How to remove an OTA update before it installs?

[Goose306]

Goose! Thank GAWD you're here!

Yeah, I was getting the "This is still too new for an authenticated update with root" out there somewhere, feeling. I know what touch wiz it, what is this AOKP stuff? I am involved in another discussion, dude has the same model, and is complaining that he cannot rom back to stock or something and mentioned this aokp stuff. Hard to explain, let me find the link...

...Jesus, I could swear I replied to the guy, but must've closed the tab before hitting submit. Bummer, but here it is.

Click here for other post on this subject.

So I will have a different desktop, much different? The Touch Wiz is that little bar on the bottom that has a cool Task Manager on it and a totally dumb World Clock? That bar has an "Edit" button but you cannot do anything with it. I want that dumb world clock gone and put something useful in there like ES File Explorer, but no joy, all I can do is move things up and down, but cannot remove from or add to this "touch wiz bar". The Task Manager is cool, though.

So whatever this AOKP desktop is, is it okay? No big deal? Lose my task manager bar? nandroid, what the hell is that?

Look, I want to stay pretty much stock, but if this is too new, maybe just wait? I do have CWM installed, did make a backup, the other guy who sort of told me about how to make CWM actually work instead of error out, so now I have CWM working, backup made. But he was saying he thinks the backup size is rather, "small". So I looked at mine to see.
Yeah, /mnt/sdcard/clockworkmod/ I have dirs for backup and blobs (whatever that is) and a .nomedia and .settings file. That is /mnt/sdcard (Internal, not /mnt/extSdCard/) and I have a dated directory 2012-08-27-15.47.25. That is where the backup stuff is.

boot.img 8.3Mb
cache.ext4.dup 196 bytes
data.ext4.dup 744.8Kb
nandroud.md5 237 bytes
recovery.img 8.3Mb
system.ext4.dup 167.4Kb

Does that look okay or does it sound, "small"?

So if this pans out, then it looks like I have a working CWM backup, CWM v5.0.0.5 RecoveryMod 6.0.1.1. This is a green light, yes? I can try a ROM safely then?

Look, I am an electronic tech of 25 years. Analog, digital, and everything home entertainment, hands on, crackshot tech. But this stuff I am new at. I don't know what nandroid or AOPK is.

Yes, Goose, I want help. But I do not want to make you go far out of your way if you are busy. I kind of feel like I am asking my neighbor to take out my garbage every night when I am an able bodied man. Now, broken down, health problems widow, different story, but, well, you understand? Don't neglect your own stuff to help me if you are busy or if this is so "bleeding edge" that it will be fraught with problems.

So, what is your opinion on all of this Goose? I need to know what you think. Thanks bud, and you never call in favors, they are waiting if you need them.

Well, IMO, not to get into too much of an editorial, but you should really read a "why you should ROM and why you shouldn't ROM" type of thread - that's really what this will devolve into. ROMs are almost gauranteed to come with some niggles and issues, but you know so does stock. Touchwiz (that is what you have right now) is by comparison huge, bloated. AOKP, as mentioned, is based off AOSP (Android Open Source Project) with more tweaks/added code/etc. So its Android as Google intended (without the Touchwiz OEM skin on it) but with the extra tweaks as AOKP wants it to have. Its just another version of Android (IMO) a much better version and Touchwiz, or any other OEM skin, but that is of course debateable based on your individual needs.

By going to something such as AOKP, you are going to forfeit most all of the bloat that comes with the stock device. Some of it you may find useful, some of it you may not. Most of it you will find a replacement for if you need it (either third-party or based on AOSP instead of Touch Wiz) but you're rebuilding your entire OS.

Personally, AOKP has been my favorite since ICS. They do an absolutely *phenomenal* job at their work. Its fast, lightweight, stable, and has the most options and fixes built in right away (of course it depends on the individual developer, but as a general opinion)

But - everything may not work. For example, with my GSIII, the NFC currently doesn't work, and data can be a bit sketchy in fringe areas. I don't use NFC much at all, and I live in an LTE area. So I have no worries about that for the most part, and those issues will likely be resolved in the future (remember what I said - JB is fresh - so expect to probably find bugs) you will probably have bugs with your GTab by updating to it - similar bugs. Probably not the same (its on a per-device basis) and you can probably figure them out by reading the forums where the various ROMs are posted, but expect to find bugs. Its not done yet (obviously - there is 3-4 people at most working on it for your device on a custom ROM if you are lucky - usually its just 1!) Samsung still isn't done and they have a huge professional development team.

So keep that in mind. If you are OK with that, and would like to proceed, I can link relevant threads to carry you forward.

Regarding your CWM backups, that sounds about right. The new CWM backups save data in two different areas, one is basically ROM specific and one is blobs specific. Blobs is generic files that multiple backups use (like apps, etc) its designed to save space. But it looks different than the old backups.

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[ohmster]

@Ohmster glanced around a bit for your model.

I think as its fairly fresh (and lots of dev jumped on the N7 around the same time) there isn't a huge amount. There is some though. And I did find some JB goodness. Sammy hasn't pushed it out yet for OTA, its going to be in ROM form. Of course, as the tab is exploitable (unlike the Moto's) you should have an unlocked bootloader or be able to unlock it. That means moving up/down in versions of Android is extremely easy as the kernel is saved in CWM backups. I can nandroid between JB and ICS on my GSIII if I so wanted to (I've just been staying on JB though... as its just so wicked awesome )

Anyways, as they are unofficials/ROMs, of course you will be getting rid of the Touchwiz interface and moving into AOSP territory such as AOKP or similar. This may also come with some bugs as JB ROMs like AOKP are still in-development, as I said (AOKP just put out its first official "build 1" for JB within the last week or so) If you are still interested, let me know. I want to read up so I understand it fully, but it looks pretty simple. Just make sure you're unlocked with a custom recovery then just do CWM backup, wipe data/etc. like normal ROM flash, then install desired .zip/gapps and done.

Goose,

Where can I get these ROMs? CWM has a ROM download section, anything in there I can use?

Screencap of CWM download ROM categories

Just put the rom (Is it a zip file?) where, so that CWM can see it? Root of my SD card is where I put it first time around with Odin, but I now have good wireless and can also USB the file over to tab. Just where to get and where to put?

...uh, when you get a minute, please. Thnx.

[ohmster]

Maybish, how are you making out with rooting the Xoom? I am recommending it for a friend who now has to buy her brother a tab for letting him get his hands on her Tab. Instead of paying the $400 again, I showed her where to get the Xoom online for a $239 base price, Amazon has new, used, and refurbs. I want JB on this tab because Goose was really rubbing it in with is "Wicked Coolness" yak. So I am now looking for a decent Samsung JB ROM to try. Thank God for Clockworkmod ROM Manager and I finally have mine working. Thus, this should be really simple with a way out.

[maybish]

I won't be rooting the xoom. But I did root my s3!

***May's Galaxy***

[ohmster]

Ohhh, you are not gonna? Shame. I did the Galaxy and it really was not that hard. This is a WiFi only tab, but with Root, I want to be able to use Clockworkmod ROM manager. Now I have a total system backup of the current ROM. As Goose said, I can find the jellybean ROM, install it, and always go back by using the CWM boot manager at startup. Plus, NONE of those annoying ads in Pandora and all the kewl free appsl Titanium Backup, keeps *everything* backed up, even to restore to a different model as it deals with each item separately.

HEy, thanks for the heads up on the Xoom. My best friend took her Tab 2 to Vancouver, her brother got all hot and sweaty once he held it in his hands, and somehow, it never got back into her luggage on the way home. I told her that Galaxy was a gonner. But she called the next day, rental car company found it and will ship it back to her. Amazing. But she wants to give her brother the same thing, although $400 is a bit pricey. That Xoom will cost $400 here in any store, but at Amazon they go from $400 to a bit over $200 for a Motorola Refurb. That is factory rebuilt, usually new devices that failed shortly within sale, and comes with warranty. She will get the rebuild insead.

I cannot believe at how much, like the same they are.

Look at this side by side comparison.

Thanks Maybish, always at your service.

[ohmster]

I won't be rooting the xoom. But I did root my s3!

***May's Galaxy***

Maybish, do you have unlimited data? If so, I know of two apps that will let you give internet to the Xoom, laptop, several devices, or even your home PC right from the phone without paying the $20 per month, use it or not, fee that Verizon charges. Do you need or want something like that?

[maybish]

Nope I'm good. My xoom is wifi only and I do have unlimited! Thanks anyway!

***May's Galaxy***

[ohmster]

Well almighty then! Me, I just *love* seeing that huge map screen when driving and not having to star at the tiny Google Navigator. I am working with Goose to get the JB update on this Galaxy. He says it is like "silky smooth", just what you told me. I just have to try this. With a rooted tab and ClockworkMod, I can go back anytime if it does not go well.

[ohmster]

Goose, if you are still here (Yes, I will PM this.), can I ask one more question? You do not have to go on at length if you are busy (But I *do* so love it when you do!), just give me the straight dope. Are these Jellybean ASOP ROMS rooted or rootagble should I go for it and try one out? You know I would give my left gonad to keep root. (Sorry, the right one is precious!) How does that work? I download and install the CyanogenMod and install it, how, Odin? Or from CWM? CWM rocks and they have a "Download ROM" option that takes you to 2 Featured, 1 Premium, and 3 Free ROM sections. The premium is Font Packs for Android 4. Featured is Superuser and ClockworkMod, and Free is CyanogenMod Nightlies (That sounds a little too much like "beta" for my tastes.), Cyanogen (Now we're talking!), and Cerberus. CyanogenMod is a 5 star ROM, sounds good. I would *love* to leave Samsung and move on to ASOP, Open Source is so freaking cool and with Google at the wheel instead of a commercial venture like Redhat, they will do it RIGHT.

CyanogenMod has 3 ROMS:

• CyanogenMod 9.1.0 (Stable)
• CyanogenMod 9.0.0
• CyanogenMod 9.0.0 RC2

What do you think? 9.1.0 is stable but 9.0.0 RC2 is a release candidate, that is the closest to "completely done" as it gets. I like to set my stuff up and use it for long periods at this time. Perhaps I will get more into this and want to experiment more like you do. I must admit, what you did with MUIU is incredable from the screenies you sent, bra. Man, you version was nothing like the screenies that I looked at. Your screens rock, plus I love the CPU gauge and how you squeezed so much out of a battery as to make it cry.

Come on man, I am dying for launch, give the the green light, thumbs up, last minute advice, root info (Does it come with, do I have to use some form of rootkeeper, or is it easy to root these ROMS? If so, how?

I am going to PM you and KD just to keep him in the loop, also send you link to this post. Would be good to answer what you can in public to help others, PM the rest if there is any. Thank you so much. Man, what the hell can I ever do for you? Tell you what, if and when I get to meet you, you will get 2 (Count 'em), genuine NY style Sabrett hot dogs with red onion sauce. This will make a grown man weep with desire and finding one in Florida is next to but not totally impossible. (Darn it, now that I had to go and say that, tomorrow I will have to go find them and have it for lunch, it has been too long already.) Okay, so you cannot retire on it, but for just a few minutes, you will think you died and have gone to Heaven. Now I do not know much about Chicago hot dogs with tomatoes and green stuff on them, to me, they looked like the chef just went nuts and did not know when to stop putting "suff" on a hot dog, but rumor has it that they are very good, the best as quoted by many famous people.

So what do you think, can you give me the final shove and begin the ignition sequence? Thanks bra!

[Goose306]

Goose, if you are still here (Yes, I will PM this.), can I ask one more question? You do not have to go on at length if you are busy (But I *do* so love it when you do!), just give me the straight dope. Are these Jellybean ASOP ROMS rooted or rootagble should I go for it and try one out? You know I would give my left gonad to keep root. (Sorry, the right one is precious!) How does that work?

The ROMs are pre-rooted. No need to apply any sort of rootkeeper program or re-root. When you flash the new ROM, it will already be rooted.

I download and install the CyanogenMod and install it, how, Odin? Or from CWM?

You should be installing custom ROMs via CWM. With most Sammy devices you can also flash via Odin, but it needs to be in a tarbell format and it also increases your binary flash counter. So its better to just with CWM with the standard .zip packages. Make sure you read the OP of the thread where you get it from for flash instructions. Also, AOSP-based ROMs will require a gapps (Google Apps) package, they are not packaged with the ROMs due to legal reasons (CyanogenMod was hit with a C&D from Google when it first started up) because gapps are proprietary and not open-source from Google.

CyanogenMod has 3 ROMS:

• CyanogenMod 9.1.0 (Stable)
• CyanogenMod 9.0.0
• CyanogenMod 9.0.0 RC2

What do you think? 9.1.0 is stable but 9.0.0 RC2 is a release candidate, that is the closest to "completely done" as it gets. I like to set my stuff up and use it for long periods at this time. Perhaps I will get more into this and want to experiment more like you do.

CyongenMod 9.x is ICS. CyanogenMod 10 is JB. So; flashing 9.x will work, but you won't get the benefits of JB. (Google Now, Project Butter, enhanced notifications, etc) Regardless you will be moving off the bloated Touchwiz base and moving into AOSP territory. Generally, ICS is going to be more stable than JB for most devices at this time if you don't have official JB (Samsung hasn't updated your device to JB); however this is device dependent. For example, on my GSIII JB AOSP runs just as good as ICS AOSP; so all current development for AOSP is really focused on JB as there is no reason to really work on ICS anymore; its outdated. This isn't true for all devices though. You really have to read up on the forums for where the ROM(s) are located to find that out.

If you want ICS, CM9 will work great for you. 9.1 will be newest, and if it says stable I'd go for that. If you want JB, I'd pick up one of those I sent to you awhile ago. I found CM10 and AOKP currently for JB on your device, my personal preference is AOKP between the two. Both are source built from AOSP, and they share a fair bit of code between them. CM tends to be more minimal with some light tweaks on AOSP, AOKP is more heavily re-skinned with a lot more tweaks generally, although both are still doing a fair bit of work on re-coding all their tweaks to JB at this point (there's no RCs for either really on JB yet)