Develop Bugs

Is there a need for a custom ROM for mi5s Plus ?

Hi there,
As a proud owner of a Xiaomi mi5s Plus and a compulsive flasher of custom ROM's, I had to get rid of that addiction to flashing when I get the mi5s Plus. Not that I wanted to get rid of it, but simply put, there was no way to get satisfaction by that addiction because of the lack of material to flash.
OK... So I thought to myself : "Am I really to live with MIUI 8.0.X.0 for ever ?", which in other words, means to live with the ROM that is probably the most far away from AOSP ROM ?
Answer was, unfortunately, undoubtedly : "Yes".
So it was time for me to make a hard introspection work... and answer that most philosophical question : "WHY do I want custom ROM ?".
Basically for 2 reasons :
- 1°) because I want something close to AOSP ;
- 2°) because I want to get the ability to customize things the way I want and not be in constant constraint like iPhone users are.
And now to the point : can I get those 2 things and still use MIUI 8.0 ?
At first I thought : "Hell no. This is too close to iPhone. In fact, should you just look the screen, you think you have an iPhone".
So I decided to change things interface wise...
First reflex was to get some themes from the in-built Xiaomi Store. What a disappointment ! About 90% of those themes are called something that contains "iOS". This is EXACTLY what I want to avoid !
So how to get rid of that apparent MIUI ? The answer is pretty simple : CHANGE THE LAUNCHER ! So I installed my favourite launcher : Smart Launcher from the former "Gin Lemon" (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ginlemon.flowerfree).
What do I get now ? Simple : I don't even notice that I am running MIUI anymore. Well, that is not exactly true. I still notice when I go to the "Settings". But that part is probably the only one that is still somewhat close to AOSP. So I can live with it despite so "rearrangements"... Indeed, once configured, I don't go to settings that often... So not a problem.
So I had to face the second reason for me to flash a custom ROM : customizations !
The most important thing to me is to be able to have shortcuts to actions and/or apps almost everywhere. I just hate to have to dig into menus, searches and stuff to be able to achieve what I am looking for. So of course, having an ROM that allows me to customize the interface is a great move. I can already have a bunch of shortcuts in Smartlauncher... but the best thing I can do is have a shortcut assigned to the hardware buttons... and there are 7 of them in the mi5s Plus (navigation : 3 ; volume : 2 ; power : 1 ; FP Scanner : 1).
So how to I do this ? I did some research but it rapidly became obvious that I will need to unlock the phone to root it and so be able to install XPosed framework and some XPosed modules. So I did. Applied to get the unlock code ; got it after 3 days. Unlocked the device, installed TWRP, installed SuperSU and installed XPosed framework.
So I of course installed the ultimate swiss army knife of UI customization : GravityBox. Unfortunately, it was of little help. It only really works when you have a "close to AOSP" ROM. But as mentioned earlier : MIUI is the farest thing to AOSP you can imagine. So a lot of tweaks had no effects. Still the major one is still present : the "App launcher". Hit a button, it will display a "pop-up" where you can add up to 12 shortcuts to apps. So I configured the "Home Butoon" to display it with a long press... I then wanted to configure the other buttons, but some can't be configured (Volume and Power), others don't take the mod ("Recents" button from the navigation buttons) and one breaks things (FP scanner => device doesn't wake AND unlock if used).
So I digged a little deeper and found another module called "XPosed Additions" : that one allows me to configure each button (yes, all seven buttons !) and I am able to assign up to 6 actions and/or shortcuts to each one of them ! And YES : that does include the FP scanner ! Imagine : for the FP Scanner :
- display off => power on & unlock ;
- display on + 1 tap => got to "Home"
- display on + long press => show the dialer (remember, even if "Smart" it's basically a "Phone" !) ;
- display on + double tap => display off
- display on + double tap and hold => bring up the camera ;
- display on + triple tap => bring up Waze ;
- display on + triple tap and hold => bring up the Radar app.
That was it on the buttons customization side. Now there was still one thing I couldn't stand in MIUI : that was the QuickSettings. I din't liked two things : "Aqua on white" for one ; not able to hide buttons I do no use for two.
For the first thing (appearance) the "Theme Store" is a nice help. Even if the theme is labelled "iOS", you won't noticed the Apple-ish look once the Launcher is installed. But you will still keep the appearance of the Quicksettings. So I applied a theme that had an appearance I found appealing.
For the second thing, another Xposed module helped : it's called "MIUI Tweaks". I gives the ability to hide the unused QuickSettings (and sideways to tweak a little the appearance : size and stuff, but notthe colour... which leaves the Them handy !).
CONCLUSION :
Even if I am, as mentioned in the brief introduction, a compulsive custom ROM flasher, I now live with MIUI 8.0 and I must say that I don't mind doing so ! At least I have everything working (camera, gallery, network, 4G...) and I also have a really nice battery life (I have used it for 48 hours and I still have 28% even though the Play Store updates automatically and I had several rather long phone calls and played "Darkness Reborn" for about 3h and played around with settings to fine tune my set-up... which gives a SOT of about 4h45minutes).
I am now waiting for Xiaomi to release a Nougat based ROM to maybe improve battery life even more...
But to tell the truth, even without a custom ROM, I am perfectly happy with this device... of course I had to spend about 5 dollars to unlock Xposed additions and MIUI tweaks (2.5 dollars each). But those were the most well-spent 5 dollars in the last 5 years ! And I will still be able to use those even if I change the phone... which I don't think will happen too soon !

Even with the few bugs it has I enjoy using lineage 14.1 way more than MIUI. Their whole apple-like approach to everything just drove me away. MIUI is just too bloaty and made me feel like my phone was being bogged down.

I just put Nova Launcher, and I don't feel bloatware at all (after 3 days of use at least).
Wish to root. And to do some changes to some buttons.
How to root?

jondread said:
Even with the few bugs it has I enjoy using lineage 14.1 way more than MIUI. Their whole apple-like approach to everything just drove me away. MIUI is just too bloaty and made me feel like my phone was being bogged down.
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Click to collapse
Hi,
Yeah... I don't like it either.
But honestly, if you install another launcher, what is left of the iOS like interface ?
The "Power Menu" ? I don't use it daily...
And maybe the Notifications... But those can be changed via an XPosed module.
But of course, I agree that having the choice between several custom ROM's would be a nice addition to this device
Regards.

claudioita said:
I just put Nova Launcher, and I don't feel bloatware at all (after 3 days of use at least).
Wish to root. And to do some changes to some buttons.
How to root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Claudio,
To be able to root, you first need to unlock your bootloader.
Unlocking the bootloader requires a permission to be granted by Xiaomi.
So you have to apply to get your unlock code.
To apply, please visit this page : "en.miui.com/unlock".
Regards.

In my Mi5s Plus I use "xMiui" and "Miui 8 Tweaks" modules: with these two modules, you can do many personalizzations like Gravity Box.
With BuilProp Editor I set the DPI to 360 to have a better use of display (icons in miui are so big!)
With these methods, I resolve all the problems with Miui interface.
But I have a multiboot way to switch to xiaomi.eu, Lineage and RR roms.
I hope Lineage and RR will be official for Mi5s Plus

One thing that I've discovered on my Xiaomi phones is that finding the right theme changes everything for the better. I was originally using the Android N theme, but recently switched to Stheme. I apply it globally (rather than in the window that allows customisation - dialer, messaging, status bar, etc). The advantage with doing this is that it themes the settings menu to a nice blue colour.
With Stheme installed, I get quick settings toggles that look like the Pixel's, and the colours in the stock messaging app become tolerable. I found that it themed the stock contacts app too dark for me, so I downloaded Zeny Purple, went into the customize theme page, and applied Zeny Purple to just the dialer. I also applied the Android N theme to just the icons.
Using these three themes, I was able to significantly improve things. I'm sure there are other decent themes available, although a lot of them are pretty ordinary.

Huawei Launcher

Hey friends,
& Especially for you who are rocking the China version. You brave souls.
I'm curious to hear what you think of Huawei's default launcher? Opinions? Thoughts?

jeradjohnso said:
Hey friends,
& Especially for you who are rocking the China version. You brave souls.
I'm curious to hear what you think of Huawei's default launcher? Opinions? Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using Mate 10 pro right now and I've bought Nova a couple of years ago. Nova is the best launcher for me, but huawei luncher is not bad either. I've used it for a year now heavy modified and westernised. I'll publish my review after I get the Mate 20 x next week.

Neato. I used Nova since I got my Mate 9, but it sounds like only the Default will work on the new Chinese versions.
Are you getting the China version?

It's very functional, but relatively slow and laggy - that's my experience on both the P20 Pro and Honor Note 8.
The HN8 is my main phone. I'm using Trebuchet at the moment, which is immensely smoother and faster.
There shouldn't be a problem using 3rd party launchers after 9.12x.xxx updates, but currently you'll have to go the adb method of removing Huawei Home to force the OS to choose your already installed preference, as Huawei had removed the option to select another launcher as default after complaints about malware etc - after an outcry it's now going to be reverted.

jeradjohnso said:
Neato. I used Nova since I got my Mate 9, but it sounds like only the Default will work on the new Chinese versions.
Are you getting the China version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but I haven't plan to use any other launcher than stock anyway. It has its advantages and it is more customizable than one might think.

mudnightoil said:
It's very functional, but relatively slow and laggy - that's my experience on both the P20 Pro and Honor Note 8.
The HN8 is my main phone. I'm using Trebuchet at the moment, which is immensely smoother and faster.
There shouldn't be a problem using 3rd party launchers after 9.12x.xxx updates, but currently you'll have to go the adb method of removing Huawei Home to force the OS to choose your already installed preference, as Huawei had removed the option to select another launcher as default after complaints about malware etc - after an outcry it's now going to be reverted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh. :fingers-crossed:

The Huawei Mate 20x launcher is A-OK. It is not laggy or problematic. If you want to use a third party launcher prior to the Huawei home manager fix, use Twisted Home Manager and gestures only for navigation in both the launcher and phone.

The Twisted Home Manager works.

tzdu25 said:
The Twisted Home Manager works.
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Click to collapse
On the chinese Mate 20 x?

Yes, I have the Chinese Version.

Wicked. That's so awesome. Thank you!

tzdu25 said:
The Twisted Home Manager works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dosn't work for me. Or I don't know how to use it.
The instant I touch over Nova Launcher it opens de app, but doesn't change the default launcher.
Can you tel me how did you changed the default launcher?
Thanks a lot!

RedCriwx said:
Dosn't work for me. Or I don't know how to use it.
The instant I touch over Nova Launcher it opens de app, but doesn't change the default launcher.
Can you tel me how did you changed the default launcher?
Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They all say use wicked launcher and stuff but what they really mean is just go click nova launcher and it will launch but don't hit the home button or anything. You can only use gestures.. Which honestly to me isn't replacing the launcher when only doing setting the default launcher to me is "replacing the launcher"

RedCriwx said:
Dosn't work for me. Or I don't know how to use it.
The instant I touch over Nova Launcher it opens de app, but doesn't change the default launcher.
Can you tel me how did you changed the default launcher?
Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't work for me either. Have gestures only setup but any swipe to get the multi tasking view always reverts it back to the stock launcher.

g_woodend said:
Doesn't work for me either. Have gestures only setup but any swipe to get the multi tasking view always reverts it back to the stock launcher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What did work for me was deleting the Huawei Home using adb:
adb shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.huawei.android.launcher
After that, the system used the other launcher available (Nova in my case).
The only downside is that the swipe up for home using gesture navigation doesn't work anymore. The nav bar though, works perfectly. It bothers me because on the Honor note 10, with previous EMUI, you could change the launcher and the gesture still worked.
Thanks to mudnightoil who pointed this out before in this same thread.

RedCriwx said:
What did work for me was deleting the Huawei Home using adb:
adb shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.huawei.android.launcher
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got it. From typical computer window. While phone is up and running and after saying allow for the ADB connection on the phone. My hold up was changing USB from Charging to MTP and resetting/checking that USB is really set on.
Now I wish I could kill the repeated "remove the malicious (all non-China) apps prompt.

I like the standard launcher. Just wish the would fix it so the home screen would landscape like my M10 Pro does

I saw someone reported the default launcher could be staggerring, though I would like to share my input.
I have been using Samsung phone from Galaxy S5 and I have been turned the animations off in the Developers mode. I didn't see the difference turning them off nor the need of keeping them up. If you were willing to try without the animations for a few days, you probably will like it that way.

where is developers mode I can't enable it

stestesteste said:
where is developers mode I can't enable it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same as in many, go to about phone and tap on the build 5 times. It shows up under abnout phone, but under ther bottom advanced drop down menu. (I don't know why it seems the most useful items are under the last entry on menus with a "v" indicator). It is often easier to just search from the top of settings.

How To Guide Launcher change

I have found a way around changing the launcher on REDMAGIC phones that I figured out, it is a bit of a process. This is what you have to do
Settings>Battery>Battery Usage>Tap on screen>Battery Optimisation>Tap on the three dots on the top right>Tap Default App Settings>Desktop (on the top)>select the launcher on the top.
And you're done, enjoy.
Notes: it is a bit buggy, sometimes when going to the desktop it would show the normal factory Nubia launcher, tapping the home button fixes it.
I have only tested this on the REDMAGIC 6 so I don't know if it would work on other phones. If there is a much more simpler way then please tell me

The Easier way is to go into applications and tap on the 3 dot menu and choose default apps. There you will see all of the default apps and you can change the launcher at the top. Im on the 6s Pro Cyborg

I was gonna say that but your reply sums it up.

icy_gt said:
The Easier way is to go into applications and tap on the 3 dot menu and choose default apps. There you will see all of the default apps and you can change the launcher at the top. Im on the 6s Pro Cyborg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How many hours of screen on time are you getting on your 6s pro and on which refresh rate? Do you observe any cons so far on this device? Does pubg work on 90 fps without any mods?
Thanks!

Thank you! Super helpful

Question A few bugs I can't quite resolve

So I moved from my op8 pro to pixel 6 pro ,got it all set up and love it ,apart from a few niggles I can't resolve .
1. Screen adaptive brightness, have this switched on but nearly always reverts back to 100% .
2. Most apps seem to have a small black space at the bottom ,on my op8 pro I could make apps full screen ,can't find this on the 06 pro ...see pic attached .
3.Any way to remove Google search bar from home screen .
4. Any way to change accent colours in system from the base colours offered in settings .
5.have to say I love this phone ,so slick and smooth
Thanks for any help

1 & 2. I haven't seen these issues on mine. You could try a factory reset. Even could try factory reset and then don't put your account in, and see if everything behaves as expected without your account being restored.
I might not have seen #2 because of me using Nova Launcher Prime instead of the stock launcher.
3. I use Nova Launcher Prime - have for 7-9 years. I don't know much about the stock launcher capabilities.
4. Nova Launcher Prime has all sorts of customization, but I'm not sure if it has exactly what you're asking about.
5. Me too!
Good luck - hopefully, someone else can answer 3 & 4 for you.

I don't have my device yet, but sometimes clearing cache and a reboot may assist. Also, recommend Nova prime....

Also why is 4g calling not able to be selected

Question Vivo X80 Pro - App Drawer

Dear Forum,
I just received my Vivo X80 Pro (Chinese Version) with Dim9000. After an Oneplus 5 I'm used to an aggressive battery management system, still struggeling with notification issues on my new device - I hope to get everything fixed in the next days.
Anyway, is there anyone who can tell me how I activate the app drawer (Home Screen - Swipe up) to see all my apps? (do I need to install a different Launcher like Nova?)
Thanks for your support.

ZarW said:
Dear Forum,
I just received my Vivo X80 Pro (Chinese Version) with Dim9000. After an Oneplus 5 I'm used to an aggressive battery management system, still struggeling with notification issues on my new device - I hope to get everything fixed in the next days.
Anyway, is there anyone who can tell me how I activate the app drawer (Home Screen - Swipe up) to see all my apps? (do I need to install a different Launcher like Nova?)
Thanks for your support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings
Home screen, lock screen and wallpaper
Home screen settings
Home screen style
Change the setting from standard style to drawer style

Thanks.