Recommended Dailys

[garwynn]

Hi folks, picking up my shiny E4GT tomorrow - very happy because I didn't think the MVNO I have was going to get anytime soon! I'm coming from an LG Optimus S where there have been some great people in the forum over there - I see sfhub around in both - and just wondering:

1) Reading about the ICS leaks sounds like there is not a recommended daily yet, at least based on FB27. Is that understanding correct?

2) Anyone running one of the ICS ROMs - is the Chrome Beta supported yet? I was reading about complaints that several people running an unofficial ICS update couldn't - including the E4G.

3) Any recommended daily ROMs or thinks to be aware of outside of the general notes?

4) And in a worst-case scenario is there a rather solid unbrick method around? For example, the Opt S had KP500 - came in handy when I wanted to go back to FroYo stock before the (rather buggy) OTA GB update. It is also good to know if I ever needed to take the phone to the MVNO for repairs.

Thanks in advance and will continue to dig into the forum threads for more!

(In case it is asked the MVNO uses the stock Sprint devices without any modifications so for all intents and purposes it behaves as if it was from Sprint.)

 

[dtm_stretch]

MVNO?? What is this acronym?

1) It is getting pretty close to a daily driver, I am firing up Calkulin's Beta ICS rom now just to try it out. [ ROM ] Calkulin's E4GT 2 v1.0 Beta 2 [ FB27 l ICS l Tweaked ] - xda-developers Strangely the issues people see seem to vary among users. The biggest bug for some is the lack of GPS but that might be an issue while stock.

2) Chrome is not officially supported because these are leaks but it does install, just doesn't work very well for us yet.

3) Recommended: all of them, we have quite the variety right now and I am not just talking about themed roms, we have several roms with very distinct personalities. So my recommendations is just try them till you find one you like.

4) Odin is your friend for saving your phone. I am not sure how KP500 works but I bet they are pretty similar. We are even supported by Mobile odin, which is an application which can pretty much do all of that from your phone.

5. Welcome to the E4GT!

 

[garwynn]

MVNO --> Mobile Virtual Network Operator. Sprint's most widely known is probably Cricket. I use one called KDDI Mobile - tailored towards Japanese customers in the US or those that call a lot to Japan. To be quite honest I'm surprised we got a newer model phone; every other model released has been at least a full year back.

Thanks for the tips on the ROMs. I'm keeping a close eye on Calkulin's ROMs as well as some of the CM9 builds when it comes to ICS. For now I'll probably stay close to stock but without the bloatware.

I just realized another important question - Is the radio/baseband technically different on each Samsung build? I know this was a sticky issue with the Optimus S and upgrading/downgrading was typically a 3-step process of going to stock radio, root then flash ROM.

Thanks again for the help and will be looking forward to more as I explore this phone.

 

[dtm_stretch]

MVNO --> Mobile Virtual Network Operator. Sprint's most widely known is probably Cricket. I use one called KDDI Mobile - tailored towards Japanese customers in the US or those that call a lot to Japan. To be quite honest I'm surprised we got a newer model phone; every other model released has been at least a full year back.

Thanks for the tips on the ROMs. I'm keeping a close eye on Calkulin's ROMs as well as some of the CM9 builds when it comes to ICS. For now I'll probably stay close to stock but without the bloatware.

I just realized another important question - Is the radio/baseband technically different on each Samsung build? I know this was a sticky issue with the Optimus S and upgrading/downgrading was typically a 3-step process of going to stock radio, root then flash ROM.

Thanks again for the help and will be looking forward to more as I explore this phone.

Ah, awesome learn something new every day, thanks!

I keep an eye on pretty much the same stuff. I am running the Calk's ICS beta now and initial impressions are good.

Modems are very flexible with our phone. You can use whatever modem on what ever rom/kernel you want. I personally just prefer the newest but others, depending on your area, have prefer some of the older ones. Some have the ability to flash via zips in clockworkmod and others you have to flash with odin.

 

[JayWill]

Welcome aboard! Yeah sfhub has this phone too, and the guy is a stud. His root solution via his Odin one-clicks are indispensable, as is his adb shell based tool that still has some valuable uses (although it cannot be used to root our phone anymore).

One thing I will mention is that there is some bad juju going on right now in the flashing scene for this phone, that most definitely involves ICS and the new Linux kernel. Something is corrupting the data partition of the EMMC and causing a hard brick, that even Odin cannot recover from. When it happens, the data partition basically becomes unwritable. I've seen one report of a successful JTAG when this has happened, but the details are sketchy.

So, I would be very careful in flashing anything ICS related, especially the CM9 Alpha. The CM9 install requires a very specific set of install instructions that you have to follow to a T or you risk bricking your new shiny. Also, I would do the following ...

1) Avoid ROM Manager and/or any Temp Recovery
2) Avoid any of the new Touch CWM recoveries (for now)

I'm currently on the latest stock FB27 ICS build leak. I'm taking the precaution right now of doing a full Odin TAR restore of the current GB EL29 firmware and re-installing the EL29 CWM repack before I flash any other ICS related ROM. This is possibly overkill, but this brick issue doesn't happen every time. A reputable kernel Dev for our phone did the same exact thing 4 or 5 times (flashed the CM9 alpha with one of his kernels) with no problems, then when doing it once more he hit a hard brick. The Dev who is working on the CM9 build bricked his phone as well. I believe it's safest to move to anything ICS related from a GB ROM and CWM kernel repack.

So to sum it up, if you're going to try any of the new ICS builds, use caution and read the instructions carefully. I'm hoping not to scare you off, but just to keep your eyes open and exercise caution.

Good luck!

 

[garwynn]

Thanks dtm_stretch and JayWill72 for the advice. I got the phone on Monday and am activating it today; but in the meantime I did put on EL29 root w/o CWM. This at least lets me clear up some of the Sprint bloatware and more importantly get on the enterprise Wi-Fi.

Did learn that E4GT uses a different wifi config file, path and slightly different text from the previous phone but with some digging I was able to get it done. The phone works great as-is so I'll probably let some of the kinks work out with ICS and CWMT before I dabble in that.

 

[JayWill]

Thanks dtm_stretch and JayWill72 for the advice. I got the phone on Monday and am activating it today; but in the meantime I did put on EL29 root w/o CWM. This at least lets me clear up some of the Sprint bloatware and more importantly get on the enterprise Wi-Fi.

Did learn that E4GT uses a different wifi config file, path and slightly different text from the previous phone but with some digging I was able to get it done. The phone works great as-is so I'll probably let some of the kinks work out with ICS and CWMT before I dabble in that.

I think that's a really good plan. Any time you get a new device, I think it's good practice to stay stock rooted for awhile, so you can get a feel for the stock ROM and how your usual App and Widget installs play with it. This can help identify certain issues that may arise when you flash a new ROM, and focus in on the possible source of the issue.

 

[VDub2174]

4) Odin is your friend for saving your phone.

This.

Odin has saved me from some troubling times while flashing. It's a magical piece of software