Good day Android world. I am (sadly) a noob trying to (nervously, excitedly) step my game up with a new Nexus 4. I have played around with the stock ROM and my smartphone experience for the last week+ transitioning from an ancient blackberry. Below are my preliminary questions/views based on research that I am posing to the community. Many thanks for your help and patience!
- I want to embrace the customization experience and root/flash accordingly. I downloaded the N4 toolkit from dev 'mskip' and the instructions have been very clear. I am just waiting on the update to the toolkit once my donation posts before I plunge in. First basic question: if I root/tinker and then relock bootloader/flash stock ROM, is my warranty still intact? Can't Google detect some trace/fingerprint of my activity that they can use to void my warranty or does relocking/flashing stock really cover me? Has anyone had a warranty experience tested on this basis?
- Can I use the toolkit to do a full NANDROID backup of my device as-is before any root? It mentions an insecure boot image, but when I run the backup, the code says 'adbd can't be run on production builds.' Any suggestions? I doubt I will use my current phone state, but I would love to have the full backup available (just in case) before I wipe the device during rooting.
- My view on performance optimization based on research and N4 use is that I am probably good with the stock ROM, albeit perhaps deodexed and zipaligned (thanks Android wikia for those definitions!), though I get the impression that the Matr1x kernel will help me get more performance and bang for my buck on battery, since my only gripe thus far is battery as I lean on the cloud extensively for music (mediaserver hits my battery, though still secondary to screen). Does anyone think there is a better battery optimizing kernel than Matr1x?
- If I have a slightly modified stock ROM, i.e. deodexed and zipaligned, will Google still provide me with auto-updates to the ROM/OS on a timely basis as with the pure stock users?
- Do I download the custom/stock ROMs to my PC for all customization? Or can I do customization through the phone directly once root is achieved through an app like ROM Manager?
- It sounds like the phone is still faster on stock ROM rather than at least the CM10.1 option? Are there any other custom ROMs that are stable and allow a superior phone performance than the stock? As I said, I will likely keep stock for now because I believe Google has a good handle on their software, but would love to hear your thoughts.
- I am a little hesitant about the overclocking/undervolting that certain custom ROMs/kernels afford based on a couple threads I have read on long-term hardware impacts. The no-frills CPU option does seem reasonable with the Matr1x kernel though. Can anyone share a configuration (deep sleep, etc.) that they think works best for the N4 battery without compromising hardware integrity/durability? I will dig into this once I flash the Matr1x kernel
- Apps: I like Juice Defender, but my battery improvement on stock seems to have regressed a bit since I switched to Go Launcher EX. Is this the reason? Maybe the Switch widget?
Sorry this is so long. Thank you for your time and willingness to help!
Hi, just got my note 3 a few days back and I was prompted to update the firmware to 4.4.
Would jsut like to know what I might gain or lose in functionality with regards to flashing/rooting etc. etc.
Also a service name Index Service has been eating mybattery ever since I started syncing dropbox, anyone in the same boat?
Much Appreciated.
Pros:
Some people claim better response, little faster speed, better battery life and gain about 300MB of RAM on clean boot.
Cons:
Change in SD card writing permission, third party programs can't write to SD card unless updated, won't work until then or you fix it manually but need root.
Can't root without tripping Knox
Can't go back to lower firmware
Third party s-view covers no longer work as designed
some other random incompatibilities with some programs, those are to be expected with any firmware update.
That's all I can remember for now.
If you use SD card with non factory installed programs, the new permissions could be a big deal especially if you want to keep your Knox flag =0
Forgot to mention under pro's, better battery life...
Most of the pro's are under the hood upgrades. You will find it is a bit faster and some little problems you experience are fixed.
As I rooted my phone 10 minutes aftr I got home I have no problems with sd card and s-view case as there is a mod for that...
Knox warranty is voided when rooted but then again the phone is fine...
I'm very content with stock version.
Particularly content with the battery life.
Personally ATM I have no problems with my Note 3 running 4.3 at all, I'm rooted with Knox=0 so I can tweak speed, battery life etc. much better than KK can and I learned (at least I should have) long time ago, don't fix it, if it ain't broke, especially that I rely on SD card a lot (would be out of memory already if didn't have card), so yeah I would have to be stupid to upgrade and then trip the Knox to root just to have the phone running as well as it's now. Of course everybody is different and for example if I had my Knox tripped already, I may have been more tempted to upgrade.
Have had zero issues since flashing Kitkat on my Note, Only thing I regret (con to me) is jumping the gun and upgrading to the new boot loader (i was running AOSP for a while) - but now I can live with a non AOSP ROM as the new boot loader is being sorted.
PROS - battery is a lot better, smoother feel of the device in general also.
ShadedCyan said:
Hi, just got my note 3 a few days back and I was prompted to update the firmware to 4.4.
Would jsut like to know what I might gain or lose in functionality with regards to flashing/rooting etc. etc.
Also a service name Index Service has been eating mybattery ever since I started syncing dropbox, anyone in the same boat?
Much Appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No real Cons really, I feel that KitKat is alot better than JellyBean and personally, I really prefer the White Status bar icons.
About Index Service, seems it has to do with PDF files on your phone, here are some threads below to help you with fixing it. Good luck!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2480763
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2472574
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2533303
radicalisto said:
Have had zero issues since flashing Kitkat on my Note, Only thing I regret (con to me) is jumping the gun and upgrading to the new boot loader (i was running AOSP for a while) - but now I can live with a non AOSP ROM as the new boot loader is being sorted.
PROS - battery is a lot better, smoother feel of the device in general also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know exactly what you mean, I felt the same way when i flash MJ6 firmware that brought the new bootloader wayy back then on JB, but eventually, It would be hard to avoid upgrading the bootloader, plus i saw some people complaining of some weird issues like charging and stuff that upgrading bootloader fixed for some reason. Lol. Anyways.. BottomLine: ENJOY your phone.
Depends on what you need.
ShadedCyan said:
Hi, just got my note 3 a few days back and I was prompted to update the firmware to 4.4.
Would jsut like to know what I might gain or lose in functionality with regards to flashing/rooting etc. etc.
Also a service name Index Service has been eating mybattery ever since I started syncing dropbox, anyone in the same boat?
Much Appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am very unhappy with my update, but I kinda had to as I was unfortunate enough to get one of the Note 3s that randomly reset itself. I haven't had that issue since updating, though I haven't been using it for more than the day so it could still decide to spontaneously reset itself, but all of my third party apps that access the SD card have stopped working.
Not a problem if you're rooted, but I'd like to keep my KNOX =0
As an added annoyance the Tap and Pay still doesn't work, I had hoped that the changes in 4.4 would let me use my Note 3 like I did my S3.
You should take a look at Google's KitKat page: http://www.android.com/versions/kit-kat-4-4/
It's very informative.
Remember that it isn't only fast, but it handles memory operations much more efficiently than on 4.3.
Battery life is also much better for me.
I've been running X-Note 10, and it has the ExtSDCard writing capability enabled again.
Running custom kernel, custom recovery and ROM with KNOX at 0x0. NB4.
nicholaschum said:
You should take a look at Google's KitKat page: http://www.android.com/versions/kit-kat-4-4/
It's very informative.
Remember that it isn't only fast, but it handles memory operations much more efficiently than on 4.3.
Battery life is also much better for me.
I've been running X-Note 10, and it has the ExtSDCard writing capability enabled again.
Running custom kernel, custom recovery and ROM with KNOX at 0x0. NB4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't flashing custom kernel or recovery trip Knox? If not, how did you flash these?
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
dsm52 said:
Doesn't flashing custom kernel or recovery trip Knox? If not, how did you flash these?
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It only works on one particular variant of note 3 which is the N900W8. Other variants of note 3 will trip knox.
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using xda app-developers app
After reading through these comments I probably would update too but I want to know one thing:
Can I update to KK without updating my bootloader ? (non rooted 4.3 MJ7)
Im asking this, because I read about updating your bootloader won't let you downgrade.
At this point in time it no longer worth it to remain in 4.3. All issues so far have been fixed or can be fixed. And also understand 4.3 is not "perfect". There are bugs in 4.3 as well that are probably fixed in 4.4.
Not to mention most of the custom rom devs don't make 4.3 roms anymore.
It's not worth it to stay in 4.3
Sheeezy said:
After reading through these comments I probably would update too but I want to know one thing:
Can I update to KK without updating my bootloader ? (non rooted 4.3 MJ7)
Im asking this, because I read about updating your bootloader won't let you downgrade.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 4.3 bootloader does not have the capability of booting a 4.4 ROM, hence No.
nicholaschum said:
The 4.3 bootloader does not have the capability of booting a 4.4 ROM, hence No.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So would you advise me to upgrade to KK or to stay on JB and hope there will be some root method in near future ?
Sheeezy said:
So would you advise me to upgrade to KK or to stay on JB and hope there will be some root method in near future ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My 2 cents.
I dont think it's worth the hassle. The only cosmetic changes are the status bar icons- now all white and the new music lockscreen- fullscreen instead of pulldown widget.
You Lose sd card support for 3rd party apps who haven't been updated for KK. Also breaking some games: San andreas, among others (FCs) and losing features from apps: Boat Browser (Text wrapping).
You gain: Speed boost (modest at best), more available memory (RAM), Potentially better battery life (IMO 4.3 MJ7 just the same as NA6 4.4.2- other words no change in my case, YMMV)
If your not afraid of tripping knox and rooting than I'd say go for it. I don't mean to stifle your enthusiasm, just keepin it real. I will say this though, when I did update and I was unrooted for all of 10 minutes, the phone absolutely flew. Once rooted and everything back up and running the speed boost is minimal, the best word to describe it would be confident. The phone had less stutter and felt more confident (this is really nitpicking though).
✌
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
@denski101 Alright, then I'll probably stay at 4.3
I think the performance increase can't be too big, cause it flies even with 4.3 no complaining here.
Basically I dont want to risk tripping knox counter, who knows what will happen in a year with my device.
But I really do want root, but not at the price of voiding my warranty.
TL;DR
I'll stay at 4.3 for the moment and wait until there's a method to root on 4.4.2 without tripping knox.
Sheeezy said:
@denski101 Alright, then I'll probably stay at 4.3
I think the performance increase can't be too big, cause it flies even with 4.3 no complaining here.
Basically I dont want to risk tripping knox counter, who knows what will happen in a year with my device.
But I really do want root, but not at the price of voiding my warranty.
TL;DR
I'll stay at 4.3 for the moment and wait until there's a method to root on 4.4.2 without tripping knox.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually. I have no complaints for 4.4. You can re-enable SD card writing for third party apps, NO FC's if you don't do something the system doesn't want you to do (TB/dirty flash) [clear cache]. The speed is much better, it's like comparing Windows 7 and Windows 8, but Windows 8 is more optimized to be much faster than Windows 7. Even though they're both great OS'es, the memory management has been drastically improved.
I have many complaints about 4.3, including delay wake/sleep, sporadic hangs and memory leaking.
On 4.4, they fixed the problematic touchscreen bug (if existent, to up to 10 fingers), battery life is much better (40 hours standby time - no display, wifi on, autosync on), faster responses in app launching, faster boot up time, more RAM for heavier background apps and all apps available on the Play Store for me works on 4.4 (Around 400 apps downloaded).
Con: You need root to re-enable SD card writing for now, until Samsung fixes it with a later update: however, most apps by now have been updated for 4.4, so this shouldn't be needed anymore. Custom ROMs allow apps that don't support 4.4 to read/write to SD card, like osu!.
Well, my expirience with KK on note 3 is amazing... way better than JB. It corrected a lot os bugs, FC, HEAT, BATTERY DRAIN... of course still have some touchwiz's bugs, like index bug... but KK way way better than JB.
Absolutely no regrets...
Same I am on MJ7 I'm happy with it but all I want is root. Don't know if I should update to 4.4 f u samsung
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Wondering if AOSP roms will be easily flashable for the Verizon S5? Specifically LiquidSmooth. I know newer S4's etc have a hard time installing AOSP roms with SafeStrap. Think same will remain true for S 5?
Non-stock roms would result in certain features ceasing to work. For example, I'd say the fingerprint scanner will never work outside of stock. Also, the camera is likely to lose a lot of features, the on the fly HDR mode and multi focus shots being two of them, not to mention an overall loss of quality in comparison to the Samsung camera drivers. The camera for me is the primary reasons for upgrading from the S4. This is the first Android phone I will own where I'm not that bothered about non-stock roms being available, TW isn't as offensive as it used to be and it's improved even further on the S5.
As for the question, the open source nature of the Snapdragon architecture will almost certainly result in AOKP/AOSP/CM based roms becoming available, and the locked bootloaders on the American carriers will be overcome eventually. Just don't expect it to happen immediately or for that many of them to appear as the majority of reputable developers will probably be avoiding the S5 after the Knox debacle. Which is a shame but understandable, Samsung have really f**ked up with Knox. I wouldn't be getting an S5 if it wasn't for being offered a deal that was too good to turn down.
Hi everyone, so I've recently entered the android world, I've had iOS basically for ever. I've been reading a little into this and on the features but can anyone explain me properly what are ROMs, Kernels? And why are they useful? If I'm satisfied with the looks of my s7e and with the functionalities, should I install another kernel/ROM? As far as I understand, should I be satisfied with both, the only thing that ROMs and kernel can do better is make it faster and use less battery? This is what I managed to gather from what I read but please do correct me if it's not so.
Thanks!
So there are really complex answers (Google those) and a really simple answers. Here they go.
ROMs are operating systems. Custom ROMs are created by other users, as opposed to stock ROMs which are created by the manufacturer of the phone. They replace the operating system on the phone with one with custom functionality. The custom functionality can be as simple as modified cosmetic stuff (themes, fonts), to highly modified functionality with added/removed functionality.
A kernel is a critical part of a ROM. Technically it provides the interface between the hardware and software -- it's the heart of the operating system. Modified kernels let you change things about how the hardware operates (overclocking, etc) that you simply can't do in software.
As you may have guessed, there are advantages and disadvantages to custom ROMs. You can modify functionality of your phone, possibly make it operate more to your liking, but you can also irreparably damage the phone if you don't do it properly.
Long story short, if you're happy with your phone, and you don't have any desire to get into the customization game, then don't worry about custom stuff. Leave that to the tinkerers.
Cinco5 said:
So there are really complex answers (Google those) and a really simple answers. Here they go.
ROMs are operating systems. Custom ROMs are created by other users, as opposed to stock ROMs which are created by the manufacturer of the phone. They replace the operating system on the phone with one with custom functionality. The custom functionality can be as simple as modified cosmetic stuff (themes, fonts), to highly modified functionality with added/removed functionality.
A kernel is a critical part of a ROM. Technically it provides the interface between the hardware and software -- it's the heart of the operating system. Modified kernels let you change things about how the hardware operates (overclocking, etc) that you simply can't do in software.
As you may have guessed, there are advantages and disadvantages to custom ROMs. You can modify functionality of your phone, possibly make it operate more to your liking, but you can also irreparably damage the phone if you don't do it properly.
Long story short, if you're happy with your phone, and you don't have any desire to get into the customization game, then don't worry about custom stuff. Leave that to the tinkerers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I actually enjoy the customisation game, I did download quite a few apps for that and I really like it right now. So in your opinion I should browse all of them being on the lookout for something, for some functionality that I'd like? Would you say that it'd be worth to download one just for the speed and better battery life?
I apologise for the specific questions but as I understand installing one does trip KNOX, the warranty is probably never going to actually be useful but better safe than sorry I guess thanks !
I am a bit of a noob in the android development scene. The last android phone i used was a HTC One M7. I rooted it and flashed multiple roms on it like Viper, MIUI, CM etc. It was quite a simple process once i watched all tutorials etc.
My query is why we havent seen any AOSP based rom developmwnt for s7 like a CM or a MIUI? Thank you for the reply.
A custom ROM on the S7 is basically the original operating system with extra features, they are all based on the "stock" firmware. If you take a look in the development section you'll notice some ROMs with heavier modifications, like debloated versions (with a lot of the system apps removed) or some with a lot of extras, like king ROM. The likes of renovate or superman are like the original ROM but with very few changes, and they might have some optimizations. If you're new to this stuff, and especially on the S7, it's not worth flashing a custom ROM. Stick with the stock firmware and root access if you wish it.
Dear guys,
i'm thinking about rooting or installing even a nice custom rom on the samsung galaxy a51 i just recently bought last week. i'm not sure, but in the past on other phones like nokia 7.2 or even more earlier on sony xperia and htc, i always got problems after it. phone app didnt worked, apps crashed, stock launcher didnt work, camera quality is lower than before and such. the worst thing i ever experienced was the massive increase in battery consumption. my battery was empty in half of the time.
so how is it with galaxy a51? will it increase the experience or will i hate my decision of rooting or even better - custom rom'ing it? its more a question of opinion, since i know that it would be possible. i just dont want to ruin my new device and gain disadvantages from the things im doing. but maybe there is something good that can happen out of it, so i just simply as for your opinions and ideas
Hi!
I use the current firmware with root and get pleasure from it. Nothing flies out, everything works perfectly, the battery holds the same. But I'm having trouble assembling custom firmware (GSI), and I have one firmware, but I haven't tested it. But in the near future the performance of this firmware should be checked by another person. At the moment, topical custom firmware under the 4th. On custom firmware, surprisingly, I work many functions. But sleep did not like how the fingerprint scanner works (on some firmware is highlighted not a separate area of the screen, and the entire screen). In addition, there remains the question of the full performance of the cameras. In terms of performance, custom shells should be faster, but the Havoc I tested seemed to me to be two more glitchy than Samsung's own shell.
My opinion: if you like OneUI and you want ROOT - you can get a lot of stock firmware.
Hello,
You can try this
Note:
1. Your phone Unlock Bootloader >> Click here for tutorial Unlock Bootloader
2. TWRP >> Click here to install TWRP for A51
All files >> Click here
Here is link to my thread GSI Havoc Android 10 for Samsung Galaxy A51
p0w3r_off said:
Dear guys,
i'm thinking about rooting or installing even a nice custom rom on the samsung galaxy a51 i just recently bought last week. i'm not sure, but in the past on other phones like nokia 7.2 or even more earlier on sony xperia and htc, i always got problems after it. phone app didnt worked, apps crashed, stock launcher didnt work, camera quality is lower than before and such. the worst thing i ever experienced was the massive increase in battery consumption. my battery was empty in half of the time.
so how is it with galaxy a51? will it increase the experience or will i hate my decision of rooting or even better - custom rom'ing it? its more a question of opinion, since i know that it would be possible. i just dont want to ruin my new device and gain disadvantages from the things im doing. but maybe there is something good that can happen out of it, so i just simply as for your opinions and ideas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Custom ROM for A51 >> https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/rom-a515x-refinedui-v1-0-oneui2-1-android10.4220373/
I am planning also to do these, unlock bootloader, install TWRP, root. What are the requirements needed for this? Version? Build? Exact model of A51? Will all applications run if I do these? Thank you