The BIG 2.1 Thread

[Fadelight]

Hey fellas. I've been reading a bit on 2.1, and I think I want to put it on my Droid. From what I've seen though, I haven't really been able to tell if you can use a Mac to root and flash to get to 2.1. Any help? I'd love to show the other employees at my Verizon store the new Android Hotness, lol.

I don't have a mac... otherwise I would jump right in. Seeing that you are an employee at VZ, I just wanted to double check and make sure you know that rooting your phone voids any and all warranties, right?

Of course, working for VZ, you can probably just buy another one much cheaper than the rest of us in the event something bad happens.

 

[CRPercodani]

You can use a mac, actually since osx is based of *nix it is actually a tad easier maybe. I don' know the exact instructions but check alldroid.org's Droid forums.

 

[Spaniard85]

Thanks guys. Yes I'm aware that will void my warranty, which is one of the final hurdles to me deiciding to install 2.1. I'll check out Alldroid and take a look around.

 

[Fadelight]

Thanks guys. Yes I'm aware that will void my warranty, which is one of the final hurdles to me deiciding to install 2.1. I'll check out Alldroid and take a look around.

I don't know if it will sway your decision or not, but I think perhaps v4 is the last version of 2.1 we will see for a while. The main dev who has been working on it is going away for military training in January.

 

[Spaniard85]

Is v4 the most stable thus far, or should I look to use another version with fixes?

Ah, I remember military training. I'm in the Air Force, so I feel for him, ha.

 

[Loon]

This is the biggest question I have about the Android platform as a whole. When newer versions of the OS are released, which phones get the update? Going by pasted updates (1.5 --> 1.6, 1.6 --> 2.0), it's up to the carrier.

When comparison to the IPhone(yes, I am going there), every IPhone gets the update. I wish Android would start like that. Hopefully, the *huge* changes that were made in 2.0 will allow any 2.0 phone to update to a newer version of the OS without the carrier getting involved other than to push it out.

Not every iphone can use the features in every update. The original cannot use MMS even though they made it so the newer ones can.

 

[Fadelight]

Is v4 the most stable thus far, or should I look to use another version with fixes?

Ah, I remember military training. I'm in the Air Force, so I feel for him, ha.

That answer will vary depending on the phone... everyone has a different answer.

I have had the best luck with V1 and my own patches, although the keyboard backlight is quite iffy.

 

[CRPercodani]

Is v4 the most stable thus far, or should I look to use another version with fixes?

Ah, I remember military training. I'm in the Air Force, so I feel for him, ha.

I have to agree that v1 is indeed the most stable yet, for me at least. I have put it up on 4shared so if you need to check my post back on page 7.

 

[jmccarthy14]

I have to agree that v1 is indeed the most stable yet, for me at least. I have put it up on 4shared so if you need to check my post back on page 7.

Gonna try this before I go back to 2.0.1 entirely. V4 was just too much choppier for me at times - even without live wallpaper enabled, and that plus some handcent issues and backlight still an issue for some reason, I'm leaving it.

Now if i could just dig up a thread with the how-tos on all the fixes to v1, i'd be set. Seems like they deleted em and just made the v4 thread..

EDIT: Found. With people swearing by 2.1 v 1 with manual fixes, I'll atleast give it a shot before I go back to 2.0.1

EDIT 2: This one is nice, but other than the live wallpaper fixes rapidshare is not letting me download rest, saying too high traffic try again later (over a period of laters), and must be premium to download, can't seem to make up its mind. I'll keep looking for good versions of the T-CDMA framework.res and build.prop for apps (and programming menu? not sure what this fix does), landscape fix, or probably most importantly the keyboard fix.

Wonder why they deleted the thread with the fixes...

 

[Fadelight]

I've been playing guinea pig for the dev of Root Explorer for the better part of the afternoon. I am VERY happy to report that it is up and working again. I can't say for sure exactly when he will be putting it up on market, but it is definitely an awesome feeling having it working again.

EDIT 2: This one is nice, but other than the live wallpaper fixes rapidshare is not letting me download rest, saying too high traffic try again later (over a period of laters), and must be premium to download, can't seem to make up its mind. I'll keep looking for good versions of the T-CDMA framework.res and build.prop for apps (and programming menu? not sure what this fix does), landscape fix, or probably most importantly the keyboard fix.

Wonder why they deleted the thread with the fixes...

I have you covered.

Patches.zip

 

[Explodatron]

I recently rooted my Moto Droid and installed 2.1. Everything went fine following the guide on these forums. I have heard that 2.1 is very fast but I am experiencing much slower speeds than the stock 2.0.1. Here is my phone info (from the About phone section):

1.) Model Number: Droid
2.) Firmware Version: 2.1
3.) Baseband Version: C_01.3E.01P
4.) Kernel Version: 2.6.29-omap1-g0dd7e0b android-build@apa26 #511
5.) Build Number: ERD72
Carrier: Verizon
Country: USA

One thing I noticed is much more memory being used for system processes, especially for the new launcher and the live wallpapers. With the basic system programs running and no 3rd party apps I have about 30mb free versus 60+ mb on 2.0.1 with many things running. Is anyone achieving better speeds than 2.0.1?

 

[Fadelight]

Like everyone else here who has experienced a major lag issue with 2.1, I am willing to bet you probably did not format the cache, system, and data partitions before the install.

 

[Explodatron]

Like everyone else here who has experienced a major lag issue with 2.1, I am willing to bet you probably did not format the cache, system, and data partitions before the install.

Actually I did just that. I don't know, I followed the instructions exactly. Do you have any suggestions on what I should do?

 

[CRPercodani]

How did you type it out? It should be like this format: SYSTEM

 

[Explodatron]

Oh I typed it like this from the instructions:

format DATA:
format SYSTEM:
format CACHE:

So it probably didn't format at all like you said. Do I need to start the entire process over? And what data will I lose from my SD card if it formats properly?

Oh and thanks for the quick reply.

 

[CRPercodani]

Your sd card will be fine, it doesn't touch that. You don't have to start the WHOLE process over, just need to boot into recovery then use ADB to do those commands, then do a fresh install from nandroid.

Hmmm......maybe it's because I did mine back when the first release came out and I forgot, but checking the release thread does indeed show it being format DATA: although I could swear I did it the other way.....

Try it anyway, if you get a error then I guess I was wrong, but that still doesn't explain why your getting so much lag. Fade you around?

 

[Explodatron]

This is what I get when I run adb and use the format you suggested.
"format: DATA
/system/bin/sh: format:: not found"

Should I just format it the other way and install nandroid again? Reinstalling apps is a pain lol.

 

[ocman]

Im moving back to 2.0.1 for a while myself. I was on V1 2.1 for a while. I think 2.0.1 may be faster as well. I will report back soon.

 

[Fadelight]

This is what I get when I run adb and use the format you suggested.
"format: DATA
/system/bin/sh: format:: not found"

Should I just format it the other way and install nandroid again? Reinstalling apps is a pain lol.

The most obvious thing to point out is that you should be in root when you try formatting. The second is that I am thinking you have your phone booted for this? You have to be in Recovery in order to do it.

Power the phone off, Press and hold X + Power until you get into the recovery screen. THEN open an adb shell and type...

format: DATA

format: CACHE

format: SYSTEM

 

[dirtbikerac]

I was wondering when the official OTA 2.1 update will be released for the Droid? I heard sometime January. Does anyone know if it will be like a New Years present? Or at the end of January?

From the videos of the new google phone (and you posters), it seems 2.1 is pretty stable.

 

[Barbara]

I was wondering when the official OTA 2.1 update will be released for the Droid? I heard sometime January. Does anyone know if it will be like a New Years present? Or at the end of January?

From the videos of the new google phone (and you posters), it seems 2.1 is pretty stable.

I've heard that there is an update that is coming January 22nd (Happy Birthday to me!) but the last update came out a bit earlier than the announced date. There is no word what the update will be. Many are speculating/hoping that it is 2.1.

 

[Explodatron]

The most obvious thing to point out is that you should be in root when you try formatting. The second is that I am thinking you have your phone booted for this? You have to be in Recovery in order to do it.

Power the phone off, Press and hold X + Power until you get into the recovery screen. THEN open an adb shell and type...

format: DATA

format: CACHE

format: SYSTEM

Yeah the phone is at the recovery screen when I'm in the adb shell.

This is my cmd prompt:

"C:\android\tools>adb shell
* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *
sh-3.2# format: DATA
format: DATA
sh: format:: command not found"

Am I missing something obvious?

 

[andrew53517]

I've heard that there is an update that is coming January 22nd (Happy Birthday to me!) but the last update came out a bit earlier than the announced date. There is no word what the update will be. Many are speculating/hoping that it is 2.1.

it has to be 2.1.... what else would it be? There are pretty much no more bugs on stock and everything is running smooth on 2.0.1. So it would be stupid to just send a small one out then we'd probably have to wait even LONGER to get 2.1 since they'd have to send it out a month later most-likely... It has to be 2.1!

Only thing is we have no information on it being 2.1 which sucks because everyone else (HTC and Tmobile) have announced their updates for their phone in the 1H but we can't get even a leak.. Oh well, maybe in a week or so we will hear something!

 

[cdodge]

Yeah the phone is at the recovery screen when I'm in the adb shell.

This is my cmd prompt:

"C:\android\tools>adb shell
* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *
sh-3.2# format: DATA
format: DATA
sh: format:: command not found"

Am I missing something obvious?

shouldnt you have : behind that data? like format data:

i cant remember off the top of my head but for some reason i think i had to do it that way

 

[travva]

yeah it's format DATA: format CACHE: format SYSTEM: should be quite obvious to linux geeks that format: isn't a system command.