ROM Questions

[porpherion]

Ok, so I finally got myself a GS II/Epic 4g Touch, and got it rooted, installed CWM, and removed CIQ using sfhub's awesome utility. Coming from an EVO 3d, and an Optimus S before that, I had a few questions before I flashed a ROM:

1. I understand that there are many different bases for ROMs here, and my phone is currently on EK02. If I find a ROM I like that is say, EL29, do I have to install something before the ROM, or does it include all necessary upgrades? I hate to sound noobish, but there are enough bases with this phone that I'm not sure if I need to install the stock base of choice first to upgrade or not.

2. Without worrying about bases, are there any EK02 ROMs that anyone would recommend? I can't seem to find all that many on xda that are EK02.

Again, sorry for the noobish post, but I was ROM shopping over at xda and got a little overwhelmed, and I don't like posting there, those guys scare me with their attitudes at times.

 

[chrisingrassia]

Ok, so I finally got myself a GS II/Epic 4g Touch, and got it rooted, installed CWM, and removed CIQ using sfhub's awesome utility. Coming from an EVO 3d, and an Optimus S before that, I had a few questions before I flashed a ROM:

1. I understand that there are many different bases for ROMs here, and my phone is currently on EK02. If I find a ROM I like that is say, EL29, do I have to install something before the ROM, or does it include all necessary upgrades? I hate to sound noobish, but there are enough bases with this phone that I'm not sure if I need to install the stock base of choice first to upgrade or not.

2. Without worrying about bases, are there any EK02 ROMs that anyone would recommend? I can't seem to find all that many on xda that are EK02.

Again, sorry for the noobish post, but I was ROM shopping over at xda and got a little overwhelmed, and I don't like posting there, those guys scare me with their attitudes at times.

Oh man, I'm in the same boat as you. I just rooted/CWM'ed my E4GT this weekend, and have been ROM shopping as well over on XDA and surfing the threads on here. I've never done any of this "customizing" on a phone before, but the inclusion of CIQ on my phone is totally unacceptable for Android devices, and I wish to be rid of it ASAP!

I also feel the "snootiness" by posters on XDA like you said - it really seems like a place for developers and computer programmers only to be able to ask questions. People like you and I are not welcome to ask the basic questions of "how we get started" for fear of reprisal. With that being said, however, reading through a lot of the development threads on XDA (Epic 4G Touch Android Development - xda-developers) has taught me a lot. I still have no actual idea what a kernel or modem is or does p), but they seem to be a consistent comment for ROMs. Also, check out QBKING77's youtube vids for ROMs on the E4GT - he has been an immense resource for me and I shouted him a PM thanking him. He does install how-to's and reviews of the ROMs.

ROM selection seems to be all about what you want your phone to do or not do. Over/underclocking? Tethering? Theming? CIQ removal? UI enhancements? Blah, blah, blah. Each ROM seems to have its own characteristics. I've gotten a lot of help on this site, and I think the very first ROM I'm ever going to flash will be UnNamed. It's simple, basic, and leaves a lot of the UI customization up to me (plus, it has several functions I want like CIQ gone, camera button, toggle widgets, bloatware gone, and more). All in all though, the development seems pretty good on this phone both here and XDA, so flashing lots of ROMs and any subsequent issues can be solved by posting up! Good luck!

 

[porpherion]

Oh man, I'm in the same boat as you. I just rooted/CWM'ed my E4GT this weekend, and have been ROM shopping as well over on XDA and surfing the threads on here. I've never done any of this "customizing" on a phone before, but the inclusion of CIQ on my phone is totally unacceptable for Android devices, and I wish to be rid of it ASAP!

I also feel the "snootiness" by posters on XDA like you said - it really seems like a place for developers and computer programmers only to be able to ask questions. People like you and I are not welcome to ask the basic questions of "how we get started" for fear of reprisal. With that being said, however, reading through a lot of the development threads on XDA (Epic 4G Touch Android Development - xda-developers) has taught me a lot. I still have no actual idea what a kernel or modem is or does p), but they seem to be a consistent comment for ROMs. Also, check out QBKING77's youtube vids for ROMs on the E4GT - he has been an immense resource for me and I shouted him a PM thanking him. He does install how-to's and reviews of the ROMs.

ROM selection seems to be all about what you want your phone to do or not do. Over/underclocking? Tethering? Theming? CIQ removal? UI enhancements? Blah, blah, blah. Each ROM seems to have its own characteristics. I've gotten a lot of help on this site, and I think the very first ROM I'm ever going to flash will be UnNamed. It's simple, basic, and leaves a lot of the UI customization up to me (plus, it has several functions I want like CIQ gone, camera button, toggle widgets, bloatware gone, and more). All in all though, the development seems pretty good on this phone both here and XDA, so flashing lots of ROMs and any subsequent issues can be solved by posting up! Good luck!

Kernels are the core of your OS. On the Epic 4g touch, from what I gather, Android and the recovery share the kernel, where on most phones this is not the case. The modem is the baseband of your phone.

I am not new to rooting or flashing ROMs, I am just new to the way it seems to be done in the GSII/Epic 4G Touch. I'm not used to Android sharing a kernel with the recovery so I need to know if flashing a ROM with a newer baseband will work or if I need to flash the higher baseband before the ROM.

With XDA posting, I am just not up to the hate that gets generated there when someone asks an honest question. I prefer to discuss things here, as this is the third device forum I've needed to be a part of and have never seen things get out of hand so far, and most disagreements I've seen are solved amicably by the parties involved without a mod stepping in.

 

[chrisingrassia]

Kernels are the core of your OS. On the Epic 4g touch, from what I gather, Android and the recovery share the kernel, where on most phones this is not the case. The modem is the baseband of your phone.

I am not new to rooting or flashing ROMs, I am just new to the way it seems to be done in the GSII/Epic 4G Touch. I'm not used to Android sharing a kernel with the recovery so I need to know if flashing a ROM with a newer baseband will work or if I need to flash the higher baseband before the ROM.

With XDA posting, I am just not up to the hate that gets generated there when someone asks an honest question. I prefer to discuss things here, as this is the third device forum I've needed to be a part of and have never seen things get out of hand so far, and most disagreements I've seen are solved amicably by the parties involved without a mod stepping in.

Well clearly I'm more of a noob than you are . Sorry I can't be of more help. There are definitely peeps on these boards that would know your answer though. Hopefully they'll open the thread and help you out.

 

[porpherion]

No worries. Sorry if that second post sounded short, I appreciated your post. Sometimes I'm a bit terse when I type without meaning to be.

 

[chrisingrassia]

No worries. Sorry if that second post sounded short, I appreciated your post. Sometimes I'm a bit terse when I type without meaning to be.

Whatever....you sounded like an XDA jerk!!! . Just bustin' on you. I do hope that someone can help you though.

 

[dtm_stretch]

Alright guys here is a little bit of information to get you started:

If you are coming from an HTC/Palm/LG or anything else the terms might be a little different or the process might be a little different from what you are used to.

-Think of the kernel as the middle guy for your software(OS/ROM) and hardware
-Modems are sometimes called Radios and affect your signal both data/phone and are NOT dependent on the version of software. So you can use EL29(or what ever version suits you) Modems on any version of android(EK02/EL26/29) and vice versa.
-As mentioned before the kernel and recovery are on the same partition so if you flash a different kernel then your recovery will change.
-Completely different from any android phone I have used is the fact that on the E4GT you can use any kernel version with any rom version. Don't ask me how but people use the "Team Rogue Desperado" kernel which is based on EK02(which is the official software release) with roms based on EL29.
-EK02 is the official sprint software release EL13/EL26/EL29 are updates and with out Carrier IQ(CIQ) but are just leaks and are not official.
-Themes and Roms are the only ones that need to have the same software version.
-Team Rouge and the ACS recovery are the same thing as CWM recovery just adjusted for ease of use and all 3 are cross compatible.

*QBking77's reviews are awesome and most of the times the steps are the same but always make sure you are doing the most current method for whatever process you are doing.
** Always ask questions if you are unsure, trust me there are a lot of people who only post on AC because of the same reasons you guys do, not everyone likes the attitudes over at XDA. The worst part is the people you will get the most attitude from are not the people contributing or creating stuff but the people who hawk those forums day and night with nothing better to do.

Any other questions?

**Oops forgot to answer your questions:

1. The only additional step I would take is to back up apps with mybackup root or titanium back up, then use Caulkin's format all zip(Which does a wipe of data,cache, and dalvik cache), flash the rom you want, then restore your apps.
2. The whole EK02 thing is a bit funny, because the developers all jumped onto leaks instead of supporting the official release. I would recommend Caulkin's 2.0.1a as it is minimally themed and everything works. In most opening posts for each rom there will be a link to older versions so just read through the change log to find the one based on EK02.

 

[porpherion]

Thanks for that dtm. Got unnamed flashed and looking pretty, thinking about flashing tnz blend to check it out.

 

[chrisingrassia]

Thanks for that dtm. Got unnamed flashed and looking pretty, thinking about flashing tnz blend to check it out.

After I install UnNamed this evening, I'd like to also install the zip so I can have the CRT-Off function. QBKING77 doesn't show in his video how to install that zip (since he didn't want them). Can anyone help me with how to install that function? Do I go through the exact same process as I would for flashing the ROM, just without wiping anything beforehand?

 

[JayWill]

Just to expand a bit on dtm_stretch's reply, regarding the baseband (modem) ... since you can mix and match ROM, kernel and modem versions, the order in which your flash the ROM and modem (assuming you want to change it) doesn't matter. So consider this example ...

1) You're on stock EK02 (the latest official build) now
2) Flash Calkulin's latest ROM, which is EL29 and is packed with the EL29 stock kernel
3) Then flash the EL29 modem
4) You want a custom kernel so flash Team Rogue's "Desperado" EK02 based kernel
5) Your phone is acting weird with the latest modem so you want to try the build before that, which is EL26. Download and flash it.

End Result ... EL29 ROM, EK02 Kernel(with Rogue CWM Recovery) and EL26 modem

Serisouly. The world is open for everything EK02 and up. Bottom line ...

all of the ROMs are packed with a kernel/recovery, which is the file "zimage" in the ROM zip. You can flash a different kernel/recovery after flashing the ROM, you can change the zimage file in the ROM zip to the kernel/recovery you want, or you can delete the zimage file from the zip to keep the kernel/recovery you have.

Modems will always be a separate flash, unless you use Odin to flash a full official TAR file provided by Samsung, which often includes the modem, bootloader, and everything else in one Odin flash. With CWM, you will always flash in pieces, except for the kernel and recovery which are packaged together.

 

[porpherion]

So I could flash the EL29 Blend ROM without flashing the EL29 modem? Just double checking before I brick my shiny new phone.

 

[JayWill]

After I install UnNamed this evening, I'd like to also install the zip so I can have the CRT-Off function. QBKING77 doesn't show in his video how to install that zip (since he didn't want them). Can anyone help me with how to install that function? Do I go through the exact same process as I would for flashing the ROM, just without wiping anything beforehand?

Yep same way, except you will only wipe cache and dalvik cache. As a general practice, you always want to wipe the two caches before flashing anything except a new, full ROM, in which you'd normally want to wipe everything. Also, your phone will take longer than normal to boot after wiping the caches, so keep that in mind before freaking out and thinking something went wrong after you flash the ROM and anything else where you wiped the caches.

So after you've flashed the ROM and re-booted your phone (good idea to boot the ROM first). Hold the power button and your menu will now also have an option to reboot directly into Recovery. Do that, wipe cache and wipe dalvik cache, install ZIP from SD Card (you will have want to have already downloaded and placed the CRT animation zip file on either the internal or external sd) choose that file and install it. Then select reboot and you're all set.

 

[JayWill]

So I could flash the EL29 Blend ROM without flashing the EL29 modem? Just double checking before I brick my shiny new phone.

Yes you can. It will not even soft brick your phone. This phone is VERY hard to brick to be honest. The only surefire ways to brick it is to flash something intended for a completely different device (as the guys who flashed the International Galaxy S2 ICS leak painfully found out) or flash the bootloader and have something interrupt the process.

A sidenote regarding the bootloader ...

Bootloaders tend to be more important and involved on other devices like HTC phones, with all the S-Off unlocked bootloader crap. However, you never get involved with the bootloader on a Samsung phone when using CWM for flashes (one of the perks of an already unlocked bootloader). The bootloader is untouched when flashing ROMs, kernels and modems. However, full Odin TARs from Samsung often have a bootloader included.

 

[ja0376]

Hello I'm sort of a noob also does anyone no of a ics rom that has the ics softkeys for the epic 4gtouch if so please let me know thanks

 

[JayWill]

Hello I'm sort of a noob also does anyone no of a ics rom that has the ics softkeys for the epic 4gtouch if so please let me know thanks

No, not yet. A couple of teams are working on AOSP ICS for this phone though. I'd bet we see a working ROM by February. Also, once Samsung/Sprint officially release ICS, we will see custom ROMs built from that source as well.

 

[Foulwx]

Just wanted to say that this has been an excellent thread. I wish it would have been around when I got my E4GT in October. There are some very good explanations here.

 

[KennKub]

AWESOME.. This is the Noob information I have been searching for.. Is it "sticky noted" somewhere?

Thanks again,
KennKub

 

[nabril1569]

thank you for all the explanations. It seems that rooting in Droid is more powerful than rooting in other os's (like webos, for ex).