Database Develop

Is Android supposed to be stable?

Maybe im expecting too much:
When I press gallery, almost 1/3 of the time only 1 or 2 categories come up and no thumbnails. Then i exit and press again and a few more things show up. Then i exit again and usually the 3rd time or so the app opens properly.
Also, about once every 2 weeks i press an app and it opens a different app. And this happens with multiple apps. The only way to fix it is to reboot.
I dont use a task manager
I reboot the phone every couple of days
I wipe the phone about once every 1 or 2 months
Is one of the above practices ruining my device?
I bought the phone and i havent done anything custom to it. Why does my polished 2.1 firmware work like a 5th grade science experiment?

Have occasionally noticed that the gallery app does not pick up all images and categories... something with the media scanner... try using the media scanner in the dev tools app or unmount and remount ur sd card...
Never had any problems with apps opening wrong apps... this is very strange... I have no idea why this is happening and quite frankly, I can;t think of anything which would serve as a possible solution!

Occasionally I've had the latest picture taken not show up in the gallery, but that's it. Stock O/S is great.
Never had it open the wrong app.
I don't run a task killer, don't reboot & have never wiped.

About the app opening the wrong app thing I guess its good news if I'm the only one. Is it possible that I've downloaded an app that is causing it? Or is it more likely an OS issue? it seems a little cheesy that the phone does this, if I could fix it without rebooting that would be a step in the right direction...

Likely an app you downloaded, or just something a little off about the flashing of your update, or a bad RAM memory block at the wrong place.
As for the gallery, I thought I had that issue a bit too, but I noticed that more than anything it just takes a really long time to open fully if it has been kicked out of the cache.
As for the original question posed in the thread title, Android is still Beta in a lot of ways. 2.0/1 is a huge change in many ways from 1.6. It sounds like 2.2 is going to be a bit of a change as well, but instead of changing nearly everything, it is going to build of 2.0/1 plus add in some changes. I am willing to bet that until the release after Gingerbread (the OS after 2.2, aka FroYo), not sure what the "H" release will be codenamed will we see an OS that isn't "Beta" in enough ways for me to call it non-Beta personally... then again, so far Android is less buggy than windows mobile, better than Blackberry even, and on par with iPhone OS, if not better in these regards.
Just like an OS for a computer, same holds true for a smartphone, there are going to be bugs, there are going to be bad programs/apps, and so forth.
I think you should wait for FroYo, if Android still doesn't meet your standards, root and flash some of the custom ROMs. Enom is very stock like, but fixes many of the little bugs, as does Cyan, although with Cyan you do get a few more bugs in some of the development apps and what not.

Just a thought, but maybe you're suffering from the occasional wacky touchscreen issue?
So it's not that it's just opening the wrong app, but the screen is registering a touch in a different place, it's usually most noticable when typing. If it is that, then a simple lock/unlock will solve it, no need for a reboot.

[ThinkTank] How to speed up Market after wipe (Partial fix)

Okay, this has been bugging me for a long time. I've been around since the beginning of G1 and have never seen a solution to this. I'm out of town on vacation, so my updates and responses may be slow. I've found a partial solution for this. If you don't want to read the fluff, drop down to Partial Solution sections, but be warned, this is not perfect (yet). Below is a quick spilling of my guts on this. Please excuse any grammar mistakes and fragmented thought. I posted this in DEV because more research needs to be done by someone that knows how this stuff works. If we get this worked out, I'll update this post with whatever information is necessary.
This post takes for granted the reader has some knowledge of file management and manipulation, so I won't get too detailed with how to copy/move/delete files. There is a lot of information here and I know most won't read it all, but I'm trying to get all the detail into this I can think of in hopes others have ideas that we can share.
I DO NOT KNOW THE RAMIFICATIONS OF WHAT THIS DOES! ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOUR PHONE IS YOUR FAULT, NOT MINE! Etc... Etc... Etc...
Issue: After flashing/Odin/wiping, sometimes the Market takes about a minute to load as does the app and security info screens. The Top Paid button is missing and all that's available is Top Free and Just In. Installing an app takes quite a bit of time. It eventually clears up, but it may take up to a week.
If you restore Market preferences via Titanium Backup or similar app, it can speed it up, but in the long run, you may get cross referenced apps over time or Market problems in general. For example, I install app1 and when it's finished, I select it in notifications and it takes me to app3. Some apps are also missing from Downloads and have to be installed again for them to show up. I also experience Titanium Backup not linking the Market correctly if at all. How to fix that is below, also.
How I Tested: I renamed /dbdata/databases/com.android.vending which reproduced the problem reliably and gave me a working set of databases and .xml's to look at.
Partial Solution: Save a copy of /dbdata/databases/com.android.vending/shared_prefs/vending_preferences.xml and put it back after you've restored your apps and opened Market once (just to lay down the directory structure). There are other files that will get more "stuff" back, but because of issues I've had between vending.apk versions, I choose to restore just this one file. It doesn't seem to change much. You can look in it and find some interesting things, but I've found changing it does very little if anything. Changing local_db_sync_required didn't do anything and it just reverted back to "false" for me.
What you will find, is Market will run quickly again BUT, you have no links so none of your apps show as installed. Although it will probably sync over time, the point of my messing around was fairly instant gratification. Thus the next section.
New Problem: Market speed is normal, but no apps are linked. Hey, I use Titanium backup! Fix Market links works, partially. I have 226 apps backed up in TB (Yes, this is why I wanted to get this working) and when I fixed Market links, it found 167. I fixed them again and it found 9, then 17, then 6 etc... It repeated some apps and never detected others. I checked and some of the "fixed" apps did not show in downloads... So I started looking. Menu -> Legend showed me part of the issue. Smiley face -vs- green M. For some reason, some of my apps were not linking properly. Here's how to get that part working.
Partial Solution: Here's what I did in TB. I filtered by Status: Backed up and Type: User. Starting at the top of the list, I long pressed on the first "smiley face" which means it didn't back up the Market link and if it was "Attached to Market", I Detached it. View in Market and installed the app. When it was done, I backed the app up again and viola, green M showing it backed up the Market link. I did this many, many more times to fix my links. It worked in all occasions as long as I could find the app in the Market. Of course, some apps installed outside the Market cannot be fixed (duh), but all others worked fine.
I still have a problem getting everything attached in one shot. If I fix Market links in TB, I still get strange results, but this is as close as I can get and I found quite a few apps that have not been linked for so long, they were a few revs behind, so I'm happy with how far I've gotten.
Questions that will be asked:
- Why didn't you force attach to Market with TB? Because it didn't work. Some indicated it did, but they didn't show up in Market as installed, they didn't back up as linked and some even reverted back to not being attached and the forced button was available. The above is how I got around all of that.
- What about the other cool DB's and .xml? I didn't find that it was worth any possible issues to restore anything else except this file. That is probably what got me into this in the first place. Your mileage may vary. DB's usually need an update script if any changes are made. If that doesn't happen and the schema doesn't match, that's usually bad. That's why a lot of ROM's require a wipe. The old doesn't match the new...
- Why can't you backup Market with TB now that it is working well? I could and it would probably work, but I know it won't work forever because it didn't before. It also won't help someone else who is in a similar situation. I've been using TB (paid) since it came out and I love it. But, it's not perfect.
- Why should I mess with this instead of waiting for it to fix itself? You probably shouldn't. I've found that if I did a restore of apps, some NEVER go back to the Downloads section without a re-install. That's my concern.
- I don't have any of these problems, why are you posting this? Because I and others have. The universe does not revolve around you. Please move on.
- Why did you post this in Dev? As I said in the beginning, because we need someone who knows how this OS works so maybe a reliable workaround can be had for all. I didn't post in DEV for exposure, I posted here because I started it and I don't know where to go. Maybe a fix can be turned into an app or incorporated directly within a ROM. Who knows? I'm not a DEVing, but I am troubleshooting an issue within the OS.

One thing I've found that helps, is I kinda ignore if it shows up in Downloads in the market after a restore. I check for updates using AppBrain app, it finds all the apps on the phone whether they're in the market or not. Then, whenever an app is updated, it directs you to the market download page. If the market link was broken, that will say "Install" instead of "Update", but an install at that point will update properly, and you'll now have a working market link.
The main goal of having apps show up in the market, IMHO, is updates and uninstalls. Use the system uninstaller rather than the market for uninstalls, and use AppBrain to find updates. Works for me.

Thanks a lot for putting this up! I was banging my head against the wall last night, as I ran into this issue again and couldnt remember how I fixed it on my G1

zimphishmonger said:
Thanks a lot for putting this up! I was banging my head against the wall last night, as I ran into this issue again and couldnt remember how I fixed it on my G1
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Click to collapse
yw
lotherius said:
One thing I've found that helps, is I kinda ignore if it shows up in Downloads in the market after a restore. I check for updates using AppBrain app, it finds all the apps on the phone whether they're in the market or not. Then, whenever an app is updated, it directs you to the market download page. If the market link was broken, that will say "Install" instead of "Update", but an install at that point will update properly, and you'll now have a working market link.
The main goal of having apps show up in the market, IMHO, is updates and uninstalls. Use the system uninstaller rather than the market for uninstalls, and use AppBrain to find updates. Works for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I rarely uninstall via market. Have an app that throws me straight to the system uninstaller from the apps icon. I like appbrain, but it exhibits the same issue as the Market for me as far as detecting installed apps in some cases. I use the Market for updates and it works fine for me as long as the apps are linked. I think it has something to do with the hash getting messed up in the assets.db

Captivate boots slow, issues. How to troubleshoot?

So, a little history...
I'm on my 2nd Captivate (unrelated issue). The boot problems didn't arise until I restored my data onto it. The first time I tried restoring system data along with my apps (which I figured was safe since I was going from 2.1 stock to the same) but that had lots of issues. So I did a factory reset, and started over. This time I just restored apps and their data, and a few specific pieces of system data (contacts, wifi APs, etc). That worked better. But later I got too aggressive with what system apps I "froze" (using Titanium Backup), and it got into boot loops I couldn't break out of. So I did another factory reset.
This time, first I carefully froze only apps I was to confirm were safe to freeze. I didn't proceed restoring my apps until I was done freezing and ensured it was booting fine. I then restored all my apps (and their data). The problem is now that it takes forever to boot... in fact, it'll go into a boot loop if I just leave it be. It seems the only way I can gain access is to try and unlock it before it's done booting, clear any "Force close" errors (sometimes takes a few tries) and given enough attempts, I can get in. But the boot takes an unbelievable amount of time, and even with my original apps is many times longer than before on my previous Captivate. Once I fuss my way in, it seems mostly fine, but something is obviously wrong and I want to get it straightened out.
Aside from doing another factory reset, and reinstalling all my apps (which takes like a day without troubleshooting after each, since batch restores in TB don't seem to work well on the Captivate so I have to do them one by one), I'm hoping there's a way to troubleshoot it in its current state and try to fix the problem surgically versus erasing and starting over. I looked at the logcat logs but got in over my head... there are so many errors and warnings and I don't know what's normal and what isn't... too many to know where to begin with searching Google.
So... advice? What tools are available? Even the logcat doesn't seem to kick in until the boot is mostly done, so I'm not sure if it can catch the problem while it's happening. One frustrating thing about Android is that is seems to have no "safe mode" or other diagnostic boot or full logging where you can methodically look at what's happening and experiment with the config. If this was a Windows, Linux or FreeBSD box I'd be in my element and able to get to the bottom of this, but on Android I feel even more crippled, locked-out and helpless than even on Windows. Urgh.
There's got to be a better way to troubleshoot and fix than endless random factory resets. This is something us anti-Windows people scold PC makers for, with all their use of "Restore CDs" for every minor and trivial software issue.
Thanks!

I can't help but think you are still disabling some essential system apps. Either that or one of your apps is causing major problems. Please list what you have frozen in tibu. Btw, the batch function works fine and is what most people on here use.
Also, what is force closing after you restore your apps.

newter55 said:
I can't help but think you are still disabling some essential system apps. Either that or one of your apps is causing major problems. Please list what you have frozen in tibu. Btw, the batch function works fine and is what most people on here use.
Also, what is force closing after you restore your apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, thanks for taking a stab at this.
My frozen apps are:
* AllShare
* AT&T FamilyMap
* AT&T Hot Spots
* AT&T Maps
* AT&T Music
* AT&T Navigator
* AT&T Radio
* Daily Briefing
* Days
* Instant Messaging
* Media Hub
* Mini Diary
* Mobile Banking
* Mobile Video
* MobiTV
* Where
* Write and Go
* YPmobile
I also tried removing my MicroSD card, as well as switching back to Touchwiz (from LauncherPro). Didn't help.
Yeah the batch problem in TB is very frustrating. I'm using the pay/donate version so I'm missing out on a feature I paid for. I've been exchanging emails with Joel (the author) and we haven't figured it out yet. Batch backups work fine. Batch uninstalls also work fine (update: phone just spontaneously rebooted after about 50 or so uninstalls in a batch). It's the batch restores that seem to choke it. It's not corrupt backup files... a verify runs fine, and I can individually restore the same handful of apps one by one that will choke and hang/reboot the Captivate if attempted to restore in a batch.
The FC error I get is on boot-up, as I try to unlock the screen prior to the boot finishing. I often see "Process system is not responding".
I have aLogcat installed, if that's any use. A few questions about that:
- What's the best logging level to view on? In other words, do I care about "Warnings"?
- What errors are common, harmless, and safe to ignore?
Currently I've tried uninstalling everything down to just a few core apps. Certainly boots fine now, but I get plenty of warnings and errors in logcat.

Are u restoring just the user installed apps+data, or system apps too? Or restoring system stuff like contacts data, accounts prefs, etc?

diablo009 said:
Are u restoring just the user installed apps+data, or system apps too? Or restoring system stuff like contacts data, accounts prefs, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not do a "restore system data" or any batch/bulk option in TB that restored all system data. As I recall, the only system data I restored a-la-carte (by selecting the individual item from the TB list) were:
Accounts
Bluetooth pairints
Bookmarks
Calendar
Contacts
Wi-Fi Access Points
These were all items in green in TB. I don't believe I restored anything else. Possibilities I suppose are wallpaper settings, "Country, Launguage, Time Zone"... but I definitely would not have restored anything not green.
Are these items safe? Is there any system data definitely not safe to restore? I have to wonder though, if "system data" is unsafe to even restore to the same stock OS version... why back it up at all?
I'm not a long distance from doing yet another factory reset I suppose, if it must come to that. But I'd love a way a bit more analytical/exacting to try and troubleshoot this other than "reinstall one app, reboot, see what happens" as that will take me a week to get back to where I was. I also suspect it's not just one single app that would suddenly show a huge difference after installing, but instead might be the cumulative errors from several apps and knowing how to identify that and clean them up would be useful.

Using adb logcat you can view what is occurring while the phone is booting and possibly see where it is hanging or what is causing the slow boot times. I have seen problems from restoring data such as accounts and contacts with titanium backup but does not seem that it should be an issue when using the same system though I have very little experience with the stock firmware. I know it is not an answer to your question but it seems that you are wanting to remove all the att/Samsung BS so why not flash a rom that does this as well as much more?
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Thanks for the tip about adb. I've actually not needed adb for anything yet so I've never set it up or used it. I wasn't aware that the service would be active early enough on the phone's boot process to allow it to log boot logs... nor was I even aware it could do this. I'll definitely check out how to set this up... however, if you have a free second and can point me in the right direction (FAQ, instructions, etc) it'd certainly be appreciated otherwise I'll search around and try to find it.
I could probably find other ways to restore contacts and could set my accounts up again manually but I really doubt that's the cause and the other ways are sort of a pain and imperfect. Since neither of us is really convinced that'd be it I won't bother yet until/unless you really suspect it.
I wondered how long it'd take before someone would suggest a custom ROM, this being XDA and all. Short version is I'm not really sold on the concept, as they are all based on the buggy beta leaked ROM, or 2.2 ROMs from other devices that have been hacked up to sort of work as well as possible on the Captivate. All seem to have issues... enough that I'm not really left feeling confident about them. Seems every release unleashes new issues despite addressing old ones, and all seem to have at least a handful of gremlin items that just don't work quite right. Don't have a warm fuzzy feeling, and I still feel like Samsung is going to release an official 2.2 for the Captivate within the next month or so, so I'm interested to see what comes of that. If nothing else, it'll give a better baseline for custom 2.2 ROMs. Then there's the 2.3 being worked on... now that might be interesting.
I don't really think my issue here is related to me running 2.1.

On my phone so it is a pita to search and add a link for you but search for android sdk and you will find what you need to get adb up and running.
And as far as the rom issue goes..it is your phone and I respect your concerns I just had to ask

I would think its media hub that slows it down. It will search your SD cards on every boot. I would start there first.

smokestack76 said:
I would think its media hub that slows it down. It will search your SD cards on every boot. I would start there first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's one of the apps I've frozen though.

For me the longest process while booting is the stupid media scanner upon bootup. Takes FOREVER for the phone to finally "boot" all the way up.
Been looking for a way to disable it (not really lol) and only have it scan manually to see if the boot time will improve. I'd start searching there.
Also - from what I've read nothing you did should have affected the phone. BUT - if your using Google for your Calendar and Contacts.. and they all get synced up to Google? Why bother doing the restore for those? After you sign up with the Market they get pulled back down to your phone automagically

It's definitely more than just the media scanner. I watch that. When everything is loaded up, it actually reboots in a loop unless intercept the FC. The media scanner will rerun over and over each time... far more than the standard two times.
And I use Google Calendar for my events, but I keep my contacts locally on my phone.

So what is the FC again?
Yep.. my media scanner will run at least 3 times before it stops checking everything.
Very frustrating that the software does this EVERY time I boot back into my phone - you'd think a programmer would put a check to see if it had run before or make it user configurable to scan when you want it to.

avgjoegeek said:
So what is the FC again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See my second post (reply #3):
"Process system is not responding"

LOL sorry not enough coffee and a lil' guy that decided to wake up at 4a.m. = not a good mix.
Well.. did the ol' wise search of Google and came up with:
Might be a permissions issue. Easiest way to fix it is to run ROM Manager and have it fix permisions.
Run the command yourself in ADB:
Code:
Open terminal and
>su
$mount -a
$fix_permissions -r
The -r is optional, but necessary if you find orphaned apps (the app not found please reinstall message)
And reboot. That may help.
And it was also stated that you might have an errant widget/application causing the issue as well. That will be fun trying to figure out what it is.

And.. from my non-dev/non-professional experience - I have checked the logs on my phone and do see a large number of warnings on the phone - but never hindered performance.
So.. 99% of the time you can probably ignore them.
But back to the FC issue - I would try doing a restore of your apps/data again (I read where you have it back down to the "core) and then run the permission script or have ROM Manager do it for you and see if it returns.

Just an update that I think the "fix permissions" thing solved most (but perhaps not all) of my issues. Thanks so much for the tip. I've been reinstalling apps in batches and it's much better, although I see it getting bogged-down bit by bit and I can't pin down what or why.
Thing is, the apps I'm installing in these later rounds/batches shouldn't be resident all the time, shouldn't be auto-loading, and don't come up in things like Startup Cleaner or Advanced Task Killer. Nor do the various process monitors I've tried seem to have the granularity/ability to catch them while they're happening.
So things are better, but I still have some issues without a suitable means to diagnose. I don't get why just having more apps installed, but not running, should affect boot time so much. Hmm...
An inability to troubleshoot certainly rains on my love-affair with Android... not that I'm jumping to another platform anytime soon, but I really want this to work well (as well as be a good salesman to friends and family who often turn to me to show off quality technology).

Mini Uninstaller (fast way of uninstalling apps)

Hello,
I have with me an app I would like to share with the HD2, and XDA community which I previously found on the Google Market which now doesnt exist anymore.
I managed to copy out the APK and I will attach below.
The app is good for
Listing all your installed apps quickly so you can remove them
Smooth scrolling
Sort by Name/Size/Last Installed/Install Location
Search
Just needs to build cache during first launch, and doesnt work on LANDSCAPE, which are the only disadvantages of it.
I personally use the Last Installed sorting mechanism, to view all the last installed and remove. I install quite a number of apps and usually when I found that it sucked, I enter this app quickly and remove them (latest apps appear on top of the list)
I have been using this since 2.2 FROYO and it doesnt seem to give errors back then. On GB 2.3, I noticed an occasional error message :
[Opps Sorry I got error ] but this doesnt stop it from uninstalling the application.
I have given this app rigorous testing and it has survived 2.2+ and 2.3+ Androids application removal, whether it produces errors or not.
I also noticed that this app has been removed from the Google Market, without reason from the developer / Google. Hence I would not mention anything about future release or support, neither do I know whether it would damage your device/ operating system but I certainly ONLY been using this app to remove applications and it has been TREMENDOUSLY awesome. Give it a try, and let me know whether you found similiar apps in terms of speed, features and outlook.
Credits to its developer, which I remember to be known as MINIGUY after a few Googles. I also couldnt find this application anymore hence I am posting it here
If this has been posted before I apologize.
Dont forget to click the THANKS button if you found this app useful
On another note, this applications is FREE and is not WAREZ

It sounds like appsaver.. is it better?

Hnktc said:
It sounds like appsaver.. is it better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think ive tried appsaver but this is an app that lists out all your apps pretty quickly and lets u just choose to uninstall them
its like add/remove programs, but way way faster than anything ive tried especially 200 apps
default manage applications takes nearly 15 seconds to load, while this takes 1-2 seconds, tops

Thanks for the app. I will give it a try! :0)

I realized that this application was ripped and published as someone else's work as follow up
its called "Uninstaller" in market , which uses the same error message, logo, text, font, settings, buttons, icons
you are free to use both as they produce the same results and same settings

Trying out Droid 4 ROMs, and so far LineageOS 14.1 is problematic.

Hi all, I'm considering a move to Droid 4 from Stratosphere II. So far I've rooted it and flashed in the altpart version of SafeStrap recovery. This requires the use of the 20170405 unofficial build of LineageOS 14.1 that I had to dig out of an archive in Germany which uses the WebTop partition as a fat, juicy 1.3GB /system partition for gapps and also leaves me with a full 8.0GB free internal memory. HOWEVER --
Its performance is sporadic. At times it hangs for a long time before doing anything, like open the camera or the browser (I'm using Adblock Plus with the stocker disabled). The camera can take over 30 seconds to load. Often it's so slow to open things I tap on, that I tap on it again thinking it didn't "hear" me the first time, then it processes both taps and gives me more than I bargained for and damn near sends me into orbit over it. It takes some real restraint not to tap twice on stuff, but it's all just wearing me out.
The GoogleNow app is especially bad. It's so slow it's basically unusable. This was true on my Strat-II as well, but going back to the stock version fixed it there -- however I have been unable to transplant that version over to the Droid 4 with TitaniumBackup.
Videos are unwatchable, whether natively produced or on YouTube. They skip, hang, jerk and stutter.
Bluetooth has issues pairing with devices. I've sometimes been able to get things to pair after rebooting, sometimes not. And there's often an audio stutter in there until I reboot -- which seems like a memory problem again.
Wifi doesn't work after a soft reboot.
I tried a newer build (2/22/18) but it was just as bad if not worse. Same with an older 13.0 build. I think the reality here is that there's just not enough RAM to work with. If it had the full 1.0GB available to the OS (instead of the 834MB it actually has) it would probably alleviate these problems, but the video RAM is apparently shared and not discrete.
So my question is, can anyone recommend a well-behaved, solid-performing ROM for Droid 4?

dd350 said:
Hi all, I'm considering a move to Droid 4 from Stratosphere II. So far I've rooted it and flashed in the altpart version of SafeStrap recovery. This requires the use of the 20170405 unofficial build of LineageOS 14.1 that I had to dig out of an archive in Germany which uses the WebTop partition as a fat, juicy 1.3GB /system partition for gapps and also leaves me with a full 8.0GB free internal memory. HOWEVER --
Its performance is sporadic. At times it hangs for a long time before doing anything, like open the camera or the browser (I'm using Adblock Plus with the stocker disabled). The camera can take over 30 seconds to load. Often it's so slow to open things I tap on, that I tap on it again thinking it didn't "hear" me the first time, then it processes both taps and gives me more than I bargained for and damn near sends me into orbit over it. It takes some real restraint not to tap twice on stuff, but it's all just wearing me out.
The GoogleNow app is especially bad. It's so slow it's basically unusable. This was true on my Strat-II as well, but going back to the stock version fixed it there -- however I have been unable to transplant that version over to the Droid 4 with TitaniumBackup.
Videos are unwatchable, whether natively produced or on YouTube. They skip, hang, jerk and stutter.
Bluetooth has issues pairing with devices. I've sometimes been able to get things to pair after rebooting, sometimes not. And there's often an audio stutter in there until I reboot -- which seems like a memory problem again.
Wifi doesn't work after a soft reboot.
I tried a newer build (2/22/18) but it was just as bad if not worse. Same with an older 13.0 build. I think the reality here is that there's just not enough RAM to work with. If it had the full 1.0GB available to the OS (instead of the 834MB it actually has) it would probably alleviate these problems, but the video RAM is apparently shared and not discrete.
So my question is, can anyone recommend a well-behaved, solid-performing ROM for Droid 4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What did you expect? it is a ancient phone. Give Sailfish OS a try, or just run CM9 or CM11. If you want a bit newer go as high as CM12.1 or some other 5.1.1 rom. Stop trying to run 2017 software on a 2012 device. Personally I can't wait for my new Droid 4 to come in the mail so I can run Sailfish OS on it. My first goal will be getting alien dalvik to work, then perhaps making my own stable builds.
EDIT: Also about the 834MB of ram, the device does have 1GB of ram, it is just that part of it has been reserved for only system use. This avoids system crashes when you have a lot of apps open, and like you said some of it is also reserved for graphics related things.

dd350 said:
So my question is, can anyone recommend a well-behaved, solid-performing ROM for Droid 4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you stay away from GApps, and use microG instead, everything works quite well (you can even use Play Store) with some Marshmallow and Nougat ROMs.
I'm using Mokee 60.1 (based on LOS 6.0.1) at the moment. With Xposed to enable Signature Spoofing for microG. Bluetooth, video, WLAN, no problem. Of course its slower than "modern" phones and sometimes hangs a bit. I have no experience with GoogleNow.
I'm testing crDroid 3.8.5 (based on LOS 7.1.2) now and I'm considering to change because it seems a bit snappier.
Hope this helps!

Thanks, I hadn't thought about it that way (Gapps being the problem more than the ROM) before. I tried Mokee a few days ago and it was too slow with the Gapps package I used, and I don't speak Mandarin so lots of the menus were... unenlightening to me. I am currently evaluating SlimKat (4.4) with a "normal" Gapps package and it is going really well so far. Just a few more things to test and if all goes well I'm dropping it in the stock slot.
My expectation was that once all the bloat was stripped out that the 13/14 versions would still run decently on this older hardware, but apparently not--even with a pico Gapps. I don't even like the newer versions anyway, and they offer me nothing more than KitKat with a whole lot less performance, so I'm happy to run a KitKat ROM if that is where the performance sweet spot is for a Droid 4... until a new QWERTY slider comes out. Any day now.

dd350 said:
My expectation was that once all the bloat was stripped out that the 13/14 versions would still run decently on this older hardware, but apparently not--even with a pico Gapps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OpenGapps really bring the performance down.
I use the Droid 4 with LOS 14.2 as my daily driver, but only with MicroG and the PlayStore app. I wrote about that here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/dr...epartition-t3676476/post73956388#post73956388
(The first step can now be replaced with installing XPosed and the FakeGapps module for XPosed. It wasn't available at the time I wrote the post above).
I also went into the privacy options and disabled background running and auto startup for almost every application except WhatsApp. Now the device runs smooth as butter.
Edit: Almost forgot, one of these overclocked kernels really bring a bit more performance:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-4/development/kernel-nougat-custom-droid-4-razr-oc-t3499366
It depends on how well the CPU inside your device has been manufactured, though. Mine runs very well at 1.4GHz with ultra low voltage - that's a lot more speed and a bit more battery life

That's interesting, I've got a spare for testing I'll try that out on.

I got the OC kernel running, but no luck trying to install microG. The only APK I could find for Xposed was blocked for downloading as "unsafe". Is there a list of valid links for all this somewhere?

dd350 said:
I got the OC kernel running, but no luck trying to install microG. The only APK I could find for Xposed was blocked for downloading as "unsafe". Is there a list of valid links for all this somewhere?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xposed: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3034811
Flash the appropriate zip-file depending on your Android version and install exposedinstaller3.1.5
reboot (probably not necessary)
Load FakeGapps module in Xposed to enable signature spoofing
wait for FakeGapps module to load then reboot
microG: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/microg-unofficial-installer-t3432360
Flash zip. Installs (latest version of) microG. Installs Playstore to the appropriate (system) directory and sets necessary permissions
If you use a ROM with built-in signature spoofing you don't need steps 1 - 4, just activate signature spoofing in the ROM's settings.
(e.g. crDroid. Note: Flash OC-Kernel and WLAN will work!)
To get things working:
launch microG settings
goto Self-Check
allow signature spoofing for microG by tapping on the text of the relevant menu item
reboot (probably not necessary)
in microG settings enable Google device registration
launch PlayStore and follow instructions to sign into your Google account
opening PlayStore probably fails with error RH-01
clear PlayStore app cache & reboot (sometimes force close PlayStore app is sufficient)
PlayStore should work now
Have fun

belrei said:
Flash the appropriate zip-file depending on your Android version and install exposedinstaller3.1.5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where is exposedinstaller3.1.5? I see only an uninstaller.
Load FakeGapps module in Xposed to enable signature spoofing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is FakeGapps module loaded in Xposed? I have installed Xposed v89 for SDK25 in SafeStrap but I see no way to configure anything about it.

dd350 said:
Where is exposedinstaller3.1.5? I see only an uninstaller.
How is FakeGapps module loaded in Xposed? I have installed Xposed v89 for SDK25 in SafeStrap but I see no way to configure anything about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
App (to load Xposed modules, - not to install the Xposed framework, this is done with the zip you flashed) see "Attached Files" at the end of the respective post (XposedInstaller_3.1.5.apk)
(the uninstaller you saw uninstalls the Xposed framework)
Xposed modules are loaded using the XposedInstaller app
Hope this helps
PS: changed from Mokee (Marshmallow) to crDroid 3.8.5 (Nougat) yesterday successfully. Much better performance. Some random reboots during app install (hope this will stop when everything is set up). Feels like a new phone.

belrei said:
PS: changed from Mokee (Marshmallow) to crDroid 3.8.5 (Nougat) yesterday successfully. Much better performance. Some random reboots during app install (hope this will stop when everything is set up). Feels like a new phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Found it here, will give it a try today: https://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-4/development/rom-crdroid-unofficial-n-t3668542

Got microG working with crDroid, looks pretty awesome so far. But I can't get signed in to Google Voice. Without that I'm dead in the water. I need Hangouts as well, and that reports that it needs Google Play Services which is not supported.

I went ahead and did a pico Gapps install, and crDroid actually works really well with it - far better than Lineage does, and then of course all the Google stuff I need to use is there. I'm testing it out with the OC kernel and it had occasional reboots with the ULV 1.4 OC, so I'm dropping back to the LV 1.4 instead to see if that smooths it out. Otherwise it's the best Nougat ROM I've tried yet on D4.

dd350 said:
Where is exposedinstaller3.1.5? I see only an uninstaller.
How is FakeGapps module loaded in Xposed? I have installed Xposed v89 for SDK25 in SafeStrap but I see no way to configure anything about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It'd be so much easier and require much less steps if you just ran Sailfish OS

Galaxyninja66 said:
My first goal will be getting alien dalvik to work, then perhaps making my own stable builds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Galaxyninja66,
I've been using SFOS since the Droid 4 version became available, and I love it. On the whole, I manage fine without Android apps, but there are 1 or 2 it would be very useful to have. I had a go at getting AD working, and I seemed to have it set up correctly, but I wasn't able to launch anything If you do get it working, and you get a moment, could you let me know what you did please?
Thanks

moodroid said:
Hi Galaxyninja66,
I've been using SFOS since the Droid 4 version became available, and I love it. On the whole, I manage fine without Android apps, but there are 1 or 2 it would be very useful to have. I had a go at getting AD working, and I seemed to have it set up correctly, but I wasn't able to launch anything If you do get it working, and you get a moment, could you let me know what you did please?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure thing. On a side note, how stable is it with GSM international? I live in Ausfailia so the US block shouldn't effect me (at least until I move back). Can you list all the issues you are having with it (the rom in general)?
Does QWRTY work okay on the keyboard?
Does the FM Radio work?
Have they made any progress with bluetooth?
What about this battery issue where it doesn't read the level right?
I want to know it all as I will most likely try to start building this myself.

Galaxyninja66 said:
Sure thing. On a side note, how stable is it with GSM international? I live in Ausfailia so the US block shouldn't effect me (at least until I move back). Can you list all the issues you are having with it (the rom in general)?
Does QWRTY work okay on the keyboard?
Does the FM Radio work?
Have they made any progress with bluetooth?
What about this battery issue where it doesn't read the level right?
I want to know it all as I will most likely try to start building this myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
That's great, thanks.
I've had no issues with GSM apart from data not working immediately after flashing - you just have to install an app called 'Ofono Log', and select the 'Enable Data' option, and from then on it's fine.
No issues with the keyboard - if the keyboard is open it uses it, and if not, you get the virtual keyboard. I mostly use mine with the keyboard open, as I like a physical keyboard.
I haven't tried FM radio, but will give it a go and let you know.
As far as I know, bluetooth isn't working, but I don't really have any use for it. I will give it a quick go though, and let you know.
The battery thing is a nuisance, but it doesn't really bother me that much. Usually, it only happens after a reboot, so if you don't reboot, you don't usually have a problem. Occasionally, it'll just happen though, and when it does, you just have to reboot a few times until you get a proper reading.
On the whole, it works really well, and I can't think of any other issues I have with SFOS itself. Lack of a decent browser is my main annoyance. I really like the built in browser, but (I think) it's built on a very unstable version of Firefox, and tends to keep doing weird things and you have to keep killing it and starting it up again. There's Webcat too, but I'm not too keen on that, and would sooner put up with the problems with the built in browser.
I'lll edit this when I've tried FM/bluetooth, or if I think of anything else...
Thanks

moodroid said:
Hi,
That's great, thanks.
I've had no issues with GSM apart from data not working immediately after flashing - you just have to install an app called 'Ofono Log', and select the 'Enable Data' option, and from then on it's fine.
No issues with the keyboard - if the keyboard is open it uses it, and if not, you get the virtual keyboard. I mostly use mine with the keyboard open, as I like a physical keyboard.
I haven't tried FM radio, but will give it a go and let you know.
As far as I know, bluetooth isn't working, but I don't really have any use for it. I will give it a quick go though, and let you know.
The battery thing is a nuisance, but it doesn't really bother me that much. Usually, it only happens after a reboot, so if you don't reboot, you don't usually have a problem. Occasionally, it'll just happen though, and when it does, you just have to reboot a few times until you get a proper reading.
On the whole, it works really well, and I can't think of any other issues I have with SFOS itself. Lack of a decent browser is my main annoyance. I really like the built in browser, but (I think) it's built on a very unstable version of Firefox, and tends to keep doing weird things and you have to keep killing it and starting it up again. There's Webcat too, but I'm not too keen on that, and would sooner put up with the problems with the built in browser.
I'lll edit this when I've tried FM/bluetooth, or if I think of anything else...
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If there is just a lack of FM radio app that means the qt fm radio app isn't in the patterns.
I can't wait for my Droid 4 to finally get here so i can have a keyboard device!
Does the keyboard backlight work?
Do the homekeys stay off?

Galaxyninja66 said:
If there is just a lack of FM radio app that means the qt fm radio app isn't in the patterns.
I can't wait for my Droid 4 to finally get here so i can have a keyboard device!
Does the keyboard backlight work?
Do the homekeys stay off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's a good phone.
The keyboard backlight does work, but you have to set it up yourself - it's in the TMO thread, but I can give you the details if you need them.
Not sure what you mean by 'the homekeys stay off'? If you let me know I'll test.
Will let you know about FM radio and bluetooth sometime today (my time)...

moodroid said:
Yeah, it's a good phone.
The keyboard backlight does work, but you have to set it up yourself - it's in the TMO thread, but I can give you the details if you need them.
Not sure what you mean by 'the homekeys stay off'? If you let me know I'll test.
Will let you know about FM radio and bluetooth sometime today (my time)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean does the hardware key backlight stay one? you know, home menu search back keys.