Best ROM for OSF

[Guest dandreye]

Dear All,

 

What would be the best ROM(s) for an early Orange San Francisco phone (OLED, native Gen1) using the following criteria:

- battery life

- stability

- acceptable performance (i.e. no lagging beyond reasonable limits)

- essential although not mandatory: WiFi not to fall off on its own like say with (2.2-based) JJ

 

The phone will have a minimal set of apps that is just enough to use it as a communicator (voice/text) over 3G+/HSPA and WiFi. The ROM would have to be based on 2.3 or above as neither Skype nor Viber are supported in lower versions. 

 

The first potentially suitable ROM I've found so far is CM7 (2.3.7) N257. It's appealing thanks in particular to the ease of upgrading to it (incl Gen1 to Gen2 conversion as part of the process) - but perhaps more recent CM versions are even better in terms of above mentioned criteria? Assuming CM11 (4.4.4) that I've just come across in this forum is available for my phone indeed is it not too heavy for the OSF HW? 

 

 

Many thanks in anticipation!

Edited April 17, 2015 by dandreye

[Guest Geoff2]

My requirements from a ROM are exactly the same as yours.  I installed Eco CM7 and I found it much faster, battery-friendly and more stable than any of the other ROMs I've used over the years.  I've never found a ROM after Gingerbread which was anywhere near as good.  For example, Angry Birds is virtually unplayable with any other ROM.  I did my research and found that, in addition to installing the ROM, there are a few tweaks you need to make (e.g. setting the right CPU governor and max speed) all of which results in an extremely fast OSF.  The info is all on this forum, but let me know if you want a summary.

 

Other things to consider:

 

1.  Make sure you root your phone.  Some of the most useful apps, like those mentioned below, require root.

 

2.  Buy a good quality SD card and partition it using clockworkmod recovery.  Then install Link2SD and move your apps to the SD card partition.  (If you use a cheap, slow SD card, you'll pay for the difference in terms of speed.)

 

3.  I've now bought a high-end phone (Sony Xperia Z3 Compact) because I got sick of my web browser (Opera classic) occasionally slowing down so much it may as well have crashed.  Guess what?  The same thing happened on my new phone!  The solution?  Install the 'F-droid' client (basically an unofficial version of the Google Play Store) and use that to install 'AdAway.'  It's the annoying ads which can swamp your phone's browser.

 

4.  A couple of other apps which are worth a mention:  (1) App Freezer. This allows you to disable any apps which you don't want to use.  Eco CM7 doesn't have any bloatware (unlike my stupid Z3 Compact, with Facebook and Lifeblog etc.) but may still be useful. For example, I installed a Call Recorder app, which tried to record every call, and the only way I could find to disactivate it was by 'freezing' it.  (2) Greenify.  This allows you to stop apps from hogging your memory and your battery by disabling them when the phone should be sleeping.

[Guest dandreye]

Geoff2:

 

Many thanks for so many perfect hints at once! The summary on those few tweaks would be ideal as OSF speed might become a challenge one day.

 

- while waiting for replies I happened to install CM7 N257 using AiO TPT package and Skype is working well on it. So the main goal of the exercise is achieved already and tbh I'm not feeling like I'll ever want to upgrade it to any of the higher major CM releases, perhaps just for a change one day. Meanwhile I'll definitely research the Eco CM7 following your so positive feedback about it. 

 

- among the apps that come with CM7 N257 is Superuser, so it should be rooted already? I recall manually installing SU before and/or after upgrading stock Orange ROM to JJ RLS9 in the past while this time it seems to be part of the package installed.

 

- there's a Class 10 16GB Kingston MicroSD card in it, which has been working fine for about the last 3 years although I don't remember if I ever managed to move any apps onto it: IIRC there were some complications around it with JJ RLS9 and I finally gave up, keeping only data there. A class 10 32GB Kingston MicroSD card has been working well in my spouse's Lenovo S660. Would any particular class higher than 10 help speed up OSF noticeably?

Edited April 17, 2015 by dandreye

[Guest Geoff2]

I imagine your nightly version of CM7 is very similar to jventura's Eco version.  And if you've got SU working, then you're rooted.  I'm no expert on SD cards, but I have noticed the budget no-brand ones from ebay can be a bit slower.  I use Class 10 ones - usually Samsung or Verbatim.  They seem to work okay.  If you're not currently using Link2SD, and you're not having problems with out-of-memory problems, then you probably aren't installing that many large apps and you'll be fine without it.  I've found that I run out of memory quite fast, probably because I've got all the Angry Birds games on there, and they're quite big.

 

The following are the tips and tweaks that I've gathered from this forum over the years.  (Apologies for not crediting the original posters who suggested these, but I really can't be bothered to plough through the forum to find their usernames!):

 

Wipes before Installing the ROM.

1.  Wipe SD Card so you have a 2GB ext2 partition, a 0 swap and a FAT32 main  (Only necessary if using Link2SD.  Otherwise, just format your card.)

2.  CWM Wipes:

n Advanced>wipe dalvik cache

n Advanced>wipe battery stats

n Wipe data/factory reset

n Wipe cache partition

n Mounts and storage>format system

n Mounts and storage>format SD-ext  (Only if you've created a partition for use with Link2SD)

 

Tweaks.

1. Settings>CyanogenMod Settings>Performance>CPU settings. SmartassV2 Max: 710  (Min: As low as you can.)

2. Settings>Display Autorotate screen off and Auto Brightness

3. Menu>preferences>set up everything as you want.

4. Menu>advanced>(app drawer)opening speed=7

5. Get rid of 'sync picassa web albums' from accounts and sync

 

A final tip is to use ES File Explorer.  Do a google search and you'll find instructions for how to use it to its full potential.  For example, you can activate 'root explorer' and see files which are normally hidden.  But you can also use it to connect your phone and your laptop in a LAN, via your router, which allows you to transfer files to and from your laptop quickly and without a USB cable.

[Guest dandreye]

I didn't wipe before upgrading JJ RLS9 to CM7 N257... can I format my SD card now? If so will CM7 survive and recreate directory structure on blank SD card or I'll have to re-flash CM7 afterwards? (better late than never: starting from scratch usually helps)  I understand the image goes into phone's ROM during flashing and if so CM7 itself should remain intact - but what about various apps that might have written some data onto the SD card by now? 

 

Seems like Link2SD would have helped overcome the complications around moving the apps onto SD card with JJ RLS9 mentioned earlier: I just wish I knew about it back then. I might still need Link2SD one day to install some large app to play with. 

 

I'm already familiar to some extent with ES File Explorer and RootExplorer since the days spent customizing Lenovo S660: both are great apps indeed, will install them onto the OSF too. Didn't realize the former one can do wireless file transport: that's handy as no more "connect/disconnect USB storage" all the time I suppose )

 

Will check the rest of the bullets over the nearest future. Many thanks again!

 

 

P.S. 

 

Btw at the time the phone gets locked or perhaps some time afterwards it apparently drops WiFi to resume it only once it's unlocked, at first showing no WiFi signal before showing perfect signal several seconds later. Whoever is logged into Skype on the phone shows up as Away during such period and seems to be unable to receive Skype calls: when calling them from my PC I'm not even getting ring back tone. Is that expected? If so how do I prevent it from ever dropping WiFi, which I suppose would fix the "issue"? (assuming there's no way to make an incoming Skype call wake it up somehow) It'll clearly come at the cost of the battery but might still be required in some circumstances. 

Edited April 17, 2015 by dandreye

[Guest Geoff2]

1.  If your ROM is not playing up, then it doesn't matter that you didn't do those wipes when installing it.  It's good practice to do them, but as you've discovered, you can sometimes get away without them.  If you're not using Link2SD, then you can wipe/format your SD card without having any effect on the Android system.  If you are using Link2SD then if you mess with your SD card partition (or just remove your SD card) then your apps/system will crash.

 

2.  I can't remember whether the WiFi disconnected when my phone went to sleep.  It was never a problem for me though as I don't use Skype.  However, I do remember it was a big issue that used to be discussed on here, so do a search and you might find a solution.  I recall there were some apps which might be able to help.

[Guest dandreye]

Understand wrt SD card formatting now and have just found about 30 threads on WiFi related issues, most of which appear to be resolved by now. Looks like setting WiFi sleep policy to Never is the first thing for me to try and if no luck installing a WiFi keepalive app is the next.