Best Vanilla Skate ROM?

[Guest CIM1]

Hi, Any opinions what is best approach for a workaday vanilla Skate ROM for a new OMC?

Not worried about bells and whistles so much as stability, all core stuff working properly/reliably and acceptable battery life.

Debating whether a root, unlock and remove Orange apps would get me there as opposed to flashing a new ROM - or is it tricky to completely eradicate all the Orange bloatware?

Alternatively anyone using ZTE stock ROMs or is that best avoided?

I appreciate Atomic is considered by many to be the best ROM at the moment but following the Atomic thread it still appears to be getting tweaked and hard to work out exactly what the current issues are. CM7 experiences on Blade in past have put me off going down a route where I am always chasing the next tweak or fix.

Also I would prefer not to be applying updates too often i.e. fit and forget for at least a few weeks...

Any recommendations? Thanks.

[Guest Atomix86]

I'd give the stock 2.3.5 unbranded skate rom a try, it may be just what you're after.

[Guest Dukelord]

Atomic v3.c is the best thing since sliced bread.

[Guest CIM1]

Thanks for all responses so far.

I appreciate that 3c Atomic gets a big thumbs up and has much to like - but the fact that it will not be updated again for weeks and has a basic like the keyboard not working- and the fact it is a very recent release makes me wonder if anything else may be lurking which has not been shaken out by testing yet (no criticism implied on Tillaz's great work BTW).

Stock Skate 2.3.5 may be the option for now - any significant negatives for UK use?

I suppose the obvious answer is try them both - not sure how much messing around with TPTs I would need to do to switch between them?

Is the OMC default partition size reasonable for a Stock ZTE Skate 2.3.5 install - or best to change to first (to what size?)

Edited January 5, 2012 by CIM1

[Guest Wacky.ddw]

Thanks for all responses so far.

I appreciate that 3c Atomic gets a big thumbs up and has much to like - but the fact that it will not be updated again for weeks and has a basic like the keyboard not working- and the fact it is a very recent release makes me wonder if anything else may be lurking which has not been shaken out by testing yet (no criticism implied on Tillaz's great work BTW).

Stock Skate 2.3.5 may be the option for now - any significant negatives for UK use?

I suppose the obvious answer is try them both - not sure how much messing around with TPTs I would need to do to switch between them?

Is the OMC default partition size reasonable for a Stock ZTE Skate 2.3.5 install - or best to change to first (to what size?)

The stock ROM makes me want to cry

[Guest CIM1]

The stock ROM makes me want to cry

Stock ZTE 2.3.5 ? (ie not Stock Orange?)

If so can you educate me as to why so bad? Thanks.

[Guest pellonet]

Hi, Any opinions what is best approach for a workaday vanilla Skate ROM for a new OMC?

Not worried about bells and whistles so much as stability, all core stuff working properly/reliably and acceptable battery life.

Debating whether a root, unlock and remove Orange apps would get me there as opposed to flashing a new ROM - or is it tricky to completely eradicate all the Orange bloatware?

Alternatively anyone using ZTE stock ROMs or is that best avoided?

I appreciate Atomic is considered by many to be the best ROM at the moment but following the Atomic thread it still appears to be getting tweaked and hard to work out exactly what the current issues are. CM7 experiences on Blade in past have put me off going down a route where I am always chasing the next tweak or fix.

Also I would prefer not to be applying updates too often i.e. fit and forget for at least a few weeks...

Any recommendations? Thanks.

The obvious answer to having ROM exactly tailored to your liking is to go 'add-free' with access to the kitchen & build the ROM with JUST the bits you need. I have done this & have a very 'lean & mean' ROM that goes like the clappers. :D

[Guest aamiel]

The stock ROM makes me want to cry

I was having problems so went back to stock OMC ROM. With root and a few tweaks it is fine and I enjoy:

- Dolby mobile

- HD voice

- Signal Boost

- I can answer phone calls by pressing the button on handset (I asked but no one confirmed I could do this on Atomic)

Loosing all this would make me want to cry...

[Guest Atomix86]

Thanks for all responses so far.

I appreciate that 3c Atomic gets a big thumbs up and has much to like - but the fact that it will not be updated again for weeks and has a basic like the keyboard not working- and the fact it is a very recent release makes me wonder if anything else may be lurking which has not been shaken out by testing yet (no criticism implied on Tillaz's great work BTW).

Stock Skate 2.3.5 may be the option for now - any significant negatives for UK use?

I suppose the obvious answer is try them both - not sure how much messing around with TPTs I would need to do to switch between them?

Is the OMC default partition size reasonable for a Stock ZTE Skate 2.3.5 install - or best to change to first (to what size?)

Not to sound big headed or anything but I have had a lot of personal experience with the 2.3.5 stock rom and it works well indeed, I only went to atomic for the tweaks and ocing, but much prefer the aosp look of stock.

[Guest CIM1]

Not to sound big headed or anything but I have had a lot of personal experience with the 2.3.5 stock rom and it works well indeed, I only went to atomic for the tweaks and ocing, but much prefer the aosp look of stock.

Stock OMC or stock ZTE 2.3.5? (edit - I realise you probably mean the ZTE one as you suggested it earlier in this thread!)

Edited January 5, 2012 by CIM1

[Guest Atomix86]

Stock OMC or stock ZTE 2.3.5? (edit - I realise you probably mean the ZTE one as you suggested it earlier in this thread!)

Plus the 2.3.5 in my post gave it away ;) (Stock OMC Orange ROM being 2.3.4 of course).

[Guest dadashi]

I was having problems so went back to stock OMC ROM. With root and a few tweaks it is fine and I enjoy:

- Dolby mobile

- HD voice

- Signal Boost

- I can answer phone calls by pressing the button on handset (I asked but no one confirmed I could do this on Atomic)

Loosing all this would make me want to cry...

I miss all that as well, I'd love a deodexed of the stock without all the orange stuff....including darktremors app2sd script...

[Guest tillaz]

- Dolby mobile

- Signal Boost

thats all you loose in atomic.. but the equalizer is louder & better than Dolby,

so really all you loose is signal boost

[Guest pellonet]

thats all you loose in atomic.. but the equalizer is louder & better than Dolby,

so really all you loose is signal boost

Is there a particular reason why it can't be included?

[Guest aamiel]

thats all you loose in atomic.. but the equalizer is louder & better than Dolby,

so really all you loose is signal boost

Thanks for the clarification. Any chance of an update to bring Blue Monte in line with Atomic?

That would make me a very happy man as I wouldn't loose anything.

[Guest gitf@ce]

The obvious answer to having ROM exactly tailored to your liking is to go 'add-free' with access to the kitchen & build the ROM with JUST the bits you need. I have done this & have a very 'lean & mean' ROM that goes like the clappers. :D

I second this... been using a very lean Modaco rom for some time now, and never have any issues. Ad free dosen't cost the earth, well worth it IMHO.

[Guest CIM1]

I second this... been using a very lean Modaco rom for some time now, and never have any issues. Ad free dosen't cost the earth, well worth it IMHO.

Yes thanks to Pellonet and gitf@ace for this suggestion - the board appeared to have not so much discussion on the modaco ROM so I assumed perhaps wrongly it was not much used on the Skate for whatever reasons.

I have used a Modaco ROM on a blade in the past and was very happy with it BTW.

To get the best from a 'lean' Modaco Skate ROM - do users generally TPT for more space first or leave as-is?

Also - am I correct in assuming Modaco's ROM is a customised orange 2.3.4 ROM not a 2.3.5 build?

Edited January 6, 2012 by CIM1

[Guest jcmyall]

Not to sound big headed or anything but I have had a lot of personal experience with the 2.3.5 stock rom and it works well indeed, I only went to atomic for the tweaks and ocing, but much prefer the aosp look of stock.

You can flash the Elitemovil kernel onto stock and obtain overclocking, you realise...

[Guest aamiel]

You can flash the Elitemovil kernel onto stock and obtain overclocking, you realise...

I tried that a while back and lost wifi. I also think battery life was poor.

By the way, how do you go back to stock kernel? I ended up reflashing the whole from.

[Guest gitf@ce]

To get the best from a 'lean' Modaco Skate ROM - do users generally TPT for more space first or leave as-is?

Personally I left mine as-is, as I use Links2SD and never have any space issues.

Also - am I correct in assuming Modaco's ROM is a customised orange 2.3.4 ROM not a 2.3.5 build?

Correct, but you wouldn't notice any difference IMHO.

[Guest rjm2k]

I'm now using the Brightpoint stock rom with a few modifications and it's pretty nice...

TWM_Fantastic_T3_Root_Packgegbrom.rar (clockwork)

+

GB_BP_P743V1.0.0B01-update_signed.zip (with , rooted 2.3.5 boot image and splash from above added)

+

latest superuser download

-

I removed some of the google stuff from system since it's out of date anyway and installs from the market on data instead

I now have ~162 meg used on system and ~63 meg free, am just waiting for TPT helper to work so I can re-partition

A few oddities, there is an issue with superuser at the moment saing the binary is outdated when it isn't, just switch the warning off

Clockwork is official so you need to use the manual override option in rom manager, I just said it was any old 3.* based clockwork

We compared using Quadrant between Orange stock and the above and mine came out slightly faster (50 points maybe) but in general it feels cleaner and faster

There were a few driver issues which mainly seemed to be caused by the inbuilt driver ISO that comes with the phone, try plugging in, install the drivers that it gives you, reboot and then when you need adb etc make sure you eject the drivers iso whenever it's loaded.

Edited January 7, 2012 by rjm2k

[Guest Atomix86]

Now that cm7 is prettymuch perfect, I would actually now recommend that over 2.3.5 stock.

[Guest]

Now that cm7 is prettymuch perfect, I would actually now recommend that over 2.3.5 stock.

I agree,cm7 is running nicely now and I would recommend it over stock rom any day.

[Guest CIM1]

I agree,cm7 is running nicely now and I would recommend it over stock rom any day.

As it happens I tried installing CM7 3.5 out of curiosity after unlocking the Skate - was not really expecting to stick with it but seems a lot better than previous experience with a Blade CM ROM - so far anyway no issues. Not sure CM7 qualifies as a 'vanilla' ROM but anyway I'll see how it goes, so far so good - thanks again for all suggestions.

[Guest Atomix86]

Not sure CM7 qualifies as a 'vanilla' ROM

Why wouldn't it? It's AOSP based and out of the box has a very stock look (which is what I really love). Sure, there are tweaks, options etc that you can do to change certain aspects, as well as an ocean of awesome themes, but that is all optional ;).