Several Noob questions about custom ROMs?

[eliko2000]

Hi guys,
I always read in the Xda forum but never wrote or asked a question...usually someone already asked them.
so I have the Mi 5S PLUS...but I hate the miui UI. can't get used to it. And yesterday I finally found that there are custom ROM for this device.
So I got few questions.
1. As far as i know, the source code hasnt been released but should be released soon. should I wait for a ROM that uses the source code?
2. I see that the most popular costum ROMs for this device are - Lineage and resurrection remix. In terms of battery life, stability and bug free rom. which one is the best?
3. I see there is one ROM with the tag [OFFICIAL]....does this mean it uses the source code? if not, what does it mean?

thanks a lot to those that answer

 

[ashish289]

Hi guys,
I always read in the Xda forum but never wrote or asked a question...usually someone already asked them.
so I have the Mi 5S PLUS...but I hate the miui UI. can't get used to it. And yesterday I finally found that there are custom ROM for this device.
So I got few questions.
1. As far as i know, the source code hasnt been released but should be released soon. should I wait for a ROM that uses the source code?
2. I see that the most popular costum ROMs for this device are - Lineage and resurrection remix. In terms of battery life, stability and bug free rom. which one is the best?
3. I see there is one ROM with the tag [OFFICIAL]....does this mean it uses the source code? if not, what does it mean?

thanks a lot to those that answer

1. Source code is released but rom based on source code are not released yet .You can use them but their are some bugs,
2.You can check yourself
3. Official means official rom from lineage team or other maintainers just like Global MIUI rom from xiaomi is official while xiaomi.eu is unofficial .
You can check for source in rom page for more info about what device tree and source code it uses

 

[eliko2000]

1. Source code is released but rom based on source code are not released yet .You can use them but their are some bugs,
2.You can check yourself
3. Official means official rom from lineage team or other maintainers just like Global MIUI rom from xiaomi is official while xiaomi.eu is unofficial .
You can check for source in rom page for more info about what device tree and source code it uses

Thanks for the answers. But I asked because I prefer to install one and that's it. and if someone used the both ..why not to hear opinions.

 

[DiemsOliveira]

I recomend RR

 

[bmg002]

Thanks for the answers. But I asked because I prefer to install one and that's it. and if someone used the both ..why not to hear opinions.

The reason that people don't recommend one over the other is because YMMV. I know I came from a cyanogen ROM with my previous phone and dirty unicorns on the phoen before that (along with a whole set of custom ROMs). In the end though, I found them all to be "similar". Yes, some do some things differently like some offer a lot of CPU governors, while others keep the list pretty tight. Some default with swap space on, some don't use swap space at all (this phone shouldn't need swap space). Sometimes the difference between two ROMs is just the launcher.

For me, I don't really like the MIUI launcher. It feels a lot like an iphone. This isn't a bad thing. Some people like it. I just install Apex (from the play store) and my issues with the ROM were mostly resolved. The only remaining problem is MASS STORAGE. But, based on my experience with mly previous phone, I doubt I'll find a ROM that natively supports it. But I know how to hack my way in and get that going (just need root... which requires an unlocked bootloader... and if I am reading things correctly, you need to wipe everything which I currently not willing to do... but may have found a workaround... going to test it out tomorrow).

 

[venezolano69]

The reason that people don't recommend one over the other is because YMMV. I know I came from a cyanogen ROM with my previous phone and dirty unicorns on the phoen before that (along with a whole set of custom ROMs). In the end though, I found them all to be "similar". Yes, some do some things differently like some offer a lot of CPU governors, while others keep the list pretty tight. Some default with swap space on, some don't use swap space at all (this phone shouldn't need swap space). Sometimes the difference between two ROMs is just the launcher.

For me, I don't really like the MIUI launcher. It feels a lot like an iphone. This isn't a bad thing. Some people like it. I just install Apex (from the play store) and my issues with the ROM were mostly resolved. The only remaining problem is MASS STORAGE. But, based on my experience with mly previous phone, I doubt I'll find a ROM that natively supports it. But I know how to hack my way in and get that going (just need root... which requires an unlocked bootloader... and if I am reading things correctly, you need to wipe everything which I currently not willing to do... but may have found a workaround... going to test it out tomorrow).

Wipe everything is very simple connect the phone via USB cable to PC and via twrp wipe everything then past a Rom on the phone and flash it, that's it

 

[bmg002]

Wipe everything is very simple connect the phone via USB cable to PC and via twrp wipe everything then past a Rom on the phone and flash it, that's it

Wiping everything is easy, yes, but I want to avoid wiping if I don't have to.
Got the phone rooted without needing to wipe it (yay), but getting mass storage enabled failed on me. I can't seem to write to the file I need to which confuses me... but that is off topic so I'll refrain from boring you with details on that.

Back on topic, if you are switching to a custom ROM you will need to wipe things. I personally would wait for a custom kernel to come out before you start playing with custom ROMs unless the custom ROM has a feature you REALLY want. With my previous phones, the one that had a custom Kernel as well as custom ROMs was a lot more stable and had a lot fewer bugs. The one that had only factory kernel, the custom ROMs were flaky. They mostly worked, but they did have bugs. If I got a phone call or called somebody and they hung up first, it would crash the dialer and the dialer would fail to start again until I rebooted. Now a custom kernel may not have helped that, but since the kernel was based on a previous version of Android, it was unstable.

The current custom ROMs (that I have seen) are all based off of the stock kernel and not newer ones so I personally do not expect to see much benefit in changing ROMs except having different bloat and a different launcher. Well, at lest for the things I use my phone for. But YMMV.