Understanding Android fragmentation. Someone just got a taste of it (for you duke)

RainMotorsports

RainMotorsports

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Now this is a very old image. But its highlights the issue well enough. iPhone fanboys rejoice that since they have almost NO choice in what phone to buy, they get software updates faster.

Looking at 2010 you may notice the Nexus One is always the updated phone for android in this image. That is because the Nexus One is a pure android device. No bloatware, extra apps like say a fucking file manager. Nexus devices typically are built at the same time as a new version of android and the older models receive updates fairly quickly.

Once a new version of Android is finalized and makes its launch on New and Old Nexus devices OEM's get to work with it. They splash their own custom UI on it and add a few apps and features they can advertise as standing out against the competition. That Galaxy S4 easy mode? Only exists on Samsung Touchwiz if your installed stock android it doesn't exist!

GSM Phones tend to get updated by manufacturers first, CDMA variants (Sprint/Verizon for US) sometimes have altogether different processors and being a minority in the device chain means testing on the Radios goes slower. The international phones will get pushed the updates, rarely will a carrier interfere. But the US is different. The carrier has a ton of custom apps that the OEM has to support. Once the OEM thinks its done they go back and forth for weeks fix this, fix that. Eventually it gets pushed.

Updates might get flat out rejected by an OEM or a Carrier for say:
- HTC denied a phone Android 4.0 because they would have to wipe the phone.
- The phones hardware is plenty capable but its so old we don't wish to waste money testing the OEMs update.
- Motorola denied the Droid X2 the update to 4.0 for unknown reasons but any Dual Core device on 2.3 is being denied proper multicore support.

Carriers might reject an update for too many issues but sometimes they will allow. SPRINT pushed Android 4.x and newer to the Galaxy S2 knowing full well that a factory reset could permanently (and I mean non refurbishly so) brick the device due to the update being able to trigger a bug in the eMMC firmware. Samsung to this day has never fully worked around the issue. Google and Samsung knew of the issue before they even started working on the phones update.
 
I have a Evo 3D and the phone was great. Till the first updates started rolling in. Now every update the phone gets worst and worst.
 
Damn. Now I miss my old G1. I have it around here somewhere in a drawer.

But yes, fragmentation is a frustrating issue. Sadly it is a side effect of the openness (mostly) of the platform as well as the cheapness of many of the devices. I would love to see some kind of standardization for flagship devices, etc. That will never happen though.
 
Solution. Root your phone. Flash what you want.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk 4
 
CarpTarts said:
Solution. Root your phone. Flash what you want.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...

That in itself is not actually a solution. You don't even have to root some phones to install 3rd party firmware. I can pack it in a Tar and flash it onto my phone no matter what is on it and what has been done to it over USB and download mode.

But people with locked bootloaders share no such luck. Even if you manage to root the phone the bootloader on most new locked phones checks the recovery partition so if you install a custom recovery so that you could flash firmware the phone won't even boot. Root access doesn't exactly allow you to flash whatever you want but a custom recovery and being able to boot to that partition does. There is an exception though some Samsung phones like mine can flash firmware while running and technically possible on all but not implemented.

But thats pretty much the same issue as the kernel being changed. Which is why you switch kernels post boot using Kexec. Now Kexec has to be ported and even an unlocked and popular device like mine didn't get it for a year. But locked phone dev's are usually in more of a hurry. I haven't kept up but I believe this is basically how safestrap recovery works. I know the Verizon GS3 guys were using Kexec to swap kernels until they finally exploited the bootloader.

Last but not least if there is no developers for your phone there is nothing to install. This isn't windows. Every phone needs a decent kernel dev and a minor rom tinkerer to even get close to getting something. Which is why its usually safer to stick to GSM flagship phones.
 
My S4 checks for a custom recovery... And my recovery knows it... Offering an option to disable the removal of root or that soft brick you are talking about.

It is a safe bet with android to stick with massively popular phones (guarantees great devs) AND wait a couple of months before getting one.

I followed the XDA site for the S4 for a few months before a pulled the trigger. Glad I did too.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk 4
 
The Sprint GS2 is a fun one carp. We have a recovery.img but its not used. The recovery is actually packed into the kernel as part of the initramfs. There is no way to flash a reovery without flashing the kernel. Though it does make things easy. If you don't mind getting a temporary yellow triangle just ODIN a kernel with repacked recovery and done.

Why Samsung does random things with random models we may never know...

We haven't had a root method since the last 2.3.X releases it was patched. But dev's just provide pre rooted firmware and that gets the job done. Once the phone is rooted you you can flash kernels without setting off the counter or triangle and flashing rooted firmware alone does not set off the triangle. Most stuff can be done via ADB on a rooted device as well.

Our download counter and triangle prior to the unrootable firmwares could be reset with a USB jig, the newer bootloaders don't allow it but being unlocked its no problem we flash old bootloaders. Since 4.0.4 Triangle Away works instead so thats nice I guess. No support on CM 10.1 though...
 
Support for my Sprint S4 has been great. It is CAKE to flash the recovery, kernal, rom, etc. The GS4 and Galaxy Note 2 on sprint have been super easy.
 
Hoping the GN3 stays unlocked on sprint though I am trying to jump carriers. Also really hoping it gets official CM support quick. A few of the GS2 (E4GT) guys jumped to the GN2 for sprint and did a pretty good job jump starting CM development for it.
 
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