Zoandroid
Android Expert
This is interesting. I didn't realize the Ally uses a mounted cpu cooler. Did you take any pictures, or document the disassembly process? I have not yet opened mine up.
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This is interesting. I didn't realize the Ally uses a mounted cpu cooler. Did you take any pictures, or document the disassembly process? I have not yet opened mine up.
Hey guys, notice some of you are having problems and I think I can help. I've been running 0.4 for a bit now, and I've reinstalled it several times because of apparent errors eventually arising in A2SD. For the large part I think this is simply the A2SD in velocity needing a few kinks worked out, but I've also found that using the following install procedure fixes a lot of these problems.
Side Note: For anyone who's phone keeps freezing at the red eye screen and infinite looping, other than a corrupt rom/bad flash another possible cause is an incorrectly partitioned sd card (not sure exactly how many ways there are for this to happen, mine was caused by accidentally setting a 32mg swap on class 4 card). In this case reflash, pull the card, and reboot. Once the system is booted you can put it back in.
For this tutorial I am assuming that you're already rooted, also this requires a computer and usb cable.
Step 1: Download velocity 0.4 rom to your computer
Step 2: Download rom manager to your ally
Step 3: Flash clockwork recovery, reboot
Step 4: Partition your SD card, to do this I suggest using gparted if you're familiar with it and have an ubuntu live cd but you can also do it by flashing alternate recovery and using amon ra to partition the card and upgrade to ext4.
Step 4b: If you used amon_ra to partition the sd card, boot up and redownload rom manager. Flash clockwork and reboot.
Step 5: Open up clockwork recovery
Step 6: Clear data, cache, and dalvik cache
Step 7(optional, if you used gparted don't worry about this with amon ra it might help): Format SD card in clockwork, this should leave sd-ext intact.
Step 8: toggle usb/ms, copy velocity 0.4 to your sd card
step 9: flash velocity 0.4, reboot
Since I've done this I have had no problems with a2sd or velocity, both titanium backup and adb confirm that a2sd is working and the phone has completely stopped having force quit errors
Side Note: For anyone who's phone keeps freezing at the red eye screen and infinite looping, other than a corrupt rom/bad flash another possible cause is an incorrectly partitioned sd card (not sure exactly how many ways there are for this to happen, mine was caused by accidentally setting a 32mg swap on class 4 card). In this case reflash, pull the card, and reboot. Once the system is booted you can put it back in.
For this tutorial I am assuming that you're already rooted, also this requires a computer and usb cable.
Step 1: Download velocity 0.4 rom to your computer
Step 2: Download rom manager to your ally
Step 3: Flash clockwork recovery, reboot
Step 4: Partition your SD card, to do this I suggest using gparted if you're familiar with it and have an ubuntu live cd but you can also do it by flashing alternate recovery and using amon ra to partition the card and upgrade to ext4.
Step 4b: If you used amon_ra to partition the sd card, boot up and redownload rom manager. Flash clockwork and reboot.
Step 5: Open up clockwork recovery
Step 6: Clear data, cache, and dalvik cache
Step 7(optional, if you used gparted don't worry about this with amon ra it might help): Format SD card in clockwork, this should leave sd-ext intact.
Step 8: toggle usb/ms, copy velocity 0.4 to your sd card
step 9: flash velocity 0.4, reboot
Since I've done this I have had no problems with a2sd or velocity, both titanium backup and adb confirm that a2sd is working and the phone has completely stopped having force quit errors
Zoandroid
Android Expert
After getting all that in place, do you find that you can still use ROM Mgr? I had to stop using it after flashing Velocity 0.4, because when I opened it the little circle graphic to indicate "working" never stopped spinning in ROM Mgr. I even waited 20 minutes once with ROM Mgr. running and it never stopped spinning. So I switched to RA Recovery and uninstalled ROM Mgr. No problems since doing that.
k.c.cole
Android Enthusiast
@zoandroid- it's been my experience that it's easier to use the clockwork to install the amon ra recovery, then uninstall it. I like the recovery better and clockwork is a bit of a pain.
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Does the spinning circle appear at the bottom or as a popup? If it's at the bottom it' sbecause vel4 blocks ads by default.
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Does the spinning circle appear at the bottom or as a popup? If it's at the bottom it' sbecause vel4 blocks ads by default.
This post got passed over without any response so...I wanna try again.
Zoandroid
Android Expert
It's at the bottom until you scroll all the way down. Then it moves to the top. Now that you mention it, someone else suggested this too, and it does track with how ads display in other ad-ware apps. So that might not actually be a sign of malfunction.
However, when I tried to use ROM Mgr. to flash "alternate recovery" Amon-RA it screwed up my Ally and got it hung in "limbo" between RA and CW, and then the only way out was to spend an hour doing a manual installation of RA in terminal emulator, being talked through the process in chat by our beloved Dots. So I am still a little disenchanted with ROM Mgr. I had tried uninstalling and reinstalling it and that didn't make any difference at the time.
I later saw a post by Trident saying he was thinking about discontinuing support for ROM Mgr under Velocity, so he must also be seeing something going on between the two.
netizenmt
Android Enthusiast
I keep saying it - STOP using ROM Manager. It used to be great; now it's a piece of crap. I had exactly the same problem of having ROM Manager totally screw up my recovery and having to fix it manually. I've tried multiple times with each of the last several updates and it always ends up trashing the recovery. So unless you want to scare the crap out of yourself and spend countless hours of frustration, STOP using ROM Manager.
Matt's 175
Well-Known Member
GRZLA
Android Enthusiast
Zoandroid
Android Expert
BAMARTIN03
Member
I can vouche for that...
Is it just me or is this extremely buggy? I followed the instructions perfectly, but it's so laggy, slow, tons of force closes and restarts itself like 2-3 times a day. I don't know if I should go back to the stock ROM (because it worked better) or try to reflash it with this again. Anyone else run into problems like this?
swc2001
Android Expert
I too unfortunately have had this same exact issue.
Velocity 0.3 was always rock solid.
I am not sure what the difference is.
While, that may be true, and I am not questioning the veracity of the statement, what's the alternative to getting a new recovery ROM to bootstrap the new ROM installs?
Or, are you just saying to stop using ROM manager to do the custom ROM installs?
BAMARTIN03
Member
everyone is. as far as i see, it nearly screwed me over big time.. luckily I was pointed to another way to get into recovery.
netizenmt
Android Enthusiast
I'm saying to learn how to use other methods, even if they require a bit more effort. My experience has been that ROM Manager stopped performing as expected several version ago. I've tried it with various ROMS, and it doesn't work right with any of them, so I don't -think- it's the ROMS.
I suppose it is possible that it might have something to do with the kernel or the SW version. I'm not technically savvy enough to say what it is exactly, but it's just not a good app for the Ally anymore. Might be fine on a different phone. My comments were intended specifically for the Ally users who are using the most common/recent/popular custom ROMs currently available.
NOTE: This next comment is meant to be taken at least somewhat humorously. Thank you.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome."
I suppose it is possible that it might have something to do with the kernel or the SW version. I'm not technically savvy enough to say what it is exactly, but it's just not a good app for the Ally anymore. Might be fine on a different phone. My comments were intended specifically for the Ally users who are using the most common/recent/popular custom ROMs currently available.
NOTE: This next comment is meant to be taken at least somewhat humorously. Thank you.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome."
One "quirk" I've noted about the Velocity ROM (And, it's not the ROM so much, as it is a2sd function):
On boot, once you get to the unlock screen, you MUST wait for the "Preparing SD Card" to finish. If you are "too quick" and unlock the screen prior to that, the phone will reboot.
Again, it's not a problem with the ROM, specifically, but a quirk that is to be expected with a2sd, since some of your apps are now on the SD card, and not immediately available.
On boot, once you get to the unlock screen, you MUST wait for the "Preparing SD Card" to finish. If you are "too quick" and unlock the screen prior to that, the phone will reboot.
Again, it's not a problem with the ROM, specifically, but a quirk that is to be expected with a2sd, since some of your apps are now on the SD card, and not immediately available.
Zoandroid
Android Expert
I hadn't noticed this, so I just tested it. Both with powering down and booting up, as well as powering down, booting to Amon RA Recovery, and then rebooting back to Velocity. In both cases I can unlock the screen as soon as it becomes possible. However, I never see the "Preparing SD card" when booting simply from the power switch. When booting from RA, at first the unlock 'buttons' are unresponsive (while it says "no service") and tapping them doesn't work, but as soon as they became responsive I was able to unlock the ally before the "Preparing SD card" showed at the top, and it didn't reboot or give me any problems.
I wonder if it also has to do with what apps a person has put on the SD card with A2SD, or if someone moves their swap file to the SD card ( I did not do that)?
v3 ran fine on my phone, tried 4 and it eats my battery like crazy.....everything seems to work unlike what some of the other posts are dealing with (I dont have a lot of apps on my phone, very basic, low usage install).
Punisher was the last rom I was using and battery check shows android system at 3%, under v4 is is 65%....I assume something is running wild but can't seem to pinpoint it...I like having the latest and greatest, but I need a battery to last more than 6 hours with practically no usage, downloading, etc. With punisher I can run all day and plug in at night with over 50% battery still available
I have tried all the standard fixes, reflashed a few times, cleared all the caches, etc but no luck, all installs are the same programs and options so nothing is different there.....any ideas as to what might be going on??
thanks in advance for any suggestions...this is a great comminuty!!
Scott
Punisher was the last rom I was using and battery check shows android system at 3%, under v4 is is 65%....I assume something is running wild but can't seem to pinpoint it...I like having the latest and greatest, but I need a battery to last more than 6 hours with practically no usage, downloading, etc. With punisher I can run all day and plug in at night with over 50% battery still available
I have tried all the standard fixes, reflashed a few times, cleared all the caches, etc but no luck, all installs are the same programs and options so nothing is different there.....any ideas as to what might be going on??
thanks in advance for any suggestions...this is a great comminuty!!
Scott
Matt's 175
Well-Known Member
+1
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