Seriously, why? I just don't get how people bear to use it, there are so many custom ROMs with 5.0+. Fresh CM is usable when freshly installed, but after logging in Google Account and installing just few Google apps, it just haaaaaangs on ever task you do. I mean I get it - this phone is almost 5 years old - but I own some older devices like Galaxy S II and it is so much faster on Marshmallow.
Or am I just missing something out? I'm using Safestrap's stock ROM. But when I leave stock and install something CM-based on other slots it's even worse (why?). It's the same memory chip. Or is it?
krYshuT said:
Seriously, why? I just don't get how people bear to use it, there are so many custom ROMs with 5.0+. Fresh CM is usable when freshly installed, but after logging in Google Account and installing just few Google apps, it just haaaaaangs on ever task you do. I mean I get it - this phone is almost 5 years old - but I own some older devices like Galaxy S II and it is so much faster on Marshmallow.
Or am I just missing something out? I'm using Safestrap's stock ROM. But when I leave stock and install something CM-based on other slots it's even worse (why?). It's the same memory chip. Or is it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this phone is slow with custom roms for the kind of kernel it has (Kexec), remember this phone never had a chance to unlock his bootloader (as far as I know) and that is probably the reason , I say this because I have an old Galaxy Tab 2 with the same processor and I have it with MM, it's slower but not at the level of the razr
kevinarol93 said:
I think this phone is slow with custom roms for the kind of kernel it has (Kexec), remember this phone never had a chance to unlock his bootloader (as far as I know) and that is probably the reason , I say this because I have an old Galaxy Tab 2 with the same processor and I have it with MM, it's slower but not at the level of the razr
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought bootloader was unlocked? Been gone for too long...
I find the last one usable to be 4.3, KitKat is not much better than L/M.
krYshuT said:
I find the last one usable to be 4.3, KitKat is not much better than L/M.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes but does not work HDMI and camera
kevinarol93 said:
Yes but does not work HDMI and camera
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I just notices that it has problems shooting video, otherwise so far so good... I'm actually thinking about going back to 4.1 stock... are there any good stock based ROMs?
krYshuT said:
Yeah, I just notices that it has problems shooting video, otherwise so far so good... I'm actually thinking about going back to 4.1 stock... are there any good stock based ROMs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is one here XT910 JELLY BEAN 4.1.2 ARTMOD V4.3 Final (Spanish web) http://www.htcmania.com/showthread.php?t=605325
Related
I just got back home with my shiny new S4 and I can't wait to get the thing rooted and rom'd. But! Before I take the dive, I'd like to test the waters of this lovely phone's community.
If you have a few minutes to spare:
- What rom/kernel are you using? Why?
- What is one thing that you wish you knew about the S4 before flashing?
Thanks!
- EJ
.Ejekt said:
I just got back home with my shiny new S4 and I can't wait to get the thing rooted and rom'd. But! Before I take the dive, I'd like to test the waters of this lovely phone's community.
If you have a few minutes to spare:
- What rom/kernel are you using? Why?
- What is one thing that you wish you knew about the S4 before flashing?
Thanks!
- EJ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before you get to excited, you might want to check what firmware version you have.
riker147 said:
Before you get to excited, you might want to check what firmware version you have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was painfully vague. Care to elaborate?
.Ejekt said:
That was painfully vague. Care to elaborate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know (which I'm not 100%sure since I'm on mdk) you cannot flash custom roms yet if on the latest update (mj7 with Android 4.3) If you're lucky enough (unlikely) to get one with me7 firmware, you can flash custom roms with safestrap. This phone is not doing so well in the development area as I expected it would before release. Hopefully someone can figure out a way around the locked down bootloader
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2
.Ejekt said:
That was painfully vague. Care to elaborate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That makes it painfully obvious that you haven't read much around here.
What you first need to know is what firmware version you have. That determines what you can do.
What you asked is equivalent to saying that you have a car then asking what you can do to improve it - no data on what year or model, or what you want to do. Without that info, how can anyone help you? If you can't even be bothered to figure out what build you have to start with, nobody can suggest anything to help you.
Evocm7 said:
As far as I know (which I'm not 100%sure since I'm on mdk) you cannot flash custom roms yet if on the latest update (mj7 with Android 4.3) If you're lucky enough (unlikely) to get one with me7 firmware, you can flash custom roms with safestrap. This phone is not doing so well in the development area as I expected it would before release. Hopefully someone can figure out a way around the locked down bootloader
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I managed to figure that out a couple minutes ago. I actually got pushed to ME7 while I was rooting my S4 (ironic?) and was able to stop it after that. So, it seems I was one of the lucky(ish) ones. Would've been nice to stay at MDK, but SafeStrap seems to be one hell of a tool.
.Ejekt said:
I just got back home with my shiny new S4 and I can't wait to get the thing rooted and rom'd. But! Before I take the dive, I'd like to test the waters of this lovely phone's community.
If you have a few minutes to spare:
- What rom/kernel are you using? Why?
- What is one thing that you wish you knew about the S4 before flashing?
Thanks!
- EJ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there... I remember you from the Fascinate forums. I finally ended up getting an S4 about 2 1/2 months ago and for the most part it's a great device, but you can't expect near the same freedom as you had with the Fascinate.
When I got mine I ended up with ME7 so it sounds like you're in the same boat. I have mine rooted, but decided not to use Safestrap because of the limitations it brings (mainly the storage issue). I'm pretty happy with how I have mine set up and it's pretty snappy overall, but I really do wish I had gotten an MDK in order to really flash roms like I used to on my Fascinate.
If you choose to use Safestrap then go nuts and I hope you find some roms you like (Hyperdrive seems to get the most love around here from what I've noticed). I'll just quickly list off the modifications I did to mine that got it to where I like it:
-Froze all bloat with Titanium, including the SDM 1.0 (to prevent unwanted updates)
-Got rid of e911 icon and ongoing WiFi notification
-Installed the International Voice Dialer with call recording
-Installed Volume Boost mod (increased it around 50% over stock)
-Installed Xposed Framework so I could use Greenify features
-Used Greenify to hibernate all misbehaving apps (examples would be Facebook and Google Play Store) (... this increased battery life A LOT)
-Installed AdAway (adblocker)
-Turned all animations down to .5 in developer options and disabled all hovering effects on the lock screen
Doing all that really made this thing a lot better than it was, but I'm still hoping for a true bootloader unlock to start playing with it more. I have found a lot of the Touchwiz features to be quite useful, like the voice control stuff, camera app, etc, so I would probably stick with a modded Touchwiz rom if I had the option. Good luck.
edit: Oh and another thing you might not be aware of - the camera is set to 9.5MP by default in the app, you need to go into settings to use the native 13MP resolution.
One thing to note that no one mentioned (and in case you didn't read elsewhere) is that with SafeStrap you can not use ROMs with custom kernels. So that means no AOSP based ROMs like CM, Carbon, PACman and others since they are all using a custom kernel. At least until they get KEXEC working with SafeStrap (if they get it working). So basically you can only use modded TW roms with a stock kernel.
Is it possible to update to CM11 nightly (or any other 4.4 roms... I'm not familiar with the scene) from 4.3 stock?
I did install KNOX, and then removed it. And then the Samsung service reflashed the rom again. So I don't know about it anymore. Didn't install it since then.
My story:
As many of you already did, I also installed the new update. Read below if you are interested (but you probably know all this anyway.)
So. A few days ago Google+ started to eat up my battery. I disabled it in the Application Manager and did not have the updates installed either. But it just started. My usual battery life dropped to only a couple of hours at max.
So I fired up Google and it said I have to install the updates. So I did.
Nothing changed. Then I went into Google+, signed in, and then signed out.
Nothing changed.
So all in all, I have a piece of crappy brick that I can't use anymore.
Bit of a rant: You gotta love this. You buy an overpriced product and they f... you over a thousand times. App makers, Samsung (4.3 crapdate), and EVEN Google. Then why the hell would I even want Android ever again? Seriously. If I would have to buy a phone now, I would pick an iPhone, no matter how much it costs more. This is just unjustifiable. "Hey customer, thanks for buying our product. Now let us make it all crap." ... WHY?
So yeah. Now I have no choice but to lose warranty (which I already used a few times because this is REALLY a crap quality phone). Not that HTC One X was any better, it had a faulty GPU/motherboard like 4 times. (Thanks Nvidia!) ... Sorry guys, I'm just infuriated.
Wish I could just change the phone down. I was thinking about Sony, but if Google can buttrape you anytime, why bother? No guarantee I can just fix it on Sony either.
CM10 is also fine
As I read the nightly can disable all GSM related operations (call/sms), so CM10 is also fine.
I just want to fix my battery life and have a stable phone again.
h8Aramex said:
As I read the nightly can disable all GSM related operations (call/sms), so CM10 is also fine.
I just want to fix my battery life and have a stable phone again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you should download your firmware from here
http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/1/?model=GT-I9305&pcode=0#firmware
wipe everything then go into download mode
Use Odin http://www.android.gs/download-odin-3-07/
and after you flash this, do a factory reset within the phone or through its recovery
I just did this with my wife's 9305 and its running like a champ
jetbruceli said:
you should download your firmware from here...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick reply.
As I said my phone runs the 4.3 firmware now without any issue.
Except the 4.3 slow encryption and the huge battery drain. The phone got reset like 3-5 times in the past few weeks too.
So now I wonder if I can just install CM10 from 4.3.
But I need some confirmation as I know you cannot downgrade 4.3 for example. (Due to KNOX or whatever.)
Yeah should be no problem. My wife's battery drain happened too. I found the problem was with the SD card. I formatted it with the phone and it seems to be as good as it was on 4.12
sent from my iPhone 6s 64gb 5.7inch Super Oled screen and spen
jetbruceli said:
Yeah should be no problem. My wife's battery drain happened too. I found the problem was with the SD card. I formatted it with the phone and it seems to be as good as it was on 4.12
sent from my iPhone 6s 64gb 5.7inch Super Oled screen and spen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got no SD card.
Thanks for the replies too, but I still want a 100% CONFIRMATION that I can downgrade.
Having a brick is still worse than having like a few hours long battery life.
h8Aramex said:
I've got no SD card.
Thanks for the replies too, but I still want a 100% CONFIRMATION that I can downgrade.
Having a brick is still worse than having like a few hours long battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look you can go from any version of cm back to stock. CM doesn't change your boot loader or your modem. The only time your stuck on a version of android is when it comes to stock. Like as a note 3 users we are stuck on KitKat because they updated our bootlaoder. Cm based Roms it doesn't matter.
And you should get an SD card to hold your back ups just in case.
Also if someone helps you on xda it's kind of nice to hit the thanks button. It allow others to see that their comment was useful.
Good luck.
BTW if your new to rooted and ROM installing I suggest reading through the Dev section for the i9305.
Also google your issue word for word and there are tons of android forums out there which may help you.
A lot of times if you open a thread that has been answered a lot they will ignore it or throw words you won't like your way.
So good luck
sent from my iPhone 6s 64gb 5.7inch Super Oled screen and spen
jetbruceli said:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know you cannot downgrade from 4.3, nor use Triangle Away (due to KNOX).
Does this affect the move to CM? Or not?
h8Aramex said:
I know you cannot downgrade from 4.3, nor use Triangle Away (due to KNOX).
Does this affect the move to CM? Or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
has nothing to do with cm and triangle away will restore your binary count not warranty bit but I am not sure how knox effects the s3 as it does with the note 3
either way it never hurts to try things
jetbruceli said:
has nothing to do with cm and triangle away will restore your binary count not warranty bit but I am not sure how knox effects the s3 as it does with the note 3
either way it never hurts to try things
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah if I'm not going to get an answer in a few hours I'll give it a go. It's a brick anyway, heh.
Just did my wife's i9305 today. Moving to cm/omni shouldn't be an issue, however be warned you lose a lot of features like HDMI out and the camera doesn't work as well. I just put the galaxy project ROM on there as the i9305 has the extra GB of ram which keeps stock nice and smooth, also you can debloat if the need be. And if you run into camera issues like I did simply flash stock kernel then reflash rom. Honestly unless you prefer KitKat its a waste of the extra ram your device has as most of it simply will never get used.
Also with wanam xposed you can customize everything! Can't do that with an iPhone. Sorry to hear you have had a bad run but while Samsung's software isn't exactly great the hardware is beast and once you learn how to configure it and unlock its full potential you will see you made the right choice.
i9300 | temasek 4.4.2 | boeffla kernel
Thanks for your reply!
- How worse will the camera get?
- What other important features you know? (HDMI does not really matter to me.)
I do use it a lot, so I don't want to lose everything. (Only use simple picture/HDR modes tho.)
Tried again every kind of combination with Google+ and it's still eating my battery like crazy.
I mean... what the hell is the "Disable" for then? It "almost disables" the app or what? lol.
shoalinagent said:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot to quote, sorry. (just quoting you now so you will get a notification, hopefully.)
Thanks for your reply!
- How worse will the camera get?
- What other important features you know? (HDMI does not really matter to me.)
I do use it a lot, so I don't want to lose everything. (Only use simple picture/HDR modes tho.)
Tried again every kind of combination with Google+ and it's still eating my battery like crazy.
I mean... what the hell is the "Disable" for then? It "almost disables" the app or what? lol.
h8Aramex said:
....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Topic solved!
Installed CM without any problem. Everything worked flawless.
Now I have a fast (MUCH faster) phone. And all those god-tier features. Holy sh*t I love my phone now.
(I hate you Samsung.)
Hi all!
Could you be so kind and help me revert back to honeycomb stock?
I know it sounds crazy, but I cant stand anymore how slow and laggy CM 10.1 I currently use is on this device. I've tried a lot of things like factory reset, reflushing lates nightly etc. Still horribly slow and at times totally unresponsive.
My ultimate goal is return back to task650 rom.
However I cannot find any HC stock images. I do not think that I can simply flush HC rom in CM 6.0.3.1 recovery.
I was only able to find hc-3.2_touchwiz_ux-full_sam_tab_10.1.zip from pershoot.
Please advise! Any help will be greatly appreciated!
CNemo7539 said:
Hi all!
Could you be so kind and help me revert back to honeycomb stock?
I know it sounds crazy, but I cant stand anymore how slow and laggy CM 10.1 I currently use is on this device. I've tried a lot of things like factory reset, reflushing lates nightly etc. Still horribly slow and at times totally unresponsive.
My ultimate goal is return back to task650 rom.
However I cannot find any HC stock images. I do not think that I can simply flush HC rom in CM 6.0.3.1 recovery.
I was only able to find hc-3.2_touchwiz_ux-full_sam_tab_10.1.zip from pershoot.
Please advise! Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure where to find an HC-image yet, but what about trying Omni-ROM 4.4.2 KitKat newest build (+ A1-Kernel)?
It still has got some quirks, like bluetooth-audio not working or slow Video-decoding, but the rest is quite good and fluid now.
Thanks for your reply! However we are talking about my wife tablet and she needs video/cameras and BT.
So, unfortunately KK is out consideration at this point.
By the way, is KK Omni really that better? Thought I guess anything is better then touching screen and seeing touch and then waiting a couple of seconds for an action to really happen. I do not know what Google changed in memory management, but it now doesn't hold a candle against older versions. At least for such old device as Tab 10.1 is.
If your wife doesn't need much features, go for Omni 4.3. Its very smooth and stable enough for daily use.
Sent from my GT-P7500 using Tapatalk
CNemo7539 said:
Thanks for your reply! However we are talking about my wife tablet and she needs video/cameras and BT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Camera works; Bluetooth works also, just not streaming audio to a bluetooth-audio-device; Videos also work. Lokally stored seem to be better than streamed (YouTube, gameone, etc.)
So, unfortunately KK is out consideration at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then... What about JellyBean3 (Android 4.3.1)?
I think most if not all you need is already compatible on that and it is a lot better in any case, thought.
By the way, is KK Omni really that better? Thought I guess anything is better then touching screen and seeing touch and then waiting a couple of seconds for an action to really happen. I do not know what Google changed in memory management, but it now doesn't hold a candle against older versions. At least for such old device as Tab 10.1 is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even 4.1.2 cm10 was superior,... What do you think you can expect from a Kitkat-Build?
IMHO, yes it is, even with those little quirks...
...and not to be mean, but I really don't think any 4.2-build can be called stable... They all have heavy idle-times/"hangs" up to a minute, if you've got some CPU&IO-Load-Hungry apps installed and running...
TnA.Plastic said:
...and not to be mean, but I really don't think any 4.2-build can be called stable... They all have heavy idle-times/"hangs" up to a minute, if you've got some CPU&IO-Load-Hungry apps installed and running...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well... May be it is my bad luck... I do not remember any CM build of any version that was smooth as Task650 rom.
So, you suggest to try rollback to 4.1? I though they stopped development.
Wife use BT streaming... I just got her nice LG headphones.
I guess I softened the problem a little bit for now by removing all apps that create background services and account. FB, LinkIn etc.
It helped a little bit.
CNemo7539 said:
Well... May be it is my bad luck... I do not remember any CM build of any version that was smooth as Task650 rom.
So, you suggest to try rollback to 4.1? I though they stopped development.
Wife use BT streaming... I just got her nice LG headphones.
I guess I softened the problem a little bit for now by removing all apps that create background services and account. FB, LinkIn etc.
It helped a little bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. I think you should rather try a 4.3.x-based build.
So, I am a bit confused here, I usually have motorola phones, but for $110 I couldn't resist getting this phone.
I tried to flash a rom that say "GEEB" in it, and I just get a get build prop error, it's an E970 from ATT.
I'm just confused as I believe it should work. Unless I am missing something.
I also was wondering, when I boot into Fastboot, should the phone say Mako or E970?
Are you using cwm or twrp? Fastboot should show mako.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Silentwidow said:
So, I am a bit confused here, I usually have motorola phones, but for $110 I couldn't resist getting this phone.
I tried to flash a rom that say "GEEB" in it, and I just get a get build prop error, it's an E970 from ATT.
I'm just confused as I believe it should work. Unless I am missing something.
I also was wondering, when I boot into Fastboot, should the phone say Mako or E970?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First flash kernel and than flash rom in recovery.
If you follow this steps you won't have problem any more.
mkfryan said:
Are you using cwm or twrp? Fastboot should show mako.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using Philz CWM. As far as the kernel goes, is there a specific one I need to flash? I sound like a noob, which isn't true, but I've never had an LG lol, and it seems different.
Silentwidow said:
I'm using Philz CWM. As far as the kernel goes, is there a specific one I need to flash? I sound like a noob, which isn't true, but I've never had an LG lol, and it seems different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, no, there is not a specific kernel you would need to flash, and I'm not sure why he would have said that.
If you successfully unlocked your bootloader, your phone should identify itself as Mako. If you see E970 on gastboot, this means you still need to unlock your bootloader.
OMGMatrix said:
Actually, no, there is not a specific kernel you would need to flash, and I'm not sure why he would have said that.
If you successfully unlocked your bootloader, your phone should identify itself as Mako. If you see E970 on gastboot, this means you still need to unlock your bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah ok, I thought as much. I guess I am just having random issues, I replaced the screen on it and the prox sensor was a bit off, so I had to fix that.
Now that that is OK though. I have Flashed CM 11 and I have flashed LiquidSmooth KK and JB, and both have issues with WiFi and data connection.
Is there a good daily rom that just makes it smoother and not destroy it's battery? Lol.Seems ARTMOD is really popular lol, I presume that is the good one here?
Silentwidow said:
Ah ok, I thought as much. I guess I am just having random issues, I replaced the screen on it and the prox sensor was a bit off, so I had to fix that.
Now that that is OK though. I have Flashed CM 11 and I have flashed LiquidSmooth KK and JB, and both have issues with WiFi and data connection.
Is there a good daily rom that just makes it smoother and not destroy it's battery? Lol.Seems ARTMOD is really popular lol, I presume that is the good one here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're having wifi issues, its possible you have an older radio. There's a thread, I think in General, with all the available radios. The ATT JB radio and N4 hybrids seem to have the most success, try the ATT JB radio first and then go from there.
Artmod is OK, but if you want stock I'd honestly recommend SnowJB. Its older but works better.
Mathsz's CarbonRom or official PA-Legacy builds have given me the best results so far, with Vanir and Commotio (which is also in the Vanir thread) share second place.
OMGMatrix said:
If you're having wifi issues, its possible you have an older radio. There's a thread, I think in General, with all the available radios. The ATT JB radio and N4 hybrids seem to have the most success, try the ATT JB radio first and then go from there.
Artmod is OK, but if you want stock I'd honestly recommend SnowJB. Its older but works better.
Mathsz's CarbonRom or official PA-Legacy builds have given me the best results so far, with Vanir and Commotio (which is also in the Vanir thread) share second place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hah, I was wondering why the battery life sucked, I'm on ICS on it, I am pretty bad today! lol.
Silentwidow said:
Hah, I was wondering why the battery life sucked, I'm on ICS on it, I am pretty bad today! lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yeah, the stock ICS rom is objectively worse in every way than almost every custom rom available here, Especially with the improvements in battery life brought by 4.3 & 4.4
Back on 4.2, I would get slightly better battery life on stock 4.1 than custom roms.
However, ever since 4.3, custom roms have had unequivocally better battery than stock, and basically anything 4.4 is gonna have great battery. Most days, I average ~15 hours battery, with ~4 hours screen on, and this is with everything turned on and playing games throughout the day.
And with a stock 4.4 update coming this summer, things will only get better.
OMGMatrix said:
Oh yeah, the stock ICS rom is objectively worse in every way than almost every custom rom available here, Especially with the improvements in battery life brought by 4.3 & 4.4
Back on 4.2, I would get slightly better battery life on stock 4.1 than custom roms.
However, ever since 4.3, custom roms have had unequivocally better battery than stock, and basically anything 4.4 is gonna have great battery. Most days, I average ~15 hours battery, with ~4 hours screen on, and this is with everything turned on and playing games throughout the day.
And with a stock 4.4 update coming this summer, things will only get better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an Atrix HD with a Razr MAXX battery in it, it lasts me with my use about 3 days total, it's amazing lol.
Silentwidow said:
I have an Atrix HD with a Razr MAXX battery in it, it lasts me with my use about 3 days total, it's amazing lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats nice, however that's not what were talking about.
We're talking about taking a phone that gets ~10 hours with ~2 hours screen time and, in making no modifications other than software, extending the battery almost 100%.
Hi all!
I've been an S3 user for a little over 1.5 years; been a native of the Sprint forums (although my Sprint S3 is flashed to Page Plus).
Now that VZW has made their prepaid plan a lot more competitive and included LTE, I'm planning on making the jump, and picking up an S4 in the process. The $ cost to me will end up being negligible, as I'm able to sell my S3 and mostly make up for the expense of the S4.
I've loved my S3 - I run a rooted stock 4.4.2 rom, debloated all the samsung & sprint crap via titanium, and a ktoonsez kernel that's been tweaked to work well with my phone - and it functions perfectly - still fast, great battery life for a ~2 year old phone, etc. Been around android for some time now (first phone was the OG incredible), so am perfectly comfortable tweaking and such, however I don't want to spend too much time doing so.
I'm reading about the S4 and curious if it's worth the upgrade. I've heard several people online complain about the verizon 4.4.2 update causing overheating and issues with the phone. If I root, debloat, and run a quality custom kernel, am I likely to have issues?
I only use my phone for web browsing, calendaring email, texting, and talking - no gaming. I'm mainly looking forward to having the nicer screen and camera, and the likely possibility of a few more Android updates (which the S3 is unlikely to get). Honestly I'd love to have the next Nexus or something that runs closer to stock, but don't have the luxury to wait around for that phone (and I want to stay on vzw's network).
I've been doing some reading around your forum and am just curious as to your thoughts on the jump S3 -> vzw S4! Pros & cons?
Thanks much,
-Dirk
VZW has it locked down. You can root & perhaps a custom rom using Safestrap. But only TW based roms & some Xposed framework customization. Just about 0 choice on kernels. (unless you can get hold of one with MDK bootloader, - - then you are golden.)
wtherrell said:
VZW has it locked down. You can root & perhaps a custom rom using Safestrap. But only TW based roms & some Xposed framework customization. Just about 0 choice on kernels. (unless you can get hold of one with MDK bootloader, - - then you are golden.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh. I was planning on picking up one of the manufacturer refurb ones ($200) thru vzw's site. I'm assuming those will all be on whatever the newest bootloader version is ... this is disappointing (don't really mind running stock, just need to be rooted).
But really no kernels work on the newest OTA?
EDIT: Wow, just read the "Customizing your vzw S4" post ...
If the bootloader isn't "I545VRUAMDK" you have a locked bootloader and can only use Safestrap to install custom ROMs. Custom recovery is not possible. Attempts to install custom recovery will soft-brick your phone and require you to re-flash a stock ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is very unfortunate. Hmm, now I'm not so sure about this purchase. Assuming the S4 gets Android "L", do you think the device will be locked down again and root will be removed permanently?
dirkdigles said:
Huh. I was planning on picking up one of the manufacturer refurb ones ($200) thru vzw's site. I'm asking those will all be on whatever the newest bootloader version is ... this is disappointing (don't really mind running stock, just need to be rooted).
But really no kernels work on the newest OTA?
EDIT: Wow, just read the "Customizing your vzw S4" post ...
That is very unfortunate. Hmm, now I'm not so sure about this purchase. Assuming the S4 gets Android "L", do you think the device will be locked down again and root will be removed permanently?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a lot of great roms you can run and yes you can obtain root with the newest version nc5. Easy as pie with towelroot. Don't even need a pc. Safestrap 3.72 is what you will need if you get the latest version. You could check out swappa if you want a MK2 or maybe even a MDK. Safestrap has its own recovery and works just fine. Most of the people on here use Safestrap. You would be happier if you found one running 4.3 as opposed to 4.4.2 because of better battery life but NC5 (4.4.2) works fine and is a lttle faster probably.
dirkdigles said:
That is very unfortunate. Hmm, now I'm not so sure about this purchase. Assuming the S4 gets Android "L", do you think the device will be locked down again and root will be removed permanently?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the bad part about safestrap vs. a custom recovery? I still see CM11 for the S4. Is it a lack of backups or something?
Flowah said:
What's the bad part about safestrap vs. a custom recovery? I still see CM11 for the S4. Is it a lack of backups or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Safestrap enables you to flash roms on a locked bootloader which is pretty cool. Unfortunately the big limitation is basically that you can't touch the kernel on a locked bootloader without kexec support ( which will probably never happen) so the only roms you can flash have to be based on the same firmware that your phone has stock. No AOSP roms at all or TW roms that are newer than an OTA and no custom kernels.
All the AOSP roms you see are for MDK and Dev edition phones.
Flowah said:
What's the bad part about safestrap vs. a custom recovery? I still see CM11 for the S4. Is it a lack of backups or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If u don't have mdk firmware safestrap only option and no cm or asop roms.
sent by safestrap powered echo v26
I'm pretty happy with my phone. It's not a huge jump from the s3. I am rooted on 4.4.2 and flash roms with SS. You can flash aosp look alike roms. Also, my battery life is just fine!
s4 upgrade not worth it
dirkdigles said:
Hi all!
I've been an S3 user for a little over 1.5 years; been a native of the Sprint forums (although my Sprint S3 is flashed to Page Plus).
Now that VZW has made their prepaid plan a lot more competitive and included LTE, I'm planning on making the jump, and picking up an S4 in the process. The $ cost to me will end up being negligible, as I'm able to sell my S3 and mostly make up for the expense of the S4.
I've loved my S3 - I run a rooted stock 4.4.2 rom, debloated all the samsung & sprint crap via titanium, and a ktoonsez kernel that's been tweaked to work well with my phone - and it functions perfectly - still fast, great battery life for a ~2 year old phone, etc. Been around android for some time now (first phone was the OG incredible), so am perfectly comfortable tweaking and such, however I don't want to spend too much time doing so.
I'm reading about the S4 and curious if it's worth the upgrade. I've heard several people online complain about the verizon 4.4.2 update causing overheating and issues with the phone. If I root, debloat, and run a quality custom kernel, am I likely to have issues?
I only use my phone for web browsing, calendaring email, texting, and talking - no gaming. I'm mainly looking forward to having the nicer screen and camera, and the likely possibility of a few more Android updates (which the S3 is unlikely to get). Honestly I'd love to have the next Nexus or something that runs closer to stock, but don't have the luxury to wait around for that phone (and I want to stay on vzw's network).
I've been doing some reading around your forum and am just curious as to your thoughts on the jump S3 -> vzw S4! Pros & cons?
Thanks much,
-Dirk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the samsung galaxy s4 on verizon and i wouldnt say the upgrade is really worth it from the s3. If you want to stay with samsung go with the s5 with all the newest specs. Then once you get it, if you dont like the soft ware then just flash a stock s3 rom to it and it wil be like your s3 just work a lot more efficient. In short, it is not worth the upgrade from GS3 to GS4.
joshm.1219 said:
Safestrap enables you to flash roms on a locked bootloader which is pretty cool. Unfortunately the big limitation is basically that you can't touch the kernel on a locked bootloader without kexec support ( which will probably never happen) so the only roms you can flash have to be based on the same firmware that your phone has stock. No AOSP roms at all or TW roms that are newer than an OTA and no custom kernels.
All the AOSP roms you see are for MDK and Dev edition phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just an fyi for people, this isn't totally true. In the general section there is a thread about running a 4.4.4 GPE rom. I've been on the 4.4.3 version for a few days and it's great. With gravity box I can get it set up almost like a custom rom. There are a few bugs but nothing that is a deal breaker (for me)
Sent from my SCH-I545 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
rrrrrrredbelly said:
Just an fyi for people, this isn't totally true. In the general section there is a thread about running a 4.4.4 GPE rom. I've been on the 4.4.3 version for a few days and it's great. With gravity box I can get it set up almost like a custom rom. There are a few bugs but nothing that is a deal breaker (for me)
Sent from my SCH-I545 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that's true, seems like only a few of you really have it working flawlessly though.
joshm.1219 said:
Yes that's true, seems like only a few of you really have it working flawlessly though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't been following the thread that closely, didn't realize. There are definitely issues (no usb connection is a big one) but after losing my mdk phone 2 months ago on a warranty issue, i love this rom.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app