Not even a week and I'm already overwhelmed with the ROM/Kernel choices! A few ???s

[jcardona1]

Man these guys waste no time. Phone hasn't even been out a week and there's already loads of custom ROMs and kernels. I feel like if I blink for too long I'll get left in the dust. I don't even know where to begin. I want to flash a 4.0.3 ROM and a new kernel to help with my battery life, so anybody have some suggestions? I don't like to be constantly flashing stuff, mainly because I need to wipe all data each time. Takes up too much of my time getting everything back to how it was, and I'm not using any backup apps, seems to do more harm than good in my experience.

- What ROM/kernel combo can you guys recommend?
- Any issues/bugs/things not working with your combo?
- What's the deal with all the Google Apps? Why do they need to be installed separately?
- Will flashing a custom ROM kill my NFC and Google Wallet and give me the security element error?
- What happens when Google pushes out the OTA update? Will I lose root/recovery/ROM/kernel?
- I've read that wiping data in CWM does NOT wipe the "SD card" partition, you'll only lose this when do you a factory reset within the Settings. Is wiping data/cache/dalvik from CWM enough? Or do I need to do a factory reset in the Settings too?
- If I do a factory reset, can I simply copy/paste my "SD card" files back again once the phone is up and running, including my CWM backups?

 

[tgyberg]

A couple to add if that's ok: Do we have an SBF yet? And kernels, let's say you get one that your phone doesnt like. How do you fix that? Will a nandroid back up get you back to stock including the kernel? Thanks!

 

[wil318466]

This is what I have installed, and I'm really happy.
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/ga...-8-hours-off-charger-84-battery-left-wow.html

I do agree that I don't like flashing constantly, but I do it just to try out new setups. The key is to have nandroid backups so you can revert back to what you liked. I make sure I do a nandroid backup every single time before I change something, it only takes 3-4 minutes to do and it saves a huge headache when something goes wrong.

- I'd go with any 4.0.3 rom compatible with an undervolted kernel. No question.
- I'm not seeing any bugs at all with regular usage, and I use everything.
- Google apps are installed seperately because I think Google asked developers to do it that way (started with CM developer I think) but I'm not positive. Not a big deal, they just didn't want all their software bundled into the roms.
- Not sure about google wallet, I haven't even messed with it yet.
- I don't think roms get OTA updates, but it doesn't matter because you can simply flash an updated rom with the new update.
- Just wiping data/cache/davlik is all I have ever done. Sometimes I don't even wipe data and see if it'll work, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, but a factory reset in settings is not necessary ever, I don't think.
- I haven't had my sd card wiped yet. I believe everything I've had is still on there. I do do a full phone backup every once in a while though, just incase I actually lose my phone or something weird like that. I try to do that once every few weeks. I did it with my old phone too. If you have any hangups about this, just do a full phone backup right now before you start messing around with things, and do a nandroid backup, reboot, copy the nandroid backup to your harddrive so you literally have EVERYTHING backed up and can restore how you wish.

I'm almost obsessive about it. I do a full titanium backup for my apps, do a full nandroid backup, do a full phone backup to my harddrive, then I happily go install roms and kernels. If anything bad happens, I revert, but the backups give me peace of mind. I know no matter what I do I can get all my stuff back.

The only thing I recommend is if you are new to this, don't do it during the day. I try to flash new roms and kernels at night, when I get very little emails/calls/texts. That way I don't get a text "lost" in the middle of my rom'ing. I've had issues in the past where I flash a new rom while at work or something and then all of a sudden I find myself without a usable phone few a few hours because I'm being interrupted or doing other things, and that sucked, but these things happen when you are a person who constantly fiddles with new builds.

Just prepare yourself the right way, and you can feel good about messing with it. Start with doing all your backups, then open up threads and follow the instructions to the letter. It's really much easier than it seems, and the Nexus is a pretty easy phone to tamper with. I had nightmares with my Fascinate, the Nexus is a breeze to flash/install things.

 

[Character Zero]

Ok let me take a stab at this

- What ROM/kernel combo can you guys recommend? - Any issues/bugs/things not working with your combo? - What's the deal with all the Google Apps? Why do they need to be installed separately? - Will flashing a custom ROM kill my NFC and Google Wallet and give me the security element error? - What happens when Google pushes out the OTA update? Will I lose root/recovery/ROM/kernel? - I've read that wiping data in CWM does NOT wipe the "SD card" partition, you'll only lose this when do you a factory reset within the Settings. Is wiping data/cache/dalvik from CWM enough? Or do I need to do a factory reset in the Settings too? - If I do a factory reset, can I simply copy/paste my "SD card" files back again once the phone is up and running, including my CWM backups?

1)I am using the 4.0.2 deodex with some mods. I am running the Touch My Wookie 0.3 kernel for 4.0.2. I have a profile for 350/350 when the screen is off, default otherwise. Be careful with kernels make sure they match the system (4.0.2, 4.0.3) 2)Love my combo. I tried 4.0.3 but had issues with bought apps (GTA 3) not showing up in the "My Apps" list, so I could not install it. 3)Google Apps (or GAPPS) is not delivered with the AOSP build ( I think) some devs add them in, some provide a separate package. 4)Don't know. 5)Not sure. You might lose root, but with this phone root can always be restored. Its not like the other devices where they are always trying to patch root. Its not an exploit, its built in. The OTA will update kernel and radio, don't think it touches the recovery. 6) A data/cache/dalvik is enough to flash. I wouldn't do the system reset because of it wiping the SD card. 7)Yes I am 99% sure this is correct.

A couple to add if that's ok: Do we have an SBF yet? And kernels, let's say you get one that your phone doesn't like. How do you fix that? Will a nandroid back up get you back to stock including the kernel? Thanks!

There are stock recovery files available if you were to get into a bootloop or something like that. So you can load the recovery files, get CWM back, and then restore your nandroid and be back up and running with the kernel (the backup includes the kernel). I am not sure if the recovery process wipes the SD card so you might want to backup your nandroids somewhere periodically.

 

[scdown]

@jcardona,

I'm in the process of doing TiPro app & nandroid system backups after dropping the EK06/EK04 radios and bootloader update.

From there, I plan to try Android Revolution HD, with it's 3.0.9 kernel, and go from there. Will report back on Google Wallet config. I'm hoping TIPro will get all of that correctly.

What happens with the OTA depends upon the ROM - if the ROM is configured to block updates you won't get it. If it takes the update, you'll get the OTA, but probably lose root. I would expect the next OTA to update radios/kernel/ROM.

If you use Android Revolution HD, there's a "super wipe" script that's run as an update before the install. you need something like that coming from stock (wipe data/cache/dalvik).

 

[BenLand150]

Right now, it seems the Relocking bootloader is working as our SBF. Completely wipes your phone. And yes, a nandroid will fix it.

When you wipe data, the CWR version will suffice.
When an OTA update comes out, yes you will likely lose all your stuff(not sdcard, though), but not root(sometimes you do lose it), and not to sure about the kernel, especially if updating from a ROM. If you're on a ROM, you won't get the OTA update.
The copy and paste thing seems to work for me, that's how I transferred stuff from my D1/D3.

I'd tell you my combo, but every time I flash something, something new comes out like right after so I haven't had like any time to really test it. Hopefully something comes out I can keep on my phone for quite a while.

 

[czerdrill]

Man these guys waste no time. Phone hasn't even been out a week and there's already loads of custom ROMs and kernels. I feel like if I blink for too long I'll get left in the dust. I don't even know where to begin. I want to flash a 4.0.3 ROM and a new kernel to help with my battery life, so anybody have some suggestions? I don't like to be constantly flashing stuff, mainly because I need to wipe all data each time. Takes up too much of my time getting everything back to how it was, and I'm not using any backup apps, seems to do more harm than good in my experience.

- What ROM/kernel combo can you guys recommend?
- Any issues/bugs/things not working with your combo?
- What's the deal with all the Google Apps? Why do they need to be installed separately?
- Will flashing a custom ROM kill my NFC and Google Wallet and give me the security element error?
- What happens when Google pushes out the OTA update? Will I lose root/recovery/ROM/kernel?
- I've read that wiping data in CWM does NOT wipe the "SD card" partition, you'll only lose this when do you a factory reset within the Settings. Is wiping data/cache/dalvik from CWM enough? Or do I need to do a factory reset in the Settings too?
- If I do a factory reset, can I simply copy/paste my "SD card" files back again once the phone is up and running, including my CWM backups?

- From my understanding there hasn't been an official 4.0.3 pushed for the Nexus, so the 4.0.3 ROMs may have bugs. Right now the nexus is up to 4.0.2 and I've been using Android Revolution which is built off that base (it's really just a stock ROM with some enhancements by the dev).
- I haven't had any issues with the ROM since its latest update
- I'm guessing because they are all available in the Market now so they aren't just flashed to /system anymore? Not really sure why though to be honest
- This I don't know. I will say this, I had Google Wallet on Android Revolution ROM 1.1.1 and updated it to 1.1.2 and it still works. I can't say for certain though that if you move to a completely new ROM built off 4.0.3 that it'll still work...
- I don't think you'll be able to install the OTA with a custom recovery. It'll fail upon installation as far as I know like the D1 days. If you want to receive and install official OTAs I assume you'd have to go back to stock, unrooted with stock recovery.
- There's a super wipe lite script available on xda which does it for you without touching the sdcard partition, however what you described sounds like it wouldn't touch it either. Not certain though...
- yes, if you backup your sdcard partition to your computer you can just paste it back into the sdcard partition after a wipe

 

[jcardona1]

Thanks for the tips folks. Think I'll wait it out a few more days and see what else comes up. Seems like these ROMs and kernels are being updated daily