[HELP] Q&A Thread - MUST POST ALL QUESTIONS HERE

In an effort to keep the thread clean with developments and ROM's due to the fact we dont have a general section either this thread has been opened for all the support and help questions that people ask.

Please use this thread for all GENERAL SUPPORT questions regarding the RAY, this will keep our thread clean and easy for everyone to find ROM's and THEME's

Once you have asked please await someone to help and please thank them after by hitting thanks

We all need to keep our thread clean

Now including ROM LIST

Chiefy's Miui

Miui by iriijo

aire 4pda

CM7.2.0 FXP

Miui by Seatone

MiuiV4 iriijo

CM9 FXP

ICS by szl.kiev

RayOnium

Kernels and themes to be added

(if your rom is not listed here please pm me and I will add it)

Ray4 said:

are there any complete guide how to flash a rom? im new to android and i dont know anything about baseband and kernel and how to flash them.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Installing a rom is one of those things that seems daunting at first but is actually rather easy. The main barrier for me was understanding how to use and getting comfortable with the utilities which enable you to install a custom rom. These are flashtools, CWM (Clockwork mod) and to a lesser extent a program like titanium back up.

Installing a rom is much easier than rooting your phone, so if you already have root access (a process which probably took me a couple of hours first time) installing a rom is remarkably easy – once you’ve downloaded the rom it only takes 4 or 5 button presses, literally less than 30 seconds, to start the installation process.

The issue with a complete guide is that there are so many variables for example are you on Ginger Bread or Ice Cream Sandwich? Which build number is on your phone? Is your bootloader unlocked?

The most basic guide is as follows – I am assuming you have root access, the latest version of Ice Cream Sandwich on your phone and a locked bootloader.

DOWNLOAD and INSTALL

Xperia CWM Auto-Installer
Titanium backup, upgrade to pro it's cheap and worth the cash.

DOWNLOAD the rom you want to install put it on your SD card, if you used your phone to download, it will be in the downloads folder on your SD card. The ROM you download MUST be compatible with the latest build of Ice Cream Sandwich.

USE the CWM auto installer to install CWM on your phone - pretty straight forward once you've opened the app.
Use titanium backup to backup all your apps - not immediately obvious how to do this but not complicated. Not a disaster if you don't want to do this, you can just download them again from Play.

POWER off and then power on the phone.
Just as the sony ericsson logo appears start rubbing your finger across the screen, this will take you into clockwork recovery mode.

NAVIGATING in CWM
The VOLUME control scrolls up/down, the HOME button selects and the BACK key takes you back.
Navigate to backup and restore/backup/yes and backup your system - this will take around 10 minutes.
What you have just done is create a total backup of your system and because CWM can be accessed by your phone BEFORE a ROM loads it means that if your new installation goes wrong (doesn't ever load or causes bootloops) you can go back into recovery, select your backup and restore it. Once restored, your phone will work exactly how it used to.

CONTINUE to use CWM and navigate to factory reset.
As CWM tells you this deletes all user info from the phone. If you rebooted now it would be just like the day you got your phone - you'd have to go through all the set up again (google account, time and country settings, no apps etc.).
Do the reset.

USE CWM to navigate to - install zip from sd card/choose zip from sd card/downloads/(the rom you downloaded)
If you didn't put the ROM in the downloads folder you just need to navigate to find it - if there are lots of folders on your SD card press up rather than scrolling down because the folder list wraps around.

INSTALL the chosen ROM - doesn't take long - and use CWM to re-boot.

The first re-boot after you've installed a new rom can take a while, no more than 10 minutes though.
SUCCESS - new ROM!

DOWNLOAD titanium back up from Play, install it and use it to restore your old apps. But do remember that many ROMs come with better stock apps (the keyboard/music/browser etc) so it's not necessary to restore all of your old apps.

Individual roms will have their own instructions but rarely much more complicated than the above.

Advanced stuff

Custom kernels - these can only be installed if you have unlocked your bootloader. Simply put your bootloader will have been locked by Sony meaning that it can only have official kernels installed on it. If you unlock your bootloader you can install anything here. Many roms require custom kernels to work.
Custom kernels also allow you to overclock your device's CPU
Basebands dictate how the phone's antenna work and are installed with a kernel - you really don't need to worry about these unless the rom your working with says otherwise.

Advice - assuming you've got the latest version of ICS and a rooted phone install something like JJ's hybrid rom, it's stable and different enough to give you an idea of what's possible. It's popularity here (over 250 pages) shows it's a good one.

RivaultUser said:

what about wipe dalvik cache? What will it do?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

AFAIK, the dalvik cache stores your application dex files. The dex file is a dalvik executable file and is filled with dalvik bytecode. It is very similar to java in that regard. Most of the stock apk's located in your phone's rom have odex files which are optimized dex files not needed to be stored in the cache.

Clearing it shouldn't be a problem, you may notice a slight startup lag the next time you open an application after wiping the cache as it repopulates the dex files.

For any app that's not accompanied by an odex, an optimized extracted copy of it's bytecode is stored in dalvik-cache. I've yet to see if uninstalling an app also erases it's respective dalvik-cache or not, checking for that hadn't crossed my mind, but I don't see why it shouldn't. The real reason you're supposed to wipe your dalvik-cache is because sometimes between builds you get two versions of an app that have the same namespace. The VM will try to use the already stored cached bytecode, but there's a chance that it might be incompatible and it will cause a force-close, in that case, it's best to let the vm build new optimized bytecode for the app, but, it's going to take a while to re-build the dalvik-cache if you erase it all (the more apps with a .odex you have, the less time it takes).

Sent from my ST18i using XDA

I've asked our admin about new q&a section and he created one :good: Hence my decision to close this thread. All questions should be posted there.

RivaultUser said:

Hello guysss!!!!!^^


I need help, I'm currently in stock ROM .58 (I'm rooted and unlock)

and I want to update my current ROM to .62( with flashtool)

Is this safe???( I mean, the update that I want to do, because I found that some people that intend to do this end up with breaking their phone)

And is that right that SEUS can revive even the hardest brick( because flashing,etc.)


Thx a lot guysss!!!!!




I'm a newbieee:fingers-crossed:

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

It's safe mate

Tommylee567 said:

Can i re-enable the lights on my 'back' and 'menu' buttons?
my sig has the phone details

Thank you!

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

No you cant coz there is no backlight for back and menu buttons

jalal khan said:

hey evry1
my question is that im currently on stock ics 4.1.B.0.431 and ive rooted and have cwm installed and alot of mods installed..NOW there is an update available version 4.1.B.0.587 ..so if ill update i will loose my root and all mods like camer and walkman?? and if yes then how can i get root access again !!! thanks in advance ...waiting anxiously for replyzzz

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

You'll loose root access and all your mods