[ONE Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] beany>:
GUIDE, FAQ and Useful Links

Much of what follows applies to many ROMs. If you have suggestions for things to be added to this guide or find any errors then please let me know.

Purpose and Rules of XDA

XDA is a developers site. It is for learning and sharing. It is not here to "provide" apps or support to users. Most of the people that develop or help or support do so in their free time. No one "owes" you anything. You are not "entitled" to anything. Those that help others, are polite and try to help themselves will be more likely receive helpful and polite assistance.

Rule number one of XDA is :

Search

Other rules include:

Be respectful

Be tolerant

Be hepful

Don't be an ass ;)

Q&A or Dev Thread?

The development thread is for development issues, "bug reports", where something clearly doesn't work or doesn't work as intended.

But you should only report on the development thread if you have clean flashed.

A little banter is accepted in the development thread, but please don't turn the thread into a chat room.

The Q&A is more "free". There you can mention issues after a dirty flash, but we might ask you to clean flash if we suspect that may be the problem.

Anything related to third party apps, kernels or gapps should be posted in the Q&A, as should any general questions like where is this option, how do I change that setting, does this ROM have this feature etc.

Flashing

You should clean install for best results. If you "dirty flash" then at least wipe cache and dalvik/ART and you MUST provide logs with any issues.

Clean v Dirty Flash

There are a number of interpretations of clean flash. In recovery you should factory reset or wip everything except internal storage. This will wipe your apps and most app settings.

Whilst there are ways of backing up your settings they are not recommended because they can cause issues when there are changes to the ROM which affect how settings are stored or recorded. Do not restore system data: this often leads to forced closes and constant error messages.

You can use a backup app like Titanium Backup or Parcel. Sometimes restored apps can cause issues, and it is better and cleaner to re-download them, although not everyone has the time or inclination to do this.

If you do not wipe as per above, then you are dirty flashing. This is quicker and often works. But because things are left behind from the previous flash this can result in weird issues. When you dirty flash you really should wipe cache and dalvik/ART, so that there aren't residual

Reporting Issues

Before Reporting Issues

If you have issues with your new flashed system there are a few things to do before you report them.

First, if you have dirty flashed then try a clean flash to see if the issue remains - many issues are cleared this way. Also, it is very difficult to pin-point certain issues after a dirty flash.

Also, if you have Xposed installed then remove that before reporting. This is because Xposed can change things deep within the OS and make things behave differently, which in turn makes it very difficult to troubleshoot and resolve issues. This is Xposed hate - many devs require this and will not offer any support if Xposed is installed.

Reboot. It's surprising how many issues can be resolved by this simple step. Especially if an app is misbehaving or using a lot of battery.

How to Report An Issue

Report them in the Q&A. If relevant they will be promoted to the dev thread or we will inform the devs.

The biggest bugbear of those trying to help with issues is when they are not properly reported and require to have the same questions answered over and over. The circumstances may require different information, but here are a few common items to consider posting:

Version. Often people miss this and are reporting something that was solved days or weeks ago. Others say "latest" when it may not be. Quote the version number and/or build date.

Firmware. Again, quote the date or source.

GApps. The GApps version can affect which version of Google Play Services and PlayStore, amongst others that are used. Whilst often GApps can be "out of date" without any issue, when there is a lot of development by CM this can be very relevant.

Whether you clean or dirty flashed.

A log. Necessary if you dirty flashed, very useful even if you clean flashed. See below for how to do this.

How to replicate the issue. The more specific about how the issue arises and when, the more likely you are to get a quick resolution. If no one can replicate the issue it is unlikely they can resolve the issue.

How to Take a Log

This is an excellent guide.

Some kernels have their own log/bug report option to make things easier.

Useful Links

Google and the XDA search bar are your friends.

Whatever you want to ask or find, it's probaly already there. This is why you often see replies just saying "Search!"

XDA: RULES - MOD HELP - SUMMED UP 1 - SUMMED UP 2 - BEST WAY TO GET A LOG

GApps: tk - Slim - TBO - Minimal - GApps Central - BaNkS - Delta

Modems

Firmware 15th May 2015

Kernels: Boeffla - ak - Boeffla Uber - Tyr - Render - Radioactive - Metalized - New

Frequently Asked Questions

No one answered my question.

Maybe no one has read it yet - you may need to give it time. Maybe no one knows the answer yet. Have you already tried to solve the issue? Were you polite? Did you give enough information? There is no need to keep bumping your post.

Which folder does the OTA file get downloaded to? Is it the full file or just the incremental update? Are there nightlies?

/sdcard/Download and it's the full file. They aren't nightly but they are normally very frequent.

Which firmware / modem should I use?

The latest firmware used by the dev is listed above. There may be newer versions, so see the linked threads for firmware and modems. It's important you read up about what you are flashing at this level and this thread could never be totally up to date. Many people flash the latest CM12 nightly ROM which includes these files.

Does BlissPop support Layers / RRO?

No. It has the CM theme engine.

Can I use Xposed?

Yes. But please don't report issues if you have Xposed. It changes things deep in the OS and needs to be kept patched. Devs can waste days looking for a problem that isn't related to the ROM.

Here are some instructions for installing Xposed from [MENTION=5372360]magnamentis[/MENTION]:

a) nandroid

b) flash rom, kernel, gapps & whatever is due or wanted and at the very end "EACH TIME" flash the sdk22.zip provided in links above.

c) boot and install app (xposed apk povided in links above)

d) SOFT-reboot and don't pay attention to the red text indicating that it can only be installed manually. just SOFT-reboot

.... it must be a softy otherwise one could get a failed attemt, have heard and seen various versions but with soft reboot it always works.

e) check the framework state i the xposed app, should be 61 green for app process and 64 green for xposedbridge.jar, both under active.

undre bundled must be triple dashes.

f) only then install modules and check them under modules and SOFT-reboot. albeit from here normal reboot would work, it's still safer to

...do a softy until all is proven to be up and running. this will map out one possible reason for eventual errors which in my case never happened.

g) to uninstall the available uninstaller zip has been reported to work while others say no. so it seems device specific. what you can do ist either revert back to the nandroid you made under a) or if you're using xposed for a while and will likely not want to revert back to an old rom+all version

LOL then you can use the uninstaller.zip available on rovo89's threads and which has been provide many times all over, or you can first uninstall all modules like apps, as well as the xposed app like any other app and then manually remove the following files BEFORE REBOOTING albeit there will most probably be no reason since all works well.

h) manually uninstall/deactivate xposed: remove /data/app/de.robv.android.xposed.installer folder/files in it. should you boot by accident before done or for some reason get into a bootloop ( never happened to me ) you can still boot into recovery and delete the above folder and it's files at least from twrp recovery while other recoveries don't have a file manager as far as i've seen.

Which kernel is best for....?

Stock, Boeffla and ak kernels all get frequent good comments, and there are several other good kernels. So much depends on you: your setup, apps, usage, signal. The list goes on. The real best way to find out is try them for yourself; give each one a few days to settle and you can observe battery usage, smoothness, speed, tweakability etc. But there is no Holy Grail kernel - one that gives the best of everything for everybody. "Performance" and "battery" aren't mutally exclusive, but akernel set up heavily to favour one will almost certainly compromise the other. Kernel governors and hotplugs also have an effect. If you are interested in a kernel, read some of the kernel thread.

One last point. When there are changes from CM the date and commits of a kernel can be important so the kernel and ROM aren't out of sync.

How is Battery Life

This often gets asked, but there is no clear answer that suits everyone. So lets start of by saying the team finds battery life to be very good.

There are however many things affecting battery life. Your apps, settings and signal all have a big effect. As does how often your apps are updating and whether over wifi or mobile data. Additionally, which kernel and it's settings also have an effect. As does screen brightness. Certain social and messaging apps can have a huge drain. How often you flash a new ROM has a big effect too. Ideally, from a battery life perspective, you should allow everything to settle and go through a couple of charge cycles. With the frequency of BlissPop updates I have never achieved this!

So every user will have different battery life and typical screen on time. Make sure when doing comparisons you really do it on a like for like basis.

If you want to investigate battery usage, consider apps like Wakelock Detector (WLD) and Better Battery Stats (BBS) as well as GSAM Battery Monitor. These will often pinpoint where battery is being consumed and what is waking your device. Quite often you will see an app misbehaving which can often be resolved with a simple reboot.

Extreme Battery Life

Guide to Wakelocks

Optimising Your Set up

Floating Window

Notes from [MENTION=4877142]tobitege[/MENTION]:

Enable "Development shortcuts" in Developer options

Recents: long-tap on app icon on an app's title bar to get popup, select "Floating mode"

App bar and Omniswitch: long-tap an app to open in floating mode

Notification drawer: long-tap notification then tap new floating icon to open app in floating window

Baseband/Firmware/Modem

If you have come from KitKat, Oxygen etc you are likely on the "wrong" firmware and modem. There are several threads around XDA showing various options. [MENTION=4877142]tobitege[/MENTION] details the suggested firmware in his update posts, as well as the link above. But here is a simple one-size-fits-all, once only solution:

Backup your apps and app data using Titanium Backup. A nandroid backup is also advised.

Ensure you are on TWRP 2.8.6.0. Some of the later versions have some issues that can affect the success of this process.

Download and clean flash a recent CM nightly. No need for GApps or anything else. This will update various "partitions" including firmware and modem.

Boot. No need to set anything up, just reboot back to recovery.

Clean flash BlissPop and GApps.

Enjoy!

Notifications

Sometimes these display as white on white. A quick fix is using a dark or transparent theme.

Go to Settings, Bliss interface, Heads up and change custom colors. You could tap the reset button to reset to Android colors.

Uninstalling Viper4Android

From the official Viper4Android thread:

Notes:

- the driver uninstallation may take a minute, do not force close it

- remove apk via TitaniumBackup as it is a system app

- reboot

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