Root Cm7 problems

[donluz]

Run Glitch kernel with Cm7, it makes for a whole new phone experience!

I have read other posts to agree with this. I have some questions / concerns however. Perhaps you can shed some light on?

1. I find CM7 near-perfect. However, there are several issues that keep it from scoring a full 10 of 10...

a) upon making/answering a call, the volume is blasting and must be quickly turned down and back up to avoid ear damage.

b) the speakerphone sux. I can hear the other party, but they complain entire conversation about background noise / static.

c) phone powers off or becomes unusable (screen won't come back on) after I've just used it for something (e.g. call, browse, etc.) It's weird and annoying. It requires a battery pull or 3-finger. I have tried to decipher catlog, but the best I see is something about RTLC which to the best of my knowledge relates to the radio.

d) the strength indicator of the wireless connection and often the 3G shows very low even within 20 feet of a router. Standing on the router will give a 100% signal however. The data connection (wifi or 3G) does seem to drop randomly and I only know to airplane mode and back to fix (or reboot).

e) continuous ringing noise in background upon receiving a call. I can hear it, but caller cannot - quite annoying.

That is all I can think of now. It seems most/all of these relate to the radio that comes with CM7. My limited research on that is that others experience similar problems.

I've read about the Glitch kernel (which looks like it's up to v13.1 now) and it sounds promising for speed, but I wonder if it will help to fix ANY/all of these issues? Will it help with the radio?

Also, right now I can take my SD card out and put into computer and read its contents. My understanding with Glitch is that it changes the file structure such that my computer would no longer read it. Is this true and if so, what are repercussions / considerations?

Lastly... prior to flashing CM7 (which was my first and only flash and I did so with much anxiety but was quickly relieved), I did a nandroid backup. I did this per everyone's recommendation, but also because if I ever need to return phone, I can restore phone to Verizon stock.

My question I cannot seem to find clarity on is how many nandroid backups get stored? If it's 1 then that means if I do a backup prior to any additional flashes (e.g. Glitch), then I would lose my Verizon stock nandroid to be over written with CM7 (because that is what I am now running). is this the case? I'm afraid to lose that Verizon stock backup.

I have the Samsung Fascinate, FYI and I am a big fan of CM7 now that I have taken the leap of faith. But my knowledge in this arena of ROMs and Kernels and Radios and PIT and Odin, etc. is very limited. If Verizon's stock didn't suck so badly, drain my battery and force unnecessary software, I would never have worried about changing. So glad people like the ones at CM, Glitch, etc. are willing and able to help the rest of us poor souls.

Thank you for any feedback / input.

 

[imp81318]

donluz, your phone will store as many backups as you create until you run out of storage on your phone/sd card. You can also copy them to your computer and delete from phone to make space availalbe since they are large memory hogs.

I would caution, however, attempting to re-flash to the stock nandroid backup to return the phone- my understanding is that there are some core underlying pieces of data that indicate the phone has been rooted that you cannot get rid of. This is why all of the ROMs and rooting guides start out with the disclaimer that your warranty will be rooted. I do not believe there is a way to get back to TRUE stock for warranty purposes.

I have not had most of the troubles that you're experiencing on my Incredible. The only problem I had been having was that the speaker would not re-activate after disconnecting my bluetooth headset if I had used bluetooth voice dialing. I flashed to the latest nightly build and that solved this issue for me.

The one issue that I do share with you is poor performance of WIFI and 3G service. I am thinking about flashing a different radio but I haven't been able to find much in the way of recommendations. I'm also new to rooting, and I am loving CM7 so far- my phone is running faster and it solved several issues I'd been having with the phone stock!

For anyone that cares to answer, what exactly is the 'launcher' and what does it do? Also, what does incredikernel do/change that makes it so great? I've seen a lot of people recommending to flash it but I don't understand why other than 'it is better'?

 

[lightningdude]

imp, incredikernel is something that you'd have to ask about in the incredible forums, rather than the Fascinate forums.

donluz, as far as your problems are concerned, let's see if I can bang through them quickly and painlessly.

First of all, the volume at answering the phone is like that with all mtd roms. CM7 is an mtd rom, as is MIUI, and a few others. Nothing currently exists to fix that problem. Instead, as soon as you go in-call, press volume down once, then back up, and you'll be where you want to be.

Secondly, the Glitch team has been working on trying to get the speakerphone echo to go away, but as far as I know, haven't been able to completely. Again, many people have that problem and have yet to see a true solution.

Third, you may want to check what version of CM7 you are on, or perhaps do a reflash. The CM7 stable is one of the nightlies that was determined to be fully working, but since it was just a nightly, the newer nightlies are even better. I haven't had any of that stuff happen to me for a long time, but I know where you're coming from. Just update your rom and you should be fine.

Fourthly, this problem can most likely be solved by flashing a new radio. Currently, the highest radio for the Fascinate is EH03. The walkthrough to get this done is a bit extensive, so I will link you to it. Here, you can find instructions to installing Odin, grabbing the files you need, and flashing it all to your device.

And for five, what you are hearing is called the phantom ring. While rare for most people, it can be quite common for others. Again, update your rom/radio, and you should be fine. The Glitch kernel also does some tweaking in regards to this.

While imp is right about loading your stock backup, if you were able to make a backup of your phone, you weren't stock, you were rooted. The only way to get back to stock without custom recovery is through the link I provided. With that method, it is completely possible to get back to warranty standards.

And to reaffirm what imp got correct, you can make as many backups as your phone's sd card will allow. They are large directories that can take up to 500mb each, so you may want to watch how many you actually store. However, you can transfer them to your pc and back at any time. Your backups will be in a dated folder in your clockworkmod folder on your sd card. Just transfer the folder and its contents and you'll be fine!

The Glitch kernel does absolutely nothing to the filesystem of your sd card. I believe the information you have heard is actually in regards to your phone's filesystem, which was changed when you flashed CM7. It doesn't hurt your phone, nor does it cause any user problems in trying to find things. The speed benefits to Glitch is that you are able to over/underclock and undervolt your device. I'd suggest you read thoroughly about these terms in relation to your phone's cpu before you attempt anything. It can be found in the Glitch thread in the xda-developers' forum. Frankly, you'll find a lot more information there than you will here.

By the way, it's so much easier to mess with your sd card by plugging your phone into your computer and enabling usb storage. You won't have to pop the back off your phone, and you won't have to stick it in an adapter to use it.

Oh, and imp, the launcher is the home app. It's what gives you a homescreen, app drawer (if you have one), it launches your apps, and basically allows you to use your phone. To summarize, your launcher is pretty much just your phone's gui.

 

[donluz]

will a reflash of CM7 (i'm running 112 nightie) require 1) nandroid and 2) wipe my existing apps/data/go launcher settings? need I do cache cleaning first? Also, does wiping dalvik or other cache lose any apps/data or just gets rebuilt by system?

 

[lightningdude]

Dalvik cache, as I understand it, is built as things get installed. It's not necessary for running anything at all, which is why it is recommended to clean it every so often.

When you reflash CM7, you will want to wipe everything. If you're worried about losing all your apps and such, use Titanium Backup (on the market) to backup the app and data. But as a warning, when you restore those apps, only restore the app and app data, do not restore system data.

Instead of sticking with CM7 112, there is been a team of independent developers that has been building their own nightlies from the updates to the code for CM7. (As I'm sure you've noticed, there are no more nightlies being released for CM7 by the CyanogenMod team, as they're working on CM9) You can find a thread about these builds here.

As previously stated, it's good to clear all caches every once in a while, it keeps your phone running smoothly. It may take a while for certain things to start up on the first try after clearing, but overall, your phone will fly. The only thing that will delete your apps and such is wiping data. Because of your problems, I recommend this, so you'll need to restore your apps somehow.

And finally, a nandroid will not be necessary unless you are worried about wiping everything and reflashing. Again, using Titanium Backup will save you the horror of redoing all of your apps and app settings.

 

[donluz]

Thank you so much! Your replies are very succinct and straightforward.

I am unsure what I would gain by using the KANG build. I looked in its features and everything sounds cosmetic. I would be inclined to try it if it addressed the radio issues I mentioned (ring volume, speakerphone, etc.).

I'm trying out the latest radio you recommended, EH03. Too soon to tell if any improvements on that.

I do have Titanium and figured I'd need to do that backup prior to a re-flash of CM7. I wonder though why I would need to re-flash if the software was loaded once, how would it be different? Errors took place during first flash? See what I mean. But I can try it easily enough I think. Just Titanium backup, wipe caches, flash CM7 and restore Titanium (but not system data).

If I've missed something on KANG, let me know.

Thanks again for your time and efforts!

 

[lightningdude]

You'd be surprised how often a simple reflash of a rom will take care of problems. I can't really say for the specifics, but it seems like it simply is a case of a bad flash sometimes. Radio problems will be fixed with radio and Glitch, and as for the Kang builds, the guy that makes them picks his own updates to implement. If you want to see all of the updates that he's had available to him, check here.

I used to be on CM7, but I run MIUI right now, which has a totally different look than CM7. The people over on XDA are usually really helpful if you have specific questions about the Kang builds, but if you have less than 10 posts, you can't post in the development forums. Given that, you'll probably just have to pm the developer or one of the other helpful people in the thread.

Titanium Backup, wipe caches and data, then flash and restore apps. Good luck and happy flashing!

 

[donluz]

Hello again. It is I and I am getting frustrated. Perhaps you or someone can shed some light on what's happening.

I have cleaned and re-flashed CM7. I am on the KANG mod and have flashed the Glitch 13.1 (it's an update as of this month to enable LED notifications). The radio is EH03 and all seems fine... for a while.

At some point, I will come back to my phone to use it and the power button won't turn on the screen. The most recent experience is that the LEDs are on and if a call comes in, I can hear it ring, but no screen at all. If a message comes in, the LEDs remain on. Hitting the power button turns off the LEDs; hitting it again turns on the LEDs, but entire time... no screen. I have to battery pull or 3-finger to reset.

I've tried to ascertain some useful information from the CATLOG program, but that's must require a degree I do not possess. I even turned on Catlog in the Glitch recovery area, but am not sure how to use and wonder if it relates to the Catlog program I got from the market.

This all happened similarly (can't remember the LED part) prior to my re-flashing and I had hoped the reflashing would help, especially with Glitch on top of it all.

Basically, the phone seems like it's on, but I cannot get the screen on to do anything. But while I am using the phone (once it's on with a fresh boot), the phone works just fine.

At one point I thought a particular program/service might be screwing things up, but not sure how to track that down if that's the issue.

Any input would be most appreciated. I would really like to stick with CM7 (until 9 has run its course and assuming Galaxy S (Fascinate) will be supported) if possible.

Thank you!

 

[lightningdude]

Quite honestly, I'm not sure how to fix that problem. I, too, have had that happen, but on very rare occasions. Alas, when presented with that problem I simply do a battery pull and fire the phone back up. And so, I can understand your frustration.

What is the frequency of this occurring? If it's once in a great while, as it happened for me, it may just be something you'll have to deal with. If it's more frequent than that, may I suggest searching the Glitch thread for something related, and possibly the CM7 Kang thread, as well. You may not find anything in the Kang thread, and if not, it doesn't hurt to PM either makelegs or any one of the other knowledgeable people in that thread.

In this instance, I would like to help, but my knowledge is limited. But it is my belief that if you can't help someone directly, direct them to someone who can. Good luck!