Database Users

[Q] Extracting APKs from 3.1 roms...possible?

Hey all,
I am not a dev, I just dabble. Anyone try extracting any of the apks from the 3.1 sdk or Xoom? I am not sure if the USB connectivity is modular like that, but that could be useful until Acer gets off its a**.
I know dc13 bricked after trying to flash the Xoom rom, but is what I ask even feasible?

This is not a bump, but I think this is a valid topic. Anyone get any real good looks at the apks included with 3.1 on the xoom or in the sdk? I don't own one anymore so I can't check it and I currently do not have access to my computers to try the sdk.

How easy is it to root a Xoom? is it as easy as it was for us? if that is the case, I could probably go to a best buy, root it, and then do a system dump to my dropbox...logoff and leave >_>

I don't know if it is that easy to root, but I really appreciate the reply and willingness.

No one I know owns a tablet apart from iPad or ipad2. I am actually the first of my friends to have an Android tablet and around school, all I see are apple products. The good thing is that the best buy is like 5 minutes from my university, so it's no hassle going in. Plus the staff there is nice, so they won't mind =P

Theres a real easy one click root available for the xoom. I've got mine rooted and overclocked to 1.6 ghz along with having the sdcard slot working and usb hosting enabled.

Update Alert...
dhruvmp said:
Hey all,
I am not a dev, I just dabble. Anyone try extracting any of the apks from the 3.1 sdk or Xoom? I am not sure if the USB connectivity is modular like that, but that could be useful until Acer gets off its a**.
I know dc13 bricked after trying to flash the Xoom rom, but is what I ask even feasible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Endgadget report today that Acer will release Android 3.1 next month
So my advice is stop tinkering with OS and wait for the update.

[Q] Ugh no NVFlash, is there?

Has anyone been successful in booting into APX/NVFlash mode on this? I have one ordered and already have a little buyers remorse.. blobs and all that junk, its rather pathetic. No OC kernel either, eh? Coming from a 1.7ghz gtab, this might be unusable! Well, we'll see. Are there any custom branches of the asus source? Maybe we can get a few things working like gpu/cpu oc to t25 standards.

Currently nvflash is locked. Overclocked kernals are coming i've heard. Alot of the problems with really custom stuff is the lack of source code.

Woops lost my intended post.. was something to the tune of how nvflash has saved many gtabs from being bricked.. seriously, its a great tool. I'm sure its a Google thing, maybe one of their Honeycomb decrees. Probably thinking of how nvflash and Windows 8 would come into play..
Google is really getting on my nerves... they're starting to get the "we know better than you, so here" attitude that Apple has. Catch the diss on Microsoft, regarding their 'torture' of users by letting them manage things? Ugh. Google can't play the bash ms card, its ****ing old. Can't believe I bought another tegra tab.. who wants?

Blades said:
Woops lost my intended post.. was something to the tune of how nvflash has saved many gtabs from being bricked.. seriously, its a great tool. I'm sure its a Google thing, maybe one of their Honeycomb decrees. Probably thinking of how nvflash and Windows 8 would come into play..
Google is really getting on my nerves... they're starting to get the "we know better than you, so here" attitude that Apple has. Catch the diss on Microsoft, regarding their 'torture' of users by letting them manage things? Ugh. Google can't play the bash ms card, its ****ing old. Can't believe I bought another tegra tab.. who wants?
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I think its the company that makes the device that is blocking nvflash not google.

Blades said:
Woops lost my intended post.. was something to the tune of how nvflash has saved many gtabs from being bricked.. seriously, its a great tool. I'm sure its a Google thing, maybe one of their Honeycomb decrees. Probably thinking of how nvflash and Windows 8 would come into play..
Google is really getting on my nerves... they're starting to get the "we know better than you, so here" attitude that Apple has. Catch the diss on Microsoft, regarding their 'torture' of users by letting them manage things? Ugh. Google can't play the bash ms card, its ****ing old. Can't believe I bought another tegra tab.. who wants?
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Is your rant finished? Maybe you should have read up a little before purchasing this wonderful tablet. So you dont want a tegra tab huh? Whats left to choose from? Ipad? GL

husker91 said:
Is your rant finished? Maybe you should have read up a little before purchasing this wonderful tablet. So you dont want a tegra tab huh? Whats left to choose from? Ipad? GL
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I said I can't believe I bought another Tehran tab. Key word is another. Nvidia is starting to pull their antics with gb video decoding drivers for the harmony board. By antics, I mean what they've (and ATI) been doing with their linux video drivers - not supporting older hardware and not releasing source so consumers can create their own drivers for 'older' hardware - ie harmony based devices.
I might only have a use for an ipad as a dog toy/frisbee - I have a pitbull and a Dogo Argentino, itd be funny.
I was done with my rant.. but I suppose you prolonged it.
BTW: I did read up. I found no info on the issue of NVFlash. Have a Xoom, Gtab, and now one of these wonderful tablets. So far, the gtab is the most fun. Can the Asus get 4700 in quadrant? Do you see it ever being that fast? You're right about lack of alternatives, I suppose there is the Hardkernel odroids for someone like me, new device has a modular cpu board.
I'll be sure to at least try to get nvflash working. Does anyone have a bootloader they could post up? Usually viewing in a hex editor can give you a clue as to what the boot scenarios could be.

There's a thread over in development where several people tried to get nvflash going. Their opinions in the end were nvflash is locked and you need some sort of signed key to use it. Any nvflash commands tried, failed.
It may be possible that in the future asus may provide the key, but from their response to the people who bricked via the ota update (just having them rma the device), it doesn't seem like it.

You probably need a dev bootloader. This is based on the Ventana board, right? Another reason could be that the nvflash tool doesn't support ext* fs, but I doubt that. If Asus releases a tegra2 linux netbook, based on the same Ventana board, things could get better. Thanks for the heads up. I'll check out the development section

I know quadrant is pretty cool benchmarking tool but you might want to give this a try too. Grab a friend, load the same movie up on the Gtab and the Transformer, place both the devices three feet in front of you flat on a table and ask your friend which one is better.
I had to return my GTab when my girlfriend commented that having a tablet that can't actually be seen unless held at the right angle directly in front of you is rather useless.
The Transformer is a brand new tablet with an active, if somewhat still empty handed, community behind it. Out of the box though, using the default software, it's an entirely useable system that does exactly what I want it too (in my case quickly display photos, web browsing, youtubing and web surfing). I suspect three months from now it'll have some solid development work behind it since all of the alternatives have managed to overlook the importance of price point as well as innovation in their scheduled releases.

i just downloaded nvflash and just got my root was easy as pie rooted in literally in five minutes would have been 2 minutes but my computer is a bit slow let me know if you would like some links i got it to work

Android 3.1 Port

Has anyone tried porting the Android 3.1 system.img from the SDK to the A500 yet?

I want to say it was sp3dev that tried flashing the xoom 3.1 images and ended up bricking his tablet, so note sure if anyone has tried it again.

I'm thinking of having a gom but I only just got this tablet today. Is there a recovery ROM image that I can use to reflash the tablet in case of brickage?

dr1337 said:
I'm thinking of having a gom but I only just got this tablet today. Is there a recovery ROM image that I can use to reflash the tablet in case of brickage?
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No recovery yet as the bootloader is still locked.
Acer will issue an official update in the next couple of weeks, so why risk it? There's no rush.

Bragging rights......jk
I actually would like a clean system.img without the Acer bloatware too.

You can use this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=14076075&postcount=2
to fully restore to stock US.

I recommend that 'how to' for recovering the tablet be placed in the HOW TO thread, and that thread be stickied.

dhruvmp said:
I want to say it was sp3dev that tried flashing the xoom 3.1 images and ended up bricking his tablet, so note sure if anyone has tried it again.
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:facepalm:
Me? No, it was not me. Meh, i don't care for ****roid and the only thing i want to flash is a proper distro like ubuntu or fedora.

Would be interesting to see what the logcat dump produced to try and work out the incompatibilities.

FloatingFatMan said:
No recovery yet as the bootloader is still locked.
Acer will issue an official update in the next couple of weeks, so why risk it? There's no rush.
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+1 on that...if acer sticks to a June time frame of getting 3.1 to us then it would be a better deal...thats just around the corner and there will be less bugs getting an update (at least i hope so) from the maufacturer then trying to port it from a different device. compared to the g-tab that i had...this thing runs pretty dam good with stock rooted Rom and bloatwate removed...once we get official 3.1 update with mouse and additional peripheral support...then thats gonna make that much sweeter.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App

One thing to think before
Same for me once I removed those crap apps from Acer.I guess Acer will never learn about putting their own apps to blingbling the whole tablet. I don't need slow beautiful tablet I need an overboosted one They build slow PCs, they build slow laptops, slow tablets and I guess slow mobiles phones too and once you make a clean instal on it, oooohhhhh wonder its works like a rocket ------->>>>>>>>>
I guess it s marketing ... selling slow things so that people buy a new one earlier.
And then the other trouble that I m expecting to come......
I m not sure about it but in some threads they telling that if some apps are missing on
our tablet update won't work.
Ok, we know how to revert back to original Acer tablet and do the update to remove again those crap apps again wth....????
Atleast it s not nessecary to hack Acer laptop and PC to instal windows again.
What we need is bootloader from Acer or from a Dev if Acer won't, updates are secondary.
I don t trust them since they could make updates to prevent installing custom roms like
Apple with their never ending we need to block jailbreaking attempts
So be careful about those updates........

3.1 original
I would wait for 3.1, the problems of getting it from another tab would not be worth it.
It should be here hopefully this week sometime!!!

It has been reported that if your device was EVER rooted you wont have access to Google movies on market...even after factory reset/flashing stock rom...fyi this was on xoom. Not sure how much truth there is to this, but I'm not chancing it.

gmpdmd said:
It has been reported that if your device was EVER rooted you wont have access to Google movies on market...even after factory reset/flashing stock rom...fyi this was on xoom. Not sure how much truth there is to this, but I'm not chancing it.
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Being fearful is the safer option... but you really should think this through clearly. How would they know if your tablet has EVER been rooted? Do they store the information on their servers? If so, what about when someone buys your tablet second hand? Are they denied from the movie market forever? Is the tablet forever "poisoned"?
The above scenario is the only way they could know as all traces of being rooted can easily be removed from the tablet itself... that is the nature of having root after all; total control.
Again, if you are fearful or uncertain, do not do anything to your tablet. Please do not spread your fear amongst others though because someone will soon be quoting you and claiming that "they" can tell if your tablet has ever been rooted. As you have already said, " It has been reported that...". Reported by whom? There is no answer. Did they verify the mechanism that testifies that the tablet has EVER been rooted? There is no answer.
It is fine to ask a question but as soon as you say, "it has been reported", then you are spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Bad newbie. No cookie for you.

strikethree said:
Being fearful is the safer option... but you really should think this through clearly. How would they know if your tablet has EVER been rooted? Do they store the information on their servers? If so, what about when someone buys your tablet second hand? Are they denied from the movie market forever? Is the tablet forever "poisoned"?
The above scenario is the only way they could know as all traces of being rooted can easily be removed from the tablet itself... that is the nature of having root after all; total control.
Again, if you are fearful or uncertain, do not do anything to your tablet. Please do not spread your fear amongst others though because someone will soon be quoting you and claiming that "they" can tell if your tablet has ever been rooted. As you have already said, " It has been reported that...". Reported by whom? There is no answer. Did they verify the mechanism that testifies that the tablet has EVER been rooted? There is no answer.
It is fine to ask a question but as soon as you say, "it has been reported", then you are spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Bad newbie. No cookie for you.
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Post is on Droid Life...what I consider a reputable source. I cant post links yet. Go to site and search for "xoom google movies" Its second post down. I'm no noob...rooted many phones and tabs...just new too posting here. Sorry I did not provide link initially

Since Google Movies is about the most expensive way of watching video currently available, I'm not at all concerned over their decision to block rooted devices.

I've wondered this before about cell phones and tablets. I figured it would be more of a carrier thing, wanting to keep everyone in check on device warranties. The capability is certainly there on a carrier based device to simply track the sw version (mods) and root status. I figured it would come up at some point when there was a compelling enough reason for someone to make decisions based on that info. Hopefully it will be limited to content providers, such as in this case. I don't know that there is a need for fear and panic, just more for us all to think about before rooting. I thought about this before rooting my first phone, but also decided that rooting was a better way to avoid bloatware, etc. Until they cut my service for rooting, I'll always seek a better experience on my phone or tablet. Apparently there has been no compelling business reason for them to do that as of yet. Movie licensing is understandable, I'm 100% behind copyright protections. Just one more consideration before rooting a tablet.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

Any other devs for the A7/A7+?

Just wondering if there were any other developers willing to work on the A7 or (more preferably) the A7+. Dexter seems to have quit or lost interest his development permanently on either devices (I think he doesn't have a physical device to work with anymore, but I don't remember where I heard this). The last time he logged on to Tablet Roms was on "04-27-2012", and the last time he logged on to XDA was, well, today actually but he doesn't seem to have any interest in the eLocity forum section. He DID leave us with quite a lot of quality ROMs to work with, especially since the kernel was released for the + in March.
If there aren't any developers willing to work with the A7/A7+ because they don't have a physical device, I would willingly offer remote testing on my A7+ (AKA they give me the compiled ROM(s) or whatever and I try it out and give feedback). It just seems like such a shame to leave both devices with nothing better than a buggy (but still awesome) Honeycomb or a working stock 2.2. ICS seems like it would be doable, again especially since the kernel was released.
I will try to contact the user "chinabull" in the referred link as he seemed like he knew what he was doing when he said "It seems to have all the driver source code we need."
And I have also posted this over at TR.
EDIT- Turns out I can't send PM's to chinabull here, forgot about that. I'll find some other means of communication.
EDIT2- I'm crazy- the message got through; chinabull messaged back! And... he said that he already returned his A7+. So we've got no leads there.
If anyone knows some devs who haven't even heard of the A7/A7+ but might be willing to pick up where Dexter left off, please contact them or let me know so that I can contact them.

6Leinad6 said:
Just wondering if there were any other developers willing to work on the A7 or (more preferably) the A7+. Dexter seems to have quit or lost interest his development permanently on either devices (I think he doesn't have a physical device to work with anymore, but I don't remember where I heard this).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would be willing to pony up CDN $20 towards the purchase of one for a talented (and dedicated) dev to work with. Here in Canada they are available as refurbs for about $90 from places like factorydirect dot c a ..
Anyone else want to donate some dinero ?
Cheers

Sorry for the late(ish) reply, I was out of town.
I don't have any money to donate, sadly, as I just spent it on the A7+...
But, like I said in the OP, if you are willing to work from afar we could do that.

It's a shame it's dead. Prices are around $90 in the US too. With all the china pads out there getting 2nd tier dual core processors with 600 res screens for very little more, it's easy to see why this would go by the wayside. One plus would be built in bluetooth which no china pad has at anything close to this pricepoint, and it probably has a better battery than many of them as well.

We've got someone over at Tablet Roms who will be working on the A7+! He is just waiting on the tablet to arrive.

digidog_A7+ said:
I would be willing to pony up CDN $20 towards the purchase of one for a talented (and dedicated) dev to work with. Here in Canada they are available as refurbs for about $90 from places like factorydirect dot c a ..
Anyone else want to donate some dinero ?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd donate if you're talking about developing for the (older) A7. I still use mine and it would be nice to see a fresh rom for it.

I'd be in if I didn't just pick up the ZTE Optik from Sprint. Can't beat free and can't beat running JB via CM10. That 800 res is quite nice.

I'd greatly appreciate someone picking up work on the A7+. I still haven't flashed the newer firmware with the blank screen from sleep fix because I was holding out hope for a new custom rom. I'd have to root and install the outdated gapps again... And I'm sure we don't have unreasonably high expectations. I'd just like a rom without those awful elocity apps, doesn't black screen when I wake it, with google play, and with functioning hardware, anything more is welcome but uneccessary.

Ok his name is jam4 over at TR - check the thread for updates http://www.tabletroms.com/forums/elocity-a7-general-discussion/5362-any-other-devs-a7-a7.html
@dibmem jam4 is developing on the +, sorry
@frankwg83 yes he is working on honeycomb at the moment, but it sounds like your problems would be easily fixed... it takes 5 minutes and a flashdrive to install the Play Store and a root explorer and a 1-click-root app to get rid of the bloatware

6Leinad6 said:
Ok his name is jam4 over at TR - check the thread for updates http://www.tabletroms.com/forums/elocity-a7-general-discussion/5362-any-other-devs-a7-a7.html
@dibmem jam4 is developing on the +, sorry
@frankwg83 yes he is working on honeycomb at the moment, but it sounds like your problems would be easily fixed... it takes 5 minutes and a flashdrive to install the Play Store and a root explorer and a 1-click-root app to get rid of the bloatware
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Think he would develop on the A7 if he had the hardware? I'm the type of person who'd buy one second hand just to donate it to a willing and capable dev.

dibmem said:
Think he would develop on the A7 if he had the hardware? I'm the type of person who'd buy one second hand just to donate it to a willing and capable dev.
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Maybe, I don't know. You'd have to ask him yourself - http://www.tabletroms.com/forums/members/jam4.html

"I am about 2 weeks out from releasing a working Honeycomb build for the A7+. Let me know how many of you are interested, either by pm or an email to [email protected]"
Everyone go PM or Email him!

So...2 weeks out? How'd that go?
Btw, the A7+ is at 1saleaday again for $70 this time. I'm willing to buy one and ship it to a developer if that's a hurdle since I'm pretty sure there are enough people out there that would want a solid Honeycomb or even Gingerbread firmware. I don't have the time/obsession to figure out the coding myself.

Sprint G3 root wake-up call

This whole issue with the Sprint variant of the LG G3 lacking a viable root method has me extremely pissed off.
Not at Sprint or LG. I recognize that it's not in their best interest to make or sell phones that can allow root access with a simple button press. The damage that the average phone user could do would bring their tech support services to a standstill.
Of course, I'm not pissed at the XDA developers. Most of these guys do it for the challenge, and it's not a cheap hobby. Throw in minor distractions like jobs and family issues, and it's easy to understand why they don't jump when people demand that they throw their undivided attention at a device that they may or may not ever really use.
No... I'm pissed at myself. I'm annoyed at my lack of initiative, as I sit around watching the weeks roll by waiting for someone to find a solution to a problem I may be capable of solving. Don't get me wrong... I'm no rocket surgeon who thinks I can do whatever I want through sheer will power. I respect and appreciate the difficulty of developing in the Android ecosystem. But, I also realize that all these developers started somewhere, and all it took to start the ball rolling was the desire to make devices do exactly what they wanted.
Back about 25 years ago, MAME was in it's infancy (it's an arcade game emulator... look it up). I was hoping that someone would make a decent full-size MAME cabinet that would accurately simulate the look and feel of an actual arcade game. After a year of waiting, I lost my patience. I bought a donor cabinet, reverse engineered a front-end that I thought showed promise, and started reading... A LOT. It took a lot of soldering, and trial and error but I ended up with something that I felt was better that anything I'd seen previously. In hindsight, it kinda sucked, but 6 versions later I had a polished arcade emulator that I still own and it's a proud centerpiece of my rec-room. The point of this in not to blow my own horn, but to illustrate that with the right initiative and ability to perform a Google search I could make something that I wanted without having to rely on others. Granted, I did have to rely heavily on the countless people who took the time to document their own technical experiences, but they put it out there for a reason.
I don't expect everyone to follow my lead, but I'm hoping to possibly light a fire under a few people who might have felt the occasional urge to get under the hood of their Android device. If anyone can point me toward a good starting point for developer education, I'd be greatly appreciative. I'm dying to get going on this, and I realize that there will be a root method for my phone looooong before I can even tweak the most elemental code. BUT... I'm hoping that I might be able to help myself and others when I buy my next device, and I challenge anyone who's managed to read all of this novel to do the same.

Might want to fix that ENTER key first.. Your message is good but I have this image of someone frothing at the mouth with the rambling and lack of structure.
I think things like ROOT and bootloader unlocks are a bit beyond the casual hacker these days though.

RHall1340 said:
I think things like ROOT and bootloader unlocks are a bit beyond the casual hacker these days though.
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For the most part, yes. But the exploit that allows root via PurpleDrake is so simple I bet even I could have connected the dots if I had known about the alternate recovery. It was essentially an open door. Of course, I have the benefit of hindsight and I'm still just speculating because I understand how that method works as far as what adb would show about which directories were mounted RW. Knowing what was actually going on in that environment regarding the backup service and how the temp directory was handled by the recovery system took somebody with deeper knowledge and the means to analyze the system behavior.
jcase said himself that he's invested thousands of dollars in hardware that let's him do exactly that, not to mention the hours he and others put in. Like you said, vulnerabilities are getting harder to find with every release, patch, update, etc. And I'm just talking about getting enough access to the file system to slip in the su binary. I don't even know how one could attack the bootloader.
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