Hey All,
Long time lurker and consumer of ROMs for previous phones (Most recently the Razr) and recently decided it was time for an upgrade. I did my homework and it looks like the Galaxy S5 is the best phone out there in terms of features. I have grandfathered data on big red for now and I'd kind of like to keep it. I almost switched away because of how horrid VZ is being about locking their phones down, but I came across the Dev edition and figured I'd give it a go. It should be here Friday.
I've noticed that there's a flourishing community for the naively unlockable S5's but no such luck for the VZ phones, and that seems like a gap that I might be able to fill. I have a basic background into the parts of a ROM (Kernel, Bootloader, Libs, Recoveries) and do have a solid foundation of programming knowledge, but I have never built a rom nor ported one (nor written an app), so I'm popping a big cherry here.
I'm doing my research (xda-university, developer.android.com and some threads I found ) by searching and have a lot to learn, but I wanted to get some dev's perspective on what specifically I need to learn in order to successfully get started on S5 development.
First thing I'd like to do is go through the steps of building a 'beginner' ROM (Maybe an AOSP rom? or port an existing rom to the VZ dev edition? Might even just start with a de-bloat of the stock software) Basically I'd like to start getting my hands wet and learning what it takes to cook roms.
Specific questions i'd like to pose to the chefs/devs out there are:
Finally, hopefully someone with more Samsung / Dev edition experience might be able to answer my last (and to me personally, most important) question:
Thanks in advance!!
-McAtom
Long time lurker and consumer of ROMs for previous phones (Most recently the Razr) and recently decided it was time for an upgrade. I did my homework and it looks like the Galaxy S5 is the best phone out there in terms of features. I have grandfathered data on big red for now and I'd kind of like to keep it. I almost switched away because of how horrid VZ is being about locking their phones down, but I came across the Dev edition and figured I'd give it a go. It should be here Friday.
I've noticed that there's a flourishing community for the naively unlockable S5's but no such luck for the VZ phones, and that seems like a gap that I might be able to fill. I have a basic background into the parts of a ROM (Kernel, Bootloader, Libs, Recoveries) and do have a solid foundation of programming knowledge, but I have never built a rom nor ported one (nor written an app), so I'm popping a big cherry here.
I'm doing my research (xda-university, developer.android.com and some threads I found ) by searching and have a lot to learn, but I wanted to get some dev's perspective on what specifically I need to learn in order to successfully get started on S5 development.
First thing I'd like to do is go through the steps of building a 'beginner' ROM (Maybe an AOSP rom? or port an existing rom to the VZ dev edition? Might even just start with a de-bloat of the stock software) Basically I'd like to start getting my hands wet and learning what it takes to cook roms.
Specific questions i'd like to pose to the chefs/devs out there are:
- Do you think a port or AOSP build is the best first step? If not, what should be?
- What do I need to do to get started? Any additional guides or reading would be greatly appreciated.
- What tools that I need to learn about?
- Anything specific to Samsung / Galaxy devices that I won't find in the "General purpose" guides that I should google?
- What should I NOT do in my first forays? I'm looking to cook roms, but not looking to have a $600 doorstop!
Finally, hopefully someone with more Samsung / Dev edition experience might be able to answer my last (and to me personally, most important) question:
- From what I've read, it sounds like Samsung is crap about releasing OTAs / New Android builds that are compatible with the dev editions - Will this stop those of us that have dev editions from upgrading to further versions of android? A big reason I bought such a powerhouse of a phone is to somewhat future-proof it against future versions of android inevitably becoming more resource heavy. If we're not going to be able to upgrade I'm not sure I chose the right device.
Thanks in advance!!
-McAtom
Last edited:
