Cyanogenmodding the phone, yes or no?

[Madman]

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.

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.

I've also heard that it's less buggy and lighter on resources, but I have no idea how true that is.

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.

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.

And finally, I'm a total newb at Android stuff, I know some things about Linux, but Android is completely new to me.

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.

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?

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

So can anyone recommend me what to do?

[Dizik]

Cyanogenmod is made by a development team, not associated with Google. However, the ROMs are based off of AOSP ROMs with added tweaks, meaning you get an experience that's 99% stock Android (i.e. no HTC Sense, Motorola MotoBlur, Samsung TouchWiz, etc.). If you're running a stable release, it should be just that: stable. If you're running a nightly release, then you can more than likely expect bugs.

Check out the XDA Develoeprs forums for your phone. You'll find most, if not all, of your answers there. But, start doing your research there before you start asking questions. You will get eaten alive by the community if you ask a question that's been answered a hundred times already.

[Flying Fox]

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.

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'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.

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 also heard that it's less buggy and lighter on resources, but I have no idea how true that is.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

And finally, I'm a total newb at Android stuff, I know some things about Linux, but Android is completely new to me.

Just like in Linux, enough reading and testing should make you an expert.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Since 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.

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

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.

Good luck.

[Madman]

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.

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'm only installing OTA, but it seems as if the device has developed some sort of memory leak... And a friend of mine with HTC Desire complains about the same thing. Maybe it's just me getting used to the device

Concerning market, I'm not even on Google market, and all background syncing is off in the general settings.

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.

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.

Sorry, that was meant as, plus updates, minus spyware, I wrote it very unclearly there.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

My phone is stock, I only need it for calling, tethering and in car navigation.

And finally, I'm a total newb at Android stuff, I know some things about Linux, but Android is completely new to me.

Just like in Linux, enough reading and testing should make you an expert.

I'm not yet a Linux expert

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.

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.

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...

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?

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.

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?

Since 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.

Ok, thank you, it's only the contradictionary, unsorted information that scared me off at XDA-Devs

[cheesyking]

I've CM7.1 and then 7.2 on my Desire S for over a year now and I'm really impressed with it. The stock HTC rom was OK but I found it seemed to get buggy over time and it was stuffed full of Facebook and Twitter rubbish that I couldn't remove and didn't use. 7.2 was a nice improvement over 7.1, not many new features but everything seemed much more polished.

The only thing I have noticed is there there are some issues with video playback which I think are related to DRM not liking the phone being rooted. I think there might be a fix but haven't bothered to research it.

Since you're phone isn't officially supported I'm not sure I'd recommend it especially if it's your only phone and you actually need to use. Bricking the phone is always a risk, not a big risk but it is there and it's much greater with an unsupported device.

I'd always recommend techy people buy their phones based on whether CM supports them or not. Even if the stock rom is great and you never need to put CM on it having CM there as a fall back is really nice.

[ludi]

Still running an old CM6 release on my Nexus One, and no objections. There are obviously more ways to break the OS if someone fiddles with the advanced settings carelessly, but it also enables a lot of usefulness.

[Crayon Shin Chan]

I had an Optimus One, and going to CM7 really did wonders for its responsiveness. I'd say if you have one of those slow single core ARMv6 CPUs in your smartphone, you should be nuking the stock OS and installing CM on it as soon as possible.

[Madman]

Ok, I think I found the whole procedure, and overall it doesn't seem too difficult - http://androidforums.com/wildfire-s-all ... nally.html.

[Madman]

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]

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]

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?

[Flying Fox]

Congratulations and welcome to the CM club!

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?

I just use a separate account to login to Google, and I don't do much on that account. As for spyware ridden, that is not too much of a concern, especially with the more popular apps. They can't contain malware without people complaining and Google kicking it out of market. The worse problem, in your case of phone performance, is ad-based freeware. It has been demonstrated that ads, and with its constant streaming, is a drag on both data and battery power. Now of course, in the same spirit of mentioning ad-blocking software in these forums, I am not going to touch this topic here. Devs do need to get their money.

I would be wary off alternative app stores (mostly the ones that boast "free" stuff), since the apps hosted there may be malware-ridden with no oversight. And the really dubious way of just grabbing APKs off the net? Potential risk is even greater (may be except when xda devs posting useful utilities in the forums).

[derFunkenstein]

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.

My wife's Optimus T does very nicely with CM 7.2 installed. My G2x ran well, but the GPS appears to be borked so I went back to stock on it. It's weird, though, because the P509 is not an official platform while the P999 is, so you'd think it'd be her phone that didn't work so well.

[Madman]

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.

Turns out there is a nice power gadget by default in CM 7.2. It can be modified and pinned to the main screen, so turnig things on and off is easy. I higly recommend

The problem now is with poor GPS reception. I haven't tested in an open area, but it doesn't seem to connect when I'm on a balcony.

I tried updating the /etc/gps.conf, teminal + su + nano/vi, but it didn't worked. Trying to chmod the file which was already 644, displayed that it's a read-only file-system.

Is threre way to edit configs Linux-style?

Is it possible to write native Linux C++ apps?

[Flying Fox]

You need something to the equivalent of Root Explorer (if you are not paying)?

[ChronoReverse]

You need to mount /system as read+write before you can edit and save that file.

Use this command after su

Code: Select all

busybox mount -o remount,rw /system

Alternatively, just use ES File Manager, turn on the root and mount settings and edit it WYSIWYG style.

[Madman]

You need something to the equivalent of Root Explorer (if you are not paying)?

Well, paying is an option, but I'm more into all this open source geekery where I would like to get to the bootom of it, by regular Linux commands and shellscripts if possible. That would be neat.

Turns out the GPS was just relearning the satelites. It took a long time while it got 8 of them, but now, everything works smoothly. Although /etc/gps.conf is US based. I could change it to Europen servers and autoupdate if I could make it writeable

After one day of Cyanogenmod, I'm 100% sure I don't want the stock ROM back. Cyanogenmod is just soo much smoother, so much more configurable, and doesn't freeze like original ROM used to. There is only 2! processes running in the background by default, and when I open the settings, and the number goes to 3, the RAM usage is only 80MB! Compare that to ~200MB out of 293MB on a stock ROM.

The UI is also just so much more fluid, and neat. Screen is rotatable and fully configurable Love it!

So far there are only few small problems, I haven't figured out why USB tethering is not available, and the clock gadget and the tray are a little simplified compared to HTC version, but these are really minor things compared to the overall improvements. No way I'm going back to stock ROM.

It would be neat to maybe repartition the system as well. The df command lists a lot of partitions, I think it would be nicer to maybe merge few of them, and make the app partition larger, the default on is quite full already.

I really can't understand why, but I'm starting to really like Linux and Android systems

[Madman]

You need to mount /system as read+write before you can edit and save that file.

Use this command after su

Code: Select all

busybox 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]

You need to mount /system as read+write before you can edit and save that file.

Use this command after su

Code: Select all

busybox 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 / ?

/etc is actually /system/etc, so /system is correct


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 =)

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.

As for USB tethering, did that work before? It might just be a bug a later nightly fixes =(

[Madman]

/etc is actually /system/etc, so /system is correct

Oh, I see. Terminal with ls - l does show it as a symlink. Is there some fancy reason why it was done this way?

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 =)

Yes, I used it to get the GPS working after all simple apps seemed to fail. Very neat app.

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.

Thank you! I will look into it

As for USB tethering, did that work before? It might just be a bug a later nightly fixes =(

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.

[ChronoReverse]

Just in case, you've already plugged in the USB cable to the computer before try to turn on the USB tethering right?

[Madman]

Just in case, you've already plugged in the USB cable to the computer before try to turn on the USB tethering right?

Yes, the option is available, but whenever I click on it, it gets grayed out with "USB not connected". Even though system still shows USB connection status, and if debugging enabled, debugging icon as well.

[ChronoReverse]

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

[Madman]

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

Yes, looks like it, I found some simlar reports too

But, I guess I'll leave it as is then, I'm actually using a more recent ROM version - http://code.google.com/p/cm7-wildfire-s ... p&can=2&q=

And, since I use that feature so rarely, I can live with WiFi access point for now, but thank you!

Also, I found that menu you mentioned, where task bar notification icons can be customized. So overall, I think all signifficant problems are fixed now, and the phone is a lot more responsive now A massive win!

It's only weird that the system is almost like Linux, but not completely. It seems that they have a special C API, that shell is custom, not bash or csh or the usual kind, echo $SHELL is empty. So I guess scripts or C apps cannot be written easily. I need to do some more research.

[ChronoReverse]

It's only semi-linux really. The kernel is a linux kernel of course, but this is totally not GNU/Linux (XD).

In particular, user space apps are written in Java and the compiled bytecode runs on the Dalvik VM. If you clear the Dalvik Cache in the recovery, you'll notice the reboot will take much longer. This is because Android is converting all the apps again.

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


As for the builds, there's a good chance a fixed build will come out soon. You can usually flash nightlies directly over another without issue.

[Madman]

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

Oh, so busybox is like a all in one system, grep, ls, sh, awk, ln, gzip, etc. Interesting.

[ChronoReverse]

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]

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?

I'm thinking about removing ROM manager, which seems to be started by default, and also seems to be a dangerous app that can brick a phone in unofficial releases.

Then again going into system root and rm'ing stuff as written here - http://androidadvices.com/remove-defaul ... CL9cCM27qc seems very dangerous. But there is no uninstall for built in apps...

Default memory consumption is now @66MB mark, amazing

Also, is it possible to install some user space apps that are used frequently, like opera.apk to /system/apps? Is there any security implications?

In terminal, df says I have 120MB out of 260MB used on /system mount, and 125MB out of 150MB on /data mount. It would be cool to move important applications to system, to free up some user space and lock them from uninstalling.

[Captain Ned]

One more question, is it safe to remove unused applications by remounting the file system to r+w, and simply rm'ing them?

Use the paid version of Titanium Backup and "freeze" them. Once done, the OS can't see them. Works great on all the MotoBlur crap and it's there for any rooted version of Android.

[ChronoReverse]

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?

If you're removing the APK, it's safe in the sense it won't directly break the system. If the APK is for an essential system app then of course it can be bad.

I'd recommend making a nandroid through clockwordmod recovery before proceeding. Furthermore, I'd recommend using the Freeze option as Captain Ned mentioned before outright deleting. But as long as you do a nandroid backup first, you can't go wrong.