Slim Miui Rom

[Solisf]

Hi everyone,
I'm a fun of slimmed down Roms with basic functionality, but also a very big MIUI aesthetics lover. So I can't seem to find a good solution for my taste. Even miui.eu, multirom.me, and ******** feel bloated to me. So here goes:
1) Is there any miui rom already been made that is just the MIUI skin? (Zero Xiaomi apps - not only bloatware - completely free from Xiaomi apps) ?
2)If not, are you guys interested in modifying miui.eu to look like I describe? (I will make a flashable zip that slims down miui.eu). If people want it, I will share it with you

 

[antimaterija70]

What you mean with "Zero Xiaomi apps - not only bloatware - completely free from Xiaomi apps"?
Remove all xiaomi apps (calendar, calculator, kamera ...) or just nasty xiaomi service apps?

 

[Solisf]

Stock apps will be there to keep all basic functionality. I'm talking about nasty hidden syncs with Xiaomi servers, xiaomi cloud services, unnecessary apps and many hidden apks and services that Xiaomi puts in their roms that actually do more harm than anything good

 

[antimaterija70]

I'll be glad to see miui rom without nasty xiaomi hidden apps and services.

 

[Urcik]

Hi everyone,
I'm a fun of slimmed down Roms with basic functionality, but also a very big MIUI aesthetics lover. So I can't seem to find a good solution for my taste. Even miui.eu, multirom.me, and ******** feel bloated to me. So here goes:
1) Is there any miui rom already been made that is just the MIUI skin? (Zero Xiaomi apps - not only bloatware - completely free from Xiaomi apps) ?
2)If not, are you guys interested in modifying miui.eu to look like I describe? (I will make a flashable zip that slims down miui.eu). If people want it, I will share it with you

Look at these firmware, maybe they will suit you?
SuperClean and Paranoia Edition

 

[Solisf]

Look at these firmware, maybe they will suit you?
SuperClean and Paranoia Edition

Yes but they are very old versions of miui. I decided to make my own that will work with any version of miui

 

[Jasoncngo]

Hi Solisf,

I concur! I think a slick and slim firmware is a brilliant idea, strip out all the useless Xiaomi background app- tracking stuff, get rid of mi account but we keep the look, all functionality and optimization code. I am without all that junk system would have more free RAM and use less storage. Win win for users.

I am happy to suggest ideas. Is it difficult to do?

 

[Solisf]

Hi Solisf,

I concur! I think a slick and slim firmware is a brilliant idea, strip out all the useless Xiaomi background app- tracking stuff, get rid of mi account but we keep the look, all functionality and optimization code. I am without all that junk system would have more free RAM and use less storage. Win win for users.

I am happy to suggest ideas. Is it difficult to do?

It not difficult to make a flashable zip that removes useless apps and services. But first I have to try almost every /system/app and /system/priv-app to make sure that if removed/disabled, we don't break any functionality of the overall rom and experience. We don't want to shoot ourselves on the foot here. Since MIUI is a deeply integrated android rom it won't be easy identifying and removing apps that are actually bloat and don't break anything. Some initial tests today, showed that it will be much harder than I initially guessed. I managed to get a list of apps that can be removed without breaking anything but Xiaomi's sync services, Mi Cloud, etc. But there are more that I have to investigate. I have to understand dependencies of those apps to others and find what some apps actually do.

Edit:
Some very useful information I could get from everyone is what MIUI apps do you guys regularly use, so we can discuss what is necessary and what not. I might think something is useless but everyone else is using it

 

[Jasoncngo]

Only Miui apps I use and think that are useful is;
Calculator, Mi Remote, mi security, compass, SMS, clock.

The rest can go.
PS: Solisf

You could stop the apps to determine if they are required as a dependency. e.g turn off Mi cloud see if it has any impact on phone etc. It's not going to be easy and straightforward. I dislike the Xiaomi SIM framework service and background apps that track your data, usage, etc. I am sure there's hidden code to track us!

 

[Solisf]

An initial zip has been created. Let me test it a couple of days and I will report back to you with performance/battery observations

 

[Solisf]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By5PHlhkGX-oZVRVS0p5Qy1iRWc/view?usp=drivesdk

This is a flashable zip. Just flash this after flashing Xiaomi.eu ROM 7.3.16
Not sure if this will work with other versions. This is just a test. I would like some feedback on this if you have the time. Thanks in advance

Edit: This will not work with lollipop roms

 

[antimaterija70]

So far so good.
I removed DocumentsUI and MiuiVideo from updater-script.

 

[antimaterija70]

Update.
It will remove this apps:
BookmarkProvider
BugReport
CloudService
Email
mab
MiDrive
MetokNLP
MiGalleryLockscreen
MiWallpaper
Mipay
MiLinkService
LiveWallpaperPicker
PacProcessor
PaymentService
SystemBaseFunctions
WallpapersBackup
XMPass
XiaomiAuthenticator
Whetstone
whetstone
WhetstonePermission
yellowpage
YellowPage
Backup
Browser
CloudBackup
DocumentsUI
MiDrop
MiGameCenterSDKService
Mipub
MiuiVideo
MiuiVoip

 

[Solisf]

So far so good.
I removed DocumentsUI and MiuiVideo from updater-script.

Btw it also installs vulkan api drivers for our gpu. Forgot to mention that bonus . Also, what do you use documents ui for?

 

[Kaiju]

Woah! I thought I was the only one! Finally! Thank you! This is actually consuming most of my time since I have to always reflash the ROM when it stucks at bootlogo because I deleted some system apps like cloud backup, cloud print, wetstones, updater etc etc. I just wanted a stable snappy ROM without the useless system bloatwares like EMAIL, VIDEO (i have MX), WIRELESS PRINT, YELLOWPAGE, BROWSER and others! But I always get bootloop. Finally!

Do you have the final stable flashable zip sir? ^_^

 

[Kaiju]

As long as the Mi Security (battery saver, cleaner etc) and Mi Acct are there so I can always change fonts and themes then it is purrffeeccctt~! <3

 

[Kaiju]

Update.
It will remove this apps:
BookmarkProvider
BugReport
CloudService
Email
mab
MiDrive
MetokNLP
MiGalleryLockscreen
MiWallpaper
Mipay
MiLinkService
LiveWallpaperPicker
PacProcessor
PaymentService
SystemBaseFunctions
WallpapersBackup
XMPass
XiaomiAuthenticator
Whetstone
whetstone
WhetstonePermission
yellowpage
YellowPage
Backup
Browser
CloudBackup
DocumentsUI
MiDrop
MiGameCenterSDKService
Mipub
MiuiVideo
MiuiVoip

Talkback?
GoogleTTS?
Cheetah Mobile?

 

[Solisf]

This is will be finalized at least by Saturday. Please be patient as I'm a computer engineer during exams period
This zip will be made final. Also, I will remove only the apps that I find useless. The point of this script is not to make this ROM as clean as AOSP, but MIUI without Xiaomi useless apps, services and stuff.

Stuff to be kept:
1) Music app - because I like it and works good with the lockscreen
2)Gallery - good app
3) Weather - very nice app, useful for me
4) Calculator, Clock, Mi account, Recorder, Screen Recorder, Updater (we cant even freeze this), Scanner, Downloads, Compass, 5) SIM Toolkit, Calendar, Notes (this apps make MIUI what it is since they blend with the MIUI environment, no point in deleting them)
6) Almost all things that can be done with this phone will still be possible (except miui backup)
7) I will keep all apps necessary to keep security center fully functional

 

[antimaterija70]

Btw it also installs vulkan api drivers for our gpu. Forgot to mention that bonus . Also, what do you use documents ui for?

As I remember on Android5.1 some apps need it to get permission to write on sd card.
BTW, what is benefits of vulkan api?

 

[Solisf]

As I remember on Android5.1 some apps need it to get permission to write on sd card.
BTW, what is benefits of vulkan api?

https://www.androidpit.com/android-vulkan-graphics-api

 

[Arincu]

Woah! This ROM of yours really sounds good. Curious to see how much battery it will save. I will try to test it in the near future.

 

[antimaterija70]

https://www.androidpit.com/android-vulkan-graphics-api

It is good in theory but practically I don't see any valid reason to install vulkan api.
Maybe for a three or five years on some other chipset. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Solisf]

It is good in theory but practically I don't see any valid reason to install vulkan api.
Maybe for a three or five years on some other chipset. Correct me if I am wrong.

well I've not seen any drawbacks on installing it so I thought why not. Also, I got a pretty good increase in benchmarks while using it

Edit: One thing that made me really curious though. Xiaomi.eu roms are configured so that they use the doze feature of android N. Also, PowerKeeper.apk is the build-in doze-like feature made by xiaomi to control apps battery usage and such. Don't they conflict? Is it better to leave one do its job? Which one is better? Is removing powerkeeper.apk gonna benefit battery life? One thing is for sure though. Removing powerkeeper.apk greatly increases multitasking capabilities as it actively monitors apps and its very aggressive on terminating background apps and services even if you just minimized them. On the other hand, leaving them unattended and at the hands of doze (which just sleeps them) don't seem to be clearly the best idea. Any thoughts on that? Or just go straight to trial and error?

 

[antimaterija70]

I prefer xiaomi power saving but it is matter of taste and it is different from user to user.
If doze mode is too aggressive you can have some trouble with apps like whatsapp, telegram ...
I saw that on OP3. Can you make aroma installer so everybody can choose what to delete or install?

 

[Solisf]

I prefer xiaomi power saving but it is matter of taste and it is different from user to user.
If doze mode is too aggressive you can have some trouble with apps like whatsapp, telegram ...
I saw that on OP3. Can you make aroma installer so everybody can choose what to delete or install?

Doze mode is not too aggressive. Miui battery saver is. Also, I don't know how to make aroma scripts. Maybe I will learn