Related
I have TNT Lite 5.0.1 installed on my Gtab and was wondering what makes 4.3.1 better? Does it play H264 mkv files better? I noticed I can't play some of those files and I can' download browsers like Dolphin HD for HULU or Skyfire? Sorry for the noobie questions but I am still trying to figure out the difference in these.
I updated my 5.0.0 to TTx 9.02 and my weird market issues finally went away--when I first went to 5.0.0, some apps disappeared from the market (including Flash and Firefox mobile). I tried the market fix repeatedly, but no joy. Not too long later, TTx 9.02 was available, so I installed it. Everything's been right since then. Maybe someone else can comment on the video playback part for you -- I can't answer that because I don't watch much video on my tablet.
Personally, I love TTx -- for me, it's more stable than 4.2.5 was, so I'm planning to stick with it until roebeet determines which branch he's going to kill (TnT Lite or TTx).
The question I have is.. when my husband's new gTab arrives from woot, what ROM are we going to load on it? Ugh!
The Woot users might actually determine what path I go in. I think there's a (small) chance that those Woot devices are build 3991.
Honestly, if I were Amazon management and I knew that there was a dev 1.2 branch at TapnTap that had improved speeds, an improved recovery process (with a wipe data function) and Flash pre-installed, guess what build I'd want? Certainly not the carpy 2967 that probably caused half of the Staples returns. And also remember that build 3991 was actually compiled in mid-February. It's a long shot, but if 3991 shows up on the Woot devices it would actually not surprise me.
That's not to say that the legacy users here aren't important. But if 3991 gets released to the Woot users, then AFAIC it's a released version (if that makes any sense).
nope, got 1.1-3588 on the woot devices i just received mine. Thanks for all the hard work you've put into helping people with this device.
I'm excited to get this tablet (after ordering an Archos 101 and getting fed up with the delays) and am looking forward to tinkering with some ROMs. I have some experience with Android (rooted Droid X owner) so I have no doubt I can figure it out.
My question is which custom ROM is the best all-arounder (reliability, speed, updatable, features, support, ...)?
I'm sure each has their strengths and weaknesses, but what I'm looking for is maybe some arguments for/against each from experienced users. (And yes I've watched the youtube videos and such but its hard to tell long term satisfaction from a 5 min video) Thanks in advance.
Zeebok1337,
I'm sure people are not thrilled that I always give this answer, but I think you need
to use the stock tablet and get the stock updates for a while.
When you have charged it and turn it on the first time, you will need to find the
Settings icon and check the About tab to see what version you're on. So far people
are getting 3389.
Then set up your wifi Internet access. Within a couple of minutes, you should get
a Notification on the upper right portion of the screen telling you an OTA (over the air)
update is available -- probably 3588. If so go through the routine and D/L and
install it.
That done, you should have a good G-Tablet, but you will not have Market and
some other stuff most of us want. You also will need to go in and set the date/time
and a lot of other little details on the Settings icon.
http://www.viewsonic.com/gtablet has a bunch of pages of info on the G-Tablet --
and best of all the "Favorites" tab has links to a lot of the more common D/Ls.
By the time you do this and the do your homework reading here at XDA, you should
begin getting an idea of what the tab can do and where you want to go.
I don't recommend any of the experimental stuff, or perhaps even the gingerbread
stuff until you have your feet on the ground and know what you are doing.
That means basically I think you would be happiest with the TNT Lite or Vegan ROMS.
Both basically do the same thing and speeds are compatable. In the beginning, Vegan
was a little more sophisticated with screen lock, good graphics, etc. But as VS has
improved with updates and Roebeet has added stuff, TNT Lite has become just as
sophisticated. So flip a coin or make your best guess and go from there.
You just need to take time to know what you want and how to do it so you don't
wind up with a semi-brick like all too many folks do...........
Rev
Very good info. Does any of these Roms have sync with Google calendar and Contacts ?? And if so which Rom does that ?
vaccdroid said:
Very good info. Does any of these Roms have sync with Google calendar and Contacts ?? And if so which Rom does that ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't speak for them all, but TNT Lite does. It replaces most of the Viewsonic apps with stock Google apps (The browser and the music apps being the exception). Most likely most of them do, however - just read up on their posts to see what each offers.
Thank you. I really want to leave the stock rom and if there was a way to add Google calendar and contacts sync ( like there is with Gmail with the enhancment) I would keep it but I really need my contacts and calendar. Again Thanks.
Corwins CM7 FTW.
I recommend installing a keyboard with key height adjustment like thumb keyboard, disabling the capacitive buttons with button remapper and using button savior for soft buttons.
Also, the case crown kindle dx case from amazon is a great fit and looks great.
I am in the same boat. GTablet is charging right now. I have an Archos 101 and decided to get a GTablet for playing with. I have an EVO phone but I have never rooted anything so far. I have a computer background so I can probably work it out. Also have a little help from my friends.
Woot G Tablet on the bench
First off I would like to thank Butchconner for the advice I have seen on this forum on getting started with a new G Tablet. "Leave it stock for awhile"
Mine is on the work bench right now charging. It was one of the Woot deals. I am currently using an Archos 101 I got just before Xmas and it works great with no rooting or custom ROMS. I managed to get the wife to use it to read some books from the Kindle store. Look up technophobic and my wifes picture will be there.
I got the Viewsonic because of the Woot deal (Damn that big shinny button).
I'm thinking of leaving the G Tablet stock for the wife right now but she has gotten used to the standard Android interface on her EVO phone. In fact she has gotten pretty good at using the phone.
I understand that the stock user interface for the Viewsonic is very different than what would be seen on the Android or the EVO. Right now I'd just like to get the wife using it to read books and move on to other things later.
Most of the posts regarding the rooting and updating of the ROM's seem a little excessive to me right now. What I am afraid of is the Viewsonic with the stock interface may be too foreign for my wife. Any comments from the forum users?
Thanks again.
The 3588 build (which should arrive as an OTA Update) has a more generic launcher built in. Easy to switch to it if your wife prefers the standard Android interface. No need to load a custom ROM unless you choose to.
what I did with my woot-g
charged it all the way up
started it up
added to my wi-fi
ran the update (it'll ask you to)
rooted
installed clockwork recovery, did a backup, reboot
copied backup to sdcard2
recovery, repartitioned (2048/0), factory reset, reboot
recovery, backup again, reboot
copy new backup to sdcard2, copy old backup back to sdcard
recovery, restore old backup, reboot
played a while then installed TNT lite.
probably missed a few steps but overall this made backups as soon as I could while moving forward. There is no comparison between the stock rom and TNTlite, am looking forward to trying vegan5.1.1
Yeah I jumped 20 feet forward and installed VEGAN Gingerbread even before it was fully charged. played with it a little, then read some more and installed VEGAN 5.0
loving it and haven't even scratched the surface yet.
I charged it, then when it was fully charged, i installed CWM, then VEGAN.
I never did a OTA update before installing CWM and VEGAN.
Does that mean that I messed something up or will lose some functionality?
ZB
I got mine yesterday (FL)
and as this is my 3rd tablet (wife has an augen and I have a ZT180) I have to say that the ROM that is pre loaded is MUCH better than you have heard.
Now it may not be lightening fast, but what will you be comparing it to?
No Market, but I have about 9 DVD's full of APK's that I will NEVER get through.
That being said I DID the TNTLITE update, but then again I cant even ESTIMATE the number of FW flashes I have done since I got the Augen in August (which BTW is also a pretty decent tablet)
but I have to say, there is a RUMOR around the net that ONE of the more recent updates from viewsonic will NOT allow a 3rd party flash, but like I said I did 1 over the air update to 3588 and then went TNTlite
but I also have a lot of experience doing them, BUT I will say hands down this is one of the best tablets I have used (even at the retail price)
HoLyCoWzOrZ said:
I charged it, then when it was fully charged, i installed CWM, then VEGAN.
I never did a OTA update before installing CWM and VEGAN.
Does that mean that I messed something up or will lose some functionality?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No....Vegan should have entirely replaced the original firmware so it made no difference whether you updated or not.
I've only really used Cyanogenmod on my HTC Incredible. On my tablet, thus far, I've tried vanilla, Cyanogen, and Vegan. I think I've found Vegan to be my ROM of choice.
TNT Lite
I just flashed the newest edition of TNT lite (4.4.0) and I was blown away by how easy it was. I would really recommend it. Very easy to use for anyone who is not a pro at this kinda stuff.
Woot Deal
Hey guys just got the tab off woot. Charged it then. Loaded clockwork then cleared cache data then rebooted. Then added tnt 4.2 it worked for about 6 hours then of course when I tried to turn it on it keeps rebooting. What should I do? Is it a good idea to take the tnt off? Or can I do that? I'm just pretty upset right now. Can anyone help me out please?
To fix the boot loop you will need to repartition the card and then reinstall the ROM. Boot into clockwork mod then select repartion and set 1st selection to 2048 and second to 0. This will wipe your tab tho. You will then have to reinstall the ROM.
Thanks
You saved my life man. For some reason the stock rom has been erased for the tab also. Does anyone have the stock rom?
mernst2 said:
You saved my life man. For some reason the stock rom has been erased for the tab also. Does anyone have the stock rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock ROMs found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=842000
My dad just got my mom this Tablet, I dont want to mess with it to much, so no custom roms. All I want to do is give her access to the android market. I have read tons of posts and they all start with open the market then close the market, but I dont have the market. Is there an APK to download to install the market then do the "clear cache till I get an error" fix. Or is the only way to get the market is to install a custom rom that already has the market. Please any help would be greatly appreciated.
Just flash a custom rom and make it run 10 times faster and more stable. The whole process will take less than 20 minutes if you follow my instructions down to the letter.
http://viewsonic-gtablet-for-dummies.webs.com/starthere.htm
You're either a code green or yellow. Take your pick.
I'm serious about it. The stock rom is really not that great. If you want to maximize the user experience for your mom, flash her a custom froyo rom. I like the calkulin+clemsyn combo the most. Make sure you pay attention to which branch of development you're on.
Ya, I was afraid that was going to be the response. I actually have been on your site for dummies. I am not new to android as I have a Motorola Atrix and have done my share of modding on it, but am nervous about screwing up my moms new present and never hearing the end of it. Gues I might just have to bite the bullet and get it done.
Go on and do it...
goodintentions said:
Just flash a custom rom and make it run 10 times faster and more stable. The whole process will take less than 20 minutes if you follow my instructions down to the letter.
http://viewsonic-gtablet-for-dummies.webs.com/starthere.htm
You're either a code green or yellow. Take your pick.
I'm serious about it. The stock rom is really not that great. If you want to maximize the user experience for your mom, flash her a custom froyo rom. I like the calkulin+clemsyn combo the most. Make sure you pay attention to which branch of development you're on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm 65+.
That said, I went to goodintentions website, followed the instructions, and wala, I have a custom ROM, running at blazing speed and could not be happier.
Calkulin+Clemsyn 1.5ghz Froyo Combo V6 BL1.2
I'd give it a shot.
And don't forget to make a donation to goodintentions...
Moms about to drop the tablet off. Once I find out which branch it is on, I am going to start the process goodintentions has on his "Start Here" page. thanks all for the input.
Goodluck modding the tablet. I put a custom rom on my fathers tablet. Boy did he yell at me as i was halfway through but then he used it that night, called me up and said "holy **** what did you do?" Quite funny in the moment.
Sent from my Galaxy S running Galnet's MIUI v2.2 @ 1.3ghz!
Another vote for Calkulin+Clemsyn 1.5ghz Froyo Combo V6 BL1.2
It's been perfectly solid and stable for me. Your mom shouldn't have any troubles for the foreseeable future.
The good thing is, it's essentially unbrickable, so there's always a way to back out. I assume that she's been using her Tablet since getting it, so she may be used to the UI of stock Tapntap...
That being said, if you flash a rom (another +1 here for Calk+Clem combo 1.6 for bootloader 1.2) and she doesn't like it, you can always take it right back to stock for her. I highly doubt that she'll hate the custom rom, though. She'll have full market access, speed WITH battery management, stockish settings menus, A way to backup the system OS (through CWM) , and basically just a whole new experience that is far superior to stock...
NOW, I'm sure you know, but make sure to backup whatever apps she's already got prior to flashing the new rom...
but, yeah...flash a new rom, let her use it for a few days, THEN ask her which she liked better...
All right, got the new rom and have been playing with and I am quite happy. She only had it for a day or two so I she still was getting use to it. That is why I did it right now before she got to attached to the stock rom. Not seeing the full market but need to do the clear cache and force close thing and see if it will work. I noticed several apps that I wanted to install were not showing up.
smcastillo said:
All right, got the new rom and have been playing with and I am quite happy. She only had it for a day or two so I she still was getting use to it. That is why I did it right now before she got to attached to the stock rom. Not seeing the full market but need to do the clear cache and force close thing and see if it will work. I noticed several apps that I wanted to install were not showing up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In theory, you will never ever have "full" market. Google market is set up so that certain device only gets certain apps. It is impossible for any one device to have access to all apps. Don't ask me why google does this.
My "girlfriend" just bought the transformer. I've been playing with it. Right away, I noticed that the market for the transformer is missing a whole bunch of apps.
That said, if you want more market access, go to the following link and read.
http://viewsonic-gtablet-for-dummies.webs.com/apps/blog/categories/show/1101880-02-market-fix-
smcastillo said:
Moms about to drop the tablet off. Once I find out which branch it is on, I am going to start the process goodintentions has on his "Start Here" page. thanks all for the input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't forget to repartition and fix permissions first...
Ya, I actually started on goodintentions site "code green" and did each in order so I should have covered everything. I also did the market fix and I am able to find alot more apps now. I know you will never see everything, but there is alot more apps showing after the clear cache, force close fix.
I have been a member for a long time, but I never post anything so in that sense I'm new enough that I can't post this in the forum I wanted to, so I'm asking here. This is going to sound like a hateful rant and I'm sure someone is thinking, "If she knows that, then why is she hatefully ranting?" I am not ready to give up yet, so I'm explaining how I arrived at this point.
I have had my Gtab for about a year and a half. In that time I have rooted it and changed the ROM several times. I moved up to the 1.2 bootloader. In all this time I haven't really used it much because it just doesn't work right no matter which rom I try. Each rom will be ok for a few days, and then it starts getting glitchy. I got so fed up with it, I just parked it for several months and didn't touch it. Just recently I have installed the smoother bean rom. It is sort of ok but it doesn't 'just work'. I'm not a bigtime gamer, I like angry birds and sudoku. I surf the internet, watch videos, read books/magazines that are in epub format. When I study, I highlight text and make notes. When I sit down to study, I need it to work. No hangups or lockups or slow/frozen screens. When I get it out to use at the KH to follow along with the material I studied previously, I need it to just work. It has been to the point that I had to open the thing and physically unplug the battery to get it to behave. I was so excited to get this tablet and read all the information in these forums about it, so I knew what I was getting into when I bought it. The bloom is off the rose and I just want a tablet that does what I want it to do. I don't even care if it has jellybean or ICS or even Honeycomb at this point... I just want a tablet that works without having to fiddle around with the software.
And I don't install crazy amounts of apps. I think there are 7 or 8 that I use. Mainly Moon+ reader, Dolphin browser, Pinterest and Sudoku and Angry birds. I also like to sync my google stuff, calendar, contacts, email.
I'm am thinking I might put it back to stock and let it do all the OTA updates and see how it runs. But if I do that, I have to do the fix that makes the google market and stuff work. If I can do that and in the end have a working tablet that is decent and stable, I'll do it. Can anyone give me any feedback after having done this themselves? How was your tablet after? I remember how horrible it was out of the box. Is it better? MUCH MUCH Better? or just a little better.
Is there another rom that has been proven to be stable? I'm not worried if the camera or bluetooth doesn't work, I don't use those with the tablet. I don't think they are working right now, I'm not sure I haven't tried them since I installed the smoother bean rom. It can be any version of Android, I don't care.
I have given some thought to selling my gtab and getting another tablet, but I don't want to do that just yet. I know there has to be a solution, I just haven't found it yet.
Any feed back or suggestions would be most appreciated. The developers work hard on this tablet and have kept it going when Viewsonic themselves quit on it. I think that its really cool that there is such a devoted community of people who still love this tablet.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
My recomendation for "stable"
No expert here, but I have multiple g-tablets. For the "stable" ROM, I use Cyanogenmod cm-7.2.0-smb_a1002.zip
Hope that helps,
Jack
I have very similar experience as yours. Bought the gtab long ago, played for a while, then stashed away for several month, but pulled it out again while some brilliant devs actually put JB on it.
I will never ever go back to stock on gtab. Both Smoother Bean and G-Harmony Jellybean ROMs work reasonably well. In my opinion, they are already pushing the limit of the hardware.
atfsi said:
No expert here, but I have multiple g-tablets. For the "stable" ROM, I use Cyanogenmod cm-7.2.0-smb_a1002.zip
Hope that helps,
Jack
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whereabouts can I download that ROM? I googled the file name and I found the cyanogen download page with the various releases but I wasn't sure which one to pick. I didn't see any that said for the gtab and to tell the truth, it was late and my eyes were sleepy! If you know of a place to download the ROM, I would appreciate it. I would like to give it a shot and see how it goes on my tablet. I'm also going to try out reinstalling JB. I didn't realize there was a update for smoOther bean. So, we'll see what happens.
For stability and full function of the Gtablet, you will probably want to use a Froyo rom. All other versions of Android required re-written drivers and/or kernel, as Viewsonic did not release an official version, and never released their source code. My favorite Froyo rom is:
TNT 6039
I used that rom with VTL Launcher for months, until TeamDRH released their JellyBean rom. You might need to make some minor modifications to see all the apps in the Play store, just read the thread.
I also have another Gtab that is running CyanogenMod. This became my 'stable' tablet. My parents, kids and nephews have used it for months with no complaints. If it gets a little slow, just wipe the cache and it speeds right back up again. Hardware acceleration does not work on Gingerbread, so major 3d games often have graphical glitches, but it is very stable. Here is a link:
CyanogenMod 7.2
If you can wait a few more days (hopefully!) TeamDRH will be releasing a new JB rom with their new kernel. I am currently running my own CM10 build with the new kernel and it is great. Very fast and stable. None of the released JB roms ran very well on my 'experimental' Gtab, so I built my own. After a ton of work, it is running even better than my 'stable' tablet, so I would be willing to bet that when they release their new rom, it will be the best available. Judging by the description of your usage, I would try CM 7.2.
DaggerDave said:
For stability and full function of the Gtablet, you will probably want to use a Froyo rom. All other versions of Android required re-written drivers and/or kernel, as Viewsonic did not release an official version, and never released their source code. My favorite Froyo rom is:
TNT 6039
I used that rom with VTL Launcher for months, until TeamDRH released their JellyBean rom. You might need to make some minor modifications to see all the apps in the Play store, just read the thread.
I also have another Gtab that is running CyanogenMod. This became my 'stable' tablet. My parents, kids and nephews have used it for months with no complaints. If it gets a little slow, just wipe the cache and it speeds right back up again. Hardware acceleration does not work on Gingerbread, so major 3d games often have graphical glitches, but it is very stable. Here is a link:
CyanogenMod 7.2
If you can wait a few more days (hopefully!) TeamDRH will be releasing a new JB rom with their new kernel. I am currently running my own CM10 build with the new kernel and it is great. Very fast and stable. None of the released JB roms ran very well on my 'experimental' Gtab, so I built my own. After a ton of work, it is running even better than my 'stable' tablet, so I would be willing to bet that when they release their new rom, it will be the best available. Judging by the description of your usage, I would try CM 7.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Second that! :good:
When will TeamDRH be releasing a new JB rom?
Do you mind to share the new rom?
Thanks for the feedback ya'll. I did install the CM7 ROM and I also tried another one, I can't remember right now which one it was. I was tempted away by the G-Harmony Jellybean ([ROM-AOSP][BL-1.2]G-Harmony Jellybean 4.1.2 ODEXed (UPDATED 12/28)) , I installed the Overclocked version and I have to say it is doing very well. I did have some SOD's but I supercharged it and bumped up the CPU with No Frills CPU and since then it has had no trouble. Its been since Saturday that I installed this ROM and I have used it a bunch since then. I guess time will tell.
I do have a question tho about a problem I'm having but it's absutely not a deal breaker. I can't get google calendar to sync. I know other ROMS have had a package to install that fixed this but I wasn't sure if I could do that with this rom. I don't want to jack up my install. I don't absolutelly have to get the calendar working right now. I don't have reliable internet at home, so the only time I get online with the thing is when I wifi tether to my phone. Was just wondering if anyone knew how to resolve this issue. Again, I would post in the forum for this ROM but I'm not allowed yet.
Thanks!
DaggerDave said:
For stability and full function of the Gtablet, you will probably want to use a Froyo rom. All other versions of Android required re-written drivers and/or kernel, as Viewsonic did not release an official version, and never released their source code. My favorite Froyo rom is:
TNT 6039
I used that rom with VTL Launcher for months, until TeamDRH released their JellyBean rom. You might need to make some minor modifications to see all the apps in the Play store, just read the thread.
I also have another Gtab that is running CyanogenMod. This became my 'stable' tablet. My parents, kids and nephews have used it for months with no complaints. If it gets a little slow, just wipe the cache and it speeds right back up again. Hardware acceleration does not work on Gingerbread, so major 3d games often have graphical glitches, but it is very stable. Here is a link:
CyanogenMod 7.2
If you can wait a few more days (hopefully!) TeamDRH will be releasing a new JB rom with their new kernel. I am currently running my own CM10 build with the new kernel and it is great. Very fast and stable. None of the released JB roms ran very well on my 'experimental' Gtab, so I built my own. After a ton of work, it is running even better than my 'stable' tablet, so I would be willing to bet that when they release their new rom, it will be the best available. Judging by the description of your usage, I would try CM 7.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you share the ROM, please?
lekhwani said:
Can you share the ROM, please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mind to share the new rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When DRH is ready to release their new rom, it will likely be on the other forum first. Search Google for "gtablet roms 1.2/1.3" and that forum will be listed at the top of the page. Can't link you to it, else I may anger the XDA Moderators! Sounds like they are very close, just waiting on a new recovery.
As for my current build, just a basic CM10 build with a few minor customizations (my chosen boot animation, removed/replace system apps, changes to build.prop, etc.). I cannot share it because I am using the new (unreleased) kernel, and it's a pretty 'plain' version of CM10, but you can easily build it all yourself. Once you have your build environment setup, it is easy to rebuild an updated version any time you like. Only thing is, you are on your own when it comes to troubleshooting and support! If you are interested, I can link you to the info I used to figure out how to build the kernel and CM10, and the Git locations of the required source code. You would need a decent computer running 64bit Linux (I use Arch Linux, but Ubuntu is easier to setup), about 50GB hard drive space, and some free time. I just did it for fun, plus I'm impatient and wanted to try the new kernel, and none of the JB roms at the time would run well for me.
Best ROM for G-Tab
Hi all,
I bought my G-Tab whentheyfirst came out and have tried about 13 or 14 ROM's over the last (nearly) two years. In my opinion the best is SmoOtherBean by Nobe1976. Out of the box it is pretty good, I made a few minor adjustments after the install and it is running perfectly.
Changed dpi to160 (enabled Music / Movies in the Play Market)
Used ROM Toolbox to delete Music FX and DSP Manager (fixed problem where music would suddenly blare or change volume)
Set min/max CPU to 312 / 1200 (seems to wake up faster, no lags when browsing,etc)
Give Nob1976 a thumbs up if you like his ROM - stop the trolls who have chased off so many devs.....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1900562
This post. A million times this post. Smooth bean looks promising but I've been through so many roms with mediocre to poor tab perf.
[=torilyn73;37717272]I have been a member for a long time, but I never post anything so in that sense I'm new enough that I can't post this in the forum I wanted to, so I'm asking here. This is going to sound like a hateful rant and I'm sure someone is thinking, "If she knows that, then why is she hatefully ranting?" I am not ready to give up yet, so I'm explaining how I arrived at this point.
I have had my Gtab for about a year and a half. In that time I have rooted it and changed the ROM several times. I moved up to the 1.2 bootloader. In all this time I haven't really used it much because it just doesn't work right no matter which rom I try. Each rom will be ok for a few days, and then it starts getting glitchy. I got so fed up with it, I just parked it for several months and didn't touch it. Just recently I have installed the smoother bean rom. It is sort of ok but it doesn't 'just work'. I'm not a bigtime gamer, I like angry birds and sudoku. I surf the internet, watch videos, read books/magazines that are in epub format. When I study, I highlight text and make notes. When I sit down to study, I need it to work. No hangups or lockups or slow/frozen screens. When I get it out to use at the KH to follow along with the material I studied previously, I need it to just work. It has been to the point that I had to open the thing and physically unplug the battery to get it to behave. I was so excited to get this tablet and read all the information in these forums about it, so I knew what I was getting into when I bought it. The bloom is off the rose and I just want a tablet that does what I want it to do. I don't even care if it has jellybean or ICS or even Honeycomb at this point... I just want a tablet that works without having to fiddle around with the software.
And I don't install crazy amounts of apps. I think there are 7 or 8 that I use. Mainly Moon+ reader, Dolphin browser, Pinterest and Sudoku and Angry birds. I also like to sync my google stuff, calendar, contacts, email.
I'm am thinking I might put it back to stock and let it do all the OTA updates and see how it runs. But if I do that, I have to do the fix that makes the google market and stuff work. If I can do that and in the end have a working tablet that is decent and stable, I'll do it. Can anyone give me any feedback after having done this themselves? How was your tablet after? I remember how horrible it was out of the box. Is it better? MUCH MUCH Better? or just a little better.
Is there another rom that has been proven to be stable? I'm not worried if the camera or bluetooth doesn't work, I don't use those with the tablet. I don't think they are working right now, I'm not sure I haven't tried them since I installed the smoother bean rom. It can be any version of Android, I don't care.
I have given some thought to selling my gtab and getting another tablet, but I don't want to do that just yet. I know there has to be a solution, I just haven't found it yet.
Any feed back or suggestions would be most appreciated. The developers work hard on this tablet and have kept it going when Viewsonic themselves quit on it. I think that its really cool that there is such a devoted community of people who still love this tablet.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions![/QUOTE]
Running SmoOther Bean but it starts up laggy?
Nice you gave me some more settings to try. Don't know that I want to change the DPI or have any issues with volume. Did change CPU settings. Anything else you'd recommend?
After it's run for about 10 minutes, it seems to work OK, only occasional lag. I'm setting background processes limit to none on every boot up. Anyone have a way to make that change stick between reboots?
Thanks!
Downloadbob
ugsny321 said:
Hi all,
I bought my G-Tab whentheyfirst came out and have tried about 13 or 14 ROM's over the last (nearly) two years. In my opinion the best is SmoOtherBean by Nobe1976. Out of the box it is pretty good, I made a few minor adjustments after the install and it is running perfectly.
Changed dpi to160 (enabled Music / Movies in the Play Market)
Used ROM Toolbox to delete Music FX and DSP Manager (fixed problem where music would suddenly blare or change volume)
Set min/max CPU to 312 / 1200 (seems to wake up faster, no lags when browsing,etc)
Give Nob1976 a thumbs up if you like his ROM - stop the trolls who have chased off so many devs.....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1900562
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out nobe1976 UnOfficial -BAKED ROM
For anyone who is "still looking" for something stable, check out noble1976 modified Blackbean (on this site).
I am very satisfied with this "beta" version that this maybe will be the last one I'll be using (its that stable for me).
A big THANK YOU to Noble1976 for his hard work on getting this version to work on the gtablet and his PAC rom and all the other help he has given to us. :good:
What's your experience like with Blackbean?
Are you seeing any startup or sleep lag like I'm getting with SmoOther Bean? I switched from Go Launcher EX to the default one (Apex?) and it does seem a bit better.
Would like something a bit more responsive for daily use though. What's involved to flash Blackbean over SmoOther Bean? Repartition, etc?
Thanks for the heads up on this - might give it a shot when I hear back from you! Sounds like a good weekend project!
Downloadbob
_dave said:
For anyone who is "still looking" for something stable, check out noble1976 modified Blackbean (on this site).
I am very satisfied with this "beta" version that this maybe will be the last one I'll be using (its that stable for me).
A big THANK YOU to Noble1976 for his hard work on getting this version to work on the gtablet and his PAC rom and all the other help he has given to us. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
downloadbob said:
Are you seeing any startup or sleep lag like I'm getting with SmoOther Bean? I switched from Go Launcher EX to the default one (Apex?) and it does seem a bit better.
Would like something a bit more responsive for daily use though. What's involved to flash Blackbean over SmoOther Bean? Repartition, etc?
Thanks for the heads up on this - might give it a shot when I hear back from you! Sounds like a good weekend project!
Downloadbob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BAKED Bean you will must NVFlash to the new 2013DRH setup. The boot.img in that ROM is the latest fosser2 3.1.10 kernel. The mounting is completely different other then the System. So updating the Tablet with the latest that is linked in the OP should be done to the T.
downloadbob said:
Are you seeing any startup or sleep lag like I'm getting with SmoOther Bean? I switched from Go Launcher EX to the default one (Apex?) and it does seem a bit better.
Would like something a bit more responsive for daily use though. What's involved to flash Blackbean over SmoOther Bean? Repartition, etc?
Thanks for the heads up on this - might give it a shot when I hear back from you! Sounds like a good weekend project!
Downloadbob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only "lag" I'm seeing is after the opening screen animation the screen goes blank for 10sec or so. So, just wait till the regular default screen appears.
And be sure to do what Nobe1976 said. It went very easy for me changing over, for I already have used NVFlash 2013DRH version with
nobe1976 "PAC" ROM. Good Luck.
While cleaning the garage, I found my wife's old nook BNTV250. She said I could have it. So, I've been trying to get a custom rom on there.
I have experience with custom roms. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 running Philz and Lollipop as well as a Note 10.1 running TWRP and Kitkat. So, I have experience with successfully installing recoveries and flashing custom roms to devices.
This one isn't as easy for some reason.
I can get a rooted stock rom by following the directions here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZyfWpBJpiE
but no matter what I try, I can't get any further than that.
When I tried to sign in with the google play store, I am told my password is bad (which it isn't). Then I get an email from google in my gmail account telling me that someone (which was me) has tried to sign in to my account but was denied because the device they were using is way too old. So, getting anything on to my device via the play store that I need, such as a terminal emulator, TWRP install, etc, is apparently out of the questions.
gapps won't flash without errors, so that is out of the question, too.
the included es file explorer won't see the internal SD card for a reason I haven't been able to figure out (yes, it has root access), so copying apk files over and installing them from there is out.
When I boot off of ann sd card, and attempt to flash custom recoveries from the internal storage, I am also unsuccessful. With TWRP, I get errors. With CWM, it says it was successful, but it isn't.
So, every road I go down to get CM on this thing is blocked.
Am I missing something, or did I just miss my window by not doing this two years ago?
xflbret said:
While cleaning the garage, I found my wife's old nook BNTV250. She said I could have it. So, I've been trying to get a custom rom on there.
Am I missing something, or did I just miss my window by not doing this two years ago?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try:
1. A factory reset
2. The instructions here---they worked for me as a noob.
That could leave you with CM 10.2. If you'd like something higher, this post might send you in the right direction after you succeed with CM 10.x, but it does become more complicated. Or you can just try to get there directly.
It can't be too late:fingers-crossed: There's life in that tablet yet!
Edit: I see that the CM 10.2 build is no longer posted over at Cyanogenmod. If you want to try it, let me know. I have the zip file.
Sorry, I haven't posted my update yet. I managed to find a solution to the problem with the included es file explorer. That allowed me to install some apk's like terminal emulator which allowed me to get TWRP on, and then the figurative flood gates were open from there.
I am disappointed. I flashed both liquid smooth kitkat, and a lollipop build. Neither are very responsive, and both seem to have great difficulties awakening from a sleeping state (the lollipop one was worse). I looked around, but couldn't find a kernel to flash. Is there a kernel we should be using to speed up these roms? If not, I think I will give up because I stand stand the slowness.
xflbret said:
Sorry, I haven't posted my update yet. I managed to find a solution to the problem with the included es file explorer. That allowed me to install some apk's like terminal emulator which allowed me to get TWRP on, and then the figurative flood gates were open from there.
I am disappointed. I flashed both liquid smooth kitkat, and a lollipop build. Neither are very responsive, and both seem to have great difficulties awakening from a sleeping state (the lollipop one was worse). I looked around, but couldn't find a kernel to flash. Is there a kernel we should be using to speed up these roms? If not, I think I will give up because I stand stand the slowness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read through some CM11 threads and was amazed at the different experiences people had, ranging from "works great" to "really sluggish". Speaking only from a logical perspective it seems to me that the more advanced OS you try to shoe-horn into an older device, the more likely you will exhaust (or at least severely task) its hardware resources. Like trying to install Windows 10 on a machine designed for XP with hardware that just barely meets the minimum requirements of Win 10.
All I can say is that CM 10.2 works "great" on my NT. I've yet to encounter an app that I wanted which would not run (of course, my wants may not match yours). I can read the newspaper, listen to music, Kodi runs great--I can even stream a video from the NT to my TV (which has an old laptop connected) using VLCDirect. So lots of life in the thing from my perspective. CM 10.2 does get cranky once in awhile, but a reboot sorts that out. I expect many newer tablets are the same in that respect.
Let me know if you change your mind and want to try CM10.2
nmyshkin said:
I read through some CM11 threads and was amazed at the different experiences people had, ranging from "works great" to "really sluggish". Speaking only from a logical perspective it seems to me that the more advanced OS you try to shoe-horn into an older device, the more likely you will exhaust (or at least severely task) its hardware resources. Like trying to install Windows 10 on a machine designed for XP with hardware that just barely meets the minimum requirements of Win 10.
All I can say is that CM 10.2 works "great" on my NT. I've yet to encounter an app that I wanted which would not run (of course, my wants may not match yours). I can read the newspaper, listen to music, Kodi runs great--I can even stream a video from the NT to my TV (which has an old laptop connected) using VLCDirect. So lots of life in the thing from my perspective. CM 10.2 does get cranky once in awhile, but a reboot sorts that out. I expect many newer tablets are the same in that respect.
Let me know if you change your mind and want to try CM10.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You talked me into it. I'll give 10.2 a shot. I'm assuming that's based on Jellybean. I think every app I want to use will still work on Jellybean.
Any recommended builds? Any recommended gapps?
xflbret said:
You talked me into it. I'll give 10.2 a shot. I'm assuming that's based on Jellybean. I think every app I want to use will still work on Jellybean.
Any recommended builds? Any recommended gapps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I finally located the 10.x downloads here. I'm using the last stable build, 10.2.1 (Android equivalent 4.3.1). You should use the gapps package that is listed for 10.2 build here.
Like I said in an earlier post, I followed the excellent directions from digixmax here and while the initial boot was kind of confusing, things did sort themselves out. But that method assumes you are starting from stock. If you can't get back to there you'll need to try something else.
Once in a blue moon some app in the PlayStore will be listed as incompatible, I guess because Google can't quite figure out what to make of these modded tablets, even though the Android version is well within reach of CM 10.2. That happened recently to me with my local newspaper app. I just used this site to download the app outside the PlayStore and then side-loaded it. It installed and works just fine.
Good luck! I hope this all works to your satisfaction
Well, I installed CM 10.2. Everything works, albiet VERY slowly. I'm going to go google for a kernel now so I can do some overclocking. If I can't find one, then I'm afraid I'll have to let this go. It is just too slow and unresponsive the way it is to be productive.
xflbret said:
Well, I installed CM 10.2. Everything works, albiet VERY slowly. I'm going to go google for a kernel now so I can do some overclocking. If I can't find one, then I'm afraid I'll have to let this go. It is just too slow and unresponsive the way it is to be productive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry it didn't work out well for you. It's obvious to say, but either there is a hardware issue or something did not go right in the flashing. Otherwise no one would bother with these things.
You've probably already looked at this, but just in case, under Settings/Performance/Processor I show a resting CPU freq. of 300 MHz, the governor set at "interactive, and a max. CPU freq. of 1008 MHz. Theoretically you could try playing with those if you have the same figures, but I'm not sure where that would take you.
The only custom kernel I could find for this was for KitKat, so I reflashed with that. I clocked both the minimum and the maximum to 1200 MHz. Even at that, my Antutu benchmarks score was just under 14k, or less than half of the score for my Samsung Galaxy Note 2. I never got "great" results with this device so far, but the KK with the custom kernel is the best I have got so far. I'm tempted to try this KK kernel with the lollipop build to see what happens. If I do that, I'll report my results.
This device is over four years old now. Add to this that, at the time, it wasn't exactly designed to break any speed records. All it was intended to do is read ebooks, and play a few other select apps. No GPS, no bluetooth. I guess asking it to run today's resource intense apps like Facebook may be asking too much of it. But, for some weird reason, I can't let this go now. It is kind of like an electronic pet to me. I keep it by my easy chair, and I pick it up and start doing something with it quite often.
Yeah, I was just getting ready to point you toward the kernal for CM 11 but you got there without my direction.
It's really puzzling to me that your system seems so slow. Maybe mine is too! I've never owned a tablet before (I don't count my much-modded NST e-ink reader!) and this one running CM 10.2 seems just fine to me, certainly no worse than laptops I often work with. I have an inexpensive LG smartphone I just bought to use as an mp3 player after my much-loved Insignia Pilot finally died. It runs KitKat and seems about as responsive as my Nook Tablet, maybe slightly better, so I guess a lot is what we are used to.