[Tip] Going 'Pristine' : What, Why, How

[pepoluan]

People keep asking me what "Pristine" means, and I'm tired of having to re-re-retype everything every time, so I think I'll just gather everything about "Going Pristine" in this thread

What does "Going Pristine" means

Going 'Pristine' means: Installing a ROM with no leftover from the previous ROM

Why should I "Go Pristine"?
Short answer: To prevent 95% of the problems experienced by others when installing a Custom ROM

Long answer:

When you install an App (.apk), the data saved by the App -- even the .apk itself! -- might be optimized/customized based on your previous ROM. This means that if you change your ROM, the data might cause problems due to the differences between your previous ROM and your latest ROM.

This is especially a problem if you 'change generations' (e.g., upgrading from GB to ICS or ICS to JB/JB+).

I *always* do Pristine ROM installations, and am glad to say that I managed to avoid about 95% of the problems experienced by other users of the ROM I used.

Additional Info: There's a hidden folder called .android_secure in the root directory of your SD Card. This folder is not visible when the card is mounted in your phone. It might contain settings that depends on what ROM you're using.

Are there Drawbacks of "Going Pristine"?
Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Here's a list of some potential drawbacks of Going Pristine. See if you can live with them; if you can't, then you shouldn't go pristine.

1. You will lose your savegames.
   And thus, avid gamers will likely go insane due to having to repeat all the levels
   However, please read the 2nd post of this thread for some interesting thoughts.
   .
   
2. You will have to re-download all apps.
   Which will be *very* time-consuming unless you have a fast HSDPA connection, or able to access a fast & free Wifi hotspot, or both.
   Also, please read the 2nd post of this thread for some interesting thoughts.
   .
   
3. You have to set some (relatively) significant time to do the process.
   Trust me, copying 10 GB worth of stuff from/to the SD Card takes a loooong time, especially if there are a huge number of small files like porn pics cute kitten & puppies pics.

How do I "Go Pristine"?

1. Make sure that you have ClockWorkMod installed
   .
   
2. Make a backup of important data, such as SMS Log, Call Log, Contacts (if you don't sync to Google), etc.
   No need to perform backup of apps, especially System apps!
   .
   
3. Create a Nandroid backup of your current system, I suggest in .tar format instead of dup format.
   This will be necessary if you need to go back to your previous ROM.
   .
   
4. Turn off your phone, eject the SD Card
   .
   
5. Backup (copy) the whole contents of the SD Card to a PC (Windows, Mac, Linux, no matter)
   -- or --
   Prepare a new SD Card
   .
   
6. (Optional, but recommended, especially if you want to use Link2SD later on) Repartition your SD Card, even if it's previously partitioned.
   Make 2 primary partitions; the 1st one as FAT32, the 2nd one as ext2
   (You *don't* want ext3/4 on a flash memory. Trust me)
   .
   
7. Format your SD Card accordingly. (I.e., 1st partition as FAT32, 2nd partition (if you made one) as ext2
   .
   
8. Copy the following to the root directory of your SD Card:
   • Your ROM installer updatezip
   • (If needed/specified by the ROM) GApps updatezip
   • The /clockworkmod directory from the previous SD Card contents (you did backup your SD Card, didn't you?)
   .
   
9. Insert your (partitioned, formatted, and copied-to) SD Card into your phone
   .
   
10. Boot into Recovery
    .
    
11. Wipe/format the following (find the proper entry in the CWM menu structure):
    • /data
    • /system
    • /cache
    • Dalvik Cache -- please note that this is *different* from the /cache of the previous line!
    • Internal SD
    • Battery Stats
    Leave the External SD alone!
    .
    
12. Install your new ROM, following exactly the instructions by the ROM-cooker/dev
    .
    
13. Now, this is VERY IMPORTANT: DO NOT EVER RESTORE ANY APP FROM YOUR PREVIOUS TITANIUM BACKUP SET!!!
    ALWAYS DO FRESH INSTALLS FROM THE PLAY STORE!
    You are allowed to restore some data, though: SMS Log, Call Log, and Contacts Book. That's it. Nothing else
    However, please read the 2nd post of this thread for some interesting thoughts.
    .
    

I have been installing my ROMs with "Pristine" way. Yes, reinstalling everything *is* tedious, but as a benefit, the new ROM runs smoothly, and a lot of problems that others (who did not go the "Pristine" way) never happened on me.


=====


There you have it, a clear and complete description of "Going Pristine", complete with the steps and explanations.

Feel free to link to this thread, and as usual, if you find this thread helpful, leave a Thanks and/or rate this thread 5 stars.

 

[pepoluan]

Thoughts and Considerations on Restoring Apps

After doing *lots* of Pristine installs, and some deep spelunking within the folders and settings of various apps...

... and based on valuable inputs from XDA friends ...

... I've come to the conclusion that:

Perhaps 90% of apps are safe to be reinstalled from Titanium Backup.

A sizable number of apps are also safe to have their data restored by copying the relevant data directory in /data.

The question is: How to make sure that the app you're trying to restore is part of the 90%?

My terse answer: Unless you know *exactly* what the app is doing (e.g., by perusing its source code), you can't really be sure.

You can always experiment, though; just remember to do a Nandroid Backup prior to restoring an app.

What I can give you, are several guidelines:

• Games that are not too 3D-oriented are most likely safe; they are not likely to install additional libraries to mitigate whatever shortcoming the W has
• Games that heavily rely on 3D ... unknown. Some of them are known to delve really deep into the Android library files, and even install their own custom libraries depending on your ROM/kernel capability
• Productivity apps, e.g., Office Suites or To-Do Lists or PDF Viewer or ... many others of their ilk, are most likely safe to be restored. They are never known to install their own libraries, and/or have settings dependent on the ROM/kernel
• Utilities... now we're getting into unknown territory... some of them are safe (the ones that don't mess up with the innards of Android); some of them are dangerous. I recommend re-downloading from Play Store
• Be wary of apps that, when they were first installed, requested to add "additional files", either via Play Store (you can see in the Notification Tray, "Additional Files") or on first run (usually they will call it "Downloading assets"); these apps might be downloading binaries that depends greatly on what the system state is at download time. Let's call them the unknowns.

That's it. So, the warning that "You'll lose your savegames" is not really absolute; if you're lucky, you can restore from a TiBU-made backup.

Always remember to do Nandroid Backup.

========================================

Games known to be restore-able:

• Funky Smugglers
• Minecraft
• Subway Surfer

Utilities known to be restore-able:

• ClockSync
• Solid Explorer

-- Sent from Opera Mobile for Windows --

 

[jiunks]

I think this topic must be stickies
.... coz this topic very important

Sory if my english is noot good

 

[piefert]

In some way thats true, i do believe though that much people never have a look at the stickies. Would be a shame if this topic wouldnt be seen

Sent from Galaxy W with CM10 (thanks to Arco!)

 

[hadidjapri]

actually i dont think extensive rom flasher will follow this guide but i do agree with pep about going pristine

Sent from my GT-I8150

 

[pepoluan]

actually i dont think extensive rom flasher will follow this guide but i do agree with pep about going pristine

Sent from my GT-I8150

Hehe... too much things to do for them, likely...

But if you're like me, flashing only to fix bugs, and already settled on a (relatively) stable ROM, going Pristine should be a habit


-- CM9b4 / CastagnaIT 7.3 BFS+ExtUV / DXKL1 / GT-I8150 --

 

[Broken Puzzles]

actually i dont think extensive rom flasher will follow this guide but i do agree with pep about going pristine

Sent from my GT-I8150

Well doing this just seems alot more effort if you have alot of apps and games and why alot of people won't do this. I mean I have 70 apps/games installed so having to manually install all of them again is just to much effort.

 

[pepoluan]

Well doing this just seems alot more effort if you have alot of apps and games and why alot of people won't do this. I mean I have 70 apps/games installed so having to manually install all of them again is just to much effort.

Well, I also have a lot of apps and games, but for me the added stability is totally worth it.

Especially since there's a café providing fast and free wifi near my office


-- CM9b4 / CastagnaIT 7.3 BFS+ExtUV / DXKL1 / GT-I8150 --

 

[reddvilzz]

Well doing this just seems alot more effort if you have alot of apps and games and why alot of people won't do this. I mean I have 70 apps/games installed so having to manually install all of them again is just to much effort.

If you didn't want to install again all your apps one by one just backup your apps with titanium backup pro and then restore ONLY the apps after doing pristine route.

For me the pro version of titanium backup will automate the installation so just leave your phone after restoring from titanium backup cause it will automagically install all your backed up apps without you having to select it one by one.

And don't restore the apps data because it will ruins your halfway through pristine route.

Sent from my GT-I8150 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2

 

[pepoluan]

If you didn't want to install again all your apps one by one just backup your apps with titanium backup pro and then restore ONLY the apps after doing pristine route.

For me the pro version of titanium backup will automate the installation so just leave your phone after restoring from titanium backup cause it will automagically install all your backed up apps without you having to select it one by one.

And don't restore the apps data because it will ruins your halfway through pristine route.

Sent from my GT-I8150 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2

Well... *most* .apk's *should* be safe...

But, considering that Play Store *can* detect what's your OS and *does* offer apps based on your OS, there's a possibility that the .apk has been optimized for your (previous) OS's generation (e.g., GB or ICS or JB). If you stick with the same generation, in general there shouldn't be any problems. But if you change generations, there *might* be problems.

I decided that it's better to be careful than sorry, so I don't restore any apps, even without attached data


-- CM9b4 / CastagnaIT 7.3 BFS+ExtUV / DXKL1 / GT-I8150 --

 

[Broken Puzzles]

Well, I also have a lot of apps and games, but for me the added stability is totally worth it.

Especially since there's a café providing fast and free wifi near my office


-- CM9b4 / CastagnaIT 7.3 BFS+ExtUV / DXKL1 / GT-I8150 --

Thats weird since the stability is the same after factory reset your phone 5 times before flashing anything new and restore from Titanium backup. Also I don't know if you see the flaw in your method especially if you play alot of games and thats if you only reinstall the apk and not the data you have to start all over again and let me tell you that pisses off any gamer when it happens. Not just on a phone but on anything but just saying.

If you didn't want to install again all your apps one by one just backup your apps with titanium backup pro and then restore ONLY the apps after doing pristine route.

For me the pro version of titanium backup will automate the installation so just leave your phone after restoring from titanium backup cause it will automagically install all your backed up apps without you having to select it one by one.

And don't restore the apps data because it will ruins your halfway through pristine route.

Sent from my GT-I8150 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2

I do use titanium backup to restore all my apps but I was just pointing out that while this method is good and has a possibility of making the ROM more stable it does provide more problems like I said above if you are an avid gamer and losing all your save data and having to start again will drive you insane.

 

[pepoluan]

Thats weird since the stability is the same after factory reset your phone 5 times before flashing anything new and restore from Titanium backup.

Factory reset 5 times?? What's the point? Since a single factory reset already means a reformatting of your partition...

Your flash memory is not like an overly-dirty carpet that needs to be shampooed and vacuumed several times before all the grime comes out of it. One format -- done. Nothing left.

I'm just pointing out the fact: Many problems that many experienced when they flashed CM9 -- did not happen to me. Ever. And I *strongly* suspect that leftover bits (settings, incompatible code, etc.) is the culprit.

Also I don't know if you see the flaw in your method especially if you play alot of games and thats if you only reinstall the apk and not the data you have to start all over again and let me tell you that pisses off any gamer when it happens. Not just on a phone but on anything but just saying.

That is a flaw that I'm perfectly capable of living with.

As you note, in the thread's title, I'm not claiming of something along the lines of: "Want your CM9 to be stable? This is the way!!1!one!!eleven". I use a simple title of "Going Pristine: What, Why, How".

The onus lies on the viewer of this thread, whether they can live with the consequences or not.\

I do use titanium backup to restore all my apps but I was just pointing out that while this method is good and has a possibility of making the ROM more stable it does provide more problems like I said above if you are an avid gamer and losing all your save data and having to start again will drive you insane.

For me -- and other non-gamers, or non-avid gamers -- losing save data is not a 'problem'. An 'annoyance', for sure, but not 'problem'.

Again, I am not forcing my methods on you or other W users here. I'm just stating the fact: 1) What is meant by 'going pristine', 2) Why 'going pristine' is good, and 3) How to 'go pristine'.

That said...

I understand your concerns, and I'll edit my first posting to warn avid gamers that they will go insane :cyclops:

 

[Broken Puzzles]

Factory reset 5 times?? What's the point? Since a single factory reset already means a reformatting of your partition...

Your flash memory is not like an overly-dirty carpet that needs to be shampooed and vacuumed several times before all the grime comes out of it. One format -- done. Nothing left.

I'm just pointing out the fact: Many problems that many experienced when they flashed CM9 -- did not happen to me. Ever. And I *strongly* suspect that leftover bits (settings, incompatible code, etc.) is the culprit.

Well I had problems in the past with only 1 factory reset as some left over stuff from the old rom was carried over to the new one so I do that just in case and it cleared up the problems I was having.

That is a flaw that I'm perfectly capable of living with.

As you note, in the thread's title, I'm not claiming of something along the lines of: "Want your CM9 to be stable? This is the way!!1!one!!eleven". I use a simple title of "Going Pristine: What, Why, How".

The onus lies on the viewer of this thread, whether they can live with the consequences or not.\

Not saying your not fine with that flaw but just pointing out that while your method is best suited to someone not using their phone for its entertainment features but more serious stuff.

For me -- and other non-gamers, or non-avid gamers -- losing save data is not a 'problem'. An 'annoyance', for sure, but not 'problem'.

Again, I am not forcing my methods on you or other W users here. I'm just stating the fact: 1) What is meant by 'going pristine', 2) Why 'going pristine' is good, and 3) How to 'go pristine'.

That said...

I understand your concerns, and I'll edit my first posting to warn avid gamers that they will go insane :cyclops:

Well obviously its not a problem if your not a gamer otherwise you would freak when losing your save data, not just on a phone but on any gaming device.

Not saying your forcing others to do this but again just pointing out that unless you are more of a casual user of your phone and don't really bother with gaming then this method is great otherwise like me you are going to just restore all your apps with data anyway.

 

[pepoluan]

Well I had problems in the past with only 1 factory reset as some left over stuff from the old rom was carried over to the new one so I do that just in case and it cleared up the problems I was having.

Ah, you mean doing a factory reset after flashing the ROM?

I see. That might help... but since the non-resetted portion of your phone (SD cards) still contain leftover bits from the previous ROM, there is a possibility of additional problems. Which will lead to yet-another-factory-reset, ad nauseam (or at least until it's stable enough).

I personally prefer having it started out stable, then adding bits and pieces until it becomes unstable... easier to troubleshoot which part is the culprit

Well obviously its not a problem if your not a gamer otherwise you would freak when losing your save data, not just on a phone but on any gaming device.

Not saying your forcing others to do this but again just pointing out that unless you are more of a casual user of your phone and don't really bother with gaming then this method is great otherwise like me you are going to just restore all your apps with data anyway.

Point taken. :good:

I've edited the OP to more clearly indicate some (potential) drawbacks in a (hopefully) humorous way

 

[vhick]

Is link2sd still work in our phone? I read somewhere that link2sd never work with cmw 6. Even myself see a wierd note when I boot into recovery after flashing link2sd.

Another question, please give me a reason why I use ext2 compare to ext3/4? I search the net but I only found speed for ext2 and data loss prevention and stability in ext3/4. I wonder why if there's any benefit specifically in our phone.

Thank you...

Sent from my GT-I8150 using Tapatalk 2

 

[pepoluan]

Is link2sd still work in our phone? I read somewhere that link2sd never work with cmw 6. Even myself see a wierd note when I boot into recovery after flashing link2sd.

Yes, it still works.

The 'weird' note that you saw must have been CWM's warning that the ROM *seems* to want to install a Recovery that will overwrite CWM.

Just ignore it. Choose 'No' for the answer (that is, just press the Home button to execute the first answer, which should be 'No' IIRC).

CWM shows the warning because the method used by Link2SD to initialize the 2nd partition hooks directly into a known method of restoring Recovery.

Another question, please give me a reason why I use ext2 compare to ext3/4? I search the net but I only found speed for ext2 and data loss prevention and stability in ext3/4. I wonder why if there's any benefit specifically in our phone.

Okay, the explanation is technical, please bear with me.

ext3/4 introduce what is known as 'journaling' to prevent inconsistent metadata on unclean interrupted writes. The 'journal' is a region of storage set aside to write a 'log' of metadata changes, circularly. Due to the circular log, the region will be intensively used. No problem on magnetic disks, *big* problem on flash memory due to two factors:

1. Limited number of write cycles. Every update to the circular log shortens the life of the Flash memory extensively.

2. The necessity of wiping a whole block of memory (1 or 4 MB, depends on manufacturer) even if ext3/4 need to overwrite just 1 KB of data. This requires *extremely* expensive read-modify-write cycles. Compounded with the single core we have on the W, this means expensive context switching as writes get stalled and the OS hands over timeslice to other waiting threads.

ext2 has no journal, so it's much more flash-friendly, but if writes (in this case, creation/deletion of files) got interrupted uncleanly, you might lose some data or worse.

However, since Link2SD only put apk files in the 2nd partition, and these apk files are never edited (except on upgrades), the drawback of ext2 is not really applicable (IOW, ext2 is *extremely* suitable for nearly-read-only storage access pattern).


-- CM9b4 / CastagnaIT 7.3 BFS+ExtUV / DXKL1 / GT-I8150 --

 

[keithross39]

Hi Pepoluan, hope you don't mind, but I've linked to this thread in my "Rooting, ClockworkMod and Custom ROMs" (sticky) thread....think it will help a lot of people

Sent from my CM10 powered Wonder with Tapatalk 2......it's all good......

 

[pepoluan]

Hi Pepoluan, hope you don't mind, but I've linked to this thread in my "Rooting, ClockworkMod and Custom ROMs" (sticky) thread....think it will help a lot of people

Sent from my CM10 powered Wonder with Tapatalk 2......it's all good......

No problem. In fact, the honor is mine


-- CM9b4 / CastagnaIT 7.3 BFS+ExtUV / DXKL1 / GT-I8150 --

 

[vhick]

Yes, it still works.

The 'weird' note that you saw must have been CWM's warning that the ROM *seems* to want to install a Recovery that will overwrite CWM.

Just ignore it. Choose 'No' for the answer (that is, just press the Home button to execute the first answer, which should be 'No' IIRC).

CWM shows the warning because the method used by Link2SD to initialize the 2nd partition hooks directly into a known method of restoring Recovery.



Okay, the explanation is technical, please bear with me.

ext3/4 introduce what is known as 'journaling' to prevent inconsistent metadata on unclean interrupted writes. The 'journal' is a region of storage set aside to write a 'log' of metadata changes, circularly. Due to the circular log, the region will be intensively used. No problem on magnetic disks, *big* problem on flash memory due to two factors:

1. Limited number of write cycles. Every update to the circular log shortens the life of the Flash memory extensively.

2. The necessity of wiping a whole block of memory (1 or 4 MB, depends on manufacturer) even if ext3/4 need to overwrite just 1 KB of data. This requires *extremely* expensive read-modify-write cycles. Compounded with the single core we have on the W, this means expensive context switching as writes get stalled and the OS hands over timeslice to other waiting threads.

ext2 has no journal, so it's much more flash-friendly, but if writes (in this case, creation/deletion of files) got interrupted uncleanly, you might lose some data or worse.

However, since Link2SD only put apk files in the 2nd partition, and these apk files are never edited (except on upgrades), the drawback of ext2 is not really applicable (IOW, ext2 is *extremely* suitable for nearly-read-only storage access pattern).


-- CM9b4 / CastagnaIT 7.3 BFS+ExtUV / DXKL1 / GT-I8150 --

For long searching....at last I found the solution! Kudos!

Thank you so much, and its clearly now, specially using link2sd and understanding ext2/3/4 filesystem

 

[mosta_9741]

sorry for the noob question but y should i have 2 partitions on my sdcard and wts the use of the second partition (ext2) and if i have a 32 GB sdcard wt will be the best partitioning for it (how much for the fat32 and for the ext2)