# Anyone using Boot Manager?



## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

Are you using Boot Manager? I just heard about it. It's the app that allows you to have several roms on your SD card that you can switch between relatively easily. It sounds cool. I'm wondering who's using it on the G Nex and what your experience is with it. Is it really as good as it sounds? Does it affect the speed/responsiveness of the roms?

Here's the market link if you want to check it out:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.drx2.bootmanager&hl=en
or the user guide:
http://init2winitapps.com/stories/BMManual.html


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## ejgilkey (Jun 7, 2011)

It works pretty well in my experience so far. Though there are quite a few quirky bugs that haven't been addressed yet, it does what it supposed to do.

I have had problems installing zips to SD card slots on the new 4.0.4 build. It always freezes midway through.


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## housry23 (Aug 25, 2011)

I bought Boot Manager when I had my Evo 3D and loved it! When I upgraded to the SGS2 on Sprint I was upset that it wasn't supported, but when I changed over to Verizon to get the Galaxy Nexus I was happy to find out that they were working on support for the Nexus devices. I stayed in contact with the devs(great support and always respond to questions btw) and they emailed me as soon as the update hit the market and asked if I would give any feedback. There are still some bugs on the gnex, but that is expected and I expect them to be resolved as time goes on because like I said, the devs are very open to feedback and always respond to questions and bugs. As far as the ROMs performance goes, yes there is a slowdown, especially on first boot, but after the system settles in you can hardly tell a difference and after reboot, it is usually as fast as the phone ROM. If you love flashing ROMs and trying new ROMs as they come out, it is definitely worth the $. I say go ahead and try the free version(just released). It lets you have one slot where the paid version is 5. If you like it and think you would benefit from the paid version then upgrade.


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## blaine07 (Jul 18, 2011)

I've been tempted but... with all do respect the horror stories I've heard tell me its disaster looking for a time and place to happen...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

housry23 said:


> I bought Boot Manager when I had my Evo 3D and loved it! When I upgraded to the SGS2 on Sprint I was upset that it wasn't supported, but when I changed over to Verizon to get the Galaxy Nexus I was happy to find out that they were working on support for the Nexus devices. I stayed in contact with the devs(great support and always respond to questions btw) and they emailed me as soon as the update hit the market and asked if I would give any feedback. There are still some bugs on the gnex, but that is expected and I expect them to be resolved as time goes on because like I said, the devs are very open to feedback and always respond to questions and bugs. As far as the ROMs performance goes, yes there is a slowdown, especially on first boot, but after the system settles in you can hardly tell a difference and after reboot, it is usually as fast as the phone ROM. If you love flashing ROMs and trying new ROMs as they come out, it is definitely worth the $. I say go ahead and try the free version(just released). It lets you have one slot where the paid version is 5. If you like it and think you would benefit from the paid version then upgrade.


I agree they have amazing support. I have emailed the devs a few times with questions and they get right back to me within the hour. Very impressive. I did go ahead and buy the app, I just haven't dived in and started using it yet.


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

blaine07 said:


> I've been tempted but... with all do respect the horror stories I've heard tell me its disaster looking for a time and place to happen...
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


Hmmm, really? In what regard is it a potential "disaster?" Does that mean that is could mess up your phone?


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

ejgilkey said:


> It works pretty well in my experience so far. Though there are quite a few quirky bugs that haven't been addressed yet, it does what it supposed to do.
> 
> I have had problems installing zips to SD card slots on the new 4.0.4 build. It always freezes midway through.


I was wondering how it would work if you switch between 4.0.4 and 4.0.3 roms. I guess it's not an issue as far as the radios/bootloader goes as those are rom independent.


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## nedenspreden (Jul 21, 2011)

I love Boot Manager and use it frequently. There are a few small quirks to know about it from my experiance. I have no proof, but it seems like ROMs install better to the SD card if you keep the screen on during install. There is an option to do this in the BM settings. Another big thing is if you modify your 'Phone ROM' through recovery (ie, new kernel), be sure to go back into BM afterwords and run the 'Setup Phone' option within the Phone ROM tab. I guess people were not doing this and then when they would boot back into their Phone ROM, they would lose some kernel controlled things like WiFi.


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## UnfedBear67 (Jul 31, 2011)

Never had any real big problems with Boot Manager. All in all its a really good app dose what its supposed to do. Well worth the money. The developer support is amazing the email you right back.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## xmike (Jun 29, 2011)

I bought it, but don't use it. Seems just as easy to make nandroids of each rom and reflash them.


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

xmike said:


> I bought it, but don't use it. Seems just as easy to make nandroids of each rom and reflash them.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWikI

I wondered if that might be the case. For those of you who use it, how much does time does it save to use Boot Manager when switching between roms?


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## housry23 (Aug 25, 2011)

scott62185 said:


> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWikI
> 
> I wondered if that might be the case. For those of you who use it, how much does time does it save to use Boot Manager when switching between roms?


Saves Tons of time! Once you install a ROM to a slot it is there until you wipe and install a different ROM. Much easier than restoring a nandroid. All you have to do is a simple reboot to be in another ROM instead of booting into recovery and restoring a nandroid and then updating apps and whatever else might be updated since the last time you used that ROM. It really is much, much easier than keeping nandroids of 5 different ROMs. To each their own, but I love the fact that I have CM9 Kang, AOKP, MIUI and Gummynex all on my phone and can just simply tell Boot Manager to boot into that ROM and bam, within seconds I am there. No, recovery involved. No restoring involved.

Everyone is going to have their own opinion on this. The true experience comes from you. I suggest you play around with it. Install some ROMs, boot into them, let them settle down, then reboot and see just how smoothly it runs. If you don't think it will benefit you after a few days of use, I would almost guarantee the dev would reimburse you for your purchase. IMO it's the best, most useful app in the Market. Of course, this is just my opinion, but I mean having 5 Roms I can boot into just with a simple reboot is a great option to have. Oh yeah, one more thing. You can also restore CWM nandroids to a Boot Manager slot!


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

housry23 said:


> Saves Tons of time! Once you install a ROM to a slot it is there until you wipe and install a different ROM. Much easier than restoring a nandroid. All you have to do is a simple reboot to be in another ROM instead of booting into recovery and restoring a nandroid and then updating apps and whatever else might be updated since the last time you used that ROM. It really is much, much easier than keeping nandroids of 5 different ROMs. To each their own, but I love the fact that I have CM9 Kang, AOKP, MIUI and Gummynex all on my phone and can just simply tell Boot Manager to boot into that ROM and bam, within seconds I am there. No, recovery involved. No restoring involved.
> 
> Everyone is going to have their own opinion on this. The true experience comes from you. I suggest you play around with it. Install some ROMs, boot into them, let them settle down, then reboot and see just how smoothly it runs. If you don't think it will benefit you after a few days of use, I would almost guarantee the dev would reimburse you for your purchase. IMO it's the best, most useful app in the Market. Of course, this is just my opinion, but I mean having 5 Roms I can boot into just with a simple reboot is a great option to have. Oh yeah, one more thing. You can also restore CWM nandroids to a Boot Manager slot!


Wow, cool. That's the kind of feedback that is helpful. I'm not the kind of person to ask for a refund, even if I didn't find it useful. The responsiveness of the devs on this app is reason enough to give them a $2.99 donation, you know?

Question to you housry23: What is so great about being able to restore a CWM nandroid to a Boot Manager slot? (kind of a noob here, so not sure exactly what that does for you)

Also: this automatically restores your apps or are your apps on each rom so when you boot into that rom they are there waiting for you?

So, I think I will try it out. I'll get back to everyone and let you know my experience with it.


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## nedenspreden (Jul 21, 2011)

scott62185 said:


> Also: this automatically restores your apps or are your apps on each rom so when you boot into that rom they are there waiting for you?


I'm not sure if there is an option for this; but from what I've seen, the only app it restores across ROMs is itself. That way you can boot back to your Phone ROM. I still think it is well worth the money for anyone who is frequently flashing different ROMs. Good luck, I hope you like it!

Edit: Looked and did not see an app restore setting, only the ability to sync SMS and call logs between ROMs.


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## 9wire (Aug 24, 2011)

I had it, but after a couple days I decided I liked MIUI and just used it exclusively. Didn't have a real need to use other roms for anything, and kept finding myself wanting to do things other roms wouldn't do, like change the entire status bar on the fly. All this was on my DX,now I'm happy with AOKP and for myself, not seen any other roms with the features I like from AOKP. All that aside the app works good.


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## dogg94 (Aug 18, 2011)

housry23 said:


> Saves Tons of time! Once you install a ROM to a slot it is there until you wipe and install a different ROM. Much easier than restoring a nandroid. All you have to do is a simple reboot to be in another ROM instead of booting into recovery and restoring a nandroid and then updating apps and whatever else might be updated since the last time you used that ROM. It really is much, much easier than keeping nandroids of 5 different ROMs. To each their own, but I love the fact that I have CM9 Kang, AOKP, MIUI and Gummynex all on my phone and can just simply tell Boot Manager to boot into that ROM and bam, within seconds I am there. No, recovery involved. No restoring involved.
> 
> Everyone is going to have their own opinion on this. The true experience comes from you. I suggest you play around with it. Install some ROMs, boot into them, let them settle down, then reboot and see just how smoothly it runs. If you don't think it will benefit you after a few days of use, I would almost guarantee the dev would reimburse you for your purchase. IMO it's the best, most useful app in the Market. Of course, this is just my opinion, but I mean having 5 Roms I can boot into just with a simple reboot is a great option to have. Oh yeah, one more thing. You can also restore CWM nandroids to a Boot Manager slot!


I have to agree I've been using it for about a week, have aokp m3 as my main, then I have DX, Gummy, Miui, CND, and Rootzboat. You are a reboot away from a different rom once you go through the original install of the rom. I'm loving it. If you are a crackflasher as many of us are this is definately the way to go. I have had one problem (my own stupidity) i accidentally rebooted using the normal method of a sd card rom (when you install this app you have a "phone rom" which is the main rom installed on your phone and the one you can manipulate with reboot methods and clockworkmod, the rest are installed on your "sd card" and are accessible from the boot manager app) at any rate this is not good to do, I was unable to get boot manager to open properly after this but I uninstalled it then reinstalled it and the problem was fixed, just figured I'd post my stupidity and the solution in case anyone else comes across it. Cheers.


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## housry23 (Aug 25, 2011)

scott62185 said:


> Wow, cool. That's the kind of feedback that is helpful. I'm not the kind of person to ask for a refund, even if I didn't find it useful. The responsiveness of the devs on this app is reason enough to give them a $2.99 donation, you know?
> 
> Question to you housry23: What is so great about being able to restore a CWM nandroid to a Boot Manager slot? (kind of a noob here, so not sure exactly what that does for you)
> 
> ...


No, it does not restore apps within Boot Manager across ROM's. You can however use Titanium Backup to restore your apps in all the different ROM's. It will, however, sync your call log and sms messages across the different ROM's. What's good about being able to restore a nandroid to a ROM slot is, say you are undecided about what ROM to use, so you keep a couple nandroids and restore these nandroids when the ROM is updated, then update the nandroid and keep this cycle going. If you restore this nandroid to a slot on your sdcard, you can then just update the slot with the updated ROM(you only have to wipe system in Boot Manager when updating ROM) and all your data and what not is kept and everything is ready to go once you reboot into that ROM. It's just a convenience thing really. I was wiping all 3 options when updating a ROM, but emailed the dev about it and they told me I only have to wipe system when updating a ROM in one of the sdcard slots and all my data and apps will be in place.

I hope that makes sense for you. I know what I meant, but sometimes when I say it, it comes out all jumbled lol! If you have anymore questions feel free to ask. I will check back when I can.

PS. One more small tip for all the Boot Manager users. If for any reason Boot Manager is not functioning properly on a sdcard ROM and you want to get back to your Phone ROM, you can't just reboot because it will reboot back into the same rom you are booted into. Make sure you have backed up your Phone Rom and boot into recovery. Select install .zip from sdcard and navigate to the /BootManager/phoneROM folder and choose the update.zip found there. Flash it then reboot the phone and you will be back into your Phone ROM and then you can try again. There have been times when I have had to use this, so MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP YOUR PHONE ROM!!!


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

housry23 said:


> No, it does not restore apps within Boot Manager across ROM's. You can however use Titanium Backup to restore your apps in all the different ROM's. It will, however, sync your call log and sms messages across the different ROM's. What's good about being able to restore a nandroid to a ROM slot is, say you are undecided about what ROM to use, so you keep a couple nandroids and restore these nandroids when the ROM is updated, then update the nandroid and keep this cycle going. If you restore this nandroid to a slot on your sdcard, you can then just update the slot with the updated ROM(you only have to wipe system in Boot Manager when updating ROM) and all your data and what not is kept and everything is ready to go once you reboot into that ROM. It's just a convenience thing really. I was wiping all 3 options when updating a ROM, but emailed the dev about it and they told me I only have to wipe system when updating a ROM in one of the sdcard slots and all my data and apps will be in place.
> 
> I hope that makes sense for you. I know what I meant, but sometimes when I say it, it comes out all jumbled lol! If you have anymore questions feel free to ask. I will check back when I can.
> 
> PS. One more small tip for all the Boot Manager users. If for any reason Boot Manager is not functioning properly on a sdcard ROM and you want to get back to your Phone ROM, you can't just reboot because it will reboot back into the same rom you are booted into. Make sure you have backed up your Phone Rom and boot into recovery. Select install .zip from sdcard and navigate to the /BootManager/phoneROM folder and choose the update.zip found there. Flash it then reboot the phone and you will be back into your Phone ROM and then you can try again. There have been times when I have had to use this, so MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP YOUR PHONE ROM!!!


Hmmm, a little confusing, but I think I understand. So, when you get a chance, can you go through the steps of how to put a nandroid into the sd slots of Boot Manager? I know you make a nandroid by doing a backup in CWM recovery. Just not sure how I would get that backup into the whole Boot Manager process.


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## housry23 (Aug 25, 2011)

scott62185 said:


> Hmmm, a little confusing, but I think I understand. So, when you get a chance, can you go through the steps of how to put a nandroid into the sd slots of Boot Manager? I know you make a nandroid by doing a backup in CWM recovery. Just not sure how I would get that backup into the whole Boot Manager process.


Okay to restore a CWM nandroid to a slot you simply navigate to the slot you want to restore the nandroid to, select install zip and then choose select "Restore Nandroid" and navigate to your ClockworkMod folder and choose the backup you want to install and select install and let it do it's thing and when it's done you will have a restored nandroid on one of your slots. Very simple, just like installing a ROM.


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

blaine07 said:


> I've been tempted but... with all do respect the horror stories I've heard tell me its disaster looking for a time and place to happen...
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


I haven't used it on my nexus but I used it on my thunderbolt. You can't mess up. If a ROM doesn't boot, go into recovery and flash the zip for your phone's ROM. It replaces the boot.img with your original and you're good to go. If someone had problems, I'm sure it's because they didn't read the documentation.


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

housry23 said:


> Okay to restore a CWM nandroid to a slot you simply navigate to the slot you want to restore the nandroid to, select install zip and then choose select "Restore Nandroid" and navigate to your ClockworkMod folder and choose the backup you want to install and select install and let it do it's thing and when it's done you will have a restored nandroid on one of your slots. Very simple, just like installing a ROM.


Okay, I see. So, instead of going to your downloads folder you go to the ClockworkMod folder which is where your nandroid will be. Then, when a new update to the rom comes out you just flash/boot it over that nandroid but then you don't have to do a complete wipe. Right?


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## housry23 (Aug 25, 2011)

scott62185 said:


> Okay, I see. So, instead of going to your downloads folder you go to the ClockworkMod folder which is where your nandroid will be. Then, when a new update to the rom comes out you just flash/boot it over that nandroid but then you don't have to do a complete wipe. Right?


Exactly. Just check the 'Wipe System' box, install the update and your good to go!


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

housry23 said:


> Exactly. Just check the 'Wipe System' box, install the update and your good to go!


Okay, one last question (I promise!). Can you make a nandroid of a rom that your're running from one of the sd slots (in Boot Manager)? Or, do you have to be in a phone rom to make a nandroid? In other words, would you need to boot into each rom (that you want to make a nandroid of) like normal through recovery in order to make a nandroid of the rom?


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## Spartan051xKurtA (Jul 31, 2011)

I love this app!!! Had it since thunderbolt days. I have aokp as my phone rom and 4.0.4 rom In slot one also someone else mentioned it earlier in the thread but anytime your installing a zip make sure u keep your screen on and don't touch! I guarantee you will have better installs.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## housry23 (Aug 25, 2011)

scott62185 said:


> Okay, one last question (I promise!). Can you make a nandroid of a rom that your're running from one of the sd slots (in Boot Manager)? Or, do you have to be in a phone rom to make a nandroid? In other words, would you need to boot into each rom (that you want to make a nandroid of) like normal through recovery in order to make a nandroid of the rom?


You can make a backup of each ROM you have loaded in Boot Manager through the app itself, but not through recovery. Steps: Open Boot Manager, navigate to the ROM slot you want to back up, press the Manage Slot button, then select Backup Slot. It will make a Backup of the slot and you can use that backup to restore to another slot, or incase you have to wipe everything on the phone you can have a backup to avoid reloading everything.

You can ask as many questions you want bro. I don't mind helping out. Nobody starts out knowing everything and I had to have the same questions answered for me. Also, here's a link to the manual. It may answer any questions I can't. http://init2winitapps.com/stories/BMManual.html


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

Spartan051xKurtA said:


> I love this app!!! Had it since thunderbolt days. I have aokp as my phone rom and 4.0.4 rom In slot one also someone else mentioned it earlier in the thread but anytime your installing a zip make sure u keep your screen on and don't touch! I guarantee you will have better installs.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


Yeah, you're the one that I first heard about from (in another forum topic).


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

housry23 said:


> You can make a backup of each ROM you have loaded in Boot Manager through the app itself, but not through recovery. Steps: Open Boot Manager, navigate to the ROM slot you want to back up, press the Manage Slot button, then select Backup Slot. It will make a Backup of the slot and you can use that backup to restore to another slot, or incase you have to wipe everything on the phone you can have a backup to avoid reloading everything.


Nice. So that's the same as a regular nandroid made in recovery. Thanks man, big help!


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## housry23 (Aug 25, 2011)

Check my last post scott62185. I updated it with a link to the manual for the app in case you don't have it. It may be able to answer questions I can't! I hope you enjoy it and don't be afraid to ask anything else. I'll be glad to help if I can!


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## Spartan051xKurtA (Jul 31, 2011)

Muhaha!!! Glad I turned you. Lol



scott62185 said:


> Yeah, you're the one that I first heard about from (in another forum topic).


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

housry23 said:


> Check my last post scott62185. I updated it with a link to the manual for the app in case you don't have it. It may be able to answer questions I can't! I hope you enjoy it and don't be afraid to ask anything else. I'll be glad to help if I can!


You're awesome bro. repped x many!


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## PhoenixPath (Jun 7, 2011)

Personal setup:

4.0.4 on phone, AOKP on slot 1, MIUI on slot 2, and (when they get the voltage thing fixed) Rootzboat on slot 3.

Since I could never get an OS to install from zip to any of the slots reliably, I simply nandroid my stock, install my ROM of choice, nandroid it, restore stock and install my nandroid ROM to the slot I want it on.

Has worked flawlessly so far.

The best part was updating my 4.0.2 stock phone ROM to 4.0.4 and getting the benefit of the upgraded radio on all slots. No fuss, no muss.


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

PhoenixPath said:


> Personal setup:
> 
> 4.0.4 on phone, AOKP on slot 1, MIUI on slot 2, and (when they get the voltage thing fixed) Rootzboat on slot 3.
> 
> ...


So, you're saying to make the nandroids in regular CWM recovery (not from Boot Manager)? And what do you do when you want to make a new nandroid of a different rom in the future to put in another slot?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## busterbrown77 (Aug 31, 2011)

Had it for my Thunderbolt, was amazing, no issues (aside from space).

Have yet to try on my nexus for NFC Secure Element Reasons...


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