Database Users

encrypted drivers/kernel?

All - following up on a post in AndroidForums which referenced a comment on the root story here. The comment (from Gee):
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember hearing that the drivers/kernel are either encrypted, unusable, or simply unavailable. Meaning that while you can root the Galaxy S and put custom ROMs, you still can’t put unofficial ROMs (like Cyanogen) on it without expecting to break a lot of functionality.
That means that you WONT be putting Froyo on it until Samsung officially releases the ROM which can then later be modified. And if Samsung moves away from the Galaxy S after that update, you’ll never see a fully functioning Gingerbread ROM. Ever. That’s a hard pill for me to swallow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can anyone shed further light on this?

Sounds counter productive. I heard they will be releasing source code. Would be odd if they kept the rest under wraps or took extra measures to prevent access....

Methinks this is definitely worth further investigation. Need some experienced SGS modders to find this thread...

From what I have seen, the drivers are provided in binary form only (which is basically the same as how drivers are provided on Windows). So long as there isn't some code written into the drivers that would prohibit their running on non-official ROMs, there shouldn't be any problem using the drivers in custom ROMs.

I downloaded the entire sourcecode from the samsung website. Its a 150MB zip file and everything is in there in binary form. It must be compiled. I'm certainly not a linux or android dev but it seems like thats what you need. There's even readme.txt files in there to tell you how to build new versions of software.
I'm wondering how long it'll take for someone to put out a custom ROM for the captivate based on 2.2?

Thanks for all the help, but I'm going Chinese

Just wanted to take the time to thank everyone here for all the useful information they provided. I spent a lot of time modifying the GT540, and had a lot of fun with it.
But it's time for an upgrade. I just ordered the Huawei U8800. From what I have read, it's basically a HTC Desire with the next generation processor and a TFT screen. It is also very reasonably priced. The Huawei U8800 recently got it's own section here at XDA, so I'm hoping for lots of development over there.
Also, lots of people in China know about XDA. I've meet a few people at my college in Xi'an, China who use XDA. So if the Chinese modders and developers get to work on the Huawei U8800, I can expect a lot of improvements for the phone.
Thanks everyone for your help.

How much did you buy it for? Does anyone you know have ideos x3? Can you rip the flash player from x3 and share it with us? (Not your model, the lesser x3)
Sent from my GT540 using XDA App

I bought it for 1550 RMB ($240 USD). You can buy them used 1250-1450 RMB ($190-$225 USD). I bought them in China off of TaoBao. I don't know what they cost elsewhere.
I originally wanted an HTC Desire (1900 RMB) or HTC Desire HD(2500 RMB), but they are a bit more expensive here. The U8800 basically gave me the Desire with the Desire HD's processor and GPU, which can be overclock up to 1.8 GHz.
I'll ask around if someone has an X3 (U8510, right?). I'll also ask around at some Chinese Android forums, after I find some. To rip the flash player it I would just copy the apk with root explorer or a back-up program, right? Is there something great about this flash player I should know about?

typci said:
I bought it for 1550 RMB ($240 USD). You can buy them used 1250-1450 RMB ($190-$225 USD). I bought them in China off of TaoBao. I don't know what they cost elsewhere.
I originally wanted an HTC Desire (1900 RMB) or HTC Desire HD(2500 RMB), but they are a bit more expensive here. The U8800 basically gave me the Desire with the Desire HD's processor and GPU, which can be overclock up to 1.8 GHz.
I'll ask around if someone has an X3 (U8510, right?). I'll also ask around at some Chinese Android forums, after I find some. To rip the flash player it I would just copy the apk with root explorer or a back-up program, right? Is there something great about this flash player I should know about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's cool. Congrats with your new phone and do have fun hacking. xD
Ideos X3(U8510) supposedly has a Qualcomm MSM 7227 processor but it also boasts Adobe Flash 10.1. I do not know how this worked out. Qualcomm MSM 7227 is the same processor as in LG GT540. It's ARMv6. Am curious as to how X3 is running Flash 10.1 on ARMv6.
I don't have exact specs from an official source but if what I've heard is true, Flash 10.1 on X3 would work on other ARMv6 devices as well.
(Flash Lite is another alternative but Flash Lite depends on Sense architecture of HTC and would require a lot of tinkering to the ROM. Even after all the hacking, it'd still be Flash Lite and not Flash 10.1.)

I did some quick research on the Huawei U8510. It is quite strange.
Qualcomm MSM7227 600 MHz
256 MB RAM
Android 2.3 Gingerbread
Flash 10.1
How can the X3 it have Android 2.3 when the X5 only has Android 2.2? and with such little ram?
Anyway, leave it to the Chinese to do crazy things like that. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff they put on Chinese phones, and MP5 players (known to the rest of the world as MP4 players).
Knowing the Chinese, they probably put flash on there because they could, not because the phone will run it. You can see that the X3 has the same specifications as the GT540, minus the Android 2.3, so there is no telling if flash is running well.
Here is a link I found through Google for flash 10.1. It says it requires Android 2.2 or above, which the X3 has.
http://www.droid-life.com/2010/08/23/download-official-flash-10-1-v10-1-92-8-for-froyo-now/
I'll still ask some of my Chinese friends if any of them have the X3. I'll also go to the local computer mall and have a look at the X3. However, I wouldn't count on it being any different than the above download. Huawei is supposed to use "vanilla" or almost stock android, with little to no overlay or bloatware. I'd also like to see about porting the Android 2.3 to my X5.

typci said:
I did some quick research on the Huawei U8510. It is quite strange.
Qualcomm MSM7227 600 MHz
256 MB RAM
Android 2.3 Gingerbread
Flash 10.1
How can the X3 it have Android 2.3 when the X5 only has Android 2.2? and with such little ram?
Anyway, leave it to the Chinese to do crazy things like that. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff they put on Chinese phones, and MP5 players (known to the rest of the world as MP4 players).
Knowing the Chinese, they probably put flash on there because they could, not because the phone will run it. You can see that the X3 has the same specifications as the GT540, minus the Android 2.3, so there is no telling if flash is running well.
Here is a link I found through Google for flash 10.1. It says it requires Android 2.2 or above, which the X3 has.
http://www.droid-life.com/2010/08/23/download-official-flash-10-1-v10-1-92-8-for-froyo-now/
I'll still ask some of my Chinese friends if any of them have the X3. I'll also go to the local computer mall and have a look at the X3. However, I wouldn't count on it being any different than the above download. Huawei is supposed to use "vanilla" or almost stock android, with little to no overlay or bloatware. I'd also like to see about porting the Android 2.3 to my X5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
X3 was launched later than X5. That's why it has 2.3. Even G1 runs 2.3 and 3.0. Android has no hard set system requirements. Theoretically, any version of Android can be ported to any device.
The 2.3 doesn't have a lot of advantages over 2.2. The speed gain is very small.
I don't know how they put the Flash 10.1.
Flash 10.1 needs both 2.2/2.3(would work on 2.1 with some tinkering) and a ARMv7(or newer) CPU. The libflashplayer.so is compiled for ARMv7. However, someone who is good in programming could either wrap the libflashplayer.so in an emulation layer or could reverse engineer and recompile it so that it will work on ARMv6. It's not impossible but rather, it's really really hard. No one has done it so far.
Huawei is not exactly a sub-standard Chinese brand. It's a recognized brand. So, I wouldn't expect them to put a Flash Player that wouldn't work. Either the information we have about the CPU is wrong or the phone doesn't have Flash.
Since X5 is vanilla, am also expecting X3 to be vanilla which means, if it does have a working Flash 10.1 and it does run on MSM7227, the Flash 10.1 it has should run on GT540 and many other ARMv6 devices.

From pure curiosity last week I extracted flash 10.2's apk and found that it has a .lib file that could supposively be put in /system/lib with root explorer (permissions rw-r--r--) and install the apk with either push or install. That may work, it did with x-plane flight sim, which crashed before the lib push but after opened but was killed by android for it not having enough memory to run it. I will try it now and report my findings.
I will also post an extracted apk in 3 ways, 7zip, which just opens it, APKTOOL, which decodes the xmls, and dex2jar which takes the classes.dex and puts it into a jar file that can then be decoded by Java decopmiler

Quinny899 said:
From pure curiosity last week I extracted flash 10.2's apk and found that it has a .lib file that could supposively be put in /system/lib with root explorer (permissions rw-r--r--) and install the apk with either push or install. That may work, it did with x-plane flight sim, which crashed before the lib push but after opened but was killed by android for it not having enough memory to run it. I will try it now and report my findings.
I will also post an extracted apk in 3 ways, 7zip, which just opens it, APKTOOL, which decodes the xmls, and dex2jar which takes the classes.dex and puts it into a jar file that can then be decoded by Java decopmiler
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is not with the apks. The problem is with the lib file or more specifically libflashplayer.so. This file depends on ARMv7 architecture. So, if you want Flash 10.1/10.2 on ARMv6, you should be able to decompile the lib(.so) files and edit them to convert ARMv7 dependent code to ARMv6 compatible code and recompile it for ARMv6. Editing the apk is very easy but porting the .so(lib) file is very very hard.

nibras_reeza said:
The problem is not with the apks. The problem is with the lib file or more specifically libflashplayer.so. This file depends on ARMv7 architecture. So, if you want Flash 10.1/10.2 on ARMv6, you should be able to decompile the lib(.so) files and edit them to convert ARMv7 dependent code to ARMv6 compatible code and recompile it for ARMv6. Editing the apk is very easy but porting the .so(lib) file is very very hard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's more than just libflashplayer.so, there's also libstagefright_froyo.so, libstagefright_honeycomb.so and libysshared.so
Sent from my GT540 using XDA App

Quinny899 said:
There's more than just libflashplayer.so, there's also libstagefright_froyo.so, libstagefright_honeycomb.so and libysshared.so
Sent from my GT540 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure about other lib files but libflashplayer.so is the most important. If we can port it, at least Flash 10.1 would work.

I looked into finding a X3, it's most likely going to be pretty difficult. I couldn't find them at China Unicom, which is the store that sells the X5. Also, I couldn't find it online, except for 6 sellers which had it on Taobao. Normally, for any given phone model, there are at least 50-100 different sellers. Also, some of the sellers didn't have the specifications listed for the phone correctly.
Is the X3 officially released? If so, what cellphone provider has it?

typci said:
I looked into finding a X3, it's most likely going to be pretty difficult. I couldn't find them at China Unicom, which is the store that sells the X5. Also, I couldn't find it online, except for 6 sellers which had it on Taobao. Normally, for any given phone model, there are at least 50-100 different sellers. Also, some of the sellers didn't have the specifications listed for the phone correctly.
Is the X3 officially released? If so, what cellphone provider has it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not released in US or Europe. I'm not sure about its official release in China. It was supposed to be released in Japan by SOFTBANK Mobile during the first week of May. I checked the Huawei site as well as SOFTBANK site but I couldn't find any references to X3.
I don't speak Japanese or Chinese without Google Translate. So, if I there is someone who is fluent in Japanese or Chinese, they could do two things,
1) You can contact the seller asking for the official driver/software download link or you can ask them to send you a copy via email. Most of the time, the software has an option to completely re-install the firmware(Recovery Phone in LG Mobile Phone Tools). If we could get hold of the firmware, most likely we would be able to extract the files we need from it.
2) Some of these online shops have a list of other people who bought the device. You could try messaging them for help. You could ask them to make a complete backup of the system.img with YaffsExpert or you could ask them to rip the apks with Root Explorer.
I checked the Engadget Hand-on review and the reviewer say that the device is MSM7227 and does play Flash. However, she also mentioned that the launcher was themed which means it might not be vanilla. Nonetheless, it is Adobe Flash 10.1. If this reaches the devs, they will be more interested in porting it.

I speak and read (for the most part) Chinese, however Google translate does alot to help. Ｉ also live in China.
The seller's on Taobao won't be able to provide software and firmware. They are lucky if they can get the specifications right. Also, I only saw one completed transaction for the X3 on taobao, but my Chinese is nowhere good enough to ask them for a back-up, or explain how to do it.
Huawei's website doesn't have the X3 listed as a model. All I could find about the X3 was the user manual, and an EU Declaration of Conformity.
If I can find the phone in a store, I can bring my laptop and say I want to test out the phone. They'll let me do just about anything, so long as I don't take the phone out of the store, if they think they may make a sale. And since my computer is in English, they won't know what I'm doing.
Right now, I don't think the X3 is released fully. The few sellers that have it on Taobao are most likely insiders. Someone send me a message when the X3 is released in China, and I'll see what I can do.

typci said:
I speak and read (for the most part) Chinese, however Google translate does alot to help. Ｉ also live in China.
The seller's on Taobao won't be able to provide software and firmware. They are lucky if they can get the specifications right. Also, I only saw one completed transaction for the X3 on taobao, but my Chinese is nowhere good enough to ask them for a back-up, or explain how to do it.
Huawei's website doesn't have the X3 listed as a model. All I could find about the X3 was the user manual, and an EU Declaration of Conformity.
If I can find the phone in a store, I can bring my laptop and say I want to test out the phone. They'll let me do just about anything, so long as I don't take the phone out of the store, if they think they may make a sale. And since my computer is in English, they won't know what I'm doing.
Right now, I don't think the X3 is released fully. The few sellers that have it on Taobao are most likely insiders. Someone send me a message when the X3 is released in China, and I'll see what I can do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are lucky, the buyer might know English. xD
Please give me the link to the user guide. It might give us some insight about the specs.
I also learned from a Frash forum that the Adobe Flash 10 beta 1 which was released in a closed beta was ARMv6 compatible. I couldn't find the beta 1 apk anywhere though.
Adobe did work on ARMv6 and armeabi to begin with. They first demoed Flash on G1 but they never released the ARMv6 version. They dropped ARMv6 support because they couldn't improve performance well.
Huawei could be using the older beta or they might have developed their own port.

It seems that I have found an apk which when extracted in 7zip you look in its lib folder and it has only an armeabi folder, whereas the newer ones have a folder called armeabiv7 (arm v7). Perhaps this is what you are looking for?
We still need to do something to it, as it doesn't load flash.
To test whether we have flash go to http://www.codegeek.net/flash-version.php to check whether flash is installed & javascript enabled
The apk is attached
Source

Here you go:
Huawei U8510 X3 user manual
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RTBQ9UFD
And the declaration of conformity is attached.

Quinny899 said:
It seems that I have found an apk which when extracted in 7zip you look in its lib folder and it has only an armeabi folder, whereas the newer ones have a folder called armeabiv7 (arm v7). Perhaps this is what you are looking for?
We still need to do something to it, as it doesn't load flash.
To test whether we have flash go to http://www.codegeek.net/flash-version.php to check whether flash is installed & javascript enabled
The apk is attached
Source
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll check it soon in a while and post back. I extracted and did see armeabi folder but the version in the manifest doesn't seem to be a beta version.
armeabi can be v6 or v7 or generic. But, if it's not mentioned v7 and only armeabi, it most likely means that it could be generic but we do need to check. I'll check it in my phone.

I looked on the Huawei website for the firmware for the X3, and it's not out yet. When it does come out, we should be able to download it and extract out the flash player. It will most likely be the easiest way, since getting an actual X3 phone will be very difficult.

nibras_reeza said:
I'll check it soon in a while and post back. I extracted and did see armeabi folder but the version in the manifest doesn't seem to be a beta version.
armeabi can be v6 or v7 or generic. But, if it's not mentioned v7 and only armeabi, it most likely means that it could be generic but we do need to check. I'll check it in my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Negative. It's not working.

typci said:
I looked on the Huawei website for the firmware for the X3, and it's not out yet. When it does come out, we should be able to download it and extract out the flash player. It will most likely be the easiest way, since getting an actual X3 phone will be very difficult.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true but you know "we are impatient" lol
Huawei might not release the firmware right after the phone is launched. The other thing is, they might not include the Flash Player in the public download link since although Android is Apache Lincensed, Flash Player is a closed and privately owned software by Adobe.

[Q] Making app compatible with older Android version?

I'm new to the forums and a novice programmer but here's my question:
There's an app I'd like to run on my device for work. Per the play store, the app requires Android 2.3.3 and I'm running 2.2.2. I'm running the most recent version of a custom ROM on an outdated device so can't update my device's build.
I'm wondering if it's possible to tweak the app's source code and repackage it to make it run on my device. I have downloaded the .apk file and tried to install it on my phone and get a parsing error. So with the help of google I have managed to get into the source code using dex2jar and jd-gui. Problem is I don't know much about how apks are written. I found something in the 'accessibilityservice' area that seems to check the android build version, but as far as I can tell that is checking for whether the device is running ICS (if build >= 14) whereas the app is said to be compatible with older builds as well.
Anyway - how complicated would it be to port an app backwards so that I could run it on my phone? You should assume that I'm already in over my head.
Thanks.

petegw42 said:
I'm new to the forums and a novice programmer but here's my question:
There's an app I'd like to run on my device for work. Per the play store, the app requires Android 2.3.3 and I'm running 2.2.2. I'm running the most recent version of a custom ROM on an outdated device so can't update my device's build.
I'm wondering if it's possible to tweak the app's source code and repackage it to make it run on my device. I have downloaded the .apk file and tried to install it on my phone and get a parsing error. So with the help of google I have managed to get into the source code using dex2jar and jd-gui. Problem is I don't know much about how apks are written. I found something in the 'accessibilityservice' area that seems to check the android build version, but as far as I can tell that is checking for whether the device is running ICS (if build >= 14) whereas the app is said to be compatible with older builds as well.
Anyway - how complicated would it be to port an app backwards so that I could run it on my phone? You should assume that I'm already in over my head.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A LOT of things changed from pre-2.3 to 2.3 in Android, code-wise. It was a huge upgrade, and a lot of unsupported things were implemented.
It's set to run on 2.3.3 simply because it uses functions that only exist in 2.3.3 and higher.
So to backport it you'd need to get the source code, check what functions require 2.3.3 or higher, edit them to use other functions/write the code yourself. You can't just simply remove the code that checks what version of Android you're running. That won't do a damn thing.
The last part is the near impossible one, because you'd most likely have to write code that goes deep into the Android framework.
If i were you, i'd simply look for another app that can do what you need and doesn't require 2.3.3 or higher. Though there aren't many out there. Most people base their app on 2.3.3 because like 95% or higher use that version (or a higher one).
If you were to dive into this, you'd need extensive knowledge of Android, Java & backporting.
Though i'm not able to help with that, at least the backporting part.

Moonbloom said:
A LOT of things changed from pre-2.3 to 2.3 in Android, code-wise. It was a huge upgrade, and a lot of unsupported things were implemented.
It's set to run on 2.3.3 simply because it uses functions that only exist in 2.3.3 and higher.
So to backport it you'd need to get the source code, check what functions require 2.3.3 or higher, edit them to use other functions/write the code yourself. You can't just simply remove the code that checks what version of Android you're running. That won't do a damn thing.
The last part is the near impossible one, because you'd most likely have to write code that goes deep into the Android framework.
If i were you, i'd simply look for another app that can do what you need and doesn't require 2.3.3 or higher. Though there aren't many out there. Most people base their app on 2.3.3 because like 95% or higher use that version (or a higher one).
If you were to dive into this, you'd need extensive knowledge of Android, Java & backporting.
Though i'm not able to help with that, at least the backporting part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the very helpful information. I will definitely not be attempting this.
Most likely will be getting a newer phone in a few months when I'm due for an upgrade so it'll be a moot point. Until then, I'll get by.

[Q] Galaxy s4 I9505 with Google edition andriod

Hello guys, i just have a (few) question(s)
So, last week i installed Google Edition Andriod Kitkat 4.4.4 on my galaxy S4 I9505.
This rom is till now, still amazing, fast and better than touchwiz in any way. But i can't seem to find on the internet how and which version of xposed framework i need to install, since it is per model (i think?) which model do i choose?
since i have a Galay S4 but my rom is not from a galaxy S4, i get confused which one i have to install.
Some links to downloads would be great!
Thanks in advance
Dylan

dylanbos1996 said:
Hello guys, i just have a (few) question(s)
So, last week i installed Google Edition Andriod Kitkat 4.4.4 on my galaxy S4 I9505.
This rom is till now, still amazing, fast and better than touchwiz in any way. But i can't seem to find on the internet how and which version of xposed framework i need to install, since it is per model (i think?) which model do i choose?
since i have a Galay S4 but my rom is not from a galaxy S4, i get confused which one i have to install.
Some links to downloads would be great!
Thanks in advance
Dylan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi mate
Basically it works in any android 4.0 + base rom device see from one of his threads
For which devices/ROMs does it work?
I develop the Xposed framework based on the AOSP sources. I'm personally using CM10.2 on an I9100 (Samsung Galaxy S2, bought in Germany). Basically, it should work on any phone which with a ROM based on Android 4.0 or later and an ARM or x86 processor (this is the processor architecture, almost all smart phones and tablets have either of those). Exceptions might be ROMs which are different from the original Android code in some very internal, central code parts (which don't need to be touched for most theming and enhancement modifications). But this is related to the ROM, not the phone itself.
The modules target higher-level code, so they are more likely to be incompatible with your ROM. Basically, the question is whether the methods and resources which the module modifies are similar on your ROM and on the developer's ROM. Let's say a module needs to modify the result of a certain method call. For this, it needs to specify the exact name and parameters that identify that method. If the in your ROM, an additional parameter has been added, the module can't find the method anymore and won't work. If the method can still be found, it will probably work (unless the rest of the app/ROM has changed too much).
There is not definite answer whether it will work. Just try it (of course, making a nandroid backup before is never a bad idea). If it doesn't work, just disable the module. You might want to inform the module developer (not me!) about this fact and provide details (e.g. a logcat and/or the content of /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/log/debug.log).
Try with latest 2.6.1
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/xposed-faq-issues-t2735540
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/xposed-installer-versions-changelog-t2714053

Thank You!
MAX 404 said:
Hi mate
Basically it works in any android 4.0 + base rom device see from one of his threads
For which devices/ROMs does it work?
I develop the Xposed framework based on the AOSP sources. I'm personally using CM10.2 on an I9100 (Samsung Galaxy S2, bought in Germany). Basically, it should work on any phone which with a ROM based on Android 4.0 or later and an ARM or x86 processor (this is the processor architecture, almost all smart phones and tablets have either of those). Exceptions might be ROMs which are different from the original Android code in some very internal, central code parts (which don't need to be touched for most theming and enhancement modifications). But this is related to the ROM, not the phone itself.
The modules target higher-level code, so they are more likely to be incompatible with your ROM. Basically, the question is whether the methods and resources which the module modifies are similar on your ROM and on the developer's ROM. Let's say a module needs to modify the result of a certain method call. For this, it needs to specify the exact name and parameters that identify that method. If the in your ROM, an additional parameter has been added, the module can't find the method anymore and won't work. If the method can still be found, it will probably work (unless the rest of the app/ROM has changed too much).
There is not definite answer whether it will work. Just try it (of course, making a nandroid backup before is never a bad idea). If it doesn't work, just disable the module. You might want to inform the module developer (not me!) about this fact and provide details (e.g. a logcat and/or the content of /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/log/debug.log).
Try with latest 2.6.1
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/xposed-faq-issues-t2735540
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/xposed-installer-versions-changelog-t2714053
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for your help. I think it is pretty clear for me now.
Dylan

dylanbos1996 said:
Thank you so much for your help. I think it is pretty clear for me now.
Dylan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any time mate.

Beginner question - how to start?

Hi,
It will probably take some time until I'll get my phone, but I am trying to understand how to start.
I am OK with having only English on my phone, but I would prefer to have a clean and bloat free rom that has the GAPPS and that can get OTA updates.
I want to do the minimum needed to get this, I really don't want to change roms every other week.
How should I start? I am a bit lost.
Is the Chinese rom that bad?
Should I change the rom and root it?
Thanks in advance,
Asaf

I think this should be in the Q&A forum
It sounds like you want a stable ROM with Gapps. Xiaomi offer several ROM types. If you want Gapps included from the start, you want their stable international ROM. The trouble is that at the moment they don't do one for the XRN2 yet. Head over to en.miui.com, pick a phone that has been around for longer and in the download section for that device you will see the different ROM types (there are tabs at the top of each phone section). There are also a couple of great explanatory pages in their forum that guide you through the different ROM types.

Use the xiaomi.eu ROM. Multilanguage, clean and with Gapps. OTA also included
Sent from my Redmi Note 2 using Tapatalk

First, get TWRP installed in your phone.
Then flash a stable rom
At the end, install proper gapp using TWRP.

Thanks.
So
1. Install TWRP, will this link should be enough to install it? http://en.miui.com/thread-156838-1-1.html
2. Go to http://xiaomi.eu --> ROMs DOWNLOAD and take the DOWNLOAD WEEKLY rom (http://miuif.celogeek.com/5.9.10/xiaomi.eu_multi_hermes_5.9.11_v7-5.0.zip)?

shemsha said:
Thanks.
So
1. Install TWRP, will this link should be enough to install it? http://en.miui.com/thread-156838-1-1.html
2. Go to http://xiaomi.eu --> ROMs DOWNLOAD and take the DOWNLOAD WEEKLY rom (http://miuif.celogeek.com/5.9.10/xiaomi.eu_multi_hermes_5.9.11_v7-5.0.zip)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BUT, you said you don't want to have to flash a new ROM every week. The xiaomi.EU weekly ROMs are a beta ROM, they are not the same as the 'stable' ROM. I'm using the weekly version just fine, but there are a few bugs. This ROM may or may not suit your needs. Please be aware of that As soon as Xiaomi release the official stable International ROM with Gapps, that's the one you want (based on your stated requirements).

Thanks
So perhaps I'll wait, hopefully it will come up soon enough.
Hope the Chinese rom isn't too bad...

shemsha said:
Thanks
So perhaps I'll wait, hopefully it will come up soon enough.
Hope the Chinese rom isn't too bad...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first ROM I flashed was the stable ROM from MIUI.com. At the moment this is available as Chinese only (with only Chinese and English languages on board). It is also MIUI version 6 not 7. You do not need TWRP installed to flash this. You can just download it straight to internal storage, then use the Xiaomi updater app (which is already on the phone) to manually flash it. This ROM is not rooted.
Next I tried the weekly ROM from MIUI.com. At that point I incorrectly thought that it would be multi language, but it wasn't. It did at least have MIUI 7 on board though. TWRP is also not needed to flash this. This ROM is rooted. Root settings can be accessed via the Security app. You can also install SuperSU, grant it root access, then use it to control the root access of other apps if you wish. There are no Google apps on board. I was on n holiday at the time so I manually placed all the relevant files, set permissions and so on using ES File explorer that I side loaded and granted root privileges to. Yes, my girlfriend thought it was very romantic of me to spend a whole evening split between doing this and hunting some particularly aggressive mosquitoes trapped in our room. Only the best for my love.
Finally I downloaded the latest weekly (not stable) ROM from from Xiaomi.EU. As well as being a beta, it is not an official Xiaomi ROM. They do also have a stable ROM in offer, but it is not rooted. Basic Google apps are installed. TWRP is not needed here either. However, I installed it briefly to make a full backup of my phone, and a separate backup of the NVRAM portion of the device where the IMEI resides. Experience tells me this is important on an MTK phone in case the area becomes corrupt during an incorrect flash. You can also use SPFlash Tools to do this from a computer. Google the process, it's well worth being prepared. Damian Parsons over on GizBeat and China Phone Arena has done some useful tutorials with videos. Make sure you have the right version of SPFlash tools (which is not the same as MTKdroidtools -or something like that). I have only used a couple of times with my first two MTK phones so I don't know what version you need to use with this chipset.
For my purposes NONE of these ROMs actually fit the bill. Why? Because none of them so far allow me to select UK English as the default language or select the UK as the region I'm in. It's a small thing, but the last three Chinese phones I've had all suffered from the same problem. I end up rooting and using More Locales app to create a new default language code over and above selecting UK English in Google keyboard.
Once Xiaomi release an official global ROM the download page for the Note 2 will look like in the attached screenshot which shows the Mi4 page. Note the two tabs at the top, global and Chinese, in addition to the 'stable' and 'developer' sections down the left hand side.
Please somebody correct me if I'm wrong because I'm new to Xiaomi devices

Thanks for the detailed response.
Sounds like that for my purposes, and until an official rom is out, the easiest option is either the latest weekly or stable from xiaomi.eu.
I understand they can be installed using xiaomi updater as well?

Yes, you can install them the same way as official ROMs.

shemsha said:
Thanks for the detailed response.
Sounds like that for my purposes, and until an official rom is out, the easiest option is either the latest weekly or stable from xiaomi.eu.
I understand they can be installed using xiaomi updater as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, when I received my phone there was a lot of non-MIUI related bloatware and possibly malware on board. It was multi language (with UK English as a built in option) but it all felt wrong, slow and dodgy. Reading elsewhere it was recommended the best thing to do was flash a ROM from a PC using the fastboot method to erase everything, then start from there. There are fastboot ROMs with instructions on the en.miui.com site. If you think you need to, you could flash via fastboot, then download your subsequent choice of ROM from xiaomi.EU and flash that however you please. As I was away (and impatient) I didn't do the first flash via fastboot. I just did a full wipe from the stock recovery, then put a ROM into internal memory, then flashed it from the stock recovery, then factory reset again. No idea if that was sufficient, but there's no sign of the extra apps any more.

You don't need TWRP
Sent from my Redmi Note 2 using Tapatalk

Ouzo said:
I installed it briefly to make a full backup of my phone, and a separate backup of the NVRAM portion of the device where the IMEI resides. Experience tells me this is important on an MTK phone in case the area becomes corrupt during an incorrect flash. You can also use SPFlash Tools to do this from a computer. Google the process, it's well worth being prepared. Damian Parsons over on GizBeat and China Phone Arena has done some useful tutorials with videos. Make sure you have the right version of SPFlash tools (which is not the same as MTKdroidtools -or something like that). I have only used a couple of times with my first two MTK phones so I don't know what version you need to use with this chipset.
For my purposes NONE of these ROMs actually fit the bill. Why? Because none of them so far allow me to select UK English as the default language or select the UK as the region I'm in. It's a small thing, but the last three Chinese phones I've had all suffered from the same problem. I end up rooting and using More Locales app to create a new default language code over and above selecting UK English in Google keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info, this is great for me. I will follow what you said regarding backing up this NVRAM you speak of, as I just read that the source code for the Helios X10 has been released, so we can expect more people including members of the HTC M9+ forum playing around with code.
It would be nice to have an option for UK English (or Australian English for me, to be precise) however I haven't noticed much of a difference, maybe because I have Swiftkey installed and that already has the correct language setting.

zan5hin said:
Thanks for the info, this is great for me. I will follow what you said regarding backing up this NVRAM you speak of, as I just read that the source code for the Helios X10 has been released, so we can expect more people including members of the HTC M9+ forum playing around with code.
It would be nice to have an option for UK English (or Australian English for me, to be precise) however I haven't noticed much of a difference, maybe because I have Swiftkey installed and that already has the correct language setting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Changing the language to UK English is only part of the problem for me. Basically the phone thinks I'm in the U.S, or rather, that I have a U.S phone in the UK. This can cause problems within apps that want tailor content to my region code (or even deny me content). I've tried editing the build.prop a little, but it doesn't seem to help.
Mobile Uncle tools (free in Play Store) used to be able to back up one's IMEI number, but it didn't work on this phone. Dunno if that's because it runs lollipop. Anyway, that's why TWRP was handy and I will try using SPFlashTools again at some point.