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Thinking about upgrading to JB.

togger161

togger161

Android Enthusiast
OK, been on stock rom since I got my S2 i9100 in July and am now contemplating upgrading to JB. My phone is UK T-Mobile V4.04. I have rooted my phone using the script method that doesn't give you the yellow triangle that you get when you flash a different kernel.

A couple of things I would like to know.
Most roms say do a full wipe when installing them. At what point should you do this? Before actually flashing or once you have flashed. The reason I am concerned is my phone comes back as being susceptible to the brick bug.

On my Desire I could copy a Rom to the SD card and flash from there. Can you do the same with the S2, or do you have to use Odin? Is there a particular method that is favoured, and if so why? I believe the leaked version is not a zip file (tar I think from memory) so you have to use odin. I assume you can install CWM and flash others from XDA etc that come in the Zip format.

I believe that if I use the official leaked rom that I will also lose root, but will keep it with other roms. (I have found links to how to root again under JB)

I assume also that regardless of which method I use I will end up with the yellow triangle. I know there is a way to remove this, for the brave.

Have done a bit of reading on flashing the S2, so will probably go for it over the next day or so. Just wanted to clarify a couple of things now, rather than mess it up and have to try and fix it afterwards.
 
togger161 said:
A couple of things I would like to know.
Most roms say do a full wipe when installing them. At what point should you do this? Before actually flashing or once you have flashed. The reason I am concerned is my phone comes back as being susceptible to the brick bug.
Click to expand...

If you are talking about installing a stock, Samsung, leaked version of Jelly Bean, see here for download and installation instructions and here for details on wiping.

However, since you are rooted, you can do a nandroid, Titanium and efs file backup, see post #2 here, and install Neat ROM FULL from here. NEAT ROM FULL is the stock Jelly Bean ROM that has been deodexed for the GT-i9100 and has a modified stock kernel. You could then flash either the Dorimanx or Siyah kernels afterwards as these have a brick bug fix.

There is a very good step-by-step guide in this thread for doing just that.

On my Desire I could copy a Rom to the SD card and flash from there. Can you do the same with the S2, or do you have to use Odin? Is there a particular method that is favoured, and if so why? I believe the leaked version is not a zip file (tar I think from memory) so you have to use odin. I assume you can install CWM and flash others from XDA etc that come in the Zip format.
Click to expand...

The stock , leaked version, needs to be flashed via Odin. The NEAT version is flashed via CWM mRecovery.


I believe that if I use the official leaked rom that I will also lose root, but will keep it with other roms. (I have found links to how to root again under JB)
Click to expand...

You will lose root on the stock version as it flashes a stock, unrooted, kernel. NEAT ROM has a rooted kernel, PhilZ.

I assume also that regardless of which method I use I will end up with the yellow triangle. I know there is a way to remove this, for the brave.
Click to expand...

Triangle Away mentioned in post #2, here, is the easiest way of removing the yellow triangle on JB and also resets the flash counter.

Grab a coffee and start reading. ☕
 
Thanks Ironass for confirming much of what I thought. My only real concern now is the Brick Bug.

I believe the problem is caused by performing a wipe date/factory reset with an unsafe kernel on a susceptible eMMC chip. I have checked my phone and it is known to be bad - VYL00M Revision 0x19. On the install instructions for Neat rom it says to boot into recovery and perform a wipe data from recovery before installing the rom. You recommend flashing a safe kernel afterwards, but I am concerned I could brick the phone before I get this far.

My phone is running 3.0 15-i9100BVLPH-CL969772 kernel. I do not know if this is a safe kernel, so I am assuming not.

So given I have a faulty eMMC chip, need to go into CWM and wipe, and potentially have an unsafe kernel is it possible for you to recommend the sequence for installing this rom without triggering the brick bug - ie, can I flash the rom without wipe, then install a safe kernel, then go back to recovery and wipe so as to avoid any issues with the rom, or would it be better to flash a different (safe) kernel now, then go into recovery and wipe the data before flashing the rom?

I may seem a little paranoid, but trust me, if my phone is brick-able, I will brick it.
 
Yeah, I already rooted using this method to avoid the triangle. I knew about triangle away but read somewhere it was for the brave.

LINK

I'm not worried about flashing roms. I had an HTC Desire and on that I gained s-off, repartitioned my internal memory to gain more space, installed an ext4 partition on my SD card using GParted and tried several roms before settling on Mildwild. But each device is different and has it's own quirks so if there is anything I am worried about I find it better to ask first, rather than try to fix afterwards.

As I am already rooted I assume I can just put the GS2wiper and kernel on to the device and flash from CWM (making sure I get the correct one for ICS) and reboot. Once up and running on the new kernel I can then safely wipe everything and flash the new rom.

Any preferences as to which kernel to use - both on ICS and once again once running on JB? On JB you recommend changing kernels again. Is this just to get around the brick bug on JB or are there any other advantages. I do not overclock my phone so I'm not after any performance tweeks. Just want it as stable and reliable as possible.

From a personal point of view I tend to avoid using software on the PC to flash. I always worry something will happen half way through, such as a BSOD or corruption. I much prefer to copy everything I need onto the device and flash from there. That way if anything goes wrong I can usually get into recovery, wipe and flash again.
 
OK, I'm done - I've updated and I'm running Neatrom JB 4.1.2.
Ironass - thank you for your help.

Incidentally I have rebooted several times and have NOT had a yellow triangle at all. Could this be because of the way I originally rooted my device?

Just wondering what to do as for Kernels, to stay with the one the developer supplied or to install Siyah-Dorimanx. I'll probably leave it a day or two and see how the device performs on this one.

Off to play with my new toy . . . . time to see what's new. Now I remember why I like flashing ;)
 
OK, I've hit a little problem. Has the storage names/location changed for the internal memory and the SD card? I have installed ES File Explorer and I can't browse to my SD card.

I've installed Root Explorer and something strange is going on. The phones internal memory is now called /sdcard OR I can get to it via /storage/sdcard0. The micro SD card is found at /storage/extSdCard.

I can see the SD card from the phone under storage and it shows correctly what is in use. System apps such as the camera see the SD card too and the pictures on it are shown in the gallery. But it seems something has changed and other apps, maybe not specifically for JB, won't find the SD card, for example ES File Explorer.

I've got around it for now by installing Root Explorer, which allows me to navigate to the SD card, just want to know what is happening.
 
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