Database Develop

Poll: Keeping or losing FroYo?

Just want to see what everyone's take is with the battery life issues, etc

[highlight]Mod Edit: trolling and flaming are not allowed on XDA grounds. Consider this a friendly warning[/highlight]

If you guys seriously consider that either trolling or flaming, then your standards for such really are lackluster.
For the sake of the thread though, I went back to MCR r15. Runs amazing, and have much faster up and dl speeds. Paul said he will be releasing a ROM based on this soon anyway, so I can wait. FroYo was amazing though. Only real reason I went back was because of a wifi issue, LOL. Turns out it was just an IP address conflict. I reset the IP of my laptop and solved it, but only AFTER I'd reverted. Too lazy to go back again.

dictionary said:
If you guys seriously consider that either trolling or flaming, then your standards for such really are lackluster.
For the sake of the thread though, I went back to MCR r15. Runs amazing, and have much faster up and dl speeds. Paul said he will be releasing a ROM based on this soon anyway, so I can wait. FroYo was amazing though. Only real reason I went back was because of a wifi issue, LOL. Turns out it was just an IP address conflict. I reset the IP of my laptop and solved it, but only AFTER I'd reverted. Too lazy to go back again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why MCR R15 over CM 5.0.7.1?

hah2110 said:
Just want to see what everyone's take is with the battery life issues, etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have great battery life with FroYo, running stock FroYo kernel, and all... I do have a few small bugs that were clear signs to me it was unofficial to begin with, and am excited for the official release to see if it polishes out those few minor issues.
All in all, though, 99.9% of if works perfect. Super fast, great battery life, and so forth. Radio seems to be about the same as all the others, I get good 3G when I have it, good EDGE when I am on that. I still say I get better reception than my G1 did, but that is just me and my testing at my Dad's house (death hole for cell phone coverage) and my basement (it is where my "man dungeon" is located). Beyond that, I always get good coverage no matter the phone, so it has been a moot point to me... speed wise, I always edit my GPRS and HSDPA to 12 and 2.

hah2110 said:
Why MCR R15 over CM 5.0.7.1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why CM over MCR? Or Enom over CM? and so forth... personal preference is the likely answer. I like MCR since I have a pay account over there and can use his kitchens, thus making a ROM that is lighter. I like Enom because it is rock solid, fast, and great battery life (1.8.1 is best IMHO). I like CM because it is bleeding edge, fast, and while has its moments of instability, is still the gold standard for a full feature custom ROM, especially with all the extras pre-baked in. Desire has only 1 real option, Modaco.
And I like FroYo the most because it is new, super duper fast, good battery life, and I like frozen yogurt.

hah2110 said:
Why MCR R15 over CM 5.0.7.1?
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Click to collapse
MCR r15 for me runs soooo much smoother. I love CyanogenMod, as my sign indicates. LOL. After trying out r15 though I was hooked.

The poll options seem to indicate a dislike of Froyo. Even the positive options imply that by using it you are putting up with tons of bugs or something. Are people really having trouble with Froyo?
It's been working well for me. My battery life has been worse but I thought it was just because I had turned Latitude back on about the same time I upgraded to Froyo.

hexix said:
The poll options seem to indicate a dislike of Froyo. Even the positive options imply that by using it you are putting up with tons of bugs or something. Are people really having trouble with Froyo?
It's been working well for me. My battery life has been worse but I thought it was just because I had turned Latitude back on about the same time I upgraded to Froyo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I LOVE FroYo but can't tolerate the battery consumption. Sorry if it came off bias

I love FroYo and I want to keep it but... I have some problems that I can't live with.
1. Reboot phone, resets widgets and some installed programs on SD
2. Double messaging notifications (stock messaging app conflict with other apps, even if I disable notifications)
3. Miss the tweaks and stuff from CM
Still using it but urging to switch back until custom roms are out.

Not only am I keeping Froyo, I'm being FORCED to use my TMobile Nexus(2.2) instead of my ATT Nexus(2.1) because Froyo makes 2.1 feel like a slow crappy beta.
I cannot even get voice plus data at the same time with my TMobile Nexus, yet I use it because, imo, Froyo is that much better.
Going back to my 2.1 Nexus feels like a pre launch beta device that I yell at because it's so damn laggy compared to Froyo, which is fast as a bullet.
Please Google give us 2.2 so I can go back to my freaking ATT Nexus!

wish I could have two nexus ones, LOL.
Overall I loved FroYo, and had I realized the IP conflict before switching back to MCR r15, I would still be on it.

Well, I just solved two of my problems, it's not so bad now. Going to stick with it

dictionary said:
wish I could have two nexus ones, LOL.
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Click to collapse
if I'd known the ATT version was going to follow so closely behind the Tmobile version, I would only have one as well. I just couldn't wait. I keep the Tmobile Nexus rather than sell it because if anything were to ever happen to my ATT Nexus, my GF will NEVER let me buy a third one. I've used up my smartphone quota for quite awhile

People get too caught up in the other ROMS when in all reality Froyo briings everything they need via a stock ROM but some folks would rather run Cyano or Modaco just to say they have have a custom ROM. In all reality if you install Froyo after a clean wipe the only real bug you will encounter is with some marketplace apps not showing up. A small price to pay considering they will eventually show up and life will be back to normal. The majority of ppl complaining about other bugs are folks who flashed froyo over a cyano or modaco etc.. rom and of course they are going to have problems as this update was obviously not tested with cyano or modaco as a base rom for obvious reasons. I'd say a good 90% plus of the problems some are experiencing are due to this and the rest of us are loving Froyo to death. I'm happy with it and anxiously awaiting the official release so I can reinstall those market apps that are missing as that's the only real bug I am encountering after a clean install of Froyo.

For everyday use I feel Froyo is definitely slower than CM5.0.7 with pershoot's latest kernel. I used CM's quick rooter with Froyo so I was also OC'd for a fair comparison. I'm still going to keep using Froyo because it's fun seeing optimizations and themes etc slowly tickle out for the new Android build.

bluehaze said:
People get too caught up in the other ROMS when in all reality Froyo briings everything they need via a stock ROM but some folks would rather run Cyano or Modaco just to say they have have a custom ROM. In all reality if you install Froyo after a clean wipe the only real bug you will encounter is with some marketplace apps not showing up. A small price to pay considering they will eventually show up and life will be back to normal. The majority of ppl complaining about other bugs are folks who flashed froyo over a cyano or modaco etc.. rom and of course they are going to have problems as this update was obviously not tested with cyano or modaco as a base rom for obvious reasons. I'd say a good 90% plus of the problems some are experiencing are due to this and the rest of us are loving Froyo to death. I'm happy with it and anxiously awaiting the official release so I can reinstall those market apps that are missing as that's the only real bug I am encountering after a clean install of Froyo.
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Click to collapse
I agree, to a degree, but there is no way most people are just caught up in the hype of a ROM. The assumption and assertion that custom ROMs are pointless is unjustified, and bias to your needs. I find the the enhancements custom ROMs bring can drastically alter my user experience in many ways. For example, MCR r15 runs circles around my stock ROM, in terms of speed, performance with games, battery life, etc. Prior to FroYo, these ROMs added the wifi/wired tethering, lower capacitive button fix (thanks kmobs), better battery life, smaller file sizes for installed system, homescreen rotation (which FroYo still doesn't do), trackball colors, and various other small tidbits. Now that FroYo is out (I wonder how much of what's in FroYo only came about due to the Dev community putting it out there, and Google taking notice.. hmm), I can only imagine what the Devs will cook up to enhance it even further.

Looking forward to the future Cyano ROMS based on Froyo no doubt but at this point in time Froyo brings everything I ever rooted for and gives me better battery life to boot. The dev community certainly had some influence in the features we see today in Froyo and for that I am thankful, don't mean to sound like i'm coming down on the devs. I just don't see much point in running anything other than Froyo right now but will consider it once I see what the devs can add to it.

bluehaze said:
...
I just don't see much point in running anything other than Froyo right now but will consider it once I see what the devs can add to it.
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Well, if you want a good example - I want the option to have sd-ext partition (custom, pre-Froyo Apps2SD). Firstly because many apps I have currently don't support moving to SD - and I'm "overbooked" by at least 50MB that I have to offload to SD card to have some space left on the device, and also because I like the ability to mound SD card without loosing access to applications.
I also hate it that I don't have direct access to hidden system menus, and even for changing the browser user agent I need to write "about:debug".
Those things keep me with CM5.0.7.1 until better times.

Stock ROM - 1.5 vs 2.1 ??

I bought my gf a Sprint Hero to see if she likes using Android. Might buy an Evo or whatever comes next if she likes the platform (this is her first smartphone, I've been using them for a loooong time - since the iPaq days!)
Anyway, the used one I bought her has stock 1.5 ROM on it, and I know that the Sprint 2.1 ROM is also available. I've searched all over and see mixed opinions on if its worth upgrading or not. A lot of bugs seem to crop up in the 2.1 version, but also some new features and better app compatibility in the market.
I'm a long-time HTC device user, but always WinMo, so I'm no stranger to flashing/modding etc. But I don't want to get into that at all with her phone, she'll get angry if I try to do something and then something else breaks, so I just want whatever stock ROM "just works" best. I don't want to have to "maintain" this device.
Any advice is appreciated, thanks in advance.

Hi there. As far as what "just works"...I have used both 1.5 and 2.1 stock...some people have experienced multiple problems. I used 2.1 stock for awhile before rooting...and quite honestly, the only problems I had was occasional lag...not drastic like some have reported....and rapid battery drain. I've since rooted 2.1 and use an overclocked kernel. Now, with GPS location off (still use cell service loc.), and no task killer whatsoever...i get almost 24 hours of battery with moderate to high usage. I experience no lag whatsoever. And, quite honestly, the rooting process and installing the OC'd kernel are VERY easy. I don't know about your girlfriend, but the skeptics I know...given a few days running straight stock unrooted...came back in a couple days begging me to root and make their Hero "run like mine".

Thanks for the info. I might go that route. Are you running a ROM with Sense? Did you just root the stock Sprint Sense ROM and OC it?
Any more help would be appreciated, like I said I've done a lot of ROM flashing and modding in the past but always on WinMo, I'm new to Android but have been reading up on these forums so I think I have a good sense of what needs to be done now. I'm not afraid of rooting / flashing processes, but I really don't want to put on ROMs where little weird glitches are going to piss her off. I don't mind dealing with that on my own phone, but this really does need to be a one-time job where I can just had it off to her and never have to deal with it again

I am running a ROM with Sense. It's the actually the HTC ROM that has been rooted. Here is a link to the thread. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=703267 It runs sweet. I also formatted the stock 2gb SD card to ext for use with Apps2SD and it worked flawlessly after flashing the ROM. There are plenty of straightforward instructions here in this forum. Like I said, I think your g/f will be very pleased with the speed and battery life using this message. I flash a couple roms now and then to try something new, but always come back to this 'cuz it "just works".

1.5 is faster & more stable imo...but outdated. 2.1 provides a few new features but it's really up to her which one she wants to use. try them both out.
for 2.1 id use the stock rooted sprint rom
for 1.5 id suggest the pancake rom.

If you flash one of the OC kernels, just know that not all phones can handle the OC speeds, especially on bootup. If you decide to flash an OC kernel, MAKE SURE you nandroid backup first in case that phone goes into bootloops or freezes after the new kernel. Start with the 691mhz one just to test, then if all is good you can move up to 710mhz or 768mhz if you want more.
Also, to answer your initial question, I personally think stock 2.1 is much better overall than 1.5. Without even considering OC kernels, extra apps, widgets, etc....Android 1.5 didn't even have native CDMA support, so it had to contain a lot more code/tweaking for our Sprint build, which is why it runs so slowly and laggy. 2.1 includes CDMA support which automatically makes the code smaller and it means the OS automatically runs more quickly and smoothly on almost all HTC Heroes.
The only big consistent issue I've heard of on stock 2.1 is terrible Bluetooth functionality. Most other issues are hit or miss cases that aren't very common.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info, this has all been helpful.
To update, I dove in and just updated to the latest 2.1 Sprint official ROM (.6). I don't really think she has a current need to be rooted, as she doesn't use many apps, and doesn't need tethering.
If the need arises in the future for these things, I'll just flash the ROM linked above, or flash back to .5, root, and re-flash. Maybe by then there will be a root for .6 anyway and it will be even easier yet.
I'd also like to post my experience with 1.5 vs 2.1 I am not sure why everyone feels 2.1 is so much slower. I'm guessing it's because they haven't applied the .6 patch, which in addition to fixing the root exploit, also adds a bunch of speed enhancements in the UI.
2.1 is much faster on her phone than 1.5, especially scrolling in long lists, using the dialer, and even swiping between homescreens. She's quite happy with it, and I don't have to hack any fixes due to broken stuff in ROMs, so I'm happy too
I'm liking Android enough that I think I'm willing to buy another phone to play with, I got sick of dealing with flashing and hacking on my WinMo devices, so I went to iPhone. But I want a new Android HTC phone to play with, I think I'll buy a Nexus One or something.

[Q] best rom for a noob

What's the recommendation for a solid, basic rom I can install on my friend's Captivate? He is most definitely not a power user. He just wants his phone to operate faster and be able to enable wifi tethering. He is currently running on android 2.1, so I figure going up to 2.2 at least will help and I have already rooted it. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Probably the most stock-like ROM you could flash would be Cognition. Great ROM, has all the features you could want.
Alternately, you could run Serendipity if you want the Gingerbread look.. Or a CM7 build if you want actual Gingerbread (though buggier than the other ROMs)

Firstly, right here on the front page is a Q&A section of this forum. That's where a question like this should go.
Regarding the answer -- IMHO its so subjective that it'd be hard to recommend anything other than a stable rom that has mass appeal, usually noted by the amount of replies to a roms thread. In short, cognition would be a good starting point. I used that for a while and had very few problems. I upgraded to cyanogen a few days ago and there are certainly some bits (namely network related) but I consider myself a power user so the added features more than makes it worth it.

Well, first off, I would move this to the Q&A thread.
But I would recommend Precision or Serendipity to flash. Use the theme when flashing Precision if you want something all Black/White. If you'd rather have that stock feel, I'd go with Cognition. It's really all just trying out different ROMs and seeing what you like. All three of those are fast and will enable tethering, but yesterday, AT&T announced they will start charging rooted users tethering fees if they catch you doing it. Theoretically, they won't be able to detect the tethering if you stay under 2GB of data, though.
Hope that helped!

It depends on personal preference, wrong section to post in. Just saying and not trying to be rude

dgrooman said:
What's the recommendation for a solid, basic rom I can install on my friend's Captivate? He is most definitely not a power user. He just wants his phone to operate faster and be able to enable wifi tethering. He is currently running on android 2.1, so I figure going up to 2.2 at least will help and I have already rooted it. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although the Romitchen.org is closed for some time, their captivate section has the most compatible stuff. I have used three different roms from there and all give me full functionality - GPS (for me this works real great with Navigon), Bluetooth, Wifi, Email, Text etc. without any hassle whatsoever.
I currently have a ROm that i built from there that works great....Can post it up if you want it?
Cheers !
Its 2.2.1

Thanks for the replies and my apologies for posting in the wrong forum. Looks like cognition will be the best one to start him out on. Thanks again

dgrooman said:
What's the recommendation for a solid, basic rom I can install on my friend's Captivate? He is most definitely not a power user. He just wants his phone to operate faster and be able to enable wifi tethering. He is currently running on android 2.1, so I figure going up to 2.2 at least will help and I have already rooted it. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd recommend either Phoenix or FireFly. Both are rock solid, for the beginners FireFly might be better. They are both very good ROMS, and have great suport

kangi26 said:
I'd recommend either Phoenix or FireFly. Both are rock solid, for the beginners FireFly might be better. They are both very good ROMS, and have great suport
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Click to collapse
I totally agree with Phoenix or FireFly. Totally stable, fast, and the UI's are great. I also think it's absolutely retarded to repeat the issue with this being in the wrong thread. I swear... some of you have a real issue with power tripping. I'm pretty sure after he read the first post about it he understood pretty well. this is XDA!!! Good job on just throwing out an answer Kangi26! That's what we're all here for. HELP!!!

Designgears makes good roms for those starting off, and good roms, just in general. Back in August when I got my cappy my first rom was I believe his first rom release, [srv] 1.0 or something. It was kinda my gateway drug. But his roms are good for beginners because the process for flashing is very simple, and most of all they're pretty stable. So for people unwilling to do deal with bugs, or are prone to complaining about things they don't want to really understand as yet, designgears offers a variety of solutions.
PS....
just as everyone else has mentioned, make sure to post in the correct section to avoid cluttering the forums.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

Does Firefly unlock/enable tethering or will I still need an app like Wireless Tether? (I did read the first few pages of the official firefly thread but did not see the answer there...)

dgrooman said:
Does Firefly unlock/enable tethering or will I still need an app like Wireless Tether? (I did read the first few pages of the official firefly thread but did not see the answer there...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm almost 100%, it does. I'm running Phoenix (kind of the big brother to Fire Fly, and it is supported)
Sent from a autonomous device

Wahoo a best rom thread, Have not seen one of these in awhile.
Ok Well there is no "Best Rom" Just a "Best for you rom". I have my favs like everyone else but your best bet is to try them out as you see one that catches your eye. No one can tell you what rom you would deem best it.

[Q] My head is spinning - how to evaluate ROMs/kernels - wait for ICS?

First - Kudos to XDA and all of the amazing developers and contributors. I never believed in the concept of "too much of a good thing", but this place has me thinking that it might be possible.
I want fast and stable (unlike others looking for slow and unstable ). Due to the frequent releases and unimaginably long threads, I'm having trouble pinpointing the info that I need. Since the forum doesn't allow me to ask opinions, please provide guidance on how to find the data.
It does seem that there are several dependable choices and I can't go wrong by rolling the dice among them. Is that a fair statement? I only want to do this once, because I do not have the time or skills to evaluate and compare the installations.
And then there is ICS. The ROMs seem imminent. Anyone want to speculate on the ETA of a stable release? Would it make sense to wait?

I will get back to you later when I'm on my computer, reserved. ...
Sent from my I897 using xda premium

steveorg said:
First - Kudos to XDA and all of the amazing developers and contributors. I never believed in the concept of "too much of a good thing", but this place has me thinking that it might be possible.
I want fast and stable (unlike others looking for slow and unstable ). Due to the frequent releases and unimaginably long threads, I'm having trouble pinpointing the info that I need. Since the forum doesn't allow me to ask opinions, please provide guidance on how to find the data.
It does seem that there are several dependable choices and I can't go wrong by rolling the dice among them. Is that a fair statement? I only want to do this once, because I do not have the time or skills to evaluate and compare the installations.
And then there is ICS. The ROMs seem imminent. Anyone want to speculate on the ETA of a stable release? Would it make sense to wait?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depending on your needs, and what you're running now. There are some very good/stable GB releases, I personally like Mosaic 8 the most. Apex 10.1 is also very good. For something a little different, Miui is also very good. I suffer from somewhat poor battery life on Miui in comparison to Mosaic 8.
ICS is looking good, but there are some pretty major issues in the way right now, we really do need a kernel for our devices even though the i9000 works. There is no data(3g), and no Google calendar sync are the main issues for me. Obviously the dev's are working their butts off to get ICS going, and I dont like to speculate on timelines, because you just never know. Someone could crack the code today, or it could be weeks.

kangi26 said:
...I suffer from somewhat poor battery life...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for mentioning battery life. That's a factor that I hadn't considered. I guess that I should expand my question to ask what are the factors that I should consider? So far I have three:
Stability
Speed
Battery life
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If more are suggested, I'll add them to this post as they come in.
---
when pairing up a kernel and rom they must be the same android version (eg 2.2 2.3.3 or 2.3.5) build code (kk kj ) isnt important. (thanks TRusselo)
Do not reinstall apps that previously "fixed" issues like battery life, memory issues and GPS inadequacies because they may introduce instability, which sometimes may persist after the app is uninstalled.
Flashing is quick and easy. TiBU restores, settings tweaks and home app set-up is time consuming. Accordingly, kick a few tires to help decide which ROM works best for you.

well all the gingerbread roms are "stable". ( froyo too obviously)
many things can affect speed and battery- kernel, your apps, your habbits.
if trying a froyo first before "movin on up" MUST TRY firefly 3.0 with onix kernel. battery life worth drooling over! and many themes available for it.
gingerbread, many great roms.
when it comes to kernels, lately ive been seeing alot of "highly tweaked" kernels (eg red nebula) that well, just seems like over-kill (especially without kernel source) and to a new user is kinda "head spinning" stick with something simple and close to stock to start. samurai is a good place to start, or boogs kernels...
when pairing up a kernel and rom they must be the same android version (eg 2.2 2.3.3 or 2.3.5) build code (kk kj ) isnt important.

TRusselo said:
...many things can affect speed and battery- kernel, your apps, your habbits...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume that apps that run in the background or are processor intensive will be slower and consume more power. Is there any info to determine which ROMs or kernels are better with those kind of apps?
TRusselo said:
when it comes to kernels, lately ive been seeing alot of "highly tweaked" kernels (eg red nebula) that well, just seems like over-kill (especially without kernel source) and to a new user is kinda "head spinning" stick with something simple and close to stock to start. samurai is a good place to start, or boogs kernels...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is the kernel source an issue for someone that is not a developer? How?
TRusselo said:
when pairing up a kernel and rom they must be the same android version (eg 2.2 2.3.3 or 2.3.5) build code (kk kj ) isnt important.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll add that to the list above. Thanks, and thanks for all of your info.

steveorg said:
I assume that apps that run in the background or are processor intensive will be slower and consume more power. Is there any info to determine which ROMs or kernels are better with those kind of apps?
Is the kernel source an issue for someone that is not a developer? How?
I'll add that to the list above. Thanks, and thanks for all of your info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of those issues will be determined by the apps you run, not so much the kernel you run.
On Mosaic, I have very good performance with Talon, and Semaphore
Sent from a autonomous device

While going through the excellent XDA and Android Terms and Acronyms, I came across the definition for No-Wipe Package:
NO-WIPE PACKAGE: A rom update package that leaves the user's market apps intact while still performing the updates to the system files. Restoring from backup is not necessary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now that seem like a strong reason to use a package. Does anyone know which ROMs come with a No-Wipe Package?
However, is there any advantage to clean installs through backup/restore? Can a No-Wipe Package be used when going from Froyo to Gingerbread?

No wipe packages are usually for one ROM, when some stuff has changed but not the firmware version or anything super major.
Most roms are wipe packages, titanium backup pro comes in real handy, menu> batch> restore missing apps. And walk away til its done.

steveorg said:
And then there is ICS. The ROMs seem imminent... Would it make sense to wait?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too was wondering about this.
I'm on FireFly 3.0 and was thinking of going to Dlev 4.2.
I don't like flashing roms because it takes to long to get the phone back to my config. I prefer to flash and stick with it for some time.
Should I/we stick with a GB rom or wait for ICS?
Is there anything mind blowing in ICS that will change our world as we know it?

geeksquad2 said:
Should I/we stick with a GB rom or wait for ICS?
Is there anything mind blowing in ICS that will change our world as we know it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look, too say ICS is "imminent" is just an overstatement..........if you have not done anything to oyour phone, or have little experience, ICS maybe a step too far ahead.
If you want to go straight to Gingerbread, that may more understandable.
In my OPINION, Apex 10.1 (a i9000 ROM) or Pinnacle 1.2 (a SGH-1987 ROM) are great top-of-the-line ROMs, especially because watsa includes his own ODIN packages and they are ready to go. A no-brainer for most folks. The instructions and packages are a big plus.

Now that I'm done
The upgrade was a much more painful experience than expected, but well worth the outcome.
I wanted to do it once, and I succeeded if you redefine "once" as 5 ROM flashes with full TiBU restores, settings tweaks and home app (GO Launcher) set-up. I also performed several other ROM and Kernel flashes where I just briefly checked out the look and feel and how well a few features worked. Surprisingly, basic apps such as the Market could be problematic. Even more surprisingly, the same ROM could perform differently when reflashed.
I suspect that is partly because I had a very sick cappy. Some of my problems were caused by too many app fixes that caused their own problems. One of the reasons for the multiple flashes with TiBu restores was to isolate the trouble makers while the rest of my apps were installed. In the end, I removed every app that "fixed" issues like battery life, memory issues and GPS inadequacies. Now that I know better, I think of these apps as personal bloat ware that should not be installed with any new ROM or kernel until you've had a chance to understand if you have problems requiring a fix. Sometimes, even installing and then uninstalling seems to create permanent problems.
I also learned not to be intimidated by flashing. It's an easy to understand and quick process. The key is to check out the ROM before the hard part - TiBu restores and customizing the settings.
BTW - The winner was (drum roll please ) - Illuminance 2.1.1. It has several SGSII features (new Swype is nice), seems fast, doubled my battery life and has been stable. I compared it to a friend's brand-spanking new AT&T SGS II and my reborn cappy held up. For example, the SGSII was a a bit faster on loading Google Maps, getting a fix and loading a traffic overlay, but not so much that there was a functional difference.
I actually flashed Illuminance 3 times - once just to kick the tires. I removed it once because my bloat created instability and caused the Market not to work. The only minor issue I have left is GPS optimization. The GPS works well (previously was often useless and very slow), but from reading this forum I believe it could be snappier and more accurate.
I added some of these observations to my second post on this thread.

Personally, I'd say just flash MIUI and then wait for the ICS port to become stable enough to be used as a daily driver without any major setbacks. But only because that's what I'm doing
The main attraction of MIUI is its huge degree of customization. You can customize everything from the battery icon to the framework itself without ever having to reboot your phone. You just find a theme you like and apply it.
The only downside of it is the battery life. While in use, it's the same as any other Samsung/CM7-based ROM, but it usually drains at ~5% per hour when in standby. Of course this can be kept at around ~2% an hour if you keep wifi/data/sync turned off (personal experience, ymmv).
... The more you know
Herp derp Captivate XDA Premium.

chappatti said:
Look, too say ICS is "imminent" is just an overstatement..........if you have not done anything to oyour phone, or have little experience, ICS maybe a step too far ahead.
If you want to go straight to Gingerbread, that may more understandable.
In my OPINION, Apex 10.1 (a i9000 ROM) or Pinnacle 1.2 (a SGH-1987 ROM) are great top-of-the-line ROMs, especially because watsa includes his own ODIN packages and they are ready to go. A no-brainer for most folks. The instructions and packages are a big plus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, so I spent a week or so reading up, and finally this afternoon, I flashed over to Pinnacle v1.2. I noticed that there was a v1.3, but I didn't get it.
It worked like a charm! I was done in under an hour. Thanks for your advice!

i would add that if you are getting into flashing a lot of different roms, its worth getting the paid version of Titanium Backup because it can restore all of your apps and settings in one step, rather than with the free version, where you have to click "install" for each one as the batch process happens. it will literally save you hours for all of maybe $6

If you really don't want to lose anything and you're getting into flashing it might be worth your money to invest in mybackup pro ontop of titanium backup pro.
It will restore call logs, sms, mms, specific app settings (like if you use a market keyboard), plus alot more. Its definitely worth it, you can restore nearly everything between after switching roms to a new daily driver.
Flashing is a disease so don't be surprised when you get the urge to look up whats new in a couple weeks and wanna try the different ICS roms and such, make all the backup software extremely important.

geeksquad2 said:
I too was wondering about this.
I'm on FireFly 3.0 and was thinking of going to Dlev 4.2.
I don't like flashing roms because it takes to long to get the phone back to my config. I prefer to flash and stick with it for some time.
Should I/we stick with a GB rom or wait for ICS?
Is there anything mind blowing in ICS that will change our world as we know it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No...not really (on Beta 2 ics)...its just cool
I would update though.....really stable.

There is not a true beta 2 ICS for the Captivate, ytt3r hasn't done it yet.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium

b-eock said:
There is not a true beta 2 ICS for the Captivate, ytt3r hasn't done it yet.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its the i9000 build with a custom captivate kernel....works the same as it would if it were a i897 rom.

Dude I know what it is... But there isn't a beta 2 kernel for the captivate yet...
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium

[Q] rom recommendations

A friend of mine just replaced his phone with a Droid 4 yesterday. He asked if I could put a custom rom on it for him. He was running CM7 on his previous phone and liked the customization options and speed.
I know almost nothing about this phone and the roms available for it. Can any give me any suggestions or recommendations for roms? My main concern is stability, with speed and customization at a distant second and third concern.
If you do recommend a rom can you please give me:
1. a quick snippet of why you recommend or like it?
2. let me know if there are any issues or non-working issues.
3. provide a link for the rom. The rom development section here is very messy compared to the EVO 4G sub-forum, which is where I spend my time.
Thanks for the nobbish posting. I really appreciate all the work and effort you guys put into developing roms and assisting others with flashing.
-d

Considering your friend is asking you to put a ROM on his phone for him I assume he is not proficient enough to do this on his own, thus your main priority being stability. That probably rules out jumping to the stock ICS leak builds floating around.
ICS ROMs for those currently running stock GB include Gummi, CM9, and AOKP. These, unfortunately, are rather buggy due to attempting to run an ICS based ROM off the stock GB kernel. Data connectivity is the major issue but there are camera and video recording issues as well. There is a work around involving wiping caches to get data back when it drops but, again, if your main priority is stability I would not recommend any of those.
That leaves Eclipse and Arctic. These are both GB based ROMs. I am running Eclipse myself and it is quite smooth with no issues at all. Highly recommend. I don't have much experience with Arctic. I ran it for a couple of days but preferred the look and feel of Eclipse.
Once the official ICS OTA drops things will obviously change, but I think that pretty much sums up the current state of things. Hope that helps!