yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[G Tablet General] jonalowe:
I've been lurking on the gTab forums here for the last several days, and have been trying to absorb all of the info I can. I tend to research everything in depth before I plunge into anything. While much information is here, it is fragmented, and what is easy to follow for a developer is not as easy to follow for others. roebeet, you do the best of any I've seen, and I appreciate it. I've done a lot of searches which have helped some. I'm not new to Android (or XDA) as I have a stock Droid Incredible, but I am new to mods to Androids. I have also used Linux in the past, and modded kernels for newer drivers using cookbook approaches, so little scares me if I have enough information. I've sort of figured out how to install and use nvflash, ADB, and CWM using the various guides, but I'm missing some fundamental knowledge on WHEN and WHY I should really be prepared to use them. I've also tried to do some reading on Nandroid, but have found little pertinent to the gTab. So here goes:

1. What is the primary use of each of the following tools, nvflash, ADB, and CWM? When should I expect to have to use each of them? Are there gTab specific guides to their uses and the options for each outside of ROM installation guides, etc? Specific examples of when I should use each, and even more important, when NOT to use them, would be helpful. I've read all of the ROM, nvflash and ADB installation guides, and the various FAQs, and I understand HOW to install each of, just want to understand the best practices for each.

2. After reading a lot, it appears that having a complete backup of my particular ROM would be a good idea since partitions seem to differ even on stock gTabs. I've read posts here that refer to Titanium, and the use of ADB and CWM to do backups, and others that refer obliquely to Nandroid. What is the use of each of the above to do backups? It appears that Nandroid is a piece of CWM, but I may be mistaken. And if I install TnTlite using roebeet's guide, I'm not supposed to use CWM anyway. So how do I do a backup?

3. I plan to use my gTab as I get it, allowing it to do OTA updates only, for a few days, playing with the TNT and normal Android interfaces. I understand that a major OTA may be imminent anyway, possibly based on the leaked 3991 ROM, so my current plan is to wait for it, at least for a week or two. I plan to explore the guts of the file system carefully to fully understand the various instructions I've found here. Is there a way to safely install nvflash and ADB and explore more, or do I need to have an already rooted ROM installed on the GTab.

4. Some people recommend updated to newer or tweaked kernels. I've found the kernels, but haven't found any good step by steps on how to install them. Any links you can point to?

As an aside, I think roebeet's idea of a good wiki for this forum is a good one. The main XDA wiki is about useless. I would expect to see beginners guides to nvflash, ADB, CWM, etc.

Thanks for your help.

Jon
[G Tablet General] Rumbleweed:
Suggestion. If you are going to install a ROM, pull the detailed instructions from one of the reputable Devs here, paste it into a word processor and add a check box before each step ( can use bullet tool) Then make sure you go thru one step at a time and check the box just in case you get interrupted. If you are unclear on a step ( ie clear cache) research it before you do anything.
[G Tablet General] fridge011:
thanks for your replies guys, it is definitely good to know that even if i do it perfectly it might still not work the 1st time. ill just nvflash it and try again. this is a really informative forum.
[G Tablet General] roebeet:
I think a centralized FAQ and / or Wiki is needed, for all the concerns you stated.

"How do I setup adb? What is it used for?"

"What is nvflash? How do I backup all my partitions?"

"What's the difference between clockworkmod and standard recovery? What are the pros and cons of both?"

"What are the difference ROMs available and what are their differences?"

"What is a customized kernel and why would I use it?"

"I have an error <fill in the blank> -- what do I do?"

etc etc. With potentially hundreds of Woot users about to jump into XDA, I think this would be a fantastic thing to have. Heck, it would a good thing to have for ALL of us, myself included.

It's NOT an easy task, however. I would argue that it's a very arduous task and something that would need to be ongoing. But I think it would ease some of the repeat questions here, and give new users a good guide to understand some of the basics.
[G Tablet General] butchconner:
lamchocho,

Wrong! :) The wooters are here!

And as the days go by there's going to be more.

Gonna be interesting.

Rev
[G Tablet General] Rick in LA:
I'm quoting Jon's post in its entirety because he both perfectly articulates a number of my questions as well as captures my sense that after days worth of information mining on this site, I'm semi-well-informed enough to do the kind of damage that will surely add to the confusion you all seem to realize is imminent here.

I may be able to help with question 4. Buried in Clemsyn's kernel thread (52 pp!) ...

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=895825

...is this:
[G Tablet General] pdcullen:
Just a fair warning, they (the in-laws) never change.
[G Tablet General] stoko:
A little note as to why we'll probably start seeing a lot of uninformed people here is because Viewsonic actually has a link to XDA on the "Favorite gTablet Apps and Resources" page of their site, which is accessible from the main G Tablet home page

It's in the developer resources section, but as everyone already knows that doesn't stop some people.
[G Tablet General] goodintentions:
Oh, I know. I have 4 siblings, and I'm the only unmarried one. Actually, this time last year my brother and his wife almost split up because his wife's mom moved in with them for a few months. Sometimes my brother was so annoyed by her that he camped out at my place a couple times. After his inlaw finally left, it took them months of counseling for his family to go back to normal.

We often joke about in-laws, but in all seriousness they can and do cause a lot of problems in marriages. My other brother, after living in the same town with his in-law for a couple years, actively looked for a job on the other side of the country and got the hell out of there as soon as he got a job offer. That didn't prevent his in-laws from occasionally fly over and camp out at his place, though.
[G Tablet General] goodintentions:
That's weird. Companies usually don't like to acknowledge enthusiast sites.
[G Tablet General] jonalowe:
Thanks! That helped a lot!

Now if I can just get my other questions answered!:D

Jon
[G Tablet General] edirector:
Good post, and everyone including techs had to start from somewhere. They didn't just jump right in and become instant experts. I'm not an engineer but I do have basic computer knowledge A+ certification (not my main line of employment)and some of these ROMs are problematic and people should tread lightly.

I've tried quite a few, to gain one feature to lose another or to have something unexpected occur. Finally I started cracking open the ROMs, supplements, enhancement packs and looking to see what was inside and taking out what I did not require and putting in what actually worked for the betterment of my GTab. Let's be honest, most of these ROMs and such are experimental. They worked OK for the person or people who initially tested them and were put up as offerings. One size doesn't always fit all.

Don't stop people from learning through trial and error. Learning is good. I for one like to read the threads where people have run into some major issues, first, some tell you a lot about what not to do. Before flashing read an entire thread of comments about that ROM. You could actually learn a lot. However, when you have too many people having problems with one ROM in particular it is not end user error per say.

This is a how-to forum isn't it? Maybe a what-not-to-do comedy video my help lighten things up a little. Mostly this is a good forum with a wealth of information. Not so friendly in the beginning, but, some people here are really good at what they do and some need to minimize their egos on the task bar or force close them. lol
[G Tablet General] vaccdroid:
And with Circut City and Tiger Direct selling the G Tablet for $299 this weekend this forum traffic and members is going to be 10 times what it is now.
[G Tablet General] vaccdroid:
and I know little to nothing about modding etc. I plan on using the stock Rom with or without the dashboard and just adding the enhancment pack to get Gmail and MArket . And if someone came up with a way to get the stock rom to have Google Calender and contacts I would be all over that But unless I think I know what I am doing I will not just flash a rom. I have read the stock Rom with the update is really good . I will atleast give it a few days before I try a rom. And spend a few days reading up and learning how to do it correctly.
[G Tablet General] h3llphyre:
I personally find it in bad taste to tell people not to mod their tablets. I personally found that the stock software was useless without SOME sort of modding. Without the Market, beyond surfing the web, the tab is useless. Tried side loading apps, ended up in a never ending stream of FC's.

There is one awesome thread about installing ROMs. It COULD be made a tad more clear, but overall, it's not bad. I literally had it up while I was installing CWM and Vegan 5.1 and the subsequent 5.1.1, so I was reading, doing, scroll, repeat. It's not hard, if you can follow direction (I blame this on my obsession with legos as a kid, so I read instructions to the T).

The problem is, the instructions in some of the ROM threads, use technical terms that people aren't familiar with. I used the generic thread. The ROM threads should just reference that thread and say "Take this file, go read this other thread on how to do it". Just my opinion, unless there are special instructions, simple is better.
[G Tablet General] roebeet:
Well said. A little research and patience will go a long way.
[G Tablet General] alex6499:
lol forget this. I'm modding it as soon as i get it. Hardly anything I own isn't hacked. Woot!
[G Tablet General] adampdx:
I'm horrified by the reaction here to these "wooters". For God sake, they're being treated like refugees! Everyone should have their chance here and get to ask "noob" questions because there is no other way. There isn't a class you can take on how to mod your Android device. There isn't someone who can come to your house and point at every single post that answers basic or obscure questions. There is great potential here for hundreds or even thousands of new users who will be testing out the ROMs here and will be needing help. They'll also be donating and supporting G Tab developers as well as the rest of the XDA community. Where's the love? If you don't like someone's post, ignore it and move on.
[G Tablet General] K J Rad:
That's the spirit! I modded mine the night I got it home. Near bricked it on day four. Recovered it about an hour later after some quick searches here.

All I ask is that if you need help you ask in a courteous manner and understand that we can't answer everyone instantly.
[G Tablet General] HackaMathecian:
What are the pros and cons of standard vs cwm-based recovery?

Howdy all. I've been reading quite a few of the threads for a few days, trying to soak up some info pertinent to flashing a new rom, performing recovery and all that jazz. A number of the threads have helped me to get a pretty good idea of what's involved in modifying a brand new gtab.

One thing I don't quite get is what the main difference is between standard and cwm-based recoveries. I get that one is stock, the other isn't and that there are a bunch of issues that may arise from using either (data not being wiped, bootloader etc...). I was wondering if someone could point me to a thread that discusses what the pros and cons of either method is. Thx.
[G Tablet General] roebeet:
There's really no thread -- just a lot of rants (mostly mine).

You actually have three options, with a 1.1-based ROM:

1- ROM Manager (I only mention it because it exists, not because its a good thing to use)

2- Standard 1.1-based stock recovery

3- clockworkmod .8 bekit

ROM Manager does NOT work on the GTAB, so please make believe that doesn't exist and scratch it off the list. If you use it, you will likely soft-brick your device with a firmware flash so that's not good.

Standard recovery is what you get with stock. It only does one thing well, and that's flashing firmware. But not really much else. There are no menu items where you can choose an action. It does have the ability to update the bootloader.

clockworkmod .8 bekit version is used extensively here - it's an enhanced recovery that does nandroid backups, lets you wipe user data, redo your SD partitions and some other goodies. And it flashes firmware.

However....it does not flash the bootloader, even if the firmware being flashed has a new bootloader. So that's where you have to be careful. If the firmware in question has no bootloader, then no worries. But if it has a new bootloader, then you could have issues if you don't flash that. In the GTAB world, this is a big problem with the UAT 3991 build that was leaked. And in the Notion Ink Adam world, they are having problems with the most recent firmware releases too, same problem.

So clockworkmod has some great tools, but it has one caveat that you need to keep in the back of your mind, if you use it to flash firmware.
[G Tablet General] HackaMathecian:
Thanks a bunch, that made a lot of things clearer.
[G Tablet General] adampdx:
Hey, this is awesome. I never really thought about the alternatives to CWM. I've always stayed away from ROM Manager for flashing, good to know I've been doing it right.
[G Tablet General] HackaMathecian:
I was wondering how to flash using standard recovery,b/c it seems almost everybody uses CWM. In any vent, I searched the forum and found an answer here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=9247367#post9247367
[G Tablet General] cu_ninja:
As a wooter but also an experienced android flasher I completely agree. If the devs are sick and tired of answering noob questions, I'm sure there will be more people like myself to step in and answer or point them in the right direction. I know the devs don't develop ROMs for donations but I'm sure they wouldn't turn them down either. So to safely get their ROMs in as many hands as possible, I plan on creating several step-by-step youtube vids once my gtablet comes in.
[G Tablet General] gksmith:
I want to extend on something fridge wrote about Android not being well documented. It's also not Windows or DOS. You might be able to use some of the troubleshooting skills you learned if you have issues but don't ever make the mistake of assuming things work the same. Android is different so ask questions and read before trying to fix things. I could have saved myself lots of time if I followed this advice myself.

Sent from my G-Tablet running Vegan-GingerEdition
[G Tablet General] h3llphyre:
WOOT! x 2!!
[G Tablet General] JustMeToo:
WOOT! x3:D
[G Tablet General] techstorm:
I was looking for info on this forum about modding the gTab when I read this thread. I think I will just wait and see when I get mine if there is really any point to it. I mean, if it will do what I need it to do then I'll just stay stock. Even though I've never modded a gTab I have lots of experience with modding other devices such as Xbox, Routers, Hackintosh so I'm not worried about the challenge. In fact, that may be the fun part of getting mine, trying to mod it. :D Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Ok so after reading that the stock rom and os does not come with a marketplace to download apps I will definitely be modding mine!
[G Tablet General] droid_k:
I agree and whether they are wooters or other manyers, they like and using android. I understand it is not easy and sick & tired for answering similar questions.

Why those devs or moders make a forums for 1. instalation of ROMs, 2. FAQ for each ROMs. Then there will be much less nood questions.

I know on the 1st page of forum has a very good instruction but sometimes peoples are wondering to find a right place for them.
[G Tablet General] wasserkapf:
Way back in the beginning of December I answered a question on modding a stock g-tablet. This is to just add more functionality, like Market. I know it is old, and some things are not needed anymore (OpenGL update), but it may be useful for some new members:

Stock G-Tablet Mod Thread

This gets you the things most people seem to want, without flashing a ROM (aka: firmware). My market install has actually survived the last two OTA updates.

Hope this helps some.
[G Tablet General] vaccdroid:
I think most people ( from reading) want other then Market is Google Apps like Calendar and contact sync and Gmail. If there was a easy way to get Gmail-Calendar-Conatacts onto the G tablet alot of folks would not flash a new rom . The only reason I might flash is that it seems there is no way to get the calendar and Gmail onto the tablet. Though I thought I read that the mew Gmail apps were stand alone now and can be installed like a normal APK but I dont have my G Tablet yet to try it.
[G Tablet General] G-Tab:
Wooter's aren't bad people...

After reading this thread, I kinda feel like I'm about to step into some kind of Android-Anonymous meeting!

"Hi, my name is Bob and I'm a wooter..."

Just because I (like thousands of others) got a good deal from Woot! and jumped on the G-Tablet bandwagon, doesn’t necessarily mean we’re all a bunch of idiots. There’s a big difference between ignorance and stupidity. Right now, I’m ignorant, but I’m working on changing that. It’s new to many of us now, just like it was new to YOU when you first started!

First and foremost, I want to give prop's to the folks here who have been pioneering the G-Tab experimentation! Even more so to those (Roebeet in particular) who've been posting furiously with EXCELLENT information for the influx of new enthusiasts. I can’t begin to say how much I appreciate you taking your time to point me in the right direction with respect to working on the G-Tab.

Some excellent points have been raised here and in other threads. Take your time, learn what you’re going to do before you do it and be prepared to deal with complications if they come up. If you’re just looking for a more functional tablet, then there are options with varying degrees of complexity and consequences. If you dive in the shallow end head first, well then…

Personally, I’m an IT guy and I like messing around with gadgets. I’m not a Dev (yet)  I’ve dabbled in jailbreaking the iphone a bit, but Android is new to me. I’m reading, reading and reading some more. I plan to mod the G-Tab in due time. I’ll follow the advice and do the OTA update and monitor the firmware rev’s. I’ll be spending some time today on the recommended programs and procedures and I hope that questions will have helpful and supportive answers. I have great faith in the people who’ve been around awhile. I bought the G-Tablet as a hobby.

Thanks to the community in advance, I’m looking forward to trying different mod’s and messing around with the G-Tab!
[G Tablet General] grpargter:
Great post and couldn't agree more. I'm also an IT guy that loves to hack, tinker and basically break gadgets. Looking forward to learning more everyday from this forum and want to thank all of the contributors!
[G Tablet General] bcampbe7:
Good post, and ditto! :D
[G Tablet General] fridge011:
this is a link to how to flash vegan 5.1.1 on your gtab. its basically the same as the how to in the development forum but it includes pershoot's kerneln and has maybe a tad more detail. maybe itll help someone.

http://www.blendblog.net/Default.aspx?tabid=36&EntryID=67
[G Tablet General] wasserkapf:
That is part of the Android Market installlation. See the link in my previous post.
[G Tablet General] vaccdroid:
I took a look at that but it has no mention of the two most asked gapps. Calendar and Contacts unless I missed something.
[G Tablet General] wasserkapf:
Gmail is in that, that is what I use. I also just use the browser for most Google stuff.
[G Tablet General] JackAbramoff:
Modding yoga

I've been an EE for 27 years now (yes, I'm very old), so I consider myself to have an advantage at this stuff over most people, but I'm hardly an OS guru or a Systems guy, so nowhere near the level of many of the people on this forum.

That said, I say mod it! I got my tab a few weeks ago, and after reading lots of material on this forum for a couple of days, I plunged in and upgraded to the Vegan ROM. Didn't brick my tab, didn't experience a boot loop, got my market back as soon as I did the fix. Granted, it doesn't go that smoothly for everyone, but even if I had run into bumpy ground, I was pretty confident that I could find what I needed here.

I think it makes sense, if you're going to mod your device, to do it up front. If something goes horribly wrong and you have to do a clean wipe and start over, there won't be any user information to lose. Find a ROM you like and gain some experience with the whole routine, so if you do change something later you'll be more familiar with the process and much more likely to have a valid backup somewhere just in case.

I do agree the rather large amount of information in this forum should be Wiki-ized; not only would information be easier to find, especially for the noobs, but I think it would be less work for the developers if those of us with somewhat lesser skill can fill in a lot of the blanks, which would then only need to be reviewed and corrected where necessary by the best-informed.

Why not give it a go? If you haven't installed anything, you really have nothing to lose. There's a virtually 100% chance you can recover from the worst possible goof-up, so there really isn't all that much of a downside, other than maybe losing some time in the process. And the upside is great: A tablet that does exactly what you want it to do, looks like you want it to look, and generally makes you proud to own it. The other day a friend of mine's boss gave her a 64G iPad2 for her birthday, and we were comparing our tablets. It's true hers has a better screen, everything looks sexier, and it's got a fruit logo on the back, but mine has a custom wallpaper I really like, the applications I want where I want them, and I didn't pay one dime for anything after the purchase the tablet (though I did spring for the dock, extra power supply and HDMI cable which work beautifully). The kicker was when I showed her the stash of 200+ movies that I have (legally obtained), which I'm slowly converting and copying over to uSD cards so I can watch HD movies in airplanes and hotel rooms when I'm on the road. I didn't realize that even the latest iPads have NO expansion ports, not even USB, so she can carry no more than 64G around with her in any format.

Sorry for the long post, but I feel pretty strongly about it. It's not a trivial exercise modding your tab, but it's a fun process, you'll learn more than you ever thought you could, and it's rewarding. I say go for it!

Doug
[G Tablet General] techstorm:
I think I will mod mine. In fact, when I was deciding to purchase one or not I read all the comments on woot about this site and the available mods. That was the thing that made me buy it. Now the tough part has been trying to decide which ROM and version. I've read and re-read and so far I can't find the giant arrow in my head pointing to any single mod. I wish there were a comparison chart of current mods! :D
[G Tablet General] AlexKilpatrick:
Once you learn the process, it is pretty easy to switch from one ROM to another. You can install one, play around with it, and then quickly change to another one.

Vegan seems to have the most active developers. That's always a good sign.