[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note II] frankieGom:
Bad boyz flash dirty

A little return from my experience... but first of all a big thank you to all of the E-Team for getting us such a good ROM to breath new life in the Note 2, and to Bajanman and sawdoctor for being their Interface, testing arm, listening ears and flame filter! ;)

The base:

International LTE Galaxy Note 2 (GT-N7105) dirty flashed all the way from 4.1.2 Wanam Lite ROM, Maw 4.2, then DN3 b1, b2 and the intervening updates. 4.1.2 Bootloader, Agni 4.2.1 R3 kernel, VN team launcher S5

The works:

Eventless download to the PC from Mega using Firefox

Did one more Nandroid (TWRP 2.7.2.1) to a USB-OTG pen drive (internal SD too full, external SD encrypted is a no go for restores)

Copied DN3 v5, Agni 4.2.1 R3 and VN team laucher S5 to pen drive and proceeded with the flashing

1) DN3 v5, no wipe (it's even worse since I also forgot to wipe dalvik and cache this time), mixed UI (most S5 options except keyboard and system UI)

2) Next to no Samsung appas installed, no google apps etc.. (what I need is installed from Playstore already, dirty flash remember?)

3) I did not reboot, but proceeded with Agni Kernel flash, then VN teal launcher S5 (to preserve my home screen layout)

Reboot took a few minutes while it was rebuilding dalvik cache, as expected

Root is preserved (and I just noticed it got upgraded to 2.00 at some point, probably from Play)

Reloaded saved settings for Agni

Minor annoyance is I got the S5 keyboard, where I expected (and much prefer) the Note 2 one with the line in the middle of the pen input zone, solved by flashing the Note 2 original keyboard (had that on the pen drive just in case)

As usual, I had to go into Xposed to reinstall the framework (wish it would fully stick) an to reboot a couple times (once to get the framework and all my modules loaded, the second somehow is needed so that I get the symbols on the keyboard through Wanam Xposed module)

Also lost better battery stats. It was installed in /system/priv-app and did not survive the flash for some reason

Camera works out the door, as does direct input or air command once re-enabled. I tried GPS quickly from inside a window and acquired a fix in about 4'30" the first time and then about 1'30". I'll have to see how it works out outside.

I have had a few FCs, mostly the launcher, but nothing big enough yet to warrant going back or wiping extensively, especially considering the phone was back up running just like I want it in no time! :D, and that the phone actually feels smoother that before the flash. It's too early to comment on battery usage, though.

I also did notice the version number remained at DN3 v4 beta 2, but editing build.prop in situ and rebooting fixed that easily. I guess this explains the incorrect naming of backing in TWRP (must note at this point that in almost 2 years I've been using TWRP with the Note 2, starting with version 2.4, I've never had any issue with auto naming, but only my own experience here).

All in all, very happy camper here! :good:

And again, this is my experience with this phone and YMMV, not trying to tell people they should do as I do (especially if they _need_ the phone and lack the time), but I think it's good to show that the process can be streamlined for some lucky users...