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

[poofyhairguy]

If ICS is a port for your device then it won't be stable.

The i777 and the i9100 are so similar that it is not a problem.



PM actually seemed to address the real issue in OP, so I will go on about some details:

AOKP vs Modified Stock (Shostock2)- I am using AOKP to get at a more pure ICS experience, but you lose features (like HMDI out). Both are good enough to be a daily driver, AOKP is a little less stable for me though due to GFX drivers not being 100%. Just be sure to add a kernel if you go AOKP, the CM9 one sucks.

Battery Life- Either AOKP or Shostock2 with the appropriate Neak kernel gets the best battery life I have gotten so far on my SGS2.

Launcher- I like Apex best. Don't forget about Chrome too as its is amazing on a phone (compared to so-so on a tablet)

Contacts- Yeah it sucks, contacts are separated from the dialer so it wastes two spots in my dock. It is this way in AOKP and stock, no way to go back. Only solution would be to switch contacts to something like the Go suite. Sigh, progress.....

 

[Occ]

Yeah, I'm still waiting for ICS development to smooth out more for i777 before jumping into ROMs for it. Particularly since I get really good battery life with the last Unnamed and latest Entropy kernel combo. Can squeeze out 5 days with light usage.

 

[shortylickens]

I used ICS on a Nexus at Verizon. It was delightful.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Yeah, I'm still waiting for ICS development to smooth out more for i777 before jumping into ROMs for it. Particularly since I get really good battery life with the last Unnamed and latest Entropy kernel combo. Can squeeze out 5 days with light usage.

I held off on ICS for a while but it's really much more stable than I would have expected.

 

[gorcorps]

The i777 and the i9100 are so similar that it is not a problem.



PM actually seemed to address the real issue in OP, so I will go on about some details:

AOKP vs Modified Stock (Shostock2)- I am using AOKP to get at a more pure ICS experience, but you lose features (like HMDI out). Both are good enough to be a daily driver, AOKP is a little less stable for me though due to GFX drivers not being 100%. Just be sure to add a kernel if you go AOKP, the CM9 one sucks.

Battery Life- Either AOKP or Shostock2 with the appropriate Neak kernel gets the best battery life I have gotten so far on my SGS2.

Launcher- I like Apex best. Don't forget about Chrome too as its is amazing on a phone (compared to so-so on a tablet)

Contacts- Yeah it sucks, contacts are separated from the dialer so it wastes two spots in my dock. It is this way in AOKP and stock, no way to go back. Only solution would be to switch contacts to something like the Go suite. Sigh, progress.....

I have a small solution with the dock issue here. With any of the ICS launcher (apex, nova, etc) you can also put a folder in the dock. So I dropped contacts onto the dialer to make a folder, and put that on the dock. It doesn't solve the issue of having to exit one to get to the other, but at least saves dock space which is part of the issue.

 

[Geekbabe]

I used ICS on a Nexus at Verizon. It was delightful.

I can tell you that it is a delight to use every day, I'm very pleased with my Gnex, it's a real work horse of a phone.

 

[Red Storm]

I can tell you that it is a delight to use every day, I'm very pleased with my Gnex, it's a real work horse of a phone.

Yeah, I'm using a Razr Maxx now for the battery, but when I see my friend's Nexus I really miss it. Great phone, great OS.

 

[gorcorps]

Ok... I'm starting fresh and taking pm's advice since it sounds like his experience most closely matches mine. I wiped/factory reset and reinstalled rom. I skipped signing in to google, and installed Ti backup from an apk. I'm only restoring the few apps + data that I want to keep because of log in info and stuff like that. The majority I'm going to redownload fresh and not touch again. THEN I'll log into google and sync contacts and stuff.

Hopefully this gives me a smoother experience. If not I'll try another rom tomorrow.

 

[zerogear]

I have a galaxy S2 (i9100) with resurrection remix rom on there (aokp with cm9 tweaks). Personally I think it runs great. Of course with all custom roms there are issues to iron out. But day to day use, no issues and extremely smooth.

 

[gorcorps]

Well... I've had 6 instances today where my phone has been completely shut off after I pick it up after setting it down, and the battery level jumps down about 10% every time it happens. Seems to occur more often when I set it on its face, and maybe once from the pocket. It doesn't seem to get hot and I didn't have this problem yesterday.

When it's actually running it feels smoother then it used to which is good, but I think AOKP is going on this thing tonight. At this point in time I do believe Shostock is a dirty prank being played on noobs like me and the dev is laughing hysterically.

 

[Midwayman]

Restoring data between major revisions of OS is almost always cause for bad stuff happening. Wipe in CWM and reflash.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Restoring data between major revisions of OS is almost always cause for bad stuff happening. Wipe in CWM and reflash.

Yes. Never restore data!

 

[gorcorps]

Yes. Never restore data!

Wouldn't Ti backup be rendered completely useless if you can't even back up and restore app data? It's not like I was trying to restore GB system data on an ICS OS.

 

[Yuriman]

I've been running AOKP + stock kernel for two weeks and though I've run into a few small bugs, none of them have been deal-breaking. I hear the CM9 kernel sucks balls but Task included it with his ROM for some reason, and I haven't had any stability issues at all. My phone hasn't been rebooted except to flash a newer version of AOKP, and my wife's is still on from when I installed AOKP two weeks ago.

I have an HDMI adapter on its way to me now though so if that doesn't work with the AOKP ROM... well I'll probably ask the community if someone can work on a fix for it. Is this kernel related or ROM related?

As for your battery jumping to 10% after a restart, Working As Intended. I thought it did this on Gingerbread too?

EDIT: I agree with you on the screen-swiping bit. It took some getting used-to, I liked how it "felt" on Gingerbread better. If there's anything I'm looking forward to from the official Samsung ROM, it's the calibration for the touchscreen, or whatever it needs.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Wouldn't Ti backup be rendered completely useless if you can't even back up and restore app data? It's not like I was trying to restore GB system data on an ICS OS.

No, I agree with you. Some people are more strict about not restoring data than others. In my personal experience, I've only had problems when I did a batch restore of all data. Especially since, when I first got the app, I used to use the "backup all user apps and system data" function, which is just bad news.

It sounds like you did the right thing in one of your other posts - reinstalling the apps manually and restoring data only for the ones where it's really useful. I'd say that's one of the best ways to use Titanium Backup. But there are a lot of other things it's good for. It's a hassle-free way of removing carrier bloatware while still keeping a backup (you can either backup and uninstall, or simply "freeze" if you have the pro version). You can use it to detach certain apps from the market if they are annoying you with update requests and you don't want to update them for whatever reason. There are a lot of things it does beyond simply backup and restore.

It's too bad you've had so many problems with your phone. But I guess when you're using community-made software that isn't officially supported, there are bound to be issues every once in a while.

 

[gorcorps]

I've been running AOKP + stock kernel for two weeks and though I've run into a few small bugs, none of them have been deal-breaking. I hear the CM9 kernel sucks balls but Task included it with his ROM for some reason, and I haven't had any stability issues at all. My phone hasn't been rebooted except to flash a newer version of AOKP, and my wife's is still on from when I installed AOKP two weeks ago.

I have an HDMI adapter on its way to me now though so if that doesn't work with the AOKP ROM... well I'll probably ask the community if someone can work on a fix for it. Is this kernel related or ROM related?

As for your battery jumping to 10% after a restart, Working As Intended. I thought it did this on Gingerbread too?

EDIT: I agree with you on the screen-swiping bit. It took some getting used-to, I liked how it "felt" on Gingerbread better. If there's anything I'm looking forward to from the official Samsung ROM, it's the calibration for the touchscreen, or whatever it needs.

Well as far as the battery jump goes, that's been phone dependant in my experience (and maybe a bit kernal/OS based). My Atrix battery meter always seems incredibly inaccurate, and reboot would "refresh" the counter and be closer to correct again. This could have been up to a 25% shift in either direction. Sometimes the counter wasn't really keeping up with my use so if it rebooted it read lower on boot, but sometimes it seemed like it was trying to predict my battery level based on my useage and a reboot would give me a HIGHER battery level on boot.

The SGS2 has been a lot more stable in this regard since day one, and I have rarely had to reboot it so it's hard to say how it acted. But with this latest bug, I could set my phone down for just a bit, then pick it up and it'd have drained ~10% after booting it back up. I would expect if it was actual battery drain in that time my phone would be noticeably warm. I can tell after a good 10-15 minutes of gaming what my phone feels like after heavy use, and it doesn't get that hot when it shuts itself down like this.

Very very odd

Also, the screen swiping has been better since my latest reflash. Other than this random shut-off bug it's a lot more responsive then it was the first time.

 

[sygyzy]

What an ignorant review. Can you really not make a distinction between the OS (ICS) and your poor experience because you HACKED your phone to install it? That's like saying I took an engine from a Mustang and put it in a Yaris and while they are both cars, I am having a bunch of problems. [I actually am not a car guy so I don't know how well this analogy works. Let me know if you want me to come up with 5 other ones]

 

[gorcorps]

What an ignorant review. Can you really not make a distinction between the OS (ICS) and your poor experience because you HACKED your phone to install it? That's like saying I took an engine from a Mustang and put it in a Yaris and while they are both cars, I am having a bunch of problems. [I actually am not a car guy so I don't know how well this analogy works. Let me know if you want me to come up with 5 other ones]

I've held off of roms specifically for stability problems. After reading other opinions and talking to people on here, I was led to believe that it's finally as stable as when they were running official GB. I had no reason to not believe them, so what else could I say? I've had no other interaction with ICS so I didn't know if the swiping action was an actual issue or something people actually liked. How the hell was I supposed to know when I've never used it before? Espcially since my LAST custom/hacked rom I used was rock solid and fantastic?

That's why I made the post... I needed to know what was normal and what wasn't. Luckily pm relayed a similar issue so I was able to try some things to fix it (still in progress).

In short: this wasn't supposed to be a review but a vent, and cry for help... and you're going to die alone in a gutter if you're this much of an asshole to people in real life. Good luck

 

[Raduque]

I'm using the UCLD3 leak with NEAK ICS kernel, and I couldn't be happier.

I bought a Samsung phone because I wanted the Samsung software enhancements. AOSP Android would defeat the purpose. If I wanted basic boring Google-stock Android, I would've waited and bought a Galaxy Nexus now that they're $400.

I have an HDMI adapter on its way to me now though so if that doesn't work with the AOKP ROM... well I'll probably ask the community if someone can work on a fix for it. Is this kernel related or ROM related?

It's driver-related, I believe. The MHL driver probably doesn't work correctly without Samsung frameworks, and CM9/AOKP eliminates them from the source. And since the drivers are closed-source, there's no way to re-write the MHL driver to not rely on Samsung's code.

Edit: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1614619

 

[gorcorps]

I'm using the UCLD3 leak with NEAK ICS kernel, and I couldn't be happier.

I bought a Samsung phone because I wanted the Samsung software enhancements. AOSP Android would defeat the purpose. If I wanted basic boring Google-stock Android, I would've waited and bought a Galaxy Nexus now that they're $400.




It's driver-related, I believe. The MHL driver probably doesn't work correctly without Samsung frameworks, and CM9/AOKP eliminates them from the source. And since the drivers are closed-source, there's no way to re-write the MHL driver to not rely on Samsung's code.

Edit: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1614619

What samsung specific enhancements were you looking to keep?

 

[poofyhairguy]

I've held off of roms specifically for stability problems. After reading other opinions and talking to people on here, I was led to believe that it's finally as stable as when they were running official GB. I had no reason to not believe them, so what else could I say?

Yeah, I am fairly surprised by your stability issues. I used Titanium backup myself to retore app+data on all my most used apps in Gingerbread on my switch and I didn't have nearly the same issues. Hope you can get to a stable platform.

The SGS2 has been a lot more stable in this regard since day one, and I have rarely had to reboot it so it's hard to say how it acted. But with this latest bug, I could set my phone down for just a bit, then pick it up and it'd have drained ~10% after booting it back up. I would expect if it was actual battery drain in that time my phone would be noticeably warm. I can tell after a good 10-15 minutes of gaming what my phone feels like after heavy use, and it doesn't get that hot when it shuts itself down like this.

Very very odd

I have been fighting that bug a long time since I swap batteries instead of charge my phone. Sometimes I will stick in a fresh battery and it will not read 100%, or sometimes I put it one I used fo a while and it will show a percentage that is way lower than what I expected. Asking around on XDA (and reading) from my understanding it has to do with how the battery in a i777 calibrate itself, some sort of hardware limitation. In my experience it doesn't damage the batteries (thank goodness).


So what ICS ROMs and kernels have you tried so far?

 

[gorcorps]

So what ICS ROMs and kernels have you tried so far?

So far just Shostock 2.2.5 and whatever kernal he includes as default now (cherry picker maybe?)

I think I might try AOKP tonight if I get out of work at a reasonable hour

 

[pm]

So are things fixed, gocorps? You mentioned "in progress" above... did a selective restore fix things?

I'm still cranking away on the latest ShoStock on my i777. The battery life is awesome and there's been no stability issues. Things are just working for me. I don't know quite what to suggest except AOKP... or go back to UnNamed and wait for the official ICS port for i777 from AT&T/Samsung.

 

[AstroManLuca]

What an ignorant review. Can you really not make a distinction between the OS (ICS) and your poor experience because you HACKED your phone to install it? That's like saying I took an engine from a Mustang and put it in a Yaris and while they are both cars, I am having a bunch of problems. [I actually am not a car guy so I don't know how well this analogy works. Let me know if you want me to come up with 5 other ones]

Way to not read the thread.

 

[Midwayman]

No, I agree with you. Some people are more strict about not restoring data than others. In my personal experience, I've only had problems when I did a batch restore of all data. Especially since, when I first got the app, I used to use the "backup all user apps and system data" function, which is just bad news.

Trouble is that ICS and GB use different builds of the apps in some cases. restoring the data to a different version of an app, even if its not a system app can cause issues. Its one of those things that you can give a shot, but don't go complaining about stability if you have restored any data.