Samsung Galaxy S3 i9300 Modding Thread

Ivefoundgod

Thanks lads, I'll look into the ones you mention, cheers.

waynegalway

Hi

I haven't rooted or put a custom rom on my s3 yet. I've had it nearly a year. It's network unlocked so I'm getting reasonably up to date firmware updates directly from Samsung, I'm not hanging round for months for three to send them to me.

So I'm on 4.1.2 atm. Since updating, I find that mediaserver is killing my battery. Not on every charge, but I'd say twice a week it lasts way less than normal.

So here's my query. Is there a custom rom that fixes this mediaserver bug? Or one that in general makes the battery last longer?

Any big pro's or cons that I should know about before trying the root?

Thanks

lewis

waynegalway wrote: »

Hi

I haven't rooted or put a custom rom on my s3 yet. I've had it nearly a year. It's network unlocked so I'm getting reasonably up to date firmware updates directly from Samsung, I'm not hanging round for months for three to send them to me.

So I'm on 4.1.2 atm. Since updating, I find that mediaserver is killing my battery. Not on every charge, but I'd say twice a week it lasts way less than normal.

So here's my query. Is there a custom rom that fixes this mediaserver bug? Or one that in general makes the battery last longer?

Any big pro's or cons that I should know about before trying the root?

Thanks

The best advice I can give you is just to read up on it, the more you understand the easier it`ll be for you to get onto a custome ROM.

I`d say for the media server you could either reboot your phone and look if the problem still there. You got new music or photos on the phone? Then wait until it shutdown by itself. If everything goes wrong install root media scanner from playstore to disable media scanning.

You`ll need to look at what`s draining your battery in settings, find the app what`s running in the background and either disable it, or uninstall it, or look at it`s settings.

One thing to remember is that when you get onto a custom ROM, you`ll have a lot of the bloatware that comes with a stock ROM gone, making it more snappier and easier on the battery.
There`s a lot of crap that`s not needed or even used that come with a stock ROM.

Remember, there`s a lot of reading if your going down this road, good luck.

waynegalway

lewis wrote: »

The best advice I can give you is just to read up on it, the more you understand the easier it`ll be for you to get onto a custome ROM.

I`d say for the media server you could either reboot your phone and look if the problem still there. You got new music or photos on the phone? Then wait until it shutdown by itself. If everything goes wrong install root media scanner from playstore to disable media scanning.

You`ll need to look at what`s draining your battery in settings, find the app what`s running in the background and either disable it, or uninstall it, or look at it`s settings.

One thing to remember is that when you get onto a custom ROM, you`ll have a lot of the bloatware that comes with a stock ROM gone, making it more snappier and easier on the battery.
There`s a lot of crap that`s not needed or even used that come with a stock ROM.

Remember, there`s a lot of reading if your going down this road, good luck.

Thanks for that.

From what I've read, it seems to me that custom Roms mostly just change the appearance of the UI. And get rid of bloat ware.

If I hide the bloat and can live with it in the background, then am I just as well off with a replacement launcher?

I have looked at a few launchers and I always end up going back to TW. I like the idea of vanilla Android, but there are some functions that Samsung have built in that I like.

Maybe that means rooting and custom Roms are just not for me?

waynegalway

lewis wrote: »

I`d say for the media server you could either reboot your phone and look if the problem still there. You got new music or photos on the phone? Then wait until it shutdown by itself.

Possibly a stupid question, but by reboot do you mean simply shut it down and turn it back on? Or is there a more thorough procedure you're thinking of? I did a factory reset last week to get over a network issue, and the media server problem was there both before and after the factory reset. Wouldn't want to have to do that every so often, it was a pain in the ass getting all the apps back the way I like them.

PogMoThoin

waynegalway wrote: »

Thanks for that.

From what I've read, it seems to me that custom Roms mostly just change the appearance of the UI. And get rid of bloat ware.

If I hide the bloat and can live with it in the background, then am I just as well off with a replacement launcher?

I have looked at a few launchers and I always end up going back to TW. I like the idea of vanilla Android, but there are some functions that Samsung have built in that I like.

Maybe that means rooting and custom Roms are just not for me?

Custom roms are more than that, they are new software built from scratch and are much leaner and faster than the Samsung firmware. You can get any feature you like from the Samsung firmware as an app, like smart stay etc
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beansoft.eyespy.free

I've been using Cyanogen for weeks, rock solid, very fast. I don't miss anything from the stock firmware

lewis

waynegalway wrote: »

Thanks for that.

From what I've read, it seems to me that custom Roms mostly just change the appearance of the UI. And get rid of bloat ware.

If I hide the bloat and can live with it in the background, then am I just as well off with a replacement launcher?

I have looked at a few launchers and I always end up going back to TW. I like the idea of vanilla Android, but there are some functions that Samsung have built in that I like.

Maybe that means rooting and custom Roms are just not for me?

The answer is in a custom ROM, rather than trying to solve it where your at, it`d be easier to get a custom ROM.

You mentioned Samsung or stock firmware, well I`d recommend Omega ROM, it`s very close to stock Samsung as you`ll get, plus with loads of tweaks and such.

Check out the thread at XDA

As for launchers go with either Nova or Apex, both very good.

Once you have a custom ROM you`ll never good back to stock, you`ve just stepped into the Android world.

lee_baby_simms

Has anyone had problems mounting external sd card in cyanogen nightlies?

When I boot into recovery its visible but it won't mount when running 4.2.2

waynegalway

Right. I bit the bullet.

Media server drain was doing my head in, so when I read a few posts back that a custom rom might sort it, I went for it.

Rooting was easy, as was putting the rom on (I went with the newest CM version I could find).

I backed up my apps through Titanium to the sd card, but how do I get them back onto the phone?

The play store is also not in my app list, so I can't install titanium again from there. Any suggestions?

waynegalway

waynegalway wrote: »

The play store is also not in my app list, so I can't install titanium again from there. Any suggestions?

Install Gapps here.

Also, here's a guide to use TiB. Make sure you don't restore system apps as that can cause conflicts.

waynegalway

Deleted User wrote: »

Install Gapps here.

Also, here's a guide to use TiB. Make sure you don't restore system apps as that can cause conflicts.

Thanks. So do I just transfer over that gapps zip file in its entirety to the sd or extract the individual apks that I want first and just put them on the sd?

Install via ClockwordMod. Download this Gapps to your phone. Hold power button, choose reboot, then recovery. Then choose install zip from sd card (or internal sd card depending on where you downloaded the zip to), the choose the zip, install and reboot!

That will install the Google related apps (Play store, Gmail etc.) Then use titanium to install your backed up apps.

waynegalway

Deleted User wrote: »

Install via ClockwordMod. Download this Gapps to your phone. Hold power button, choose reboot, then recovery. Then choose install zip from sd card (or internal sd card depending on where you downloaded the zip to), the choose the zip, install and reboot!

That will install the Google related apps (Play store, Gmail etc.) Then use titanium to install your backed up apps.

When I hold down the power button, then select rebot, it doesn't give me an option to go to recovery. It just starts up again

It might be because developer options are not enabled. Go to settings -> about phone. Tap the build number seven times. You should get a message saying developer options are enabled. Then see if the reboot menu is there.

waynegalway

Got it into recover by holding Vol Up, home and power keys, so it seems to be installing the gapps now. Thanks

PogMoThoin

Deleted User wrote: »

It might be because developer options are not enabled. Go to settings -> about phone. Tap the build number seven times. You should get a message saying developer options are enabled. Then see if the reboot menu is there.

Yeah, it's called advanced reboot, you have to enable it in developer options

waynegalway

No sign of my developer options in the settings menu! help!

PogMoThoin

waynegalway wrote: »

No sign of my developer options in the settings menu! help!

How to enable it has already been posted

Deleted User wrote: »

It might be because developer options are not enabled. Go to settings -> about phone. Tap the build number seven times. You should get a message saying developer options are enabled. Then see if the reboot menu is there.

It's ok if it's not there, did you manage to install Gapps ok by rebooting your way?

waynegalway

PogMoThoin wrote: »

How to enable it has already been posted

Apologies, missed that.

Thanks all for your patience.

waynegalway

Deleted User wrote: »

It's ok if it's not there, did you manage to install Gapps ok by rebooting your way?

Yes. All good.

CM makes a massive difference to ram usage, obviously there's am awful lot of crap on TW that's gone now.

One thing, there seems to be a lot of room on the screen above the uppermost icons/widgets. The screen looks a bit bottom heavy.i thought I'd have been able to resize and move things around a bit more. It was worse when I had the page set to 4 rows. I changed that to 5 and it helped a bit.

Also, the text seems a bit heavier and slightly less sharp than on TW. Any way around that?

PogMoThoin

waynegalway wrote: »

Yes. All good.

CM makes a massive difference to ram usage, obviously there's am awful lot of crap on TW that's gone now.

One thing, there seems to be a lot of room on the screen above the uppermost icons/widgets. The screen looks a bit bottom heavy.i thought I'd have been able to resize and move things around a bit more. It was worse when I had the page set to 4 rows. I changed that to 5 and it helped a bit.

Also, the text seems a bit heavier and slightly less sharp than on TW. Any way around that?

You can set it to use the full screen, it was a while before I discovered it myself. Settings->launcher->homescreen->enable stretch screen. Then set grid size to 6x6 or 7x7, whichever you're more comfortable with

waynegalway

Really like CM so far. It's mostly all that I need without the bloat.

One question: is there a way to get an "infinite scroll" on the home screens? I have them set up the way I had in TW, using just 4 screens. But in TW if I was on the one furthest to the right, I could scroll right again and go straight to the one furthest on the left, if you know what I mean?

ED E

How does one check the BL status on a GS3? Google returns a load of how to's, but not how to check.

s_carnage

waynegalway wrote: »

Really like CM so far. It's mostly all that I need without the bloat.

One question: is there a way to get an "infinite scroll" on the home screens? I have them set up the way I had in TW, using just 4 screens. But in TW if I was on the one furthest to the right, I could scroll right again and go straight to the one furthest on the left, if you know what I mean?

Would you mind linking to which guide you used to root and flash your phone?

AntiRip

s_carnage wrote: »

Would you mind linking to which guide you used to root and flash your phone?

I used the all in one toolkit for rooting my SGS3. Comes with all the drivers, etc. To install a ROM then all you have to do is put the ROM onto your internal storage card, go into CWM ('HOME' + 'VOLUME UP' buttons) and install zip from sdcard.

You can read the guide here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1703488

waynegalway

I'm like a junky. I've been trying out loads of ROMs in the last week, I can't get enough. I've tried Slimbean, XcorX, Omega, Foxhound, ParanoidAndriod, Resurrection Remix, and a couple more that I can't remember right now.

Lots of pros and cons to each, but I keep going back to the nandroid backup that I made of CM10.1

Only thing I miss on it are S Planner and I believe that it won't drive the MHL lead that I have for my HDMI TV. Apart from that, I think it's great.

What other ROMS are worth checking out?

RangeR

waynegalway wrote: »

What other ROMS are worth checking out?

DarkyROM
AllianceROM

waynegalway

RangeR wrote: »

DarkyROM
AllianceROM

Thanks for that, I'll check them out.

I tried rootbox too.

My main criteria is that the ROM should be lightweight, leaving plenty of RAM for apps, and also be really light on battery drain.

I think slimbean might do what I want, but I'll only go back to it after I've tried a few more.

RangeR

Both of the two I mentioned are mostly light weight but you have the option of installing the Samsung bloat post flash.