[Q] Are custom kernels superior? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have been wondering how individuals can make custom kernels that outperform the stock Android kernel made by Google's finest.
I use a custom kernel which gives better speed, battery, extra mods etc. but it has been made by a 21 year old student.
Why don't Google just build the kernel like that in the first place? They've got the know-how, right?

I think a lot of it is that the kernels that come stock work best with the phone in general. Sure, you can overclock and everything but at the end of the day that ends up decreasing overall life of the device by adding extra stressors on the device.
Not saying that that's even relevant anymore, given that the 2 year contract is definitely short enough to beat the hell out of your phone without too many major repercussions at the end of it. I think they just like investing in the long term.

Agree. Stock kernels are most stable.
sent from my Sensation

Also agree stock kernel is better all round in most cases but of course you get better performance with a good custom kernel.
You do get instability and worse battery in most cases on custom. Depends what you want out of your phone. Most of my roms I release with stock kernel.
I think everybody is just obsessed with over clocking when in most cases is not needed
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

Custom kernels are like teenagers and sports cars. Eventually you grow out of it and want stability. However custom kernels are awesome and thanks to the devs who tweak then.
sent from my Sensation on CM7 Alpha#10

CdTDroiD said:
Also agree stock kernel is better all round in most cases but of course you get better performance with a good custom kernel.
You do get instability and worse battery in most cases on custom. Depends what you want out of your phone. Most of my roms I release with stock kernel.
I think everybody is just obsessed with over clocking when in most cases is not needed
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium
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Overclock maybe yeah, not needed. But undervolt, it can saves battery life..CMIIW.

They sure are mate, they sure are!
But, they "could" mess around with the phone and its functionality "if" its not the perfect one!
Mostly, the battery life "if" its overclocked!

Related

Do you really have to flash a custom rom for the SGS2?

Is there really a big difference to speed, battery life etc? Sometimes I think with all the flashing there really is no difference and just pure placebo lol
Can anyone attest to real life performance increase? Does this phone have issues that are resolved with custom roms?
Thinking of getting this phone.
Thanks!
kingofthebraves said:
Is there really a big difference to speed, battery life etc? Sometimes I think with all the flashing there really is no difference and just pure placebo lol
Can anyone attest to real life performance increase? Does this phone have issues that are resolved with custom roms?
Thinking of getting this phone.
Thanks!
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Click to collapse
This phone is amazing with a nice custom ROM , OCed & Underclocked .
It reach's +4000 in quadrant .
First you need to ROOT it .
Root aside, I am talking about custom roms and real life day to day performance increase.
Quadrant scores and other benchmarks are not really useful because they can easily be "cheated" or tinkered to give a better score.
The first time I flashed a custom rom was with my N1 and speed and battery was noticeably much better. I was on stock for almost two months and the difference was amazing. I dunno with other users but with my NS i can't really tell a difference with stock and custom, that's why I am curious with the SGS2. I believe some people just flash custom roms or even make custom roms just to satiate their craving to do so Not that it's bad though
I'd say no - you can do all these things, obviously, but I wouldn't say you had to in order to have a good phone in your hand.
Mine is KE7 unbranded out of the box and I'm completely happy with it unrooted & unflashed etc. Getting at least 20 hours per charge and no real issues to report. Yes, some people have niggles they want to solve but not all models/releases/versions of the SGSII seem to have them.
Get one, run it for a bit as it is then decide later on whether to fiddle with it and how much. It's a no-lose deal!
All depends how far you want to push the lump of plastic in your pocket, I guess!
Not a great deal of difference as of yet custom roms only a few weeks old as is the phone .
jje
JJEgan said:
Not a great deal of difference as of yet custom roms only a few weeks old as is the phone .
jje
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This is exactly what I was thinking! But if you see the descriptions on the custom roms you'd think this phone would be able to bring you to hell and back! lol
This lifestyle of our's (flashing roms and all) can be really addicting and a waste of time and I really believe there's nothing really different about performance. Features yes but performance no. Maybe on the old SGS and N1 performance was highlighted with custom roms but with these newer phones I doubt.
Well I guess one reason to use a custom rom is to take out the beep whenever the battery is charged lol

[Q] Void #echo, SpeedMod K2-18 Update3, Phenomenal 2.1, N.E.A.K 1.2x or Siyah 2.6.4?

Hello everybody, I'm opening the thread just to read opinions from you all about the kernels that are currently available.
The one I've been using is void #echo, which in my humble opinion with the combination of a tweaked deadline scheduler and a lionheart governor provides great performance, battery life and minimum lag whatsoever.
I do understand that it depends on needs which shall be used, however, I would like to know which one to you guys works smoother and provides better performance / battery life.
I always aim for performance over battery life (I didn't buy a SGSII to get poor performance )
In terms of battery life, I can get it up to 22~23 hours on battery, using WCDMA only / HSPA+ during day and enabling airplane mode during night.
Fast Dormancy disabled and deep sleep working correctly (XXKL1).
I don't like the complexity of siyah and to be good on batt you have to tweak it more with UV and thing like that ,wish is not my style to make trying/errors on my brand new 600$phone !
I tried speed mod wish is very great actually with great overall perform
void echo is the one Im trying right now ! since 2 days its feel very strong and good on battery with good performance on games without getting the phone very hot
neak is good but its more a copy/past of the overall coders over wish is good in one sense but its a bit laggy in game with lucrative mod but defenatly one of my favorite kernel out there ! Im waiting for 1.3 to let simone correct some bugs
Siyah is the tweakers' heaven. You can fine tune every last bit of your phone.
I personally love void, it feels very fast and has good battery life.
I tried NEAK for a short time and it seemed fine but quite many report lag in games(using on demand governor seems to fix it though).
Thanks for the feedback guys, I'm waiting for N.E.A.K 1.3x too
lsv-1 said:
Thanks for the feedback guys, I'm waiting for N.E.A.K 1.3x too
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as one of the posts above said siyah is the tweakers heaven..haha trust me i never used it before as i thought it was to complicated. but once you have done your reading and read other peoples posts and what they do to get the best out of the kernel you have a winner...all the rest look good i am not saying anything bad but for me from now on any rom i use siyah is coming with me due to the fact it has so many options to it and so much i can play around with i am in heaven
hope that helps...oh and on a side note i have been tempted to upgrade to a different rom but the current base i am using and with the kernel i have and the settings that i am using the only time i will actually jump ship is if one there is a stable cm9 out there by the amazing team hacksung. Two if Gokhanmoral does a siyah kernel for cm9 which i think will be when kernel sources are made available and three cause i have already my voodoo app all configured with my poweramp player to get the best sound possible i would be foolish to make the step at this moment of time...
So my advice for battery speedmod if you are not into tweaking alot with voltages and clock frequencies and if you want the best of both worlds then siyah
siyah 2.6.4.
Neo3000 said:
as one of the posts above said siyah is the tweakers heaven..haha trust me i never used it before as i thought it was to complicated. but once you have done your reading and read other peoples posts and what they do to get the best out of the kernel you have a winner...all the rest look good i am not saying anything bad but for me from now on any rom i use siyah is coming with me due to the fact it has so many options to it and so much i can play around with i am in heaven
hope that helps...oh and on a side note i have been tempted to upgrade to a different rom but the current base i am using and with the kernel i have and the settings that i am using the only time i will actually jump ship is if one there is a stable cm9 out there by the amazing team hacksung. Two if Gokhanmoral does a siyah kernel for cm9 which i think will be when kernel sources are made available and three cause i have already my voodoo app all configured with my poweramp player to get the best sound possible i would be foolish to make the step at this moment of time...
So my advice for battery speedmod if you are not into tweaking alot with voltages and clock frequencies and if you want the best of both worlds then siyah
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Great feedback bro, I tried Siyah in the past but honestly when I used it I didn't know there were parameters to tweak (didn't check the REF documentation LOL).
Do you get smoother behavior / better performance / higher benchmark scores tweaking the parameters? In quadrant I get around 4604 with void.echo.
as my "personal" opinion...
since i instaled V3RTR3MA.V.4.0 rom, i've been using void#echo
couldn't ask for more its fast and stable... nothing too complicated and i could get 8186 in the quadrant benchmark... a really great kernel...
void echo.By far best kernel for common user,who doesn't want to do all kind of tweaks&stuff.By default is great.If you are into a litle tweaking, you can OC and UV without any issues.
I used it since it was released.No issues at all, battery friendly, great performance.
Trully a KISS principle follower.
My personal advice to all,avoid all roms&kernels that are heavily customized and have alot of useless "tweakes" and scripts on them.The more things on it, more chances of breaking up.
Look for simple builds,as close as it can be to stock,eye candy is not performance.
Jkay makes great themes wich you can apply to the rom.
Phyxsyus said:
as my "personal" opinion...
since i instaled V3RTR3MA.V.4.0 rom, i've been using void#echo
couldn't ask for more its fast and stable... nothing too complicated and i could get 8186 in the quadrant benchmark... a really great kernel...
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Click to collapse
WoW that sounds nice, if you turn off RAWR what's the score?
kimitza said:
Trully a KISS principle follower.
My personal advice to all,avoid all roms&kernels that are heavily customized and have alot of useless "tweakes" and scripts on them.The more things on it, more chances of breaking up.
100% agree most of the battery better and greater speed for these kernels is actually unproven and just advertising bumf .
I have used the kernels listed in the topic and in each case stock kernel has benchmarked better using multiple tests .
jje
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kimitza said:
void echo.By far best kernel for common user,who doesn't want to do all kind of tweaks&stuff.By default is great.If you are into a litle tweaking, you can OC and UV without any issues.
I used it since it was released.No issues at all, battery friendly, great performance.
Trully a KISS principle follower.
My personal advice to all,avoid all roms&kernels that are heavily customized and have alot of useless "tweakes" and scripts on them.The more things on it, more chances of breaking up.
Look for simple builds,as close as it can be to stock,eye candy is not performance.
Jkay makes great themes wich you can apply to the rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with your opinion, and that's the reason why I use only Sammy Stock ROMs
I've flashed a number of roms and kernels in the past few months since May, best combination for me is usually a near stock rom, plus a stable kernel like Speedmod, they just work without needing any tweaking apart from custom set up that's it.
I don't generally like the number of tweaks in some roms but each to their own.
I find stock fine and fluid and stable enough without much problems.
Yeah..i get 6500+ without rawr and oc to 1600.you forget one thing,ALL other kernels have tweaked I/O scheduler enabled. Knzo says very clear in his thread.it's a way to cheat,that's why this tweak is not default on his kernel.
About rom,look for odexed.tornado2 by brotuck is one of the best around(odexed,pretty much stock,only useless apps removed from it).combined with jkay theme and coid echo...my s2 flies
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
kimitza said:
Yeah..i get 6500+ without rawr and oc to 1600.you forget one thing,ALL other kernels have tweaked I/O scheduler enabled. Knzo says very clear in his thread.it's a way to cheat,that's why this tweak is not default on his kernel.
About rom,look for odexed.tornado2 by brotuck is one of the best around(odexed,pretty much stock,only useless apps removed from it).combined with jkay theme and coid echo...my s2 flies
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion dude! I'll take a look to it! Beside the removal of stock apps, what tweaks are included to achieve that score?
Best kernel so far for me is hardcore's speedmod.
Fast, first time I broke the 6000 barrier on Antutu benchmark without overclock. And great battery life, one full day + charging only by the end of day two, with normal use.
Normal use for me is making phone calls, surfing web and playing games sometimes, not more than 20min per "session". Turning wifi and 3g off when phone on standby. And switching to airplane mode overnight.
And yes I tried other kernels....
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
lsv-1 said:
Thanks for the suggestion dude! I'll take a look to it! Beside the removal of stock apps, what tweaks are included to achieve that score?
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Click to collapse
None.i dont flash a rom for benchmark scores.i flash it for how it works.those benchmarks cand be tricked,but whats the point?what do you preffer?a rom&kernel with high results on tests,but moves like crap,laggy,fc's with high battery drain or a phone that is snappy,smooth,fast,great battery life and works properly?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
kimitza said:
None.i dont flash a rom for benchmark scores.i flash it for how it works.those benchmarks cand be tricked,but whats the point?what do you preffer?a rom&kernel with high results on tests,but moves like crap,laggy,fc's with. high battery drain or a phone that is snappy,smooth,fast,great battery life and works properly?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Don't get me wrong, I do prefer all that, I just wanted to know what things are changed in those roms to get that performance.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
I have been using void echo kernel these past few days. But I switched to Speedmode because of an issue. My phone gets very hot once I backup my nand on CWM. Also sometimes when I play games. Do you guys have this issue too?
rhai said:
I have been using void echo kernel these past few days. But I switched to Speedmode because of an issue. My phone gets very hot once I backup my nand on CWM. Also sometimes when I play games. Do you guys have this issue too?
Click to expand...
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= high CPU usage .
jje

What's the point of custom kernels for CM7/9?

This will likely be a controversial topic, but I'm going to risk it.
Also note that this is not meant to be a jab at kernel developers, or an attempt to lick CM developers' balls.
I have just been thinking. Custom kernels often claim an improvement in battery life or performance with their kernels. With Samsung ROMs, this is believable. The case of the fuel_alerted bug not being fixed with Samsung ROMs is an example that Samsung kernels aren't the best.
However, with Cyanogenmod ROMs you would think that the developers of CM would know best, since they *probably* work far more intimately with the code than custom kernel developers. Has anyone found an improvement in battery life with a custom kernel as compared to the stock CM kernel?
Now, I'm aware that custom kernels offer some features not found in the stock CM kernel, like how dual-booting is available for Siyah. But let's focus on battery life and performance for now.
Again, this is not meant to be a flaming thread. I genuinely wish for a conducive discussion on this topic. Lastly let me express my appreciation for both CM and Kernel developers, for devoting their own free time for our sakes.
Thanks!
I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for as an answer but a tweak i've used to give better battery performance is CPU FREQ_MIN. This is the frequency below which the 2nd core is not used. I don't believe you'd be able to use this tweak without a custom Kernel
puccini said:
I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for as an answer but a tweak i've used to give better battery performance is CPU FREQ_MIN. This is the frequency below which the 2nd core is not used. I don't believe you'd be able to use this tweak without a custom Kernel
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Click to collapse
It helps, thanks Personally I would prefer to try to quantify battery life with different kernels myself. Most phone review sites choose to test battery life by looping a video, however I do not believe this accurately measures battery life.
If anyone knows of an app that loops web browsing I will be happy to test it for myself.
I don't even care for extra 10 minutes battery life. If you want extra battery life don't use the phone. Lol.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
Alvin Lai said:
I don't even care for extra 10 minutes battery life. If you want extra battery life don't use the phone. Lol.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
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But I bought the phone so that I can use it right?

Switching to Android

Hello xda comunity,
I would like to begin by saying that I've been using Nokia phones so far no matter what their OS was just because of the hardware. Long story short, I am getting dissapointed by my new Lumia 800 and I want to switch to Android as soon as the next Nexus with JB is released. I can see that between Windows Phone and Android is a huge difference regarding hacking and tweaking because Android is an open source.
My question is: Without any knowledge about the Android OS, will switching be easy ( keeping stock OS and ROMs and Kernels ), or I will spend weeks to try and find better ROMs and get into hacking my device??
Switching is easy , no need to be anxious nexus devices especially are easy
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
Is there any difference between using a phone bought from the store ( stock ) and using it with custom ROMs, Kernels, stuff??
Yeah, it can be. Some roms are really similar to stock, but with some tweaks to improve performance and battery. But other roms are completely different, just take a look at miui. Both miui and cm supports themes, so you can change how it looks to your liking
For many phones custom roms also gives the user access to newer android versions than what's avaible officially, though that is probably not the case with a nexus device
Kernels can be tweaked to improve performance and battery and also usually supports overclocking, so you can let it work on higher speeds to improve performance, but this reduces battery life.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
Yeah.. one of my biggest concerns about moving to Android is losing the things that Nokia is known for: Battery life and Strong Signal. Will my future Nexus last a full day without any "battery saving app"?? Are there any problems with the signal?? I know my questions sound dumb, but I'm used to hate Android and I don't trust myself right now
Well you're battery life can be extended to 2/3 days with moderate/light use, but frankly, dont expect to get nokia levels of battery life. However I'm sure with the right radio/modem you can get great signal. Plus there are loads of tweaks to improve connection speeds/signal etc so you'll be fine there.
As mentioned earlier, a custom rom, especially the really modified ones, can improve your battery life, speed, ease of use, amount of features and the look and feel of your phone immensely!
As for ease of coming to android, it's pretty easy. I got my phone, watched a few tutorial vids/read some threads and had my phone rooted and running a custom rom in a matter of hours. Nexus/Samsung devices i find are especially easy to use/customize

what is the best kernel for

Samsung Galaxy note 2 for JB ROMs. Like I have MeanBean there is only 3 but I been using saber??
JamesCaywood said:
Samsung Galaxy note 2 for JB ROMs. Like I have MeanBean there is only 3 but I been using saber??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have run PBJ, Saber, Perseus and Beans Stock so far (all on Beans ROM). I only messed with overclocking and undervolting on perseus and frankly didn't notice any real difference. For me Beans Stock has been the best for battery life (just cracked 2 days on a charge with 3 hours of screen time), but even that is only slightly better then I got with the other kernels. As for performance the phone is so good I can't honestly say one is better than any of the others. I am sure some people can post some test scores that show one being better than the other, but I am not sure in the real world there are major differences.
Alright thanks
I like my kernel Really, stock is already pretty good. For what 95% of users need, it will do just fine. My kernel just strips out a lot of stuff from stock and leaves you with pretty much just what is needed for the kernel to run, not much more. Overclocking isn't going to do much for you outside of getting pretty benchmark numbers. Undervolting also isn't going to do much for battery life as you won't be able to drop the voltages enough to do anything appreciable. Having 50 different I/O schedulers and CPU Governors is great on paper, but really, most of them aren't going to improve performance or help battery life.
imnuts said:
I like my kernel Really, stock is already pretty good. For what 95% of users need, it will do just fine. My kernel just strips out a lot of stuff from stock and leaves you with pretty much just what is needed for the kernel to run, not much more. Overclocking isn't going to do much for you outside of getting pretty benchmark numbers. Undervolting also isn't going to do much for battery life as you won't be able to drop the voltages enough to do anything appreciable. Having 50 different I/O schedulers and CPU Governors is great on paper, but really, most of them aren't going to improve performance or help battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright thanks
I have Perseus installed strictly for the screen tuning. If not for that one feature, I'd be on stock.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2
imnuts said:
I like my kernel Really, stock is already pretty good. For what 95% of users need, it will do just fine. My kernel just strips out a lot of stuff from stock and leaves you with pretty much just what is needed for the kernel to run, not much more. Overclocking isn't going to do much for you outside of getting pretty benchmark numbers. Undervolting also isn't going to do much for battery life as you won't be able to drop the voltages enough to do anything appreciable. Having 50 different I/O schedulers and CPU Governors is great on paper, but really, most of them aren't going to improve performance or help battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For what it's worth, PBJ was a close second on my device to Beans Stock. I would rank them 1 and 1a. I totally agree on the OC and UV comments...I tinkered with them a lot and it didn't seem to do anything. Appreciate your work...I was a Tweaked devotee on the droid charge.
Something that people probably don't realize, overclocking and undervolting will negatively affect the power usage stats in Settings. They are based on specific power usage levels for each frequency, and if you add frequencies or change voltages from stock, the stats won't work correctly. Will it be a big difference? No, but it will be affected nonetheless. It wouldn't make the battery drain faster or slower, but it would affect what application(s) the system sees as using the most battery.
Alright so if I use your kernel it won't miss up MeanBean stuff?? Are should I just leave it stock
JamesCaywood said:
Samsung Galaxy note 2 for JB ROMs. Like I have MeanBean there is only 3 but I been using saber??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Subjective questions and what they do for you:
As a member of many different forums and networks, I see people asking subjective questions all the time and wanted to expand on them and what they do for the person asking.
I am going to use the topic of smartphones for the purpose of this post as it's easily the most frequent.
People always ask what launcher they should use, or what app works best for something etc..
Typically my answer [albeit cold and withdrawn] would be something like, "try all of them and choose the one that works best for you". This response is usually met with hurt feelings or some troll itching to lash out and pull his keyboard commando card.
I will liken this scenario to a car or truck. If someone were to ask me or you what make and model of car you drive and what you like, you could easily answer Kia [I'm using what I drive as an example here]. Then typically they would say they heard Chevy was better or Ford has something similar blah blah blah.
Ok, then if Chevy makes something better then why the hell did you ask me?! This type of question is always subjective because it builds on my personal choice. My preference. But the person asking the question almost always has their own preference or bias which taints the question to begin with.
Any question that asks a person or group of people for an answer that is inherently based off of personal preference begs to be answered the same way. It also makes the person who asked the question look stupid because they were too lazy to simply try the options and make a calculated decision themselves. They don't have the capacity to form an answer of their own. This is the uneducated method.
So when someone asks me which launcher I choose, I could answer Apex Pro. But that's only because it works well for my needs and my application which is specific to me and me only. Hundreds or thousands of people will argue why Nova, Launcher Pro, Chameleon or one of the many other launchers is better. This is an endless argument as again, the best launcher is the one that works best for you. On your phone. With the apps you have installed. The way you use your phone. The same holds true for kernels. Case closed.
Subjective questions will almost always be met with subjective answers. The easy way to not make yourself look and come off as lazy or stupid is to try things yourself and decide which works best for you in your specific situation.

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