Alright, well I hope I haven't buggered up here.
I'm doing some work for a business that needs no less than 17 new smartphones for their sales team. They wanted something that had a decent sized screen, awesome battery, and fingerprint reader. I immediately thought of the Xioami Redmi Note 3 Pro. I showed them my Note 2 and they were impressed and said they would be keen on the Note 3 with the fingerprint reader for the price. I thought it was a no-brainer. I knew MIUI would confuse the existing sales team (they use Nexus 4's and 5's currently) so I figured CM12.1/CM13 would be the way to go, and I did notice that there was a bootloader unlock process required. I didn't think much of it at the time.
Now I realise there is a somewhat painful bootloader unlock code application process. Hmm. Would I experience difficulties getting unlock codes for this many devices? Luckily I only ordered one so far to test, but I am worried whether Xiaomi will be happy to hand out codes like candy. If they reject me, I'll be holding the bag and be required to get them a different phone, probably something like a Nexus 6p, which is more than three times the price and doesn't have as great battery life.
If anyone has some insight to this process and how it would play out if I tried to get a heap of codes that would be great.
Tell them to use MIUI.
Firstly, you shouldn't replace a stable STOCK ROM with a development AOSP ROM like CyanogenMod, which usually has undocumented bugs and issues. Companies usually prefer security and stability over "the look of vanilla android". I don't believe people cant learn to use MIUI. Why? Because MIUI is still android, just with CUTER icons and a different launcher. If you are so worried about the launcher, force all of them to use google now launcher or Nova Launcher. Confusion due to different launcher is never a good excuse to sacrifice security and stability.
Secondly, unlike MIUI, which pushes stable updates every 1 or 2 months for security patches, CyanogenMod updates are not guaranteed, worse still, CM updates are never extensively tested and are released almost every god damn day (along with randomly added experimental features/changes, which might suddenly break something, or randomly removed features/changes, which again, might break something). You can't expect them to update today, find out there's a bug, update again tomorrow, OMG BUG NOT FIXED ? Patch again the next day. OMG bootloop from bad update / bad flash? OMG OMG OMG ! What to do? OMG OMG OMG WTF Another bad flash? No signal, no wifi? What to do? Wait til next update? See the problem here? Not everyone knows what to do with a ROM that needs that much tinkering. Then, there's another problem, what if somehow the maintainer call it quits? The ROM gets abandoned. What happens then?
Conclusion, for work use, NEVER EVER flash AOSP ROMs or whatnots, always stick with stock for security, stability and support from the OEM. Also, it saves you the trouble when **** happens, imagine a bug causes the whole team to miss a meeting or screw up an email which causes business loss, the management would certainly like to know whose idea it was to unlock a secured bootloader, replace a stable MIUI stock ROM with an unstable ROM.
EDIT : Extra info : I am using CM13 now, it has a lot of weird bugs, like GPS not working for some devices (depends on region) and some people have random "no signal" issues, or no data, or sim not detected. And after flash, some of us needs to edit files it root directory to get capcitive buttons working again, otherwise menu key wont work properly. Some get random reboot. Some get bootloop after update. So on. Seriously, DO NOT FLASH FLASH CM FOR OFFICIAL WORK USE IF THE PEOPLE USING THEM ARE NOT TECH SAVVY PEOPLE WHO KNOWS HOW TO DO A LOT OF ANDROID ****.
I totally get where you're coming from, but I think you're overreacting and ROM stability or updates isn't the problem here. This isn't going to happen for a couple of months at least, and I would use one as my own device and make sure there isn't any bugs before giving it to anyone else. I'd be handling updates manually as well. You make it sound like stock ROMs don't have bugs either, and they get updated forever. Lol.
Really not sure I'm sold on MIUI though. It is quite a departure from AOSP. I tried it for a week and I couldn't really stomach it, but this was about a year ago now. I feel I'd get complains for sure. I also don't see development for CM13 stopping anytime soon either.
Even if I did use MIUI, I'd need to flash a modified stock ROM via fastboot, which again would require an unlocked bootloader. I sure as hell am not going to sit around and setup 17 phones by hand, so let's get back to the original question. Is getting bulk bootloader unlock codes a problem?
Bulk unlocking won't be a problem, since you only need to get the permission for a MIUI account.
Basically,when you get the permission, you can unlock any number of Mi phones linked to your account.
Although I would recommend sticking to the stock MIUI since it is much more stable and supported because in your use case, stability would be paramount.
Hire me too, and I'll unlock for them. :highfive:
Via mi tool and getting official authentication to get unlock code? Yes it's a problem because xiaomi will only allow to unlock one device per month using same mi account, you'll need different mi accounts to get codes at a time...
Also, it takes quite a long to get unlock code from xiaomi around 2-3 weeks, if unlocking is mandatory for you, I'd suggest you to manually unlock those devices.. search mi forum or Google, you'll get process to manually unlock your device...
But still, i don't think it'll be a good idea...
Unlocking device and installing custom rom for personal use or experiment? it's really good.
But for bulk or commercial use? I still don't think it'll be a good idea... best of luck anyways.. happy unlocking!
Alright, cool. I thought that would be the case - pretty annoying. Not keen on the manual unlock method, it seems like a good way to brick a device via an OTA update.
The only other way I could use MIUI is if:
- I could disable all the MI services such as Mi Account, Mi Message, Mi Cloud, and any other junk / optimiser apps that might be preloaded
- I could pre-load around 20 user apps (some which need to be pre-configured with data, such as launcher) that would be needed
- I could disable the stock launcher permanently and have it replaced with Nova launcher
- I could install some kind of AOSP theme
- I could improve the RAM utilisation somehow
If I could do all of that, and clone this configuration to 17 devices without unlocking the bootloader, then I might be able to stick with MIUI... otherwise it's gotta go, or I gotta pick a different phone.
Edit: Had another look at the unofficial unlock method. It appears that as long as you aren't on a MIUI base, it should be fine. Looks like I might not have to unlock official after all.
1. MIUI has bugs too, yes, but usually minor + documented. It doesnt break GPS nor does it randomly make major capabilities of the phone fail. This is where CM falls short, sometimes. You'll never know when CM will change something because they think it will work, which winds up giving you bugs or bootloops.
2. MIUI won't get updated forever, but it will certainly be supported for a longer time than other OEMs. Look at how many phones will be getting MIUI 8 soon. Also, let's not forget, CM won't be updated forever either. Sometimes, it even gets abandoned. Then there's the part about CM where some (well most, but i don't blame them) maintainers are like "logs or it didnt happen" when it comes to bug reporting, and there arent that much people using CM, so, less likely they will get logs. Some even give you the middle-finger by saying "can't reproduce LOLL you're on your own." ***By no means am i implying that the maintainer/developer for RN3 CM13 is an asshole.
3. Aside from launcher, MIUI is not that different from other "flavoured" android UIs like touchwiz or whatever-LG-calls-their-UI. Mainly, icons are different, that's about it. The "not sold on MIUI" is not really a solid reason to use a ROM that isnt stable/secure. Just change the launcher then, use themes. Humans can adapt. With time, users will adapt to it. The same goes to iOS-->Android or Android-->iOS, that's why it's not very common (but not exactly rare either) for users to switch, because within a week or two, they give up, swap back.
4. Flashing using MiFlash with locked BL you mean? Hmm, perhaps you could try using adb reboot edl. This sends the phone into emergency download mode (only for qualcomm version), which allows you to flash fastboot ROMs, but only STOCK fastboot ROMs. Never tried on a modified ROM version, but i don't think that would work.
Note : I am not advocating for/against MIUI nor am i here to argue with you. I am just trying to help you make a decision clearly. By looking at security and stability. Not by judging how lamely cute MIUI is (which i agree, looks childishly weird, it's like an iOS reject made out with touchWiz and gave birth to a mutated UI).
By the way, sometimes xiaomi ignores unlock requests, sometimes they reject them cuz you account doesnt have enough "posts". Plus, you'd need like 17 accounts. Personally, i would suggest getting another phone, one (or 17 ) that looks closer to Vanilla and is friendlier to the Open Source Community (which obviously, xiaomi isn't, they dont walk the talk) as this would greatly reduce bugs and problems on ROMs like CM, should you choose to go there. But at its price range, RN3 is just about the best. Other phones are like 2x more. The next best thing would be Nexus 5x. 6P is too expensive.
Why not suggest Nexus phones. I wouldn't use Xiaomi phones if I had to support them afterwards?
Price and battery life mainly. They're just so hard to beat for the money.
Good points. The thing that I really want to focus on is the user experience though. The extra "features" will definitely cause some headaches. Sure, they can adapt, but I'd probably have to train them which isn't what I want to do. I've setup devices with CM ROMs for people in the past with great success (setup quite a few K3 Notes earlier this year on CM12.1) as they have been cleaner, faster, and much easier to use than the stock ROM. I figured I could do the same thing on Xiaomi devices. I also want to create training videos for them and I was hoping that if I could use CM it would apply to those who still have Nexus devices as well since they will look and feel the same.
It's a classic case of awesome hardware (with snapdragon SOC) at an awesome price held back by irritating software. The K3 Note was similar until CM12.1 was stable - the stock ROM was really bad.
I'll have to think long and hard about whether I would want to continue or if I should just start looking at other devices. I just can't think of anything else under 250USD that will fit the bill.
Others have said you can only unlock one device a month per account.
Related
Have been an Android user since November 2009 when I got my OG Droid, was rooted and ROMed in January after the 2.0.1 update came out and dev's cracked it. I really want a Note 2 but want to be sure we will see ROMs, Kernels and recoveries. From reading the Dev section it seems SBOOT is locked and we can't even get kexec at this point. It sounds like the VZW version may just be locked down too tight to get anything other than just Root. So, given all this, what do you guys think is the liklihood of use seeing custom ROMs, kernels and recoveries on the VZW Note 2?
bose301s said:
Have been an Android user since November 2009 when I got my OG Droid, was rooted and ROMed in January after the 2.0.1 update came out and dev's cracked it. I really want a Note 2 but want to be sure we will see ROMs, Kernels and recoveries. From reading the Dev section it seems SBOOT is locked and we can't even get kexec at this point. It sounds like the VZW version may just be locked down too tight to get anything other than just Root. So, given all this, what do you guys think is the liklihood of use seeing custom ROMs, kernels and recoveries on the VZW Note 2?
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Click to collapse
Custom ROMs is fairly easy. The way the phone was rooted is how one would also do a custom ROM at this point. If we are to get more than that, we're going to need to find a way to unlock the bootloader, which so far, has been futile, but it was also people that have never really done it before trying. Hopefully, an unlock method is found, and we can then go with custom recoveries and kernels, along with easier to flash custom ROMs.
imnuts said:
Custom ROMs is fairly easy. The way the phone was rooted is how one would also do a custom ROM at this point. If we are to get more than that, we're going to need to find a way to unlock the bootloader, which so far, has been futile, but it was also people that have never really done it before trying. Hopefully, an unlock method is found, and we can then go with custom recoveries and kernels, along with easier to flash custom ROMs.
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So they would have to be just custom versions of the stock ROM correct, since you would have to continue using the stock kernel. Is AOSP basically impossible without unlocking the boot loader and getting custom kernels? I don't want to have to rely on VZW and Samsung for updates, at their pace 4.3 will be out and this will still be on it's current 4.1.1.
just gotta wait for a leak from someone important....hopefully it doesn't take as long as it did for the s3!
bose301s said:
So they would have to be just custom versions of the stock ROM correct, since you would have to continue using the stock kernel. Is AOSP basically impossible without unlocking the boot loader and getting custom kernels? I don't want to have to rely on VZW and Samsung for updates, at their pace 4.3 will be out and this will still be on it's current 4.1.1.
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You could do something that looks like AOSP, but no, I don't think you could get true AOSP until we get custom kernels.
I've been in Android for a few years now, and I've always defaulted towards AOSP since I hate the heavy overlays that these OEM's place on our devices, but this is the FIRST time in a long time that I will be saying this: why would you even want custom ROM's for this device?
I mean that, honestly. It's perfect. Sure it's nice to get root and modify certain things, but for the most part I don't see any 3rd party ROM trumping stock for this phone. Just the S Pen alone is reason enough to never want to leave stock.
I wasn't really lurking the Note 1 ROM scenes so I don't know how well developers were able to port S Pen functionality over to ROM's like CM10 etc, but I don't imagine they'd ever be able to fully integrate it to the level it is on stock.
And given the immense battery life, top notch performance on stock, I don't see a need to "trim the proverbial fat" of the actual firmware anyway. It's just, perfect.
You can have custom ROMs without getting rid of spen features. I agree with you that I wouldn't want an AOSP ROM but shaving a little weight off this thing wouldn't hurt
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app
Honestly, I'm just waiting for a rom that's debloated, deodexed, has unlimited multiview, wifi toggle, adjustable homescreen, etc. etc. Nothing major, unless some one comes up with some neat ideas on how to integrate the S Pen into the ROM for a better user experience. We've got a good dev community, so I remain optimistic that something cool will come our way.
i agree...i see no need for aosp on this device at this time. just need root and hopefully cwm recovery. samsung has touchwiz dialed in pretty well. however aosp will have its place when this device quits getting updates.
I'd just like it open and custom kernels I don't mind touchwiz on this type of device
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app
Honestly the S Pen is NOT at all what is drawing me to this phone, really couldn't care less about it to be honest. What IS drawing me to this phone is the bigger screen from my G-Nex, the faster processor, the bigger battery and the improved screen. Also the improved radios and data conenction from the notoriously bad G-Nex radios is a huge draw, but none of this is about the S Pen. I know I may be in the minority with my opinion here, but that's at least what I want, and to be honest, when is having more ROMs for a device worse than having less That's why I want AOSP ROMs and custom kernels etc.
bose301s said:
Honestly the S Pen is NOT at all what is drawing me to this phone, really couldn't care less about it to be honest. What IS drawing me to this phone is the bigger screen from my G-Nex, the faster processor, the bigger battery and the improved screen. Also the improved radios and data conenction from the notoriously bad G-Nex radios is a huge draw, but none of this is about the S Pen. I know I may be in the minority with my opinion here, but that's at least what I want, and to be honest, when is having more ROMs for a device worse than having less That's why I want AOSP ROMs and custom kernels etc.
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+1
But I will admit that I am PLEASANTLY suprised at how nice TW is. With an AOSP JellyBean launcher and lock screen I am really enjoying this thing. I am not sure what could really improve this bad boy other than some cleaned up stock ROM and OC kernel.
Sent from my Super Famicom
xxxxmarkxxx said:
I'd just like it open and custom kernels I don't mind touchwiz on this type of device
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
What I'd a custom kernel going to give you over stock performance? A few added features maybe, but it didn't seem like this phone needs undervolting or overclocking.
bose301s said:
Honestly the S Pen is NOT at all what is drawing me to this phone, really couldn't care less about it to be honest. What IS drawing me to this phone is the bigger screen from my G-Nex, the faster processor, the bigger battery and the improved screen. Also the improved radios and data conenction from the notoriously bad G-Nex radios is a huge draw, but none of this is about the S Pen. I know I may be in the minority with my opinion here, but that's at least what I want, and to be honest, when is having more ROMs for a device worse than having less That's why I want AOSP ROMs and custom kernels etc.
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Click to collapse
Aosp roms are the hardest to get on cdma devices, plus isn't this chip a new one as well? Many hurdles to jump over before that happens.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2
If we could have per app DPI on TW, that would be really cool. I'm confident we'll get this thing unlocked soon enough tho.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda premium
im with the others...im very impressed at this UI of this phone. i would like a recovery and perhaps and overclock but the overclock isnt even needed IMO. other than that (thought id never say this) the stock rom nailed it. its apparent the people at samsung not only know what they are doing but listen to the consumer. i dont know how many of you are boaters but phones are like boats. you will never find the perfect one. however judging from the reviews so far this is about as close as it comes...from my point of view anyway..
and to think i was hesitant about getting it. i stood in the store for 30 minutes contemplating it. the rep was about to give up when i said "okay im pulling the trigger". first time i have ever bought a phone and not been 100% sure when i walked through the door.
I guess I have also been spoiled by the phones I have had, the OG Droid and the Galaxy Nexus, honestly I don't think any one phone has had a bigger and more vibrant community than the OG Droid, not even the Galaxy Nexus. I would like to be able to stay on the cutting edge of Android though, knowing that if a new version is released I should have it within 24-48 hours if not less. I am using 4.2.1 on my Nexus and quite like it, seems even smoother than 4.1.2 and also like the few new features, mainly the quick settings panel and PhotoSphere. I know the Galaxy series was one of the originators of the quick setting panel but I like Google's implementation quite a bit. Would just be weird to give up using CM after doing so for almost 3 years now. All decisions to consider. May pick up the phone at Best Buy and see if I like it an return it if I still prefer the Nexus.
There is a thread about them trying to get CM10 on the Note 2, but the VZW version might be the hardest.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2019535
Would it be useful to start a bounty for a bootloader unlock and custom recovery or for CM and AOSP on it? If so I would donate, just wondering what you all think.
I have said in a lot of devices forums in the past that the amount people will be able to do is proportional to the amount of effort and the support the communities give. In this case you guys have already bought adamOutler a phone, and he has torn it down, we have started to analyze the bare bones, and I'm sure hes looking for an unbreakable mod. With this being said lets address a couple of the questions at hand:
First off it does not look like their will be an easy fix to the fact that the bootloader is locked. The way that it looks in the white paper are their are efuses that are used as both a hardware key and possibly a configuration bit. Once this is set it cannot be unset. All hope is not lost though. With adam's UART he has found a couple loading points that might be inject a new bootloader and kernels and such there. However this is a shot in the dark, as it utilizes the fact that there is some security code loopholes in the boot chain to allow for injections.
Secondly there is always the possibility of custom roms. Using subsystems such as 2ndboot and such you can always make it so that you load a new system image onto the existing one, though this means longer boot up times. Also there is another cool thing out there called kexec (this may or may not be enabled in the default kernel). If enabled in the kernel, the kernel can shut down proc1 and then re initiate with a new kernel ontop of it. If properly coded all phones with the root ability have the ability to do this if they can issue a kexec. Kexec has been ported over to many phones, and some of which dont have kexec enabled in the existing kernel. This makes it so EVERY DEVICES THAT HAS ROOT HAS THE POSSIBILITY TO HAVE CUSTOM ROMS. However with kexec not being enabled on ever phone, it makes it hard to program ever phone to have the right kernel injection points.
The last thing is that to the best of my knowledge the bootloader code is not public, which makes it very hard to find vulnerabilities, however it does not mean that they never get found. Time. Time is all we ask for, as this is not our only job and it takes alot of hard work from devs free time to work and develop. With all that being said im sure in time someone some where will find a link.
Wondering if there is any way I can help. I am not new to Android, however I have never gone past using already fully known and documented things, standard rooting etc. I am interested in getting to know things better so if I can be of any help let me know.
Man I think this will be the last time I buy a Samsung phone from Verizon. The way they force samsung to lock down the bootloader is crazy.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2
Hi all,
So, I took the leap of rooting my HOX+ (international) about 2 months ago, and the ROM of choice was CM.
I loved it! Love everything about it. At the time, the "stable" channel hadn't been opened, so I was using the version in nightly - it's been moved to stable now - 10.1.
Since I was attached to the stable repo, Goo Manager notified me when 10.2 moved into nightly. After a couple of days of having it stick in my status bar, nagging for an update, I just clicked and let it do its thing.
Unfortunately, this broke my phone . I got an error something along the lines of "the process com.android.phone has stopped". When I tapped "okay" the notification would re-appear after <1 second. I've since found out via Google this is something to do with my kernel (why the auto-update didn't update the kernel too is beyond me =s ) - but at the time, I just wanted a functioning phone with minimal fuss, and thought it'd be best moving myself to stable anyway. This is what I did.
That was Tuesday of this week. Between then and now, the "signal"/reception on the phone (I use Vodafone, so coverage isn't spectacular anyway) has been awful - calls randomly dropping, and it just being unreliable and generally a pain. This is despite it being the supposedly "stable" channel, and the version being the same as the one I installed from nightly (previously). Maturing seemed to make the ROM more buggy, not less!
In the interests of having a working phone, I decided to leave CM. Atm, I'm going to try out an AOKP build - though officially unofficial, I'm hoping that minimalistic => less things to break. We'll see how it goes.
I've run various Google searches and the HOX+ finally seems to be getting (after nearly a year) a good developer community - with Lloir at the forefront of it, and Maxwen's blade kernel. Could anyone recommend a flexible, good looking, regularly updated ROM? I'm not a Sense fan (not long before rooting, Sense 5 came out, and it was "the straw that broke the camel's back" so to speak), but otherwise...I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. GPL would be good, and I'm a fan of minimalism (having as little clutter in the way of unused apps as possible). An active and engaged developer/dev community is a must - I don't want to install software that will become obsolete within a week, and have no prospect of a new release. Other than that, I'm more or less happy to try everything/anything!
Cheers,
AA.
PS - I should probably mention, although I'm in no way a dev, I am quite comfortable with tech, and don't mind spending a bit of time researching things to get stuff working. I'm a dedicated GNU/Linux user, and after a fair bit of distro-hopping I've come full circle to landing on Xubuntu. My view of my phone is basically a more awkward, more delicate version of my PC - the concept of "bricking" a computer is a joke, and I think until this possibility is 100% eliminated on phones, the developer community is always going to be slightly held back. I think the models used for developing Linux OSes could/should be applied to the ROM development process, too - as brilliant as the community is atm, it does have the "exclusive hacker culture" feel to it still.
The kernel didn't update because the device is s-on, also the call dropping bug, is you're problem no one else mentioned it. Just do research on the small amount of ROMs we got.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Lloir said:
The kernel didn't update because the device is s-on, also the call dropping bug, is you're problem no one else mentioned it. Just do research on the small amount of ROMs we got.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
How come you can be so sure of the cause? The 'symptom' must be relatively common, I suppose a bit like the technological equivalent of a headache and nausea.
The device is S-ON, you're right. I've read a little but I've not found anything specific to the UK about potential risks. You've got the same phone as me, and you're in the UK too, would you recommend going S-OFF? Does it cause problems with your carrier (I read somewhere that the manufacturer wasn't so bothered, but the carrier was - as it allowed the user to change certain things to do with the way the phone received carrier signal)?
Last bit on ROMs - I've read/seen quite a lot, but the information just isn't out there (unless you personally badger the devs, perhaps). The most official most ROMs get is a thread here. Compare that to (for instance) a Linux distro - you can more or less guarantee that if a distro is linked to on Distrowatch, it'll have it's own site, you can read up about source, included packages, what distinguishing features that OS has, what DE/package manager, etc. There's virtually no equivalent for phones - the best I've seen is xda's ROM listings under the device...if you're lucky one or two of the bigger ones (e.g. CM) will have it's own site. So, in lieu of that, I'm wanting to get a feel of what other users are doing, and what they'd recommend
ArminasAnarchy said:
Hi,
How come you can be so sure of the cause? The 'symptom' must be relatively common, I suppose a bit like the technological equivalent of a headache and nausea.
The device is S-ON, you're right. I've read a little but I've not found anything specific to the UK about potential risks. You've got the same phone as me, and you're in the UK too, would you recommend going S-OFF? Does it cause problems with your carrier (I read somewhere that the manufacturer wasn't so bothered, but the carrier was - as it allowed the user to change certain things to do with the way the phone received carrier signal)?
Last bit on ROMs - I've read/seen quite a lot, but the information just isn't out there (unless you personally badger the devs, perhaps). The most official most ROMs get is a thread here. Compare that to (for instance) a Linux distro - you can more or less guarantee that if a distro is linked to on Distrowatch, it'll have it's own site, you can read up about source, included packages, what distinguishing features that OS has, what DE/package manager, etc. There's virtually no equivalent for phones - the best I've seen is xda's ROM listings under the device...if you're lucky one or two of the bigger ones (e.g. CM) will have it's own site. So, in lieu of that, I'm wanting to get a feel of what other users are doing, and what they'd recommend
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you cannot S-OFF the X+ currently, so i'm not going into that. Also you stated you flashed from CM10.1 > 10.2, which i assume was a dirty flash (no full wipe etc)
it's like installing the Arch + xubuntu on the same hard drive, which is bound to cause issues. So a full wipe was needed, as you should know "nightlies" are well nightlies, UNSTABLE
the closest we have to distrowatch are the rom reviews and so on. there's my PureAosp, AOSP+ both based on 4.3
CM as well you know what that is.
AOKP no longer supported but stable.
as "best rom" and so on are fround upon, due to the flame and chest beating and so on. which mean's you won't get a good answer tbh, and i'am quite impartial when it comes to rom's as i won't recommend anyone's rom's nor my own.
Lloir said:
you cannot S-OFF the X+ currently, so i'm not going into that. Also you stated you flashed from CM10.1 > 10.2, which i assume was a dirty flash (no full wipe etc)
it's like installing the Arch + xubuntu on the same hard drive, which is bound to cause issues. So a full wipe was needed, as you should know "nightlies" are well nightlies, UNSTABLE
the closest we have to distrowatch are the rom reviews and so on. there's my PureAosp, AOSP+ both based on 4.3
CM as well you know what that is.
AOKP no longer supported but stable.
as "best rom" and so on are fround upon, due to the flame and chest beating and so on. which mean's you won't get a good answer tbh, and i'am quite impartial when it comes to rom's as i won't recommend anyone's rom's nor my own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First thing first, cheers for this man! It's good to be able to have a "conversation" with a dev - although Linux distros have got more infrastructure in place, there is a lack of 1:1 as a result (of having so many devs, etc).
It wasn't a dirty flash at all - every time I've written a new ROM I've wiped everything (or at least, ticked all the boxes in TWRP), then after reformatted - you can see the output of the 'make ext4fs' in front of your eyes. So unless it's that there's some partition which is write-protected (I assume the kernel is - since every time I've had to flash a new kernel - regardless of the wiping in TWRP, the phone just boot-loops without the kernel being flashed)...it's been clean.
I flashed 10.1 BEFORE it was in stable - so my phone was still pointing at the nightly repo (I guess?). GooManager pestered me into updating, and when I did, I ran into issues (presumably, the auto-update isn't intelligent enough to write a new kernel, and/or its in this write-protected partition which can't be accessed from the OS?)
It'd been a while since I'd put 10.1 on, and thought it'd be worth checking to see if it was in stable yet (it was). Did full wipe - as above - and then hit that annoying bug with call dropping. So I'd gone from being working on nightly to broken on stable. Time for a new ROM, methinks...looked around, and decide to post here.
As things stand I'm using AOKP (just because it was another popular ROM I knew, not really for any other reason). It's doing my head in though - either I'm being thick, or there's no option to edit settings in ANY app. I'm missing some of the gloss CM has too, things like it coming with a File Manager installed (why the hell would you not have one?!). From what you say, flashing 10.1 might be worth trying again...I'll go through from ground 0 and hopefully it won't break this time.
I get the thing with not wanting to advertise...so instead can I ask what you yourself use on your HOX+? Do you use it as a main phone, or is it just something you use for developing?
ArminasAnarchy said:
(presumably, the auto-update isn't intelligent enough to write a new kernel, and/or its in this write-protected partition which can't be accessed from the OS?)
I get the thing with not wanting to advertise...so instead can I ask what you yourself use on your HOX+? Do you use it as a main phone, or is it just something you use for developing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are right on point 1, it's in the write protected partition, and 2nd point, i tend to use my own rom's....i'am in the mindset, if i don't use my own rom's why should other people?
Lloir said:
you are right on point 1, it's in the write protected partition, and 2nd point, i tend to use my own rom's....i'am in the mindset, if i don't use my own rom's why should other people?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, I see the logic!
Okay: so we've narrowed it down to a kernel issue. With my AOKP flash, what I did (blade wasn't for the right Android version I think) was extracted the .img file from the ROM.zip and flashed that.
With CM 10,1 (i.e. stable channel) - in your opinion would it be better to do the same, or use the blade kernel?
ArminasAnarchy said:
Haha, I see the logic!
Okay: so we've narrowed it down to a kernel issue. With my AOKP flash, what I did (blade wasn't for the right Android version I think) was extracted the .img file from the ROM.zip and flashed that.
With CM 10,1 (i.e. stable channel) - in your opinion would it be better to do the same, or use the blade kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ALL my rom's are extract kernel from zip, i'am not sure what max did with his AOKP.....but 100% all mine you pull from zip and flash that
you can try the CM10.2 btw M1 not long ago released....just an idea..
Lloir said:
ALL my rom's are extract kernel from zip, i'am not sure what max did with his AOKP.....but 100% all mine you pull from zip and flash that
you can try the CM10.2 btw M1 not long ago released....just an idea..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Re-installed 10.1 (stable) again. Same issue, even though I've only had it running for 24 hours, it's dropped the call and didn't seem able to get 3G data (it was stuck at "E" for some reason, which makes doing anything impossible) despite being in the middle of the city and not near anything obvious that should block it like a huge block of flats etc.
I installed 10.2, we'll see how it goes.
Hello
Why roms are very very limited to this phone.. Or custom roms are no longer a thing now I mean the lock screen really needs work like shortcuts and stuff it's very dull..
I hope developers show some love for this phone thanks
The bootloader is not unlockable (except in some extremely specific cases).
There are enough people with unlocked bootloaders that it *should* have resulted in some people putting work into roms for this phone, but I think there are just too many proprietary goodies that will be gimped in the process, especially the camera. It feels too late for anything to happen now, even if someone came up with a free bootloader unlocking method. The phone is just too niche, a shame because I would love to play around with hotrod roms on this thing and can't even begin to sniff around the 10 betas. I don't even see LYA-L0C mentioned anymore, it is as though it doesn't even exist.
Reasons mentioned there:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=81364671&postcount=3
tl;dr there's no software for reassembling firmware for Emui 9.1+ due to nobody adopting new filesystem except of Huawei, no bootloader unlock reopenings for past several months, complete removal of unlock option in fastload on EMUI 10+, almost no sources for built-in apps. Obviously nobody wants to reverse engineer whole device from scratch.
On the side note, the stock firmware is very stable for usage comparing to past years when custom was needed for fix certain things on devices. I don't even see big usage in root/unlock/custom firmwares except of more battery tweaks.
Hey there, how are u doing?
I just got my Poco X3 NFC (was using Mi A3), and I kinda feel like pure android is really better to use in general than MIUI (at least for me). Wondering if it's better to change it now, since I don't have much on phone (less than 1 week) or just keep MIUI because 12.5 is about to get there.
Was checking the forum and found a lot of ROMs, but I don't really get if's not "the same" as MIUI, since it's an Android ROM with modifications based on... something they wanted to change. Most popular ROMs seem to be ArrowOS, Ressurection-Remix, and others non official ROMs (LineageOS have Android 11 already). I have NO IDEA what I should be looking in general, no idea what is Selinux, permissive, don't flash with some softwares, etc. Not sure if it affects how I will use it commonly tbh.
I mean, I usually use my phone to access social media, use a lot of spotify/youtube, and I probably will need to root to have a good Linux machine running there for my studies (actually using UserLand), that's why I'm wondering about ROMs. Battery is really important since I run a virtual machine imo.
So, what do u think? Should I change MIUI with another custom ROM or just keep it because XIAOMI upgrades it frequently? Would you recommend some ROM in specific? As I said, just want good battery life and QoL using my apps and Bluetooth connection (phones and smartwatch 24/7).
Never used custom ROMs tbh, but would give a shot. Always loved community based stuff
On Xiaomi you can always flash stock and relock bootloader if you need to unlike Samsung (thanks Knox /s)
ArrowOS is my recommendation. Well made ROM. You can also flash F1xy kernel if you want more fluidity with still good battery life.
Only thing is you don't have the features of stock MIUI camera and flashing ANX Camera on ArrowOS didn't worked for me. If you want that, you can use crDroid which has it built-in.
Flash it. It offers better performance, good battery life + it's nice & clean. You can notice it simply by doing basic tasks. Less frames are dropped.
For OTA, do dirty flash of ROM, but I prefer clean flash as it makes sure that there are no bugs related to dirty flashing + I'm starting clean. I do clean flash every time I notice that Device side changelog is changed. I'm using ArrowOS which has updates almost every day. crDroid updates often too. Like once in 7 day, but it's not the fixed schedule. NitrogenOS updates every 15 days-1 month.
NitrogenOS was my ROM before, it was good, but ArrowOS is just better. ArrowOS & basically other ROMs are based on newest sources while NitrogenOS is the only ROM right now that is still based on 12.0.3 firmware. ArrowOS has Enforcing seLinux unlike Nitrogen etc. These small things is what makes ArrowOS better ROM than others. Only crDroid can "fight" with it imo.
mGrilo said:
Hey there, how are u doing?
I just got my Poco X3 NFC (was using Mi A3), and I kinda feel like pure android is really better to use in general than MIUI (at least for me). Wondering if it's better to change it now, since I don't have much on phone (less than 1 week) or just keep MIUI because 12.5 is about to get there.
Was checking the forum and found a lot of ROMs, but I don't really get if's not "the same" as MIUI, since it's an Android ROM with modifications based on... something they wanted to change. Most popular ROMs seem to be ArrowOS, Ressurection-Remix, and others non official ROMs (LineageOS have Android 11 already). I have NO IDEA what I should be looking in general, no idea what is Selinux, permissive, don't flash with some softwares, etc. Not sure if it affects how I will use it commonly tbh.
I mean, I usually use my phone to access social media, use a lot of spotify/youtube, and I probably will need to root to have a good Linux machine running there for my studies (actually using UserLand), that's why I'm wondering about ROMs. Battery is really important since I run a virtual machine imo.
So, what do u think? Should I change MIUI with another custom ROM or just keep it because XIAOMI upgrades it frequently? Would you recommend some ROM in specific? As I said, just want good battery life and QoL using my apps and Bluetooth connection (phones and smartwatch 24/7).
Never used custom ROMs tbh, but would give a shot. Always loved community based stuff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I´ve had the phone for around 3 weeks now and it´s the first phone in years that I haven´t unlocked and installed custom Roms.
The reason is that my bank detects unlocked bootloader and I cannot use Google Pay which I use on a daily basis.
After debloating the phone and setting up the relevant apps so they don´t get shut down by the aggresive MIUI battery savings I am really satisfied. I also have a smartwatch connected 24/7 and I get around 8-9 hours SOT. Just normal usage, no gaming.
I also installed the MI Control Center from Play Store to customize the control center which is quite cool giving a bit of a customized look.
The only thing I am not to keen about is the fact that the Android security has not been updated since november 2020.
So far I am sticking with stock and looking forward to see what Miui 12.5 will be like.
geminis3 said:
On Xiaomi you can always flash stock and relock bootloader if you need to unlike Samsung (thanks Knox /s)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, it's like "try it, if u don't like it, just get MIUI back", right? Cool!
SkaboXD said:
ArrowOS is my recommendation. Well made ROM. You can also flash F1xy kernel if you want more fluidity with still good battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OTA is the android updater? I'm kinda wants to update like I do with MIUI. Options > Updates > Update > Restart and Done
I don't use much cameras, just on my job tbh. As I said, just want a good battery to use my Linux on background (I already do it all day basically, I would say), and free ads (disabled all of them on MIUI, I think). Like, for example, installed Vanced YT on my Mi A3 in 5 minutes, while I reinstalled 3 times on POCO X3 and still can't log-on.
badadam said:
I´ve had the phone for around 3 weeks now and it´s the first phone in years that I haven´t unlocked and installed custom Roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if my bank do that... hope it doesn't. Yes, lot of apps are useless and uninstalled already.
I only "game" idle games, which means like 30 mins/day.
Still wondering if I should or not try a ROM. Probably will on weekend since I won't use it.
Oh, and BTW, my night mode is kinda buggy in a few apps, had to disable it on android and use in-app features. Not sure if it's MIUI problem, but never happened on my Mi A3.
badadam said:
The reason is that my bank detects unlocked bootloader and I cannot use Google Pay which I use on a daily basis.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using magisk hide for banking apps, I still get some random issues with some apps like not being able to register the fingerprint but overall I can use them all, the only app that really gives me any trouble is the sprint drive app.
My phone is arriving today. Do I really need to wait for unlocking the bootloader?
badadam said:
The reason is that my bank detects unlocked bootloader and I cannot use Google Pay which I use on a daily basis.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With ArrowOS you can use bank apps and google play...
These are enforcing builds. Safety net checks pass out of the box! No need to flash magisk modules, which might in turn break the integrity!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
zpower said:
With ArrowOS you can use bank apps and google play...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I wrote my bank in Denmark detects unlocked bootloaders. So there is no way I can use my bank apps as long as the bootloader is unlocked .
I had problems using ArrowOS on my Redmi Note 8T and called the help service in my bank. When I told him my phone model the helpdesk guy asked me right away if I had unlocked my bootloader which I "admitted" I did. Turns out that the guy knew eveything about custom Roms, unlocked bootloaders and rooted phones. He told me that most banks in Denmark put safety first and do anything to lock out devices with unlocked bootloaders even if Safetny passes without problems.
So I haven´t even tried unlocking the bootloader on my X3 NFC as I use my bank apps and Google Pay everyday.
And I am actually quite satsfied with stock MIUI after debloating and twirking. Looking forward to see how 12.5 will improve the phone.
badadam said:
Like I wrote my bank in Denmark detects unlocked bootloaders. So there is no way I can use my bank apps as long as the bootloader is unlocked .
I had problems using ArrowOS on my Redmi Note 8T and called the help service in my bank. When I told him my phone model the helpdesk guy asked me right away if I had unlocked my bootloader which I "admitted" I did. Turns out that the guy knew eveything about custom Roms, unlocked bootloaders and rooted phones. He told me that most banks in Denmark put safety first and do anything to lock out devices with unlocked bootloaders even if Safetny passes without problems.
So I haven´t even tried unlocking the bootloader on my X3 NFC as I use my bank apps and Google Pay everyday.
And I am actually quite satsfied with stock MIUI after debloating and twirking. Looking forward to see how 12.5 will improve the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, what a story. Thanks for sharing.
mGrilo said:
Hey there, how are u doing?
I just got my Poco X3 NFC (was using Mi A3), and I kinda feel like pure android is really better to use in general than MIUI (at least for me). Wondering if it's better to change it now, since I don't have much on phone (less than 1 week) or just keep MIUI because 12.5 is about to get there.
Was checking the forum and found a lot of ROMs, but I don't really get if's not "the same" as MIUI, since it's an Android ROM with modifications based on... something they wanted to change. Most popular ROMs seem to be ArrowOS, Ressurection-Remix, and others non official ROMs (LineageOS have Android 11 already). I have NO IDEA what I should be looking in general, no idea what is Selinux, permissive, don't flash with some softwares, etc. Not sure if it affects how I will use it commonly tbh.
I mean, I usually use my phone to access social media, use a lot of spotify/youtube, and I probably will need to root to have a good Linux machine running there for my studies (actually using UserLand), that's why I'm wondering about ROMs. Battery is really important since I run a virtual machine imo.
So, what do u think? Should I change MIUI with another custom ROM or just keep it because XIAOMI upgrades it frequently? Would you recommend some ROM in specific? As I said, just want good battery life and QoL using my apps and Bluetooth connection (phones and smartwatch 24/7).
Never used custom ROMs tbh, but would give a shot. Always loved community based stuff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The most sensible answer is if you must ask, you don't need it. You'll likely get over your head, screw up your phone, whine and cry for help, when no one can cuz you're not even sure what, how, when or where you went wrong and don't remember exactly what you did, you'll end up regretting the whole thing, wish you never came to this site in the first place cuz now you gotta $250 paperweight, with no way to get another one. Now your parents are super mad and pretending you don't exist, you've resorted to eating only peanut butter n jelly sandwiches for every meal.. All this cuz you wanted a custom rom... yup
Talysdaddy said:
The most sensible answer is if you must ask, you don't need it. You'll likely get over your head, screw up your phone, whine and cry for help, when no one can cuz you're not even sure what, how, when or where you went wrong and don't remember exactly what you did, you'll end up regretting the whole thing, wish you never came to this site in the first place cuz now you gotta $250 paperweight, with no way to get another one. Now your parents are super mad and pretending you don't exist, you've resorted to eating only peanut butter n jelly sandwiches for every meal.. All this cuz you wanted a custom rom... yup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eh, not really. Wasn't everyone like this in the beginning? He'll learn with time if he's new, How about not scaring him?
Woolworm11 said:
My phone is arriving today. Do I really need to wait for unlocking the bootloader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, Xiaomi implemented a 168 hour wait time for unlocking bootloader in all new devices.
badadam said:
Like I wrote my bank in Denmark detects unlocked bootloaders. So there is no way I can use my bank apps as long as the bootloader is unlocked .
I had problems using ArrowOS on my Redmi Note 8T and called the help service in my bank. When I told him my phone model the helpdesk guy asked me right away if I had unlocked my bootloader which I "admitted" I did. Turns out that the guy knew eveything about custom Roms, unlocked bootloaders and rooted phones. He told me that most banks in Denmark put safety first and do anything to lock out devices with unlocked bootloaders even if Safetny passes without problems.
So I haven´t even tried unlocking the bootloader on my X3 NFC as I use my bank apps and Google Pay everyday.
And I am actually quite satsfied with stock MIUI after debloating and twirking. Looking forward to see how 12.5 will improve the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A couple of years ago or a bit more, I had a problem with a bank app here in Italy. It was possible to install it, it opened but was never able to login to my account with a "generic error". After calling the helpdesk, they did a check and informed me that the app didn't work for ROOTED PHONES...
One week after this call, my new account in another bank was active and fully operative so I moved all my money to the new bank.
If anyone would react in this way, this kind of abuses by banks will end very soon...
Communos said:
Eh, not really. Wasn't everyone like this in the beginning? He'll learn with time if he's new, How about not scaring him?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I wasn't like this in the beginning, like my first sentence says, if you have to ask, it probably isn't for you cuz it demonstrates a few lacking qualities that surely would make this difficult. No offense to OP but I'm being realistic, speaking of going back to the OPs question, he asks whether he should rock a custom rom or not. How can anyone realistically answer that for him? The only one that has that definite answer is the person asking it. No one here knows his skills, amount of knowledge, patience level, whether he can follow instructions or a tutorial well enough, whether he enjoys or tolerates reading, disposable cash, if he funks up a daily driver, can it be replaced, ect.... these are all key in learning and practicing installing roms. Going back to what I said originally if you must ask, meaning that you can't determine this for yourself, it's highly likely there's other things you can't do for yourself. Everyone here knows 99.9009% of this is done independently, reading these threads and trying things out. Plus 99.9999% of answers to questions pertaining to modding our devices are in these threads, yet so many fail to search instead go straight to the questions forum, create a new thread asking same question answered 5x already. So if someone comes here asking a question only they truly have answers to, are they likely to miracoulsly be independent suddenly or someone frequently needing assistance unable to perform tasks themselves? Once again back to my original post, "they've demonstrated this kind of work ethic already."
Yea I know my answer wasn't something some want to hear but I call it as I see it.
Hi, I'm interested in picking up a BC62 but are any of the currently available ROMs stable enough for daily driving?
I'm still living in the last decade and prefer the fully custom experience, but I suppose just getting root and bootloader unlock may be sufficient nowadays...
Apologies if this question is an easy one or frequently asked, I couldn't find much.
as you see, there is no supported custom roms for this device. You can try GSI roms.
unfortunately price too high and community not enough for devs
Well technically there's one custom ROM...but idk if it's still gonna be supported...i may try to build some now that the guides are up tho
I see there are a few abandoned ones under development but there's little talk about living with them. Guess nobody really does, ha.
Circumstances are just pushing me to switch carriers (and therefore phones) and it's hard to part with the custom ROM life. At least Sony OEM software is decent and root/unlock is actually supported.
I look forward your future projects, @Ainz_Ooal_Gown !
Stormwing said:
I see there are a few abandoned ones under development but there's little talk about living with them. Guess nobody really does, ha.
Circumstances are just pushing me to switch carriers (and therefore phones) and it's hard to part with the custom ROM life. At least Sony OEM software is decent and root/unlock is actually supported.
I look forward your future projects, @Ainz_Ooal_Gown !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im using GSI a11 on xq-bc72. Everything works fine battery life is pretty good.
Im debating if I should go back stock but im trying to build 13
bountyman334 said:
Im using GSI a11 on xq-bc72. Everything works fine battery life is pretty good.
Im debating if I should go back stock but im trying to build 13
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And how it works?
i just tried GSI a12 rom and camera didn`t work, ambient display didn`t work, autobrightness didn`t work. Back to stock
I used the Lineage ROM that's here ( https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/rom-11-unofficial-lineageos-18-1-for-xperia-1-iii.4431701 ) for a few months. Unfortunately it comes with an outdated VideoPro app that can't be updated due to missing libraries (Theoretically you can if you mod a newer APK, but I'm not very experienced in coding and wasn't able to make it work). Also this meant Sony-specific apps like 3D creator, etc... won't install or update without modding them.
The only other problem I noticed was 5G NSA didn't work, just LTE with carrier aggregation at best. This wasn't a big problem personally since 5G NSA isn't reaaaallly an improvement all else being equal.
There were a couple other bugs / differences. The assistant button wouldn't function even with the Xperia+ app, and using the camera button to open the camera app behaved differently in a way that I didn't like. Probably a couple smaller things I'm forgetting about that I just lived with without issue.
Not being able to update or install Sony-specific apps was the deal breaker eventually. If I knew how to mod APK's to install/update them, I'd still be on that ROM today. It was actually really good. My battery life was noticeably better (probably mostly due to lack of 5G), I had no stability issues, the ROM was light and fast and I got all the customization that comes with Lineage out of the box.
i get it why there arent custom roms. what i dont get why arent any debloated stock rom either. sony does not have bloatware ?
Fytdyh said:
i get it why there arent custom roms. what i dont get why arent any debloated stock rom either. sony does not have bloatware ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because there's no value in doing this.
Just get a root uninstaller and yeet the bloat.
As someone who tried a lot of roms, just don't. They all have serious demerits that are just not worth it.
Honestly it's quite jarring coming from Xiaomi/Samsung where custom roms are extensive are necessary or a worthwhile alternative respectively. I hoped we wouldn't need the size of community for this phone as everything is supposedly open source (or provided), but experience tells us otherwise. The phone is just too expensive -> phone doesn't go to eastern (read: eastern-europe and SE asia) developers and development just never takes off.
Sakuma_Eitarou said:
And how it works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it works pretty good. i dont care for 5g camera works. its pretty fast. thev only thing is camera from lockscreen and reverse wireless charrging