Need helpful advice with regards to Rom and Kernal flashing...

[shahali]

Hi all,

I have a Nexus 4 and i have unlocked the boot loader and also rooted the device with all the help guides around. I now wanted to consider using RASPBEANJELLY and TRINITY KERNEL. I have never flashed a Rom (Flashing i can do or learn, so is not a problem) and have several Q's to ask any pro's who have gone through this journey.

CURRENTLY: Stock Rom Unlocked and Rooted

AIM:

1) I wanted to make sure i preserve all my data and not have everything wiped ala factory reset as i do not want to set it all up again if at all possible.
2) I wanted to install RASPBEANJELLY and Trinity Kernel.

My Questions:

1) Do i just install the new Rom/Kernel over Stock or would i need to to a factory reset? and reset all those caches..? (hence rebuild my phone again)
2) Is there anyway of installing the new ROM and Kernel but have all my programs backed up to install or would i need to re-install one by one.
3) Just incase i screw up, if i make a Nandroid Image via TWRP can i just reflash that and expect everything to be "exactly" how it was before.

Lastly, i don't want a zillion features BUT some of the features in RASPBEANJELLY is good and i am hoping to increase battery life.

Thanks for help, pointers advice and pitfalls/tips

Shah

 

[digitalslacker]

My Questions:

1) Do i just install the new Rom/Kernel over Stock or would i need to to a factory reset? and reset all those caches..? (hence rebuild my phone again)
2) Is there anyway of installing the new ROM and Kernel but have all my programs backed up to install or would i need to re-install one by one.
3) Just incase i screw up, if i make a Nandroid Image via TWRP can i just reflash that and expect everything to be "exactly" how it was before.

1) Generally speaking you don't want to install a ROM without a factory reset. There's a ton of stuff that gets changed between ROMs and if you leave around legacy stuff from the previous ROM(s) it can cause issues. You can do what they call a dirty flash, where you just wipe cache and dalvik cache if you are upgrading to a newer version of the same ROM provided the version of Android didn't change. A dirty flash will not require you to resetup your phone.
2)I use titanium backup to keep a working running backup of all my programs. I still need to resetup the phone after moving to a ROM but the the apps are reinstalling with TiBu so it's not that bad.
3) Yes, a nandroid will bring you back to the state the phone was in when the backup was made.

Hope that helps! It's probably a good idea to make a TiBu backup and then copy the folder to a computer when you first start doing this. If you really mess something up and have to do a complete full restore then at least you'll have a copy of your apps to restore after you reroot.



Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk HD

 

[greydarrah]

I'll add to the above by suggesting that you get a new launcher...something like Nova Launcher (the free version works fine). It functions pretty much the same as the stock launcher, but it lets you make backups of your home screens. This means that after you flash a new ROM and reinstall your apps (from TitaniumBackup), you can restore the launcher backup (which Titanium should do for you), and even after changing ROMs (requiring that you wipe data), your home screens all get restored just as they were. Basically you can flash a new ROM and be back up and running in about 30 minutes. Without the custom launcher, you'd have to set up all your home screens again.

So to put it in order:
1. Get Titanium Backup first.
2. Get Nova Launcher and after selecting it as your default launcher, set your home screens up as you like them. I like to take screen shots of my home screens first, so I can see a picture of what apps I had and where they were.
3. Go into Nova and make a backup of it (this is really your secondary backup, as Titanium will back it up as well).
4. Start Titanium and backup all apps with data
5. Wipe data, cache and dalvic
6. Flash ROM, then flash gapps
7. Reboot, sign into gmail, launch Titanium and restore missing apps with data

 

[shahali]

Can you guys Clarify a few more Q's.

1) When i do a nandroid backup via TWRP does it back up EVERYTHING as in programmes, apps and also data. i.e Complete backup.

if so i was thinking of the following:

1) Factory reset
2) Use TWRP and make Nandroid backup
3) Make titanium backup of all the programmes
3) Flash RASBEANJELLY as per instructions on his XDA forum page
4) Flash Trinity kernel

Now RASBEANJELLY does not have gApps - so i then install these.

5) Download Titanium backup and then RESTORE.

Have i missed anything...? and if i mess up then i re-flash the NANDROID backup...?

Any help, advice , pitfalls would be welcome before i spend hte next few days..!

ALSO i would normally go down the nova root BUT i wonder if that will slow my system down or take up more battery resources..? I dont need too many fancy stuff with too many options, just enought to make my experience a little better...!