The LG Optimus 2x Thread

R

rhlravi

Adept
Optimus 2x specifications

Easy method to root here (thanks to thegame for pointing out)

Guide to rooting the stock gingerbread ROM on Optimus 2x (In case the easy method does not work).

If the rooting process does not install ROM Manager app on your phone, go to the Android market and install it yourself.

Install ClockWorkMod Recovery within ROM manager or manually using the steps given later.

Stock Gingerbread ROM (in case you want to take the phone back to LG during warranty, or LG updater fails to update your phone):

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

How to install the above ROM (no effect on warranty)

Cyanogenmod download link (latest build on the top)

Guide to installing Cyanogenmod 7.1 on Optimus 2x (needs root access first)

Useful tips:

1. Perform a full backup of your current ROM by selecting 'Backup current ROM' in ROM Manager. You can copy this backup to your PC if you want, if you are going to performing a full format of your phone for returning to service center, or are just deleting it if it is occupying space. You will find this backup in your SD card (check in both internal and external SD card) in clockworkmod/backup folder.

You can later restore this backup after getting the phone back, or if anything fails, or just to revert back to it.

2. Use Titanium backup app to backup, restore and remove any app (including pre-installed bloatware such as 'LG app advisor', or 'Car Home'). This app can be downloaded from the market and requires root access.

3. Always check for compatibility when installing any mod, kernel, update or ROM. The first page of the thread belonging to that will probably have information related to the requirements, compatibility of it with other mods, kernel or current ROM.

How to install any ROM, MOD, Kernel or update to the phone using clockworkmod (requires root access):

Install Clockworkmod if not already installed.

Copy the .zip file of the mod, update, kernel or ROM from your PC into the root of you SD card.

Optional: Download and copy Google apps pack (like Google Maps, GMail etc.) from here: gapps downloads to the root of your SD card. (thanks to thegame)

1. Switch off your phone if it is on.

2. Hold down power and volume down button, till the second LG logo comes (the one with bluish background). Release it when you see this logo.

3. Your phone will now boot into CWM. You can go up and down in this menu using you volume up/down buttons and select the item using power button.

(Repeat steps 1-2 if it does not succeed the first time)

You can also perform steps 1-3 by hitting 'Reboot into recovery' in ROM Manager.

Optional steps (required for installing ROMs, kernels or some mods):

Required for installing any ROM or kernel, needed for some mods:

Select 'advanced' and then 'Wipe Dalvik cache'.

Required only for installing ROM:

Go back and select 'Wipe data/factory reset'.

Then select the option to Wipe cache partition.

Go back to the starting menu.

Now, the remaining steps are standard for any mod, kernel or ROM:

4. In the CWM menu, select 'install zip from sdcard'.

5. Then select 'choose zip from sdcard', or internal SD depending on where you have placed it.

6. Then select that zip file.

7.When it asks for confirmation, select Yes.

Wait for the installation to complete.

Optional: If you also wish to install gapps, repeat steps 4-7 and select the gapps zip file and install it.

8. You are done! Now you can go back to the previous screen and select Reboot.



I am not responsible if any harm is caused to you phone by following the above guides. I have followed them properly and got the desired results.

Thanks to all authors of these articles/posts.

Info will keep getting added here as long as this phone lives in the community.
 
Do you guys find CM7 better than stock or stock based custom ROMs?

I do not have 2x, but I feel AOSP ROMs(mainly CM7) is of no relevence for these dual core giants(which can handle bloat freed stock ROMs very efficiently)

Miui is different story altogether.

What do you guys think?

For me, AOSP based ROMs particularly CM7 is way too over rated.

Sent from Galaxy S2
 
Guys are you facing any issues with your phone? Heard that there were some problems with it.

Also Lg has reduced its price considerably because it did not sell much.

Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
 
techno_guy said:
Guys are you facing any issues with your phone? Heard that there were some problems with it.

Also Lg has reduced its price considerably because it did not sell much.

Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Running WIUI on my o2x and its very good.

Only issues i faced are with Bluetooth connection which seems unstable, but that's a rom specific issue.

Didn't ran stock for even a day so cant comment on it. Only unavoidable problem seems to be the backlight bleeding issue.
 
rhlravi said:
I think it is time that this phone has its own thread....
Click to expand...

hehe you are superfast dude, yesterday i rooted mine and thought of posting it today but you overtook me.. good write up buddy.. One point i would like to add is (i faced this issue) you also need to download and copy the gapps utility goo-inside.me - gapps downloads so that you can sign in to google account just like you do when you first set up for your phone..

CM 7.1 mod Lockscreen of my O2x :)
[attachment=10824:17826.attach]
 

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@red dragon and @techno guy .... this is my first root and custom rom experience.. actually i just use the phone to listen to songs (to and fro travel to office) and the basic functionalities -- call and sms.. i don't like gaming, browsing on a smaller screen size for which i have my desktop:)

The only thing i wanted to try is the ICS as initially i thought LG would bring them in Jan2012 but its going to be Q2 2012 and by that time i guess google willl come out with Jellybean:) So wanted to start with a stable mod so went with CM7.1 and now will look for ICS roms now...

Issues:

1) My O2x used to play .mkv files without any issues/lags with the stock rom but with CM7.1 its not..

2) I have contacts synced with Gmail and when i syncd them now to retrieve them i couldn't get their details (name,pic) displayed in the call screen when i get a call from them eventhough the contacts menu have them..
 
red dragon said:
Do you guys find CM7 better than stock or stock based custom ROMs?

I do not have 2x, but I feel AOSP ROMs(mainly CM7) is of no relevence for these dual core giants(which can handle bloat freed stock ROMs very efficiently)

Miui is different story altogether.

What do you guys think?

For me, AOSP based ROMs particularly CM7 is way too over rated.

Sent from Galaxy S2
Click to expand...

One main problem in the 2x is that it has 512 MB of RAM and 64-128 MB of this is dedicated only to the GPU. This leaves the user with only around 380MB of RAM.

This problem is made worse by the stock ROM, which itself utilizes a constant ~225MB, leaving a paltry amount left for user apps.

CM7 has much better RAM utilisation, which ultimately improves performance and gives a better user experience.

What this means is that i can run as many apps as i want together without worrying that another app will get auto shutdown or things will slow down to a crawl due to lack of RAM.

The stock ROM also will become slower as time progress, over weeks and months, as more apps are installed, uninstalled, run, logs build up etc. CM may not eradicate that problem, but reduces it to a great extent.

Moreover, CM has loads of small performance tweaks and customizable features which the stock ROM does not have.
techno_guy said:
Guys are you facing any issues with your phone? Heard that there were some problems with it.

Also Lg has reduced its price considerably because it did not sell much.

Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I cannot recall any problem i am facing after switching to CM from stock ROM. I'd say that 80-90% problems were gone while switching from stock froyo to GB itself, and most of the rest gone when flashed by a stable custom ROM.

And I am not sure that the price reduction is only based on sales figures. This phone is more than 10 months old and hence is bound to get a price cut. All phones, even the highest selling ones like the SGS get an approx. 25-30% price cut when they near the end of their life.

Who would buy SGS if it was priced at 25k while SGS2 sold for 29k? Hence the price cut to 20k.

Who would buy the old HTC Desire for 23k if Desire S sold for 22k? Hence the price cut to 16.5-18.5k.

Similarly, who would buy the O2x at 25k considering the price of SGS2, or a certain LG Prada 3.0, expected to launch at around 30k? Hence the price cut :)

It is a part of the normal life cycle of a phone (I still remember that my old phone, Sammy Jet was priced at 21k at launch, i bought it for 17.8k after 5 months and it fell to a mere 13k :p 10 months after launch)

The situation is totally different for the BB Playbook though, that price cut is solely due to poor sales :D .
 
rhlravi said:
One main problem in the 2x is that it has 512 MB of RAM and 64-128 MB of this is dedicated only to the GPU. This leaves the user with only around 380MB of RAM.

This problem is made worse by the stock ROM, which itself utilizes a constant ~225MB, leaving a paltry amount left for user apps.

CM7 has much better RAM utilisation, which ultimately improves performance and gives a better user experience.

What this means is that i can run as many apps as i want together without worrying that another app will get auto shutdown or things will slow down to a crawl due to lack of RAM.

The stock ROM also will become slower as time progress, over weeks and months, as more apps are installed, uninstalled, run, logs build up etc. CM may not eradicate that problem, but reduces it to a great extent.

Moreover, CM has loads of small performance tweaks and customizable features which the stock ROM does not have.
Click to expand...
Once rooted, bloatwares can be removed/freezed with Titanium, reducing RAM requirement in idle state to bare minimum.

Secondly, I think(not sure) CM7 does not actually use the gpu during hd video playback, software decoding shortens battery life significantly and the playback gets choppy.

Moreover the browser lacks hardware acceleration, so loading heavy pages do get problematic.

For phones like Blade or Optimus1 CM7 is good, but for powerhouses like O2, gs2 or atrix...I still have my doubts.

Moreover I could never use gps in CM7.

Miui on the other hand has all the shortcomings of CM7,but it does have a very nice interface.

Sent from Galaxy S2
 
techno_guy said:
Guys are you facing any issues with your phone? Heard that there were some problems with it.

Also Lg has reduced its price considerably because it did not sell much.
Click to expand...

After buying it, I immediately upgraded to Gingerbread using LG PC Suite and it upgraded without any issues at all. Apart from GPS I have not seen any issues at all, screen is superb, speed is super fast, battery life is right up there with other dual cores, with moderate usage you get 3 days, though I switch it off before going to bed. Games run superfast, browsing is smooth too. Mine is not rooted as I don't want to tinker much. Now about GPS, I did not try it on Froyo as I was in too much hurry to upgrade but in Gingerbread it was not seeing any Sats even after running for 10 minutes in open. Then after following [SOLVED] GPS problems after GB update - xda-developers , I just enabled "slp auto provision" by going into gps test menu. Now my GPS sometimes works and sometimes not but whenever it does not I follow this workaround : Turn on the GPS and turn off Data. Reboot the phone, turn on Data, and now check GPS lock with GPS test app and it always works. I think this GPS issue is software issue and may not be there in other ROMs but a minor one. Apart from this, it is great VFM phone with dual core processor, fantastic screen and superb build quality. Build quality and feel was the sole reason I chose it over Galaxy R. Somebody had asked about microsd, I bought 16 gb class 10 Transacend from flipkart and it works great.
 
red dragon said:
For phones like Blade or Optimus1 CM7 is good, but for powerhouses like O2, gs2 or atrix...I still have my doubts.

Miui on the other hand has all the shortcomings of CM7,but it does have a very nice interface.
Click to expand...

For reasons why CM is good, look here
 
Well, thanks for the link.But dont we know all those things?

I mean that article did not say anything about

a.video playback issues

b.lack of HWA

c.poor camera performance compared to stock or stock based customs

4.GPS issues.

Ofcourse the twekability of CM7 is brilliant.

Sent from Galaxy S2
 
Great thread, guys. My budget was 17k max with target as Neo V, but I am thinking of performing a self-torture ritual after which I'll be mentally prepared to go for the O2X @ ~19k. It will be my first Android, and first touch-phone.

While I know that ICS has been confirmed, do you think this phone is future proof hardware-wise? It has a dual core, yeah but with 512 RAM, will I be able to run new apps on this for... 2 more years?

Also thinking of getting into programming for the Android. Hope this phone will be good for testing, too.

Still have a few doubts about O2X vs Galaxy R, despite all the threads I've read... but maybe the R is out-of-budget anyway.
 
Santa Maria! said:
Great thread, guys. My budget was 17k max with target as Neo V, but I am thinking of performing a self-torture ritual after which I'll be mentally prepared to go for the O2X @ ~19k. It will be my first Android, and first touch-phone.

While I know that ICS has been confirmed, do you think this phone is future proof hardware-wise? It has a dual core, yeah but with 512 RAM, will I be able to run new apps on this for... 2 more years?

Also thinking of getting into programming for the Android. Hope this phone will be good for testing, too.

Still have a few doubts about O2X vs Galaxy R, despite all the threads I've read... but maybe the R is out-of-budget anyway.
Click to expand...

Dont worry, the 2x is a wonderful phone. After flashing CM7, i have not felt the lack of RAM at all. 512MB is now enough for the future too, if you keep a custom ROM which has good memory management.

This is the only future proof phone below 20k at the moment, and will be able to easily run latest apps for 2 years. The Galaxy R, which costs a shade above 20k, is also a good phone, but has poor community support, no ROMs ATM and it will take time for stable CM to reach it.

red dragon said:
a.video playback issues

b.lack of HWA

c.poor camera performance compared to stock or stock based customs

4.GPS issues.

Sent from Galaxy S2
Click to expand...

And about the lack of H/W acceleration, you have a point. The phone did not lag at all while playing the sample 1080p video in the stock video player (it lagged in 'Moli player' app, so that must be the app's fault). I have not tried connecting it to the TV/monitor using HDMI cable. Camera pic quality seems the same to me in stock as well as CM ROM, with low light performance actually improved due to Bravia Engine mod. Full HD video recording works fine too, the only problem being that zooming in/out is not possible in video recording. I dont use GPS, so no idea about that.
 
Tried ironkrnL for CM7, stable overclock to 1.3GHz. Smooth and fast. Quadrant score jumped to 3856 and AnTuTu score jumped to 6801 ! (Quad is not so reliable nowadays and can be hacked, but AnTuTu is good).

Only downside: Reboot does not work (Using 32MB RAM hack).
 
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