Root Honeycomb for the 1.1 Bootloader!

[Zebulon]

Hey everybody, I just thought I would share the news:

Someone over on XDA has forked the Bottle of Smoke ROM (based on the ASUS version of HC) over to the 1.1 bootloader, which means those of us with older G-Tabs can easily flash over to HC via ClockworkMod. Here's the link with instructions:

[ROM][BL1.1] HoneyComb (BOSa5.2) for Bootloader 1.1 Gtablet\Zpad T2 - xda-developers

I installed it last night, and so far it's working great. I'm totally digging the HC layout.

 

[luvduchovny]

I also installed it last night. I really like it.

The perks:

It's very zippy (probably due to the overclocking inherent in the rom).

I could download and use the CNN app for Android Tablets and it works great.

The gmail app looks great in landscape.

All the honeycomb bells and whistles seem to work.

Android Market actually will point to tablet apps and the layout is pretty nice for My apps, it lists what you have installed but it didn't really remember everything I've gotten from market but that just might need the re-population of market. But the best thing was you didn't have to install GAPPS or do any Market fixes. YAY!

I really like the keyboard. It's not swype (which I could never get to work on the gtab) or even slide-It (which I did get to work on the tab), but it's very nice and responsive.

Now the quirks:

While it does let you install Flash but flash video on web browsers does not work. Well, it sort of works, it will play the audio but there is no video.

Facebook widget doesn't work at all. (No big loss really, unless you are a FB junkie)

Playing some videos off of an app like the Engadget app or Crunchyroll app results in super exploded video where you only see the tops of heads on people, and reading subtitles? Good luck with that. (This one kind of hurts me because I like looking at my anime on my tablet rather than my phone or desktop).

Quickoffice doesn't want to work. It force quits a lot. So I've downloaded Google docs but haven't really played with it yet.

And sometimes it gets overwhelmed and will reboot on you when it gets sluggish.

Yes someday I will update the bootloader to 1.2 but for now this is good enough for me. And I'm learning the HC system which is kind of cool.

 

[imnotmikal]

I also had the problem with Quickoffice force closing, so I uninstalled it, and installed the HD version. It works flawlessly for me.

 

[luvduchovny]

I also had the problem with Quickoffice force closing, so I uninstalled it, and installed the HD version. It works flawlessly for me.

Good to know. I'll try at that at lunch. (Yeah I brought the tab to work with me and I'm being very good about not tweaking... so far).

 

[Zebulon]

I also had the problem with Quickoffice force closing, so I uninstalled it, and installed the HD version. It works flawlessly for me.

Yeah, Quickoffice HD worked great for me.

Also, HD videos seem like a no-go at the moment. Not a big deal for me, to be honest. It's not like there is a huge difference between 680 and 1080 on a 10" screen anyway.

Games seem to run nice and smooth. Samurai II is great. Seems smoother and more responsive than VEGAn 5.1.1.

 

[Zebulon]

Good to know. I'll try at that at lunch. (Yeah I brought the tab to work with me and I'm being very good about not tweaking... so far).

Haha, I bring my G-Tab to work every day. I do use it for some work-related things, though.

 

[xmr405o]

Yeah its great to have different OS options on both bootloaders.

 

[Fighton]

I got my gtab a month ago and immediately flashed vegan 5.1.1 before I knew about there being 2 different bootloaders. I like vegan but i'm ready for hc but i'm not sure what bootloader i have. Vegan runs great but I get a FC everytime I select "device info". Is there another way to figure out which bootloader I have?

 

[SolidOrange]

I got my gtab a month ago and immediately flashed vegan 5.1.1 before I knew about there being 2 different bootloaders. I like vegan but i'm ready for hc but i'm not sure what bootloader i have. Vegan runs great but I get a FC everytime I select "device info". Is there another way to figure out which bootloader I have?

If 5.1.1 is working for you, you are on the 1.1 bootloader. It has not been ported for 1.2 yet, so that should answer your question.

 

[Fighton]

Thanks for the quick reply. The reason I ask is that I'm getting stuck on the "recovery key detected" screen when trying to install CWM v8. I saw a thread somewhere that said if you are getting stuck on the recovery key detected screen you must have bootloader 1.2. Any truth to that?

 

[SolidOrange]

Thanks for the quick reply. The reason I ask is that I'm getting stuck on the "recovery key detected" screen when trying to install CWM v8. I saw a thread somewhere that said if you are getting stuck on the recovery key detected screen you must have bootloader 1.2. Any truth to that?

There is some truth to it, but loading vegan 5.1.1 on the 1.2 bootloader is guaranteed to soft brick your device, so if you have it running, you must be on 1.1.

 

[Zebulon]

Update:

I've been using this ROM for a week now, and it runs really well for the most part. There is one significant issue that I keep running into, though. The tablet continually uninstalls certain apps, particularly Samurai II. I have to reinstall it every couple of days. I don't know why, and it's starting to get annoying.

Other than that, the ROM seems almost as stable as VEGAn 5.1.1.

 

[Fighton]

I've tried repeatedly to install cwm v08 using the instructions HERE but I've been unsuccessful. I keep getting hung up at the birds screen. The top left says recovery key detected but cwm never installs. Any ideas?

 

[xmr405o]

I've tried repeatedly to install cwm v08 using the instructions HERE but I've been unsuccessful. I keep getting hung up at the birds screen. The top left says recovery key detected but cwm never installs. Any ideas?

Which cwmv08 file did u download? Internal or microsd?

 

[Fighton]

I've tried both.
I saw your instructions on a different thread for someone who is having the same problem. I'll try that and report back.

 

[Fighton]

Nevermind, that was for cmw for 1.2

 

[xmr405o]

I've tried both.
I saw your instructions on a different thread for someone who is having the same problem. I'll try that and report back.

The one that's most successful is the internal sd card zip. If I were u, remove your micro sd card to avoid confusion and make sure that the update.zip and recovery folder is in the root of the internal memory.

Good luck.

 

[luvduchovny]

This rom is now updated to 1.6.2 and works great. It fixed the video problems I was having with Crunchyroll (yay my subtitled anime is back). The CNN for Tablets works better now also. Facebook app is still boinked though.

 

[Zebulon]

This rom is now updated to 1.6.2 and works great. It fixed the video problems I was having with Crunchyroll (yay my subtitled anime is back). The CNN for Tablets works better now also. Facebook app is still boinked though.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to try updating to 1.6.2 today as well. The dev on XDA said it was getting 3900 on its Quadrant score. That's freakin' unbelievable!

 

[brad08stanggt]

HD Video and Flash work?

Are there issues with file deletions on the SD card (the one taht required the .nomedia) fix

Looks like I may be flashing this!

 

[Zebulon]

I haven't tried any 1080P videos on mine since I flashed Honeycomb, but youtube HD seems to be working in the app.

I haven't noticed that files have been disappearing, either.

The one downside that I'm noticing is that the battery life is not good, especially in standby mode. I have noticed approximately 4-5% battery drain per hour of standby, so you do need to be prepared to either shut down the tablet at night or charge it every day.

 

[brad08stanggt]

I haven't tried any 1080P videos on mine since I flashed Honeycomb, but youtube HD seems to be working in the app.

I haven't noticed that files have been disappearing, either.

The one downside that I'm noticing is that the battery life is not good, especially in standby mode. I have noticed approximately 4-5% battery drain per hour of standby, so you do need to be prepared to either shut down the tablet at night or charge it every day.

Did anyone else have an issue with CWM not being accessible after the install? I used CWM to install the rom, but now I cannot boot into recovery at all.

edit: never mind, it works. I did forget to backup my vegan install though oh well. i got excited for honeycomb.

 

[brad08stanggt]

Did anyone else have an issue with CWM not being accessible after the install? I used CWM to install the rom, but now I cannot boot into recovery at all.

edit: never mind, it works. I did forget to backup my vegan install though oh well. i got excited for honeycomb.

Hi everyone, just wanted to give a bit of a review after now being on gtabcomb for about 1 week.

I FREAKING LOVE IT! What a difference! Its so much faster and intuitive. The way everything works, looks, and feels on Honeycomb is 10x better than with Froyo. I guess that's the advantage of having a tablet based OS on the GTab finally.

Initially I had a few gripes, a few apps that didn't work, but in the last few days updates have been released and now they all work. At first the facebook app did not work at all, but now it does after an Fb app update.

So far every app I have needed works, except for Meebo IM, but i switched to e-buddy. I can confirm NETFLIX works as well. The camera still does not work, and neither does hardware acceleration, but neither of those effect me based on how I use my tablet.

I still do get the sleep of death occasionally, but I think at this point it must be an issue with the power button/gtab itself. I am happy though that wifi sleep does not happen now. With Vegan 5.1 even with it turned off, it would still sleep the wifi after a while.

overall I am very happy. I noticed they released an update to 3.2 on 7/18, i will update it tonight but i am sure i wont be dissapointed.

 

[Fighton]

I finally got this to work but the first time it booted it hung at the android screen right after the 3 birds screen. The second time it took a while to boot but it finally did. Now I'm stuck again on the android screen. Any ideas?

 

[Zebulon]

Define stuck.

The ROM takes a LONG time to boot up initially. I have to give it 5-10 minutes at the Android screen each time I flash a new version of GTabComb.