Root Gingerbread, what is the point?

[twistedlim]

I have tried all the latest gingerbread roms and I applaud the efforts of the developers but I am asking myself what is really the point other than just having the latest rom. I do not think GB was meant for this phone. None of the roms I have tested are any faster or more effecient than the latest froyo roms. To my knowlege they all have some bug or another. I must hand it to the brilliant developers out there but in the end I have to ask "what is the point"?

 

[The_Chief]

I, for one, have to agree with this point. Every GB ROM has its eccentricities (UD included, as much as I love it) but that cute little TV-off style power-down isn't really worth the trade-off of features and performance. Looks like I'll be headed back to the near-perfect UD2.5 and stay on it forever. And as soon as the wife & daughter get their Droids, it'll be 2.5 on theirs, too.

Gingerbread is cool and all, but I think Twistedlim is right: the OG Droid can only do so much... and it's MY humble opinion that UD2.5 and its contemporaries represent the zenith of development for it.

 

[ska.t73]

I have to disagree here, my Droid is running the current CM7 nightlies just fine. My performance is better and the Droid is snappier even at the CM stock 800 kernel. I really haven't had any game breaking bugs, in fact the only thing I notice that is currently broke on my set up is that DSP Manager will not work, however since that isn't working on any of the GB ROMs it would seem to be an issue with the App itself.

 

[carassius]

I think I'll have to agree with twistedlim and The_Chief on this one. I know some kinks are still being ironed out with many of the GB ROM's, but the best performance I've seen was on a few select froyo's...for my phone at least.

Aside from the novelty, I just don't see much new functionality or features that tell me I must go with GB which hadn't already been offered in some way, shape, or form from a froyo build.

Tell me if I'm mistaken. Admittedly, I haven't tried any of the CM nightlies...at least not since the GB iteration.

 

[Crazy_J]

I'm using Chevy's SS 5.0 because eye candy is a good way to help people come to Android. Personally I don't need it, but I kinda like the eye candy. That and it bugs the crap out of the friends I have who work for big red to see all of the mods I can get because I am rooted. I have also noticed an increase in my battery life. That is a BIG bonus! Its no faster than froyo but it definitely isn't slower.

 

[scotty85]

i dont really think its fair to ask "whats the point" until a polished,stable version is released. gingerbread is better,or google developers wouldnt have done it. all operating systems get updates periodically. sometimes you cant see the changes it makes,but it is making the device work better.

gingerbread,once refined,will be smarter,kill apps faster,and prolly have some other nifty tweeks.

cynaogen mod is up to version 38. ive been using them daily since 23 with minimal issue. my phone is fast and responsive. i personally wouldnt go back to froyo at this point... our phones will run 2.3 just fine.

my 2 cents

 

[twistedlim]

Of course now that I ask the question Liquid comes out with 1.2 and it seems to change my thoughts a bit. Can't say it is any better than froyo but so far it has not been worse.

 

[(G)]

I, for one, have to agree with this point. Every GB ROM has its eccentricities (UD included, as much as I love it) but that cute little TV-off style power-down isn't really worth the trade-off of features and performance.

Chief -- could you elaborate on what the feature and performance trade-offs are?

 

[The_Chief]

For example, there are notifications colors and custom message on lockscreen options aren't in UD3 (yet)... things that I use. I found no change in speed or performance from 2.5 to 3, and some of my apps didn't cooperate well with 3. I restored 2.5 and everything worked.

Maybe it's just MY Droid (every one is slightly different) and 3 will work well on yours... I hope so. But this Droid, I think, has reached its limit.

Given that: if UD3.x has ALL the options that 2.5 has, I'll give it one more try. I'm just spoiled, I guess

 

[twistedlim]

I gave LGB a try and it is nice, but in all honesty it is not any faster, or smoother than UD 2.5, Charity 10 or 11, BB621, SS 496 or stock FRG83 for that matter. I really think GB is just not meant for the Droid as much as we want it to be. And even if the bright folks out there can get it to work without a hitch, I can't see it improving anything we already have. Perhaps my mood has changed since I am awaiting my Thunderbolt.

 

[ocman]

I have ran all of the GB rooms including UD's latest and I have to Say that UD 2.5 is the fastest (stays fast) D1 Rom I have ever run. I have reverted back to that one and will run it until I get my thunderbolt.

 

[Rodeojones]

Until UD 3.0 (final version) came out, I thought the same thing. But this ROM is amazing on my phone. While it might not score higher in Quadrant and Linpack, it feels faster. And to me, that is what's most important. I'm getting good battery life and wonderful CPU temps as well. And today I loaded the NexTheme someone ported to UD 3.0 and it has a few extras that I really enjoy - window animations and such. I loved UD 2.5 and PE 2.4. They were far and above the best Froyo ROMs I tried. But, in all honestly, UD's latest GB ROM is even better - for my phone at least.

 

[sranger]

Well,

I loaded SS5.0 and it FINALLY solved the audio quality problems with pandora and other streaming audio. NONE of the Froyo ROM's truly solved the issue even with the so call Google Patch applied. SS5.0 has a few bugs, but solving the Pandora quality issue was a big reason for me to switch....

Now if someone could just fix the WiFi infrastructure bug introduced ( and still not fixed ) in Froyo....

 

[krouget]

I'd have to agree with twistedlim, as well.

I understand the point of GB, but for the very reasons listed by Chief, I still have my last Froyo backup. The thing is, I do like some of the GB features (mostly eye-candy), but I'm more doing it for my love of flashing and trying ROMs with expanded features, than it is for functionality.

Froyo on UD's 2.5, thus far, still remains the best balance between form/function, for me, while for the time being, I'm remaining patient with progress on the GB front. My main issue is that battery life seems to be noticeably worse on GB vs Froyo, while it's not any faster as a trade-off.

Most of the UI tweaks aren't radical enough, as most rooted users run ROMs with a custom UI, already; copy and paste refinement isn't critical (I usually copy an entire field, not single words); and a few of the other features don't really affect the Droid, thanks to hardware limitations. The download manager does nothing for me, given I've long had a file manager app to supplement my uses, as well.

GB is very nice and all to have, and I'll likely stick with it because it's the latest, but as we already know, it was more for cleaning up the UI. The differences between Eclair and Froyo were more dramatic.

 

[kratos]

Just to give my thoughts on this, I cannot stay on gingerbread at this moment. Certain things that I need just don't seem to work (or work properly). Here are the main issues I have with gingerbread (keep in mind that this is from a post I made on a dev forum, but it pertains to all GB ROMs I've tried including, SS, CM7, UD3.0, Pete's, and Liquid):

I have tried running every 3.0.0 build and still have the same problems. First, none of my widgets will refresh automatically. For example, I use retro clock and it won't display the proper time. I use set cpu widget and it never displays the current frequency. I use gauge battery widget and it won't display the correct battery percentage. All of my widgets work perfectly fine on 2.5 and other roms.

Second, I only receive notification of text messages if I'm on my home screen or in handcent or the stock app. If I have any other app open or am doing anything else (listening to music, etc) I don't receive notification. I get the messages, just not the notification. I have the option to keep the messaging service in memory set to enabled. If I disable it, I don't even receive messages. They will get lost.

Third, every time I do anything other than opening handcent our something simple like that (use browser, play games, backup apps with tibu, etc) my live wallpaper closes. It doesn't force close, or at least I don't get a fc notification, but it just disappears and a black background takes it's place.

Finally, no matter what market app I attempt to use (stock, black market, other themed markets, older versions, etc) it won't open. I open it and it shows the loading thing, but then it automatically closes. It doesn't force close, but just exits back to my home screen. I have tried clearing the cache and the option to clear data is greyed out.

I wiped data and cache before installing the beta version. I then installed the nightlies without wipe. I then installed the final release without wipe. Since the final release didn't fix these issues, I reinstalled it fresh with wipes and they still occur.

Please help me figure out what it's going on. I really love the 3.0.0 builds, but can't use them as a daily driver since thee out of four of these things are very important.

Thanks,
Kratos

With all that said, Froyo is the only thing that I can reliably run on my phone at this moment. Plus, not having the market makes the entire point of having Andoird pointless.

Hopefully, these issues will be worked out and someone will figure out a way for gingerbread to better manage memory so that it doesn't have to auto close important apps suck as the market and the widgets that we use. But, until then, I'm happy with Froyo.

Now, we just need our devs to implement the sms bug fix into Froyo while we wait for gingerbread to become flawless...

Kratos

 

[es0tericcha0s]

I'm in the Gingerbread camp myself. One of the main bonuses for me is that I like to have things that Verizon and Motorola don't want me to have. Another is that I, on my phone, do notice a difference in performance. UD 3.0 Final has been the snappiest / smoothest / whatever you want to call it rom I have ever used on my phone and I am a chronic rom flasher. I suppose part of the reason I haven't had issues is that maybe I don't use my phone in the same ways as others, but I really haven't thought there were many deal breakers with GB for weeks now, as long as you get one that had a working camera. All the other things were just insignificant to me. And as far as Froyo being flawless...what? I see people complaining about bugs all day every day in every forum. There's no such thing as a flawless rom or phone. Nature of the beast. You just might not have that issue, or might not use the programs that cause the problems in the first place. I really feel that Gingerbread would be a lot farther along if people wouldn't have dragged their feet getting into understanding how it worked and wanting to wait till it was "perfect". Bah. We need some more people with a sense of adventure!

 

[Crazy_J]

I'm in the Gingerbread camp myself. One of the main bonuses for me is that I like to have things that Verizon and Motorola don't want me to have. Another is that I, on my phone, do notice a difference in performance. UD 3.0 Final has been the snappiest / smoothest / whatever you want to call it rom I have ever used on my phone and I am a chronic rom flasher. I suppose part of the reason I haven't had issues is that maybe I don't use my phone in the same ways as others, but I really haven't thought there were many deal breakers with GB for weeks now, as long as you get one that had a working camera. All the other things were just insignificant to me. And as far as Froyo being flawless...what? I see people complaining about bugs all day every day in every forum. There's no such thing as a flawless rom or phone. Nature of the beast. You just might not have that issue, or might not use the programs that cause the problems in the first place. I really feel that Gingerbread would be a lot farther along if people wouldn't have dragged their feet getting into understanding how it worked and wanting to wait till it was "perfect". Bah. We need some more people with a sense of adventure!

Very true! Well said.

 

[ska.t73]

Here is my personal experience, again YMMV... I have found that on the Droid, GB is going to be a very fickel beast. It is very aggresive at freeing up memory, which would explain most of the issues that some are having (it is the reason you have to keep the messaging app in memory to get texts). Now with that said there are various ways that we can help our little Droids run GB.

First and foremost is to find a kernel that will allow Compcache (currently the only one I know of for sure that will do this on GB is the stock CM kernel that was modified by Prime). Once you enable compcache most of the memory issues should go away.

Some other things you can do if your ROM allows it (CM7 allows these things, if your ROM doesn't I would suggest Root Tools by JRummy from the Market):

Set your VM heap size to something large (I currently have it set to 32m which is the highest you can go in CM7).
Set your Compcache RAM usage to something high as well (again you need a kernel that will support this in GB or the setting wont do anything) I have mine set to 26%.
Always make sure your home app is set to be locked into memory in both your settings and the settings for your home app.

I hope this can help some what, I am really enjoying GB and I hope that once we can figure out how to work around the memory restrictions on the OC Droid that everyone can. Now I do know that every Droid is different and there was at least a few people I know of that couldn't get any Froyo ROMs to work on their phone. However I'm hoping that we can at least get some of the kinks worked out GB IMHO is truely a step up for me.

For the modified Prime kernel and more information on the Milestone OC application (which is AWESOME BTW) follow the link below:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/cyanogenmod/107143-tut-milestone-oc-application-tut.html

 

[DroidAddict]

Here is my personal experience, again YMMV... I have found that on the Droid, GB is going to be a very fickel beast. It is very aggresive at freeing up memory, which would explain most of the issues that some are having (it is the reason you have to keep the messaging app in memory to get texts). Now with that said there are various ways that we can help our little Droids run GB.

First and foremost is to find a kernel that will allow Compcache (currently the only one I know of for sure that will do this on GB is the stock CM kernel that was modified by Prime). Once you enable compcache most of the memory issues should go away.

Some other things you can do if your ROM allows it (CM7 allows these things, if your ROM doesn't I would suggest Root Tools by JRummy from the Market):

Set your VM heap size to something large (I currently have it set to 32m which is the highest you can go in CM7).
Set your Compcache RAM usage to something high as well (again you need a kernel that will support this in GB or the setting wont do anything) I have mine set to 26%.
Always make sure your home app is set to be locked into memory in both your settings and the settings for your home app.

I hope this can help some what, I am really enjoying GB and I hope that once we can figure out how to work around the memory restrictions on the OC Droid that everyone can. Now I do know that every Droid is different and there was at least a few people I know of that couldn't get any Froyo ROMs to work on their phone. However I'm hoping that we can at least get some of the kinks worked out GB IMHO is truely a step up for me.

For the modified Prime kernel and more information on the Milestone OC application (which is AWESOME BTW) follow the link below:

[Tut] Milestone OC Application [Tut] - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum

One of the most informative, helpful postings I've seen in a long time relative to GB Roms. Thanks, because of this post I decided to retry a GB rom and followed these instructions to a tee and even though it's been a very short time, enjoying the experience much more than my last dozen or so attempts.

 

[skilaufen]

I have not had a chance to try this yet but has anyone used the voip/calling over
Wifi yet? And if so how did it work for you? This could be a decent thing if it saved minutes for those of us without unlimited minute plans.

 

[ska.t73]

One of the most informative, helpful postings I've seen in a long time relative to GB Roms. Thanks, because of this post I decided to retry a GB rom and followed these instructions to a tee and even though it's been a very short time, enjoying the experience much more than my last dozen or so attempts.

Glad I could help

 

[androidlover14]

Well I for one strive to have the newest/best hacks on my phone. IMO GB is a hit and miss for some people. For me its running just a little better but not too much of a difference. I have also enjoyed learning about new things that we can do to our phones now like the theme manager and overclocking without changing kernels. GB does have its quirks still but I have grown way to accustomed to changing my phone the way I want to be which is cm7 nightlies and UD 3.