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CyanogenMod Windows-Based Installer Released, With Supporting Android App
Zanadou writes "CyanogenMod today released for general availability a friendly[er]-to-use Windows-based installer that will automagically (no need to first root and/or unlock the bootloader) step users though downloading, flashing and setting up an appropriate CyanogenMod version on supported Android phones. Along with this, a 'companion app' that apparently helps set up the installer is now available the Play Store, along with a newly-refreshed download page. Still no image for 'hammerhead' (Nexus 5), though."
The installer is intended to be so easy your grandma can use it. If you use Linux chances are you are smart enough to install Cyanogen without someone holding your hand.
Score!
Just upgraded, love this phone. Not terribly interested in rooting/rom'ing like I used to be, but I do like having the CM option readily available.
This is a new advance from the CM people, why throw in the dig about the Nexus5, or are you just trying to brag that you have one?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I can't seem to find this information but it the kernel is the biggest issue in any north american phone. Companies like Verizon and AT&T lock down the phone and it becomes incredibly difficult to replace the kernel with a custom one. My friend just sent me everything he used to unlock his just yesterday so I'll do it through his method but verizon is an ass that deserves to lose all of its customers.
But I really wish the phone technology ecosystem didn't *require* good people, like the guys at CM, to do what they do.
I'm referring mostly to the locked-down, restrictive, anti-user bullshit that defines the smartphone world. Boot loaders that are locked, software that you can't easily remove ... change any of that and you'll void your warranty, of course. When's the last time you voided a warranty on a real computer's hardware for modifying some fucking *software*?!
I should be able to pop in a micro SD card into any smartphone (yes, all smartphones should support one) and install any operating system with the right drivers.
Y'know, like a *computer* (because it is one)
So much for all that advice to get your grandma onto Linux.
Wanting a "streamlined" option for accomplishing a task has nothing to do with how smart or knowledgeable a person is. For example, I've used Linux for 5 years and have installed plenty of firmware, but I find doing so stressful and tedious -- I'd rather click through a few screens so Ican start actively working on the device.
Besides, if you're a Linux user, you should know perfectly well that these days, it really doesn't take any more intelligence/knowledge to use it than to use OSXor Windows. To be honest, I find Mac OSX the hardest for some reason. :-)
Now mostly at Usenet:comp.misc & SoylentNews.org (it's made of people!)
Mom? Why won't granny boot up? I thought she was just low on RAM.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Does anyone know about what apps come with Cyanogenmod (my google fu is lacking. Mostly it talks about getting the google apps).
I recently acquired a Nexus 4 (yay for the Nexus 5 creating a more vibrant market in second hand Nexi) ans was slightly surprised about the lack of apps already installed compared to my old Samsung phone.
Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but a new computer not having a GUI file manager is like a trip back to 1985 with glitzier graphics. Having to download an ad-infested and possibly privacy invading app requireing "full network access" doesn't seem like an ideal solution.
So, forgive my ignorance, but does CM provide an array of quality OSS apps for actually running the phone in addition to the base windowing system and kernel?
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I recently acquired a Nexus 4 (yay for the Nexus 5 creating a more vibrant market in second hand Nexi) ans was slightly surprised about the lack of apps already installed compared to my old Samsung phone.
The plural of "nexus" in Latin in "nexûs." (Actually, the diacritic on the 'u' should be a macron, but alas, Slashdot won't display that character.)
My €0.02.
"The body may heal, but the mind is not always so resilient." -- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Wanting a "streamlined" option for accomplishing a task has nothing to do with how smart or knowledgeable a person is. For example, I've used Linux for 5 years and have installed plenty of firmware, but I find doing so stressful and tedious -- I'd rather click through a few screens so Ican start actively working on the device.
I agree. I spend my days writing C++ code on Linux and C and ASM code which I flash onto microcontrollers from Linux. Given the annoyace and tediousness of reflashing phones (will it be bricked? Did I back up my google apps?) I also appreciate it being easier.
Besides, if you're a Linux user, you should know perfectly well that these days, it really doesn't take any more intelligence/knowledge to use it than to use OSXor Windows. To be honest, I find Mac OSX the hardest for some reason. :-)
Glad I'm not the only one. I expect Windows to be different, so that's OK. OSX still is vaguely Linuxy, close enough to feel it should be but too different to actually work smoothly.
And neither or them run a decent window manager.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
+1 to this. I've worked as a Linux sysadmin and enjoyed scripting and all that but fiddling around flashing a phone just isn't fun. It's an apprehensive time thinking whether you have the exact right firmware image or whether the phone will be a brick.
I hope one day I can just install new FW on my phone as easy as an 'apt-get install' on a Debian system.
Pre-canned Evolution Links for all those Slashdot holy wars.
Although it seems that if you have already put CM on it, it won't detect the phone :(
I take that back setting USB Debugging on helps.
Doh
Agreed. I have found some very smart folks that refuse to let go and feel there is a need to do everything manually. I have also found smart folks that just want things easy to do so they can get back to doing what they want to do. Tinkerers vs non-tinkerers.
I thought I was the only person to OSX hard to use over most other OSs. I tried it for a year as my main desktop at home and finally gave up.
Keep the Classic Slashdot.
It's pretty seamless. The only way they could make it better is if they put in a revert function or at least a backup so you get your old data back
The installer is meant to be USEFUL to the maximum number of people, not humor you. An OS is a tool, like a wrench or a hammer. It's trivial for a Linux user to keep a "spare" Windows install for when that tool is useful, and it's effortless to have an .iso and Daz loader handy even if you for some bizarre reason pay for software and give a shit about further rewarding your corporate elite masters.
It is NOT trivial for most Windows users to learn Linux when they don't have an enthusiasts interest in spending a few hundred hours doing that. (Start figuring actual time spent learning one's first OS then the second, then consider if you weren't a techy autodidact who does this for fun.)
Windows installers for non-Windows software are fine things because they help "embrace and extend" and eventually extinguish. Shit works both ways, yo!
LOTD may happen, but as the D is replaced for many users by the P(hone) that end-runs around the problem. It takes years, but there is no shortage of time in the long game. Users see the power of Free Software on their cherished phones, they use Chromebooks etc, and that user experience is powerful. Windows can rule the consumer desktop, but as consumers lose interest in that desktop Windows becomes less relevant. As phones move towards being a complete dockable drop-in replacement for PCs, it will be easy to toggle between interfaces.
Transition tools are good.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
If you're trying to get your grandmother onto linux AND onto a smartphone AND onto cyanogenmod, either your grandma is smart enough to handle it, or you're being way too ambitious and your grandmother is going to give up and simply bake cookies rather than send you chain e-mails or call you to bother you to get a girlfriend... which actually doesn't sound like a bad plan...
or you're being way too ambitious and your grandmother is going to give up and simply bake cookies
You had to bring it up.
BSD is Unix, but it's not UNIX(tm).
Actually [OS X] is BSD, and BSD is NOT UNIX.
OS X has been UNIX since 10.5 according to The Open Group.
If she has an Android phone she's already on Linux.
Free Martian Whores!
I have found some very smart folks that refuse to let go and feel there is a need to do everything manually. I have also found smart folks that just want things easy to do so they can get back to doing what they want to do. Tinkerers vs non-tinkerers.
It's a matter of choosing what we want to tinker with. I have two raspberry Pis for pending projects, and itching to grab a BeagleBone. And I'm planning to build a VM host server so I can tinker with HA SQL servers. I also prefer to do all my own auto repairs and DIY jobs around the house. What I don't have interest in is tinkering with is rebuilding my tablet if this bricks it (gTab 2 doesn't appear to be supported yet anyway), and I'm on call 24x7 so I'm not very adventurous with my cell. With a full time+ job I need to be selective on how I commit my time.
Another day, another update to a Google android app.
But "BSDy" doesn't roll off the tongue as well!
That might work for people who happen to already live within T-Mobile's service area. Otherwise, good luck activating an unlocked phone on Verizon or Sprint or finding an affordable plan on AT&T.
for many phones (even nexus) it's impossible to do some of the steps needed to install cyanogen without issuing commands to the phone over ADB.
Then the cross-platform installer should require installation of Android SDK, which includes Android Debug Bridge, and pipe the necessary commands through the ADB executable.
" It's trivial for a Linux user to keep a "spare" Windows install for when that tool is useful, and it's effortless to have an .iso and Daz loader handy..."
trivial but not desirable in the least. i don't appreciate it and if they can't install a free, easy to use linux distro on one machine then they can use the phone co. build. why should i have to buy, borrow or "steal" a slaveware OS to use the easy installer? this is selling out by cyanogenmod, plain and simple. no grand rationailzations are necessary.