Where to find ROMs and how to compare? (for GSM Gnex)

[dancing-bass]

OK so I'm seriously thinking of rooting my GSM Gnex. Mostly to see an improvment in battery life, but also because dang it -- I'm curious about the whole process!

I've already unlocked and flashed from stock (4.0.2 yakuux I think it was) to 4.0.4 (yakju). That was relatively painless once I cleared out all the conflicting drivers and disabled my antivirus. (Troubleshooting to figure that out was frustrating and time-consuming, but in the end pretty obvious).

So where do I start looking for ROMs and how do I know which one will suit my wants/needs? I realize that asking for the "best" ROM is kinda asking like which color, car, or shoe is "best" ... everyone is going to have a slightly different answer. But I don't know where to look. XDA seems like the site to visit for all things hacking, but frankly that site really comes across as very unwelcoming to noobs such as myself. Kinda like they want people to hack and stuff but won't tolerate noobs that want to learn (like myself).

So yeah. ROMs. Where? Compare? "best"? *out*

PS I'll probably rely on Wuggs toolkit to help me pull this off. I think (hope) its got a backup built-in. If not, all my contacts/calender/and media are backed up. Apps I can re-download from the Play store.

PPS. Any chance one of these ROMS will allow me to use Google Wallet in Canada? It's not officially supported (not available in your country) but I thought I had read about people using it here. I could be wrong, and its not a big deal one way or the other. Just another geek thing to make me smile, that's all.

 

[anon(94115)]

First off, XDA is the place to go for most things ROM related. You right, they can be harsh to noobs and that sucks, but it is what it is.

I would say grab the ROM from there and ask the questions here.

You are right about the which rom is best question. What you need to do is read the original post of all the ROMs see which one gives you what your looking for, install it, find the things you hate and either deal with them or flash a new one.

It is a pain in the butt kinda process, but with mybackupro or titanium backup you can do it with minimal disruption.

Before you start though, do a nandroid backup of your whole system as it sits right now (you can find that in your recovery). It make switching between roms easier to start with (you can flash a ROM, hate it and be back to your current setup in minutes).

 

[dancing-bass]

Yeah I kinda figured this would be the case (XDA, ask questions here, backups, etc).

That being said, really all I'm looking for is the best reception possible (which I realize is limited to the hardware Samsung used. No matter what software I use, its only as good as the radio stack), and better battery life. I'm not a big gamer, so overclocking is pointless for me (in fact if anything I might UNDERclock a notch or 2 for better battery life). Stock performance is fine by me.

I'm flashed to 4.0.4 but not rooted yet. I kinda like stock ICS, but wouldn't mind switching things up to try it out. Any recommendations?

 

[anon(94115)]

first off, you do not want to underCLOCK, you want to underVOLT to save battery life. underclocking can cause you to see some stutter when the CPU needs to work. Undervolting just controls how much juice gets used when it is doing its work. Be conservative when you start undervolting. Go to far to fast without testing it and you can end up having to start from scratch with a softbricked phone.

I really do not have a gnex, so I cannot really recommend a rom. I took a quick look at the devs over there and none of the names stuck out to me so i cannot even say that I have used any of their work in the past.

I can say that MIUI, AOKP and CM9 are three standard ROMs that alot of people like. They are still in the dev stages from what I see, but you will like them when your done.

 

[dancing-bass]

I skimmed a few ROMS since my OP, and I think AKOP looks like a good place to start. Of course I'm going to do more reading and research before I jump in, but I think that's tonight's project, and maybe by tomorrow I'll have decided IF I want to flash, and if so - which one I want to start with.

Thanks for the heads up about XDA, I trust the community here much more then there. (maybe eventually I'll be all smart about Android and start posting useful/helpful stuff instead of mostly questions!)

 

[rockigirl]

I'm still new to all of this but I flashed AOKP a few days ago and it has been great. I've only had minor issues. I then got brave and flashed the most recent trinity kernel and my battery life has been phenomenal. No complaints there. The best part about trying out different ROMs is that when something goes really wrong, you just find that back up. Good luck!

 

[dancing-bass]

I had a scare today. Tried to flash the latest AKOP (milestone 5, stock kernel) but took a wrong turn somewhere. Wound up with a phone that wouldn't fully boot up. It just stayed at the boot screen for 30 minutes. Pulled the battery, and it did the same thing. Flashed back to stock and all is good. Think I might try again next weekend when I've got time and won't feel rushed.

Again, faster screen rotation, better battery life, and a better radio are all I ask. And if it still looks and acts like stock ICS even better.