Database Users

ROM for juniors?

Hi,
I got a few spare androids' and i'm considering giving them to my kids (11 and 12) to play around with it and enjoy the android experience. however I don't want them being able to put 3rd party applications. how do i go about removing the option of "unknown sources" and maybe wifi from the settings.apk.
I'm not new to java and xml but sort of new to android development, I've tried several ways to remove it from the apk only (ark, ddx, baksmali, apksign) I did it in so many ways that i can't remember them all. I've also tried to decode the apk with apktool, ddx, baksmali, and creating a new project from existing source in eclipse, and I couldn't figure out what parts I have to modify to get it working (i kept on getting errors in eclipse so i wasn't even able to compile and test it in DDMS-eclipse).
Also i would like to know if maybe it is necessary to port the whole kernel source into eclipse?
I've searched all over the internet for a information for this specific thing and I couldn't find anything.
Btw, I'm using nix lucid.
Thanks In advance.
any help would be appreciated!

how about flash the supere rom without the google apps? that way they wont be able to access the market..

lagu805 said:
how about flash the supere rom without the google apps? that way they wont be able to access the market..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, the problem is not the market, i can pull it out from the phone with adb in a second w/o superE, but they can still install stuff on it with a sd card, and I would hate to not put in a file browser on the phone.
I think it would be a good idea to make a rom that's made for kids, for playing games and stuff without me worrying about it.
I'm sure that they will try to figure out a way to get around the "no market on the phone" and I should not underestimate a kid (even a 12 year old). I've seen him getting around lots of technological obstacle's.
I think that the world could use a kid's version of android, you know, get them hooked when they're young. The last thing i would like to hear from my kids is talking about iPhone or Windows. We're all linux in our house

Interesting. I too gave Magics to my 11 & 12 yr olds, one without a data plan and the other without a SIM at all. I think the right way might be multiuser like we already do on the desktops. Sudo would be a nice touch but I'd be happy to login as admin to install or whatnot.
Multiuser is something I'd like to see anyway with most or some settings on a per user basis. Or at least just for security, normal login can't do critical tasks that might cause issues. I think we'll hear about this again once we hear about some seriously dangerous apps/scams/viri on the phones.
In the meantime your best bet is education and rules about what can and can't be done. Then once per week or so you take the phone and check things out, update as needed, etc. So far my kids have little interest in breaking the rules and are happy browsing the market for fun things.

I think the only way to achieve this is to download the AOSP, edit the sources to remove the options and then compile your own ROM.

3rdcoast said:
Interesting. I too gave Magics to my 11 & 12 yr olds, one without a data plan and the other without a SIM at all. I think the right way might be multiuser like we already do on the desktops. Sudo would be a nice touch but I'd be happy to login as admin to install or whatnot.
Multiuser is something I'd like to see anyway with most or some settings on a per user basis. Or at least just for security, normal login can't do critical tasks that might cause issues. I think we'll hear about this again once we hear about some seriously dangerous apps/scams/viri on the phones.
In the meantime your best bet is education and rules about what can and can't be done. Then once per week or so you take the phone and check things out, update as needed, etc. So far my kids have little interest in breaking the rules and are happy browsing the market for fun things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, it is just a nix and SUDO should be possible, but setting this up is a quite a project and I don't think this is a one day project.
As for educating, I think they know right from wrong and I don't think that they will willingly break the rules, the market however is full of apps that are not meant for young kids..... what do you think they're going to do when they bump in to one of those apps? .
Actually what i wanted to do is to give them a phone with a line and no data plan so they can play games or watch movies, If the kids want to use the internet, there are more than enough boxes at home they can use. This phone is strictly for voice text and games.
What I want to accomplish in general, is having a child safe phone, and have the other parents here who want their kids to have to have an android, enjoy it. My way of giving back to the community.
But to have a phone that will be suitable for the purpose (not just for my kids) the data has to be completely disabled, and wifi is going to be the issue. putting on an encryption on wifi is a joke, ever heard of aircrack? I'm sure there are lots of determined horny 15 year olds that will get around that. (am i paranoid?)
Case_ said:
I think the only way to achieve this is to download the AOSP, edit the sources to remove the options and then compile your own ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly what i want to do. The question is how do I do it?
Again, I'm not a complete noob, I just never played around with android as an OS. so if I can have the first push here here what I'm supposed to do to start this I would really appreciate it.
As I've said in my first post, I tried a few things and i couldn't get it right. what part of this don't i get??
Thanks a lot.

well your not even going in the right direction..
do you have an IDE with compiler and the android SDK all set up? then you can check on dferrera post on how to compile android from source... its listed in this forum.. please search
if your not a programmer or have no idea what classes - functions etc are then this might now be an option for you that is something you can be instructed on
you are going to need to learn to compile android from source and modify it, this is a very big task mate - be prepared, and no one can answer all the questions for u

alan090 said:
well your not even going in the right direction..
do you have an IDE with compiler and the android SDK all set up? then you can check on dferrera post on how to compile android from source... its listed in this forum.. please search
if your not a programmer or have no idea what classes - functions etc are then this might now be an option for you that is something you can be instructed on
you are going to need to learn to compile android from source and modify it, this is a very big task mate - be prepared, and no one can answer all the questions for u
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, but i can't seem to get java5 working on 10.04 (the 10.04 repos have only java6 but i did add the old repos and ran in to some issues), I had it working on 9.04 though. anyone made it run on 10.04? or should I downgrade (or run it in VB) to 9.04/.10?

k50aker said:
Thanks for the reply, but i can't seem to get java5 working on 10.04 (the 10.04 repos have only java6 but i did add the old repos and ran in to some issues), I had it working on 9.04 though. anyone made it run on 10.04? or should I downgrade (or run it in VB) to 9.04/.10?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Add these 2 lines to the end of /etc/apt/sources.list file
Code:
deb http://pl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty multiverse
deb http://pl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty universe
then do:
Code:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java5-jdk

@k50aker
Hiding Wifi and other things should be quite easy task, but... how do you want to protect against system reinstallation? They could download any ROM from internet and install it in just 10 minutes. Backuping is easy too, so they could have 2 systems installed and switch between them when their dad comes home.
Android phones aren't desktops. You can't have root and don't give it to other users of a device.

Mod. edit: not dev related, moved to general

I wouldn't want to hide WiFI, the device is useless without connectivity, much cheaper toys out there for that if I wanted stand alone.
My two children each have a Magic and this is my experience, none of the worries that many parents seem to fear. They are well behaved and so far no problems and they are ready for 2.1 since 1.5 is just too confining even for them. Education goes a long way.
The best choice I made was to not put a SIM in one of the phones. WiFI is ideal since she is nearly always in a zone. This has gotten her used to IM instead of texting. Same effect but costs nothing. A SIP app works almost as well as SIM voice. Someday I'll do a data only SIM so she has total coverage, she'll understand that heavy data is to be done over WiFI and cell data is for VoIP and for times when it is really needed and can't wait.
However it would be nice if there was a limited setting requiring admin password for certain functions. But really, there hasn't been any problems but my kids might be grateful enough to not abuse the rights I give them. Best advice besides education if they are very young is to not SIM until after they get into the alternatives and not be addicted to texting. The older one has learned to watch her usage patterns and has to pay if she goes over budget.

Switch33 said:
Add these 2 lines to the end of /etc/apt/sources.list file
Code:
deb http://pl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty multiverse
deb http://pl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty universe
then do:
Code:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java5-jdk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
those ropes are for jaunty not for lucid, and I have tried that before anyway and this is what i get:
Code:
desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install sun-java5-jdk
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
sun-java5-jdk is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libwv2-4
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 11 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up sun-java5-doc (1.5.0-19-0ubuntu0.9.04) ...
This package is an installer package, it does not actually contain the
J2SDK documentation. You will need to go download one of the
archives:
jdk-1_5_0-doc.zip jdk-1_5_0-doc-ja.zip
(choose the non-update version if this is the first installation).
Please visit
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.html
now and download. The file should be owned by root.root and be copied
to /tmp.
[Press RETURN to try again, 'no' + RETURN to abort] no
Abort installation of J2SDK documentation
dpkg: error processing sun-java5-doc (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
sun-java5-doc
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Brut.all said:
@k50aker
Hiding Wifi and other things should be quite easy task, but... how do you want to protect against system reinstallation? They could download any ROM from internet and install it in just 10 minutes. Backuping is easy too, so they could have 2 systems installed and switch between them when their dad comes home.
Android phones aren't desktops. You can't have root and don't give it to other users of a device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, but one of the later steps I thought about would be a custom boot and custom or no recovery. But I will figure that out later in the project.
But i will probably change my direction on this (wifi etc.) based on what you guys say.

[Q] How to support multiple APIs ?

Hi guys,
I'm developing an app for a blog and wanted to implement pinch-tozoom on the image viewer but still support the app all the way back since 1.6.
In such a manner I was developing everyinthg in 1.6, and the moment I went to implement the pinch-to-zoom I changed to 2.1 and included the code that selects if API > 5 hide the ZoomControls and process pinch-to-zoom, else show zoom controls and do not process pinch-to-zoom.
My problem is that my manifest MinSDK is 4 and Eclipse keeps giving me the warning: Attribute minSdkVersion (4) is lower than the project target API level (7)
How do I fix that? what is the correct way to support multiple APIs?
thanks!

I believe this is a warning you should just ignore. If you right click it, and do delete, does it go away?

it does go away, but as soon as the app re-builts it comes back again.
yes, it is just a warning, it does compile and installs... but it's just weird, there should be away for the compiler to understand that I'm using multiple versions...

maybe submit as a bug to google?

It's not a bug, just ignore it. It's just warning you that you need to do things like not use code from the new SDK unless you've checked the user's SDK_INT
But you're already doing that so just ignore it.

well... I wish there was a way to better surround this, but Ok, I'll keep an eye on it.
Maybe I'll even comment out that part, finish the development on 1.6 and then re-enable it... just to be sure!
thanks!

Isnt that set in your manifest? what SDK version is set there?

rob17 said:
Isnt that set in your manifest? what SDK version is set there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes it is.
Min SDK 4 and Target SDK 7
but Eclipse still gives me warnings about it... I'll just have to live with it.
thanks.
ps.: if some forum moderator sees this and fancy closing the thread I guess it's ok.

Linux?

Is ubuntu possible on our u8800?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN4c61ETCWg maybe, try it

Without having seen the youtube vid that d3xtr0 linked, I'll post this link:
http://androlinux.com/android-ubuntu-development/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-android/

sebgus said:
Without having seen the youtube vid that d3xtr0 linked, I'll post this link:
http://androlinux.com/android-ubuntu-development/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-android/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lit's the same source

It will probably work if this device supports "loop devices" whatever that is? anyone know or tried it succsessfully?

skifyr123 said:
It will probably work if this device supports "loop devices" whatever that is? anyone know or tried it succsessfully?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had no time to try it, maybe later in the week.

skifyr123 said:
It will probably work if this device supports "loop devices" whatever that is? anyone know or tried it succsessfully?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It supports loop device. I just tried to mount a loop device with a loop image and it worked.
EDIT: With flibblesan's r5 kernel but it should be supported by stock kernel anyway

You are aware that ubuntu has no proper support for touchscreens; even if it runs you won't gain anything by doing that. When I installed a linux a few months ago on another device it worked, then I was fascinated about one minute and then I decided that there is no use for it an deleted it eventually.
I just do not understand why it is so important to get a desktop-os running on a smartphone. Battery drains fast, no support for the radio etc.

XphX said:
You are aware that ubuntu has no proper support for touchscreens; even if it runs you won't gain anything by doing that. When I installed a linux a few months ago on another device it worked, then I was fascinated about one minute and then I decided that there is no use for it an deleted it eventually.
I just do not understand why it is so important to get a desktop-os running on a smartphone. Battery drains fast, no support for the radio etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not important, but funny and cool if it works (on this device). How did you do it?

Until recently I still had my old samsung-omnia-winmo6.5-phone. There was an app for linux available; you just had to install an imagefile to the sd-card. The fun did last for a minute and then I realized I cannot do anything with this small screen and that it was pretty much useless.
I think that a lot of people here will just read the topic and think "omg this is amazing, now I can have my desktop-os on the phone, great" and later they realize how much time they just wasted.
If it really is fun for you guys, I won't try and stop you

How about using linux programs? i think that it may be quite useful sometimes... Put honestly... it is just for funright now... but it may be helpful if we could dual boot.... maybe in the future

I got this working, it isn't that slow as you could imagine, firefox takes around 30 sec to start and load the front page. That said, the keyboard works but is way off and impossible to use (I push "d" and "f" shows up and so on).
if anyone understand this the keyboard will be fixed:
In VNC’s xstartup file: $HOME/.vnc/xstartup
You have to add the line export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1 before
/etc/X11/Xsession or gnome-session (in case you use GNOME)
Screenshot actually taken with an ubuntu tool, I have set the resolution to 1200*800 in the virtual enviriment.
Here is a video with Huawei Ideos X5 running Ubuntu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SaoneDtNqA&feature=BFp&list=WL01C152CD7D31A7C8&index=1

Will try this later tonight and let you guys know if it works. Just have to work first >.<

The significance of linux running is to have a backup operating system to use on the phone if the Oracle / Google dispute over Java begins to really disrupt the market.
Think also freedombox.org, your own personal, secure and anonymous cloud system as a refuge if a dictatorship emerges or particularly nasty rise of corporatism occurs.
At heart, our U8800's can easily be linux box server with up to 32Gb of onboard storage with wi-fi AND gsm network connections. Being battery operated, if the thought police decend upon your community, you could take it to another place, unknown to the nasty guys, and re-establish mesh network connection to get reports of civil rights abuses out to the rest of the world.
Reason enough to have the capability to run Ubuntu Server edition (or any other Linux Server flavour)?
If you're interested to see what's already possible, even within Android (Linux will deliver more power), install "File Expert" from the market to get your very own web file server, right there in your phone.

-- wrong post just ignore --

XphX said:
Until recently I still had my old samsung-omnia-winmo6.5-phone. There was an app for linux available; you just had to install an imagefile to the sd-card. The fun did last for a minute and then I realized I cannot do anything with this small screen and that it was pretty much useless.
I think that a lot of people here will just read the topic and think "omg this is amazing, now I can have my desktop-os on the phone, great" and later they realize how much time they just wasted.
If it really is fun for you guys, I won't try and stop you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You didn't Found a better ubuntu boot-file, x5 faster, keyboard works, WIFI, pre-installed with many programs ( Open Office for work.. etc) easy to use with touch screen. here is how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUG9aC_tH5s
And the files/instructions: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=962023

Parental Control Settings Problem

Hi folks, I have a problem. I wanted to set up a parental control for my brother, and when I go to App restriction to restrict apps, it pop-up a C++ Library error. I don't know why this happen. Pictures bellow.
First is the Error, second is the Installed Visual C++ (they are installed from games)

Kir3 said:
Hi folks, I have a problem. I wanted to set up a parental control for my brother, and when I go to App restriction to restrict apps, it pop-up a C++ Library error. I don't know why this happen. Pictures bellow.
First is the Error, second is the Installed Visual C++ (they are installed from games)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You either need to reinstall the C++ runtimes (see on microsoft's website)
or windows is FUBAR and needs reinstall.

mcosmin222 said:
You either need to reinstall the C++ runtimes (see on microsoft's website)
or windows is FUBAR and needs reinstall.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I'll try, but what the hack is FUBAR

I'd suggest using this Internet thingy you're on to look up what is obviously an acronym (a well-known one in this case) but your parental controls are probably blocking you... I can't for the life of me understand why anybody would "use" such things (they are almost entirely useless; kids at my school bypassed them whenever they felt like it).

GoodDayToDie said:
I'd suggest using this Internet thingy you're on to look up what is obviously an acronym (a well-known one in this case) but your parental controls are probably blocking you... I can't for the life of me understand why anybody would "use" such things (they are almost entirely useless; kids at my school bypassed them whenever they felt like it).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aye.
Setting up a different user count is a cleaner and more elegant solution.

mcosmin222 said:
Aye.
Setting up a different user count is a cleaner and more elegant solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EEhh, I have a different user account for that. I created a Standard account for my brother and set it up the Parental Control for it.

Kir3 said:
EEhh, I have a different user account for that. I created a Standard account for my brother and set it up the Parental Control for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ummm....then what you use the parental control for? This is like trying to do the same thing twice. A properly set up account should be enough. Or are you trying to restrict his access to video games/internet? In my experience, limiting never works, unless you make him understand why it there should be a limit. And he will probably find a way to bypass it sooner or latter.
As GoodDayToDie mentioned, your parental settings are probably messing up with windows up to the point where windows goes FUBAR. So if you can't get this to work, deleting his account and recreating it should help fix the issue.

Well, removing the Visual C++ Redistributables and creating a new account didn't work, I reinstalled them, still no luck

Kir3 said:
Well, removing the Visual C++ Redistributables and creating a new account didn't work, I reinstalled them, still no luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's always the posibility to repair/reinstall windows.
try running this in the command prompt (with admin rights)
sfc/scannow
you should preferably have an internet connection active while this is happening.

mcosmin222 said:
There's always the posibility to repair/reinstall windows.
try running this in the command prompt (with admin rights)
sfc/scannow
you should preferably have an internet connection active while this is happening.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Code:
C:\Windows\system32>sfc /scannow
Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.
Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some
of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For
example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not
supported in offline servicing scenarios.
I cannot post the log becuase it has logs since I installed Windows.

Kir3 said:
Code:
C:\Windows\system32>sfc /scannow
Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.
Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some
of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For
example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not
supported in offline servicing scenarios.
I cannot post the log becuase it has logs since I installed Windows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you are left with repair/reinstall windows.

Well, it seems that it was corrupted Windows. I upgrade it to 8.1 and now is working, no errors Thanks again.

keep getting a weird popup, only on this web page....

See attachment, only happens when I come to this web page, please help!

It's hard to see on my phone but it looks as if your ie is trying to download a java source file as indicated by the .js extension. With that being said, it probably has to do with your java configuring settings in ie. In other words, your browser is supposed to automatically use that information to display something on your screen but instead is just downloading the source file for it.

RS7JR said:
It's hard to see on my phone but it looks as if your ie is trying to download a java source file as indicated by the .js extension. With that being said, it probably has to do with your java configuring settings in ie. In other words, your browser is supposed to automatically use that information to display something on your screen but instead is just downloading the source file for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I blew it up a little bigger, does that help? Should I try updating java as well?

Tex_Norseman said:
Sorry I blew it up a little bigger, does that help? Should I try updating java as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, upon further investigation I have determined that it is a rogue adware popup. See here...
http://blog.qisupport.com/core-insightexpressai-com-popup-remove-popup-ad-windows-mac-os-x/
The reason your browser gives you the option download may be for security reasons. I wouldn't worry about java being out of date on your pc. Just make sure to never run it. Unfortunately, I can't answer the part about why it would come up on a developers forum of all places. Guess you gotta take precautions everywhere now.

RS7JR said:
Okay, upon further investigation I have determined that it is a rogue adware popup. See here...
http://blog.qisupport.com/core-insightexpressai-com-popup-remove-popup-ad-windows-mac-os-x/
The reason your browser gives you the option download may be for security reasons. I wouldn't worry about java being out of date on your pc. Just make sure to never run it. Unfortunately, I can't answer the part about why it would come up on a developers forum of all places. Guess you gotta take precautions everywhere now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Know the best way to remove it?

Tex_Norseman said:
Know the best way to remove it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I gather, it seems like it's not on your system. It's making an attempt to popup in your browser and install itself. In other words, as long as you don't click to open or run it in the prompt, it shouldn't be on your system. Seems like it'll just be something that will have to be a minor nuisance until xda gets rid of the popup.