Welcome to Cyanogenmod

I've owned this Galaxy Note 2 phone for over 2 years. It's a great phone, I still love it, no plans to replace it. Yet Samsung and T-Mobile stopped issuing updates for it. It's stuck on Android 4.3. This is a fine version of Android... but. It's slightly laggy, which gets annoying over time. Android 4.4 is faster and uses less memory. Also, I find that Samsung and T-Mobile's Android add-ons consume storage capacity, performance and battery life. And can't be removed unless you root the phone. I figured, if I'm going to root it I might as well run Cyanogenmod.

Cyanogenmod is an open source community developed version of Android. It has been ported to hundreds of devices, and a few manufacturers (such as OnePlus One) use it as their OEM version of Android.

Cyanogen doesn't have two key things:

  • The stuff your manufacturer added to Android
  • The stuff your carrier added to Android

    • Cyanogen does have:

  • Good performance and battery life: no added "fat"
  • All the Android features your manufacturer and carrier might have disabled (like WiFi tethering and multi-user)
  • Extra features provided only by Cyanogenmod (like Profiles)
  • Rooting made as simple as checking a box on the UI
  • An easily accessible unlocked bootloader
  • Updates as long as the community supports it - no planned obsolescence

    • INSTALL PROCESS

    My Galaxy Note 2 is officially supported, so I used the simple one-click installer. This is explaned well on the Cyanogenmod site, so I'll make this short.

  • Install the Cyanogenmod app on your mobile device
  • Install the Cyanogenmod installer on your computer (Windows or Mac) - it can run under VirtualBox for Linux
  • Run the app on your device and follow the instructions

    • When it's done, your device is running Cyanogenmod. It installs the Clockworkmod boot loader, Cyanogenmod Android, and Google Apps for your device (the proper version of Google Apps that matches your Android version).
    Like any OS install, it wipes the device internal memory. It does not wipe any external SD card you might have.

    GOOD STUFF

    Running Cyanogenmod I've noticed some improvements:

  • Performance: the phone is faster, UI more responsive
  • Battery: battery life is improved around 25-30%
  • Clean: no more Touchwiz, Samsung and T-Mobile apps
  • More Configurable: auto-brightness is adjustable and other nice little touches
  • Secure: a more up-to-date version of Android with the latest patches
  • Rootable: root by checking a box in one of the system menus

    • BAD STUFF

    I ran into some difficulties, most of which I have worked around. They weren't hard to work around, though they would frustrate someone who simply wants to use his mobile device without thinking about it.

  • S-Pen: Cyanogen doesn't support it - more on this below
  • Mobile Data: didn't work well at first
  • Camera driver: occasionally crashes
  • Voice Mail: took a few tries to get working

    • Mobile Data

    The first day I was running Cyanogenmod I noticed my phone wouldn't get data while on the road. Turns out if it had LTE/4G it was fine, but anything less it would refuse to connect. I dug into the 'Mobile Networks' menus, and if I selected an option to 'Use only 2G networks' it would work in these areas. Eventually I found a Network Mode, APN (access point name) etc. that is working under all conditions. I get fast 4G/LTE where available and it auto-switches to slower networks when necessary. Net result it works as well as before, but it took some tweaking to get there.

    Voice Mail

    I used to use T-Mobile's Visual Voice Mail. It's the only T-Mobile app that I like. Without this on Cyanogenmod, I first tried using Google Voice, which I never did get working properly despite a few hours of trying. Then I thought, why not keep using the same T-Mobile app I was using before? I looked on the Google Play market and there it was. So I installed it and it works just as well as before.

    S-PEN

    When I first got my Galaxy Note 2 I thought the S-Pen was a gimmick. It wasn't for several months that I actually tried it. Then I found I really liked it. First, handwriting as a system keyboard (apps don't know you're using handwriting) is a natural and quick way to enter data, and it's super-cool. Second, the pen has a button which combined with strokes gives quick navigation (back, home, etc.).

    Cyanogenmod doesn't support the S-Pen, but I found a couple of apps that do. Indeed, these apps work better than the Samsung's TouchWiz S-Pen support.

    First, you need a handwriting keyboard. Stylus Beta to the rescue. It's free and works as well or better than Samsung's.

    Next, you need S-Pen navigation. GMD SPen Control does the job. It's far better than Samsung's SPen command, having more gestures and actions.

    CAMERA CRASH

    This is the only significant issue I've encountered. After using the camera for a while, whatever camera app you're using hangs and crashes. The system pops up a toast message saying the camera driver failed and device may need to be rebooted. Your device is still running fine but the camera is unusable until you reboot.

    This is a known problem with Cyanogenmod, mentioned in their forums, and I haven't found a fix. But I have found a workaround in the XDA forums. Apparently, what it does is kill the 'mediaserver' process. After running this, you can use your camera again - without having to reboot the device. You can do this yourself on a rooted device from a cmd-line terminal if you have the busybox tools. And there are other apps that do this - for example:
    Mediaserver Killer.

    My device is running Cyanogenmod 10.2 - the latest stable build for my device. I've read this bug is fixed in Cyanogenmod 11 but can't confirm that.