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Help Requested behaviour from ace, possible?

chrcol

Well-Known Member
Hi.

I have came from a nokia 6300 to the galaxy ace. Slowly getting used to the change of interface from buttons to touch screen however in terms of functionality I feel its lacking in some areas and would like to know if this possible either via apps or core features.

1 - On the nokia I had multiple profiles which controlled things like power saving, ring tones, volume etc. It seems on the ace there is no such feature so to put the phone in silent is a hassle (I cant use the drag down bar one touch silent mode, explained further on). I would like a quick button to press to choose a profile that has predefined notification and ringer tones.
2 - On the nokia I was configured like this.
Silent ringing by default.
Silent sms by default.
Contacts from work able to ring me with a ring tone bypassing the silent.
I can do this on the ace but I had to goto the sound options and select a silent ring tone and silent notification tone, instead of simply putting the phone in mute mode because otherwise it also stopped the work contacts from ringing as well. In addition my work contacts still have a silent text messaging tone. To change these settings is a bit long winded as I have to goto the tiled area, touch settings, then goto sound, then ring tones, then change,then do same for notification tones. Much more work than toggling a profile.
3 - On the nokia when i had a text message waiting it flashed its side light at set intervals so I knew without noise or manually checking it there was either a missed call or a text message. I have found no way to do have this function on the ace. I have to unlock it and check if any messages or missed calls.

Also do things like photos save to the SD card by default?

Thats it for now ;) I think everything else I am happy with so far. I disabled 3g, disabled apps background syncing, disabled gps and the battery seems set to last for days as after 1 day its still got all bars full.

Also if anyone has a reccomendation for a way to stop the screen been so smeared that be great, maybe a protective cover or something?
 
Welcome to the Dark Side!

The answer to your questions is that apps are your new best friends.....

Profiles can be created & managed, but on a stock phone it will need to be by way of an app. I have profiles built into my ROM, so don't need one, but a quick look on the Market shows Profile Scheduler scoring well.
As for LED notifications, sadly it won't work because there is no LED! There are 2 ways around this that I know of. One involves flashing your phone with a certain ROM that causes the Home button light to flash, but you'll void your warranty through the flashing procedure. The other is another Market app.... NoLED. I've used this one, and it's a bit low-tech, but it causes icons to float on your screen whenever there's an event that you've activated it for (missed calls, texts, emails, etc.).

Photos should save to the SD card by default, check the settings in Camera. Also, from the Home Screen, have a look at Menu>Settings>Applications>Manager Applications. Depending on your software version, you may be able to move your downloaded apps to the SD card too.

Lastly, as you're new to the Market, bear in mind that you can search for apps, and have them sent to your phone, from your PC. Saves all that touchscreen fiddling! https://market.android.com/
 
ok thanks, yeah I was hoping I could use the botton leds, as both the menu button and the back button can light up, much better than having the entire screen light up in terms of battery consumption. Do you know where I can get said rom from?
 
yeah I had a look at youtube and BLN is exactly what I want, reading your link now thanks.

I hope its easy to do.

Is kind of shocking such a simple useful feature is overlooked by samsung.
 
sadly that guide is incomplete, it expects me to already have root and some other pre requirements. Also no info on where to get the right rom afterwards in it.
 
2.3.3

so I need to?

first root the phone
get a firmware? or do I already have one in the default?
boot into a recovery mode (not listed how in guide)
install the zip file
it then says copy another file to sd card and install it via cwm manager, do I do this whilst still in recovery mode?
get a 2nd file, go back into recovery mode and flash that
then replace services.jar with cwm manager

when this is done I still have existing OS, settings etc. its just the new kernel if I understand you right, so after this I will then need to install the new rom with the OS on it? and you reccomend GingerReal-2.0

The GingerReal-2.0 page also has vague instructions which assumes one knows how to flash everything. I assume there is a comprehensive guide somewhere :)
 
I am a newbie too & miss the profiles which were available on Nokia and Sony Ericsson (K 750i) phones but when I had a look at the android market I found many apps there which could do the needful but keep in mind to check ‘Permissions’) as I have found that many apps want rights to go where they have no business (IMO), of course that can be set at the top the page by selecting ‘Safe Search Strict’ (my choice). There are three ways to select silent mode on your Ace
1) Thru the menu as you mentioned.
2) Drag down your notification bar & touch the ‘Sound’ icon second from right which will go grey & become ‘Vibration’.
3) Go to the ‘Tel’ icon (Green icon, first from left) on your home screen & then on the top there is a ‘Keypad’ tab which will bring on the number screen. Keep your finger on the ‘#’ button & your phone will vibrate & go into ‘silent’ mode.
The second & third option work for me as my settings is that the phone will vibrate on if silent mode is selected. ‘Menu’->’Settings’->’Sound’

You might find my blog useful http://socrates0.blogspot.com/2012/01/samsung-galaxy-ace-useful-points.html :)
 
bigbaldbloke would doing the kernel be enough on its own and then just install this app without the new rom?

https://market.android.com/details?id=neldar.bln.control.pro&hl=en

Potentially, yes. There's no harm in trying.

As for the overall procedure, yes this will keep your firmware (which is what a ROM contains) but unless the above app works, you'll need to install new firmware anyway to get BLN access.

I'd modify their instructions to read as below. I strongly recommend that you splash out
 
ive rooted the phone ready but not done anything else yet but I do plan to try this, I am a bit worried tho as its a lot of steps just to change a kernel.

is there a risk of bricking the phone doing this? or can it be recovered if something goes wrong?
 
I cant find anything in the about page which matches any of those services files, one looks similiar but isnt the same.

baseband version right?

build number ends in xwkpy
baseband ends in xwkp8
 
Absolutely right, and I can't see a KPY version of the kernel. Your choice is to either leave it or first change your firmware to a compatible version.
 
Absolutely right, and I can't see a KPY version of the kernel. Your choice is to either leave it or first change your firmware to a compatible version.

how would I do the latter and what effect would it have on me?

I assume there is a reason for these different kernel versions.

The option of leaving it is likely to make me return the phone, a notification LED is very important to me.
 
Ok I see now I just need to update the OS to a compatible version.

I have found 2.3.4 with a compatible version but wouldnt mind 2.3.5, but I cant see any compatible 2.3.5.
 
wow, I keep hitting obstacle after obstacle.

I found ddkq6 2.3.4 firmware. But it says cannot use on network locked phones, my phone is network locked, so what now?
 
You're certainly not getting the breaks, are you? Unlocking is relatively straightforward now that you've rooted.

Remember that Root Explorer app that I mentioned before? You can use that to make a copy of a certain system file, and open the copy on your computer (in a hexadecimal programme). There are certain characters to then look for, which are followed by your unlock code. It's then a simple matter of putting another network's SIM in your ACE & entering the unlock code when asked.

Let me know if you want full details.
 
yeah I rather go official as ideally I dont want too many deviations from stock to minimise problems.

The question is still the same tho as all the firmwares that match a verison I can use are not UK, does that matter?
 
As far as I'm aware, every one has UK English language. I installed an Eastern European one once, I just had to figure out the right place in Settings to change the language!
 
ok do you mind me asking what you did to get your phone how you like it? as it seems you didnt use this kernel, and are using something else instead?

I am surprised the cf-root is supposedbly widely used but is limited to only 6 different firmware codes out of 100s available.
 
I kind of accepted that it's a limitation of the phone. I didn't want what is, for my use, a minor annoyance to dictate which ROM I used. I sometimes use NoLED but, by and large, my phone is in my hand/pocket throughout the day - so I feel the vibration when the text/call comes in.
 
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