Database Users

Kernel Reviews

I'm a noob here, but I'm a quick learner.
A month ago I rooted my AMOLED DInc. Initially I trimmed a bunch of bloat in an effort to extend my battery life a bit. It worked a bit, so I moved on to trying new ROMs. My first was CM 7.0.3. I quickly came to discover that I greatly prefer Sense.
My next step was to try a new kernel. I was disappointed by the lack of information regarding the strengths and weaknesses of kernels, so I have decided to take it upon myself to discover and share the information.
So here's my setup: I have an HTC Droid Incredible that I purchased directly from Verizon just a few days after it was introduced, so I have the AMOLED screen. I also have a 1750 mAh Seidio battery that I've been using since the beginning. If I don't use the phone much I can get more than 24 hours out of it. Light to moderate use takes that time down to 12 to 16 hours, while moderate to heavy use takes that time down further to 8 to 12 hours.
My typical daily usage pattern is as follows: 45 to 60 minutes streaming 128k MP3s over wi-fi, 60 minutes of news reading (Engadget app and Pulse reader) via EV-DO, K9 mail checking one email account every 15 minutes, 10 to 50 text messages daily, virtually no voice usage, using the Facebook app for up to 5 minutes every hour, updating the clock/weather widget once an hour, casual gaming for up to 45 minutes, and brightness at 20% most of the time but sometimes 50% or 100% depending on if I go outside. I get one or two bars of signal at work eight hours a day and two or three bars at home the rest of the time.
And thus, I set out on my journey to improve battery life...
I quickly discovered that I should stay away from AOSP kernels because I'm sticking with my rooted stock Sense. And I need only two point multi-touch since if I'm gaming it's nothing more that casual games or Angry Birds, but I have to have pinch-to-zoom. I searched for kernel suggestions and settled on three seemingly common and popular choices: HeyitsLou #9, incredikernel, and Ziggy471. After settling on trying these kernels, I devised a strategy to compare them using similar methodology.
While it may not be a perfect set-up this is how I am choosing to compare: I use ROM Manager to wipe the cache, the dalvik cache, and battery statistics. Then I apply the kernel and completely charge the phone. I use the phone just a little bit more than usual to take the battery down to 10% charge or less and then charge it fully. After that, I use the phone like normal but pay attention to how it's working. I use the kernel for a minimum of 48 hours and see how it goes.
My first choice in kernels was HeyitsLou #9. I was amazed at how well this kernel manages idle time. My stock phone usually loses about 10% idling overnight. With Lou #9 that number was down to 5 or 6%. Nice. #9 also seems to do a decent job of throttling the processor when engaging in simple tasks. I was able to get a bit more than 24 hours of moderate to heavy use under this kernel. My biggest disappointment, though, was how unresponsive to my touch the screen became. I initially thought I might have damaged my phone. Once I got used to it, it wasn't so bad. But the kernel definitely made me not want to use the phone much because it was so unresponsive and does such a great job at idling. I'm sure Lou took a lot of time on this kernel, but it clearly is not for me. Your mileage may vary.
Right now I'm trying incredikernel, version 2.6.32.27. I'll update this thread once my review is complete. After that, I will be trying Ziggy471 Droid Incredible (Sense) 4 Nov. If there are any other kernels you might like me to try, please make suggestions here. Just please remember my stated goal of extending battery life under rooted stock Sense.
More Later

That stock image is more likely killing more of your phone. Have you considered trying the modified Sense-based ROMs? These generally would more likely help you find better battery life over the extremely limited kernel selection for Sense-Based ROMs. I personally prefer SR4/desensitized.
Also, why wouldn't you want to try one of Ziggy's newer kernels? He is the only active(and not so much now) Sense-based kernel dev. His last release was from Apil 10th. Have you read up on the differences between schedulers used in said kernels(BFS vs CFS) or voltage management(SVS or HAVS)?
Since you're rooted and using the stock, have you tried SetCPU to adjust CPU settings?

If I try a Sense-based ROM, SkyRaider 4 is definitely the one I would go with (I already downloaded it). My only issue is that since I have my phone set up the way I want it, with certain apps and a particular layout, I don't want to lose that. I suppose Titanium Backup could help with that, huh?
And my only real dissatisfaction with CM7 was that it was too difficult to get my apps back. Would Titanium Backup help with that? I also downloaded the Google apps pack for CM7 but don't know what to do with it. I guess I just didn't try hard enough to put it all together.
As far as SetCpu goes, I'd rather try a kernel that does it for me than root around tweaking like that. Maybe that means I'm lazy...
I'll look around for other, newer kernels too.
Thanks.
p.s. so far I like this incredikernel. Just as responsive as stock but a bit more careful with power management.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

I have been using CM7 and Chad's kernels for a while now. It takes a little time to get everything arranged the way you want them but it is well worth it. My phone easily goes for 24+ hours without needing a charge. I am a relatively light user but the combination of CM7 and Chad's kernels has much improved my battery life.

Increikernel seems to be better than stock at just about everything. True, it's not quite as good at managing idle power usage as HeyitsLou #9, but incredikernel is much more responsive for me. The battery life gain was minimal, but still noticeable. I liked this kernel enough I backed up the ROM so that if anything weird happens it is what I will be reverting to.
Now I'm on to Ziggy471, version 24 Nov. While it may not be the newest one, this is the newest one I could find for my phone.
I'm starting to research how to use Titanium Backup, since the only thing holding me back from trying ROMs is my unwillingness to lose the way my phone is set up. If I could get all my apps and the Android Market and Amazon Appstore on CM7, I would be willing to give it another try...

The Ziggy kernel seems to me about as good as stock. It has excellent responsiveness, but the battery life for me was not quite good enough.
I went back with Incredikernel. Now I'm researching how to use Titanium Backup so I can move on to trying SkyRaider 4.
Right now the biggest issue stopping me from trying CM7 is not knowing how to flash Google apps back onto the phone. I've read that all I have to do is install the zip from my SD card using Clockworkmod Recovery, but do so without wiping anything. Is this correct?
And does SkyRaider 4 come with the Android Market installed or would I have to do something similar?
Thanks

So, I love Titanium Backup (totally worth getting the paid version in my book). You can certainly back up and restore the apps with it (though you won't be able to run Sense apps on AOSP), but restoring app data across different ROMs is generally ill-advised. So you'll lose settings and game progress and the like. Which, frankly, was kind of a good thing for me--the fact that I was trying different ROMs meant I stopped spending so much time playing games on my phone. TB has actually also resulted in my keeping a cleaner phone--since I can back things up and restore them if I need them, I can freeze or uninstall them.
I liked SR4, but I have to say, after spending time on CM7, about the only thing I miss from Sense is the dialer. It does take a bit of time to get things set up just so, but I agree that it's worth it. In terms of getting google apps on the phone, I personally just used ROM Manager to install CM7 and added the Google Apps package, but some people have trouble with ROM Manager. The short answer is that when you wipe and flash CM7 in recovery, then yes, you just also flash the Google Apps zip file, like you would flash anything else, and you should be set.
If/when you do check out CM7 again? The newest versions of Incredikernel are very nice. Chad is in the process of beta testing a new release, but like the 4/19, it's only for AOSP ROMs.
In any case, kudos for the systematic testing. I'll probably keep an eye on this thread.

liteon163 said:
If I try a Sense-based ROM, SkyRaider 4 is definitely the one I would go with (I already downloaded it). My only issue is that since I have my phone set up the way I want it, with certain apps and a particular layout, I don't want to lose that. I suppose Titanium Backup could help with that, huh?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, TB only backs up your apps, you will need to setup your homescreens again. Some aftermarket launchers, like LauncherPro, have the option to save and restore your homescreens but it cannot do widgets, which make it generally useless in my case.

hey im sorta a newb as well and have a question. i have cm7 and chad's latest kernal beta 11. what cpu settings (max/low)/other settings do you reccomend to get great battery life??
thx a bunch!

Oh, I don't mind having to set up my shortcuts and such. I just don't want to have to download all of my apps again, especially the paid apps I got for free from the Amazon Appstore.
It sounds like TB should be able to help with that. I'm trying to be very careful with how I proceed so I can give each ROM I try a decent chance for success. And I'm starting to realize that the only Sense app I can't do without is the clock/weather widget. There are other similar apps available for free, so I just need to reassure myself that it's OK to try new ROMs (especially since it's so easy to revert to my current setup).
All I really need to do is poke around some more and talk myself into just doing it. And the encouragement here really helps. Thanks guys.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

I'd recommend doing a restore of apps only, no app or system data. Do a backup before in case you run into any issues. I could be wrong but I thought even restoring apps via TiBU might be a little dicey when going from sense to aosp (especially froyo to gingerbread).
As for the HTC flip clock I felt the same way when I went to aosp and I'd recommend fancy widget pro. There's an HTC skin you can download that looks IDENTICAL to the actual HTC clock.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Does anyone have good feedback on using a custom kernel for any of the new GB Sense roms? I think most of these come with their own roms, but I'd like to hear about any other suggestions.

This morning I took the leap back into CM7 again. The ROM installed with no issues. The Google apps pack installed with no issues. I was feeling good about trying it again... then I tried restoring apps (only) using Titanium Backup.
Something clearly wasn't working correctly, since it took 20+ minutes to restore only three out of 76 apps.
I powered down and then installed SkyRaider 4. It went quite smoothly. I was able to restore 77 apps in about 45 minutes. It worked great. But then I started poking around in the phone. Most of the crap I removed from my rooted stock Sense ROM was back on the phone. Aaargh!
I restored my backup from earlier this morning (right before I started) and I'm going to be giving this ROM business a break for awhile. I'll see what happens around here once the official Gingerbread OTA update from HTC hits.
It seems that the root of my problem (pun intended) is that I'm simply not patient enough when setting up my phone. And I'm a bit lazy in that I don't want to have to re-download all my apps from the Android Market if TB doesn't work for me.
So until I promise myself to give a new ROM a fair chance, I'll just stick with my rooted 2.2 stock Sense ROM with incredikernel.
I'm open to suggestions on how to simplify this whole process though, guys.
More Later
p.s. what's this business about radios, and which ones are best?

I found some other kernels I'd like to try out: KiNgxKernel and Order. I downloaded Order and will try it in a few days but I can't find anywhere to get KiNgxKernels. ANd can anyone help me find a hydrakernel?
Thanks

i understand you say you prefer sense, but i really encourage you to try MIUI. i have tried them ALL and this has by far been the best. better than CM7 in my opinion. using chad's latest kernel, battery life is more than excellent. the level of customization is as good as or better than CM7. i mean, you can always revert back, but if you give it a few days, you more than likely will be thanking me. you can find the download in the "development" section...sorry, i'm too tired to post the link. but go for it!

I've taken a look at a lot of ROMs over the last month. My issue with MIUI is that it looks too much like an iOS port. Reading a review of MIUI over at Android Central reinforced this impression. If I wanted an iPhone, I would have gotten one.
Living with Sense for the last year, I am used to it and how it works. I don't want to switch ROMs and have to download my apps again. I know Titanium Backup works for this, but it sure sucked when trying to switch to CM7. It worked great for switching to SkyRaider 4, but that ROM brought back a lot of the bloat I got rid of in the first place. When I really think about it, though, I don't use any Sense features -- no widgets, no apps, nothing but the clock/weather widget (an alternative to which I can easily find in the Android Market). But I'm thinking switching to a new ROM and having to spend a few days getting everything set up again just isn't worth my time and effort, especially when my current setup works better now that I've rooted it.
I know I just sound lazy and/or complacent, but at this point I think I will just stick with trying new kernels.

miui is an ios look alike with its stock launcher. install some other launcher and youll have an awesome rom.

Unfortunately there isn't any active development as far as sense kernels go..

^there's obviously a reason for that..

ive been using chad's incredikernel and would just like to say it is pure awesome. My battery life is greatly improved, especially usage while idle. The general UI snappiness is also excellent. Highly recommended and the dev is very responsive.

Looking for stable ICS ROM as daily driver

Hi guys,
I've been a longtime lurker here, and avid Android fan for sometime now every since I purchased my Nexus One. I've used CM and MiUI and all, but now am looking for a stable ICS ROM which can be used as a daily use ROM with ICS.
I'm currently on MiUI 2.3.2 (tried 2.3.9 but it seems to really be very unstable for me) which seems to work fine if not for the random reboots and errors from time to time, not to mention I can't seem to get the SD to mount when the cable's connected to my PC.
Long story short, which ROM would you guys recommend? I'd love to have CM, but since they're not supporting ICS versions for the N1, I'd have to live with others.
(if I'm just repeating earlier threads, please feel free to point me there and perhaps we can close this thread)
Thanks!

TexasIce or MeDroid
Both roms are in an alpha stage but quite stable and good enough as a daily driver for weeks now.
Medroid:
- More "Cyanogen"
- A bit faster and a bit more stable (imho)
TexasIce:
- "vanilla experience"
- Awesome kernel work

Thanks Pommes.
I was leaning towards Medroid myself, but seems like there's some controversy/drama going on there with the dev, and was wondering about the continuity of it.
As I've not blackrose-d my Nexus One, I'd assume that's something I'd have to do first, yeah? I've no need to be bleeding edge in terms of updates, but just would like to have my phone being able to update and not random reboot from performing any number of things.

Samuaz's laptop is dead and zyrex tried to sell the ROM, but Samuaz later posted the link to download it. Mods have locked all of his ICS threads, even the medroid discussion thread I created. The future of that ROm is very dim, but Timbit (and possibly Zyrex) try their best to continue its development here: http://code.google.com/p/nexusone-medroid-ics/downloads/list
dk_zero-cool is a notable developer for the HTC Bravo (Desire) and has made a very good ICS ROM for it. It seems to be based on CM9. He doesn't have a Nexus One to develop on, but since the Desire and Nexus One are practically twins, it shouldn't differ that much.
Texasice is another development god when it comes to bringing ICS for us in his/evervolv team's version. It's not stock ICS or CM9, it's their "remix" of it which looks really nice.
As far as I'm concerned, these are all daily drivers, depending on what you need for a days use of your Nexus One. If you absolutely must have a fully working camera, then none of these ROMs are daily drivers for you. If you accept that there are bugs and that the camera isn't working 100%, then all of these are daily drivers. I personally recommend either texasice's version or dk_zero-cool's version.

I saw dk zero's so smooth and working camera preview now
Sent from my ICS Nexus One

There's also MIUI ICS that's stable enough. Haven't yet flashed camera fix patch recently released upon that rom, but I heard it can fix camera preview too.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1479348
Sent from my Nexus One

d3adbroke said:
I saw dk zero's so smooth and working camera preview now
Sent from my ICS Nexus One
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this feedback, trying to flash dk zero's version now, having to Blackrose my device first which mean I have to flash a non ICS version as I can't USB mount my phone.
Quite an adventure just to have to work around as I had did a full phone wipe and lost my recovery in the process, in addition to MiUI reset wipe which seemed to have hung and I had to remove the batt to get it restarted.
Just set the custom blackrose partitions and hopefully can start flashing dkZero's version with hopefully a working camera preview as you've mentioned!

MoeNeXus said:
There's also MIUI ICS that's stable enough. Haven't yet flashed camera fix patch recently released upon that rom, but I heard it can fix camera preview too.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1479348
Sent from my Nexus One
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the update, however after all the issues I've had with MiUI the last week or so and then switching from 2.3.2 to 2.3.9 and having to restore back to 2.3.2 as the latter was too messed up on my device, I think I'd rather wait till there's a more advanced RC or stable version before attempting to flash it again.
Not to mention, I'd forgotten why I'd shy-ed away from MiUI in the past, too iPhone-ish of a UI (yeah a change of launcher might help, but I'll give this other ROM a try)

I've been using medroidmod daily - however the microphone isn't working anymore (for the past two days) - so I'm struggling to rebuild it.
I have so far been unable to get Bravo ICS to install. I have blackrose with 16mb cache partition, and m2sd packaged with Bravo is not redirecting it to SD no matter what i do, and 16 is not enough for ICS.
At this point i am tempted to go to CyanogenMod 7.2 - daily struggle with ICS is wearing me out.

DK's is AWESOME....best ICS for N1 and its not close.....super smooth and great battery

secondclaw said:
I've been using medroidmod daily - however the microphone isn't working anymore (for the past two days) - so I'm struggling to rebuild it.
I have so far been unable to get Bravo ICS to install. I have blackrose with 16mb cache partition, and m2sd packaged with Bravo is not redirecting it to SD no matter what i do, and 16 is not enough for ICS.
At this point i am tempted to go to CyanogenMod 7.2 - daily struggle with ICS is wearing me out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of all the ICS I think texasice rom is good one as its stable but as theshawty mentioned it gives vanilla experience. DK's rom is more inclined to CM9 and its just cool. Got into bootloop initially but after tweaking settings in memory management, I dont get any reboots. Battery is good and rom is smooth. You can try dk IMHO.

If you want something stable, do NOT use ICS. Simple.

Ive used both medroid and bravo, I think medroid 1.4.2 was very stable with alot of customization, I didn't personally have problems with the mic but I know others did, and Ive also used Bravo so far it has been fantastic for me so far, the dev behind it aswell is very responsive and gets things fixed quickly, the only draw back is the lack of customization between bravo and medroid, I just feel like i'm missing 80% of the options and tweeks i'm able to do with bravo.

Androidity3000 said:
If you want something stable, do NOT use ICS. Simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, texasice's ICS and dk's are surprisingly stable.

Medroid 1.44 is smoth and stable. It already includes the last camera fix and a few other updates.

Non-HWA ICS Roms where always stable for me.
On HWA Roms I always had sleep of dead issues(phone freezing a few times a day), but I'm running Medroid 1.4.3(with camera preview fix flashed) now for a few days without problems.
HWA uses a lot of memory, so that could be a problem in the long run.

Androidity3000 said:
If you want something stable, do NOT use ICS. Simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I was on CM7.1 for what seems like an eternity (used to switch ROMs quite frequently at one point) but figured its time to test drive some ICS stuff and as long as it isn't constantly random rebooting, and crashing. Its stable enough for me!
altruistic666 said:
DK's rom is more inclined to CM9 and its just cool. Got into bootloop initially but after tweaking settings in memory management, I dont get any reboots. Battery is good and rom is smooth. You can try dk IMHO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, trying to get dk's ROM installed on my N1, just having to work through some issues I'm facing which is messing up with the install.

You should use 4ext, then you don't have any install problems.
Bud I had problem s after recover all my apps. Only dalvik and cache wipe has cleard this problems (endless boot without cache wipe?!)
BCM is very smoth but without the stock email app (i need exchange for my job) it is not realy usable. After install it (stok email app, not gmail), i had a huge battery drain. Charge via USB was not possible (whats wrong!!!), battery is discharging...
Then I went back to medroid 1.44. Medroid is not so smoth like BCM (why not???) but with Nova Louncher (not with stock) it runs very well. The best ist ScreenState works realy but you have for both cases set the CPU governor to SMARTASSV2 (or onother stats but whitout ondemand, that is very bad)
BCm is very very smoth, like CM7, but batterie drain on my phone was frightening!
An other problem is wlan, higher than channel 11 seems not to work (i had test channel 12 to 13, channel 9 does not work also, all othed channels are busy)
PS. I have unfortunately not possible to post in the corresponding post.

bin12345 said:
You should use 4ext, then you don't have any install problems.
Bud I had problem s after recover all my apps. Only dalvik and cache wipe has cleard this problems (endless boot without cache wipe?!)
BCM is very smoth but without the stock email app (i need exchange for my job) it is not realy usable. After install it (stok email app, not gmail), i had a huge battery drain. Charge via USB was not possible (whats wrong!!!), battery is discharging...
Then I went back to medroid 1.44. Medroid is not so smoth like BCM (why not???) but with Nova Louncher (not with stock) it runs very well. The best ist ScreenState works realy but you have for both cases set the CPU governor to SMARTASSV2 (or onother stats but whitout ondemand, that is very bad)
BCm is very very smoth, like CM7, but batterie drain on my phone was frightening!
An other problem is wlan, higher than channel 11 seems not to work (i had test channel 12 to 13, channel 9 does not work also, all othed channels are busy)
PS. I have unfortunately not possible to post in the corresponding post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a fix for battery drain in BCM ROM. Review this post for a file FOTA kill http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=23951371&postcount=202

TexasICE's ICS ROM is the most stable, there is a camera patch floating around. You may flash both of them and enjoy ICS without missing any feature.

[Q] stock google rom vs LiquidSmooth

Hey,
I just wanted to ask does the custom roms really worth rooting? in comparison to the google stock rom how much faster and more battery efficient are the custom rom that specialize in those fields? (i.e. LiquidSmooth from what I could gather) and how much more/less stable are they from the stock rom?
Thank you.

Experience differs from user to user. The most conclusive way to get an answer is to try it out yourself. For me, PA has been just as fast as the stock ROM and had equally good battery life, but I have had the occasional random reboot. To me that's a miniscule trade-off for the features you get. You won't really get a ROM that's significantly faster than a stock ROM though because the hardware on the phone is good enough that everything feels fast.

tomer90 said:
Hey,
I just wanted to ask does the custom roms really worth rooting? in comparison to the google stock rom how much faster and more battery efficient are the custom rom that specialize in those fields? (i.e. LiquidSmooth from what I could gather) and how much more/less stable are they from the stock rom?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would recommend you try both and stick with the one that works best for you. Only you can determine which one you like more. The N4 is easy to install a custom rom on (even from stock). Plus with the backup apps out there you don't have to risk losing your data and starting over. No two users are identical and what works for one may not work for another.
For what it's worth, I've flashed back to stock/locked/unrooted because I never came to depend on the features the different roms gave me. I'm getting older and don't have the time to stay current on the different roms and features. All I need for my phone are apps/features that are found in the stock rom and the google store. Battery life is better on a custom rom but it's not worth it to me to continue my "flashaholic" ways. I still get through a day sometimes a day and a half on the stock rom - which is all I need. My use case could be drastically different than yours so don't do what I did unless you know it will work for you.
The developers here do great work and it's a great community so I would recommend you try them all to see which one you like the most.
Good luck.

You need to find the answer yourself.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3 using tapatalk 2

its not about me testing for myself because i'm not looking for features or special stuff i can get along with everything i'm really just looking for the fastest most battery saving ROM, thats it, I play little to almost no games basicly mail and scanning and stuff like that(i'm a student right now) and soon i'll be writing some apps for myself for security purposes so I need something to really milk that Quad Core for all its worth so I also need some CPU tweaking apps(not sure if thats ROM related)

You'll be very happy with Sabermod or Rasbean both close to stock. Sabermod is the only Rom built using the 4.8 chaintool and is very fast. The battery life is also excellent. I recommend those 2 for a close to stock experience with some useful tweaks both fast smooth and solid.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Thank you for your input.
Any other opinions?
and by the way, excuse my ignorance but what does it mean 4.8 chaintool? what makes it faster then the 4.7 or the older ones? and since its really new im guessing, does it mean its less stable then the other ROMS? and when you say excellent battery life, its in comparison to all those other ROMS that aim for max battery life?
Thank you!

If you really want more battery life or smoothness then IMO you should just install a new kernel; Franco's kernel has great battery life but it still has better performance than stock, Trinity kernel is super fast and smooth, and there's loads more options available.
I'm running CM10.1 and Franco kernel and its very stable, barely ever have any sort of bugs or random reboots
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

I run CM10.1. Close to stock, but has a few options that are nice to have especially if you like to customize your phone. There are other Roms that have more options, but to me, what's in CM is enough. It's really up to you.
With that being said, I recently flashed a stock rooted rom and got MUCH better battery life than on CM. I don't know if it was an app I had or what, but stock definitely gave me better battery life. I have tried kernels and Rom combinations, but always come back to CM with every single phone I've had. But, in my experience on the Nexus 4, stock Rom gives me the best battery life.

For me liquidsmooth is brilliant! Extremely fast while having tons of customization options. Pair it with matr1x and it really is a great combo for speed and battery life. This is only my opinion but it works for me. I got over 22000 on antutu with this combination (no overclock) while I think its around 17000 on stock. I also get significantly better battery life compared to stock.

if you really want a bump in battery and performance, i suggest rooting and just install francos kernel.i've tried every rom on this forum and for me i ALWAYS find my way back to stock for me it just feels the most fluid and everything works like it should. like me you dont play games or anything and im no app hoarder.that said stock rom with francos kernel gives me the best of everything including color/gamma tweaks to make your screen look better with his app.
with that said i suggest to check out different kernels

Installing kernel...
paul_viado said:
if you really want a bump in battery and performance, i suggest rooting and just install francos kernel.i've tried every rom on this forum and for me i ALWAYS find my way back to stock for me it just feels the most fluid and everything works like it should. like me you dont play games or anything and im no app hoarder.that said stock rom with francos kernel gives me the best of everything including color/gamma tweaks to make your screen look better with his app.
with that said i suggest to check out different kernels
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now, if we install franco's kernel onto the Stock ROM, will this prevent any future Google updates from being installed?

mastewman said:
Now, if we install franco's kernel onto the Stock ROM, will this prevent any future Google updates from being installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Updates in any form will show up in the forum and no need to simply rely on Google for them. They have recently released an updated kernel which I see being implemented by some rom developers and kernel developers already. Let's understand what we have here guys, a community of constant building additions/updates to our phones. So updates should be the last thing for you to worry about IMO
Also to me OP some of the questions you asked can all be answered with a simple Google Search, not that the answers given here are wrong but you would probably find more in depth and uniformed answers by looking it up.. Quite sure its on a wiki somewhere...

playya said:
Updates in any form will show up in the forum and no need to simply rely on Google for them. They have recently released an updated kernel which I see being implemented by some rom developers and kernel developers already. Let's understand what we have here guys, a community of constant building additions/updates to our phones. So updates should be the last thing for you to worry about IMO
Also to me OP some of the questions you asked can all be answered with a simple Google Search, not that the answers given here are wrong but you would probably find more in depth and uniformed answers by looking it up.. Quite sure its on a wiki somewhere...
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Click to collapse
I believe he means Google ota's and yes it can stop you from getting ota's. Any modification to system. Whether you added or removed something will fail. You would have to be on complete stock for it to work. Just download yourself a nexus 4 toolkit. The latest factory image, latest drivers, and make sure you backup your internal storage on your computer. Use the tool to return your phone back to stock. Of course whenever you feel is tge right time to do so.

Jsparta26 said:
I believe he means Google ota's and yes it can stop you from getting ota's. Any modification to system. Whether you added or removed something will fail. You would have to be on complete stock for it to work. Just download yourself a nexus 4 toolkit. The latest factory image, latest drivers, and make sure you backup your internal storage on your computer. Use the tool to return your phone back to stock. Of course whenever you feel is tge right time to do so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh no I fully understood what he meant and my point was simply people unroot or stay stock to wait for an update. Whether you are rooted or not the update will find you in some form. Either with a rooted stock rom or a custom rom but rest assure that xda will not let an update happen and its not on everyone's phone :good:

Favorite Jellybean ROMS

Which ROM do you feel works the best for your Vibrant? Of course this is a matter of opinion, which is exactly what I want to hear. I'm running CM 10.1.3 right now and enjoying it. At times it can feel a little bit sluggish but I don't know if it's the ROM or my phone. I'd also be interested in hearing about your experiences with battery life in each ROM. I've been thinking of trying CyanAOSP because it's less cluttered and I have a hunch it would be more snappy.
Hopefully I'm not breaking any rules, I just wanted a really recent thread comparing the strengths and weaknesses of all the recent Jellybean ROMs. This isn't a question thread, it's more of an opinion thread.

I'm using CM10.2 build date - 10/15 for a day now. Have no problems. Everything works fine, including GPS after ds. Battery drain is normal.

selmandeli said:
I'm using CM10.2 build date - 10/15 for a day now. Have no problems. Everything works fine, including GPS after ds. Battery drain is normal.
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Click to collapse
What's DS? Also, have you tried 10.1.3?

oneupe1even said:
What's DS? Also, have you tried 10.1.3?
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Click to collapse
DS is DeepSleep. Its a state in which the phone uses minimal battery and thus the battery is saved.

oneupe1even said:
What's DS? Also, have you tried 10.1.3?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you mean the official CM 10.1.3, yes I tried it. It is stable and smooth. You can use it as a daily driver.

selmandeli said:
I'm using CM10.2 build date - 10/15 for a day now. Have no problems. Everything works fine, including GPS after ds. Battery drain is normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just saw that you were using CyanAOSP. How would you compare it to CM 10.1.3 and 10.2?
Also, do you know where I can get the 1.75 ROM? I've heard the 2.0 has problems.

been running cyanaosp 2.0 since its release and its been fine beside a few random reboots, but im sure it was cause i had my device oc'd to high. this rom is perfect for me as i play alot of games.

Hi all,
New member of the forums, but I've been reading as much as I can about my Vibrant (Fascinate?) and I'm still kind of confused as to which model my phone really is. It's a Telus model sgh-t959d, but after flashing CyanAOSP 3.0.0 for the i9000, my phone info shows model GT-i9000. I understand there are similarities between these devices, but I was a little nervous about bricking my phone by flashing the wrong ROM. Well, it was a painless process that took less than 2 minutes! I upgraded from PassionICS, which was a good ROM, but kind of laggy. After a day of use, I can say CyanAOSP is much quicker, more refined and more fun to use. The customizations offered by Nova launcher are quite extensive and make it feel like a new phone. I highly recommend this ROM! Many thanks to the hard working devs!

Anybody have kernel recommendations to get more battery life out of CM 10.1 or 2?

CM
Im using CM 10.1.3 stable, think this is a best and stable ROM

I was using one of the CM 10.2 nightlies (10/25 specifically) for about a week before giving up on some serious battery drain and background android OS data usage issues... First time I ever exceeded my 5gig threshold pushing me down to slower speeds. Also USB data transfer simply stopped working after about a week... couldn't even mount via recovery.
Ultimately had to get new ROM files into my phone via the microSD/USB adapter and internally transferring to the internal directory.
That said, CM 10.2 itself is a very pleasant experience if you can avoid such issues - In hindsight I'd strongly suggest giving it a try but with a build that's known to be stable and without any such major issues if you intend to use it as a daily driver (the 10/15 build has been recommended more than once in my forum trawling). Lesson learned!
I made the switch last Saturday (6 days ago) to SlimBean Build 2 however, which is also based on 4.3.1. By comparison to my last experience, this has zero issues falling back to deep sleep, even after loading it down with all my favorite apps and sync settings. I've had one random reset to recovery in the middle of a phone call, and gps performance has been hit or miss so far, but otherwise there's a lot to like! Battery is back to respectable charging intervals and background data is in check. ROM itself is very zippy. Lock screen by comparison to CM 10.2 seems slightly sluggish to respond. I'll likely be sticking with this for a while.

Custom ROMs - sharing a beginner's experience

As a long time Android user and general nerd, I often hear from some of my friends about new and cool custom ROMs. It ranges from "amazing customization" to "blazing speed" and even "far better than anything stock in general".
So this weekend I decided that since my warranty is no longer valid anyway, and Samsung won't be updating the Galaxy S2 GT-i9100 anymore, I can go ahead and try something new and shiny, which could help me with my job.
And thus began my research and tests on Android custom ROMs...and oh boy, that was one hell of an experience.
Everything I heard from people about nearly everything was shattered right then and there.
As a reasonable person, I decided to try some of the more popular ROMs, trying to stick as much as possible to stable builds since everyday use is a big deal for me. So now I present to you, my experience with what I was told are the top-dogs of the custom ROM world and my impressions of each:
Omni 4.4.2
This one actually surprised me in terms of it's video driver. As some might know, a bunch of Gameloft published games always show washed out colors on the Galaxy S2, but when used, this ROM showed the correct colors...quite shocking! ...however, it turned out to be highly unstable with apps crashing left and right all the time and often for no real reason. This ROM is not really advertised as "stable" so I guess that was understandable, so I decided to move on.
MIUI v5
This ROM was just impressive. I absolutely love the UI (and I didn't even try the customization stuff, yet I say that!). It seemed really stable and I almost decided to stick with it...until I found out that 3 apps in particular I very much rely on don't work properly or at all (overlay issues it seems). This got me really disappointed but I figured functionality is more important than looks so once again, I decided to move on.
CyanogenMod 10.3.1
This might be the biggest disappointment for all the wrong reasons. The buildup and hype I got from people about it created in my head "the ultimate ROM"...but after installing it and doing some tests...I have to say, the performance difference was just barely noticeable and i all honesty, not worth the trade for the bugs it also brings (although if it had the video driver from Omni I would've changed my mind). I really wanted to do a fair judgement since I know this is the top-dog of ROMs (or at least in popularity) so I even ran tests on it...and in games, the framerate difference between stock and CM10.3 was just 2-5fps.
Resurrection Remix 4.0.7
This was...let me just say it out loud - the installation for this ROM should be a standard - just incorporate some stuff and have people chose what to get or don't get. Having stock stuff and then 10 additional flashable ZIPs while not really a big issue is just a time-waster for a lot of people in my eyes (although it would've been nice to know more about the modems when it asks you for a choice). Anyway, this ROM's keyboard just refused to work so I got rid of it after 2 flashes.
ReVolt JB 4.5
...keyboard didn't work on this one again, and after another 2 flash attempts, I scrapped it aswell.
At this point I pretty much just gave up and went back to the Samsung stock ROM for my region and was left with an empty feeling that custom ROMs all seem to have at least one or more huge flaws.
All the buildup and "legends" (lacking a better term) weren't even close to what I experienced (except the MIUI...well, UI) and it got me thinking...are custom ROMs meant for everyday users or they were always aimed at people willing to experiment? Personally, I decided that my journey through the custom ROM world has ended here at least for the time being (maybe someday I'll go back to MIUI but who knows), but I wanted to ask, does anyone feel the same way I do? That custom ROMs, while a really cool thing to be able to have is getting overhyped to the point where unless you really know what you're getting into will lead to just disappointment?
I would really like to hear other people's views on this, especially if you're not an expert user.

NeatROM rulez, give it a try.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

I'm using slimbean 2.2. It's seems better them any other ROM.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Resurrection Remix 4.0.7 worked fine for me. the only problem is the System UI that usually crashes when you messed up on something and it really need some reboot for that. ☺
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Well, with custom roms comes both bugs and extended capacities.
First of all, having a rooted phone gives a lot of new possibilities.
Besides, custom roms give new content, like the latest android updates, which the constructors take time to port to their devices.
At last but not least, custom ROMs often let you.. customize as much as thou wish
I'm personally using Cyanfox (android 4.4), and I'm pretty happy about it
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

You schould try another 4.4.2 custom roms for egz pound rom(the best for me) or beanstalk which is good too
Wysłane z mojego GT-I9100 przy użyciu Tapatalka

warpgamer said:
Well, with custom roms comes both bugs and extended capacities.
First of all, having a rooted phone gives a lot of new possibilities.
Besides, custom roms give new content, like the latest android updates, which the constructors take time to port to their devices.
At last but not least, custom ROMs often let you.. customize as much as thou wish
I'm personally using Cyanfox (android 4.4), and I'm pretty happy about it
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually just root my stock ROM with the SuperSU flashable ZIP-thingie...though I only need it for a firewall ^-^;;
But to me one of the biggest deal-breakers is how all the ROMs I did like don't support MHL (if only MIUI was capable of that )

Since the warranty is gone i'm trying a bunch of roms to sede what nave to offer. So far i've only tried the omnirom and it's pretty good to me, except some minor bugs.
In my opinion you've to choose a stabile ROM if you don't want any problems

im using cm10.1 stable linaro build most nearly perfect rom for me.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

iobling said:
Since the warranty is gone i'm trying a bunch of roms to sede what nave to offer. So far i've only tried the omnirom and it's pretty good to me, except some minor bugs.
In my opinion you've to choose a stabile ROM if you don't want any problems
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dredremon said:
im using cm10.1 stable linaro build most nearly perfect rom for me.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's kind'a the thing, CM 10.3.1 is the one shown as stable and it seems to be...but it's missing features that the stock ROMs offer, and the performance difference is pretty much not noticeable enough to justify it for me.
All the ROMs except Omni were shown as "stable" but as i mentioned in my first post, all seem to have at least 1 big issue.
As a side question...I heard the newest version of MIUI actually had MHL/TV-out support on the S2...anyone know if that's true?

Dorimanx anybody ... ?

I only use my phone for basic stuff.So I just use a stock rom with a custom kernel.That way, everything works and I dont have to read 2000 posts to see what problems to expect.

Stock CM kernel isn't all that great IMO , Try coupling Dorimanx's kernel with CM or any other ROM... Adds a lot of power features with stability. stock Sammy Roms feel very caged and unoptimized thus the need for custom builds. Give it time... It grows on you eventually.
Just my 2cents

theunderling said:
I only use my phone for basic stuff.So I just use a stock rom with a custom kernel.That way, everything works and I dont have to read 2000 posts to see what problems to expect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After 2 years of trying to find a custom ROM that doesn't have one show-topping bug, I feel bad for not just staying with a nicely optimized stock ROM with a tweaked kernel that is 100% dependable when I need it.
So, +1 :good:

Well, I only recently got the S2. Before my S2, I've owned an HTC One V. The stock ROM on that thing was just a mess. It came with 4.0.4 ICS and... you guessed it... no update to JB. So I installed a custom ROM on that one... it improved nearly everything.
So, from my experiences with that device, I thought I could flash the S2 and get the same experience. And... well, not really. I have tried so many ROMs...
The AOSP based ROMs either drain battery like hell or have any other bug which is so impacting that I can't deal with it. For example, the Audio 50% bug. Just one word: Annoying.
SO, I could stay with a Samsung stock ROM, but well, that won't be an option for me. Why not? Simple, on the stock rom, using my phone for an hour, literally ONE HOUR, the thing is completely dead. Battery empty. The only stock rom which gives me two and half an hour of screen on time is the 2.3.3 GB stock. And well, that's a bit old nowadays.
The by far best combination for power, speed, stability and battery life for me is CM10.1 stable with the DorimanX 9.14 kernel. I've tried it once and I find myself going back to it pretty much everytime I flashed any ROM I do not like.
Currently I'm on CM11 unofficial nightly, tomorrow I will see for how long my battery can last. I know, my battery is probably broken, but it's not thicker than normal or something like that. It just drains and I have no idea why.

DerGraf1997 said:
Well, I only recently got the S2. Before my S2, I've owned an HTC One V. The stock ROM on that thing was just a mess. It came with 4.0.4 ICS and... you guessed it... no update to JB. So I installed a custom ROM on that one... it improved nearly everything.
So, from my experiences with that device, I thought I could flash the S2 and get the same experience. And... well, not really. I have tried so many ROMs...
The AOSP based ROMs either drain battery like hell or have any other bug which is so impacting that I can't deal with it. For example, the Audio 50% bug. Just one word: Annoying.
SO, I could stay with a Samsung stock ROM, but well, that won't be an option for me. Why not? Simple, on the stock rom, using my phone for an hour, literally ONE HOUR, the thing is completely dead. Battery empty. The only stock rom which gives me two and half an hour of screen on time is the 2.3.3 GB stock. And well, that's a bit old nowadays.
The by far best combination for power, speed, stability and battery life for me is CM10.1 stable with the DorimanX 9.14 kernel. I've tried it once and I find myself going back to it pretty much everytime I flashed any ROM I do not like.
Currently I'm on CM11 unofficial nightly, tomorrow I will see for how long my battery can last. I know, my battery is probably broken, but it's not thicker than normal or something like that. It just drains and I have no idea why.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get up to 14 days with my battery if it's just on Standby [no actual use] and up to a full day if I play some games on it with the Stock ROM.
Also I wanted to mention that I tried DorimanX 8.43 earlier today and my god, my phone became unstable as hell [still on a stock ROM]...odd.
But yeah, you might want to get a new battery if you get less than 16 hours battery life

Hello. I want share my experience. I moved from stock because i want try 4.2 new features, specially widget on lockscreen.
I first tryied cm 10.2 but battery drained quickly and gaming was so sloooow.I tryied then cm10.2 linaro but experienced 4-5 reboot a day. Now I'm back on cm10.2 hoping that the guy working on exynos drivers will bring good news. In the meanwhile I will try gustavo or apolo kernel that seems the most stable kernels
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

Waiting S4 UI port into i9100G ...

I have found only 2-3 Roms that can be used
I can say that i have installed allmost all posible ROMs. For me every rom whit verson of android above 4.1.2 just didn't work ( i have SD CARD problems in most of the ROM's in other i have encored camera problems or bootloops ) The only ROM working realy good is snapdragon and s4fors2 .
IF ANY ONE KHNOWS HOW TO SOLVE MY SD-CARD PROBLEMS ON ANY ROM WITH ANDROID VERSION ABOVE 4.1.2 PM me PLS

CyanFox Rom is the most stable and worked for me as well. Give it a try!!
For Battery Backup, maybe you can use Voltage Control Pro App, Underclock to 1 GHZ if you are not a hardcore gamer. You can also decrease voltage,more Options over mv are also available in Pro Version, Decreasing Voltage will help lower power consumption of CPU.
You can also install Siyah Latest Kernel and do all of this using S-Tweaks!
Thanks!
@hellco what exactly is your sd card problem?? Can you elaborate??