I'm wondering what prevents our devices from running custom roms such as cyanogen, aokp, etc?
I don't think that there is necessarily anything that prevents us from running custom ROMs, I think it's more of a lack of developers.
At least that's what i'm guessing (I know there are certain people here that mod the existing firmware and stuff, but creating a completely new ROM is usually not a one-man show... at least most of the time).
oh I'm fully aware of the difficulties and time needed..I just wasn't sure if it was lack of dev interest or what tho
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So I thought there was a thread on this but I can't find it.
What is the actual behind the scenes difference in the Roms being put out besides theming?
I don't want a "this rom is better" answer, that's not what this is about. I don't want to disrespect anyones work, I am just curious as to what each team/person does different to post so many Roms. From the uneducated eye(mine) one would think you would post one Rom per team and then post the rest in the theme section.
They usually have the details on the first post, a lot of them explain what the variants are all about.
I am not totally up on the roms in the last week or so, But, all the roms will be using KA5,6 or 7 kernel and or KB1 (K=2011, A= Jan 5= 5th day etc.). That said some are structured to be faster removing some of the misc small routines, overclocked, or expanded memory. Some have as internal ram @ 300-310mb, some 335-340mb, some 350-360mb. Now, that may be important if you are gaming with the phone but, for most things not much change will be noticed if any. Some use Supercurio based, some use morfic based, some use Eugene based kernels or some just customized based on a bit of each or their own cooking.
The real crux is do ALL the things that are expected to work ,,,, work. E.G. Phone, WIFI, Bluetooth, Stereo, headphones, mp3-4 player, facebook, battery, twitter, mms, email, syncing, camera, both video and snapshot, GPS....etc. Now if All those are equal, then the theming and some of the other special touches are trademark of a given developer.
Some roms are just better structured and allow more altering than others, those would be the Axura, Einherjar roms and some of the Team Whiskey roms.
The reason why some will say this rom is great and that one I think has more to do with the date it was built. The problem with all the phones is the parts and sub assemblies are subbed out. So, July 2010 might work flawlessly for one rom but not the other and one phone made in Nov 2010 might be vice-versa
So, all the Long Winded diatribe above it comes down to this, it really is personal choice and the phone you have and how the custom rom works on that phone. The only real 2 differences I have seen with all the roms as distinct is the Axura has remarkable battery life and the rom has a great GPS fresh out of a new flash, other than that, I found no differences in anything else.
But remember that is just my studied observation from my 2 Vibrants.
dcontrol said:
They usually have the details on the first post, a lot of them explain what the variants are all about.
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Yea, I guess i should further explain, this isn't to see which rom I want. I am not new to flashing so I have a general familiarity to all of them. I more just wanted to further my education on the actual behind the scenes aspects of these Roms and what the developers actually DO to make their Rom THEIR Rom besides custom themes.
To further your point though and also back up my question lets look at axuras change log. most of it consists of theme this or that update programs remove this or that. Then a tiny "framework tweak" "build.prop mod" is thrown in.
Specifically I was asking what do the devs do different in that area which I am assuming is the basis of the whole rom correct?
Also, I am not speaking of the miui or cm7 type ports but more of axura, bionix, trigger ect... all that are usually upgraded to the same kernals and modem in their roms anyway.
Is there anything new going on in the development side? I havent seen much in the Dev section. Does anyone want to share what new projects they are working on?
most evs have developed what they can from what's available. Until Viewsonic, Nvidea, USMerchants, Google, or any other entity release something that can drastically change the way we Gtab, then there won't be anything else to develop. They may tweak a few things here and there, fix bugs, etc. etc. but as far as something "new" it will have to depend on VS et al.
When VS released their 1.2 bootloader, as it's become known, Roebeet made some new(er) romss based on previous builds (TNT Lite, Vegan-Tab, CM7). They aren't really "new" just updated versions of existing roms, to accomodate the new bootloader. (they are posted at another forum site)
There have been a few Kernel updates as well, but none based on the 1.2 bootloader (that I know of)
So, basically, the development section will be a bit on the quiet side until the developers are given something substantial to work with. All the roms we are using are based on something that was provided by VS et al., so until they release something, then there will be nothing to work with, besides what already exists (ie, tweaks bug fixes, etc)
Slower changes is fine with me. For once, I'd like to use my gtab for more than a couple weeks without flashing a new rom or kernel.
I've been turning to the CM7 for dev, as there is a lot of work going on for the Gtab there. It's officially supported, runs pershoot's kernel, and gets regular updates.
edgevision said:
I've been turning to the CM7 for dev, as there is a lot of work going on for the Gtab there. It's officially supported, runs pershoot's kernel, and gets regular updates.
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WOW!!!!! Where is the press release? I can't believe Viewsonic is supporting cyanogenmod. This could mean Honeycomb is in the near future!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(yes, sarcasm intended)
Well that sucks. I thought someone would want to make a nicely themed ROM or continue to integrate new features into their ROMs. Vanilla ROMs are cool but sometimes its nice to see a pimped out ROM.
Several themes for roms out there. I was commenting on the officially supported
Oh ya, I dont think Viewsonic wants to support anything officially. Not even their own software let alone someone elses.
So I have a GN and now Im running the Bigxie rom, its blazzing fast, and solid as it shoulfd be However I find it odd, that we buy a phone for 600usd and then to put it working as it should be, needs to by developers,developing roms and Kernels and then needs to by us flashing it...
Shouldnt be Google or Android department, developing roms or whatever to take the most of the device... I understand that they release the code and the stock rom and then its up to everyone to develop, but shouldnt their stock roms be the most advanced and fast has custom roms like yours?
Ive got 3 devices, N1, GN and GTab 10.1 and in all 3 devices I run customs roms to take the most of them....Its strange, the way I see it, it should be them, when they release somenthing the rom, should be the best of the best, with kernel up to the best in speeds..bla bla bla....
I dont know...just my thought,....maybe Andoid department should choose some developers to be affiliated with them and develop customs roms...
Once again, thanks to everyone who develops customs roms and keep up the good work
Hi all, I just started flashing custom roms and kernels and really enjoying the learning process. XDA and its members have been a huge help and awesome resource. It occurred to that it might be possible for the developer of a custom rom to hide spyware in their rom, is that true?
Also, does it happen or does the community on XDA keep people honest? Like if I flash one of the popular roms like AOKP, PacMan, CM, etc, are there enough people (smarter and better technically equipped than me) who would spot it and out the developer/rom?
I just want to know that what I am doing is reasonably safe in terms of spyware. I know there are other risks with flashing custom roms and kernels, but I haven't read anything about spyware.
Thanks!
Just a "wondering", a general question about all the "bugs" in AOSP (or other) roms?
There is a list of 10 or so bugs that come with all custom roms, a couple of which are problems with the camera, problems with wifi and tethering Hotspot, etc.
All (most) of these bugs do have solutions that involve after the fact things that need to be done once the roms are installed.
Please don't take offense. I know you devs and others put in a lot of time, effort, and hard work, many times being under appreciated (not by me, really, thanks for all you do), working on these custom roms. but my question is:
Is there some way that these individual bug fixes can be incorporated into the original custom rom zip? What keeps that from being done?
I'm really not trying to offend any of you, just trying to understand a little, since I know nothing about development at all. I can only use your good work if given, and I follow exactly, your posted instructions. I don't know enough to deviate from them.
Again, sorry, no offense meant at all.
Thx
As you haven't seen an answer yet, I figured I can offer a possible explanation. I'm not a dev either, but the key is that although Android is open, many of the drivers are not. For this reason, there are often many binary blobs that are part of a release that need to be included to let things work. And it's not easy to find out what's needed either, so it's mostly trial/error.
For example, for the camera, there is a driver somewhere that the stock app is looking for. If it's not there, it crashes out. That's why non-stock ROMs can't use the stock camera. Pretty much every (hardware) device in the phone requires a driver... and most of these are closed-source. Sometimes, you can pull it and it works... but sometimes they don't (either because something else is missing, or because the manufacturer intentionally made it break when it's off-stock). It's dumb, but this is the reality.