Samsung Galaxy SII I9100 SGS2 Modding Thread

Zagato · 05-01-2012 4:24pm

BrookieD wrote: »

hi all,
had my Three SGS2 for a little while and want to root and put on custom firmware.
in order to root to i need a kernel from Three or can someone point me to the correct version before i start.

Have rooted phones before but over a year ago and dont want to cock it up.

Baseband is I9100XXKH3
Kernel Version - 2.6.35.11-ninphetamine-2.0.5+ninpo@titan#20

Thanks
Darren

Sounds like you are already rooted. The baseband is the same as the radio or modem and is not really relevant. Ninphetamine's kernel is an unsecure kernel (i.e. allows root access). Do you have Superuser app? or CWM app? If not, try downloading the superuser app from the market and seeing if superuser access is granted - if it is then you are rooted.

Here is a link to the thread about your kernel

To check that you have clockworkmod recovery, switch off your phone, and hold the volume up and home keys while powering on. If it brings you to a screen like below with orange text, you're good to go with custom roms, just remember to to a backup via recovery and a Titanium backup, and then a full wipe before flashing new ROMs to reduce potential for disaster.

ellinguistico · 06-01-2012 1:10pm

apope8 wrote: »

I had this problem also, I was able to trace it back to a problem with the micro sd card. Either an app was corrupt or there was a problem with the card itself

What I have had success with was doing a full factory reset, cache, dalvik. Formatting the sd card and removing a good few apps. I had tons and some where just wasting space and never getting used. I also did a fresh flash of my rom, kernal and modem and the phone seems to be working great now.

Of course make sure you have a nandroid and titanium backup and backup of your micro sd before doing all this! :rolleyes:

A good way to test if it is your card causing the problems is to take your micro sd card out for a day or so and see if the problem occurs. If not then it would point to a problem with the sd card

Cheers, have done all this and the phone is fine again with no random reboots. I actually have no micro sd with this one, have never bothered to get one since i passed my old sgs2 and 8mb card onto someone else.

I wiped and reflashed everything and now (with fairly conservative use) I am getting only about 16 hours max from the phone and this is with all syncing off, black theme, location stuff off, phone turned to GSM when i think of it. The first time i flashed Checkrom i couldn't burn the battery, very odd.

The more I am learning about modding (still relatively early stages) it seems to be mythical quest to the ultimate phone set up that doesn't normally last. You download the latest update on top of something that works great as it is and suddenly everything shifts backwards.

I'd imagine some people might say it is perhaps your modem (KI4 - comes with checkrom 4.0) but surely the suitability of your modem and battery life can't be too disparate and some say it will have minimal effect if any. On this related point if anyone has any great opinion on the best radio out there for the SGS2 on 3 in Ireland I will gladly listen.

Yours in being resigned to 13-16 hours of phone use (while constantly monitoring it to make sure Im being most battery efficient)

squire23 · 06-01-2012 10:30pm

CM9 installed and working fine so far. Really beautiful UI. A great job by CM.

squire23 · 07-01-2012 6:52am

squire23 wrote: »

CM9 installed and working fine so far. Really beautiful UI. A great job by CM.

Well that was stupid.... got CM9 installed, everything loaded up & working fine. Then decided I'd ignore the warning not to use Titanium Backup to restore my apps & went ahead & have absolutely buggered it all up again. Looks like I'll need to flash CM9 again.

Zagato · 07-01-2012 10:47am

squire23 wrote: »

squire23 wrote: »

CM9 installed and working fine so far. Really beautiful UI. A great job by CM.

Well that was stupid.... got CM9 installed, everything loaded up & working fine. Then decided I'd ignore the warning not to use Titanium Backup to restore my apps & went ahead & have absolutely buggered it all up again. Looks like I'll need to flash CM9 again.

I know it's probably too late now App List Backup could be useful, it just saves links to the market

BrookieD · 07-01-2012 12:54pm

hi all, thanks for replies, ok so rooted and on checkrom revo.
phone seems to be much faster in real operating terms than before. very happy indeed.
only question i have is that i seem to loose 3g and hsdpa conenction and have to select my network provider to resolve. never happened before.

anyone know of this or a fix? will post a screen shot of my home screen for opinions, looking for a slick, non cluttered look...

irishgeo · 07-01-2012 1:49pm

on checkrom but the battery seems to running down very quick.

mathie · 07-01-2012 4:24pm

Does anyone know the best current way to root the S2?
thanks

Ghandee · 07-01-2012 4:28pm

Any reliable, solid ICS roms for recommendation anyone?

donspeekinglesh · 08-01-2012 3:54pm

Cossax wrote: »

Perhaps a silly question but what option are you choosing in Recovery to install it?

The apply update from SD option
Got it working in the end - used the ClockworkMod app to apply it.
Not really noticing any battery life improvement though.

dartstothesea · 09-01-2012 2:45am

I have the CM9 (ICS) Rom on my S2 now.

Battery seems okay but I'm wondering, of all the other Kernels out there, which if any will work with CM9? I know CM9 auto installs KP8 or whatever but I'm talking about flashing a seperate kernel after CM9.

mathie · 09-01-2012 1:18pm

mathie wrote: »

Does anyone know the best current way to root the S2?
thanks

Anyone?

Irish Gunner · 09-01-2012 1:36pm

mathie wrote: »

Anyone?

This is how to Auto Root.I followed this video when I originally got the phone

Litening Pro is now longer supported but its now been developed under the name Ultra Toxic. I am currently using this. You can find the details at

XDA

It aint rocket science but just be wary it voids the warranty and you may brick your phone. I had no issues

Good Luck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmVvUUGdr_k

Testament1 · 09-01-2012 2:50pm

mathie wrote: »

Anyone?

Heres how I did it. Quick and easy.

http://www.inspiredgeek.com/2011/10/21/root-samsung-galaxy-sii-s2-using-odin-and-cf-root-insecure-kernels-step-by-step-guide/

Dammer · 09-01-2012 7:44pm

Might not be a hardcore modders question as I have not yet rooted my GSII.... Yet. But as it is a sort of modding...

Has anyone flashed the official Samsung "alpha" pre release ROMS on to their GSII? 4.03 is meant to be pretty satble - Yes it still has Touchwiz :rolleyes:

How did they get on?
Any probs?

nellocono · 10-01-2012 2:05pm

Does anyone have any good links or videos/guides for installing CM9 ROM? I havent done a ROM upgrade before so would like a good guide...

Thanks

subway · 11-01-2012 3:28pm

nellocono wrote: »

Does anyone have any good links or videos/guides for installing CM9 ROM? I havent done a ROM upgrade before so would like a good guide...

Thanks

heres the xda thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1410400

i absolutely, would not recommend it as your first rom tbh.
you wont get any support with it if something goes wrong

pedatron · 17-01-2012 3:05pm

Lads I am mad for some Ice Cream Sandwich. Anyone see or use any stable enough ROMs out there yet? Can't find anything amazing in the maze that is XDA forums yet.

marathonic · 17-01-2012 3:29pm

pedatron wrote: »

Lads I am mad for some Ice Cream Sandwich. Anyone see or use any stable enough ROMs out there yet? Can't find anything amazing in the maze that is XDA forums yet.

I'm currently on Cognition S2 v1.6 and am happy enough with it. Obviously, I do intend to upgrade to ICS. However, I'm in no rush and am going to wait until a few good ROM's are released with it and a lot of reviews are available/bugs are fixed.

Zagato · 17-01-2012 3:38pm

pedatron wrote: »

Lads I am mad for some Ice Cream Sandwich. Anyone see or use any stable enough ROMs out there yet? Can't find anything amazing in the maze that is XDA forums yet.

I am using Codeworx's experimental CM9 build, and it's ok for day to day use. I'm sure there's lots not working, but to date the only noticeable things for me have been:

FM Radio: Has always been an issue on SGS2 with CM
Video: Not working, recording or playing any video content (youtube or netflix)
Viber: Keeps crashing on me so I uninstalled it

But for me, phone works, email works, camera works and browsing works which is 95% of what I use my phone for on a day to day basis.

UI is nice to, haven't bothered installing ADW Launcher Ex because I like the stock launcher

Zagato · 17-01-2012 5:53pm

I also changed my radio to KP8 from KI4, and don't know whether it's this or the ROM but data can be a bit ...... iffy, particularly when going back to mobile data from wifi -it just doesn't connect sometimes.

Also wifi does seem to be hogging a lot of juice at work (where I guess signal is not super, and I'm walking around the building a lot) All was going fine until I decided to switch wifi on at work :eek:

BopNiblets · 18-01-2012 11:44pm

Samsung beta build of ICS leaked:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnSQCGVD5GU

http://blog.gsmarena.com/new-ice-cream-sandwich-rom-for-the-samsung-galaxy-s-ii-leaks-we-try-it-out-on-video-video/

Going to wait for official version to be honest, backing up all your stuff is a pain.

KTRIC · 19-01-2012 12:49pm

BopNiblets wrote: »

Samsung beta build of ICS leaked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnSQCGVD5GU

http://blog.gsmarena.com/new-ice-cream-sandwich-rom-for-the-samsung-galaxy-s-ii-leaks-we-try-it-out-on-video-video/

Going to wait for official version to be honest, backing up all your stuff is a pain.

Its 4.03 , I used it and it chews batteries for dinner. I couldnt see any advantage to it over the Gingerbread releases to be honest.

choronzonix · 19-01-2012 1:06pm

Finally upgraded my HTC Desire to a SGS2 yesterday, immediately rooted it (can't believe how simple it was!) and put CheckRom v4 onto it. Very impressed so far with it.

Just a quick query though - i've noticed a lot of talk of alternative kernels such as Siyah, does anyone have experience with these and whether they're worth using? Do they offer much in the way of improvements?

Zagato · 22-01-2012 2:34pm

Switched back to Checkrom last night, the issue really was that the mobile data was very temperamental, and required reboots to get it working again. That just became a pain. Miss the ICS UI though

Hopefully CM will have it working soon

aidog · 22-01-2012 3:06pm

Went to batista foxhound during the week and didnt like it so im back with trusty chriskelo rom with kh3 modem,siyah 2.6.6 kernal,easy to download different kernels and modems with his addons :-)

aidog · 22-01-2012 3:07pm

aidog wrote: »

Went to batista foxhound during the week and didnt like it so im back with trusty chriskelo rom with kh3 modem,siyah 2.6.6 kernal,easy to download different kernels and modems with his addons :-)

I also had a problem with viber but fixed permissions and cleared cache and now is workin fine

dingdong1234567 · 25-01-2012 11:34am

Got me a SG2 on upgrade this week. Has anyone used this or similar to Root?

http://theunlockr.com/2011/12/01/how-to-root-the-samsung-galaxy-s-ii-all-versions/

Are there any other methods that are more common? Thanks in advance.

seanp_25 · 25-01-2012 11:44am

Zagato wrote: »

Switched back to Checkrom last night, the issue really was that the mobile data was very temperamental, and required reboots to get it working again. That just became a pain. Miss the ICS UI though

Hopefully CM will have it working soon

Did you install the KP8 kernel on CM9? This fixes the data connection issue. (Basically I was losing data every time the phone went into deep sleep).

seanp_25 · 25-01-2012 11:46am

dingdong1234567 wrote: »

Got me a SG2 on upgrade this week. Has anyone used this or similar to Root?

http://theunlockr.com/2011/12/01/how-to-root-the-samsung-galaxy-s-ii-all-versions/

Are there any other methods that are more common? Thanks in advance.

That's how I do it anyway. Using CF-Root.

Zagato · 25-01-2012 1:44pm

seanp_25 wrote: »

Zagato wrote: »

Switched back to Checkrom last night, the issue really was that the mobile data was very temperamental, and required reboots to get it working again. That just became a pain. Miss the ICS UI though

Hopefully CM will have it working soon

Did you install the KP8 kernel on CM9? This fixes the data connection issue. (Basically I was losing data every time the phone went into deep sleep).

No, don't think so. It was a KP8 based build, I think, and I changed the radio to KP8 (which wasn't great either) but I never flashed a separate kernel. Did you just use Chainfire's one?

I was loading data without it going to sleep, would reboot, go straight to browser, getthrough a few pages, and suddenly no connection, would still have a H in the status bar

seanp_25 · 25-01-2012 2:12pm

Zagato wrote: »

No, don't think so. It was a KP8 based build, I think, and I changed the radio to KP8 (which wasn't great either) but I never flashed a separate kernel. Did you just use Chainfire's one?

I was loading data without it going to sleep, would reboot, go straight to browser, getthrough a few pages, and suddenly no connection, would still have a H in the status bar

Yeah this was happening to me too.

I don't think the CM9 builds have had the KP8 kernel for while (might be wrong there), anyway with the recent ones you need to flash a KP8 kernel afterwards (yeah I used the latest KP8 CF-Root).

The modem version doesn't seem to matter. I was confused about this too, I thought I'd need to go back to an older modem to fix the data connection issue, but no, it's an older kernel that's needed.

Zagato · 25-01-2012 2:37pm

Yeah, I tried going back to KI4 radio, and the number of signal bars improved alright, but still had the data connection

Grassey · 25-01-2012 8:40pm

Came across this earlier, thought it might be of use to some people.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=21445390

Its a patch for the GPS, I have on occasion experienced the S2 not locking on for over 10mins, and other times its lightening fast in 2 or 3 seconds. Hoping this'll give it a bit more consistancy.

I'm flashing it now and will see if it makes any difference.

massy086 · 26-01-2012 4:32am

hi all a mate gave me a galaxy s gt 19001 to unlock but i cant seem to find any guide,s i have rooted the phone no probs

AntiRip · 29-01-2012 8:16pm

Been using CheckROM RevoHDv4 for the last couple of weeks. The battery is much better than the last rom I was using (Ligh'ning Rom).

Few bugs though. The flightmode is very temperamental. Sometimes it goes into flightmode by itself? Also a couple times I would check my phone and it would be switched off.

The strangest thing happen yesterday though. The battery discharged normally and got the low battery warning at 15%. Checked a few minutes later and it was back up to 40%. I took a couple screenshots below and you can see in the graph where the battery acted funny.

Plus side, the battery lasted the longest I ever had the phone with medium usage of 2 days 6hours

Graph

PrzemoF · 29-01-2012 10:10pm

I hope it fits here (modding thread).
I bought a small solar panel (60mmx80mm - that's the space on the back of S2), a micro 5V@100mA voltage regulator and microusb plug. The plan is to make a micro solar charger that could provide more power than the phone comsumes - (read: infinite battery life). It' seems to be possible in full sunlight

Anyone tried something like that?

massy086 · 29-01-2012 11:14pm

AntiRip wrote: »

Been using CheckROM RevoHDv4 for the last couple of weeks. The battery is much better than the last rom I was using (Ligh'ning Rom).

Few bugs though. The flightmode is very temperamental. Sometimes it goes into flightmode by itself? Also a couple times I would check my phone and it would be switched off.

The strangest thing happen yesterday though. The battery discharged normally and got the low battery warning at 15%. Checked a few minutes later and it was back up to 40%. I took a couple screenshots below and you can see in the graph where the battery acted funny.

Plus side, the battery lasted the longest I ever had the phone with medium usage of 2 days 6hours

Graph

could you link me to the rom and a good kernel cheers

AntiRip · 29-01-2012 11:18pm

massy086 wrote: »

could you link me to the rom and a good kernel cheers

Rom

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1312240

There's an application within the rom called kitchen pro where you can flash themes, kernels, modems, etc.

Kernel

I use Siyah v2.6.6

massy086 · 29-01-2012 11:22pm

AntiRip wrote: »

Rom

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1312240

There's an application within the rom called kitchen pro where you can flash themes, kernels, modems, etc.

Kernel

I use Siyah v2.6.6

cheers for that im already on it and its giving me problems like the phone freezing and locking up

AntiRip · 29-01-2012 11:28pm

massy086 wrote: »

cheers for that im already on it and its giving me problems like the phone freezing and locking up

You should try wiping every single thing in recovery, factory reset, caches and all that and try reflashing. It really is stable 99% of the time once you give it time.

ChriisM · 30-01-2012 2:09am

Heres a video i made for installing ICS (android 4.0) onto the SII , just download them , theres a new leak avalable called LP6 search it and DL it then get CF root kernal and your done then follow the vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0C0wO7PDVw&context=C3bdcec5ADOEgsToPDskLzgEm6W-wCbFayAI3ti9N6

squire23 · 04-02-2012 5:19am

Anyone try the new ICS Samsung leak (XXLPB)? They still seem to be insisting on going forward with the TouchWiz UI. Anyone got a report on it - battery, connectivity, does video playback /recording work on this etc.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1420996

OneWayBet · 04-02-2012 8:49am

I flashed it a few days ago and have been using it since.. It's pretty good, no major complaints and pretty much everything works including video playback and face unlock. For me battery life is much better than LP6 which sometimes refused to enter deep sleep. Sometimes an app stops responding and the screen goes black for 20 secs or so but this doesn't happen very often maybe twice a day.
Finally, yes they are sticking with TW but this is not an issue for me as I like it :-)

Ghandee · 13-02-2012 7:37pm

Anyone on darkys ics based ROM by any chance?

If so, how do you find it?

Ta

rommy · 13-02-2012 9:40pm

Ive used darkies rom and its very nice indeed close to stock but much faster but with out a shadow of a dought the best rom for s2 is cm7 i use the nightles from here and have not had one problem http://cyanogenmod.arif-ali.co.uk/rom/

pedatron · 14-02-2012 1:24am

rommy wrote: »

Ive used darkies rom and its very nice indeed close to stock but much faster but with out a shadow of a dought the best rom for s2 is cm7 i use the nightles from here and have not had one problem http://cyanogenmod.arif-ali.co.uk/rom/

Hi rommy. Could you go into more detail on the whole nightlies scene? Don't understand what it means and can't get a basic description when I google it. Also that link doesn't work sorry!!

rommy · 14-02-2012 2:26am

Hi pedatron the nightlies are released each nite to fix bugs and the like i have to stress these are unofficial nightles as the main cm team is busy cooking up cm9 ics the nightlies are based off of the last stable cm7 rls which can be found here http://www.cyanogenmod.com/about also the link is working for me so not sure why you can get it working.

BenEadir · 14-02-2012 9:32am

rommy wrote: »

Ive used darkies rom and its very nice indeed close to stock but much faster but with out a shadow of a dought the best rom for s2 is cm7 i use the nightles from here and have not had one problem http://cyanogenmod.arif-ali.co.uk/rom/

Hey Rommy,

I was on Darky's when I had the original Galaxy S then tried one or two others before settling for CheckRom with the SII. CheckRom seems to be well supported, is fast and efficient in terms of battery use and has the Kitchen app which allows custom tweaks to be easily made. I guess it's what I'd call a user friendly ROM for those of us with limited technical skills.

I'm now on quite an old version of CheckRom so it's time to upgrade, especially with ICS now unleashed so before I blindly upgrade to the latest CheckRom I'd be interested to get your thoughts on why you think Cyanogenmod is so good, particularly in relation to CheckRom?

I'm the kind of guy who'll update his ROM every 4-5 months or so, I'm not interested in doing it every few days as minor tweaks are added and the most important things for me are that the ROM is stable, fast and is light on battery useage.

I look forward to getting your input.

Ben

rommy · 14-02-2012 8:38pm

Hi Ben,
Ive never tried CheckRom but only ever heard good things about it im guessing its like darkies rom in that it is close to stock,but offers a faster better rooted rom.Cyanogenmod on the other hand is a AOSP rom so its a diffrent experience,the CM team strip away all the bloat and battery wasting crap that you dont need.I prefer cm mainly becasue of its sheer speed and custom options hope that explains it to you.

Samsung Galaxy SII I9100 SGS2 Modding Thread

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