Choosing a Kernel

[andromanic]

What are the most best and most popular custom kernels for the nexus 4?
And what are the strengths and weaknesses of the kernels?
Also what features do they have and what they good for?

Some of the kernels that I have heard of are:
Trinity
Matrix
Faux123
Franco

which one do you prefer and why, Which one give the most performance and bettery boost?

 

[Paul627g]

From your list I'm familiar with 3 of them.

Trinity, always riding the razors edge. Some have good success with it and others their devices just don't like the volting and clock changes that the devs do... YMMV

Matrix, I know the developer as an " internet friend" he's a young developer in his late teenage years but has had some great success on a few different platforms with his kernels. Matrix was a huge favorite of mine back on my Nexus S 4G

Franco, always a great kernel for being minimalistic and great for overall speed & battery combined. This is what I run today because I'm not a huge speed hog on my Sprint GNex but I like having the best battery I can get. Franco's probably has the biggest following and support of all three IMO.

 

[andromanic]

I heard that franco kernel only uses two cores when your just browsing the UI, can you set it to use all of the cores all of the time? I know it lowers the battery life, but I like power.

 

[Andrw]

Faux gave me random reboots throughout which he could not diagnose. I love Matr1x and Harsh because those two kernels gave me good battery life.
Since I've bought Franco's app, I decided to stick with his kernel. Great battery life and the headphone gain/volume control is a nifty feature, which Faux's kernel also implemented.
Can't go wrong with any custom kernels you've listed above to be honest.

 

[JeffDenver]

Is it possible to restore the default kernel? Can I restore my Nexus 4 to factory defaults after flashing a new kernel?

 

[RumoredNow]

Certainly with the paid app for franco.Kernel Updater you can and it is easy.

Before flashing run a backup of the stock kernel. The App will either download a franco or auto-install one for you (your choice). You can then save various custom settings as different files as well. The franco.Kernel Updater has a very nice Backup/Restore feature.

 

[2defmouze]

Is it possible to restore the default kernel? Can I restore my Nexus 4 to factory defaults after flashing a new kernel?

Download the factory image from Google, unzip it, find the file called boot.img - that's the stock kernel. Flash it in fastboot using:
fastboot flash boot boot.img