[Q] Questions about flashing ICS for a friend - Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello everyone, I'm trying to do a buddy of mine a favor by upgrading his Vibrant to something a lot better (he's on stock) but I'm a bit unclear on a few things. First of all let me get out of the way that I'm a Fascinate (Verizon) owner that recently modded my own phone to run AOKP ICS Milestone 6 with great results, so I figured since he pretty much had the exact same phone I could do it for him. The problem I'm running into is the procedure I used to flash my phone doesn't seem to apply to the Vibrant (or at least what I was searching for) so I just wanted to clear up a few steps before I try to flash his phone.
He's not a very tech savvy guy, so he won't be updating ROMs on the bleeding edge or anything, he just wants his phone to run better so I figure ICZen is the way to go right, considering it's based off of what I'm using now (AOKP M6)? Everything needs to work, so that pretty much rules out any JB right now because of the GPS issues. Okay now onto the specific flashing questions:
1) This thread seems to be the go to thread for flashing the Vibrant, but it hasn't been updated since Dec '11, so would I just follow the same procedure for the newer ICS roms?
2) Here is the guide I used for my Fascinate (see section 4), which has a few extra steps that I notice are lacking for the Vibrant... namely installing cwm4 fixed for cm7 first, then installing THS Build 2, then flash over that with whatever ICS Rom you need.
3) Devil Kernel is what's considered best on my phone running AOKP M6... is that true as well for ICZen?
4) Since the Vibrant never got 2.3, what is the best modem to be using? On the Fascinate the EH03 (GB) stock modem is best, but I'm unsure what the deal is for the Vibrant since they never got an official GB update. Also along the same topic, Verizon has a code you can input that updates your PRL and improves reception... does T-Mobile have such a code or not?
I appreciate any and all input, as I want this to go as smoothly as possible. Thanks

You seem to have a pretty good grasp on what your doing.
From stock, install gingerbread bootloaders then go to recovery via volume rocker down and hold power button, until the logo. Might have to practice it a couple times.
Once in recovery click reinstall packages, might have to do it s couple of times. This installs your update.zip
From here I always perform wipes and flash a custom Froyo ROM. Maybe overkill but, only takes a second and I don't mind.
From here I flashed the latest CM9 nightly and on to Helly Bean.
Do your wipes in between flashes, and you should be fine.
I haven't ever heard about a T-Mobile code for tower updates, I think its automatic.

Well I didn't have to worry about bootloaders on my Fascinate since I was already on GB, so that's a bit new to me... but doing a quick google search I found this guide. Is that an accurate guide to follow? Alright so basically what you're saying is before I root at all I need to do this?
Also like I was saying earlier, he wants everything to work so I think Helly Bean is out of the question because of GPS, right? I was thinking ICZen looks the cleanest, with everything working nicely, and it's based on what I'm currently using on mine.
Can you clarify on why you're flashing a custom froyo rom? I won't mind to do that either, if it has any benefit.
Also, I checked his phone last night and it's on stock 2.2, not 2.1 if that makes any sort of difference. Thanks again

First root and get cwm recovery then flash bootloaders. The vibe never got an official GB, so that's why boot loaders are recommended. The guide you have is fine. Second the GPS on the vibrant has been notoriously hit or miss. I have a captivate, the GPS works great but my vibe couldn't get a lock to save my life.
Now as far as iczen or hellybean, you have to weigh the options:
Iczen is a great ROM and might have a better chance getting a GPS lock. IMO if you can get a lock with ICS you will probably get a lock with JB. But with ICS you have to be concerned with the EU bug. What's that you ask:
There has been an issue with people randomly looking at phone and a message saying encryption unsuccessful press to reset. If you press the button you have basically just locked up your internal SD card. If you don't press you MIGHT be able to recover it. There is a workaround if this happens, to use ext SD only but your friend will not like that.
I'm currently running hellybean on both of my devices and I love it. Like I said, cappy gps works great and my vibrant not so much. If you really want stable go with bionix as toast recommended or one of moped Ryder's ROMs . If you want to be wowed, go with hellybean.
There are some things you can try with it to get a GPS lock. The general consensus is turn on GPS, reboot, wait it out till you get an initial lock. After that locks will be quicker. I hope this helped in some way, if so hit thanks. As far as the guides etc you are good to go.
its peanut butter jelly(bean) time

That did help quite a bit, thank you. I have never even heard of that bug, do you know if that's Vibrant specific or can that happen on any of the others? I have been wanting to try Helly Bean on my Fascinate, but unfortunately my sdcard isn't very stable and I don't trust to flash anything until I can buy a new one. Honestly, I don't even think he cares much about the GPS, my original point was more along the lines of that I wanted to give him as much of a glitch-free experience as possible, so my fault for not being more specific. If Helly Bean is as stable as you're saying, then maybe I'll just do that instead then, especially after you explained that glitch. Also, since I don't have any Helly Bean experience myself, does it offer as much customization as AOKP? I've grown quite fond of all the little tweaks they include

Hellybean is pretty stable. When I did my vibrant I didn't have to use a boot loader I went straight to ICS then jellybean. If you want ICS then you may want to try aokp for his vibe its nice. If you end up trying aokp milestone 6 and have unknown baseband let me know and I'll link you to a linario build that should fix that
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda app-developers app

I have a complete guide to install ICS ROMs in my signature if you feel so inclined. PM me if you need any of the files or I may just host them on my Dev-Host account. I'll be out most of the day, but I can upload them later on tonight.

When I need to go back to stock and root and flash cwm I use the AIO toolbox. I just put the rom on the internal flash and then use AIO to get cwm on it from the flash custom rom option. Then cancel the file and the phone will reboot into recovery where you install packages twice and should end up in cwm.

The EU bug has hit vibrant and captivates that I know of. It seems rare though, if you think about the number of users compared to the reported number of cases of the EU bug, its a small percentage.Hellybean doesn't have nearly as much customization but it does offer theming and some launcher/lock screen tweaks. You could always use a custom launcher. There are a few other jellybean ROMs you could try. Honestly any way you go will be better than stock!
*I forgot to tell you, you will need to Odin back to stock 2.1!
its peanut butter jelly(bean) time

Yeah.. I don't think root is actually necessary to do any of this. You'll be rooted when the process is complete however. The custom ROMs come with root access.
But to elaborate on Samsgun357's last post, if you are currently on Froyo 2.2 stock, you'll need to Odin back to stock 2.1 prior to starting, because Samsung fixed the bug that allows installation of custom recovery when they released 2.2
It's simple to do, search the forums and you'll find a guide on Odining back to JFD. That's stock Eclair. If I have time in a few I'll locate it for you and post it.
There are YouTube videos about it with links to the files as well. I think djeddie1west posted a good one with links to all files needed, if they are still working links.
Edit: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1117990
There's the link for installing GB bootloader.
Also, I am on my phone and haven't tested links, but as long as they work, near the bottom of the post you'll find the files needed to Odin the JFD files.

Eh, I just gave up and told him to go get an iPhone instead, to increase his hipster status.
Or... that's right, I'd rather be dead than own one of those ugly bricks.
You have all been extremely helpful, and I think I have more than enough to go on. I think for now I'll just throw ICZen on his phone since it's based on the rom I'm most familiar with... and when I have more experience with Helly Bean (I finally ordered a new sdcard that's on the way, so I can play with it on my own phone soon enough :good I'll just flash his again. He'll be okay with the risks mentioned so far in this post, and honestly his upgrade is coming up soon so I'm sure I'll be drooling over his S3 when that time comes.
@Woodrube That guide you made to install ICS was exactly what I was looking for, and I wish I had found it earlier so thank you for making such an excellent post.
I'll post back here with the results, thanks for all the help once again

Related

[Q] How do I get back to Stock 3.1 from TW

I updated my tab to TW (inadvertently) and want to go back to stock (out of the box) honeycomb 3.1. I have it rooted with cwm installed. I attempted to flash the stock rom, but it aborts installation every time. Someone in IRC explained that you can't go back to stock from TW. Is this true? Anyone know how this can be done? Or does anyone know of any stock ROMs that can be flashed from a TW ROM?
It is possible, yeah.
This is the ROM I used.
Follow the link at the very bottom of the post, it takes you to a similar post on another forum and at the very bottom of that is the link to download the file.
Just copy that zip onto your Tab and flash it through CWM.
Thanks so much. I will check it out and let you know the results.
Worked great! I'm so incredibly happy right now. I really don't like TW. Not sure what all the ROM devs see in it. Hopefully in a few months we'll have Ice Cream Sandwich on this thing anyway.
Glad you got it sorted.
I feel the same way, some of Samsung's touches like the notification area/quick access to the various controls are pretty good but on the whole I hate the look/feel of it - especially what they did to the Settings menu, it just looks awful

Need some help

Hey everybody, been following this forum for a while, but I eventually found the need to register and post. I have a LG Optimus One from Koodo (here in Canada). I was so excited when I heard that LG finally pushed the Gingerbread update. I decided to update and then...yeah.
I was initially thrilled. Everything seemed pretty good. Nice change in colours, felt smoother, all was well. Then I noticed that my battery was dramatically affected after the update. Pre-update, I accidentally left my phone overnight sometimes and was pleasantly surprised to see much of the juice still available. I'm not sure if this is a widespread problem, but I've read that a few other users have experienced the same thing.
So, I feel like I should just go all out and try to flash mik_os CM7 rom. Now for a tech noob like me, just reading the guides/tips is pretty intimidating. I know about the possibility of bricking, so it's putting me off until I know exactly how to execute this. Or is it not possible to flash mik_os CM7 since I upgraded to 2.3.3? I read something about basebands, but I have no idea what that means. Will I have to use the KDZ updater (again, only heard about it, never actually used it) to downgrade and then proceed? I assume I'll also have to root the phone, and have read that there are many ways to do this.
Well, that's the end of my little story. I'm just very interested in flashing the CM7 rom and just want to know how to do it precisely. If anyone can help, it'd be greatly appreciated.
from your position it looks like you'll need to downgrade to froyo to flash mik's CM.. but now AdFad666's new port of CM is available for the new baseband.. so you don't need to downgrade to enjoy CM7..
what you DO need to do is..
Root phone, Install custom recovery,flash rom.
excellent guides for all these are available here itslef.. read well before attempting these.. but not to worry.. follow the instructions to the line and you'll have no problems
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1007244

[Q] Consequences of rooting my rezound

Hey guys, Im completely new to rooting and im getting a rezound in a couple days and i just had a few simple questions that i couldnt find the answers too else where.
1. If I root my rezound will i still be able to receive all the regular updates like the verizon updates and upcoming OS updates? If not what can i do to get those?(Correct me if im wrong but I would assume that i would have to reverse my root somehow if the answer was no but im not sure how to do that)
2. If i root do i have to install a ROM?(Note:Im planning to remove htc sense as soon as i root and install a new launcher...idk if that has anything to do with having to install a ROM but i figured i should ask)
if you plan to stay on the original rom after you root, im pretty sure that you will be able to recieve the actual ota when its released. but you say that you plan to delete a lot of htc stuff (im assuming bloatware and things like that)...i would HIGHLY recommend just flashing a rom with all of that done for you. unless you know what youre doing, removing htc stuff by yourself can be detrimental to your phone and cause it to not work as it should. im currently running cleanrom 4.1 and its incredible. flashing a rom would be the best way to go
hope this helped.
yes that help, thanks. so if i were to use cleanrom 4.1 and i wanted to get the official ICS update when it released, what would have to do to be able to install it?
Forgive me for being a noob but I am going to attempt my first post I usually just read but feel I may be able to give a quality answer. SO, If you make a nandroid backup before flashing any rom's you will be able to revert back to stock at any time. You can do this via a custom recovery. In order to get an OTA, like the ICS one that is coming soon, you will have to reload your stock rom. Simply put, you cannot get an OTA with a custom rom. If you want a custom rom now and an OTA update later, make a backup and revert back to it when the OTA you want is released. Hope this helps!
One thing that nobody seems to ever mention is do NOT do anything to your phone for the first 30 days because you want to make sure you have a solid phone.
If your phone is constantly malfunctioning because of a problem with the phone, but you have already rooted your phone and flashed a new ROM, then you're going to be nothing but frustrated because you will think it's the ROM, or perhaps something you did when rooting the phone.
If you have a problem within the first 30 days and you have not rooted or flashed a new ROM all you do is walk in to Verizon, tell them the phone is brand new, but having issues with [insert problem here] and you get a brand new phone with all your info transfered for free, and another 30 days to make sure your replacement is not defective as well.
Sent from the resounding Rezound
very good tips! thanks guys, your answers are highly appreciated!
Aaronmc
What device are you coming from? I went from an OG Droid1 to the Rezound and actually love Sense. I think you should try it out first before cutting it out completely. If you wish you can leave the stock Status Bar/SystemUI and install a different launcher as that will disable most of the Sense elements, ~90% of it. As far as OTA's go, unconfirmed whether or not you can update from the recent leak. Make sure you have stock rom available or do not flash the recent leak and choose one of the older roms (Can always RUU back to the stock rom when official hits). I suggest Rezrom 3.1 with the old firmware patch as for me it's been so far the most stable and best battery life ICS rom I have used.
1. No, you won't be able to get OTA updates. But don't worry too much about that. It takes about a week, but the devs will post a manual method or you can use the RUU that usually preceeds the OTA by a day or two.
2. Don't try to disable sense from the stock ROM. It'll be trouble, I tried it for a while back when we only had temp root and it made it buggy and smoked the battery. Flash some ROMs and let the pros get that stuff worked out for you (and throw your favorite dev a few bucks to keep him interested!)
The real consequence of rooting though is the countless late nights flashing yet another new build or theme or whatever. It's kind of addicting.

Trouble U/G Android 2.4 to 4.0

SOLVED: Thanks to ares05 I already got the rom I wanted! I didn't find that specific rom in the first place... Anyway, anyone googles for this same matter can use my thread as an Q&A. The only thing I did to get Neatrom Lite working was putting it on Internal SD (Without wiping data). And flashing it (choose zip from internal SD) from the custom CWM recovery, then reboot. (Yes for beginners, CWM is an requirement!). For Nexus layout lovers try regular Cyanogenmod, Trebuchet or MIUI. They are all great.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,
Question to myself: did I researched, googled and watch the video upon registration?
Yes, but that doesn't solve my specific problem or provide enough information to try the risky situation.
Problems:
I have trouble upgrading from Android 2.3.5 to 4.0 through Odin3 v1.85. It's very unclear what Rom I need to get to flash.
I flashed through Odin3 Android 4.0 before, through reading a lot and accepted the try and ended up getting boot loops. So I flashed back my android 2.3.5 XWKJ5. that gave me CWM but also voided the possibility to upgrade through Samsung Kies what I regretted later.
Then I thought, Okay... I'll get the basic Custom Rom: Cyanogenmod 9.1 then, through wiping cache/factory and dalvik cache and flashing through zip file on SD card everything went great. But I was unhappy with CM9 because the playstore app didn't work anymore and I didn't liked the overall layout of the camera, apps and some other minor bug I found - I forgot... So I went back to Android 2.3.5 with nandroid backup.
Also I have ROM manager but that doesn't let me update the specific CWM 6.0.1.0 rom as it says "An error occurred while downloading your recovery." Probably more people have this?!
What I need to know to solve this matter:
I want the default (stock) android 4.0+ ICS firmware on my phone with root. Can someone provide me the exact link of the .tar/.tar.md5 file needed to upgrade my phone to that android version or higher if the rom is available for it (4.1.3?). Since I find it hard to search the correct rom needed to get this result. The rom you might provide me can be slightly modded but that's okay, as long as I have all the ICS features and the layout it naturally comes with.
All the current Phone specific data you might found useful in helping me:
Samsung Galaxy S2 (I-9100)*
Android 2.3.5
Gingerbread.XWKJ5
CF-Root 5 Kernel (Root, CWM, Superuser).
+Has made an Nandroid backup through recovery.
+Backed up my apps through Titanium Backup.
*It's no AT&T or T-Mobile version, luckily.
TL;DR: I WANT TO UPGRADE ANDROID 2.3.5 TO 4.0+, WHAT SPECIFIC ROM I NEED TO FLASH?
I hope someone good willing enough is there to help me and I will check this thread often for any replies,
Scy.
There are a bunch of ROMS here which will give you the stock ICS look and feel. I haven't tried all of them but if that's the kinda ROM you want then you could check out the ROM that I'm currently using, Neatrom Lite. Follow the link on my signature to the ROM thread. The latest version for Neatrom is 4.0.4 and you could download it from the link given on the first Page of the thread.
If you wanna try something else you check out the following links :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=23562820
This is a thread with an index of all the stock ICS ROMs
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=23275441
This is an index of all the custom ROMs.
Take your pick.
Sent from a GT-I9100 having a mind of its own
Yeah, that's sort of what I want. The biggest reason of wanting to update is that my brother has stock ics 4.0 and his battery consumes like 50% less energy in locked mode(s), factor in the fact that his update cleaned a lot of the processes and unused apps. Also I am fond of the original stock look - especially the camera controls.
I will try neatrom (lite) later tonight I checked out the official forum Page, looks very very to my liking. I am so excited, thanks for showing will report later if it worked out.
- EDIT -
Yaaaay! Everything went flawlessly, it's cool that there is no Wipe needed as the forum thread indicates. I don't know if it works fluidly yet, but it seems everything is up and running like if it was original ICS. I think the Siyah kernel helps alot in battery usage which means alot to me because I travel alot. I will keep this rom for a long while if no bugs/freezes pop up! Seems so promising, thank you thank you thank you~~!!

[Q] Which ROM?

Years ago a friend installed CM7 on my Atrix and now it's pretty unstable. I would like to reinstall the ROM fresh. The question is, which ROM should I install. (He didn't backup before installing CM7)
I'm thinking it would be nice to go back to an official ROM but, there is CM10.1. I'm leary of going back to CM because the 10.1 ROM is not official and it doesn't seem there will be much improvements for CM on an Atrix 4G.
I'm leery of going to an official ROM because I see all the banter of bricking it with Gingerbread.
Suggestions?
Atrixor said:
Years ago a friend installed CM7 on my Atrix and now it's pretty unstable. I would like to reinstall the ROM fresh. The question is, which ROM should I install. (He didn't backup before installing CM7)
I'm thinking it would be nice to go back to an official ROM but, there is CM10.1. I'm leary of going back to CM because the 10.1 ROM is not official and it doesn't seem there will be much improvements for CM on an Atrix 4G.
I'm leery of going to an official ROM because I see all the banter of bricking it with Gingerbread.
Suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The real question is what version of android do you want to run? CM7/7.2 is the only official CM ROM. CM10.1 is not official b/c of the kernel issues, which is still being worked. Does it really matter if a ROM is official or not? No. "Doesn't seem there will be much improvements for CM on an Atrix 4G."? Really? I'm not even going to post the link, I'm just going to say go google android version history and see what CM9, 10, and 10.1 have that CM7 does not have, and then restate that noob statement. Seriously, you have no idea what you are talking about.
Multiple users, including myself, have unlocked, rooted, restored to stock, many times over the past 3 yrs. In addition, there are guides readily available to help you through the process of preparing your device for custom ROMs. So the concern of bricking is a non issue unless you don't know what you're doing. Banter of bricking it only exists if you flash the incorrect sbf. Its not that hard. Sit down, read guides, ask questions as needed.
Let me be the first to admit that I am a noob and have no idea what I'm doing because this is my first foray into the world of smart phones (we all have to learn somewhere).
I went ahead and put CM10.1 on there and after adding the fixed gapp package it seems to be working fine.
Does anyone have a working link to a gingerbread ROM that works for an AT&T Atrix 4G? The links on this tread are dead: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1163342

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