Root Wish list for the next mod rom

[dongol147]

I thought we should have a wish list of thing to be added/removed/replaced to/from/in the next rom (rooted 1.6 or following ones). I am starting by adding the following to the list:
1- Dialer: The current BH2 dialer is very slow and poor and inefficient. I used the Galaxy dialer and it is much better. IS there a better dialer than can replace the current BH2 rom dialer?
2- Keyboard: a better keyboard. I find the BH2 swype is not as good as the better keyboard (part of the ported galaxy rom).
3- Browser:
4: unzip:
5: Porting as much as possible from Android 2.2

By the way how difficult it is to test the 1.6 drivers with any later Android (e.g. 2.0 or later versions). I am willing to try on my phone if I know how.

 

[rleal2010]

By the way how difficult it is to test the 1.6 drivers with any later Android (e.g. 2.0 or later versions). I am willing to try on my phone if I know how.

well from what i know, that is a no no.

we dont have the source for the drivers, so we cant really upgrade ourselves to the next level OS.

I guess samsung believes that if we were given the source, we could find a way to put 2.1 on the phone and win a lawsuit.

but just flashing the phone to another OS that wasnt meant for the Behold II could brick your phone.

Have you tried using the 1.6 oem update rom with no bloatware?

the dialer is pretty good from what i hear.

Also you get the full power of a good camera back and its must more stable than the 1.5.

 

[Nu11u5]

The big reason for us not getting the source is a few reasons. The biggest is that the drivers are licensed technologies that Samsung sells or bought from third parties.

You technically don't need the source code, just the compiled "object code" and header files to link against. But this is exactly what you get when you license proprietary software drivers or modules. The integrator never gets to see the actual lines of code and they go through the software owner for any changes and fixes.

The BH2 uses Samsung's RFS for the flash file system, VibeTonz from Immersion for haptic feedback, firmware control software from RedBend for booting and flashing updates via OTA or Odin. That list is just from the init script, who know what else is on the phone.

There is a lot of proprietary software on the BH2 that Samsung just can't give away, because its not theirs, and they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the right to use it (or they do own it but already sell it for hundreds of thousands of dollars).

In order for Samsung to release anything they would be legally responsible to remove these softwares from the firmware code, and they are not going to spend any more money on a product that they have abandoned and won't gain them many new customers.

 

[Nu11u5]

You can't just flash another phone's ROM on the BH2 - it will definitely not boot for so many reasons I won't go into. But we do have a pretty good handle on what it takes to change the existing ROM to our suiting. A ROM builder could pretty much work in what ever you like, as long as it requires only 1.6.

I'll be watching this thread for such ideas

 

[Nu11u5]

One more thing for anyone to chime in on. Is there any feature of TouchWiz that is good? Other than the camera app of course. Maybe the notification bar?

 

[bdc]

One more thing for anyone to chime in on. Is there any feature of TouchWiz that is good? Other than the camera app of course. Maybe the notification bar?

I like the notification bar and having dialer/contacts always available from any screen. Of course, I can accomplish that now with ADW customizable left/right buttons (I used to use PandaHome replacement, but like ADW better).

Other suggestions: Remove a couple more apps beyond those microhaxo removed from the no-bloatware update that I consider useless: TMO HotSpot Connect, TMO myFaves.

 

[Nu11u5]

I like the notification bar and having dialer/contacts always available from any screen. Of course, I can accomplish that now with ADW customizable left/right buttons (I used to use PandaHome replacement, but like ADW better).

Other suggestions: Remove a couple more apps beyond those microhaxo removed from the no-bloatware update that I consider useless: TMO HotSpot Connect, TMO myFaves.

I am actually going to try to strip everything down possible and then build a rom from the ground up. I've started merging the 1.6 system image from the Android Developer Phone 1 as reference. That has nothing on it not deemed necessary by Google for Android to work.

I may or may not substitute extra's like the home screen, messaging app, keyboards, etc, but it would be a waste of empty space on the system image not to take advantage of it so we'll see.

If only I had any idea how to repartition the phone's flash.

 

[dongol147]

Nu11u5,
This is good news.
1- I would recommend using the galaxy dialer and not the bh2 dialer (or any other dialer with T9 search function and better reponse ).
2-I do not find Swype friendly enough. Bettwr keyboard is good but I did not try other keyboards.
3- AWD is a better launcher (and may be launcher pro)
4-I also would recommend a clean install knowing that existing data will be lost. This will ensure that we will all have the same result (free memory, performance,..etc).
5-A way to install on SD (or better usage of the SD to free some memory)

And thanks for your help and support.

 

[SoulCreator]

A ROM builder could pretty much work in what ever you like, as long as it requires only 1.6.

I'll be watching this thread for such ideas

Well as long as your asking...

The four biggest things I'd like to see (in order of importance) are:

Speed, battery life, stability and root. BH_MAN's galaxy roms pretty much had all of that, but the fact that they didn't have vibrate really killed it for me.

I'd love to see a ROM that has simplicity and speed of a galaxy rom with out loosing any functionality.

As far as some of the extra's and apps a "dream" rom might include here goes my thoughts:

The only virtual keyboard I've ever been able comfortably to use has been swype, so if that was kept I'd be happy. If it wasn't included in a rom no biggie, I'd probably just install it again.

The nicest music player I've seen so far is "3" or "cubed" or something like that... It probably takes up far more system resources than other music simpler apps, but it's such an aesthetically pleasing app it makes it worth it imho.

Oh and before I forget I'd love to see apps to sd included as the default setting.

One more thing for anyone to chime in on. Is there any feature of TouchWiz that is good? Other than the camera app of course. Maybe the notification bar?

Keep the camera and the notification bar from touch wiz... I actually prefer the TW dialer over the galaxy's, but hey if the rom was slick enough in all other aspects I probably could care less what the dialer was.

The stock home screen was horrible, so a dream rom would probably have to dump that for something nicer as well.

I probably wouldn't mind if that cube app was kept as it's a fun toy (so long as it doesn't take up too much system resources), but pleassseee don't keep the cube hard button mapped to this app, it really should have been mapped to the search function or something equally useful like messaging from the get go.

 

[suyash1]

i would want to be able to flash zip from recovery.

 

[bearsfan85]

if building a rom keep swype on there because better keyboard is available to download where as swype isnt.

if you could change the gmail notification from @ to the envelope from the galaxy rom that would be cool

if there is anyway to get the notification bar in white while keeping the touchwiz portion of it, ive been looking into it and it does look doable just havent had the time to sit down and actually attempt it

Root would be nice

anything that you could take from 2.x and get it to work like animations and maybe some of the stock apps, though i dont think it would work to get much from from 2.x other than animations but a man can dream