The origin of this blog dedicated to fascinating phones is basically maroger's research in fineoils.blogspot.com. So, for starters, I plan to post maroger's thoughts on the issues with my comments and additions -- wherever possible.
There's no lack in Jelly Bean ROMs for Fascinate, and they go in every flavor. There's also no lack of flashing JB tutorials. However, a safe procedure to install Jelly Bean is not only very convoluted, it also might soft-brick your Fascinate at many points. Restoring to default firmware is equally convoluted and engaging.
I did my research and decided to follow this Juno Reactor's procedure. The genuine "OEM Samsung data cable" (and charger) has arrived, so it's high time to see what I have learned. While following the tricky procedure I did some amendments though:
-- my Fascinate is I500.04 V.ED05 and is (was) running stock Verizon Android 2.2.2, and with some rooting and other files to flash via ODIN and ClockworkMod Recovery (including even the CWR itself) being tooled to other models, I was prepared to end up with brick;
-- I've chosen to flash CM10.1 Nightly that can be found here. All half dozen custom builds of AOKP 4.1...4.2 look like snake oil with fancy theming to me. Latest Gapps could be found elsewhere;
-- the procedure described is quite unclear what to do when CWR fails to format system (? why it's even needed in the first place). I just flashed transitional ROM twice in the end and it brought me out of pickle;
-- all the procedure is quite critical to quality of both your downloads and your SD cards. I used SanDisk and "native" Samsung SD cards both formatted in the phone itself;
-- alternative methods might include rooting and pushing files via adb, but apparently this method was deemed as too complicated for regular Fascinate owners. People get hypnotized by YouTube video showing PC-less JB flashing of Samsung Mesmerize. If you own a spare Fascinate, you may try, and gain over 200,000 views on YouTube -- if successful, of course;
-- later on, when trying next Nightlies, one is supposed to do the flashing NOT out of "stock" recovery (three-finger salute, which is still present) but from "Reboot to recovery" option. This option presents itself only in Developers options that can be invoked after 8 or 9 taps on kernel information. This "security by obscurity" measure was introduced as a joke of sorts, an Easter Egg, if you like. Jokes aside, 20130307 nightly on my Fassy failed to turn on the WiFi, so I rolled back to 0303.
UPDATE: I didn't stuck at unlockable and closed by unknown password phone, but for those who encountered this problem somewhere at half-way of leaving Verizon, here's an interesting circumvention trick by Devourz:
CM10.1 on my Fascinate runs well, and unlike Nook Color, "Fassy" has its own hacked Adobe Flash player 11.1 that I was successful to sideload and install. HD video on Veetle stutters though, will investigate the issue further. Vimeo and YouTube present all their HD content as HQ only (i.e., about 480p), which also deserves some investigation. Fassy by its specs can decode and render 720p streams, so there's something left to wait for that magic CM10.1 Nightly that does videos as per specs.
GPS works as advertised, if not better: accuracy when inside the house is of about 3...5 metres.
There's no lack in Jelly Bean ROMs for Fascinate, and they go in every flavor. There's also no lack of flashing JB tutorials. However, a safe procedure to install Jelly Bean is not only very convoluted, it also might soft-brick your Fascinate at many points. Restoring to default firmware is equally convoluted and engaging.
I did my research and decided to follow this Juno Reactor's procedure. The genuine "OEM Samsung data cable" (and charger) has arrived, so it's high time to see what I have learned. While following the tricky procedure I did some amendments though:
-- my Fascinate is I500.04 V.ED05 and is (was) running stock Verizon Android 2.2.2, and with some rooting and other files to flash via ODIN and ClockworkMod Recovery (including even the CWR itself) being tooled to other models, I was prepared to end up with brick;
-- I've chosen to flash CM10.1 Nightly that can be found here. All half dozen custom builds of AOKP 4.1...4.2 look like snake oil with fancy theming to me. Latest Gapps could be found elsewhere;
-- the procedure described is quite unclear what to do when CWR fails to format system (? why it's even needed in the first place). I just flashed transitional ROM twice in the end and it brought me out of pickle;
-- all the procedure is quite critical to quality of both your downloads and your SD cards. I used SanDisk and "native" Samsung SD cards both formatted in the phone itself;
-- alternative methods might include rooting and pushing files via adb, but apparently this method was deemed as too complicated for regular Fascinate owners. People get hypnotized by YouTube video showing PC-less JB flashing of Samsung Mesmerize. If you own a spare Fascinate, you may try, and gain over 200,000 views on YouTube -- if successful, of course;
-- later on, when trying next Nightlies, one is supposed to do the flashing NOT out of "stock" recovery (three-finger salute, which is still present) but from "Reboot to recovery" option. This option presents itself only in Developers options that can be invoked after 8 or 9 taps on kernel information. This "security by obscurity" measure was introduced as a joke of sorts, an Easter Egg, if you like. Jokes aside, 20130307 nightly on my Fassy failed to turn on the WiFi, so I rolled back to 0303.
UPDATE: I didn't stuck at unlockable and closed by unknown password phone, but for those who encountered this problem somewhere at half-way of leaving Verizon, here's an interesting circumvention trick by Devourz:
1. Completely power off and power on your Galaxy-S phone.
2. Right after you pass the Galaxy-S and just before the Verizon Wireless logo video ends, immediately tap on the home button extremely fast and repeatedly (at least 4-5 times per second). If the Emergency Call button pops up, click that every now and then (3-5 times) but keep tapping on the home button. During this process your phone may flash the password screen or keypad screen just a few times and your phone will seem to be lagging due to the tapping.
3. Keep tapping until you see your Android home buttons stay steady at the bottom. Voila, you’re in your phone! If the emergency keypad constantly shows up or if it shows the Google account screen constantly, you have failed. The success rate can be around 15-50% so keep trying until it works. (You may want to grab a young phone-savvy guy or girl to do it if your fingers are too slow)
4. Find and run the Settings App and go to Accounts & Sync.
5. Under Manage Accounts, remove all accounts except your Google account.
6. Press your power button off and on and enter your correct Google account information.
7. It will ask for a new security pattern. Enter it twice and you are done!
This solution worked for me. If it does for you, please leave a comment with your carrier and phone model to let others know that it worked!
CM10.1 on my Fascinate runs well, and unlike Nook Color, "Fassy" has its own hacked Adobe Flash player 11.1 that I was successful to sideload and install. HD video on Veetle stutters though, will investigate the issue further. Vimeo and YouTube present all their HD content as HQ only (i.e., about 480p), which also deserves some investigation. Fassy by its specs can decode and render 720p streams, so there's something left to wait for that magic CM10.1 Nightly that does videos as per specs.
GPS works as advertised, if not better: accuracy when inside the house is of about 3...5 metres.
No such luck here: 15...30 feet when from inside. However, my position jerks quite a bit when in motion outside. Bluetooth sees every other BT device in my vicinity, and pairs without any hiccups. Google Now works fine on my voice, but I probably need to work on my pronunciation manner for, say, Fine Oils: Google Now offers to "find oils" no matter what. As for phone/3G and all that stuff from Verizon I don't need any, thank you. Will get me Google Voice/Talk or Google+ with its Hangouts, and that's it.
Camera works fine, though I didn't try that HDR mode that can stuck, as per some reports. Custom XBMC + MX Player installs and plays like there's no tomorrow:
UPDATE: I have tried Torch, it works fine, shines like a car xenons. Only with my half dead battery, plus a weak charger from LG, it translates into depleting that battery in just minutes. HDR mode sure can be stuck, but additional touch on "HDR" in the arc turns off the mode just fine. In any case, HDR effects might be fine if the camera would be of 13 MP and with a larger sensor. But then, the phone itself wouldn't be Fascinate, nicht wahr?
Setting 1200 MHz clock for CPU made my Fascinate hang, so I returned it to 1000 MHz stock. There are some alternative 1200 MHz kernels available out there, but I'm absolutely not into those Quadrant games. Better NEON/VPA support to render 720p streams fluidly, at about 55 FPS is much more desirable target. Sideloaded Adobe Flash player despite being of version 11.1 struggles with HD content. Which, in turn, might be not the Flash problem but lack of HW video decoding/rendering support in this particular Fascinate CM10.1 ROM.
Camera works fine, though I didn't try that HDR mode that can stuck, as per some reports. Custom XBMC + MX Player installs and plays like there's no tomorrow:
UPDATE: I have tried Torch, it works fine, shines like a car xenons. Only with my half dead battery, plus a weak charger from LG, it translates into depleting that battery in just minutes. HDR mode sure can be stuck, but additional touch on "HDR" in the arc turns off the mode just fine. In any case, HDR effects might be fine if the camera would be of 13 MP and with a larger sensor. But then, the phone itself wouldn't be Fascinate, nicht wahr?
Setting 1200 MHz clock for CPU made my Fascinate hang, so I returned it to 1000 MHz stock. There are some alternative 1200 MHz kernels available out there, but I'm absolutely not into those Quadrant games. Better NEON/VPA support to render 720p streams fluidly, at about 55 FPS is much more desirable target. Sideloaded Adobe Flash player despite being of version 11.1 struggles with HD content. Which, in turn, might be not the Flash problem but lack of HW video decoding/rendering support in this particular Fascinate CM10.1 ROM.
Sasha's UPDATE: HDR is flaky still, to the extent that reflash might be needed.
No comments:
Post a Comment