Old and crusty VZW Gnex user finally roots phone

[jonheld]

I have owned the VZW Gnex since it became available on VZW running 4.0 ICS. It is my first real smartphone, as I was a Crackberry user before this. Long story short, I love this phone. I have had zero issues with it, I power cycle it when it needs it and occasionally allow the battery to completely drain and fully recharge when battery life gets stupid short. There were some Bluetooth issues with 4.1, but that was an OS issue and not the phone.
My VZW contract has been up for months now and I have been looking for another device anyway, so I decided to jump into the unlocking/rooting/ROM thing to see what happens. Using the available tools and resources found here, it was remarkably painless (thank you to all the developers out there that made it so). I am currently running SomEx 4.3 along with the 4.3 Golden Kernel.

After installing both, I restored settings from an Android backup file I made prior to unlocking, using the Nexus Root Toolkit. Again, no drama and everything works as it should. However I?m really not seeing any difference in performance, speed, or overall user experience. So I?m wondering if I did something wrong or if this is as good as it gets. Perhaps I shouldn?t have restored my backup to the new OS/kernel?
Thank you in advance for your thoughts/comments.

JH

 

[VDub2174]

How long have you been running the custom ROM and kernel? You sometimes need to let these "settle" into the phone before you notice anything significant.

 

[jonheld]

I've been running this setup for a few days now. I'm not sure what you mean by "settle in".
JH

Posted via Android Central App

 

[jonheld]

For the record, this phone has always been very vanilla. The only things I added to change the UI was Nova Launcher and Rotate.

JH

Posted via Android Central App

 

[VDub2174]

You said you flashed a kernel too right? Have you changed the governor?

 

[jonheld]

I didn't change any settings after flashing and restoring. How do I access the governor you refer to?

JH

Posted via Android Central App

 

[VDub2174]

Depends on the ROM really. It could be under Settings > Performance or the kernel could have a separate app or you could use something like SetCPU from the Play Store (I believe that's a paid app though). Check your setting to see if you can find something in there first

 

[jonheld]

There doesn't appear to be any handles that are accessible through the UI.
I am currently running SomEx 4.3 along with the 4.3 Golden Kernel. Perhaps I chose the wrong or incompatible pair. Coming in from the "outside", it's difficult to tell the difference between available ROMS and available kernels and their associated function sets and compatibility. I suppose I was hoping for more of a "wow" factor, but I do keep my phone clean and it has always run well IMO.
If you or anyone else has recommendations for a better pairing of ROM/kernel, I would be willing to try them as long as they were stable.

JH

 

[VDub2174]

In all honesty, it's always best to try out different combos. I remember when I had my GNex, I would flash all sorts of ROMs and kernels until I found a match that worked for me

 

[davey11]

Try one of the big dogs, like aokp, carbon, cyanogen or paranoid. They are chock full of features and tweaks. You will really notice a difference.

Sent from my Nexus 5 p)

 

[jonheld]

Try one of the big dogs, like aokp, carbon, cyanogen or paranoid. They are chock full of features and tweaks. You will really notice a difference.

Do these big dogs provide matching kernels to go with the ROMs? Where do I find these?
JH

 

[VDub2174]

Here you go:

Verizon Galaxy Nexus Android Development - xda-developers

 

[jonheld]

Here you go:

Verizon Galaxy Nexus Android Development - xda-developers

Wow. That's the freakin' jackpot right there. Thanks man, I appreciate it.

JH

 

[VDub2174]

Wow. That's the freakin' jackpot right there. Thanks man, I appreciate it.

JH

LOL....no problem man. It's where I go for all my ROM needs