Nightlies and ROMs 101?

[lwb250]

I am a professed noob when it comes to both the Touchpad and Android, but not to rooting. However, since I have started down this road, I have become increasingly confused over these topics. For instance:

Everyone refers to "nightlies", which I understand. However, there seems to be many different sources for them. I have consistently used Dahlgrin's, but I find that recently there have not been updates for his. People talk about later nightlies than his, but I don't know where to get them.

I have been using Goo for my ROMs, but the latest there is 3/29. If I go to the techerrata link I found on RootzWiki for nightlies, there are later ones.

The question then is, are these the same and/or compatible with the Dahlgrin nightlies I have been flashing? Is this a common site everyone uses? Are there better places to find nightlies that are consistently updated (I fully recognize this is a purely volunteer effort and there might not be daily updates as a result.)

I am just trying to find some consistency so I'm not wandering all over multiple forums trying to stay current. I had hoped that ROM Manager or Goo would do it to some extent, but that doesn't seem to be the case, or I just don't have my act together with this stuff.

Any guidance or direction would be greatly appreciated.

On a related note, I have downloaded the 04022012 CM9 from the techerrata server (which I think is a ROM from "eyeballer", but I am only getting a 4.0k file, not one that I would expect to be in excess of 100 megs.

Thanks in advance for dealing with my noobness.

Dan


PS: After poking around more, I now realize that there are different nightlies as far as "official" and "unofficial". Subtle, but understandably different .

 

[Martimus]

Tthe Cyanogen Mod (CM) team simultaneously develops firmware images for a lot of different Android devices. Development of each devices occurs independent of every other device. As the CM team completes updates to individual elements of a build they are entered into a database. For the Touchpad, as an example, you can see the changes merged at this site

Merged items: Tenderloin for Review

The CM team database has a process that runs nightly which grabs the newest required elements for each ongoing "nightly" from the database and builds it into an installable image. This "nightly" build takes place every night... even when no new changes have occurred specific to the device. That said there might be changes in the other (non Tenderloin specific) elements of the image that were changed.

Merged items: Android_Framework_Base for review
Merged items:Android_Vendor_CM for review
Merged items:Android_Build for review

In a nutshell, a nightly is simply a nightly automated build of merged Android components into a flashable ROM image. Be advised, however, that sometimes the builds may not complete properly. When this happens you may find a build there with an unusual size.

I believe the "official" CM downloads for the HP Touchpad can be found here
CyanogenMod Downloads

I think that what you see on techerata and Goo

Techerrata Downloads - Browsing tenderloin
Goo.im Downloads - Browsing tenderloin

are mirrors of Eyeballer's nightly builds. That said I usually just download my updates from Goo so I don't typically use techerrata.

 

[alextop30]

I am a professed noob when it comes to both the Touchpad and Android, but not to rooting. However, since I have started down this road, I have become increasingly confused over these topics. For instance:

Everyone refers to "nightlies", which I understand. However, there seems to be many different sources for them. I have consistently used Dahlgrin's, but I find that recently there have not been updates for his. People talk about later nightlies than his, but I don't know where to get them.

I have been using Goo for my ROMs, but the latest there is 3/29. If I go to the techerrata link I found on RootzWiki for nightlies, there are later ones.

The question then is, are these the same and/or compatible with the Dahlgrin nightlies I have been flashing? Is this a common site everyone uses? Are there better places to find nightlies that are consistently updated (I fully recognize this is a purely volunteer effort and there might not be daily updates as a result.)

I am just trying to find some consistency so I'm not wandering all over multiple forums trying to stay current. I had hoped that ROM Manager or Goo would do it to some extent, but that doesn't seem to be the case, or I just don't have my act together with this stuff.

Any guidance or direction would be greatly appreciated.

On a related note, I have downloaded the 04022012 CM9 from the techerrata server (which I think is a ROM from "eyeballer", but I am only getting a 4.0k file, not one that I would expect to be in excess of 100 megs.

Thanks in advance for dealing with my noobness.

Dan


PS: After poking around more, I now realize that there are different nightlies as far as "official" and "unofficial". Subtle, but understandably different .

Well here is some information that I hope may help.

1. Nightlies can come from many developers depending on the mod that you have installed.

2. The most popular and what I believe is the most updated version is the Cynogenmod nightly from 3/29.

3. Most of the ones floating around are unofficial nightly from cynogenmod however they are pointless in my understanding as we have 2 official ones that came out from the cynogenmod team.

4. If you do not wanna risk it just install the official ones. You can find the official cynogenmod nightly mod in the rom manager under download rom, cynogenmod nightlies. (these are the officials) you can also download them from the cynogenmod website
CyanogenMod Downloads

5. I am not sure if they are compatable with the one you have on currently so just to be safe I would suggest wipe everything out after you make a nandroid backup and a titanium app backup and reinstall the official nightly off of 3/29 which is awesome. I have not had a problem with it yet and I installed it same day.

6. In the future if you want to grab a new cynogenmod nightly just go into your rom manager and download and install it from there it works perfectly and you do not need to backup all of those apps. Make sure you always make a nandroid backup because you never know what could go wrong.

Hope this answers the questions that you had

 

[colchiro]

Check out these similar threads:

http://androidforums.com/hp-touchpad/523158-its-back-nightlies-rom-manager.html
http://androidforums.com/hp-touchpad/523631-heres-whats-changed-4-0-4-kernel.html

Eyeballer takes the stock CM9 nightly and updated the drivers along with a few tweaks.

There are others (& one that escapes me) that build the rom and add their own twist to it, but they all come from the same source.

Dalingrin is on the way out so don't expect him to release anything soon unless it's earth shattering news. He'll be moving on to another device when the updated kernel is released.

 

[lwb250]

Thanks of clearing this up for me, guys.

Until I really started digging I didn't realize so many people were devs on this thing. I knew there were others, but when I first came on the scene the only thing I saw was Dahlgrin's CM9 builds, so I took it that they were the one that everyone was going with.

So it would appear that the safest (and most stable) bet is to stick with the CyanogenMod builds and don't get all worked up about nightlies unless they're from this group - unless I'm feeling lucky, that is.

Other than the occasional wifi issues, I have found that things have been progressing nicely since early March, and am quite pleased with the 3/29 build. In an attempt to get up to Android 4.0.4 I flashed an 0401 build, but didn't see a noticeable difference in performance or anything else, so I have moved back to the 3/29 build.

Again, I appreciate you taking the time to explain this. When I first started this there were plenty of "how to's" out there, but none of them really went into any sort of depth about the nuts and bolts of what was going on. This really clarifies it a lot (for me.)

Dan

 

[colchiro]

You might try eyeballer's builds since it has updated wifi drivers.

 

[Martimus]

Cyanogen Mod is truly a team effort!

Developers like Eyeballer is providing us updated wireless drivers, Dalingren is working to provide us an updated kernel, and others in the team worked to create a unique launcher for CM9 called Trebuchet.

The builds you see on the various sites may have unique elements to them but most are based on a common kernel.

 

[jericko]

What will the new kernel provide us in terms of functionality?

 

[colchiro]

Typically, speed and stability, but that's just off the top of my head.

 

[alextop30]

Cyanogen Mod is truly a team effort!

Developers like Eyeballer is providing us updated wireless drivers, Dalingren is working to provide us an updated kernel, and others in the team worked to create a unique launcher for CM9 called Trebuchet.

The builds you see on the various sites may have unique elements to them but most are based on a common kernel.

I think it is great to see that the developers at cynogenmod were able to do what HP was not which is keep the HP touchpad alive. The fire sale was just a catalyst because they became more afortable but that does not mean the touchpad became better. Porting android made the HP touchpad into a great tablet one that can compete with the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 and others on the Market.


Love cynogenmod

 

[wncken]

I couldn't be much happier. I've got the 0329 build and I'm okay. Wifi still buggy, but it only takes a minute to reboot (although not as buggy). If an earth-shattering update comes along that fixes wifi/camera/mic, then I'll do another update. Until then - content.

 

[lwb250]

My wifi is good to the point where if it doesn't connect upon start/wake up all I have to do is turn off wifi and turn it back on again. Nothing worse than that with the 0329 build, so definitely no complaints here!

Dan

 

[roger06]

Sorry for ignorance or is this is covered elsewhere, but how do I upgrade? Can I do it from within the TouchPad or is it like the initial install where I need to plug it into my computer?

I did the initial install 29 Jan so I guess things have moved on from there?

thanks