Need some help regarding Custom-ROMs and their consequences!

luluchambler · Apr 26, 2014

Hello, iam a Xperia-Z (C6603) User for a week or two and am now looking forward to a
Nice and clean custom-Rom without any bloatware which I hate(ultimate music Sony select,sonysocialfoo and Facebook and alike)
and I guess cm11nightly would fulfill my needs, as i would also really love a smartphone without gapps.

FIrst I thought it would basically be a decision between the to be flashed ROM but now
I read about the bravia-engine getting lost forever which would really suck, is this still
State-of-the-art? Or is there an Option to get it back, as far as I know the BE is basically still there but licensed over a key like the mpeg2-codec on the raspberry-Pi isn't there a possibility to back it up and still be able to use it when you revert back to stock for example?

You're in charge now, what do you suggest me? Iam still on 4.2.2 and would like to get everything up-to-date soon. Btw. I would want a Rom that is of the same color as stock 4.2.2 so basically black, a white theme would be hard to look at in dark conditions even when turned down to lowest brightness.

So to sum it up: NO bloatware (must), NO gapps(nicetohave), black theme like 4.2.2(must), still BEngine(nicetohave)
Btw. How's the image-quality with custom-Roms? It shouldn't get worse than it is in 4.2.2 stock if possible!

Thanks! :good::highfive:

Azurren · Apr 26, 2014

luluchambler said:
Hello, iam a Xperia-Z (C6603) User for a week or two and am now looking forward to a
Nice and clean custom-Rom without any bloatware which I hate(ultimate music Sony select,sonysocialfoo and Facebook and alike)
and I guess cm11nightly would fulfill my needs, as i would also really love a smartphone without gapps.

FIrst I thought it would basically be a decision between the to be flashed ROM but now
I read about the bravia-engine getting lost forever which would really suck, is this still
State-of-the-art? Or is there an Option to get it back, as far as I know the BE is basically still there but licensed over a key like the mpeg2-codec on the raspberry-Pi isn't there a possibility to back it up and still be able to use it when you revert back to stock for example?

You're in charge now, what do you suggest me? Iam still on 4.2.2 and would like to get everything up-to-date soon. Btw. I would want a Rom that is of the same color as stock 4.2.2 so basically black, a white theme would be hard to look at in dark conditions even when turned down to lowest brightness.

So to sum it up: NO bloatware (must), NO gapps(nicetohave), black theme like 4.2.2(must), still BEngine(nicetohave)
Btw. How's the image-quality with custom-Roms? It shouldn't get worse than it is in 4.2.2 stock if possible!

Thanks! :good::highfive:

I would recommend Cyanogen Mod to most people. Honestly I can't live without the features these days!

Regarding the consequences.. Well there aren't really any.. Kinda.. You may or may not lose your warranty based on how stingy Sony are feeling at the time. Most of the BRICK warnings are just to cover developers if someone does something wrong or if your phone just so happens to die of something completely unrelated while installing the rom.

I would recommend trawling this forum for at least and hour or two just reading the various guides; How to backup your phone, How to unlock the bootloader and, most importantly, how to backup your TA partition.

It's quite a pain free process. It's just better to be aware of what could go wrong, so you are prepared and can easily apply the fix before panicking and messing something up

Good luck and happy trawling!
You only have to learn these things once. Once your rooted, unlocked and running a custom rom updating is easier than sonys

luluchambler · Apr 26, 2014

Hi, thank you for your reply.
I just looked up what exactly the "TA-Partition" is and i guess the only thing that was worrying me (loosing Bravia) is not up-to-date anymore

So lets get started, i looked up what i need to backup the "TA-Partition" and if i understood everything its basically having a rooted Xperia-Z and a double-click on a .bat-file?
So i guess the best would to not upgrade any of the shown OTA-Updates by Sony, and root the 4.2.2-Stock ROM that is on the device right now?
As far as i know rooting 4.2.2 isn't really a problem right now, agreed?

So after sucessfully rooting the Sony Xperia-Z its just backing up the "TA-Par tition" with "TA-Backup"-Script?
After that, its unlocking the Boot-loader over the Sony-Website (IMEI, Name, Email....) so that they send you the Unlock-Code, after that you'll have to use fastboot to finally unlock it?
(If i check the Service Menu "Rooting Status": there is nothing behind it, but the bootloader-unlock allowed: says yes, so no problem right?)

After that you most likely are done for the moment, until you decide if it should be CM10.1Stable or CM11Nightly, rig
How's the status of CM11 right now, any known major bugs?

Thank you already for your help :good:

Azurren · Apr 26, 2014

luluchambler said:
Hi, thank you for your reply.
I just looked up what exactly the "TA-Partition" is and i guess the only thing that was worrying me (loosing Bravia) is not up-to-date anymore

So lets get started, i looked up what i need to backup the "TA-Partition" and if i understood everything its basically having a rooted Xperia-Z and a double-click on a .bat-file?
So i guess the best would to not upgrade any of the shown OTA-Updates by Sony, and root the 4.2.2-Stock ROM that is on the device right now?
As far as i know rooting 4.2.2 isn't really a problem right now, agreed?

So after sucessfully rooting the Sony Xperia-Z its just backing up the "TA-Par tition" with "TA-Backup"-Script?
After that, its unlocking the Boot-loader over the Sony-Website (IMEI, Name, Email....) so that they send you the Unlock-Code, after that you'll have to use fastboot to finally unlock it?
(If i check the Service Menu "Rooting Status": there is nothing behind it, but the bootloader-unlock allowed: says yes, so no problem right?)

After that you most likely are done for the moment, until you decide if it should be CM10.1Stable or CM11Nightly, rig
How's the status of CM11 right now, any known major bugs?

Thank you already for your help :good:

I've been using Cyanogenmod 11 nighties for months now, no obvious bugs
Some features aren't implemented yet and the occasional feature is broken.. Nothing really integral to the phone though

You've pretty much got the method down! Just ensure you use a root method for your sony firmware version (Android version). It should use some form of "Exploit" to avoid deleting the TA-Partition. Honestly I backed mine up and haven't ever wanted to restore it, the features are more of a gimmick than anything useful

Enjoy

luluchambler · May 2, 2014

A few more questions! (Iam sorry

)
So as far as i can see, my smartphone is running "10.3.1.A.0.244" which is regarding to the post by DooMLord not exploitable.
I therefore have to flash the "10.3.A.0.423"-Kernel-Only so that the previously used exploit works again.
After that i'll have to restore the Kernel that was previously on the Smartphone therefore "10.3.1.A.0.244"
After that root should stay in intact, but what about the TA-Partion? Is it somehow affected by this?

Secound Question, is it crucial to have an micro-sdhc inserted to sucessfully flash CM11 onto the Xperia Z after backing up TA, or is it possible without?

And the Image-Quality (taking Pictures) should be kinda worse on CM11 than it is with Sony's Stock Firmware, is it possible to include(myself) the propritary firmware.blobs for the Camera as we do it with gapps, or will i have to live with the reduced image Quality?

Thanks!

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Need some help regarding Custom-ROMs and their consequences!

luluchambler

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Azurren

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luluchambler

Senior Member

Azurren

Senior Member

luluchambler

Senior Member

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