OG droid user looking to upgrade

[haywood801]

Hi, I have a droid 1 that I hired someone to root and install a custom rom on a few years ago. I never messed with it because it worked so perfectly. the rom was called Ultimate Droid.
recently I started getting very bogged down so I started reading this forum and learning. I now have a lightning fast rooted OG Droid running UD 3.3.1 for GB 2.3.3. well as lightning fast as it can get I think. my point is I like stripped down roms and simple effective GUI's.

My question is this: I really like UD and is it possible to install BACK to GingerBread on the D4?

it sounds easy to root, so will RomManager work the same on D4? can I back up my phone image the same, etc. i dont care one bit about the warranty "spookies"

thanks, JP

 

[guidot]

ROM manager does not work the same on the new locked devices.

And gingerbread is what is installed on the D4 so I'm not sure what you mean about "back to GB. "

Sent from the best 3G phone on Verizon.

 

[haywood801]

youre right it has 2.3.5
so what happens if I flash UD to this device? is it possible?

 

[JeffDenver]

Hi, I have a droid 1 that I hired someone to root and install a custom rom on a few years ago. I never messed with it because it worked so perfectly. the rom was called Ultimate Droid.

Ultimate Droid (aka Blackdroid) was probably the best ROM I ever used on the Droid 1. The only reason I switched at all is because he stopped supporting it. But it was a great ROM.

Generally, a ROM has to be tailored to a specific phone. The phones all have different hardware (Camera, Radios, ect...) and the ROM has to be tweaked to use them. If the author does not say he supports your device specifically, I would strongly advise against flashing it on that device.

I dont know if it would brick your phone, but I seriously doubt most of the hardware would work. Certainly your camera and GPS would not work.

 

[haywood801]

ah fair enough. so the hardware all depends on that too. so when I flash a custom ROM, it is a full os? i just figured the customizations were little tweaks of the main OS and the drivers stayed in place... more reading and fiddling required.
I can see how this gets addictive.

so what is the most efficient way to run a D4? I want 4G and a physical keyboard otherwise Id just upgrade to a D2 and put my trusty UD setup on it. Im not much for all the "latest" I just want the thing to work good and be reliable.

 

[chefboyardee]

ah fair enough. so the hardware all depends on that too. so when I flash a custom ROM, it is a full os? i just figured the customizations were little tweaks of the main OS and the drivers stayed in place... more reading and fiddling required.
I can see how this gets addictive.

so what is the most efficient way to run a D4? I want 4G and a physical keyboard otherwise Id just upgrade to a D2 and put my trusty UD setup on it. Im not much for all the "latest" I just want the thing to work good and be reliable.

OG Droid Power user here, but have not written my own ROMs or anything. But I did put a new ROM on my OG D1 every week or other week since it was rooted (until a week ago when I got the D4). The ROMs are indeed a full OS replacement. I know Pete (bugless beast) usually just tweaked existing source (as you mentioned). To the best of my knowledge some ROM writers (Cyanogen comes to mind) seriously overhauled the entire OS from source. I might have to try UD on my D1, I landed on Liquid Smooth as my daily driver but spent a lot of time trying Cyanogen nightlies. It IS addictive, you're right!

I wouldn't mess with ROMs until there are very well tested methods of putting them on there. Multiple people have been playing with D1-like recovery and have bricked their phone on this and other forums. Yikes! See post 2 and 23 here:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-4-hacks/198009-droid-4-cwm-rom-manager-safe-strap.html

I'm running my D4 with the stock rom, rooted, not over- or under-clocked. I have a few Smart Actions set up for battery saving. I am in HEAVEN and have had a flawless experience on the D4 so far, which is amazing because like you, I loved my D1 but over time it just got buggy and slow (probably because I was putting so many new ROMs on all the time).

I don't see a burning need to do any heavy tweaking just yet. This thing is fast, and I mean lightning fast. Sometimes I feel like it starts doing what I want before I even touch it, that's how fast it is.

 

[JeffDenver]

ah fair enough. so the hardware all depends on that too. so when I flash a custom ROM, it is a full os?

Well, it works in a way similar to a simplified version of Windows. You can install windows on any PC, but you still need drivers and stuff. It isnt that complicated with Android, but it is complicated enough that ROM makers cant just make a universal ROM for all phones. They often support more than one model (cyanogen supports a lot) but they are specific models.

As Droid 1 owners we were spoiled because there were so many Droids out there it was basically the default Android phone. It will not be like that with the Droid 4 for sure. You will be getting table scraps at the kids table instead of eating with the grown ups on the good china. Thats just a consequence of how successful Android has become.

So what is the most efficient way to run a D4?

I know a lot of people love stock. I am not a lot of people though, and I don't like Motoblur at all. But if I had one, I would be running GoLauncher EX. Go Launcher has a lot of the same tweaks that UD had. I love the swipe gesture support (I have mine set up so that swiping up toggles the notification bar on or off, and swiping down toggles the dock bar on or off...it is real slick). The amount of customization that GoLauncher allows it pretty staggering, and it works flawlessly. I think UD had LauncherPro installed as the default launcher, and GoLauncher can be made to look exactly like LauncherPro now. I would also install Android Pro Widgets and Beautiful Widgets. Between those three apps, you will have a pallette of everything you need IMO.

I want 4G and a physical keyboard otherwise Id just upgrade to a D2 and put my trusty UD setup on it. Im not much for all the "latest" I just want the thing to work good and be reliable.

IMO, you can have that with the Droid 4. And while the Droid 4 is not my favorite phone, I would definitely prefer it to a Droid 2 or 3 any day. And it does have probably the best hardware keyboard out there right now. Certainly it's keyboard is far superior to any previous Droid phone...coming from the Droid 1 it would probably seem like heaven.

The days of the Nexus One and Droid 1 are gone. All phones will involve compromise now. All of them are missing something and all of them have different strengths.

 

[JeffDenver]

I don't see a burning need to do any heavy tweaking just yet. This thing is fast, and I mean lightning fast. Sometimes I feel like it starts doing what I want before I even touch it, that's how fast it is.

Ditto.

I was shocked at just how fast these new phones are compared to the Droid 1. Even my overclocked Droid 1 (1ghz) is like a snail by comparison. I don't think it is the CPU so much as the RAM...these phones have four times(!) the RAM the Droid 1 had. There are no longer load times...stuff just starts immediately when you launch it.

 

[dvsmno]

Funny you mention UD, used to be a big fan of his roms till his gingerbread roms. But I'm using go launcher with my d4 and like amount tweaks/ options.

Sent from my DROID4 using DroidForums

 

[chefboyardee]

But if I had one, I would be running GoLauncher EX. Go Launcher has a lot of the same tweaks that UD had. I love the swipe gesture support (I have mine set up so that swiping up toggles the notification bar on or off, and swiping down toggles the dock bar on or off...it is real slick). The amount of customization that GoLauncher allows it pretty staggering, and it works flawlessly.

I had gone back and forth between ADW Launcher and LauncherPro on my D1 until a friend recommended GOLauncherEx on the D4, which I am now in love with. The gestures are probably my favorite part. I have mine set for the home screen to swipe up to open the app drawer, and down to open the notifications. And I love that, like LauncherPro, I can have gestures on the dock icons too. So, my gmail icon is tap for gmail, swipe up for corporate email. Tap phone for dialing, swipe for contacts. Etc. So awesome.

I was shocked at just how fast these new phones are compared to the Droid 1. Even my overclocked Droid 1 (1ghz) is like a snail by comparison. I don't think it is the CPU so much as the RAM...these phones have four times(!) the RAM the Droid 1 had. There are no longer load times...stuff just starts immediately when you launch it.

Yeah I was pretty blown away, I mean I know RAM is a big deal, but I had my D1 overclocked to 1.2ghz at some points when I got annoyed with app launching delay, so I thought it would be at least relatively fast in spite of the 256mb RAM...but the D4 really does make the D1 look like a bucket of suck in comparison. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely *loved* my D1...it's just that the D4 is so, so much better.

And I didn't realize how difficult it was to type on the D1's keyboard until I started using the D4. I've probably doubled my typing speed (which was pretty darn fast to begin with) in the first week of use. Again, not that the D1 was that bad, just that this one is so GOOD!