Root Pete's new rom.

[djembeman]

So, I just found out the hard way that flashing a kernel that doesn't work with your phone can completely JACK YOU UP!

The ultra low voltage chevyno1 kernel got stuck at the boot screen and kept rebooting. Had to do a battery pull, flashed back to my previous kernal and when the phone booted I let out a sigh of relief only to find that the phone was prompting me to set up my Google account again, every app that loads at boot was telling me that it had to force close too.

Nandroid backup is your BEST friend!!! Flashed back to my last backup before messing with kernels.

Note: I was wondering if I would have to set up google again on my phone after restoring a backup and the answer is NO!!!! Everything is right back the way it was. Seriously cool!

Update: Just flashed chevyno1 low voltage 1GH and seems to do very well.

 

[The_Chief]

So compared to UD8, what are your thoughts? I ran BB 0.4 for a very long time but UD8 is pretty darn sweet.

Tough question as they both have features the other doesn't:

UD8 has 7 screens stock vs BB0.5's 5 home screens.
BB0.5 has phone and browser links at the bottom that UD8 doesn't.
Both run smoothly and are based on the latest build.
UD8 is infinitely more customizable, while BB0.5 makes better use of the phone's memory and is easier for newbies.

It's really about a toss-up to me. I have UD8 backed up on nandroid but, for the moment, BB is the ROM for me. Maybe it's the law of primacy or sentiment that keeps bringing me back, since Bugless Beast was my first ROM. If you're not that attached to Pete and his work, you may prefer UD8.

In the end it's a matter of personal preference, I guess. I suggest you do a final nandroid backup of each and test them both out for yourself.

 

[publicanimal]

UD8 is infinitely more customizable, while BB0.5 makes better use of the phone's memory and is easier for newbies.

This is ultimately what it boils down to. If someone was flashing their first ROM after rooting, BB5 is probably a good start since it is designed to be as close to stock as possible. UD8 has more of a "themed" feel since the default font is changed and the notification bar/widgets are black (with transparency). I for one love the aesthetics of UD8.

For me after using UD8 and then flashing BB5 I was just missing too many features from UD8 that I'd become accustomed too.

In particular those were:
- Customizing the notification LED color according to notification type
- Pressing menu button to unlock lock screen (without swiping)
- Rotary lock screen (looks better AND works better)
- Black notification bar (easily themed in BB5 I'm sure)

BB5 did appear to run slightly faster when using the same kernel (based on quadrant scores), but also caused my CPU got hotter than I am comfortable with. That's not an acceptable trade off in my opinion.

Long story short, I flashed back to UD8 and am eagerly awaiting UD9.

 

[Bramsy]

BB is amazing for my battery.

I mean amazing. 1 whole day +

 

[Trofn8er]

BB is amazing for my battery.

I mean amazing. 1 whole day +

+1

 

[The_Chief]

There was a developer named Pete
Whose Bugless Beast ROMs were so sweet
But some features weren't there:
Pete lost by a hair
With UD8 he can't compete.

Sorry to say, Pete, that I have to go back to Ultimate Droid 8. More screens, more options, more thought put into the details. If Bugless Beast 0.6 can bring 7 home screens, phone & browser buttons on each screen, customizable fonts and notifications and all the other accouterments that spoiled me, I'll happily switch back and donate. But having spent several days on your ROM, I am left wanting some of the things UD8 offers that BB doesn't. Sorry buddy.

 

[publicanimal]

If Bugless Beast 0.6 can bring 7 home screens, phone & browser buttons on each screen

Have you tried LauncherPro? You can use it to get 7 home screens on ANY ROM.

 

[The_Chief]

Have you tried LauncherPro? You can use it to get 7 home screens on ANY ROM.

I used to use Home++ way back in the day, but shy away from launchers these days. Just something else to setup and maintain.

 

[publicanimal]

I used to use Home++ way back in the day, but shy away from launchers these days. Just something else to setup and maintain.

Understood. One of the nice features of LauncherPro is the ability to back up your home screen layouts and all your preferences/settings to your SD card. You have to manually replace most of your widgets, but your icons are just where you left them.

This saves me a lot of time setting up my home screen from flash to flash. I would say it's one of the core staples of my phone at this point. If you're still using UD8 it's included as one of your stock launcher options if you want to toy with it.

 

[digdug1]

There was a developer named Pete
Whose Bugless Beast ROMs were so sweet
But some features weren't there:
Pete lost by a hair
With UD8 he can't compete.

Sorry to say, Pete, that I have to go back to Ultimate Droid 8. More screens, more options, more thought put into the details. If Bugless Beast 0.6 can bring 7 home screens, phone & browser buttons on each screen, customizable fonts and notifications and all the other accouterments that spoiled me, I'll happily switch back and donate. But having spent several days on your ROM, I am left wanting some of the things UD8 offers that BB doesn't. Sorry buddy.

bugless beast was my first custom rom as well and i am running v0.5 seemingly only for sentimental reasons. ud8 is certainly as fast (or faster), and gets just as good or better battery life. while bb is exactly what pete intended it to be -a superior stock rom replacement ud8 is everything black droid intended it to be- a superior and totally customizable rom replacement, far from stock.

bottom line is, if you like the stock feel of android you will probably prefer bbv0.5 but if you like customizations and can handle the urge to change your phones setup and constantly tweak your settings then you will prefer ud8. i am sticking with bb v0.5 until ud9 drops and probably wont go back to bb until pete begins to build from source.

 

[blackfly]

There was a developer named Pete
Whose Bugless Beast ROMs were so sweet
But some features weren't there:
Pete lost by a hair
With UD8 he can't compete.

Sorry to say, Pete, that I have to go back to Ultimate Droid 8. More screens, more options, more thought put into the details. If Bugless Beast 0.6 can bring 7 home screens, phone & browser buttons on each screen, customizable fonts and notifications and all the other accouterments that spoiled me, I'll happily switch back and donate. But having spent several days on your ROM, I am left wanting some of the things UD8 offers that BB doesn't. Sorry buddy.

My first ROM was bugless 0.4 and I loved it. I have to say UD 8 rocks though. I think I will stick with it for awhile before trying 0.5. The music controls on lock screen are very handy.

 

[Bramsy]

There was a developer named BD
Whose Ultimate Droid ROMs were so sweet
He stole, he lied and stole again
And for this I cannot forgive
and he can smell me FEET

Sorry to say, Pete, that I have to go back to Ultimate Droid 8. More screens, more options, more thought put into the details. If Bugless Beast 0.6 can bring 7 home screens, phone & browser buttons on each screen, customizable fonts and notifications and all the other accouterments that spoiled me, I'll happily switch back and donate. But having spent several days on your ROM, I am left wanting some of the things UD8 offers that BB doesn't. Sorry buddy.

You like more options but don't want to deal with a home replacement? Strange.

If you like more screens and options try CM6... smokes UD8.

 

[digdug1]

not on my phone i used cm6 for a couple of weeks before going to ud8 as did a lot of others... i am beginning to think i am in my old lit class with all the poems lol

 

[Bramsy]

You just date yourself as a dinosaur?

 

[digdug1]

lol guess so a dinosaur in my prime still

 

[MicroNix]

If you like more screens and options try CM6... smokes UD8.

Actually on *my* Droid, UD8 smokes CM6. CM6 ran ultra slow. So slow that I was left perplexed as to why everyone makes such a big deal about it. Wiped and tried again. Same result. When posting it was said that you'd need to have to wipe and reflash up to 4 times for it to work right when coming from BB. Sorry, but a wipe should be a wipe and no other rom seems to have an issue. UD8 works great and best of all *looks great*.

BB was my first rom pre-Froyo and then I ran 0.4 for quite some time. I don't know what it is about UD8 but from the music player with the jewel case enclosing the artwork to the unlock screen music controls to customization options, it just seems to be "perfect" with a lot of detail put into making it something that is so cool that it leaves me not wanting anything else. Friggin i*hone owners, eat your heart out, THIS is what its about! I believe on my Droid BB runs slightly faster but I'm ok with that when taking into account everything else.

 

[Bramsy]

I hear you about what runs like butter on your own personal device.

UD ran like poop on my phone. I guess I got lucky with CM6 cause it was great.

But BB. 5 speed wise and battery wise is what my phone craves.

 

[muab]

Electrolytes...its what plants crave!

I will probably be trying both UD8 (or 9 now) and BB 0.5 this week...and actually Chevy's 4.8 sounds kind of spiffy too.


Cheers

 

[publicanimal]

I got tired of waiting for UD9 so I spent the last day playing with some different ROMs, and ended up settling on BB V0.5 as the ROM I'll run until UD9 comes out.

I didn't like BB V0.5 at first but once I threw the Sense theme on it (primarily for the black notification bar) and flashed an Ultra Low Voltage kernel (Chevy's 1.2 GHz ULV) I really started warming up to it. When I first flashed BB V0.5 I was running Slayher's 1.1 GHz and it was running too hot, the solution to the CPU temp issue was flashing the ULV kernel.

I'll definitely keep a backup of this one around after UD9 comes out. It's simple but quite lovely once you get the right theme on it.

 

[Bramsy]

Does anyone mind pointing me in the right direction for doing this...

 

[publicanimal]

Does anyone mind pointing me in the right direction for doing this...

Define "this" and I'll try to help.

 

[The_Chief]

You like more options but don't want to deal with a home replacement? Strange.

Well I never claimed to be "normal" but I now have Launcher Pro on the Droid and have to admit that, after setting it all up again, I like it. I like that I can save my screen settings to the SD Card across ROMs so I won't have to draw out little maps of my screens on paper anymore. Very nice, sorry I ever doubted it.

 

[publicanimal]

Well I never claimed to be "normal" but I now have Launcher Pro on the Droid and have to admit that, after setting it all up again, I like it. I like that I can save my screen settings to the SD Card across ROMs so I won't have to draw out little maps of my screens on paper anymore. Very nice, sorry I ever doubted it.

Even more settings to tweak to your liking! I think you'll like it, the LP dev works hard and updates frequently. The paid version includes some spiffy custom widgets as well.

 

[The_Chief]

Being an LP virgin, I have to ask: what sort of settings did you tweak? I mean, what all can you do with it? As far as custom widgets go, I'm pretty much a stock guy and shy away from anything that remotely looks like Sense (son has an Eris).

 

[publicanimal]

In the Launcher Pro preferences menu:

General Settings:
Hidden Apps - check any apps you don't need to appear in your app drawer. Useful for hiding apps you never use or only access from your home screens, making for a less cluttered app drawer.

Side note: It's not necessary to check the Motorola Droid hack box anymore, that was for the 2.1 days (remember those?)

Homescreen settings:
Set # of home screens up to 7, and which one you want to be the default homescreen (for me it's the center screen, #4 out of 7).

Dock settings:
Allows you to customize # of docks (5 icons per dock) you can scroll through on the bottom of the home screen. I use 2 docks = 10 icons.

One cool thing is you can designate different actions depending on whether you tap or swipe the icons on the dock (long press icons to bring up options menu for each icon).

Advanced Settings:
Memory Usage settings (MOST IMPORTANT):
These are the settings that work best for me (check these boxes):
- Use homescreen caches
- Build Caches as Needed
- Prevent Force closes

I've never touched the Memory Usage Preset option (left it blank), so I can't recommend a setting for that other than NO setting

Also in Advanced settings:
You can tweak the scrolling speed / app drawer speed settings.
I personally set minimum scrolling speed to 70, appdrawer opening speed to 7, and screen previews opening speed to 7.
Just a little extra snappiness for me, I think you get diminishing returns if you dial these up too high.

I use the 3D app drawer as well.

The one LauncherPro plus widget I really like is the Calendar/Agenda widget. The rest of them are pretty Sense-y.