Tester for DARK ROM?

[ProBird79]

The dev was kind and generous enough to build the N6 ROM after asking. As of now I have only found 2 minor bugs that are easily resolved. It is definitely a daily driver with WiFi calling, VoLTE, and camera all working.

If any of you are interested in this please pm or respond. If there is enough interest I'll update this post with links for download.


***Edit*** Here are the links if you are interest. This ROM is based on Lineage OS & updates OTA (the update is pushed by the developer and is downloaded/installed like stock). Please reach out to the developer to show your appreciation. Maybe he will "officially" begin to develop for the N6.

Look here for further information about the ROM:
Here's his N5 page on XDA.
Here's his N6P page on XDA.

Installed Prerequisites: Update to the latest TWRP, Radio, & Bootloader
- 3.1.0-0 TWRP --> or use the "Official TWRP App" from the Play Store.
- Newest Bootloader-72.02 --> Source
- Newest Radio-05.45 --> Same source link as the Bootloader.

ROM & Gapps
- DARK ROM: Nexus 6
- Dark_Gapps

Instillation Instructions:
Backup first... always backup first
Wipe system, data, cache and dalvik cache
Install DARK ROM
Install provided GAPPS (Mandatory)
(Optional) Install root package of your choice (I recommend Magisk)
Enjoy !

Potential bug: Unable to send MMS Message while connected to WiFi:
Solution:
- For T-Mobile (& maybe other carriers?) under "T-Mobile MMS" APN you have to change the "APN protocol" to IPv4 (default is IPv4/IPv6 but it also doesn't work on IPv6 either).
OR
- Change the APN Type in the "T-Mobile US LTE" APN from "default,supl" to "default,supl,mms"

Please report back if you find any bugs!


***Edit #2***
IT'S OFFICIALLY RELEASED!!!
Official DARK ROM Page

 

[VW Maverick]

I could be interested.
Running Nitrogen OS now which is working great.
Always open to new ROMs.
Does this one support themeing like Substratum?

Mav.

 

[ProBird79]

Does this one support themeing like Substratum?

I personally don't use Substratum (or any other theming methods) but on his other ROM's users are using it so I'm going to assume that it does. You would be a good person to test it out and see if it works to your expectations.

 

[anon(9072051)]

I have a second N6 that I might be interested in trying it on since WiFi calling works. I've never used anything but the stock ROM, though. I don't know if that's a red flag or not.

 

[ProBird79]

I have a second N6 that I might be interested in trying it on since WiFi calling works. I've never used anything but the stock ROM, though. I don't know if that's a red flag or not.

Do you know how to unlock the bootloader and flash TWRP (recovery)? There are tool kits such as this if you don't want to do it step by step via ADB. It's still very easy to do it without the tool kit though. There is a learning curve at first but it isn't very difficult. There is a ton of step by step tutorials to reference. Some people get addicted to flashing ROM's so be careful! haha

Also, a perk for this ROM is that it can update like stock (Delta Updates). The dev can push a new build out once it is completed which is a very neat feature!

 

[anon(9072051)]

Do you know how to unlock the bootloader and flash TWRP (recovery)?

I left the bootloader unlocked because I wasn't expecting to get any further OTAs from Google anyway. I've never flashed a recovery or a ROM, but I use the full Android SDK for sideloading. I've read through some stuff about flashing ROMs; I've just never had a compelling reason to go for it.

 

[ProBird79]

I left the bootloader unlocked because I wasn't expecting to get any further OTAs from Google anyway. I've never flashed a recovery or a ROM, but I use the full Android SDK for sideloading. I've read through some stuff about flashing ROMs; I've just never had a compelling reason to go for it.

Ok, you have some experience with ADB/fastboot so you are familiar with it. Flashing the recovery is exactly the same steps as unlocking your bootloader or sideloading. This is a perfect time to learn since our phones are not going to be receiving updates any longer and developers will continue making ROM's for us to partake in.

I'm assuming you have sideloaded at least February's 7.1.1 so you should have the latest bootloader and radio...


If you want to proceed:
Download TWRP recovery here (click on "Download twrp-3.1.0-0-shamu.img") and place it in your "platform-tools" folder just like you would with your sideloadable files.

1) Perform the steps as if you were to unlock your bootloader or sideload again so that the phone is at the bootloader screen and you can type the commands on your computer.
a) Go into Developer Options and enable USB debugging.
b) Plug your phone into the computer.
c) From your computer, open a command prompt and type

adb reboot bootloader

b) You should now be in fastboot mode.

2) Now flash TWRP by the command

fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.1.0-0-shamu.img

- That's it, you've flashed the recovery!

3) Now check to see if the new TWRP is there.
- Reboot the bootloader by

fastboot reboot-bootloader

- Now use your volume button to toggle to "RECOVERY MODE" and press the power button to select it. It should now boot to the TWRP recovery.
- You can go ahead and reboot the system now.

Post back when you've completed this.

 

[anon(9072051)]

Thanks for the step-by-step. I flashed TWRP onto my backup N6. It's running the March 7.1.1 build.

 

[ProBird79]

Thanks for the step-by-step. I flashed TWRP onto my backup N6. It's running the March 7.1.1 build.

Great! You're welcome. Ok now on to the ROM and Google Apps (Gapps). Some ROM's include Gapps so there is no need to flash Gapps. On this ROM they are not included so you have to flash Gapps.

I'll PM you the links for download and other information.

Here are the flashing steps:
1) Download the ROM and Gapps onto your internal storage.
2) Back up any important data.
3) Now boot into recovery (TWRP).
4) Make a Backup (Optional but highly recommended). Just in case something happens it is always good to have 1 good backup.
- Backup>Swipe to Backup
- The default selections (System, Data, & Boot) are all that you need.
5) Wipe Data
- Wipe>Advance Wipe>Select Dalvik/ART Cache, System, Data, & Cache>Swipe to Wipe
- DO NOT WIPE INTERNAL STORAGE!
- I usually perform this step more than once since I've had issues going from one ROM to another. It seems like doing this wipe multiple times in a row clears it up.
6) Install ROM
- Install>Select ROM ZIP file>Swipe to confirm Flash
7) Install Gapps
- Install>Select Gapps ZIP file>Swipe to confirm Flash
8) Reboot System

 

[anon(9072051)]

After getting past an odd experience flashing TWRP, the ROM seems to be working fine on my N6 on Project Fi. TWRP kept disappearing after a reboot time after time until it finally didn't: it only stuck after I flashed TWRP (for the fourth or fifth time) and then immediately flashed the ROM.img and Gapps. (Thanks to ProBird79 for convincing me it would work.)

WiFi calling is working, and I can send and receive MMS messages over WiFi as well: I think Fi's APN Protocol is IPv4. Bluetooth pairing in my Sorento was successful, but a little painful since it took the phone several minutes to identify the car by name instead of its bluetooth address. (Pairing is confusing when all you see are 5 or 6 different BT addresses and one of 'em is labelled with a headphones icon--and who knew that one would be the car?) Voice training also took longer than I'm used to. I've always made it through that process on a first attempt. This time it took nearly 10 tries before I got a thumbs up from the phone. Of course, people have widely different experiences with voice recognition anyway, so there's no obvious conclusion to draw.

It hasn't been a full 24 hours yet, but the phone seems to be sipping even less power when idle than it did running stock, but time will tell on that score. Beyond that, there's nothing to report except that I now know with certainty that I do not like the look of the Pixel launcher. A mocked-up version in Nova looks a lot more elegant to me.

One oddity: my phone is now always connecting to T-Mobile LTE when it's not in airplane mode; before, on stock, it connected to Sprint around 80% of the time. And, no, I didn't flash a new radio: the phone's been running the 5.44 radio for the past two weeks.

 

[ProBird79]

One oddity: my phone is now always connecting to T-Mobile LTE when it's not in airplane mode; before, on stock, it connected to Sprint around 80% of the time.

Is your signal with T-Mobile stronger now than it was with Sprint? Has the phone been in one location or have you taken the phone other places to see if it switches? Going to areas that you know Sprint has a signal but T-Mobile doesn't should definitely tell you if it is not switching. This would definitely be the first step I would take to rule out a non-switching issue.

Also, from what I've read Project Fi "learns" connectivity and stores it locally so maybe performing a clean install erased that data and is now relearning? Maybe T-Mobile upgraded their towers and you now have a stronger signal with them?

Supposedly Lineage OS works with Project Fi and since this ROM is based on it I wouldn't think there would be any problems. Who knows, maybe in this build it is broken...

A few possible solutions I've read using Project Fi with Lineage OS and switching issues:
1) Have you enabled all permissions in the Project Fi app (I read where this resolved one person's issue)? Settings > Apps > Project Fi > Permissions > Enable all of them.

2) Uninstall the updates for the Project Fi app > Reactivate the phone with Project Fi > Restart the phone > Install the updates for Project Fi app. (Source) I wouldn't think this would do much since you did a clean install but it's worth a shot.


You can try force switching for testing purposes. Which connection is stronger?

Force Jump to Sprint: **#*#34777#*#*

Force Jump to T-Mobile: **#*#34866#*#*

Force Jump to Next Carrier: **#*#346398#*#*

Turn On Auto Switch: **#*#342886#*#*

Repair Bad Activation: **#*#34963#*#*

Current Network Info: **#*#344636#*#*

Make sure if you don't want to be locked into the carrier you force switched to, you need to use the "Turn On Auto Switch" code afterwards. *Auto-switching will resume after a reboot. *However, it will start with the last carrier that you were connected to before the reboot.

 

[anon(9072051)]

Supposedly Lineage OS works with Project Fi and since this ROM is based on it I wouldn't think there would be any problems. Who knows, maybe in this build it is broken...

Sorry for any confusion, but I don't have a problem with the phone preferring T-Mobile to Sprint. I was merely surprised to see my phone consistently connecting to T-Mobile after flashing the ROM when it was apparently preferring Sprint before the flash. In fact, previously the phone seemed to be opting for a Sprint connection even in the face of a T-Mobile signal that was numerically stronger (according to the LTE Discovery & Fi Switch apps).

Also, from what I've read Project Fi "learns" connectivity and stores it locally so maybe performing a clean install erased that data and is now relearning? Maybe T-Mobile upgraded their towers and you now have a stronger signal with them?

I was chalking up the change to one of 3 possibilities: 1) your "relearning" explanation; 2) that all of the flashing and re-flashing and rebooting I did reset the phone's radios at least once and the phone just happened to connect to a new T-Mobile tower on its last reboot; 3) all the flashing and re-flashing I did played billyhell with some Fi traffic management algorithms that had been favoring a Sprint connection (tho that could be giving Fi too much credit for shady manipulations).

Whatever the case, Sprint forced a reconfiguration of my phone to its network this morning, so they're still in the game, just slower at recovering from non-stock modifications than T-Mobile, I guess. But I used the FiSwitch app (because I'm lazy & it automates forced switching) to switch back to TMo anyway.

Finally, I hope somebody else with an N6 on Fi stumbles across this thread. You've already provided enough information here to mark this thread as a user's guide!

 

[ProBird79]

Sorry for any confusion, but I don't have a problem with the phone preferring T-Mobile to Sprint. I was merely surprised to see my phone consistently connecting to T-Mobile after flashing the ROM when it was apparently preferring Sprint before the flash. In fact, previously the phone seemed to be opting for a Sprint connection even in the face of a T-Mobile signal that was numerically stronger (according to the LTE Discovery & Fi Switch apps).


I was chalking up the change to one of 3 possibilities: 1) your "relearning" explanation; 2) that all of the flashing and re-flashing and rebooting I did reset the phone's radios at least once and the phone just happened to connect to a new T-Mobile tower on its last reboot; 3) all the flashing and re-flashing I did played billyhell with some Fi traffic management algorithms that had been favoring a Sprint connection (tho that could be giving Fi too much credit for shady manipulations).

Whatever the case, Sprint forced a reconfiguration of my phone to its network this morning, so they're still in the game, just slower at recovering from non-stock modifications than T-Mobile, I guess. But I used the FiSwitch app (because I'm lazy & it automates forced switching) to switch back to TMo anyway.

Finally, I hope somebody else with an N6 on Fi stumbles across this thread. You've already provided enough information here to mark this thread as a user's guide!

Oh man, I completely misinterpreted what you said. I thought you were saying it only stayed connected to T-Mobile now. Well hopefully someone comes across this thread and finds some useful information if they need it.

 

[ProBird79]

Whomever downloaded this ROM you should have received an update OTA. If not, go check System Updates on your phone.

Changelog:
- Show WiFi SSID in status bar
- Show carrier label in status bar
- Hide carrier label on the lockscreen (or rename to whatever you want)
- Hide the low battery warning notification
- Remove the orange status bar and navigation bar when in battery saver mode
- Switch to disable one hand mode (in gestures menu)

He also updated his Gapps so you might want to reflash those as well.

 

[anon(9072051)]

Cool! I saw the Delta update notification this morning. Nice to know the updates work like a charm. And I appreciated the warning re. being sure TWRP is installed before proceeding, given the problem I had getting TWRP to stick. (I'm wondering now if that's a problem specific to installing TWRP on un-rooted phones; apparently plenty of others have had the same problem.)

Now if the Gapps file ever finishes downloading, I'll flash that, too. (Not a lot of power in those basketbuild servers, I guess.) But it was good to see that the total number of Shamu downloads is well into double digits now. That should help to keep the developer interested.

Thanks for spreading the word!

 

[latty]

I'll test it. I've probly ran almost every n6 ROM I can find. On Pure Nexus now and it's dang near bulletproof. But im always open to new roms so why not.

 

[latty]

Can't download. Basketbuild is doing maintenance.

 

[ProBird79]

Can't download. Basketbuild is doing maintenance.

Yeah unfortunately Basketbuild goes down a lot for some reason. I have no clue why. The developer is looking to possibly change servers. He knows it is an issue and is looking to resolve it. Don't give up, keep checking back. If you like Pure Nexus you will like this ROM! You will especially like the OTA updates!

 

[ProBird79]

Can't download. Basketbuild is doing maintenance.

The downloads have now been moved to a new server. I have updated the links. Go get it!

 

[latty]

Flashing now. Thanks