[Galaxy S II Android Development] cwestpha:
Remember on the Galaxy S II there are differences between your external MicroSD card and the "internal" SD Card partition. CMW 4.x and AOSP like CM denotes the external card as eMMC (a device mount) while Samsung places the external MicroSD card as a folder within the "internal" SD Card partition. Samsung does this because it doesn't want to expose the root filesystem to users for accessing their external SD card and it just makes things non-standard when compared to the rest of the Android ecosystem. In CMW 5.x they addressed this issue by allowing you to access the external SD card separately along with a few other nice features since 4.x requires that you have at-least one .zip file in each level to proceed to the next.

For example with the recovery included in GM: You need a .zip in SD Card (internal) to proceed to external_sd, and another zip there if you store your zips in a folder on the external SD. I like to keep my GingerMOD stuff in a separate folder from my Cyanogen stuff on my external SD card since its 32 GB and will easily survive wipes. I can just pull the card, wipe all partitions, stick it back in and start installing from recovery.

It might be a bum DL but I am starting to think thats not the case. I have downloaded it from the forum link on two computers and copied it over to the phone, also tried using the updater and all kinds of other ways to get the dern thing with the same broken install. I am starting to thing there is a flaw in Abyss' CMW included in their kernel related to partitions not mounting and unmounting correctly. Its like half way through install something doesn't get copied over because there are zero traces of JKay on my device, which is frustrating because JKay is used to give the AOSP experience (lock screen, various behaviors, etc) on top of a striped down Samsung stock.

A> I try to too, and I can work around this stuff. Its just a post about sharing my experience in trying to install GM .8 from scratch. I have done these posts in the past and since .7 started pulling in so many new people and gaining mindshare as a real alternative to a still in development AOSP and the horor that is Samsung Touchwiz mods. Also if you note in my recommendations I suggest a work around for new people or existing users. Start at .7 then upgrade to .8 as things tend to work with only OTA updater not working correctly because you first have to do the status 0 work around.

B> Again this can be work around as you state. Its just a point that requires work arounds and disrupts a workflow on the easiest way to do a fresh install from scratch. Its not a scratch against the mod, its the Kernel maker that did this.

C> Yes, but if you want to wipe all onboard partitions and memory, thus restoring completely from scratch as if you were coming over from a few other ROMs that change the partitioning, its just a little annoying. Again, the Kernel was selected for speed and low battery drain, not for its CMW build integrated into it and as such its not reflecting poorly upon Luca's skills. Its just an unintended consequence I wanted to point out to Luca as a point of possible improvement in future builds.

E> I personaly never complained about the launcher. The problem is there are files/programs/etc missing in my three or four attempts to do fresh GM .8 installs that enable the Pure Google Experience (TM). See above for the role JKay plays, and when I did the installs it didn't exist at all. no configuration app, no settings files, no executables, no scripts of it were installed. This may be a rare exception to most people's experiences, but it is an apparent issue with a small minority of people.

F> I am not complaining about the splash screen, love that android screen. I am complaining about the ICS kernel boot logo that shows for a few seconds as the Kernel loads distracting from that wonderful splash screen. Again, its another unintended thing that came with the Abyss kernel. And its baked into the kernel like the CMW. So unless one rips out all of that stuff from the Kernel and re-flash it separately you cant get rid of that stuff while keeping the same Kernel. I bet Luca couldn't even get rid of all of it without having the developer complain since their boot logo is most likely dear to them.

G> Its a Samsung based ROM based off of a modified Nexus like experience. There is NOTHING AOSP about it other then to give the experience of original vanilla Android Gingerbread experience. I am sorry if you think this is AOSP, but read Luca's first post and you will see it isn't.

I> I discussed this in my post and referred to the work around. It needs to be added to the FAQ section and denoted as a bug in the first few posts by Luca but it defiantly isn't a deal breaker.

J> Completely agree.

I completely agree but several of these posts you seem to be chewing people out about are trying to genuinely trying to help and improve the GM experience. There is a lot of mis-information about this ROM out there (like it is actually AOSP instead of AOSP-experience). Just because 10% to 20% are having deal breaking experiences doesn't make their experiences any less legit then that of the super majority. I have a .7 to .8 upgrade that works flawlessly, the experience of being at .8 (Recovery & Kernel) and doing a fresh .8 install on top of it is horrid however. This isn't the norm and I completely accept this as the case, however it might happen if someone messed up their CM install and want to re-install everything while wiping away the broken ROM after fooling with stuff.

Part of the problem is the 200+ pages of posts and replies, I think GingerMod needs a new thread simply because its getting so unwieldy managing 12 or so versions (dont forget the lettered fix releases) worth of issues and information. Its quite overwhelming for people just hopping on the glory of GingerMOD for the first time or coming back from another ROM after being disappointed for past releases. How are they suposed to know they should start their .8 research starting at page 180-something.

Update: Yep, I confirmed there is an issue with the CMW included in the Abyss kernel that under some circumstances can cause issues when you flash a .zip using its included recovery. At some stages it mounts and unmount partitions, for example when erasing/formatting/overwriting under some circumstances and doesn't properly remount the partition for the next step. This can be fixed by installing another kernel/cmw that doesn't have this issue (I use Siyah) if you wish to re-apply GingerbreadMOD .8 on top of a pre-existing .8 install with the Abyss kernel. The most common reason why this would come up is if there was an issue with the prior flash (you removed a critical component and a a factory reset doesn't solve the issue). Again, this is rare, but it is an issue.

Also note this wont solve Status 0 issues. The best way to take care of that is to follow the existing work around (un-mounting and re-mounting /system from inside recovery before manually applying the zip until it takes). If you switch kernels and thus recovery versions/implementations there is no guarantee the built-in restart & apply mechanism inside the GM updater app will function correctly anyways.