Stock vs. Rooted+Lagfixed Captivate - Lag differences [Video]

[WwonderLlama]

Well, I haven't seen a side-by-side Stock vs Rooted+Lagfixed video so I put one together to show folks that the changes are drastic.

I rooted because of the horrible lag I ran into when using apps that save data while you use the app. Basically, anything that persists your selections as you make them. Games were mostly okay, since they only save when you quit. However, media players that save your position constantly, GroceryIQ which saves status every time you tap, etc.

This'll give you an idea of what I was seeing:
Stock vs. Rooted + Lagfix : Samsung Captivate Lag differences (YouTube)

The non-rooted Captivate is my wife's... And after watching me make this video, she asked me to root hers as well. Then came a half-day of randomly hearing her exclaim things like "Holy CRAP this is faster!" and "Even swiping between homescreens is faster!"

 

[BetaRoc]

Nice. Thanks

 

[lillejord]

Which lag fix are you using?

 

[WwonderLlama]

I used the method in this xda thread.

It looks like the thread has been updated. The part that I followed is what's in the brown box and starts with @Tayutama

I rooted my Captivate, then used the update.zip provided in Step 1 of the "Full instructions" in that brown box. After that, I just ran the MCR LagFix1024.sh script.

After a few minutes it said 'complete' and I've been happy since!

 

[WwonderLlama]

Oh, one other thing I maybe should mention.

Do you play World of Warcraft? Do you have the Blizzard Authenticator on your phone? DO NOT ROOT!

Blizzard specifically checks for rooted phones and when you start the Authenticator, it gripes at you and shuts down.

So if you're going to root, either remove your authenticator before rooting or prepare to spend an hour on the phone getting to a live rep that will grill you before removing your authenticator.

UPDATE: As of the newest Battle.net Authenticator update (1.0.1), mine no longer force-closes.

 

[lthomas926]

errors?

Any chance of killing your phone? and I had seen somewhere about backing up alot since its on ext2. Im kinda worried to do it.

 

[lillejord]

Oh, one other thing I maybe should mention.

Do you play World of Warcraft? Do you have the Blizzard Authenticator on your phone? DO NOT ROOT!

Blizzard specifically checks for rooted phones and when you start the Authenticator, it gripes at you and shuts down.

So if you're going to root, either remove your authenticator before rooting or prepare to spend an hour on the phone getting to a live rep that will grill you before removing your authenticator.

Wait, you play WoW on your phone?

 

[nyeark]

Oh, one other thing I maybe should mention.

Do you play World of Warcraft? Do you have the Blizzard Authenticator on your phone? DO NOT ROOT!

Blizzard specifically checks for rooted phones and when you start the Authenticator, it gripes at you and shuts down.

So if you're going to root, either remove your authenticator before rooting or prepare to spend an hour on the phone getting to a live rep that will grill you before removing your authenticator.

This is incorrect. I have the Auth on my rooted captivate; the warning that pops up is just a warning that a rooted device isn't as secure, as other apps might be able to snatch the authenticator code for a man-in-the-middle attack. The app itself will still work and generate codes.

 

[att_guy]

this kinda wants to make me do this to mine now, thanks!

 

[WwonderLlama]

This is incorrect. I have the Auth on my rooted captivate; the warning that pops up is just a warning that a rooted device isn't as secure, as other apps might be able to snatch the authenticator code for a man-in-the-middle attack. The app itself will still work and generate codes.

It's certainly not incorrect from my testing.

I'm glad it works for you, but on both of the captivates I've rooted, the Blizzard Authenticator closes as soon as you select "Allow" or "Do not Allow" when it asks for super-user privileges.

It doesn't Force Close, it simply closes as if you'd hit the back button.

 

[WwonderLlama]

Wait, you play WoW on your phone?

No, Blizzard uses a security authenticator to make their login process more secure. It is synchronized with their servers and generates random-number-based passwords. You can get a physical authenticator (key-fob) or you can use a software-based authenticator on Android or iOS devices.

So, you start WoW on your PC and then fire up your phone to get your random-number-passcode.

 

[WwonderLlama]

Any chance of killing your phone? and I had seen somewhere about backing up alot since its on ext2. Im kinda worried to do it.

I've done it twice with no problems so far. I'd suggest doing a bit more research and decide for yourself.

My research tells me:

EXT2 can lose data if your phone is powered off (e.g. battery removed or dies) while the phone is writing to the internal memory. Not just at random times.

All of my important data (contact lists, email, etc) is stored on servers, not just on the phone. So, if it fails, I still have all my data available.

The link I posted now suggests that you follow a different method that uses EXT4 (which has journaling). It's the same method, but when it does the fix, it uses a "better" filesystem.

But, to be fair, Linux used EXT2 for a LONG time before journaling came onto the scene. EXT2 released in 1992, whereas EXT3 was introduced in 2001. So, it was "good enough" for linux installations for 9 yrs. I have enough faith that it'll run my phone safely for the forseeable future. (Until Froyo releases and this fix is no longer needed.)

But, like I said: do a bit of reading and make your own decision. No one's responsible for bricking except the person who does it.

 

[nyeark]

It's certainly not incorrect from my testing.

I'm glad it works for you, but on both of the captivates I've rooted, the Blizzard Authenticator closes as soon as you select "Allow" or "Do not Allow" when it asks for super-user privileges.

It doesn't Force Close, it simply closes as if you'd hit the back button.

When I said what you wrote was incorrect, I was referring to the implication that what you were experiencing was an intended behavior, since it's not. I'm pretty sure your issue lies elsewhere; it sucks that's happening for you, though :/

FWIW, I was on a rooted stock firmware earlier. I flashed to JH2 last night, installed superrooter from xda and restored from ti backup. Now, the Auth did close the first time after giving it root access as you described, but I re-ran it and it worked fine after that, so who knows.

The feel of the phone after the fix is amazing though, this is how it should've been set up from the factory IMO. I've got quite a few apps that were amazing in every way except how slow they were, and now there's no problems at all I won't have to worry about data corruption since I used the ext4 fix, though it was a pain figuring out how to flash the firmware with no experience. I'm going to post up a small noob writeup of how I did it though in case anyone wants to do this.

 

[WwonderLlama]

When I said what you wrote was incorrect, I was referring to the implication that what you were experiencing was an intended behavior, since it's not. I'm pretty sure your issue lies elsewhere; it sucks that's happening for you, though :/

I assumed that was its intended behavior because of the app itself. I was able to see a message in the Authenticator app that indicated that blizz was checking for root access, and since it found it, it was unsupported. I couldn't read the whole message before the app shut down. I surmised Blizz did a standard thing they'd do and just shut the thing down since it was unsupported.

It could go either way: they may have intended the app to still run and mine's mis-behaving, or they may have intended it to close and yours isn't listening. I don't think we can say what they really intended, but I'm glad yours is working for you!

Just for giggles, I removed/reinstalled the authenticator. It still closes after the superuser check.

I wonder if it has to do with the rooting method or Superuser app I used. My "Superuser Permissions" app icon is a ninja.

 

[nyeark]

You might be able to scratch the SU app theory; the ninja's what I had on stock firmware. My current one appears to be a pirate, yarr.

 

[wildkarrde21]

Cool, this video inspired me to install a lag fix. For those of you who are interested in a non-recovery mode way of doing it, there is an APK from the XDA forums that is super easy to use. It doesn't have the latest lag fix (not entirely sure what the differences are), but it boosted my quadrant score from 900 to 2100 Everything feels snappier as well.

 

[WwonderLlama]

You might be able to scratch the SU app theory; the ninja's what I had on stock firmware. My current one appears to be a pirate, yarr.

Interestingly, my wife's Blizz Authenticator started working again... Two days after she spent over an hour dealing with Blizz support to have it removed from her account.

 

[nyeark]

Well that's good to hear, hope you can get yours working again too

 

[s2h2golf]

Cool, this video inspired me to install a lag fix. For those of you who are interested in a non-recovery mode way of doing it, there is an APK from the XDA forums that is super easy to use. It doesn't have the latest lag fix (not entirely sure what the differences are), but it boosted my quadrant score from 900 to 2100 Everything feels snappier as well.

This is exactly what I was looking for - something quick to use that took less than 5 minutes to do - it rooted my phone and installed the lag fix. Perfect. Quadrant scores up to 2200, blazing speeds in my browser and the market loads a lot quicker.

 

[dewhite04]

...though it was a pain figuring out how to flash the firmware with no experience. I'm going to post up a small noob writeup of how I did it though in case anyone wants to do this.

I would really appreciate seeing how you went about this, step-by-step. I'm a pretty smart guy, but I'm concerned that I'll get half-way through the process and realize that I've skipped something really simple (but important).

I'd just like to see EXACTLY how somebody has successfully applied this method.

Did you make a nandroid backup before applying the new firmware and SRE?