OK, this is my
'general rules of thumb when switching roms', dating back to when I first got my first android phone, the motorola backflip, nearly a year and a half ago. Although they may be a little on the paranoish side, or may not even be proper, I haven't found any better combination of steps to overcome the little 'goofs' and 'hiccups' during the installation of a descent running rom+gapps+kernel combo:
(this is assuming you've already downloaded what you want to use and have done all wiping you feel necessary..)
1) Flash rom, NOTHING else, unless otherwise directed by the OP of the thread from which you got the rom.
2) Boot and setup
without gapps or kernel installed. (set whatever settings you want to choose at this point)
3) Reboot to recovery, flash gapps, do a factory restore (data/cache wipe), while in recovery.
**
4) Boot and setup with gapps, and if the gapps you are installing doesn't come with stuff pre-installed, go ahead and install it. (again, set whatever settings you want to choose at this point)
5) (a)Either via rom manager, or (b)by rebooting into recovery, (THIS IS CRUCIAL) do a backup!! This allows you to recovery from the next step!
6) (a)Wait for boot after backup and reboot into recovery, or (b)flash the kernel you want to flash after backing up, while still in recovery. (most kernels will do a (dalvik)cache wipe when you install them)
7) Reboot, make any kernel tweaks you want via nstools or rom toolbox, and enjoy your streamlined system..
Following these steps, you accomplish 4 things:
a) you streamline your software to your system
b) you streamline your software to your personal preferences
c) you can recover from step 6 above, if the kernel doesn't perform to your standards
d) you've pretty much got your system set up how YOU want it, and now just have to restore whatever apps you had previously installed
Q&A:
Q: Is this time consuming?
A: A bit
Q: Is it worth the time consumption?
A: You bet your bottom dollar, it is!
Because it will save you a LOT of headache in the long-run.
** If you want facelock, flash the gapps facelock-0131 back to back (meaning, don't reboot before flashing the facelock one) with the regular gapps, the regular one coming first - don't squabble over the dates: as far as I can tell, the only difference the facelock gapps does, is add that feature, but if you reverse this, the later gapps can, and more than likely, will, overwrite the facelock one, causing the facelock feature to be unavailable - I've ran into this issue plenty of times.
Like I said, this is generally how
I do things. Your procedure may differ, and your mileage may vary, but this has
always worked for me.
I hope this helps anyone out there who is having a difficult time flashing the various combos and helps in avoiding the glitches that, 9 times out of 10, come from flashing.
Thank you for your time.
(This has been a public service announcement from ~Wickid_D~. Please be sure to leave any and all thanks below.
)
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