[Q] Why should I put a Custom Rom on the A500? - Acer Iconia A500

Hi All,
I am a new A500 owner and a long time Viewsonic G Tablet owner; I know why I put a Custom Rom on the G Tablet (Stock Rom Sucked and VS dropped support). However after playing with my new A500 for the last week I really can see no reason so far to put a custom rom on this tablet.
The stock rom rooted and a few extras added/fixed like...
GPS Fix
NTFS Mount
Rooted
CWM Added
have really made this a very stable and very effective rom. I have been reading through the forum and I see a significant number of custom roms out there. I am sure they are there for a reason however for the life of me I can not determine why I would want to install any of them. I do also understand that I am coming late to the game on this tablet as I am sure these were probably developed to fix deficiencies in the stock rom when the tablet was first released.
So can someone explain to me why I would want to switch to a custom rom today given the stability and fixes available for the stock rom?
This is not meant to be a dig on any individual, group or any dev of these roms; I know these folks do an outstanding job and I appreciate every single one of them. However for someone new to this tablet it would be great to know what makes the custom roms better than what I already have with the stock/fixed rom I am running. I am currently running;
Android Version: 3.1
Kernel Version: 2.6.36.3
Build Number: Acer_A500_4.010.11_COM_GEN2
This is a sincere question and I would appreciate not getting flamed or bashed for asking. This is in the Q&A section so I am hoping this is the right place to get the answers I am seeking.
" The only way to learn is to ask... so I am asking "

To me I think everyone installs custom roms for all diffrent reasons. Each rom has its own benefits and restrictions. I have tried a few and always go back to stock.
Good luck and flash with great Caution

erica_renee said:
To me I think everyone installs custom roms for all diffrent reasons. Each rom has its own benefits and restrictions. I have tried a few and always go back to stock.
Good luck and flash with great Caution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Erica Renee,
Thank you for the quick reply... I was just not sure if there was a relevant issue that would persuade me to move from my stock rom to a custom one. I very much appreciate your response!!!
Rick

I'm coming from a Viewsonic Gtablet, and with the gtablet a custom rom was a must, here with the iconia I don't see any advantage to use a custom rom, Android 3.1 has everything I wanted. I only rooted it for ad-hoc support, but barely I use the ad-hoc, is only for emergencies, besides that, even rooting is not really necessary. Android OS backups all application settings, so each time I uninstall and reinstall an application, my former settings are there.
Just enjoy your Iconia

Frankly, I haven't felt the need to flash a custom ROM to the A500. I did root it to be able to use certain apps.
I have tried a variety of ROMs and kernels on my HTC EVO 4G, but that's because stock Froyo and even stock Gingerbread is boring. I think stock Honeycomb looks and performs great. It makes me really look forward to Icecream Sandwich.
I did add ADWLauncher to my A500, so maybe that's another reason why I haven't felt the need to flash a custom ROM.

i find myself in the same boat...
Running stock 3.1, rooted, cwm running - quite happy.
If you want to take it a step further, install Richardtrip's custom kernal and SetCPU and you will be amazed.

entropy.of.avarice said:
Running stock 3.1, rooted, cwm running - quite happy.
If you want to take it a step further, install Richardtrip's custom kernal and SetCPU and you will be amazed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi entropy.of.avarice,
Thank you for the feedback, it is truly appreciated! I would not mind installing the new kernel as long as I knew for sure it would not break all that works well on my tablet right now.

Still on stock since I got mine - though I have since rooted - I'm not really making any use of it, only for file permissions and dropping boot animations onto the folder directly rather than through ADB.
I shopped around some of the ROM's floating around here and other that a few of the Touchwiz UI functions from Galaxy, [I don't even think it's supported or still available right now] there's nothing out there that would add to my experience in any appreciable way to risk going through all that [and back again] when I want to.
Stock is stable, runs smooth and fast and is supported if something ****s up and that is all I need - my life doesn't live and breath by the tablet so it's perfect for what I need it to be and what I need it to do.

I am using self-cooked official honeycomb 3.2 ROM (rooted, ad-hoc fix, etc)
with self-compiled 3.2 kernel, OC and apply different kind of fixes & patches.
Installing custom ROM & kernel is the act of tailor making your own OS.
It is why android is so attractive and additive.

Whay a non-stock ROM?
There are about as many answers to this as there are ROMs.
I have CWM / Recovery / Taboonay 2.0 w/ richardtrip's OC-able kernel (oc'd to 15000) and the tablet is Super Snappy! It has ad hoc support for tethering to my phone via WiFi, no random wake ups, Netflix with no broken cameras, Good GPS lock (after a bit of futzing...)
I was originally just gonna put 3.2 on there to experiment with and flash back after playing with it, but I got REALLY lucky. Did a FULL CWM backup and just flashed the ROM & Kernel over my existing ROM without wiping and...it just worked without me having to redo everything. So I just kept going..
I'd say at this point on the tablet no one REALLY needs 3.2, but a few of the modded kernels out there fix a number of sore spots that I wish ACER would just take care of...
I love our DEVS!
So...Up to you! But I currently LOVE taboonay 2.0 and the RT kernel...No issues at all for me...
(p.s. I still have two preceding backups of a couple of states of working 3.1 on my SD card that are 3 weeks apart that function wonderfully Just In Case! so, yeah..nothing really to lose by playing and testing...)

Why a non-stock ROM?
There are about as many answers to this as there are ROMs.
I have CWM / Recovery / Taboonay 2.0 w/ richardtrip's OC-able kernel (oc'd to 15000) and the tablet is Super Snappy! It has ad hoc support for tethering to my phone via WiFi, no random wake ups, Netflix with no broken cameras, Good GPS lock (after a bit of futzing...)
I was originally just gonna put 3.2 on there to experiment with and flash back after playing with it, but I got REALLY lucky. Did a FULL CWM backup and just flashed the ROM & Kernel over my existing ROM without wiping and...it just worked without me having to redo everything. So I just kept going..
I'd say at this point on the tablet no one REALLY needs 3.2, but a few of the modded kernels out there fix a number of sore spots that I wish ACER would just take care of...
I love our DEVS!
So...Up to you! But I currently LOVE taboonay 2.0 and the RT kernel...No issues at all for me...
(p.s. I still have two preceding backups of a couple of states of working 3.1 on my SD card that are 3 weeks apart that function wonderfully Just In Case! so, yeah..nothing really to lose by playing and testing...)

I rooted to gain performance. Taboonay and Richards kernel have given me a huge performance increase, no more lag.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

Don't change unless you don't have a life and you want to spend all your hours figuring out what is wrong, have tried them all and stock is less head ake.

Related

Black screen and lag on i9000 2.2

Hi guys,
I am new to android world n amature in doing techy things on my mobile. I have updated my os from 2.1 to 2.2 via kies.
I get lag n black screens on my usage. Can anyone help me?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
i laso get some lag end som blackscreens
but i have already done the lagfix.
but i have the brazilian version, also with 2.2 with
baseband i900bvjjpd
kernel 2.6.32.9 [email protected]_lation #3
dunoo if its maybe an app, but i have watchdog and there are no apps misbehaving :/
first of all i think your both in the wrong thread lol, wont get noticed much in this section.......... but anyway
Are you using 2.2 or 2.2.1 ?? there are alot of fixes in the 2.2.1 and is a lot quicker for a stock ROM.
if you wanted even more speed you could go for a custom ROM there is loads to chose from.... but it can get a bit technical so if your unsure DONT DO IT !!!
There are a few things to consider:
- as stated above, you should make sure you get the latest, because 2.2.1 should be available (even officially) pretty much everywhere
- after flashing a factory reset is recommended to get the best performance (do a backup before so you can restore anything)
- there are better kernels out there that can speed up things and make your experience smoother (speedmod, voodoo, tegrak, etc)
- there are custom roms out there that are junk free and should provide a richer better experience.
Hi,
I know my question may be weired to some of experience people out here.
but i am really confused
What is difference between linux kernal update and flashing rom.
how to update kernel on my samsung galaxy s (I9000 2.2 default by samsung)
Thanks
Kernels and ROMs go hand it hand, it pointless getting a custom ROM and keeping stock Kernel. or vice versa
if you look it the development section and look for kernels (speedmod, Voodoo ect) there is a detailed step by step guide to installing them, and what benefits they have... it will make more sense for you to read through it all, than it would for us to try break it down into simple terms

[Discussion] Stock or Custom ROMs

Well with all the hype going on about custom (and sometimes stock) firmwares. I thought I would start a discussion and Perhaps a poll to see if you are using stock or custom ROMs.
As for my 2 cents: Samsung makes great hardware (at least to my experience) but sinks it down to sleep with the fishies with poor software support including bad very bad software suites (like Kies or Media studio the latter which installed a nasty rootkit on my laptop believe it or not for DRM), prematurely axing support to its newly launched devices (I remember hacking my samsung MP3 with korean firmware as I was really angry at samsung for axing the device 2 months after its release whats up with that ).
So what about you: Do u use custom ROMs or stick to late to almost never released stock ROMs?
Stock rom.
It does what I want. Internet-games-programs. It is fast and good.
I do not see a reason to go with a custom rom.
I use modaco. because its sooooo fast.
Overcome. Hands down the best rom/kernel IMHO.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App
okay ... dumb question ... i've just ordered a Tab from T-Mobile, should have it Monday or Tuesday, so ... just what is a custom ROM/Kernal going to do for me?
Thanks,
pat----
Im sticking with stock atm...
As posted above, it does what i want.
Im on Overcome 1.3, undervolted, not overclocked
what it does for you is it removes bloatware, includes fixes to known bugs that samsung has not addressed with a proper firmware update, allows for overclocking and undervolting if you're into that, formats the file system to EXT4 making IO faster, installs a full backup and restore facility from recovery, and provides better battery life*
quadrant score from original firmware: 1000-1200
quadrant score from Overcome 1.3 no overclock: 1690
so yeah, custom IS better than stock until samsung gets all these tweaks into their official ROMs.
(*I don't know how it does that, but it does )
It should be said that in reality the split isn't just between stock and custom, but stock, "unreleased', and custom.
Most of the custom ROMs you can find here are based on Samsung's own unreleased test/dev builds (e.g. MoDaCo is based on JMI, Overcome is based on JMK). Even in their "raw" form, these unreleased ROMs are far better than those that actually ship on the device (BEWARE LOCKED BOOTLOADERS IF YOU ARE THINKING OF FLASHING ONE!!!).
If you take say Rotohammers build, it is stock JMI (JMK now?), without the locked bootloaders and pre-rooted. MoDaCo and Overcome go quite a bit further as they have completely rebuilt kernels and are tweaked for speed. Then you have Technomancers Gingerbread ROM, which is completely custom and based on CM7 rather than an existing Samsung build.
In my opinion, staying on a shipping Tab ROM means you are not getting as much out of your device as you could. Even the Samsung unreleased dev builds are way better than the shipping ROMs, so I don't know why Samsung haven't actually formally released them.
Regards,
Dave
I user overcome 1.4.4
Its much faster than the stock rom and seems to use less battery power in my particular use case.
Custom, as indicated in my signature. I have a T-Mobile Tab and in stock form, it was extremely slow. It sucked.
chicken roms is better ever
For those who say stock is fine i say you have no idea what you are missing. Try both, then make a decision. Custom all the way baby!
T-Mobile tab running latest Overcome
As a bell mobility tab user, i used the stock one (jj3) i think for about a month.
After that i decided to go with roto jme then jmg and after that went to modaco.
Was on modaco for about the last 3 months and i have decided to flash overcome.
There is a significant speed difference between modaco and overcome. I noticed lag in angry birds seasons with modaco but with overcome, barely any.
I am happy with flashing a custom Rom and would never go back to stock.
If only i could get a copy of the stock Rom just in case of any issues.
Hope that helps.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App
The hardware is superb but it's let down badly by Samsung in not keeping it up to date with firmwares.
Using Custom roms solves this and provides an all round quality tablet so, yeah, custom roms for me.
I use a stock rom for now, but once my download for Overcome is done, I'll switch to it.
pendevous said:
I use a stock rom for now, but once my download for Overcome is done, I'll switch to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read the guides before flashing.
I had stock. It was excellent, good multi-language support, excellent hardware support.
Tried MoDaCo. Lost most of language support. Hardware support only for the basic stuff.
Replaced with Overcome. Language support even sketchier. Battery performance awful. Hardware support still only basic stuff.
Tried going back to stock. I could not find the stock firmware that was originally available on the device. All «stock» firmwares in the wild had the same issues as the MoDaCo and Overcome. I was shocked and seriously puzzled!
Went to the repair shop and asked them to flash the device with the original.
- Two days later I was told, that they need some special cable to flash the device, and it's going to take a week to get it from Korea(!).
- One week later I was told, that the device needed motherboard replacement.
- One more week later I got the device.
Now my device has Excellent language support, but still fails to report Neighbouring GSM Cells.
Eventually I installed a Winblows in a VM (Bleh!) to try Kies.
To my greatest surprise after eventually connecting Kies says that my device is 'Not Upgradeable'.
So my adventure with custom firmwares is MOST unfortunate.
My ¢2: new users should NOT replace firmware unless they BADLY need something that SUPPOSEDLY a custom firmware would give.
Lachezarian said:
I had stock. It was excellent, good multi-language support, excellent hardware support.
Tried MoDaCo. Lost most of language support. Hardware support only for the basic stuff.
Replaced with Overcome. Language support even sketchier. Battery performance awful. Hardware support still only basic stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you please elaborate more what do you mean by "hardware support", what would be the difference between "basic stuff" and "excellent"?
AFAIK, the custom ROMS are based on stock ROM, thus I can't understand there will be any difference over hardware support level.
With custom ROMs you are more free!
DarkPal said:
Read the guides before flashing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did. I ended up installing Rotohammer's instead, though. It works fine.

Finding out what ROM was installed

Hey
I used to have a nice ROM installed with a kernel that allowed overclocking. I would run my shift at 1.5Ghz and was really happy. Then when Gingerbread was coming out, I decided to flash a Gingerbread ROM because I was just excited for 2.3
Now there were not kernels for Gingerbread ROMs at that time. So formatted/wiped everything from my device using Clockwork Recovery. Now here's where I have a few questions:
After I wiped the entire device, when my phone booted, it seemed to have 2.3 installed so I assumed that since there was an OTA update for Gingerbread, it must have gotten updated somehow. I want to find out whether I have a custom ROM with 2.3 installed or is it a regular Gingerbread stock ROM that's on my device?
I would like to find out what kind of ROM is installed on my device right now and do whatever it takes to be able to flash a kernel that allows overclocking, because going back to 800Mhz from 1500Mhz is just not doing it.
I would also really appreciate if someone gave me direct links to a custom ROM (since I understand at this time it is impossible to flash an overclocked kernel, since HTC has not released official Gingerbread source code yet) with a flashable kernel that's completely stable and allows overclocking to 1.5Ghz.
I really don't care about the whole Cynaogen Mod etc, because I use LauncherPro anyway and from what I understood when I was reading about Cyanogen Mod, it doesn't change THAT much other than adding a little bit more functionality and mainly focusing on changing the phone interface, which is completely irrelevant to me.
Thank you in advance.
sajmonides said:
Hey
I used to have a nice ROM installed with a kernel that allowed overclocking. I would run my shift at 1.5Ghz and was really happy. Then when Gingerbread was coming out, I decided to flash a Gingerbread ROM because I was just excited for 2.3
Now there were not kernels for Gingerbread ROMs at that time. So formatted/wiped everything from my device using Clockwork Recovery. Now here's where I have a few questions:
After I wiped the entire device, when my phone booted, it seemed to have 2.3 installed so I assumed that since there was an OTA update for Gingerbread, it must have gotten updated somehow. I want to find out whether I have a custom ROM with 2.3 installed or is it a regular Gingerbread stock ROM that's on my device?
I would like to find out what kind of ROM is installed on my device right now and do whatever it takes to be able to flash a kernel that allows overclocking, because going back to 800Mhz from 1500Mhz is just not doing it.
I would also really appreciate if someone gave me direct links to a custom ROM (since I understand at this time it is impossible to flash an overclocked kernel, since HTC has not released official Gingerbread source code yet) with a flashable kernel that's completely stable and allows overclocking to 1.5Ghz.
I really don't care about the whole Cynaogen Mod etc, because I use LauncherPro anyway and from what I understood when I was reading about Cyanogen Mod, it doesn't change THAT much other than adding a little bit more functionality and mainly focusing on changing the phone interface, which is completely irrelevant to me.
Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you just did a wipe and didn't flash anything, your still running the same ROM as you were before the wipe. If you go into setting > about phone > software information > more, this will tell you your current ROM (build version). If you would like to continue using Sense but want to overclock I would suggest MikShift 1.1, otherwise I would suggest the Shift Deck ROM. Both can be overclocked with several different kernels, just do a little reading through the dev section to see what best suites you.
Disregard, just typed what crump said but he beat me to it!

How to update newly rooted phone

I have just rooted my phone and to do so I had to downgrade to its original stock firmware instead of what it had automatically upgraded to.
I needed root access primarily so I could run tethering apps.
Is there a way to get the phone to take an update from T-Mobile to get back up to Gingerbread?
-----
Secondarily, the only other Android device I have is an HP Touchpan which is running CM9-ICS. I quite like ICS, but am concerned the current ROMs listed here seem less than stable. Are any of them rock solid while still giving full access to the hardware (GPS, camera, camcorder, audio, etc.)
Without starting a flame war, which ICS ROM would you suggest or shoudl I stck with Gingerbread?
Thanks
Spektre99 said:
I have just rooted my phone and to do so I had to downgrade to its original stock firmware instead of what it had automatically upgraded to.
I needed root access primarily so I could run tethering apps.
Is there a way to get the phone to take an update from T-Mobile to get back up to Gingerbread?
-----
Secondarily, the only other Android device I have is an HP Touchpan which is running CM9-ICS. I quite like ICS, but am concerned the current ROMs listed here seem less than stable. Are any of them rock solid while still giving full access to the hardware (GPS, camera, camcorder, audio, etc.)
Without starting a flame war, which ICS ROM would you suggest or shoudl I stck with Gingerbread?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I believe that the most stable ICS rom is the CM9 port by 0.0. If you want a different flavor I have a GB rom tweaked to look just like iPhone that has everything working just fine. You can check that out see if you like it. And if you want just a regular GB rom would check out the CM7 nightlies section. Hope this helped
EDIT: I didn't mention this, but Synthetic Nightmare's aospX ICS is also very clean, simple, stable. Its not much tweaked, but very snappy and fast.

[Q] What's the current latest and greatest?

I'm sure there's a million other threads like this, but the Iconia development world moves too fast for me to keep up, and for those older threads to maintain relevance. So I'm wondering what the latest and greatest ROMs are for the Iconia A500, and better yet a good guide on how to get it going.
Here's what I have going on right now:
1. It's running stock ICS (4.0.3, image Acer_AV041_A500_RV05RC01_PA_CUS1) applied through the OTA update.
2. It is rooted.
3. It has stock recovery, stock everything besides being rooted.
I do have experience flashing ROMs on Androids, rooting, ClockWorkMod, ADB, etc. but I have never flashed anything on an Acer before. Ideally, I'd like to throw CWM on there and a (mostly stable) JellyBean ROM. Can anyone hook me up with some threads?
Thanks!
EDIT: You know, from the looks of it, that CUS1 kinda screams that something isn't stock. The only explanation I have is it changed when I rooted it.
In Developement section I noticed JB 4.2.1 beta3 is most current if your going on JB numbers (over 4.1.x) not all works (but is getting better each version), read thread
if you goto any JB ROM , it will based on another BASE... ACER A500 STOCK ROM only has gotten to 4.0.3 so far (NO JB)
A good MOD or addon, I like is "Google NOW by Civato MOD" it adds Google NOW to 4.0.3. (ICS)
Lightspeed 4.8 is a great ROM (older ICS 4.0.3 based) but nice how it is stripped of bloatware) and you can add OC kernel and have @ 1504 Mhz
Civato, has made a few ics 4.0.4 ICS roms with A700 mixed in, better screens, etc.
I Like sticking with STOCK Acer_AV041_A500_1.054.00_WW_GEN1. It's the most current STOCK version.
Then I strip out a lot of Bloatware, add in Civato's Google NOW mod. another MOD AD Blocker (etc\"hosts" file)
I tried JB on Another based ROM, couldn't get into it, I'd try 4.2.1 in few weeks when more is working.
*** MOST important to get onto ICS UNLOCKED Bootloader, and before that, GET CPUID before u do any other CHANGES
Hope this has been helpful.
So... Where do I start? What software should I use? Do I fix the bootloader first or flash CWM, or what?

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