yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] jonamafun:
I'm using Wanamlite v11.1, Siyahkernel v3.1, and Apex Launcher.

A winning combination in my opinion, that is now at least as good as the best GB ROMs in terms of battery life. 7 hours standby with 30 minutes screen time and i'm still on 87%.

In terms of fluidity and performance I think ICS /w Apex beats GB handsdown.
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
Thanks for the recommendation, but I avoid ROM mix ups, I can do that myself. The ones I have looked at have had some very dubious scripts and additions. I usually look at build.prop first, and generally find all sorts of hybrid attempts at adding stuff that is completely wrong. Lines taken from websites, other phones and so on.
[Galaxy S II General] melorib:
Depends, it was like you say in Gingerbread days, not with ICS WanamLite nor Dynamic, only tried these + CM9 :rolleyes:

I am using Dynamic 1.4 LP9, it is as smooth and fast as CM9, but everything working because it is Samsung based :cool:

I tried the included NEAK and Speedmod kernels, similar performance and very good battery life, only 3% drain overnight, I dont play with processor tweaking :D
[Galaxy S II General] kranti2064:
Dialer is laggy if you compare it with GB. CM9 variants have slightly more response dialers but overall, GB dialer is way more responsive. There is a small but noticeable lag when pressing a key and the time it takes to register on ICS (CM9 & stock).

Camera recording with stereo voice recording...! Seriously how many people do shoot video with a phone's camera? For facebook uploads mono audio is just fine..

Browser is a definitive improvement yes, and the desktop mode is welcome but browser mods have been available on GB since long.

It is not that ICS is bad. It is actually very good, but the way it has been implemented on S2 is downright ridiculous...! And not one stable vanilla build isn't really helping..
[Galaxy S II General] DreadPirateDan:
This is something I have been contemplating for quite some time now, quite possibly the last month. The only real thing stopping me is that for some reason alot of games (eg dead space and modern combat 3) don't seem to like it when i change roms, and even though all the ingame data is there, sometimes it decides I have to re-download.

I do miss it alot though.. and also red pill kernel ;)

I might end up doing a backup of current my CM9 and take the plunge sometime soon. I've been using CM9 since around feb and lately I think my interest has plateaued and now I'm just beginning to get frustrated with little lags that are popping up more frequently (probably due for a wipe mind you!). The only thing about villiam rom is the bloody touch wiz launcher.. I just don't like messing with the launcher roms were made for either.

Mass lols to be had at the fact that a majority of the time they would be played on the device through the mono loudspeaker too :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S II General] astalavista88:
I also go back for GB..becoz i feel that ics so laggy at dialer,and PES2012 freeze and cant play on ics..but in GB all working great..

Daripada galaxy s2 non-G
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
Currently trying ninphetamine kernel (as per VR3 - thanks for the heads up) on my fave stock KL1 more for interest than anything. Seems OK, no obvious difference from stock running as is apart from it being insecure, need a couple of days to evaluate in real life use.
[Galaxy S II General] tameracingdriver:
Bloody good post. I've been using CM9 since the video recording bug was solved, and thats probably the longest I've used any ROM on the SGS2, I really like AOSP but the problem is it does still have quite a few bugs, and isn't quite as fast or as battery friendly as I remember the likes of Hyperdroid v6 being.

This makes me tempted to go back to GB. For me, it is still the ultimate for a daily driver. But I'm lazy so I'll probably stick with CM9.
[Galaxy S II General] Galactus:
ICS dialer laggy o_O, doesn't happen to me on stock LP9 or Dynamic based on LP9 and CM9 is as smooth as they come. Whilst mono audio is fine for you I quite like having stereo audio. Choice, not limitations my friend
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
Cheers for that - I would definitely recommend the 2.3.6 KL1 off Sammobile if you want a solid GB.
[Galaxy S II General] virus786:
Dude, if you have not tried CheckRom RevoHD V6, then you have not tried the BEST gingerbread rom for sgs2.

This is why I can not use ICS (yet). Checkrom is just too perfect of a Rom.

Try it, tweak it to your liking, use it for a week or 3 then try and go back to stock.

CheckRom XDA thread
[Galaxy S II General] luke2642:
Total agreement

Just wanted to add my tuppence worth... I had a similar experience. I tried both ICS Litening Rom and Resurrection Rom... then went back to gingerbread, I'm much happier.

Before ICS I used Lite'ning Rom v6.1 and loved it for 8 months or more. It hardly needed any tweaking, such a great theme. I didn't go back to that though, I thought I'd give Darkyrom HD 1.1 a try, I've stuck with it for a month so must be ok. After reading this thread I tried Redpill kernel and it burned my extended battery out in about 5 hours. Boo.

I always change the launcher to ADW though, I love having one static home screen, no dock, 5 x 5 textless icons under 2 rows of extended controls app power toggles, 10 in total. It's not crowded, everything you need on one screen. A vertical scrolling 4 column alphabetised app draw is also the fastest way to find those occasional apps.

ICS app compatibility still isn't all the way there yet. The interface didn't feel as smooth. Flash seemed to crash in the browser a bit, but general instability was the real decider for me. Mediocre battery. Also, I just didn't really like the interface... Copy and paste was temperamental... and what's the deal with it being at the top of the screen rather than where you press... weird!

The SGSII is already my mini computer that does everything I need... I'lll wait a bit longer before trying ICS again.
[Galaxy S II General] cmd512:
Yep, exactly why I'm still on GB, well written. Too many trade-offs to go ICS at this point.
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
ninphetamine kernel OK after a couple of days use, no better or worse than stock KL1. Same perceived performance, battery life, stability, functionality.

(I have tried a couple of the cooked ICS ROMs today on a spare S2. I'm not going to name them, they appear popular, but I'm afraid they are mostly show and definitely a little odd...).

I'll watch the CM9 thread with interest...
[Galaxy S II General] Kidder:
Help

guys, for me that im from Chile, my Sgs2 had company GB 2.3.6 KK3... well for me the battery life is freaking awful, about 1.5 hours in standby and battery is about 95% whitout doing nothing, no sync, wifi shutdown on sleep and no GPS... then, i tried ICS LPQ with Apex Launcher installed, but i have a problem on it... sometimes the phone put frozen and i cant wake it up, or sometimes, i unlock it, then try to lock it again and the screen partially shuts down... like if i had lowered the brightness to min... after 3 mins the phone came back ... but idk if this is problem of apex launcher or smth like that, can someone enlight me plz? ><
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
Wrong place to ask really, try a new post?

Good luck.
[Galaxy S II General] huisie:
Exchange Activesync and SMS

I'm with a small business (3 members) and we have 50+ part-time and temp staff who we mostly message and update via SMS.

Loved the ease of using Outlook and Jeyo with Windows Mobile - so much easier sending SMS in Outlook.

Resisted changing from WM6.5 (HD2) because of this, especially when MS introduced SMS Sync with Exchange 2010, making things even better for us.

Upgrading to Office 365 accounts was a no-brainer.

Was really chuffed to learn that Samsung supported more Exchange policies than standard, including SMS Sync.

We took the plunge and got Samsung Galaxy phones (2 x SII, 1 x Note).

Received them about 2 months ago, with ICS on the horizon.

Kept them as stock (decided to wait until ICS before rooting) and set up Exchange accounts - hey, presto, SMS Sync with Exchange and Outlook - NICE!

Upgraded phones to ICS last weekend and Exchange went wonky.

The "server" part of the setup is improved - I was able to use both the standard "m.outlook.com" address and the recommended "Host Name" address and get initial sync.

Syncing of Email, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks stayed steady but,after initial sync, it was impossible to sync SMS.

We kept on getting "cannot connect to server" issues when sending SMS, whether on WiFi or 3G.

We only received the error message with SMS - Email Calendar, etc., kept on working.

I've seen several other posts about an "Exchange" bug that people are experiencing with Exchange 2010 and ICS on Samsung phones. Here's hoping that 4.0.4 addresses these issues (and that we get it, preferably this year).

P.S. Please, Lord, let there be Pocket Controller for Android.
[Galaxy S II General] spyros88:
I consider myself lucky to find your post, my friend :)

Been with SGAce for a year - recently got SGS2 - got ICS via KIES - already convinced to go back to GB ;)

Please, confirm that you are talking about this firmware...

http://www.sammobile.com/firmware/?page=3&t=1&o=1&m=GT-I9100&r=1#modelsa

-I9100XXKL1-2.3.6-2011 December-I9100OXAKL1-Open Europe-

...and share some info about "Zergrush 4" - it was so easy to root/unroot Ace and now I have to learn so many things about the basics of SGS2.

Also, be kind enough and share how you revert from ICS to GB.

TNX in advance :)
[Galaxy S II General] OnePhantom:
Very interesting post. I have only just got into flashing ROMS although on GB I was rooted and using various launchers. I am currently using Faryaab's F1 Galaxy Nexus ROM and it is working great. I have to say I do love the look if ICS so for me, that alone woul make it difficult to go back to GB.

Am I sacrificing performance for aesthetics? Possibly. But for me, it is not something that has hindered my daily use of my phone.

I spend more time fiddling around with settings than actually using it anyway.:p
[Galaxy S II General] Amritttt:
I m currently using ics omega rom but disappointed with the ics browser for me GB browser was the best.
[Galaxy S II General] OnePhantom:
But then you have the choice to use Chrome, although that has it's bugs also.

I have yet to try Vanilla Gingerbread, only Samsung's TW version so that might be useful to try. Checkrom sounds pretty cool also.
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
That file is correct.

Zergrush 4 is easy to use and the instructions are in the post:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1321582

To go from ICS to GB just requires a full reset/wipe and then flash via Odin. Not the .pit file though...
[Galaxy S II General] blade30p:
I'm also runnin Omega v11.1 & after trying all browsers (literally) I tried Opera, since then I've become a major fan. It just works, full stop :)
[Galaxy S II General] nghockcheng:
+1

Tried Hyperdroid v6->CheckRom RevoHD v6 -> ICS LPQ -> CheckRom RevoHD v6->ICS DXLP9 -> CheckRom RevoHD v6
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
A few days on KL1 with ninphetamine and battery life with light/moderate use (inc 1 hour BT and 1 hour FM radio, all syncs 1 hour)

Nice. 100% to 70%

Phone is absolutely rock solid, always works perfectly and 101% dependable. (The stock kernel is also superb).

I've now changed from my preferred LPR modem to NELP3 - this is better, generally (I'm on 3 UK).
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
Continuing the exploration:

Had a few hours to get some slow work done, so to occupy my mind I decided to have another go at ICS. This time shirking the Stock Samsung stuff and venturing in to Custom ICS ROM land.

Perhaps one of the most credible versions is Wanamlite (V 11.5 in this case).

So, clear the phone completely and a quick CWM flash had the ROM up and running with a nice Nexus boot animation.

Everything worked nicely, probably better than the stock version, and less Samsung apps to delete. All good so far. As I was at home, I was on WiFi. Had a few problems initially with Google Play store - it FC'd a few times but worked after a couple of reboots. The touch sensitivity is noticeably poor too, I had to frequently repeat the tap to get a response.

Then the deal breaker - WiFi refused to reconnect. Pants. Time for a "better" kernel. Two sprung to mind - Abyss 3 Final and Fluxi RC3. Fluxi has a lot of credibility and thus was first to try, but although it flashed OK, the screen just went blank after the initial boot and required a battery pull. Tried again with exactly the same results, which was partly expected as the kernel is intended for AOSP/AOKP ROMs not stock ROMs, although that was implied rather than stated. I managed to get back in to the awfully inaccurate and jumpy Touch CWM that came with Fluxi and cleared just the caches and flashed Abyss 3.0 OK, and the phone booted to ROM fine. Noticed that Supersu had been replaced by Superuser - not sure how! XXTweak app remained behind and appeared not to do anything... as expected! So uninstalled.

To be continued
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
... Abyss kernel 3.0 Final wasn't - now updated to 3.1 with fixes. How odd.
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
Oh dear...

And now the results of the ICS trial above... not inspiring. 2 pics - one stock GB 2.3.6 KL1 with ninphetamine and the other Wanamlite 11.5 with Abyss 3.1 running script with Abyssplug/SIO and 25mV UV.

Same apps, same usage, same places. Same phone...
[Galaxy S II General] beston94:
Lol? Those are way different usage times...... .....
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
Yep - not good at all. Back to GB...??
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
Not quite - yet anyway - cleared init.d folder and caches, flashed NEAK 2.0.4

First impression - Screen brightness works (low levels achievable that were screwed up in Abyss) and there aren't a zillion CPU frequency steps!

To be continued...
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
2 random reboots in 3 hours with NEAK. NEVER had reboot with ANY kernel/ROM ever with SGS2 before. This looks bad too.

Remember my first post? GB may well be King.

EDIT 15/05 - no more reboots as of today
[Galaxy S II General] Cryptostasis:
I've tried a lot of ROMS lately on my SGS2 and I can say that GB is way more stable and bugfree then ICS, but ICS is way more good looking, fun and easy to use (still is has some bugs). Custom ICS like AOKP give you a lot more control over your phone so for now I will stick with AOKP ICS 4.0.4
[Galaxy S II General] tameracingdriver:
Well I've just done a mini adventure of my own. Cm9 to checkrom to aosp on a galaxy nexus and back to the sgs2 because the nexy was buggered lol
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
and a day and a bit with NEAK and the same Wanamlite...

Completely different (as in better) than Abyss. This comparison, as before, is like for like.

First image is NEAK, second image is Abyss. Huge difference.

A lot has to do with the poor brightness control in Abyss. Auto or Manual. NEAK isn't perfect, but shedloads better, the lower brightness is far more battery friendly. Remember that this phone's screen EATS battery.
[Galaxy S II General] JugglerLKR:
if someone can do some benchmarking on the same phone with the same battery.

i'm feeling that ics is simply slower than gb, but had no time to measure exactly how much...
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
Placeholder
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
So a good couple of weeks using the phone with stock KL1 plus ninphetamine kernel with absolutely no problems, as before. Definitely a solid combination and the ultimate "go back to" set up for me.

Noticed that several AOSP and Stock ROMs had been updated, as had various kernels. No ICS VillainROM unfortunately. Damn.

Anyway, with a clear day to try a few things out I loaded the SD card with all the latest ROMs and kernels to try. A ROM test marathon, if you like.

First up:

Slim ICS 3.9

Weird 3 part flash regime, though I didn't bother with Slim Gapps flash at all. The first thing I noticed (and this is mentioned by the cooker) is the base zip needs flashing more than once. Odd. The second thing was the dpi has been changed to a default of 182dpi from the stock 240. This was horrible, and although it can be changed I started to get a bad feeling - the kind where you instantly dislike something. Plus it had an odd variant of a Fluxi kernel.

I decide to abandon this sharpish. Not for me.

CM9 nightly 27/5/12

It's been a while since I tried CM9 - always liked CM6, CM7 and the April CM9 builds weren't bad at all.

Everything is so easy in CM9, and everything worked as it should apart from the autobrightness (the custom settings and sensor are currently borked). Used the ROM for a few days and had no real problems apart from wall charger issues from time to time. I also tried Fluxi and NEAK kernels, but to be honest the stock CM9 kernel is darn fine. NEAK (as with Sammy builds) tends to suffer from random reboots.

Wanamlite 11.9

Not a great experience at all - not smooth, several FCs - tried updating to a different kernel. Abandoned.

Resurrection Remix 2.0

Having tried Slim's AOKP effort, I thought I'd try RR. Never been a real fan of Siyah kernel, I updated to .7 as others appear to have issues with .6 that RR 2.0 came with.

So far, running for a couple of days, it seems OK. No funnies apart from several notification tones duplicated, and a number of init.d scripts that are somewhat out of date and superfluous. ROM looks like a collection of tweaks in one place, and with Siyah included there are duplicated settings from AOSP, AOKP and the kernel itself. A bit messy. To be continued...
[Galaxy S II General] buxz777:
resurection rom and fluxi kernel will give you excellent battery results and performance especially if you set up tweaker app like banjee does in his thread

the only thing missing for me is tv out and video calling but i use both very rarely so dont really notice it

sniper wolf sammy build is also very nice and includes jkay framework but ive found a few bugs in it

all threads have a great community to them as well
[Galaxy S II General] randomseasons:
I am amazed how many people trying to suffer from ICS just because it's an up to date version.

I changed to ICS and nearly threw up 'cause it sucks.

I will stick to Checkrom v6 for another long time
[Galaxy S II General] Kev23:
Can I ask what version of ninphetamine you are using, as newest I could find is 2.1.3,which seems to pre-date KL1 (just want to make sure it will work before I try it).

Thanks
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
2.1.3 is the latest, indeed

My suggestion is this, I think anyone disillusioned with ICS etc. would find pleasing. It is as good as KL1....

Wipe the phone completely.

Flash VillainROM 3.0, then immediately flash ninphetamine 2.1.3, then boot. Once booted, reboot in to CWM and flash the JKay theme pack for VR3.0 if you like, as it has all the bells and whistles we are used to.... nice.

Install Superuser and ROM manager from G Play so you get root and a decent CWM.

I then blew away the Samsung chaff I didn't want with ES File Explorer, although TW and some Sam apps and widgets are actually useful, to be fair.

Links

VR3.0

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1198334

ninphetamine 2.1.3

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1179814

JKay theme for VR3.0 below attached

Theme shot too
[Galaxy S II General] Kev23:
Thanks for that, already flashed KL1 last night along with phenomenal 4.0. Going to give it a couple of days to bed in, then will try ninphetamine.

I pretty much updated to ICS as soon as I got the S2, so will be interesting to see how it compares in batt life to GB.
[Galaxy S II General] SuaveCanadian:
This is great! Thank you so much.

I'm running GB (2.3.6) and am very happy with it. I'm considering going to ICS, but am still unsure what I want to do.
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
You could always try ICS and then revert if necessary. Most of the Custom ROMs are compromises of some form or other. The difficulty is trying to choose one against another, since Custom ROMs seem to polarise opinion; it is near impossible to gain any objective insight at all.

(I would avoid any kind of TB or nandroid backups - they won't work across Android releases (they rarely work anyway!). Clean wipe and reset makes for success.)
[Galaxy S II General] TeamRainless:
Funny... every version of Wanamlite gets a little worse (version 12 is HORRIBLE).

They basically just keep subtracting features.

Version 11.1 is really the best they ever got.

But I don't like the stock Android keyboard and I haven't figured out a way to get the touchwiz keyboard without screwing Wanamlite up.
[Galaxy S II General] anshmiester78900:
Seems like you haven't tried the latest CM9 nightly they are very must stable and the CM9 kernal is also good which gives good battery life .

Sent from my Galaxy S2 using Cyanogenmod 9
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
Not sure to whom you were replying? Anyway, if I need an ICS build, CM9 is my absolute preference. This is because the large team of devs are highly experienced and driven by functionality over bling. The CM9 kernel is wonderful. The ROM is stable and bang up to date. Nothing else comes close. The major issue for me is the autobrightness problem, which can be worked around with a different kernel, but CM9's kernel is the best so that isn't an option for me. And yes, I know the problem is not of Cyanogen's making....
[Galaxy S II General] KNTXTremE:
Very great review! :P
[Galaxy S II General] King_Rat:
@ OP (only read OP btw)

you should try MIUI ^^

it's sarweet ;)
[Galaxy S II General] LenAsh:
After a week or so on VR3.0 and Ninphetamine 2.1.3, decided to try Speedmod K2-21 kernel. Not a huge difference, and probably nothing anyone could honestly detect, but certainly very stable. Battery life, even after just one charge cycle as below, fine. Light/moderate use.
[Galaxy S II General] aspot72:
In reply to post #1...

I did update as soon as ICS became available.

It came with GB 2.3.x (can't remember). Battery wasn't bad, 1 day with mild usage.

Now running ICS 4.0.3 stock and except Gmail sync issue and rare signal switch (keep on G despite there's H+) no regrets. Battery last up to 3 days with same usage. Hope the Gmail bug will be sorted soon. No other issues...
[Galaxy S II General] Matt3333:
ICS is more like Windows 7.. sure it has a few more features, and slightly better design, but you're sacrivicing battery life, and at the moment until the bugs are ironed out.. stability.

GB is like Windows XP, reliable as f*ck, excellent battery life, and just pounds on!

I've tested the two and am sticking with GB's reliability & battery life, over ICS's good looks. So what have I done to get over this situation? Flashed Hyperdroid 2.3.6, ICS Domination theme for GB, Siyah Kernel 2.6.9 (Undervolted) And am loving the best of both words!
[Galaxy S II General] superleeds27:
Wsa the first Custom Kernel i ever used on my S2
[Samsung Galaxy R i9103] bluesky747:
Can't sign in to Facebook using social hub. It just signed in once when i bought the phone back in january, never after that. It says "login failed, try again". Any one experiencing same issues?? What could be the possible reason for this problem??
[Samsung Galaxy R i9103] 'cooleagle':
Are other services like email / IM in social hub working fine ?

If yes then its a problem specific to Facebook in Social Hub.

Hope this helps. :)
[Samsung Galaxy R i9103] bluesky747:
Yes, other things are working perfectly fine. God alone knows whats wrong with Facebook.
[Samsung Galaxy R i9103] 'cooleagle':
Check the Security settings & also the App settings on your Facebook account maybe you made some changes there which are creating problems for Social Hub in getting connected to Facebook.
[Samsung Galaxy R i9103] akshatsourav:
just clear data from titanium backpup,n when adding account give it some time (if u on slow internet)

everything will b okey..

or ask some here to upload thei socialhub.apk n replace it with urs..

njoy :)
[Samsung Galaxy R i9103] bluesky747:
App settings are 'Dont sync'. But i tried after syncing contacts also, but still the same problem persists.
[Samsung Galaxy R i9103] bluesky747:
I think reinstalling the hub seems a good option.