I just bought a Xoom tablet and so far love it. I also own an Inspire 4G which is rooted and has many apps installed. I noticed soon after first sync that the apps from my phone are now on my tablet. I assume they are they apps listed in the Market which is ok except that it seems that they are "small screen" versions if there is such a thing. Is there a way to block or stop syncing to certain devices while allowing others? Am I clear whith this question? Do large format apps exist? Will the market auto download the correct version of the app depending on the device?
Just started to get up to speed with Android on my inspire, now comes another learning curve!!!!
Thanks in advance.
For most apps, there is only one version which the author can update to include our tablet (16:10) format. It's not that "small" versions are being downloaded, it's just that the version doesn't yet take full advantage of the extra screen size on our tablets. It's worth searching though, because some apps may have a larger (or tablet-specific) version abailable. Or, you may find another developer has a similar app optimized for the tablet. But, for the most part, the apps come in one flavor and as the author has time (or need), they can/will update the app for Honeycomb support.
Hope this helps to answer at least part of your question...not sure about stopping the process once it has started. I know that the first time you setup your account on some android devices, they will start downloading any apps you have in your library. My Xoom didn't though... Probably because I canceled the initial setup purposely then did it manually later. Doing it manually will bypass the app download as I recall.
As always... Great support on this community driven site!!! Thanks.
I suppose I will next look to perhaps rooting, although, as yet I see little need. Haven't noticed the bloatware that so burdened my Inspire4G.
I think there is also a "compatibility" setting on the Xoom that you can uncheck...in Applications??? that will allow the apps to show full screen, though they may be jaggy. Search for it...it might work for some of your "Must Have" apps=win!
Also, the market should show you a tablet specific selection of apps.
Good luck.
Hi, a new guy here!
I recently became a happy owner of 32Gb wi-fi only N7. I’m familiar with software dev (windows developer for 20 years with some work on unix) and customization/modding/flashing process (mostly for satellite receivers). However this is my first tablet and my first Android device so I could use some help
I successfully unlocked, rooted and installed custom recovery on my N7. I would like to get to a bare bones state of the N7 and then slowly add new features/programs to it when it becomes necessary for me. So I would like to remove all non essential parts that were preinstalled on my N7.
I was under impression that I could uninstall programs using N7 UI after device gets rooted. However it seems that for majority of the apps I still only have an option to disable.
I shelled into N7 and looked around. It seems that all (majority?) of the apps are in /system/apps folder. Can I simply remove the apps and their files from that folder? Does this folder only contain user apps or does it also have system apps that are essential for N7 to function? Is there a chance to brick it by removing something (everything?) from that folder?
I searched on a forum for a list of apps that are safe to remove. I thought it would exist since it seems to be something many of us would be interested in doing. I didn’t find the list. If there is such a thing and someone could direct me there, it would be great!
Given that I can remove apps by deleting them from that folder safely, I still have a question what each app does and how important it is. Is safe to assume that any app that has a wheel with a drive belt on it as an icon in apps screen on N7 is system app and has to stay?
I have two keyboard app installed – one is Android keyboard and one is ASUS keyboard. Judging by the name 2 of these are essential since Android is the OS and ASUS is the manufacturer. But do I really need two of them?
If there is a resource/thread that discussed something similar, please let know. I look forward to learn from anyone on this forum!
_Diver said:
Hi, a new guy here!
I recently became a happy owner of 32Gb wi-fi only N7. I’m familiar with software dev (windows developer for 20 years with some work on unix) and customization/modding/flashing process (mostly for satellite receivers). However this is my first tablet and my first Android device so I could use some help
I successfully unlocked, rooted and installed custom recovery on my N7. I would like to get to a bare bones state of the N7 and then slowly add new features/programs to it when it becomes necessary for me. So I would like to remove all non essential parts that were preinstalled on my N7.
I was under impression that I could uninstall programs using N7 UI after device gets rooted. However it seems that for majority of the apps I still only have an option to disable.
I shelled into N7 and looked around. It seems that all (majority?) of the apps are in /system/apps folder. Can I simply remove the apps and their files from that folder? Does this folder only contain user apps or does it also have system apps that are essential for N7 to function? Is there a chance to brick it by removing something (everything?) from that folder?
I searched on a forum for a list of apps that are safe to remove. I thought it would exist since it seems to be something many of us would be interested in doing. I didn’t find the list. If there is such a thing and someone could direct me there, it would be great!
Given that I can remove apps by deleting them from that folder safely, I still have a question what each app does and how important it is. Is safe to assume that any app that has a wheel with a drive belt on it as an icon in apps screen on N7 is system app and has to stay?
I have two keyboard app installed – one is Android keyboard and one is ASUS keyboard. Judging by the name 2 of these are essential since Android is the OS and ASUS is the manufacturer. But do I really need two of them?
If there is a resource/thread that discussed something similar, please let know. I look forward to learn from anyone on this forum!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have the energy right now to address every app one at a time, but I'll nudge you in the right direction. That should help you start tinkering.
The Nexus 7 is very popular in this community because it's intentionally more open, and less bloated, than much of the competition.
That being said, sure there are apps you could uninstall if you decide to. Some of the custom ROM's will have probably already have done this for you, but may create little unexpected quirks here and there.
The first thing you'll want to do is backing everything up thoroughly. I would use Titanium Pro (you'll see it referred to as Tibu a lot), to backup all apps and settings. Then I would use the Google Nexus 7 toolkit (found in the forums here) to do a backup, as well as make a nandroid backup.
Ok, so you're ready to tinker. Well, if you bought Titanium Pro from the app store, you've already got all you really need. First, use titanium to freeze an app you don't feel you need, and don't think is required. Re-boot, go about your daily routine, and see if all is ok. Continue on in this manner. Once you've frozen everything you're interested in, and made sure all is well, you can probably go ahead and uninstall them through Tibu. Freezing them should generally make them not start up anyways, so unless the tiny amount of space they take up is a concern, that's really all you generally need to do *.
* Ok, sometimes you have to fully uninstall things you don't want, but this should get you plenty to tinker with for now.
bladebarrier,
Thanks for your response. I understand the approach you suggested – disabling apps one at a time and then when they all disabled and device is working to my liking for a while I could uninstall them.
However, I’m somewhat frustrated with a sheer number of apps that I have out of the box and I can’t find a good description of what they do. For example:
Mobile Network Configuration
Google Partner Setup
Google Services Framework
Searching online doesn’t yield definitive answers if it’s something I need or will N7 work without them. I have google play store and google play services installed – does store app require services? Reading a bit about it doesn’t make it seem so, but I’m not 100% sure. So I was wondering if there is a list of apps that are required for N7 well being and that cannot be removed no matter what.
For example, Black Viper has an excellent example of what I’m looking for but for windows nt services: (can't post a link)
This page explain what each service is, what it does and if it’s safe to disable it depending on configuration you’re seeking – minimal set, typical, out of box of experimental. I would love to find something like that for N7 system apps
I installed CWM recovery when I rooted and as far as I can understand I does NAND backups. I plan on moving the backup file from the device to my desktop and keeping it there for safety reason.
The Tibu process that you described, as far as I understand (and I might be wrong here) is basically equivalent of disabling the apps using native N7 setting app, rebooting, using it for a while and then removing .apk and .odex (or simply app_name.*) files from system/apps folder. Tibu just makes it easier. Did I get that right?
And it’s still removing one app/widget at the time. I’d like to clean it out completely first and start from that point. So Tibu will probably not help me there. So my main Q is still out there – can I brick it by removing everything from system/app? Are there only user apps there or essential system apps as well? With CWM back up file on hand will I be able to recover if my experiment goes bad?
> * Ok, sometimes you have to fully uninstall things you don't want, but this should get you plenty to tinker with for now.
One of the reasons I want to have them removed is to clean up the list of apps I have on N7. Right now I have 5 pages of apps and I have little idea what they do and if I need them – I had Korean keyboard installed for example.
As I mentioned I’m a newb in this area, so maybe my approach is a bit dumb, so please be patient with me
_Diver said:
bladebarrier,
Thanks for your response. I understand the approach you suggested – disabling apps one at a time and then when they all disabled and device is working to my liking for a while I could uninstall them.
However, I’m somewhat frustrated with a sheer number of apps that I have out of the box and I can’t find a good description of what they do. For example:
Mobile Network Configuration
Google Partner Setup
Google Services Framework
Searching online doesn’t yield definitive answers if it’s something I need or will N7 work without them. I have google play store and google play services installed – does store app require services? Reading a bit about it doesn’t make it seem so, but I’m not 100% sure. So I was wondering if there is a list of apps that are required for N7 well being and that cannot be removed no matter what.
For example, Black Viper has an excellent example of what I’m looking for but for windows nt services: (can't post a link)
This page explain what each service is, what it does and if it’s safe to disable it depending on configuration you’re seeking – minimal set, typical, out of box of experimental. I would love to find something like that for N7 system apps
I installed CWM recovery when I rooted and as far as I can understand I does NAND backups. I plan on moving the backup file from the device to my desktop and keeping it there for safety reason.
The Tibu process that you described, as far as I understand (and I might be wrong here) is basically equivalent of disabling the apps using native N7 setting app, rebooting, using it for a while and then removing .apk and .odex (or simply app_name.*) files from system/apps folder. Tibu just makes it easier. Did I get that right?
And it’s still removing one app/widget at the time. I’d like to clean it out completely first and start from that point. So Tibu will probably not help me there. So my main Q is still out there – can I brick it by removing everything from system/app? Are there only user apps there or essential system apps as well? With CWM back up file on hand will I be able to recover if my experiment goes bad?
> * Ok, sometimes you have to fully uninstall things you don't want, but this should get you plenty to tinker with for now.
One of the reasons I want to have them removed is to clean up the list of apps I have on N7. Right now I have 5 pages of apps and I have little idea what they do and if I need them – I had Korean keyboard installed for example.
As I mentioned I’m a newb in this area, so maybe my approach is a bit dumb, so please be patient with me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Removing Google framework services is a big no-no. To be honest, the easiest way to accomplish what you want is installing a custom ROM like CyanogenMod, especially since you've done all the prep work for such a thing.
Once you install any official CM build it is as close to app-less as you can get on a modular OS like this.
littleemp said:
Removing Google framework services is a big no-no. To be honest, the easiest way to accomplish what you want is installing a custom ROM like CyanogenMod, especially since you've done all the prep work for such a thing.
Once you install any official CM build it is as close to app-less as you can get on a modular OS like this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's what i suspected! i thought that google framework would be something essential, but there is not much easily available information there to arrive at that conclusion
since i'm new to this, i thought i should stay away from any rom flashing until i get a bit more familiar with a device, terminology and stuff like that. i'm looking at the "[ROM] CyanogenMod 10.1 [OFFICIAL]" thread and i'm not sure about half of the terms - GAPPS, PSA, Nightlies i do know what ROM is, I do know what kernel is, virtual machine, etc. But it's applied to the platform that I have little experience with, so it makes me a little bit uneasy
_Diver said:
bladebarrier,
Thanks for your response. I understand the approach you suggested – disabling apps one at a time and then when they all disabled and device is working to my liking for a while I could uninstall them.
However, I’m somewhat frustrated with a sheer number of apps that I have out of the box and I can’t find a good description of what they do. For example:
Mobile Network Configuration
Google Partner Setup
Google Services Framework
Searching online doesn’t yield definitive answers if it’s something I need or will N7 work without them. I have google play store and google play services installed – does store app require services? Reading a bit about it doesn’t make it seem so, but I’m not 100% sure. So I was wondering if there is a list of apps that are required for N7 well being and that cannot be removed no matter what.
For example, Black Viper has an excellent example of what I’m looking for but for windows nt services: (can't post a link)
This page explain what each service is, what it does and if it’s safe to disable it depending on configuration you’re seeking – minimal set, typical, out of box of experimental. I would love to find something like that for N7 system apps
I installed CWM recovery when I rooted and as far as I can understand I does NAND backups. I plan on moving the backup file from the device to my desktop and keeping it there for safety reason.
The Tibu process that you described, as far as I understand (and I might be wrong here) is basically equivalent of disabling the apps using native N7 setting app, rebooting, using it for a while and then removing .apk and .odex (or simply app_name.*) files from system/apps folder. Tibu just makes it easier. Did I get that right?
And it’s still removing one app/widget at the time. I’d like to clean it out completely first and start from that point. So Tibu will probably not help me there. So my main Q is still out there – can I brick it by removing everything from system/app? Are there only user apps there or essential system apps as well? With CWM back up file on hand will I be able to recover if my experiment goes bad?
> * Ok, sometimes you have to fully uninstall things you don't want, but this should get you plenty to tinker with for now.
One of the reasons I want to have them removed is to clean up the list of apps I have on N7. Right now I have 5 pages of apps and I have little idea what they do and if I need them – I had Korean keyboard installed for example.
As I mentioned I’m a newb in this area, so maybe my approach is a bit dumb, so please be patient with me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tibu requires root access, in order to perform what we're discussing. I'm relatively new to JB, but I can't imagine any stock settings replicating its capabilities.
As far as a whole bunch of apps being in your list, that's sort of the way Android works. Think of it like "superfetch", or whatever that term was in Windows Vista. Basically, two things happen when you boot. Android looks at a list of apps that are designed to start on boot, and also apps that it expects you may want to run in the future. Both of these are designed to make the device run smoother overall, and it will kill apps if extra ram is required and they are not in use. Certain Android apps require themselves to run at all times. Some of these are apps like Tasker (if you're using tasker profiles), some of these are system apps that make the device function, some of these are apps that maintain widgets or background monitoring (weather apps, gmail, calendar).
Now, there are two ways to go about sorting what is bloat, and what is there because Android decided to load it. You can install an app called Autostarts, that will give an insight into apps that start up when certain criteria are met. You can also use it to stop those apps from queuing up at those trigger points. This is another root required app, and while I purchased it long ago, may have a free version as well. It's time consuming to use, and not perfect, which is why Tibu is better for flat out locking down unwanted apps.
Back to my initial thoughts though, you will see apps in your system list that you haven't touched since boot, because Android tries to anticipate your needs. People used to use "task killers" to close the apps, and came to realize that unless one is causing a real problem, it's just going to go back into the cached app list again anyways, thus reducing battery life when it has to load it over and over again. "Task killer" is a dirty word around XDA, unless you're using it to close an app that doesn't just go into the background like a good little app should.
Basically, you're going to start playing whack-a-mole if you want your list to remain as small as possible, at all times, and yet still actually use the device for anything interesting. You can reduce it, via various methods, and if this were a device from say "insert-name" brand, and was loaded with bloat apps, by all means you should clean those out. However, I think you'll find that while google does install things that aren't needed, or even used by everyone, it's mostly not a big issue.
Check out Better Battery Stats, in the XDA forums. It's an app that shows a pretty good picture of what is actually going on when you're not looking, and can provide data on how to improve your performance. It's probably a better way to start delving into what processes are actually being used, and which ones are just basically harmless. You'll also learn a good bit about how Android works from the Dev's explanations of many of the processes.
---------- Post added at 08:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:32 PM ----------
_Diver said:
that's what i suspected! i thought that google framework would be something essential, but there is not much easily available information there to arrive at that conclusion
since i'm new to this, i thought i should stay away from any rom flashing until i get a bit more familiar with a device, terminology and stuff like that. i'm looking at the "[ROM] CyanogenMod 10.1 [OFFICIAL]" thread and i'm not sure about half of the terms - GAPPS, PSA, Nightlies i do know what ROM is, I do know what kernel is, virtual machine, etc. But it's applied to the platform that I have little experience with, so it makes me a little bit uneasy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure whichever ROM you use, if you decide to, supports your HSPA+ model. There is a separate development section in the Nexus 7 forums, for those of us that have the HSPA+ version. We are the minority, as the Nexus 7 was initially released as a wifi only tablet.
bladebarrier said:
Tibu requires root access, in order to perform what we're discussing. I'm relatively new to JB, but I can't imagine any stock settings replicating its capabilities.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i do have SU privileges, so what i was talking about was disabling an app thru N7 setting screen and then when i deem the app ok to remove, going to adb shell and removing the actual file.
i just did this:
mount -o remount rw /system
rm iWnnIME_Kbd_White.apk
rm iWnnIME.apk
and it removed the japanese keyboard. however when i go back to app screen under settings, i still see it but now it has a grey icon with a SD symbols in the corner. so it appears it recognizes that the app is gone, but it's still referenced in the list. i pushed the files back using NRT and it all back to the way it was. so looks like my idea of cleaning the list by removing the apk might not fly.
and now I wonder how Tibu uninstalls the apps.
bladebarrier said:
People used to use "task killers" to close the apps, and came to realize that unless one is causing a real problem, it's just going to go back into the cached app list again anyways, thus reducing battery life when it has to load it over and over again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand the notion of apps being in the cache and being removed when more RAM is needed, however the purist in me just doesn't want the junk apps to be there in first place However there is a lot of validity to these of your words:
bladebarrier said:
Basically, you're going to start playing whack-a-mole if you want your list to remain as small as possible, at all times, and yet still actually use the device for anything interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My wife got Kindle Fire HD recently and she's been using it happily. While I was thinking why would anyone want a closed up system (well, more closed up system then Nexus), she's been using it and I've been frustrated with my N7 so i might just let it go and enjoy the japanese and korean keyboards anyway
bladebarrier said:
Make sure whichever ROM you use, if you decide to, supports your HSPA+ model.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm wifi only
ngshniq every
i think i found what i was after: http wiki.cyanogenmod.org/wiki/barebones (url modified since i still can't post urls). this wiki page has the list of app with a short description and if it's safe to remove. it also has additional information that explains why i still saw the reference to the app in the list when apk file was deleted:
looks like i need to pay attention to 2 additional files:
/data/system/packages.xml
/data/system/packages.list
i bet I would find a reference to the apps in these and i would need to remove it in order to have the app disappear from the app list. i'll play around a bit more and report back
One thing, could you explain your reasoning behind wanting to delete everything but the essentials? Do you have a particular goal in mind or is it because of your windows background? Because if so, you should know that android operates very differently when compared to windows, and such, the requirements to keep your device working in tip top shape vary greatly.
In my opinion, with your current limited knowledge of each process/app inner workings, what you're trying to do surefire way to break something beyond repair and needing to use a factory image to get back to zero. A custom ROM will be much safer and yield the exact same results that you're looking for. (Eventually, once you understand what each thing does, then this manual approach could satisfy your needs)
Note: GApps are the basic Google apps to flash on top of the barebones system. Gmail, Play store, and the framework.
Nightlies are experimental builds compiled nightly by a bot with the latest CyanogenMod code available.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
My goal was to simplify my approach to N7 by removing anything that I don’t need now and slowly adding all necessary components as I get familiar with it. But it seems at this point that this approach is a bit more complicated as thought it would be.
So I think I would leave it alone for now and revisit this later
_Diver said:
My goal was to simplify my approach to N7 by removing anything that I don’t need now and slowly adding all necessary components as I get familiar with it. But it seems at this point that this approach is a bit more complicated as thought it would be.
So I think I would leave it alone for now and revisit this later
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what you've done manually, you're clearly far ahead of a new user when it comes to understanding linux/unix.
If you want to lock down parts of what google implements, purely to keep it minimalistic, I would agree with the above poster. Go for one of the popular ROM options that are available, like CM, and work your way backwards. The Nexus 7 only has as much bloat as you allow it to have via the settings. This is another reason why Better Battery Stats is an excellent way to make sure your device isn't draining battery, yet isn't locked down. The other day I noticed an app that kept fetching my position, even though the case was closed (magnetic sleep mode). It turned out I forgot to disable the tracking in google maps (why it was defaulted to ON, I have no idea). BBS showed me what was running during the sleep phase, and I fixed it when I woke up the next morning after wondering why my battery dropped.
The Kindle Fire is a great option, because it doesn't require any of this fussing about. My woman loves hers. LOVES IT. Personally, I like to tinker a bit, and I'm too invested in Android apps to not have access to the play store. The Nexus 7, is for people like what you find here. We like to tinker, and make everything custom. At the same time, you could spend all day trying to figure out why EntriesRefresh_wakelock is your highest partial wakelock count, at 60seconds per 7 hours, or you can find that you just went 7 hours and only used 6% of the battery, even though you've been connected to wifi, texting, emailing, and checking the weather and news, the whole time. Not bad, honestly.
The biggest investment you can do for your Nexus, is probably getting a case that magnetically puts it to rest when you close it. After that, learn about the settings that drain battery in the background. Then, get Tasker and play around that (it's like programming, without the need to learn the code). After that, go to a custom ROM, or dig out Tibu, and basically start customizing which apps you will use. If that doesn't pass the time long enough, you can literally make your own ROM and put together exactly what you want. Whether the performance will be that much better or not, and whether you'll spend most of your day trying to look for coding errors, is up to you. I don't have the patience to code, but you're a coder, so what is broccoli to me, may be bacon to you.
Hi all,
I am part of an IT Client team and we are trying to prep for the deployment of the GS4. The S3 is our current standard and was received pretty well, but some of the features are overwhelming to our sales force. Is there any way that we can disable some of these features perhaps even automatically via ADB and a USB cable?
Also, we are wanting to have our company app preinstalled. Currently it resides in the marketplace but apparently some of our sales force don't understand the Play Store and that they actually have to go find the app and install it. Is there a way to automatically sideload our app? We were also discussing a launcher like launcherpro with an xml file included that contains default locations for icons, data, etc.
Has anyone tried this before? Please advise with ideas/suggestions. We don't want to flash a ROM generated by our company because that would require too much overhead on our part to manage because thousands of phones need to me maintained. We also don't want to root the NatureUI/Touchwiz stock rom that comes with the S4.
metroidnemesis13 said:
Hi all,
I am part of an IT Client team and we are trying to prep for the deployment of the GS4. The S3 is our current standard and was received pretty well, but some of the features are overwhelming to our sales force. Is there any way that we can disable some of these features perhaps even automatically via ADB and a USB cable?
Also, we are wanting to have our company app preinstalled. Currently it resides in the marketplace but apparently some of our sales force don't understand the Play Store and that they actually have to go find the app and install it. Is there a way to automatically sideload our app? We were also discussing a launcher like launcherpro with an xml file included that contains default locations for icons, data, etc.
Has anyone tried this before? Please advise with ideas/suggestions. We don't want to flash a ROM generated by our company because that would require too much overhead on our part to manage because thousands of phones need to me maintained. We also don't want to root the NatureUI/Touchwiz stock rom that comes with the S4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not quite sure about disabling features on the stock ROM. I know there's an Easy mode that can be used for first time smartphone owners. As far as preloading your company app, you can write a script to do so. However, that requires you to manually enable developer mode and USB debugging on every single phone. I'm not sure how practical this is, considering you have so many phones. A better way might be to send a mass text message or email to each of the phones with the play store link to the app. Once again, considering the employees might be unfamiliar with the phone, a text would probably be the simple way to go. I would use side-loading as a way of installing your app in the event that someone had an issue with the text. I believe you'd run into the same issues with preinstalling LauncherPro and associated xml files. It doesn't seem there's a way you can properly deploy what you need to w/o going hands on on all units.
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Depending on what functionality you would like to disable, you can go to the App Manager heading in the Settings menu, and disable system apps you don't use. In terms of disabling parts of functionality in certain system apps, that probably wouldn't be possible on stock unrooted devices.
metroidnemesis13 said:
apparently some of our sales force don't understand the Play Store
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...
I'm not sure how to solve your problem. I was going to say once you are willing to ADB and USB debug you might as well cook up the ROM the way you want it and blast it on with Odin.
However, one thing to be concerned about is the OTA software updates that you probably want your users to be able to receive. If you mod the stock software (either with ADB or a modded ROM) in such a way to make the phone status 'Custom' your users won't be able to get updates and bug fixes from Samsung.
I would just try to hold their hand through getting the app installed (ie. email them a link to it when they get a phone so all they have to do is tap the link and hit install) and leave the rest of the phone alone.
First of all, forgive me if this is not the right forum to ask this question, because I'm not sure what is.
Hi everyone,
So the company that provides the TV channels in my country (like the cable companies in the US) has a streaming service that streams most of these channels online to phones, tablets, computers.
The problem is that their app is, according to them "not supported on hacked devices". Just so we're clear, we're talking about Android here, and hacked = root/custom rom, which this stupid company considers illegal. In some devices, they check both root and custom rom, in some only one of them, and in some the app will work even if you have both. For example, on my Nexus 4 the app worked with stock rom that was rooted. Now that I am running a custom rom, trying to hide root using various apps does not work. So obviously the problem, with my device at least, is running the custom rom.
I'm currently learning Java & Android development and have decided to use the little knowledge that I have to try to find the lines of code responsible for this idiotic check.
I looked up many tools for decompiling apps and have finally found a good one, called JadX.
http://androidcracking.blogspot.co.i...ler.html#links
This decompiler is excellent, but gives me a scary amount of code files to look. Even so, trying to search all of them (JadX has that functionality) for the code that checks for root/custom rom has turned up nothing. I have also tried to search for the message they give me when I open the app (about hacked devices not working) but I found nothing, again.
One more thing - a developer that also tried to solve this problem said he traced the problem back to DxDrmDlcCore. I searched it, found it a some class, but not sure what to do now (delete the entire class and recompile?)
Can someone here direct me towards what I need to be looking for?
OR
Is the solution really simple, such as editing my build.prop? Someone suggested it once, but did not know what lines to edit.
If someone is ready to step up to the challenge, I can upload the apk.
Thank you!
Ok, so I got an old Nook Simple Touch. In part because they can be had for such a cheap price on eBay these days and in part because they're among the few eInk based devices that run on Android and can actually be unlocked and more done with them than the manufacturers intended (I've used an old Kindle and man I hate how locked down and generally useless they are.) Actually, I was hoping I could do some neat stuff like setup daydream with weather info and a clock and all on it while the screen was "off" but I guess I forgot that this is a relatively new thing and it looks like it's based on a really really old Android version? Either way, I'm so used to CyanogenMod and its relatively near to AOSP nature that this thing is feeling horribly limiting and unpleasant to use for me.
Anyway, I've been searching around for various guides and such. I've found tools for rooting and putting the Google Market (yeesh, I forgot they used to call it "Market" ages ago.) It seems I needed to update the system to 1.1 for this (I had bootloops until I did, so clearly you have to have the right system version.) It seems there is a newer version or two beyond this though, but I didn't see root tools (I'm still hoping I can do more with this that might require root access to actually do.) Should I be updating beyond that? Namely, are there tools to actually root and all if I do?
Also, in the meantime, I'm running into troubles with the plain and simple fact that neither Google Market nor Amazon's app store installed by these tools work which may not be fixable. The thread on here says to add an account through Youtube first, then go to gmail and manually refresh over and over until it eventually crashes. After probably 15 minutes of this my hands were too tired to continue though. I just don't think it's supposed to take 15 minutes though. When I start the market it doesn't crash like that guide mentions either. Is there any other way to fix this? Is there any point? Obviously the market app is quite old, so perhaps it's simply never going to work? Is there some alternative way to find stuff that actually works on the NST? I thought to do F-Droid, but even it requires a newer SDK version apparently (I'm getting kind of curious what version of Android its base corresponds to. Does it predate 2.2? If so I may be in trouble since I don't think any of the stuff I was hoping I could put on there will go lower than 2.2.)
For this matter, is there a better way I can do stuff like loading apps? I was hoping to at least have a file manager to be able to use do stuff, but they didn't include one. I'll probably have to track down an apk. For now I'm having to actually use the network adb (I installed the version of the tools that was supposed to do adb over USB, but it doesn't even show up as an adb device at all for me to even so much as install a driver, so I guess it's not doing adb over USB as it should. The network method seems to work, though I'm not a big fan of leaving it wide open like that on principle really, yet remembering to manually change it on and off is a pain too.)
I realize this is a really old device and probably it is very limited what I can really do with it, but I was hoping I could at least squeeze a bit of use out of it. In particular, I'm going to need a much better reading app even if I use it for its intended purpose only. When I looked it up I had thought it was a close enough to stock Android that I'd be able to load up most apps I guess and I didn't think it would be so hard to even get anything on it.
Whew!
OK, let's start with basics. You didn't say how you rooted it but if you're working from 1.1 you probably are not getting the best out of the device. 1.21 is the final stock version. If you can get your NST back to stock, I would recommend doing so. Considering what you seem to have done already probably the easiest way to go is to use the NookManager route. Go here. Follow the instructions. There is info there for adding a Gapps package after rooting. But first get yourself back to 1.21 stock. Once that's done you can either use the Search Market tool from the Gapps package, or find apps on your computer and have them show up on the NST via the PlayStore, or side-load apps from the SD card or via ADB (default on that is WiFi with NookManager--you can install the ADB Konnect app and it works fine). There are plenty of alternate readers that run on the NST. I happen to like the stock reader very much, but to each his/her own.
When all that's done, everything depends on what your expectations are and what you want from your NST. There are a variety of kernals out there as well as USB host/audio mods. Although the Android system is old and the display limits what you can do, there are many apps that run well on the device and I personally get a lot of use out of mine, even more now that I have audio. Check out what I've done (second post) and look at what others have done (in the same thread).
There's a lot of good info in this forum on modifications, apps that run well (and don't) and many tips and tricks.
I think I have most of what I need with that actually, yes. I didn't realize from the guides I initially found that you could root or install third party components with a > 1.1 system version. With that stuff I do have a semi-working Google Market now and can actually install a lot more stuff than I thought. I see also my favorite reader app not only works, but apparently knows I'm running it on a device with an eInk screen and defaults to having eInk adaptations turned on.
Is there any way it can do anything like what I had sort of envisioned before btw? Eg on the screen "off" mode have some sort of thing that shows weather or news or something that updates every so often? (Nevermind the clock thing, that's probably a bad idea. I was just wondering about dedicating it to being sort of something like a clock with it plugged in all the time. Now I think maybe I can stop using my tablet for reading and use this instead.)
Nazo said:
Is there any way it can do anything like what I had sort of envisioned before btw? Eg on the screen "off" mode have some sort of thing that shows weather or news or something that updates every so often? (Nevermind the clock thing, that's probably a bad idea. I was just wondering about dedicating it to being sort of something like a clock with it plugged in all the time. Now I think maybe I can stop using my tablet for reading and use this instead.)
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Sounds like you are having CM lockscreen widget withdrawal
Actually that seems like a job for Tasker. But it would be potentially messy. You'd need to:
1. Clear image in custom screensaver folder
2. Turn on wi-fi
3. Open weather/whatever app to update info
4. Take screenshot and save to custom screensaver folder
5. Close app
6. Turn off wi-fi
At that point when the Nook goes to sleep the info will be displayed on the lock screen. The question is whether Tasker can wake up the Nook and repeat this at desired intervals when you're not using it.
Also, have a look here for something along the same lines. Maybe you'll get an idea.
Ironically on my phone and tablet I keep it really simple. It's just that the eInk screen of the Nook can essentially be "always on" so to speak without draining the battery like mad (since it would only actually need to wake up every half hour or so for a frequent update schedule.)
But, all that said, it just doesn't sound like this is really worth all the effort. I guess I'm actually more used to newer versions of Android mostly rather than CyanogenMod specifically as they just have more power in what these things can do. With the Nook -- even unlocked and opened up -- it really sounds like the amount of time and effort required to even remotely approach such a thing is orders of magnitude higher. Well, that's fine. I had initially thought that I might maybe just use it as some sort of really neat "smart clock" type thing (at $35-ish on eBay you won't find many clocks that could come close to doing what an Android device could theoretically do) but in the end I don't think this is really all that realistic and definitely not worth the effort. On the other hand, now that I'm able to get more stuff actually running on it and open up its capabilities more I'm thinking I could maybe use this thing for something more akin to its original intended purpose: reading. From time to time I want my tablet to be able to do a bit more and I think this can do pretty well everything I care about beyond the basic reading stuff, so maybe I can stop carrying my tablet around all the time. (And for stuff like music I have a dedicated multimedia phone courtesy of eBay that's much better off really.)