yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[EVO 4G Themes and Apps] Biggest Fro:
The Nandroid Backup is what you should always make before trying to Flash any new ROMS/Radios/Mods

It is your fallback if the Flash messes up, or if you would like to go back to a previous state.

If you didn't create a Nandroid Back up, and tried flashing something and it didn't work and you are now stuck in a bootloop, turn off the phone (usually a battery pull will work if it's in a bootloop), then power it back on while holding the volume key down. It will load to a white screen with 3 skate boarders. Use the volume key to scroll down to "Recovery", then use the power key to select it.

Now you are in your Recovery screen. From here, you can Flash and update from a .zip file.

If you are stick in a bootloop, and didn't create a Nandroid, you will probably have to flash a new ROM. So load on of those up onto your SD card, (Might have to take it out of your phone since you can't mount your phone via recovery, unless you know ADB) Then flash the .zip from your SD card via the recovery menu.
[EVO 4G Themes and Apps] daddysal:
Can you provide/share a good Nandroid backup for us?

I got stuck in a boot loop & I dont want that to happen again, thanks for your help.
[EVO 4G Themes and Apps] Biggest Fro:
From what I understand, a Nandroid Backup will only work on the Phone it was made from. It is a copy of basically everything.

And if it did work on other phones, I wouldn't provide you with one of mine as it may have my information in it.

Sorry

Once you get a ROM and everything set up the way you like it, go into the recovery menu and make a Nandroid Backup, it will then be saved to your SD card in case something happens.
[EVO 4G Themes and Apps] daddysal:
Oh ok, thanks!

I'll try that next time!
[EVO 4G Themes and Apps] theoner1:
Yes would be nice to remove Evo battery icon.
[EVO 4G Themes and Apps] SteelH:
No, they wouldn't. I've already tried that method.
[EVO 4G Themes and Apps] SteelH:
Which icon is that? I managed to remove the GPS OFF icon and it works great.
[EVO 4G Themes and Apps] SteelH:
Actually, that's incorrect. I know because I've used a nandroid from one EVO to another.

That is 100% correct.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] terwax:
Just kidding.

I have Telus HTC hero and had this 405 wwe firmware. I have it unlocked and with rogers and received the update 1 and this same time as european version!

So, it appears that as long as you are anywhere in the world with EU rom, you can get 2.1 OTA without any problem :S
[Hero, G2 Touch General] polakscot:
Yeah it depends on the rom rather than the carrier or country.
[Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wickedpenguin:
My Youtube App and widget always bring up chinese videos from China and hong kong region.

My device is imported from Hong KOng, but I was wondering if anyone knows if there is a way to change the app so it pulls results from my region? New Zealand?
[General Topics] Phylum:
I recently picked up 2 MT3GS' and an HD2.

The Slide was great, my first Android phone and it knocked my socks off, but I wanted something closer to the 1GHz spectrum with a few more bells and whistles.

The HD2, although it had some great guts, it was pretty sluggish. SPB Shell and some custom ROMS helped a bit, but it wasn't what I had hoped for; didn't meet my expectations especially when stacked against the Slide.

Then, because my wife and I agreed on a few things, we decided to return the phones in hopes of getting something better. Now in hindsight, that may have been unwise as I did this the morning of, or the day before the 'major HD2 breakthrough', and word of SLIDEMEROOT5.

Enter: Facepalm!

No sense looking back and wallowing in a bit of regret. So, I'm moving on and am looking for advice on replacement devices

I've done some research, scouring the web for pros/cons, and while there is no ultimate phone, some do come close. If you haven't already picked up on this, I'm a TMO customer so I'm

only

interested in phones that support T-Mobile's HSPA+ (1700/2100 MHz, AWS Band) network.

The Nexus One seems to be getting loads of attention with new apps & hacks, roms and other nifty bells and whistles nearly every day. Needless to say I was a bit jealous and felt slighted when I had the Slide. The Nexus One in my eyes is like the tried & true Android phone that's hard to go wrong with.

The Galaxy S is looking mighty nice and the touchscreen appears to handle multitouch very well, but I'm concerned about how well it will perform. Is 1GHz really 1Ghz? How does their Hummingbird stack up against the Snapdragon? Is one processor better than the other?

Verizon's Droid X is looking great ... but its Verizon. I'm enjoying TMO's 3G quite a bit so if they make a GSM version that supports HSPA+, then maybe we have a winner. (Does anyone know if this is happening?)

Storage space isn't that big of a deal for me - sd cards are there.

Photo and video quality is fairly important so I'm looking for 720p

Not sure if it matters whether or not it has a physical keyboard; I'm ok with touch screens.

I've had bad experiences with phones so I'm looking to make up for it. I want something responsive, that supports Froyo (if it doesn't already come with it) and will hopefully take full advantage of Gingerbread.

I know this is all based on opinion but I'd like to hear from those who have 'high-end' Android phones and what their experience is so far.

What phone do you have?

What's its greatest strength?

What's it lacking?

What phone are you craving?

And if you don't have a high-end phone, what are you holding out for?
[General Topics] maxpower097:
Ok so first off if your in the US you want a non Tmo branded phone and only want Edge network. Is this correct? In the US Tmo 3G runs on 850mhz and 1700mhz. If you want to use Tmo 3G you must have a Tmo branded phone. That being considered now we can look for phones. Are you sold on Android? Or are you willing to use WM 6.5 with the ability to run android by port? In either case I recommend 2 phones. 1 the Touch Pro 2. This is about the nicest phone I've every used with a slide out KB. It doesn't zing like the HD2 but it competant and the KB is freaking awesome and really the only difference you will see will be about a 30% speed increase. Now for the HD2. I love this phone. It was hard leaving a real KB but once I learned swype and practiced a bit I prefer a touch KB. I really don't know what to recommend other then those 2. Everything else on the market just seems to be a spin off of either of these, so I would get one of these second hand for cheap. I paid $150 for a mint TP2 and $250 for a mint HD2. Then I would just wait it out till holiday season phones come around. I don't think were gonna see anything really new or more powerful till Xmas. My buddy just got a droid incredible and that think kills batteries. Poor kid hasn't made it through an 8 hour shift without the battery dieing. Now sure if its a Android thing or HTC thing but my HD2 gets way way way better battery life then his incredible. ALso with in one week of owning it and running nothing but stock apps on it he's had to pull the battery pack twice. I expect that from my cooked roms and custom apps but not from something stock.
[General Topics] Phylum:
maxpower097 - Thanks for the feedback!

Didn't know that about the Droid Incredible. My best friend has one and he hasn't mentioned any issues with we briefly discussed it. But still, good to know.

As for your comment about me only wanting only EDGE/2G (or 2.5G or 2.75G depending on how you want to slice it), if I understood you correctly, you were saying I wanted to 'cap out' at EDGE. If that's what you were saying, that is not true at all - I want HSDPA/3G (or 'Enhanced 3G or 3.5G, depending on how one slices it). I don't believe I have to buy a T-Mobile branded phone to do this - I believe getting a phone that supports HSDPA will be sufficient.

I'm not 100% sold on Android, meaning I would consider another OS like Symbian^3, Maemo or Windows Phone 7 (whatever they're calling it today).

I considered the Touch Pro 2, especially since there was an Android port but I felt it was like antiquated hardware (Landed early 2009 with a ~528MHz proc).

HD2 was great - loved the physical dimensions, feel/build quality and size of the screen but WinMo 6.5 wasn't doing it for me, even on the snappy Snapdragon. Now that Android is creeping closer by leaps now, I have a feeling that before the end of the summer we'll have a successful, usable Android port for the HD2; this may end up being the winner but I have to land a sweet deal like you because I'm not paying $450 ;)

Swype

is

great; when I had the Slide, I only used the physical keyboard maybe 10% of the time. Keyboard vs no keyboard is not a deal breaker, but I do like options :)

Again, I appreciate you taking the time to share your wealth of knowledge with me.
[General Topics] maxpower097:
Depends on location really. Here in the US you will need a branded phone for 3G since TMo uses a specific band not supported by any other carrier. Some European phones will sometimes pick up intermitent 3G here on Tmo but thats because of one of the bands they use. I've tried ATT Tilt2's, and Tilt1's and could never even see 3G here on HSPA. Yet with a tmo TP2 or HD2 I don't even get 3G just H. I'm not 100% sure your phone just needs to be HSPA, I think the bands will need to match too, which will put you in a tmo phone. I think the best option to do is find an HSPA phone in the forums and post in there asking if anyone can pick up tmo 3G on it. I though the same as you and argued with thetmo support lady for an hour before finally accepting her answer that they just use a different band then everyone else and I would need a tmo phone to use tmo 3g. PS thats why you can't use 3G on a tmo iphone.
[General Topics] orb3000:
My phones are on my sig.

I am looking forward for a WM phone with hardware keyboard, 3.8" screen and 1ghz processor and will wait for that perhaps till 2qt 2011.

I am not interested in Android @all and will stick to WM what ever version 6.5.3 or WP7
[General Topics] galaxys:
The Nexus fly's with Android 2.2 FroYo 85B. So impressive, I forgot all about the future WM7...
[General Topics] Phylum:
Once again many thanks to you all for providing input.

So far, I'm leaning towards the Nexus One, unless Motorola has plans to make a GSM HSPA+ compatible Droid X version (like the Milestone X?)

@maxpower097: I'm going to delve a bit deeper into the 3G/HSPA issue but thanks again for the warning! I'd hate to spend loads of a '3G' phone only to find out it won't work with Tmo, even though the device itself is advertised as supporting 1700/2100 (AWS).
[General Topics] maxpower097:
Droid X will not come to a GSM carrier. Verizon paid big bucks to have that as their exclusive flagship phone. Thats gonna be a verizon deal only for at least a year. That would be like hoping for a Evo 4 on ATT.
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] tiger.woods:
Anyone know why my GPS fix is so slow? It takes at least 10 minutes to get a fix..

I'm running - VaniljEclair RLS6

TW,
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] Dukenukemx:
It really depends on the weather. If you look up and see clouds, it's going to be a while. If it's raining then it may never connect.

It also helps the have the best tools for the job. Use kallt_kaffe's latest kernel, and download and use "GPS Test" for connecting your GPS.
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] tiger.woods:
It's clear outside so its not weather related.

I'm curious what the"GPS Test" tool actually does? and just exactly what the phone is doing causing it to take so long.

Thanks,
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] tiger.woods:
Terrific write up!

So, GPS Test won't help speed up the positioning so therefore there isn't a need to download it unless your curious about any of the other settings, thanks.

Since the WM version was a bit quicker in getting the position by downloading a file is there something in the works to try and incorporate this process into Droid?

After it finds a fix, if the handset suspends is there a need to re-aquire the sats or wait again for the same process?

Thanks,
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] zenity:
Well GPS Test won't speed up the initial or subsequent fixes, but it does give a good indication that gps is actually working, and receiving/processing the data, and once fixed, you just close that and start your preferred gps app, which will fix almost instantly since the data is current.

I don't think we have anything for android that does the same as the WM gps app, could be wrong, but have not seen anything yet.

The slowest is the initial fix, after that it usually fixes faster, suspended or powered down, only reinstall/wipe data will usually require such a long fix time again, however as I said, there are a number of factors, movement being perhaps the biggest cause of delay.

However once fixed, Android is comparable to WM, even better in some cases, since I never could get my all time favourite GPS software (trekbuddy), to work in WM, it is great in Android though :)
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] blindguyinanorgy:
i also looked and found nothing

mine also takes forever every time unless i havnt moved and switch apps within 10 minutes.

i lose gps on the highway, unlike when i had wimo

i still think its odd that i can see 6, 7, 8 sats for 2 or 3 minutes before getting a lock
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] Joe1981AL:
Thinking about trying this on a friends Eris, but other android devices get a lock very quickly. The other devices have working tower location, so does the android gps system use the tower location to speed up gps lock?

I'm going to take my friends Eris and turn off all radio functions, then run GPS test to see what happens and how long a lock takes...
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] Joe1981AL:
Ok, tried a few things on the Eris. In airplane mode, launched GPS test in a lock in under 10 seconds. Restarted the phone, still in airplane mode, and immediatly launch gps test and a lock in under 10 seconds.

Do these other phones have GPS chips have almanac caching or does the OS have some way of storing almanac data to assit the GPS.
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] zenity:
As far as I am aware, from previous experience of GPS devices, the last ephemeris data is cached in the device chipset, allowing a faster start up, provided the user has not moved too far, or left gps off long enough to make the data too old. However I do not have enough information to make more than guess that it is hardware based rather than OS based caching.

Cell tower location allows GPS to establish a 3 dimensional fix, (remember gps needs more than 3 dimensions to establish a true fix), not enough to be totally accurate, but within 20-50 Metres, which is ideal for 'seeding' the incoming gps data from satellite, allowing even faster start up, since the gps chipset does not have to do nearly as much calculation and correlation on the data, since it already knows roughly where it is.

So the delay we experience in getting a gps fix with Android on our devices has one main cause, lack of cell tower location, and it's possible that the ephemeris data cache may not be getting processed, if this is indeed cached by the hardware, and not by the OS.
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] kallt_kaffe:
Some of you may have noticed a file called gps.conf in /system/etc

It looks like this:

NTP_SERVER=north-america.pool.ntp.org
XTRA_SERVER_1=http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_2=http://xtra2.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
XTRA_SERVER_3=http://xtra3.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin
SUPL_HOST=supl.google.com
SUPL_PORT=7276

NTP is a protocol for getting accurate time from servers on the internet.

xtra.bin is asfaik the satellite almanac.

SUPL_HOST is for AGPS.

My guess is that a "real" android libgps uses this information to do a few things to help the GPS out.

1. Give it the current time

2. Prime it with the almanac

3. Use the AGPS data to provide it with correction data etc.

We could do some HaRET magic to monitor what the QuickGPS software send to the GPS chip and make our own QuickGPS tool for android or even build that into libgps.so. It's possible but is it worth the time? I don't know. I would give it a go if I wasn't allready lacking time to do everything I want to do.
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] zenity:
Ah, that makes sense, since Agps uses an internet server to prime the gps chipset, and if I recall correctly QuickGPS is similar, but provides the weeks Ephemeris data. Ephemeris, Almanac and Time are the three main data components of GPS, ( almanac being the one I tend to forget about....).

Perhaps changing a few server addresses in gps.conf may provide us with some aggps functionality, but I am now wondering if perhaps agps is 'broken' in our builds, or perhaps I have never noticed any data activity.

Just had a look at the website address http://xtra1.gpsonextra.net/xtra.bin, which allows me to download what I assume is the data file, so what we need to complete the puzzle is, what uses gps.conf, and where does it put the data file?, Also does anything use that data file if present?
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] tiger.woods:
GPS is currently pretty much useless in that it just never gets a fix, today I waited 10 minutes and still nothing - I went back to WM to use GPS, so any development in this area would be sweet!

TW,
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] zenity:
Not sure exactly what is going on there, last night I installed the latest nbh from kallt, plus his RLS7b eclair build, this morning I started gps for the first time, using gpstest I got a first fix in under 3 minutes, which is faster than average.
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] scooter1556:
I'm using the same setup at the minute, tried GPS this morning and it got a fix on the move in about 5mins which isn't bad, my girlfriends HTC Hero got a fix in under a minute though and it's the first time it has connected and it's true that WM is much faster when quickGPS is updated. Any improvements here are very welcome, maybe i'll have a look into it too.
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] MathijsNL:
you could edit gps.conf according to your own pool server

a list of these servers can be found here. May make a small difference for some people.

Please post if this helped getting a quicker fix

http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/

Update:

i used the appropriate time server for my country (netherlands),

i used a fresh device (android had never ran on it, though the android on sdcard has been used on other devices)

i went to the toilet very quick, when i came back there was a fix.

So please go see if this makes a difference for you, and post your experiences in here :)
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] kallt_kaffe:
I seriously don't think it will matter what you put in gps.conf at the moment. What we need to know is how this is used on a "real" android phone.

I've tried to find some GPS code in the Hero kernel source in the past but found almost nothing and the libgps for HTC devices are asfaik closed source so I guess it's in libgps all the "magic" takes place. (I fact, for Kaisers the it would be more "right" to do our NMEA parsing in libgps instead of doing it in the kernel but since libgps evolved around the Vogue it was made in the kernel to make it appear just like the vogue gps data to libgps.so.)

So I'm guessing that a "real" libgps.so reads gps.conf, get's some data and feeds it to the GPS. Likely with AT-commands. It is possible though that it is the ril interface that does it. We have the source for our ril lib and our gpslib and I know for sure we don't do any prime:ing in the our libgps. (The sources are here: http://androidhtc.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb-index.cgi?p=gitroot/androidhtc/bootenv/)

It is possible to do dump stuff with HaRET when you for example enable the GPS (I've done it in the past following instructions from dzo) and also when you run QuickGPS and try to match the information sent with the information in xtra.bin. I also expect we should find it sending the current UTC time which by it self propably could speed up fix times.

Once we know what to do we either build it into libgps or we make an Android app similar to QuickGPS.

In fact, I found some dumps laying around....

At boot WinMo sends the system time to the Radio with this command:

AT@SYSTEMTIME=2,21,43,2010,5,12

I would say the format is H,M,S,YYYY,M,D even though values are a bit strange because the files are dated 2010-05-11 but it's possible that the WinMo clock was a bit f*cked up at the moment.

Perhaps our rild is allready sending this (someone should check the source)

Otherwise you could try this and se if it helps:

echo -e "AT@SYSTEMTIME=x\r" > /dev/smd0

(replaceing the x with the current time and date of course)
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] tiger.woods:
Just tried and it was going on 10 minutes with no fix...

TW,
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] zenity:
Have you tried gpstest to see if it's actually receiving a signal at all? It is possible that you have a hardware issue, perhaps a broken antenna connection?
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] tiger.woods:
If that were the case then it shouldn't work in Windows and it does... ???

Strange...

Does Android require a data connection when getting a GPS fix?

TW,
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] kallt_kaffe:
No, I often use an inactive SIM when experimenting and it does not affect the GPS.
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] zenity:
Yes, you'd think a fault in the gps antenna would prevent a fix in WM, however in WM a combination of agps, quickgps and cell location will give a decent fix without needing a satellite signal, which is why I suggested gpstest, since in android satellite reception is the only way to get location data.

Regarding data usage, in WM you will have data usage for agps, in android, we rely soley on sat data, so data use will make no difference.

Try gpstest, check you are getting a signal, if you do keep an eyel on it, you should get a pause while it gets the first sat, followed by it populating the other sats in view.
[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Android Development] tiagoclc:
Maybe its a radio version problem

Trying this:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=1986676&postcount=2

i'm downgrading radio from 1.71.09.01 to 1.64.06.04

I'll test gps later.

you can find radio files to download here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=393182

_______

Result: Doesnt work! GPS fix still very, very slow.
[HD2 General] firozu:
I was wondering if someone could point me in the direction of the best rom for me heres kind of what im looking for:

1. The rom that has the best texting support( i text alot and hate how 2.13 freezes and wont let me continue my text while im recieving one)

2. Battery life

3. performance

4. Cool homescreen

all in order of importance....

Thank you so much in advance
[HD2 General] watcher64:
I would recommend the Energy series of ROMs , but you really should just browse the ROM threads and read the features ...

find the one that suits you ...

Remember you will have to HSPL first , search for HSPL3 ...
[HD2 General] dubie76:
+1 on the energy ROMs. I use Energy GTX. It ROCKS!
[HD2 General] nardone24:
I have yet to try out energy roms I kinda am stuck with Elegancia v9. I like it alot but i will flash Enery tonight to check what all the hype is lol.
[HD2 General] danxtian:
i think it's kinda hard to make recommendations for "best rom". you should try them by yourself. or better not try to create your self your ultimate rom.
[Nexus One Android Development] Lox_Dev:
Totally stock update.zip for custom recovery and optional root/superboot update.zip

Click Here
[Nexus One Android Development] flybyme:
thanks for this, will be trying it out
[Nexus One Android Development] cue_32:
Which one for the Rooted FRF83?
[Nexus One Android Development] Lox_Dev:
It is for any froyo rom without wipe. It is just stock FRF85B, if you want root on it, there is an optional update.zip to flash.