Mobile device status

Have been 'having fun' with my various Android devices in the last few days/week (?), after keeping ajour with CyanogenMod CM12 status.

The Galaxy Nexus from Samsung is a solid workhorse, too slow on startup for me to love it, but, when CM11 nightlies started dropping off in frequency, it was clear that things were moving fast on the CM12. Actually the developer had trouble with his own GNex too..

So, when a new Beta was released for the GNex I downloaded it, with a special Gapps version, read through the experiences others were having on XDA, and set at it with gusto. Its amazing where the time goes when playing with these things, so I had a couple of late nights and early mornings during the last week or so..

The CM12 beta installed OK, but there was space trouble for the first versions of Gapps I tried. Finally, I had success with the Pico version, and the long process of restoring apps began. Finally got things the way I like, using the Google Now launcher, though startup still suffers delays which I believe is related to sorting out the Carrier (Telenor). Will try it without a SIM, and see if that helps.

Lollipop was now running on the LG G3, the Nexus 10, Nexus 7 2013, and the GNex.

This left the Galaxy S2 running very fast on Stock 4.1.2. There was really no need to upgrade this device to Lollipop other than to see how it ran, but after quite a lot of preparation I downloaded various suggestions from old GS2 YouTubes aimed at getting my Recovery to a version required for CM12 installation.

Lots of the above were great for installing some kernel to get root status, but the only one that included a very old version of CWM was the Siyah kernel I had used a year or so ago.. When I had got the GS2 into a pretty hopeless state, the Siyah saved my bacon :)

Now I had the old CWM version it was possible to Restore what I believe was CM10 from the middle of last year. This restored slowly, but it got me to a state allowing Restore of CM11 from around Christmas. I then had CWM 6.0.4.5. Enough to install the CM12 Beta from lysergic, which awaited with the same Pico Gapps.

The CM12 Beta installed with no problems, and I was able to run Nandroid after setting things up the way I like. I am really impressed by how well Lollipop runs on this very old device. Equally as well as the GNex, and with 200+ MB free ram!

There we are then, all Lollipopped :)

This by the way is written on my new N20p 13" Chromebook from Lenovo.

Rooting Mania

In 22nd February's post I covered updating to Yakju build on my SG Nexus. I did a LOT of reading on XDA Forums after that until, on March 1st (Susan's birthday) I was mentally prepared to risk turning it into a 'brick'..

A senior member of XDA, efrant, had produced the guide not only for the Yakju task, but also in a paragraph E: which I had overlooked, he spelt out the next step - Rooting the phone!

Well, after almost 2 years spent compiling Gentoo I know what Root is and does, but somehow the idea of 'bricking' your favourite mobile phone is a touch off-putting. Anyway, after becoming tired, confused, and mixing things up like a true n00b on XDA, I succeeded in rooting the Nexus quite late in the evening.

YES! :)   Now I could carry out the next steps - NANDroid backup, and Titanium Backup Pro (TB). Hallowed words of Android's inner sanctum..

TB turned out to have a non-intuitive GUI, particularly where backing up to Dropbox was concerned. The documentation did not clarify how this was done, so I emailed support. They came back with a pleasant description after ca. 24 hours, by which time I had Googled my way to the answer on XDA forums.

It turns out that slowly Uploading to Dropbox is not a good solution, but having a 200GB spare partition on the iMac is, and I found several ways to transfer backups there in the coming days, as I decided on backup schedules.

Then there was the ClamXav GingerBreak Trojan issue! This turned out to be a correct false alarm, as GingerBreak is used in the root process. Moving the iMac's Downloads folder and my work folders to the 200GB partition solved that problem.

To cut a long story short, I Rooted the Nexus 7 next, and after success with that sprinted on to Root the Nexus 10. The latter used a different ClockworkMod (CWM) Recovery file, which clearly wasn't backing up apps. This gave me the opportunity to try TWRP instead of CWM.

TWRP cut out most of the manual work with Fastboot, and was a joy to use compared to pressing Power & Volume buttons, which one has to do with CWM whenever one wants to run a NANDroid backup. It also puts the latter into the 'SDcard' where TB can 'Restore an app from NANDroid', my data test.

Over the next few days I found the following excellent Root applications:

1. DiskUsage. This gives a visual overview of the files system.
2. CWMR Touch Installer. Speeds up access to Recovery.
3. X-Plore. A dual-pane file explorer.
4. Solid Explorer. This is the perfect dual-pane explorer!
5. GooManager. This installs TWRP, very easily!
6. CPU Tuner. Gives you control over power consumption.
7. USB OTG Helper (root). An aid to using USB Mass storage.
8. System Tuner Pro. Monitors everything.
9. ES File Explorer. Gives access to NAS drives..
10. Battery Monitor Widget Pro.