• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Root [Verizon] How is Hyperdrive RSL8 (4.4) vs RSL7 (4.3)?

Amazing battery life! 78% after 12 hours! Not seen that lifetime since my iPhone 4!

one glitch though. Gear 2 weather wont auto refresh. Have to tap the little reload symbol within the weather app on the watch or unlock the phone before it refreshes. Even the stock weather widget in TouchWiz won't update unless I turn the phone on first, almost as if it is deep sleeping to the point of having zero background data happening. Notifications also stop after enough idle time.

This is by far the easiest root I've done. Towel root is the key.

ROMs though are complicated. Adding an addendum to the guide posted by the Chief, you cannot install hyperdrive into any slot except stock unless you want a black screen of death. Also, if you are on NC4 firmware you have to flash the NC2 kernel after the ROM before you reboot system or again, black screen of death.

Finally, a suggestion. In a later update please add in the bubbles unlock effect. I adore the flatter S5 TouchWiz and UI but the lack of the bubbles unlock effect ruins the illusion. Also please try to incorporate ultra power saving mode.
 
Upvote 0
I just upgraded last night using Digital Controller's guide going from 4.3 to 4.4.2 and it was very easy (simple...easiest upgrade I've done on any phone). Now I am running 4.4.2 with Hyperdrive RSL8. 4.4.2 and HD 8 seem much faster and smoother to me and hopefully hotspot works...haven't test it yet. Although it showed it was on and working in HD 7, I could never get anything to connect to it.
 
Upvote 0
I have found a few bugs... er, undocumented features, but it may just be my phone. For example, I can't change CUSTOM to OFFICIAL: Custom just persists. Small things.

But this thing sips battery now. I took my phone off the charger at 4 AM, light to moderate use all day, it's 6 PM and I'm at about 50%. I can't speak to the Galaxy S5 tweaks, as I use Apex Pro Launcher and it looks the same as it ever did.

Getting Hyperdrive 8 onto the phone, however, was a sheer nightmare for me: I ended up having to Odin back to MJE, re-root, then ROM up to Hyperdrive KitKat. I nearly hard-bricked the phone by making a critical error when I was half asleep. What is the critical error? Make a note of this. Write it down. BURN it into your memory:

Once you are on Hyperdrive 8 and Safestrap 3.72 KitKat, DO NOT REBOOT TO RECOVERY IN HYPERDRIVE! You know why? Because there isn't a custom recovery to reboot into. Safestrap is a recovery hybrid app; not the full-on thing. So as soon as I tapped that button (which you cannot remove, much to my dismay), the phone rebooted to nothing. Then tried it again. And again. Over and over and over. It was stuck in a seemingly perpetual bootloop from which there was no way out... not even with a battery pull.

Maybe it timed out after so many attempts... maybe it was my fervent prayers that did it :D but she finally booted back normally and all is well.

So remember not to reboot Hyperdrive into Recovery! You've been warned! If you want to access Recovery, reboot normally and select Recovery in Safestrap. You also can only flash Hyperdrive in the STOCK SLOT: this is a beta release of Safestrap KitKat, and no other slots are supported. Once you have Safestrap 3.72 installed, make sure you also install Busybox.

All in all, happy to be on 4.4.2 but I find nothing here worth the effort or the risk to attain it. YMMV, of course, and others may crow about their experience. I look forward to their perspectives.


Okaaay...hoping you can help me....i saw that you posted about getting stuck in a endless bootloop after rebooting into recovery from the hyperdrive power menu....i accidentally did that and now cant get out of bootloop.....is there anyway to fix this how did you get yours to stop?
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones