Need help putting a custom Rom (Lollipop) and I have a few questions.

[Anthony Roberts5]

Hey guys this is my first time posting on android central so bare with me.

Normally I am on Crackberry (Have a Z30) but since this is for my sisters phone just needed some clarification.

My sister has an S4 from Bell. She unlocked it and got it modified to work with Wind mobile. So I assume the phone is rooted now since she can't get the lollipop update. I want to put a custom ROM on her phone of course Lollipop. These are my questions:

1. If I put a custom ROM on the phone will the phone still work with WIND with the modification they did so that it will work on the network?
2. Which custom ROM should I put on her S4 (Its the Snapdragon version). Need something stable and reliable.

Any links to a good CUSTOM ROM would be great.

Need your help as much as possible. Even though I am a blackberry user of course since we use the android runtime I consider both android and BB10 to be a big happy family lol so be gentle.

GO TEAM ANDROID!!!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums. I would check to make sure it's rooted. There are lots of root check apps on Play. I would honestly guess the device isn't rooted, but you are right about the updates. Since the phone was originally on one network, it won't know to look on the network it's currently on.

As for ROMs, a counter question would be what does your sister want? Does she want something that looks like a Nexus device, or something to look like what Samsung has? If she wants to keep the Samsung look, I am not sure if LP is out for the S4. As for the Nexus like ROMs (AOSP, or Android Open Source Project), there are a lot of good ones out there. SlimROM, CyanogenMod, CarbonROM, LiquidSmooth to name a few.

 

[Anthony Roberts5]

Welcome to the forums. I would check to make sure it's rooted. There are lots of root check apps on Play. I would honestly guess the device isn't rooted, but you are right about the updates. Since the phone was originally on one network, it won't know to look on the network it's currently on.

As for ROMs, a counter question would be what does your sister want? Does she want something that looks like a Nexus device, or something to look like what Samsung has? If she wants to keep the Samsung look, I am not sure if LP is out for the S4. As for the Nexus like ROMs (AOSP, or Android Open Source Project), there are a lot of good ones out there. SlimROM, CyanogenMod, CarbonROM, LiquidSmooth to name a few.

Thanks for the quick response!!! It's rooted for sure just checked it . Out of all those roms you mentioned....which one would you recommend?

 

[Golfdriver97]

Thanks for the quick response!!! It's rooted for sure just checked it . Out of all those roms you mentioned....which one would you recommend?

I like Slim the most. They don't have a LP ROM right now, but ignoring that, their most unstable ROM is still much more stable than most other developer's stable ROMs. CyanogenMod is somewhat unstable but updates are fast. They are very good about releasing nightly updates. Carbon has some good stability, and timely updates; you could think of them as a cross between Slim and Cyanogen. Liquid is smooth, and has lots of features. However, for my M8, I had UI crashes about every day and a half. That was what killed it for me.

I would guess you have a custom recovery installed. The best thing to do would be to do a Nandroid backup of your current set up (in case anything goes wrong, you have a solid point of return). Once you select and flash the new ROM, you need to do a full wipe (factory reset, wipe dalvik and cache). Let the ROM run for a few days. If everything seems fine, make a Nandroid of that.

I normally don't flash every nightly that comes along. I typically go once every 4 days to a week. For each nightly you flash, you don't need to do a reset. That only needs to be done with every major update (say from KitKat to Lollipop). I would clear the system cache and dalvik cache though. If you run into issues, restore your Nandroid, and either wait for another update, or try a prior day. If the update seems fine, make a Nandroid of that, and you can either delete or move the old one.

Any questions, by all means ask.

 

[Anthony Roberts5]

I like Slim the most. They don't have a LP ROM right now, but ignoring that, their most unstable ROM is still much more stable than most other developer's stable ROMs. CyanogenMod is somewhat unstable but updates are fast. They are very good about releasing nightly updates. Carbon has some good stability, and timely updates; you could think of them as a cross between Slim and Cyanogen. Liquid is smooth, and has lots of features. However, for my M8, I had UI crashes about every day and a half. That was what killed it for me.

I would guess you have a custom recovery installed. The best thing to do would be to do a Nandroid backup of your current set up (in case anything goes wrong, you have a solid point of return). Once you select and flash the new ROM, you need to do a full wipe (factory reset, wipe dalvik and cache). Let the ROM run for a few days. If everything seems fine, make a Nandroid of that.

I normally don't flash every nightly that comes along. I typically go once every 4 days to a week. For each nightly you flash, you don't need to do a reset. That only needs to be done with every major update (say from KitKat to Lollipop). I would clear the system cache and dalvik cache though. If you run into issues, restore your Nandroid, and either wait for another update, or try a prior day. If the update seems fine, make a Nandroid of that, and you can either delete or move the old one.

Any questions, by all means ask.

Honestly thank you so much Golfdriver97. Now I know if I ever switch to android as a main device, I know where to come for help .

 

[Golfdriver97]

Honestly thank you so much Golfdriver97. Now I know if I ever switch to android as a main device, I know where to come for help .

You are welcome. Something I meant to mention in my previous post is this: As long as Samsung doesn't have an LP ROM for the device in question, you won't find a custom ROM based on TouchWiz (Samsung's version of Android, basically not AOSP) for LP. Custom ROM developers can only work with what has been released.

Do you have any other questions?

 

[Anthony Roberts5]

You are welcome. Something I meant to mention in my previous post is this: As long as Samsung doesn't have an LP ROM for the device in question, you won't find a custom ROM based on TouchWiz (Samsung's version of Android, basically not AOSP) for LP. Custom ROM developers can only work with what has been released.

Do you have any other questions?

She's doesn't care about the bloatware that plagues samsung aka Touchwiz.

 

[Golfdriver97]

She's doesn't care about the bloatware that plagues samsung aka Touchwiz.

Then an AOSP ROM is probably what she wants. TW is a pretty heavy ROM (although the S6 version went on a diet), and some of what bogs it down is features like the smart stay, and things like that.

As a heads up...once you flash a new ROM, give it time to settle in. Battery life will not be good for the first day or two. The device, ROM and kernel will spend a fair amount of time getting things set up behind the scenes.

 

[Anthony Roberts5]

Then an AOSP ROM is probably what she wants. TW is a pretty heavy ROM (although the S6 version went on a diet), and some of what bogs it down is features like the smart stay, and things like that.

As a heads up...once you flash a new ROM, give it time to settle in. Battery life will not be good for the first day or two. The device, ROM and kernel will spend a fair amount of time getting things set up behind the scenes.

Perfect . Yah I had a feeling about the battery life...the same when I install a leak on my BB Z30. I have to give it time to settle in. Can you send me a link to the AOSP ROM if possible?

 

[Golfdriver97]

Perfect . Yah I had a feeling about the battery life...the same when I install a leak on my BB Z30. I have to give it time to settle in. Can you send me a link to the AOSP ROM if possible?

Slim: Home
Carbon: http://carbonrom.org/
Cyanogen: Devices - CyanogenMod

The Carbon link I got a blank screen for downloads. I am currently on Chrome OS, and their site may not be configured for it. Let me know if you can see anything.