Rooted Android - You really don't need to do this anymore

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Rooted Android - You really don't need to do this anymore

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ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

grack posted:

If you don't want to spend a ton of cash, anything from the Galaxy S generation has tons and tons and tons of development for it (Captivate, Fascinate, Galaxy S, etc) and you can probably find one used for $50-$60.

All of those, as I mentioned above, have broken GPS and wouldn't work for her running apps. Besides if you're going to get a SGS settle for nothing less than a Nexus S.

# ? Mar 23, 2013 20:23

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# ? May 24, 2024 03:02

track day bro!: Feb 17, 2005; #essereFerrari; Grimey Drawer

LastInLine posted:

All of those, as I mentioned above, have broken GPS and wouldn't work for her running apps. Besides if you're going to get a SGS settle for nothing less than a Nexus S.

Yeah im impressed how well my ancient SGS copes with CM10.1 but its abseloutely useless when it comes to GPS. I usualy end up using my nexus 7 instead.

Thinking about it in cm10 wasnt there a way of connecting a bluetooth gps unit in the settings? I cant seem to find that in 10.1

# ? Mar 23, 2013 20:53

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

grack posted:

If you don't want to spend a ton of cash, anything from the Galaxy S generation has tons and tons and tons of development for it (Captivate, Fascinate, Galaxy S, etc) and you can probably find one used for $50-$60.

It looks like the Galaxy Ace 2 is relatively cheap and easy to find used, would that be a good choice ?

# ? Mar 23, 2013 21:19

dont skimp on the shrimp: Apr 23, 2008

Spatule posted:

It looks like the Galaxy Ace 2 is relatively cheap and easy to find used, would that be a good choice ?

Probably a better idea to get a Galaxy S2 instead. Slightly better hardware and higher price, but much more community support and more supported from samsung too I bet.

# ? Mar 23, 2013 21:29

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Tunga posted:

Keep in mind that the Desire is one the best supported phones from that generation because the internals are alomst identical to the Nexus One. But no matter how good you think it is, it is really doesn't compare to any modern device. I generally wouldn't recommend buying an old lovely phone on the basis that you can fix it up with ROMs and stuff. You're asking for trouble.

My Mum has my old Desire, I repartitioned it and installed a tiny stripped-down ROM called dGB so I know exactly what you're talking about. It works for her because she only uses it for calls, SMS, and photos. The moment she has a reason to go online with it I'll be buying her a proper phone (or giving her my old GNex or my N4 or whatever, depending on when that happens).

I'd love a slightly larger screen (4" seems like an ideal compromise between phone dimensions and quality of browsing/typing...), but that's it. What am I missing in the most recent phones ?

# ? Mar 23, 2013 21:39

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Zom Aur posted:

Probably a better idea to get a Galaxy S2 instead. Slightly better hardware and higher price, but much more community support and more supported from samsung too I bet.

I'll look into that, thanks. At first glance it looks like it's much better, but 50% more expensive. Is it the best buy in that price range ?

# ? Mar 23, 2013 21:44

dont skimp on the shrimp: Apr 23, 2008

Spatule posted:

I'll look into that, thanks. At first glance it looks like it's much better, but 50% more expensive. Is it the best buy in that price range ?

It's not a bad buy in my opinion, at least it wasn't when I bought mine about half a year ago, but there might be better ones. I suppose a galaxy nexus should be in the same price range, though lacking a SD-slot ~~and an exchangeable battery~~ it should have better support from the community.

↓ My bad!

dont skimp on the shrimp fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Mar 23, 2013

# ? Mar 23, 2013 22:01

Ojjeorago: Sep 21, 2008; I had a dream, too. It wasn't pleasant, though ... I dreamt I was a moron...; Gary’s Answer

Zom Aur posted:

It's not a bad buy in my opinion, at least it wasn't when I bought mine about half a year ago, but there might be better ones. I suppose a galaxy nexus should be in the same price range, though lacking a SD-slot and an exchangeable battery it should have better support from the community.

The Galaxy Nexus has an exchangeable battery. Let us never speak of the other point again.

# ? Mar 23, 2013 22:07

ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

anime and cars posted:

Yeah im impressed how well my ancient SGS copes with CM10.1 but its abseloutely useless when it comes to GPS. I usualy end up using my nexus 7 instead.

Thinking about it in cm10 wasnt there a way of connecting a bluetooth gps unit in the settings? I cant seem to find that in 10.1

Gone in 10.1 I'm afraid.

As to the Galaxy S2 vs. Ace 2 question, I'd highly recommend looking for a Nexus especially given how long you want to hang on to the device. The S2 was known for its lovely implementation of pretty much everything and nothing working quite correctly.

# ? Mar 23, 2013 22:23

Vin BioEthanol: Jan 18, 2002; by Ralp

What network you use spatule? I'm about to sell my ATT HTC Inspire for a little less than $100.

2nd gen snapdragon, good gps, 768mb ram, ~2gb available /data, official cm7, some really good cm10-based jellybean roms and a sweet milled aluminum chassis.

# ? Mar 23, 2013 23:28

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Spatule posted:

I'd love a slightly larger screen (4" seems like an ideal compromise between phone dimensions and quality of browsing/typing...), but that's it. What am I missing in the most recent phones ?

4.0 was the day that Android grew up. Gingerbread is ugly and slow.

# ? Mar 24, 2013 00:52

ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

Tunga posted:

4.0 was the day that Android grew up. Gingerbread is ugly and slow.

This is exactly correct. There's no way anyone could go back to 2.3 after using a 4.0+ device. Honestly I don't think I'd want to use 4.0 having used 4.1 but 4.2 I could take or leave.

Spatule, where are you? The UK or the US?

# ? Mar 24, 2013 01:30

IuniusBrutus: Jul 24, 2010

So, I just had to do a factory reset on my GSM GNex, and now that it is back to square 1 I am tempted to gently caress around with it a little bit (I was running stock Android). At the very least I want to be able to do full back-ups of the phone, since gently caress having to re-do EVERYTHING now. Should I consider running a custom ROM/kernal/whatever in addition to rooting/unlocking the bootloader? Anything else I should do?

First device I've rooted, but I'm comfortable loving around in command prompts and such.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 01:02

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

Once your bootloader is unlocked everything else is trivial, since that is the part that wipes the device. Installing an alternate recovery and rooting, for example, are both two minute jobs which can be done easily if/when you decide you want them.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 01:30

ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

IuniusBrutus posted:

So, I just had to do a factory reset on my GSM GNex, and now that it is back to square 1 I am tempted to gently caress around with it a little bit (I was running stock Android). At the very least I want to be able to do full back-ups of the phone, since gently caress having to re-do EVERYTHING now. Should I consider running a custom ROM/kernal/whatever in addition to rooting/unlocking the bootloader? Anything else I should do?

First device I've rooted, but I'm comfortable loving around in command prompts and such.

Tunga, as usual, is right. I'd advise you to install and use ADB rather than a toolkit so you're more comfortable with things but a recovery and a backup are both only two commands away.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 01:47

IuniusBrutus: Jul 24, 2010

Should I muck around with a custom ROM yet? Or will I be happy enough just having Titanium Backup and vanilla Android?

# ? Mar 25, 2013 02:05

ScarletBrother: Nov 2, 2004

IuniusBrutus posted:

Should I muck around with a custom ROM yet? Or will I be happy enough just having Titanium Backup and vanilla Android?

Cyanogenmod is very good and popular.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 02:14

ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

IuniusBrutus posted:

Should I muck around with a custom ROM yet? Or will I be happy enough just having Titanium Backup and vanilla Android?

I use the CM10.1 nightlies and here's why I use them over stock 4.2.2:

Fixes everything I hate about the Quick Settings. It has a "hot side" that pulls it down first, everything's a toggle and a long-press to the setting, and the context tiles are configurable and useful.
Inbuilt notification color control (though I like and have bought LightFlow and have no issue with it when I run stock)
I'll admit it, I prefer a battery percentage over the useless picture even though my battery life is fine
I like the changes I could make to the 4.2 lockscreen that makes it essentially the 4.1 lockscreen but with widgets
I like the inbuilt Superuser by Koush

There are little improvements all over that I prefer over stock (I like Apollo more than Google Music, for instance) but those are the big ones. Of course there are Profiles and Quiet Hours and other features too.

I will warn you though, the last few nightlies I've gone to wake the phone and it's been incredibly laggy to the point of requiring a restart. It's usually after being up for about a day and I'm flashing every day anyway so it doesn't bother me. You might want to grab the M2 if you'd like something without this weirdness. It's only been showing up for me for about a week so I'm willing to wait it out.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 02:16

AppleCobbler: Feb 8, 2003; remember that time I was just chilling out and definitely not having a massive meltdown? right guys? guys???

I prefer not seeing the battery percentage, because I feel like I obsess over the number and check it too often when I should just be using the phone. The battery bar across the top is my favorite.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 03:32

ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

AppleCobbler posted:

I prefer not seeing the battery percentage, because I feel like I obsess over the number and check it too often when I should just be using the phone. The battery bar across the top is my favorite.

Yeah battery bar owns. I think that commit got abandoned because it was broken on the tablet layout and whoever wrote it just figured :effort:

and that was that. I really miss lockscreen rotation but I found a terminal command that reenables it so it isn't that bad.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 03:40

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

LastInLine posted:

Fixes everything I hate about the Quick Settings. It has a "hot side" that pulls it down first, everything's a toggle and a long-press to the setting, and the context tiles are configurable and useful.
Inbuilt notification color control (though I like and have bought LightFlow and have no issue with it when I run stock)

I'll admit it, I prefer a battery percentage over the useless picture even though my battery life is fine

I like the changes I could make to the 4.2 lockscreen that makes it essentially the 4.1 lockscreen but with widgets

I like the inbuilt Superuser by Koush

This is a good post and what I will say now is not intended to take away from these points, which are all valid.

Personally I run stock, for a different set of reasons:

CM (and other ROMs) are constantly releasing nightly builds and monthly builds and other things, but finding one that is stable across-the-board can be difficult because the rate-of-change is so much higher than it is on AOSP and there is no formal QA process in the same way.
Google have certainly had their fair share of issues in the past but my experience of the GSM GNex was that it was one of the most reliable and stable devices around. There are still two being used in my immediate family and they both run stock with no battery life or performance issues.
When Google release a new version of Android I am a horrible goony goon who cannot cannot wait even one day to get his hands on it which means flashing back to stock. After a few cycles of flashing stock for the update and then going back to CM once it was updated and then finding it had some stupid bug and going back to stock and so on, I eventually just gave up and stuck with stock.
I am yet to find any aftermarket kernel that gave better performance and battery life (note: unscientific and subjective) than stock, for both the GNex and the N4. I tried a lot and they all had stupid glitchy problems waking the device or causing other issues, so I just gave up.
The issues I have with stock can be solved with apps rather than a new ROM: LightFlow as above, and DashClock for the lockscreen, and probably a couple of others I'm forgetting now.

I do still incessantly tinker and sometimes try out new kernels or interesting ROMs but nothing has really taken my fancy yet.

The thing to take away here is that Android gives you a lot of different options and they are right for different people.

V V V This seems like a good idea until it turns out there is still a dumb bug in it and then you're waiting a month for a fix. That's what happened the last time I tried a milestone build on the N4. They are certainly better than nightlies on the random-bug-front though.

Tunga fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Mar 25, 2013

# ? Mar 25, 2013 10:38

big mean giraffe: Dec 13, 2003; Eat Shit and Die; Lipstick Apathy

M builds and full releases are usually rock solid on CM, if stability is a major concern.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 12:16

Gyshall: Feb 24, 2009; Had a couple of drinks.
Saw a couple of things.

I'm using CyanDelta to update to CM10.1 nightlies every night ( :v:

) and I want to switch over to the CM camera instead of the one that I think got installed with the Google Apps I flashed a while ago. What is the best way to do this?

# ? Mar 25, 2013 15:01

jenny jones fan: Dec 24, 2007

I am having trouble finding a straight answer on this. If I want to root my RAZR MAXX HD, I have to revert back to ICS first? I am on 4.1.1. Is this correct? After reverting, I root, then upgrade my phone while doing some sort of root protection to get on the latest version?

# ? Mar 25, 2013 15:05

big mean giraffe: Dec 13, 2003; Eat Shit and Die; Lipstick Apathy

Gyshall posted:

I'm using CyanDelta to update to CM10.1 nightlies every night ( ) and I want to switch over to the CM camera instead of the one that I think got installed with the Google Apps I flashed a while ago. What is the best way to do this?

gApps doesn't include camera, that's part of CM itself.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 16:22

The MUMPSorceress: Jan 6, 2012; ^SHTPSTS; Gary’s Answer

Honestly, the CM10.1 nightlies are pretty darn stable too. I've been using CyanDelta every night for a month and a half now and I've had 1 weird issue that was fixed by the next nightly.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 16:45

Maker Of Shoes: Sep 4, 2006; AWWWW YISSSSSSSSSS
DIS IS MAH JAM!!!!!!

Soooooo there's been some mild success with people connecting N4's to TMo's LTE soak test areas but XDA is such a cess pit I'm not sure how I can fiddle with it when they light up my city. From what I gather I need the original radio but I'm not sure what other trickery is involved. Currently running 10.1 nightlies. Anyone have any insight?

Edit: from a few pages ago

hooah posted:

I have CM 10.1 on my Nexus 4 (nightly from the 17th), and I've noticed that the app switching thing sometimes takes several seconds to show up after I hit the soft key. Has anyone else experienced this?

Yes and it's infuriating. I bounce between stock and 10.1 because of this exact issue. Rebooting fixes it but that's about as inelegant as you can get.

Maker Of Shoes fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Mar 25, 2013

# ? Mar 25, 2013 16:50

Gyshall: Feb 24, 2009; Had a couple of drinks.
Saw a couple of things.

big mean giraffe posted:

gApps doesn't include camera, that's part of CM itself.

So on the VZW Gnexus how do I get the camera with HDR?

# ? Mar 25, 2013 16:50

big mean giraffe: Dec 13, 2003; Eat Shit and Die; Lipstick Apathy

Gyshall posted:

So on the VZW Gnexus how do I get the camera with HDR?

You install a third party camera app.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 17:04

nimper: Jun 19, 2003; livin' in a hopium den

Gyshall posted:

So on the VZW Gnexus how do I get the camera with HDR?

The way HDR is implemented in the CM camera makes using HDR worthwhile only if you have a tripod mount for your camera. Otherwise you're going to have an extremely blurry image. It takes three pictures at different exposure levels and then sums them together to approximate high dynamic range.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 17:09

Edward IV: Jan 15, 2006

So I had something weird happen. I installed CM10 onto an SD card in a Nook Color. For some reason, the storage available was far smaller than what the card was capable of so I installed ClockworkMod Recovery in the process for trying to fix it. In the end, I reinstalled CM10 and everything is now working fine with a proper partition layout and adequate storage space.

ClockworkMod managed to worm its way into the eMMC. While the Nook OS would boot like normal, the CWM menu showed up after a long recovering from a long sleep session. It seemed like it was trying to perform an update but failed. However, I haven't been able to recreate the event yet by checking on it after sleeping for about an hour so I don't know if that was the reason it showed up.

Either way, would there be a potential problem if I performed a eMMC recovery as described here?
http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/nook-color-technical/8114-how-uninstall-clockwork-recovery-revert-stock-image.html

# ? Mar 25, 2013 18:08

Frozen Peach: Aug 25, 2004; garbage man from a garbage can

Gyshall posted:

I'm using CyanDelta to update to CM10.1 nightlies every night ( ) and I want to switch over to the CM camera instead of the one that I think got installed with the Google Apps I flashed a while ago. What is the best way to do this?

If you've flashed a bunch of gApps files, including old camera/gallery/picasa sync versions, check your /system/addons.d/ directory for various .sh files. You might have one named "72-gapps-picasa.sh" - if so, delete it and flash your most recent CM10 install again.

You should leave 50-cm.sh, 70-gapps.sh, and 95-cerberus.sh alone, if you have them. That should get you back the default CM camera instead of the gApps camera.

Edit: looks like mine was "74-gapps-tuna.sh" (might also be manta or mako)

If you ever flash a gapps zip again, you'll have to delete that file again, then reflash CM... or alternatively edit the "install-optional.sh" file inside the gapps zip and remove the section pertaining to your phone. Then it won't reinstall the gallery/stock camera.

Frozen Peach fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Mar 25, 2013

# ? Mar 25, 2013 18:11

Gyshall: Feb 24, 2009; Had a couple of drinks.
Saw a couple of things.

Just about the perfect explanation, Frozen-Solid. Thank you.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 19:14

Frozen Peach: Aug 25, 2004; garbage man from a garbage can

No problem. I should note that doing so also removes the ability for the gallery to sync with Picasa, which may or may not be an issue for you. You get to choose between CM10's camera and the gallery showing your Picasa galleries. Actually syncing images up to Picasa still works fine, as long as you have the G+ app set to instant upload.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 19:23

EbolaIvory: Jul 6, 2007; NOM NOM NOM

Milky_Sauce posted:

I am having trouble finding a straight answer on this. If I want to root my RAZR MAXX HD, I have to revert back to ICS first? I am on 4.1.1. Is this correct? After reverting, I root, then upgrade my phone while doing some sort of root protection to get on the latest version?

Ota root keeper if you manage the ICS rollback.

But my understanding is there is a root for jellybean now. Maybe I'm retarded. But I swear I read that at xda.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 20:34

GWBBQ: Jan 2, 2005

You can do it without rolling back http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2024423

# ? Mar 25, 2013 21:18

WastedJoker: Oct 29, 2011; Fiery the angels fell. Deep thunder rolled around their shoulders... burning with the fires of Orc.

I don't mind CM10.1 but now that I'm used to ParanoidAndroid's hybrid mode UI I can never go back.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 21:41

Tunga: May 7, 2004; Grimey Drawer

WastedJoker posted:

I don't mind CM10.1 but now that I'm used to ParanoidAndroid's hybrid mode UI I can never go back.

Has the configuration app for this stopped being an unusable disaster of terrible? The UI designer for that thing should be taken out back and shot.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 21:43

ClassActionFursuit: Mar 15, 2006

Tunga posted:

Has the configuration app for this stopped being an unusable disaster of terrible? The UI designer for that thing should be taken out back and shot.

As little as I like CM's more recent approach of eschewing every option under the sun in order to strive for UI consistency and usability, it's preferable to every other ROM's tendency to do something that's a good idea but so half-baked and ugly that it's useless.

# ? Mar 25, 2013 22:05

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# ? May 24, 2024 03:02

AppleCobbler: Feb 8, 2003; remember that time I was just chilling out and definitely not having a massive meltdown? right guys? guys???

Tunga posted:

Has the configuration app for this stopped being an unusable disaster of terrible? The UI designer for that thing should be taken out back and shot.

yeah I tried PA on my old galaxy nexus about 4 months ago when it was getting off the ground, and even after nandroiding back to a previous CM build, the messaging app was stuck in some mega-zoomed in tablet mode that obscured half the buttons and displayed 2 messages at most and was impossible to undo. Yes, I tried adjusting text size, and yes I tried changing accessibility settings, and even factory resetting. When I asked the PA guys about it, I got mocked and told that I was being a baby.

Never again. :radcat:

# ? Mar 25, 2013 22:24

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Rooted Android - You really don't need to do this anymore

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