Hello! This will be a quick post about how it was good earlier and how it can be better today, so please, stay with me.
I've been using Sony's for a while now, starting with small and cute Sony Ericsson k510i, then k550i, then wt19i (LWW), and then Xperia SP. My "flashing career" started after I've lost warranty on my k510. At that time there wasn't a lot you can do to your phone - there were several official firmwares, various customization options, and a lot of custom patches. No competition, one latest official firmware, a big library of patches that you could port to your device, if someone didn't do it already. The only competing area were a lot of graphical patches, but you could compile them together on your phone. Like today, if you were doing something wrong with your phone - you'll get a brick and it's your fault. But for every device there was an instruction, a beautifully crafted instruction on what to do and how to do everything, step by step. Almost every thread included a complete set of links to get you started. If you needed to flash a customisation after installing something, there would be a link on how to flash custom right there.
Today I have my XSP and try to do something to it. So I open one link (non-sticky, needed to bookmark it), see a lot of ROMs, part of which are no longer maintained. Finally open one of them based on performance rating, and see that it needs some kernel. So I go to kernel list, and see that it can't be flashed without recovery. What recovery? One specific recovery, because another one can't flash it. Now how do I flash recovery in the first place? I need a manual for that. Now I go to kernel and ROM page and see that no manual is available for them, too. So I open main device page and don't see any manual, so I open a sticky thread. And guess what? I don't see manual there. And that's when I start a new thread, type my problem in, and see a non-sticky thread with last post made 2nd of May 2015, and no pages link to that thread at all.
Is that how it goes this days? A newbie comes in, spends whole evening, opens 10 tabs, and still can't find anything relevant? I think we need to do something with this, revisit old threads, compile a new one-for-all guide, or at least a list of guides. And stick it, so people can actually see it. Otherwise there will be small closed community of those who already can develop and flash, and all the others who either got brick or is afraid to get a brick. Thanks.
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UPD: And then I see that the kernel which I almost decided to flash is closed and all developers migrated to another one. I'm talking about tangerine and helium. Again, no info in the first post. And main developer openly says to users of his work - if it didn't work for you, don't use it. What's wrong with you people...
I'm deeply sorry if I offended somebody with my previous post. I'm happy that you guys do such amazing things with this 3 year phone. But damn, FULL INSTALLATION took about 10 minutes, counting PC reboot into linuxes to get fastboot working. In case someone struggles like me, use CyanogenMod instruction to get to Cyanogen Recovery; download TWRP Recovery, ROM of choice and GApps of choice; place all three ZIPs onto your sdcard; go to recovery, flash TWRP, reboot into TWRP (by pressing volume rockers while loading), do Wipe - Factory Wipe, flash ROM, flash GApps, reboot to normal. Wait for about 5 minutes (black screen is normal, there will be dots flying after a minute or so to keep you entertained).
Yes, It's that simple nowadays, so why bothering typing so much? I was in that situation with my SP, too, but if the are so many answers to these questions and so many threads... "You have to read" is the answer! A lot! It's for your own good, trust me. Now I can do anything I want with my phone with nohow! So a little reading and searching here and there is just positive experience for you. Don't complain, the people here ( well a part of them) are hardcore coders or themers or whatever. You can't just ask them to tell you all the stuff. If want help I'm always available.
Thank you for linking to my very dusty and lonely Flash ROM guide hahaha
No you didn't offend anyone at all. The guides are actually there, like how to use Flashtool, how to unlock bootloader, how to flash recovery and everything, it is just that they are buried deep with time as the development goes. The thread are there, in the General section and are awaiting to be searched. Though some are outdated, some are not and you can benefit from there.
Some searching will normally do, but if it didn't, just ask in the threads, someone will probably answer to you!
I always have my eyes on the General and Q&A subforums of the Xperia SP, and I will usually respond to a help-able problems. So if you have any problems, feel free to post in the Q&A subforum, and if not me, someone will help you. If there are nobody, don't feel offended. Maybe people don't know what to help or suggest (but lets just hope that is not what it will be )
About recovery, PhilZ and CWM is way outdated, and its time for everyone to make TWRP as a standard as it is a still updated recovery. Cyanogen Recovery in my opinion is crap as there are far too less feature plus, it enforce on signed flashable zips.
About the thread on Tangerine, the developer said dont use if it doesn't work is because of the norm of the Kernel. The kernel is made by using an AnyKernel template, hence render support for almost all Lollipop ROMs. Since ROMs can be updated and all ROMs have different sources, a simple change in the system part can render Tangerine unsupported, and the developer cannot do anything (definitely his choice, please respect that) to only fix the problem on one ROM which could possibly break support for the majority of the ROMs! This also appplies to Helium. Therefore, his words of "dont user it if it doesn't work" has a meaning, and it is not something to degrade new users and so.
kojata said:
If want help I'm always available.
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TechnoSparks said:
I always have my eyes on the General and Q&A subforums of the Xperia SP, and I will usually respond to a help-able problems. So if you have any problems, feel free to post in the Q&A subforum, and if not me, someone will help you. If there are nobody, don't feel offended. Maybe people don't know what to help or suggest (but lets just hope that is not what it will be )
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Thanks for the answers and offering help, happily I was able to install my ROM of choice and it still works flawlessly, I was even able to squeeze 20 battery days from my old XSP.
Thinking about it, I start to understand why that dev answered like that. I was a python dev in the past and know how one feature can kill two others. Just in my head there is one current linux kernel, and all things that are developed should work with that particular kernel. Kernel comes before OS, if you will. Isn't it the case with ROMs and droid kernels?
About TWRP and reading: I honestly did read a lot of info before doing something, because it's my only phone these days. But it's so hard to find information on whether something is deprecated or not. As a new user, you wouldn't just google "is this deprecated and no longer used?", because that search will not provide any info. That is why during that evening and following morning I lost count of how many times I just shaked my head asking which recovery/kernel should I use and how do I install it? Latest being the easy one, because I already found TechnoSparks thread by that time.
In case anybody is interested, I installed Candy 5 on default kernel. But I still don't know if installing android 5 on a kernel used with android 4.2 was a good idea. It went well, however.
Is there any way to get Android Lollipop on the Galaxy Core Prime SM-S820L? I have read about custom ROM's but I still don't know much about them and can't find any for this model. If anyone has found or created a way to flash a custom ROM onto this device, please let me know.
Liantik said:
Is there any way to get Android Lollipop on the Galaxy Core Prime SM-S820L? I have read about custom ROM's but I still don't know much about them and can't find any for this model. If anyone has found or created a way to flash a custom ROM onto this device, please let me know.
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I also own this device, and unfortunately there is very limited support in the custom Rom department. If there was to be a lollipop Rom, someone would either have to port one somehow, or build it from source. Given the development rate for this device, I don't predict it happening anytime soon, sorry to say.
not going to happen
i have been trying since february the answer i got from my carier was samsung is contracted not to support this device thats why that is so hard to find samsung told me to take the device to bestbuy to force update if they could probably irrelavent but maby it helps
SM-S820L Got the Shaft!
Yup! This seems to be the future for the SM-S820L, or lack of future I should say.
I too have the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime SM-S820L. I have spent lots of hours scouring the internet looking through every android related forum in hopes of eventually finding someone that is undertaking much needed programming to build a custom ROM for this CorePrime version.
If you are looking for a custom recovery to use. I can point you to my and others posts over at Needrom. The best I can offer is an unofficial TWRP release, but it DOES work! It does for myself at least and I am no Android Guru whatsoever.
I guess I am not allowed to post Links in any of my posts yet because I am still a NOOB on these forums. I'll PM you with some direction my friend!
I cannot take credit for coming up with any of that software. I simply rooted around long enough to compile a collection of tools and files that worked for me to modify the Recovery of my SM-S820L.
:good: Feel free to shoot me a Private Message on this site or to my personal Email....... [email protected]
I would love to help out as much as I can with modding your phone. Like I said, I'm not a proffesional but I have read up on the procedures used and been successful with my own Galaxy Core Prime:laugh:
Hello,
I'm strongly considering picking up a LePro 3, but I do have some concerns. I understand that the stock software isn't very good and I'm looking towards the community to create excellent ROMs for this device, but I do have some questions:
Do we have a clean method for root/unlock/recovery?
Is there anything stopping developers from putting together ROMs that are optimized for every aspect of the phone? i.e. enough source from LeEco?
How would you say developer support is for this device? I'm a fan of official ROM builds instead of using unofficial. Has anyone announced upcoming support for this device that I can look forward to?
Aside from that, feel free to mention anything else I should be aware of before purchasing the phone!
Thanks so much!
Do we have a clean method for root/unlock/recovery?
I have no idea what you mean by clean but if you can use adb then yes we do. If you are looking for a one stop shop all in one unlocker then the answer is no. look here for current method:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/le-pro3/how-to/flashing-guide-roundup-leeco-le-pro-3-t3511901
Is there anything stopping developers from putting together ROMs that are optimized for every aspect of the phone? i.e. enough source from LeEco?
I believe all source code has been released.
How would you say developer support is for this device? I'm a fan of official ROM builds instead of using unofficial. Has anyone announced upcoming support for this device that I can look forward to?
There is minimal development currently. One person is trying to build a Nougat 7.1 Rom. That's a pretty big feat so it will probably be a while. Look here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/le-pro3/how-to/7-1-progress-t3511474
There is a developer that posted a debloated version of the x720(international version) of this rom already. It will work on our x727(US version). It is an older version though so there's that. Look here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/le-pro3/development/rom-google-edition-cydras-t3514742
xiton said:
There's a CM 13 rom here based on the chinese x720. Look here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/le-pro3/how-to/cm-13-lex720-t3508015
Aside from that, feel free to mention anything else I should be aware of before purchasing the phone!
This is literally the smallest compilation of threads I've ever seen for a phone so starting a new thread to ask these questions is pretty silly. Since it's the holidays, I've been nice and responded to what could have easily been found in a couple of minutes.
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Thanks for the reply.
The reason I compiled these questions were because I was hoping for more specific answers and some clarity. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough my initial post and for that I apologize.
I was reading what seemed to be conflicting information about the recovery software and process in which to flash it to the device. It looked as if there wasn't any goto method or specific TWRP version to go with and that this was still somewhat experimental.
It's good to know that the source has been released. I was seeking info about LeEco and people were saying that they didn't release source code for their phones as company policy.
While I've visited the ROM forum section, I was hoping someone would have insight into official ROMs instead of what currently exists there.
For the US model Le Pro 3 (X727) I would recommend using this (http://forum.xda-developers.com/le-pro3/development/x727-model-persistent-bootloader-unlock-t3500388) method to unlock the bootloader. That's what I did and had no issues. From there you can use TWRP to do a full wipe and install the ROM of your choice. Of course, I would recommend taking a backup of everything before doing this.
I'm running that CM 13 build with no issues on my X727. It's also possible to get the IR blaster working if desired.
Hi. Im really noob in android os so probably my question is not correct (I apologi for this). I want to have an android totaly without google apps. BUT I like samsung home screen, namell Touch Wiz,and I like samsung 5row keyboard. I tried lineage 14 and several custom roms, they more or less nice but this trebuchet and 4 row board really annoyed. So could you suggest any system with Samsung home screen and keyboard but without gapps?
Eney said:
Hi. Im really noob in android os so probably my question is not correct (I apologi for this)......
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I don't have this variant but, your best bet is to post this question within the following Q&A thread that's specific to your device and variants.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2700073
Good Luck!
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I DO NOT provide support via PM unless asked/requested by myself. PLEASE keep it in the threads where everyone can share.
Mod Edit:
You have already raised this in Q and A. One question at a time please, in one place.
Thanks
A good rom is Lineage OS 14.1 Official for the S4. It is stable and good for daily usage.
There are pinned posts at the top of the Galaxy S4 General subforum that should be of help in actually rooting the device, though actually rooting it is not difficult. The main question I ask people lately when it comes to a ROM is whether they care about having Touchwiz features or not, as that will narrow down the available choices. From there, only by trying out the ROMs will you find one you like.
Before flashing anything, I recommend booting into download mode to confirm the model number.
Try it and find out. I don't use LineageOS so I can't tell you if it will or will not work. @audit13 no longer has his S4 if I recall so he's not going to be able to tell you, unless he used it in the past. Asking your questions on the forum is more than sufficient, though you will have to be patient when it comes to replies. PMs are dicey. I ignore tech support PMs and audit13's stance on them is unknown to me.
I no longer use an S4 but it's important to know the exact model number before flashing anything. The 9500 is very different, internally, than the 337 and 337m.