Samsung Galaxy SII I9100 SGS2 Modding Thread

griffdaddy · 12-04-2012 11:49am

Anyone using the latest Siyah Kernel with dual boot? It's very, very slick, when you turn your phone on you have the option of booting two roms by pressing the home button to boot the secondary rom. I'm using rooted stock ICS for my primary and hydrogen pure ICS for my secondary. Nice way to 'audition' roms or just have two completely different set-ups. Battery life is also substantially better with the Siyah kernel than with a rooted stock kernel.

slfcarro5 · 12-04-2012 12:00pm

Hi guys has anyone got a USB jig in the blanchardstown area that i could borrow for an hour to reset the flash counter. Flashed my phone with ICS and now it just keeps freezing. Have tried everything but it is still freezing. Gonna flash it back to stock and bring it back to the shop. If anyone could help it would be much appreciated. Had a look on ebay but there is no sellers in Ireland so ill have to wait a week to get one. Thanks

Ghandee · 12-04-2012 12:01pm

I dont know about anyone else on here, but when I was on custom roms, (any one at all) I always seemed to have issues with picking up 3G or H signals.

However, updated recently to 3's offilcial ICS ROM, and since doing it, I've almost constant H+ signal on my phone, when I lose that, it reverts to 3G.

Could be a coincidince, but thought it worth mentioning incase anyone else was in the same predicament.

croo · 12-04-2012 12:23pm

I too just took the rooting plunge - and as you say it was painless. It's just the seating about bricking the phone to contend with really.

Like many I was disappointed with the look of the stock Samsung roms with touchwiz so I just installed the Pure ICS. I had found the Samsung roms (and I had tried two LPQ & LPS) to be unstable. The phone seemed to be rebooting - though it never requested the pin code so it might have been something else.

Anyway, I have Pure ICS just 2 days on my phone but the pros I see are:
* so far it seems stable - more so than the stock samsung roms.
* It looks gorgeous - just as I remember seeing on the nexus which was what I wanted.
* I like the unlock to camera function - but I noticed one of the CM9 variants allowed unlock to many functions (Phone, Camera, text etc)
* Battery remains okay - 20 hours to run down 80% and that's not heavy use but as it's new using it a lot more than typical.
* everything seems to work, Camera, Radio, GPS - I *think* the quandrant score is higher too but I didn't write down the actual number from before so I cannot be 100%

What I miss is:
* The homescreens cannot be easily moved around. And you have to go to the Apex configuration to add or remove home screens.
* I do not seem to be able to drag icons from homescreen to homescreen either.
* I miss some of the samsung apps
** the social hub
** the DLNA streaming app
** as bad as kies was it did make it easy to download & copy podcasts to the phone.

I did try to install the AOSP apps from Pure ICS but contacts when to the light background look & the phone/SMS stopped working when I flashed these. So I went back to the pure ICS with just the circle battery indicator (I did have the 15 toggles originally but I like the simpler looking ICS defaults)

If there is anything specific you want to know just ask.

PS. the other thing I've missed is the vlingo, so that when I long press the bluetooth headset button it prompts me for the number to call! Most phones I've had allowed that but not this with Pure ICS. Maybe I need to configure something!?

Mr Bloat · 12-04-2012 2:24pm

griffdaddy wrote: »

Anyone using the latest Siyah Kernel with dual boot? It's very, very slick, when you turn your phone on you have the option of booting two roms by pressing the home button to boot the secondary rom. I'm using rooted stock ICS for my primary and hydrogen pure ICS for my secondary. Nice way to 'audition' roms or just have two completely different set-ups. Battery life is also substantially better with the Siyah kernel than with a rooted stock kernel.

Oh My God, this is why I love Android. I just tried out this kernel and am now dual booting Lite'ning ROM 2.3 and the latest Cyanogen 9 nightly. I have been threatening to try the CM9 nightly for a while but was wary of it, there's no excuse now that I can dual boot!
Amazing stuff, I will never get over the talent that some people in the Android community have.

griffdaddy · 12-04-2012 3:10pm

slfcarro5 wrote: »

Hi guys has anyone got a USB jig in the blanchardstown area that i could borrow for an hour to reset the flash counter. Flashed my phone with ICS and now it just keeps freezing. Have tried everything but it is still freezing. Gonna flash it back to stock and bring it back to the shop. If anyone could help it would be much appreciated. Had a look on ebay but there is no sellers in Ireland so ill have to wait a week to get one. Thanks

You don't need a jig to reset the counter on ics anymore either, Chainfire developed an app
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1494114
What stock do you intend to flash to? Just flash to rooted stock ics, remove the triangle and then unroot would be your best bet

Telchak · 12-04-2012 3:58pm

Flashed Cyanogen 9 on Sunday, hard to believe just how much better than stock ICS it is. Have had one freeze so far, not overly concerned though (it's a nightly build after all). All in all though, I don't think there's anything I like more than having the torch button in the notification windows

Trebuchet isn't customizable enough for my liking, so using Nova.

Hard for me to say if battery is any better or worse, as I've never had a the percentage shown in the status bar, just a vague icon

Have it on battery for about 5 hours though, only the occasional text sent and two or three quick checks of facebook, and I'm on about 80% now. Would that be considered normal?

Cossax · 12-04-2012 4:26pm

Telchak wrote: »

Flashed Cyanogen 9 on Sunday, hard to believe just how much better than stock ICS it is. Have had one freeze so far, not overly concerned though (it's a nightly build after all). All in all though, I don't think there's anything I like more than having the torch button in the notification windows

Trebuchet isn't customizable enough for my liking, so using Nova.

Hard for me to say if battery is any better or worse, as I've never had a the percentage shown in the status bar, just a vague icon Have it on battery for about 5 hours though, only the occasional text sent and two or three quick checks of facebook, and I'm on about 80% now. Would that be considered normal?

That seems to be draining a little quickly, on wireless or data?
I'm on Resurrection Remix 1.1 w/ speedmod kernel and I go down <1% an hour on wireless and ~2% an hour on data.

Telchak · 12-04-2012 4:40pm

Cossax wrote: »

That seems to be draining a little quickly, on wireless or data?
I'm on Resurrection Remix 1.1 w/ speedmod kernel and I go down <1% an hour on wireless and ~2% an hour on data.

On data, made sure to turn everything off to get an idea of the life. I thought it seemed to be draining massively while I was listening to music, but then thought maybe that was just because I could see the number dropping instead of a battery symbol. Might check out another ROM then :

I've been listening to music for a little while now and it's on 69%
Screen - 43%
Android OS - 21%
Media server - 10%
Facebook - 6%
Google Play Music - 5%

Cossax · 12-04-2012 6:44pm

Telchak wrote: »

On data, made sure to turn everything off to get an idea of the life. I thought it seemed to be draining massively while I was listening to music, but then thought maybe that was just because I could see the number dropping instead of a battery symbol. Might check out another ROM then :

I've been listening to music for a little while now and it's on 69%
Screen - 43%
Android OS - 21%
Media server - 10%
Facebook - 6%
Google Play Music - 5%

~16 hours if you use the battery for the rest of the day as you've done so far but you could do better. I could go 2 days without a charge with fairly heavy usage, I'd get well into the third day if I was on wifi the whole time. It'll take a bit of experimenting to get the right ROM, kernel and modem (I haven't looked at any on ICS yet, just using stock) that gives you the best performance/battery.

slfcarro5 · 12-04-2012 7:48pm

griffdaddy wrote: »

You don't need a jig to reset the counter on ics anymore either, Chainfire developed an app
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1494114
What stock do you intend to flash to? Just flash to rooted stock ics, remove the triangle and then unroot would be your best bet

I was planning on flashing the stock meteor one 2.3.5. Im going to bring it back to the shop to get it repaired. I was thinking if I flash ICS again used the triangle away app would I need to restore it to GB 2.3.5 or could I just leave it at ICS. Just thinking that they will know I was flashing ROMS considering meteor hasnt released ICS yet.

Edit: So I tried that triangle away app and it froze just as it was resetting the counter. I nearly died. Thought my phone was done. Booted into CWM couldnt do anything in it. Booted into download and flashed a Rom and its back working. God I thought that my phone was done for there.

Irish Gunner · 13-04-2012 8:51am

Mr Bloat wrote: »

Oh My God, this is why I love Android. I just tried out this kernel and am now dual booting Lite'ning ROM 2.3 and the latest Cyanogen 9 nightly. I have been threatening to try the CM9 nightly for a while but was wary of it, there's no excuse now that I can dual boot!
Amazing stuff, I will never get over the talent that some people in the Android community have.

Never knew this how can you do this?

I am on latest Lite'ning Rom 2.6 have not updated it to 2.7 yet and use Siyah 3.01. Would like to try another ROM and have the option of switching to compare

When I boot up I do not get an option let me know how you do this and installing a 2nd Rom same as normal via Odin or CWM etc

Thanks

griffdaddy · 13-04-2012 9:22am

slfcarro5 wrote: »

I was planning on flashing the stock meteor one 2.3.5. Im going to bring it back to the shop to get it repaired. I was thinking if I flash ICS again used the triangle away app would I need to restore it to GB 2.3.5 or could I just leave it at ICS. Just thinking that they will know I was flashing ROMS considering meteor hasnt released ICS yet.

Edit: So I tried that triangle away app and it froze just as it was resetting the counter. I nearly died. Thought my phone was done. Booted into CWM couldnt do anything in it. Booted into download and flashed a Rom and its back working. God I thought that my phone was done for there.

Did it stay reset when you flashed stock again?

slfcarro5 · 13-04-2012 9:58am

griffdaddy wrote: »

Did it stay reset when you flashed stock again?

No it still reads 11 which was the number I had before. I ordered a jig yesterday and am just going to use that when it arrives. I dont trust using that app again.

griffdaddy · 13-04-2012 10:09am

slfcarro5 wrote: »

No it still reads 11 which was the number I had before. I ordered a jig yesterday and am just going to use that when it arrives. I dont trust using that app again.

I'm not 100% sure but I might have read somewhere that the jig doesn't work on the bootloader that installs when you install ICS.. I'm not sure though. You can borrow my jig if you're in a rush anyway, I'm based in D2 though.

slfcarro5 · 13-04-2012 10:16am

griffdaddy wrote: »

I'm not 100% sure but I might have read somewhere that the jig doesn't work on the bootloader that installs when you install ICS.. I'm not sure though. You can borrow my jig if you're in a rush anyway, I'm based in D2 though.

Sure hopefully Ill have the one I ordered in a few days. Have my Girlfriends old desire now so that will do for the moment. Ill look up about that jig not working on ICS but I should be restoring it to GB 2.3.5 before I use the jig anyway. Will that change the bootloader?

griffdaddy · 13-04-2012 10:44am

slfcarro5 wrote: »

Sure hopefully Ill have the one I ordered in a few days. Have my Girlfriends old desire now so that will do for the moment. Ill look up about that jig not working on ICS but I should be restoring it to GB 2.3.5 before I use the jig anyway. Will that change the bootloader?

I'm not sure to be honest. I only really know about kernels and roms. Are you the freezing is a hardware problem and not just a rom? did it happen on GB?

slfcarro5 · 13-04-2012 11:16am

griffdaddy wrote: »

I'm not sure to be honest. I only really know about kernels and roms. Are you the freezing is a hardware problem and not just a rom? did it happen on GB?

Yeah it was happening when I flashed back to GB originally so I tried about 5 other Roms and a number of different kernels but have been getting freezes with every rom.
Here a link to what I have tried

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1592685

At first I thought that it was a software issue but Im not so sure now

BopNiblets · 13-04-2012 2:31pm

croo wrote: »

I too just took the rooting plunge - and as you say it was painless. It's just the seating about bricking the phone to contend with really.

Like many I was disappointed with the look of the stock Samsung roms with touchwiz so I just installed the Pure ICS. I had found the Samsung roms (and I had tried two LPQ & LPS) to be unstable. The phone seemed to be rebooting - though it never requested the pin code so it might have been something else.

Anyway, I have Pure ICS just 2 days on my phone but the pros I see are:
* so far it seems stable - more so than the stock samsung roms.
* It looks gorgeous - just as I remember seeing on the nexus which was what I wanted.
* I like the unlock to camera function - but I noticed one of the CM9 variants allowed unlock to many functions (Phone, Camera, text etc)
* Battery remains okay - 20 hours to run down 80% and that's not heavy use but as it's new using it a lot more than typical.
* everything seems to work, Camera, Radio, GPS - I *think* the quandrant score is higher too but I didn't write down the actual number from before so I cannot be 100%

What I miss is:
* The homescreens cannot be easily moved around. And you have to go to the Apex configuration to add or remove home screens.
* I do not seem to be able to drag icons from homescreen to homescreen either.
* I miss some of the samsung apps
** the social hub
** the DLNA streaming app
** as bad as kies was it did make it easy to download & copy podcasts to the phone.

I did try to install the AOSP apps from Pure ICS but contacts when to the light background look & the phone/SMS stopped working when I flashed these. So I went back to the pure ICS with just the circle battery indicator (I did have the 15 toggles originally but I like the simpler looking ICS defaults)

If there is anything specific you want to know just ask.

PS. the other thing I've missed is the vlingo, so that when I long press the bluetooth headset button it prompts me for the number to call! Most phones I've had allowed that but not this with Pure ICS. Maybe I need to configure something!?

Cool, thanks for this post, now that you mentioned it the built in Vlingo doesn't work on Simplistic ICS Lite either (when you double press home key it used to ask for voice command).

For the homescreens it's the same with Nova launcher (I think Apex and Nova are similar) for Simplistic ICS, you can't pinch zoom to see all homescreens or menu screens.

Few questions: Did you do a full wipe/factory reset and dalvik cache wipe before installing?
Are all TouchWiz apps are there by default (Calendar/Clock/Music/Messaging)?

Does it have Music player controls on pattern unlock screen?

Any of the Problems I posted in my other post above?

Cheers.

wotzgoingon · 13-04-2012 2:42pm

slfcarro5 wrote: »

Sure hopefully Ill have the one I ordered in a few days. Have my Girlfriends old desire now so that will do for the moment. Ill look up about that jig not working on ICS but I should be restoring it to GB 2.3.5 before I use the jig anyway. Will that change the bootloader?

It doesn't matter if the new bootloader is installed. All you do is install the old bootloader and then use the jig to bring the custom count back to none.

croo · 14-04-2012 5:51am

@BopNiblets
This is what I've found so far....

Did you do a full wipe/factory reset and dalvik cache wipe before installing?

Yes, but because I had already flashed a XXLPS Samsung stock rom and I had read that there could be issues going to Pure from it (I think they were on a prior kernel wen that was written though because it was also LPS kernel that I was installed as PURE 7.2)

Are all TouchWiz apps are there by default (Calendar/Clock/Music/Messaging)?

No, No touchwiz at all!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1451346 is exactly what I installed.
There is a package there called aosp mms&contacs 7.2 which I read was for those who preferred the samsung apps. I flashed it, but when I did my contacts stopped working 100%. Plus, these apps were now light/white background apps which didn't fit in with the black & blue of the rest of the system. So I removed them again (actually I had to wipe & do a clean install of Pure again).

So that was my pointed re the Samsung Apps... that some of them I really miss... like social hub.
vLingo was another app that came with the samsung roms, I think they licensed a paid version. I guess I could install a vlingo app from the market but by default there is nothing included to manage the bluetooth handsfree interaction and that was more my point.

Music player controls on pattern unlock

Yes. They are there.

Exchange server.

I don't use exchange but I can get/send my pop/smtp mail without issue.
It's not all integrated with one interface in the Social Hub app which I miss. There is one app for email and one for gmail.

- Screenshot shortcut doesn't work

vol down + power works.

- No default Files application

There is an app called myFiles by default

- No default ringtones/notifications included

Yeah there are lots of ringtones.
Though something else I noticed since my initial post, with the samsung stock rom there was an alarm on the default clock that had an escalated volume that you can spread over a defined time period. I was a nice alarm to slowly wake up to but that is gone.

- No TW clock app (no nice gentle alarms!)

I guess this is my point above.

- Simple Last.fm Scrobbler doesn't work with the Google Music app in this ROM

I do use last.fm with amarok (under linux) but I haven't gotten to around to even trying this with any android device.

- Statusbar doesn't show clock/icons sometimes

I haven't noticed this.

- "Send SMS on Sim change" security option crashes Settings

The same happens here. I guess this should be expected as it uses a samsung account to setup under the stock roms.

- Latest Swype theme is orange (not blue as in 2.3.4)

I don't think there is swype input on Pure ICS – or at least I don't see it in Settings->Language & Input.
That reminds me of another issue though – for “some” apps the font used for input is black – and the background is black too so basically you cannot see what you type. I've only noticed this on one app so far – the Tasks app.

- Cancel and OK buttons have switched positions (just have to get used to it)

I haven't used android enough to know what the norm is. Save is on the left and Canel is on the right for Pure ICS 7.2

- CRT-off animation is annoying, included by default (got rid of it easily enough though)

I like it

I hope that helps some.
PS. after some of the comments re battery I've been watching closely. Yesterday leaving work I was at 8 hours with 88% remaining. I only used it once or twice (during lunch etc) but it would have been on wifi all day. It's still on that same charge and at 20h 23m with 48% remaining... I've been listening to an audio book (on speaker) for about 3 hours and testing the above since.

BenEadir · 18-04-2012 9:00am

Hi all,

OP here.

I'm currently on CheckROm V6 and pretty happy with performance and in particular the battery and phone/wi-fi signal etc but sometimes experience delays between commencing a call (hitting the dial button) and the call actually commencing of up to 1 minute which is mega frustrating.

I tried earlier nightly versions of CM9 but quickly reverted to CheckROM as CM9 seemed to be eating the battery in a major way and was randomly re-booting.

What ICS ROMS are people here running and are there any particular negatives you'd like to share?

Do you CM users think the nightly versions of CM9 are now closer to a ROM you can live with day to day which gives decent performance in terms of speed, battery life and phone/wi-fi signal?

I'm getting itchy to move up to ICS but as I use my phone a lot for work etc I can't afford to mess around with unstable ROM's.

Ben

OneWayBet · 18-04-2012 9:08am

I'm using the official ICS ROM XXLPQ, no problems at all.

BenThere wrote: »

Hi all,

OP here.

I'm currently on CheckROm V6 and pretty happy with performance and in particular the battery and phone/wi-fi signal etc but sometimes experience delays between commencing a call (hitting the dial button) and the call actually commencing of up to 1 minute which is mega frustrating.

I tried earlier nightly versions of CM9 but quickly reverted to CheckROM as CM9 seemed to be eating the battery in a major way and was randomly re-booting.

What ICS ROMS are people here running and are there any particular negatives you'd like to share?

Do you CM users think the nightly versions of CM9 are now closer to a ROM you can live with day to day which gives decent performance in terms of speed, battery life and phone/wi-fi signal?

I'm getting itchy to move up to ICS but as I use my phone a lot for work etc I can't afford to mess around with unstable ROM's.

Ben

Zagato · 18-04-2012 9:14am

Have been using Darkyrom for the last month or so and it is fine as a day to day ROM. Battery not amazing, but no worse than CheckROM. Last night put CM9 on again, much prefer the vanilla ICS (although Nova Launcher on Dark is v good)

CM9 is so much faster though, wifi and signal fine so far. Bit early to tell about battery.

To me it comes down to whether you're happy without FM Radio, if yes then go CM9, if not then you'll need a ROM based on Samsung Stock Firmware.

slfcarro5 · 18-04-2012 9:44am

Does anybody know the most recent firmware from Carphone warehouse is. I want to flash it before I bring my phone back to the shop for repair. I have flashed a stock meteor one at the moment will that do or will I have to have there firmware before it will get repaired.

Aodan83 · 18-04-2012 12:34pm

slfcarro5 wrote: »

Does anybody know the most recent firmware from Carphone warehouse is. I want to flash it before I bring my phone back to the shop for repair. I have flashed a stock meteor one at the moment will that do or will I have to have there firmware before it will get repaired.

Far as I know it's the network that set the firmware, Carphone Warehouse should have nothing to do with it. If you have Meteor's latest firmware that should be ok. Make sure it's not rooted though.

BenEadir · 18-04-2012 1:00pm

OK, gong to give Resurrection Remix ics v1.4[4.0.4] a lash and might as well do a full wipe etc.

First and hopefully last question. In addition to doing a Nandroid backup (in case it all goes pear shaped) I want to do a Titanium backup but I'm not sure wich option in Batch Backup to select. Should I just run "Backup all user apps" or should I run "Backup all user apps + system data"? I think I read somewhere that when upgrading to new ROMS (as opposed to upgrading to a new version of the same ROM) or when moving from a GB ROM to an ICS ROM it's dangerous to restore the apps system data so you just have to accept you're going to lose app settings etc. Is this correct?

Ben

slfcarro5 · 18-04-2012 1:00pm

Thanks.
Yeah I unrooted and reset the counter last night so think everything should be ok. Thanks for that.

Zagato · 18-04-2012 6:40pm

BenThere wrote: »

OK, gong to give Resurrection Remix ics v1.4[4.0.4] a lash and might as well do a full wipe etc.

First and hopefully last question. In addition to doing a Nandroid backup (in case it all goes pear shaped) I want to do a Titanium backup but I'm not sure wich option in Batch Backup to select. Should I just run "Backup all user apps" or should I run "Backup all user apps + system data"? I think I read somewhere that when upgrading to new ROMS (as opposed to upgrading to a new version of the same ROM) or when moving from a GB ROM to an ICS ROM it's dangerous to restore the apps system data so you just have to accept you're going to lose app settings etc. Is this correct?

Ben

tbh I find that I don't need to do a Titanium restore anymore as the built in Google restore works fine for me. I usually update my backup under schedules and backup all new apps and modified data (I presumed this is app data rather than system data).
I haven't had to do a restore though as I say the apps just restore themselves after I log in.

I do use 'SMS Backup and Restore' for text messages though which works great. Not to fussed about my call logs and my emails are all stored on servers anyway.

........Just finishing this post now after large hiatus:rolleyes:

I meant to add to my last post to remember that the new Siyah Kernel allows dual booting, haven't read it all up yet but should allow you to try new ROMs without getting rid of your current ROM once you have it set up.

BenEadir · 19-04-2012 12:07pm

Thanks Zagato,

I put Resurrection Remix ics v1.4[4.0.4] on yesterday and it seems very snappy indeed. Battery life also seems ok. It's very early and I've been using it a lot to suss out the various options etc. I'm sure after a few days I'll easily get through a full day (6am to 11pm) on a single charge and that for me is good enough.

The Apex launcher seems decent is very customisable but I'm not a big fan of the whole 'blue' themed notification bar. I guess it'll grow on me. Face unlock works well but it a bit of a gimmick TBH.

ICS is indeed a major update in terms of menu layout etc so it will take some getting used to but overall I'm glad I made the change and I'm sure the ROM updates will only make it better.

Ben

Samsung Galaxy SII I9100 SGS2 Modding Thread

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