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.

Nexus 10 no longer rebooting

Just a quickie to report that the N10 has not rebooted since I decided to  Restore Stock Backup taken by the Franco Kernel Updater. This got me back to the original kernel, but About info didn't look right to me so I ended up using the Nexus 10 Toolkit to restore Stock JDQ39. This showed the same build info (i.e. the repeat was unnecessary) but it restored pretty well everything from the Google auto backup, since which I've kept an eye on surfaceflinger, and had no reboots.

Must say I'm surprised, and am left wondering whether my reboots were mostly a Franco problem or not. Once again, one cannot keep too many notes about what one actually does when faultfinding. Memory fades invariably, and I'm afraid my notes were not good enough to know when the Reboots began, on Stock, pre-Root, pre-Franco, or what :(

The Nexus Reboot Fiasco Continues

My previous post was about Nexus 10 reboots, but I should mention that the Nexus 7 is prone to these  too. My latest experience of this happened when I pulled the recharge cable from my N7.. happily the N7 is far more stable than the N10, though they have been virtually identical from a software point of view. Both were running the Franco until a couple of days ago when I restored them to the #1 backup taken with the Franco Updater, so both are basically 'Stock 4.2.2 + Root'

The following is a post I made in the Phandroid forums:

Nexus 10 Reboot in Safe Mode

---

I've been following as many threads as possible about Nexus 10 reboots, and an odd thing just occurred.. I came across Safe Mode earlier today, and was surfing around on the N10 (in Safe Mode) looking for SM threads.

I came across a thread on the Nexus7Nexus10 forum at Safe mode and blow me down, when I should scroll down the page my N10 froze and rebooted!

LOL

The only odd thing about the page is some flashing forum indicator which you may see for yourselves.

I am rooted on JB 4.2.2

Mvh
cintra

Really must update my signature to include GS2, SG Nexus, Nexus 7 & 10

__________________

iMacs, GS2, SG Nexus, Nexus 7, Nexus 10, & Win8

It was a laughable coincidence really, as I wasn't aware of Safe Mode until that morning. For those who are equally ignorant, it boots up with just the Google apps present. I had done a search and found  the URL hidden behind 'Safe Mode' in the post above, and as soon as I arrived on the thread and went to scroll down the page, it froze and then rebooted! Unbelievable... :)

From the lack of reboot reports while in Safe Mode I would believe this fact to be of interest to Google, particularly if it occurs again.

Nexus 10 Reboots

Many people on XDA have been experiencing odd problems with the Nexus 10, such as reboots and freezes. I have been suffering with the former only, and faultfinding a problem which occurs randomly 2 or 3 times a day is known to be difficult.

I started 3 days ago by stopping all kinds of syncing, and slowing down monitor events quite a bit. Since then I have seen no reboots :) Of course, as soon as I post this, one is likely to occur, but I was getting them fairly regularly..

Today I felt it was time for the next stage. Which of the sync events was most likely to cause trouble? Well those which happen most frequently are Google+ and GMail, so they could be a good place to start. First though I had to find where on earth auto sync is enabled. This turned out to be hidden in Data usage, click on the 3 dots and there it is :)

So, my first step was to enable auto sync and thats all for now. I have not enabled sync on any of the apps, though I believe Jottacloud has been doing its thing all along. That will do for a few hours before enabling sync on GMail and G+.

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.

Mini rant about lack of Nexus 10 CPU temperature sensor

From XDA forum:

Two things spoil my feelings for the Nexus 10 a touch. 

The day after I first started using the device I woke to a dead device. Could have sworn it was switched off, but even so the battery was lifeless. Scary!

The other thing I discovered yesterday - there are no CPU temperature sensors. 

Not only did this surprise me, (my three other Android devices have them) but I was surprised by the lack of search results pointing this out. This thread has one of the results 

There are a few issues with text size on some of the apps I use, but they will be sorted out in time I feel sure.

All in all a great device, well worth the money

Big scare..

Pressed the ON button on my Nexus 10, and NOTHING happened! What..?

I have been very careful to swipe off unused apps when I've finished using them, particularly as I'm monitoring battery conditions in the last day or two, see http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries.

So I plugged it in and hoped that nothing mysterious had killed the beast. Thankfully, after a few minutes, the screen blinked in a dim mauve colour, showed a battery icon, and went out again :) So, all is not last, but I must admit, this was scary.

Ordered Nexus 10 from Multicom

I've had Hardware.no's web site open on the Nexus 10 page, waiting for some supplier to quote a price for the device, and was searching for info about Nexus Media Importer when I suddenly noticed Multicom had an entry!

As I had ordered my US Nexus 7 from them, I felt safe in placing an order for a Nexus 10 even though the delivery date would probably be out in mid December.. Their price at NOK 3.5K was what I expected so I was quick off the mark, and after three attempts to enter my bank details and having Java troubles both with Chrome and Firefox, I got Safari to complete OK.

Today I have been trying to locate the User Guide, without success.