[toomdrix]

I've tried a number of different firmwares to try and get around the fact that the G9 crashes (ALOT) and here are my findings so far:

- Stock firmware was terrible crashes all the time, slow and essentially unusable
- EKEN firmware with CPU limited to 960 was better, a bit quicker but still crashes a lot.
- V4.17 with CM10 I couldn't get to install at all, status 0 error every time I try to flash the ROM
- V4.20 was the best of the bunch in terms of performance but still crashed and had problems installing apps from the store.
- Q7pro-H9 firmware sounded like it was the holy grail, turned out to be the buggiest and least stable of all

So to summarize in my opinion V4.20 shows the most promise but is there anything else I could try? I just want the damn thing to start up reliably and then not crash so easily.

[gringohero]

I'm in the same boat as yourself, I've tried pretty much every firmware/rom option on these forums. Generally they either don't work at all or appear to be brilliant and slowly decline to the crashing/non-booting brick I'm left with every couple of months.

My best experience so far was with a clean install of the latest v4.20 Gemei G9 firmware then running basics on the tasselhoff script but again after 2-3 months of usage, it slowed, crashed more, then eventually would never power-on without being plugged in and having 100% battery .

I've still not managed to get the CM10 on modded G9 firmware working but am confident that is the most stable option available for now. I'll try again next week with it.
I'm running similar on my Xperia Ray phone and it flys compared to the stock rom.

[apollo_el]

gringohero, on 03 January 2013 - 06:53 AM, said:

I'm in the same boat as yourself, I've tried pretty much every firmware/rom option on these forums. Generally they either don't work at all or appear to be brilliant and slowly decline to the crashing/non-booting brick I'm left with every couple of months.

My best experience so far was with a clean install of the latest v4.20 Gemei G9 firmware then running basics on the tasselhoff script but again after 2-3 months of usage, it slowed, crashed more, then eventually would never power-on without being plugged in and having 100% battery .

I've still not managed to get the CM10 on modded G9 firmware working but am confident that is the most stable option available for now. I'll try again next week with it.
I'm running similar on my Xperia Ray phone and it flys compared to the stock rom.

Compared to the stock ROM, CM10 is better for sure. I have it, for a few months now. However, the effect of "slowing down" with time, something that I personally like to call the "degradation effect", is still there. As you, most eloquently, put it, at first they all seem to appear brilliant. I personally, want to use the G9 for basic everyday stuff (games is not my thing). I'm not even satisfied with browsing the net. Of course, here we most probably have a hardware-issue, as I assume (internal wi-fi antenna?). Anyhow, the Holy Grail for a stable, speedy firmware for G9, seems to me that will remain just that!

This post has been edited by apollo_el: 04 January 2013 - 11:29 AM

[gringohero]

Out of curiosity I tried performing a "Restore to factory settings" within CWM. So I returned to stock Gemei v4.20 rom without any scripts on top... must say WiFi is the best it's ever been - even picking up the neighbours signal at times. The Play Store included in the rom is buggy still but I've found almost everything I need in the chinese app store it comes preloaded with - which never seems to crash and neither do the apps installed from it strangely.

I wonder if doing a system backup in CWM and restoring this every so often instead of formatting it would help with the "slowing down" issue, this would also negate the time consuming task of reinstalling apps one by one, unsure if it would backup app-data however or if this would wipe any documents etc. stored on sd?

[toomdrix]

After a bit of tinkering with the cpu setting etc I've got the 4.20 firmware to behave at least to the point that I can use it to browse the net quite comfortably, which is all I want really. I hope it doesn't degrade over the coming weeks, we'll see. But for now I'm happy enough with it.

I found that it still crashes semi-regularly with the standard browser but dolphin barely crashes at all.

[turmstrasser]

I sent my faulty g9 back to the seller 3 months ago. Yesterday I received it. Probably..... Fixed! I I asked them to check the motherboard and ram and replaced them if possible cos 99 per cent are faulty. I don't know what they actually did to my g9 (sn, is the same as shown in the back black cover) but now it works. I can turn it off and on without problems. No freezes and stuff. Time will show better.

Ps: under the settings/info I see v4.21.07 chs

[gringohero]

Wow, keep us updated on that please turmstrasser. Could it finally be a stable stock rom? The latest on Gemei website is still v.4.20 so hopefully it'll get released shortly.

[Supy73]

Hello,

Following up apollo_el suggestion, I too have tried the AOKP ROM.

NOTE: PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK

Please NOTE that you need Clockworkmod installed on your device (ref. Christian Troy post on how to do it easily CWM Installation)

I followed this installation instructions, with few additonal steps, from Christian Troy (AOKP for Allwinner tablet):

Instructions:

* Upload zips to MicroSD or internal memory.
* Boot into CWM keeping pressed VOL- (MENU) and POWER for 3 secs, than release POWER and after another sec release VOL- (or use Novo7 tools if it doesn't work for your device)

Additional steps (just to make a clean install):
*** Under Advanced - wipe Dalvik cache
*** Under mount and storage - Format /system, Format /cache, Format /data
*** Under main menu - wipe cache
End of additonal steps

* Select "wipe data/factory reset"
* Select "install zip from sdcard" -> "choose zip from sdcard" (or "choose zip from internal sdcard" if your files are into internal memory) and flash, in this order, rom / gapps / compatibility zip
* Now go back, and select "Reboot system now"
* Enjoy AOKP

The files I used are all provided by Christian Troy and you can find them at the following links:

AOKP ROM (ICS 4.0.4) - AOKP 20120708
gapps-ics-20120429-signed.zip - Google Apps for ICS
907c_compatibility_1.2.0 - Gemei G9 compatibility zip

Just in case, I report here below the comment made by Christian and the link to the legacy file (even if I didn't use it):
* Gemei G9 (those not working fine with "regular" 907c comp zip) needs g9_legacy-compatibility_vX.zip comp zip
g9_legacy-compatibility_v1.zip - G9 legacy compatibility zip

My Gemei G9 works pretty good, but only time will tell if this is the one or not.
So far Google Play works fine, I can find all the app I need and a couple of games that weren't working before, now are working.
I installed all other Google apps from the Play store and they all work fine.
I use Boat Browser (that supports Flash) and it seems pretty fast, by the way, you have to install Flash via the apk (see instructions: Flash Installation Instructions)
You can find the Flash apk here: Flash apk archive

Hopefully this will be useful to someone and if you find any better ROm, please let us know.

Many thanks to apollo_el for finding it and very special thanks to Christian Troy for all the developement work.

[apollo_el]

Supy73, on 12 February 2013 - 01:32 PM, said:

Hello,

Following up apollo_el suggestion, I too have tried the AOKP ROM.

NOTE: PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK

Please NOTE that you need Clockworkmod installed on your device (ref. Christian Troy post on how to do it easily CWM Installation)

I followed this installation instructions, with few additonal steps, from Christian Troy (AOKP for Allwinner tablet):

Instructions:

* Upload zips to MicroSD or internal memory.
* Boot into CWM keeping pressed VOL- (MENU) and POWER for 3 secs, than release POWER and after another sec release VOL- (or use Novo7 tools if it doesn't work for your device)

Additional steps (just to make a clean install):
*** Under Advanced - wipe Dalvik cache
*** Under mount and storage - Format /system, Format /cache, Format /data
*** Under main menu - wipe cache
End of additonal steps

* Select "wipe data/factory reset"
* Select "install zip from sdcard" -> "choose zip from sdcard" (or "choose zip from internal sdcard" if your files are into internal memory) and flash, in this order, rom / gapps / compatibility zip
* Now go back, and select "Reboot system now"
* Enjoy AOKP

The files I used are all provided by Christian Troy and you can find them at the following links:

AOKP ROM (ICS 4.0.4) - AOKP 20120708
gapps-ics-20120429-signed.zip - Google Apps for ICS
907c_compatibility_1.2.0 - Gemei G9 compatibility zip

Just in case, I report here below the comment made by Christian and the link to the legacy file (even if I didn't use it):
* Gemei G9 (those not working fine with "regular" 907c comp zip) needs g9_legacy-compatibility_vX.zip comp zip
g9_legacy-compatibility_v1.zip - G9 legacy compatibility zip

My Gemei G9 works pretty good, but only time will tell if this is the one or not.
So far Google Play works fine, I can find all the app I need and a couple of games that weren't working before, now are working.
I installed all other Google apps from the Play store and they all work fine.
I use Boat Browser (that supports Flash) and it seems pretty fast, by the way, you have to install Flash via the apk (see instructions: Flash Installation Instructions)
You can find the Flash apk here: Flash apk archive

Hopefully this will be useful to someone and if you find any better ROm, please let us know.

Many thanks to apollo_el for finding it and very special thanks to Christian Troy for all the developement work.

Loved your post. Very organized and thorough! I'm glad I was able to help. It's been a couple of weeks now, and it looks sweet so far.

I'd like to ask if you could check out something for me. Connecting to the host port the OTG-provided cable, to access an external hdd, seems to work for 1 out of 3 of my hdds I have tried; 2 of them cannot be read and the drives sound as if they go in an endless on/off loop. They are all NTFS formatted. In the notifications bar, I get "an sd-car was removed". This is the only thing I've stumbled upon, so far at least, (didn't have it with CM10).

[Supy73]

apollo_el, on 13 February 2013 - 05:53 PM, said:

Loved your post. Very organized and thorough! I'm glad I was able to help. It's been a couple of weeks now, and it looks sweet so far.

I'd like to ask if you could check out something for me. Connecting to the host port the OTG-provided cable, to access an external hdd, seems to work for 1 out of 3 of my hdds I have tried; 2 of them cannot be read and the drives sound as if they go in an endless on/off loop. They are all NTFS formatted. In the notifications bar, I get "an sd-car was removed". This is the only thing I've stumbled upon, so far at least, (didn't have it with CM10).

Thanks, but I just put together in one place all the info spred across the internet.

Anyway, I tried to connect my external HDD's.
The ones formatted as FAT32 are not a problem.
The ones formatted as NTFS are not recognized at all. No notifications of any sort.
From a very brief search it seems a format compatibility issue.

I found these two apps on Google Play which might be able to help you.

My link
My link

I didn't try myself as I am at work now.
Let me know how it goes.

[apollo_el]

Supy73, on 14 February 2013 - 04:33 AM, said:

Thanks, but I just put together in one place all the info spred across the internet.

Anyway, I tried to connect my external HDD's.
The ones formatted as FAT32 are not a problem.
The ones formatted as NTFS are not recognized at all. No notifications of any sort.
From a very brief search it seems a format compatibility issue.

I found these two apps on Google Play which might be able to help you.

My link
My link

I didn't try myself as I am at work now.
Let me know how it goes.

That's what I meant. It is often a hassle to look around, instead of having things organized in one place. In my opinion, your guided steps will be appreciated by G9 AOKP newcomers.

I also googled the NTFS/FAT32 issue, when I first diagnozed the problem. Yes, I, too, stumbled upon NTFS mounter, but it did not work for me, so I opted for asking a fellow AOKP G9 user. Paragon, helped after booting up a couple of times. Perhaps, you could also try them out and report here (interested in some inconsistencies between my installation and yours).

Just so that others know, I'm still satisfied with this ROM. WiFi reception (signal strength) has been improved, since never before was I able to use my G9 on the upper floor (rooter/modem on the lower floor). Also, turning on the WiFi is much faster (especially after booting), and thus with this ROM I, for sure, can connect promptly to the net, for the first time! My aim is to use this tablet for normal browsing, video watching, etc. Have not tried with games as of now.

This post has been edited by apollo_el: 14 February 2013 - 07:52 PM

[Supy73]

apollo_el, on 14 February 2013 - 07:39 PM, said:

That's what I meant. It is often a hassle to look around, instead of having things organized in one place. In my opinion, your guided steps will be appreciated by G9 AOKP newcomers.

I also googled the NTFS/FAT32 issue, when I first diagnozed the problem. Yes, I, too, stumbled upon NTFS mounter, but it did not work for me, so I opted for asking a fellow AOKP G9 user. Paragon, helped after booting up a couple of times. Perhaps, you could also try them out and report here (interested in some inconsistencies between my installation and yours).

Just so that others know, I'm still satisfied with this ROM. WiFi reception (signal strength) has been improved, since never before was I able to use my G9 on the upper floor (rooter/modem on the lower floor). Also, turning on the WiFi is much faster (especially after booting), and thus with this ROM I, for sure, can connect promptly to the net, for the first time! My aim is to use this tablet for normal browsing, video watching, etc. Have not tried with games as of now.

I'll have a look at those tools as soon as possible.
Can't promise it will be over the weekend, but I'll see what I can do.

So far I'm too very satisfied with this ROM, but I guess that the real evaluation comes when you install and run a lot of apps.
That seems to be the issue with the other ROM's I tried before.

Anyway, at the moment browsing internet is definitely faster than before.

[apollo_el]

Supy73, on 15 February 2013 - 08:08 AM, said:

I'll have a look at those tools as soon as possible.
Can't promise it will be over the weekend, but I'll see what I can do.

So far I'm too very satisfied with this ROM, but I guess that the real evaluation comes when you install and run a lot of apps.
That seems to be the issue with the other ROM's I tried before.

Anyway, at the moment browsing internet is definitely faster than before.

I agree with you, however, my own personal testing techniques have not changed since I got my G9. I always test the same apps, and thus, my use of the tablet
has been pretty consistent (with every other ROM I have tried). If this does not get sluggish with time, I will personally claim this as a winner (at least
for basic usage, which has always been my goal).

Take your time, and report whenever you are availabe.

Thanks

This post has been edited by apollo_el: 15 February 2013 - 09:50 AM

[Supy73]

apollo_el, on 15 February 2013 - 09:48 AM, said:

I agree with you, however, my own personal testing techniques have not changed since I got my G9. I always test the same apps, and thus, my use of the tablet
has been pretty consistent (with every other ROM I have tried). If this does not get sluggish with time, I will personally claim this as a winner (at least
for basic usage, which has always been my goal).

Take your time, and report whenever you are availabe.

Thanks

Ok I tested the NTFS mounter and Paragon and I had the same issues you had.
So I think that unless we find something else, we have to live with the fact that we can't mount NTFS drives.

On an unrelated subject, I'd like to ask you a question.

I noticed that with this ROM there are a lot of settings related to mobile network.
Also, in my notification bar, there is a grey triangular icon with an x in it (close to the wireless one).
It is basically the same kind of icon you have on your phone when there is no network in range.
Considering that the Gemei G9 does not have 3G embedded in it, is there a way to eliminate the mobile network icon?

Thanks

[apollo_el]

Supy73, on 18 February 2013 - 07:08 AM, said:

Ok I tested the NTFS mounter and Paragon and I had the same issues you had.
So I think that unless we find something else, we have to live with the fact that we can't mount NTFS drives.

On an unrelated subject, I'd like to ask you a question.

I noticed that with this ROM there are a lot of settings related to mobile network.
Also, in my notification bar, there is a grey triangular icon with an x in it (close to the wireless one).
It is basically the same kind of icon you have on your phone when there is no network in range.
Considering that the Gemei G9 does not have 3G embedded in it, is there a way to eliminate the mobile network icon?

Thanks

Ok, just to clarify; NTFS mounter did not work for me, however, Paragon did work (with all my external hdds), after rebooting a few times. So, I believe you should give it another go.

With this ROM, there are a gazillion different settings available (no comparison to any other ROM I have ever tried with the G9), via "ROM control". The vast majority (perhaps not all, but the ones I have played around with) seem to do what they are supposed to do.

About the "triangle" now (3g signal indicator), go to: ROM Control--->Signal (STATUSBAR category)--->Hide signal bars (tick this). If it does not work, just like that, reboot.

p.s. while you are at it, you may change colors and text styles as well for the wifi signal icon, same with battery and the navigation bar (even add new buttons etc). Awesome-neato stuff!

This post has been edited by apollo_el: 19 February 2013 - 05:44 PM

[Supy73]

thank you for the 3G signal indicator, it was driving me crazy.

About Paragon, I tried reboting 10 times and nothing, no way it recognize my NTFS external HD.
No big deal, as I wasn't using this feature in the past anyway.

For the rest, this AOKP ROM is smoother than anything else I tried.

For the first time in almost a year I can finally start an up as soon as it boots up.
Also widgets have improved in term of responsivness.

So glad you posted it.