Hi. My story if any one is interested:
I bought a second hand mediacom 101 S2 tablet on the cheap and just wanted to use it so that I could get to know Android better (I have always used Windows phones till now) and also for simple web surfing, news reading, e-mails etc. The kids also use it for simple games.
The original stock rom was terrible. Very slow, no storage space, freezing, and very slow / difficult to connect to wifi and sometomes difficulty booting. I found a sort of customised ROM which was based on the original but just had a load of junk software removed. Wifi was perfect in the new ROM and connected immediately. Booting was also improved. However, tablet was still unstable.
I am trying the speed edition of OMA'S rom. It took sometime and effort for me to learn how to flash it correctly but I succeeded in the end. Mainly thanks to the threads in this article.
I followed the instructions with the flash tool plus some other points I learnt by reading these threads. First I rooted using Oma's tool and then:
1. installed the drivers for windows so that the tool could find my device.
2. Replaced the "Kernel.img" from the ./rockdev folder with stock one (tried the original stock one and the ones in Omar's site plus another one I had)
3 Started the RKtool included in the Oma's Cm10.1 zip file (V1.35)
4 Shutdown the tablet
5 Connected the tablet to the usb while Pressing the Vol+
6. The tablet's display remained black but was found by Rktool,
7. left all boxes selected except "backup"
8. pressed "erase IDB" and waited for confirmation that all went well.
9. -"run" to flash img files.
10. Tablet started in CWM.
11. I wiped "factory reset"
12. used NAND to int SD fix.
13. used NAND format fix.
14. used NAND to int SD fix again (otherwise I still don't see Nand!).
15. re-boot.
16. first boot takes sometime.
first screen in German language and I found out you have to select the home screen. I chose the one on the left and then pressed the lower left button to confirm (use always). I later tried the other home screen but went back to my first choice.
Now the ROM seems very fast and smooth so far. I have 2.5 gb system space for apps etc. and loads of space on NAND. I am leaving all the apps on the 2.5 gb space for now and put some docs on the Nand. I don't think I will use the SD card because I found it was the cause of freezing during booting with the stock ROM.
OMA'S page has 3 !! stock Kernel versions for this tablet believe it or not. The smaller one is the one that gave me problems with wifi and booting and is 8mb in size. the second one is similar in size (12mb) to the one I used and solved the wifi issue. The third one is for a later version and I know does not work with my version tablet because I tried the stock rom already and my touch screen does not work. I tried the 12mb Kernel on OMA's ROM but the tool gave a download error when checking. Hence I could not use it. I also tried the Kernel file from the previous (light version official ROM) also 12mb and that gave the same error. Hence the only Kernel I could use is the 8mb rom with slow wifi connection. (I have to wait 2-3 minutes). However, I have seen from these threads that it could e possible to extract the files from the working kernel and I will try sometime in the near future. In the meantime I also tried the generic wifi fix 2 and it seems to be slightly better. My wifi chip is RK903 and, from what I have read, should be same as pipo 3. Hence I will try that fix too. In worse case I will just have to flash the tablet again.! (I have already done it 4 or 5 times already!!). At one stage it would not boot and just flashed with official ROM with official tool and got back to original state (done that two or three times now too!).
The only other thing I can't do is make a back up using CWM. I was able to do before but now get error on making Check sum or saving data. Then the SD card is corrupted and I have to do a scan disc / format to fix. If I back up to Nand then I get the same errors and then I have to restore the tablet and wipe the NAND. Not a big issue because I mainly use the tablet for experiments and don't keep much on it. A bit of a pain to install apps again.
I also found some interesting apps such as CPU tweak. CPU 0 was set to minimum value as default so I put to 1510 because tablet max speed is 1500ghz. CPU1 was set to higher value of 1610 (I put to CPU 1 to 1510 too). I could not find any info on settings so just guessed. If anyone knows where I can get info on the settings in this app I would be greatfull.
Well so far I am very pleased and must thank Omar for his hard work, patience and commitment. I will surely make donation over the next few days.
I just wanted to share my experience with others and thank everyone else for their contributions which helped me too.
edit: I noticed that wifi connection speed improves after a day or so (now connects immediately the tablet has booted .....almost every time). Also I de-activated Ethernet and Mobile network. figured out CPU tweak settings (don't update the app or you can't change settings anymore.)
Still can't back up data with CWM- each time I try, either to SD card or Nand, messes everything up and I have to do a reset. Not a big problem for me though but quite strange. I used to be able to do it with the previous "modified ROM".
Battery data is wrong but charge seems to last for even 6 hours (navigating web, using files)! before It only last a couple of hours and I leave Wifi on even in stand bye
edit: managed to install the other 12mb Kernel by first installing the 8mb kernel (with all the other images) and then installing the 12mb kernel after (I had to re-install system and boot too). However, with the 12mb Kernel, wifi worked well with the previous ROM but with this Oma's ROM it does not.. I managed to make a log cat and saw (from this site: http://blog.linuxconsulting.ro/2010/04/porting-wifi-drivers-to-android.html) the problem could be due to a configuration file. Perhaps due to different Android version?? I will take a break from the tab for now or my family will throw me out of the house. However, I would like to try some of the fixes I found and write about it later ( even if no-one reads this anymore!)
Installed 12mb Kernel. Now wifi is OK and brightness adjustment works. Still can't do CWM backup after using nand fix. does not matter to me too much though.
Bye
Martin
I bought a second hand mediacom 101 S2 tablet on the cheap and just wanted to use it so that I could get to know Android better (I have always used Windows phones till now) and also for simple web surfing, news reading, e-mails etc. The kids also use it for simple games.
The original stock rom was terrible. Very slow, no storage space, freezing, and very slow / difficult to connect to wifi and sometomes difficulty booting. I found a sort of customised ROM which was based on the original but just had a load of junk software removed. Wifi was perfect in the new ROM and connected immediately. Booting was also improved. However, tablet was still unstable.
I am trying the speed edition of OMA'S rom. It took sometime and effort for me to learn how to flash it correctly but I succeeded in the end. Mainly thanks to the threads in this article.
I followed the instructions with the flash tool plus some other points I learnt by reading these threads. First I rooted using Oma's tool and then:
1. installed the drivers for windows so that the tool could find my device.
2. Replaced the "Kernel.img" from the ./rockdev folder with stock one (tried the original stock one and the ones in Omar's site plus another one I had)
3 Started the RKtool included in the Oma's Cm10.1 zip file (V1.35)
4 Shutdown the tablet
5 Connected the tablet to the usb while Pressing the Vol+
6. The tablet's display remained black but was found by Rktool,
7. left all boxes selected except "backup"
8. pressed "erase IDB" and waited for confirmation that all went well.
9. -"run" to flash img files.
10. Tablet started in CWM.
11. I wiped "factory reset"
12. used NAND to int SD fix.
13. used NAND format fix.
14. used NAND to int SD fix again (otherwise I still don't see Nand!).
15. re-boot.
16. first boot takes sometime.
first screen in German language and I found out you have to select the home screen. I chose the one on the left and then pressed the lower left button to confirm (use always). I later tried the other home screen but went back to my first choice.
Now the ROM seems very fast and smooth so far. I have 2.5 gb system space for apps etc. and loads of space on NAND. I am leaving all the apps on the 2.5 gb space for now and put some docs on the Nand. I don't think I will use the SD card because I found it was the cause of freezing during booting with the stock ROM.
OMA'S page has 3 !! stock Kernel versions for this tablet believe it or not. The smaller one is the one that gave me problems with wifi and booting and is 8mb in size. the second one is similar in size (12mb) to the one I used and solved the wifi issue. The third one is for a later version and I know does not work with my version tablet because I tried the stock rom already and my touch screen does not work. I tried the 12mb Kernel on OMA's ROM but the tool gave a download error when checking. Hence I could not use it. I also tried the Kernel file from the previous (light version official ROM) also 12mb and that gave the same error. Hence the only Kernel I could use is the 8mb rom with slow wifi connection. (I have to wait 2-3 minutes). However, I have seen from these threads that it could e possible to extract the files from the working kernel and I will try sometime in the near future. In the meantime I also tried the generic wifi fix 2 and it seems to be slightly better. My wifi chip is RK903 and, from what I have read, should be same as pipo 3. Hence I will try that fix too. In worse case I will just have to flash the tablet again.! (I have already done it 4 or 5 times already!!). At one stage it would not boot and just flashed with official ROM with official tool and got back to original state (done that two or three times now too!).
The only other thing I can't do is make a back up using CWM. I was able to do before but now get error on making Check sum or saving data. Then the SD card is corrupted and I have to do a scan disc / format to fix. If I back up to Nand then I get the same errors and then I have to restore the tablet and wipe the NAND. Not a big issue because I mainly use the tablet for experiments and don't keep much on it. A bit of a pain to install apps again.
I also found some interesting apps such as CPU tweak. CPU 0 was set to minimum value as default so I put to 1510 because tablet max speed is 1500ghz. CPU1 was set to higher value of 1610 (I put to CPU 1 to 1510 too). I could not find any info on settings so just guessed. If anyone knows where I can get info on the settings in this app I would be greatfull.
Well so far I am very pleased and must thank Omar for his hard work, patience and commitment. I will surely make donation over the next few days.
I just wanted to share my experience with others and thank everyone else for their contributions which helped me too.
edit: I noticed that wifi connection speed improves after a day or so (now connects immediately the tablet has booted .....almost every time). Also I de-activated Ethernet and Mobile network. figured out CPU tweak settings (don't update the app or you can't change settings anymore.)
Still can't back up data with CWM- each time I try, either to SD card or Nand, messes everything up and I have to do a reset. Not a big problem for me though but quite strange. I used to be able to do it with the previous "modified ROM".
Battery data is wrong but charge seems to last for even 6 hours (navigating web, using files)! before It only last a couple of hours and I leave Wifi on even in stand bye
edit: managed to install the other 12mb Kernel by first installing the 8mb kernel (with all the other images) and then installing the 12mb kernel after (I had to re-install system and boot too). However, with the 12mb Kernel, wifi worked well with the previous ROM but with this Oma's ROM it does not.. I managed to make a log cat and saw (from this site: http://blog.linuxconsulting.ro/2010/04/porting-wifi-drivers-to-android.html) the problem could be due to a configuration file. Perhaps due to different Android version?? I will take a break from the tab for now or my family will throw me out of the house. However, I would like to try some of the fixes I found and write about it later ( even if no-one reads this anymore!)
Installed 12mb Kernel. Now wifi is OK and brightness adjustment works. Still can't do CWM backup after using nand fix. does not matter to me too much though.
Bye
Martin
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