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Hi,
first of all i want to say that this thread is in no way meant to offend or me being impatient about anything. I am just asking the question to know the answer.
I noticed, that many dev´s for the SGS2 (such as codeworkx and others) have big/giant trouble to bring a new Version to our Phones.
The problems seem to be that big that they have to wait for a Kernel from Samsung to make it even work a bit.
From my other/previous Phone, the HTC Dream i know that there weren´t such big problems.
It got 4 perfectly stable main iterations (2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3) of Android after its updates were discontinued and it already has a 4.0 version that has only 2 issues left to fix. All that without a kernel beeing released from HTC for the specific OS version. (i remember that the Camera drivers for 2.x were completely created from scratch to make it work [or so] )
My question is:
Why is it so much easier/less complicated to make a total new version run on the HTC Dream than on the SGS2? without the help of the manufactor
I'm not sure but I think its because other phones get source code releases for all the hardware or at least most of it to make porting/dev easier. Whereas Samsung hasn't released source for all the hardware in the sgs2 because of contractual obligations/restrictions from other hardware vendors that provide some the chips inside...
I also believe Samsung has modified Android quite heavily and badly in their quest to have the touchwiz interface, which also makes things difficult to reverse engineer etc...
I don't its anything actually difficult about the actual hardware itself
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Please help me to understand this..........
If android runs on top of lunix
and all android versions eclair gb, ics etc start off as basically aosp then get maufacturer specific things like blur and sense.
Why is it so hard for CM9 and 10 to fully work on the E3D when CM7 worked perfectly on the Evo4g which are both htc phones?
Its a random question and even though I just recently became a member here, ive been with XDA since i hade the original moto click which was 2 yrs ago.
Also,
What do I need to do to create themes? Ive been wanting to for a while.
Thx in advance
Deep breath. It basically comes down to the huge variety of hardware. Linux has to support hardware in it's kernel (basically a software layer that tells the operating system how to use that hardware) and each new variant of the kernel is supposed to be backward compatible (though support for very old hardware is dropped so the kernel doesn't get out of control). Now Android is a completely different branch of linux (at the moment), and each manufacturer further branches aosp and creates a different kernel for every mobile phone with different hardware. The manufacturers have to release the kernel back to the community after they upgrade but this is slow and even when they do the kernel only supports the variant of android (in this case sense). Finally if they don't release an OS upgrade at all then the kernel becomes outdated and won't support features in the new OS.
Devs feel free to correct me...
Sent from my Evo 3D GSM using xda app-developers app
CM7 is by now quite old, meaning developers have had A LOT of time to test, modify, run and perfect it, even several years ago a lot of phones had perfect CM7 ports/builds.
Both CM9 and CM10 are still quite new, and thus developers have not had that much time to modify it to run as well as CM7, but in time it'll get there, no doubt about it.
And it also depends on which developers are actively working on developing for a specific phone. As for example we now have Agrabren working on a CM10 build (GSM side) doing amazing work, while other phones do not have such developers, thus it will take longer time for those phones to get perfected.
As for the themes, it depends on what ROM you're using. There are several different ways to theme something, and they're very different if you're running either Sense 3, Sense 3.6, Sense 4, CM7, CM9, CM10 or MIUI 2.3 or MIUI 4 (etc.), so you'll have to be more specific. But it would be a good start to look in the "Themes and Apps" sub forum.
grrratt said:
Deep breath. It basically comes down to the huge variety of hardware. Linux has to support hardware in it's kernel (basically a software layer that tells the operating system how to use that hardware) and each new variant of the kernel is supposed to be backward compatible (though support for very old hardware is dropped so the kernel doesn't get out of control). Now Android is a completely different branch of linux (at the moment), and each manufacturer further branches aosp and creates a different kernel for every mobile phone with different hardware. The manufacturers have to release the kernel back to the community after they upgrade but this is slow and even when they do the kernel only supports the variant of android (in this case sense). Finally if they don't release an OS upgrade at all then the kernel becomes outdated and won't support features in the new OS.
Devs feel free to correct me...
Sent from my Evo 3D GSM using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Moonbloom said:
CM7 is by now quite old, meaning developers have had A LOT of time to test, modify, run and perfect it, even several years ago a lot of phones had perfect CM7 ports/builds.
Both CM9 and CM10 are still quite new, and thus developers have not had that much time to modify it to run as well as CM7, but in time it'll get there, no doubt about it.
And it also depends on which developers are actively working on developing for a specific phone. As for example we now have Agrabren working on a CM10 build (GSM side) doing amazing work, while other phones do not have such developers, thus it will take longer time for those phones to get perfected.
As for the themes, it depends on what ROM you're using. There are several different ways to theme something, and they're very different if you're running either Sense 3, Sense 3.6, Sense 4, CM7, CM9, CM10 or MIUI 2.3 or MIUI 4 (etc.), so you'll have to be more specific. But it would be a good start to look in the "Themes and Apps" sub forum.
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Hey thx guys, I got a better understanding now. I appreciate you taking the time to explain that to me.
As far as themes, i will look into that thread.
BTW this site is awesome. You guys have done a great job making all of this accessible for people who refuse to hampered by the limits of a locked s-on phone.
ION vs PMEM
What is the difference?
Google is your friend - http://lwn.net/Articles/480055/
In the case of the Rezound specifically, ION is generally faster and less laggy, but has a purple tinted camera, and no working front camera (for now).
To quote shrike (I hope that's alright)
Originally Posted by shrike1978 View Post
ION is the new unified memory management architecture that Google is advancing. Prior to ION, every SoC manufacturer had their own way of doing memory management. Qualcomm's was pmem, Nvidia's was nvram, etc. It made it's debut as an option in ICS and is preferred in JB. Being unified also means that it is a good candidate for integration into the Linux kernel mainline, which would mean that Android would no longer require it's own separate branch of Linux.
So I've read this but what would that mean in terms of developement? If Android didn't have to be a separate branch of Linux, would it be easier to spread ROMs to all the different phones?
regnsy pronounced
noo_too_droid said:
To quote shrike (I hope that's alright)
So I've read this but what would that mean in terms of developement? If Android didn't have to be a separate branch of Linux, would it be easier to spread ROMs to all the different phones?
regnsy pronounced
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not a dev, but in my understanding the biggest hurdle for porting ROMS is device drivers. It is relatively easy to port a ROM from the HTC One X to the HTC Rezound, because they are made by the same manufacturer, have the same system-on-a-chip manufacturer (Qualcomm) and have a similar stock kernel based on different versions of HTC Sense.
But porting a ROM from, let's say a Samsung Galaxy III is nigh impossible, because it uses a different system-on-a-chip exclusive to Samsung phones and its stock kernel is based on TouchWiz. And even though Android is based on Linux, each of the phone manufacturers have slightly different ways of organizing system files that set the various system options. So a kernel patch that works on one device probably won't work on another. (kernel level features such as GPU overclocking, two-way call recording etc. rely on these system setting files).
Even among phones made by the same company, you may have hardware differences such as different camera technologies, different screen resolutions, etc. that make porting harder.
That's why cyanogenmod, AOKP and MIUI are so valuable and appreciated, because they organize porting of a ROM that, as far as the kernel and GUI are concerned, vary little between devices. However those projects still have to rely on what manufacturers choose to release as open source to develop hardware device drivers to port the ROM to each device.
And then you have the problem of, what level of Android is officially supported by the manufacturer? The Droid Incredible 2, for example, is still waiting for an official ICS release it may never get, which means running Jellybean as it is meant to be run is that much harder. It's hard enough on the Rezound, where we have official ICS kernel source.
That's why I give lots of kudos to people who take custom ROMs like BAMF paradigm, paranoid android and the like that were developed for other devices and port them to the Rezound. And mega kudos to people like chad who can port/re-factor underlying hardware code originally developed for another device to work on the Rezound. We're talking crazy wizard-level stuff like memory management, camera, hardware graphics optimization (Project Butter).
It makes stuff awesomer
wildstang83 said:
It makes stuff awesomer
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An answer i can understand.....thx!
Dcnovicky said:
An answer i can understand.....thx!
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Click to collapse
Ha, anytime my friend
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2
brenuga said:
I'm not a dev, but in my understanding the biggest hurdle for porting ROMS is device drivers. It is relatively easy to port a ROM from the HTC One X to the HTC Rezound, because they are made by the same manufacturer, have the same system-on-a-chip manufacturer (Qualcomm) and have a similar stock kernel based on different versions of HTC Sense.
But porting a ROM from, let's say a Samsung Galaxy III is nigh impossible, because it uses a different system-on-a-chip exclusive to Samsung phones and its stock kernel is based on TouchWiz. And even though Android is based on Linux, each of the phone manufacturers have slightly different ways of organizing system files that set the various system options. So a kernel patch that works on one device probably won't work on another. (kernel level features such as GPU overclocking, two-way call recording etc. rely on these system setting files).
Even among phones made by the same company, you may have hardware differences such as different camera technologies, different screen resolutions, etc. that make porting harder.
That's why cyanogenmod, AOKP and MIUI are so valuable and appreciated, because they organize porting of a ROM that, as far as the kernel and GUI are concerned, vary little between devices. However those projects still have to rely on what manufacturers choose to release as open source to develop hardware device drivers to port the ROM to each device.
And then you have the problem of, what level of Android is officially supported by the manufacturer? The Droid Incredible 2, for example, is still waiting for an official ICS release it may never get, which means running Jellybean as it is meant to be run is that much harder. It's hard enough on the Rezound, where we have official ICS kernel source.
That's why I give lots of kudos to people who take custom ROMs like BAMF paradigm, paranoid android and the like that were developed for other devices and port them to the Rezound. And mega kudos to people like chad who can port/re-factor underlying hardware code originally developed for another device to work on the Rezound. We're talking crazy wizard-level stuff like memory management, camera, hardware graphics optimization (Project Butter).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll hit that thanks button just for that essay you typed
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda app-developers app
Hi! This is my first post on XDA.
As a user of CM for more than a year ago on my i9300, and after enduring a lot of bugs, I wonder: What happens to CM?
It's a known fact that the Exynos platform is a headache for developers because there is no documentation or open sources from Samsung. So, things like the camera, the sound system, the HDMI output and the GPU do not work as they should.
However, here are many good developers who have fixed these bugs, or at least improve them a bit. And most of these fixes are open source and accessible by everyone on Github.
So, what is waiting CM to implement them? Giving credit to their authors, obviously.
CyanogenMod announces itself as an alternative to the stock firmware that lets you take full advantage of your smartphone, making it better and more stable. Now they are also a company: Cyanogen Inc. As a reputable brand, it should offer a higher quality firmware. ROMs like Nameless (I'm using it right now) works better even being "not official".
This is just an opinion as a user. I'm not criticizing or forcing anyone to do anything. But if there are hundreds of people using a ROM with bugs that were fixed, why not implement them? I would be the first to help, but my skills are just about webdev.
Respect and thanks for i9300 developers on XDA, and sorry about my bad English. When I use my native language I express myself MUCH better. Trust me. lol
Thanks for reading.
There's no i9300 maintainer, and they accept pull requests (on gerrit) when somebody sends them.
Also, the fact that there's no i9300 maintainer is directly connected with what you already said - lack of proper documentation. Nobody wants to fix the mess that has been created since whole this time. The amount of hacks required to make AOSP work on i9300 is too damn high. I'm slowly fixing this mess, making i9300 a bit better supported, but it's still a long way until it's done. Take a look at ArchiKernel for example, why I had to create my own kernel? Because smdk4412 sources were so much outdated that they finished around update7, right after sudden death fix. XXELLA, 4.1.2 Android times, hello. So first thing was to cleanup the kernel mess, use up-to-date samsung sources (used for stocks) and make them work with AOSP. Now, if I commit my work to CM, they'll deny this instantly because new kernel supports only i9300 and this commit would break all other exynos4 variants from compiling. Yes, together we COULD fix it, make it work with other devices. But I have better things to do than trying to fix whole exynos4 family, I focus on i9300.
This is one of the reasons why we won't see any official cm12 nightly for i9300. Because nobody is going to maintain that. Even if we can fix something, nobody is going to commit that, unless we put serious effort for making it universal across all supported devices.
That's a real shame the device is in such a mess.
Actually, to be fair, using Omnirom 4.4.4, I'm finding that the only thing that doesn't work properly is the notification led (no one seems to know why it only works 3 times out of 4).
I'll probably end up buying a new phone next year, anyway, since buy this time next year the i9300 will be almost 4 years old. In smartphone terms, that means it's getting along a bit.
(oh, and thanks for all your work on it, JustArchi!)
JustArchi said:
There's no i9300 maintainer, and they accept pull requests (on gerrit) when somebody sends them.
Also, the fact that there's no i9300 maintainer is directly connected with what you already said - lack of proper documentation. Nobody wants to fix the mess that has been created since whole this time. The amount of hacks required to make AOSP work on i9300 is too damn high. I'm slowly fixing this mess, making i9300 a bit better supported, but it's still a long way until it's done. Take a look at ArchiKernel for example, why I had to create my own kernel? Because smdk4412 sources were so much outdated that they finished around update7, right after sudden death fix. XXELLA, 4.1.2 Android times, hello. So first thing was to cleanup the kernel mess, use up-to-date samsung sources (used for stocks) and make them work with AOSP. Now, if I commit my work to CM, they'll deny this instantly because new kernel supports only i9300 and this commit would break all other exynos4 variants from compiling. Yes, together we COULD fix it, make it work with other devices. But I have better things to do than trying to fix whole exynos4 family, I focus on i9300.
This is one of the reasons why we won't see any official cm12 nightly for i9300. Because nobody is going to maintain that. Even if we can fix something, nobody is going to commit that, unless we put serious effort for making it universal across all supported devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for answering my topic. The opinion of a developer like you is very appreciated.
This situation only seems to give more reasons for not buy a Samsung phone again. This lack of support from the manufacturer is a disrespect to the user's investment. And fragmentation strikes again. Sad but true.
Thanks again for your great work of keeping this device alive for all of us.
StephenJSweeney said:
That's a real shame the device is in such a mess.
Actually, to be fair, using Omnirom 4.4.4, I'm finding that the only thing that doesn't work properly is the notification led (no one seems to know why it only works 3 times out of 4).
I'll probably end up buying a new phone next year, anyway, since buy this time next year the i9300 will be almost 4 years old. In smartphone terms, that means it's getting along a bit.
(oh, and thanks for all your work on it, JustArchi!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried OmniROM few months ago, but it had some annoying bugs (like camera crashes) and I missed some customizations of CyanogenMod. Anyway, I'll try it again. My next buy might be a Motorola phone. The AOSP support is priceless.
ouch01 said:
I tried OmniROM few months ago, but it had some annoying bugs (like camera crashes) and I missed some customizations of CyanogenMod. Anyway, I'll try it again. My next buy might be a Motorola phone. The AOSP support is priceless.
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Click to collapse
I had the camera crash on CM11 M11, and switched over to Omnirom shortly after that. I'm using Google Camera with an Omnirom nightly from November, and I've never had a camera crash.
Agree with you about getting a Motorola. I'd love it if the next Moto G refresh (if there is one) came with some more RAM, increased storage (16GB instead of 8), 4G, and a multicolour led. Being able to customize the colours to suit the category of app is something I love about custom ROMs. That should be baked into Android, to be honest (but at least there's LightFlow).
JustArchi said:
There's no i9300 maintainer, and they accept pull requests (on gerrit) when somebody sends them.
Also, the fact that there's no i9300 maintainer is directly connected with what you already said - lack of proper documentation. Nobody wants to fix the mess that has been created since whole this time. The amount of hacks required to make AOSP work on i9300 is too damn high. I'm slowly fixing this mess, making i9300 a bit better supported, but it's still a long way until it's done. Take a look at ArchiKernel for example, why I had to create my own kernel? Because smdk4412 sources were so much outdated that they finished around update7, right after sudden death fix. XXELLA, 4.1.2 Android times, hello. So first thing was to cleanup the kernel mess, use up-to-date samsung sources (used for stocks) and make them work with AOSP. Now, if I commit my work to CM, they'll deny this instantly because new kernel supports only i9300 and this commit would break all other exynos4 variants from compiling. Yes, together we COULD fix it, make it work with other devices. But I have better things to do than trying to fix whole exynos4 family, I focus on i9300.
This is one of the reasons why we won't see any official cm12 nightly for i9300. Because nobody is going to maintain that. Even if we can fix something, nobody is going to commit that, unless we put serious effort for making it universal across all supported devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i feel you
SlimRoms is the answer
unlike CM, Slim has a I9300 maintainer, has support, every weekly update works properly.
Devs should really take a look at Slim's Gerrit and Freenode/#SlimDev
StephenJSweeney said:
I had the camera crash on CM11 M11, and switched over to Omnirom shortly after that. I'm using Google Camera with an Omnirom nightly from November, and I've never had a camera crash.
Agree with you about getting a Motorola. I'd love it if the next Moto G refresh (if there is one) came with some more RAM, increased storage (16GB instead of 8), 4G, and a multicolour led. Being able to customize the colours to suit the category of app is something I love about custom ROMs. That should be baked into Android, to be honest (but at least there's LightFlow).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing with Motorola is that their stock roms are basically just stock android. No laggy touchwiz skins, just a google launcher. Bloatware is at a minimum. A low spec phone like the moto G still is great because of how vanilla its experience is.
Rumours have it that the galaxy S6 international variant will have an exynos processor. I found a thread comparing the leaked info of the snapdragon 810 vs the next exynos processor and it seems that the exynos is getting a lot of popularity from users on the thread and it ain't no slouch. As it is now, phone's are so fast, that it's very hard to find a way of improving them. Like who compares app opening times nowadays? That will be much the case for 2015's flagships as well. I doubt I'd be disappointed if I had the next Samsung release if I thought I'd be in for a laggy UI, it's just whether I can tolerate the touchwiz experience or if I wanna switch to a vanilla aosp rom. That's where the problem arises.
arashvenus said:
SlimRoms is the answer
unlike CM, Slim has a I9300 maintainer, has support, every weekly update works properly.
Devs should really take a look at Slim's Gerrit and Freenode/#SlimDev
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But only in your imagination. There is noone at slimrom. Just check their gerrit.
whatsgood said:
Rumours have it that the galaxy S6 international variant will have an exynos processor .... I found a thread comparing the leaked info of the snapdragon 810 vs the next exynos processor and it seems that the exynos is getting a lot of popularity from users on the thread and it ain't no slouch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aren't the Exynos processors the cause of much grief in the open source community, though? Aren't Qualcomm processors, such as the Snapdragon, much more popular because they're easier to work with..?
StephenJSweeney said:
Aren't the Exynos processors the cause of much grief in the open source community, though? Aren't Qualcomm processors, such as the Snapdragon, much more popular because they're easier to work with..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct.
Eleve11 said:
Correct.
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Click to collapse
Well then, no more Samsung phones for me, then. Not unless they use Qualcomm..!
StephenJSweeney said:
Aren't the Exynos processors the cause of much grief in the open source community, though? Aren't Qualcomm processors, such as the Snapdragon, much more popular because they're easier to work with..?
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Yes, that's what i thought but people are showing interests due to how powerful the processor is. I think they're saying it's more powerful than the snapdragon 810. I'm not that techy but they were mentioning that the new exynos will be smaller in size or something, whilst the snapdragon will be bigger. Apparently smaller is better, but yes the problem is open sourcing. If you want to install a stock android custom rom, it will be difficult for developers to build a rom that can push your phone to it's full potential. Snapdragon doesn't have this problem.
Basically if you love flashing different roms that are fully functional a snapdragon 810 phone is for you. If you like what Samsung offers in it's next flagship and won't be tempted to flash other roms then the exynos is for you
whatsgood said:
Yes, that's what i thought but people are showing interests due to how powerful the processor is. I think they're saying it's more powerful than the snapdragon 810. I'm not that techy but they were mentioning that the new exynos will be smaller in size or something, whilst the snapdragon will be bigger. Apparently smaller is better, but yes the problem is open sourcing. If you want to install a stock android custom rom, it will be difficult for developers to build a rom that can push your phone to it's full potential. Snapdragon doesn't have this problem.
Basically if you love flashing different roms that are fully functional a snapdragon 810 phone is for you. If you like what Samsung offers in it's next flagship and won't be tempted to flash other roms then the exynos is for you
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I prefer to have less powerful processor, with full documentation how it works, rather than exynos and big giant hackish black box, which noone understands.
The problem is not with the exynos, but with Samsung. Judging from Exynos4, their kernel sources and own experience, exynos may look like it works, but amount of hacks and dirty workarounds to make it work, is too damn high. This could all be solved if Samsung changed their policy from "respect GPL, f*ck the rest" to "respect developers, show them that our SoC can be developer-friendly, too".
The problem is that we're not even 0.01% of Samsung sales, so why should they care. I'm not going to buy Samsung phone again, regardless if it has Snapdragon inside or not. The problem is not with the Exynos, the problem is in Samsung's policy.
JustArchi said:
I prefer to have less powerful processor, with full documentation how it works, rather than exynos and big giant hackish black box, which noone understands.
The problem is not with the exynos, but with Samsung. Judging from Exynos4, their kernel sources and own experience, exynos may look like it works, but amount of hacks and dirty workarounds to make it work, is too damn high. This could all be solved if Samsung changed their policy from "respect GPL, f*ck the rest" to "respect developers, show them that our SoC can be developer-friendly, too".
The problem is that we're not even 0.01% of Samsung sales, so why should they care. I'm not going to buy Samsung phone again, regardless if it has Snapdragon inside or not. The problem is not with the Exynos, the problem is in Samsung's policy.
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Click to collapse
Yeah +1 for that. My next Phone will be definitly a Sony or a One plus. I think both are the developer friendliest in android ...
what for get android with huge ram but still lag? i won't go for android for sure. just stick with ios better. with android 8gb & asop, cm etc still can't fix the bugs. android received update so slow than ios.
khanmein said:
what for get android with huge ram but still lag? i won't go for android for sure. just stick with ios better. with android 8gb & asop, cm etc still can't fix the bugs. android received update so slow than ios.
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Click to collapse
Yeah you are right but i think the most decent phone is the htc one......i would buy a windows phone rather than an iPhone
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/2qn8s4/new_impressive_lollipop_touchwiz_gives_nexus_line/
This is an interesting article on the new touchwiz that appears in android lollipop on the galaxy note 3. Surprisingly I can see nothing but praise from this person, apparently it seems to be running very well in comparison to touchwiz on KitKat. Is Samsung finally doing something good?
whatsgood said:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/2qn8s4/new_impressive_lollipop_touchwiz_gives_nexus_line/
This is an interesting article on the new touchwiz that appears in android lollipop on the galaxy note 3. Surprisingly I can see nothing but praise from this person, apparently it seems to be running very well in comparison to touchwiz on KitKat. Is Samsung finally doing something good?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its useless even if they port it to our i9300..1gb of ram..maybe its time to upgrade to more stronger phone..
I am about to buy this phone because it is just so damn good for it's very low price tag, however one thing is bugging me about it. I came here to find that there are no Marshmallow ROMs for it yet and the main reason for me wanting to upgrade my phone in the first place is so that I will be able to run the latest Android ROM's without performance problems. I am currently on CyanogenMod 13 on my old Samsung Galaxy S3 and I like it, but it is slow. The Redmi Note 2 doesn't even have CyanogenMod support.
Is this because Xiaomi are going to release an official MIUI based on Marshmallow? I don't want to buy this phone if it means I am going to be stuck on MIUI or on an older version of Android. I am a bit perplexed because this phone sold a lot so why hasn't anyone made Marshmallow for it yet?
Do you think that development is going to pick up for this device or is this device a bad option if you want to run the latest Google Android (not MIUI)?
Certainly, the RN2 is a lot of hardware for the money, but without source code, things are limited to either repacked/tweaked roms, or roms that are built from source, but have significant hardware functionality imperfections because source is not available. It doesn't seem clear to me whether Xiaomi will release a Marshmallow-based MIUI for the RN2 or not. Some people say yes, some people say no, so until it actually happens (if it ever does), who knows. I also bought the RN2 because it was so much hardware for the price, but I am also disappointed with the lack of CM and similar. This is certainly not for a lack of people not trying, but it seems like certain parts of the hardware will never become functional with CM unless the necessary source code is released. If you don't happen to use these parts of the hardware, well, maybe it doesn't matter. Personally, I have stuck with sMIUI because all the hardware is completely working, but I sure wish a CM version with all working hardware will eventually emerge.
verbage said:
Certainly, the RN2 is a lot of hardware for the money, but without source code, things are limited to either repacked/tweaked roms, or roms that are built from source, but have significant hardware functionality imperfections because source is not available. It doesn't seem clear to me whether Xiaomi will release a Marshmallow-based MIUI for the RN2 or not. Some people say yes, some people say no, so until it actually happens (if it ever does), who knows. I also bought the RN2 because it was so much hardware for the price, but I am also disappointed with the lack of CM and similar. This is certainly not for a lack of people not trying, but it seems like certain parts of the hardware will never become functional with CM unless the necessary source code is released. If you don't happen to use these parts of the hardware, well, maybe it doesn't matter. Personally, I have stuck with sMIUI because all the hardware is completely working, but I sure wish a CM version with all working hardware will eventually emerge.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the explanation. It seems really unfortunate that they haven't released the source. I guess I should either buy the more expensive Mi4 (which I believe the source is released for) or I can just wait it out and see if the source code get's released for the RN2. It seems strange to me that they wouldn't release Marshmallow-based MIUI for such a popular, fairly new phone. I think they will release it. If they release MM-MIUI then will that enable other developers to bring stock Android Marshmallow or CyanogenMod to the RN2?
M will deffo be released for RN2. Main reason we still dont have it is:
a) first "official" device with M is supposed to be mi5
b) MTK prolly didnt polish 6.0 yet
Major companies that use X10 (eg Sony & HTC) didnt realse M for their devices either, at least as far as i know, however they are planned. So yeah M will arrive eventually, which is great, but that doesnt mean custom roms will get any better. And knowing xiaomi, and their kernel release policies, this is pretty much 100%. Pretty sure they still havent released any kernel source for their older MTK powered devices.
I think I'm going to buy the Mi4 rather because its kernel is open. I want to know that I'll be able to get android roms of any new releases. It's a real shame because the Redmi Note 2 is cheaper and a more superior device, but I have read that Mediatek are scumbags when it comes to releasing kernels because they want to force you to buy a new device when your OS becomes outdated which goes against the open source licence of Linux. Oh well, I guess that's business.
rimpy said:
If they release MM-MIUI then will that enable other developers to bring stock Android Marshmallow or CyanogenMod to the RN2?
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If they release MM-MIUI for the RN2, unless they release the source code, this will still mean that roms are cooked/repacked, or built from source, but probably imperfectly due to lack of source. Though MIUI is based on Android, I don't think there are free and open MIUI repositories where one could grab the necessary source code for the RN2.
At this point, like everyone said, it is very unlikely that Xiaomi will ever release the source code for the RN2. Without it, custom ROMs will never be proper, and it's the reason there are no MM builds yet.
However, even though MIUI is horrible and God knows that I hate it, it's quite usable. A version of the Xposed framework that works on the latest MIUI builds has been released a couple of days ago, and with it you can get most of the functionality a custom ROM provides. It's not perfect, and I'd prefer AOSP, but it is, IMO, the best this phone has to offer at the moment.
I only got mine about three months ago, and while there were many times I came to regret my purchase, every other phone in this price range and slightly above has inferior hardware. With that said, if you want a phone running AOSP or something very close to it, you'd be better off getting a Nexus or a device that is officially supported by CM.
Thanks all. I was just about to buy the RN2 but I am glad I posted here first. I've learnt a lot and I don't think I would be happy with a phone that has a closed source kernel. The Mi4 has a smaller screen, no SD slot, slower, and costs more, but its kernel source is released and it is supported by CM13. Still very good value for money so that's gonna be my next phone.
It actually isnt slower. Benchmarks only. If you run them side by side with either MIUI or CM youll see than Mi4 is actually much faster than RN2, so yeah, its a better option if you have the money