!ready to flash, first timer

[Philip k Dick]

Hello again, I'm getting ready to flash my first custom ROM, chosen AOKP. I am currently running stock 4.2.2 rooted, with TWRP. I have downloaded the zip and the Gapps and put them in my !ready to flash folder on the internal sdcard after checking MD5 sum.

The instructions I have read say to boot into recovery, TWRP >WIPE>FACTORY RESET
then: WIPE>CACHE
WIPE>DALVIK CACHE
WIPE>SYSTEM.

I'm a little concerned; all this wiping won't wipe either my nandroid backup, my titanium backup, or the new ROM, all of which are on the
internal SDcard? But it will remove all my installed apps etc?

Having done all this, I just install first the ROM, then the Gapps, then reboot.I can then get my tablet back how it was from the titanium backup.(I'll need to reinstall that first?)

I'm just checking I've understood everything correctly. Coming from idevices, where reinstalling the firmware and rejailbreaking is a fraught affair, reserved for the direst emergency, all this casual talk of flashing nightly builds is a bit unnerving for me.

SECOND QUESTION: if I want to return to the stock ROM, while remaining rooted and unlocked and with TWRP, what is best way? do I just use the nandroid backup? OR should I download and flash a stock 4.2.2 ROM in the same way as above?

thanks for taking time to read, I have been making as much effort to learn this by myself but just some little specific details remain unclear. I like to know all possibilities before I start tamperting

 

[GedBlake]

Hello again, I'm getting ready to flash my first custom ROM, chosen AOKP. I am currently running stock 4.2.2 rooted, with TWRP. I have downloaded the zip and the Gapps and put them in my !ready to flash folder on the internal sdcard after checking MD5 sum.

The instructions I have read say to boot into recovery, TWRP >WIPE>FACTORY RESET
then: WIPE>CACHE
WIPE>DALVIK CACHE
WIPE>SYSTEM.

I'm a little concerned; all this wiping won't wipe either my nandroid backup, my titanium backup, or the new ROM, all of which are on the
internal SDcard? But it will remove all my installed apps etc?

Having done all this, I just install first the ROM, then the Gapps, then reboot.I can then get my tablet back how it was from the titanium backup.(I'll need to reinstall that first?)

I'm just checking I've understood everything correctly. Coming from idevices, where reinstalling the firmware and rejailbreaking is a fraught affair, reserved for the direst emergency, all this casual talk of flashing nightly builds is a bit unnerving for me.

SECOND QUESTION: if I want to return to the stock ROM, while remaining rooted and unlocked and with TWRP, what is best way? do I just use the nandroid backup? OR should I download and flash a stock 4.2.2 ROM in the same way as above?

thanks for taking time to read, I have been making as much effort to learn this by myself but just some little specific details remain unclear. I like to know all possibilities before I start tamperting

Hi, Philip...

I think you're good to go... You have it more or less right.

WIPE>SYSTEM will erase you're currently installed ROM (OS)... but your INTERNAL STORAGE will remain intact (NANDROIDS,Titanium, etc.,et.al)
(To do damage to that you would have to WIPE DATA) - and NOT RECOMMENDED.

If you have a NANDROID backup of STOCK you can CUSTOM RECOVERY flash back to that easily with TWRP.

Regaining ROOT is trivial...

In TWRP, flash Chainfire's SU Root package available here SuperSU Download

The more recent versions of TWRP (2.4 onward will offer you ROOT anway prior to reboot)...

...or you could just backup your current root (su binary) using OTA ROOTKEEPER...

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...jectvoodoo.otarootkeeper&hl=en&token=5hvN8jmL

Rgrds,
Ged.

 

[2defmouze]

Hi, Philip...

I think you're good to go... You have it more or less right.

WIPE>SYSTEM will erase you're currently installed ROM (OS)... but your INTERNAL STORAGE will remain intact (NANDROIDS,Titanium, etc.,et.al)
(To do damage to that you would have to WIPE DATA) - and NOT RECOMMENDED.

If you have a NANDROID backup of STOCK you can CUSTOM RECOVERY flash back to that easily with TWRP.

Regaining ROOT is trivial...

In TWRP, flash Chainfire's SU Root package available here SuperSU Download

The more recent versions of TWRP (2.4 onward will offer you ROOT anway prior to reboot)...

...or you could just backup your current root (su binary) using OTA ROOTKEEPER...

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...jectvoodoo.otarootkeeper&hl=en&token=e4V9zwBx

Rgrds,
Ged.

A few corrections .....

You do want to Wipe Data, system, and caches... Wiping Data is actually the most important thing when flashing a new ROM. Your old data needs to get gone or you are asking for problems (you can selectively restore some of it with TiBu, check the guide that is linked in my signature). The custom recovery - TWRP - will wipe your /data/ partition without wiping the internal storage/sdcard part, therefore your backups and pics and all that will stay in place. Just make sure the option you select in recovery says Wipe Data/Factory Reset.. and not Format /data or something like that. It will be easy to see the difference, don't worry.

In terms of Rooting.. AOKP and pretty much any other custom ROM will come rooted, you won't have to root it after flashing. If you choose to go back to stock then restoring your backup will be a fine method. If you ever need to re-root, it is recommended that you use Koush's open source Superuser. You can find a direct link to download the flashable zip of it at the bottom of the app description in the Play Store.

I think that covers everything.. let me know if you have any more questions, and enjoy the ROM flashing fun!

 

[GedBlake]

A few corrections .....

You do want to Wipe Data, system, and caches... Wiping Data is actually the most important thing when flashing a new ROM. Your old data needs to get gone or you are asking for problems (you can selectively restore some of it with TiBu, check the guide that is linked in my signature). The custom recovery - TWRP - will wipe your /data/ partition without wiping the internal storage/sdcard part, therefore your backups and pics and all that will stay in place. Just make sure the option you select in recovery says Wipe Data/Factory Reset.. and not Format /data or something like that. It will be easy to see the difference, don't worry.

In terms of Rooting.. AOKP and pretty much any other custom ROM will come rooted, you won't have to root it after flashing. If you choose to go back to stock then restoring your backup will be a fine method. If you ever need to re-root, it is recommended that you use Koush's open source Superuser. You can find a direct link to download the flashable zip of it at the bottom of the app description in the Play Store.

I think that covers everything.. let me know if you have any more questions, and enjoy the ROM flashing fun!

Yep... my apologies... 2defmouze is quite right.

It was the FORMAT DATA option I was getting confused with... avoid that and follow his recommendations and you'll be good.

Rgrds,
Ged.

 

[Philip k Dick]

OK thanks; I think it was those two I was getting confused about. After having a bit of a look at the filesystem I can see the difference. I guess before long all this will be routine. The TWRP recovery seems to make it pretty simple. I've got all the back up s on my computer anyway if anything goes wrong. I just like to make sure I've got my head around what goes on before i start, rather than just dive in; it helps if something did go awry.
To be honest I'm fairly happy with the stock nexus; I think I've chosen a pretty good introduction to android. But there's a few little tweaks I want, like lock screen shortcuts, so I'll try a few ROMs and see what happens.
Thanks for your help.

 

[Philip k Dick]

OK, well flashed the ROM successfully and restored all my apps from titanium which seemed fine. But I made the mistake of restoring system from titanium. After reboot it kept saying "unfortunately process acore has stopped".( I know, I should have noted more carefully what the error was!) when I went back into titanium it said that my device ID was changed which might cause certain system processes to stop. I also noticed that a lot of the Google apps had lost their icons and had an android icon. (I had flashed the gapps too) Device seemed generally to be having problems so I reached for nandroid backup which worked perfectly. I'll try again tomorrow. I guess I need to be more selective about what I restore from titanium. What I am after is a way of restoring BOTH user accounts, mine and my partners. Do I need to install titanium for both accounts and restore each seperately?
I need to add filters rather than batch restoring everything. Are there any things that I particularly should NOT restore from titanium after flashing a ROM? I notice that items in titanium are either red white or green. Is this relevant?

 

[Philip k Dick]

I will say this: nandroid backups are superb. it gives me at lot more confidence to mess around with the device knowing I can do that.

 

[Philip k Dick]

Hmmmm........so basically, white items are apps which can be restored with no issues, green items are system processes/apps which can be restored safely on a new ROM, and the red ones are those which may interfere with new ROM
and should be reinstalled with caution?

 

[2defmouze]

OK, well flashed the ROM successfully and restored all my apps from titanium which seemed fine. But I made the mistake of restoring system from titanium. After reboot it kept saying "unfortunately process acore has stopped".( I know, I should have noted more carefully what the error was!) when I went back into titanium it said that my device ID was changed which might cause certain system processes to stop. I also noticed that a lot of the Google apps had lost their icons and had an android icon. (I had flashed the gapps too) Device seemed generally to be having problems so I reached for nandroid backup which worked perfectly. I'll try again tomorrow. I guess I need to be more selective about what I restore from titanium. What I am after is a way of restoring BOTH user accounts, mine and my partners. Do I need to install titanium for both accounts and restore each seperately?
I need to add filters rather than batch restoring everything. Are there any things that I particularly should NOT restore from titanium after flashing a ROM? I notice that items in titanium are either red white or green. Is this relevant?

Hmmmm........so basically, white items are apps which can be restored with no issues, green items are system processes/apps which can be restored safely on a new ROM, and the red ones are those which may interfere with new ROM
and should be reinstalled with caution?

Restoring system data is a no no! This is the stuff that must be wiped and stay wiped, if you could restore it then you wouldn't need to wipe it in the first place

Some system and Google Apps may be restored using TiBu without data.. I explain that a bit in that TiBu guide as well. But any system data must stay wiped.. so your system settings, accounts, all that must be redone from scratch when you wipe and flash a new ROM. With practice it does become easy. When you're starting out I recommend even making yourself a little checklist you can use to run through after a flash so you know what you want to set up: accounts and passwords, sound settings, system settings, apps that you need to set up from the get go, etc.. and after some time it will all become second nature to you.

And the lack of icons you saw was because you restored your launcher while some of the apps were not yet installed, so it puts those as placeholders for the apps it cannot find. The GApps pack you flashed after the ROM does not include apps which are downloadable from the Play Store, which includes Gmail, Music, Google+, etc. These are excluded from the GApps packs for size and because of region compatibility issues, so you just need to reinstall them from the Play Store, or restore them without data using TiBu.

 

[Philip k Dick]

OK, thanks for your help. I sort of realized what I'd done after I did it! Thanks f or your patience. You did mention your TiBu guide; I don't know why I ploughed ahead without checking... got over excited I guess! I'll give that a thorough read before proceeding.