Sticky(?) FAQ thread! - Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development

This is a proof of concept I just came up with, I will add alot more to this when I get a couple hours of spare time.
Starting grounds:
Android on HTC
binlabin's Android wiki
Great Android builds
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=600154
Recommendations for newcomers
Use a HaRET SD-card based installations first!
This way you get an understanding of how Android works and what you can expect of it. Several builds have almost 100% support for everything on your Kaiser but some things missing might be a deal breaker for you!
NAND based installations offer more performance!
Instead of using the slow but highly versatile SD-card as a starting point when running Linux and Android, you can get a huge performance boost by using a NAND-based installation.
We want a sticky FAQ thread!
Yes, we definitely do! All the other forums got one, we want one too! It would be great if we could give, perhaps most of all, our newcomers a good starting ground to get them going. Right now we're scattered all over with instructions, guides, tips, tricks, experiences and Beelzebub knows what, that would fit so much better in a sticky at the top! Right? Right!

You can copy out of this tread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=628353

Related

What to look for in ROM?

First off, I figured that I would mention that I've read pretty much every sticky on these boards, and the wiki up and down. I know that what people are interested in ROMs is completely subjective to what they desire, whether it be performance, stability, or style.
My predicament is that I'm expecting a Diamond this Wednesday, and I'm a bit psyched, as my current phone is ancient (SE w810i). I want to flash early, as I heard the current ROM is very buggy, and I want to start off on a good leg. However, you have to admit, there are TONS of cooked ROMs built up, and being new, I don't know exactly what to look for in them yet. I've seen benchmarks that show how burdensome they are and whatnot, but overall, there is a mass amount of information, and it's VERY hard to soak in what I'm looking for until I play around w/ them a bit. I've read that "1.93" is generally a great ROM. Would it be easier for me to use a simple, basic ROM and just apply all the tweaks I can to it, or would that not amount up to what some of these cooked ROMs have?
Again, I completely understand everyone has their favorites, but is there a general line of cooked ROMs that are balanced and optimized well, allowing customization, that aren't too out of the ordinary? Again, I've searched up and down, and have learned A LOT, but it's this first step that is always the hardest.
I really appreciate the help everyone!
best way to find out
get flashing
sorry this kind off thread is not allowed here
welcome to the forum.....good luck

Uncoordinated ROM development efforts

hey guys,
don't know if this is the right place, but because Chefs should read this in first place, the general board seems not the right place either. But this is the same problem with application development either, so developers may read and post too. So not to bother you all furthermore, i'll start right through:
I wonder about
- 50 different ROM development projects (what could be a good sign, if this would not be)
- 48 concurenting projects which do not share know-how (reading statments like: "I will not tell you, what i did to the ROM to archieve...")
- 98 times uncoordinated simultaneous identical work is done(including, not concluding, tools, tweaks, apps, complete roms ...)
Why do we behave like the people because of which we've started this hole thing here? We do keep know-how secret like the builder and oem manufactorers do or did. Instead we should discuss our know how publically and organize our work and efforts as a community and not as individuals. There is enough space for every way of thinkin inside organized structures left (e.g. speed or stability optimized roms, ...) - but what the one project discovers or experiences should be known by the other projects too, that's what is called synergy. We all could profit. Thats the sence of a community. This feeling i miss here a bit to be honest.
And to get concrete i'd suggest further organizational investigations. Some guys did start some already good ideas like a complete guide to dumping, cooking, etc. or a thread where design stuff is listed and linked centrally, or for example the thread where ROM's get tested for speed and space independently. We should take this last idea further and add information to this comparison, about what was done to this ROM's to archieve the projects defined/assigned goals.
This way we could test RoM's concerning to manipulations and would be able to find out what is really happening in our systems (denpenency of [OEM]pakages) and what we can really do to improve a certain goal of tuning.
Furthermore we would not do identical work a thousand times, and so would be able to serve an easy diamond-click-kitchen to the community and last not least to ourself's.
There are not that many intentions possible in RoM development:
Speed
Space
Stability
Gaming
Office
Weird?
... ?
We should now start a thread (and maybe a database) to get our know how organized and start workin together instead of against each other. We (including, not concluding, me ;-) all do owe some guys here in the forums a debt of gratitude for their work and efforts. I'm happy to see that some people are donating, so some guys get a beer payed which is a nice honoration (but no payment). The more i'd be happy if not two developers do the same work simultaneous. Let's get that organized!?
So now i did state some philosophy, followed by some concrete input - now it's your turn to do so ;-)
Best regards
peet
I totally agree.
I do agree with you but this behaviour is found NOT JUST HERE, but in almost all organizations regardless of occupation. Some of us work as a Team more then others but individuality and uniqueness is part of human natures need to be competitive. I really wish we weren't like this.
The purpose for me on this forum is to share my knowledge on to others. I believe most people like to do the same. I think if there are secrets here, then I believe they are kept secrets for branding purposes. To make a name for themselves and to distinguish themselves from the rest.
Based on the post that I have been reading from ROM Threads, I always see chefs thanking each other for sharing. So sharing is happening but maybe not in the most efficient way.
Hmm....hope all these feelings being shared are not taken the wrong way here. Just me thoughts from Psych 101 and my experiences.
band27 said:
So sharing is happening but maybe not in the most efficient way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree.
seeya
hallo,
i have a little problem to understand your thread. 99% of not-understanding is my english and 1% is your long text without any .. ähhm .. development.
can you say me in one sentence and no more than 10 words what you want?
okokur
I'd like to take the opportunity to say thanks to the majority who do share. A couple of months ago, to flash meant only showing off, and cooking was just for a good meal. With the upgrading, cooking tutorials, wiki and dozens of helpful replies to questions, I'm on my way to cooking my first ROM. Just wish I knew more to contribute something more technical myself. This board has some of the most helpful threads I've found. Thanks once again.
I agree, but there are a couple of problems with this.
1.) some people just don't want to work in a team.
2.) today, those who flash on a daily basis know all (or at least their favorite) Chefs by name, and what their ROM contains. This would be lost.
3.) continuing the previous thought, Chefs would lose motivation, if their name was one of 38 people who made the ROM, in the "credits".
4.) donations. would you spare 5-10$ each chef who contributed? that'll be one pricy Rom
I'm sure there are other problems with this as well, these are just of the top of my head..
but, I do support the idea, the development looks unefficient. At least from a users' point of view..
I've just reread your post, maybe i didn't quite get it. Do you mean something like a thread where all the new knowhows would be listed (though, WIKI is probably better).
slovoflud said:
though, WIKI is probably better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly what I thought after reading the opening post
A wiki doesnt force anyone to do anything, but those who want to share their knowledge do have one central place to do so. Probably would reduce the amount of 'stupid' questions as well, or am I the only one who doesnt feel like searching through a ****load of topics for answers
I really like this idea
I hope that rom developers starts working together, providing even better roms for the users
that would be great!
yes shure, wiki would be the right place to centralize know-how, the problem with the wiki is that most information doesn't get there. I mean, there is no board around containing this know-how that xda does. but this know-how must be searched first in thousands of threads and millions of posts. and that is hard work,guys.
i just changed from a Mteor to a Diamond and had to invest several days (or have it been weeks?) to get the story in the diamond wiki/boards. one problem is that a lot of outdated information is found and second that information is split that hard. and likewise know-how is split apart.
then i realized most times when i searched for some information, i found hits in kaiser or raphael or somewhere else forum. too there seems to be organized projects workin together in those places.
In Diamond board only few kitchen are found, and not really a lot information about them either. I tested some, but only one was able to build a RoM out of the box. And i remembered Kaiser kitchen and wondered why this is not possible here likewise. While searchin for information i had to realize that here is no kitchen found documented enough to start building my own RoM in a nutshell nor in 3 days, possibly in a week but realistic it'll be in a month maybe. all that just because i wanted my next device to be theftsafe (because providers do everything to keep that thing running as nobody does something [what shure would/and was possible] against stolen devices - no, they do not get excluded from networks (except very few providers) - nor do they get excluded international or worldwide. You may think now, okay then let your device be trackable through services like PiCO. Even that is ratted or hindered by providers, but that is another story.
About the money mentioned above: I was lost in the opinion i would be surfin a community here, which is something where money does not exist really. I am glad that people did donate for a bricked chefs device for example, and i appreciate donations to well doing developers and chefs, but this can't be a point in discussing a communities life or behaviour. But if you are thinkin this way (and i still don't know what you want here then), then please think a step further and realize that: If you offer (maybe as xda-organization or other) a workin kitchen for daus, where contents and trimming can get selected, licence information can get added and that all gets build in a "personalized" RoM, MAN a thousands of people would be even willing to pay a hundred bucks for that. And i bet even on donation basis there would be enough money to share. But back to community.
Some ingenious anonymous teacher did ask me above, what i'd want then, in one sentence. I can tell ya - i want a snicker right now. Thanks for your contribution to the community development. It's that helpful as those "you should use the search" statements of people tired of tellin people same info twice, while not gettin tired of tellin people that they would be tired of them askin tiring questions. Ey guys you really bore, ääh get me tired ;-)
But to get concrete again, i think because of the wide range of device configurations and languages it would be good to develop ONE kitchen together, where it is possible to select a source for building freely (e.g. your own RoM, a Chefs RoM, a providers RoM, or whatever), then give possibilty to change language, select tec. specs like pagefile, etc., select packages to exclude, apps and licences to include, select design patches, CFC and other tweaks, select tweaks and last not least burn your RoM.
That'd be kickin ass guys doesn't it?
I know it would nice to have just one ROM developed, but then again this is reality, people have different preferences. I am sure Chefs share their recipes between themselves.
anyway, u guys may wanna check this out
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=469420
ervius have done a fine job there.
Kudos.
I completly agreed with your point. Ive seen a lot of ROMS from wanabe cheffs and others that are from great chefs which enhance the OS deaply. Its sad to see comments that not help in the evolution of our devices. Ive not many Mods around, perhaps most of them got their hands on the HD.
On the other hand everyone must be able to post any Cooked ROM they want, but they have to make sure that something is different about othe developements, like Language, or included APPS or particular tweaks.
the way i see it - MOST chefs don't do cooking for public... they cook for their own need and according to what they like - then they share with the public... there's nothing wrong with that... and they don't need to share anything...
and i have noticed they always help you out if you send them a private message.
my two cents
cloudedhopes said:
the way i see it - MOST chefs don't do cooking for public... they cook for their own need and according to what they like - then they share with the public... there's nothing wrong with that... and they don't need to share anything...
and i have noticed they always help you out if you send them a private message.
my two cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to think like that too, not anymore.
Vise versa.
If you read any thread with a 'popular' ROM, it's easy to see that it's not made for Chefs personal use( perhaps it was originally, but then it becomes a project).
hi all,
first i have to state that i shure do not want to force anybody to nothing. but i see too much people doin identical investigations. therefore i wanted to ask for others opiinion.
somebody sayed, that people might not want to work together wich sounds kind of weird in a community while shure nobody gets forced to share, equal if know-how or work. and somebody said that chefs want to read their name above their work or thdy would loose interest to do something. if those peoples interest or motivation is only to distinguish themselfes it would be sad, but no prob-let them do so on their own.
me would like a ROM without my name, but which is realy coool a lot more.
so first point would be, that all chefs write their know-how down in the wiki, so we can see which way we should start making a universall ROM which can then get tweaked and ppersonalized individually but the base is always the same for all. if the base is really good, all people could profit from that BaseROM!
at the moment i cant see which packages are corresponding to others and cant get removed easily. tooo it would be nice if nataly chef would tell us how he did free that much space, e.g.
maybe some chefs are willing to join, so we start a real universal RoM-Kitchen?
i red ervuis thread only short, but that sounds in the right direction, i'll contact him and ask for support.
the main thing first would be to get real good structures (like ervius started) to build a minimum basicRoM which then can get extended - and we need some more input about flash/nand/rom/pagefile/etc use and manipulation.
lets do this organized and structured not to do the same things a hundred times, and to avoid all those incompatibilities between apps found here (in comination a lot even common apps do interact and the result over both/all is a non working configuration. therefore a "standard" should get found for tweaking, cooking and applications too.
how about that?
hallo,
i have a little problem ...
i asked you what you mean and wish the answer with less than 10 words.
you want so much from other people but you give nothing. if i read your thread at first time, i think about you, that what you write is not that what you really want. i think you have problems with cooking and you hope on an easy way become solution.
one kitchen means, one way to extract, one way to cook ... like a one way with no return. if you have trouble with this one kitchen, nobody can or will help you.
i flashed my first pda three years ago, now i have pda number 4 and i cooked my own roms. the reason, why i dont share it, i used original buyed software by softmaker, coreplayer and sktools with integrated registration-keys/methods. this was orig.software and cant be for sharing.
i dont think, that i can learn this things with one kitchen, with one group, with one project. i have to thank for so much people, who spend nights of nights alone for cooking and sharing.
and if i can help somebody, so i do it. but in xda-developers it was not so easy to help someone, because there so so much people who was faster than me ... much much fuster. god safes the "aloning".
Well, okokur, you have a point, but only to a certain degree. You say about bought licenses, that shouldn't be shared. Fair point, but be consequent, and look further. From the legal point of view, 99% of cooks don't write the code - they only manipulate dumped software - and it's hard to say if this is legal. Sooooo... what I'm pointing at?
That this way or the other, everybody is to him/herself. I only don't understand why some chefs are locking their roms against uncooking - it's like you stole a car, and put an alarm on it against thieves.... Ridiculous.
All cooks should take example from people liek CT or mondilv, who share openly their develpoment. And that's the way. If you are just a bit inclined, you can start cooking yourself. If you are not, you will lazily wait for a rom done for you, and complain about what is in rom, what isn't, etc..
So - my advice/opinion - you will never get cooperation like you wish, because that's human nature. But it would be enough, if cooks would leave their roms open - then people who want to learn, would learn.
I can only agree... for what I can do due to lack of time I always publish the full kitchen source in my/our repository, so the rom isn't just opened but I publish the full kitchen tree with all scripts almost commented and/or other useful stuff
If I can help in other ways please just write down a line
bye,
davide
mjaxa said:
Well, okokur, you have a point, but only to a certain degree. You say about bought licenses, that shouldn't be shared. Fair point, but be consequent, and look further. From the legal point of view, 99% of cooks don't write the code - they only manipulate dumped software - and it's hard to say if this is legal. Sooooo... what I'm pointing at?
That this way or the other, everybody is to him/herself. I only don't understand why some chefs are locking their roms against uncooking - it's like you stole a car, and put an alarm on it against thieves.... Ridiculous.
All cooks should take example from people liek CT or mondilv, who share openly their develpoment. And that's the way. If you are just a bit inclined, you can start cooking yourself. If you are not, you will lazily wait for a rom done for you, and complain about what is in rom, what isn't, etc..
So - my advice/opinion - you will never get cooperation like you wish, because that's human nature. But it would be enough, if cooks would leave their roms open - then people who want to learn, would learn.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are right.
i think, i can share my rom without buyed software ... but for diamond there was so much roms, thats no needed share a rom without any interesting features.
recooking roms not possible ... for flasher only its enough. for cookers exists a trash-folder on desktop
cooperation like my wish ... i am to old for other oppinnions so i respect other oppinnions for 100%. (its reading like type mismatch error )
if i start with flashing and later i want cooking but that was to much infos and to much rules for cooking ... that i wish ONE KITCHEN with GFX-USING by klicking "KLICK-KLCK" and NO-ERRORS and NO-BLACK-SCREENS ... And if i read this thread the first time, i see me three years ago
i understand peetx for 100%

Roms w/ descriptions... WHERE?

Hi, to this and i'm looking to install a new rom on my Epic 4G but like every person, I am afraid to damage my new equipment.
I'm looking for some stable Roms to flash my Epic but don't know where to look for them with a good description of what does work- what doesn't-what will improve with it... Thing's like that. If anyone can help me, i'll apreciate. =)
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
3ndless said:
Hi, to this and i'm looking to install a new rom on my Epic 4G but like every person, I am afraid to damage my new equipment.
I'm looking for some stable Roms to flash my Epic but don't know where to look for them with a good description of what does work- what doesn't-what will improve with it... Thing's like that. If anyone can help me, i'll apreciate. =)
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This took like 0.1 sec on google:
http://alchemistar.blogspot.com/2010/11/samsung-epic-4g-custom-rom-list-1110.html
A list is not maintained on XDA.
Go here! Click on your model below
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Samsung_Epic_4G.png
3ndless said:
Hi, to this and i'm looking to install a new rom on my Epic 4G but like every person, I am afraid to damage my new equipment.
I'm looking for some stable Roms to flash my Epic but don't know where to look for them with a good description of what does work- what doesn't-what will improve with it... Thing's like that. If anyone can help me, i'll apreciate. =)
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just look up "Samsung Epic 4G Rom XDA" on google and you'll find a whole selection of roms. Then just read their descriptions and some comments to find out what they're all about. I'm a little disappointed that this was you first contribution to the XDA forums...
RandomKing said:
Just look up "Samsung Epic 4G Rom XDA" on google and you'll find a whole selection of roms. Then just read their descriptions and some comments to find out what they're all about. I'm a little disappointed that this was you first contribution to the XDA forums...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, don't need to be so "Humble" you guys, thanks anyways...
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
3ndless said:
Wow, don't need to be so "Humble" you guys, thanks anyways...
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh relax, it's all in good fun. We answered you .
But you'll have a lot of questions, we all do, and you'll get your answers faster 9 times out of 10 by checking if someone already asked them first.
RandomKing said:
Oh relax, it's all in good fun. We answered you .
But you'll have a lot of questions, we all do, and you'll get your answers faster 9 times out of 10 by checking if someone already asked them first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, really sorry for the bother I could cause its just that i've been looking in Google about this and its very confusing. ALWAYS appears something new about this theme & I want to already finish with it to fully enjoy my equipment.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Theme? What do you mean?
-Sent from my custom INC Epic.
Hey I was new to it myself and as long as you can put your phone in dowload mode you have really nothing to worry about just make sure your cable is good and you have the stock rom and your good
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
3ndless said:
Wow, don't need to be so "Humble" you guys, thanks anyways...
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Random's post was actually very humble, some people get crucified for not searching lol
We do need a clearer documentation of ROMs
Personally, I think OP's request is completely valid. There are a multitude of ROMS. The roms really don't have any specific vision statement such as "My goal is to be the most stable rom" "my goal is to be the most bleeding edge ROM" "my goal is to be the quickest ROM" or "my goal is to be the fastest ROM, even if stability suffers". Instead each rom seems to be a person who then does some personal tweaks and incorporates the generally available tweaks others have posted.
There's also not a clear change from version to version other than, (hopefully), the release notes which may list "teaked X", "changed Y" which doesn't help me understand if the next build is more stable, smaller, faster, or what.
Also, it's hard to tell the riger put into the software development process. While some ROMs are team built and significantly tested, it's hard to tell which. I assume ACS and Bonsai both have many people testing for many weeks prior to releasing a ROM, but I don't know that. And for the smaller ones, I have no clue.
Ultimately, it would help for someone who has enough experience with each ROM to document the differences. Alternately, a template for ROM developers to fill in each version might help. Something like.
GOAL OF ROM: (if multiple goals, list in order of importance to the developer)
DEVELOPER/DEVELOPERS: (by name, handle, or # of developers)
MAJOR BUILDS INDICATE A CHANGE IN... (time, tweaks, base build, etc)
CODE MANAGEMENT PROCESS: (formal repository, versioning in development package, 1 set of source files edited in VI with no backups or versions)
TEST PROCESS: (length of test, number of test subjects, any stress tests/unique situations/or boundary scenarios included in testing)
SUPPORT OPTIONS: (post on board, email development team, IRC, fire and forget, normal response time, etc)
You need to do what I and most of us did....read the threads following the ROM releases. Every phone is different but if 10 people on the ROM thread report Bluetooth issues and BT is important to you, don't use it. There are no info shortcuts here. Read the ROM threads.
Do you BONSAI?
Unfortunately, it's completely impractical to read through hundreds of posts per ROM to understand the pre-existing bugs with each ROM. Additionally, those bugs are tied to a build. The build they are associated with is usually not apperent from the posts.
The only way to keep up is to skim each rom regularly so you can maintain the current state of each ROM. it doesn't allow people to come in from a cold start and understand what's going on. That would be a good thing to add to the manifest listed above though:
KNOWN OUTSTANDING ISSUES:
REPORTED BUGS:
gdbassett said:
Unfortunately, it's completely impractical to read through hundreds of posts per ROM to understand the pre-existing bugs with each ROM. Additionally, those bugs are tied to a build. The build they are associated with is usually not apperent from the posts.
The only way to keep up is to skim each rom regularly so you can maintain the current state of each ROM. it doesn't allow people to come in from a cold start and understand what's going on. That would be a good thing to add to the manifest listed above though:
KNOWN OUTSTANDING ISSUES:
REPORTED BUGS:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the big developers make an effort to list the large and recurring issues in the first page of the thread. Most other bugs tend to be one-offs caused by a bad flash or failure to wipe data prior. I understand where you're coming from, as I felt the same way when I first jumped in. Mind you, I got the phone in November of 2010, began actively following various threads within a few weeks, gained a vast amount of knowledge on the matter, didn't first root until the EB13 update in February, and didn't even sign up to the forum until March, after which I began helping others with problems I had found answers to months before even making my first post.
I don't preach hypocrisy. I generally criticize an oft-repeated question while also answering it or linking it to one of many long-existent answers. I preach learning by reading. If I tell you how to fix something today, you'll come back with a problem tomorrow because you didn't earn the knowledge for yourself, and you didn't understand what you did. The age-old parable:
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime!"
I strongly suggest everyone read as much as they can to understand as best they can! Take your epic to the toilet and read in your spare time!
While your idea is a noble one, it's a much larger undertaking than you're giving it credit for. Developers would have to collaborate to give a list of specifications, known bugs, etc. to one thread. Someone would have to oversee this thread, take in additional posts to this thread, and append them to the front page continuously. The end result would be roughly what each individual thread already attempts to achieve, with a much larger scale of chaos and a huge problem with out-of-date details.
The list Kenny linked contains a list of known Epic roms and their latest update. You could make this an XDA thread, but I can't say that trying to include every detail and bug beyond that of every rom is a good idea.
That said, look around. Find a Rom. Read about its details. If it sounds good to you, give it a test run! Use what works for you, don't obsess about which one is the "best".
-Written by a man with nothing to do during his lunch break.
No one should be "jumping in cold" and rooting and throwing on ROMs. I got my phone in September, read through posts on ROMs that had features I liked, then 6 weeks later rooted and tried a few ROMs. There are videos now in the General stickies to help cut down on the reading but as stated every phone is different right out of the box. One ROM may cause a messaging issue with a small group whereas another Bluetooth issues. Most developers list known bugs being worked on in the OP.
Do you BONSAI?
try this on youtube
qbking77 on youtube. put in search box 'How to Root Samsung Epic and flash SyndicateFrozenRom 1.1.0/1'. cannot post a link at this time, I'm too new
Actually, I read XDA every day (work's been slow recently). I've rooted my phone and installed more roms than I can count. (Also rooted my wife's and her viewsonic gtab.)
I agree that the major rom builders do a much better job of managing and documenting their development process than most 1-man outfits. However, I still can bearly tell the difference from 1 ROM to the next or 1 build of a ROM to the next. (As far as I can tell, what we have are pretty much the same ROM a dozen different times with slightly different bugs.) A standard for ROM developers to fill in would hopefully help them in focusing their ROM as much as it helps people in understanding the goals of their rom.
As for the effort involved in keeping it up-to-date, most of the worthwhile developers update their main post or start a new one at each major build. Adding some structure to that update wouldn't be a significant increase in hastle.
on a completely separate note, I understand where you are coming from with the "teach them to search" montra. (I helped moderate a very large everquest form for years.)
Since then though, I've realized that, while it's very popular on message boards, it's not very useful. You have to either have a very good understanding of where on a message board to look for the information you are interested in or you need to be a very skilled searcher. Otherwise you end up spending a significant amount of time pouring through poorly summarized search results which don't address your question without knowing if there IS an answer somwhere. While the (here are similar threads) function of vBulletin is reasonably useful, the xda search powered by google is impossible.
Wiki's form a MUCH better way of collecting answers to message boards than bulletin boards do. Unfortunately, you need your WIKI and your forum tightly integrated, (which means a CMS rather than vBulletin + mediawiki). Also, you need forum posters who, after answering a question on the forum, turn right around and post the answer into a wiki page to ensure it was there for the next person
(Actually, it'd be really cool if every Q&A forum on XDA, instead of pointing to a normal forum, pointed to a wiki answers type software install (http://wiki.answers.com/) tailored for XDA. That would hopefully significantly cut down on re-asking of questions. )
3ndless said:
Hi, to this and i'm looking to install a new rom on my Epic 4G but like every person, I am afraid to damage my new equipment.
I'm looking for some stable Roms to flash my Epic but don't know where to look for them with a good description of what does work- what doesn't-what will improve with it... Thing's like that. If anyone can help me, i'll apreciate. =)
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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You can look in the development area, the threads are there for the ROMs. Typically the first few posts of a ROM thread will be the information about it. Then read a few of the pages (near the beginning and the last few) to get a feel for what users are experiencing during their use of the ROM.
That should give you the information you're looking for.
Good luck
I would suggest you look into the following excellent ROMs
Midnight v 5.3 which is based on Bonsai. This is my favorite and Rob is very helpful about his and other peoples ROMs
Bonsai itself which you have to go to their site for
Syndicate Frozen 1.1.1 from ACS.
Frankenstein when ecooce finishes the newest one. This is based on the ACS ROM
There are some other ones on here that I just don't know as much about. All of the developers use each others stuff so no matter what you go with it is better than stock.
You will learn a lot from your mistakes when flashing ROMs but the trick is to read a lot through the forums so you can learn from others mistakes.
Samsung Epic Midnight

[Q] How to cook a ROM?

I've been looking into creating my own Galaxy Nexus ROM but I can't for the life of me find out where to start. This is mainly going to be just for entertainment purposes of course.
As far as I know (which is not very much at all) I must compile the AOSP source code. The problem is I don't even know what compiling is. I don't mind if I have to learn as I have a very high interest in this and I'm possitive that I could learn fast.
Could someone please point me in the right direction to making a ROM?
I've also heard of people doing RAM optimizations,fullu deo-dexed, init.d scripts and speed optimizations. How would one go about doing that?
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
You have a lot of reading ahead of you.
I know there are guides for some of the things you mention at freeyourandroid.com but honestly man start reading
Android - making grown men pee sitting down since 2.0
Read the stickied post in the general forum on how to compile from source.
Also, you should really know and understand how the android system works before making a rom.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Hypercore said:
As far as I know (which is not very much at all) I must compile the AOSP source code. The problem is I don't even know what compiling is.
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Let's start here. Do you know much about operating systems? You say you don't know what compiling is... so I take it you've never done any programming, even, say, a quick intro class in university? That's not a huge deal--I'm no programmer but I work with OSes all the time (especially Linux) and have learned a lot of scripting here and there.
I'd say start with learning about how Android works internally. Might even want to read up some on Linux if you don't know much about it, since that's the foundation.
There are plenty of guides on various forums (at least, there used to be) here, but a good place to start is to take an update .zip file and pick it apart. Start with a basic AOSP ROM, maybe, and start digging through it on your computer to see what's there and what does what.

How does one become part of a ROM project?

I am a computer science graduate that is looking to work on an existing ROM project in my spare time (ideally a popular one like CM10). How would I go about this? I don't mind starting small (doing code reviews and such), but I would like to be able to work up to actually submitting fixes and being part of a 'team'.
I don't have any specific Android development experience, but I know Java well and use it every day at my job. I am just not currently a part of any code projects in my spare time and would love to do something Android related now that I finally have one (would be great to work on an SGH-I747 ROM).
So...is this possible? What steps can I take towards this goal? Or is this a situation like 'you've got a lot to learn before you even think of joining a project'. Again, I have no Android-specific dev experience, but I learn quick and am eager to be a part of the Android development community. I want to be part of an existing team because I feel my strength lies in developing fixes and features, not in designing a ROM from the ground up.
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.
Exoplanet25 said:
I am a computer science graduate that is looking to work on an existing ROM project in my spare time (ideally a popular one like CM10). How would I go about this? I don't mind starting small (doing code reviews and such), but I would like to be able to work up to actually submitting fixes and being part of a 'team'.
I don't have any specific Android development experience, but I know Java well and use it every day at my job. I am just not currently a part of any code projects in my spare time and would love to do something Android related now that I finally have one (would be great to work on an SGH-I747 ROM).
So...is this possible? What steps can I take towards this goal? Or is this a situation like 'you've got a lot to learn before you even think of joining a project'. Again, I have no Android-specific dev experience, but I learn quick and am eager to be a part of the Android development community. I want to be part of an existing team because I feel my strength lies in developing fixes and features, not in designing a ROM from the ground up.
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.
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Your best bet is to get into the Android SDK, learn what you can from it, and I would actually PM some of the dev's and ask them if you can help.
Exoplanet25 said:
I want to be part of an existing team because I feel my strength lies in developing fixes and features, not in designing a ROM from the ground up.
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.
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Click to collapse
if this is what you feel like you would be good at. Download CM source, compile it, then start fixing things. Then you can submit your patches and/or features to their Gerrit Code Review.

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