Got my SGS, Now for your advice

[Guest benvo]

Hey,

Firstly ill say hello as this will be my first post, had a nosey round the site for past week or so and just joined up today!

Ive had a look round the site and read many topics and watched a few videos over the last week while waiting for my SGS to come in stock. I got it today, and im very impressed! ive been reading about rooting and custom roms, and if im right ive took away, that it basically opens up your phone, and you can they tweek and improve with the custom roms out ther.

So this is where i nees advice as im hitting a brick wall with so many different options out there, first my phone stats are:

Firmware version: 2.1 update1

Baseband: I9000XXJF3

Kernel Version: 2.6.29

root@SE-S602#2

Build Number: Eclair

if any more infos needed let me know to aid in decision.

So first what do i need to do to root the phone, do i need to upgrade my stock firmware at all, or can i root straight away? (And also anything i do inculding custom roms and rooting, can i remove this at a later date if i find i dont like the upgraded stuff i do to it, so its back to untouched stock, like in day1?)

Secondly, once rooted, what am i looking at with custom roms, from what ive read atm, theres only a couple of custom roms out. So do some offer different stuff or very similar, and how do i make sense of what im actually gettin out of the custom rom, for example ive read some of the features and dont really mean anything to me at the moment.

Finally, is there anything else i need to know and take into account? and also whats running custom roms and rooted, whats available to me? or is this still to come with the phone still being 'new out'

Many Thanks for any replies and help.

Benvo

[Guest Andrew Luecke]

There are plenty of rom's, but remember, many are beta.

My advice is to stick to JG5/Modaco at the moment. Because new versions of modaco will no longer require a total wipe (apparently), and trust me, it gets tiresome wiping your device. Or, if you use GPS, maybe stick to your current firmware now or wait for the next Modaco, because in my case as least, GPS is horrible in JG5

Edited July 24, 2010 by Andrew Luecke

[Guest SpruceyB]

What do you want from a Custom Rom?

Most of all the reasons I used custom roms on my older phones are already taken care of on the SGS.

The firmware you have now though is horrible, i used it for the past couple of weeks, got fed up of the lag and just updated to JM2 and it's pretty speedy.

I'd recommend getting on it and then when Paul does his next custom Rom probably get on that.

[Guest benvo]

Thanks for the replys, as for why i want custom roms, im new to android mobiles and when i asked my friend(works in mobile shop) he mentioned about researching it and gettin custom roms running as you can do to an extent whatevers possible on the phone without restriction by stock firmware.

Just had a look over on samsung-firmwares, and it states about the phone having to be unlocked? i havn't got any other sims to check if its unlocked, but my carrier did say it will prob be locked when i was first asking about it. So do i need it unlocked or?

When changing firmwares, if i dont like the new ones i guess its as simple as flashing back to in my case JF3 yes? Or can you just factory reset or something similar?

When you mention 'wipes' Im guessing that means when new firmware is flashed you lose everything, apps and contacts etc? ive seen something about backing up, but can i do that while running stock firmware? If so whats the best program to use?

Many Thanks

Benvo

Edited July 24, 2010 by benvo

[Guest SpruceyB]

Thanks for the replys, as for why i want custom roms, im new to android mobiles and when i asked my friend(works in mobile shop) he mentioned about researching it and gettin custom roms running as you can do to an extent whatevers possible on the phone without restriction by stock firmware.

Just had a look over on samsung-firmwares, and it states about the phone having to be unlocked? i havn't got any other sims to check if its unlocked, but my carrier did say it will prob be locked when i was first asking about it. So do i need it unlocked or?

When changing firmwares, if i dont like the new ones i guess its as simple as flashing back to in my case JF3 yes? Or can you just factory reset or something similar?

When you mention 'wipes' Im guessing that means when new firmware is flashed you lose everything, apps and contacts etc? ive seen something about backing up, but can i do that while running stock firmware? If so whats the best program to use?

Many Thanks

Benvo

On my previous phones G1, Hero & Dext I always ran Custom but that was because, of things like SetCPU to overclock the processor or use Wireless Tether.

Both of which are redundant with the SGS.

Custom ROMs are good too because usually get bug fixes way faster than waiting for an official update but I'm not having any problems on my current M2 firmware.

As for the Unlock thing, I'm not sure as I know mine is from T-Mobile UK, seems all the UK Galaxy S stock is unlocked o2's definitely is too.

Although now, ClockworkMOD has recovery working on this, it will be a lot easier to update to Custom ROMs.

Yeah when flashing new ROMs you do lose everything. However you can backup Contacts to Google. As for Apps, usually just find them again from Market as if you install from a backup you dont get Update notifications from the Market.

[Guest benvo]

Rite i went along and ive now rooted my phone, been trying sort out doing the lag fix (as i can do this on any firmware rite?) the sd card fix. But for the life of me i cant seem to work out partioning the ext3 part. I downloaded that paragon program but wouldnt show up removable drives! Any 1 got any advice on what i can use instead or where i may be going wrong?

Also as i couldnt get that to work i looked at doing androidSDK, but having no look with that either atm, its late hopefully a fresh look tomoz maybe whats needed.

When reading about ive seen mentioned when flashing firmware, you lose the market poping up when updates are ready, is that fixable or do you lose it completely?

@SpruceyB Yeh, Im going to see if i do work out this lag fix, see if i can get it working. And then my next step is either a custom rom or different firmware.

Many Thanks

Benvo

EDIT: i cant seem to figure out to partition the sd card, cant seem to get it to work the adb way. Is there any free software i could use, as the paragon free trial wont work? Thanks

EDIT 2: In the end i had to use Gparted to format the card, as paragon didnt do it right when i got hold of a 'pro version'. When i put it into phone, the phone offered to reformat the fat32 part cos was damaged, but as of yet it works fine, seems faster, i get a stall on benchmark, but after 5 mins it does do it and i get 1300's from bout 890, and on a cheapish card. As for now, i going to have a read about to see what else i can find to whether i get some different firmwares installed or custom roms.

Edited July 27, 2010 by benvo