Database Users

Beginner question - how to start?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Need to downgrade the Os from 5.0 to 4.4

Hey there, I've recently bought a Nexus 7 with the latest os already installed on it, which has made it run slower with every passing day.
I did a bit of googling and found that a lot of people had issues with their Nexus 7s after they upgraded to the latest os.
So now I'm wanting to downgrade to the previous os and I read in an article on Androidcentral that said getting a custom rom would be the best way to go to (I'm guessing) either get a previous os or get a streamlined version of the one I already have.
So I need help finding the best rom for my purposes, I'm very new to this sort of thing, in terms of roms,flashing and downgrading os and such so any help would be greatly appreciated, as I'd love to be able to use this tablet St something other than the speed of smell lol.

@EddieHades welcome to the community. First of all it's always the best method using a custom ROM, but make sure you have unlocked bootloader. If you don't have unlock bootloader then you've to do it first, make sure you've backed up all your data. Second choice if you want to stick with stock rom. Then just go to this link and download your preffered stock ROM as per your device, make sure you've downloaded proper images. Then download Nexus Root Toolkit and flash that image and you're good to go.

Installing TWRP and custom ROM on d802

Hey guys,
I have a LG d802 phone which a relative asked me to update (i.e install a custom ROM) because his version of Android, 4.4.2 is having its support dropped for different, important applications he uses and he would need to throw this perfectly healthy phone away otherwise.
I am no expert at Android rooting, but I know the basic idea anyway. However, when I look up this device on TWRP.me (as well as their official app), it gives no results. I find it strange that the international variant of this phone would be unsupported; especially since I have seen threards on XDA as well as YouTube videos posted about running TWRP on this device. I am reluctant to try flashing files from random Dropbox (or similar) links however, especially if they are a few years old.
Could someone please provide an explanation how I go about to flash TWRP on this device, and if there is any special rules regarding installing a custom ROM (in my case, ResurrectionRemix) and GApps?
Also, I understood I need something called "loki", what is this and how do I use it?
Running Android 4.4.2, everything in stock except I enabled USB debugging.
Thanks a lot for any assistance!

Modding P8 Lite (2015) in 2020 - question and advices

Hello! I've modded already some devices, but I never got in my hands a device that lived so long.
Since I cannot find any infos about using latest Magisk on a such old device and I don't want to mess it up, I wanted to ask here some questions.
First: generally, is ok to use a recent version of Magisk on every device, or there are some devices with some kind of differences that needs a "custom" or "specific" version of Magisk?
Second: is ok to use directly the Releases on https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/releases ? I saw that this is the only official way to get it and that magiskmanager is not a related site.
Third: any advices on modding the P8 Lite 2015?
Model runs MIUI 4.0.3 and it's on Android 6. It's the single-sim version.
I already have TWRP working and phone is factory-reset. Yes, I had access to my unlock code, so it was pretty painless to unlock it.
It needs to be fully functional, so I cannot use custom ROMs (it seems like all have problems with YouTube and/or Camera). If there are some advices here, I'm free to listen.
I was planning on installing Magisk (root, generally) to uninstall Huawei crap plus a better control over kernel, if there is any on this device.

Can you just downgrade OOS to Android 10 and then flash TWRP or is it impossible?

Hi, I recently bought an used OnePlus 8 Pro and it was already updated to Android 11. After repairing it, I discovered that it's not possible to run TWRP on this firmware version.
Couldn't I just go ahead and downgrade the OS in order to run TWRP on it or is it basically impossible like on the latest Samsung Galaxy S-series devices?
Would be glad if someone could answer me that question. I kinda tried to boot into twrp because I was too quick to read the thread but it just caused my device to run into Qualcomm Emegency Mode.

What do you need twrp for? If it's just to root and almost everything else... It can be done via other means.

sensui123 said:
What do you need twrp for? If it's just to root and almost everything else... It can be done via other means.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also counter the same problem, i just want to use twrp to flash another rom. Do you have any solution? I have search the forum but i didnot find something useful.

freeman1007 said:
I also counter the same problem, i just want to use twrp to flash another rom. Do you have any solution? I have search the forum but i didnot find something useful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmmm the way I've seen a lot of custom roms... They're installed/flashed partition by partition in bootloader via fastboot.....I guess if you have to use twrp to flash the entire rom you do need to downgrade to os 10.

sensui123 said:
Hmmmm the way I've seen a lot of custom roms... They're installed/flashed partition by partition in bootloader via fastboot.....I guess if you have to use twrp to flash the entire rom you do need to downgrade to os 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your response. i think i just did not catch up the latest progress. Would you please help me find the instruction about how to flash rom in the new way you mentioned ? thank you so much.
And i still have the same question , is it necessary for us to downgrade to android 10 and then start flashing rom.

Look at the roms in the subforum here:
OnePlus 8 Pro ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other
Improve your OnePlus 8 Pro 's battery life, performance, and look by rooting it and installing a custom ROM, kernel, and more.
forum.xda-developers.com
I just looked at some popular ones like Pixel experience and Lineage and they're both flashed in this way. Look at the opening post where the instructions are... Seems like Pixel Experience there's a batch file that flashes the partitions but it's essentially done this way without twrp.

sensui123 said:
Look at the roms in the subforum here:
OnePlus 8 Pro ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other
Improve your OnePlus 8 Pro 's battery life, performance, and look by rooting it and installing a custom ROM, kernel, and more.
forum.xda-developers.com
I just looked at some popular ones like Pixel experience and Lineage and they're both flashed in this way. Look at the opening post where the instructions are... Seems like Pixel Experience there's a batch file that flashes the partitions but it's essentially done this way without twrp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you for your reply, I already tried to flash pixel experience, i followed the install guide but failed to flash its recovery file.
Install PixelExperience on instantnoodlep - PixelExperience Wiki
Install PixelExperience on instantnoodlep - PixelExperience Wiki
wiki.pixelexperience.org
Because it requires installing rom from recovery, so I get stuck here.
The problem is the device enters crash dump mode when switched to recovery mode. I guess the reason is that my p8pro is in andriod 11 before i flash recovery. now the device can enter android 11 normally but the recovery don't function. So I am here to ask is it necessary for me to downgrade to android 10 to solve the problem.

sensui123 said:
Look at the roms in the subforum here:
OnePlus 8 Pro ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other
Improve your OnePlus 8 Pro 's battery life, performance, and look by rooting it and installing a custom ROM, kernel, and more.
forum.xda-developers.com
I just looked at some popular ones like Pixel experience and Lineage and they're both flashed in this way. Look at the opening post where the instructions are... Seems like Pixel Experience there's a batch file that flashes the partitions but it's essentially done this way without twrp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your reply, it help me a lot. i have already flash my device lineage os . Regarding the problem i mentioned in my last reply, it seems the install guide is for android 10. As for android 11 , i think it needs a payload dumper to extract all files and flash them one by one.

MichalPlays said:
Hi, I recently bought an used OnePlus 8 Pro and it was already updated to Android 11. After repairing it, I discovered that it's not possible to run TWRP on this firmware version.
Couldn't I just go ahead and downgrade the OS in order to run TWRP on it or is it basically impossible like on the latest Samsung Galaxy S-series devices?
Would be glad if someone could answer me that question. I kinda tried to boot into twrp because I was too quick to read the thread but it just caused my device to run into Qualcomm Emegency Mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the answer depends why do you need twrp. If you just want to flash a rom like me, you can find a custom rom supporting android 11,for example lineage os and you can flash all files it requires without twrp.
If you want to flash a android 10 rom or you just want to flash twrp , i don't know how, maybe you should downgrade.