I've hated every second I've experienced with ICS

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,739
454
126
Seriously... if I didn't go through such hell to get here I'd just start over and reflash with UnNamed again.

I ended up jumping into the ICS rom world with my SGS2 and flashed what was then the latest Shostock. It sounded like one of the more popular ones so I figured it would be a good place to start. I did a full wipe/factory reset before flashing, as well as backed up my sms and apps/app data with Ti backup.

I get everything up and running, and all seems well. As soon as my phone connected to my google account it started downloading all my apps it knew I had. Great! I let it do its thing while I mess around with it. I notice the page transitions on the Apex launcher that's used is pretty jittery and slow, but I just assume this is due to the tons of crap being downloaded and installed in the background.

Now that everything's good to go, figured I'd restore my app data. Which I've done before without issue. Unfortunately Ti backup gets through about 10 apps before it claims I'm out of space and the phone hard freezes. Odd, but whatever. After reboot I check my phone memory, and the 2gigs I'm allowed out of 16 on the phone is filled up. It shouldn't be yet, but I'll deal with it. I moved a number of apps to the SD card to clear up another few hundred megs and try again. I start to restore, but have the same problem again! I even started from where it left off so it wasn't redoing anything it already did, but it didn't get very far. So now I've decided to not restore this data any more.

I do a reboot and start playing with the phone again. Nothing is running, yet it feels very slow still. I google Apex launcher and apparently this is one of the more popular ICS launchers out there. I'm stunned by the lack of transition effects and general clunkyness of it all. Oh well, I can always use my trusty ADW launcher I've loved so much!

However, once I start using that I'm finding the same lag and clunkiness I felt before. I check setCPU and let it OC a bit to see if it helps, but no dice. ShoStock seems to be using about double the memory as UnNamed did, but it's still only 650mb right now. Still feels a little clunky, plus... there seems to be something very off with swiping.

It's hard to explain, but I can't seem to swipe across the screen easily anymore. Half the time when I go to change pages on the homescreen (in any launcher) it goes half way and just bounces back. It's like I have to swipe ALL the way across the screen to register, when before the tiniest gesture would be understood. Does matter what launcher I use, same feeling. This is by far the most frustrating part of it because the phone feels like an ancient POS now.

There were many other problems in between this that I attribute to myself, some of which required full wipes and reflashes. But these are the things I believe are here to stay with this rom... and I can't believe anyone can use this as a daily driver.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Ok well ROMs aren't 100% stable so that's probably the problem. ICS is awesome and I could never go back to anything else before it. Super smooth even on my old Nexus S.
 

vshah

Lifer
Sep 20, 2003
19,003
24
81
things should hopefully improve now that official ICS roms are coming out.

try nova launcher though. smoothest on my nexus.
 

pm

Elite Member Mobile Devices
Jan 25, 2000
7,419
22
81
So, I had this same issue. I have an SGS2, I went from UnNamed 2.2.1 to ShoStock and did the same method you used and had similar problems. Lots of crashes, lots of flakiness, etc.

So the problem is the way you restored the app data. The app data from UnNamed for the system apps seems to overwrite key data for ICS. I don't exactly understand the underlying problem, but it's not the ROM, it's the app data.

Re-wipe everything, reinstall Shostock and then don't log in with Google, don't let it write the apps or the data, then go into Titanium and restore "missing apps with data" which is the first option under batch operations under restore. Since you haven't let Google do anything, all of your apps are missing so it will restore everything... except the system app data since the system apps are already on there. Then sign in with Google and it will update your contacts, etc. Then do the SMS's - although I had issues with using Titanium to restore SMS's so I took some users advice here at AT and uses SMS Backup+ for SMS.

Shostock is my daily driver and it has been totally completely and absolutely solid for me. No flakiness, no force closes, no crashes, nothing... solid as a rock and I use my phone like an obsessive geek. As shabby said, if you don't want to mess with ShoStock, the other really good one is AOKP.... although the pink unicorn thing sort of put me off a bit... :)
 
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AstroManLuca

Lifer
Jun 24, 2004
15,628
5
81
I flashed an ICS rom, Cyanogen Mod 9, to my Samsung Epic a couple weeks ago. It was fine other than the battery life not being great. I didn't have any of the problems you had.

It could be any number of things. App data sometimes has issues going from Gingerbread to ICS, so when I transitioned I only restored data from important apps. I've had bad luck with batch restores in general. It could just be a bad rom but I doubt that, most developers do a good job and if there are serious issues they're caught quickly.
 

iahk

Senior member
Jan 19, 2002
707
0
76
I've been using the ICS leaks since they started for the Sprint variant of the SGS2. It actually works better than gingerbread. They seem to have fixed the gps issues as well as the no service issues.
 

makken

Golden Member
Aug 28, 2004
1,476
0
76
Restoring app data after making a major OS upgrade is a huge red flag.

Try wiping and reflashing and see if it happena again without restoring app data.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,739
454
126
So, I had this same issue. I have an SGS2, I went from UnNamed 2.2.1 to ShoStock and did the same method you used and had similar problems. Lots of crashes, lots of flakiness, etc.

So the problem is the way you restored the app data. The app data from UnNamed for the system apps seems to overwrite key data for ICS. I don't exactly understand the underlying problem, but it's not the ROM, it's the app data.

Re-wipe everything, reinstall Shostock and then don't log in with Google, don't let it write the apps or the data, then go into Titanium and restore "missing apps with data" which is the first option under batch operations under restore. Since you haven't let Google do anything, all of your apps are missing so it will restore everything... except the system app data since the system apps are already on there. Then sign in with Google and it will update your contacts, etc. Then do the SMS's - although I had issues with using Titanium to restore SMS's so I took some users advice here at AT and uses SMS Backup+ for SMS.

Shostock is my daily driver and it has been totally completely and absolutely solid for me. No flakiness, no force closes, no crashes, nothing... solid as a rock and I use my phone like an obsessive geek. As shabby said, if you don't want to mess with ShoStock, the other really good one is AOKP.... although the pink unicorn thing sort of put me off a bit... :)

That's pretty much what I did to get it as good as it is now. But, if I get angry enough to start fresh again I'll keep this in mind... thanks.

And I forgot to put something ELSE I don't like about it, but I don't know if it's an ICS thing or just something awesome my last rom had that this one doesn't. When I was on Unnamed my contacts and phone app were accessible within each other. If I opened up the phone app, there was a tab at the top that would be for contacts. Now there's only 3 tabs, and none of them access contacts. And if I open contacts I can't open the keypad easily without exiting contacts, THEN going to the phone app.

It's cumbersome, but again... that could have just been something they included in UnNamed that I no longer get.
 

thescreensavers

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2005
9,916
2
81
^ Get a better rom, One with the CM9 Dialer which works perfectly fine there is a search icon in the bottom left which accesses your Contacts.

Reflash to AOKP, it appears the rom your on is teh suck
 

pm

Elite Member Mobile Devices
Jan 25, 2000
7,419
22
81
And I forgot to put something ELSE I don't like about it, but I don't know if it's an ICS thing or just something awesome my last rom had that this one doesn't. When I was on Unnamed my contacts and phone app were accessible within each other. If I opened up the phone app, there was a tab at the top that would be for contacts. Now there's only 3 tabs, and none of them access contacts. And if I open contacts I can't open the keypad easily without exiting contacts, THEN going to the phone app.

Yeah, that is annoying. No arguments from me. We could ask the ShoStock guy.

If you are on the phone dialer, hit the menu button and then click contacts... but this doesn't solve your problem... just makes it easier to get around.
AOKP has contacts in the dialer menu.
 
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postmortemIA

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2006
7,721
40
91
You're not using official ICS ROM, you are using something "try it on your own risk". Hardly a same thing.
 
Dec 30, 2004
12,553
2
76
So, I had this same issue. I have an SGS2, I went from UnNamed 2.2.1 to ShoStock and did the same method you used and had similar problems. Lots of crashes, lots of flakiness, etc.

So the problem is the way you restored the app data. The app data from UnNamed for the system apps seems to overwrite key data for ICS. I don't exactly understand the underlying problem, but it's not the ROM, it's the app data.

Re-wipe everything, reinstall Shostock and then don't log in with Google, don't let it write the apps or the data, then go into Titanium and restore "missing apps with data" which is the first option under batch operations under restore. Since you haven't let Google do anything, all of your apps are missing so it will restore everything... except the system app data since the system apps are already on there. Then sign in with Google and it will update your contacts, etc. Then do the SMS's - although I had issues with using Titanium to restore SMS's so I took some users advice here at AT and uses SMS Backup+ for SMS.

Shostock is my daily driver and it has been totally completely and absolutely solid for me. No flakiness, no force closes, no crashes, nothing... solid as a rock and I use my phone like an obsessive geek. As shabby said, if you don't want to mess with ShoStock, the other really good one is AOKP.... although the pink unicorn thing sort of put me off a bit... :)

I almost always have issues restoring apps+data. Only restore App. No problems then.
 

dlock13

Platinum Member
Oct 24, 2006
2,806
2
81
Ok well ROMs aren't 100% stable so that's probably the problem. ICS is awesome and I could never go back to anything else before it. Super smooth even on my old Nexus S.

Agreed completely.

ROMs won't give you the best experience unless you actually have an official build for the phone. Otherwise, you're just piecing together code and hoping it functions properly on each device.

I call that the BlackBerry effect. When I had a Storm, leaked builds rolled out all the time, and I had to update my phone every couple of weeks because each leak was terrible in one certain spot in comparison to the official build. Then they started making hybrids, and it got a bit better. Then an official came out, and it got great. Then they made hybrids of the officials, and it was amazing.

That's how Android is, I feel.
 

dagamer34

Platinum Member
Aug 15, 2005
2,591
0
71
I used to flash all kinds of ROMs on an original Galaxy S I had for a while, but I spend more time updating the ROM than actually using the darn thing. That's when I decided for me at least, the phones I get need to stand on the software they come with, and not some hypothetical ideal a flashed ROM might be able to provide.
 

Yuriman

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2004
5,530
141
106
AOKP comes with Nova launcher, which from my experience is a little smoother and more feature-rich than Apex. Give it a try.
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
32,922
11,053
136
Why don't you just flash an official ROM and then take out the bits you don't want with Titanium?

That's what I did and I've had no problems. I've also found out that a bunch of the stock Samsung "bloatware" is actually pretty useful. Before I've always flashed an AOSP ROM without giving the stock a chance. With the SGS2, on both GB and ICS I've found stock or roms based on stock better than AOSP based ones.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,739
454
126
Why don't you just flash an official ROM and then take out the bits you don't want with Titanium?

That's what I did and I've had no problems. I've also found out that a bunch of the stock Samsung "bloatware" is actually pretty useful. Before I've always flashed an AOSP ROM without giving the stock a chance. With the SGS2, on both GB and ICS I've found stock or roms based on stock better than AOSP based ones.

There's no official release for the i777 yet. I picked shostock because it was the closest to stock I could find.
 

imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
5,199
0
0
ICS (CM9) on my Galaxy S 4g was the best thing that ever happened to it.

I also have experienced the data restore issue. Now I only restore the data for the various apps I care about and go from there. I would much rather spend 20 minutes reconfiguring ICS than deal with the stutters and force stops.