Trying a new ROM & be as safe as possible

[Maged Samuel]

Hi,
I'm on an international version of LG G2 and it's currently on Android v 5.0.2, Kernel v 3.4.0 and Software version is: V30c-AME-XX. I'm quite bored with the current software and also I'm still waiting for the next Google Nexus which might be my choice for the upgrade so until that time, I wish I can try something else that has been witnessed to be as stable as possible & give my phone a fresh new look with new features and enhancements so I'm almost settled on "Cyanogen" 12.1 for no reason other than that it is the most popular, as far as I can tell from googling around. But before starting messing up with my phone, I wanna ask:

Is it possible to do all the flashing safely without bricking my phone to a point where it is impossible to use it again (unless I do a mistake on my part)? Also, if I want to sell it later in the future (when I upgrade), is it possible to toss everything I installed (custom ROM) and install back the original stock Software?

Thanks!

 

[belodion]

There's always some risk in rooting and romming, but have you taken a look in the LG G2 Rooting, ROMs & Hacks forum?

 

[clownFaceProd]

The first thing you want to do is make a nandroid backup. I've flashed some ROMs that led to repeated bootloops but I was always able to get my phone back to working shape by going into the recovery and restoring from the nandroid. Are these terms familiar?

 

[Maged Samuel]

No, they usually don't like newbies like me! so I'm googling around to end up with a page that has the full instructions and I'll take my chances of either getting a new nice software or killing my phone!

 

[Maged Samuel]

Yes, I'm aware of the nandroid which is a complete image of the whole official OS. From the simple research I've done so far, I need to do these 4 things in order:
1st) Root
2nd) Install a custom recovery
3rd) Nandroid (using e.g. TWRP)
4th) Flash a custom ROM

I hope I'm correct

 

[Golfdriver97]

Yes, I'm aware of the nandroid which is a complete image of the whole official OS. From the simple research I've done so far, I need to do these 4 things in order:
1st) Root
2nd) Install a custom recovery
3rd) Nandroid (using e.g. TWRP)
4th) Flash a custom ROM

I hope I'm correct

Yes that's correct.

There is an LG flash tool: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...how-s/624096-guide-how-use-lg-flash-tool.html

 

[Maged Samuel]

Unfortunately, I tried ioroot v25, followed the prompts but @ the end my phone is still not rooted as reported by "Root Checker Basic" which I've d/l from the app store. I tried another tool that looks easy to me & it's called "LG_One_Click_Root_v1.3" & all went OK till I found the tool stuck @ 90% and that was making me very close to a heart attack! till a simple google search yielded a solution from someone who faced the same problem (I just long pressed the power button while phone is still connected). It went to 100% and I thought I was successful this time but again the same app informed me that I don't have root access yet and I'm not really sure what is going wrong!

 

[Maged Samuel]

I tried a reset thinking that something is preventing the rooting process but I'm still not lucky even after a complete reset of my device!
Sorry for the bad screenshot, the Android version is 5.0.2 however

 

[belodion]

Trying a new ROM & be as safe as possible

No, they usually don't like newbies like me! so I'm googling around to end up with a page that has the full instructions and I'll take my chances of either getting a new nice software or killing my phone!

There are some sites where members sometimes treat novices badly, but that is not accepted here at Android Central. If you seek advice in our forums, any members replying discourteously, insultingly, or in any other unpleasant way, would be dealt with by the Moderators. It's one of the reasons that we have a Report button.

 

[Maged Samuel]

Thank God I got beyond the rooting phase after lots of trials and now my phone is rooted for sure. One more confusing thing about custom recovery I wanna ask about:
If I want to install CM12.1, do I have to use their corresponding custom recovery file called "cm-12.1-20151117-SNAPSHOT-YOG7DAO1KI-d802-recovery.img"? Or I can install "twrp-2.6.3.2.img" using the TWRP Manager app which I've installed on my rooted phone yesterday? I'm not sure about the difference between the two img files.

Thanks in advance

 

[clownFaceProd]

Unless it explicitly says to use the CM recovery, there shouldn't be a problem flashing the ROM with TWRP. Just first make that backup. Then follow the directions for flashing exactly. Some will require doing 1 or even 3 consecutive wipes of the data, cache, etc. before flashing.

 

[Maged Samuel]

Thanks for the reply! I've settled on Flashify to do the process of installed a custom TWRP. It directed me to a list of twrp files and the latest version I see is v 2.8.6.0. However, I saw on this thread [RECOVERY] TWRP D802/ATT/VZW (2.6.3.3) F320k… | LG G2 that the last file version for LG G2 is 2.6.3.2. Should I go with the higher version without any issues or I've to restrict myself to downloading that specific older version?

 

[Golfdriver97]

You can go one version back. Should be more stable, but I doubt the newer one is that bad.