*** The Official Samsung Galaxy S4 Thread ***

Providing you do everything right, it's fairly simple*. Goldeneye is effectively a stock TW ROM with a few extra bells and whistles, like Omega ROM. Do you have Philz Custom Recovery (PCR) or TWRP Recovery installed?

EDIT - *says the guy that has just borked his S4 :o. I think I am using the wrong version of PCR though.

EDIT 2 - all good now. I need to use philz_touch_6.09.2

EDIT 3 - if you wish to do this, here is what you need to do (assuming you have none of this installed and are on the old bootloader):

Install Recovery

  1. Download Philz Recovery 6.09.2
  2. Download Odin 3.04
  3. Enable USB debugging on your phone
  4. Back up everything
  5. Go into download mode; turn off phone and then press home, lock and volume down until you get a prompt to press volume up, let go of buttons and press volume up
  6. Open Odin as administrator
  7. Click the PDA button and find the PCR.tar.md5 file
  8. Ensure re-partition is unchecked
  9. Ensure Auto Reboot, F.Reset Time and PDA are checked
  10. Plug your phone in via USB
  11. If you have successfully connected to Odin you should see the ID:COM box in Odin turn yellow or light blue
  12. Click start
  13. Restart your phone
  14. To get into recovery, whilst off, press home, lock and volume up. When the phone starts to turn on you should see some blue text in the top left hand section of the screen, when you see this let go of the lock key whilst still holding the other two. Shortly after you should enter recovery mode

Installing the latest GSM modem

  1. Download the NB8 GSM modem
  2. Upzip
  3. Open Odin as administrator
  4. Turn off your phone, take out batter and boot into download mode
  5. Ensure 'Auto reboot' is unticked
  6. Select 'Phone' and locate the .tar file
  7. Plug your phone in and make sure it's picked up
  8. Click start
  9. Once complete, turn off your phone whilst still plugged in
  10. Quickly boot into download mode again
  11. Repeat flash
  12. Restart your phone

Installing Goldeneye ROM

  1. Download the ROM
  2. Place it on the root directory of your SD card
  3. Back up your phone
  4. Enter recovery mode
  5. Wipe/factory reset
  6. Choose 'Clean to Install a new ROM'
  7. Go back to main recovery menu and choose 'Install Zip'
  8. Choose 'from /storage/sdcard1 (this is the external sdcard)
  9. Locate the ROM and install
  10. Restart (if it asks you a question about rooting before it starts, select no
  11. Boot should take a while, once booted set up your phone

I take not responsibility if it hits the fan ;)
 
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Right, after a few months back having a nightmare with any 4.3 custom ROM and eventually reverting back to completely stock, I finally had enough and wanted a custom ROM again!

Tried FoxHound, one of the latest ones. Could not get Wifi to work! :( So gave Echoe a go, and perfect!! :) Very impressed already, really liking it.
 
IvanDobskey said:
Battery life the s4 wins. My mate has an n5 and he struggles with the battery. I still easily get a full day out of my s4 with heavy use.

No doubting the n5 is the best value phone on the market though.
Click to expand...

Battery life is so random on the N5. Mine was Meh but I recently wiped my phone and it is pretty amazing, I can basically have it running most of the day (Max I have gotten is 10hours usage with 5hours of screen) and it doesn't die.
 
xibinim said:
long post
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Think I'll give it a miss though!

Currently not using any custom recovery, it's literally just a stock rooted rom I flashed via Odin. Says it's official and everything. Rather not move away from that.


On another note, just got this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DQS3ZPA

and

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00D3K7UZW

Works really well. It's tiny! Probably a little to small if I'm honest, but I don't have much room on my bedside table so works for me!
 
andy_mk3 said:
Tried FoxHound, one of the latest ones. Could not get Wifi to work! :( So gave Echoe a go, and perfect!! :) Very impressed already, really liking it.
Click to expand...

I'll second that one.. I've been using FH pretty much since I bought the phone last year, but since moving to Echoe (v14.1) the phone has been much smoother, no random reboots and much better battery life).. I am reluctant to upgrade to v16 - in case I mess something up. :-D
 
Hi all,

I have had a few issues with my S4 (or it could be Vodafone). First is signal loss but I believe that is a problem with Vodafone in Milton keynes as I do not get this problem anywhere else in the UK!

The second is the odd text message that is nearly 1 page long is corrupt, the phone seems to add half an old message to the new message. It displays as the full correct message on my phone but it is half and half on my partners phone. I must add that this has only happened on the message thread from me to my partner.
I have upped the message limit to 999 and have 5gb free internal and 16gb SD card free. Any ideas would be great.

Ps The phone is stock, no roms etc.
 
I want to flash a custom rom today and its been a while and ive kind of forgotten everything but once ive got cwm/Philz recovery on.

Ive got these details

I9505XXUAMDM = Base band

JDQ30.I9505XXUAMDM = build

Am i ok to flash any rom as it is? Was gonna try this echo one people are on about.
 
when you say OK what do you mean? Both the baseband and obviously the build can and will be changed when you reflash.

If you're bothered about your warranty then you'll need to check out the knox status but I don't know how to do that, if you're not bothered about the warranty then go right ahead.

In fact, whatever warranty you have you'll invalidate by flashing a custom recovery but the point is if you're pre knox you can stay under the radar :)

As far as I understand it, echo is a trimmed/messed about with version of the TW ROM so only just custom in my eyes lol!
 
I meant ok in the way that i read some roms then also need messing about with modem flashing as well as other bits. I just want to flash philz recovery and then a rom and be done with it:)
 
Gavin said:
I meant ok in the way that i read some roms then also need messing about with modem flashing as well as other bits. I just want to flash philz recovery and then a rom and be done with it:)
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I'm not sure you'll get a definitive "you won't need to flash a new modem" as I understand its also down to things like the network but either way, modems are super easy to flash via Odin, if you've got a recovery on there then you'll be fine.

You'll also notice if you need a new modem lol.

one thing to be aware of is that some ROMs don't seem to like some recoveries, I know I ended up having to change my version of CWM for some ROM and to be honest I've not used philz recovery.

Either way, these things are practically impossible to brick and if you've got as far as wanting a custom ROM and having flashe a recovery you're clearly not that bothered about having a quiet life! :)
 
this is my second s4 and my other one was flashed to buggery! but i dropped it lol...........

Whats the best guide to follow to install a custom recovery. Ill use CWM if you says thats better than Philz now?
 
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Gavin said:
I want to flash a custom rom today and its been a while and ive kind of forgotten everything but once ive got cwm/Philz recovery on.

Ive got these details

I9505XXUAMDM = Base band

JDQ30.I9505XXUAMDM = build

Am i ok to flash any rom as it is? Was gonna try this echo one people are on about.
Click to expand...

If you're still on MDM you'll still have the unlocked KNOX free bootloader. You might want to read up on flashing the latest roms that will require you flash the locked bootloader first. There's no going back once you've done it.
 
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oh man thats confusing me now! i was thinking of the echo rom? but i do like custom ones with loads of features to fiddle.
 
Late to the S4 world, running 4.3 with philz kernel which I always used on my S2.

Can anybody recommend a dock that will take an S4 in a gel case without having to remove the case?
 
fornowagain said:
If you're still on MDM you'll still have the unlocked KNOX free bootloader. You might want to read up on flashing the latest roms that will require you flash the locked bootloader first. There's no going back once you've done it.
Click to expand...

are you absolutely sure about that?

Flashing 100% stock ROMs as far as I understand it (as in stock samsung) will flash a knox enabled bootloader but not if you flash a tweaked non stock ROM with a cleaned up bootloader, such as CM11 or (as I have) Jamals Google Experience ROM (which is basically a pre rooted slightly tweaked version of the play edition).
 
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