First of all, before you can get mad at me because you think im requesting for a custom rom but im not. It's just i thought in the first place that Sony was more supportive of unlocking bootloader, rooting, things like that than Samsung because they(sammy) developed KNOX a long time ago to harden phone security and against to rooting.
Now i feel like it's sammy was the supportive one because comparing the custom rom development, i feel that in sony it is lesser.
So someone could explain what is the wall in custom rom development, is it the lack of sources of binary blobs or device drivers to get it working (yah because, mostly in our tab forum, the rom is sometimes not stable because of lack of binary blobs mking the rom not working camera, no sim card or even cannot detect radios). Or maybe that is the bootloader that sony programmed to doom every uncertified pieces of software installed on a device.
Just asking ✌
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OK, so here's the thing... I'm kind of new in the Android acknowledgement, so I hope that here will be the place where I will get my answers. So here's what I know...
At first I didn't know that Android was Java-based, using a modified Linux kernel which we all know it's C-based (entirely). After a while, I found that there were different firmwares (ROMs) from the original ones, called Stock ones and also different kernels. After reading lots of info about how things actually are, I've decided to root my stock and then I moved to a custom MIUI for my SGSII with a JB implementation. At first it was great, but I had some issues which left me disappointed. Then I moved on to the official MIUI (China - English one). Things got better after I got used to it. The major bugs disappeared, only small ones left and a few crashes, but in time most of them got fixed. Later it crossed my mind, "Why are there so many different kernels and which is the best one for my phone or ROM to be precise?" Well this is where I need your help. I've read some topics that siyah kernel is probably the best kernel, which fits the MIUI rom. The pointing of concrete kernels isn't the kind of answer I was actually searching for. To be honest, I need answers to questions like:
How many kernels are there ?
Which ones are safe ? (I've read that there are badly written ones, so yeah, it needs to be asked)
Statistically, which is the best kernel and is it for the MIUI rom ?
How can I tell that it's suitable for the MIUI rom ? (Since I've read that not all are)
What are the risks of changing the kernel?
How can you test the kernel's behaviour, an app which makes statistics in time or some other methods ?
Believe me, as annoying this topic might seem, lots of us (the newbie users) are burning up the google servers, just to find these answers. I'm really hoping for a reply spam with answers (if possible , spare the trolling ones). Thanks for reading my annoying topic, anyway
Since most of the source is available, basically anyone can build their own kernel at home, so it is hard to tell how many kernels are there.
what isn`t available as open source are most of the OEM-specific drivers. Samsung, for one, doesn`t make most of the drivers' source publicly available, so kernel developers have to make a binary kernel around the binary drivers and literally pray their work well together.
Siyah is safe, but I prefer the stock kernel (I like the stock ROM... go figure). The stock kernel is the only one that is sure to work properly with all the hardware in the phone, because it is the only built from sources for the drivers as well (read my previous paragraph).
Which ones are safe (other than stock and Siyah): you gotta try them for yourself, read other users' remarks and feedbacks, and so on.
Risks:
Very low. As long as the bootloader is good, if the kernel totally malfunctions, just reboot in download mode and flash something else.
Some app may work very well in one kernel and bomb in another. It may crash in some kernels. It is very empyrical.
The problem is that custom kernels don't undergo the same type of quality testing as stock kernels. Developers have very limited resources to do that, and some developers are more interested in having a short time-to-market than a quality product (well, many large corporations act like that as well). At the end of the day we - power users - are the beta testing and quality assurance teams for the kernel developers.
Hello, I am not-exactly-proud owner of PAP5400DUO, it has only 512 MB RAM and Quad-core CPU, so it is sometimes unresponsive and since there is no hope of it getting an update to KitKat. I searched for a custom roms, but I haven't found any (which is little troubling), yet the device can be rooted and MIUI recovery flashed (version unknown, I didn't root my phone yet). On my way when searching what do I need to build AOSP ROM I found out that I need a "device tree" which if I understood right is some specific information about my device (drivers etc) needed to compile a rom properly.
Which is quite an obstacle, because it is nowhere to be found, yet I stumbled upon a post that said that device tree can be created from scratch (yet probably by trial-error method).
All I need is to know if it is really worthy the time and struggle, I used to own HTC Wildfire S and have limited knowledge about ROMs, yet I am willing to study by myself, there are the main questions:
Is it everything possible?
Is the said recovery sufficient to flash KK? (hard to tell, i don't know the version, I know)
Would AOSP KK ROM improve the performance? (I hope so, but still its 512 MB RAM only)
Is it worth it? isn't there another way? (the kernel doesn't support SWAP, so maybe kernel update?)
As far as I know, flashing a ROM cannot brick the device (unless it harasses with Radio, which I really don't intend), so I can Always revert to backup and phone stays functional right?
Hi guys. I want to install a custom ROM on my Grand Quattro. But when i looked at them, I found out that moste are just interface improvements, without actual OS update. What's the problem here? The GQ's bootloader haven't been unlocked yet? Can't any ROM be ported? There is really no actual android update for this device?
Thanks already!
First of all, you should know a few things about Samsung.
1. They dont lock the bootloader, that's one of the reasons they're easy to deal and twiddle with. (The branded, carrier ones although however do, as they're Carrier property)
2. Their in-house processors, the Exynos family, have no documentation on how their built. meaning, developers cannot base their work correctly and have to go trial-and-error reverse engineering, it takes **** loads of time.
3. They don't give a single crap about their low-use phones and barely update them. The last update is a Jelly Bean release that is older then a year.
There is no space to criticize the devs for custom roms. They tried AOSP with no luck on reverse-engineering.
The only critic you can shoot is that the latest Stock ROM is not being used as a base.
PlutoDelic said:
First of all, you should know a few things about Samsung.
1. They dont lock the bootloader, that's one of the reasons they're easy to deal and twiddle with. (The branded, carrier ones although however do, as they're Carrier property)
2. Their in-house processors, the Exynos family, have no documentation on how their built. meaning, developers cannot base their work correctly and have to go trial-and-error reverse engineering, it takes **** loads of time.
3. They don't give a single crap about their low-use phones and barely update them. The last update is a Jelly Bean release that is older then a year.
There is no space to criticize the devs for custom roms. They tried AOSP with no luck on reverse-engineering.
The only critic you can shoot is that the latest Stock ROM is not being used as a base.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you sir for this explanation i finally understand the reason why no developer could do this ..
karedo said:
thank you sir for this explanation i finally understand the reason why no developer could do this ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try mete mod rom man nice rom
Sir how to install custom rom
I bought a Xperia C, a fairly popular model here in Brazil, but I just found out that it's bootloader was locked until some months ago, when Sony decided it was time to let people unlock it.s bootloader.
But now I see the phone has never receveid an update after Jelly Bean 4.2.x and no Custom ROM was ever developed for it (all ROM's that I found are just themed versions of the OEM 4.2 Jelly Bean).
So I decided that maybe I could build CM or AOSP for this device but after reading about the process I discovered that there's no device tree or vendor or kernel info available anywhere for this device.
I think this is all because Sony allowed the bootloader to be unlocked just now the phone is discontinued, so the possible developers this phone had moved away from it too quickly...
It's a shame, because it's indeed a good device, but it's stuck in a old firmware because of Sony's lack of support - same thing happened to the Xperia SP, another excellent device, which at least had an unlocked bootloader which allowed a lot of Custom ROM's to be developed.
So, I wish to know if there's any salvation for this device or if I should give up on it...
PS: I am a software developer, but I don't understand anything about android or Java. I'm willing to learn and develop ROM's for this device with someone's else help... I'll just need to find time to do that...
if your bootloader is unlocked the first step is compile a custom recovery, normally twrp that you can find tutorials in here. the kernel source code is always provided because of the linux open source license, I'm on the cellphone so I cant post links but search for the twrp compiling guide in here. i hope this helps
I'm someone who always buys the phone to flash an aosp rom like PE or LOS. what is the development potential in this phone? is it worth buying if I dont want features but jsut a clean aosp experience without bugs?
no absolutely not
Bad but there's better devices around. Especially the redmi k20
The flash tool for realme is still unreleased and you have to take your phone to service centre in case something goes wrong
Lengthy process to unlock bootloader
Kernel sources out of date
Encrypted ROMS that makes devs difficult to obtain files.
Overall, this is a namesake developer friendly device.