[Q] Newbie doing homework before flashing rom

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Kwijybow

Member
Jan 7, 2014
26
0
I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but I just wanted to make absolutely sure I'm ready before I flash, so I don't brick my phone. I have been reading the forums for a few days now. I have an S3 (i747M) with Fido. I'm not totally sure which ROM to go with. From what I understand so far, I'm thinking StockMOD or Dandroid. I want a fairly minimalistic OS, latest version (4.3 vs 4.4?), so I can play the occasion game on it and get good idle battery life. I believe I have rooted my stock rom and I have disabled some of the bloat through the "Application Management" option under settings. Any advice on flashing? I have spent many years building, modding and generally tinkering with windows pcs but I haven't done anything with phones, android or linux. Any advice? Obviously do the backup of my current phone with the app mentioned on the related ROM installation page. I assume I can restore my phone back to this stock ROM is the new one fails? After the backup, do a full phone wipe and default restore. Then hook the phone to my PC via USB and use the related program to flash the phone? Thank you for any and all replies in advance. :good:
 

winosxbuntu

Senior Member
Apr 30, 2013
218
29
LA
I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but I just wanted to make absolutely sure I'm ready before I flash, so I don't brick my phone. I have been reading the forums for a few days now. I have an S3 (i747M) with Fido. I'm not totally sure which ROM to go with. From what I understand so far, I'm thinking StockMOD or Dandroid. I want a fairly minimalistic OS, latest version (4.3 vs 4.4?), so I can play the occasion game on it and get good idle battery life. I believe I have rooted my stock rom and I have disabled some of the bloat through the "Application Management" option under settings. Any advice on flashing? I have spent many years building, modding and generally tinkering with windows pcs but I haven't done anything with phones, android or linux. Any advice? Obviously do the backup of my current phone with the app mentioned on the related ROM installation page. I assume I can restore my phone back to this stock ROM is the new one fails? After the backup, do a full phone wipe and default restore. Then hook the phone to my PC via USB and use the related program to flash the phone? Thank you for any and all replies in advance. :good:

in my opinion or anyone will say that 4.3 is the most stable right now, and 4.4 is only available for CM based roms.....Samsung Touchwiz will always be the last to update their devices to 4.4 while custom roms AOKP, SLIM BEAM, PAC ROM, BEAN STALK, CM, PARANOID, ETC they will always have nightlies on latest the Android version but will take sometime for stable roms to be released

1st before you think of flashing please research and know what you're getting into
2nd read all the info. ROOT your i747m with cf-auto root (i recommend it cuz its the simplest, easiest, safest way to root)
3rd install custom recovery there are two that i know of but am confident and comfortable with clockworkmod recovery....u can try TWRP
4th yu can either wish to stay stock touchwiz, 2types of stock
-one that comes from samsung all bloated and no tweaks and
-the one that is taken by devs debloated, modded, customized, xposed mod, minimalistic, faster and better.
--OR you can go completely Android vanilla stock, which has nothing but the normal google staff (ITS LIKE A NEXUS DEVICE from Google) you dont have any bloatware, or features/addons just plain stock
5th Once yu know the basic, the universe is yours, with Android comes endless customization and possibilities just like Microsoft Windows, Linux, ubuntu or even OSX
6th wish to become a DEV its your choice, wish to modify, play with the filesystem its your choice but without knowledge of what you're doing bricking is easy as just deleting a file yu think its not important
7th help the rest with android as you do with PC

PS am learning to code now but one thing at a time so am starting with Web design, plan to learn some computer languages, hacking, etc computer science :laugh: maybe yu can help me out :cool:

everything you need to know about what i said or root http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1725839
 
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Kwijybow

Member
Jan 7, 2014
26
0
Thanks for the reply. It's been a while since I originally posted this. I decided to hold off on a custom ROM at that time but I find myself back again, still wanting to customize my phone (especially now that my contract is about to expire). I figure that if I do brick my phone beyond repair, I'll just get another phone anyways so not so worried about it now. :D

Anyways, one concern I have about flashing a custom ROM on my S3 is can I go backwards in Android versions? I can confirm that I am running the stock (Rogers / Fido) Android 4.4.2 which I believe is Kitkat? I am very interested in going either StockMOD or Dandroid, which as far as I can tell are 4.3 Jellybean? Can I do that?
 

audit13

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Jun 4, 2012
12,911
5,052
Toronto
Yes, you can run a 4.3 rom on your phone as long as you do not try to downgrade the bootloader.

You can go back to completely stock Rogers by using Odin to flash as stock kk rom from sammobile.com.
 

Kwijybow

Member
Jan 7, 2014
26
0
Yes, you can run a 4.3 rom on your phone as long as you do not try to downgrade the bootloader.

You can go back to completely stock Rogers by using Odin to flash as stock kk rom from sammobile.com.

Thanks for the reply. Regarding the bootloader, the versions of Android I'm looking to install say they need the 4.3 bootloader. How can I check which bootloader I am running on my phone?
 

audit13

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Jun 4, 2012
12,911
5,052
Toronto
If you're phone is running stock Rogers kit kit, you have a kit kat bootloader which you can't downgrade.

If the rom needs a 4.3 bootloader and since you have a newer bootloader, you can probably load the rom.
 
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    Yes, you can run a 4.3 rom on your phone as long as you do not try to downgrade the bootloader.

    You can go back to completely stock Rogers by using Odin to flash as stock kk rom from sammobile.com.
    1
    If you're phone is running stock Rogers kit kit, you have a kit kat bootloader which you can't downgrade.

    If the rom needs a 4.3 bootloader and since you have a newer bootloader, you can probably load the rom.