Root Business ICS 4.0.1 - review

[chknhwk]

I haven't seen anybody reviewing any of the ROM's on here so I figured I would start. Granted, take this review with a grain of salt because this is my review and your experience may differ. I would like to point out that I did follow the instructions to the T so I'm fairly confident my install is clean.

Pros:
- When changing the volume the display is larger than on the stock setup. I don't know if anybody else was bothered by how small it was but this is much better.
- There's a setting option that shows data usage for the month with the option to set when it resets and all - pretty sweet! (Pretty sure this is a stock ICS setting...)
- Flashlight comes stock with the ROM.
- Debloated - VERY little bloat on this thing, very clean.
- The battery icon is actually an icon with 1% charge increments. MUCH better than stock.
- This feature is kind of cool; long-press the back menu button and you get a list of running apps - stock ICS feature?

Cons:
- Go Launcher doesn't appear to work very well, force closed a couple times so now I'm using dxTop Pro from the Amazon Appstore. Can't seem to like Sense no matter how much I try. (BIG reason why you should take this review with a grain of salt.)
- Battery life was pretty crappy right after I loaded the ROM but maybe the ROM needs to 'learn' the phone a little bit and it will settle back in. Who knows. Right now I'm right at two hours off the charger (99% charge) and I have 65% battery life but I've spent most of this time setting up screens and downloading apps.

Not real sure how I'm at 111% battery discharge but whatever.
- My phone keeps popping up with the 'Set current time' error message in the notification bar. I've set it twice but it keeps coming back.
- I'm an idiot - I didn't lose any pictures - disregard.
- Swype doesn't work? This might be a deal breaker for me.

- Some notifications are pretty small:

This is just in the half a day I've had this and is subject to change. Please feel free to throw up your review of the same ROM or start another thread with your respective choice! After a couple days I will reflash to one of the other ROM's I have loaded on my phone.

 

[chknhwk]

Interesting things to note and I don't know how or if they will play out in the future but the first time the screen locked I couldn't unlock it. I had loaded Go Launcher and No Lock but the stock Sense lock screen was up and the screen was unresponsive. The only thing I could do was plug the phone into the laptop to get the usb debugging notification then I could pull down the notification menu and hit the home menu button, thus taking me to the home screen. Strange.
Plus my phone has rebooted twice in the five hours I've been at work this evening. Not doing anything RAM intensive, just playing with settings, downloading apps and widgets and setting up my screens. Could be more a function of dxTop Pro more than anything though!

 

[scotty85]

-go launcher prolly doesnt work well with ICS,its not really the roms fault. if you like to use 3rd party launchers,try nova or apex with ICS ive tried apex,and it worked well. if you move it to system/app it will even let you add widgets from the app drawer,just like stock ICS

-battery life. i havent personally noticed much difference between 2.01.605.11 and stock,or custom, ICS roms,but im pretty hard on my phone if i get 5 hours instead of 5.5-6 i dont really notice

-you can turn off the notifications under settings/wifi/menu softkey IIRC. its somewhere in the wifi settings,anyway... i cant check right now since im messing with my phone and its on GB the setting is called "notify me" adn youll need to uncheck it. again,this is an ICS thing-it doest it on the stock leak as well.

-losing pics is a result of the factory reset if they were stored on the internal storage,wich is wiped during the reset.

-im not a swype user,so i cant comment on that. it may also be an ICS thing im not sure... i dont know if swype has updated its app to work with 4.0(gnex has been out long enuff id think so). htc "trace" keyboard is included with 4.0,might try it as an alternative

great review. i just thot id point out a couple things that may help you enjoy it a lil more

thanks for the review and pics,im sure they will be helpful to the folks considering this rom

 

[chknhwk]

Scotty, thank you! Again you point out why it's so easy to have a mancrush on you. LOL My network notification is now turned off and I'm editing my review to reflect this.

 

[chknhwk]

Ok, so I was all prepared to not like this ROM but with running Apex I'm REALLY liking it. Apex is very minimalistic but snappy. I like it. Battery life appears to be pretty fantastic so far, too.
67% after 6 and a half hours while on wifi. I spent most of this time playing around on the phone, changing settings, loading apps and widgets and comparing Apex launcher, HTC Sense and dxTop Pro (there's a review on here for dxTop Pro; HTC Sense was constantly force closing on me, no idea why).

14 hours total before I plugged it in. Battery seemed to drain a LOT faster when I got to work and stayed on the network (3G, not 4G. Didn't need the speed and wanted to maximize battery life).

 

[chknhwk]

It's interesting that display is always 100% but if you click on it it will give you a different value. Strange. I haven't read the whole XDA thread yet, there might be some mention of it in there.

 

[chknhwk]

Two things, I'm still getting that error message that says it can't detect my timezone and yesterday I had an issue with android process com.android.phone quit working and did I want to wait or close it. It didn't seem to matter which I clicked on because it would keep popping up until it rebooted on it's own. When the phone came back up it did not come up all the way as all I had was a black screen with a notification bar. I could pull down the bar but there was nothing listed - no processes where there are usually two at a minimum (Elecont weather and Juice Defender). If I clicked on quick settings it would show them but if I clicked on the gear icon my setting did not load and the phone rebooted on it's own again. This time it came back up. No idea what's going on with that - going to research on XDA. This might force me to try a different ROM for a bit...

 

[scotty85]

the timezone thing is an issue with the base rom,ive seen it on the stock leak.

the second issue i do not believe i have seen. i would try running it without juice defender and see if it still pops up.

 

[chknhwk]

Thanks Scotty. I doubt JD is the culprit but I'm willing to give it a try.
It was just doing some other funky things just now. After deleting my spam emails in one of my yahoo accounts this notification did not go away until after I rebooted the phone:

Upon rebooting my lock screen got 'stuck' again. I'm using No Lock but I'm starting to think it's interfering with things. After it boots up again I'm going to delete it and see if things smooth down.

DISCLAIMER: I am not complaining about this ROM, I appreciate everything that went into making this. Even with these small issues I absolutely love this ROM and am reluctant to test any others. :-D

 

[chknhwk]

Well I think I'm done with this one as I can't get swype to work. Now to.figure out if I can flash straight to one of the four roms I have on my sd card.

 

[scotty85]

Well I think I'm done with this one as I can't get swype to work. Now to.figure out if I can flash straight to one of the four roms I have on my sd card.

yup. just make sure to wipe at a minimum: data/fasctory reset,cache,and dalvik cache. then flash away

 

[chknhwk]

yup. just make sure to wipe at a minimum: data/fasctory reset,cache,and dalvik cache. then flash away

Well SOMETHING didn't go as planned. Currently stuck in bootloop. :eviltongue:

I went from Business ICS 4.0.1 to Scotts Clean ROM 4.4. I wiped all data, cache and dalvik cache (did NOT do a factory reset) and loaded the zip. Phone worked GREAT for about five minutes then proceeded to bootloop. I forgot to delete the PHxxxx98.img. Is this why? I'm stuck at work and I have no way to plug my sdcard into anything to remove that. Guess I'll have to get home, remove that file to be able to get it to boot to recovery and not fastboot recovery?

 

[scotty85]

Well SOMETHING didn't go as planned. Currently stuck in bootloop. :eviltongue:

I went from Business ICS 4.0.1 to Scotts Clean ROM 4.4. I wiped all data, cache and dalvik cache (did NOT do a factory reset) and loaded the zip. Phone worked GREAT for about five minutes then proceeded to bootloop. I forgot to delete the PHxxxx98.img. Is this why? I'm stuck at work and I have no way to plug my sdcard into anything to remove that. Guess I'll have to get home, remove that file to be able to get it to boot to recovery and not fastboot recovery?

i would think nils and scotts roms are similar enuff that you could have flashed one over the other without a data wipe,but maybe not. it really is advisable to always wipe data when flashing different roms,or even drastically different versions of the same roms.

they are all using the same kernel,i think,so you can maybe wipe and reflash one or ther other,or even restore a backup,from a permanent recovery.

your dilema with the sd is exactly why i hate these roms automatically depositing the PH98IMGs on our sd cards. they are a PITA when youre not prepaired to deal with them.

unfurtunately,i believe you are in a situation where you need at least a card reader,preferably a PC with adb/fastboot setup to fix your prollem.

if you can somehow get ph98img off your sd card,try doing a full wipe and either re-installing clean rom,or restoring your backup.

if that for some reason doesnt work,you may have to wait until you can plug in and launch amon from fastboot to properly wipe and flash,and install the correct boot image.

 

[chknhwk]

Ok, this is what I did.
After I got home from work I threw my sd card in her phone (LG Spectrum, don't have to power off phone to swap sd cards, it's a pretty nice feature) and deleted the .img file. After that I was able to properly get to recovery via the volume/power button combo. I then did a factory reset/wipe data/wipe cache/wipe dalvik cache and installed zip from sd drive. I tried loading Scotts 4.4 again. No go, stuck in bootloop again.
So I did the sd card swap again, factory reset/wipe cache/wipe dalvik cache and loaded my nandroid backup. Radios don't work.
REwiped, reloaded the business ICS ROM, update wouldn't load, main version was older. Ok, no big deal. Went back into recovery and loaded my last nandroid backup but radios still don't work. Went into recovery and it won't update the package because the main version is older still.
I'm guessing now I have to hop onto my laptop and do the whole adb thing but I'm not really sure what exactly I need to do?

 

[scotty85]

when the radios didnt work,was the back cover off the phone? remember its basically the antenna,so its needed for proper operation

on the bootloop,it sounds like you didnt flash the old firmware patch(needed to run ics with GB firmware)

on the main version,cleanrom is no longer setting the main version to 2.01.605.11 so things are smooth for the s-on crowd. there is a zip you can flash in recovery that will set it at 1.0.000.0 prior to flashing anything,and saving yourself from seeing that error

main version tool

what i would do:
-launch amon from fastboot
-wipe data/factory rest,cache,dalvik cache,boot,system
-flash main version low zip
-flash rom of choice
-flash old firmware patch
*flash kernel if desired

both business and clean rom are now set up to install the kernel in recovery. if you install the rom from a fastboot booted recovery,you shouldnt need the seperate kernel flash. however,if you wish to do it,for peace of mind,you can. the easiest way is to place the boot image into your mini-adb_vigor file,and then boot to bootloader after the recovery flashes. use the command fastboot flash boot bootimagename.img but again,you shoudlnt really have to.i never did seperate kernel flashes on my s-on,htcdev unlocked evo3d

 

[chknhwk]

when the radios didnt work,was the back cover off the phone? remember its basically the antenna,so its needed for proper operation

Yes, the back was on.

on the bootloop,it sounds like you didnt flash the old firmware patch(needed to run ics with GB firmware)

I thought I did - but that's where I'm getting the error message main version is older, aborted.

what i would do:
-launch amon from fastboot
-wipe data/factory rest,cache,dalvik cache,boot,system
-flash main version low zip
-flash rom of choice
-flash old firmware patch
*flash kernel if desired

I'm getting an error message at 'flash main version low zip'. I'm flashing zip from sd card and I chose 'misctool.zip' but I'm getting an error message "E: can't find update script
Installation aborted"
What am I doing wrong? The instructions simply say 'install zip from recovery'.

 

[chknhwk]

I think I see what I did, giving it another go.

 

[chknhwk]

This ROM will NOT work with my phone, I have no idea what the problem is. Phone storage won't mount so I can't delete my PH98.img. Radios started working but the ROM just isn't compatible with my phone for some reason. I haven't had any luck with any of Scotts ROMs, I don't think I'll try another one again.

 

[scotty85]

I think the more likely scenario is that I prolly have just not described well snuff how to install it.

Describe in as much detail as you can,the steps you took and what happened.

Just to verify,you are s on still,on hboot 2.11 correct?

 

[mtbhk44]

I had a problem with EVERY ROM not mounting my SD card (aside from Scott's oddly enough) until I S-OFF'd and went straight for the ICS firmware. Since then, I've not had any issues with the SD Card or the radios. The stupid SD Card mounting spot changed from GB to ICS (why I have no idea) so it's a constant issue across the board.

 

[chknhwk]

I think the more likely scenario is that I prolly have just not described well snuff how to install it.

Describe in as much detail as you can,the steps you took and what happened.

Just to verify,you are s on still,on hboot 2.11 correct?

Yes, S-ON, HBOOT-2.11.0000. Had to buy a Dynex card reader on my way to work today, LOL. Just deleted the PH98.img AGAIN and from here on out I'm going to try to just load my nandroid backup.

 

[chknhwk]

I think the more likely scenario is that I prolly have just not described well snuff how to install it.

Describe in as much detail as you can,the steps you took and what happened.

Just to verify,you are s on still,on hboot 2.11 correct?

First time around I followed the directions exactly with the exception of doing a factory reset. That's it.
After that I deleted the PH98.img file from my sdcard when I got home. Powered up into bootloader and then followed the directions exactly as written. Wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache, wipe dalvik cache, upload zip from sd card, chose CleanRom, it loaded, loaded to bootloader (the white screen), hit power button and then asked if I wanted to update. I said yes, it updated. Phone booted up but radios did not work.
Redid everything exactly the same again, figuring another wipe would do it good (I've seen it does help on some installs to do this) but radios still did not work.
Reredeleted the PH98.img file and flashed Business ICS but radios still no worky.
After you posted the directions about the main version tool I decided to try that and did what you told me to do, loaded CleanROM and everything booted up fine with the exception of my phone sd card and sd card being mounted. Radios worked but I could not access my sd card to remove the ph98.img again. Phone would randomly reboot.
Got to work and deleted my PH98.img again and reloaded Business ICS, appears to be working fine. There appears to be something with the Scotts ROMs that my phone does not like and I can't for the life of me figure out what it is.

 

[chknhwk]

Nandroid backup worked fine after reflashing Business ICS so I'm back to where I was yesterday. This isn't the first time I've had issue with Scotts ROMs, wish I knew what the deal was. I really want to try other ROMs because I can't get Swype or NoLock to work with this one.

 

[scotty85]

from the sounds of it,youre just having trouble because you didnt flash the old firmware patch in recovery.

also,it looks like i somehow screwed you up with the main version tool download,its linking back to the root guide oops the tool is available in that thread in the post about unrooting,but here is the direct link again:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=927706&d=1330664466


flashing that should set your main version to 1.00.000.0 so that the ph98img will flash.

launching amon from fastboot should let you flash the rom normally,like an s-off phone,but lets concetrate on the s-on directions:

the old firmware patch is in the "extras" download,as per the directions in scotts OP:


Method 4: Installation for S-ON Devices on Gingerbread firmware
Copy ROM to SD Card AND PH98IMG.zip AND GB Firmware Patch (and main version low tool) to ROOT of SD Card
Reboot to recovery
wipe data / Factory Reset
(flash main version tool)
Flash ROM
Flash GB Fimrware Patch
Use Developer Menu to reboot to bootloader and flash the boot.img file in the PH98IMG.zip
Reboot
Profit!

did you follow those steps(i added in the main version flash)?

the sd and internal storage not mounting,and the rebooting are the result of the unmodified ICS rom being run with the GB firmware. you must have flashed this patch when you first falshed business ICS,or youd be having those same issues with it. thus,restoring the backup with the patch works.

hope that helps

 

[chknhwk]

from the sounds of it,youre just having trouble because you didnt flash the old firmware patch in recovery.

I *thought* I did that. Isn't that where I have to flash the update in reboot recovery?

also,it looks like i somehow screwed you up with the main version tool download,its linking back to the root guide oops the tool is available in that thread in the post about unrooting,but here is the direct link again:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=927706&d=1330664466

You didn't screw me up at all, I saw the link in there.

flashing that should set your main version to 1.00.000.0 so that the ph98img will flash.

launching amon from fastboot should let you flash the rom normally,like an s-off phone,but lets concetrate on the s-on directions:

the old firmware patch is in the "extras" download,as per the directions in scotts OP:


Method 4: Installation for S-ON Devices on Gingerbread firmware
Copy ROM to SD Card AND PH98IMG.zip AND GB Firmware Patch (and main version low tool) to ROOT of SD Card
Reboot to recovery
wipe data / Factory Reset
(flash main version tool)
Flash ROM
Flash GB Fimrware Patch
Use Developer Menu to reboot to bootloader and flash the boot.img file in the PH98IMG.zip
Reboot
Profit!

did you follow those steps(i added in the main version flash)?

the sd and internal storage not mounting,and the rebooting are the result of the unmodified ICS rom being run with the GB firmware. you must have flashed this patch when you first falshed business ICS,or youd be having those same issues with it. thus,restoring the backup with the patch works.

hope that helps

I honestly missed the "extras" download part, that might be a huge part of my problem. Honestly I think I might be mixed up on the "Flash GB Fimrware Patch", I never downloaded anything other than the actual ROM. I may have to give it another try with this firmware patch - I always thought that was the extra bit I updated when my phone goes from recovery reboot to bootloader and updates.