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[Verizon] Advice on ROMs

I

iwoloschin

Well-Known Member
So this question is probably answered a million times, but I can't quickly find the answer in the wealth of information on this thread.

I've got my Galaxy Nexus running the Stock 4.0.2 image, though it's unlocked/rooted. I'm interested in starting to try out some different ROMs, but I know nothing about them. I was thinking of waiting for CM9, but it seems there's a lot of other options out there already. Except I can't figure out which one is "the best" (which I realize is *very* subjective).

Can anyone give any advice on which ROMs are "better" or "more worthwhile" to try out? I'm not adverse to spending some time on this (I'm an electrical engineer, so this stuff isn't scary to me), but I need to know once I boot the ROM that my phone will be fairly stable (occasional reboots are ok...but only because it already does that on stock 4.0.2...). Can anyone give some insight as to what the major ROMs are targeting? Are they all fairly similar, or are they headed in completely different directions? Why did you pick one ROM over another? That kind of stuff.

Thanks!
 
iwoloschin said:
So this question is probably answered a million times, but I can't quickly find the answer in the wealth of information on this thread.

I've got my Galaxy Nexus running the Stock 4.0.2 image, though it's unlocked/rooted. I'm interested in starting to try out some different ROMs, but I know nothing about them. I was thinking of waiting for CM9, but it seems there's a lot of other options out there already. Except I can't figure out which one is "the best" (which I realize is *very* subjective).

Can anyone give any advice on which ROMs are "better" or "more worthwhile" to try out? I'm not adverse to spending some time on this (I'm an electrical engineer, so this stuff isn't scary to me), but I need to know once I boot the ROM that my phone will be fairly stable (occasional reboots are ok...but only because it already does that on stock 4.0.2...). Can anyone give some insight as to what the major ROMs are targeting? Are they all fairly similar, or are they headed in completely different directions? Why did you pick one ROM over another? That kind of stuff.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I have tried AOKP and Liquid Beta and both work well. I found Liquid to be a little closer to stock with several new options. I have been running it for a few weeks (I currently have 131hrs of uptime:)). Liquid also comes preloaded with lean kernel which is nice.
 
iwoloschin said:
So this question is probably answered a million times, but I can't quickly find the answer in the wealth of information on this thread.

I've got my Galaxy Nexus running the Stock 4.0.2 image, though it's unlocked/rooted. I'm interested in starting to try out some different ROMs, but I know nothing about them. I was thinking of waiting for CM9, but it seems there's a lot of other options out there already. Except I can't figure out which one is "the best" (which I realize is *very* subjective).

Can anyone give any advice on which ROMs are "better" or "more worthwhile" to try out? I'm not adverse to spending some time on this (I'm an electrical engineer, so this stuff isn't scary to me), but I need to know once I boot the ROM that my phone will be fairly stable (occasional reboots are ok...but only because it already does that on stock 4.0.2...). Can anyone give some insight as to what the major ROMs are targeting? Are they all fairly similar, or are they headed in completely different directions? Why did you pick one ROM over another? That kind of stuff.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Since you're an engineer you'll probably appreciate this post :D

The best way imo is to research the ROM and read through the respective threads to see what feature list appeals to you most and to get an idea of what others experiences are with the ROM. In terms of stability it will be up to your experience/usage with the ROM and the apps you use with it. They are all pretty darn stable. That said you might want to jump in to something that sticks closer to stock....like Petes BB (BuglessBeast) for starters.

gl and have fun!
 
pupkact said:
Hey jbdan, I didn't realize that Pete's BB was here, that's another one from the OG Droid days:). I guess I know what I'm doing tonight:D
Click to expand...

It's really smooth and fast, I haven't flashed the latest nightlies. Have grown to love the feature set on AOKP. But BB is a very solid alternative.
 
Honestly, I tried a couple of the others when I first got the phone, but since flashing AOKP the first time, I have no desire to flash anything but the latest build or latest leankernel.

I haven't had a single unexpected reboot on it, my battery life is great (comparatively at least), and the features just keep getting better.
 
I think I might give AOKP a shot...go big or go home, right?

On kernels, I've seen both lean and franco, and as far as I can tell lean is viewed as more stable and "just works" but franco sounds like it's got more options, but also possibly more problems. Are there any other kernels to be aware of? I assume AOKP has their preferred kernel choice built into the ROM, but (if my experience with building Linux kernels applies to Android) I should be able to just flash whatever kernel I want, into whatever ROM I'm currently running, correct?

Thanks for the responses guys, this doesn't sound particularly hard to get into, just confusing figuring out where to start! Of course, I don't think having too many options was ever a big problem... :D
 
iwoloschin said:
I think I might give AOKP a shot...go big or go home, right?

On kernels, I've seen both lean and franco, and as far as I can tell lean is viewed as more stable and "just works" but franco sounds like it's got more options, but also possibly more problems. Are there any other kernels to be aware of? I assume AOKP has their preferred kernel choice built into the ROM, but (if my experience with building Linux kernels applies to Android) I should be able to just flash whatever kernel I want, into whatever ROM I'm currently running, correct?

Thanks for the responses guys, this doesn't sound particularly hard to get into, just confusing figuring out where to start! Of course, I don't think having too many options was ever a big problem... :D
Click to expand...

Absolutely go big or go home haha. AOKP is the best ROM for the Galaxy Nexus by leaps and bounds in my opinion. Build 25 is just amazing.

For kernels, lean is definitely an excellent kernel. I was on leankernel 1.6.6 exp3 for a good while until I flashed Franco 16.0. I don't even flash new kernels now because I have no need whatsoever. Haven't had any issues with 16.0 and my battery life is outstanding. That's me though, all phones react differently. You can pair up any kernel with any ROM, the possibilities are endless.

It can seem daunting at first, but once you flash your first ROM, it's all downhill. Enjoy the ride man.
 
Doing a lot of semi-boring testing at work (set up test, let test run for 10+ minutes, record results), which meant I had plenty of time to flash AOKP. Seriously, is this all there is to it? That was easy.

Debating whether or not to flash the newest radio images now or wait a day or two and see how performance is with just the newer ROM. I tend to want everything done at once, so I may wind up flashing those today too...if I can find them at least...
 
iwoloschin said:
Doing a lot of semi-boring testing at work (set up test, let test run for 10+ minutes, record results), which meant I had plenty of time to flash AOKP. Seriously, is this all there is to it? That was easy.

Debating whether or not to flash the newest radio images now or wait a day or two and see how performance is with just the newer ROM. I tend to want everything done at once, so I may wind up flashing those today too...if I can find them at least...
Click to expand...

yep, it really is that easy! :D


radios are here, if you decide you want to try them out:

Flash in fastboot
[RADIOS/BOOTLDERS/RECOVERIES][Fastboot]CDMA Galaxy Nexus - RootzWiki

Flash in recovery
[RADIOS][Galaxy Nexus] All available radios/basebands
 
SolidOrange said:
yep, it really is that easy! :D


radios are here, if you decide you want to try them out:
[RADIOS/BOOTLDERS/RECOVERIES][Fastboot]CDMA Galaxy Nexus - RootzWiki
Click to expand...

Thanks...now on the latest radios. Hopefully this doesn't suddenly fail on me.

Out of curiosity, I'm noticing my WiFi/4G/3G signals are all grey, and not turning blue like they did on stock. I've got internet access (via WiFi currently), and receiving emails through gmail. Not too concerned about it, but not sure if that's a bug (seems unlikely...a little too visible to slip through) or something else.
 
iwoloschin said:
Thanks...now on the latest radios. Hopefully this doesn't suddenly fail on me.

Out of curiosity, I'm noticing my WiFi/4G/3G signals are all grey, and not turning blue like they did on stock. I've got internet access (via WiFi currently), and receiving emails through gmail. Not too concerned about it, but not sure if that's a bug (seems unlikely...a little too visible to slip through) or something else.
Click to expand...


I had that happen to me on one particular ROM, but only after I restored my titanium backup...everything worked fine, but I couldn't stand seeing gray instead of blue, so I went back to stock
 
sneakking said:
I had that happen to me on one particular ROM, but only after I restored my titanium backup...everything worked fine, but I couldn't stand seeing gray instead of blue, so I went back to stock
Click to expand...

Ah, I did do a TiB restore. Perhaps I should only be restoring "apps with data" and specifically not restoring "system data"?

Oh well, minor problem. I could try wiping and resetting everything now, but apparently TiB can't get around the "Do you want to install this app" screen when restoring certain apps (I think "purchased" through Amazon's Appstore), which is kind of a pain. I'll probably fool around with this current setup until one of the custom ROMs hits 4.0.4.
 
iwoloschin said:
Ah, I did do a TiB restore. Perhaps I should only be restoring "apps with data" and specifically not restoring "system data"?

Oh well, minor problem. I could try wiping and resetting everything now, but apparently TiB can't get around the "Do you want to install this app" screen when restoring certain apps (I think "purchased" through Amazon's Appstore), which is kind of a pain. I'll probably fool around with this current setup until one of the custom ROMs hits 4.0.4.
Click to expand...

as a general rule, don't restore system data with TiBu. i don't even bother backing up anything except user apps/data anymore. :)
 
SolidOrange said:
as a general rule, don't restore system data with TiBu. i don't even bother backing up anything except user apps/data anymore. :)
Click to expand...

I probably should have read some sort of instructions before going "pfft, what's the worst that could happen?"

In all seriousness, not that big of a deal, I went ahead and wiped everything and reflashed AOKP b25 and copied all of my apps+data back over. No system data this time, and I've got the blue signal bars.

One immediate thing I noticed, I live in Boston, MA, and there's one place coming out of the subway that I never have service. After flashing AOKP & 4.0.4 radios (FA02) I had 3G service before even getting out of the station (...it was about 10 feet from the top of the escalator, but hey, progress!), though it still took a couple of minutes to reconnect to 4G service. On the plus side, 3G is plenty fast enough to tell me when the next bus is coming!

There's more I'll need to play with, but so far pretty painless, and interesting! Digging the toggles and Nova launcher, I'll have to go play with everything else over the next few days!
 
elmerjr128 said:
I was on leankernel 1.6.6 exp3 for a good while until I flashed Franco 16.0. I don't even flash new kernels now because I have no need whatsoever. Haven't had any issues with 16.0 and my battery life is outstanding. That's me though, all phones react differently.
Click to expand...

Isn't it weird how this works? I've tried Franco's kernel a few times now, and my phone hates it. Battery gets sucked out through a straw! But for the people it works for, I think it's better on performance and battery than lean. I'd love to understand what makes each phone react do differently.
 
quiklives said:
Isn't it weird how this works? I've tried Franco's kernel a few times now, and my phone hates it. Battery gets sucked out through a straw! But for the people it works for, I think it's better on performance and battery than lean. I'd love to understand what makes each phone react do differently.
Click to expand...

I had tried Franco's kernel a few times prior to flashing 16.0 and my phone didn't react well at all. I'm tellin' ya man, 16.0 is the sweet spot :D
 
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