Database Users

[Q] Need advice on choosing a ROM

Hello.
I need advice/suggestions on choosing a Rom for my Samsung Galaxy S 4 (I9505/jfltexx). What I am looking for is a ROM that is stable and actively maintained with regards to bug and security fixes, preferably AOSP based. I have no need for neither all sorts of bells and whistles, fancy eye candy nor bleeding edge features. Rushing to the latest major android version is not a priority, having my phone fully working is, though.
Here is some "background data" om me in the hope of providing a more complete picture of what I am looking for based on my previous use/experience.
I have owned 3 android capable devices. HTC Legend, Samsung Galaxy SII and Samsung Galaxy S 4. One can argue these have been poor choice of devices but it is what it is. I have been running mainly Cyanogenmod since 6.1 I believe on all devices. Fact is, flashing CM has been one of the first thing I have done after buying a new device as I tend to "gag" on HTCs and Samsungs firmware. The first few years I used to tinker about with the devices a lot, flashing stable, RC, milestone and nightlies, different ROMs/kernels frequently but always found my way back to fairly default CM. It has been a bumpy ride on CM (yes, I realize this is in part due to my choise of devices) and while I am not here to lash out at CM in general, recent choices from the CM team and increasingly inconsistent support for my current device leads me to looking for alternatives while really appreciating the sheer amount of great work the CM team have done over the years.
So, what drew me towards CM in the first place? Well, mostly the flexibility/customizability of the ROM and the power/control I felt I had of it, the openness of it and what once was an active, positive community around it. Admittedly, SenseUI and TouchWiz probably pushed me towards it as well. The most recent year or two I have moved a bit away from tinkering and have had a higher need for a stable and maintained ROM that "just works".
I had decided to go for OmniROM, it seemed to be a decent alternative but I am under the impression that my device is no longer supported. Have been considering CopperheadOS as well.
Anyway, I am open to suggentions.
Cheers.

Slimsaber and Slim roms are constantly updated. They are also mantained by the same developer.
Resurrection Remix. I use this rom for some time and I have no issues. But this depends from phone to phone.
It is pretty feature rich.
The GPE rom is also a good choice. But GPE 5.1 is still pretty new and may not offer a stable and bugfree experience. You might want to try GPE 5.0, but it is not mantained anymore, since the move to 5.1.
There is a pure AOSP rom. It's basically the same thing you find on a nexus device.

funny thing that older moto g's got cyan 14.1 but moto g4 plus didnt

Ok so cyanogenmod.org got all moto devices listed and they said moto g series getting cyanogen 14.1 but moto g4 plus not anywhere in cyanogenmod.org list:crying:
I hate unofficial buggy ROMs

mayank.bhola1 said:
Ok so cyanogenmod.org got all moto devices listed and they said moto g series getting cyanogen 14.1 but moto g4 plus not anywhere in cyanogenmod.org list:crying:
I hate unofficial buggy ROMs
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Official roms are buggy too if you ever tried nightlies or snapshots. And we will see, maybe official will come until cm statet it comes not

They didn't say all G family, they post this list:
falcon, peregrine, titan, thea, osprey
They are 1st 2nd and 3rd Gen.

FlaminisRex said:
They didn't say all G family, they post this list:
falcon, peregrine, titan, thea, osprey
They are 1st 2nd and 3rd Gen.
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If it's not in the list, it will be added, thats possible.
@mayank.bhola1:
No need to scared and say it will never come. If you didn't have a proof, don't open such scaring threads "no official cyanogen 14.1" that's really annoying to others, because some people trust it and won't buy the device maybe(just an opinion)

I avoid anything cm based. Always worse on battery life.

trsix said:
I avoid anything cm based. Always worse on battery life.
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That's not true that all cm based has "always" worse battery life. On my galaxy's I got more battery compared to Samsung roms(official or mod) and also on my other devices cm gives me more battery life then stock, even to aosp! Maybe you encountered bad experiences, but it totally depends on the device tree, drivers, modem, source, etc etc... And the knowledge of the dev :angel:

My experience with CM was that a lot of the features added where useless to me and they just added battery drain and new bugs. And when a bug was fixed in a nightly, there was a good chance that another two bugs would pop up.
Not cool if you really need to use your phone as a phone. Maybe OK if you don't have a job or you stay at home all the time.

SoNic67 said:
My experience with CM was that a lot of the features added where useless to me and they just added battery drain and new bugs. And when a bug was fixed in a nightly, there was a good chance that another two bugs would pop up.
Not cool if you really need to use your phone as a phone. Maybe OK if you don't have a job or you stay at home all the time.
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So you concluding that we must stick to stock ROMs ??

Depends of what you do for living... and if need a reliable phone line for that.

SoNic67 said:
Depends of what you do for living... and if need a reliable phone line for that.
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I knew a device which stock cos rom is the hell on earth(random reboots, bugs, freezes) compared to cm and nearly all people saying wow after flashing cm instead of staying on stock. CM is widely available for devices and always a chance to get more out of your device when the manufacturer gives up the development after launching the device or won't fix bugs in acceptable time.

Not the case here. Moto firmware is stable and not bloated.

CM is best after OEM leaves device support. I had Asus Zenfone 5 earlier but no official CM so developers made unofficial one but Asus had serious issues with bootloader unlock as no developer was able to resolve screen freeze issues. So running custom ROMs on that device was hell bad.

If you think making cm and make it official is easy then do it urself, we really want to see. Things are not same as 1st,2nd &3rd. The chipset are way different than the previous gen. So stop posting useless things. Dont open thread for you own satisfaction.

Just my $0.02 : The premise behind getting a custom ROM is that it's for those who have an above average idea about OS, customizations, working on a system level and such.
The whole argument about stability, and what one does for their living is a bit too far fetched in context of using a device that is dependable. Stock ROMs are made by OEMs keeping a novice end-user in view, who may or may not have sufficient time, knowledge or inclination of going beyond what the device came shipped with.
Custom ROMs and development is undertaken almost completely as a voluntary exercise by the devs, mostly on cost of their own resources and go far as to offer their work off forum threads which they'd personally support. Those flashing and modding devices are ones testing the work undertaken by devs, and even after a ROM gets official status, work on development continues with feedback from users and updating security, porting features from other devices, expanding customization et al.
Battery use, smoothness of UI, connectivity, stability, obviously are essential to one's experience of using their phone, but are highly dependent on how well one's put to use the abilities of their custom ROM, apart from what applications or settings one's gotten on, and that would come about only with experimenting, learning and keeping oneself updated with their device's software.
Stock ROMs, barring the few odd ones which run stock Android are almost always crammed with bloatware, uncustomizable UI/features and locked in to a mesh of regulatory compliances, OEM/vendor/third party interests and above all marketing the device as a product - which means you're good to go for just about as long as the OEM cares, and that isn't usually long enough given they'd obviously be focused on selling newer products.
So, it's just that mileage may vary but if you're willing to stick around to learn and experiment, customizing is the only way to truly own your phone.
Sent from my Moto G4 Plus using XDA Labs

Frances91 said:
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Stock ROMs, barring the few odd ones which run stock Android are almost always crammed with bloatware, uncustomizable UI/features and locked in to a mesh of regulatory compliances, OEM/vendor/third party interests and above all marketing the device as a product - which means you're good to go for just about as long as the OEM cares, and that isn't usually long enough given they'd obviously be focused on selling newer products.
So, it's just that mileage may vary but if you're willing to stick around to learn and experiment, customizing is the only way to truly own your phone.
Sent from my Moto G4 Plus using XDA Labs
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I think the G4 is close to AOSP. Using Xposed you can get many fancy features found in custom roms. GravityBox gives you much of what CM offers.
Security features make it much more difficult to customize a phone. Pay by phone, i.e. "Wallet" will become important.
Custom roms are used more now for keeping old phones current. Not that much happening with new phones. Look at CyanogenMod https://download.cyanogenmod.org/ to view this.

king200 said:
I think the G4 is close to AOSP. Using Xposed you can get many fancy features found in custom roms. GravityBox gives you much of what CM offers.
Security features make it much more difficult to customize a phone. Pay by phone, i.e. "Wallet" will become important.
Custom roms are used more now for keeping old phones current. Not that much happening with new phones. Look at CyanogenMod https://download.cyanogenmod.org/ to view this.
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If you're considering using Xposed for the 'fancy features' and use wallet, and yet vouch for stock Roms I'm not sure what you're on to. You'd need for more mods running on a stock ROM which would anyways take months or even years to get updated to run latest Android versions. Some times you'd just stick around with frequent updates which are still two SDK versions behind the current official release, basically cycling through bloat, partner apps and constant rooting, modding to just keep your phone worth it's use.
As for new phones, it takes a fair amount of time, effort and understanding to access available sources and build a device tree from which custom ROMs are built.
Besides, not many users, unless they've specifically bought the new device to work on development, adopt customization till about several months after their purchase. As for CyanogenMod site they list the official ROMs, which are painstakingly built after months of testing. What you see on there are mostly devices which are either usually a year old or are stock Android - both being fitting scenarios for system level modifications to drive both performance and customization. You'd be hard pressed to find Android OEMs updating devices or even offering security patches for long.
Also, do remember MIUI, Oxygen and several other OEM ROMs that run across some of the most successful phones evolved from the custom ROMs community development.
And yeah, there's the custom kernels as well which almost always need a custom ROM.
Unless you've hit upon a groundbreaking counter claim to all the benefit of custom ROMs you would be among a tiny minority of informed users who ascribe to that idea. I would really like to benefit from what you can share about it, I am sure I can hit up the devs in my subscribed threads and help them make better decision with their time and efforts.
Sent from my Moto G4 Plus using XDA Labs

Question

I am about to get a Axon 7 within a week and I am curious to know which rom(s) are useful for everyday usage aka daily driver rom.
There are tons and I am all confused about the matter.

The custom ROM support for this device isn't great, but it does have all the popular ones like ResurrectionRemix, LineageOS, AICP and AospExtended. My favourite at the moment is DARK ROM which is basically LOS 14.1 with some additional modifications; like the UI sounds from the Google Pixel, OMS theming support and unlocking after boot without PIN number. Once LOS 15 (8.0 Oreo) is released I will switch to that and use it as my daily-driver until the other custom ROM's also upgrade to Oreo.

P650SE said:
The custom ROM support for this device isn't great, but it does have all the popular ones like ResurrectionRemix, LineageOS, AICP and AospExtended. My favourite at the moment is DARK ROM which is basically LOS 14.1 with some additional modifications; like the UI sounds from the Google Pixel, OMS theming support and unlocking after boot without PIN number. Once LOS 15 (8.0 Oreo) is released I will switch to that and use it as my daily-driver until the other custom ROM's also upgrade to Oreo.
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Thank you for the reply.
It's a bit of shame that the support isn't there since this phone is really amazing.
Out of all roms you mentioned which one is the most stable and less "bloated" one?
I have no problem with stock but there is some issues that I am wondering if custom roms have fixed, like dropped calls(think it's software that messes with signal, never happened before) and random low volume.

cirnocirno said:
Thank you for the reply.
It's a bit of shame that the support isn't there since this phone is really amazing.
Out of all roms you mentioned which one is the most stable and less "bloated" one?
I have no problem with stock but there is some issues that I am wondering if custom roms have fixed, like dropped calls(think it's software that messes with signal, never happened before) and random low volume.
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Yeah, it's unfortunate that there isn't better support for this phone. I didn't realise when I bought it about a month ago that the situation was like this. Even my ZUK Z2 had a better community behind it which surprises me.
The most stable and least bloated ROM is definitely LineageOS, as that's the closest you can get to stock Android in the form of custom ROM's with just a few additional mods. DARK ROM as I mentioned before is just LineageOS with some extra enhancements. Both are stable but if you're after an officially-supported ROM with proper OTA updates, then LineageOS is the best option. I would recommend flashing Magisk v14.0 afterwards if you're interested in root support.

Over the last few months, ROM teams began feature locking and doing final Nougat builds to start work on Oreo. This period always leaves us dry for a time being. I've seen dry spells like this since KitKat. I anticipate a wave of ROMs in the coming months. Until then, there is a fine selection of ROMs to choose from. I do agree that the selection is a bit sparse compared to other phones. There is just enough to satisfy a flashaholics urge to tinker.
Let's hope the coming surge is better than the last.

P650SE said:
Yeah, it's unfortunate that there isn't better support for this phone. I didn't realise when I bought it about a month ago that the situation was like this. Even my ZUK Z2 had a better community behind it which surprises me.
The most stable and least bloated ROM is definitely LineageOS, as that's the closest you can get to stock Android in the form of custom ROM's with just a few additional mods. DARK ROM as I mentioned before is just LineageOS with some extra enhancements. Both are stable but if you're after an officially-supported ROM with proper OTA updates, then LineageOS is the best option. I would recommend flashing Magisk v14.0 afterwards if you're interested in root support.
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I guess I will be using LineageOS, I am just too excited with this phone don't want to spoil myself and brick.
Cablespider said:
Over the last few months, ROM teams began feature locking and doing final Nougat builds to start work on Oreo. This period always leaves us dry for a time being. I've seen dry spells like this since KitKat. I anticipate a wave of ROMs in the coming months. Until then, there is a fine selection of ROMs to choose from. I do agree that the selection is a bit sparse compared to other phones. There is just enough to satisfy a flashaholics urge to tinker.
Let's hope the coming surge is better than the last.
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I am not a flashaholic but I know that most fixes are always done in custom roms or they optimize battery stuff, user experience and the ability to have custom kernel and schedulers are always welcome.

Cablespider said:
Over the last few months, ROM teams began feature locking and doing final Nougat builds to start work on Oreo. This period always leaves us dry for a time being. I've seen dry spells like this since KitKat. I anticipate a wave of ROMs in the coming months.
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Good point. I keep forgetting the fact that most of the ROM teams are working on their final builds of Nougat and beginning progress with Oreo. At the moment it does feel like there is a slight lack of development, but like you said there is still a decent selection to choose from. (Lineage, AEX, AICP, RR, etc.) I did expect LineageOS 15 to have arrived already after seeing the screenshots and estimate of 1-3 days in the development thread, but that was of course 3 weeks ago and unfortunately it ended up getting delayed quite substantially. (I'm sure our patience will be rewarded though, if it means a more stable first release!)
The next few months should be exciting and i'm definitely looking forward to it, but for the moment it is a difficult time for us 'flashaholics' awaiting the initial builds of Oreo. I should probably indulge myself in another hobby rather than obsessing about when Android 8.0 will arrive on the Axon 7.

You're not alone. I look forward to testing and whatnot. I hope this phone can taking a beating like my beloved LG G3 did. RIP little buddy.

What guide should I look at to install custom rom?
I got a ZTE Axon7 A2017G

Also just noticed with stock rom playing games really drains the battery fast, REALLY fast. Every 3rd min is a 1%.
Another funny thing I noticed is that with stock rom if I press a folder and then exit the folder and then press again, the whole launcher crashes and restarts.
Oh and I noticed that the wifi connection isn't stable.

I don't get that behaviour with my A2017G. What ROM is it on ? Mine is Nougat B04 (AU).

robbow said:
i don't get that behaviour with my a2017g. What rom is it on ? Mine is nougat b04 (au).
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zte a2017gv1.2.0b02

Also I am curious to know. How do I gain back fastboot?(FIXED THIS)
So I am curious about roms/kernels.
I want to try a rom/kernel but I have been seeing there are a few roms that have something called "callbug" where the speakers make noise when a call is going on and when answering the mics are muted or call will be interrupted, no idea tbh.
So I would like to avoid a rom with such bug.

What is the most bug free custom ROM for Axon 7?

I'd love to get some totally un-biased views here, including pros and cons. This will probably also help others given the current circumstances and wading through old threads containing up to 4000 posts is a real PIA. Current info condensed into one new thread would be great and not introduce clutter in the ROM threads.
Given that even if we get Oreo, there will most likely be no further official updates, just wondering, from all of you who have used many ROMs, what is an honest view of which ROMs are nearly bug free? Are any bug free? For me stuff like call and camera issues are a total deal breaker. I use my phone for personal and work, including interstate and minor overseas travel. Not going to even install any ROM that is compromised in some way.
I put OmniROM MM on my Oppo Find 7 and that was fantastic. It even got updated to Nougat and I think still has updates so I reset it to a non rooted, stock (Omni) state and passed it on to my eldest daughter. It's being enjoyed and well used still.
I'd really like to get that kind of service life from my Axon 7 as it is a very good phone still.

I reccomend Oreo AEX,although i heard that dualsim is not currently working

Just like asking "what are the best headphones?", or "what are the best speakers?", the only real way to tell how well a certain ROM will work for YOU on YOUR PHONE is to try it. Even between phones of the exact same model, there will always be different experiences across users. Backup, wipe, flash & see if the features/performance you find are what work for you.

Well that won't be happening. I use it for work. Can't be flashing it all the time. Just needs to work and leave it alone.

RobboW said:
Well that won't be happening. I use it for work. Can't be flashing it all the time. Just needs to work and leave it alone.
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I'd use raystef's stock based roms then, check them out.
Most are nougat, one is oreo beta, pick your poison.

I've had really good experiences with Official lineageOS. It has been a seamless process without any hitches. I'm personally waiting for the official release of lineageOS 15.1 (if and when it comes out). I've installed lineage on various devices and have been super happy with all of them. My Moto G Titan feels like a new phone after I've installed it.

Victor13f said:
I've had really good experiences with Official lineageOS. It has been a seamless process without any hitches. I'm personally waiting for the official release of lineageOS 15.1 (if and when it comes out). I've installed lineage on various devices and have been super happy with all of them. My Moto G Titan feels like a new phone after I've installed it.
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It's very device specific though. Sometimes a custom ROM (such as LOS, OMNI etc) will work well on one type of phone and be buggy on a different one. Not all phones work the same on them and I think the Axon 7 is one of those that ends up with buggy ROMs. The camera and DAC are complications that can be hard to get running well, also dual SIM can be an issue and I use it all.
If it's a choice between custom with bugs or stay on stock Nougat I would stay stock.

RobboW said:
If it's a choice between custom with bugs or stay on stock Nougat I would stay stock.
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The feedback on LOS doesn't seem to be too bad and I do understand that since I am also still stock but the problem is that the stock ROM is filled with bugs aswell. The screen brightness bug I get sometimes, the call bug, my Google play store crashes often, my GPS doesn't work properly etc etc. Those are all bugs the stock ROM itself has.

What's the point of custom roms

What's the point of custom ROMs when we already have OOS I mean it's customizable, speedy has fast update like seriously what's the point though sacrificing features like fingerprint, etc sorry if this offended some of you just asking.

I'm sure you'll get a lot of different answers because there is no ONE answer.
First and foremost people here on XDA just love to play with things! Flashoholics if you will! But if your looking for more then that:
Support for a phone long past it's EoL. I'm fairly certain Lineage is still updating for OnePlus 1, among the other plethora of devices, and thats just 1 rom.
Targeted feature sets: Some people will build a rom based on specific feature sets, like for example going full audiophile. Building in all kinds of tools and mods geared toward that. It's far easier to pick up your favorite rom from a like minded community that has everything you want built in than to do it all yourself.
Those would be 2 of the largest reasons imo. As far as your comment on no fingerprint with a custom rom, that maybe true "right now", but once 1+ releases the source code every custom rom for this device will have that feature working. So really it's a none issue, or more will be a none issue in the future. Just my 2 cents

OOS is okay, but I much prefer an AOSP looking ROM (like Havoc OS) or whatever. Way too many reasons to even list.
Custom roms will have way more features but fingerprint is not working now. Once they get FP working I'm flashing with no hesitation. I've ran roms on my last devices - OnePlus 3T and Motorola Nexus 6 and enjoyed the experience much more than stock. You seem to think more things other than FP aren't working but in my research that is the only thing. Maybe the camera optimization is a little better on OOS but I just take basic pictures so that never bothered me.
Let's flip the question around and why would you come on XDA and ask such a question? That's like being on a forum dedicated to car modifications and then you come in and ask why would you do that to your car when stock works fine?

Ehhh did I write this????