It's here for all of us Captivate users. If you don't know how to flash a ROM, this is not for you. Please read the thread carefully and then read it again before even thinking about flashing away. There are a lot of steps that have to be followed exactly.
[ROM] CyanogenMod 7 for Captivate (Gingerbread 2.3.x) posted - careful! - xda-developers
Here are my personal findings after running CM7 for 1 week. Because of the poor battery life and the camera not being able to take 5mp pictures, I have gone back to Serendipity for now. Unfortunately, I switched back to Serendipity before TheEscapist was able to get UV working, so I have no battery benchmarks for his OC/UV kernel.
Initial issues (those that I found solutions for):
There is a list of issues at the XDA post - I am not going to list all of them here. Instead, I am going to list issues that I have seen that, while may be linked to those issues, are not readily identified in that list (confused, just read my list below).
Stock Kernel - after 14 hours of use, I had 32% of the battery left. This included a little more than 1 hour of screen time, flashing 4 different modems, running GPS Test for about 10 minutes, checking email for about 20 minutes, surfing the web for about 20 minutes and making one 10 minute phone call. I did not use WiFi. At idle, the phone lost a little more than 2% an hour. By comparison, I have had similar usage with my Serendipity setup and I would typically be closer to 50-60% battery life. At idle, my battery would lose less than 1% per hour. Before I plugged the phone in this morning to charge, I flashed the Voodoo kernel. The battery meter showed 62% when it rebooted. I am not sure if the stock kernel is inaccurate with its battery monitoring or not.
Voodoo Kernel - I had roughly the same battery life using the Voodoo kernel as I did with the stock kernel. I am now running the battery completely dead and re-charging. I will update this in a couple of days after the battery monitor stabilizes and I get a better idea of how long the battery lasts. I may also buy a new battery and see how that goes. I've noticed over the last couple of months that my battery life is not what it was back in December when I was getting 36+ hours on one charge. Update: Battery life did not improve. I am trying a newer version of the kernel to see if that makes any difference.
TheEscapist's OC Kernel - since the base for his kernel is the same as the stock kernel, I will not run battery tests on it. I am however including benchmarks below that I ran. I set the clock speed to 1.2ghz for these tests.
Performance:
I am using the stock kernel. I am anxiously awaiting the OC kernel to be updated with UV, but for now, performance is good - very good. The only time I see any lag is when I open the app drawer in Launcher Pro, but I see that with just about any kernel I have used (except for SetiroN's kernel, which is no longer supported). Programs open fast, Grocery IQ scrolls fast and I can flip through pages quickly. Here are some of the Benchmarks I ran. I was told that Quadrant had not been optimized yet for Gingerbread. I was seeing frame rate caps at 19fps and 28fps.
The Voodoo kernel from Bilboa1 seems to have a little more lag and is not as smooth. My benchmarks are posted below. After running the Voodoo kernel for a couple of hours, everything stabilized and there is no lag - it seems to perform a little better than the stock kernel.
TheEscapist's kernel is the only one at the moment that has OC enabled. I ran some benchmarks using his kernel clocked at 1.2ghz. My results are below.
I will run tests on each of the three known CM7 kernels at the same time I am running the battery tests and report back.
Stock Kernel:
After re-flashing my JK4 modem, my GPS has been the best it has ever been. I get a good lock and can see 12 sats, where before it normally saw 10-11 sats. Tracking is great. I used My Tracks this morning and where I normally see drifts (2 places that have always been a problem), it locked me right in and turned when I turned.
Appearance:
This should probably be renamed theming. CM7 comes with several themes and you can download more that are Theme Manager compliant from XDA. I installed the Honeybread theme, which looks great. Pic below.
The color issue that was reported on for the Nexus S where everything looks more yellow is present in this build. I was told it was not an issue, but a way of making the colors seem more natural. To me, it looks like an issue - webpages that are normally white have a yellowish tint to them. However, the issue that has always plagued me is the sharpness of the text when reading webpages. While this was resolved with different sharpness fixes, straight stock CM7 has this perfected. Text looks very sharp and clean.
Other Interesting Finds:
I will update this as I run into more issues or find solutions.
[ROM] CyanogenMod 7 for Captivate (Gingerbread 2.3.x) posted - careful! - xda-developers
Here are my personal findings after running CM7 for 1 week. Because of the poor battery life and the camera not being able to take 5mp pictures, I have gone back to Serendipity for now. Unfortunately, I switched back to Serendipity before TheEscapist was able to get UV working, so I have no battery benchmarks for his OC/UV kernel.
Initial issues (those that I found solutions for):
- Data cutting in and out. About three hours after initially installing CM7, data cut out completely and I got "No Service" showing on my phone. I was running the JK4 modem. This is the best modem for my area. I thought maybe if I flipped on Airplane mode and then flipped it off that would resolve the issue. Airplane mode stopped working completely. Solution: I have batch number 1007. For me, in order for a modem to work right, I have always had to flash the modem twice. Don't know why, but I always do it after flashing a ROM or switching modems. This resolved the issue.
- Airplane mode not working. This potentially was a big issue as I have two trips planned this month. It did start working again flawlessly after I reflashed the JK4 modem.
- GPS taking forever to get a lock. I have been one of the lucky few that have always had a decent working GPS, and with the latest changes made to some of the ROMs, my GPS has been great. However, after flashing CM7, my GPS barely worked. After re-flashing JK4, my GPS now works better than it ever has.
- Market not updating. Here is one interesting thing that works well - almost too well. Remember that little tidbit of information from Google that popped up when you first entered your account (coming from Froyo update)? The one where it asked you if you wanted to sync your apps with Google. Well, without Samsung and ATT crippling your phone, it actually works. The first time I entered in my account name it asked me if I wanted to restore apps. I decided to do it later after I enabled WiFi. However, it downloaded every app that I had ever used, so I had to uninstall a lot of them. In order to get my data back from the apps, I restored apps from TiBu. It worked fine, but when I went to the Market to check for updates, the only apps showing were the paid ones. Solution: I used Market Doctor from TiBu and then uninstall the updates from the Market. Worked fine after that (using Market Doctor may not have been needed).
There is a list of issues at the XDA post - I am not going to list all of them here. Instead, I am going to list issues that I have seen that, while may be linked to those issues, are not readily identified in that list (confused, just read my list below).
- External SD card. I am guessing that since the Nexus S does not have an external SD card, that is where the problem lies. The Captivate essentially thinks that it is now a Nexus S. Regardless, this is a problem for programs like Documents to Go where files are saved on the external SD card. Friday I was trying to find a document that I had saved to the external SD card and was starting to get a little upset. I finally had to copy the files to the internal SD card so I could use them. Hopefully someone can fix this problem.
- Camera. This is directly related to the external SD card issue. There is no way to save a picture to the external SD card. I have to remember to copy them over when I am done taking pictures. Note: Apparently the camera cannot take 5mp pictures either - I do not know what the default setting is, but it is not 5mp. This is the only real deal breaker for me - everything else I can live with.
[*]Battery life. Battery life for CM7 has been just OK. I've had better battery life on some of the other ROMs. However, the important thing to point out is that the battery monitor never shows more than 95% charged (this is a feature, not a bug, to prevent over-charging). After I unplug and run it for a while, battery life will drop down fast and then stabilize around 60% or so, so it looks like the battery drains faster than normal, but I think the overall battery life is about the same. I decided that I would drain the battery completely down and then charge from a depleted state. I was at 75% battery life and ran Stability Test with maximum brightness. It took about 3 hours to drain down to 0%. That's about how long it took for me when I was using Serendipity to drain the battery.
Stock Kernel - after 14 hours of use, I had 32% of the battery left. This included a little more than 1 hour of screen time, flashing 4 different modems, running GPS Test for about 10 minutes, checking email for about 20 minutes, surfing the web for about 20 minutes and making one 10 minute phone call. I did not use WiFi. At idle, the phone lost a little more than 2% an hour. By comparison, I have had similar usage with my Serendipity setup and I would typically be closer to 50-60% battery life. At idle, my battery would lose less than 1% per hour. Before I plugged the phone in this morning to charge, I flashed the Voodoo kernel. The battery meter showed 62% when it rebooted. I am not sure if the stock kernel is inaccurate with its battery monitoring or not.
Voodoo Kernel - I had roughly the same battery life using the Voodoo kernel as I did with the stock kernel. I am now running the battery completely dead and re-charging. I will update this in a couple of days after the battery monitor stabilizes and I get a better idea of how long the battery lasts. I may also buy a new battery and see how that goes. I've noticed over the last couple of months that my battery life is not what it was back in December when I was getting 36+ hours on one charge. Update: Battery life did not improve. I am trying a newer version of the kernel to see if that makes any difference.
TheEscapist's OC Kernel - since the base for his kernel is the same as the stock kernel, I will not run battery tests on it. I am however including benchmarks below that I ran. I set the clock speed to 1.2ghz for these tests.
Performance:
I am using the stock kernel. I am anxiously awaiting the OC kernel to be updated with UV, but for now, performance is good - very good. The only time I see any lag is when I open the app drawer in Launcher Pro, but I see that with just about any kernel I have used (except for SetiroN's kernel, which is no longer supported). Programs open fast, Grocery IQ scrolls fast and I can flip through pages quickly. Here are some of the Benchmarks I ran. I was told that Quadrant had not been optimized yet for Gingerbread. I was seeing frame rate caps at 19fps and 28fps.
The Voodoo kernel from Bilboa1 seems to have a little more lag and is not as smooth. My benchmarks are posted below. After running the Voodoo kernel for a couple of hours, everything stabilized and there is no lag - it seems to perform a little better than the stock kernel.
TheEscapist's kernel is the only one at the moment that has OC enabled. I ran some benchmarks using his kernel clocked at 1.2ghz. My results are below.
I will run tests on each of the three known CM7 kernels at the same time I am running the battery tests and report back.
Stock Kernel:
- Quadrant - 1699
- Nenamark - 46.6fps
- LinPack - 14.25
- Quadrant - 1802
- Nenamark - 45.6fps
- LinPack - 14.36
- Quadrant - 1795
- Nenamark - 42.6fps
- LinPack - 16.38
After re-flashing my JK4 modem, my GPS has been the best it has ever been. I get a good lock and can see 12 sats, where before it normally saw 10-11 sats. Tracking is great. I used My Tracks this morning and where I normally see drifts (2 places that have always been a problem), it locked me right in and turned when I turned.
Appearance:
This should probably be renamed theming. CM7 comes with several themes and you can download more that are Theme Manager compliant from XDA. I installed the Honeybread theme, which looks great. Pic below.
The color issue that was reported on for the Nexus S where everything looks more yellow is present in this build. I was told it was not an issue, but a way of making the colors seem more natural. To me, it looks like an issue - webpages that are normally white have a yellowish tint to them. However, the issue that has always plagued me is the sharpness of the text when reading webpages. While this was resolved with different sharpness fixes, straight stock CM7 has this perfected. Text looks very sharp and clean.
Other Interesting Finds:
- You can change the notification bar to include different toggles for a whole range of different items. Menu > Settings > CyanogenMod settings > Interface > Notification power widget
- You can change the battery to show the percentage. Menu > Settings > CyanogenMod settings > Interface > Status bar tweaks
- The battery usage monitor works even if you reboot the phone. It will keep stats on your battery usage until the battery is fully charged.
I will update this as I run into more issues or find solutions.
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