[ROM] 31/Jan r9: de-orangeated ROM for ZTE Blade / Orange San Francisco [eclair] [OLED+TFT]

[Guest j00ce]

Installed R4 last night - it's a joy to have all the Orange branding removed!

However, there is one fly in the ointment: I'm having problems with the keyboard. More specifically, I'm not able to change from the default QWERTY keyboard to the 12-key Phonepad one - I prefer to use this when in portrait mode.

As far as I can see, it should be working: TouchPal is configured with both "Swipe to switch layout" and to use the PhonePad layout when in portrait mode. However, swiping doesn't do anything and I'm still getting the QWERTY keyboard when I open things.

Also, TouchPal lists a "CooTek T+" option, but this doesn't work either.

Am I doing something wrong? I've even tried rebooting the phone, to no avail...

[Guest Damian _]

A couple of people asked me to update on my battery usage after I had installed Seb's de-orangified rom. I posted earlier in the thread that my battery performance was very poor using r3, so decided to strip out a load of apps I wasn't using, inc the Sense anologue clock widget that seemed very unstable after its latest update.

I'm loving seb's rom. Very smooth, very quick. I've installed OS Monitor to highlight any rogue apps but all seems fine whenever I check.

Currently my phone has been up for 30hrs 10mins, and I still have 44% battery left. I haven't hammered the phone usage wise during these 30 hours, but plenty of web browsing, facebook, youtube etc. Couple of dozen texts and general "tinkering" with the phone...really happy with this. It has been connected to 3g for the whole duration of the 30hrs too.

It must be said that playing things like Angry Birds etc really does hammer the battery, but thats to be expected.

Overall, pretty happy with my setup on Seb's rom at the moment :)

Wow, are you seriously telling me I could get one of these, de-orange it and be connected to 3g and last over a day with push email, currently got an iphone 3g and it can JUST manage a day but is useless next morning.

[Guest oh!dougal]

Installed R4 last night - it's a joy to have all the Orange branding removed!

However, there is one fly in the ointment: I'm having problems with the keyboard. .... I'm not able to change from the default ...

Am I doing something wrong? I've even tried rebooting the phone, to no avail...

Yes, its you!

Its an FAQ.

Its standard.

Its nothing specific to Sebastian's work.

In a text entry field, instead of entering text, press and hold. That is how you get to the menu to select WHICH 'input method' (standard or TouchPal) you wish to use.

[Guest j00ce]

Yes, its you!

Its an FAQ.

Its standard.

Its nothing specific to Sebastian's work.

In a text entry field, instead of entering text, press and hold. That is how you get to the menu to select WHICH 'input method' (standard or TouchPal) you wish to use.

Thanks for the information - that's not a particularly intuitive mechanism, but at least I now know what to do!

I did do a search for "keyboard" in the SF forum, but didn't see anything particularly useful. And on my two previous Android phones, this wasn't an issue at all: on the X10 Mini, the only option available is the keypad, while the GT540 has a "choose your mode" button on the actual keyboard. Ah well, I suppose the nice thing about standards is that there's so many to choose from...

Just to be clear: does the SF have a keypad option built-in, or does it only offer the QWERTY keyboard?

[Guest feckineejit]

Hello Seb just wanna ask does this this rom have A2SD installed? Sorry if thats a stupid question i just don't know. :)

[Guest StevenHarperUK]

Thanks Steve, that worked, I also did a data/cache wipe, I backed everything up with titanium first,but when I re-installed titanium I get a massage saying "Sorry, I could not acquire root privileges.This application will not work! Please verify that your ROM is rooted and includes BusyBox, and try again"

What's the best fix for this? OK Fixed, I loaded the sudo add on, root privileges working.

Was about to suggest that : then read your Update :)

[Guest Sebastian404]

Seb , Any plans to re-do your rom , with framework as per pauls r3,r4 etc , as i am trying to change the boot logo to one from this thread

http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...reens-download/

but it wont update via clockwork ,

if its a lot of hassle , please ignore this post , cheers mate

the boot logo has been replaced the a stock Android one, so its a different framework all together.

[Guest Sebastian404]

Hello Seb just wanna ask does this this rom have A2SD installed? Sorry if thats a stupid question i just don't know. :P

A couple of people have asked this, no its not got A2SD as default, but you can install it with very little hassle yourself.

[Guest StevenHarperUK]

A couple of people have asked this, no its not got A2SD as default, but you can install it with very little hassle yourself.

Sebastian - Which version have you tried / got working?

Can you provide a link / add-on to your post?

[Guest Sebastian404]

Sebastian - Which version have you tried / got working?

Can you provide a link / add-on to your post?

I used this one... A2SD for the ZTE Blade

[Guest BillBong]

I used this one... A2SD for the ZTE Blade

Hi Sebastian,

First thanks for your efforts. I'm using r4 of your ROM and it's working fine - everything's zipping along well but I just have a couple of questions :

1) When I launch my browser (the standard system one) it automatically shows the 3G (and GPS) symbol in the status bar even tho I've disabled Data in the Wireless/Network settings. It does this even when I have WiFi connected but then it seems to disappear after a while itself. I'm pretty sure this didn't happen under the Stock rom or under Pauls r3 which I used for a few days too. Is this a setting I'm missing somewhere or is this normal behaviour?

2) I've followed the instructions on the A2SD link you referred to and it all seemed to install OK. But when I look at Quick System Info it says "information not available" under the A2SD heading. This is a bit of a silly question but how do I know if apps have installed to the card or on the phone - I did a sync/restore from Appsbrain after installing your ROM so would this have automatically gone to the phone storage or do I need to do some kind of transfer?

I know these might not be strictly relating to your ROM but you seem to know what you're doing and i'm a complete noob to Android so I appreciate your help on this.

[Guest Sebastian404]

Hi Sebastian,

First thanks for your efforts. I'm using r4 of your ROM and it's working fine - everything's zipping along well but I just have a couple of questions :

1) When I launch my browser (the standard system one) it automatically shows the 3G (and GPS) symbol in the status bar even tho I've disabled Data in the Wireless/Network settings. It does this even when I have WiFi connected but then it seems to disappear after a while itself. I'm pretty sure this didn't happen under the Stock rom or under Pauls r3 which I used for a few days too. Is this a setting I'm missing somewhere or is this normal behaviour?

2) I've followed the instructions on the A2SD link you referred to and it all seemed to install OK. But when I look at Quick System Info it says "information not available" under the A2SD heading. This is a bit of a silly question but how do I know if apps have installed to the card or on the phone - I did a sync/restore from Appsbrain after installing your ROM so would this have automatically gone to the phone storage or do I need to do some kind of transfer?

I know these might not be strictly relating to your ROM but you seem to know what you're doing and i'm a complete noob to Android so I appreciate your help on this.

1) are you sure thats not the GPS icon your seeing? The default homepage is Google and it sneakily grabs your GPS location.

2) Did you read the whole page, you need to re-format your SDcard to give it an extra file system to work with, that's normally the cause of your symptoms.

[Guest BillBong]

1) are you sure thats not the GPS icon your seeing? The default homepage is Google and it sneakily grabs your GPS location.

2) Did you read the whole page, you need to re-format your SDcard to give it an extra file system to work with, that's normally the cause of your symptoms.

1) Ah, the Google thing would explain the GPS symbol coming on/off - I didn't think of that. But the 3G symbol also shows but it seems to disappear if the WiFi connection is on - it's not a huge problem as I can always manually disable it. I just wondered if it was a known issue but it as its not I'll just go through all the settings and try and eliminate it that way.

2) I went through the whole process with the EXT2 partition and the VR process installed successfully through Clockwork Recovery - maybe I'll run through it again. But do I need to do anything after this to move apps over or see whats on there?

Thanks again for your help

[Guest oh!dougal]

...

2) I went through the whole process with the EXT2 partition and the VR process installed successfully through Clockwork Recovery - maybe I'll run through it again. But do I need to do anything after this to move apps over or see whats on there?

Thanks again for your help

Partition your SD card FIRST, the partitioning tools within the ClockworkMod recovery are currently BROKEN.

Backup whatever data you wish to keep from the card.

Use your Linux distro (OR GParted Live) to partition your SD card.

http://www.villainrom.co.uk/forum/showthre...r-the-ZTE-Blade

This is not the sort of thing to bother Sebastian with -- there are plenty other threads on that specific topic ...

[Guest Sebastian404]

1) Ah, the Google thing would explain the GPS symbol coming on/off - I didn't think of that. But the 3G symbol also shows but it seems to disappear if the WiFi connection is on - it's not a huge problem as I can always manually disable it. I just wondered if it was a known issue but it as its not I'll just go through all the settings and try and eliminate it that way.

Keep in mind, its Assisted GPS, so it will look query what Cells it can see it help it locate itself.

I cant get my device to join any wifi network, so I've never noticed anything but 3G data..

[Guest zZ-Zombi-xVz]

Which is the best ROM to do?..Sorry im new to this.

[Guest thomas01155]

Which is the best ROM to do?..Sorry im new to this.

r4_update_de-orangeated_blade_fixed_signed.zip - MD5 : a37f3c281da475f0117f2a2244bbd8ff :P

[Guest BillBong]

http://www.villainrom.co.uk/forum/showthre...r-the-ZTE-Blade

This is not the sort of thing to bother Sebastian with -- there are plenty other threads on that specific topic ...

I don't think I mentioned using Clockwork to do the partition just the installation. I used Gpart to do the partition which works. And I understand Sebastian is busy with the Froyo thing - I only asked because he mentioned he had A2SD running on his ROM.

But thanks for your input.

[Guest idroid84]

@Seb

# Following from my bootscreen thread - http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...reens-download/ I can't for some reason get these boot screens working. Did you remove something that stopped it from booting the images? If so where did you edit this information? If not I am confused to why your ROM, framework-res.apk doesn't like my bootscreen images.... shed any light?

iDroid84

[Guest 2smart4class]

seb im using your rom (r4), however, in the settings menu; 'account and sync' option has disappeared???

[Guest Sebastian404]

@Seb

# Following from my bootscreen thread - http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...reens-download/ I can't for some reason get these boot screens working. Did you remove something that stopped it from booting the images? If so where did you edit this information? If not I am confused to why your ROM, framework-res.apk doesn't like my bootscreen images.... shed any light?

iDroid84

The boot animation is an Orange customization, so its been removed.... I stripped those images out of framework-res.apk...

[Guest Sebastian404]

seb im using your rom (r4), however, in the settings menu; 'account and sync' option has disappeared???

did you wipe your userdata/cahce/persist partitions before you flashed?

if you run Gmail, do you see your email? and if you press menu and select accounts, can you see your google account?

Someone else had that problem further up the thread, they re-flashed the ROM and it came back.... you might want to do a backup and then wipe the userdata/cahce/persist partitions....

Edited October 21, 2010 by Sebastian404

[Guest DaneelS]

Does anyone have a working LED notification with Sebastian's ROM? The problem is described here: http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...on-doesnt-work/

[Guest oh!dougal]

Does anyone have a working LED notification with Sebastian's ROM? The problem is described here: http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...on-doesnt-work/

The stock rom actually does flash to show a missed call -- BUT ONLY if the phone is on charge (when the call or whatever is missed).

The stock handling (power management?) of being off-charge and screen off, could be improved. There's this and Wifi 'sleeping' even when its been told not to ...

Just a BTW, on the stock rom, the front three buttons will 'wake' the phone to the (un)lockscreen -- BUT ONLY while the phone is on the charger ...

Seb's rom is standard, but "deorangeated", de-cluttered and with the Google apps updated and rounded out.

If he's changed anything else, he hasn't told us! (See the first post in the thread)

His objective was to build a "vanilla" Android phone.

I'm hoping that sooner or later he's going to get around to building an even better vanilla Android phone from the SF, with generally-useful fixes and optimisations!

And fixing what gets shut off when on battery and the screen goes off is pretty high on my wish list!

[Guest Sere83]

He there, i've been getting abysmal battery performance on all of Paul's roms. So thought maybe of trying this. I'm running Paul's R4 Rom with clockwork mod recovery.

Just wanted to know how easy it would be to install this? Is it simply a matter of transfer to SD card, enter clockwork and reflash? Will I have to wipe all my data and apps?

Also if I flash this can I flash back to Pauls R4 if needed? How does this process work?

I'm at the stage where I just want something that gets rid of the orange crap, gets back standard Google apps and gives me decent battery performance. My battery under all pauls roms is about 11/12 hrs under light-average use, with sync on and background data and launcher pro which seems too low to me as people have been reporting as much as 30hrs!

Any help appreciated.

Edited October 22, 2010 by Sere83