4.3 GE ROM

[ajl]

Can anybody hook me up with a stable 4.3 (Google Edition) ROM? Right now I'm using a semi-stable 4.2.2 ROM. It'd be nice if the ROM didn't have anything added to it. Thanks for any guidance you can provide!

 

[jeffreii]

http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...ur-carrier-when-posting-thread-read-here.html

 

[ajl]

http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...ur-carrier-when-posting-thread-read-here.html

Sorry about this! I did read that prior, guess it slipped my mind when writing. (Good excuse... Right?) I am on AT&T.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[jeffreii]

Sorry about this! I did read that prior, guess it slipped my mind when writing. (Good excuse... Right?) I am on AT&T.

Now I remember lol - I'm going to suggest Kangabean to you again!:
|ROM| |★.:KANGABEAN:.★| |ATT&CAN|►GOOGLE-EDITION◄|JB|4.3 + 4.2|LOKi'D|AUG.12.13| - xda-developers

 

[ajl]

Now I remember lol - I'm going to suggest Kangabean to you again!:
|ROM| |★.:KANGABEAN:.★| |ATT&CAN|►GOOGLE-EDITION◄|JB|4.3 + 4.2|LOKi'D|AUG.12.13| - xda-developers

*Sigh* Lol, I tried this yesterday and no offense to the developer, but this is the most unstable ROM I have ever tested... No, I'm not exaggerating haha. It may just be me, but with added tweaks and more lag than TouchWiz itself. This one was not a keeper. I'll probably be making a post on that thread later...

Posted via Android Central App

 

[quietlybrilliant]

So there is no pure Google edition for the regular S4 out there? All just modified versions with odd tweaks? I'd like to convert my S4 to Google Edition, but with no extra bells and whistles (and flaws) compared to the regular GE.

 

[jeffreii]

*Sigh* Lol, I tried this yesterday and no offense to the developer, but this is the most unstable ROM I have ever tested... No, I'm not exaggerating haha. It may just be me, but with added tweaks and more lag than TouchWiz itself. This one was not a keeper. I'll probably be making a post on that thread later...

If you read the Kangabean thread you'll see almost EVERYONE is completely satisfied with the ROM and have no issues with stability. As such, I can only assume you did something wrong and are blaming it on the ROM instead of user error.

So there is no pure Google edition for the regular S4 out there? All just modified versions with odd tweaks? I'd like to convert my S4 to Google Edition, but with no extra bells and whistles (and flaws) compared to the regular GE.

There is no way to totally "convert" your device to Google Edition. The S4 has a locked bootloader and so we don't have full capability to do that sort of thing. There are several custom ROMs that give you the 4.3 Google Edition experience you'd find on the S4...they might have varying levels of tweaks, but thankfully you have a choice.

You can read about the changes in the first post of this thread:
|ROM| |★.:KANGABEAN:.★| |ATT&CAN|►GOOGLE-EDITION◄|JB|4.3|LOKi'D|AUG.19.13| - xda-developers

If you want something even MORE stock, albeit with less developer support, there's a very plain very as well:
[ROM] Google Edition 4.3 [Clean][Deodex][Slim][294MB][2013.08.07] - xda-developers

But...I still highly suggest Kangabean, if only for the excellent/active developer.

 

[quietlybrilliant]

If you read the Kangabean thread you'll see almost EVERYONE is completely satisfied with the ROM and have no issues with stability. As such, I can only assume you did something wrong and are blaming it on the ROM instead of user error.



There is no way to totally "convert" your device to Google Edition. The S4 has a locked bootloader and so we don't have full capability to do that sort of thing. There are several custom ROMs that give you the 4.3 Google Edition experience you'd find on the S4...they might have varying levels of tweaks, but thankfully you have a choice.

You can read about the changes in the first post of this thread:
|ROM| |★.:KANGABEAN:.★| |ATT&CAN|►GOOGLE-EDITION◄|JB|4.3|LOKi'D|AUG.19.13| - xda-developers

If you want something even MORE stock, albeit with less developer support, there's a very plain very as well:
[ROM] Google Edition 4.3 [Clean][Deodex][Slim][294MB][2013.08.07] - xda-developers

But...I still highly suggest Kangabean, if only for the excellent/active developer.

My main question is: Are any of these tweaks nearly as fast as the GE version? I compared it to the TouchWiz phone and there really is no comparison, the GE phone *smokes* the regular S4.

 

[jeffreii]

*Sigh* Lol, I tried this yesterday and no offense to the developer, but this is the most unstable ROM I have ever tested... No, I'm not exaggerating haha. It may just be me, but with added tweaks and more lag than TouchWiz itself. This one was not a keeper. I'll probably be making a post on that thread later...

Posted via Android Central App

My main question is: Are any of these tweaks nearly as fast as the GE version? I compared it to the TouchWiz phone and there really is no comparison, the GE phone *smokes* the regular S4.

If you would just go read some of the latest comments in the Kangabean thread you'll see lots of people commenting on how amazing the speed/battery life/etc. are on that ROM. It is absolutely not "bloated" with anything. Most of the tweaks are to make it better, not worse...otherwise why do them?

 

[quietlybrilliant]

If you would just go read some of the latest comments in the Kangabean thread you'll see lots of people commenting on how amazing the speed/battery life/etc. are on that ROM. It is absolutely not "bloated" with anything. Most of the tweaks are to make it better, not worse...otherwise why do them?

Thanks for those suggestions. I'm close to pulling the trigger on this. Can I ask two follow-up questions?

1) Will I be able to revert back to TouchWiz/factory original S4 if I have to (e.g., if there is a warranty issue)?

2) Has anybody verified that Tethering apps like FoxFi work with the rooted GE-like S4? These apps don't work with the version of Android currently running on the default S4's.

 

[James Frary]

I have the save question.

Sent from my GT-I9505G using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Bizzle69]

Thanks for those suggestions. I'm close to pulling the trigger on this. Can I ask two follow-up questions?

1) Will I be able to revert back to TouchWiz/factory original S4 if I have to (e.g., if there is a warranty issue)?

2) Has anybody verified that Tethering apps like FoxFi work with the rooted GE-like S4? These apps don't work with the version of Android currently running on the default S4's.

Whenever you flash ANY rom, always make a back up of your current in recovery. That way you will always be able to flash back to where you were before the new rom. Any app you normally run on stock, you should be able to run it no problem on a different rom (this one per say) -- just use Titanium Backup to backup your apps+data (never backup system anything through TiBu).

 

[jeffreii]

*Sigh* Lol, I tried this yesterday and no offense to the developer, but this is the most unstable ROM I have ever tested... No, I'm not exaggerating haha. It may just be me, but with added tweaks and more lag than TouchWiz itself. This one was not a keeper. I'll probably be making a post on that thread later...

Posted via Android Central App

Thanks for those suggestions. I'm close to pulling the trigger on this. Can I ask two follow-up questions?

1) Will I be able to revert back to TouchWiz/factory original S4 if I have to (e.g., if there is a warranty issue)?

2) Has anybody verified that Tethering apps like FoxFi work with the rooted GE-like S4? These apps don't work with the version of Android currently running on the default S4's.

If there's a warranty issue, you can easily just ODIN back to stock MDL firmware and factory reset the device, which will unroot and make it like it was right out of the box. Of course, that will risk allowing the MF3 update so take out the SIM card and disconnect WIFI if you want to avoid that.

Yes you can (and should) have a NANDROID backup, which will allow you to quickly go back to stock (or any other point in time when you made a NANDROID backup) but that doesn't sound like what you're looking for...because in order to do a NANDROID, you must have root and recovery...and restoring to that point would also restore the root and recovery.

Anyways, the process for ODIN back to stock is here:
[FACTORY STOCK] GS4 Stock Firmware Odin Package- Original Factory ROM - xda-developers

If you're returning for warranty, you could just use the firmware supplied in that OP (it's MDB, which is before MDL, which is before MF3)...I guess if you're sending the phone in you don't care if it's old firmware. You can also check later in that thread for links to MDL or even download it from SamMobile. Just remember to factory reset as well...as the ODIN procedure will not unroot you without it.

As for tethering, I don't know since I have an AT&T Shared Data Plan which gives me tethering for free...but I am sure you can do a little searching to find many threads about tethering...especially on XDA.

 

[quietlybrilliant]

I'm confused about how to make the backup. Is it safe to use Titanium backup or not? Will it be straightforward to do this? Is is straightforward to go back to the original ROM? The Kangabean thread is not filled with comments on how the latest built is horrible and has very poor battery life. Are there other GE builts people can recommend?

 

[jeffreii]

I'm confused about how to make the backup. Is it safe to use Titanium backup or not? Will it be straightforward to do this? Is is straightforward to go back to the original ROM? The Kangabean thread is not filled with comments on how the latest built is horrible and has very poor battery life. Are there other GE builts people can recommend?

First off, I follow the Kangabean thread and it definitely gets good reviews from 90% of people...some have issues which seem to be sorted out rather quickly by the helpful dev and others. The main issue for most is that the latest version of 4.3 requires a custom kernel to run...there's no way around this and custom kernels allow users to make a LOT of mistakes. Stick to the recommended settings and you'll be fine. Regardless, Kangabean gives you the choice between a) latest OTA version requiring ktoonsez's custom kernel (the most popular custom kernel) b) latest OTA version using the Faux Kernel (basically stock kernel with modified security settings just to make it work without any other kernel changes) c) the previous 4.3 build that was able to use the totally stock kernel, for those who don't want to deal with the kernel issues.

Anyways, regarding backups, make sure to read the post in my signature and learn about Nandroid backups. This is the best, most comprehensive, backup available for Android. If you do this backup before flashing a ROM...you can revert back to it at ANY time and it will be as if you never flashed the ROM. You can use it to switch between ROMs as you wish...it's like a time machine for your phone. Titanium Backup, on the other hand, is useful in other ways. It will back up your apps and their data. You can use it to restore individual apps and data or batch restore everything...or just restore all data, or all apps, etc. This is often useful because when restoring, you often do not want to restore everything as it can create issues, especially when switching between ROMs. It's usually best to set up everything from scratch when first installing a new ROM...though you can use Titanium Backup to just restore all your apps. Note that Titanium Backup can even read your Nandroid backup and let you pick out specific apps/data from it to restore...but again, Nandroid is for EVERYTHING.