Root Rom Flashing, Nandroid Backup?

[Andrewdroid]

So let's say I flash a rom and I do not like it, there are bugs or whatever.

If I restore a nandroid backup that I made before I flashed the Rom, will that revert my phone to the same as it was before I messed around with the rom flashing?

I've been getting impatient with the whole waiting for 2.2 thing and would like to try Cognition. I want the voice actions, the copy&paste with gmail, the adobe flash, and a non-censored youtube app. However, I've been steering clear of new roms because I have been worried I won't be able to return my phone to how I had it before if something is buggy.

 

[NorCal Einstein]

In theory, yes. A Nandroid backup made before you flash a rom will allow you to restore your phone to that point in time.

 

[Andrewdroid]

In theory yes, but in practice? What has everyone's experiences been?

 

[Andrewdroid]

I mean I've been so sick of waiting for the official Froyo thing, it's like the world's biggest c

 

[NorCal Einstein]

The practice of restoring isn't as straight forward as you'd think:

I don't know if this is 100% the case but I have noticed that if you flash a rom that has any type of kernel or voodoo type change from your current setup, you cannot flash back (since the kernel in 2.1 stock is different and cognition uses voodoo). You have to flash (with clockwork or odin) back to the same version of the rom you want to restore to. For example, if you want to flash back to the official 2.1 update, flash back to JF6 with odin one click, then flash to JH7 (can't remember where an official rom is but you will need that) then run your restore.

And since you are stuck at the boot scren, you should flash back to the stock odin one click anyways

If anyone have a different reason, please post

 

[Andrewdroid]

Maybe I should just wait for the official thing then .

 

[NorCal Einstein]

Now that's taking it a little far..

I highly recommend folks flash one of the many FroYo roms out there. It's not hard to do, and reverting back to a backup is possible, but you need to do your due diligence and read through some of the threads out there which have answers to your questions.

Here's a good example of a thread in this sub-forum, practically right next to this one:
http://androidforums.com/captivate-...g-clockwork-gets-me-stuck-white-t-screen.html

If you look at the last post by xeni0o, they pretty much outline the steps you need to take to restore a backup. While you can't go from FroYo and restore a Nandroid backup of Eclair, you CAN go from FroYo, to stock Eclair, and restore your Nandroid backup of Eclair...and eventually end up exactly where you left off when you made that backup.

You will be ALOT more satisfied once you get on a FroYo based rom. For instance, the performance difference I get running Cognition 2.3 Beta6 or Perception Build 4 is GREAT. Once you experience the phone without lag, it's hard to go back.

 

[Andrewdroid]

I'm very close to doing it, not sure which rom to pick. Is there a checklist of things I need or should do before attempting this?

Here's what I've done so far, my phone is rooted, I installed Rom Manager, I made a recent Nandroid backup (stored both on phone and on computer), backed up internal sd and external sd, and I did a Titanium Backup to migrate my apps into the new Rom.

Anything else you can think of or the best thread or website for me to look at? I want to cover all my bases and have everything ready to go if something goes wrong. I think I heard something like I should Odin-One-Click before installing any roms?

Also the Perception one you spoke of seems to have a Build 5 now. Now I'm really unsure. [ROM]Perception Build 5 (aka Cognadian Bacon) - xda-developers

There seems to be so many how-to's on just straight installation with fewer how-tos on the cover-your-

 

[NorCal Einstein]

I'll basically distill the steps I use (not including backups, which you've already thoroughly covered)

i. Save the update.zip which is Clockworkmod Recovery from your phone to your computer (or some other place safe)
1. Remove SIM & any external SD card
2. Flash JF6 using Odin one-click
3. Perform a GSM Master Reset (Some also use Master Clear in Odin)
4. Copy the update.zip (Clockworkmod Recovery) + Cognition/Perception .zip to your phone
5. Boot into Android recovery (blue text)
6. Select "Reinstall packages" to boot into Clockworkmod Recovery (green text) Note: You might have to select "Reinstall packages twice before you get to Clockwork
7. In Clockworkmod Recovery, select "install zip from sdcard"
8. Choose the Cognition/Perception .zip and flash away.


Someone posted a pretty good Youtube video on this process as well. I believe the Youtube video covers my step 5 onward.

 

[Andrewdroid]

Is there a website with screen shots and features of Perception? For instance is TouchWiz available still? I'm one of the few that actually likes that interface best and I've tried the others LauncherPro and ADW.

Also the Voodoo lagfix thing, I heard it messes with the screen color and sharpness, I really like how the color looks at the moment and I'm pretty picky with that. Is it possible to disable the color change part of the rom?

 

[NorCal Einstein]

Here is the official thread for Perception:
[ROM]Perception Build 5 (aka Cognadian Bacon) - xda-developers

TouchWiz is NOT loaded by default, but you could add it back after you install Perception. I don't know of any place that has screen shots of Perception though. Since the ROM is based off the Vibrant JK3 rom, find a list of features on JK3 & read the changelog and you'll get an idea of what the ROM has.

I have never heard of Voodoo causing an issue with screen color and sharpness. I don't know where you saw that... Voodoo lagfix doesn't mess with any color/sharpness. Lagfixes in general are about filesystems. Look at it this way, there are TONS of people running Cognition which has Voodoo lagfix. If there was an issue with Voodoo causing this issue, you would be seeing tons of threads on XDA first, and then the threads might leak to the bastard-child sub forum here.

 

[peachpuff]

I don't think you'll find any roms that still uses the stock touchwiz, everyone gets rid of it.
If you don't want the color/sharpness fix try the axura rom [ROM][FROYO]▽▲ AXURA Captivate Edition ▼△[RC1][11/29/10] - xda-developers

I have never heard of Voodoo causing an issue with screen color and sharpness. I don't know where you saw that... Voodoo lagfix doesn't mess with any color/sharpness.

Look in the feature list "Sharpness & color fix for UI, inspired by supercurio's work on Voodoo".

 

[NorCal Einstein]

Look in the feature list "Sharpness & color fix for UI, inspired by supercurio's work on Voodoo".

Ok, my mistake then. This looks like something done at the kernel level right? When I search for that, I see it popping up in threads regarding SpeedMod kernel.

I've ran Cognition and never saw color or sharpness issues. I just went to look at the Cognition change log and I don't see this "fix" listed.

 

[sremick]

Ok, my mistake then. This looks like something done at the kernel level right?

VooDoo involves replacing your stock kernel with one based upon older code that Samsung actually released and made public, so they can hack in ext4 support into the kernel. So since it's replacing the kernel anyway, it's inspired them to mess around with other stuff too.

The catch is that because this is older kernel code, quirks keep arising and incompatibilities have been found, and sometimes performance hasn't been able to match the newer, stock kernel. Also when you do the Voodoo "uninstall", all it does is revert the ext4 filesystem back to RFS... the hacked kernel remains.

 

[Andrewdroid]

I don't want something that messes with the color and sharpness if I like it how it is. Why do they force something like that into the lagfix? There seems to be no way to separate the two things with Voodoo.

 

[Andrewdroid]

Also why does everyone hate TouchWiz so much, I really like those nice big 4 buttons at the bottom of my screen.

 

[boxofcookies]

Here is the official thread for Perception:
[ROM]Perception Build 5 (aka Cognadian Bacon) - xda-developers

TouchWiz is NOT loaded by default, but you could add it back after you install Perception. I don't know of any place that has screen shots of Perception though. Since the ROM is based off the Vibrant JK3 rom, find a list of features on JK3 & read the changelog and you'll get an idea of what the ROM has.

I have never heard of Voodoo causing an issue with screen color and sharpness. I don't know where you saw that... Voodoo lagfix doesn't mess with any color/sharpness. Lagfixes in general are about filesystems. Look at it this way, there are TONS of people running Cognition which has Voodoo lagfix. If there was an issue with Voodoo causing this issue, you would be seeing tons of threads on XDA first, and then the threads might leak to the bastard-child sub forum here.

Actually the perception rom is not based of the vibrant rom it's based off the Galaxy S i9k rom. And the color/sharpness fix isnt even in the perception rom yet. Thats upcomming changes.

 

[sremick]

Also why does everyone hate TouchWiz so much, I really like those nice big 4 buttons at the bottom of my screen.

Other launchers have that too. You don't give that up... but you give yourself a lot more customization of the "dock".

I have those nice 5 big buttons on the bottom of my screen... but I can customize how they look, how they're themed, and I can swipe it to the side and get more than just 5. LauncherPro is great.

 

[Andrewdroid]

How do you get big buttons on the bottom of the screen with LauncherPro? Also how do you get the damn thing to scroll horizontally with the Apps? I hate the vertical scroll on it and I hate the fact it doesn't have any of those bubble things that show me where I'm at.

 

[sremick]

How do you get big buttons on the bottom of the screen with LauncherPro?

Default behavior. I'm not even sure how to turn it off.

Also how do you get the damn thing to scroll horizontally with the Apps?

This would defeat its purpose. The dock is meant for quick-access to your most-common phone functions, regardless of what app screen you're on. If you want apps to scroll horizontally when flipping home screens, just place them as regular icons on a home screen.

I hate the vertical scroll on it and I hate the fact it doesn't have any of those bubble things that show me where I'm at.

Yeah some people don't like the vertical scroll but it is what it is. You could email the author asking him to add the option, but I know he's doing a massive rewrite so maybe that extra functionality is already planned for the big new version.

I keep my app drawer organized alphabetically so knowing where I am in the list is as easy as seeing what letter I'm on.

You can have "bubble" like things when switching amongst home screens though. Menu -> Preferences -> Appearance Settings -> Show screen indicator.

 

[Andrewdroid]

I keep my app drawer alphabetical as well, but I still like the bubble indicator like what TWLauncher has. If you download new apps, then where you in the list are constantly changes despite you seeing the letter you are on.

And I want the option for the horizontal scrolling within the App drawer. ADW seems to have some of the things I like but I still think the little buttons at the dock are too tiny. I want the dock icons to be bigger than the app icons.

Hopefully when the developer re-writes the code for the whole thing like you say, he will add some of these things.

 

[Segfault]

If you like touchwiz you should be able to keep it. I never hated TW personally, I just like launcher pro more.

One tip, buy a copy of titanium backup and backup all your applications before installing a new ROM. Then once you have installed the ROM you can use TI to restore all your apps and their settings. If you have the free version you have to do a key press for each app that is restored. If you have the paid version then it just batch restores all of them.

DON'T restore any system settings with TI if you upgraded from eclair to froyo. That will mess up your phone big time. Only restore application settings.

 

[Andrewdroid]

One more thing I'm curious about that is the Samsung Music Player App? Does it still exist in most of these Roms? I like to use that one mostly because the 5.1 feature (yes I know it's not really 5.1).

 

[CrimsonPride]

One more thing I'm curious about that is the Samsung Music Player App? Does it still exist in most of these Roms? I like to use that one mostly because the 5.1 feature (yes I know it's not really 5.1).

i am not aware of any rom that doesnt include it. ive been using poweramp though. i was a big fan of the original one and this is the only one ive found i like better