SGS1 - October's Modding Exercise

[MarauderDeuce]

Nothing truly spectacular but after a little time with Darky's back on my phone and working very nicely as it always does I decided to try and find something new to do. Something actually different - not just anothe wallpaper and freeware install.

Experiment 1 - Also know as OHFUKOHFUKOHFUKWHATTHEHELLHAVEIDONE?!?
Cyanogen Mod
Now this has to be the best known mod for Android - considered the god of mods by many - I've been listening to people either drooling over it or saying they hated it for months now in podcasts.

Installing it was a true rectal examination with a blunt instrument covered in tacks.

An odd quirk is that every install of a different mod seems to involve a different version of Odin. At the moment on my computer I think I've got 1.3, 1.4 (from Darkys) and 1.7 from Miui (more on that later) but this cutting edge Cyanogen Mod wanted me to use 1.1 which has an archaic interface and required the installation of a driver before it knew that the SGS was connected. I tried using a new version but the install file was a format which the newer (more familiar) Odins did not recognise.

As you might guess things did not go well and I found myself at about 1.30 or 2 this morning looking at this:


My first experience with soft bricking - as I believe it's known. I almost gave up and went to bed but decided that sleep would be unlikely to happen unless I got my phone at least a little un-dead.

Plug the phone back into Kies and bugger me if the bloody thing doesn't recognise that the phone's there at all!

Back to the nets and some reading - strip out the battery and the sim and microsd (for good measure) and leave the phone a few whilst more fevered google searches convince me that I'd an idiot of some flavour.

Everything put back together and the phone is still not recognised - hmm - let's try this - close odin and run the driver install again. Finally the bloody thing worked! Kernal installed then quickly copy over Cyanogen to the phone and install through CWM.

All looks okayish but I knew that something was just not right when some of the number were missing from the keyboard as I was doing the basic setup - Wireless/google account. (For the record I almost always wipe my phone when I do a new rom - I just feel happier knowing it's a clean install.)

Alright - just as I'm going to bed I run the installer again and all looks better. To be honest the interface did not do much for me and then I realised that the bloody install didn't have gmail installed. Okay, no biggie let's head to the market an- oh shit - where the hell is the market?!?

Now I'm sure that I'd done something wrong somehow but at this point I basically said sod off Cyanogen mod - I hate you and I think you hate me a little too.

More to follow after the break.

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Experiment 2 - Moooeeeee - Mooeeeee - MMMMOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!
Miui Rom
Alright - so I decided that Cyanogen had to go. I downloaded the current Darky's - 10.2.2 then thought - in for a penny - in for a pound. I kept looking at Miui rom - had been on and off for a few months now but never quite had the courage to jump in and give it a go. But I wanted something different.
So, to the notes - step 1 for the current version turned out to install a clean 2.3.5 via Odin and then root it also via Odin. Now at that point I could have left it and been very happy but what the hell - chucked Miui onto the phone and installed.

Phone reboots and on the screen below the samsung logo I see-


OHFUKOHFUKOHFUKWHATTHEHELLHAVEIDONE?!?

But no - the screen goes away and I get a Miui screen - oh yeah - Miui is based on Cyanogen 6 or something - now I remember!

So the install went quite well and I got what I waned - this IS DIFFERENT!

Now I'm a few hours in and to be honest I've spent most of the day bumming around watching TV but-
I think I'm going to like it once I get used to it. Make no mistake this is the most radical reinvention of my phone yet.

Miui website page showing features

2 things have particularly caught my initial attention.
1. No FM radio - although I expect I can fix this with a little playing.
2.
No App drawer - this is odd. Every interface I've used has had some form of the app drawer/folder where all installed programs are kept and you drag those you want to onto your screens. All the programs are layed out on the screens.

I'm not sure whether I can have 2 copies of an icon on 2 screens. This could be tricky - I generally have a couple of apps which I put on more than 1 screen - twitter and google plus most notably.

One thing I do quite like is that you can creat folders to put icons into. On the downside this is also a move process rather than moving copies of the icons into the folders.

Finally, the config, menus and notifications are very different. I'm beginning to make sense of them but I'm not there yet.

A number of the reviews I've read of this mod comment that it's the most iphone like thing on android and I think I get what they're saying. I don't think I'll keep with this in the long term - I do like the basic android - but for now it will be interesting.

[Harvz]

(10-03-2011 10:17 PM)MarauderDeuce Wrote:  [b]Experiment 1 - Also know as OHFUKOHFUKOHFUKWHATTHEHELLHAVEIDONE?!?

Hahaha that is really not a good feeling. But after you fix it you feel like no matter what you do you cant kill it. YOU ARE GOD! (with the help of XDA and Google)

out of all the roms ive tried im still happiest with darkys and then Zeam Launcher over the top of TouchWiz

[MarauderDeuce]

Zeam Launcher noted for future.

Yes - you're of course right - you are God at that point - I think that's a part of why a lot of us play with roms.

Am almost certain to be back on Darky's (or vanilla Android) by the end of the year but for now this is interesting - it really has some VERY cool features built into it which I'd love to see in wider use.

A quick reply popup for SMS's is awsome for one!

[MarauderDeuce]

Alright - so we're about 10 days in and over that period I've had 2 updates for the rom.
The most exciting news (for me anyhow) is that the radio's working again with the last update.
Beyond that - Miui is just a damned fine rom - works well and is polished. The theme manager works well althought it doesn't support searching (from the phone).

Another thing which I like is the built in data tracker. It's not as comprehensive as Onavo but will effectively make my Stats free program redundant.
Onavo has the advantage that it will track data usage by program so it stays for now.

So far no actual downside to this rom - it's quite as awsome as I'd heard. Who knows, I may still have it on my phone come Christmas - no longer though - I am sure I'll be ready to run something else by then.

Wonder how the Galaxy S will handle Ice Cream Sandwich once it's out.

More on this later.

[MarauderDeuce]

Okay - for no apparent reason I've now gone with Cyanogen 7.1

Not too happy so far but it was time - mostly cos the idea got into my head - that's about it.

Now the question I find myself with is why is this considered the mod of mods - at least that seems the popular image in my view.

The features are (so far) meh-ish - am assuming it's the customisability that the mod seems to come with.

Thoughts anyone?

[Harvz]

i think one of the main reasons people go with it is its close to stock and if your phone is not getting updates its a god send.
and then there is the huge range of customizations you can just plug in.
and they did have the swipe to clear notifications and support for revoking application permissions before ICS

[MarauderDeuce]

Hmm, well past the end of October - still running Cyanogen 7.1 and excited about the hope of getting ice cream sandwich (ICS) on my phone in the new year. At this point my opinion of Cyanogen is kinda meh. It's fine but it's not the awesome experience that I was kinda hoping for going in. This might be because much of what is great about it I was already used to with Darky's Rom.

I'm currently thinking of going back to Miui - of all the roms it's the one which I felt added the most to the phone in terms of overhauling the interface. Once ICS starts appearing then I imagine that I'll work my way through these 3 mods again - possibly others too.

One lesson I will take away from this last round of changes is proper backing up of my apps. On the change to Cyanogen I forgot to do it properly and lost quite a bit of stuff - nothing critical or anything but annoying none the less.