Hello,
Firs off I'm new here so a lot of this stuff is still foreign to me. I was able to get a brand new Verizon S4 with NC5. I have not even opened the box yet.
I want to upgrade to the best OTA which also has a stable, reliable, debloated custom ROM available similar to say CleanRom. Which OTA should I upgrade to? If it's not the newest VZW has put out, will I get notifications every day asking me to upgrade?
Which custom ROMs are similar to CleanRom? I was stability, reliability, speed and tethering.
Thanks!
Empty Galaxy is a killer kitkat rom
Stang5litre edition is a great lollipop rom. He and klabit87 are working on some fun stuff right now too.
There are a few ways to update. Safestrap or flash fire.
Flash fire flashes once in the rom. You have to be careful with it. It can flash the kernel and bugger things up.
Safestrap is a recovery before the rom boots but is only compatible with kitkat. You have to flash a kitkat kernel to use when flashing when using lollipop roms. Then flash the lollipop kernel and boot the rom.
Muniz_ri makes some stock rooted roms with older bootloaders so you can always go back.
Always uninstall SDM with titanium backup when using a stock prerooted rom so it doesn't try to update the phone and ruin the fun.
Brian
Thanks for the reply Brian! Since posting, I taught myself a few things but your tips certainly will help!
I installed Eclipse ROM and so far so good. The one exception is I lost my Verizon voicemail. How can I add that? I have my old S4 laying around, also on NC5. Can it be copied from there?
I'm not sure. if the old one is rooted, you may be able to copy the apk to the directory of the new phone and change the permissions and reboot and have it work but I'm not sure.
Related
Handing my S4 over to my boss who wants stock TW on it. I got the phone day 1 when it was released and put TWRP and have run some form of AOSP since then. What's a good TW ROM that close enough to stock? Also I know there was some stuff that broke rooting methods in the later builds we've gotten (ME7 I think?), will flashing these builds have any effect on my recovery/root?
czonin said:
Handing my S4 over to my boss who wants stock TW on it. I got the phone day 1 when it was released and put TWRP and have run some form of AOSP since then. What's a good TW ROM that close enough to stock? Also I know there was some stuff that broke rooting methods in the later builds we've gotten (ME7 I think?), will flashing these builds have any effect on my recovery/root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard Bonestock or Clean Rom are good TW roms, but as I have ME7 and a locked bootloader (I don't use Safestrap) I can't comment on them. If you flash ANY of the new updates you will lose the ability to unlock the bootloader, and will not be able to flash most roms anymore. If you use ME7, or to a lesser extent MI1, you can use Safestrap to flash roms, but will be severely limited on storage options.
Another thing you could do is flash back to MDK stock (what your phone originally came with), root it, freeze the updater apps, and hand it to him. It'll be bone stock without the risk of auto-updating.
I got my GS4 back in the summer and I promptly rooted and I believe I even was able to unlock the bootloader. I then flashed Eclipse S4 TW edition (based on MDK) and its been so rock solid I haven't had a reason to touch is since. I'm been staring at my android 4.2.2 version and have been thinking no reason to upgrade. If it isn't broke don't fix it right? Well I'm starting to feel the flashing itch so I decided to jump back on XDA and see whats out there.
I'm trying to get a grasp on what all has changes since the last time I flashed my phone. It looks like there has been a few new builds to drop since I flashed. I'm confused on the details though. With my current state can I flash anything I want using the custom recovery or are there restrictions that I must follow. I have seen posts about using SafeStrap for flashing. I remember SafeStrap from my Razr days as a solution for phones with locked bootloaders. Does one of the OTA's relock the bootloader and make it impossible to unlock or are the SafeStrap posts for people that got the phones after me which already came with a locked bootloader?
Any reason why not to upgrade to the newest builds? I can't find any details on what is different between the builds but I have to imagine there is some new stuff that I might want to play with.
Lastly, can anyone suggest a good solid ROM to similar to Eclipse TW that is based on a newer build?
I appreciate any help you guys can give me. Being away this long and coming back is slightly overwhelming and who has time to navigate through every page of every thread for the past 6 months or so.
I would suggest to read some of the threads....custom Roms for 4.3 and 4.4 are a bit slow in coming. If you are mdk...no need for safestrap....you can still keep your phone rooted and loki'd..and move to 4.3 base
powered by hashcode safestrap hyperdrive 10.2
trevoryour said:
I got my GS4 back in the summer and I promptly rooted and I believe I even was able to unlock the bootloader. I then flashed Eclipse S4 TW edition (based on MDK) and its been so rock solid I haven't had a reason to touch is since. I'm been staring at my android 4.2.2 version and have been thinking no reason to upgrade. If it isn't broke don't fix it right? Well I'm starting to feel the flashing itch so I decided to jump back on XDA and see whats out there.
I'm trying to get a grasp on what all has changes since the last time I flashed my phone. It looks like there has been a few new builds to drop since I flashed. I'm confused on the details though. With my current state can I flash anything I want using the custom recovery or are there restrictions that I must follow. I have seen posts about using SafeStrap for flashing. I remember SafeStrap from my Razr days as a solution for phones with locked bootloaders. Does one of the OTA's relock the bootloader and make it impossible to unlock or are the SafeStrap posts for people that got the phones after me which already came with a locked bootloader?
Any reason why not to upgrade to the newest builds? I can't find any details on what is different between the builds but I have to imagine there is some new stuff that I might want to play with.
Lastly, can anyone suggest a good solid ROM to similar to Eclipse TW that is based on a newer build?
I appreciate any help you guys can give me. Being away this long and coming back is slightly overwhelming and who has time to navigate through every page of every thread for the past 6 months or so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, So heres what you missed. After the MDK release they(Verizon/Samsung) patched the loki bootloader hack so thats why anybody whos not on the MDK release has an locked bootloader. That is where safestrap comes in. Safestrap is a custom recovery that was developed by Hascode, in order to provide those with a locked bootloader a way to get in on the rom action, while keeping there stock rom untouched.
Now that said i would advise you to update but not through the stock "Check Update" tab (as that will lock your phones bootloader). Instead you should just flash a rom that is built with the new update as the base (E.X. Hyperdrive 11). This will allow you to get the new update without locking your bootloader.
Now for roms, i believe there is an updated Eclipse TW Rom & Eclipse AOSP ROM on the Dev's site ( dont know the link but will post it once i find it).
So my girlfriend has wants her S4 rooted. I have the S3 and its quite different as far as rooting goes. I am also on sprint whereas she is on verizon (although thats not such a big deal).
Anyways, what I would like to have clarified for me is this: She is currently unrooted with stock MK2. From what I have read you can only root and install compatible roms with safestrap. The main thing she wants is KitKat and possibly CM. Is there any way for her to get either of these. Also, would it be possible to revert back to stock and flash KitKat with the OTA from verizon when it is released?
Thanks for any help.
BioBot said:
So my girlfriend has wants her S4 rooted. I have the S3 and its quite different as far as rooting goes. I am also on sprint whereas she is on verizon (although thats not such a big deal).
Anyways, what I would like to have clarified for me is this: She is currently unrooted with stock MK2. From what I have read you can only root and install compatible roms with safestrap. The main thing she wants is KitKat and possibly CM. Is there any way for her to get either of these. Also, would it be possible to revert back to stock and flash KitKat with the OTA from verizon when it is released?
Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no way for her to get KitKat or CM or anything AOSP. Hopefully the next OTA will have an exploit, but there hasn't been a cracked bootloader since the first version of firmware on the initial releases. Realistically, never going to happen.
Hey guys, I have been out of the custom ROM, kernel, theme, etc routine for quite a while now. I don't plan on getting back into the "crack flashing" habit and I am not even sure I want to get back into custom ROMs...but I thought I would at least stop by here and see if anything "big" or new has happened that would be important to me.
I am thinking about trying Hyperdrive RLS15 as I always ran Hyperdrive ROMs because of the stock feel, but I am not sure. To be honest the stock ROM with ROOT has been just fine.
Now a days I just like a phone that will work forever without any bugs and it seems that the stock ROM does that just fine for me.
I AM ROOTED - MDK base
Anyways, are there any suggestions, stockish ROMS, baseband updates, etc that I should be aware of or try out?
Here is my current phone info:
Android Version: 4.2.2
Baseband: MDK
Build: Stock MDK
Note that I have purposely NEVER updated from MDK so I could use the unlocked bootloader. I have thought about upgrading since I don't do much of the custom ROM stuff anymore, but not sure if it would be worth losing MDK...
Anyone?
I would stay on mdk bootloader I wish mine was unlocked. Stock 4.4.2 is nice I think I seen one for mdk users. Is not a huge upgrade but I do like the white notifications icons and full screen album art on lock screen. I'm like you I just want root for titanium and tether then I freeze the bloat. I'm done with instable galaxy nexus crack flashing consumes your life.
Sent from S4 using Tapatalk
Members are expected to do there own research as there is now more ways to brick a phone with all the security added to them.
ROM suggestions are meaningless as no one has your taste/setup/usage so you should invest the time to read the threads and be sure you know how to install the ROM properly
Hi,
Just got an i545. It is currently on NK1 with 4.4.2. I understand to root it I can follow this (thread closed so can't post there). My confusion is: once I root, can I install safestrap or TWRP and flash custom roms? I read somewhere else on the forum that NK1 is limited to certain AOSP roms. I really like Carbon but am open to trying others and I don't want to screw things up. Sorry if this is noob-ish but I think I gave myself information over-load trying to find the correct steps.
Also, I will be using this with AT&T so would I want to stick to the unified builds?
Thanks,
SS only, no twrp/cwm.
Only TW roms aside from this aosp:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3019132
I used it before LP, a few bugs but overall ran well
Thanks for the info. If safestrap must be used, would these roms work? From what I gather so far, it's also not possible to downgrade from NK1 to NC5 or other, is it? I don't see the point of flashing another TW rom...but that's just me. I guess I can just root and customize for now, and experiment with TW roms if I get bored.
EDIT - I am wrong, it appears that I can odin back to earlier images (MDK, NC5, etc...) Is this feasible? Would it allow me to root, install custom recovery, and any rom I wish?
That list should be good. You can go back to nc5, can't downgrade past KK.
Also, there are threads on how to upgrade to 5.0.1, however if you take the official ota you'll lose root and can't downgrade back
I appreciate your help. Just to confirm, if I downgrade to NC5, will I be able to use ANY custom recovery and flash ANY rom? Or will I still be limited to safestrap and TW roms?
EDIT - Found my answer here. Anything over MDK can only use safestrap and TW roms. Bummer. No point in down-grading then.
Edit 2 - It seems that if I want to run any kind of rom I do need to down grade to NC5 as most seem to be based on it. I assume I would use the full wipe from this guide.
This S4 is my 7th android and it's, by far, got the most hoops to jump through and/or limitations. All my other phones were easy-peasy! Or is it just because it's Verizon branded? All other phones were T-Mo or ATT.
It's this phone & Verizon, they both suck