Related
I'm lucky enough to have multiple Inc's I can compare side-by-side. This week, I took the time to test-drive a few Kernels.
My goal is to find the (1) most stable, (2) best performing w/good battery life. Basically undervolt kernel testing.
Unfortunately, I really can't find much difference between these popular variants.
The battery life seems to be roughly equal on all of them, as does the stability (barring IcrediKernel, which had some issues in my testing with SkyRaider).
I tested (all current versions as of 1/10/2011):
* Redemptive with Lou's included kernel
* SkyRaider Sense with Ziggy's kernel
* SkyRaider Sense with KingX kernel
* SkyRaider Sense with Incredi kernel
KingX #6 scores almost 100 better than the next best in Quadrant. However, outside of that, I cannot really discern a major difference.
KingX seems to have the most significant changes in his changelog. Ziggy also seems to be brilliant, and yet, I really don't see any real differences between the kernels once implemented on my phone.
Can anyone help me isolate the differences -- perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place? I've basically tried to use everything I can think of, on the phone -- using each kernel, and tested all of them in power-save mode, tethered, etc.
Thanks in advance for any additional points to review..
quadrant is useless.
lou's kernels are great for me.
each phone is different so you'll have to test whichever one works best for you
Sure, of course. I'm familiar with the stock answer to the "which kernel is better" post.
That being said, I was asking something a bit different. I've *been* testing the kernels. The point of my post was to suggest that I cannot discern the difference after spending several hours with them.
With that in mind, I was asking if there is something specific I should be looking for, since I haven't found it (not with battery life, performance, or stability -- not with what I'm testing presently anyway).
Although, in addition to my original question -- of where to look to seek differences ... you do bring up another good point -- why is it that different phones (assuming they are the *same* model/android/radio version -- eg OLED 2.2's), would perform differently with identical kernels?
A few hours is not enough testing time for kernels. You need atleast a full charge down to 0 with a kernel to see how good the battery life is. Also, to judge the performance, you'll need a little more time for that too. Each phone is different. Some processors can take lesser voltages, high clocks than others. I'm not sure why this is, but it is. Honestly, I'm sure all the kernels are very good because the devs are excellent. But, some just work well for others while the same one doesn't for someone else. As I said before, just test out a kernel for a day or two, see how you like each one, and stay with it. If you battery life is being affected greatly, or your phone runs too hot or something, then switch to a different one.
At this point, I have more than 3 days or more on the following kernels:
* Redemptive with Lou's included kernel (3 days)
* SkyRaider Sense with KingX kernel (3 days)
* SkyRaider Sense with Ziggy's kernel (14 days)
* SkyRaider Sense with Stock kernel (22 days)
(Incredi -- I only had about 4 hours over two tests/loads and re-flashed, due to problems)
I've never run my batteries down to zero as you've mentioned. I've run them down to 10-20% on rare occasion.
In essence, what you are saying is that there really is nothing specific to keep an eye out for? If I don't see an obvious difference somewhere, there is no significant difference between the 4 kernels I have listed above? And Quadrant is of no help ... so in short, if they all get the same battery life, I just just pick one randomly?
I just want to believe there must be a more scientific/objective way of evaluating these kernels relative of each other.
if they are all pretty much the same to you, pick the one that makes you happy and that feels like it has the best performance and battery life. Maybe ask one of the devs about some scientific way of how each kernel is different from each other.
The problem is that I've built an app that our company uses over 18 phones that get run 9 hours a day, and the DInc's were overheating.
I went to Skyraider w/stock kernel, and that seemed to address the problem, at least it appears to reboot much less than the stock DInc's.
However, since I've made the commitment/risk of rooting/flashing these phones, I'd like to find some systematic method to determine which is the most efficient kernel to use, considering I have 18 phones in-the-field.
As a software engineer/empiricist, I'm not good at accepting the logic of "if it works, it's good enough". And so my objective is to find someone that may have some additional perspectives beyond that.
If there is a developer who sees this, I'd very much appreciate any information you can provide on how your kernel differs from others. Or someone who has some additional information.
Thank you in advance,
RKM
rkmFL said:
I'm lucky enough to have multiple Inc's I can compare side-by-side. This week, I took the time to test-drive a few Kernels. My goal is to find the (1) most stable, (2) best performing w/good battery life. Basically undervolt kernel testing.
Unfortunately, I really can't find much difference between these popular variants. The battery life seems to be roughly equal on all of them, as does the stability (barring IcrediKernel, which had some issues in my testing with SkyRaider) KingX #6 scores almost 100 better than the next best in Quadrant.
However, outside of that, I cannot really discern a major difference Can anyone help me isolate the differences -- perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place? Thanks in advance for any additional points to review..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi! One thing that affects performance is SD Card Read Speeds. Ziggy and Incredi have an improved read speed, I just tested both and got 12mb/sec read with a class 4 card. Since HTC released FroYo Android 2.2 for our phone, they implemented a read speed limit of four MB/sec for the SD card. I just tested Lou and King and got read speeds of 4mb/sec from the SD card. All Fourkernels I got a write speed of 4 mb/sec.
Other major differences I think worth mentioning are that Ziggy includes a hosts file to block connections to advertising servers. But of course installing a different kernel leaves the new host file in place. Multi touch, I love the piano and playing games so this matters to me. Ziggy has had a 5 point multi touch enabled for some time. Lou & incredi have implemented in a different way. I am not the one to explain the differences. Lou turned it on for up to five multi touch points(but disabled it in his last build). Incredi had enabled all ten multi touch points but is now also at 5. Debugging. Lou disabled debugging so apps that rely on it will not work. Ex.... PDAnet. Lou did have wireless N disabled, he said he felt due to the minor network speed increase it was not worth the extra battery usage. But reading his change log I see it has since been re enabled.
Which one is best for you? It really does depend on too many factors to say outright. Depending on the apps you have installed, and apps you use the most. I listen to music a lot. Using one that lowers clock speed a bunchwhen the screen is off makes themusic skip. In theory you will get better battery life, but imo, its not worth sacrificing that usability.
Please correct me if I am wrong, mis informed, or steering peoples wrong. I hope this helps to understand some differences.
Overheating. It seems that the consensus is that the 9.01 radio works best for most people. Not me. The 9.01 version makes my phone get very hot. I use the 7.28 radio and it makes a big difference in my phone not getting hot.
What issues did you have with the incredi that made you have to abandon it so quickly?
~TheHoovie
Sent from my HTC Droid Incrediblel.
P.s. did you forget to include Chad/incredi in this threadstitle?
I've been wondering pretty much the same thing, and I have been reading the different changelogs from the respective kernels to find the differences between them. Thanks to you thehoovie for a good explaination, you put to light some things I have been wondering. Very good explaination!
With that said, what has worked best for me, is RR 2.1.3 with Ziggy's new kernel (BFS Jan 2 2011). I get great battery, I can control the freqs the proccessor is at all the way down to 128mhz, the system is very stable, and have had no problems what so ever. I get roughly 2 days out of a full charge with moderate use on a 1350 battery!
@TheHoovie -
Excellent, excellent information, thank you!
I did not include Incredi in the title, because I had problems with it (mentioned in first post). To answer your question, there were two things. One more subtle, that I don't remember off-hand -- and the other, was with downloading from the Internet. I had installed twice, on a SkyRaider ROM, and in both events, Incredi would hang when downloading.
I distribute all of our private, in-house software releases through our website. So not being able to download from the web in my testing .. was a deal killer!
Our users take roughly 900 photos a day, on average. Therefore, SD speed is extremely important, and I never would have tested the differences between kernels. This is exactly the type of feedback I was hoping to find -- in other words, I was not asking "which is best for me", but instead "can someone help me know where to look for differences in performance". Your comment on SD, is a perfect example of such a factor, thank you!
...Does anyone else have any suggestions, beyond SD performance and battery life, as to other factors for comparison/testing?
@m411b -
I cannot imagine getting two days on a 1350mah, this would be amazing! I'm running off to test your suggestion (RR + Ziggy's) now. Just one question: where do you set the CPU frequencies using that RR+Ziggy configuration?
EDIT: I just tested SkyRaider + Ziggy's #15, and it seems to be running very good. Ziggy's #15 also uses a low-power Bluetooth driver, which will be a huge help for us (we use BT to communicate between DInc's and gTablets in our app).
Thank you again for the great info!
One more related question...
Have people been moving away from these Sense ROM's to CM7/Gingerbread, and if so, any feedback on stability?
I keep reading about CM7 adoptions and it's starting to make me wonder if I should give the new Gingerbread version a try.
I have not tested CM since v6 about 45 days ago, but at that point, there were some issues on the DInc.
Suggestion:
1. turn off wifi.
2. turn on gps
Launch Last.fm or pandora - stream your favorite music station.
Launch navigation, Navigate somewhere.. (I actually do this.. I just use gps when I am out running errands for an hour or so)
See how long the following lasts:
1. Battery
2. Time without crashing
That's been my simple testing of kernels. This is not scientific.. its just real world testing IMO
I am currently playing with Lou's #4 vs #8 on the same rom.. I think testing on multiple roms would bring in more factors you cant control.
#4 crashes way too often when running navigation (its fine for day to day use though)
been using Lous #8 on SR3.5 and it blew me away with battery life as well as performance. I flashed #9 yesterday and am gonna give it a day or two before i judge it. I had previously used Chad's and Hydra. Chad's wasnt the best and hyrda was great for OC performance but not for battery life.
I'm a noob here, but I'm a quick learner.
A month ago I rooted my AMOLED DInc. Initially I trimmed a bunch of bloat in an effort to extend my battery life a bit. It worked a bit, so I moved on to trying new ROMs. My first was CM 7.0.3. I quickly came to discover that I greatly prefer Sense.
My next step was to try a new kernel. I was disappointed by the lack of information regarding the strengths and weaknesses of kernels, so I have decided to take it upon myself to discover and share the information.
So here's my setup: I have an HTC Droid Incredible that I purchased directly from Verizon just a few days after it was introduced, so I have the AMOLED screen. I also have a 1750 mAh Seidio battery that I've been using since the beginning. If I don't use the phone much I can get more than 24 hours out of it. Light to moderate use takes that time down to 12 to 16 hours, while moderate to heavy use takes that time down further to 8 to 12 hours.
My typical daily usage pattern is as follows: 45 to 60 minutes streaming 128k MP3s over wi-fi, 60 minutes of news reading (Engadget app and Pulse reader) via EV-DO, K9 mail checking one email account every 15 minutes, 10 to 50 text messages daily, virtually no voice usage, using the Facebook app for up to 5 minutes every hour, updating the clock/weather widget once an hour, casual gaming for up to 45 minutes, and brightness at 20% most of the time but sometimes 50% or 100% depending on if I go outside. I get one or two bars of signal at work eight hours a day and two or three bars at home the rest of the time.
And thus, I set out on my journey to improve battery life...
I quickly discovered that I should stay away from AOSP kernels because I'm sticking with my rooted stock Sense. And I need only two point multi-touch since if I'm gaming it's nothing more that casual games or Angry Birds, but I have to have pinch-to-zoom. I searched for kernel suggestions and settled on three seemingly common and popular choices: HeyitsLou #9, incredikernel, and Ziggy471. After settling on trying these kernels, I devised a strategy to compare them using similar methodology.
While it may not be a perfect set-up this is how I am choosing to compare: I use ROM Manager to wipe the cache, the dalvik cache, and battery statistics. Then I apply the kernel and completely charge the phone. I use the phone just a little bit more than usual to take the battery down to 10% charge or less and then charge it fully. After that, I use the phone like normal but pay attention to how it's working. I use the kernel for a minimum of 48 hours and see how it goes.
My first choice in kernels was HeyitsLou #9. I was amazed at how well this kernel manages idle time. My stock phone usually loses about 10% idling overnight. With Lou #9 that number was down to 5 or 6%. Nice. #9 also seems to do a decent job of throttling the processor when engaging in simple tasks. I was able to get a bit more than 24 hours of moderate to heavy use under this kernel. My biggest disappointment, though, was how unresponsive to my touch the screen became. I initially thought I might have damaged my phone. Once I got used to it, it wasn't so bad. But the kernel definitely made me not want to use the phone much because it was so unresponsive and does such a great job at idling. I'm sure Lou took a lot of time on this kernel, but it clearly is not for me. Your mileage may vary.
Right now I'm trying incredikernel, version 2.6.32.27. I'll update this thread once my review is complete. After that, I will be trying Ziggy471 Droid Incredible (Sense) 4 Nov. If there are any other kernels you might like me to try, please make suggestions here. Just please remember my stated goal of extending battery life under rooted stock Sense.
More Later
That stock image is more likely killing more of your phone. Have you considered trying the modified Sense-based ROMs? These generally would more likely help you find better battery life over the extremely limited kernel selection for Sense-Based ROMs. I personally prefer SR4/desensitized.
Also, why wouldn't you want to try one of Ziggy's newer kernels? He is the only active(and not so much now) Sense-based kernel dev. His last release was from Apil 10th. Have you read up on the differences between schedulers used in said kernels(BFS vs CFS) or voltage management(SVS or HAVS)?
Since you're rooted and using the stock, have you tried SetCPU to adjust CPU settings?
If I try a Sense-based ROM, SkyRaider 4 is definitely the one I would go with (I already downloaded it). My only issue is that since I have my phone set up the way I want it, with certain apps and a particular layout, I don't want to lose that. I suppose Titanium Backup could help with that, huh?
And my only real dissatisfaction with CM7 was that it was too difficult to get my apps back. Would Titanium Backup help with that? I also downloaded the Google apps pack for CM7 but don't know what to do with it. I guess I just didn't try hard enough to put it all together.
As far as SetCpu goes, I'd rather try a kernel that does it for me than root around tweaking like that. Maybe that means I'm lazy...
I'll look around for other, newer kernels too.
Thanks.
p.s. so far I like this incredikernel. Just as responsive as stock but a bit more careful with power management.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
I have been using CM7 and Chad's kernels for a while now. It takes a little time to get everything arranged the way you want them but it is well worth it. My phone easily goes for 24+ hours without needing a charge. I am a relatively light user but the combination of CM7 and Chad's kernels has much improved my battery life.
Increikernel seems to be better than stock at just about everything. True, it's not quite as good at managing idle power usage as HeyitsLou #9, but incredikernel is much more responsive for me. The battery life gain was minimal, but still noticeable. I liked this kernel enough I backed up the ROM so that if anything weird happens it is what I will be reverting to.
Now I'm on to Ziggy471, version 24 Nov. While it may not be the newest one, this is the newest one I could find for my phone.
I'm starting to research how to use Titanium Backup, since the only thing holding me back from trying ROMs is my unwillingness to lose the way my phone is set up. If I could get all my apps and the Android Market and Amazon Appstore on CM7, I would be willing to give it another try...
The Ziggy kernel seems to me about as good as stock. It has excellent responsiveness, but the battery life for me was not quite good enough.
I went back with Incredikernel. Now I'm researching how to use Titanium Backup so I can move on to trying SkyRaider 4.
Right now the biggest issue stopping me from trying CM7 is not knowing how to flash Google apps back onto the phone. I've read that all I have to do is install the zip from my SD card using Clockworkmod Recovery, but do so without wiping anything. Is this correct?
And does SkyRaider 4 come with the Android Market installed or would I have to do something similar?
Thanks
So, I love Titanium Backup (totally worth getting the paid version in my book). You can certainly back up and restore the apps with it (though you won't be able to run Sense apps on AOSP), but restoring app data across different ROMs is generally ill-advised. So you'll lose settings and game progress and the like. Which, frankly, was kind of a good thing for me--the fact that I was trying different ROMs meant I stopped spending so much time playing games on my phone. TB has actually also resulted in my keeping a cleaner phone--since I can back things up and restore them if I need them, I can freeze or uninstall them.
I liked SR4, but I have to say, after spending time on CM7, about the only thing I miss from Sense is the dialer. It does take a bit of time to get things set up just so, but I agree that it's worth it. In terms of getting google apps on the phone, I personally just used ROM Manager to install CM7 and added the Google Apps package, but some people have trouble with ROM Manager. The short answer is that when you wipe and flash CM7 in recovery, then yes, you just also flash the Google Apps zip file, like you would flash anything else, and you should be set.
If/when you do check out CM7 again? The newest versions of Incredikernel are very nice. Chad is in the process of beta testing a new release, but like the 4/19, it's only for AOSP ROMs.
In any case, kudos for the systematic testing. I'll probably keep an eye on this thread.
liteon163 said:
If I try a Sense-based ROM, SkyRaider 4 is definitely the one I would go with (I already downloaded it). My only issue is that since I have my phone set up the way I want it, with certain apps and a particular layout, I don't want to lose that. I suppose Titanium Backup could help with that, huh?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, TB only backs up your apps, you will need to setup your homescreens again. Some aftermarket launchers, like LauncherPro, have the option to save and restore your homescreens but it cannot do widgets, which make it generally useless in my case.
hey im sorta a newb as well and have a question. i have cm7 and chad's latest kernal beta 11. what cpu settings (max/low)/other settings do you reccomend to get great battery life??
thx a bunch!
Oh, I don't mind having to set up my shortcuts and such. I just don't want to have to download all of my apps again, especially the paid apps I got for free from the Amazon Appstore.
It sounds like TB should be able to help with that. I'm trying to be very careful with how I proceed so I can give each ROM I try a decent chance for success. And I'm starting to realize that the only Sense app I can't do without is the clock/weather widget. There are other similar apps available for free, so I just need to reassure myself that it's OK to try new ROMs (especially since it's so easy to revert to my current setup).
All I really need to do is poke around some more and talk myself into just doing it. And the encouragement here really helps. Thanks guys.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
I'd recommend doing a restore of apps only, no app or system data. Do a backup before in case you run into any issues. I could be wrong but I thought even restoring apps via TiBU might be a little dicey when going from sense to aosp (especially froyo to gingerbread).
As for the HTC flip clock I felt the same way when I went to aosp and I'd recommend fancy widget pro. There's an HTC skin you can download that looks IDENTICAL to the actual HTC clock.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Does anyone have good feedback on using a custom kernel for any of the new GB Sense roms? I think most of these come with their own roms, but I'd like to hear about any other suggestions.
This morning I took the leap back into CM7 again. The ROM installed with no issues. The Google apps pack installed with no issues. I was feeling good about trying it again... then I tried restoring apps (only) using Titanium Backup.
Something clearly wasn't working correctly, since it took 20+ minutes to restore only three out of 76 apps.
I powered down and then installed SkyRaider 4. It went quite smoothly. I was able to restore 77 apps in about 45 minutes. It worked great. But then I started poking around in the phone. Most of the crap I removed from my rooted stock Sense ROM was back on the phone. Aaargh!
I restored my backup from earlier this morning (right before I started) and I'm going to be giving this ROM business a break for awhile. I'll see what happens around here once the official Gingerbread OTA update from HTC hits.
It seems that the root of my problem (pun intended) is that I'm simply not patient enough when setting up my phone. And I'm a bit lazy in that I don't want to have to re-download all my apps from the Android Market if TB doesn't work for me.
So until I promise myself to give a new ROM a fair chance, I'll just stick with my rooted 2.2 stock Sense ROM with incredikernel.
I'm open to suggestions on how to simplify this whole process though, guys.
More Later
p.s. what's this business about radios, and which ones are best?
I found some other kernels I'd like to try out: KiNgxKernel and Order. I downloaded Order and will try it in a few days but I can't find anywhere to get KiNgxKernels. ANd can anyone help me find a hydrakernel?
Thanks
i understand you say you prefer sense, but i really encourage you to try MIUI. i have tried them ALL and this has by far been the best. better than CM7 in my opinion. using chad's latest kernel, battery life is more than excellent. the level of customization is as good as or better than CM7. i mean, you can always revert back, but if you give it a few days, you more than likely will be thanking me. you can find the download in the "development" section...sorry, i'm too tired to post the link. but go for it!
I've taken a look at a lot of ROMs over the last month. My issue with MIUI is that it looks too much like an iOS port. Reading a review of MIUI over at Android Central reinforced this impression. If I wanted an iPhone, I would have gotten one.
Living with Sense for the last year, I am used to it and how it works. I don't want to switch ROMs and have to download my apps again. I know Titanium Backup works for this, but it sure sucked when trying to switch to CM7. It worked great for switching to SkyRaider 4, but that ROM brought back a lot of the bloat I got rid of in the first place. When I really think about it, though, I don't use any Sense features -- no widgets, no apps, nothing but the clock/weather widget (an alternative to which I can easily find in the Android Market). But I'm thinking switching to a new ROM and having to spend a few days getting everything set up again just isn't worth my time and effort, especially when my current setup works better now that I've rooted it.
I know I just sound lazy and/or complacent, but at this point I think I will just stick with trying new kernels.
miui is an ios look alike with its stock launcher. install some other launcher and youll have an awesome rom.
Unfortunately there isn't any active development as far as sense kernels go..
^there's obviously a reason for that..
ive been using chad's incredikernel and would just like to say it is pure awesome. My battery life is greatly improved, especially usage while idle. The general UI snappiness is also excellent. Highly recommended and the dev is very responsive.
I decided to flash cm-6.1.2 a few nights ago to remind myself why I flashed CM7 (stable and nightly) to begin with. What did CM6 lack that forced me to upgrade to CM7--nothing. Like most users, probably just wanted to see what all the hype was about.
I have to say that after spending a few days with CM6.1.2/SCB kernel, don't seem to be in a hurry to flash back to CM7. Everything; GPS, works! Camera? meh... it'll pass, still twitchy but CM7's is not much better. At least on my phone, signal strength? better that with CM7 and a few other things that just seem to work better, Pandora, music.. I won't go into more detail.
The best thing is that I'm not spending so much time patching CM7 to make it work as well as CM6 seems to--of course all this is on my phone, your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that I try many, many combinations of kernels, radios--like most people on this forum, I'm always tinkering.
So... did most of us switch to CM7 because...? it's newer? the slick black (boring to me) interface? Or I wonder what I'm doing wrong with CM7 because I removed it from my NOOK Color and replaced with MN 4.6.16.
What's everyone so impressed about CM7 that I'm just not getting? (that's two devices)
I've recently done the same as you and also wondered why more people aren't still using cm6...
I never left cm6, although my flavor of choice is 6.1. Like you, I have tried every combination of new rom, kernel, etc ... but my daily driver continues to be 6.1. I have attached Brad Carter's (bcnice20) "BCBlend" kernel ... try it and you will see a rom and browser fly, like nothing else. No reboots, no lag, just android at it best.
PS - I use the interactive governor along with launcher pro ... excellent performance and good battery life.
FOR CM7 BASED ROMS
IMPORTANT UPDATE: I have done some research on flashing radio images and found some interesting information. Apparently there are 2 files that pertain to radios in the RUU releases, a radio.img and a rcdata.img. We all have been flashing only the radio.img file but the rcdata.img contains further carrier information that directly relates to information in the build.prop file. I have put together a new 26.13.04.19 radio zip file that contains both the radio.img and the rcdata.img. The .img files were taken directly from the latest T-Mobile RUU release. This new radio/rcdata zip needs to be flashed through bootloader just like you flashed a radio in the past. As usual, you''ll need to rename the zip file to PC10IMG.zip before you reboot into bootloader. Check the MD5 Sum after you download the file to your sdcard to make sure it matches the following:
MD5 Sum: 360EA26286DEC39FC8008B266F470839
DOWNLOAD VISION_RADIO_RCDATA_12.62.60.27_26.13.04.19.zip
MIRROR: http://www.mediafire.com/?vdecstne5uuvuxn
With the release of the latest T-Mobile update a new radio was included with the promise of better battery life. The following is from the T-Mobile support website.
On October 17, T-Mobile G2 devices will begin to receive an Over-The-Air (OTA) update to Android 2.3.4 / Software Version 2.16.531.5. The update will roll out in waves over the coming weeks.
The update provides the following improvements.
Improvements:
Google Security Patch
Google Skymap improvements
Battery life improvements
Data connection while roaming domestically
After flashing the new radio taken from the OTA listed above I really didn't notice any real improvements in battery life. After about a week using the new radio I decided to try matching the lib-ril .so files that were included in the OTA with my current installation of CM7. Almost immediately I noticed an improvement in battery life, wifi and data switching and slightly better data speeds over 4G. I have been using the matching files now for about 10 days and can say that I am getting the best battery life from my G2 since I've had it. I've been flashing CM7 nightlies since just about day one along with flashing radios etc and this is a noticeable change. I asked 2 others here in the forums to give matching lib-rils a try to see if they could confirm. Ditamae and Sino8r, who are also running CM7, have reported back to me that they too have noticed performance improvements, most notably in battery life.
From Ditamae: "Things are still looking good over here. The improvements are slight, but noticeable."
From Sino8r: "Okay, seems all is well with new libs. They have shown some promise, imo. Better battery, signal handoffs, pretty much what all we hoped for."
ATTENTION: I am not responsible if you brick your phone or if it starts a fire in your apartment by using this workaround! USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!
Procedure:
If you are not running the .19 radio, you can get it from the links above. If you need further flashing instructions get them from this thread.
Once you are running the .19 radio, download the updater and flash through recovery. This will update your radio ril and gps .so files.
Download Radio 26.13.04.19 Radio - ril and gps .so updater for CM7 based ROMShttp://dl.dropbox.com/u/17578272/CM7_26.13.04.19radio_ril_gps_so_updater.ziphttp://dl.dropbox.com/u/17578272/CM7_26.13.04.19radio_ril_gps_so_updater.ziphttp://dl.dropbox.com/u/17578272/CM7_26.13.04.19radio_ril_gps_so_updater.zip
MIRROR: http://www.mediafire.com/?i0ibe4mrvuqyxua
While you are in recovery, wipe your cache and dalvick cache and wipe the efs partitions by flashing the Vision EFS partion wipe tool.
Download EFS Partition Wipe Tool
Reboot your device and you're good to go.
NOTE: At first boot, it might take a little longer than usual for you to connect to your local towers since you've wiped your radio data and the efs partitions need to be re-populated with the new data. This also means you'll need to be outside and wait several minutes for a new gps lock as the new data is obtained from the satellites.
Don't forget to hit the thanks button if this works out for you!
Followed all your steps and will keep you posted.
Done as requested and will let you know my experience after a couple of days.
I wanna give this a try and will let you know how it goes. is the efs wipe tool different from the superwipe... i.e. it won't wipe all my data?
yogi2010 said:
I wanna give this a try and will let you know how it goes. is the efs wipe tool different from the superwipe... i.e. it won't wipe all my data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The efs wipe will only wipe the radio data. It won't touch your rom or sd card.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
EdKeys said:
The efs wipe will only wipe the radio data. It won't touch your rom or sd card.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
awesome, I figured as much but was just making sure got it all done and will see how it goes.... thanks EdKeys!
I will try this soon, especially if I see many people seeing improvements (it'd be nice to have facts, so to avoid placebo effects).
For those that have tried it: any improvements in GPS performance?
Just did the switch and have immediately noticed improved data speeds in Atlanta, Ga. I will report back in a few days about battery life. Running CM7.1 stable
tsubus said:
I will try this soon, especially if I see many people seeing improvements (it'd be nice to have facts, so to avoid placebo effects).
For those that have tried it: any improvements in GPS performance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't notice any change in GPS performance. I'm using your ROM with the updated GPS driver already included in that, which I believe is the same gps.vision.so that was included in the 2.16.531.5 OTA mentioned above.
I have to say I am VERY surprised by the results. I did 3 speedtests before matching rils and 3 after. Results are about 2.5 to 3 times faster in downloads, and about twice in upload. It should be on the same server (according to Speedtest.net app), which makes this great. I will definitely include it in the next release, which at this point might be later today.
edit: a couple more tests brought the download speeds down a little, so it might have been a fluke before, but I still see improvements, just not as big. I will still include it in the ROM, thank you for pointing it out.
edit2: did the new radio roll out with a new gps.vision.so file too? It'd be nice to see if using the new lib gives improvements on gps too.
tsubus said:
I have to say I am VERY surprised by the results. I did 3 speedtests before matching rils and 3 after. Results are about 2.5 to 3 times faster in downloads, and about twice in upload. It should be on the same server (according to Speedtest.net app), which makes this great. I will definitely include it in the next release, which at this point might be later today.
edit: a couple more tests brought the download speeds down a little, so it might have been a fluke before, but I still see improvements, just not as big. I will still include it in the ROM, thank you for pointing it out.
edit2: did the new radio roll out with a new gps.vision.so file too? It'd be nice to see if using the new lib gives improvements on gps too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not able to check right now but I believe it is the same version that you are currrently using for this radio in your ROM now....same as the .13 release. I'll try to get a copy of it later on today.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
I'll give it a shot as well. Oddly enough, my completely unscientific testing showed that my WiFi speeds seem to have improved with the new radio, but my "4G" speeds have actually suffered just a tiny bit. And they got *worse* after matching the RILs.
What I did was, with my existing radio (04.12), I ran the Speedtest.net app 3 times each for WiFi and "4G". Then, I installed the 04.19 radio, and did it again. Then once more after matching the RILs.
However, my data speeds have never been great here at the office, so I will do some more testing later, and see what I come up with.
Battery life is a little more subjective, depending on what I am doing with my phone, but I'll see what kind of "feel" I get after running it for a few days.
This fix my gps problems on miui and my signal, battery life, 4g more stable..
Before this i got 3 days try to find out how fix my gps, is was always stay searching for gps.
Send from my HTC G2 Running Miui Bulletproof.
Olders smartphones:
Tmobile G1
My Touch 3g
Iphone 3G
My Touch 3g slide
Lg optimus M
Samsung galaxy indulge
Now using:
Htc G2
Thrive (tablet)
dargocitfer said:
I'll give it a shot as well. Oddly enough, my completely unscientific testing showed that my WiFi speeds seem to have improved with the new radio, but my "4G" speeds have actually suffered just a tiny bit. And they got *worse* after matching the RILs.
What I did was, with my existing radio (04.12), I ran the Speedtest.net app 3 times each for WiFi and "4G". Then, I installed the 04.19 radio, and did it again. Then once more after matching the RILs.
However, my data speeds have never been great here at the office, so I will do some more testing later, and see what I come up with.
Battery life is a little more subjective, depending on what I am doing with my phone, but I'll see what kind of "feel" I get after running it for a few days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give it a few more days before deciding any real conclusions. Its working for pretty much evryone. Pretty cool find, Ed! Thanks again!
dargocitfer said:
I'll give it a shot as well. Oddly enough, my completely unscientific testing showed that my WiFi speeds seem to have improved with the new radio, but my "4G" speeds have actually suffered just a tiny bit. And they got *worse* after matching the RILs.
What I did was, with my existing radio (04.12), I ran the Speedtest.net app 3 times each for WiFi and "4G". Then, I installed the 04.19 radio, and did it again. Then once more after matching the RILs.
However, my data speeds have never been great here at the office, so I will do some more testing later, and see what I come up with.
Battery life is a little more subjective, depending on what I am doing with my phone, but I'll see what kind of "feel" I get after running it for a few days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a link to the EFS wipe tool in the OP. Be sure to flash that after changing radios and/or rils. Just a suggestion in case you didn't do that yet.
still early days but seem to be noticing a slight improvement with my data connection (more h than 3g) and general reception, one area where there is no change is battery life(sceptical that radios affect batteries that much)
Sent from a htc desire z
I'm happy word is getting out... I switched back to the .30 libs for a small stretch and then flashed tsubus' update tonight (along with matching rils for .19... as you know he's matching them for radio .19 by default now, based on your testing), and this time the benefits appear even more distinct. Definitely getting slightly better download speeds and signal alternates faster and more efficiently between Wifi and H/3G. I'm going to check GPS with navigation tomorrow on a long drive. I'll report back, but I'm fairly certain it'll work just fine. I'll wipe battery stats tomorrow and monitor battery... but I kinda already know it's gonna be good. Really glad you brought this to my attention, Ed. Thank you.
Ditamae said:
I'm happy word is getting out... I switched back to the .30 libs for a small stretch and then flashed tsubus' update tonight (along with matching rils for .19... as you know he's matching them for radio .19 by default now, based on your testing), and this time the benefits appear even more distinct. Definitely getting slightly better download speeds and signal alternates faster and more efficiently between Wifi and H/3G. I'm going to check GPS with navigation tomorrow on a long drive. I'll report back, but I'm fairly certain it'll work just fine. I'll wipe battery stats tomorrow and monitor battery... but I kinda already know it's gonna be good. Really glad you brought this to my attention, Ed. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree... I never had any real gps issues with the exception of first lock in a few weeks without use. I ended up getting GPS Status (free app from market) and reseting gps data and redownloading it. Within 30 seconds, gps satellites are found and all is well. On rare occasions, I would get the notorious loss of signal and would have to toggle gps on or off and/or use good old GPS Status. Those were really minor compared to the horror stories I hear from some of our other HTC Vision users. I finally tried tsubus's idea of using the htc gps.so file and havent had any drop offs. There is still that first lock delay after a new flash or not using it for several weeks but thats normal and nothing GPS Status cant fix in mere seconds. I highly recommend using the gps lib file and gps status for those with gps issues. The radio lib files found here also help with battery life (not huge but a noticable difference) and call quality plus tower to cell handoffs. I was a cell tech (not the guy in the call center lol) for 5 years and am a pc tech and have been for 10 so I usually can tell when something works and is not a placebo effect
Also, Ed and Ditamae are two of the best guys we have here in the G2 section. Please, listen to them. You can trust about 99% of what they say... The other 1% is for their comedic effect
EdKeys said:
There is a link to the EFS wipe tool in the OP. Be sure to flash that after changing radios and/or rils. Just a suggestion in case you didn't do that yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I followed your suggestions exactly. I haven't had any issues with the GPS (My sense of direction *sucks*, so my GPS gets used quite a bit... ), and I'm still testing the battery life. (Wiped battery stats yesterday and drained the battery to 0%, charged it overnight, and am testing it now.) We'll see how it turns out for me.
After doing these changes I was able to get almost 13 hours of battery life, which is about 5 more hours than I used to get. This is with medium to heavy usage, so I'm happy with this. I'll report back after this bakes for another week or so.
I am on superclean.05 GB rom and stock rooted kernel. Very happy with it, but I have never had a non touchwiz rom on my phone.
For a while I have been wondering what is it like to be on the other side, so I am wondering what rom would you recommend in MIUI or CM7.
Stability is important for me, I dont want to flash something that will FC left and right, or have features like wifi or gps, etc that do not work.
If you guys can recommend me a ROM and even better provide the links that would be awesome.
Thanks in advanced.
I loved both MIUI and CM7, both were faster then Superclean right now, also the interface I like a lot better then TW, BUT suffered two major issues that prevented me from using the phone.
Could no longer use the speakerphone, since all people on other end said there is a bad echo, and I use my speakerphone a lot.
Also would lose data connection a lot of times, and only fix was to restart phone
I would love to go back to them, but for now I am sticking with superclean and probably be the last rom I go to until I get a new phone.
This rom is great, and is what the phone should have been a year ago when I got it.
I enjoy Miui for the customization....It takes a bit getting used to and finding everything that works for you...Basically you can skin the lock screen, the pull down, home screen and even SMS client. I like the camera better on this than asop too.
CM7 is nice and straight forward, if you like everything to look stock, this is the way to go.
tannor said:
I loved both MIUI and CM7, both were faster then Superclean right now, also the interface I like a lot better then TW, BUT suffered two major issues that prevented me from using the phone.
Could no longer use the speakerphone, since all people on other end said there is a bad echo, and I use my speakerphone a lot.
Also would lose data connection a lot of times, and only fix was to restart phone
I would love to go back to them, but for now I am sticking with superclean and probably be the last rom I go to until I get a new phone.
This rom is great, and is what the phone should have been a year ago when I got it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did notice the same data issues when I first got this phone a little bit ago and (immediately) started running AOSP roms. But the data issues have all but disappeared for me, with the one issue that occasionally happens being the radio getting stuck on 1x after sending/receiving SMS. I'm not sure if it's more kernel or rom related, but users have reported vastly improved data connectivity with the latest Glitch test kernels. I'm using RickS MIUI by the way.
You can't really go wrong with CM7 or MIUI, I used CM7 for a long time on my incredible before switching to MIUI. They're both very functional, customizable, and awesome roms, but the ¡amazing! theming capabilities of MIUI are really hard to give up for me.
MIUI is actually based on CM7, so like everyone else is saying both ROMs are extremely responsive and quick. Your decision will mostly be made on the UI and the features you want. Both highly customizable and easy to learn.
Try them both for a week. They are free after all!