[Q] Ready to take the plunge, recommend a ROM? [and give me other tips]

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radwolf76

radwolf76

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Feb 18, 2013
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I've been running stock 4.1.2 (rooted) for a while now, and after really slow performance, steadily worsening battery life, and general annoyances like random reboots, Blue Screens, and other annoyances like duplicated incoming SMSs, I figure it's time to take the plunge and install a custom ROM and maybe even a fresh kernel.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to devote to experimenting with all the different ROMs out there for this phone, and was wondering if I were to list out what I usually use the phone for and what apps I run most of the time if it would be possible for people to recommend which one would be a good fit to try as my first.

(I know this'll mean missing out on all the fun of having so many choices, and when I have more time later, I'll see what I can do about exploring the other options.)

I make heavy use of SMS, although often times my messages are laggy to send and receive (I don't know if this is a problem with my phone or T-Mobile). Incoming messages sometimes get repeated multiple times for no apparent reason. My current SMS default is EvolveSMS, but I had similar issues with GOSMS.

I also play Ingress, so any bugginess in the GPS would be a deal breaker.

Voice calling is sometimes problematic as well. When I make outgoing calls, it sometimes take 30 seconds for the phone app to load., With incoming calls, I may get the ringtone, but no screen to accept or reject the call.

I run the xposed framework for a handful of modules (All Notifications Expanded, and Buttered Toast)

I'm using Nova Launcher for my homescreen, because of the ability to set a grid size, use custom icons, overlap icons on top of widgets, and lock the homescreen configuration from accidental changes. A ROM that would do the same things natively without having to run a homescreen replacer would be welcome.

I'm also interested in running on my external SD, Is that something I should set up prior to flashing the new ROM, or can that only be done after the ROM is installed?
 
Jax184

Jax184

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Nov 22, 2007
292
164
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www.jax184.com
Team Apex have done some great work. By now they know the hardware very well, having done the initial dev work back on CM9, all the way up to the current CM11 and now Omnirom systems. Their current efforts are focused on the Omnirom-based Omnitoad project. It's at a point where it works very well. I suggest starting there.

The stock roms and the earlier CM roms all have a bug where the compass reads totally wrong after a reboot until you recalibrate it. This was finally fixed in the CM11-based ROMs. That should help Ingress.
 
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REV3NT3CH

REV3NT3CH

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radwolf76 said:
I've been running stock 4.1.2 (rooted) for a while now, and after really slow performance, steadily worsening battery life, and general annoyances like random reboots, Blue Screens, and other annoyances like duplicated incoming SMSs, I figure it's time to take the plunge and install a custom ROM and maybe even a fresh kernel.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to devote to experimenting with all the different ROMs out there for this phone, and was wondering if I were to list out what I usually use the phone for and what apps I run most of the time if it would be possible for people to recommend which one would be a good fit to try as my first.

(I know this'll mean missing out on all the fun of having so many choices, and when I have more time later, I'll see what I can do about exploring the other options.)

I make heavy use of SMS, although often times my messages are laggy to send and receive (I don't know if this is a problem with my phone or T-Mobile). Incoming messages sometimes get repeated multiple times for no apparent reason. My current SMS default is EvolveSMS, but I had similar issues with GOSMS.

I also play Ingress, so any bugginess in the GPS would be a deal breaker.

Voice calling is sometimes problematic as well. When I make outgoing calls, it sometimes take 30 seconds for the phone app to load., With incoming calls, I may get the ringtone, but no screen to accept or reject the call.

I run the xposed framework for a handful of modules (All Notifications Expanded, and Buttered Toast)

I'm using Nova Launcher for my homescreen, because of the ability to set a grid size, use custom icons, overlap icons on top of widgets, and lock the homescreen configuration from accidental changes. A ROM that would do the same things natively without having to run a homescreen replacer would be welcome.

I'm also interested in running on my external SD, Is that something I should set up prior to flashing the new ROM, or can that only be done after the ROM is installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

to be fully honest though...i do highly recommend flashing my B14CKB1RD kernel on whatever 4.4 kit kat rom you use if you want best stability and battery life...its been proven that at the end of the day your rom will have alot of batterly life remaining compared to stock....whats good about my kernel is that you control how you want the phone to work...where as with TeamApexQ stock kernels you are locked to that one state and also has an mpdec touchboost enabled that boosts your cpu core to 1134mhz minimum speed when you touch the screen thus rapidly draining your battery... I'm in no way saying the work they have done isnt great....theyve done a hell of a job bringing the device to the stability its at today... it just brings that much more stability outta any rom you use
 
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Magamo

Senior Member
Oct 20, 2012
302
277
New York, NY
REV3NT3CH said:
to be fully honest though...i do highly recommend flashing my B14CKB1RD kernel on whatever 4.4 kit kat rom you use if you want best stability and battery life...its been proven that at the end of the day your rom will have alot of batterly life remaining compared to stock....whats good about my kernel is that you control how you want the phone to work...where as with TeamApexQ stock kernels you are locked to that one state and also has an mpdec touchboost enabled that boosts your cpu core to 1134mhz minimum speed when you touch the screen thus rapidly draining your battery... I'm in no way saying the work they have done isnt great....theyve done a hell of a job bringing the device to the stability its at today... it just brings that much more stability outta any rom you use
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

mpdec and touchboost are two separate concepts. Touchboost boosts the second core to 1134 Mhz when you are using the display in order to make the phone more responsive. Mpdec turns off the second core when not in use and conserves a huge amount of battery. On OmniToad, with the standard kernel on it, I usually get 60 hours + per charge of medium use. I've been using OmniToad continuously, and since the beginning of it, I have not personally had any reboot that was not initiated by myself.
 
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REV3NT3CH

REV3NT3CH

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Um dude you do know your touchboost is mpdecision based right?....look at the defconfig...and to be honest my kernel works just as smooth if not smoother than the stock kernel of omni without it...using omni on stock kernel I wald have 40% battery come 11pm my time when unplugged at 7am...on my kernel I'll have anywhere between 65% and 70% with same usage and hours

Sent from my L1QU1D R3L4Y using xda-developers app
 
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Magamo

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Oct 20, 2012
302
277
New York, NY
One other thing about touchboost, which will hopefully bring us all out of ignorance of it as I am tired of the constant FUD about it. It is the 'touch responsiveness' portion of Google's "Project Butter" initiative. It is a standard Android/AOSP feature enjoyed by Nexus owners since Android 4.1.x.

One more thing. It is a UI deficiency that the performance settings apps show 1134Mhz as min cpu when using touchboost. In kernel mpdec will run the cpus at 384mhz unless something needs more, or the cores will sleep. Now you know the facts. Let's stop spreading misinformation. Thanks.
 
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REV3NT3CH

REV3NT3CH

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Dec 30, 2012
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Not spreading misinformation...my builds and the community have even spoken of the better battery my kernel and ROMs have with it disabled and removed....even flashing my kernel over omni the phone instantly stopped overheating and lost maybe a percent in 2 hours with moderate use.... I just love how as soon as I came to the relay you guys judged me as a noob and all the name calling and what not....it's your teams loss...all my gain...good luck

Sent from my L1QU1D R3L4Y using xda-developers app
 
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falle21

Senior Member
Oct 4, 2013
354
105
buenos aires
In my opinion, I try all the roms available for relay right now, the better performance I have was with liquid ROM and blackbird kernel. Omni is smooth but the battery its not the best for my phone with my personal use, and with GPS and plugged to the car charger i got overheating. Carbon got better battery than omni and better customization options but not smoother. Liquid have all you need in a ROM, personalization, full control and with the kernel blackbird and Wheatley and sio configuration have the better performance and battery at all ROM I try

Sent from my SGH-T699 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
 
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radwolf76

radwolf76

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Feb 18, 2013
28
2
Aiken, SC
So, I tried OmniToad for a bit. Wasn't really impressed with the compass fix mentioned above, because even after flashing it was still quite ill-behaved in Ingress.

I also couldn't get the External 2 Internal SD Card swap to work -- the storage tab kept reporting my internal as 5 gig and the external as 64gig. This was after trying two different microSDs.

So, because of those two issues, and being not too far along in re installing everything, I decided to flash again, with the Blackbird Kernel and Liquid Smooth.

Now, when I try to boot. it hangs on the screen with the ApexQ green penguin. If I try for recovery mode I'll get the blue text that says booting into recovery, and then it goes to the penguin again. Trying to boot to download mode also just gives me the penguin.

Troubleshooting suggestions? Because right now, I'm without any clue as to what to do next, and without a phone for that matter.

[Edit: Just got into recovery, so going to try flashing back to OmniToad]

[Edit 2, Electric Boogaloo: Back on the Toad for now, Seems to be working. Thoughts on how to get things running on my external SD? Is it maybe an issue with KitKat based roms?]
 
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REV3NT3CH

REV3NT3CH

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I'll guide you through it...my roms shouldn't show anything teamapexq related ...what recovery were you using...and have you tried heimdall or ODIN

Sent from my L1QU1D R3L4Y using xda-developers app
 
radwolf76

radwolf76

Member
Feb 18, 2013
28
2
Aiken, SC
REV3NT3CH said:
I'll guide you through it...my roms shouldn't show anything teamapexq related ...what recovery were you using...and have you tried heimdall or ODIN

Sent from my L1QU1D R3L4Y using xda-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Recovery is TeamWin, and I was finally able to get back into it. Put OmniToad back on it for the time being. If you wanted to put up a step by step for going from Omni to Liquid, I can give it a try, because at this point, I'm pretty sure it was a "ID Ten T "error.
 
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hbk.vix

Member
Apr 5, 2014
49
12
Magamo said:
mpdec and touchboost are two separate concepts. Touchboost boosts the second core to 1134 Mhz when you are using the display in order to make the phone more responsive. Mpdec turns off the second core when not in use and conserves a huge amount of battery. On OmniToad, with the standard kernel on it, I usually get 60 hours + per charge of medium use. I've been using OmniToad continuously, and since the beginning of it, I have not personally had any reboot that was not initiated by myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Did u just say 60+ hours of use?? :eek:
How?? What do u mean by medium use?? Are you using the stock battery??
 
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REV3NT3CH

REV3NT3CH

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That's only possible with screen off with no use in that 60 hours and the phone going into deepsleep...either that or he's using an extended battery....with very minimal use....also proof or it didn't happen

Sent from my L1QU1D R3L4Y using xda-developers app
 
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radwolf76

radwolf76

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Feb 18, 2013
28
2
Aiken, SC
I ended up partitioning my external SD card so I could use Mounts2SD. Seems to be working so far.

Now I just have to get all my stuff put back on this thing and figure out how the extra features of LiquidSmooth are going to fit into my workflows.

One thing that seems to be a minor annoyance, probably because I just haven't found the toggle for it yet: on stock, I used to be able to wake the phone from the home button and the screen would pop on instantly. Under both custom ROMs I've tried, it seems a lot harder to wake the phone. The power button seems to be the only thing that works, and I have to stab at it repeatedly. I almost suspect that I'm waking it up and puttting it back to sleep before the screen comes on, but I can't seem to find anything that consistently works. Like I said, it's probably something I just need to toggle under settings.
 
Jax184

Jax184

Senior Member
Nov 22, 2007
292
164
Vancouver
www.jax184.com
The home button's actual switch is in the center of the button, while the design allows the button to tip sideways. So if you press it on a corner instead of the middle, the phone sometimes won't recognize it.
 
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radwolf76

radwolf76

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Feb 18, 2013
28
2
Aiken, SC
radwolf76 said:
I ended up partitioning my external SD card so I could use Mounts2SD. Seems to be working so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I may have spoken too soon. Getting all sorts of apps stopping on me now. Launcher3, Hangouts, Ingress, Settings...

Also, Launcher3 seems to 'forget' homescreen layouts every so often... some times I'll be going back to blank homescreens, and then after poking around in other apps, the homescreen will be back to the original configuration.

Ingress also acts like it can't see Location Services most of the time.

Also, sometimes when I reboot, it takes up to 20 minutes before the phone's back up and running.

While I can't discount that it was any of the number of apps I've put back on the thing, I'm pretty sure that Mounts2SD is the smoking gun here. these problems didn't start until after I had started using it. The symptoms seem about right.

I'm wondering if there's a conflict between Mounts2SD and the governor/scheduler I'm running (Wheatley/SIO).

I'd rather not have to troubleshoot this, but one of my main goals with starting fresh on this was to be able to store and run apps on my External SD, preferably without having to fuss with it on a per-folder basis. So if anyone has had any success in that department, I'd love to hear some tips that point me in the right direction.

[Edit: Turns out Mounts2SD overrides the governor/scheduler choices anyway. I think, that when I get off work I'm going to start fresh again over my next few days off, and try using Link2SD instead.]
 
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REV3NT3CH

REV3NT3CH

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Dec 30, 2012
3,771
10,846
Crescent City
radwolf76 said:
I may have spoken too soon. Getting all sorts of apps stopping on me now. Launcher3, Hangouts, Ingress, Settings...

Also, Launcher3 seems to 'forget' homescreen layouts every so often... some times I'll be going back to blank homescreens, and then after poking around in other apps, the homescreen will be back to the original configuration.

Ingress also acts like it can't see Location Services most of the time.

Also, sometimes when I reboot, it takes up to 20 minutes before the phone's back up and running.

While I can't discount that it was any of the number of apps I've put back on the thing, I'm pretty sure that Mounts2SD is the smoking gun here. these problems didn't start until after I had started using it. The symptoms seem about right.

I'm wondering if there's a conflict between Mounts2SD and the governor/scheduler I'm running (Wheatley/SIO).

I'd rather not have to troubleshoot this, but one of my main goals with starting fresh on this was to be able to store and run apps on my External SD, preferably without having to fuss with it on a per-folder basis. So if anyone has had any success in that department, I'd love to hear some tips that point me in the right direction.

[Edit: Turns out Mounts2SD overrides the governor/scheduler choices anyway. I think, that when I get off work I'm going to start fresh again over my next few days off, and try using Link2SD instead.]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

well i use nova launcher.....launcher 3 and google launcher in my opinion isnt the best of launchers...there is other options i mentioned in a pm before to storing apps on sd and is alot easier than fiddling looking for the right app ....what also gives you the assumption it messes with governer or scheduler....i know by default there is settings for sd read ahead write ahead scheduling but that app shouldnt have control in changing any of this
 
radwolf76

radwolf76

Member
Feb 18, 2013
28
2
Aiken, SC
REV3NT3CH said:
what also gives you the assumption it messes with governer or scheduler....i know by default there is settings for sd read ahead write ahead scheduling but that app shouldnt have control in changing any of this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

This post from another user in the Mounts2SD thread. They might be mistaken, but either way, my problems started cropping up after I installed that app, and if there's a chance that poster is right about it setting those things, that's just another reason for me to uninstall it.
 
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    smartt699
    right now Carbon wins

    I've tried them all, Liquid smooth is awesome but the latest built gave me some blackscreen issues until the next built go with carbon if you want some nice features or slim for a nice overall rom.

    Don't forget to install the Blackbird kernel for a even better result.

    Peace!
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    falle21
    In my opinion, I try all the roms available for relay right now, the better performance I have was with liquid ROM and blackbird kernel. Omni is smooth but the battery its not the best for my phone with my personal use, and with GPS and plugged to the car charger i got overheating. Carbon got better battery than omni and better customization options but not smoother. Liquid have all you need in a ROM, personalization, full control and with the kernel blackbird and Wheatley and sio configuration have the better performance and battery at all ROM I try

    Sent from my SGH-T699 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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    REV3NT3CH
    REV3NT3CH
    emaayan said:
    ok this is the thread for me, i'm also a L12 smurf, and i'm using CM 11, and i keep wondering if there's a better rom, (battery, memory,performance wise), i also expirienced gps crap until i almost thought i had a hardware problem but what once installed https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cochibo.gpsstatus just opening the app fixed it (i know that gpx toolbox can downloads data, i set to every hour, and still had problems) i'm also using 4600 mugen battery.
    i was trying to find out what's the difference between roms, and i must admit the post this guy made about liquid smooth kind put me off
    http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=36133058&postcount=4
    so far between the popular roms what keep come out, i see aokp (which is listed here) as well as paranoid (which i don't) .
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    i see where that dude is coming from to a sense....HOWEVER...he is also not factoring in specific devices and the developement even device wide that goes into just that to get any rom besides stock to build for it...also liquid does differ besides let say cm or others...granted with the open source gpl there will always be bits and pieces here and there thats shared time and hard work does go in to what makes it seperate.... to be honest...as a dev for the device....ive spent countless hours getting the builds to actually build and keep up with the changes rom wise as theres incompatibilities with each seperate rom that wont work right or build right for certain devices.... if you were to build for months and months spending timedoing just that for the community nonstop especially with requests from users when that said time could be used for family or just to get fresh air...wouldnt you want to be appreciated.. anything i publish here is and always will be free...just that gesture makes a better world....not like its a forced hey pay me for work...im not begging and do highly appreciate and always help those that have contributed for the cause...especially when you arent using a free server
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    REV3NT3CH
    REV3NT3CH
    radwolf76 said:
    I've been running stock 4.1.2 (rooted) for a while now, and after really slow performance, steadily worsening battery life, and general annoyances like random reboots, Blue Screens, and other annoyances like duplicated incoming SMSs, I figure it's time to take the plunge and install a custom ROM and maybe even a fresh kernel.

    Unfortunately, I don't have the time to devote to experimenting with all the different ROMs out there for this phone, and was wondering if I were to list out what I usually use the phone for and what apps I run most of the time if it would be possible for people to recommend which one would be a good fit to try as my first.

    (I know this'll mean missing out on all the fun of having so many choices, and when I have more time later, I'll see what I can do about exploring the other options.)

    I make heavy use of SMS, although often times my messages are laggy to send and receive (I don't know if this is a problem with my phone or T-Mobile). Incoming messages sometimes get repeated multiple times for no apparent reason. My current SMS default is EvolveSMS, but I had similar issues with GOSMS.

    I also play Ingress, so any bugginess in the GPS would be a deal breaker.

    Voice calling is sometimes problematic as well. When I make outgoing calls, it sometimes take 30 seconds for the phone app to load., With incoming calls, I may get the ringtone, but no screen to accept or reject the call.

    I run the xposed framework for a handful of modules (All Notifications Expanded, and Buttered Toast)

    I'm using Nova Launcher for my homescreen, because of the ability to set a grid size, use custom icons, overlap icons on top of widgets, and lock the homescreen configuration from accidental changes. A ROM that would do the same things natively without having to run a homescreen replacer would be welcome.

    I'm also interested in running on my external SD, Is that something I should set up prior to flashing the new ROM, or can that only be done after the ROM is installed?
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    to be fully honest though...i do highly recommend flashing my B14CKB1RD kernel on whatever 4.4 kit kat rom you use if you want best stability and battery life...its been proven that at the end of the day your rom will have alot of batterly life remaining compared to stock....whats good about my kernel is that you control how you want the phone to work...where as with TeamApexQ stock kernels you are locked to that one state and also has an mpdec touchboost enabled that boosts your cpu core to 1134mhz minimum speed when you touch the screen thus rapidly draining your battery... I'm in no way saying the work they have done isnt great....theyve done a hell of a job bringing the device to the stability its at today... it just brings that much more stability outta any rom you use
    View
    1
    M
    Magamo
    REV3NT3CH said:
    to be fully honest though...i do highly recommend flashing my B14CKB1RD kernel on whatever 4.4 kit kat rom you use if you want best stability and battery life...its been proven that at the end of the day your rom will have alot of batterly life remaining compared to stock....whats good about my kernel is that you control how you want the phone to work...where as with TeamApexQ stock kernels you are locked to that one state and also has an mpdec touchboost enabled that boosts your cpu core to 1134mhz minimum speed when you touch the screen thus rapidly draining your battery... I'm in no way saying the work they have done isnt great....theyve done a hell of a job bringing the device to the stability its at today... it just brings that much more stability outta any rom you use
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    mpdec and touchboost are two separate concepts. Touchboost boosts the second core to 1134 Mhz when you are using the display in order to make the phone more responsive. Mpdec turns off the second core when not in use and conserves a huge amount of battery. On OmniToad, with the standard kernel on it, I usually get 60 hours + per charge of medium use. I've been using OmniToad continuously, and since the beginning of it, I have not personally had any reboot that was not initiated by myself.
    View

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