Database Develop

My experience with getting the most out of my Nook Color

Hello All,
Just thought I'd add my experience with CM on my Nook Color. I received the Nook from a friend who got an iPad mini - said he wasn't really using it anymore. I knew I wanted full Android, and one that was usable, so I got to work with trying a bunch of different solutions. What I ended up with is a very quick, responsive tablet that runs everything I need it to. I'm hoping this will help some users starting out who are looking for the best compromise between speed and functionality on this aging hardware. If you make any of these changes or suggestions I'm not responsible for damage to your hardware, software, body parts, blah blah blah. Thanks goes to various sources, but most of all to this forum and it's users for being an outstanding source of information. Again, these are all based off of MY experience with the tablet.
As far as the ROM, MiRaGe CyanogenMod 7.2. No question. I tried the official CyanogenMod, Miui, and couldn't even find phiremod (which isn't being worked on). CyanagenMod is current and has an active community with guides for help and support, and the MiRaGe variant has some pretty slick modifications that work very well on the Nook.
I find installing to the internal memory "slightly" faster, resulting in less issues. There's no reason to keep the stock OS on there for me, so I just removed it. You can find full EMMC installation instructions on this forum.
Out of the box with this install, it's pretty responsive.
Disable Wifi when the screen is off - it'll save you a bunch of battery, unless you're really concerned about notifications when you're not using it.
For applications, here's my experience:
1. Latest YouTube works well, but you'll need to deselect "HD" for each video as it loads. An inconvenience, but it works.
2. I've tried tons of versions of Netflix, and find version 1.8.1 the best for this installation. Streaming is smooth, and the UI is responsive. Once you install it, ignore the prompts from the Play store to update it.
3. Install MX Player to handle any type of video playback, including mp4s off the Internet - there's no built in support. It's fast, free and runs everything I've thrown at it.
4. Dolphin browser works really well on this installation. I find it the best balance of performance and features.
Now, the most important part, and believe it or not this made the most difference for me - disable the phone software. Since 7.2 was primarily developed for phones, the cell and phone services are still running, sucking up battery and CPU. You can see the service Cell Standby running constantly. Here's how to wipe it out.
1. Download Root Browser, free from the Market.
2. Navigate to /System/Apps
3. Delete (I know, you could freeze, rename or move, but I won't need these again, and didn't experience any issues afterwards) the following files in this order:
VoiceDialer.apk
TelephonyProvider.apk
Mms.apk
Phone.apk
The "normal" uninstall option won't work. For each of these items, and the one below, tap and hold until you see the full menu of commands. From there, tap Delete. After you delete Phone.apk, you'll get stuck in a loop that the service failed, and you'll have to keep force closing it. Just reboot at this point.
4. Back in Root Browser, go to /Data/Data
5. Delete com.android.phone
6. Reboot.
At this point, my Nook boots cold in about 20 seconds, and application transitions are snappy. I haven't experienced any crashes with this configuration, and that's steady use of Gmail, Facebook, Dolphin, Netflix, YouTube, Feedly and various other apps. All apps except for Netflix are the most current versions from the store and work perfectly.
It goes without saying that most games won't work well, but if you're looking to get some productivity out of this tablet, these settings worked the best for me.

Hi!
webman2k said:
Hello All,
Just thought I'd add my experience with CM on my Nook Color. I received the Nook from a friend who got an iPad mini - said he wasn't really using it anymore. I knew I wanted full Android, and one that was usable, so I got to work with trying a bunch of different solutions. What I ended up with is a very quick, responsive tablet that runs everything I need it to. I'm hoping this will help some users starting out who are looking for the best compromise between speed and functionality on this aging hardware. If you make any of these changes or suggestions I'm not responsible for damage to your hardware, software, body parts, blah blah blah. Thanks goes to various sources, but most of all to this forum and it's users for being an outstanding source of information. Again, these are all based off of MY experience with the tablet.
As far as the ROM, MiRaGe CyanogenMod 7.2. No question. I tried the official CyanogenMod, Miui, and couldn't even find phiremod (which isn't being worked on). CyanagenMod is current and has an active community with guides for help and support, and the MiRaGe variant has some pretty slick modifications that work very well on the Nook.
I find installing to the internal memory "slightly" faster, resulting in less issues. There's no reason to keep the stock OS on there for me, so I just removed it. You can find full EMMC installation instructions on this forum.
Out of the box with this install, it's pretty responsive.
Disable Wifi when the screen is off - it'll save you a bunch of battery, unless you're really concerned about notifications when you're not using it.
For applications, here's my experience:
1. Latest YouTube works well, but you'll need to deselect "HD" for each video as it loads. An inconvenience, but it works.
2. I've tried tons of versions of Netflix, and find version 1.8.1 the best for this installation. Streaming is smooth, and the UI is responsive. Once you install it, ignore the prompts from the Play store to update it.
3. Install MX Player to handle any type of video playback, including mp4s off the Internet - there's no built in support. It's fast, free and runs everything I've thrown at it.
4. Dolphin browser works really well on this installation. I find it the best balance of performance and features.
Now, the most important part, and believe it or not this made the most difference for me - disable the phone software. Since 7.2 was primarily developed for phones, the cell and phone services are still running, sucking up battery and CPU. You can see the two services running under the battery monitoring (Phone Idle and Cell Standby). Here's how to wipe them out.
1. Download Root Browser, free from the Market.
2. Navigate to /System/Apps
3. Delete (I know, you could freeze, rename or move, but I won't need these again, and didn't experience any issues afterwards) the following files in this order:
VoiceDialer.apk
TelephonyProvider.apk
Mms.apk
Phone.apk
After you delete Phone.apk, you'll get stuck in a loop that the service failed, and you'll have to keep force closing it. Just reboot at this point.
4. Back in Root Browser, go to /Data/Data
5. Delete com.android.phone
6. Reboot.
At this point, my Nook boots cold in about 12 seconds, and application transitions are snappy. I haven't experienced any crashes with this configuration, and that's steady use of Gmail, Facebook, Dolphin, Netflix, YouTube, Feedly and various other apps. All apps except for Netflix are the most current versions from the store and work perfectly.
It goes without saying that most games won't work well, but if you're looking to get some productivity out of this tablet, these settings worked the best for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really appreciate this. I'm trying to update my nook color instead of buying a nexus 7 since I only need a 'tablet' for basic things. I'm really new to all of this, and did an SD root of 7.0.1 since my attempts of 10.2 left my nook super slow. I'm looking to do a full root now that my warranty is up and the 7.0.1 just isn't meeting my needs.
I'm going to attempt the route you went down. Can you provide any links that you used? Sorry if this is asking for too much... I'm really new to all of this and don't know where to start.
Do you find that your programs stop responding at all? I am having the issue now and my main goal is to get that to stop. I'm not sure if thats a rom problem, an SD card problem... or something I did wrong. I hope to use my NC to read, surf the web, email, sync with google calendar... and access google drive.

RedCello said:
I really appreciate this. I'm trying to update my nook color instead of buying a nexus 7 since I only need a 'tablet' for basic things. I'm really new to all of this, and did an SD root of 7.0.1 since my attempts of 10.2 left my nook super slow. I'm looking to do a full root now that my warranty is up and the 7.0.1 just isn't meeting my needs.
I'm going to attempt the route you went down. Can you provide any links that you used? Sorry if this is asking for too much... I'm really new to all of this and don't know where to start.
Do you find that your programs stop responding at all? I am having the issue now and my main goal is to get that to stop. I'm not sure if thats a rom problem, an SD card problem... or something I did wrong. I hope to use my NC to read, surf the web, email, sync with google calendar... and access google drive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello RedCello,
Yeah - first thing I tried when I got the Nook was the latest CM nightly. And while it was pretty cool to have the latest Android running on 3 year old hardware, it certainly showed. The biggest drawback of the hardware is RAM. The Nook only has 512mb, and running modern apps can take up quite a bit. That's why the most important part of any mod for this hardware is good RAM management. Stock 7.2 is good, but I was constantly running out of RAM, resulting in very sluggish app performance, much like you're experiencing. Keeping Clean Master (free from the store) installed and wiping the ram when it notified me kept things moving, but when I finally tried the MiRaGe ROM, I didn't even have to use it. I wouldn't say it runs like a Nexus, but even animations run relatively smoothly, and I have no trouble with Netflix, Dolphin, Facebook, Feedly, Youtube, and others.
If you have recovery installed to the EMMC, you can grab the latest ROM and kernel updates at the link below. All you'll need are those two zips, and the gapps for 7.2:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1344873
http://goo.im/gapps
The MiRaGe thread has all the instructions for that rom, and here's the link to the general EMMC install instructions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1030227
If you only installed to an SD before, this will guide you to create the bootable SD, from which you can install the 3 zips. Pretty simple, and the result is a VERY functional old tablet.

webman2k said:
Hello RedCello,
Yeah - first thing I tried when I got the Nook was the latest CM nightly. And while it was pretty cool to have the latest Android running on 3 year old hardware, it certainly showed. The biggest drawback of the hardware is RAM. The Nook only has 512mb, and running modern apps can take up quite a bit. That's why the most important part of any mod for this hardware is good RAM management. Stock 7.2 is good, but I was constantly running out of RAM, resulting in very sluggish app performance, much like you're experiencing. Keeping Clean Master (free from the store) installed and wiping the ram when it notified me kept things moving, but when I finally tried the MiRaGe ROM, I didn't even have to use it. I wouldn't say it runs like a Nexus, but even animations run relatively smoothly, and I have no trouble with Netflix, Dolphin, Facebook, Feedly, Youtube, and others.
If you have recovery installed to the EMMC, you can grab the latest ROM and kernel updates at the link below. All you'll need are those two zips, and the gapps for 7.2:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1344873
http://goo.im/gapps
The MiRaGe thread has all the instructions for that rom, and here's the link to the general EMMC install instructions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1030227
If you only installed to an SD before, this will guide you to create the bootable SD, from which you can install the 3 zips. Pretty simple, and the result is a VERY functional old tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much! I'm going to give it a shot either tonight or tomorrow. I might post again in I run across any issues. Thanks again!

RedCello said:
Thanks so much! I'm going to give it a shot either tonight or tomorrow. I might post again in I run across any issues. Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've installed it and for the brief 10 minutes I've been using - it is great! Thanks for your instructions. links, and tips.
I've followed your suggestions but I can't get root browser to work. Any ideas? It loads properly but when I try to uninstall the files, it says uninstall unsuccessful. I noticed you mentioned that you could freeze items and such, I don't see those options which makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Any clue?

RedCello said:
I've installed it and for the brief 10 minutes I've been using - it is great! Thanks for your instructions. links, and tips.
I've followed your suggestions but I can't get root browser to work. Any ideas? It loads properly but when I try to uninstall the files, it says uninstall unsuccessful. I noticed you mentioned that you could freeze items and such, I don't see those options which makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Any clue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot that part, I'll update the OP. Tap and hold the items you want to remove to get the full menu, then choose delete. It'll work from there.

webman2k said:
Forgot that part, I'll update the OP. Tap and hold the items you want to remove to get the full menu, then choose delete. It'll work from there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got it, thanks! I've been using the NC constantly and it fills all my needs, so much that I won't be upgrading now. Thanks for your post. It convinced me to give it a shot and I'm so glad I did!

RedCello said:
Got it, thanks! I've been using the NC constantly and it fills all my needs, so much that I won't be upgrading now. Thanks for your post. It convinced me to give it a shot and I'm so glad I did!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, glad I could help. I'm actually quite surprised at how capable this tablet is, considering the specs.

Thanks for this. I've been using CM 10.1.3 but it was real sluggish. I had some success with the V6 Supercharger, but I may give the MiRaGe 7.2 if it works as well as you say.

Cm 10.2 M1 is the best to me, cross breeder is a must to run it smoothly

xflier said:
Cm 10.2 M1 is the best to me, cross breeder is a must to run it smoothly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What has Cross Breeder done for you? I am assuming this is it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2113150

xflier said:
Cm 10.2 M1 is the best to me, cross breeder is a must to run it smoothly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really like the nightlies, and if they bring KitKat to the Nook Color, I'll surely try that. However, in my trials, NOTHING touches the speed and stability of this rom. Also, there's tons more free ram on a CM7 base, which helps tremendously. But the most important difference is the touch screen responsiveness. With CM7 (and MiRaGe), the touchscreen responds instantly and accurately. The CM10 builds - through to the latest nightlies - all have responsiveness issues with the screen. Some apps require multiple touches, etc.
You're not getting the latest and greatest features here, but what I was looking to do was get the best balance of features and performance, to make this old tablet something I'd want to use on a daily basis. This rom does it for me.

webman2k said:
I really like the nightlies, and if they bring KitKat to the Nook Color, I'll surely try that. However, in my trials, NOTHING touches the speed and stability of this rom. Also, there's tons more free ram on a CM7 base, which helps tremendously. But the most important difference is the touch screen responsiveness. With CM7 (and MiRaGe), the touchscreen responds instantly and accurately. The CM10 builds - through to the latest nightlies - all have responsiveness issues with the screen. Some apps require multiple touches, etc.
You're not getting the latest and greatest features here, but what I was looking to do was get the best balance of features and performance, to make this old tablet something I'd want to use on a daily basis. This rom does it for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Nook screen re-calibrator app fixed the screen issues for me.

JoshMcMadMac said:
The Nook screen re-calibrator app fixed the screen issues for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems to help, but I think it's an issue of resources as well. on CM7, taps equal a response every time. There are some instances where I have to tap a few times on the nightly, or the tap zone is "off". It'll always work, but it can be very sensitive. For example, navigating Netflix can be frustrating at times. It can read a tap as a swipe if it's not precise enough. I don't seem to have that problem on CM7 builds.
I've gone back to the nightlies right now, to see the progress, and I'm incredibly impressed. If anything, it gets me excited for 4.4. From what I've read, that'll really breath new life into this tablet.

Thanks for the great writeup, have had my Nook for awhile and keep updating and since the latest one I noticed alot of weird things and bad batter life. Did what you suggested and everything seems to be working better now. Was just wondering if anyone would suggest a more lightweight launcher or is ADW the best for battery life (or does it really make a difference)? And any other suggestions for increasing battery life would be helpful to

I started with official cm7.2 and went up and down the cm tree ( cm9, cm10, phiremod) and then some ParanoidAndroid,MIUI, . Somewhere in between I found the mirage rom and to be honest by this time, all I needed my nook color was for the kids and their apps and constant usage of many apps in just a few minutes. That was the the Deciding factor and for some reason mirage ROM got laggy as hell when it was 'multitasking'. I also was not able to get the USB host to work and V6 supercharger has some problems and did not install some scripts, nook tweaks CPU settings were incompatible and WiFi title was a trouble for the kids since enabling/disabling would take them into the settings and they would muck everything up in there.
So I stuck with the official cm7.2 with the help of v6 supercharger (supercharge,kick as kernelizer, battery calibrator), voltage and stepping tweaks with the help of Nook Tweaks on the market, flash player (pre ics) and adding adw ex.
Let's see addressing the YouTube not playing hd even download vids , you can help by installing rolletube side by side with official YouTube app (g**gle it) or
https : //code.google.com/p/r7android/downloads/detail?name=Rolle%20Tube.r7android.com.apk (added some spaces, can't post links yet).
Credit: http : //forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1069911 (again with the spaces oyyy).
On a side note has anyone tried krylon360 ROM if so, do you still have it to share?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

xflier said:
Cm 10.2 M1 is the best to me, cross breeder is a must to run it smoothly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weird, I'm getting a status 7 error...

MGREX said:
Weird, I'm getting a status 7 error...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using v6045 or newer CWM? That causes that error. You need to use an older version of CWM.
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using XDA Premium HD app

How does CM11 in its current state compare with running the MiRage 7.2 ROM? I'm going to be giving my old Nook Color to my mother and want to put something on it that will run decent.

mogators1 said:
How does CM11 in its current state compare with running the MiRage 7.2 ROM? I'm going to be giving my old Nook Color to my mother and want to put something on it that will run decent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hadn't used my Nook in a while and was thinking of putting it on Ebay, so I decided to update CM and see how it ran, or go back to stock. I decided to stick to CM10.x hoping the Netflix fixes might work, so this isn't CM11...but for the life of me, as much as I respect CM in all it's glory, it just seemed to be nowhere near as snappy/responsive as I have liked. Not sure why, maybe the newer versions are too much for the older Nook Color hardware or something. I had a heck of a time even using the browser as the screen touch response just wasn't what I expected.
Prior to restoring to stock, I came across this post and the OP's experience with his Nook using MiRage 7.2. I installed it this afternoon and I'm really pleased so far. Everything seems as responsive as I'd expect it to be, and I did remove the phone stuff as he suggested. I prefer to download and sideload my .apk's, but everything seems to be running well; very nicely in fact. I did load the 1.5.2 version of Netflix, as was suggested for this MiRage CM version, but haven't had a chance to try it yet, so I can't report on that.
But for my part, I'm much happier with the MiRage version than the most recent CM version(s), and it makes it a nice day-to-day tablet.
...thanks..

ART, F2FS, Lollipop, MM - Are any of these good boosts/alternatives to Kit Kat?

I'm running jcsullins CM11 (20151116), Kernel 3.0.101 (also TWRP 2.7.1.0)
Then using Kernel Tuner I pushed the max CPU to 1782Mhz
I don't use the tablet for many resource hungry apps (Spotify, Reddit, KLWP) but it's prone to being a bit laggy. I'm just wondering (within the bounds of possibility of a 5 year old tablet) if there's anything else I can do to speed it up a bit.
Seems to me like ART on CM11 isn't much more than a proof of concept. I don't really understand filesystems that well to be honest, and I'm reading conflicting posts about whether L or MM based roms are better or not (Evervolv or jcsullins 12.1)

Ok, so with almost 150 thread views in 3 days and no replies, I've taken it upon myself to try these to see how it goes. I'll continue to edit this post with what I find if anyone is interested.
I'm only interested in my perception, not benchmarks. Especially when benchmarks can be differently optimised across OSes and I intend to bounce around a bit.
Dalvik/Art
First thing I did was nandroid and titanium backups, then enabled ART in Dev options. First boot took a couple thousand years to get past the boot animation and Optimising Apps screens (expected) and then the tablet was slow as molasses (somewhat expected). I let the tablet settle down, then rebooted it. Next I methodically opened each app and played around with some basic functions. I then rebooted and repeated the process.
What I've noticed:
The initial boot, running each app etc is a bit of a painful process, but it's worth it. Everything starts up a little faster. Still a bit of lag, but not bad. No app crashes/incompatibility that I've come across so far.
F2FS
Basically this test failed. Flashed TWRP 3.0.0, changed the filesystems and rebooted. Got past the initial setup but no apps would install or update (even play store). Rebooting is like initial boot every time, going through adding wifi, google account etc. Something somewhere isn't writing to this new FS. Good enough reason to wipe it and move on to MM

For F2FS I think you need to use a rom that supports it, such has evervolv.
I tried out cm12.1 and evervolv(mm 6.0).
cm12.1 play store would always crash for me, tried it twice wiping everything. (I did not try Jcsullins version)
evervolv is very nice, the layout of android 6.0 (and 5.x) looks much better then android 4.x (personal opinion). I had zero problems with things not working/crashing. However if your looking for responsiveness, I think your best bet is kitkat with art and overclocking the cpu to 1.78ghz. Performance and battery usage is better in cm11 then anything else I tried. (my opinion).
For cm I use the milaq builds as they are more recent and incorporate security fixes.

Most responsive OS?

After playing around with CM10, 11, and now Mokee44, I'm looking at which is the most responsive version for my HD. My use is mostly to read books, with some web browsing. I like to the look and feel of Mokee, but sometimes things feel like running through molassess.
I updated due to the lack of any new fixes, security or improvements on the older versions, not really due to any new feature add.
What is the general recommendation on the best, most responsive OS version I should be running?

sangahm said:
... sometimes things feel like running through molassess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't that just the nature of the beast?
As only my luck would have it, I dropped my coffee mug on my beloved TAB PRO and shattered the screen. I dug out the ol' HD+ to use while I was waiting for parts. I quickly remembered what I didn't like about it. But I still have it and still appreciate the big, beautiful display. The best performance I could squeeze out of it was with CM12 de-bloated to the absolute bare bones and any and all animations turned off. It felt better, but still suffered form random reboots.
I'll be watching, though. I hope you find a better answer.

My husband has been running CM 12.1 for awhile now on his HD (that's the final version of CM 12.1 found in @amaces "obsolete" folder). We had some trouble at one point but it was due to an improperly prepared SD card used for the flashing (my fault...). He's never had any issues with that ROM other than the well-known shut-down issue (I don't think he could be retrained at this point to do anything BUT hold in the power button until the screen goes black!). No unexpected closures or shut-downs. We had one frightening episode of screen blinking but that turned out to be an app update that didn't like the OS, so we figured that out eventually.
I've configured a version of CM 13 for him on a "new" HD. The only issue I've had with it so far is Trebuchet acting squirrely when trying to move/delete home screen icons. I finally just installed Nova Launcher to have done with it. No Wi-Fi issues as seems to be common with Marshmallow ROMs.
I have to say both of these ROMs run pretty well. They don't seem sluggish. Maybe that's because I'm so used to my Nook Tablet which, for all its virtues, is certainly a little slower than the HD (though still very useful). Still, no one would confuse these devices for a brand new "X".
I'd certainly give at least the CM 12.1 a try. We've also run CM 11 before it and there is not much difference except for gaining access to additional apps that would not run under CM 11.

nmyshkin said:
My husband has been running CM 12.1 for awhile now on his HD (that's the final version of CM 12.1 found in @amaces "obsolete" folder). We had some trouble at one point but it was due to an improperly prepared SD card used for the flashing (my fault...). He's never had any issues with that ROM other than the well-known shut-down issue (I don't think he could be retrained at this point to do anything BUT hold in the power button until the screen goes black!). No unexpected closures or shut-downs. We had one frightening episode of screen blinking but that turned out to be an app update that didn't like the OS, so we figured that out eventually.
I've configured a version of CM 13 for him on a "new" HD. The only issue I've had with it so far is Trebuchet acting squirrely when trying to move/delete home screen icons. I finally just installed Nova Launcher to have done with it. No Wi-Fi issues as seems to be common with Marshmallow ROMs.
I have to say both of these ROMs run pretty well. They don't seem sluggish. Maybe that's because I'm so used to my Nook Tablet which, for all its virtues, is certainly a little slower than the HD (though still very useful). Still, no one would confuse these devices for a brand new "X".
I'd certainly give at least the CM 12.1 a try. We've also run CM 11 before it and there is not much difference except for gaining access to additional apps that would not run under CM 11.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll try that one.
Do you have a link for amaces downloads, or the thread for them?

sangahm said:
Thanks, I'll try that one.
Do you have a link for amaces downloads, or the thread for them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The CM 12.1 for hummingbird can be found at https://notredame.app.box.com/s/26a...e&sortDirection=desc&pageSize=20&pageNumber=5
You want the one dated 20151018. That's his final version.
The CM 13 ROM I am currently configuring is at https://notredame.app.box.com/s/26a...e&sortDirection=desc&pageSize=20&pageNumber=4
It's the one dated [20]160129. There may be better-behaved alternatives but I chose this one because we want working HDMI and it seems to be the last one with that functionality.
Edit: Whoops! Almost forgot that you also need to flash SuperSU_v.2.46.zip to enable full root for either ROM.

I know this thread is a bit old, but I would recommend the AOSP 6 version of this ROM with nano gapps. ( https://builds.unlegacy-android.org ) Even though the 7.1 builds are fine, they're just a bit more buggy than Android 6. There are still weekly updates and the performance and battery have been great for me. I'm not running it without root so I can't comment on that. I also don't know about HDMI functionality.

eyzakfunk said:
I know this thread is a bit old, but I would recommend the AOSP 6 version of this ROM with nano gapps. ( https://builds.unlegacy-android.org ) Even though the 7.1 builds are fine, they're just a bit more buggy than Android 6. There are still weekly updates and the performance and battery have been great for me. I'm not running it with root so I can't comment on that. I also don't know about HDMI functionality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow! What a potential treasure trove. We're really happy with the CM 13 ROM I referenced above, but I'm going to take a look at the AOSP 6 ROMs and check out the HDMI--not to mention the shut-down issue.
I see a slew of 7.1 ROMs for acclaim!!!
Do we know who the developer is?

nmyshkin said:
Wow! What a potential treasure trove. We're really happy with the CM 13 ROM I referenced above, but I'm going to take a look at the AOSP 6 ROMs and check out the HDMI--not to mention the shut-down issue.
I see a slew of 7.1 ROMs for acclaim!!!
Do we know who the developer is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it's amaces. Same dev as the CM builds, but the Unlegacy Project is definitely smoother than the AOSP builds he posts. And no shut off issue for me, only a problem with auto rotate sometimes not working. That's easily fixed with a reboot though.

nmyshkin said:
The CM 12.1 for hummingbird can be found at https://notredame.app.box.com/s/26a...e&sortDirection=desc&pageSize=20&pageNumber=5
You want the one dated 20151018. That's his final version.
The CM 13 ROM I am currently configuring is at https://notredame.app.box.com/s/26a...e&sortDirection=desc&pageSize=20&pageNumber=4
It's the one dated [20]160129. There may be better-behaved alternatives but I chose this one because we want working HDMI and it seems to be the last one with that functionality.
Edit: Whoops! Almost forgot that you also need to flash SuperSU_v.2.46.zip to enable full root for either ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those ROMs you don't need to flash ROOT. You enable that by Settings -----> Android Debug (or something like that)

secretwolf98 said:
Those ROMs you don't need to flash ROOT. You enable that by Settings -----> Android Debug (or something like that)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may be. I've got the SU zip on the SD card I used to flash both ROMs so I assume I used it. Been flashing a lot of ROMs lately. They all run together after awhile!

nmyshkin said:
It may be. I've got the SU zip on the SD card I used to flash both ROMs so I assume I used it. Been flashing a lot of ROMs lately. They all run together after awhile!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What ROM do you recommend for hummingbird? I don't use HDMI and I don't use it for reading.

secretwolf98 said:
What ROM do you recommend for hummingbird? I don't use HDMI and I don't use it for reading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm probably not the best person to ask. It's my husband with the HD and he mainly uses it for video (Kodi, MX Player), some browsing, and comics (Perfect Viewer). The HDMI is really important to him so that's the first filter in choosing a ROM. He also has a low tolerance for bugs. The shut-down issue is about all he can deal with. For him, the CM 13 ROM is just about perfect. When I was setting it up I was also impressed, once I replaced the launcher.
But there's been a lot of work done since CM 13 so......

nmyshkin said:
I'm probably not the best person to ask. It's my husband with the HD and he mainly uses it for video (Kodi, MX Player), some browsing, and comics (Perfect Viewer). The HDMI is really important to him so that's the first filter in choosing a ROM. He also has a low tolerance for bugs. The shut-down issue is about all he can deal with. For him, the CM 13 ROM is just about perfect. When I was setting it up I was also impressed, once I replaced the launcher.
But there's been a lot of work done since CM 13 so......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If we could get the right side up screen and latest LineageOS 13 with everything working, I would be so happy and I would use that. That concludes the shut down bug, and battery eating really fast. I also don't like lag. I do video games, so that won't work well with the lag.

I think I installed the unlegacy 6.0.1 ovation for my hd+ but my video playback is very stuttering with audio on the default gallery app. I installed dolphin and tried youtube and the video/audio sutters alot. Anyone have this problem? It is very responsive and reading books is great but this media playback problem is an issue as the screen to too beautiful for just reading documents. I did search and notice one person or twohaving this problem but I'll ask anyway cause that was a few years ago and I can't seem to narrow down a solution if there is any. It's a new install with just 3 apps running.

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.

[PROPOSAL/REQUEST] Can we have a Go Edition ROM for Huashan?

Good Day.
I would like to clarify that I do not know how to create ROMs and I do not know how to write codes(anymore) but since our devices are aging, would be it great to send our Xperia SP off with a bang with an Android GO edition-like ROM? our devices cant handle newer apps and processes anymore but at least I think the Go edition ROM can still make our phones as usable as daily drivers either on Android Q or Pie.
please consider. thank you.

As far as i may concerned, LOW RAM optimisations are already implemented in the codebase for current active ROMs for Huashan. And, to the best of my knowledge, which i may be wrong, these optimisations are derived from Android GO itself. I vaguely remember that at one time this is a main topic said by Adrian the master himself.
Huashan is no longer capable to run modern apps that somewhat uses heavy resources (which i myself don't understand why Instagram needed such a computing power). Unfortunately neither do current Go phones. That is why PWA is a thing to all Go devices. I.e. Maps Go, Twitter Lite, etc.
Of course this is not an objection to your proposal. Just thinking of dropping my thoughts here

Android Oreo and Pie just doesn't cut it well for this phone.
Instead of shoving newer android versions down this phones throat expecting miracles. We should go back to one of Lollipop or marshmallow ROMs and realise how much lag free and usable it is. They're still pretty modern looking and does the job well.

KaBombaBoom said:
Android Oreo and Pie just doesn't cut it well for this phone.
Instead of shoving newer android versions down this phones throat expecting miracles. We should go back to one of Lollipop or marshmallow ROMs and realise how much lag free and usable it is. They're still pretty modern looking and does the job well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Free yourself from Google and then you'll see how smooth current ROMs are.
Not to mention that they offer battery times like 7-12 days.

emcom said:
Free yourself from Google and then you'll see how smooth current ROMs are.
Not to mention that they offer battery times like 7-12 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use gapps on LOS 15.1. Knowing that they crap the phone out.
LOS 15.1 is good, we get latest security updates, better UI etc.. but hangs and stutters more with apps and multitasking.

KaBombaBoom said:
Android Oreo and Pie just doesn't cut it well for this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't agree with that, KaBombaBoom. I ran Oreo for a long time and recently upgraded to Pie. The phone is still surprisingly fast until some hungry app gobbles up all RAM and it starts running on swap.
That's what doesn't cut well for any phone in the long run, those apps that keep growing bigger and bigger and requiring more RAM though mostly or no new functionality is added.
Google Play Services itself is heavy, not to mention other google apps such as their mail, I open it from the browser these days. I'd love to get away without GApps but retaining the deep sleep wake that push notifications provide.
emcom said:
Free yourself from Google and then you'll see how smooth current ROMs are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is your experience with that emcom? Does your phone wakes up from deep sleep when you get IM?
That's the main reason I never tried android without GApps. That and the fact that all drivers are mostly proprietary anyways, so why bother

rbertoche said:
I don't agree with that, KaBombaBoom. I ran Oreo for a long time and recently upgraded to Pie. The phone is still surprisingly fast until some hungry app gobbles up all RAM and it starts running on swap.
That's what doesn't cut well for any phone in the long run, those apps that keep growing bigger and bigger and requiring more RAM though mostly or no new functionality is added.
Google Play Services itself is heavy, not to mention other google apps such as their mail, I open it from the browser these days. I'd love to get away without GApps but retaining the deep sleep wake that push notifications provide.
How is your experience with that emcom? Does your phone wakes up from deep sleep when you get IM?
That's the main reason I never tried android without GApps. That and the fact that all drivers are mostly proprietary anyways, so why bother
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course it wakes up. I've been using it as my daily driver with WhatsApp for some time last year, and it was perfect. There was just one problem which I could not resolve : message backups. I mean, it was working perfectly when I made backups on the SD card, but if I wanted to have them somewhere in the cloud, the only option was the Google Drive - which is not working without Google services.
Btw. it's possible to use One Drive instead of Google Drive (eg. for photos backup in the cloud, but not WhatsApp - if you have maybe Office 365 subscription.
And it's possible to have anything else running without Google - contacts, messaging, even a lot of applications indicating they need Google on the phone - they are working without Google anyway. Thet's except for paid apps, of course.