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Root [Virgin Mobile] 4.4

Use Apex Launcher. Been using it for about 4 years. Works great with any version of Android. I'm using it work KitKat. Worth checking it out.

Apex and/or Nova seem to be the cream of the crop; been using Nova for years personally, but Apex has also performed well for me when I have used it. Either one is an upgrade over that new Google launcher-since Google Now is accessed by swiping right, it seems pointless/redundant to lock the Google search bar onto the home screen. Not a feature I have ever kept on my home screen anyway, but haven't seen a way to remove it on 4.4. I also like being able to infinitely scroll through screens as well instead of having Google dictate which directions are acceptable.
 
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Got it working. But my old internal storage won't show up in 4.4.
4.4 creates new storage mount point? I'm not familiar with this.

What file explorer are you using and which 4.4 build are you using? I have had unofficial CM 11 11/28 build flashed as well as CyanFox initial build recently just to check them out and no problems using my standard ES File Explorer.

P.S. friendly suggestion, please put this kind of info into the original post, it makes it easier for people to pinpoint a problem.
 
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hey struckn

if you go towards the end of the comments lol(i will try find the link), an 11/30 build was built by another member based on 11/28

works great. worth a try

Just downloaded the version that Cjen1987 posted, I think it is the same 11/30 build but with Cjen's updater script which allows flashing via TWRP. Gonna flash tonight probably. Cjen also has some original 4.4 work posted on XDA, gonna try out his Smasher X 4.4 in the next couple of days as well. Pretty fun time to be a flashaholic with these unofficial 4.4 builds, jdsingle76 and his stock 4.3, and official 4.4 coming up!
 
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its surprising how stable these builds are considering they are unofficial and nightlies.

they are good enough to be my daily drivers for a while

Agreed. I was very wary of the original version of unofficial CM 11 posted by jetx2x, which was only up for about a day before he started working on fixes, because that first version was missing really important stuff like working WiFi and access to external storage. My impression was that he really wanted to be the first dev to put out a KitKat build for the SGS3 Sprint version, at the expense of a truly valid ROM, but it seems like that build is proving to be a winner now that subsequent versions have been released. Only issue I really had was after flashing the latest test build of dkp kernel; decimalman (the "d" in dkp) admitted that 4.4 versions of his kernel are not top priority until official CM 11 starts releasing, so no big deal there, still my favorite kernel on 4.3.x. Absolutely cannot wait for Carbon, they had a news update on their website about their 4.4 builds being worked on. Only real disappointment with 4.4 so far is that Xposed Framework is only a viable option if Dalvik is used instead of ART; the experience I have had when ART was enabled was "wow" since apps opened virtually instantly and everything seemed really snappy.
 
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I haven't really tried using 4.4 with diff kernels cause its an unofficial status.

It think that there can be problems. Better off using the kernel that it was meant to be used with until its confirmed that kernels like BMS and dkp can be run with cm 11 with no issues.

I really want to try ART but i know its not compabitle with some apps and xposed.

If I ever switched I probably would get hooked and would hate dalvik. Very tempting, but I'll be patient lol
 
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I haven't really tried using 4.4 with diff kernels cause its an unofficial status.

It think that there can be problems. Better off using the kernel that it was meant to be used with until its confirmed that kernels like BMS and dkp can be run with cm 11 with no issues.

I really want to try ART but i know its not compabitle with some apps and xposed.

If I ever switched I probably would get hooked and would hate dalvik. Very tempting, but I'll be patient lol

Yeah, the kernel problems I ran into weren't irreversible, but were definitely problems that couldn't be tolerated either. Stock is fine, I just like to tweak for battery life on custom kernels. Once official CM 11 is out, development should take off like a freaking rocket for both ROM's and kernels, so that will be like a perfect Christmas present if it happens in the next couple of weeks! As far as ART, very impressive, but Xposed is such a winner in my book that it wins when it comes to choosing ART vs. Dalvik. If you do want to see what ART is like just for grins, the boot time is really really long on the initial boot, so don't give up if it takes 10-15 minutes (plug your phone into a charger just to be safe on battery drain). Virtually instantaneous app response, and my understanding is that ART is still just a work in progress from Google which is why it is under Developer Options.
 
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Why can't I switch to art?
I enabled developer settings and selected art and it prompts me to reboot. Clicked OK, phone reboots and it remains on dalvik every time I try.

An I missing something?

Do you have latest Xposed Framework enabled? It will disable ART by default because it can only run on Dalvik, it is a specific feature of the newest version of Xposed. If so you have to disable Xposed first.
 
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Installed first official nightly very early this morning after it was released, running very smooth so far! Starting to see a lot of custom 4.4 releases on XDA as well. By the way, build number is already 4.4.1 on official CM version, looks like they have already merged the latest sources.
Where did you download it from?
and are you on 4.3?
 
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