Root feedback wanted: 2.2 or 2.1 ROM

[rosh400]

After mulling it over I rooted last Friday. After starting with KaosFroyo 3.2 and migrated over to Cyanogen Tazz 2.0. My phone is so much better now, espcially in terms of general responsiveness and, especially, phone responsiveness. The Detailed Leak Root Tutorial was very helpful. One editorial suggestion. When you guys use the term wipe, you should say that you are referring to the phones RAM and not the SD card. The thing that took the longest was backing up my SD card. I used ASTRO to back up my apps, Backup Pro to backup my data, and ADW to back up its settings. This really helped me to have my phone up and running the way on want it very quickly.

I have a few questions about apps that are no longer available. I like the stock picture viewer in 2.1. With the Eris, I find the stock viewer faster than Gallery but I don't see it in the market and it was not in the Gapps zip file. Also voice recorder is gone, although I can use Note Everything for this purpose.

My more general question though is what you guys think about 2.1 ROMs vs. 2.2 ROMS in terms of responsiveness, phone behavior, available apps, and any other criteria you think are important? When responding, please note that I don't have any particular need for the Sense widgets (I already ditched them when I switched to ADW).

One more specific question. With the official ROM, I could disable always on mobile network, which I did to extend battery life. This option does not seem available with Cyan Tazz 2.0. With the power options, I can switch to 2G but not shutoff the network when the phone is sleeping. Are there any 2.2 ROMs that preserve this feature? Is there a workaround?

As always, thanks in advance for your feedback and input.

 

[Frisco]

Welcome to the world of rooting, rosh.

The 2.1 vs 2.2 question remains one of those with mixed responses. Some will come into a thread with that subject at hand and post that they cannot understand why any rooted Eris user could want a 2.1 ROM on their device while Froyo is out there and in an advanced development stage.

Others, me included, will just report our own findings on our own device, which brings 2.1, especially the xtrROM series by zach.xtr at XDA, to the head of the class.

However, I do not criticize 2.2 anymore, as I found it sluggish in earlier ROM releases; that is not so anymore.

It's just that 2.1 simply runs better on my Eris and with no need to overclock for speed.

 

[rosh400]

Thanks Frisco. As always, your responses are thoughtful and helpful.

 

[MOS95B]

I prefer 2.2 myself. I like not having to partition the SD card for Apps2SD, and I LOVE the fact that google remembers what apps I have installed, and reinstalls them for me (well, most of them. It usually misses one or two)

I do NOT like the issues with the camera/gallery in 2.2 (no shutter sound, gallery freaks out when rotated), as I use my camera a lot. But, the issues are actually just annoyances at this point, that you have to teach yourself to work around

There are times where I miss Sense, too. But not enough to force me back to 2.1.

 

[Frisco]

Thanks Frisco. As always, your responses are thoughtful and helpful.

You're welcome, and thanks for the compliment.

That thing with the Gallery performance was quite the deal breaker for some trying the 2.2 ROMs; that and the camera issues.

There are work arounds and various apps to replace the wiggy stuff in some 2.2 ROMs, but I found myself defaulting to an early 2.1, xtrROM 3.0.3, a while back.

It's just a phone, and it's one that has reached its end of life, so functionality and reliability have to move the latest and greatest ROMs aside for me on the Eris, although I'll always nand backup and flash a Nonsensikal or Tazz or Kaos just to see how Froyo is moving along.

 

[rosh400]

I prefer 2.2 myself. I like not having to partition the SD card for Apps2SD, and I LOVE the fact that google remembers what apps I have installed, and reinstalls them for me (well, most of them. It usually misses one or two)

I do NOT like the issues with the camera/gallery in 2.2 (no shutter sound, gallery freaks out when rotated), as I use my camera a lot. But, the issues are actually just annoyances at this point, that you have to teach yourself to work around

There are times where I miss Sense, too. But not enough to force me back to 2.1.

So the Fun House mirror effect in Gallery when I turned my phone sideways isn't just me. Good to know. What's your workaround?

 

[rosh400]

It's just a phone, and it's one that has reached its end of life, so functionality and reliability have to move the latest and greatest ROMs aside for me on the Eris, although I'll always nand backup and flash a Nonsensikal or Tazz or Kaos just to see how Froyo is moving along.

Agreed. But an amazing phone compared the computers I cut my teeth on in school in the 70's -- way more power it my shirt pocket than what filled a room.

Yep, the little Eris is underpowered but it is at least acceptable when rooted. I can upgrade in January. Given what's on the market, I am think Droid 2 or Droid X. My Moto's always had the best phone reception - and after all, it's a phone. I will be interested to see the reviews the Samsung gets. It will be in the running if it get's good reception. For me, the weakest aspects of the Eris was the lag (corrected by root) and weak reception in my house. My work blackberry gets much better reception in the identical place and it's on Verizon too.

 

[Frisco]

My work blackberry gets much better reception in the identical place and it's on Verizon too.

I see low bars on the Eris, but no call or messaging anomalies and the web surfing is always just fine.

I think the status meters on this device are junk city, but as for the true signal strength, not as indicated by the meters, but as indicated by experience, it seems to be fine.

 

[doogald]

I have a few questions about apps that are no longer available. I like the stock picture viewer in 2.1. With the Eris, I find the stock viewer faster than Gallery but I don't see it in the market and it was not in the Gapps zip file. Also voice recorder is gone, although I can use Note Everything for this purpose.

The stock photos app that you mention is specific to ROMs built with the HTC frameworks - it is not an app that you can get on the market. I think all of the Sense based ROMs, plus ROMs using the HTC frameworks (like xtrROM), have that photos app. None of the froyo ROMs have any of the HTC customized apps yet.

For me, the weakest aspects of the Eris was the lag (corrected by root) and weak reception in my house. My work blackberry gets much better reception in the identical place and it's on Verizon too.

It's purely anecdotal, but I agree with this. Our family's summer house is an area with a very weak Verizon signal. My Eris will flip back and forth between having a signal and not, and I get a lot of voice dropouts while in calls. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law, with Verizon Blackberry phones, have much better signal, no dropouts, and calls are clear.

 

[KarateExplosion6]

You're welcome, and thanks for the compliment.

That thing with the Gallery performance was quite the deal breaker for some trying the 2.2 ROMs; that and the camera issues.

There are work arounds and various apps to replace the wiggy stuff in some 2.2 ROMs, but I found myself defaulting to an early 2.1, xtrROM 3.0.3, a while back.

It's just a phone, and it's one that has reached its end of life, so functionality and reliability have to move the latest and greatest ROMs aside for me on the Eris, although I'll always nand backup and flash a Nonsensikal or Tazz or Kaos just to see how Froyo is moving along.

Frisco,

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on xtrROM 4.1 once the Beta is released. Even if you don't use the ability Zach adds to both overclock and underclock, I think you'll appreciate the storage gains with Cache2cache and the ability to tweak a few other performance settings using Gscripts.

I'm hearing from various xtrSENSE Beta testers that the CFS kernel is working great so far and I know that Zach is considering including it into the final release. If that happens, we'll all have not only a performance increase but a battery benefit as well since the CFS kernel undervolts.

 

[MOS95B]

So the Fun House mirror effect in Gallery when I turned my phone sideways isn't just me. Good to know. What's your workaround?

Don't turn the phone while viewing in Gallery 3D. If you back out to the thumbnails, turn, then go back to full view, you're fine

The other fix, listed in the XDA thread, is to get Gallery 2D

 

[Demache]

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law, with Verizon Blackberry phones, have much better signal, no dropouts, and calls are clear.

How bizarre. My Eris could get a decent 1X signal (and sometimes 3G) at my friend's lake cabin the middle of nowhere, while his parent's Blackberries struggled to even attain a decent signal to even start a phone call.

 

[rosh400]

How bizarre. My Eris could get a decent 1X signal (and sometimes 3G) at my friend's lake cabin the middle of nowhere, while his parent's Blackberries struggled to even attain a decent signal to even start a phone call.

Based purely on my personal experience, my data signal is consistently stronger than my voice signal. I get 3G in the same room I have dropped calls.

 

[stanlalee]

I tried "fast" vanilla 2.1 roms and immediately went back to 2.2 roms. the 2.1 roms seems to be less buggy with more things working right but I saw no such speed advantage from steriod 2.1 roms over 2.2, just the opposite.

 

[nathanirwin311]

I'm with Frisco. I have had great experiences with xtrrom and vanilla 2.0. Both great 2.1 roms. 2.2 roms that I have tried are just a little too buggy for my taste; nothing huge but I just want everything to work. I love the extra features of 2.2 but it is not worth the hassle.

 

[Podivin]

I agree, Kaos is SO close with his ROM, but it's not quite there for me yet. Give him another 2 or 3 versions (about a week at his current rate of change ) and I may become a full time 2.2 user, until then I'll stick with xtrROM and 2.1.

 

[doogald]

There is one thing that I love about Kaos Froyo that no other ROM seems to have: all notifications will flash the trackball rather than the LED. This feature has become so important to me, and the issues with the camera so minor (because the camera on the Eris is so crappy anyway, and I never seem to have issues in KF anyway) that I have a hard time using other ROMs now. It is simply so easy to see that I have a notification at a glance that I would often miss from the flashing LED, which is much less obvious to me.

I also strongly prefer the vanilla Android apps over the HTC custom ones (with the exception of the dialer, though I can live with stock Android.)

KF has been as rock solid for me as any other ROM I have tried.

 

[Podivin]

When I'm running the KF ROM I always load Dialer One and use it as my default. I prefer the way it works over the vanilla dialer.

 

[rick311]

ive tried a few different 2.1 roms and (IMHO) do not compare to KaosFroyo (2.2). it has been on my phone for the last couple of months. dont know how i went without it.

 

[DaveM1]

I have been running 2.1 roms and i like them but i am reading alot of rave reviews about KaosFroyo. I would like to try it but do i need to have a seperate SD card for 2.2 roms or can i keep using the same one i have in there?

Also is KF easy to flash and set up like all the others? Why does everyone like 2.2 roms over the 2.1 roms. What are the "little things" that 2.2 does over 2.1 i guess is my question.

 

[Night_Watchman]

There is one thing that I love about Kaos Froyo that no other ROM seems to have: all notifications will flash the trackball rather than the LED. This feature has become so important to me, and the issues with the camera so minor (because the camera on the Eris is so crappy anyway, and I never seem to have issues in KF anyway) that I have a hard time using other ROMs now. It is simply so easy to see that I have a notification at a glance that I would often miss from the flashing LED, which is much less obvious to me.

I also strongly prefer the vanilla Android apps over the HTC custom ones (with the exception of the dialer, though I can live with stock Android.)

KF has been as rock solid for me as any other ROM I have tried.

Seconded! I still don't understand why the flashing trackball is so incredibly lacking in other ROMS. Even the stock ROM only flashed it for SMS and HTC mail but not Gmail or Google talk. Would be nice to have it fade in and out though instead of just blink like on the stock ROM.

 

[doogald]

I have been running 2.1 roms and i like them but i am reading alot of rave reviews about KaosFroyo. I would like to try it but do i need to have a seperate SD card for 2.2 roms or can i keep using the same one i have in there?

Also is KF easy to flash and set up like all the others? Why does everyone like 2.2 roms over the 2.1 roms. What are the "little things" that 2.2 does over 2.1 i guess is my question.

You can keep using the same SD card so long as it is not partitioned for apps2sd. The Froyo ROMs for the Eris will only mount the SD card if it has a single partition.

KF is very easy to set up - easier than xtrROM 3.x was - you just flash the ROM and restart and you are running (though many recommend flashing the updated CFS kernel separately for the current V34, it is not necessary, and the next version will be built with that kernel.)

The little things that I like:

- the gmail app is better - you can select and copy text, and replying to messages is easier - the header of the message with the reply control sticks to the top of the display as you scroll through an email; you can also set gmail to notify you for each message rather than once until you clear the notification, if you prefer
- the market is better - apps can be set to autoupdate, and, for apps that are not, you can update all apps that have updates available in one step
- so far, I am getting far better battery life on Froyo than I did running the phone the same way on any 2.1 ROM

There are probably a few other things that I am forgetting.

 

[DaveM1]

Thanks Doogald that's the kind of info i ws looking for. I haven't partinioned the sd card so i should be good to go. Looks like i will nand back up and flash Kaos tomorrow and give it a go.