[rom][cm12.1] Last Hope Rom - Best Rom Ever? ;)

[.bastian]

[...] I wanted to try this rom, but I can see now, that I have to merge partitions. Thank you. [...] I hope, that this rom has the same stability as Ivans AOSP (5.1)

No, it should work with unmerged partitions equally. I've switched also from Ivans AOSP to bugers LastHope without merging my partitions. But after he has released his newest version i've decided to switch to merged partitions to prevend any storage problems and to change CWM to TeamWin Recovery.

But the problem that a rom cant see the internal storage for me is mainly based on a partitioning error so that the way using M1chas flash tools seems to be the best and the most clean solution.

If you need additional help dont hesitate to ask, you're welcome.

 

[gonzametal]

It is not clear for me. If I want to use this rom, do I have to merge partitions?
I have unified_single partions layout in my Mi2s. Can I flash this ROM directly? Do I have to Full Wipe?

 

[bialabs]

It is not clear for me. If I want to use this rom, do I have to merge partitions?
I have unified_single partions layout in my Mi2s. Can I flash this ROM directly? Do I have to Full Wipe?

Sorry guys and thank you big time for you infos - I have umerged partition with Ivans AOSP. I wanted to try this rom, but I can see now, that I have to merge partitions. Thank you. I have to clean and backup my phone first . I hope, that this rom has the same stability as Ivans AOSP (5.1)

I followed @zipalign post http://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/...out-losing-custom-recovery.28226/#post-255386
You have to merge only data partitions, not system partitions
Use Pico opengapps

Sent from my MI 2S using Tapatalk

 

[.bastian]

[...] do I have to merge partitions?
I have unified_single partions layout in my Mi2s. Can I flash this ROM directly? Do I have to Full Wipe?

No, you dont need to merge the partitions. But as far as you use M1chas tool to change the layout it would also work witch the unified_single layout.
But please dont use the newest MIUI Update to merge the partitions, because some custom roms are having trouble with this.

With unified_single you can easily flash bugers rom.
If you have to do a full wipe depends on the rom you actually use. But its always better to do a factory reset after changing the rom.

 

[MiKhan]

@Iri: you should have so called "merged/unified data & storage partition" layout.

As I understand, there are more ways how to modify the partition layout, I used Micha's flashtools (search xda-developers in Mi2 forums, Micha calls it "aries_core_unified_single").

After flashing in fastboot, you must format all partitions (system, data, cache) in recovery (TWRP / Wipe / Advanced / Change FS). If recovery says something about "not formatting /data/media", then format "data" as ext2 and then again as ext4. You should have "data" partition of much bigger size than 3.5 GB eventually.

While in TWRP, you may want to have a look at "TWRP / Mount" and set location where your storage is - although this may not be needed for flashing CM12.1 or Gapps, but may be needed to make nandroid backups.

EDIT: ah, sorry for repeating what .bastian and others wrote... I overlooked it.

 

[MiKhan]

Does anybody have the SIM Toolkit app in app drawer? It seems missing and I need it to access my bank account :-(

CM12.1 github repository has it:
https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_packages_apps_Stk/tree/cm-12.1

I looked at various forums and tried to set "SIM PIN required" but still no go. Also, I have not found the stk.apk at all. There is a bunch of stk.apk on the internet, but I do not believe it is wise to install it [1]. (I tried to install one and it wants almost every authorisation, including location, record audio, etc. It seems to me redundand...)

[1] http://getandroidapp.org/tag/com-android-stk

EDIT: I tried to push stk.apk from CM12.1 by Micha into /system/app, but it did not work. CatLog showed a permission err:

12-22 22:36:21.452 W/BroadcastQueue(1011): Permission Denial: receiving Intent { act=android.intent.action.stk.session_end flg=0x10000010 (has extras) } to com.android.stk/.StkCmdReceiver requires android.permission.RECEIVE_STK_COMMANDS due to sender com.android.phone (uid 1001)

so it seems some support from other packages is missing, too...

 

[MiKhan]

Hi,

I use skvalex call recording. Works fine with rc1.

skvalex works. It seems to use nonstandard approach compared to others.

 

[.bastian]

@Iri: [...]
EDIT: ah, sorry for repeating what .bastian and others wrote... I overlooked it.

Better twice than not at all - Beyond that yours is more detailed and maybe better to understand.

 

[swimmer]

Hmm - that ROM looks very interesting and I guess it's *really* about time to install a newer ROM since I'm still on MK44.4-aries-150131-HISTORY.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-...ript-fix-partition-table-android-4-4-t2878553
But I have to admit that I'm quite confused about the steps I have to take to install that ROM I've read so many threads with even more advices that I completely lost it ...

I have a MI2S 16Gb with the old partition layout that I just modified with Micha's script to expand the system partition. TDB is disabled and the recovery is CWM 6.0.5.1 if I remember correctly ...

Any help would be more than appreciated!

 

[.bastian]

[...]
But I have to admit that I'm quite confused about the steps I have to take to install that ROM I've read so many threads with even more advices that I completely lost it ...
[...]

MK44.4 was also my absolutely favourite, but you can be sure that you wont go back again if you've tried a good working LP Rom. And indeed bugers last release seems to be the best so far.

I recommend you to do it like this:

1. Make a Backup of your Apps with TitaniumBackup or a similar App and save all the files including your pictures etc. on your computer.
   
2. Download and install MiFlashTool from >HERE< and M1chas "unified_single"-package from >THIS THREAD<
3. Turn off your phone and restart it in fastboot mode (by pressing the power and the volume down button at the same time for several seconds)
4. Connect your phone with your computer and refresh the flashtool app until your phone is shown
5. Unpack the "aries_core_unified_single.zip" and start setting up the flashtool by clicking the down-arrow beside the browse button in the flashtool for selecting "advanced-mode"
   
6. For the fast boot script choose the "flash_core.bat" in the main folder be sure that its NOT the "flash_partition_table_and_core.bat" when you run it the first time. Ignore the section "nvbootscript" in the menu and set up all the other files located in the "images folder" (when you click the browse button of the particular field there should be only one possible file to choose in the image folder).
7. Flash it by clicking refresh and flash. Let your phone restart, shut it off again and turn on fastboot mode another time.
   
8. Run the flash tool another time with the "flash_partition_table_and_core.bat".
9. boot into recovery(which is TWRP now), recreate the filesystems for all partitions(system,data,cache,sdcard to ext4) in the wipe menu (go to the wipe menu, advanced wipe, select one of the mentioned partitions and select repair or change file system -> ext4, repeat it with all the mentioned partitions) After that reinstall your ROM -> bugers last hope rom.
10. Finished.

I wrote it from memory so if you have any problems dont hesitate to ask maybe i've wrote something a bit vague.

 

[.bastian]

Beside that, does anyone else of you mentioned a huge battery drain caused by "Google-Play-Services"?
At Ivans AOSP it was possible to block Wakeup and Keep awake with app ops to prevend it running but with bugers Rom it crashes all the time when "keep-awake" is blocked in the privacy settings.

At the moment i got it under control with GServiceFix, but i would feel better if its completely blocked.

 

[oile]

I had last Micha build with its unified partitions layout.
Flashed this erasing cache and dalvik and I have to say that it is perfect until now (but I am not using it as primary phone).
I am still so in love with this phone..
Thank you bugers and Michael

 

[swimmer]

MK44.4 was also my absolutely favourite, but you can be sure that you wont go back again if you've tried a good working LP Rom. And indeed bugers last release seems to be the best so far.

I recommend you to do it like this:

1. Make a Backup of your Apps with TitaniumBackup or a similar App and save all the files including your pictures etc. on your computer.
   
2. Download and install MiFlashTool from >HERE< and M1chas "unified_single"-package from >THIS THREAD<
3. Turn off your phone and restart it in fastboot mode (by pressing the power and the volume down button at the same time for several seconds)
4. Connect your phone with your computer and refresh the flashtool app until your phone is shown
5. Unpack the "aries_core_unified_single.zip" and start setting up the flashtool by clicking the down-arrow beside the browse button in the flashtool for selecting "advanced-mode"
   
6. For the fast boot script choose the "flash_core.bat" in the main folder be sure that its NOT the "flash_partition_table_and_core.bat" when you run it the first time. Ignore the section "nvbootscript" in the menu and set up all the other files located in the "images folder" (when you click the browse button of the particular field there should be only one possible file to choose in the image folder).
7. Flash it by clicking refresh and flash. Let your phone restart, shut it off again and turn on fastboot mode another time.
   
8. Run the flash tool another time with the "flash_partition_table_and_core.bat".
9. boot into recovery(which is TWRP now), recreate the filesystems for all partitions(system,data,cache,sdcard to ext4) in the wipe menu (go to the wipe menu, advanced wipe, select one of the mentioned partitions and select repair or change file system -> ext4, repeat it with all the mentioned partitions) After that reinstall your ROM -> bugers last hope rom.
10. Finished.

I wrote it from memory so if you have any problems dont hesitate to ask maybe i've wrote something a bit vague.

*Wow* thank you so much for that fabulous little how-to!

I only forgot to mention that I'm running Linux and not Windows ....

 

[.bastian]

[...]
I only forgot to mention that I'm running Linux and not Windows ....

Thanks for your reply

I'm also not on Windows, i use a virtual machine to do all the phone stuff. Until there is also a python based flashtool >HERE< i`m sure there is also a way using linux/unix but sadly i dont know exactly how to use it. Maybe one of the other guys here cann tell us more about it..

Edit:
In my opinion there is also another way to get your Mi2 LP ready, but with the difference that you have to use the old partition layout:

1. Backup all your data and save it on your computer - as usual
2. Put >THIS< file and Bugers Rom on your phone storage , we'll need them later.
   
3. Download IVAN's modified CWM-Version >HERE< and unzip it on your computer.
4. Reboot your Mi2 in fastboot mode -> PowerButton+Vol.Down
5. Connect your phone to your computer and fire up the terminal
6. Test the connectivity of your phone with "fastboot devices" ift this succeeds enter the following:
   

   fastboot flash aboot emmc_appsboot.mbn
   fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
   fastboot boot recovery.img

   With recovery.img and emmc_appsboot.mbn from the file above
7. Reboot your phone to Recovery (PowerButton+VolUp) if the last command didnt do that already
8. Now you are on a chinese version of CWM in which you have to flash the english version you've put on your phone in step 2.
9. After flashing reboot again to recovery which should be in englisch right now. Now you can simply flash bugers Rom.

Be aware, i cant guarantee that this works but it should until it worked also for my first try of bugers rom.

 

[MiKhan]

I am not sure what is needed on MS Windows, but on linux, it is enough to have the fastboot binary (look for corresponding package available for your distribution - e.g. android tools or complete Android SDK).

Then, you can download Micha's flashtools and run the appropriate script in CLI while the phone is attached via USB cable and booted to fastboot (aka download aka bootloader) mode.

The "flashtools" are just bourne shell scripts (using fastboot) and copies of GPT partition layout and images for modem/recovery/boot/etc. partitions. Look at the scripts, it is easy to understand what they actually do.

Note that the scripts have "fastboot reboot" as the last command, which may not be what you want. E.g. if you come from another ROM or older partition layout, Micha says that you must first run "flash_core.sh" and then "flash_partition_table_and_core.sh". It is worth to edit the scripts and to comment out the last command "fastboot reboot" and handle the reboots manually, because booting normally is not what you want in this phase.

"fastboot reboot-bootloader" gets you again to the bootloader mode (equivalent of "volume down" while powering on). If you want directly to recovery, there is no such command for fastboot. Use "fastboot reboot" and press "volume up" instead.

Once you are in TWRP with the unified_single partition layout and you have already re-formatted all the partitions (system, cache, data), you may find that there is no way how to access the internal storage of the phone - adb push does not work because your computer is not authorised.

What you can do is to switch TWRP to "adb side-load" mode (I think it is in "Advanced" section) and then run "adb sideload what_you_want_to_flash.zip" on your computer's terminal. It is effectively the same as running "install" and choosing "what_you_want_to_flash.zip" in TWRP.

"what_you_want_to_flash.zip" is obviously CM12.1 ROM, GAPPS, etc.

EDIT: a short follow up on Micha's naming of the various partition layouts:

• "aries_core_separated" - the original layout by Xiaomi for Mi2. For all ROMs until (incl.) CM11.2.
• "aries_core_separated_single" - as above, but system is enlarged and system1 is smaller. (Possibly also other partitions like modem1, boot1 are shrinked, but still exist.)
• "aries_core_unified" - data and sdcard merged together, this is used by Lollipop ROMs. (CM12 by Micha or by Bugers until Dec 2015.)
• "aries_core_unified_single" - as above, but system is enlarged and system1 is smaller. (Also other partitions like modem1, boot1 are shrinked, but still exist.)
• "aries_core_unified_single_xiaomi" - the new Xiaomi layout since MIUI 15.11.16 (or so). data and sdcard are merged, system is enlarged, and a bunch of redundant partitions (boot1, modem1, system1) are completely removed and therefore the partition numbers have changed! Suitable for CM12 by Bugers since January 2016.

 

[.bastian]

Thanks @MiKhan , nice to know that there is a probably more easy way without the need of windoze ..

 

[swimmer]

Thanks a lot .bastian & MiKhan!

I followed your instructions and was able to upgrade with those simple linux scripts

Especially the formatting of the partitions took quite some time but now all seems to be fine. The installation of the ROM and GAPPS was the easiest part ...

Now I'm discovering CM12.1 and I have to say that I still have to get used to it ... there are missing a few things like settings shortcuts in the statusbar and the cLock lockscreen that I got used to with MoKee

We'll see how that story continues

 

[嘉佳韦]

Merry Christmas

 

[Ssnipo]

Hi, I anmon AOSP And when I wiped all and formated system, install this rom, I only saw about 3GB internal storage and nothing more.
Camera told me, that there is no sd card. How can I solve this issue?

I'm stuck with 3464mb of Internal Storage, how do you solved it?

Already tried flasing unified_single from m1cha and got an error trying to flash 5.9.2 tipped by zipalign.

Edit: Got storage to 12703mb after changing to ext2 then to ext4.

 

[principio]

Fresh install on mi2s. Can anybody please check clock app, especially countdown and stopwatch? I've experienced funny things.
Clearing data for this app doesn't help.

 

[swimmer]

Fresh install on mi2s. Can anybody please check clock app, especially countdown and stopwatch? I've experienced funny things.
Clearing data for this app doesn't help.

Installed it 2 days ago ... nothing funny in that corner

 

[graw2]

Installed it 2 days ago ... nothing funny in that corner

Agreed.

Sent from my MI 2S using Tapatalk

 

[Infinitely]

Apart from the bugs already mentioned, I also noticed some anomalies when playing with the settings for the notification light. When you try to set up a certain color, the light will act weird and flash random colors. Also the light emitted doesn't match with the setting.

 

[MiKhan]

Apart from the bugs already mentioned, I also noticed some anomalies when playing with the settings for the notification light. When you try to set up a certain color, the light will act weird and flash random colors. Also the light emitted doesn't match with the setting.

)
It simply shows sequentially all colours you have tried to set since entering the sub-menu. For real notification it works as expected.
Re. the colour mismatch: it was the same in CM11, I think the LED is not capable displaying all the colours.

 

[MiKhan]

I am quite often stuck with the exclamation mark at the WiFi or GSM icon - sometime only at one of them, often both. Connection to Internet usually still works just fine, but the system often prefers the mobile data connection (which is not what I want). So far, the only option to force the WiFi connection is to manually turn off the mobile data.

I searched Google a bit and it seems to be a common problem with Lollipop. I do not know yet how to have the standard behaviour like in KiteKat - i. e. to use Wi-Fi no matter what the Android thinks about it.

EDIT: I found a good write up on the topic: http://forum.xda-developers.com/sho...582694737665dc90d87f9&p=60098281&postcount=46
What a weird feature that cannot be turned off :-(