Database Users

GB to ICS and back - mini review

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

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

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

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

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

Very nice review! +1
Keep up the good work

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regain performance

I have noticed that my phone has become quite slow. My Nexus S is a contract phone and I think I have had it for almost 2 years. When i first got it - it felt snappy. Around that time, I did things like install kernals, custom roms, bootloader unlock etc. Then I went back to the stock rom.
I dont mind wiping the memory etc. As long as the important stuff is backed up like messages and contacts - everything else can go. I can reinstall when needed. So my question is - what do I have to do to regain the performance. Should I do a full reinstall? or install a custom ROM? or should I get a new phone (my contract ends this month)
Thanks

well, if you get the possibility, I would definitely go for an different phone. I don't know your budget, but I would go for a quad(/dual)-core phone, as mobile software seems to become heavier on a faster pace than before. I advise you this, because else your next phone will feel like your nexus s after two years, but than in one year. Of course this is just a prediction, so do whatever you wish to do

I had been running the same custom ROM for months. When the Nexus 4 came along, I wanted to upgrade, but I decided to wait another year and just install a smooth and stable custom ROM/kernel.
I have found the combination of rasbeanjelly, the marmite kernel and brainmaster's seeder tweak to be extremely smooth. After flashing this combination, an upgrade to the Nexus 4 doesn't seem so needful anymore. Battery is okay too: I can get shy of 4 hours on screen time.
Klinkerkp was so nice to compile his own build of rasbeanjelly: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=36373552&postcount=278. It has the following:
Latest rasbeanjelly version
Gapps
SuperSU
BusyBox
Working photosphere
Dark mms with quick reply
marmite kernel v7.2.3CM
brainmaster's seeder tweak
You can download it here: http://www.d-h.st/HJ9. Very useful, because you only have to flash one file. Be sure to wipe and everything, but you know that already.

Androyed said:
I have found the combination of rasbeanjelly, the marmite kernel and brainmaster's seeder tweak to be extremely smooth. After flashing this combination, an upgrade to the Nexus 4 doesn't seem so needful anymore. Battery is okay too: I can get shy of 4 hours on screen time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also recommend this combination if you just want preformance. :good:
However, in my opinion, ROM performance is device dependent. What's fast for another may/may not be fast on your device. So be sure to try them all when you got time

ej8989 said:
I also recommend this combination if you just want preformance. :good:
However, in my opinion, ROM performance is device dependent. What's fast for another may/may not be fast on your device. So be sure to try them all when you got time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure its device dependant, that is why I asked in this forum. Surely all the nexus s's are the same?

viperfx07 said:
Sure its device dependant, that is why I asked in this forum. Surely all the nexus s's are the same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well yeah, but the fact that person A gets 4.5 hours on screen time with the same ROM/kernel and exact same settings won't mean you will also get 4.5 hours on screen time. The same goes for smoothness.
A question like "what's the fastest ROM/kernel combination" is very difficult to answer. But I think you can't go wrong with the rasbeanjelly/marmite combination. I suggest you make a NAND backup and try the compilation I posted to see for yourself.

I've been troubled by this issue of gradual performance degradation in android custom Rom/kernels ever since I came to android from a non-smart phone. I've asked about it before, but nobody really had a good answer for exactly why it was happening. It is likely related to something in custom kernels though, that's my gut feeling. The more reboots and freezes I'd get, the worse the system would run. Like you said, starting over from scratch always helps, but it really sucks having to do this regularly. My search for long term stability has brought me to cm 10.0 stable. I use the stock kernel, and don't mess around to much with advanced or performance settings. You won't get nearly the performance or battery life of other configs, but I've found the system runs just as smooth on day 60 as day 1. I actually have come back from a galaxy nexus to my ns4g cause of how useable the phone is, and how much I like the smaller size. So I disagree with the earlier poster who said to look for a new phone. I think you can definitely use this phone till the next android is version comes out, provided you don't use a lot of resource intensive apps.
Good luck in your search.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda app-developers app

Its not that money is an issue, but the problem is that if I do get a new contract I will be stuck in that for atleast 2 years with any new smartphone. The thing is that the nexus S is perfectly fine for my mobile needs. I just wish it could be a little snappier, as one of you have said already when getting a new phone its much better to get one that can be with you for 2 or more years - therefore it makes sense to get a good one. I will most likely wait for the new phone from samsung that uses the ARM big.LITTLE chip.
I just checked my phone and it seems I must have relock'd it when putting the stockrom on. I have not done this custom rom stuff in a while, not sure if the scene has changed much. Is the rooting process using adb recommended for mac's?

If you have many apps installed, it can be a quick performace boost if you uninstall all the apps you don't use or don't need. Keep the apps you use regularly, delete those you don't remember when was the last time you used them. I had some games and utilities which I froze in Titanium Backup (same as uninstalling except you don't lose any data and it can be reverted with one tap), since then my phone feels as new.

Androyed said:
I had been running the same custom ROM for months. When the Nexus 4 came along, I wanted to upgrade, but I decided to wait another year and just install a smooth and stable custom ROM/kernel.
I have found the combination of rasbeanjelly, the marmite kernel and brainmaster's seeder tweak to be extremely smooth. After flashing this combination, an upgrade to the Nexus 4 doesn't seem so needful anymore. Battery is okay too: I can get shy of 4 hours on screen time.
Klinkerkp was so nice to compile his own build of rasbeanjelly: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=36373552&postcount=278. It has the following:
Latest rasbeanjelly version
Gapps
SuperSU
BusyBox
Working photosphere
Dark mms with quick reply
marmite kernel v7.2.3CM
brainmaster's seeder tweak
You can download it here: http://www.d-h.st/HJ9. Very useful, because you only have to flash one file. Be sure to wipe and everything, but you know that already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
New build with latest rasbean source & latest marmite kernel 7.3CM
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=36674772
On the road with my Nexus S...

I think the rasbeanjellybuild MDO on 4.1.2 is faster. 4.2 was very laggy on my device. There are not so many functions in this rom. But that's my opinion. Kernel: marmite of course and the tweaks from brainmaster are for smoothness very well too.
Gesendet von meinem Nexus S mit Tapatalk 2

viperfx07 said:
I have noticed that my phone has become quite slow. My Nexus S is a contract phone and I think I have had it for almost 2 years. When i first got it - it felt snappy. Around that time, I did things like install kernals, custom roms, bootloader unlock etc. Then I went back to the stock rom.
I dont mind wiping the memory etc. As long as the important stuff is backed up like messages and contacts - everything else can go. I can reinstall when needed. So my question is - what do I have to do to regain the performance. Should I do a full reinstall? or install a custom ROM? or should I get a new phone (my contract ends this month)
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in a similar position, except for the contract. I wiped everything, installed CM10 stable and uninstalled a couple dozen apps I was not using. Performance is ok again. Some battery issues, but I hope that with a new battery I can have the phone for some more time.

Hey,
I'm running Jellyshot with marmite 7.2.1 at 1.3GHz OC.
For me it's the perfect Rom / Kernel combo. The setup is pretty stable, incredibly fast and I got around 2-3 hours battery time, which is about as much as twice as stock.
I personally wait for the next Nexus device, because even today my nexus S with this setup can compare to 80 % of the smartphones in my vicinity.
Jellyshot:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2023699
Marmite Kernel:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1719775

Androyed said:
I had been running the same custom ROM for months. When the Nexus 4 came along, I wanted to upgrade, but I decided to wait another year and just install a smooth and stable custom ROM/kernel.
I have found the combination of rasbeanjelly, the marmite kernel and brainmaster's seeder tweak to be extremely smooth. After flashing this combination, an upgrade to the Nexus 4 doesn't seem so needful anymore. Battery is okay too: I can get shy of 4 hours on screen time.
Klinkerkp was so nice to compile his own build of rasbeanjelly: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=36373552&postcount=278. It has the following:
Latest rasbeanjelly version
Gapps
SuperSU
BusyBox
Working photosphere
Dark mms with quick reply
marmite kernel v7.2.3CM
brainmaster's seeder tweak
You can download it here: http://www.d-h.st/HJ9. Very useful, because you only have to flash one file. Be sure to wipe and everything, but you know that already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont know if i really tried it all but i think i lost count on flashing roms ...and i always go back to this awesome combo,... i can safely say its the best i ever had too...:fingers-crossed:

Thanks for the suggestions, I will try them out. Since you guys have flashed so many, does it not get tiresome to wipe and reinstall everything? Is there an easier way?
What is your process for flashing a rom/kernal nowadays?

viperfx07 said:
Thanks for the suggestions, I will try them out. Since you guys have flashed so many, does it not get tiresome to wipe and reinstall everything? Is there an easier way?
What is your process for flashing a rom/kernal nowadays?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not really attached to my apps and data. The only thing I hate is asking everyone for their Wi-Fi passwords again. But I could easily back them up. I just don't because I'm lazy. If you want, you can back up pretty much anything with Titanium Backup.
My process? I first download everything I'm going to flash, throw it all in some folder on my sd card (most of the time I just keep it in the download folder). Then I don't make a NAND backup. That's right. #YOLO. No, just kidding. Like I said, not really attached to any setup at all. If I flash a new ROM, that means I don't care about my previous setup at all. But a NAND backup doesn't really take that long, and it's really easy to restore, so I would just do it if I were you.
I always restart after flashing. If I have to flash 5 things, I restart 5 times. Don't know if this helps, but someone taught me this once, and I've been doing it ever since. After I've flashed everything, I connect to Wi-Fi, download one or two apps I frequently use (whatsapp, my favourite browser), and then that's it. All other apps I download only when I need them.

i downgraded from 4.2.1 to apex 4.0.4
Now i have more then 170 mb ram free with most of my apps open!!!
with matr1x kernel cfs it seems to be great at gaming

I'm a little surprised to see so many NS users complaining about poor performance on 4.2.1. A lot of people seem to have become convinced that a single core cpu isn't enough to handle Android smoothly anymore, but I think they're just yearning for unachievable WP levels of UI sheen or they're flashing the wrong zips.
bed's Marmite kernel has been so well-optimized since its 7.1.6 incarnation that even a dirty-flashed ROM laden with 200+ apps feels usable. Having said that, it really does help to do things as cleanly as possible: full wipe, manual format of system and data, wipe cache and dalvik, reboot recovery; flash your ROM, flash gapps, and flash your chosen kernel once only (resist experimenting with different versions), then fix permissions.
For about the past week and a half I've been using tchaari's 4.2.1 build of Slimbean + Marmite 7.1.7, without an overclock, and it's remained consistently smooth and responsive well beyond 100 hours of uptime.
One thing which has in the past slowed my phone to a crawl is the SD card. There are some flaky versions of ClockworkMod which will leave corrupt blocks on the external storage after creating a NANDroid backup - Media Scanner hates this and so do the apps living on your SD. I've experienced this a couple of times and reformatting the SD is the only way to restore performance. Not sure if people are still suffering from this without realising the cause, but I now refrain from making NANDroids and just rely on Titanium Backup and everything seems to run smoothly.
Anyway, install Slimbean, flash Marmite 7.1.7 (or try out 7.3), and don't for one instant consider purchasing a fragile Nexus 4 or any other oversized power hungry droid.

my nexus s felt laggy since updated to ICS, then jellybean came along and made it even worse . At last I just put CM7 in and the phone is smooth as butter again

Odp: Regain performance
superweird said:
my nexus s felt laggy since updated to ICS, then jellybean came along and made it even worse . At last I just put CM7 in and the phone is smooth as butter again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is your internet browser as smooth as in jb too?
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

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.
Click to expand...
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?
Click to expand...
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??

Performance Degrades on Custom ROM

Hi!
Does anybody experiences degradation on performance after some time using custom roms?
I used some and the first days works like a charm but after some time performance seems to degrade, for example, someone calls, it begins to ring but it takes 2 seconds for calller image to appear and thats is one example. With rooted rom I dont have that degradation to the point I never restar my phone because its working fine.
Tnx

There is no perfect costume ROM.
think about it!! Even the performance of the stock unrooted ROM starts to get worse after a while of using.
This is the Tragedy of all android devices.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge using XDA Labs

Boseka said:
There is no perfect costume ROM.
think about it!! Even the performance of the stock unrooted ROM starts to get worse after a while of using.
This is the Tragedy of all android devices.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest this stock rom, rooted, with xposed and some modules its been working fine for 3 months. I didnt restarted the phone and its working like charm. My note 4 its running with rooted stock rom and its working fine. My old s4 mini non rooted worked for years without wipe and now, without wipe my kid uses it to play and film.
Maybe I dont use the cellphone that much, I dont know but it works fine, never a reboot, never a wipe. The thing with custom roms its that they dont survive even 3 weeks. I dont know exactly where is the flaw but "normally" they degrade quickly and I dont know why.
I used Superman ROM for example. The rom its fine, fast at first but one week later it becomes slower, 2 or 3 weeks later you can see that someone its calling you but you dont see the pic nor the ringtone for some seconds and in time things get worse.
What apps do I use?
Wasup, maxton browser maybe once or twice a day, twitter once a day, simpsons game and nothing more.
I think its not the kind of use that can drgrade a ROM.
Maybe I'm missing something, maybe I have to do something to my phone to not loose performance (delete cache, etc)...
BB

In my experience, the stock rom rooted or not, has better stability and least bug (if there is one) compared to custom roms.
Some Users prefer custom roms due to a leaner build and higher speed, but mostly these roms have one or more bugs that may annoy a User. This is understandable I guess for custom roms because they are not built by a professional team of software developers compared to i.e Samsung or LG.