I have Adobe Flash Player 10.3 and Firefox 5.0 installed on Android 2.2. However Flash animations seem not to work in Firefox, although they do in the Android default browser.
How can I fix it?
Answer
Flash support was added in Firefox 14.0. Versions of Firefox Mobile earlier than 14 do not support Flash content at all.
In the area where I live I sometimes have trouble with reception. The Internet stops working for me or it takes time to load pages. The phone tries and tries to connect.
It seems to me that when this is happening it depletes the battery much more quickly. Is my observation correct?
Answer
To add to ce4's answer: You can check that for yourself. If you take a look at your battery stats (they are always at a little different place in the system menu: Sometimes in the main menu, other times under phone info), it lists the apps which used most of your battery. One of the highest consumers in there is most likely your display -- and close to it you'll find an item cell standby (sometimes called phone standby). This describes how much battery was used to "keep the signal". Check that in times of good reception versus those of bad reception and see how much it differs.
This can even be "multiplied" if you have many apps running services to poll information from the net permanently -- like email apps using IMAP idle, or some social chat app keeping a push connection. It looks like the same is happening here: it tries hard to keep the connection, and thus pushes the cell radio further. Due to the bad reception, the connection gets slow, and those services keep longer "wake locks" (keeping the CPU alive to complete their task), which again eats battery.
The system does in fact provide this information (at least from Android 2.3/Gingerbread on), in the very same battery statistics mentioned before. On top of the first page you find a small graph1: tap on it, it brings up a bigger one2.
The screenshots are in German, but you still can tell the details: In the first1, you see the cell standby titled "Mobilfunk-Standby" right next to the Display, as said before. On top of that is mentioned "mini-graph". That tapped brings you to the page where you find the second image2 at the bottom. Here take a look at the first graph, titled Telefonsignal (phone signal). "The greener the cleaner": A bright green means "good reception" (the screenshot shows this at the begin and end, that is here: morning and evening -- so at home I have good reception). Getting yellowish: "Moderate reception". This uses more energy: compare it with the graph on top of it (not in the screenshot -- but the same as in the first screenshot), and you see the bar is almost flat where the cell signal is good -- but falls faster where it's not. See the little red spots: "no reception". And phone will power-up like crazy to find a new cell tower...
Here we need to use 3rd party tools. I will mention two of them here: No Signal Alert3 and OpenSignalMaps4. Both can alert you when entering a "dead zone":
No Signal Alert lets you view a log of cell state changes, plus can show you a map of where the dead zones were3. OpenSignalMaps has the plus of showing you all cell towers in reach4, pointing out which you are connected to. It also offers you a "compass" giving the direction to the strongest signal.
There are some little helpers available which watch your signal. If it drops or gets lost, they simply switch the radio off (so it cannot further power up searching a non-existing signal) -- and periodically activate it again to check whether the situation has improved. One of them is Battery Saver5, which also lets you define profiles so you can easily switch other things like Wifi. Then there are more powerful "automaters" like e.g. GreenPower free battery saver6, which even manage a lot more. And these two are not the only ones...
I'm trying to hook up a GoogleTV to an older Sony TV and the TV has an HDMI input but just below it are the familiar red and white RC jacks for audio. I remember trying to hook up my XBox and the audio not working and now I'm having the same issue with GoogleTV and I think it's because this was made before the audio was integrated into HDMI or something.
I look all though the TV setting and couldn't find a "use RCA jacks for audio option" and was wondering if anyone ran into this before and if maybe there is some sort of splitter I could buy.
Can someone explain how tablets like Nexus 7 detects a magnetic cover closing? I have tried putting magnets over the spots where the magnets in the cover are, but it will not lock. How does the tablet know if it is a cover?
Answer
It's widely believed that the Nexus 7's magnetic sensor works in an almost-identical fashion to iPads' smart cover; I couldn't find direct information about the N7, but iFixit has a great teardown of the iPad smart cover that goes into detail of how it works.
The Nexus 7 has a magnetic sensor that can tell when a magnet of sufficient pull force is nearby. The sensor is located under the screen near the pogo plug on the bottom-lefthand corner, estimated to be 45mm up from the bottom left corner and 15mm in from the left side.
I am using a Galaxy S8 phone, and I am trying to install fsmon to monitor the phone's File System. When i entered the following command (while using adb shell:
dreamlte:/ $ make android NDK_ARCH=arm64 ANDROID_API=26
The following error surfaced:
/system/bin/sh: make: not found
Does anyone know where to install make command into android phone? Or am I installing fsmon on the wrong environment?
Background: Stuck in boot-loop when unpack and pack system.img?
Short Description: I am trying to modify the system partition of my Samsung S10 5G system-as-root treble device. I have successfully rooted it with patching the AP file and flashed it on the device. It works fine but if I will just unpack and then pack the system.img.ext4.lz4(or vendor.img.ext4.lz4) and put it in the AP file, then the flashing succeeds but the device stuck in a boot loop. So, I am interested to see the logs that cause the boot loop.
Try 1: I have read about pstore and using adb I have noted the following things:
find . | grep pstore and the result is as following:./sys/fs/pstore
./sys/module/pstore
./sys/module/pstore/uevent
./sys/module/pstore/parameters
./sys/module/pstore/parameters/update_ms
./sys/module/pstore/parameters/backend
/proc/config.gz and it has all the flag available that are listed in Reading kernel logs article.$ cat config | grep PSTORE
CONFIG_PSTORE=y
CONFIG_PSTORE_ZLIB_COMPRESS=y
# CONFIG_PSTORE_LZO_COMPRESS is not set
# CONFIG_PSTORE_LZ4_COMPRESS is not set
CONFIG_PSTORE_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_PSTORE_PMSG=y
CONFIG_PSTORE_PMSG_SSPLOG=y
CONFIG_PSTORE_RAM=y
With the above information, I should be able to read logs from /sys/fs/pstore/ after following the following steps:
system-as-root device until the step to boot in recovery mode after factory data reset. Because the device didn't boot properly and stuck in a boot loop.adb shell with su user. I have tried to check logs but there were no logs:1|beyondxq:/ # ls -l /sys/fs/pstore/
total 0
Try 2: Read this article and tried to do the same step as above but with mounting /dev/pstore as following:
// Just flashed rooted ROM
// Install MagiskManager and allow it to do required setup
// Run adb shell:
D:\SamsungS105G\VZW-G977UVRU2ASH7-20190827135903>adb shell
beyondxq:/ $ su
beyondxq:/ # ls -l /dev/pstore
ls: /dev/pstore: No such file or directory
1|beyondxq:/ # ls -l /sys/fs/pstore/
total 0
beyondxq:/ # mkdir /dev/pstore
beyondxq:/ # mount -t pstore - /dev/pstore
beyondxq:/ # ls -l /dev/pstore
total 0
beyondxq:/ #
// switching off
// Opening Download mode
// Flashing Panic ROM
// Reboot into recovery
// Done Wipe data/factory reset and then Reboot system now
// Pressed Recovery ket combination till Splash Screen
// Instead of starting setup, the device rebooted, display Splash, black screen, and then again device rebooted...[3 times]
// Open download mode
// Flashing rooted ROM
// Reboot into recovery
// Done Wipe data/factory reset and then Reboot system now
// Pressed Recovery key combination till Splash Screen
// Device opened with root enable
// Install MagiskManager and allow it to do required setup
// Run adb shell:
D:\SamsungS105G\VZW-G977UVRU2ASH7-20190827135903>adb shell
beyondxq:/ $ su
beyondxq:/ # ls -l /dev/pstore
ls: /dev/pstore: No such file or directory
1|beyondxq:/ # ls -l /sys/fs/pstore/
total 0
beyondxq:/ # mkdir /dev/pstore
beyondxq:/ # mount -t pstore - /dev/pstore
beyondxq:/ # ls -l /dev/pstore
total 0
beyondxq:/ # ls -l /sys/fs/pstore/
total 0
The above is the 6th try. While scrolling the command prompt above, I have noticed that in the very first try I have following logs:
1|beyondxq:/ # mkdir /dev/pstore
beyondxq:/ # ls /dev/pstore/
beyondxq:/ # mount -t pstore - /dev/pstore
beyondxq:/ # ls /dev/pstore/
beyondxq:/ #
-- Probably switch off or reboot
D:\SamsungS105G\VZW-G977UVRU2ASH7-20190827135903>adb shell
beyondxq:/ $ su
beyondxq:/ # ls /dev/pstore
ls: /dev/pstore: No such file or directory
1|beyondxq:/ # mount -t pstore - /dev/pstore
mount: '-'->'/dev/pstore': No such file or directory
1|beyondxq:/ # mkdir /dev/pstore
beyondxq:/ # mount -t pstore - /dev/pstore
beyondxq:/ # ls -l /dev/pstore/
total 0
-r--r----- 1 system log 262004 2018-01-11 09:32 console-ramoops-0
beyondxq:/ # exit
beyondxq:/ $ exit
So, I did a mistake :( and missed to read the console-ramoops-0 file. But the problem is I am not able to get it back.
Is it like:
console-ramoops-0 file when its generated first then no more logs will be written by kernel?Please suggest what I did wrong in my later tries?
Update: Tried to crash manually using the instructions given here but no logs recorded.
Update 2: Grep the pstore using find . | grep '\.rc' | xargs cat | grep pstore -n -i and get following result:
314: # pstore/ramoops previous console log
315: mount pstore pstore /sys/fs/pstore nodev noexec nosuid
316: chown system log /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops
317: chmod 0440 /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops
318: chown system log /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops-0
319: chmod 0440 /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops-0
320: chown system log /sys/fs/pstore/pmsg-ramoops-0
321: chmod 0440 /sys/fs/pstore/pmsg-ramoops-0
13623: # pstore/ramoops previous console log
13624: mount pstore pstore /sys/fs/pstore nodev noexec nosuid
13625: chown system log /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops
13626: chmod 0440 /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops
13627: chown system log /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops-0
13628: chmod 0440 /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops-0
13629: chown system log /sys/fs/pstore/pmsg-ramoops-0
13630: chmod 0440 /sys/fs/pstore/pmsg-ramoops-0
27725: # pstore/ramoops previous console log
27726: mount pstore pstore /sys/fs/pstore nodev noexec nosuid
27727: chown system log /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops
27728: chmod 0440 /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops
27729: chown system log /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops-0
27730: chmod 0440 /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops-0
27731: chown system log /sys/fs/pstore/pmsg-ramoops-0
27732: chmod 0440 /sys/fs/pstore/pmsg-ramoops-0
Update 3 The configuration of ramoops is as following:
./sys/module/ramoops/parameters/console_size 262144
./sys/module/ramoops/parameters/dump_oops 1
./sys/module/ramoops/parameters/ecc 0
./sys/module/ramoops/parameters/ftrace_size 262144
./sys/module/ramoops/parameters/mem_address 3241148416
./sys/module/ramoops/parameters/mem_size 1048576
./sys/module/ramoops/parameters/mem_type 0
./sys/module/ramoops/parameters/pmsg_size 262144
./sys/module/ramoops/parameters/record_size 262144
I own a sony xperia tipo that has around 2 gigabytes of internal storage.
Today, I got a warning that my phone's internal storage is full, while using google currents, so I went to the storage menu in the settings, to take a look, and I saw that the calculated amount of used memory in the internal storage section was a tiny bit over 1gb. This didn't sit well with the fact that the reported free space was only 2mb instead of one giga and a half, as I thought it ought to be.
Trying to update apps that reside in the internal storage fails with an "insufficient memory" error.
I have no idea about what the problem might be and how to solve it, but I would like to try and avoid a factory reset, if that is possible.
Any help is greatly appreciated and thank you in advance for it.
EDIT: Here are two screenshots where you can clearly see that the total used space and available space do not add up to 2.15GB as they should but are only around 1gigabyte.
I have no idea what could be responsible for this phantom gigabyte, but one would think that the amount of memory the OS uses would have been subtracted from the "total space" and from the "phone memory" entry (not shown here) instead of the internal storage.
(I removed some apps to free up a few megabytes of memory)
Answer
Your phone keeps the thumbnails of all the photos that go through your phone. Connect it to your computer and delete all the contents of the folder called ".thumbnail" in the internal storage. You should find that folder inside the DCIM folder.
I ran into a serious SMS bug, which knowledgeable users seem to be saying means the SMS message database is corrupt (source 1, source 2). This is consistent with my current experience. In my case I lost all ~1000 messages and still have some issues after that.
So I want to factory reset my phone. While I have not rooted my phone, I have performed significant customization, and have somewhere around 150 apps installed, including a few paid apps (UltimateJuice, ...). What things do I need to explicitly backup? What can I do to minimize the pain? I don't care about save points in games.
Surprisingly, I cannot find any good documentation of this using any obvious Google search terms. (I am aware of How do I perform a full pre-rooting backup of an Android phone?, which doesn't really offer an answer to my question.)
For Google cloud things such as contacts, do I need to backup the cloud version just in case, so the phone doesn't wipe them from the cloud? Fortunately, most of my personal notes are stored in cloud applications like Catch and Evernote. I presume these should be unaffected.
As far as I can tell the BackupMySettings option is not available for my phone (Samsung Epic running 2.1). My paid apps come back from Market anyway, right? I guess I could pay $4 for MyBackupPro if it really made things simpler, but there would need to be some way to NOT backup the corrupted SMS database files. Also I am assuming carrier-bundled apps such as Swype will automatically work.
P.S. I have Marigold Android Backup and backed up to the SD card (except SMS/MMS). I also have mIQ but I'm not sure I trust that to do a restore. Factory resetting the phone will not affect the SD card, correct?
P.P.S. I have AppBrain. Is that automatically remembering all apps I have on the phone, so it will suggest installing all of them if I just install AppBrain? Or will it only do that for apps installed through AppBrain?
Answer
AppBrain will make it easy to restore your apps. After the reset, install AppBrain first(ish) and use it to get back all the apps you had before. (Sync before you reset.)
Market will remember your paid apps so you'll be able to get those without having to repay.
Your Google app data (e-mail, contacts, calendar) are backed up to the "cloud" already, so you shouldn't have to do anything special with them. If you REALLY want to you could export them to a CSV file, but you shouldn't have to.
You probably don't need to, but I would copy the contents of the SD card to a temporary location. Just in case.
As for other apps that keep data only local...I can't speak to those. I know that for myself everything important has a backup somewhere else. (Yay Dropbox!)
Unfortunately (or, actually, fortunately), I don't have any personal experience with a factory reset. Everything I've read says that it's really not that bad, excepting those apps that don't have dynamic storage strategies.
Good luck!
I have a very specific workflow that I can't find a simple solution for.
I want to be able to make a list of web pages to read offline. Not articles, whole web pages. And I want to keep them up-to-date.
I really want an app for Android (my phone: Galaxy S2) that does the following.
My personal use case is very simple. I'm a Wikipedia administrator, and there are a variety of public noticeboards for discussions of interest to administrators, like the administrators' noticeboard and the usually drama-filled administrators' noticeboard for incidents. I'd say there's probably about 10-20 pages I want. I'd rather like it if I could get either my phone or iPad, wake up in the morning, push the "update" button, go brush my teeth and by the time I'm leaving for my commute, have all the pages up-to-date and readable on the train.
Answers you may suggest that are wrong up-front:
Basically what I'm looking for is an Android version of what they referred to as an "offline browser" back in the early days of the web. Is there such a thing that doesn't suck?
I thankfully discovered the option to force GPU rendering of apps in the system settings of ICS.
So far, I did only notice a difference with one app: Twitter for Android was very annoying to use before, since the fps were very low. Now it's almost perfectly smooth.
I've heard that the RAM usage is higher with GPU rendering activated.
How much is the difference?
What other effects does GPU rendering have on the performance of ICS?
Answer
This post will explain everything. It details how GPU rendering works in ICS.
https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/2FXDCz8x93s
Though, if you want a short answer:
GPU rendering essentially forces the drawing of windows and UI elements in apps to be calculated and done using the GPU of your phone instead of the CPU. This frees up clock cycles for the CPU to do other tasks enabling your phone to be generally smoother and faster. However, this means that everything being done by the GPU eats more RAM (as its using OpenGL to do it which requires more overhead). Android has always done some aspects with the GPU using hardware acceleration. What I have described is a MAJOR OVERSIMPLIFICATION. Its not so cut and dry. Please read the link above in its entirety for a full understanding of the concept.
Right now in the market you have to manually update each app, is there an app that automates this?
Answer
Users can update several apps at once using Android version 2.2. An answer in the Android support forum says:
They have added this already but this is probably limited to market client app on Android 2.2 aka FroYo and higher firmware.
Also, I don't see anything in the market would bring this out for pre-2.2 phones, but it could be out there.
I would like to be able to use userscripts in Android. Is this even possible? I read that it was a couple months back and tried a tutorial which I can no longer find but it didn't work.
This question may be related to this other one I submitted but I believe they may have totally different answers.
There are quite a few app based rooting methods. A recent review 9 free software apps to root Android devices, points to some of them and there may be more apps, paid or otherwise.
From what I understand,
Plus Points
Ease of rooting
Don't need a laptop or computer
Minuses
Based on exploits, so may not work if exploits are denied by OS updates
Difficulty in unrooting (as I see on some forums for my device Huawei Honor 6)
Questions:
Note: I am not seeking app suggestion or recommendation.
Answer
Thanks to AndrewT who posted a link on chat, having this research paper as a refernce in one of the answers. This answer is entirely based on the this paper (May 2015) and highlights common user understandable aspects ( it has a lot of security related material for those interested)
What are the pros and cons apart from above?
If a device has both options - app based rooting and rooting by methods by developers, which one should I opt for?
Answer: It's all about malware vulnerability. Using Root exploits is a HUGE security risk and that over-weighs any other advantages
Soft Root : Root is obtained directly by running a piece of software (i.e., root exploits)- either by directly installing on the device or requiring adb shell through a PC connection
Hard Root : Root is obtained by flashing su binary externally via an update package or ROM
Even though legitimate, many convenient one-click root methods operate by exploiting vulnerabilities in the Android system. If not carefully controlled, such exploits can be abused by malware author to gain unauthorized root privilege.
As described in the Android Malware Genome Project , 36.7% ( of 1260 ) malware samples had embedded at least one root exploit.
These well-engineered exploits are not well protected, it is extremely dangerous if they fall in the wrong hands.
The paper covers 78 exploits studied. In general , the order of impact ( from the highest to lowest) :
Kernel Exploits: Due to its privileged position, targeting Linux Kernel is natural to achieve full control over an Android device- example ,TowelRoot
Library Exploits: the exploits targeting libraries that are used by Android system processes, or external libraries used for supporting different applications, example ZergRush exploit , libsysutils used by Volume Manager daemon
Application and Application Framework Application layer root exploits : exploits targeting system applications or services, mostly include vulnerable logics introduced by setuid utilities, system applications, or services. example is a vulnerable setuid utility that is only present on XoomFE devices that has a command injection vulnerability
Vendor-Specific Kernel or Drivers: Vendors either customize the kernel (e.g., Qualcomm’s custom Linux kernel branch) or provide vendor-specific device drivers for various peripherals (e.g., camera, sound). Such code runs inside the kernel space and the compromise of which can also lead to full control over the device.
Number wise , exploits are as in figure below
Very easy. Easily available from Google search, making it a cake walk for malware authors to leverage such exploits. Googling for 73 exploits lead to 68 of them being available - 46 with source code and 22 with binaries
Major requirements for exploits to work (ordered from most difficult to least) ( malware tag has a lot of these instances)
Requiring user interactions: (6 out of 78 studied)
Requiring adb shell through a PC connection: (17 out of 78 studied). For some exploits, adb shell connection is required because of the following most common reasons:
The exploit can successfully modify a setting in local.prop which enables root for adb shell only.
The exploit needs to write to a file owned by group shell and group-writable (not world-writable)
The exploit targets the adb daemon process that requires the attack process to run with shell user. For instance, the Rage Against the Cage exploit targets the vulnerability of adb daemon’s missing check on return value of setuid()
Reboot: (6 out of 78 studied) Generally, many root exploits require at least one reboot. For instance, a symbolic link attack would allow an attacker to delete a file owned by system with weak permission, to setup a link at the same location to a protected file. After a reboot, the corresponding init scripts would attempt to change the permission of the original file to world-writable, which in reality changes the permission of the linked file
None or permission: (44 out of 78 studied) The exploits in this category have no hard requirements, however, some of them may require certain Android permissions like READ LOGS in order for the process owner to be placed in certain user group.
Since the root exploits are highly sensitive and may be leveraged by various Android malware, it is expected that anti-virus software on Android platform can identify most of them, including the ones implemented by root providers. Overall, the result shows that the state-of-the-art security products on Android platform still cannot address root exploits effectively
4 representative Android anti-virus products were used to test the largest provider (name not revealed) having 167 exploits. Because originally downloaded exploits from the providers database have packed the actual exploit code and employed a tamper-detection mechanism, study crafted 3 different versions for every exploit:
Original exploit fetched directly from providers servers, with packing and tamper-detection on.
Unpacked exploit, which will expose all actual exploit logic to anti-virus products.
Re-packed exploit with tamper-detection disabled.
Exploit binaries engineered by large root providers are surprisingly “clean” as all major anti-virus software have difficulty detecting them as table below shows
Simple. Stay away from Soft Root methods unless you are capable of dealing with the consequences
My question is specific to YouTube app's new offline functionality.
I have saved some video from YouTube app on my Android phone. I restored my phone OS due to some problem. But I have files that were downloaded by YouTube app stored on SD Card. Now YouTube is not showing that videos in offline list.
Is there any way by which I can open those files in through YouTube app?
Append
I am just wondering whether youtube uses some config files to store list of downloaded videos. If so can we modify such config files and add those videos to the offline list.
Answer
No, currently there is NO way to recover those previously downloaded videos.
Reason?
Offline feature rather counts as cache so it's not considered as "your data".
And since you restored phone (assuming it to be "factory-reset"), what it basically does is to wipe the content specially from the /cache (holding the application cache) and /data (user data and user-installed apps, dalvik cache) partitions.
Caution: You will loose all Downloaded Offline YouTube videos, when you "Uninstall Updates" of YouTube App.
I asked similar question HERE when I too found that my offline videos from YouTube Gone Missing!
I've managed to acquire a Google Nexus One, that had an unfortunate encounter with a car door. The screen still accepts touch input, but the LCD itself is broken - no display at all. What is something "cool" I can do with it? My main concern is, is it possible to root it and get a remote shell without being able to see the screen?
Answer
You can get a remote shell with it, without the screen working. You will have to install the android SDK on your PC.
Another thing you can do is use Android ScreenCast to view the screen remotely. It doesn't have the best frame rate, but at least you will be able to interact with the screen. You may have to use this to get the remote shell working, as you may have to turn on USB Debugging in Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB Debugging
You can also get a replacement screen, I found a couple on ebay, ranging from ~$50 - ~$100. Some are just the LCD screen, some include the the touch input panel too.
The web site doesn't specifically say...but I assume that Kies is for Android based devices, NPS and PCStudio are for W7p and other Phone OSs?
Answer
New PC Studio is for Samsung's proprietary OS1. I believe PC Studio 3.1 is just an older or region-specific version of NPS.
RoToRa is correct that Kies is for both Bada and Android. It appears they are transitioning to using "Kies Mini" for Android, which is really just a means of updating the device software. Media management, sync, etc. is intended to be done through the "cloud" on Android devices.
After looking at the Samsing website, I believe they do not have management software for their Windows Phone 7 devices.
These commands won't work:
fdisk -l #outputs nothing...
su; fdisk -l #nothing..
sudo fdisk -l #sudo not found...
parted -l #parted not found...
Is there any app that shows that easly?
EDIT:
For now I had to attach the sdcard to PC and let Linux mount it, I found the partition was ext3 and not ext2 that I thought! All I read says partition must be mounted to know its type. I think we must create a path and mount it with automatic detection and see mount output to know the partition type.
There are a ton of XDA forums and a decent number of answers here that refer to specific dialer codes. For instance *#*#4636#*#* will cause unicorns to spring forth from your phone or tell you what OS you're running and how much RAM you have (I forget which). I found one list of Secret Star Codes but I'm wondering if there's a more complete list? Someone warned that some codes can really screw up your phone and it'd be nice to have a good place to point people for good information on what the codes actually mean.
Though in fact *#*#4636#*#*, which was recently recommended, is fairly safe, I think it is a good practice, especially since we all start talking about fire breathing dragons when the subject of rooting a device comes up, to make sure we're encouraging folks to make sure they know what a dialer code is going to do.
Answer
This thread over at XDA seems to be a pretty good start on this kind of resource.
Edit: I just noticed that the OP in that thread admitted that most of the codes listed wouldn't work in 2.2. Bummer.
Edit 2: Found another one. No indication of whether these codes have been tested and if so what device/ROM was used.
My new Samsung Galaxy 5 (also named Galaxy i5500, and running (android 2.1) has some GPS issue.
The GPS works fine (i.e. it can find satellites when I use the app GPS Test.) directly after powering up my phone. However, as soon as the phone has been in standby, the GPS no longer can find any satellites. After restarting the device, the GPS is working again until the next standby.
The device has been upgraded to the latest firmware using Samsung Kies, and following Samsung's support advice I have already performed a factory reset.
Is there something that can be done to fix this (apart from waiting for Samsung Support's follow-up)?
Edit: I think this androidforums post describes the problem and solution (still have to test it) quite well.
I have a Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 and use it to listen to music in my car thru an aux cable.
The problem is, when the aux is connected to the phone, its detect an "external microphone" wich capture no sound at all (because my car dont have an external mic).
So, when I try to make a voice record or send a voice message on whatsapp, there is no sound recorded.
There is a way to disable the phone from using an external mic? I downloaded the app "soundabout", its solves the problem but create others (like pausing/unpausing when aux is connected), so I still need a full fix.
Ty!
I have files that I used to copy from my SD card to my PC using the USB Mass Storage option under the "USB connection" pop-up. I checked the flag under Settings->Location & Security->Data encryption->Storage encryption and now I can't read new files of these types (e.g., .jpg and .txt files). I tried unchecking the box -- a message appeared saying that future files will be decrypted, but existing files will remain encrypted.
How do I access the files that are currently encrypted and/or decrypt them?
Answer
I sent this question into Verizon Wireless as well. Here is their reply:
Thank you for contacting Verizon Wireless through our website...I understand that you've been having an issue trying to decrypt files on your handset. At this time Motorola hasn't provided an update for your phone to be able to do this. Without that, we're unable to assist you because this is a phone issue and not a network issue.
So it looks like Ryan was correct in his comment that this is an issue with a Motorola OS add-on, not vanilla Android.
Since originally asking my question, I experimented some more with my phone. My phone has 2 check-boxes for setting encryption: one to encrypt the SD card (that I mentioned in my original question) and one to encrypt the main phone memory. When I unchecked both boxes, my phone decrypted all files, both on the phone and on the SD card. So, that is my solution for now.
Thank you Ryan for your comments -- they helped lead me to this answer.
I think the term is: how do I pull not push? I don't want the phone constantly checking for FB, new email, etc. every 30 seconds. But I cannot work out how to:
Please advise.
For those people who are interested in flashing custom roms after rooting their android device:
Does a website exist that provides a definitive, quick & up to date guide to the numerous and varied custom roms that are available for the android platform (obviously not the whole kaboosh, but something that gave a flavour). Generally I hear about CyanogenMod, MIUI & occasionally AOKP (if i'm not mistaken).
Fair enough if you have the time in the day to watch various youtube channels and do searches on the countless android orientated websites, i'm sure most people don't.
(I have seen similar questions asked here, generally people have named a few or just said see XDA)
Answer
There is no such site that lists all the available ROM's for all the devices - if there was, it would be huge.
The best way to find a custom ROM, as well as ways to flash & guides, is to check the more popular forums - such as XDA-Developers or the Android Forums.
Recently I bought a Spice MI 280 with Android 2.3.4, I downloaded apps from the Android Market like App2sd, Task killer, Soundhound etc.
A few days ago Android Market was upgraded to Google Play and when I try to open it it shows a no connection: retry error...although I can browse the net through Opera and uc browser without any difficulty.
When I open YouTube through Opera it shows the main page of the site, but then when I try to play a video it shows cannot play the video.
I have tried adjusting the current date, clearing data and caches etc. I've tried a factory data reset but its asking please input phone password. Any suggestions?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 running rooted Jelly Bean 4.1.2. My computer is running Ubuntu 12.10.
Before, in Android 4.0, I simply plugged the USB in, and a notification would pop up, and I was offered a button to Turn on USB storage, and then my 12GB internal SD card and 16GB external SD card were both mounted as external drives. Nice and easy.
Now, to get the same thing, to connect my Android as a mass storage device, before I connect the USB cable, I have to go to Settings -> More Settings -> USB utilities and press Connect storage to PC, then plug in the cable, then press Turn on USB storage. It's a hassle and a half.
If I don't do it this way, when I connect the USB, it tries to connect with MTP. Which causes this error:
Unable to mount SAMSUNG_Android
Error initializing camera: -60: Could not lock the device
If I switch the connection mode to PTP, I get two devices, both called SAMSUNG_Android, only one of which (12GB internal) actually ever displays the contents. The other hangs.
In either case, MTP or PTP, if I have Banshee running when I connect my Android, it causes Banshee to crash. I use Banshee to sync my music collection.
The short story being that currently, connecting my Android to my computer is either complicated or doesn't work very well.
I've been told that USB mass storage is being deprecated, and MTP is the standard going forward. At the end of the day, I don't care if it's MTP, PTP, or mass storage that's used to connect my device. All I care is that it's as easy as it used to be. Plug it in, press a button, both drives are mounted and usable like any other drive.
How do I get this ease of function when connecting my Android to my USB.
Answer
A developer on the XDA forums provided a script that changes the default behaviour so that connecting by USB mass storage is the default behaviour:
#!/system/bin/sh
setprop persist.sys.usb.config mass_storage,adb
I had to use a file manager app that gave me access to the root directory, I placed the script in /system/etc/init.d/, changed the script's permissions to rwxr-xr-x, and then rebooted the phone.
Now I have the full functionality and ease of use I hoped for. I'll probably eventually have to use to something like MTP or whatever, but hopefully in the meantime while proper support is developed by all relevant parties, I won't have to suffer.
This questions splits this question into smaller parts. Living without Google
So first of all I would like to find out, how I can move the 2 ICSDroid calendars to the Phone section. I think with doing this the read-only issue will be solved, too.
After adding 2 .ics files (click image to enlarge)
Feel free to post also alternatives to ICSDroid if there is something better. It does not have to be ICSDroid for the import.
Answer
I now solved with installing ownCloud on my server. It was not difficult and is easy to setup. Also it gives the possibility to enable even more features.
So in Thunderbird I just add the online calendar URL to the specific calendar. That's it. The only bad thing is that Thunderbird(Lightning) does not get the colors from the server. So you have to set them manually.
And on Android you need a special app like CalDAV which is really cheap and as well easy to setup.
Now you can use any calendar app like the of your Android. Planner Plus or aCalendar. This is totally up to you. I really like Planner Plus somehow.
For me this is a really good solution. Synching is working perfectly even with different users on it at the same time. You can also manage the rights the users have in your ownCloud which was impossible with the row ics Dropbox solution.
I also use the Tasks app of ownCloud, what is called the app OpenTasks under Android, which makes it pretty easy also to use tasks on Android.
I can't figure out a usable way of scrolling page by page. I'm using Android 4.1 (stock Android from Google). I have root access if needed. I want this especially in the default browser, but a solution that works in all applications would be better.
I've found three ways to scroll down by one page.
Given how common the “page down” task is, there must be a better way that I'm missing. What is it?
After messing around with the xposed framework and installing lots of modules, I got into a bootloop (classic !), but I knew the solution was to add a disabled file in data/app/de.rovb.android.xposed.installer/conf/ to disable xposed and uninstall the faulty modules.
The thing is, most of the time when I access this folder, I don't see the correct folder names, which are supposed to look like this : com.xyz.app.*. Instead, I see com.xyz.app.*-1 folders, containing a lib folder and the app's .apk file. I have to reboot into recovery a dozen times before I can access the actual folders.
I'm running CyanogenMod 12S (5.0.2) on a (rooted) OnePlus One.
I have no idea what's happening, and I couldn't find any info on that. Does anyone know why this is happening?
Thanks in advance !
Answer
Let's clear up some confusion. Things to always remember:
/data/app contains the APK of an app.
(PACKAGE → package name of an app)
Android 4.x: if the app is installed using Package installer of Android the file name would be PACKAGE-*.apk where * is often a positive integer.
/data/app isn't supposed to have any directory inside it.
PACKAGE-* where * is often a positive integer. This directory contains the APK of the app with name base.apk.For both Android 4.x and 5.x, /data/data contains only the data of the apps. All the apps are allotted a directory with name strictly the package name of the app.
For both Android 4.x and 5.x, /data/lib contains only the library (optional) of the apps. All the apps are allotted a directory with name PACKAGE-* where * is often a positive integer.
Now let's head towards the real issue.
When dealing with boot issues caused by an Xposed module, do not wander here and there.
Note:
Go to /data/app and remove the APK of the troublesome module. This can be done from GUI on TWRP.
You can use command-line as an alternative
adb shell rm /data/app/PACKAGE*.apk
A less-extreme approach is to disable the Xposed module but not remove it. Head over to data directory of Xposed Installer /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer, go inside conf, and remove the entry for your module from modules.list. It is up to you how you remove the line.
I'd go for command-line though
adb shell sed -i '/.*PACKAGE.*/d' /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/conf/modules.list
sed is a stream editor and it is removing any line which contains module's package name from modules.list.
Go to to data directory of Xposed Installer /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer, go inside conf, and remove or rename or revoke read permission from modules.list.
Alternatively, create a blank file named disabled (not disable) inside conf directory. This would cause Xposed Framework to not activate any module during boot. You can create the file using command-line
adb shell touch /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/conf/disabled
Another alternative, per the framework's developer rovo89 is
[It is] possible to disable Xposed by repeatedly pressing one of the hardware buttons during early startup. The phone will vibrate twice when the first key press has been detected. Then you have five seconds to press the same button four more times. Each key press will be confirmed with a short vibration; the final one with a long vibration. It creates
/data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/conf/disabled, which prevents most of Xposed's actions (e.g. ... no modules are loaded). There's no 100% guarantee that this will get you out of a bootloop, but in most cases it should.
(Emphasis mine)
Use the file Xposed-Disabler-Recovery.zip located at /sdcard/Android/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/files. Flash that file from recovery mode to disable Xposed Framework. It doesn't delete the Installer app.
Download the file from official thread, if you don't have one.
That archive, in essence, changes /system/bin/app_process.orig to /system/bin/app_process. You can make those changes on your own using adb in recovery mode.
The official thread hosts an uninstaller file. Download the one relevant to your CPU's architecture and flash it from recovery mode.
If you're not using the official Xposed Framework then the uninstaller may not work for you. It may even cause unforeseen issues. Best is to search the web for the uninstaller.
I live in the south of Brazil. At this time of year is in daylight saving time, where the time zone goes from -03 GMT to -02 GMT. The hour of my MOTO C PLUS (Android 7.0) has changed automatically to the right time without any problem, but the GPS time continues in -03 GMT Time zone.
I use an application that uses GPS time and errors are generated because of this difference. This problem is not in the application, as other users use the same version of the app without any problems and I also checked with app support.
I used GPS Status app to check that difference. I already tried do reset cached A-GPS data, but without any success.
Is there any way to change the timezone of the GPS clock?
Uninstalling and re-installing applications does not help. This affects all applications tested below:
As simple as that, when I'm using the official Gmail app to access my email account, does it use a secure connection?
Answer
One should be careful to differentiate between the gmail app, and the default mail client.
Gmail App
The Gmail app is the pre-installed app created by Google that can only be used with Gmail. The answer to whether or not the Gmail app is secure requires some understanding of Android app security. This passage from the dev guide explains how developers may connect to an SSL Socket to securely send TCP/IP communications.
Since the Gmail app uses SSL Sockets when sending and receiving mail, all communications are secure [citation needed].
Mail Client
Unlike the Gmail app, the default mail client can be used with any email account, including Gmail. When using this client to send and receive Gmail, an SSL connection must be used. The app is therefore also secure. Google explains how to do this in their help pages.
Can I make these work on Android or is there a google place to create or convert bookmarklets to make them Android Compatible?
Answer
Finally got it to work and it wasn't complicated at all.
Simply create a bookmark and paste the javascript into the URL field. I've tried it on this bookmarklet that does a google definition search:
javascript: s = (window.getSelection ? window.getSelection() : document.getSelection ? document.getSelection() : document.selection.createRange().text); if (s == '') { l = parent.frames.length; if (l != 1) { for (i = 0; i < l; i++) { s = parent.frames[i].document.getSelection ? parent.frames[i].document.getSelection() : parent.frames[i].document.selection.createRange().text; if (s) { break; } } } } if (s == '') { void( s = prompt('Google Define: Enter a term or mark some text.','') ); } if (s) { s = String(s); s = s.replace(/^s*|s*$/g,''); s = escape(s);void( bmw = open('http://www.google.com/search?num=100&start=0&q=define:'+s+'','GoogleDefineBM'+String(Math.round(Math.random()*1000))) );}
To get it saved as a bookmark I just saved the text in evernote then copied it on my phone an pasted it in the url field of "new bookmark." To make it even easier to access I created a custom dolphin gesture that opens it as "Go To URL". Now when I'm browsing and I want to lookup a word I hit the gesture button and draw a "d" and it brings up a popup that allows me to lookup the word.
I've only tried this on Dolphin Browser HD.
Motorola Xoom running Honeycomb 3.1, for the last few days, every few minutes I get a popup in the middle of the screen saying:
Sorry! The process com.google.process.gaps has stopped unexpectedly. PLease try again. Force close
This happens when I'm running pretty much any app: browser, Google Reader, Gallery, GMail, File Manager HD, etc. Can't work out any pattern to i, sometimes it happens every couple of minutes, sometimes I can go for 10 or more minutes without seeing it.
What's causing this (or how can I tell what's causing this) and how can I stop it?
Update This does appear to only happen when I've got a network connection (mine's a Wifi only tablet) - after installing alogcat, I did a 40 minute commute on a train using Google Listen and playing Angry Birds, with no errors popping up at all (and therefore no way to catch anything in the log. Will have to wait until I'm home again to investigate further.
Answer
After a lot of experimentation and backwards and forwards and disabling and enabling various things, I've got it to the point where I haven't seen that error popup for about a week now (which is a huge improvement over it appearing every 10 minutes).
Unfortunately Logcat never seemed to show any obvious, enlightening errors when the Force Close messages popped up, so there was nothing to work on there.
Various posts on web forums suggested that going into Accounts and Sync disabling sync on Calendars and Contacts, then clearing the data on the Calendar and Contacts app should help, but it didn't seem to for me.
In the end what I think solved the problem was:
Not 100% sure which of those steps solved it, but after doing all of those steps in that order my problem has gone away.
I dialed a number when I had no network support but it does not appear in the call history of my android phone.
Is there any way to get it ? (system logs or whatever)
THanks a lot in advance, Jack
How to do a full nandroid backup via pc using adb or anything or any software specialised for it.
Answer
The easiest way is to make the nandroid via a third party recovery (E.g. CWM, TWRP, PhilZ etc.) and copy that onto your PC of course. If this option isn't possible:
From XDA Developers on Nandroid to PC
This guide is intended to make a full backup of your android phone (the entire memory block with all partitions) or a single partition (including sdcards, etc) directly to your computer, in either
Block level (with dd): for single partitions or whole memory block (all partitions in one piece). The backup always has the same size which is the size of the partition.
File level (with tar): only for individual partitions. This only includes files and folders, so occupies much less space, depending on how much filled is the partition. It can be done with the phone powered on or from ClockWorkMod Recovery (from both ADB works, while in Fastboot doesn't so won't apply). Unless specified the commands meant to be used from Windows. For Linux and Unix is similar.
REQUIREMENTS
PARTITION IDENTIFICATION
You now have to identify the partition or block device that you want to backup. For a single partition you can use either tar or dd, while for the entire memory block you can only use dd.
For example, on Galaxy Nexus you have the list of partitions here .
Usually on android, the entire block containing all partitions is located at /dev/block/mmcblk0 and the data partitions is a subpartition of it. You can push parted with GPT support to your device and see all information on a partition or block.
Whole phone memory -> /dev/block/mmcblk0 (may vary, in some phones this is the sdcard) Subpartitions -> depends on each device. Usually at /dev/block/platform/dw_mmc/by-name/ there are listed by name linking to the real device.
Back up of the whole memory block (via adb) Connect the phone in ADB mode and unlock the screen. Open one Cygwin Terminal and enter (replace mmcblk0 if needed):
adb forward tcp:5555 tcp:5555
adb shell
su
/system/xbin/busybox nc -l -p 5555 -e /system/xbin/busybox dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0
You will see the cursor blinking at the left. Now the phone is waiting to send the block over the network.
Open another Cygwin terminal and type:
adb forward tcp:5555 tcp:5555
cd /path/to/store/the/backup
nc 127.0.0.1 5555 | pv -i 0.5 > mmcblk0.raw
You will see how the image size is growing until it finishes. Now you have the whole phone backed up in raw format. You can see the contents of the GPT partition with gptfdisk tool, available for windows, linux and such. See official website and sourceforge to get it. You can do it the same from ClockWorkMod Recovery but you have to mount first the /system partition since the busybox included with clockworkmod does not come with netcat and you have to use the one from the system partition. With further linux tools you could edit or extract single partitions from the whole block.
How does one root a Samsung Galaxy S II GT-i9100 (with its original Android 2.3 Gingerbread), preferably under Linux Mint?
This questions pertains specifically the GT-i9100 version (not GT-i9100G nor GT-i9100T, et cetera), which currently has no entry under the rooting index.
I am particularly looking for a rooting method which does not wipe the data on the phone, as I am hoping to recover data afterwards. I have an 8GB external SD card.
I'm wondering if it would be possible to use android-based tablets (or ipads) in business meetings.
The idea would be to have each person in the meeting, with its individual tablet, see what a "meeting-leader" is seeing on his own tablet, navigating through the web or using apps.
I see some solutions that seem to be mostly directed into remote-control, but what I want is just to screencast in realtime to multiple receivers, privately. The ability to let some other person take control would also be nice, but not mandatory.
How could I set this up?
I wanted to uninstall the default Calendar app to replace with Google Calendar. However, I accidentally uninstalled Calendar Storage before uninstalled the default Calendar app. The Google Calendar app won't work every time I try to create an event/plan. I assume this is because I uninstalled the Calendar Storage (app?).
How do I retrieve it? Is there a repo wherein I can just download it? I tried Googling, found nothing. My phone is a Huwawei Y320, Android OS version is 4.2.2
Two android (nexus 4, and nexus 10) devices with cyanogenmod (nightly) are connected to windows 7. When the nexus 4 is connected windows shows it in explorer and it is possible to transfer files to/from it though MTP. Attach the nexus 10 and nothing appears, unless MTP is deselected (under storage) and PTP is selected. Then it is possible to transfer files to/from, yet only from the "Pictures" folder of /data.
Further information android sdk is installed and the google usb drivers have been loaded for both devices. ADB recognizes the nexus 4 but not the nexus 10 unless the nexus 10 is put into PTP mode.
How can this be explained?
I am using ubuntu 12.04 LTS and want to root my micromax A110Q.
I'd like to have all the text displayed in English (US), but use the Polish (Poland) formatting for numbers, dates etc. On a desktop Linux system, I'd set LANG to pl_PL and LC_MESSAGES to en_US. Is there a way to so on Android? I see only combined language+locale setting. Note: I am not asking about the keyboard, I know can set it to use a language different from the language+locale setting without problems.
Answer
I've set my phone to English (United States), but then I also customized Date & Time to use Italian format (DD/MM/YYYY). Numbers don't seem to be customizable, plus some apps ignore Date & Time settings and use the ones from the main language, or allow to specify a format.
I have a Galaxy S2 running Android 4.1.2. It has a 12GB internal HD, and a 16GB SD card.
I keep getting errors from various programs telling me I am running out of space. BeyondPod won't download new episodes, Evernote keeps putting up a notification of a lack of space (even though it seems to be storing everything), and sometimes apps won't update.
I have tried to ensure I have no superfluous apps, and I haven't really changed the apps I use since I first ever started using the device. I keep any large files, like music collections or videos, on my SD card.
When I connect my device by USB to my Linux computer and check the properties of my 12GB HD, it says 9.9 GB is used. But if I browse the files, every folder seems to have barely kilobytes of information.
Why is my 12GB HD filling up, and how do I clear it out so I don't get these errors?
Update: My phone is rooted, so if that is something that can help me in this situaton, then root access is available to me.
Answer
Signed up to the site specifically to answer this question. I'm also using a Samsung Galaxy S2 with lots of storage but constantly full. I could not install applications or do pretty much anything.
I'm using Cyanogenmod, but this applies to all Androids.
What I did was using a file explorer with Root Permissions (to see all the files), navigated to the /data/logs folder.
The contents of the folder totalled over 1 GB, causing the problem. I deleted all files in that folder and it workes fine now.
As to why this is happening, I don't know - but I do know how to fix it. Hope this helps!
disclaimer: of course I can move apps which allow that, using "manage applications" menu.
There are apps, some stock ones and some downloaded, that for some reason don't have the "movable to sdcard" flag set. Is there a way to move them anyway without preventing them from working (as long as the sdcard is on, of course).
Yes there might be a good reason for them to be in the internal memory, I'd like to try moving them anyway if possible.
Phone is a Nexus One with stock android 2.3.6 unrooted — I guess I'd either have to root it or to install cyanogen or whatever?
Answer
Yes, you can move any apps that don't normally allow it, including system apps, if you have root. Note that most apps that doesn't allow moving usually do not allow it for a good reason, so if you force move you may get crashes and other stability issues. You need an app2sd application that uses root, like this: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.droidsail.dsapp2sd
I'm looking for a method to retrieve all my files from my Dropbox account and download them to my SD card.
This should download everything with no user intervention. There are a couple of Dropbox applications around but none of them have the ability to download everything and even worse most seem to work incorrectly on huge files skipping the last part or simply not working.
Answer
Another app is now available to be a more complete solution: Titanium Media Sync
The reliable and battery-friendly way of syncing your files to/from the cloud !
This unique app allows you to sync a set of folders from your Android device to the cloud and back. It currently supports the free Dropbox storage service. The official Dropbox app is not needed.
Innovative "setup & forget" sync engine with these features:
- Battery friendly.
- Works on ALL Android devices.
- Will NOT slow down your device when no data changes.
- Will backup your new/modified files (eg: photos, videos) in the background, as soon as possible.
- Adapts to ever-changing connectivity and power conditions.
Supports 2 different sync modes (both are one-way):
- Continuous sync from Local to Remote.
- One-shot sync from Remote to Local.
And from Lifehacker's review:
If you've been unhappy with the way Dropbox's mobile app only uploads files manually, you'll want to check out Titanium Media Sync, which will constantly sync folders from your phone to Dropbox, just like Dropbox does on the desktop.
From the makers of the amazing Titanium Backup, Titanium Media Sync is what Dropbox's mobile app should have been. You pick folders from your SD card to sync back to your Dropbox. Any time you add something to those folders—say, if you take a picture on your phone, or download an app you want to try out on your computer later on—it will automatically sync those changes back, so your files will be waiting for you when you get back to your computer. You can also sync folders from your Dropbox to your SD card, but it's only a one-time sync—Titanium won't monitor your remote folders, only the ones on your SD card.
The interface is pretty easy to use, too. The left column shows all the folders on your SD card, while the column on the right shows your Dropbox, and you can just drag and drop folders from one to the other to sync them. Dragging from the the right column will download that folder to your SD card, while dragging from left to right will give you the option of setting up that folder for automatic sync. Because it only syncs one way, it won't constantly call the internet slow down your phone when it's waiting for changes. You can even set whether you want it to sync over Wi-Fi only, or over 3G and 4G in the preferences. By default, it will also sync only when your phone's plugged in to save battery (but you can change this in the preferences too). Seriously, if you're a Dropbox user, this app is absolutely worth having—even moreso than the official Dropbox app itself.
Titanium Media Sync is a $2.99 download for Android devices.
A lot of people like iPod Touches because they're almost identical to iPhones, but without cell service (and the monthly fees that go along with it), while still being able to connect to a wireless network. Are there any alternative devices that run Android?
Bonus points if it has at least 24 GB of storage.
Is it possible to manually update any Android Device?
Answer
Yes, assuming the device has been rooted and someone has engineered the update to work with your specific device. How fast that happens depends on how hard the devices manufacturer has made it, and how active the community is. Its not as simple as just loading windows on a computer.
I asked a similar question a while ago. Check out the answers for more detail: What is involved in installing Android onto a device?
A month ago I got a Nexus 5. It's running Android 4.4.2 (kernel:3.4.0-gadb2201). I noticed after using it for a while that it constantly keeps forgetting all saved wifi passwords after a restart. In the beginning I thought it might have something to do with my router, but the device also forgot the password of my university's wifi network, so that can't be the problem. Before obtaining this device, I had a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.3 which never had this issue. That's why I have a feeling the issue is specific to Android 4.4.2.
Google was my first stop to try to find a solution, but it seems that I'm one of a few people facing this problem generally, and none has it with their Nexus 5. It's not a major issue because I can mitigate it by not restarting my device, but rather an annoying tiny inconvenience I'd like to have fixed.
Does anyone have an idea why this is happening? Is there a solution for it?
I recently asked a question on this site about how to stop my USB transfers from being so slow on my rooted Galaxy S2. It was suggested to me that I update my kernel and/or ROM. That seemed reasonable, so I did. I now have the latest kernel version and latest ROM.
And now, after doing so, my GPS is completely unresponsive.
So now I'm playing feature-whack-a-mole again. Something I was doing a while back when I could either have my compass or my WiFi, but not both.
How do I get out of this? How do I get my GPS back and not be juggling every other feature on my phone?
(... and I'm not even sure my USB problems are solved...)
Answer
The GPS was fixed by downloading a "tweak" script, whatever that is, from here. I originally found it on this thread on XDA-Developers.
My phone fell from my pocket while on a bike. After a while it was giving me some problems so I decided to resetting it. I'm in China now and I forget that I have to do through all the processes but China is blocking Google's servers so I can't complete the connectivity check.
I have a 4GB SD card which is partitioned into 3GB and 1GB (Well it's not 1GB it's approx. 750 MB) (I used it through my phone 'cause i didn't have a reader and i used mini tool partition wizard) then I put my data back onto the 3GB partition. Link2SD showed me a screen titled :"select the file system of your SD card's second partition" which has 4 options:
The 1GB partition is ext2 so I choose ext2 and restarted my phone. It showed the same message every time and it tells me "If you're getting this message after reboot it means that the second partition cannot be mounted automatically at boot"
My phone is a rooted Vodafone 858 Smart / Huawei 8160 it's running CM7.2
I tried to reformat and repartition but nothing worked.
Answer
Requirements:
If unsure, do as root via adb:
df | grep sdext2 should show you a mounted ext2/ext3/... mmcblk0p2 partition
How can I change file permission of a file on Android without rooting? I actually want to prevent some files from deletion.
Note: I am asking of changing the file permissions of user-created files in internal shared storage.
Answer
On all operating systems based on Linux kernel - like Android is - it's possible to set permissions on files (including directories) provided that filesystem supports UNIX permissions (uid, gid, mode). Common examples of such filesystems are ext4 and f2fs.
However Android's internal (confusingly called external) storage which is accessible by installed apps at /sdcard, is not an actual but virtual / emulated filesystem exposing /data/media (which is a real filesystem) through sdcardfs. sdcardfs and its predecessor FUSE expose the emulated filesystem with a fixed set of uid, gid and mask (mode). So the commands chmod and chown have no impact, whether executed through CLI (adb shell or terminal emulator) or GUI (file explorer).
It's possible to change permission bits of file on underlying actual filesystem, but accessing /data/media requires root access because only UID/GID 1023 (aid_media_rw) has read access to the directory. And still the permissions will remain same when viewed from emulated view /sdcard.
So you can't change permissions of user created files on Android, with or without root.
Further reading:
Related:
So I prefer how my iPhone works in that the volume keys adjust the media volume.
Samsung has an option for this called "Default volume key control."
Is there a way to do this on a rooted device?
Basically I don't like how there are 2 separate volumes that I have to deal with. I just want one. I put my phone on silent when I don't want it to ring so I'm not concerned about the ringtone volume.
Answer
Media volume only does exactly this but does require accessibility settings. Supposedly it doesn't drain your battery but I'm not 100% sure.
There is other options here https://www.xda-developers.com/apps-to-master-your-volume-buttons/ I experimented with a couple apps but ultimately many of them don't for example if your screen is off.
