Database Users

GB to ICS and back - mini review

My month with a factory unlocked Galaxy S2​
Bought this in mint condition from a friend for about half price with only 1 hour of use, an unwanted upgrade. Came with 2.3.4 as expected, so hooked up to Kies; no update at the time. As is my wont, I used the phone for a few days to get to grips with TouchWiz (TW) and the phone generally. All quite reasonable, no stability issues and TW is not bad by any means.
My thoughts and trials so far then:
Hardware
Well made, light and thin. Slippery, so a black rubbery skin bought and fitted and I popped a spare 8GB microSD card in, not that the phone needs it for my purposes.
Only criticism is the OLED screen, I'm used to higher resolution (Moto and Sony) and 800x480 looks rather "cheapo" in terms of detail on a screen this large, but no deal breaker. What I do find somewhat at odds with the price of the phone is the slight but noticeable shading and colour tints across the screen at low brightness levels and on some backgrounds. Plus, the screen's legibility outside on a bright day is no better than more run of the mill LCD screens. (I mean cheaper!)
My first GB update
I generally root phones straight after flashing a new firmware version, if it isn't already. I had already successfully rooted the original stock 2.3.4 firmware with Zergrush 4 and debloated that ROM.
I was keen to try a later GB version before trying ICS, and I found 2.3.6 for "Open Europe" on Sammobile and downloaded it. I had already tried Kies, so the USB drivers were present and working. I uninstalled Kies on the PC but left the USB drivers alone. Kies and Odin are not good bedfellows. I did a full factory reset on the phone and erased everything, allowed it to reboot and then powered off, got in to download mode and flashed XXKL1 (which is an engineering version and deodexed it seems). Rooted it via Zergrush 4, deleted known bloat and renamed possible bloat to xxx.bak to clean the ROM for my own usage, and deleted that very annoying start-up sound. Downloaded all the apps I normally use (about 22 of them), including the excellent CPU Spy to check for deep sleep.
I used/charged the phone over the next couple of days to let the OS bed in. No problems encountered at all, and a very pleasing battery life of 30+ hours of light use, with syncing and GPS, 3G, WiFi always on and occasional BT. Magic! Only thing I did is change the Modem to LPR - the KI3 Modem that came with the ROM is not quite as good at holding weak signals. Only just though...
My first ICS update
So, good phone, stable and very usable ROM in 2.3.6. Time had come to try this new ICS thing. Downloaded the LPQ version and installed it, after a full wipe, via Odin. Not impressed by all the automatic installation rubbish at first boot... Rooted via a hot boot CWM and SU/Busybox successfully and did all the same debloating and app installation as GB 2.3.6. Spent some time getting orientated and used to the new menus and so on.
Over the next day or so, I let the ROM settle and began using the ROM - I changed the Modem to LPR as LPQ was not as good, perception wise. ROM was stable and usable, didn't really look or feel much different from 2.3.6 and was worse on battery - I would say 18 hours at best with the same usage pattern.
Absolutely hate the new Exchange thing for live.com email.... real pain usability wise and battery unfriendly.
My second ICS update
So, not overly impressed with LPQ, although it was usable, I decided to try LP7, the UK generic one. Went through the same process as above, and again swapped the Modem from LPS (awful!) to LPR.
No obvious differences at all. Battery life was as poor, but it was usable.
My first CM trial - CM9
So, somewhat disillusioned by Samsung's ICS implementation, I decide to look around for another "mature" ROM. CM9 fitted the bill (I have used CM6 before on another phone) and was smack bang up to date in terms of kernel, AOSP and G Apps. After my usual clean deck start, installed fine, 23/04 build.
At first, I was quite impressed as I could configure more and to my liking. The ROM was stable and I set the phone up with the usual Apps and deleted some useless stuff (like GenieWidget).
Swapped Modem out to LPR - bit of a theme going on here...
I liked the fact that the Spirit FM radio worked (so bought the Pro version as it is that good). The ROM is very usable and never got bogged down, BUT, for reasons I never fully determined, the battery life would start OK and then decline faster during the day. I never saw more than 12 hours life, again using as per my normal pattern and after a few days to settle. There appeared to be various background activities going on that were preventing deep sleep sometimes, but BBS was not really showing me what. Note that I only use BBS as a last resort as it can increase battery use...
No other real problems, but the soft key backlights wouldn't play with NoLED and were somewhat counter-intuitive. A bit trivial, but a mess.
My second CM trial - CM7
I like GB, it is mature and well understood, so CM7 RC 2 was therefore of some appeal. It had been developed over months and must therefore be fairly sorted. Surely.
Installed without issue on a cleaned platform as usual, including G Apps. Did the usual debloat and installed the usual Apps from the Market/Play, and some that were missing, like GMail. LPR modem was already there, Hooray! Spent rather longer fiddling with the settings in CM7 than CM9 since they were less obvious at first, to me anyway.
Switched off and put the phone on wall charge overnight and was rather shocked to find the phone was noticeably warm and displaying "Kernel Panic" in the morning. The phone had only charged by about 5% in total (to 64%). Worry Worry. I put the phone on USB charge until 100% without incident.
Started to use the phone as normal, the phone UI and operation was very good, fluid even. But, first problem I had was in the car. I paired BT fine, as usual, and made a phone call. After the call, I couldn't end the call on the car or phone - it had locked up. Oh dear.
Later, I tried the FM Radio during my daily walk - doesn't work, so why is it there? I tried Spirit FM - no way would it work. Oh dear.
The following day, I noticed that the battery life was amazing! I had never seen this phone sip juice like this. Deep sleep was always easily achieved. That was until the afternoon. I noticed that the battery level was declining at a much higher rate than earlier. I hadn't done anything different, so BBS was called in again. Nothing obvious shown but I kept seeing the GPS icon winking at me from the Notification bar, and continually. I always keep GPS on, but for some reason on this ROM, no GPS signal meant the ROM just kept trying. I played with various settings like Location etc. and managed to stop this odd behaviour, but this was too silly. I use a Smartphone for all the smart features. This wasn't very smart at all.
CM7 was my biggest disappointment of all the above ROM trials. It was the lightest and most promising, and yet the least reliable or functional. Which is a huge shame...
Today...
I'm now back on KL1 2.3.6, and it just works fine - day after day.
The future for me?
I would really like to use CM9 (or CM7 for that matter). They represent a number of ideals for me, including the open nature of development, the collaboration, a pioneering spirit and giving users a choice and a superb base to build on. I am no developer - I can split and modify kernels to a point, I can rehash ROMs with or without adb, I can amend frameworks. But little more.

Reserved for "tips and hints"
Avoiding problems
Always data reset and wipe before doing anything major from one ROM to another, or follow the installation guide for any specific differences in approach.
Avoid Titanium Backup like the plague - it invariably leads to functional issues later if you cross flash. Use Google and/or airdroid for everything, it all just works. So many friends and other forums I contribute to have had too many backup issues to count. Go clean. Forget about Google paranoia.
ES File Explorer is very useful and recommended.
Don't bother "calibrating" the battery - it's an outdated practice and useless. Just use the phone normally, and anyone who claims the battery life is "great" 1 hour after flashing a newly announced ROM is a fool. Likewise NEVER fully discharge a Li-Ion battery. Just keep topping it up. See here: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_charge_when_to_charge_table
Thoughts
Newer ROMs are rarely better ROMs. Better means different things to different folk of course.
ICS ROM core LPQ to LP8 are largely all the same, just variants of the same thing for different markets. Some users believe they perform differently.
Custom kernels and ROMs are always work in progress and should be treated as such. Check out the number of revisions. Some kernel cookers are (welcome) enthusiastic amateurs that assume more is better and cram "fixes" in that the professional salaried software engineers have mysteriously missed. If you only need your stock kernel to be insecure, learn how to make it so. You are running Linux on your box, right?
Deodexing is not a means to improve performance, on the contrary.
Undervolting is a mythical beast
I bought a phone with an FM radio because I want to use it!

And I totally agree. to all of it. Tried all iterations of almost all roms available. For some reason keep going to my VR 3.0 nandroid back up.
Except CM9, I don't really think there is any real development going on. Most are just cooked up roms OR stuff taken from the CM9 tree and implemented OR so called fixes that have actually broken something else OR just debloated rooted official firmware (that AFAIK is pretty easy to do with the fantastic dsixda's kitchen or on a rooted rom).
Now fanboy's may flame as much as they wish to, but seriously a stable CM9 (hopefully..!) or a VR 4.0 is all I am willing to wait for.
Till such time VR 3.0 it is.

LenAsh said:
Reserved for "tips and hints"
Newer ROMs are rarely better ROMs. Better means different things to different folk of course.
ICS ROM core LPQ to LP8 are largely all the same, just variants of the same thing for different markets. Some users believe they perform differently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't agree with your final thought. Different ics rooms have really different feels. E.g. Look at scrolling from lpq to lp7.....and there are numerous others as well. If u want more specific thoughts and feedback, just browse through different ics threads in this section..

omeryounos said:
I don't agree with your final thought. Different ics rooms have really different feels. E.g. Look at scrolling from lpq to lp7.....and there are numerous others as well. If u want more specific thoughts and feedback, just browse through different ics threads in this section..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... I have browsed through the sections, and tried various "revisions" or versions of Samsung ICS today while jotting this lot down, and my view, honestly, is there is no real difference. That isn't to say there isn't, I just can't see or feel it. I do accept that playing with 3 ROMs in a few hours is less than ideal. And a drag!
I suppose if someone could deconstruct the ROMs properly and thoroughly...
Anyway, thanks for your thoughts, appreciated.

Very nice review! +1
Keep up the good work

I broadly agree with the OP.
ICS/AOSP/AOKP/CM9 have improved over the last few weeks, but I'm back on GB, and will probably stay with it until I get the SGS3.
May be subjective, but for me the GB stock browser, camera and dialler are streets ahead of what the rest can offer. Scrolling is smoother too. And I like/need a radio.

B3311 said:
I broadly agree with the OP.
ICS/AOSP/AOKP/CM9 have improved over the last few weeks, but I'm back on GB, and will probably stay with it until I get the SGS3.
May be subjective, but for me the GB stock browser, camera and dialler are streets ahead of what the rest can offer. Scrolling is smoother too. And I like/need a radio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like you and the OP only tried the AOSP/AOKP roms? Give the roms based on the latest official a try.
The dialer is still as good as always (unchanged), camera is actually improved with higher bitrate recording and the ics stock browser...is untouchable at the moment in my opinion. (Granted I use "ICS Browser+" from the market which uses the best ui in a browser I've encountered)
I currently use Dynamic's ICS rom and it would be extremely difficult for me to go back to GB at this point.

Sigurd02 said:
Seems like you and the OP only tried the AOSP/AOKP roms? Give the roms based on the latest official a try.
The dialer is still as good as always (unchanged), camera is actually improved with higher bitrate recording and the ics stock browser...is untouchable at the moment in my opinion. (Granted I use "ICS Browser+" from the market which uses the best ui in a browser I've encountered)
I currently use Dynamic's ICS rom and it would be extremely difficult for me to go back to GB at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I agree that in terms of loading websites, ics default browser is a little bit faster, scrolling and pinch and zooming is much smoother with stock gb browser. Also the dialer is worse on ics as it has removed the contacts section which means I have to put both the dialer and contacts shortcut on the dock.

I'm using Wanamlite v11.1, Siyahkernel v3.1, and Apex Launcher.
A winning combination in my opinion, that is now at least as good as the best GB ROMs in terms of battery life. 7 hours standby with 30 minutes screen time and i'm still on 87%.
In terms of fluidity and performance I think ICS /w Apex beats GB handsdown.

Thanks for the recommendation, but I avoid ROM mix ups, I can do that myself. The ones I have looked at have had some very dubious scripts and additions. I usually look at build.prop first, and generally find all sorts of hybrid attempts at adding stuff that is completely wrong. Lines taken from websites, other phones and so on.

LenAsh said:
Thanks for the recommendation, but I avoid ROM mix ups, I can do that myself. The ones I have looked at have had some very dubious scripts and additions. I usually look at build.prop first, and generally find all sorts of hybrid attempts at adding stuff that is completely wrong. Lines taken from websites, other phones and so on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends, it was like you say in Gingerbread days, not with ICS WanamLite nor Dynamic, only tried these + CM9
I am using Dynamic 1.4 LP9, it is as smooth and fast as CM9, but everything working because it is Samsung based
I tried the included NEAK and Speedmod kernels, similar performance and very good battery life, only 3% drain overnight, I dont play with processor tweaking

Sigurd02 said:
Seems like you and the OP only tried the AOSP/AOKP roms? Give the roms based on the latest official a try.
The dialer is still as good as always (unchanged), camera is actually improved with higher bitrate recording and the ics stock browser...is untouchable at the moment in my opinion. (Granted I use "ICS Browser+" from the market which uses the best ui in a browser I've encountered)
I currently use Dynamic's ICS rom and it would be extremely difficult for me to go back to GB at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dialer is laggy if you compare it with GB. CM9 variants have slightly more response dialers but overall, GB dialer is way more responsive. There is a small but noticeable lag when pressing a key and the time it takes to register on ICS (CM9 & stock).
Camera recording with stereo voice recording...! Seriously how many people do shoot video with a phone's camera? For facebook uploads mono audio is just fine..
Browser is a definitive improvement yes, and the desktop mode is welcome but browser mods have been available on GB since long.
It is not that ICS is bad. It is actually very good, but the way it has been implemented on S2 is downright ridiculous...! And not one stable vanilla build isn't really helping..

kranti2064 said:
For some reason keep going to my VR 3.0 nandroid back up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is something I have been contemplating for quite some time now, quite possibly the last month. The only real thing stopping me is that for some reason alot of games (eg dead space and modern combat 3) don't seem to like it when i change roms, and even though all the ingame data is there, sometimes it decides I have to re-download.
I do miss it alot though.. and also red pill kernel
I might end up doing a backup of current my CM9 and take the plunge sometime soon. I've been using CM9 since around feb and lately I think my interest has plateaued and now I'm just beginning to get frustrated with little lags that are popping up more frequently (probably due for a wipe mind you!). The only thing about villiam rom is the bloody touch wiz launcher.. I just don't like messing with the launcher roms were made for either.
kranti2064 said:
Camera recording with stereo voice recording...! Seriously how many people do shoot video with a phone's camera? For facebook uploads mono audio is just fine..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mass lols to be had at the fact that a majority of the time they would be played on the device through the mono loudspeaker too

I also go back for GB..becoz i feel that ics so laggy at dialer,and PES2012 freeze and cant play on ics..but in GB all working great..
Daripada galaxy s2 non-G

melorib said:
Depends, it was like you say in Gingerbread days, not with ICS WanamLite nor Dynamic, only tried these + CM9
I am using Dynamic 1.4 LP9, it is as smooth and fast as CM9, but everything working because it is Samsung based
I tried the included NEAK and Speedmod kernels, similar performance and very good battery life, only 3% drain overnight, I dont play with processor tweaking
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kranti2064 said:
And I totally agree. to all of it. Tried all iterations of almost all roms available. For some reason keep going to my VR 3.0 nandroid back up.
Except CM9, I don't really think there is any real development going on. Most are just cooked up roms OR stuff taken from the CM9 tree and implemented OR so called fixes that have actually broken something else OR just debloated rooted official firmware (that AFAIK is pretty easy to do with the fantastic dsixda's kitchen or on a rooted rom).
Now fanboy's may flame as much as they wish to, but seriously a stable CM9 (hopefully..!) or a VR 4.0 is all I am willing to wait for.
Till such time VR 3.0 it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Currently trying ninphetamine kernel (as per VR3 - thanks for the heads up) on my fave stock KL1 more for interest than anything. Seems OK, no obvious difference from stock running as is apart from it being insecure, need a couple of days to evaluate in real life use.

Bloody good post. I've been using CM9 since the video recording bug was solved, and thats probably the longest I've used any ROM on the SGS2, I really like AOSP but the problem is it does still have quite a few bugs, and isn't quite as fast or as battery friendly as I remember the likes of Hyperdroid v6 being.
This makes me tempted to go back to GB. For me, it is still the ultimate for a daily driver. But I'm lazy so I'll probably stick with CM9.

kranti2064 said:
Dialer is laggy if you compare it with GB. CM9 variants have slightly more response dialers but overall, GB dialer is way more responsive. There is a small but noticeable lag when pressing a key and the time it takes to register on ICS (CM9 & stock).
Camera recording with stereo voice recording...! Seriously how many people do shoot video with a phone's camera? For facebook uploads mono audio is just fine..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ICS dialer laggy , doesn't happen to me on stock LP9 or Dynamic based on LP9 and CM9 is as smooth as they come. Whilst mono audio is fine for you I quite like having stereo audio. Choice, not limitations my friend

tameracingdriver said:
Bloody good post. I've been using CM9 since the video recording bug was solved, and thats probably the longest I've used any ROM on the SGS2, I really like AOSP but the problem is it does still have quite a few bugs, and isn't quite as fast or as battery friendly as I remember the likes of Hyperdroid v6 being.
This makes me tempted to go back to GB. For me, it is still the ultimate for a daily driver. But I'm lazy so I'll probably stick with CM9.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers for that - I would definitely recommend the 2.3.6 KL1 off Sammobile if you want a solid GB.

Dude, if you have not tried CheckRom RevoHD V6, then you have not tried the BEST gingerbread rom for sgs2.
This is why I can not use ICS (yet). Checkrom is just too perfect of a Rom.
Try it, tweak it to your liking, use it for a week or 3 then try and go back to stock.
CheckRom XDA thread

Back to GB. Phone is Like New!

Okay, so I was on official ICS, several actually. I kept hoping one would prove not to have the Super Brick bug. It seems nobody knows, still.
After working myself into a panic worried I would do something normal and suddenly have a brick on my hands, I flashed back to Gingerbread 2.3.6, Europe Open version (XXLA4). I decided to stick with Touchwiz launcher
After messing around with ICS and several different launchers I guess I had forgotten how smooth the stock is.
Apps are now opening and closing fast, the scrolling in the launcher is super smooth and overall, the phone is working very well. It's like a new machine!
It could help that now that I'm on a safe kernel, I've wiped data and basically started new, but I'm very impressed.
I still wish ICS would come out from Samsung with an announced fixed version. I miss the resizing of widgets and the ICS Voice to text engine. It really is much better.
I would rather feel safe in operating the phone, however, and give up those small ICS features I'm missing.
Has anybody else done the same? What do you think?

Just use Franco kernel or Speedmod kernel for your stock ICS rom and you'll have a "safe" kernel.
Or flash CM9 rom.
Since you are on GB, you can flash a CM9 rom and be perfectly fine easily.

I have to agree alittle with you , always when i reflash to a stock rooted gb, i always feel WOW its so smooth, but thats until i start installing all my apps i use.
I must say that batterylife is better for me on ICS, dunno why.

BTW, is there any significant speed difference between stock ICS (LPY for instance) and CM9? I'm on LPY and Franco r5 and even when overclocking to 1.6 GHz I haven't noticed any speed change.

lukabike said:
BTW, is there any significant speed difference between stock ICS (LPY for instance) and CM9? I'm on LPY and Franco r5 and even when overclocking to 1.6 GHz I haven't noticed any speed change.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've not tried CM9.
Currently its in nightlies but even still from past experiences with stock rom vs cm7 etc i got noticable stability and speed increases. different phones and roms though but generally the idea still applies.

Can't understand all the drama about the ICS update. I just installed mine OTA as instructed, installed Apex Launcher and I couldn't be happier. Everything seems a little smoother too.
Stock email widget works a treat (7x7 grid and above) and with the Smooth Calender widget I am in home screen heaven. Leaves TW on both Gingerbread and ICS.
Just gone from a great phone to a fantastic phone for my needs

I on the other hand still stick with GB right know.
I'm planning to flash CM9 this weekend.
Because I'm getting bored with GB, everyone seems already tried ICS.
I was waiting official save kernel from Samsung, but I just cannot wait anymore to try the ICS.
I will try CM9 mod first I guess, although Franco and CF kernel already release their 'safe' kernel but I still a bit worried since we're not yet sure if there's other reason of the hardbrick

Also back on GB stock with root
I have to agree with this that stock GB is alot more stable than ICS and smoother aswell.
I have tried nearly all the stock ICS releases and all the custom roms based on stock ICS that are in the development forum. Also tried with different kernel combinations and both full wipe / no wipe. Initially most of it seems great then you start using a few apps and it all goes downhill from there.
So GB ftw (well atleast till I get that flashing craving again)

Hi,
Using stock ICS update, had a bricked device after my inability to read, read, read, read & read more, lucky enough to find a solution (not able to disclose, not a technical solution - retail) I use Apex pro launcher & all runs like a dream.
Run chainfires got brickbug? & not happy x19. Rooting may have to wait, confidence bit dented (rooted & flashed my last HTC units & my SG2)
Will read, read & read for a while longer yet.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

I also don't understand the complaints for official ICS, I have updated mine and everything is running smooth...there seems to be a problem for people who did not factory reset before upgrading?

i had a lot of restarts - over and over again
i unplugged my battery and it kept happening
since upgrading to ICS - its quite a lot better but still sometimes i get the restarting issue - battery life on ICS is ok - maybe a bit worse than GB

ilegales said:
i had a lot of restarts - over and over again
i unplugged my battery and it kept happening
since upgrading to ICS - its quite a lot better but still sometimes i get the restarting issue - battery life on ICS is ok - maybe a bit worse than GB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the restart thing, there maybe an apk which is incompatible? I had this problem after installing several apks from the market when I was on GB once and did a factory reset to solve it.

Final5k said:
I also don't understand the complaints for official ICS, I have updated mine and everything is running smooth...there seems to be a problem for people who did not factory reset before upgrading?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wasn't complaining about ICS. In fact, I really liked it. Especially the additional widgets, and the voice search improvements.
I was just paranoid that something I did in everybody function would cause the super brick bug. While people seem to thinkI they know what triggers it and what doesn't, we just don't know for sure.
So for me, I'm staying on GB until Samsung admits and fixes the emmc bug.

Back to GB for me too.
I agree with the OP, I have gone back to GB.
For me the advantages of ICS do not outweigh the stabilty of GB.
ICS:
I lost 40-50% battery life but I gained Chrome ( a little bit buggy but good nonetheless). I also ran the risk with the EMMC bug.
GB : I get my battery life back again, have to use the standard browser but at least I can't brick my phone.
I use the note quite heavily for the web, notes, email and following tweets. It has become an excellent companion and I really don't want to lose it just for the sake of running the latest OS.
I have enough patience to wait until an "official" patch comes out that can repair the bug. After such times I will go back to trying the various ROMs on the site.

Me too recently on ICS Dxlp9 now back to more safer ROM stock GB 2.3.6 unrooted! loving it! gonna miss the resizble widgets and those new features but its worth to wait LOVE MY NOTE
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

I'm back to stock UK XEU LA4 rom and all the better for it. The stability of GB definately outweighs the few advantages (that I've experienced anyway) with ICS.
My main issues with stock UK XEU ICS where
1/ Bluetooth connectivity problems with my car Nissan Connect system
2/ Adobe Flash player was unstable & some websites I frequent didn't work properly at all
3/ Screen responsiveness reduced
4/ Battery life was worse

heading back to gb too. Cant find any reason for using ics. and tw is so ugly. Waiting for the official Miui

I tried LPY and didnt like it - battery life awful and unpredictable then reverted back to GB - I think I will keep it this way until a much better ICS is available maybe CM9?

Likewise I've gone back from XXLQ2 to XXLA6. There wasn't enough good new stuff in the Touchwiz version of ICS to outweigh the battery drain and keyboard problems. And I did do a full wipe before flashing.

mingonn said:
Can't understand all the drama about the ICS update. I just installed mine OTA as instructed, installed Apex Launcher and I couldn't be happier. Everything seems a little smoother too.
Stock email widget works a treat (7x7 grid and above) and with the Smooth Calender widget I am in home screen heaven. Leaves TW on both Gingerbread and ICS.
Just gone from a great phone to a fantastic phone for my needs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Main issues people have are:
1) TWizzed ICS is a horrible disappointment compared to an actual ICS experience. Samsung basically reverted half of ICS to a legacy Gingerbread UI.
2) Samsung did a ****-poor job of software quality control with their ICS releases. It's utterly stupid that the launcher force closes if you debloat unrelated apps - but that has been the case since the first I9100 ICS release. (There's a reason most custom firmwares use Apex instead of TWLauncher.)
3) Last but not least - Samsung has had a latent defect in the eMMC chips shipped in nearly all of their Exynos-based handsets up till now, and the kernel developers for the SPH-D710, SGH-I777, SHW-M250S/K/L, and GT-N7000 were stupid enough to enable the trigger condition for a known and documented MMC chip bug. The I9100 kernel development team was smart enough to remove MMC_CAP_ERASE from the MSHCI driver or not enable it in the first place.
Final5k said:
I also don't understand the complaints for official ICS, I have updated mine and everything is running smooth...there seems to be a problem for people who did not factory reset before upgrading?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In general - if you perform a wipe data/factory reset on any stock ICS kernel, you run a significant chance of permanently trashing your phone's internal storage.
It's a MAJOR bug that Samsung should NEVER have allowed to go out the door.

Best daily driver

I am looking for a rom on this device to flash for a friend. Jb is hot on dev. However haven't seen any rom which could be a daily driver(with good battery backup).
My friend is not a power user and cannot flash roms daily which is y I am looking for a great lightweight from to be used as a daily driver.
Please suggest which roms according to you are most "stable" in your humble opinions.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app

Just about anything froyo would be the safest bet for battery/stability and everything working.
I'm currently using axura fish/ryder mod and everything works flawless.

kxlling said:
Just about anything froyo would be the safest bet for battery/stability and everything working.
I'm currently using axura fish/ryder mod and everything works flawless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 I'm with the same Froyo ROM. Everything is just fine.

The latest CM9 is worth a try.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda app-developers app

Remics (ICS) is a really good ROM. They are currently working on a JB ROM that I'm sure will be great as well. I am running hellybean on both of my devices (daily). Except for GPS,( mine has never worked) it is great. The GPS works flawlessly on my captivate with this ROM. You might have better luck with it. Check hellybean out on dev thread and here is a link to remics ICS.
Here is a DL link for the ICS version: http://billionuploads.com/s5sfwymw536s
Its peanut butter jelly(bean) time...

samsgun357 said:
Remics (ICS) is a really good ROM. They are currently working on a JB ROM that I'm sure will be great as well. I am running hellybean on both of my devices (daily). Except for GPS,( mine has never worked) it is great. The GPS works flawlessly on my captivate with this ROM. You might have better luck with it. Check hellybean out on dev thread and here is a link to remics ICS.
Here is a DL link for the ICS version: http://billionuploads.com/s5sfwymw536s
Its peanut butter jelly(bean) time...
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Click to collapse
I will checkout remics as u said... only reason y not cm9 n job is that u need some flashing experience in case u run into problems.. thanks for ur suggestions..
If anyone has other suggestions please do reply back..
I know I can fall back on u guys..
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app

Honestly it doesn't matter which ROM you flash, if you read and follow the op, you'll be OK. If not, you could get in a jam.
Its peanut butter jelly(bean) time...

Well having tried every OS version thats come out for vibe (2.1->4.1)...
-Eclair is just a downgrade from our froyo roms,
-Froyo works, batt life is good, theyre stable and the only issue i can find with it is the lack of later OS features, and the speed is somewhat mediocre (tho not slow),
-Gingerbread is FAST, and pretty stable (save for a random reboot once in a while).. my reason for leaving was the battery life; it sucked.
-honeycomb was just experimental lol.
-ICS was beast: stable, fast, feature-full and looooong batt life... then the encryption unsuccessful bug scared me off. If youre not aware of it, look it up cause its pretty serious.
-JB is what im on now and i can say its got everything but stability. It gives me random reboots somewhat often and bugs here and there. Sometimes programs will crash, FB crashes more often than not, and at one point my baseband/imei decided just to go away and i had to reflash during class with 20% battery just to get signal again.
Bottom-line, id stick to froyo if i wrre you, and for the record, im ddowngrading to froyo too when i have time
Sent from my SGH-T959 running 4.1.1

Also not sure if the 911 issues are completely fixed for ICS / GB. (Ive been away for a while)

Safest bet for stability, battery life, and awesome GPS would be a Froyo [2.2 or 2.2.1] ROM.
I successfully used Moped_Ryder's Ez_Ryder Kb5 v2 (this is an older one) for MONTHS, until some idiot (me) changed the lock screen to the one that we were clearly warned about in the first post... After that I tried the Bionix-V FishmanMod V4 - was also awesome. I see there's a Moped_Ryder/Fishman mod'd bi-winning out there now too - that was one of my all time favorites...if it were me flashing for a friend, I'd start by looking at this one...
Now...OP...you said you're doing this for a friend - if I was flashing something for a friend, I'd...probably...pick one of the above, and be done with it. That said...
I recently flashed ICZen (have to go to rootzwiki to get that one) - which was pretty friggin' nice - I have since found a couple other vibrant owners using ICZen as their daily driver...both had someone else flash it for them...and from what I understand, they haven't had a problem yet - but if they do, you know who will be fixing it for them. Read carefully before considering this though.
Then yesterday...I was bored, and decided to try the 9/4 version of Helly Bean...GPS isn't awesome, I can't tell on battery life because I'm playing with my phone 10x as much as usual, but everything else seriously kicks ass. The email app is finally functional enough so I don't have to install touchdown (which isn't a problem...just...would prefer to be able to use the built in apps - personal preference). I'm keeping this one for as long as I can - but I'm also ready to ODIN to stock and/or flash another ROM at the drop of a hat...I wouldn't do this for a someone else...yet...

I have to cast my vote for REM ICS 1.3.1 UX without a doubt the best looking, most customizable, overclockable and snappy-est running rom I've ever used! I am desperately waiting for the iron clad version of their JB one so I am keeping with the ICS one for now. I use NOVA launcher which gives you great scrolling animations that makes my Iphony buds real jealous. It also allows you to customize buttons, switch to 5 x 5 spacing (or higher if you want) grid instead of stock 4 x 4 for icons and widget space, and gives you a scrollable bottom doc and all sorts of other great features.
Couldn't be happier with that combo. Yeah you might still get an occasional force close but they're real rare and always have something to with the 3rd party app. Everything it comes with works like clockwork for me. :good: REM ICS! Oh and it has the most beautiful startup animation!

Android 4.1.1 / Cyanogenmod 10 - Your impressions

I want to know what you guys think of the new Jellybean ROMs that we've all been blessed with. Are you happy with it? Any comments, anything? Just wanted to hear what you all think about the new OS on our tablets.
Personally I love it more than anything. Honeycomb and ICS have been nothing but pure lag, from stock ROMs to custom ROMs. I never thought I'd see the day this tablet actually performed smoothly, so when Jellybean first arrived (and pretty damn fast, as well), I was excited. Tried the ROM and loved it, it's just ridiculously smooth, and it works. Now I still get lag playing MC3 or Monster Life, but those are heavy games and Gameloft is pretty ****ty when it comes to properly making an Android game so that's excused. But other games like Dead Trigger work without a hitch, and emulators no longer suffer either. And just for being Android, it gets even better since I can use a wireless mouse over USB OTG, a BT keyboard, and a PS3 controller for games and emulators. All thanks to Jellybean, my tablet is awesome now
And also a thanks to MapleSyrup and pershoot, for the two that gave us Jellybean ROMs at all

Yes, i like cyanogenmod 10, it's smooth and I haven't really noticed any over the top bugs...Battery life could be better but i prefer to sacrifice battery for that smoothness... And now that leads me to Samsung and their ****ty update plan...I mean come on i have waited 8 months to get ICS that lags like hell and doesn't play youtube videos correctly?...They should have just skipped ICS and focus on jelly bean...Other tablets are getting jellybean and we just got ICS, wonder how much will it take them to provide the stock jellybean...another 8 months?(i'm a fan of touchwiz that's why i *****...and i don't want a 7 inch tablet(nexus 7)).

I Skype lots so need a working camera. Can't wait till CM10 has the camera driver. Any word on wheh this can be expected ?

I have cm10 and it seems so fast but a Quadrant test must tell it's value...the previous tests show that ICS is faster but JB's graphics are better...
Now that the rear camera is working the ROM is worth flashing(I never use the camera but couldn't bear it's loss...).
What do you TouchWiz fans think about putting it on the JB?it seems possible,doesn't it?let me know... ...

arashtarafar said:
I have cm10 and it seems so fast but a Quadrant test must tell it's value...the previous tests show that ICS is faster but JB's graphics are better...
Now that the rear camera is working the ROM is worth flashing(I never use the camera but couldn't bear it's loss...).
What do you TouchWiz fans think about putting it on the JB?it seems possible,doesn't it?let me know... ...
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Click to collapse
The reason Quadrant scores are lower in JB is because JB puts the UI at a higher priority, basically to keep the whole thing smooth. Antutu's latest update takes that into account and as far as I know, it's the only benchmark app that has been updated for Jellybean.

I keep installing ROMs on here to find the smoothest reliable ICS or JB, and CM10 is working beautifully for me. I especially like the subtle mods, like weather on the lock screen, email count in status bar, ability to enter settings without the app you were in being closed by the system, three action lockscren... the list goes on.
Definitely gets my vote unless you can't live without camera.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda app-developers app

Nacho Zits said:
I Skype lots so need a working camera. Can't wait till CM10 has the camera driver. Any word on wheh this can be expected ?
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Click to collapse
Same here. I won't flash until we have a working front camera either. Hopefully it's done soon...

I would like to know why data package is not supported on gsm I try to pay data for my tab and once I received confirmation of the debit my tab keeps displaying no internet connection it only allows to navigate through the WiFi does any one knows how to fix it...
Sent from my GT-P7500 using Tapatalk 2

I'm very happy with CMX. I'm glad I like it because I'm having a lot of trouble trying to go to other ROMs right now for the sake of checking them out - but I'll tell ya, there are probably way worse ROMs to be stuck on! I also have CMX on my S2 and am so in love with JB I don't know if I want to go back from a daily driver perspective.

StevenBX said:
Same here. I won't flash until we have a working front camera either. Hopefully it's done soon...
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I actually used CM10 Preview by pershoot and was highly impressed by the performance and smoothness. However, I recently started to require skyping for work related meetings so had to switch back to ICS 4.0.4. When JB works with front camera, expect me to be the first in line.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda app-developers app

Android 4.1.1? which one? confused like hell!?
Maybe it is only me confused here. and this is my first post, so be gentle
so I got excited when Samsung finally release Android 4.0.4!, could not wait so I downloaded UK Galaxy Tab 10.1 wifi (I have US one).
all good, but still not smooth, slow, then realize we need Android 4.1.1 (I have Google Nexus 7)...so jumped here, checking JB ROMs. that's when I start get confused. which one should I download that has less bug? Android 4.1.1 - CyanogenMod 10? or Toldo's JellyBeanRom ICS v5? or MapleSyrup's JellyBeanRom ICS? when you read each post (usually hundreds of replies), you even got more confused...
don't take me wrong, I love what our developer is giving us! even if this my first post, I already donated. however, it would be so helpful if there's new thread that lists all JB ROMs, and clearly outlines what works and what does not works, of any additional fixes. Now my galaxy tab 10.1 sitting there, staring at me, and dying to get on JB
Cheers to all:good:
J.

I've been using CM10 builds from Pershoot and I've been really pleased. Fast, responsive, and all the apps I use day-to-day work beautifully. Battery life is trouble-free. I do occasionally get lockups, but I'm too lazy to try to identify how -- a lot of the time, it's opening large PDFs. Otherwise, most tasks are trouble-free. Rear cam works beautifully.
Unfortunately, I'm cursed with an SCH-i905 -- and no 4G LTE until Samsung gets off their ass and releases source that pershoot can merge. When that day comes, I will wet my pants in excitement.
I have a 4G LTE phone as well, so I just tether the tablet, and life is grand... but I sure would love to have it natively working on my tab. For a few months I had to revert back to stock HC on it because I needed the 4G... now that I've switched back to CM, I've been very happy.

Caede said:
I've been using CM10 builds from Pershoot and I've been really pleased. Fast, responsive, and all the apps I use day-to-day work beautifully. Battery life is trouble-free. I do occasionally get lockups, but I'm too lazy to try to identify how -- a lot of the time, it's opening large PDFs. Otherwise, most tasks are trouble-free. Rear cam works beautifully.
Unfortunately, I'm cursed with an SCH-i905 -- and no 4G LTE until Samsung gets off their ass and releases source that pershoot can merge. When that day comes, I will wet my pants in excitement.
I have a 4G LTE phone as well, so I just tether the tablet, and life is grand... but I sure would love to have it natively working on my tab. For a few months I had to revert back to stock HC on it because I needed the 4G... now that I've switched back to CM, I've been very happy.
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so CM10 build that you use is from : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1787399
it is safe to say that I can flash my galaxy tab 10.1 wifi (which is now on stock android 4.0.4) with CM10 build, and all works perfect no issue other than front camera?

djmatt604 said:
I'm very happy with CMX. I'm glad I like it because I'm having a lot of trouble trying to go to other ROMs right now for the sake of checking them out - but I'll tell ya, there are probably way worse ROMs to be stuck on! I also have CMX on my S2 and am so in love with JB I don't know if I want to go back from a daily driver perspective.
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Click to collapse
It is CM10, even the developers hate to hear it called CMX... This is Android, not Crapple!
For me, it is running great on both my tablet and my phone minus the occasional scrambled boot on my tablet (never happened on cm9 or any other roms) which I still get after updating to the official ICS boot loaders. But, it seems way more polished and complete then the early versions of CM9. I have made it my daily driver on both devices. Battery life is better than 4.0.4 also as long as you turn off Google now and so e of the location services. It will only get better with time...

BAHA - Crapple.
Yeah sorry about that - it does say CM10 in my sig, I just got lazy typing last night. My bad.

bkress said:
It is CM10, even the developers hate to hear it called CMX... This is Android, not Crapple!
For me, it is running great on both my tablet and my phone minus the occasional scrambled boot on my tablet (never happened on cm9 or any other roms) which I still get after updating to the official ICS boot loaders. But, it seems way more polished and complete then the early versions of CM9. I have made it my daily driver on both devices. Battery life is better than 4.0.4 also as long as you turn off Google now and so e of the location services. It will only get better with time...
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So Crappie owns the letter X? I use it as a roman numeral when abbreviating CM.
Also, I'm curious, what difference do the ICS bootloader provide? Is it a noticeable improvement?

GazaIan said:
So Crappie owns the letter X? I use it as a roman numeral when abbreviating CM.
Also, I'm curious, what difference do the ICS bootloader provide? Is it a noticeable improvement?
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Haha, of course they don't own it... I just heard entropy tell someone in another thread not to call it cmx Since the boot animation that coined the cmx name is in no way official and they (cm10 dev team) have never called it that. If people are searching for answers about cm10 and people are calling it cmx, it may confuse users and make them think cmx is something different. We all know it is not, but we should all be using the real name for consistency purposes, right? I didn't mean to be an a**, just stating the facts.

Whereas CM10 is still in alpha stage, I can say that it works very well! This promises to be the best ROM.:laugh:

I was running MapleSyrup's AOSP JellyBean build for about a week and then switched over to pershoot's CM10. While I found they were very similar I stuck with CM10 because it feels a bit smoother. I had a little issue with a scrambled screen when booting where only for a second or two the screen was rolling but cleared up afterwards. I did not have a rolling recovery screen. I updated the bootloader to the ICS version and it's been great since. I also haven't had any SOD's either when charging overnight or just sitting there.
The only issue which I still have is Youtube HD videos get very choppy and this happened on both JB builds.
But another good news tidbit is that HBO GO was updated to support JB and that was the only thing I was missing since running an ICS rom. And it seems to work perfectly!
So, thanks go out to Maple and pershoot and all the other devs out there that contribute to getting us up to speed. I was just over my dad's house and updated his GTab to ICS for him and all the while I was chuckling because I've been running JellyBean for a while before he even got ICS!

rpoitras said:
I was running MapleSyrup's AOSP JellyBean build for about a week and then switched over to pershoot's CM10. While I found they were very similar I stuck with CM10 because it feels a bit smoother. I had a little issue with a scrambled screen when booting where only for a second or two the screen was rolling but cleared up afterwards. I did not have a rolling recovery screen. I updated the bootloader to the ICS version and it's been great since. I also haven't had any SOD's either when charging overnight or just sitting there.
The only issue which I still have is Youtube HD videos get very choppy and this happened on both JB builds.
But another good news tidbit is that HBO GO was updated to support JB and that was the only thing I was missing since running an ICS rom. And it seems to work perfectly!
So, thanks go out to Maple and pershoot and all the other devs out there that contribute to getting us up to speed. I was just over my dad's house and updated his GTab to ICS for him and all the while I was chuckling because I've been running JellyBean for a while before he even got ICS!
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I am on MapleSyrup's AOSP JellyBean, and you said "updated the bootloader to the ICS version"? I am a little confused. .how do you do that? what the benefit? I am assuming when you said bootloader to ICS version, you meant latest ICS stock?

Recent JB ROMS

In the last couple of days I've had a look at a few different JB ROMs. In fact, at this moment in time I have 4 nandroid backups which are all pretty much fresh installs, except for my most commonly used apps and a couple of small games.
These nandroids are:
1.SLIM BEAN 2.7 with semaphore 2.4.0s
2.HELLY BEAN latest with devil 1.6.1
3.X-BEAN 3.0 with semaphore 2.4.0s
4.TSUNAMI X 2.1 with semaphore 2.4.0s
A couple of months ago there was more noticeable differences with ROMs, but it seems to me that now, performance wise all the bugs are getting ironed out.
IMO any of the above ROMs are worthy of daily use. Slim Bean is my usual, great fast rom, I do wish it was a little prettier though.
Tsunami looks the best visually I think, just little things like colour icons in the settings menus instead of the usual black and white, inverted framework and gapps built in, plus faded wallpaper in app drawer (nova launcher). I know you can do all of that in any ROM yourself bar the coloured menus, but tsunami has all of that built in on install.
Helly Bean was the first JB ROM I used when i upgraded from GB a while ago and I thought it was very good, but in this test it was the only ROM that I had a single problem with, there were a good few times where the screen timed out and switched off as it should but then would not wake up when power button was pressed leaving me no choice but to pull battery and reboot. This was maybe just a problem with my particular installation possibly, maybe a reinstall would have fixed it.
I'm going to spend a few days with each of them again and see how I get on.
I'm not going to benchmark them, I'm not interested in numbers, I'm interested in how they feel to live with.
Things may change if I start filling each one up with apps and data, but performance of each was just the same in terms of UI smoothness.
I shall report back, and go into more detail about functionality differences. Only really first impressions, I've not had the time to go in depth as yet.
But I feel myself being strangely sucked in by tsunami, if its performance holds up as well as slimbean when I start cramming the apps and data on.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

One more thing. Everyone should use pimp my ROM v2. I noticed definite improvements in web page loading speed at least. My pages even on fast WiFi used to do this.
When I clicked 'go', the loading bar would fly up to about a centimetre from the end and the page would look completely loaded.
Then it would sit like that for a second or 2 before it would complete, and let me use the page.
Straight after installing PMR, this delay was gone. I know for sure it was PMR that made the difference because I repeated the problem and fixed it another 3 times when I was installing all the other versions of JB to try them out.
Web pages are much snappier. And if PMR fixed this issue for me, then I trust all of its other tweaks are probably doing some good too.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

I have the same problem you had with your Helly Bean, but it is on my stock 2.3.4 but hell, il go for JB when your finished with your testing .

Zurgix said:
I have the same problem you had with your Helly Bean, but it is on my stock 2.3.4 but hell, il go for JB when your finished with your testing .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remember and back up your efs folder!
You can jump straight from GB to JB missing ICS, but you will have to replace your efs folder with the one that you cleverly backed up Because your phone will lose its IMEI. But it takes 2 secs to copy/paste the folder back...
Otherwise you can go GB/ICS/JB, but its unnecessary if you have your efs backed up.
Many JB ROMs are running super slick and look great, so if I were you I'd be throwing that old mouldy loaf of gingerbread out.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

Okay. Now I've got problems.
I really like slim bean, and I really like tsunami X.
I feel like keeping them both and swapping over week each lol.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

Hmm what is the main diff between those 2 roms :-?

Performance wise i cant tell the difference, they both run super slick. Only because I'm a flashaholic that I tried out some others apart from some I'd seen before.
I'm just kind of starting to lean towards tsunami because the way it looks, without any modding, the way the menus are all set out seems better (opinion), and its also nice that its just 1 file to install, especially with new 2.5, with gmail 4.2 inverted, inverted framework, and inverted new play store with delete from 'my apps' etc all built in on install. No install CM10 first, no install this file and mount this, then install this and do this etc. 1 file. Wipe phone, choose zip, click and done. Also, I've never once had a problem like when you install gapps and have the device not compatible, or any issue with anything in fact.
I just installed it and it all worked. First time.
I love slim too though. I'm thinking of keeping them both as nandroids so I can flick between them.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

Hello,
Well after a long time on carrier stock GB I
took the step and went for CM 9.1 stock first then I flashed Semaphore kernel 1.3.0.
Played around with different settings and, during overclock testing, got in bootloop. Reflashed 9.1 stock then tried again semaphore.
Long story short now I am on CM 10 m2 stock and I love it. Much faster than 9.1 and so far rock solid. Battery time is great.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app