Database Users

Is stock good enough for you?

I've been playing with this tablet for about a day now and I must say, I don't think I've ever had the feeling that I didn't need to Root for any reason, but this tablet just works so well out of the box that I'm not missing anything in terms of performance or applications.
I was just wondering if anyone decided to forgo the flashing/rooting/roming process because the tablet just works.

Amen brother. So good out of the box... Just tasted Google Play Music as well... Wow! Almost don't even need Nova Launcher with stock JB 4.3 haha I might not bother rooting this time round unless something really uber comes along

Well I do think it is very nice out the box. Smooth and snappy. So, yes stock is good enough for me right now. I have root and recovery, so if some custom rom comes along and it looks interesting, I may try it out. However, until that image is released, everybody is going to be pretty close to stock. The only thing I don't like is the toggles/tiles don't work like they should. I tap the wifi tile and it opens the settings for wifi, not turn it on. Not a big deal tho...

Nope. I need the custom re-boot menu and quiet hours and I can no longer live without Pie.
THe stock worked perfectly tho. I had no issues at all.

Gotta have root for the six axis app so I can game it up with my ps3 c controller
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

Grievance said:
Amen brother. So good out of the box... Just tasted Google Play Music as well... Wow! Almost don't even need Nova Launcher with stock JB 4.3 haha I might not bother rooting this time round unless something really uber comes along
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ended up installing Action Launcher just to have those shutters and widgets

DaemonAshra said:
I ended up installing Action Launcher just to have those shutters and widgets
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Action Launcher doesn't count in this discussion, personally. It's basically good enough to kick the tar out of launchers on just about any framework you'll ever find (although it does look a tad out of place on my otherwise Sense-running HTC One).
Mostly yes, but I still root because I enjoy using Greenify and there are some other behaviors that require more permissions than stock Android will give us. The inclusion of the app permission manager though is quite wonderful.

mssam said:
The only thing I don't like is the toggles/tiles don't work like they should. I tap the wifi tile and it opens the settings for wifi, not turn it on. Not a big deal tho...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Long hold. They reversed the behavior from 4.2. Short tap = settings, Long tap = toggle on/off. Quite honestly, I prefer it in the 4.3 way better. I really don't turn off WiFi or Bluetooth, and having to go settings -> wireless -> bluetooth to get to the bluetooth settings was a bit much.

I root for the couple of apps that need it, but I run stock otherwise. Did on my original N7 as well.

No stuck sucks..... waste...

aka420 said:
No stuck sucks..... waste...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for that brilliantly enlightening post.

I am happy with my stock setup right now. I am unlocked and rooted though. I also tried a couple of kernels but I am back to stock kernel. Same with ROMs. I will continue trying new ROMs but will keep using stock for now. My ultimate ROM will be a stable/clean ROM with Tablet UI.

aka420 said:
No stuck sucks..... waste...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. You are a shining example of conversational excellence.

Stock rom will be good enough until all if not all issues are resolved with the CM. Till then, ijust have my N7 rooted for titanium back up and other misc apps that require root.

Stock is good enough for my needs, but I installed CM anyway just to get that little extra
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Running stock + Root + Extra Power Menu
At least right now that is good enough since its so quick. I'd like to try out other roms or have a good kernel but going to wait til more testing is done with what is out there and get some of the bugs worked out as I've tried them but get mixed results for performance and stability. Right now stability is key and performance is very good as is stock, but more is always better, in due time

I find I miss the little things CM had. For example when downloading. In stock the arrow stays there constantly lit, it doesn't do the animation.

Thing is, it might look and feel smooth, but it can always get better. Rooting and custom ROMS just simply allow the further enhancements, customization, smoothness, and potential to save battery life. I really don't see any reason not to Root/use custom ROMS for any case as long as your comfortable with the process. Maybe if the device was used for business i could understand that maybe, but for personal usage why not take advantage of whats out there instead of settling for less? It's not like it voids your warranty anyways when you can always restore it to stock before turning it in.

To be honest I cant see how anyone can live without some of the great things that require root
Linaro/03 optimized kernels
Overclocking
PER APP DPI
Trickstermod
Rom Toolbox
Lux autobrightnes (If you read books on this puppy it's a must)
Fully featured equalizer - seriously this needs to be universal on all devices
SD Maid
Titanium backup
Custom toggles, and AOKP ribbon controls
Custom boot animations
...Stickmount (don't you need root for this?)
And thats just off the top of my head stuff that I personally use all the time. So I guess most of that stuff could be run on a "stock" setup, but where is the fun in that. What is the point in investing in suck an awesome dev device, and not loading up on the fantastic tools that have been made possible through the hard work of XDA's members?
McKay91 said:
I find I miss the little things CM had. For example when downloading. In stock the arrow stays there constantly lit, it doesn't do the animation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try a different browser, dolphin is awesome, and shows you tons of details when you download files. The notification icon itself is very unobtrusive.

Except that recent versions of dolphin have made it horribad. I found it so slow as to be unusable and have moved to chrome. Dolphin also force quits on my phone all the time for no apparent reason. Used to love it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda

First nexus, couple of questions

Hello,
This is my first nexus, getting it tomorrow (12th) really looking forward to it, got the graphite one (getting a case so doesn't matter to me)
Im quite excited about the development, it looks quite busy which is great, I'd just like to ask if anyone has any screen off animations, like the CRT effect or the s6 slide to the edge animation, I'm pretty sure xposed provides these but I'd like to avoid that if possible.
I'll be rooting day one as I've always done on my phones and then off on the hunt for a rom.. Glad to be a part of the nexus gang for once, hope it's as good as I've heard..
Second question was list view animations, again I'm aware that there are xposed mods XUI mod which can do these for me, but again I'd like to avoid them.. I think there will be some roms with this feature baked in but thought I'd ask anyway just incase there isn't..
Thanks chaps.

dladz said:
Hello,
This is my first nexus, getting it tomorrow (12th) really looking forward to it, got the graphite one (getting a case so doesn't matter to me)
Im quite excited about the development, it looks quite busy which is great, I'd just like to ask if anyone has any screen off animations, like the CRT effect or the s6 slide to the edge animation, I'm pretty sure xposed provides these but I'd like to avoid that if possible.
I'll be rooting day one as I've always done on my phones and then off on the hunt for a rom.. Glad to be a part of the nexus gang for once, hope it's as good as I've heard..
Second question was list view animations, again I'm aware that there are xposed mods XUI mod which can do these for me, but again I'd like to avoid them.. I think there will be some roms with this feature baked in but thought I'd ask anyway just incase there isn't..
Thanks chaps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry I have no idea about the screen off animation, didn't look at it tbh but mind if I ask why would you avoid xposed if you will root?

mr.dj26 said:
sorry I have no idea about the screen off animation, didn't look at it tbh but mind if I ask why would you avoid xposed if you will root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not OP, but I've also been avoiding xposed. My impression is that I've seen enough negative comments about unpredictable behavior when paired with Franco Kernel, I think Franco himself may have even commented on it, and if I have to choose between the two I'm going with FK. I wish xposed could be super stable and compatible and predictable though, because I'm dying for some of it's features and I don't want to leave the stock ROM.
ALSO, it wasn't immediately apparent the requirements for using it, and the processes to install it (there are multiple parts, right? there used to be), and where we go for an aggregated list of mods like Cydia on iOS. Seemed like too much work for too much potential buginess.

.psd said:
Not OP, but I've also been avoiding xposed. My impression is that I've seen enough negative comments about unpredictable behavior when paired with Franco Kernel, I think Franco himself may have even commented on it, and if I have to choose between the two I'm going with FK. I wish xposed could be super stable and compatible and predictable though, because I'm dying for some of it's features and I don't want to leave the stock ROM.
ALSO, it wasn't immediately apparent the requirements for using it, and the processes to install it (there are multiple parts, right? there used to be), and where we go for an aggregated list of mods like Cydia on iOS. Seemed like too much work for too much potential buginess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't speak to the Franco kernel but I have used Xposed with Kylo, stock and God's kernel and have never had one issue with Xposed. You have to flash the installer with TWRP but otherwise its super easy.

mr.dj26 said:
sorry I have no idea about the screen off animation, didn't look at it tbh but mind if I ask why would you avoid xposed if you will root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its a fair question, and the answer is unpredictable battery drain, extremely poorly updated and Un optimized mods, obviously not all of them but a lot.
As I said in the OP the list view animation has been done, I've had it on CandyRom on my M9, it works really well but I haven't seen a screen off animation since kit kat, the stock animation now is to fade away, if you slow down animations within development settings you'll see it on locking your phone. I'd just like a one time mod to be able to alter that to something else.
Once you've got it on your phone you like it and get used to it then you miss it when it's not there.
Personally I would like to avoid xposed, it does have a negative impact on your battery for that I'm sure.

tfly212 said:
Can't speak to the Franco kernel but I have used Xposed with Kylo, stock and God's kernel and have never had one issue with Xposed. You have to flash the installer with TWRP but otherwise its super easy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually wrote a tutorial on how to install xposed and the two above modules however after doing this and living with it vs not having xposed, same apps same rom. There was a huge difference in battery performance, hence why I'd like to avoid xposed altogether.

.psd said:
Not OP, but I've also been avoiding xposed. My impression is that I've seen enough negative comments about unpredictable behavior when paired with Franco Kernel, I think Franco himself may have even commented on it, and if I have to choose between the two I'm going with FK. I wish xposed could be super stable and compatible and predictable though, because I'm dying for some of it's features and I don't want to leave the stock ROM.
ALSO, it wasn't immediately apparent the requirements for using it, and the processes to install it (there are multiple parts, right? there used to be), and where we go for an aggregated list of mods like Cydia on iOS. Seemed like too much work for too much potential buginess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is part of my problem too. If there are stand alone mods I'd prefer them over xposed.
Its like having the Facebook messenger app when the original Facebook app was more than enough, why have two apps when 1 will do.

There used to be stand alone mods for older devices, I'm not sure if it's possible any more or its just because there's less demand for it, but I always ask when I get a new phone.

dladz said:
I actually wrote a tutorial on how to install xposed and the two above modules however after doing this and living with it vs not having xposed, same apps same rom. There was a huge difference in battery performance, hence why I'd like to avoid xposed altogether.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. Definitely not my experience... I have used Xposed from the start and get about 5 hours SOT as a standard with WiFi, cellular and GPS on all day (solid signal in NYC). Are you getting significantly more than 5 hours SOT without Xposed?

dladz said:
Its a fair question, and the answer is unpredictable battery drain, extremely poorly updated and Un optimized mods, obviously not all of them but a lot.
As I said in the OP the list view animation has been done, I've had it on CandyRom on my M9, it works really well but I haven't seen a screen off animation since kit kat, the stock animation now is to fade away, if you slow down animations within development settings you'll see it on locking your phone. I'd just like a one time mod to be able to alter that to something else.
Once you've got it on your phone you like it and get used to it then you miss it when it's not there.
Personally I would like to avoid xposed, it does have a negative impact on your battery for that I'm sure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't noticed any difference in battery after installing xposed. I'm running on the stock rom/kernal with 0 issues. I use xposed for Gravity box , gesture nav, greenify, and youtube background playback. Maybe it's something with the modules you've downloaded.

mr.dj26 said:
I haven't noticed any difference in battery after installing xposed. I'm running on the stock rom/kernal with 0 issues. I use xposed for Gravity box , gesture nav, greenify, and youtube background playback. Maybe it's something with the modules you've downloaded.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps, but the point is, if you could have the modifications which you've obtained through xposed without actually using an exploit like xposed, would you? I think you would.
This is what i'm looking for.
PS: Just got my 6P and i have to say it's one good looking phone, coming from the M9 too, it's very nice, i'm happy with it up to now for sure.

tfly212 said:
Interesting. Definitely not my experience... I have used Xposed from the start and get about 5 hours SOT as a standard with WiFi, cellular and GPS on all day (solid signal in NYC). Are you getting significantly more than 5 hours SOT without Xposed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also don't want to spark a debate here as it's besides the point of what i originally asked, xposed is an app that allows mods, i personally given the chance would prefer to have the mods on their own, i know they can be done as i've seen them on previous devices (see my phone list below)
Just want to know if they exist on this device ? As it's a nexus i'd assumed that it was one of the most modded types of android out there.
Either way i'm more than happy with the device, it's a nice bit of kit.
Just my two cents here though to settle what you'd asked me, do i notice better battery without xposed, well yes i have noticed it to be better, a clean flash and then back to a normal rom and battery has been better.
There are many benefits to being without xposed, bug reporting for one, if you have xposed you can't bug report as it invalidates it, for me battery has been substandard with it, so i'm hoping with this phone i can avoid it and get the mods in a flashable zip.
Hoping

dladz said:
I also don't want to spark a debate here as it's besides the point of what i originally asked, xposed is an app that allows mods, i personally given the chance would prefer to have the mods on their own, i know they can be done as i've seen them on previous devices (see my phone list below)
Just want to know if they exist on this device ? As it's a nexus i'd assumed that it was one of the most modded types of android out there.
Either way i'm more than happy with the device, it's a nice bit of kit.
Just my two cents here though to settle what you'd asked me, do i notice better battery without xposed, well yes i have noticed it to be better, a clean flash and then back to a normal rom and battery has been better.
There are many benefits to being without xposed, bug reporting for one, if you have xposed you can't bug report as it invalidates it, for me battery has been substandard with it, so i'm hoping with this phone i can avoid it and get the mods in a flashable zip.
Hoping
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries...was more curious about your experience. If you were getting 8 hours SOT or something i would drop Xposed like a hot rock haha. I normally would go the ROM route but I have to use Airwatch for work and every ROM I tried made the device show as compromised.

tfly212 said:
No worries...was more curious about your experience. If you were getting 8 hours SOT or something i would drop Xposed like a hot rock haha. I normally would go the ROM route but I have to use Airwatch for work and every ROM I tried made the device show as compromised.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about using an older version of the app, that's how I use my banking app, the new one won't work but a few versions before and its all good.
Try it , might be OK.
I never measured screen on time, I measure by days, and events during the day, like how much battery on the way home, similar usage but xposed used more, from what I saw.

why would I want to root this phone? and I am no noob!

Honestly guys
Give me one good reason for wanting to do this hey I cannot think of one
I have owned a lot of phones previously first of all
The souled best I have owned a Samsung Galaxy S2
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the only reason I had to do root those phojes
Not enough ram for multitasking purposes
Had to root so that more apps can stay in memory.
With an is as light as this....
Dont really have a need to debloat
Dont use titanium backup much
Only one reason i can think of adblocking
Thinking about it now
The reason why we had to root phones was to squeeze more performance out of them..
And my general experience is rooting though helps
It doesn't lead to an idea phone state where everything works.
Some small bugs around the edges are left which can be as annoying as you want then to be...
So anyone here who can give me better reasons for wanting to root this device

No reason IMO. I think people do it for different ROMs, Adblocker, Titanium Backup.

You don't need root if you have to ask why.

I never rooted for extra performance, I root for total control over the device I just spend a lot of money on. And I like to theme stuff deep into the system.

invinciblecc said:
Honestly guys
Give me one good reason for wanting to do this hey I cannot think of one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nandroid backup and titanium backup for the apps.
Privacy issues: firewalls Afwall, xprivacy, etc.
Customization: Gravitybox, etc.
Ad control: minminguard, and others.
I could go on.
Otherwise, why not just get an iPhone?
But, if you are happy, no need to root.

lopmig1 said:
No reason IMO. I think people do it for different ROMs, Adblocker, Titanium Backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seconded, I rooted to have TB and Ad block. Maybe in the future I'll mess around with a custom ROM but for now stock gives me everything I need.

invinciblecc said:
Honestly guys
Give me one good reason for wanting to do this hey I cannot think of one
I have owned a lot of phones previously first of all
The souled best I have owned a Samsung Galaxy S2
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the only reason I had to do root those phojes
Not enough ram for multitasking purposes
Had to root so that more apps can stay in memory.
With an is as light as this....
Dont really have a need to debloat
Dont use titanium backup much
Only one reason i can think of adblocking
Thinking about it now
The reason why we had to root phones was to squeeze more performance out of them..
And my general experience is rooting though helps
It doesn't lead to an idea phone state where everything works.
Some small bugs around the edges are left which can be as annoying as you want then to be...
So anyone here who can give me better reasons for wanting to root this device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are hundreds, maybe thousands of reasons to root a device. I have quite a few apps which I like, plus customizable options which only exist on custom ROMs.
However all that is meaningless, the only question you need to ask is why would you root? What Is it you need which you can't have unrooted?
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

I use it for
Adaway
BetterBatteryStats
CF.lumen as I find it works way better than the built in night mode
Kernel Manager
Force Doze
Greenify
Pairs to backup and restore WiFi and Bluetooth settings
Tasker
And most significantly, TitaniumBackup!

There are plenty of reasons.
Custom kernels can bring awesome features, even better stability and amazing battery life.
Custom roms bring you all the customization you ever wanted
Custom apps like Viper4A bring awesome sound to your ears, titanium backup backups everything you ever want, Greenify gives you better battery life than you can imagine.
Truth is, you decide why you want to root.
I will admit though, I didn't think I was going to need to root the OP5, it is really good stock, but I'm glad I did root. I am able to pull >48 hours on one battery with >9 hours SOT thanks to some root apps and features.

Battery life is excellent for me as of now. M.
Maybe I will root it... But after sometime
The only reason need titanium backup is if I switch roms.. And without root I won't switch roms so no need for titanium backup...
Need to block ads though...
Maybe I'll just let a rooted stock do wonders for me...
I have seen once I change stock...switching from one rom to another becomes a temptation and then the phone rarely remains a phone.... I start feeling like a developer and keep on flashing roms...
Not on this device... I don't want to set up this device again and again with every new rom... Lets see.. Till how long can I resist!
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

Depends on the user. Im not rooted but would do it to:
Use Viper4Android
Try out custom ROMs
Use mods like enableing front speaker playback for stereo sound
etc...
There are reasons, the question is do you need it.

I haven't rooted yet but I am going to.
- adblocker
- Titanium backup
- Viper4Android
- custom ROMs for customization
I had a Samsung device till recently and was using custom ROMs cause I hated how TouchWiz looks.
Now, stock OP5 might look similar to what I had but I still feel crippled.
I have to say though that the advantages of root don't make it a must have. I am using it stock cause I'm on holiday right now and could use it like this. It's definitely better than stock Samsung

I've never rooted for performance. I always root for extra customization options.
The root apps and options I'm using now are:
Substratum/ozone for middle clock and am/pm and a few other small ui tweaks.
Button backlight controller so the backlight on the buttons stay on while the screen is on. I mean by default, the LEDs are useless because they come on only after you press them. The point of the LED is to help you find them. So wtf.
Adblock, because a lot of sites can't even be viewed on mobile that have full screen ads or ads that cover content.
Stereo Speaker mod is pretty sweet. That's the main thing I miss from my Nexus 6p.
And I will definitely be switching to a rom as soon as they are stable enough. Things that OOS did right, they only kinda did right. Sure, they have a circle battery, great job. But you can't put the percent inside of it? No hold back button to kill a misbehaving app? Really?

I have to root. Don't know why, but i have to.
Actually I do it for adblocking, viper, and custom ROMs. So far, with the crazy battery life I am getting.... I am sticking with rooted, stock ROM and kernel.
And for those who don't root and still want adblocking: try fdroid with DNS66

Edit

As been said before: my main reason for rooting is backup (TiBu) ! Its actually the only reason left that I could not replace by other means.
Other reasons are: ad blocking (but there are rootless solutions that do ok), customization (but could live without if need be) and debloating (also with TiBu plus MyAndroidTools) for improved battery life.

invinciblecc said:
Honestly guys
Give me one good reason for wanting to do this hey I cannot think of one
I have owned a lot of phones previously first of all
The souled best I have owned a Samsung Galaxy S2
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the only reason I had to do root those phojes
Not enough ram for multitasking purposes
Had to root so that more apps can stay in memory.
With an is as light as this....
Dont really have a need to debloat
Dont use titanium backup much
Only one reason i can think of adblocking
Thinking about it now
The reason why we had to root phones was to squeeze more performance out of them..
And my general experience is rooting though helps
It doesn't lead to an idea phone state where everything works.
Some small bugs around the edges are left which can be as annoying as you want then to be...
So anyone here who can give me better reasons for wanting to root this device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, the main reason is Titanium. Just because you don't care, doesn't mean that no one does. Root can do a lot. I use greenify, have that battery monitor app, etc. All use root.

I've rooted every android device I've ever owned prior to the OP5 first and foremost because I'm a bit of a tech nerd so naturally I like tinkering with electronics. I was able to add a bunch of useful features and enhancements through exploring root. But with the OP5, only thing I see that I would need root for is a proper ad blocking solution.
Bottom line is that most devices now a days work fine for daily use out of the box but everyone has individual reasons why they root. Same justification as to why some of us modify our cars. They drive fine in stock trim, but some of us want to make it our own.

invinciblecc said:
Honestly guys
Give me one good reason for wanting to do this hey I cannot think of one
I have owned a lot of phones previously first of all
The souled best I have owned a Samsung Galaxy S2
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the only reason I had to do root those phojes
Not enough ram for multitasking purposes
Had to root so that more apps can stay in memory.
With an is as light as this....
Dont really have a need to debloat
Dont use titanium backup much
Only one reason i can think of adblocking
Thinking about it now
The reason why we had to root phones was to squeeze more performance out of them..
And my general experience is rooting though helps
It doesn't lead to an idea phone state where everything works.
Some small bugs around the edges are left which can be as annoying as you want then to be...
So anyone here who can give me better reasons for wanting to root this device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agreeing with you. There isn't much of a need to root the phone, but I still root mine for the hell of it. Haven't done anything yet that requires root though. Still, it's nice having the option there.

invinciblecc said:
Maybe I'll just let a rooted stock do wonders for me...
I have seen once I change stock...switching from one rom to another becomes a temptation and then the phone rarely remains a phone.... I start feeling like a developer and keep on flashing roms...
Not on this device... I don't want to set up this device again and again with every new rom... Lets see.. Till how long can I resist!
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually a really good point, I too often end up rooting, checking out some roms, want more customisation and all of a sudden I've flashed my device 17 times over and spent more time setting the same stuff up over and over. It's that elusive "I just need this one more tweak sh*t to make my phone perfect"....when there's no such thing as a perfect device

[G935F] ROM, kernel, ultra-noob questions

Hello droidsmiths,
S7 Edge is my first ever smartphone (yep, late to the party). I was looking forward to trying new ROMs and kernels, to get more customisation and have proper (admin) control of my device.
First I tried RR, whose customisations are excellent, but averaged ≈3 hours "normal"-use battery life (stock @ ≈8 hours). AOD/USB stopped working, and the phone was always warm to the touch, even in standby. Is that normal?
I then tried Helios, then SuperMan (and their respective kernels) but I can't find anything different. The included apps/fonts are handy though. All Settings customisations/options seem identical to stock except a new icon here and there, is that correct?
I would like to customise appearance / UI settings (e.g. no animation, white-on-black as default) and have CPU/GPU/RAM/network control. Ideally, battery life at maybe >75% of stock. My expectations might be too high, sorry about that, I am new to all this. I'm a Windows developer, so not too bad with those OSes but totally lost in Android. (Can't even find a way to set the wallpaper to be just black, yikes!)
Is there a TW-based ROM that allows in-depth customisation like RR, or a non-TW ROM with working AOD and fingerprint scanner?
Thanks for any advice/help you can provide, and to the developers for their work.

hejra said:
Hello droidsmiths,
S7 Edge is my first ever smartphone (yep, late to the party). I was looking forward to trying new ROMs and kernels, to get more customisation and have proper (admin) control of my device.
First I tried RR, whose customisations are excellent, but averaged ≈3 hours "normal"-use battery life (stock @ ≈8 hours). AOD/USB stopped working, and the phone was always warm to the touch, even in standby. Is that normal?
I then tried Helios, then SuperMan (and their respective kernels) but I can't find anything different. The included apps/fonts are handy though. All Settings customisations/options seem identical to stock except a new icon here and there, is that correct?
I would like to customise appearance / UI settings (e.g. no animation, white-on-black as default) and have CPU/GPU/RAM/network control. Ideally, battery life at maybe >75% of stock. My expectations might be too high, sorry about that, I am new to all this. I'm a Windows developer, so not too bad with those OSes but totally lost in Android. (Can't even find a way to set the wallpaper to be just black, yikes!)
Is there a TW-based ROM that allows in-depth customisation like RR, or a non-TW ROM with working AOD and fingerprint scanner?
Thanks for any advice/help you can provide, and to the developers for their work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to the world of android!
Big advocater for touchwiz ROMs here. Never understood AOSP based ROMs like RR on Samsung phone - nothing improved really (worse battery life, camera, lost features, mild if any performance gain) + I reckon you bought the wrong phone for yourself if you use AOSP ROM on a samsung. Just my opinion though.
Theming - Superman has quite a few things you can change in the superman settings app. most notably for me notification appearance and blur effect on notification pulldown. If you simply want to change appearance, you can use samsung themes. There are plenty of black and white themes there. If it's still not enough, you can use Nova Launcher?
Kernel control - use superkernel with the ROM if you like to tweak. synapse is buggy but will let you tweak heaps. Kernel adiutor has less tweaking ,but more stable.
Performance, battery life - I'm on superman ROM with Superstock Kernel, better battery life than stock for sure. 2% drain overnight (6-8 hrs), ~12-20% drain in 24hr on an average day for me, pretty much default superstock kernel settings (changed IO scheduler and TCP algorithm). Greenify / forcedoze helps with battery too. Performance is pretty much the same as stock in my experience.
Havent tried helios, but I believe it comes with Xposed which offers heaps of customisation. Kernel is pretty much stock here I believe, but you can flash a kernel over it. For tweaking use Superkernel, Notorious or TGP kernel. You can still theme store here too.
I hope this helps. Any questions, let us know

Eggleston11 said:
Welcome to the world of android!
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Hey there. Thank you for the detailed response, very much appreciated!
Big advocater for touchwiz ROMs here. Never understood AOSP based ROMs like RR on Samsung phone - nothing improved really (worse battery life, camera, lost features, mild if any performance gain) + I reckon you bought the wrong phone for yourself if you use AOSP ROM on a samsung. Just my opinion though.
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Click to collapse
I'm coming to the same conclusion (wrong phone), unfortunately. Wish I knew beforehand about Samsung locking things down so hard before I purchased; was never mentioned in reviews though. It's only been a couple of days and I still have accessories being shipped, so won't sell it just yet. In the meantime I'll see if I can tailor it to be workable.
TBH any ROM is fine, so long as I can do two main things: default to black background/white text (e.g. my Win 10 laptop), and CPU/GPU control. White-on-black is more important, I have a mild optical disorder. The colour-inversion accessibility option is excellent, but as it applies to e.g. photos (unlike Windows' high-contrast accessibility themes) it's overkill... and because it's global, some things are actually harder to discern.
Theming - Superman has quite a few things you can change in the superman settings app. most notably for me notification appearance and blur effect on notification pulldown. If you simply want to change appearance, you can use samsung themes. There are plenty of black and white themes there. If it's still not enough, you can use Nova Launcher?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I jumped the gun installling non-TW ROMs, so haven't tried any of Samsung's themes yet... I'll check them out tonight. With LineageOS, I purchased the Sungtratum Substratum addon and Swift Black theme, which worked very well, but as you say the performance issues and missing features seem to defeat the purpose of owning decent hardware. [EDIT: I'm sorry, that's very rude! I don't mean it so bluntly: I probably won't use e.g. the camera much so can understand that many features are not a priority for users, including myself. Now that I've had a better look around (and still only seen maybe 5% of what's on offer) in the ROMs, all have excelled in different areas and the work that goes into them is incredible, especially for FREE!]
Kernel control - use superkernel with the ROM if you like to tweak. synapse is buggy but will let you tweak heaps. Kernel adiutor has less tweaking ,but more stable.
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Click to collapse
Ah, I noticed Adiutor included in a couple of ROMs and see that it does all I need—just basic tweaking in discrete profiles like ThrottleStop/Afterburner for Windows, triggered with events via AutoHotkey (Tasker looks like a the best equivalent).
Performance, battery life - I'm on superman ROM with Superstock Kernel, better battery life than stock for sure. 2% drain overnight (6-8 hrs), ~12-20% drain in 24hr on an average day for me, pretty much default superstock kernel settings (changed IO scheduler and TCP algorithm). Greenify / forcedoze helps with battery too. Performance is pretty much the same as stock in my experience.
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Click to collapse
Okay, glad to hear. I'll give SuperMan or Helios another go and see what I can work out with Samsung Themes/Adiutor/Xposed/Greenify/Tasker.
Havent tried helios, but I believe it comes with Xposed which offers heaps of customisation. Kernel is pretty much stock here I believe, but you can flash a kernel over it. For tweaking use Superkernel, Notorious or TGP kernel. You can still theme store here too.
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Cool, well I have a lot of options to explore—hopefully I'll be able to tailor things enough to avoid selling it.
I hope this helps. Any questions, let us know
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Click to collapse
I'll probably have more nooboid questions, but I've learned a lot already—thanks again!

hejra said:
I'm coming to the same conclusion (wrong phone), unfortunately. Wish I knew beforehand about Samsung locking things down so hard before I purchased; was never mentioned in reviews though. It's only been a couple of days and I still have accessories being shipped, so won't sell it just yet. In the meantime I'll see if I can tailor it to be workable.
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Click to collapse
(Just bolded points that I saw for easy reference) Samsung doesnt lock things down that bad, most stock ROMs regardless of manufacturer are a little inflexible for various reasons, think of it like an iphone treatment. The custom ones are very flexible IMO.
As for accessories, I know you didnt ask, but screen protectors are hard to come by due to the curved screen - glass ones have poor fit and never have sticky surface the whole way = dust can come underneath + poor sensitivity, film ones tend to lift up on the edges . and once you do find a reasonable one, normally cases cause the screen protector to lift. I highly recommend a film screen protector and a case that is friendly on one. I personally use an unbranded film protector from a street shop haha BUT I would highly recommend the supcase unicorn beetle case as it has a part that comes from the front (rather than most cases that only come from behind) meaning that it keeps the protector on very well, even an unbranded one such as mine.
hejra said:
TBH any ROM is fine, so long as I can do two main things: default to black background/white text (e.g. my Win 10 laptop), and CPU/GPU control. White-on-black is more important.
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Click to collapse
Both boxes are quite easily ticked. Theme store sounds like the solution for you - like i said earlier, plenty of black and white themes. Superman ROM also lets you change the colours for notifications as theme store wont change that. Attached some screenshots of my phone's UI just to show you that it can be done with touchwiz.
hejra said:
I jumped the gun installling non-TW ROMs, so haven't tried any of Samsung's themes yet... I'll check them out tonight. With LineageOS, I purchased the Sungtratum Substratum addon and Swift Black theme, which worked very well, but as you say the performance issues and missing features seem to defeat the purpose of owning decent hardware. EDIT: I'm sorry, that's very rude! I don't mean it so bluntly: I probably won't use e.g. the camera much so can understand that many features are not a priority for users, including myself. Now that I've had a better look around (and still only seen maybe 5% of what's on offer) in the ROMs, all have excelled in different areas and the work that goes into them is incredible, especially for FREE!]
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Yeah, I reckon you sorta did too haha. It's a little bit of overkill if you simply just want those two modifications. Give touchwiz another chance I reckon. I dont think you'll regret it, given what I've read.
hejra said:
Ah, I noticed Adiutor included in a couple of ROMs and see that it does all I need—just basic tweaking in discrete profiles like ThrottleStop/Afterburner for Windows, triggered with events via AutoHotkey (Tasker looks like a the best equivalent).
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Click to collapse
Adiutor is not bad and is is very stable. If it does all you need, then dont even try synapse lol. Synapse was hugely frustrating to me - unstable AF, not something I needed controlling my kernel.
hejra said:
Okay, glad to hear. I'll give SuperMan or Helios another go and see what I can work out with Samsung Themes/Adiutor/Xposed/Greenify/Tasker.
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My stats are also all while connected to android wear, location always on and sometimes bluetooth audio in car, so you may get even better. If you need any battery saving tips, I can help out as well. Alot of tricks are simply just changing settings. There are apps that can help too.
hejra said:
Cool, well I have a lot of options to explore—hopefully I'll be able to tailor things enough to avoid selling it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hejra said:
I'll probably have more nooboid questions, but I've learned a lot already—thanks again!
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No worries happy to help. I'm in the chillest year of my degree, so I got plenty of time. I wrote a lot this time as well I think haha. So TLDR - give touchwiz another go, it sounds like you wont regret it by reading your posts.

After newly installed And 11, my phone froze

I downloaded the file on Tuesday and the phone has been working great. FYI, there is a wipe involved with the download. There's no warning before the fact it's during the setup.
Anyway, the phone has been great but last night, while charging, I noticed that the charging percentage and the time were not changing and the phone froze. My first freeze ever with any phone. The only thing I could think of was to hold the power button. After 4-5 , power button holds it recycled and came back.
One thing I noticed is that the phone, while charging, was warmer than usual and historically this phone doesn't get warm or hot.
Just a heads up, I may set up a chat with Oneplus just to see what they say

pbman1953 said:
I downloaded the file on Tuesday and the phone has been working great. FYI, there is a wipe involved with the download. There's no warning before the fact it's during the setup.
Anyway, the phone has been great but last night, while charging, I noticed that the charging percentage and the time were not changing and the phone froze. My first freeze ever with any phone. The only thing I could think of was to hold the power button. After 4-5 , power button holds it recycled and came back.
One thing I noticed is that the phone, while charging, was warmer than usual and historically this phone doesn't get warm or hot.
Just a heads up, I may set up a chat with Oneplus just to see what they say
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I guess you were on open beta. Its always like that if you "downgrade" from beta to stable there is a wipe involved.

Kollachi said:
I guess you were on open beta. Its always like that if you "downgrade" from beta to stable there is a wipe involved.
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I was on beta but now I'm on the final, which I downloaded Tuesday. From my chat with OP ,minutes ago, they told me to clear the cache from the power menu and report back to them if this happens again.

pbman1953 said:
I was on beta but now I'm on the final, which I downloaded Tuesday. From my chat with OP ,minutes ago, they told me to clear the cache from the power menu and report back to them if this happens again.
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Click to collapse
Recovery then wipe system..you'll need to reset up your phone but your storage will remain intact..
May be another way but not sure.
We're you rooted? Did you disable magisk mods before hand?

dladz said:
Recovery then wipe system..you'll need to reset up your phone but your storage will remain intact..
May be another way but not sure.
We're you rooted? Did you disable magisk mods before hand?
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I'm actully not rooted. After reading the pros and cons I don't know if I need it at this point. After you leave a Verizon Samsung phone then go to a Pixel and now the 8 pro, it's pretty stripped compared.
After chatting with OP , the cache clearing so far has helped.
Thanks!

pbman1953 said:
I'm actully not rooted. After reading the pros and cons I don't know if I need it at this point. After you leave a Verizon Samsung phone then go to a Pixel and now the 8 pro, it's pretty stripped compared.
After chatting with OP , the cache clearing so far has helped.
Thanks!
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Click to collapse
Definitely a tonne of benefits to rooting.
To name a few:
Backing up and restoring apps and their data as they are.
Proper ad blocking system wide.
Modifying the phone: centre clock, removing zram.
Magisk mods
Root apps like WiFi kill, Kali, system UI tuner
Kernels
Magisk ROMs
Full ROMs
I couldn't have an android phone without rooting. I've lived with a Huawei so I know how dull it gets.

dladz said:
Definitely a tonne of benefits to rooting.
To name a few:
Backing up and restoring apps and their data as they are.
Proper ad blocking system wide.
Modifying the phone: centre clock, removing zram.
Magisk mods
Root apps like WiFi kill, Kali, system UI tuner
Kernels
Magisk ROMs
Full ROMs
I couldn't have an android phone without rooting. I've lived with a Huawei so I know how dull it gets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the routing your making me curious-
Backing up and restoring apps and their data as they are.- not sure what this does
Proper ad blocking system wide.- add blocking where, Google, Facebook etc?
Modifying the phone: centre clock, removing zram.- I'm ok with the clock, what is zram?
Magisk mods- have never used them, but back in the day when I had my Note 4 there was a cool prgram for rooting that had all kinds of mods and tools
Root apps like WiFi kill, Kali, system UI tuner- not sure how that benefits me
Kernels- not sure what they do
Magisk ROMs- I see them here talked about alot
Full ROMs- When I had my Note 4 I tried roms all the time. They were cool but there was always some kind of bugginess about them
Since my Note 4, I've been out of the rooting game.

pbman1953 said:
On the routing your making me curious-
Backing up and restoring apps and their data as they are.- not sure what this does
Proper ad blocking system wide.- add blocking where, Google, Facebook etc?
Modifying the phone: centre clock, removing zram.- I'm ok with the clock, what is zram?
Magisk mods- have never used them, but back in the day when I had my Note 4 there was a cool prgram for rooting that had all kinds of mods and tools
Root apps like WiFi kill, Kali, system UI tuner- not sure how that benefits me
Kernels- not sure what they do
Magisk ROMs- I see them here talked about alot
Full ROMs- When I had my Note 4 I tried roms all the time. They were cool but there was always some kind of bugginess about them
Since my Note 4, I've been out of the rooting game.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium can back up or remove any app as it is. If you remove let's say a game you'll lose all progress unless you have a sync feature.
The only add blocking you can have without root is using a fake VPN, it's overkill and not as efficient at removing ads. And yes ads from the whole device and all apps.
Zram ? Google it.
Magisk - yes the mod is magisk.
Not sure how they benefit you? I'm losing the will to live here, they were examples, you find what you need.
Kernels - Google it
Note 4 I had it myself, some of the absolute worst examples of ROMs on XDA.
You crack on at stock you seem happier there.
It was just a suggestion. Nvm

dladz said:
Titanium can back up or remove any app as it is. If you remove let's say a game you'll lose all progress unless you have a sync feature.
The only add blocking you can have without root is using a fake VPN, it's overkill and not as efficient at removing ads. And yes ads from the whole device and all apps.
Zram ? Google it.
Magisk - yes the mod is magisk.
Not sure how they benefit you? I'm losing the will to live here, they were examples, you find what you need.
Kernels - Google it
Note 4 I had it myself, some of the absolute worst examples of ROMs on XDA.
You crack on at stock you seem happier there.
It was just a suggestion. Nvm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for writing back. For me I'm a performance junky. I'm not a gamer just a surfer that wants a high octane machine, if possible. Does rooting do that? I remember Titanium from the past , good tool and you have to be careful is what I remember.

pbman1953 said:
Thanks for writing back. For me I'm a performance junky. I'm not a gamer just a surfer that wants a high octane machine, if possible. Does rooting do that? I remember Titanium from the past , good tool and you have to be careful is what I remember.
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Click to collapse
Nah titanium is safe.
Does rooting help with speed, I would say so yes, I've made a phone run an emulator it had no business running..
Mainly through zram being disabled and having a kernel that allows a higher clock speed, plus the ROM I was running being as light and efficient as possible..
Stock simply cannot compare with that.
Everyone on here wants the fastest phone, the 865 in the 8 pro is the fastest processor there is..it's quicker than the Nvidia shield pro which I have, it can run things that the shield can't..
Performance isn't an issue with way, but yes being rooted opens doors that just don't exist for stock.

To play devil's advocate on the rooting thing...
I've been doing the android thing since gingerbread (good 7+ years). Back then it was an absolute MUST. These days not so much.
Most of the reasons to root back then was to add features that weren't available in Android stock ROMs at the time.
Let me give you some CONs to rooting before you jump into it...if these don't apply then have at it and have fun. It's fairly easy to do on this phone and once you have TWRP up and running you can pretty much revert any screw up and get your phone back up and running and have fun with tinkering.
1.) Do you enjoy Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube TV (TV service not YouTube app), or any other app that requires Winevine DRM encryption? OnePlus devices drop from L1 to L3 once you unlock the bootloader (requirement for root). Those apps will now all be at 480P 30FPS instead of 720p/1080p or 60 FPS. Total deal breaker for me watching sports on the road need the 60 FPS.
2.) Do you like to use GPay? It can work but it's a cat/mouse game with Google Play Services.
3.) It's fun theming with Substratum but every time there's an app update you have to hope it doesn't bork the theme. Gotta install an OTA? Disable all your modules, uninstall your themes, flash, and then re-enable. Tedious. Maybe I"m getting older but wife, kids, family stuff I don't want to be messing around with all this?
4.) Want ad-blocking? Blokada works excellent. I have an old rooted tablet (Tab S3) and it uses AdAway. Both effectively block my ads. Also I run a personal VPN at my house with PiHole so I can block that way too by connecting to my home VPN on the road.
5.) Swift Backup will backup most of your apps without root. It'll restore them without data. I've never in the 7 years of messing with Android had a perfect 1:1 restore with TWRP and Titanium Backup.. There's always little things that act up. Not a deal breaker these days missing Titanium Backup. Especially when not root and constantly mucking with the system it's usually pretty rock solid not requiring a constant TWRP/Titanium solution.
6.) Most praise Viper4Android. Great app. Stock it sounds fine for portable use. No phone DAC is going to compete with dedicated equipment so you're basically polishing a turd. There's better equipment out there to get solid audio. Phone isn't one of them.
7.) I haven't looked into rooting this phone for months so my last point is dated and I believe there is a fix but last i checked (once again a few months back haven't been on XDA for a bit) there were some serious fingerprint loss when unlocking the bootloader and then trying to relock or use MSMTool to go back to stock.

Nosferatu. said:
To play devil's advocate on the rooting thing...
I've been doing the android thing since gingerbread (good 7+ years). Back then it was an absolute MUST. These days not so much.
Most of the reasons to root back then was to add features that weren't available in Android stock ROMs at the time.
Let me give you some CONs to rooting before you jump into it...if these don't apply then have at it and have fun. It's fairly easy to do on this phone and once you have TWRP up and running you can pretty much revert any screw up and get your phone back up and running and have fun with tinkering.
1.) Do you enjoy Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube TV (TV service not YouTube app), or any other app that requires Winevine DRM encryption? OnePlus devices drop from L1 to L3 once you unlock the bootloader (requirement for root). Those apps will now all be at 480P 30FPS instead of 720p/1080p or 60 FPS. Total deal breaker for me watching sports on the road need the 60 FPS.
2.) Do you like to use GPay? It can work but it's a cat/mouse game with Google Play Services.
3.) It's fun theming with Substratum but every time there's an app update you have to hope it doesn't bork the theme. Gotta install an OTA? Disable all your modules, uninstall your themes, flash, and then re-enable. Tedious. Maybe I"m getting older but wife, kids, family stuff I don't want to be messing around with all this?
4.) Want ad-blocking? Blokada works excellent. I have an old rooted tablet (Tab S3) and it uses AdAway. Both effectively block my ads. Also I run a personal VPN at my house with PiHole so I can block that way too by connecting to my home VPN on the road.
5.) Swift Backup will backup most of your apps without root. It'll restore them without data. I've never in the 7 years of messing with Android had a perfect 1:1 restore with TWRP and Titanium Backup.. There's always little things that act up. Not a deal breaker these days missing Titanium Backup. Especially when not root and constantly mucking with the system it's usually pretty rock solid not requiring a constant TWRP/Titanium solution.
6.) Most praise Viper4Android. Great app. Stock it sounds fine for portable use. No phone DAC is going to compete with dedicated equipment so you're basically polishing a turd. There's better equipment out there to get solid audio. Phone isn't one of them.
7.) I haven't looked into rooting this phone for months so my last point is dated and I believe there is a fix but last i checked (once again a few months back haven't been on XDA for a bit) there were some serious fingerprint loss when unlocking the bootloader and then trying to relock or use MSMTool to go back to stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1- L1 remains after rooting
2- Gpay works as it should after rooting
3- Substratum theme dont break anything at least the ones I use
4- best seems Adaway - needs root
5- to save /data TWRP, fastest and easiest. Oneplus backup not bad
6- viper4android, that requires Root makes the sound much better on this phone
7- I never faced the fingerprints loss and anyway there is fix on the threads

Steve0007 said:
1- L1 remains after rooting
2- Gpay works as it should after rooting
3- Substratum theme dont break anything at least the ones I use
4- best seems Adaway - needs root
5- to save /data TWRP, fastest and easiest. Oneplus backup not bad
6- viper4android, that requires Root makes the sound much better on this phone
7- I never faced the fingerprints loss and anyway there is fix on the threads
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Click to collapse
I was literally about to say all of this. +1111111
Spot on.
Weird thing for me these days is not needing twrp, it's always been my safety net, but it's just not needed these days, if they ever get rid of Fastboot then it's game over, I'll be buying an iPhone.
The great thing about OOS and magisk ROMs is it retains the goodness from stock and gives you the tweaks systemlessly. Which is nice and safety net passes.
I agree with all of the above.
But either way @ the OP you do you, I'll do me.
PS: I've been doing the android thing since the G1 which was doughnut I think it was it cupcake?
If something is a risk to you then you haven't looked into it enough, there is always a way back, which is where you learn the most about yourself and your device.

dladz said:
Nah titanium is safe.
Does rooting help with speed, I would say so yes, I've made a phone run an emulator it had no business running..
Mainly through zram being disabled and having a kernel that allows a higher clock speed, plus the ROM I was running being as light and efficient as possible..
Stock simply cannot compare with that.
Everyone on here wants the fastest phone, the 865 in the 8 pro is the fastest processor there is..it's quicker than the Nvidia shield pro which I have, it can run things that the shield can't..
Performance isn't an issue with way, but yes being rooted opens doors that just don't exist for stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're making a good case for me to try it. What are the ABC's to get into rooting slowly and notice a difference?
Thanks for your help!

pbman1953 said:
You're making a good case for me to try it. What are the ABC's to get into rooting slowly and notice a difference?
Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got a root guide in the guides section..then I'd say check out xXx no limits, allows you to add a profile with a load of changes.. ..
Mods in themes section..
Kernels in development.