# Praise, impressions, and frustrations from a first-time root user, gummy 2.0



## ericgilchrist (Oct 7, 2011)

This is my first time posting in an android forum, although I've read through many of them in search of knowledge, answers, solutions. What has always stood out to me is the willingness of the community at large, and especially to the developers, to share knowledge and ideas to help out the poor guy who is just learning. It's nice to see.

I have a samsung droid charge, and I just successfully rooted for the first time (last night), and installed gummycharged 2.0. I was hesitant at first to do it, because although the android community is a wealth of knowledge, friendliness, and helping hands, it lacks structure. Try to find a single procedure to do something, and instead you find twenty of them. Some look promising, and others not so much. Many of the posted instructions for rooting include terminology that could only be decifered by those having experience with such things. I found and rejected many "easy" root procedures because they are just over my head. I'm a pretty saavy user, but I'm no developer, not by any stretch. So I needed basic instructions. For example, I downloaded odin to both my computer and the SD card on my phone. I didn't know that I should have only downloaded that particular file to my computer until after... so I guess I'm lucky I even got through it?

And while I was following instructions to back up the phone, I was wondering: where am I backing up this thing to? I'm not plugged in anywhere. But I proceeded. And now, I'm disappointed that my call logs are gone, my text messages - all gone. My personalized app data, yep. Gone. Valuable information (to me) on list apps like g-tasks: GONE! So why did I back up the phone? Where did it all go? The only thing I got to keep was my apps (because the app stores know what you had) and my contacts (because google and facebook keep track of them.) Everything else - hours and hours of customizing and organizing has just gone *poof!* And I have looked for detailed instructions for backing up those kinds of things to no avail.

So anyway, why did a mere user like myself want to root? Well, the droid charge is a wonderful piece of machinery, but it has serious drawbacks.
1. Bloatware that you cannot delete. I hate that.
2. It's Laggy, sluggish. 
3. GPS takes a year to get a fix, seriously detracting from functionality.
(I actually paid $1.99 for "GPS doctor" prior to rooting, and it worked!)
4. Better android software coming out, but samsung/verizon slow to implement on older new equipment. (Bionic is the thing now, you see.)

So after much reading and searching, I settled on Gummycharged. It was highly reviewed, and I found a site with detailed instructions, all links in one neat place. Refreshing, since roms, kernels, instructions, advice, procedures, and other things are pretty-much just strewn about the internet in various forums and blogs with no obvious rhyme or reason. And you have to sort through a lot of information put out there by well meaning folks who just don't know what they're talking about, bless their hearts. (heh, like me, only I'm not giving advice!) Oh, and I can't for the life of me find that website again.

What would be REALLY NEAT is to have roms listed by their devs in websites that explained:
a) what they look like and accomplish (what is different from stock). 
b) how to root and install them correctly, 
c) what kernels are available/compatible and what they do, etc.
Maybe such places exist, but they escape me.

Truthfully, I don't yet fully understand the functional difference between a rom and a kernel, or which gets plugged into which!

Anyway, I installed Gummycharged 2.0 successfully. Well, except that I lost everything but my apps, photos, and contacts.

First impression? "Oh wow, it really is zippy.... wait, no it's not... nope, it's jumpy and laggy still." So I asked myself, how do I overclock? etc? After a brief search, and reading numerous reviews, I bought SetCPU from the market.

So after writing all this, I guess my point is that I have become the hapless poor bastard who needs help now from all you nice and knowlegable folks. Because what I have now is a new user-interface that tries really hard to be zippy, but in reality, my stock dc was way faster and better. For example, I can't even play "cut the rope", even with the cpu turned all the way up to 1000. It's like trying to watch a very scratched dvd. AND I still have to re-create all my customizations! Days, weeks...

I tried to do my due diligence and learn all I could prior to jumping in. But what happened? Did I do something wrong here? what am I missing? Thank you for any help or advice. I have a lot to learn.


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## Rythmyc (Jul 23, 2011)

Ok, honestly. If playing Burn The Rope is laggy / choppy. You did something wrong. It would be easier to help you, if you listed the steps you did to get where you are now. Then I can show you how / what you did wrong while getting there. You have root now, so backing up is TONS easier and actually "works". Download Titanium Backup (paid version if you would like to donate, free if you want to try it first). Back up all of your information you want to keep. It will put everything on your SD card and easily retrieved once you re-download the app. I'll go through that with you later if you want. However, the first step to helping you get where you want to be, is to tell me how you got started. Coming into IRC would help tons as well. See my "List" thread for a weblink to the IRC chat without a IRC client.


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## lane32x (Aug 1, 2011)

ericgilchrist said:


> This is my first time posting in an android forum.......


Don't worry. I feel your pain, even after being an experienced user coming from the Samsung Galaxy S (Fascinate) phone.

I think a lot of Devs are simply under the mentality that "if you have to ask, you shouldn't be flashing" which is true to some extent, but also a bit of bullsh*t. I think that it would be nice if at the beginning of a new Rom/Kernel thread, a dev would give you a quick outline of what to do.

I'm on my way to bed, so I'll be brief, but here are the basics.

First of all, it sounds weird that you're having so many problems with speed in Gummy Charged. Second, I'll have to do some more research, but I didn't think that overclocking really worked until we get source code for Gingerbread ("GBE")...
Second, I have a little step-by-step guide of how I re-flashed gummy 2.0 starting from a clean install.
http://rootzwiki.com/showthread.php...-2.0-9-28-2011&p=143971&viewfull=1#post143971

OK. Now to touch on a few of your questions:
You can think of a ROM as the operating system for your phone. It is the complete package of files laid out in a way that your phone can use them.

The "Kernel" is the heart of an operating system. It handles all the important stuff. So sometimes a new kernel can give you all sorts of fun stuff (like better sound, better video, better speed, etc).

When you are flashing a new rom, there are a couple of things you have to have ready to use (pretty much in this order)
1) ODIN (this is a windows application to flash files onto your phone) 
- version 1.82 seems to work the best for the droid charge
2) CWM (clockwork mod). This is a package which you flash from ODIN onto your phone to let you easily install other roms on your phone.
- You can find this in the GummyCharged 2.0 forum. Kejar put up a link. IMNUTS is the one who provided it. I believe it is version 4.008
3) You'll want to have the ROM (the zip file) on your phone's SD card already before you flash CWM with ODIN. If you don't flash a rom (or at least a custom kernel) as soon as you flash CWM, Samsung's software will over-write CWM as soon as you reboot the phone. Remember to always wipe your phone before flashing a new rom.
WIPE: 
- Cache. 
- Data/Factory Reset. 
And then go to Advanced and tell CWM to wipe the Dalvick Cache too.
3) if you are going for speed, "VOODOO" lagfix helps speed up the phone significantly.

I have no lag on my phone. it lets me play games with 3D rendered graphics without issue.

um. OK. yeah. bed time. If you need any more specifics, feel free to keep asking. Also, if I were you, I wouldn't flash anything else for a day or two because there is a big new release coming out.

As for backing up your data: 
I use "Titanium Backup" to backup all of my apps (JUST my apps, not 'system data')
I use SMS Backup And Restore to backup my text and MMS message
and call log...I just don't care. but I'm sure there are good apps for that too.


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## dwitherell (Jul 23, 2011)

It looks like most of this has already been (or is being) addressed (by those likely much more knowledgeable than I), but just to clarify when you say you installed gummycharged 2.0 did you mean the GBE (Gingerbread) version or the FE (Froyo) version? If FE (and you were thinking of re-flashing it), then *this guide* might be helpful. If GBE (and again, if you were thinking of reflashing it), I would follow what lane32x *said* (this is similar to what I was *thinking*, although it should be noted that I haven't tried this yet and lane32x has - and it worked - so I would be inclined to follow lane32x's lead). As Rythmyc suggested, check out his *list thread* (and his *how-to thread* for that matter) - they have loads of very useful information and links. Out of curiosity, was *this* the guide you used and could no longer find?


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## XaeroR35 (Jul 21, 2011)

I feel your pain. Just switching between phones you have to learn an entire new terminology. I came from Droid X on Liberty ROM and had to learn an entire new process of rooting and flashing rooms.

There is something wrong with the Charge. It is laggy even after rooting and removing bloatware. My Droid X ran circles around my Charge and I dont know why. I too am on Gummycharged and had the same apps installed as I did on my X, but it still lags quit often. Advanced task killer helped somewhat but it isn't as smooth as it should be.


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

the charge is a good upgrade from my tbolt. the only thing id like to see is a aosp rom and more free ram on the device.


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## Raziel36 (Aug 14, 2011)

The Charge isn't as snappy as the Bolt, that's for sure. The latest leak is *extremely* smooth, though, and it's using the RAM efficiently enough(I do miss the 400+ free RAM of my bolt, however).

Overall, my first 24 hours with this phone has been a good experience. The custom ROMs seem to need some overclocking, especially compared to EP3HA debloat leak. If the source is released and we're able to overclock, there would not be much the phone would be lacking. Looking forward to what the devs can do with the new base.


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## ericgilchrist (Oct 7, 2011)

Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement. I dug through my browser history and finally found the instructions that I followed for the gummy 2.0 install at this page:

http://www.toms-world.org/android/

Scroll down to where it says for a "clean install". And yes, it was GBE. Looking back, I think I can remember a step that I did not execute exactly as instructed. I feel pretty confident that I did everything just as I should have except for this step:

"22. From there choose "Install zip from SD card", choose the SD card fix first. Select the "yes" option."

When I went through this process, I followed the suggestion to copy all the necessary files to a new folder on the SD card which I titled "ROM". After the back-up step, when step 22 told me to install the SD card fix. But when I did it, I didn't realize (or remember) that the SD card fix was one of the files I had saved to my ROM folder. And in the phone's CWM menu, there was something about the SD card listed there (not the "fix" the instructions were asking for - something else). So I clicked on that, considered it done, and moved on to wipe data, wipe cache, wipe dalvik, install ROM...

It was after installing the ROM file that I realized I should have done the sd card fix from that folder, and not whatever it was I had done earlier from the CWM menu. So, I went ahead and installed the SD card fix file at that point, out of sequence.

Could that be my blunder? Do I need to repeat the process over again?

Also, when I did the back-up right before the factory reset, was all the information saved to my sd card, and available for recall?


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## Rythmyc (Jul 23, 2011)

ericgilchrist said:


> Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement. I dug through my browser history and finally found the instructions that I followed for the gummy 2.0 install at this page:
> 
> http://www.toms-world.org/android/
> 
> ...


Alright, if you followed those instructions to a T. You did it wrong. Here's the correct steps to follow, if you're still holding onto the laggy install you have from before (Yes you can do this from the state your phone is in now, and it will "fix" it.).

You should already have Odin, CWM, and Gummy GBE 2.0 (If this is still your preferred set-up method). What you NEED to download is THIS
1) From Power Off, battery IN the phone. Open Odin on your computer.
2) Hold Volume DOWN, and insert the USB cable. Continue holding Volume DOWN until the yellow triangle comes up. Once you see the Triangle, you can let go. Make sure Odin see's your phone like before.
3) Un-check the Auto-Reboot option, Check the PDA option, then click the PDA button and navigate to where you have downloaded the file you needed to download. The name of the file (in case you forgot) is CI510_VZW_EP1W_ALL_ONE-LTE-CP_REV3_user_CL485836_ship_rooted.tar.md5.7z
4) Make sure you have it in PDA and you have the Auto-Reboot option unchecked
5) Click Start, this will take awhile to perform, sit tight and let the phone do it's thing
6) If everything went well, it will say Pass and the box will turn green. If you got this, hold the power button until the phone reboots itself. Allow the phone to FULLY boot. Skip loading your personal info, you'll need to hard reset anyways. 
7) Power OFF the phone, allow the phone to fully power off, and unplug the phone from the USB cable.
8) Hold Volume DOWN, and insert the USB cable. Continue holding Volume DOWN until the yellow triangle comes up. Once you see the Triangle, you can let go. Make sure Odin see's your phone like before.
9) Click the PDA button and navigate to where you have downloaded CWM and hit Ok.
10) Make sure you have it in PDA and you have the Auto-Reboot option unchecked
11) Click Start, this will be a lot quicker than before, sit tight and let the phone do it's thing
12) Hold HOME, Volume UP, and the Power button until you see the Samsung Logo. Once you see the Samsung Logo, you can release POWER but you still need to hold Volume UP and HOME.
13) This will boot you into Recovery Mode, you should see CWM recovery instead of the stock recovery.
14) To install Gummy, you will "wipe data/factory reset", then "install zip from sd card", "choose zip from sdcard", then select the file you wish to flash. If you placed the file in the root of your SD card, it will be available in the initial menu. If you placed it in a folder, it will be in the specified folder.
15) If you wish to flash a different ROM than the one baked in, you'll follow the same steps as before, except choosing your kernel file.

This will ensure a clean, stable and most likely MUCH snappier version than what you have installed currently. Hope this helps.


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## ericgilchrist (Oct 7, 2011)

Rythmyc said:


> Alright, if you followed those instructions to a T. You did it wrong.


So... what, are you telling me the internet is full of misinformation or something? Seriously, though, that's really lame that a set of instructions that are so explicitly laid out would be wrong. And I was giving myself props for being able to get my phone rooted without having to ask for help in some "forum". Go figure.

First of all, thank you for the instructions. I can't tell you how many times I've googled it, and how many forum threads I've read, only to be left with uncertainty. I will probably do this in the morning. But I still have two questions:

First, in the set of instructions I linked to, did it have the correct procedure for backing up the phone? And if so, how do I restore all that was backed up?

My second question has to do with where you wrote, "You should already have Odin, CWM, and Gummy GBE 2.0 (If this is still your preferred set-up method)." Honestly, this is only my preferred set up method because it's the only method I could find enough coherent information about to give me the courage to give it a shot. Should I be considering other options? Because I don't even know what the options are, or how to find them, it turns out. The Kernel you use, IMoseyON's 2.0.6 Repacked - that's different than the one that comes baked into gummy, right? Could you tell me how it's different?

Thanks


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## Rythmyc (Jul 23, 2011)

> I suggest making a backup of your entire phone at this point. You can do this by selecting "Backup and Restore". Use the Volume Buttons to navigate to "Backup and Restore". Once selected, press the power button.
> A new menu will appear. Select "Backup" and press the power button. This process will take a lot of time so sit back and just let it do its job. When complete select "Go Back" all the way back to the initial CWM menu you got when you booted your phone into Recovery mode.


If that is what you mean, yes you did back up your ROM information, no you did not back-up your personal information. Your personal information is gone forever. Anything that was saved to the SD Card is still accessible, however anything that was in the phone (numbers, messages, etc...) is gone. The back-up you made, is a blank back-up. It's the base Gummy Rom, which was installed incorrectly. I wouldn't even try to use this back-up.

Second, as far as another method I prefer. There's a new build of Gingerbread that was released to the public recently, and imnuts is working on building a ROM build off of this base. It would be the ROM I recommend using once it's complete. However, like with EP1W, I recommend flashing the EP3HA base before flashing a EP3HA based ROM. It makes things a lot smoother when transitioning. If you haven't read my How-To post. I recommend doing it. It will give you a better idea of what all these terms you are hearing mean. Here is a link for you. Also, Here is a link to everything Charge related. I've done a pretty good job of keeping up with everything if you ask me. If you need anymore help go to the Verizon Droid Charge IRC Channel. Good luck!


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## imnuts (Jun 9, 2011)

I feel that my ROM post that I have, and supporting website I have setup, are fairly detailed and offer a decent look of what you should expect with Infinity ROM. What you would like from developers as far as ROM Features and such isn't asking to much IMO, but sadly, many people don't want to take the time to write up a good post (or series of posts) for their ROM and instead get the basics up and a donation link, and sit and wait.


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## ericgilchrist (Oct 7, 2011)

Thanks for the instructions, rythmic.

I've downloaded the file CI510_VZW_EP1W_ALL_ONE-LTE-CP_REV3_user_CL485836_ship_rooted.tar.md5.7z and tried to load it with odin... but no joy. Because it has a .7z file extension, maybe?

So at this moment, I'm stuck, sitting here with my phone displaying a yellow triangle, tethered to pc with a usb cable, don't know what to do next.

Can anyone help?


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## Rythmyc (Jul 23, 2011)

"ericgilchrist said:


> Thanks for the instructions, rythmic.
> 
> I've downloaded the file CI510_VZW_EP1W_ALL_ONE-LTE-CP_REV3_user_CL485836_ship_rooted.tar.md5.7z and tried to load it with odin... but no joy. Because it has a .7z file extension, maybe?
> 
> ...


Yep, like in the message I sent you, unzip that file and the result will give you a file Odin will see


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## ericgilchrist (Oct 7, 2011)

Oh geez, I didn't realize that .7z was a zip file extension, I should have figured that. It's going now, I think. Although I don't see anything to indicate current status or progress on either the phone or odin. In fact, shoud I be worried that the last thing it says is "all threads completed (succeeded 0 / failed 0)" ?
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> CI510_VZW_EP1W_ALL_ONE-LTE-CP_REV3_user_CL485836_ship_rooted.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 0)


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## Rythmyc (Jul 23, 2011)

"ericgilchrist said:


> Oh geez, I didn't realize that .7z was a zip file extension, I should have figured that. It's going now, I think. Although I don't see anything to indicate current status or progress on either the phone or odin. In fact, shoud I be worried that the last thing it says is "all threads completed (succeeded 0 / failed 0)" ?
> <OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
> <OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
> <OSM> Please wait..
> ...


Did you leave your battery in the phone?


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## Cruiserdude (Jun 23, 2011)

You have to pull the battery, unplug the phone, close odin, plug the phone back in, open odin, hold vow down to get back in download mode, and put the battery back in. Sorry, but odin is really finicky, and you have to close it and re-establish the connection if it's already completed an operation.

Btw, i would highly recommend flashing the EP3HA leak and imoseyon's latest 3.0 kernel. Infinity rom is great, but it's not yet out for the newest build. However, felt performance tends to be more impacted by the base build, while roms allow special features, and a number of visual and usability tweaks. Granted, stock theme still looks horrible, but it's not that hard to deal with as long as you use a different launcher, and the performance is great.


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## ericgilchrist (Oct 7, 2011)

I ran out of time and had to get to some other things yesterday... So I was able to reconnect with odin and go throught the installation (flashing?) process. Put Gummy back on. Followed Rythmic's instructions to a T, and everything seemed to go well.

I think overall, the performance is much better than original. Most noticeable is battery, which is conspicuously NOT dead by 2pm. Wonderful!  Another noticeable difference is that my icons and apps don't disappear for many seconds at a time. (They have disappeared once or twice for as much as 3 seconds or so, but that's nothing compared to before.)

While everything is better, I still wouldn't call it smooth. A couple apps have hung up (didn't have the presence of mind to make a mental note about which ones they were...)

Quadrant score was in the high 1900's, and from what I've read that's a very good score, but it really doesn't mean anything, so just fwiw.

I will consider my phone to be running smoothly when I can play "Cut The Rope" (Not burn, cut) without the glitches and stalls. While everything seems to be well, I know something either isn't right, or there's just room for improvement with a new kernel or something because that game does not run anywhere close to as seemlessly as it did before the root/gummyGBE2.0 install. The animation hangs up enough to impact playability.

So the research and learning continues... I'm now trying to learn if there are settings or "tweaks" to my current set up that would make things work better, or if I should look into something else.


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## ericgilchrist (Oct 7, 2011)

lane32x said:


> ...if I were you, I wouldn't flash anything else for a day or two because there is a big new release coming out.


Ok, you've got me interested... but what should I be looking for?


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

after owning this phone for about a week i like it but i do miss all the options from my tbolt. not alot of development for this phone i see.


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## Rythmyc (Jul 23, 2011)

ericgilchrist said:


> I ran out of time and had to get to some other things yesterday... So I was able to reconnect with odin and go throught the installation (flashing?) process. Put Gummy back on. Followed Rythmic's instructions to a T, and everything seemed to go well.
> 
> I think overall, the performance is much better than original. Most noticeable is battery, which is conspicuously NOT dead by 2pm. Wonderful!  Another noticeable difference is that my icons and apps don't disappear for many seconds at a time. (They have disappeared once or twice for as much as 3 seconds or so, but that's nothing compared to before.)
> 
> ...


Honestly, with running Gingerbread and Gummy. I wouldn't use any "tweaks" as they may hurt more than help. Overclocking is only available for Froyo right now, as source for Gingerbread hasn't been released yet. If Gummy is running slower than you would expect, I would suggest trying Infinity Rom. It may work better for you. There's a link for the EP1W version in my list. Without much experience, I would make the leap towards EP3HA yet, unless you like the stock look. There are some test Rom's out, but they aren't completely finished yet.


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## Rythmyc (Jul 23, 2011)

fixxxer2012 said:


> after owning this phone for about a week i like it but i do miss all the options from my tbolt. not alot of development for this phone i see.


Here's an idea ... go back to your TBolt. EVERY thread you write, is how you miss your TBolt ... go back if you don't like this phone.


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## fixxxer2012 (Jul 31, 2011)

Rythmyc said:


> Here's an idea ... go back to your TBolt. EVERY thread you write, is how you miss your TBolt ... go back if you don't like this phone.


why do you guys always get so worked up over a phone? i was giving my opinion.


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## Rythmyc (Jul 23, 2011)

"fixxxer2012 said:


> why do you guys always get so worked up over a phone? i was giving my opinion.


Worked up? I'm telling you if you miss the phone and it's options. Go back. I fail to see how i'm worked up.


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## Birthofahero (Aug 18, 2011)

"Rythmyc said:


> Worked up? I'm telling you if you miss the phone and it's options. Go back. I fail to see how i'm worked up.


I don't know past histories, but it seems everything Fixx says you combat with. It's almost funny. I'm not taking sides, just calling it as I see it.


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