuous Xoom - Motorola base, HC3.2, picasso-hc-kernel. It's HC3.2, so it's brag-worthy. Many peripherals you'd assume would work just don't (from what I've read). Can't save directly to secondary SD in camera. Also, some issues with mounting USB (use a 3rd party mounting app from Market).
Virtuous Thrive - No idea.
Honeyvillain - No idea.
Taboonay - Vache is awesome. Basically a clean Acer ROM. Never used it due to since-resolved kernel issues.
My personal ethic is "don't use a ROM that uses a kernel where the source is not available". As Vache says, "using kernel without sources is warez". Basically, if a ROM includes a kernel where the author won't release sources (or patches), it's not even worth messing with.
I also don't like when a ROM author sets the default clock to 1.2GHz. Default OC assumes a lot of things (like the ambient temperature of the environment of the user) -- which is "not cool" (pun intended).
If you want just "a good experience" -- root your A500, install SetCPU (google for a recent apk) and set the scheduler to Interactive, 1000MHz. If you're just hurting for 3.1 (from what I understand 3.1 for A500 is end of July), there's a stock 3.1 updater from Vache available.
I would recommend IconiaRoot (google it) and Acer Recovery installer (from Market). If you have the means, buy a license for Titanium Backup -- it will save you a ton of time switching between ROMs.
MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS MAKE A FULL BACKUP USING CLOCKWORKMOD.
What do I use? Virtuous Xoom.
Why? It's HC3.2 and it works for me. I don't use external peripherals and don't plan to.
tl;dr -- make backups. experiment. there is no "best"/silver-bullet for everyone. don't mess with ROMs that use no-source kernels.

I am trying out the xoom rom now, so far it is my favorite one that I have tried.
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

for me is honey villian 1.4 with thor kernel. All usb devices , 3g working great.
Fast , smooth stable.
Tried some Virtuous roms, but there are too many of them and all have too many bugs for me.

dmatusek76 said:
for me is honey villian 1.4 with thor kernel. All usb devices , 3g working great.
Fast , smooth stable.
Tried some Virtuous roms, but there are too many of them and all have too many bugs for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does your 3G connection persist when screen turns off ??
Because mine doesnt, and i have to rr ril-daemon with the RilRestarter apk to get connected again. This does not happen with galaxy ROM, 3G remains connected when screen turns off.
Beside this issue i agree that honey Villain is the most reliable ROM atm.

no problem with screen off, i'm using latest thor kernel.

[Q] Which ROM are you using and why?

There are quite a few Iconia ROM's floating about, which all seem quite similar from the eyes of a newbie. I thought I'd start up a general discussion thread about the perceived merits of why you are using a particular ROM.
I've had my Iconia for a few weeks - I upgraded to 3.1, played with it for a few days, then went Minimalist 3.2.1 and have been using it ever since. It's based on the Xoom ROM
My thoughts:
* Generally feels quite snappy - I didn't notice a massive switch between the OTA 3.1 and this however
* 3.2 means there's the "zoom" button which is nice if I ever need it
* The stock Honeycomb clock is there which I prefer to Acer's Simi clone
* I have the occasional application crash - generally without a warning, I get plopped back to the desktop. This has happened across quite a few apps, mostly within the browser, and I lose all my tabs which is a bit irritating. Don't know if this the ROM or Honeycomb in general.
* Love the dropping of all the custom apps which are generally useless to me.
* Would like some customisation options since it looks and feels very vanilla but don't know if there's a lot in that way on the Iconia yet.
So what are you using? What do you like and why?

also a minimalist 3.2.1 user here. I've added a few things to my aresonal such as thumb board, ADW EX (as a launcher replacement) and a few tweaks like setcpu. Great tablet after removing the crap... but at least it isn't as bad as my phone started out.

my $0.02 USD
Stock Acer a500 rom - running 3.1 with richardtrip's custom kernel, rooted, crap Acer bloatware disabled, CPU set to 1.4 ghz via set CPU app and I am blown away. More responsive then most desktops/laptops I have seen.

I'm using taboonay 1.1. It is based off iconia stock rom 3.1. So far it is fast and smooth compared to stock. Dev removed most of the bloat. The only problem I have with it is the random fc I get in market when I check "my apps". I like running custom stock Roms because I like knowing all the features on my tablet works.
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

I'm liking LightSpeed,its definitely smooth running and i'm not having any video issues like i did in other roms i tried.It's fast without a OC kernel and all the bloatware was removed from the beginning.I'm able to install the honeyvillain game addon.Just an all around good rom.

I just switched to the Taboonay 1.1 with Richard's kernel from Virtuous Galaxy and I am very happy that I did. Altought VG is quite fast and has the touchwix UI there were problems with the youtube app (unable to seek) and also the sound was not Dolby. So far I am very happy with Taboonay 1.1.

I use the stock 3.1 a500 rom different kernel, btw its fun modding stock and adding the mods/tweaks that you like its also a great learning experience
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk

I'm running LightSpeed as well; my only gripe is that for some reason on this ROM I'm not able to install Facebook for Android. It won't even show in the Market!
My other main gripe about tablets revolves around the external SD card not being more intuitive; I can't see to find any settings to tell apps like Google Music to use the SD card for storage instead of the internal memory.

the best rom and i have tried theem all is wihout a doubt the thor galaxy rom with thor kker.nel 1.15. Itt is fast, support 3g modem and the browser is without ripping effect..... I hate that on other rom...dont forget to use the adw launcher ex...

vince1979 said:
and also the sound was not Dolby.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People on here do not talk about that often but it is important to those of us music lovers. I always thought Dolby was mostly just marketing BS but there is a dramatic difference in the sound.
Taboonay 1.1 with Thor's kernel works great for me and since it is built on the stock rom it includes dolby.

I tried Virtuous Picasso and Virtuous Galaxy. Both were fast and I liked some of the apps that came with the Galaxy. However, they were both a little buggy. I had to reboot the Iconia a couple of times during the short period that I tested them.
I have been using Taboonay 1.1 for almost a month now. I don't remember having to reboot the device or anything fcing on me. My only complain (if you can call that), is the app selection that comes with the ROM. I don't see going to any other ROM anytime soon.

Currently using Honeycomb 3.2 stock from with Asus Netflix patch best benefit Dolby digital small loss 1.5 ghz overclocking. Also running minimalist 3.2 with Asus Netflix patch best feature overclocking and UI and video playback much smoother loss Dolby digital
Acer A500 3.2 AsusNetflix patch FTW

Best Rom/Kernel?

Just picked up my acer today for 200 dollars new!! thank you craiglist! Came from xoom & transformer. I was just wondering what the best setup everyone is running with the iconia?

I think so far the best one I've tried is [ROM][15/09]Lightspeed_1.0.4[HC3.2] [Fixed Huawei, 3G, superuser, everything] although 3g doesn't work with huawei e1820.

I've also got mine today.
I wanted to know the main differences of using a custom rom for tablets please?

Rooster19 said:
I've also got mine today.
I wanted to know the main differences of using a custom rom for tablets please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
High speed with OC, more features with root and cus.kernel such as faster browser, better video performance, wifi problem fix...

Taboonay 2.0 is the most popular and most people tend to say its the best currently.
although all roms have their own unique benefits and 'best' is subject YMMV

I've tested almost all ROMs.
For me the HoneyVillian 1.1 (i did not test 1.2 yet) is the best one together with Richard's Kernel 3.4. The 1.2 as based on the posted 3.2 Stock ROM should be even better.
Everything just works and works fast.
With Taboonay i was issues with Mail Client after configuring exchange account - all the time Force Close. Additionally for me it was slower than HoneyVillian.
All ROMs not based on ACER Stock ROM you can forget. It will not work as it should - maybe it will be prettier, but some apps will not work at all, or you will get FC - because even if the tablets are very simillar in hardware - they are not the same - using different hardware sollutions.

true I agree, I prefer custom roms that are based on the stock A500 rom, I'm pretty sure vache will be basing the next taboonay on stock a500 3.2, so I'm just going to wait for that and try it out.
The only problem ive had is the known superuser incompatibility with taboonay 2.0 aside from that im surprised how well it works on my a500 given its based off the A501 rom.
if I had lots of problems i would have changed to something else ages ago. I havent tried a lot of the roms anyway, I picked taboonay based on its similarity to a stock rom and wanted 3.2 without waiting for the official a500 3.2 to be out
now that it's out it opens up more choice for me if i choose to change later on.

I tried today Taboonay 2.1 and HoneyVillian 1.2.
I don't know what is the reason but there even nothing to compare.
Taboonay on my Iconia is even slower than Stock ROM with 3.0 - and even if overclocked to 1400 !!!
HoneyVillian just works awesome.
Before both flashes - wiped everything so there should not be such a difference.
No idea - because as i see Taboonay is pretty popular and no one else is saying that it is so incredible slow. But on my Iconia it is. Even browsing the home screens looks creepy - slow and like the tablet would work with 300 Mhz.
What is for sure better in Taboonay - configuration directly after flash - there is done it in proper way - first WiFi then google account.
HoneyVillian has it still in the same way as the stock - first Google account and then networks - which doesn't really makes sense.
But this is nothing - the rest just works beautifull in HoneyVillian.
Both ROMs have the same kernels - Richard's V3.4

Honeyvillain 1.2
I have my iconia with honeyvillain right now, and i like that it's fast and long battery life. I also used to have taboonay 2.0 in my iconia, and i didn't notice any lag. It ran fast also on my iconia. But i liked more honeyvillain. And as far as i know i'm going to stay with honeyvillain 1.2.

taboonay 2.0 and richardtrip 3.4 are butter smooth and super fast. I love it.

bratten2121 said:
Just picked up my acer today for 200 dollars new!! thank you craiglist! Came from xoom & transformer. I was just wondering what the best setup everyone is running with the iconia?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock 3.1, cause I like everything to work and tired of costom problems.

I use rhe taboonay 2.1 and richardtrip 3.4
very good speed and good battery life, much better than stock.

Using Taboonay 2.1 with Thor Kernel 3.4
Stable, fast, good battery life. Prefer it over HV 1.2..