INFO: All 2.3.4 custom firmware does not support HW acceleration in the browser

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This is really a heads-up to people thinking of trying one of the many (and generally, excellent) 2.3.4 ROMs cooked up in this forum.

There's a fudge, which works fairly well, which uses brute force (ie, the CPU) to handle the scrolling, but this will obviously have a significant effect on battery life since it's a job which the GPU does very well, but the CPU struggles with. Equally, it leaves less brainpower available for page rendering so you will notice issues with Flash, especially if you try to scroll around the page at the same time.

This affects the smoothness of both the scrolling in the browser and the double-tap-to-zoom functionality, and as yet there is no ideal fix. There are two solutions, neither of them perfect:

1) Download one of the custom firmware images and accept that the browser will be laggy compared to 2.3.3.

OR

2) Download the original, leaked, 2.3.4 firmware and use that. Should be fine. You can root it without a problem, but you're going to say goodbye to themes and many of the brilliant improvements put in by the chefs. "Lag-free" means that it's usable and nothing else.

This isn't mentioned in any of the firmware description threads, and if, like me, the silky smooth scrolling of the browser is a key point it's worth bearing in mind and holding off for the time being. No doubt a solution will be found.

Edit: Title corrected as suggested. Specifically, it's de-odexed firmware that encounters this issue.

Well I did point out to the masses that this was a test firmware and was never meant to be released to the public. Issues like this is to be expected.

Absolutely, IntraTech, but most people's experience is that leaked firmware works perfectly well and for the most part this is true. Having said that, whether this can be fixed at all even with the full release is questionable.

I loathe anything to do with ODEXing.

For reference, the original thread where people are working hell-for-leather to solve the issue:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1163285

Great info. That is why I am staying with 2.3.3

Am I really the only one hoping they'll get rid of hardware acceleration in the official 2.3.4 firmware ?

I think it's better without HW rendering. OK it's not as smooth but at least you can resize the page in real time (instead of zooming on a picture of the page, creating an ugly mess of pixels) and scroll as fast as you want without seeing a checkered background while the browser is struggling to render the page.

I've flashed the original leaked KG1, rooted with CF and replace the kernel with the one from Cognition v1.13, so far so good. You loose theming, powermenu, but I care more about battery life and user experience. I have removed all the samsung apps (except for the Social Hub + IM, which I find quite usefull), not too much time for testing the battery life but durin a whole night with screen off, wifi on(switched off by screen off I suppose) and data and sync enable on 3 email accounts and 3 social accounts, I lost 3%, seems quite good for me.

Originally Posted by BlueScreenJunky

Am I really the only one hoping they'll get rid of hardware acceleration in the official 2.3.4 firmware ?

I think it's better without HW rendering. OK it's not as smooth but at least you can resize the page in real time (instead of zooming on a picture of the page, creating an ugly mess of pixels) and scroll as fast as you want without seeing a checkered background while the browser is struggling to render the page.

yes I think you're the only one in the world, or maybe one of the few people hoping that and for sure you will not be happy because it's pretty sure this will not happen. The strong key of the galaxy s 2 is definely the browser and its smoothness.

Originally Posted by BlueScreenJunky

Am I really the only one hoping they'll get rid of hardware acceleration in the official 2.3.4 firmware ?

I think it's better without HW rendering. OK it's not as smooth but at least you can resize the page in real time (instead of zooming on a picture of the page, creating an ugly mess of pixels) and scroll as fast as you want without seeing a checkered background while the browser is struggling to render the page.

i hate of lag.rather seeing checkboards.and it s not as bad as you said.

why the panic? everyone should be well aware of what has gone on here, alternatively just use a third party browser...

Personally speaking I would want to see all HW acceleration turned on for everything.

In reference to this issue I wouldn't invest too much time trying to fix it as the official 2.3.4 release may not even have this problem.