Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, SecretSquirrel, notfred
Madman wrote:Unless you have been updating from HTC and installing new apps, I don't see how it can be more "buggy". Slower may be, as there are a number of factors like decreasing empty space (more photos, messages, app data).I have an unsubsidized HTC Wildfire S, which I have been using for more than a year. But somehow, it seems it's getting slower and more buggy with each coming month.
Madman wrote:Don't know where you heard about the spyware bit. Cyanogenmod has tons of testers and is reviewed quite heavily, like any popular open source project. The ones with spyware are the ones with that CarrierIQ crap which are carrier-branded ROMs. Cyanogenmod belongs to this class of "custom ROMs" where people put together their custom suite of kernels, drivers, and apps to form a package.I've heard that there is a Cyanogenmod, which, if I understand correctly, is an Android source released by Google, + opensource development goodies, - rootkits and spyware.
Madman wrote:Just think about it, no carrier "bloated" apps (some of them actually run constantly in the background!), carrier branding, no "skinning" from manufacturer (Your Wildfire S has Sense v2 which is quite heavy on such a lower end phone.)I've also heard that it's less buggy and lighter on resources, but I have no idea how true that is.
Madman wrote:It is quite stable unless you use the latest alphas or nightlies. If you use the lesser known mod packages then there may not be enough testing. But by far, in the custom ROM scene, CM is the leader in terms of installed base. There are other ROMs that may be good, with even more optimized kernels, etc. But you have to work with a smaller (but often dedicated) community.So I'm kinda unsure what to do. From one point of view, different freezes and bugs are tipping me off, since I want a dependable phone, from another side, I'm not sure how dependable Cyanogenmod is.
Madman wrote:That is the real problem I think. You have a much smaller base to work with. What other custom mods have been done on the device? A lot of variants pretty much forks from the CM tree.There is also a second problem, the Wildfire S (marvel) seems to be unsupported by official Cyanogenmod development, and there is only a port, which can be found on Googlecode.
Madman wrote:Just like in Linux, enough reading and testing should make you an expert.And finally, I'm a total newb at Android stuff, I know some things about Linux, but Android is completely new to me.
Madman wrote:To install and boot custom mods you will need to get perma S-OFF I believe. There should be lots of discussion on how to do it on HTC phones. Not sure how much info is out there for the Wildfire S myself, since I don't use HTC phones. This will be your biggest obstacle to overcome. But remember, bootloader unlock and rooting are technically 2 different things. They get lumped together too often for people's own good.The phone is S-ON, unrooted, and I have no idea what I need to do to be able to install Cyanogenmod. It seems HTC offers official way to root the phone, or unlock the bootloader, no idea which. But I don't know if that's enough.
Madman wrote:Your phone being not-so-popular put you at a disadvantage to begin with due to the lack of support. Now that this is out of the way, you can calm down. Start reading more about HTC phones and your device in particular. Like Samsung and Sony with Odin/Kies and Flashtool, there should be a generic flashing tool out there for HTC phones. It is quite difficult to brick your phone in a way that it won't even accept a flash from an external app. So usually if you have a bad flash of app you can just flash from a known good ROM (stock or custom), reboot, and you should be back on your feet. [usual disclaimer applies] If you really want it you can even be the pioneer to put a custom ROM package together yourself for your phone. That needs a lot of experimentation and risk of bricking. Titanium Backup is invaluable for this constant flashing and reflashing of ROMs if you intend to use the phone day-to-day.So the question is, can anyone explain me in few simple words, how bad the situation is, how hard it is to install Cynoagenmod, is it stable, can I revert to original HTC Sense later if there is a problem, and how to back up the phone if I want to?
Madman wrote:XDA is the best you can get (may be also android authority or modaco). And yes, the things you describe you have to learn to live with them. Just don't ask really dumb questions and you should be fine. Make sure you post in the right forum (General vs Q&A vs Development). Read, read, and read some more.It seems that the best place for discussion is xda-developers, but I'm afraid they will eat me alive as a noob, and that place is, in best traditions of open source development, a real mess, 300 page threads, all sorts of RC0, alpha, ROM, bugfix and stuff. I can't understand how to get valid and nondeprecated info there
Flying Fox wrote:Madman wrote:Unless you have been updating from HTC and installing new apps, I don't see how it can be more "buggy". Slower may be, as there are a number of factors like decreasing empty space (more photos, messages, app data).I have an unsubsidized HTC Wildfire S, which I have been using for more than a year. But somehow, it seems it's getting slower and more buggy with each coming month.
Flying Fox wrote:Sorry, that was meant as, plus updates, minus spyware, I wrote it very unclearly there.Madman wrote:Don't know where you heard about the spyware bit. Cyanogenmod has tons of testers and is reviewed quite heavily, like any popular open source project. The ones with spyware are the ones with that CarrierIQ crap which are carrier-branded ROMs. Cyanogenmod belongs to this class of "custom ROMs" where people put together their custom suite of kernels, drivers, and apps to form a package.I've heard that there is a Cyanogenmod, which, if I understand correctly, is an Android source released by Google, + opensource development goodies, - rootkits and spyware.
Flying Fox wrote:The google code for Wildfire seems to be nightly, so I will be using stable Cyanogenmod 7.2 and a nightly Wildfire S (marvel) build as I understand?Madman wrote:It is quite stable unless you use the latest alphas or nightlies. If you use the lesser known mod packages then there may not be enough testing. But by far, in the custom ROM scene, CM is the leader in terms of installed base. There are other ROMs that may be good, with even more optimized kernels, etc. But you have to work with a smaller (but often dedicated) community.So I'm kinda unsure what to do. From one point of view, different freezes and bugs are tipping me off, since I want a dependable phone, from another side, I'm not sure how dependable Cyanogenmod is.
Flying Fox wrote:My phone is stock, I only need it for calling, tethering and in car navigation.Madman wrote:That is the real problem I think. You have a much smaller base to work with. What other custom mods have been done on the device? A lot of variants pretty much forks from the CM tree.There is also a second problem, the Wildfire S (marvel) seems to be unsupported by official Cyanogenmod development, and there is only a port, which can be found on Googlecode.
Flying Fox wrote:I'm not yet a Linux expertMadman wrote:Just like in Linux, enough reading and testing should make you an expert.And finally, I'm a total newb at Android stuff, I know some things about Linux, but Android is completely new to me.
Flying Fox wrote:Some sources say I need XTC Clip for perma S-OFF, but some say there is a way to get S-OFF without XTC clip. It's really confusing, completely different opinions on the same site XDA-Devs...Madman wrote:To install and boot custom mods you will need to get perma S-OFF I believe. There should be lots of discussion on how to do it on HTC phones. Not sure how much info is out there for the Wildfire S myself, since I don't use HTC phones. This will be your biggest obstacle to overcome. But remember, bootloader unlock and rooting are technically 2 different things. They get lumped together too often for people's own good.The phone is S-ON, unrooted, and I have no idea what I need to do to be able to install Cyanogenmod. It seems HTC offers official way to root the phone, or unlock the bootloader, no idea which. But I don't know if that's enough.
Flying Fox wrote:Is there a way to pull an existing ROM via Android SDK or something? Or is it in a read only memory, so that it's never erased, and always available if I boot with power+volup?Madman wrote:Your phone being not-so-popular put you at a disadvantage to begin with due to the lack of support. Now that this is out of the way, you can calm down. Start reading more about HTC phones and your device in particular. Like Samsung and Sony with Odin/Kies and Flashtool, there should be a generic flashing tool out there for HTC phones. It is quite difficult to brick your phone in a way that it won't even accept a flash from an external app. So usually if you have a bad flash of app you can just flash from a known good ROM (stock or custom), reboot, and you should be back on your feet. [usual disclaimer applies] If you really want it you can even be the pioneer to put a custom ROM package together yourself for your phone. That needs a lot of experimentation and risk of bricking. Titanium Backup is invaluable for this constant flashing and reflashing of ROMs if you intend to use the phone day-to-day.So the question is, can anyone explain me in few simple words, how bad the situation is, how hard it is to install Cynoagenmod, is it stable, can I revert to original HTC Sense later if there is a problem, and how to back up the phone if I want to?
Flying Fox wrote:Ok, thank you, it's only the contradictionary, unsorted information that scared me off at XDA-DevsSince there is a ROM out there, I would think as a first step you read up on rooting, S-OFF, and flashing and try that out first. Make sure you also figure out a way to flash back the old stock ROM before proceeding as well. Then you experiment.
Madman wrote:Managed to install the Cyanogenmod 7.2 on the phone. It does feel lighter, and there are some things that were not available, and some things that are better. Number of running services is more than halved.
But some things are missing too. Good calendar, digital clock widget, ablity to turn off celular internet through top bar, and maybe some other things too.
ChronoReverse wrote:Madman wrote:Managed to install the Cyanogenmod 7.2 on the phone. It does feel lighter, and there are some things that were not available, and some things that are better. Number of running services is more than halved.
But some things are missing too. Good calendar, digital clock widget, ablity to turn off celular internet through top bar, and maybe some other things too.
For the calendar, try Jorte from Play (it's free). There are several similar clock widgets (skinnable) that can replace the HTC one. Finally, the bar from the notification scroll down features controls that you can change in the settings. You can control things from turning off mobile data to switching from 2G to 3G.
Madman wrote:ChronoReverse wrote:Madman wrote:Managed to install the Cyanogenmod 7.2 on the phone. It does feel lighter, and there are some things that were not available, and some things that are better. Number of running services is more than halved.
But some things are missing too. Good calendar, digital clock widget, ablity to turn off celular internet through top bar, and maybe some other things too.
For the calendar, try Jorte from Play (it's free). There are several similar clock widgets (skinnable) that can replace the HTC one. Finally, the bar from the notification scroll down features controls that you can change in the settings. You can control things from turning off mobile data to switching from 2G to 3G.
What is the best alternative market to Google, where I wouldn't have to register and lock in, and yet, that wouldn't be spyware ridden?
derFunkenstein wrote:You need to fool around with the power notification widget settings (under Cyanogenmod settings). There's an option to add the button to turn on/off mobile internet. A coworker has a Wildfire S (from T-Mo) and just gripes about it constantly. I'm not feeling like supporting a coworker's phone or I'd offer to install for her too.
busybox mount -o remount,rw /system
Flying Fox wrote:You need something to the equivalent of Root Explorer (if you are not paying)?
ChronoReverse wrote:You need to mount /system as read+write before you can edit and save that file.
Use this command after suCode: Select allbusybox mount -o remount,rw /system
Alternatively, just use ES File Manager, turn on the root and mount settings and edit it WYSIWYG style.
Madman wrote:ChronoReverse wrote:You need to mount /system as read+write before you can edit and save that file.
Use this command after suCode: Select allbusybox mount -o remount,rw /system
Alternatively, just use ES File Manager, turn on the root and mount settings and edit it WYSIWYG style.
/system or / ?
ChronoReverse wrote:/etc is actually /system/etc, so /system is correct
ChronoReverse wrote:Also, I didn't read your initial problem. If you are having trouble with the GPS, there's an app (all apps I mention are free btw) called GPS Status & Toolkit with which you can reset the GPS data and then take outside to relearn the GPS settings fairly quickly next time =)
ChronoReverse wrote:For the clock widget, you can try https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... Dark&hl=en
If you go to the Cyanogenmod settings, you can change the icons and order of them in the Notification Icons.
ChronoReverse wrote:No idea, it's the first day with CM, the option wasn't grayed out at the very beginning, but it was gryed out after I clicked on it. Maybe it's my fault somewhere, I haven't done the research in this direction yet. But in the worst case, WiFi tethering does work so even if USB will not work, it's still cool.As for USB tethering, did that work before? It might just be a bug a later nightly fixes =(
ChronoReverse wrote:Just in case, you've already plugged in the USB cable to the computer before try to turn on the USB tethering right?
ChronoReverse wrote:Hmm, looks like it's a bug in some versions.
I've done a search and it looks like this unofficial build (http://code.google.com/p/cm7-wildfire-s ... p&can=2&q=) should have USB tethering working.
Download Titanium Backup and back up all your User Apps as well as the Green&Yellow System Apps. Then try this build.
Information and build from XDA:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr ... ?t=1226765
ChronoReverse wrote:Scripting shouldn't be too much of a problem but you'll want to read up on Busybox as well as taking a look at this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ager&hl=en
ChronoReverse wrote:Oh yeah, even though the native USB tethering isn't working, there's a good chance a 3rd party USB tethering app from the Play Store will work. Give it a spin.
Madman wrote:One more question, is it safe to remove unused applications by remounting the file system to r+w, and simply rm'ing them?
Madman wrote:ChronoReverse wrote:Oh yeah, even though the native USB tethering isn't working, there's a good chance a 3rd party USB tethering app from the Play Store will work. Give it a spin.
One more question, is it safe to remove unused applications by remounting the file system to r+w, and simply rm'ing them?