A Decent Stock Gingerbread ROM For The Desire

[Guest renegade027]

Here goes:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=879168

A stock Gingerbread Desire ROM with pretty much everything working except for video recording...

Gave it a try last night - it is usable as a daily ROM, I think. Personally, I wouldn't give up on certain Sense UI features, so I'd rather wait until there's a stable 2.3 Sense port, but for folks who don't need Sense, it's a decent gateway into the Gingerbread experience.

A few points, to save you reading through several pages of posts whining about stuff the OP has disclosed upfront:

- The ROM loses root, something reportedly fixable by re-flashing the SU binary - haven't tried it myself.

- A bit laggy with certain menus, yet those who have run benchmarks on it report results similar to the FroYo Oxygen ROM.

- A sort of IPhone like fluidness not seen with any FroYo ROM before.

- Some apps don't play nice with Gingerbread.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Nick

[Guest DiscoHero]

Here goes:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=879168

A stock Gingerbread Desire ROM with pretty much everything working except for video recording...

Gave it a try last night - it is usable as a daily ROM, I think. Personally, I wouldn't give up on certain Sense UI features, so I'd rather wait until there's a stable 2.3 Sense port, but for folks who don't need Sense, it's a decent gateway into the Gingerbread experience.

A few points, to save you reading through several pages of posts whining about stuff the OP has disclosed upfront:

- The ROM loses root, something reportedly fixable by re-flashing the SU binary - haven't tried it myself.

- A bit laggy with certain menus, yet those who have run benchmarks on it report results similar to the FroYo Oxygen ROM.

- A sort of IPhone like fluidness not seen with any FroYo ROM before.

- Some apps don't play nice with Gingerbread.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Nick

AdamG already has Oxygen 2.0 RC1 based on GRH55 online and richardtrip also has a beta Gingerbread ROM out.

[Guest Subject Delta]

These Gingerbread ROMs are still a little rough around the edges, but they are pretty usable considering how early they are in development. Android 2.3 also looks a lot more polished on the UI front, and the fact that the notification bar has been redone to make it tie in better with the other menus is a bonus. And yes, you can download the latest version of the SU binary to flash in recovery from it's thread on XDA-Developers, and you will get root back.

[Guest DiscoHero]

These Gingerbread ROMs are still a little rough around the edges, but they are pretty usable considering how early they are in development. Android 2.3 also looks a lot more polished on the UI front, and the fact that the notification bar has been redone to make it tie in better with the other menus is a bonus. And yes, you can download the latest version of the SU binary to flash in recovery from it's thread on XDA-Developers, and you will get root back.

Oxygen 2.0 RC1 is pretty much 100% working in my opinion. A few minor bugs here and there. The only biggie is that video recording doesn't work. Otherwise, works like a charm.

[Guest Invisible Elf]

I find it hard to get excited about ROMs missing sense actually... SMS, music controls and alarm clock on lock screen is invaluable

[Guest Chandler3224]

I find it hard to get excited about ROMs missing sense actually... SMS, music controls and alarm clock on lock screen is invaluable

I agree. I used to love the stock ROM on my G1 but, since I've used HTC Sense, I've found it harder and harder to switch to stock. It just seems more polished and more integrated. Much easier to use as well. Anyone else found this or am I making the ultimate sin?

[Guest codemann]

I totally agree Chandler. After a long wait I installed my first ROM this weekend (CyanogenMOD), and although I kinda like it, I miss my Sense functionaly: the sync between all social networks with pictures, the cool widgets like weather/clock, ...

I'm flashing back to a Sense ROM tonight, and at the moment I'm preferring the MoDaCo ROM because you can choose yourself what you want and start from a clean base.

So you won't see eating Gingerbread until it makes "Sense" ;-)

Edited December 20, 2010 by codemann

[Guest shokka9]

I used to love Sense, Manila, M2D from way back when...but when you actually and finally get a HTC and have Sense for real, i actually now dislike it. Sometimes i like it, but i prefer other widgets.

I use Beautiful Widgets, granted the animated weather is not as refined as Sense (or looks as good), but i dont use that.

What you will find are there are usually 2 groups of people and then a bunch of people in the middle. One side who wants their phone to look great, and show people all the time (look at this blah blah); then you get the other side who just want the fastest, sometimes latest (Bleeding Edge), light weight ROMs, with minimal apps installed to create the quick experience. Then like i said, the people in the middle who want a bit of both.

Personally, i have always been on the LITE ROM side, but i like it to look good also.

AdamG's Oxygen series is really cool, very small footprint and excellent performance.

Think i will try the RC1 of Gingerbread later when i get home; just found my Desire at the bottom of my work bag, still on with 17% battery after a weekend of having my kids (been there since Friday). My iPhone 4 is my main phone. Battery life on my Desire is NEVER an issue!

The Gingerbread Oxygen series will be awesome in my opinion. Fast, new, and something to play with (kind of).

HD Gingerbread LITE would be my dream ROM, thats not happening anytime soon.......Or is it?

:)

[Guest Elbereth]

I switched from MCR r9 to Oxygen 1.0 then 2.0 (all RCs). I am currently using RC4.

Well Gingerbread rocks (even if the orange scroll effect is kinda weird imho).

And Oxygen 2.0 works fine in real world situation, it is fast, has LOTs of free RAM (that means for example no more FCs when using Google Reader for ex on MCR r9 with pictures RSS feeds).

The only thing I miss from Sense are the music shortcuts on the lock screen (tried PowerAmp and others widgets for the lock screen but it is miles away from what Sense offers). I am using Fancy Widget for the weather widget, not perfect but works fine. And regarding Tweeter/Facebook I use Tweetdeck, I actually find it better than what Sense was offering.

I actually almost never use video recording so it is not that problematic for me. Still I prefer the camera interface of Sense, much more polished and easier to use.

Edited December 29, 2010 by Elbereth

[Guest bpivk]

I mostly hate the stock dialer because it's years from the one Sense uses. Dialer One is nice though.

[Guest lovelymanmk]

r9 has in other place an Arabic support. So I'm using it since long time ago. Last period, I changed to Cyanogen 6.1.1 and to tell you the truth, I like how much it's smoother and quicker. However, after few days, I found myself getting back to sense. Sense is consistent in colors and is warm to deal with. While in AOSP roms, each application is a stand alone application. They are not really connected and correlated as in sense.

I've heard that 2.29 sense roms (r10 here) is more smoother than 2.10 ones. I hope that an Arabic Support would be available to try. HTC sense is much lovely and is full thoughtful build.

By the way, in 2.10 build, I removed the rosie and widgets. I'm using Zeam laucher. In other words, I'm using light sense :unsure:

A question though, do any body face troubles with HTC facebook/Friend Streams when there is hundreds of friends are there? I'm using HTC facebook and Friend Stream instead of Facebook App for Android. I feel, Facebook App for Android might be better in dealing with hundreds of friends than HTC facebook. Could any one please confirm this?

Edited January 1, 2011 by lovelymanmk

[Guest GuyAdams]

I really want to try a Gingerbread ROM but can't live without Sense purely for the social network integration and dialer. I actually don't use the launcher or widgets of sense instead opting for Beautiful Widgets and Launcher Pro.

Any devs out there fancy building a Sense'd Gingerbread ROM.

Thanks

[Guest BashyUK]

I really want to try a Gingerbread ROM but can't live without Sense purely for the social network integration and dialer. I actually don't use the launcher or widgets of sense instead opting for Beautiful Widgets and Launcher Pro.

Any devs out there fancy building a Sense'd Gingerbread ROM.

Thanks

Have you tried TweetDeck and Dialer One? Although I don't like that Dialer One can't replace the dialler as such, it can be a shortcut on the home screen.

[Guest renegade027]

I really want to try a Gingerbread ROM but can't live without Sense purely for the social network integration and dialer. I actually don't use the launcher or widgets of sense instead opting for Beautiful Widgets and Launcher Pro.

Any devs out there fancy building a Sense'd Gingerbread ROM.

Thanks

Same here - I don't know why can't anybody make an Android contacts app that would integrate with social networks the way the one from Sense does. This, and the lockscreen media controls....I've tried a few ASOP builds, but I end up missing this functionality quite a bit....A, and let's not forget the Sense gallery app, which nicely renders photo albums a lot quicker than the Google equivalent and would also integrate Facebook/Flckr albums.

I am kind of horrified by the prospect of having, a few months from now, to choose between the Sense functionality and a phone with a larger AMOLED screen - It doesn't look like HTC will be able to source ANY 4.5" AMOLED screens for their 2011 models, Samsung being the ONLY high-volume manufacturer and using most of their output for their own designs....a situation I don't see changing until early 2012.

Anyway, about a Sense/Gingerbread ROM - the way I understand the situation is that a Sense port to Gingerbread would be both very work intensive and bug prone due to the proprietary nature of the HTC UI. The only feasible way to get Sense to work on Android 2.3 would be to mod a Gingerbread-with-Sense ROM from another HTC device or obtain a near release-ready leak from HTC. Both of these options are not likely to emerge for another few months.

That is assuming HTC developers started working on a new version of Sense UI as soon as Gingerbread SDK was released back in December. This may or may not have been the case: On one hand it became immediately clear that 2.3 did not address Android UI weaknesses in a meaningful way. On the other hand Google are aware of the competitive disadvantage that a mediocre user experience attaches to their operating system. So if they DO address this issue in Honeycomb or another 'for smart phones only' Android release (around June '11???), HTC may decide there's no point developing Sense any further...

So there is a possibility that we would never get a Sense-over-Gingerbread ROM ;) :)

[Guest GuyAdams]

Have you tried TweetDeck and Dialer One? Although I don't like that Dialer One can't replace the dialler as such, it can be a shortcut on the home screen.

Love TweetDeck and use it as my primary Twitter application. The contact integration is what I am most interested in, the Sense linking of facebook contacts is far better than facebooks own application.

Never tried Dialer One although, I will be sure to do so when I can no longer resist the temptation of a gingerbread ROM.

Thanks

[Guest snapilica]

I'd rather have a Froyo ROM but with the new Sense from the Desire HD/Z with HTC Location and Navigation rather than just a Gingerbread ROM with this old Sense. I know I can use a HD ROM but i hate the small fonts and they are ports and don't work as fast as a native Desire ROM. I am now using a Z port but it's just not as fast as a classic Desire ROM

Edited January 17, 2011 by snapilica

[Guest desire beer]

villain 0.9 gingerbread have working camera and movi record. function ok for everyday use.