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Hi all
I am placing an order for the SGS II. Was previously an iOS4 user now switching to Android for superior performance
I was wondering what should I do/modify when I first get my SGS2 ? I am reading a bit on rooting (is this the jailbreak term for android..??). I want to download free games and apps like Whatsapp and Tapatalk.
Which rom should I be looking at ? Lite'ning ? CM7 ? Or should I just leave it stock Gingerbread 2.3 or whatever ? I want the best performance out of my SGS2 and should I be overclocking it? Maybe not coz I want awesome battery life as well..
What advice or suggestions would you seasoned folks give me ?
Hi and Welcome to xda.
You wont need to root to achieve what you want but it will open up a world of possibilities. To install any app you just have to tick unknown sources within applications in the settings.
All the info about rooting can be found here :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1103399
which will include clockwork recovery which is a recovery image that will allow you to flash mods/kernels/roms etc. It has a bunch of other features like nandroid backup (backup your whole system and recover it at any point), wipe battery stats and much more.
Here is what my Galaxy S2 has consumed today which has made it more pleasing for me :
[26/7][XXKG3] VillainROM 2.3 for SGS2 < The ROM Noonski couldn't drain the battery on
followed by the latest modem which is within that thread.
[Kernel][GPL] Ninphetamine-2.0.2 - Now with 100% less Samsungyness
[MOD] CirclesMod - stock KE2, KF1, KG1/2, CM7, Villain, Cognition, Lite'ning, TK In blue
6/26-Update-Pendo's TransBlue Market (flashable zip)
and finally one of my own :
Black dialer for KE4/KE7/KE8/KF1/Villain
Overclocking is not necessary imo with this phone as its fast enough for me as it is at the moment and I don't want any extra battery drain.
I hope some of this helps.
I was exactly in youe situation last week, switching from i4 to SGS2.
Now I've bit the bullet, and have both.
If you're looking for superior performance...hahaha! is all I can say.
Keep in mind the following:
-stock firmware will not get you to 24h of battery life. More like 16-17h.
-operating system still has to catch up with iOS in terms of speed and fluidity
-if you're coming from iOS, please be aware that on Android you cannot configure Yahoo Mail or Hotmail on push, only IMAP pull.
-music management is a joke compared to iOS, even on third-party players as PowerAmp. Android has an issue with coverart, tags are not transferred correctly, playlists are...let's say barbaric compared to iPod & Co.
I am not unhappy that I tried Android on the best Android device out there today, it's only that it has its drawbacks compared to iOS.
Let me get this right. I can only have 1 root (jailbreak) and multiple roms (addons) ?
1- You can have multiple Custom ROM's without rooting. You should do rooting, if you want to access system files (like Administrative mode) and mod them and etc. I'd advice you to root.
2- Each and every ROM has it's own feature and drawbacks, so that depends on you which you want more. I, for myself, always use Stock ROM.
3- As you are new to Android (like me), I'd suggest you to not flash this and that whenever you want. Just keep it simple to get the best.
All above are only IMO, others may and will vary.
Regards.
dtancu said:
I was exactly in youe situation last week, switching from i4 to SGS2.
Now I've bit the bullet, and have both.
If you're looking for superior performance...hahaha! is all I can say.
Keep in mind the following:
-stock firmware will not get you to 24h of battery life. More like 16-17h.
-operating system still has to catch up with iOS in terms of speed and fluidity
-if you're coming from iOS, please be aware that on Android you cannot configure Yahoo Mail or Hotmail on push, only IMAP pull.
-music management is a joke compared to iOS, even on third-party players as PowerAmp. Android has an issue with coverart, tags are not transferred correctly, playlists are...let's say barbaric compared to iPod & Co.
I am not unhappy that I tried Android on the best Android device out there today, it's only that it has its drawbacks compared to iOS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are mostly drawbacks from running stock as opposed to iphone. Iphones are "plug and play" smartphones, android is... Depending on your needs. As for playlist support, built in it can be a pain, but then again you're coming from a very restrictive environment to a very permissive one... So you're bound to have snags.
Should I root to a Lite'ning ROM out of the box or just try stock first ??
I have heard some good things about Lite'ning
i would use stock for about a week to understand what you're modifying and whats android really like . then go play around with roms. what roms you ask? specifically ones that have big changes to start with. I.E. stock android (no TW), MIUI, CM7, etc etc.
once you understand the majority of your options, you can delve into lesser things like roms with more specific/personal modifications .
the idea is to have you understand your options since android is such an open system, you have a loooot of choices
I'm all up for fair comparisons, but please don't mind the iOS comments. not because of what it says but because:
1.) it isn't the topic of this thread
2.) he seems to be a beginner as well, but without the open attitude like you do to learning about android.
Hey folks, I have two general questions.
Ill start with the first easy question.
I would like to get the dock app that comes in the stock rom in an apk that will work with other roms. The dock I am referring to is the one that shows the weather and news and other various information in a sort of gigantic widget and you can scroll thru the different screens in the dock for different information (and at the bottom is a list of all the installed apps). And I would like all of the apks that this dock app uses as well.
I have tried just pulling out the dock.apk file out of the stock image file and sideloading it, but the problem is, it crashes the tab on bootup with every rom I have tried.
This second question is a bit more tricky because every rom has different apps they decide to include that are simply not necessary. If an app is available on the Google Market, I dont want it preinstalled with the rom, I will install it manually myself. If an app is installed that does not make use of the hardware (see the Phone apk), this app is using resources for absolutely no reason I can see and should not be included with the rom.
So, what I am looking for is, a list of all apps that normally come on a stock Google phone (in other words, apks that are included with the Android stock rom BEFORE manufacturers add their usual crap to it) that can be safely removed from all roms for the Gtab because the Gtab does not have the hardware to utilize said app (I would think anything like messaging, the phone, or the gps).
I am not looking for guesses here, I am looking for someone who knows a bit about Android and can safely determine what can be removed that is COMPLETELY useless regarding the GTab because of its hardware.
If you are still completely confused, here is a link to a website where someone has done something similar to what I am talking about with Windows. Read the paragraph or two at the top and then click a link below the paragraph based on the version of Windows you have. This will tell you services you can safely disable. I am looking for the same thing for the Gtab.
http://www.blackviper.com/wiki/Main_Page
Hello to you all people of XDA, firstly I must state that I've scoured the forums far and wide and have yet to find some valuable info regarding my problem.
So what we're doing is developing (or trying to, as is obvious from this post) a custom rom for the Galaxy S2 which would be used for a single medical application for sensor tracking and the processing and displaying of said data on the SGS2, while at the same time sending it to his/her doctor.
What we need to be able to achieve with this rom is to put it into the hands of the end-user (a chronical patient which will in turn be able to stay at home instead of being hospitalized) and be able to completely lock down the phone for his use (I know, it sounds terrible) so that he loses the phone/sms/games/youtube/internet functionality as we need the phone to run as stable and for as long as possible without any additional battery stress (the constant sending, processing and processing of data seems enough of a problem for now).
I've searched into some custom roms but we eventually came up with the need for a stock Samsung rom which could be modified as we want to.
See this is where the problem begins, we can't seem to get the phone rooted, the ROM customized and then unrooted again so that the phone can't be fiddled with anymore, except when it's completely dead and we need to fix it.
So to cap it all up:
It needs to allow for a custom load and bootscreen (I almost got this to work)
It needs to be completely locked down for the end user.
It has to have full BT, NFC and WiFi functionality
It has to be able to call out and reciev calls, but only to/from specific numbers (911, doctor, etc..)
It has to basically allow for 2-3 programs to be running, while the others simply don't exist on the phone.
I am terribly sorry if anything like this has been asked about before, I swear I put 2 days of me life into researching already.
Any help, any help at all, ideas and solutions, but mostly links are welcome.
Thank you and good day to all.
Just a detail, but the SGS2 doesn't have the NFC functionality. Project seems to be possible, I would look into CyanogenMod sources if I was you.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Why are you afraid of leaving the phone rooted and in hands of the patient?
Is he so uncritical that he can search the web and find means of unrooting a mobile phone and then get around to actually doing it?
LucLucLuc said:
Hello to you all people of XDA, firstly I must state that I've scoured the forums far and wide and have yet to find some valuable info regarding my problem.
So what we're doing is developing (or trying to, as is obvious from this post) a custom rom for the Galaxy S2 which would be used for a single medical application for sensor tracking and the processing and displaying of said data on the SGS2, while at the same time sending it to his/her doctor.
What we need to be able to achieve with this rom is to put it into the hands of the end-user (a chronical patient which will in turn be able to stay at home instead of being hospitalized) and be able to completely lock down the phone for his use (I know, it sounds terrible) so that he loses the phone/sms/games/youtube/internet functionality as we need the phone to run as stable and for as long as possible without any additional battery stress (the constant sending, processing and processing of data seems enough of a problem for now).
I've searched into some custom roms but we eventually came up with the need for a stock Samsung rom which could be modified as we want to.
See this is where the problem begins, we can't seem to get the phone rooted, the ROM customized and then unrooted again so that the phone can't be fiddled with anymore, except when it's completely dead and we need to fix it.
So to cap it all up:
It needs to allow for a custom load and bootscreen (I almost got this to work)
It needs to be completely locked down for the end user.
It has to have full BT, NFC and WiFi functionality
It has to be able to call out and reciev calls, but only to/from specific numbers (911, doctor, etc..)
It has to basically allow for 2-3 programs to be running, while the others simply don't exist on the phone.
I am terribly sorry if anything like this has been asked about before, I swear I put 2 days of me life into researching already.
Any help, any help at all, ideas and solutions, but mostly links are welcome.
Thank you and good day to all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Block all internet access apart from ones you want or you can just setup iptables rules, shouldnt need root apart from when setting it up
As far as removing programs, just delete the apks from the zip, or before you remove root. My sig has a list of all apks in a upto date rom and what they do.
You can use gemini app manager to control autoruns (stop them etc) also to block (hide and disable apps)
As far removing root, your best bet is to once you are done, use adb (from the android sdk) to remove the superuser.apk then flash the stock kernel back, as far as I know without superuser apps cant grain root permisions.
OR
This app will allow you to block any app behind a password
This app will block incoming and outgoing sms and calls on white and blacklists
Custom boot logo (the first screen before the animation)
Custom boot animation need to go into system/media, I am not sure about the format but there are loads around, like this thread has loads, stock kernel should support them.
I hope that helps
Most of that is easily possible.
If you listed the apps needing removed, the apk files just need deleted.
To control calls, you can use a third party app from market for that.
It's possible to have the custom rom unrooted, and easily flashed, regardless of how badly the phone gets rooted
Boot animation is easy anyway... If you can provide it in a zip like other ones (zip containing numbered png's) then it's a piece of cake.
A little bit of clever firewall stuff would prevent any web traffic, in or out, except to your defined server, which is obviously a concern when a phone is handling sensitive medical info.
genieass said:
Why are you afraid of leaving the phone rooted and in hands of the patient?
The phones are going to be used by around 500.000 people in a year, it's not that we want to take anything away from the user, it's more about not having any problems with the firmware - like ever.
Thanks for all the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
genieass said:
Why are you afraid of leaving the phone rooted and in hands of the patient?
The phones are going to be used by around 500.000 people in a year, it's not that we want to take anything away from the user, it's more about not having any problems with the firmware - like ever.
Thanks for all the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LucLucLuc, not sure where you live, but you're entering the patient confidentiality minefield with big, big boots.
Apart from the legal considerations, your question is definitely OS related and not device related.
I see what you want, but legally - where I live anyway - it's too much of a grey area to get involved with.
I use call recording a lot for referrals and info from other doctors, but I've always asked the other party if they're OK with it. I won't record patient conversations, and I won't accept any files whatsoever that have seen RIS or PACS first - not worth it.
Can't see it's worth your while, but I'd appreciate it if you keep me informed should you decide to work on it.
Big boots indeed
We are from Slovenia, Europe.
I'm actually just a student doing the research and some basic Android programming, thank god I wasn't let into the bigger of the projects
But yes, this project is a colaboration of several european firms and you can read more about it at chiron-project.eu - it's a very very interesting project afaic.
I don't think we'll be swimming with lawyer piranhas soon though, the project uses sensor data (which sorta is a privacy issue) which will be monitored on a tablet running Android (currently testing the Galaxy tab 10.1 - we were lucky to order one before Steve had another one of his fits), proccessed in real time and then stored on the central server, from where it will only be accessible by the patients doctor.
Patient consents are dealt with before we even start talking about mobile hospitalizations.
It's very encouraging to see some actual interest, if anyone wants to know more about anything related to this project contact me at [email protected]
Thanks again for all the help.
Hey guys,
I have an issue I'm facing at the moment. I have purchased 3 Samsung Galaxy Nexus devices for my family, and one for myself. I wanted to setup all our devices for them and pre-install essential apps for them, and lay it out in a way which makes each device identical so that my family (which is new to Android) can all get the same easy experience from their devices, rather than everyone getting a different LG/Samsung/HTC device and having to deal with differences in skins every time someone phones me with a question about their device.
Here is what I have done:
1. Unlocked bootloader, root, installed CM10.1.2 + gapps onto my own personal device. Clean install, wiped everything.
2. Setup android with a temporary Gmail account, installed about 20 apps, setup the homescreen, changed a few settings for simplicity, change wallpapers, etc.
3. Once I was satisfied, I removed the google account, rebooted to recovery (CWM 6.0.3.2) and made a Nandroid backup which was later copied to my home server.
4. Unlocked Bootloader, rooted and installed CM10.1.2 + gapps on all the other devices, booted the device then transferred the Nandroid backup from my home server to each of these other three devices. Restore the backup, reboot, all seems fine so I setup new individual google accounts, and away I went. Everything works fine, at least so it seems.
Now the issue is that I'm having came a day or two after I got everything setup on each device. At the moment I'm having serious issues with the Google Play Store and Push Notifications. Almost all devices intermittently have issues with this. The play store issue I'm getting is [RPC:S-5:AEC-0], and prevents me from downloading or updating apps. Push notifications is not working either. For example, Google hangouts notifications don't notify me of messages on devices intermittently unless I manually check the app. Same goes with facebook and snapchat notifications. Very annoying. Tried all sorts of fixes such as removing the Google account, rebooting and adding it again, but no luck.
It seems like there is some sort of conflict with each device, but I don't understand why. I changed the Android ID on each device hoping that would help, but still no luck. If anyone could offer an explanation why this issue is occurring I would love to hear it!
Cheers.
Edit: Tried making a titanium backup of one device and moved it to a rooted Galaxy S2 running CM10.1 nightlies, and no such issue. Also, updated one nexus device to the latest nightly, still no fix. Hopefully this information will help someone be able to point out the problem somewhere.
Okay, so I've been playing with a couple of these devices today, and by removing a google account, rebooting the device and then adding the google account again, it makes the play store work on that device, but breaks functionality on the other devices. Would someone with a low-level understanding of Android care to explain why this is?
I'm going to try doing a factory reset on one of these Nexus devices and restore a Titanium Backup and see if that helps, unless anyone has any suggestions?
The different accounts are linked to the play store separately, you are best off to just downloaded each app and set up each phone with its own gmail account. I know it sounds time consuming but it would take less time than you've been spending already.
As you learn more about android there are lots of ways of doing almost exactly what you want here, but learning right now will take less time and effort than downloading 20 apps to three different phones
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
demkantor said:
The different accounts are linked to the play store separately, you are best off to just downloaded each app and set up each phone with its own gmail account. I know it sounds time consuming but it would take less time than you've been spending already.
As you learn more about android there are lots of ways of doing almost exactly what you want here, but learning right now will take less time and effort than downloading 20 apps to three different phones
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice, but at the same time I'm using my family as guinea pigs to test whether it's possible to clone devices like this, as I'm in charge of the IT department at our organisation and I suggested it may be possible to deploy a large number of identical rooted android devices through the organisation (probably around 30-40 devices to start with). At this stage though, there seems to be some issues with doing this. Would you be able to point me in the direction of how I could clone Android to several devices, or at least deploy an identical setup to several devices? Perhaps I'll need to customize my own ROM based on Cyanogenmod? Chances are I'll be having to support different hardware as well. This may include the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Xperia Z and the LG Optimus 4X HD.
Well the absolute best way, in my opinion, would be to create your own ROM.
And by this I don't mean you need to learn how to port or build from source (at least not at first) just some simple zipkanging will do for something like this
Take the ROM.zip, open it, take out apps and such you don't want, add it the ones you do, rezip and sign
Now flash this to each phone and they will all have the same ROM and can just add their Google account.
Now if you want to have certain settings or the system ui look different than this you will need to learn how to decompile some apks and edit xml files, but start slow, do what is easy and what you can't figure out let me know and I'll try to help
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
demkantor said:
Well the absolute best way, in my opinion, would be to create your own ROM.
And by this I don't mean you need to learn how to port or build from source (at least not at first) just some simple zipkanging will do for something like this
Take the ROM.zip, open it, take out apps and such you don't want, add it the ones you do, rezip and sign
Now flash this to each phone and they will all have the same ROM and can just add their Google account.
Now if you want to have certain settings or the system ui look different than this you will need to learn how to decompile some apks and edit xml files, but start slow, do what is easy and what you can't figure out let me know and I'll try to help
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thought this might be the case.
Is it relatively simple to copy the changes I make to one ROM (eg for a Galaxy Nexus) for another ROM (eg. for a Nexus 4)? Is there some sort of Android virtual machine I can test or build this in?
Not simple at all, I was referring to multiple phones of the same type. Its easy to create identical ROMs to be flashed between 30 n4s or 30 genexs, but to create the same identical ROM to work in both types of phones would require source builds matched to each device tree
Which if you know little about android, java, c++ etc, then you have a real long journey ahead of you.
If you want to have an identical ROM (based off one already in existence) be flashed to 30 identical phones this is relatively easy depending on what all you want
Like I said, start small, learn what's easily obtained, then try for something bigger
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
demkantor said:
Not simple at all, I was referring to multiple phones of the same type. Its easy to create identical ROMs to be flashed between 30 n4s or 30 genexs, but to create the same identical ROM to work in both types of phones would require source builds matched to each device tree
Which if you know little about android, java, c++ etc, then you have a real long journey ahead of you.
If you want to have an identical ROM (based off one already in existence) be flashed to 30 identical phones this is relatively easy depending on what all you want
Like I said, start small, learn what's easily obtained, then try for something bigger
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The idea was to use CM10.1 as a base and simply add in some apps + app data and change some settings. Setting up the homescreen in a certain way would be part of that. The Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Xperia Z, and LG Optimus 4X HD all support CM10.1 stable.
If I setup a device the way I want it, would it be possible to extract some of these custom configurations from the live device to a flashable ROM?
Just because there is the same ROM for each phone doesn't mean they are exact, but in your case probably good enough. But the change you would make would be to each individual ROM (on computer not on phone) and then flashed these new versions of your ROM to each phone.
You can not make changes to your phone when running the os and extract these changes and flash them to another phone easily, near impossible to do it to a different phone make
Like I have been saying, take a ROM, open it up on PC, change what you need, flash to phone. The simpler the changes the easier it is to do. This will have to be done on a case by case basis if you are doing it to multiple types of phones
Now if you give me a list of what you want to change exactly there may be a few things you can do on your phone but in reality this is the harder way, doing all the work on PC is the easier way
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Yes, I understand that. I think what I'll have to do is record the changes I make to one ROM in a changelog of some sort, and then simply recreate these changes manually to other ROMs. Through the PC of course.
demkantor said:
Just because there is the same ROM for each phone doesn't mean they are exact, but in your case probably good enough. But the change you would make would be to each individual ROM (on computer not on phone) and then flashed these new versions of your ROM to each phone.
You can not make changes to your phone when running the os and extract these changes and flash them to another phone easily, near impossible to do it to a different phone make
Like I have been saying, take a ROM, open it up on PC, change what you need, flash to phone. The simpler the changes the easier it is to do. This will have to be done on a case by case basis if you are doing it to multiple types of phones
Now if you give me a list of what you want to change exactly there may be a few things you can do on your phone but in reality this is the harder way, doing all the work on PC is the easier way
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well for example, here are the outdated and rough changes I need to make to the settings (this is just a note of the changes in the settingsof the ROM to make it run way I wanted on the device). Attached it as a PDF as I couldn't copy the formatting.
Most of that should be doable by decompiling systemui.apk and settings.apk, somewhat time consuming and depending on your experience a steep learning curve, but should be able to do it
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Hi
What are the problems/ issues of using an old version if the phone is only used for calls/ texting/ email (not GMail)? After rooting a device and removing Bloatware and Google what's the potential issues in using the device? I only use my phone for calling and texting and keeping notes, some photos, few emails. No banking/ shopping apps, no social media. I like having a very basic phone, so most of the upgrades in the UI would probably not be important to me. I plan to upgrade at some point but I need to have a phone with a 4" or smaller display and it's got to be around $50 used.
I have a couple of older Samsungs that are small, which I prefer. One is running 4.4.2, is rooted and is in the process of removing most Google apps ( I have installed the Brave browser but limited data use) and the other is even older running Gingerbread that I plan to re-purpose for a signal generator but might consider using as backup.
New to Android and still learning, so any advice is appreciated.
Thanks
PS. I was planning on moving to Lineage but I managed to buy a Samsung with an unlockable bootloader so just rooted it and started removing stuff I don't need. Seems to be OK for the most part.
kellyvotrenom said:
Hi
What are the problems/ issues of using an old version if the phone is only used for calls/ texting/ email (not GMail)? After rooting a device and removing Bloatware and Google what's the potential issues in using the device? I only use my phone for calling and texting and keeping notes, some photos, few emails. No banking/ shopping apps, no social media. I like having a very basic phone, so most of the upgrades in the UI would probably not be important to me. I plan to upgrade at some point but I need to have a phone with a 4" or smaller display and it's got to be around $50 used.
I have a couple of older Samsungs that are small, which I prefer. One is running 4.4.2, is rooted and is in the process of removing most Google apps ( I have installed the Brave browser but limited data use) and the other is even older running Gingerbread that I plan to re-purpose for a signal generator but might consider using as backup.
New to Android and still learning, so any advice is appreciated.
Thanks
PS. I was planning on moving to Lineage but I managed to buy a Samsung with an unlockable bootloader so just rooted it and started removing stuff I don't need. Seems to be OK for the most part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
there might be some downsides, one of them being that your device doesn't have the latest security patches implemented. Another one is that some apps might not work anymore as their minimum API version is higher than your current OS.
Beside this, there are no real downsides of running an older Android version. If you got your device setup according to your needs, then there is no real issue at all in case you don't store any sensitive information (bank account username/password for example, but this applies to all mobile devices in my opinion) on your device.