Reply With QuoteCyanogen have an installer for their ROMs
http://www.cyanogenmod.org/
Their ROM is excellent ... Liz has it on her S2
My Galaxy S2 phone memory is now at a standstill due to 2 years of updates to the supplied apps that I've never used and never wanted - Samsung are terrible for this.
So I want to root the phone to clear these off and free up memory. There are loads of vids on Youtube and wondered if there are any trap doors I need to be aware of?
Advice is mucho appreciated.
David
Cyanogen have an installer for their ROMs
http://www.cyanogenmod.org/
Their ROM is excellent ... Liz has it on her S2
I've rooted and installed custom ROMs on all my Galaxies so far (S1, S2 and S4) without any issues whatsoever. Let me know if I can help.
Thank goodness! I was concerned you meant it in the Australian sense!
What does this do?Originally Posted by Rod
It brings a newer and cleaner Android OS experience to the S2 (in this particular case).
It will root your phone, get rid of bloatware, make it run more lean, and put a new operating system on, making it closer to what Android should be. You will also get updates as and when to the phone.
Rod
Thanks a lot Rod. I've had a read of it and it seems very technical but I'll give it a go. Everything I have of any value is on my external SD card so I'll remove that and give it a shot.
David
I've got an S4 and hate the updates that always seem to make the phone worse, but generally I really like the phone.
If I do this, and mess it up, or don't like it, can it be reset to factory options?
Apologies, but I'm not very technical
Rooting is easy but can be scary too. Do your research on your particular phone and follow instructions to the letter and you'll be OK. Here's some readingI've got an S4 and hate the updates that always seem to make the phone worse, but generally I really like the phone.
If I do this, and mess it up, or don't like it, can it be reset to factory options?
Apologies, but I'm not very technical
http://www.talkandroid.com/guides/be...de-to-rooting/
I've read it Rod, many thanks. What scares me is the following passage as I have no idea how to do it:
"At the very least you should already have a backup saved of your stock ROM/OS. Additionally, you should know exactly how to recover that backup and/or your factory settings should something go wrong. Most phones have a fail-safe that you can enter to go back to stock, access a backup, etc. At the very least, you should have a backup created before you begin and you should know how to access your recovery mode as well as the steps to get you back up and running. Whenever I create a backup, I test that backup to see if it’ll load properly. After all, what good is a backup if it can’t load? Yes, it’s time consuming but you can’t be too careful, and honestly, if you’re not prepared to invest a little time, then rooting is probably not for you"
Am I being over-cautious?
David
Thanks Rod, much appreciated.
I used CF- Auto root to root my galaxy s3 and Liz's S2 - takes 5 mins.
http://cfautoroot.com/
Watch the video. It doesn't get rid of your existing system but grants you root access. You then back up your system to Clock Work Mod. Then you can put any ROM on.However, I suggest you go to the link I gave you at Cyanogen and use their installer to put Cyanogen M11 rom on your phone. As long as you follow their instructions you should be OK.
I would keep your expectations low. Tweaking the operating system won't change the fact that the S2 is a very old phone.
Can't agree entirely with that Tony.... Liz's Galaxy S2 with Cyanogen 11 M12 is superb, she would never have had Kitkat 4.4.4 if she'd left the over bloated Samsung operating system one on . In fact it is nearly as good as my S3. No desire at all to upgrade it. All I've had to do is renew the battery for it... and it flies. Manufacturers will always stop upgrades at some point so forcing the owners to buy newer models... that's the good thing about rooting, when there's really nothing wrong with that older model.
Rod
Just having used both a S3 and an S5 over Christmas ( I was using the S3 for a US simcard) I can assure you there's no substitute for improved hardware. The difference switching between the two is enormous, and that was with an S3 that was basically stripped of all but the essentials of a smart phone (a stripped-down custom rom with no data connection). The 3 is a laggy dog compared to the 5, believe me.
If you're happy with what you've got then good for you, but make no mistake that the hardware changes over a two year period make a very noticeable difference no matter what software you use. I speak as a pretty experienced 'tinkerer'.
Am I correct in my understanding that there is no installer for the Xperia Z, or am I just not looking in the right place?
I'm now 2 hours into this process and it tells me it can't talk to my phone! I've tried 3 cables in every usb slot and it never works. Now I don't know how this leaves my phone.
Why don't things just work? Why is every IT related thing a problem?
I've wasted a morning on this and I don't have the rest of the day to waste.
FFS.
EDIT / UPDATE: Having read the trouble shooting section it's way beyond my understanding and capabilities. It says to uninstall Kies but I could never do that as it's uninstallable - that's the flaming point!
So I closed my eyes and turned the phone off. Luckily it's fine and exactly as it was (which makes sense as it couldn't be spoken to!) so I'll have to just put up with it like this for another two years.
Morning officially wasted.
Last edited by TaketheCannoli; 7th January 2015 at 13:23.
If you have a street like Leith Walk in edinburgh with small independent IT/phone stores, they can usually do it for about Ł20. I'd back everything up and do a factory reset first though. Thats just me, I don't like the idea of someone snooping
Welcome to the world of phone customisation. At least you haven't done any damage.
my first attempt at rooting my note 1 ended up with me lashing it down the living room luckily it bounced of the door frame and missed the tv,
second go i used the Cyanogen installer a lot easier although it did say it coulndt talk to my phone about 3/4 of the way through, rebooted the laptop solved this,
it is a lot quicker phone now apps open a lot faster, although it did trash my sd card lost everything and nothing will read the card now
but on the whole a good upgrade
Sounds familiar. I rebooted my PC but it made no difference. TBH I'm a bit gutted as I really wanted it to work. You'd think that they could make it talk to your phone and I think it's a cop-out to say it's your cable when it can't have been all three of my official Samsung cables.
Having read this again.... http://www.talkandroid.com/guides/be...de-to-rooting/
....I was probably getting too far into a world I don't understand anyway. I'm a visual learner meaning I need to be shown to understand most effectively and I think that's why I find most IT things a struggle as I've never had the chance to see it being done and ask questions.
Last edited by TaketheCannoli; 7th January 2015 at 14:38.
Xperia Z
Full list of Sony phones (so many variations of the Xperia Z).
Officially supported Sony phones.
Best wishes,
Bob
I managed to install CM (using the CM app) on my SII the other day, tried in the morning and it wouldn't talk to my phone either.
I then tried again in the evening and it all worked, I do remember when I tried to use Keis initially when I had the phone I had similar issues with the USB connection working occasionally
The laptop I did the install from didn't have Kies installed on it
Perhaps give it another go one evening and it may work :-), I'm happy to say I can now do updates on my apps again and still have lots of space to install other apps... and nice to no longer see loads of apps I never used or indeed choose to install that I couldn't install
Good luck if you try again :-)
Last edited by hallanthony; 7th January 2015 at 19:30.
Thanks but I've just tried it another 5 times without success. I tend to see things very simply; if something says it's going to do X then it should do X. I know I'm not the most techy person around but come on, if someone has gone to the trouble of designing a solution then it shouldn't be too hard.
I design solutions for a living and I don't say to the client "here's the solution, but it might not work, and if it doesn't then you'll have to try these 16 things and if they don't work, erm, I don't know".
Completely lost the will to live now.
Last edited by TaketheCannoli; 7th January 2015 at 20:14.
Thanks Bob. There is indeed a “longhand” version for the Z but not, as far as I can see, a simple installer as per the OP.
In any case, subsequent posts have shown that even with the installer, it doesn’t always go smoothly.
Same as above, tried it and it will not talk to the phone when installing recovery starts.
Seems to drop the USB driver, windows tries to reload the driver and then fails. (Lots of complaints about this on the specialist mod sites)
Tried it on a laptop, same thing
Don't want to waste any more time faffing around,,
Yes, after I saw those posts about the problems, I concluded that I had misunderstood you. Sorry about that.
I've seen mention of the auto install, but have never used it. For one thing, I don't have Windows. The non-automatic way is pretty straightforward, and, even better, well tested. I just followed the recipe. Once installed, everything else is by OTA updates. I believe that the switch from KitKat to Lollipop will also be OTA. Beta versions of Cyanogenmod's Lollipop for B&N Nook HD/HD+ (which I have) are now available for manual installation, but I'm not going to mess around for them. I'll wait for the OTA.
Best wishes,
Bob
Indeed I think the troubles are all about the USB drivers, when I was doing mine I did find some other instructions (wiki how to wiki.cyanogen.org/w/Install_CM_for_i9100_Info) which did involve setting some drivers with a tool called Zadig and I wonder if that's what got it working for me
Not that the rest of the instructions worked, which is when I went back to trying the app and it worked
A very kind TZer has offered to do it for me so I'm just getting everything in order on his instruction before it starts its journey to a new brain.
I'll report in when it arrives home.
Restores one's faith in the nicer side of human nature
Just put CM on my wife's S3 using one click, had the same bother were it wouldn't speak to the phone, downloaded Zadig and it still didn't work. Rebooted phone and pc and it worked first time! It has transformed the phone from a laggy piece of junk to quite a slick device, we'll worth the upgrade as CM has some great customisations built in.
TaketheCannolli; you need to turn off all antivirus/firewall on your pc and remove Kies from the pc. Hope you get it sorted as it is worth it.
Posting Permissions