[Q] out of my league - Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

i am way out of my league with a rooted phone (vibrant). i have spent over 50 hours during this last week reading the questions, comments, guides and advice with the majority of that time reading root guides and whatnot (thank you s15274n for the noob guide to rooting ). i dont understand sh!t. my cousin rooted my phone and i watched and we flashed different roms, and i still dont understand anything really. i have backed up my phone, apps (both user and system )and folders too many times. i have so much crap on my internal sd and i dont know what i need and can delete, but its takin up a lot of memory.
in short, i would really like to go back to froyo where i liked many of the system apps such as the best camera i have used (CM7 stock camera didnt work and the camera apps were eh), and others (i know, pretty boring). SO, will unrooting, factory reseting and wiping data/caches/info allow me to kies download a 2.2... update to where my phone was 2 weeks ago? (sorry for being so long winded, but i figured the more specific, the easier it would be to answer)

Better learn how to, then. This is the easiest and best bet:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=954509

You don't need to unroot your phone or do a full Odin to get back to stock, or at least a stock feel.
My suggestion is to keep your phone rooted, but switch to a Touchwiz Custom ROM. That way you get all the fancy toys (****ty in my opinion, but whatever) that come with the stock Vibrant while also getting all the tweaks that have come from developers having over a year to play with their Galaxy S.
I would definitely keep your phone rooted in any case. The ability to easily backup apps and information in case the phone dies, ability to save battery with undervolting, or get more speed with overclocking, and all the other tweaks that only work when your phone is rooted will be missed when you go back to complete stock.

Related

Complete Noob to this Rooting business

First of all, sorry if anything I post is just noob to the max. I have been using my Eris with official software since I bought it. I just did the OTA to 2.1 and it is complete garbage. The phone does not work half the time, texts take forever to send, random lag, etc. Verizon **** the bed it seems like with testing.
With that said, I want to know if I can root my phone with this OTA 2.1 already on it? Also, will rooting it and installing a sweet ROM be better than the OTA 2.1 or also have random glitches that drive me nuts. If I root it, am I stuck with rooted stuff or am I able to go back to the official garbage.
I read many threads and searched here and there, nothing really answered my questions so bear with me. Thanks.
Spend ten minutes (or less) reading the eris development stickys and you will answer all your questions. I know you said you did but I also know for a fact all of the information is there to be found. None the less
Yes you can still root the 2.1 ota as the bootloader was not changed like it was with the leaks.
No ROM is perfect and most are bound to have their small glitches but i think everyone will agree that most custom roms are better than stock
Yes you can revert from rooted 2.1 to stock 1.5 but I think at that point you will keep getting the OTA update notification
Also try a task killer, a lot of people say they make it worse but if configured properly will add hours to your battery life, if you get a task killer and you set it up just make sure to set any system processes (com.htc, com.android, etc) to ignore because when you kill those it takes a lot of juice to get it all back up and running again.
Hope this helped
Thanks for the answers. I use TasKiller, have been for a while, my battery life is fine for the most part. I'm going to root my phone today and use the Evil Eris ROM to keep it familiar.
use the ema app to root. link in my sig.

Work Phone - Should I Install a Rom?

Well my work just got a bunch of iPhones and the CEO got one of the. He had the Samsung before so I got it as an upgrade over my crackberry.
Now I really want to install a custom rom/kernel on the phone but I am hesitating because its really not my phone and my work owns it.
What do you guys think should I stick with stock or should I root the phone and install a rom?
Stock. There's nothing like explaining to the boss how you f'd up company equipment.
I dont know if one should/should not install custom roms on a work phone, as I don't have one. But I can tell you that if you do decide to root and install one of the custom roms, it's not that hard to unroot and go back to stock later on when you need to return the phone. There are several threads here that will guide you through the process too.
jenisiz said:
Stock. There's nothing like explaining to the boss how you f'd up company equipment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess your right I just hate being stuck on 2.1 when I know I can have a nice Froyo install. It's just so hard not to do because I have done it with all my other devices.
dsf767 said:
I guess your right I just hate being stuck on 2.1 when I know I can have a nice Froyo install. It's just so hard not to do because I have done it with all my other devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hear you...but who's to say he won't ask for it out the blue someday?
Idk, at this point, the fascinate is practically impossible to brick. You also say you have experience rooting and customizing other phones, correct? I say go for it. The only reason I could see not to is due to security issues. Work passwords and etc.. I really don't know too much about all of that tho.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA Premium App
I have a rooted android work phone. All you have to do is read what ppl are saying about the roms and FOLLOW DIRECTIONS and youll be fine.
dsf767 said:
Well my work just got a bunch of iPhones and the CEO got one of the. He had the Samsung before so I got it as an upgrade over my crackberry.
Now I really want to install a custom rom/kernel on the phone but I am hesitating because its really not my phone and my work owns it.
What do you guys think should I stick with stock or should I root the phone and install a rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Used my fascinating voodoo powers
I seriously discourage doing anything to it. It's not yours for one, and (no disrespect to the devs ofcourse, their work is amazing) there really isnt anything spectacular for this phone at the moment due to samsung's failure to provide any source code. To be more specific... our kernels suck.
And oh yea this shouldve been in the Q&A section so be ready for ashasaur to move this thread. (hes really good at doing that )
Depends on your comfort level, and of course, your corporate policies.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA Premium App
I would say root your phone at the most. It's fairly easy to recover from just rooting, but flashing roms/kernels/modems is much more risky. At least with rooting, you could fairly easily freeze the bloat with TiBu and have a more functional phone. Thawing everything and un-rooting would have you a stock phone back fairly quickly, and you could also still receive OTA updates as well.
I say go for it if anything goes wrong all you have to do is odin back to stock it removes everything its as simple as plugging the phone in load the stock file and click start I've done this countless times
We pick our work cell phones specifically because of the potential customization we can do. I hate being stuck with some company's version of what they think will be useful to me in my job. I can Odin this phone back to stock/factory defaults in less than 5 minutes if need be, so customizing this phone and expanding its abilities, and recovering from those customizations quickly, were what attracted me to it.
Android is Android, whether it's Samsung's stock version or one of the dev's version of it. Your phone is still going to perform the same tasks you need it to for your job. As long as you are both competent with the technologies involved and confident in your ability to restore to stock, I don't see why you should hesitate from exploring the options that are out there, especially when Froyo source drops and we see an explosion of dev-created customizations/enhancements.
Really? If your asking for advice on whether to mess with a business owned phone, it makes me wonder are you the ceo's mail clerk?
SuperClean2.9.1vNitroDark
Personally for a work phone, I'd update it for better usage in my work.
Increasing battery life usage duration.
Less irritating buggy glitches.
Removing the idiotic TW/BING/VZW craps. (too many add-on hacks from google default causing reliability and dependability problems)
Adding Backup and Restore nandroid for possible failures and migrations.
I suggest DJ05 + SuperClean + Blaze v2.3.1R2.

No Root / What mods can I use...

I'm on my third phone now... so I've sworn off rooting and romming, for a while... i know, I'm missing out, but I want my phone to just work.
Still wondering though what can be modded/themed with no root, meaning are there any modified apks out there that will change the look and feel of my phone, I'm not really looking for a Home replacement... they are clunky and use extra resources, this also goes for clunky apks in general.
Here's what I found so far.
Fascinate Experia Launcher
Stock Android Launcher from Market by Eugene373
Dialer...
Lock Screen...
Notification...
are you on your 3rd phone because of rooting?
yes, sadly yes. First it was something to do with one of the dragon kernels, then it was something to do with one of the other roms 2.2.1, can't remember which one. Anyway, I'm sworn off rooting for a while.
afaik, rooting is really harmless. just root and let it stay stock (at least root just for the purpose of making backups). samsung stock isn't all that stable either. :/
well, i'm debating on whether i should root my phone, but i want to know if there are any cons to it (when done right, cause i know you can brick your phone if you dont root it correctly, but besides that). i know there are numerous pros to rooting, but...i dont want to have a fast phone with less lag and better apps if i'm constantly having issues with it

Benefits of rooting?

I just got a new iconia a500 tab I've been reading and have learned that you can get certain apps by rooting but I'm wondering what specific apps can I get by rooting? I've also read you can install rooms can somebody explain to me what rooms are? Also if there's anything else I can achieve by rooting can you guys let me know. Also if I root will I still be able to download the updates that Acer pushes out like how they pushed out the pics update last week?
rcraig617 said:
I just got a new iconia a500 tab I've been reading and have learned that you can get certain apps by rooting but I'm wondering what specific apps can I get by rooting? I've also read you can install rooms can somebody explain to me what rooms are? Also if there's anything else I can achieve by rooting can you guys let me know. Also if I root will I still be able to download the updates that Acer pushes out like how they pushed out the pics update last week?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, first, rooting. Its the best thing I have ever done to my phone. It allowed me to install the custom ROM. The ROM is what your phone uses to run. It lets you get the latest operating system before its officially released, or get the fastest ROM around where all the bloatware (phone companies crap) that you don't need that is slowing your phone down is removed. Think of ROM as your phones engine. You can get a fast performance ROM or a flashy eye candy ROM. Read up on what you want your phone to do or what you would like to see from your phone, then you can decide on a ROM.
As for updates, you will not be able to get updates, because your phone will become 'disconnected' so to speak, from ACER. So if your running Android 2.3.4 or whatever, you won't be able to update your Android OS until you un-root. But again, with a custom ROM you probably wont need to update. ROMS are usually updated, adding the latest gizmo or tweak, and minor improvements are done quicker than ACER would do them (usually)
And for programs, you can run tether programs without having to subscribe (lets your phone become a modem for you electronics) and costing you money. You can get programs that allow you to change everything about your phone (SuperUser), make backups that surpass anything out there (Titanium Backup), Freeze apps that are sucking your phones memory or power (again TB), block apps that are using your network without your knowledge or permission.
There are a ton of reasons to root, and a few reasons not to (possible brick, void warranty, etc). So you need to decide, do you want total control to do whatever you want to your phone, or are you happy with how it is now and in the future?
There will probably be a ton more folks chiming in, so take what you get from the other folks, I only recently rooted my Thunderbolt, do I am not a pro at this stuff.
Thanks for chiming in you kind of helped me understand more about roms but can anyone with a tablet let me know what you've done to your tablet once you rooted it.
I've got a galaxy Tab 10.1, which currently runs Honeycomb if you ask a Samsung bod. I pretty much rooted on day one so that I could take full system backups and restore to a previous point if I needed to.
Then I discovered AOKP, which is an ICS system based on Cyanogen, but different at the same time (I happen to think it's better) as they actually support the P4wifi (Tab).
So I have three full system backups on my Tab, created using Rom Manager/CWM. The original Honeycomb as shipped and supported by Samsung, AOKP ICS and Cyanogen ICS.
As the ICS ROMs don't have camera functionality on the Tab yet, I can switch back to Honeycomb within about 5 minutes, take a picture and restore ICS in another 5 minutes.

root, re ROM -advice

Hi all,
noob alert. While I am a tech and run linux at home(windows at work) Im old, tired and grumpy slow :lol
I am the only one in the family still using their original S2. I have two other S2s that have "died" with no sim recognition. (one of which my son uses just to play games. ie wifi and everything else is fine just no network) I guess I look after mine better. I found some articles on the web and will be reading into this.
Lately however Ive gone thru a decreasing battery life(well it is getting old +2yr) Lasting about 7-8hrs (I gave it an external charge discharge cycle and its down to 65%)
Also trouble with updates(insufficient memory). No manner of clearing cache ( *#9900#) and having very limited apps installed seems to help. My solution has been to uninstall FB allow everything else to update then reinstall the bloated FB.
Has a tendency to lock up or run slow ..or maybe im just loosing patience lately.
After a fair amount of reading I have deduced that
1) root the device then delete the many bloatware I dont need.. which should at least alleviate the insufficient memory problem
Probably purchase another battery
2) install a custom ROM
3)try n work out if I can get sim access back on the other units.
I have one working must have S2 which for now I wont touch but will try the root etc on one of the spares.
I guess Im just checking in to see if people are about when it all goes belly up to help me.
There seems a myriad of ROMs n kernels etc which has me at present a little confused. more reading. I am not after bleeding edge just stable phone that allows a few tool like apps without crashing or hitting the no memory.
Im happy to run some analytical apps if someone can point me at them to gleam further info.
Some phone specs:
GT-I9100
Android 4.1.2
Kernel 3.0.31-1287495
unlocked
telstra
Running Clean Master app does not really seem to help matters.
Power saving on
wifi is on most of the day. GPS,bluetooth off.
Charged overnight (9:30-5:30) Used to last till 9:30 before running low. Nowadays wont make it to 4pm before complaining.
applications 1.34g of the 1.97. 11gb of USB storage(10 available)
32g sd card(28 available)
Hi @vector180,
Welcome to XDA. First there are plenty of S2 users on this forum who would be happy to help if you get stuck. I think you will be glad if and when you root your phone and start using custom roms. As with anything though, there are pros and cons. The camera and some other functional elements of the phone may not work as well, especially with AOSP based roms. But you can get around that by using a touchwiz based rom such as neat rom.
I believe the pros outweigh the cons though, as you can get really good performance with a lot of the custom roms out there, and things like space issues will be a distant memory. You just have so many more options once you have root access.
All I can advise is read as much as you can. You are in the right place to start with here at XDA. Search the forums, use google and if you haven't found the answers you are looking for, you can always ask on one of the threads. Good luck
I recently started rooting too (about month or two ago) And yesterday I managed to unlock boot loader of Huawei g620s and install custom recovery and then rom for my friend using adb. If you will read and have some patience you will be doing it flawlessly soon So you can be sure that there are still people here starting and helping new ones in rooting i9100 ^^
Wish you luck Vector
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
thx guys,
ok so I found the old "spare" S2.
Id like to image my "real" phone and copy it to the spare then play around with it. Thus leaving my real one untouched.
first of all.
the spare is running ICS not jelly bean. first thing I noticed was it had heaps of memory..even after I installed fb and some crud to prove the phone was still working.
It also ran smoother, battery seemed fine(normal well certainly better than my real one). And accepted the SIM card... why was it in trouble last time..dont know maybe a year in the dark draw has taught it a lesson.
So either I have hardware issues on the real one or maybe its Jelly Bean causing the probs.
Yeah I need to image the spare(so I can restore it back to its current "good working order" if I bungle things).
update it to Jelly. see if it bogs down
clone the "real" image on to it ..see if it bogs down.
By that stage seeing as the spare phone working, I can try some custom ROMs
Problem is I cant get a simple (image) backup system working. see my other posts.
reading continues.

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