[Q] Confused on where to start. Feeling very risky - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi, I am a noob to the S2 forums, but not much to xda. I have been working with galaxy y duos development a little.
Right now when I switched my mobile to S2 I visited the development threads. I am very much scared on where to start since my last attempt on flashing a Rom went on costing my IMEI's corruption. Since I had no backups, I had to get it back to service center to recover it.
I have been through various rom development forums. I am confused on which threads are the latest and which threads give a noob friendly explanation on Flashing a rom and thing similar to dual boot and all.
I am in stock 4.1.2 JB. I don't wanna have risk my device again.
1. How to flash CWM from Stock rom?
2. Should I flash a odin flashable CWM with kernel before I would wish to flash Kitkat compatible CWM?
3. How to dual boot? And Is it compatible with all the Roms available (seems not)?
4. I would wish to have stock rom & a custom rom (Neat Rom) in dual boot. Is it possible?

All this information is easily found by searching. These questions have been asked/answered here many times before.
The only way you're not going to feel 'very risky' is by reading:-
*The stickied threads at the top of General (these threads will give you a great grounding in what makes this phone tick, and will give you the knowledge to handle anything that happens).
*The threads related to whatever it is you want to flash (I.E rom/kernel/whatever threads).
If you take the time to do this rather than rushing blindly into things like most people who visit here, you should have the knowledge & confidence to do whatever you want to do. If after doing this you don't have that confidence, leave your phone stock.

Related

[Q] Rooting, Flashing, Custom ROM questions from a noob!

Hi everyone,
I am new to the android world having just bought a galaxy s2, so please be gentle. I'm a previous iphone owner and always hated the restrictions apple put on their phones and dictated the way I could use my handset! I've since moved over to android and my first impressions are OMFG, how confusing is all of this!! I'm not techphobic by any means but I am struggling to piece together how the world of android works and I have spent a lot of time reading various things about ROMs, rooting, flashing, kernels etc... but I am getting more and more confused!
I recently bought a Galaxy S2 which is running a custom ICS ROM on it (resurrection remix 1.0) and also has CWM on it. Having looked at the forums i can see that another version in out (1.3 i believe) but i'm very hesitant to try a flash as i dont want to screw my phone.
The way I see it i've got two choices, either try and reset the phone to stock so that warranty etc... remains uneffected and then update to ics through kies when its available or try and install a later version of one the ics ROM's that are availabe. I was wondering to that end if you lovely people coudl give me some guidance.
If I were to reset my phone to stock how do i do this bearing in mind i am confused about
a) what kernels are in the first place and
b) which one i woudl need for my phone and will I need a usb jig for this?
c) -i need to unroot my phone to return it to stock and if so how do i do this
also:
-what is the difference between an insecure and secure kernal
-if i flash my phone to a newer version of ics can i revert back to 1.0 as at the mo apart from the odd app crashing here and there I'm not having any probs with it.
I'm reading about GAPPS and APKs and dont know what the hell these are either but they keep popping up every so often.....basically i'm confused and on the verge of a breakdown!!
Please could somebody help mw with this and massive apologies if i've posted where i shoudnt have.
Thanks in advance
Saf
If you had taken the same time took for typing here to search and read you would have learnt almost everything...
go through these stiky threads
also see my links in singnature.......read as much as possible....no other substitute for reading and learning, nobody will answer you in essays like you typed
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1544657
Appreciate what you're saying mate and thank you for taking the time to reply. I have been reading various threads over the last day or so but the problem is when something like this which is quite techinical is completely new territory you dont know where to start. Google throws up page after page of stuff that doesnt make much sense and i've searched on the forums here and read up on quite a bit but again am not sure if i've grasped it.
problem is I didnt install the custom ROM on the phone, i bought it like this and to do anything further with it i dont know if i need to go back to the original owner with more questions or can i just go ahead and start tinkering with it without knowing what software was originally on the phone? (bearing in mind that various posts state that you need certain software which is as close to the original one as possible)
Thanks anyway
Saf
this is the stage which passed by all the noobs including me, dont worry
Your strating treble will only be over when you start flashing a ROM,
cool.
ima go ahead and try and install version 1.3 of resurrestion remix! Wish me luck hehe!!
Good luck,
dont forget to follow the steps mentioned the ROM thread atleast...

Noob Questions about ROMS and Kernel

Hello everybody,
I'm fairly new to this, I just Rooted my Galaxy S2 I9100 successfuly using odin,
Can anyone please tell me how to download a ROM and flash kernel?
And What are the most stable ROMS and kernels, please advise.
Thank you.
1) The Stickies have all the information you need.
2) There's no such thing as 'the most stable rom/kernel', everyone has their phone setup differently & uses it differently; your experience with a given rom or kernel will not be the same as anyone else's. Head over to the development sections, read the first page & say the last 10-20 pages of a thread devoted to a given rom or kernel. This will give you an idea of the features, and also other users' recent experiences with the rom/kernel. From there, try a few roms/kernels out for yourself. If you have CWM installed, flashing roms/kernels, backing up & restoring is really quick/easy which makes trying out roms/kernels really quick/easy.

[Q] A beginner's plunge with follow-up questions

Hi all, I'm enjoying reading lots in this forum in order to learn how to unleash my S3. One massive thank you to all who make this community such a great and rich resource. Thanks!
After reading a bunch, I took the XDA plunge. Here's what I've recently done (maybe this will help someone who's considering taking the plunge too. I was surprised at how easy everything was). I rooted my i9300 by flashing CF-AutoRoot via Odin. I then downloaded GooManager from the Market. It installed an open recovery script for me, TWRP. Next, I rebooted to TWRP recovery mode and did a backup and then a factory reset. I flashed temasek's build (v20) of Android 4.3/10.2 with the latest gapps zip (20130813). Then came the moment of truth. I was nervous when my phone took a bit longer to boot. The sweet Cyanogenmod logo just kept swirling. Finally, it booted and I was in love.
I have just a few questions about my phone now.
First, is the TWRP backup I did adequate to get me out of serious trouble if something goes wrong flashing updates? The backup ended up being over 2gb!
Secondly, have I done anything to the kernel? If not, should I?
Thirdly, have I done all that rooting and custom roms have to offer? Do I now just update my rom when new builds come out and continue enjoying my phone? If so, that's great. Just wondering what if anything I could do next, apart from trying other custom roms.
Lastly, what's the proper way to get help troubleshooting glitches/bug with the custom rom I'm using since I'm not yet able to post in its development forum thread? For example, my bluetooth won't turn off and in some apps the screen flickers or doesn't seem to render the window properly.
Thanks in advance.
oceo said:
Hi all, I'm enjoying reading lots in this forum in order to learn how to unleash my S3. One massive thank you to all who make this community such a great and rich resource. Thanks!
After reading a bunch, I took the XDA plunge. Here's what I've recently done (maybe this well help someone who's considering taking the plunge too). I rooted my i9300 by flashing CF-AutoRoot via Odin. I then downloaded GooManager from the Market. It installed an open recovery script for me, TWRP. Next, I rebooted to TWRP recovery mode and did a backup and then a factory reset. I flashed temasek's build (v20) of Android 4.3/10.2 with the latest gapps zip (20130813). Then came the moment of truth. I was nervous when my phone took a bit longer to boot. The sweet Cyanogenmod logo just kept swirling. Finally, it booted and I was in love.
I have just a few questions about my phone now.
First, is the TWRP backup I did adequate to get me out of serious trouble if something goes wrong flashing updates? The backup ended up being over 2gb!
Secondly, have I done anything to the kernel? If not, should I?
Thirdly, have I done all that rooting and custom roms have to offer? Do I now just update my rom when new builds come out and continue enjoying my phone? If so, that's great. Just wondering what if anything I could do next, apart from trying other custom roms.
Lastly, what's the proper way to get help troubleshooting glitches/bug with the custom rom I'm using since I'm not yet able to post in its development forum thread? For example, my bluetooth won't turn off and in some apps the screen flickers or doesn't seem to render the window properly.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. A backup is always adequate on almost all situations and that size is acceptable since most of my backups are around 1.41 gb but I recommend that you also backup your efs since it's one of the most important things to backup on our devices. More info here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1308546
2. As far as I know any cyanogenmod based firmware installs it's own custom kernel however this is highly reversible as soon as you flash a stock firmware again.
3. Well the possibility of having a rooted phone are endless. In xda you'll find vast amount of tweaks, roms, kernels etc that you can flash on your device. Even I still keep on flashing things (with precautions of course) whenever i find something interesting.
4. Until you can post that thread just keep posting your question here in the Q & A but search the topic you have in mind first since it's most likely been asked before, just to keep the forum clean as much as possible.
oceo said:
Hi all, I'm enjoying reading lots in this forum in order to learn how to unleash my S3. One massive thank you to all who make this community such a great and rich resource. Thanks!
After reading a bunch, I took the XDA plunge. Here's what I've recently done (maybe this will help someone who's considering taking the plunge too. I was surprised at how easy everything was). I
I have just a few questions about my phone now.
First, is the TWRP backup I did adequate to get me out of serious trouble if something goes wrong flashing updates? The backup ended up being over 2gb!
No its not It has note backed up EFS .
Secondly, have I done anything to the kernel? If not, should I?
Your choice .
Thirdly, have I done all that rooting and custom roms have to offer? Do I now just update my rom when new builds come out and continue enjoying my phone? If so, that's great. Just wondering what if anything I could do next, apart from trying other custom roms.
Your choice as to try other roms or mods .
Lastly, what's the proper way to get help troubleshooting glitches/bug with the custom rom I'm using since I'm not yet able to post in its development forum thread? For example, my bluetooth won't turn off and in some apps the screen flickers or doesn't seem to render the window properly.
Some roms have a Q&A thread or discussion thread . Usually problems are posted in the rom thread .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the replies. I booted into recovery and used TWRP to do an EFS backup. Super easy.

[Q] Looking for help with roms.

Hello there,
I am new to the S2 phone (I will get one at the end of the month from a friend).
I see that there are lots of roms and kernels.
Now what I am searching for is:
Super optimized rom like Tigrouzens rom for Samsung Wave 1 and 2.
Also kernel super optimized.
With other words. a really fast rom (I don't want outdated roms).
Preffered android version:
4.3.X Jelly Bean / 4.4 Kitkat
Also, I don't really know how to install those roms/kernels. So a simple tutorial should do it. Because I once flashed one through odin from pc and not through recovery.
Greetings,
GreekBlood
Go to the development sections (Android Development & Original Android Development), read some threads, try out some roms to find one that suits your needs. Instructions for flashing roms are always on the first page devoted to the rom & always very clear.
Rom recommendations are forbidden here because they're so subjective, mods will close the thread if you insist on asking for them (this is XDA after all, if you're here, it's assumed you like flashing stuff to your phone).
MistahBungle said:
Go to the development sections (Android Development & Original Android Development), read some threads, try out some roms to find one that suits your needs. Instructions for flashing roms are always on the first page devoted to the rom & always very clear.
Rom recommendations are forbidden here because they're so subjective, mods will close the thread if you insist on asking for them (this is XDA after all, if you're here, it's assumed you like flashing stuff to your phone).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And the best ROM is................................................................. LOL
I predict thread soon to be closed (i am psychic haha)
Oh, sorry.
But it is a bit of a mess here. So many roms, so many kernels.
I'm coming from wave 1 where we have 2 roms and 2 kernels.
Being a newbie, i being in you shoes a few days ago would advice you to start with understanding the fundamentals og flashing and use of the various recoveries out there. You say its a mess because you see so many roms and kernels and you dont know where to begin. Pick one and start and with time you will catch up with the rest. Good luck...modding and customizing android is like a rabbit whole...no end...
Sent from my GT-S5300 using xda app-developers app
Reading the first page & last 10 pages of any rom/kernel thread will give you a couple of things:-
*Instructions how to flash & features
*Some idea of how users are finding the most recent build/any issues
That's a good place to start.
Some people treat this place like a macdonalds drive-thru.
-------------------------------------------
maybe your an iphone expert
------------------------------------------

[Q] Is there an absolute beginner's guide to installing CM11 for i9100g?

I've been trying to wrap my head around rooting and/or installing CM11 on my SGS2 i9100g for a couple of days. The main problem is that whatever is out there (and in these threads) are confusing for someone just starting.
For example, "First time installing CyanogenMod 11 to your Galaxy SII G" (which means probably this is someone like me, still running stock unrooted, and possibly doesn't have a clue)
- Make sure you're running a proper working ClockworkMod-Recovery (not asking to use the kernel, but flash it and use the CWM in it to flash CM)
- Boot into Recovery
- Flash CM11.0 zip from internal SDCard
- Flash GApps zip from internal SDCard
- DO A DATA WIPE / FACTORY RESET (otherwise your device will be stuck at boot)
- Reboot
- Don't restore system data using Titanium Backup!
- Restoring Apps + Data might cause problems and is not recommended, avoid it if possible!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have close to no idea what this all means. I've tried the CM Installer - not available for i9100g. I tried looking up how to backup my nandroid, just in case: CWR and TWRP - but neither have recoveries for i9100g. I've been trying to maybe even be risky and just install CM11, but I'm even having trouble with that. I've tried looking up stuff on Google, only to learn that i9100g is totally different than i9100.
Can someone point me in the right direction, please?
Tried the official guide yet?
oroboros74 said:
I've been trying to wrap my head around rooting and/or installing CM11 on my SGS2 i9100g for a couple of days. The main problem is that whatever is out there (and in these threads) are confusing for someone just starting.
For example, "First time installing CyanogenMod 11 to your Galaxy SII G" (which means probably this is someone like me, still running stock unrooted, and possibly doesn't have a clue)
I have close to no idea what this all means. I've tried the CM Installer - not available for i9100g. I tried looking up how to backup my nandroid, just in case: CWR and TWRP - but neither have recoveries for i9100g. I've been trying to maybe even be risky and just install CM11, but I'm even having trouble with that. I've tried looking up stuff on Google, only to learn that i9100g is totally different than i9100.
Can someone point me in the right direction, please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried following the official guide from the cyanogenmod team How to install CyanogenMod on the I9100g?? I was a first time newbie like you when i installed 10.1.3 on my S2, but after some trying i got it to work with this guide. The guide is specially made for newbies so every step is explained and if you don't understand something google usually has the answer. If you still need help just say so and I'll do my best to help
Yeah, actually I have. Got stuck with Heimdall Suite, and just now trying to get ClockworkMod Recovery running.
CWM for i9100g
SgtDubKing said:
If you still need help just say so and I'll do my best to help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CWM doesn't have a version for the i9100g, so I'm not sure what I need to do there. If you have any suggestions that would be great.
oroboros74 said:
CWM doesn't have a version for the i9100g, so I'm not sure what I need to do there. If you have any suggestions that would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said just follow the guide from the CM team, everything is there! Since I'm new on here I suddenly can't post outside links but just look at the tutorial I posted before and then look at th 2. point. Afterwards just follow the official CM tutorial step by step and nothing can go wrong!
Thanks for this. Actually I'm still having problems, specifically getting a status error 7 described here (but please reply here if you have any insights).
This is getting to be a commonly asked question these days... and tbh a little reading/searching WOULD have answered it for you....
The version of CWM you are trying to flash CM11 with is wrong......
KitKat based roms need CWM 6.0.4.5 or newer......
The CWM I used to flash to KK was 6.0.4.7 and was linked to in the thread where I got the ROM......
So as I said, a little reading would have answered this for you.....
My wife says I'm a phone geek....She's probably right
keithross39 said:
This is getting to be a commonly asked question these days... and tbh a little reading/searching WOULD have answered it for you....
The version of CWM you are trying to flash CM11 with is wrong......
KitKat based roms need CWM 6.0.4.5 or newer......
The CWM I used to flash to KK was 6.0.4.7 and was linked to in the thread where I got the ROM......
So as I said, a little reading would have answered this for you.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're absolutely right about reading, but the problem is the information is never all in one place!
That is why I wanted to create a thread like this on: where an absolute beginner might find all the relevant and up to date information in one place rather than having to weed through pages of threads, downloading wrong CWM versions or whatever just to find out it's the wrong version.
In my case, first I learned that I even needed CWM. Ok, (and not to mention figuring out what it is). Then I try to find the version I find compatible with my device. Ok. Then I read somewhere to use Odin to flash it. Done. Then somewhere I else I read not to use Odin, and to flash it via recovery. So I have to figure out how to do that next. Only after some 5-6 more steps do I learn from someone like yourself that the version I'm trying to use is wrong. All the relevant information is so fragmented online, hence the necessity to make things easier for absolute beginners (which would also avoid questions and answers like the ones in this thread).
I don't think the problem for a lot of beginners is not reading, but not knowing where to find what they're supposed to read. I hope you see my point...
oroboros74 said:
I don't think the problem for a lot of beginners is not reading, but not knowing where to find what they're supposed to read
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but you're wrong. That is absolutely the problem for 99% of people who come here. They can't be bothered searching/reading & learning 'under their own steam' (so they understand things in their own way, rather than be fed a bunch of steps by someone else they don't understand). People seem to have this attitude that modding your phone without learning first is easy & risk free. It isn't. I've seen thousands of people on here like this end up with busted (permanently/requiring a lot of money to fix in many cases) phones over the past 2.5 yrs. And these people then cry they don't have a working phone. And it's almost always their own fault.
We already have countless guides/stickies/etc on here made by people with the idea that others will refer to these rather than post the same questions over & over & over. These are easily found with a minimum of effort. Just as the answers to random questions not necessarily covered in detail in these threads are easily found with a minimum of effort. Unique questions stopped being asked here a few months after this phone was released, every question that gets asked here has already been asked & answered many many times.
And guess what ?
People still post the same questions over & over & over. Why ? Because they're either lazy & 'want it now' (as opposed to taking the time to learn for themselves) or because they're unable to do something as basic as an effective internet search.
BTW, I'm not necessarily saying you're one of these people, I'm just telling you how things are around here based on my experiences, and I'd be very surprised if anyone who has been here for any reasonable amount of time offers an opposing view with regard to this.
So...By all means, create your 'thread like this one: where an absolute beginner might find all the relevant and up to date information in one place', but understand we already have dozens and dozens of these, and yours will end up like the rest; ignored by 99% of people who come here.
MistahBungle said:
So...By all means, create your 'thread like this one: where an absolute beginner might find all the relevant and up to date information in one place', but understand we already have dozens and dozens of these, and yours will end up like the rest; ignored by 99% of people who come here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, for the most part I started off with not even a clear idea of what the difference between rooting and flashing a ROM was, and I was able to finally install CM11 - but it took me days with dozens of various errors and such. But I did it.
I'm a firm believer of documenting for myself and if useful also for others, so I have written a small beginner's guide... written by a successful (?) beginner.
The only problem is I'd love for someone who's not a beginner to look it over to make sure it is in fact 100% correct before I post it - If there are errors, I don't want others to rely on that information. If I post it here, would you think you'd be able to give your input?
Of course Put it up.

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