Database Users

[Q] Android / Glacier Noob Questions

So, I've been a long time WinMo user and I just switched to Android (the Glacier) Great phone. A lot is foreign to me, though.
I'm a software developer and a Linux user so I'm pretty comfortable finding my way around the Android dev tools and the terminal (although I found it odd that the phone comes with neither a file manager nor a terminal)
Anyhow, I have a few questions:
-I've seen a lot of threads declaring how awesome Android's process management is and how it's bad to kill processes manually. I don't understand this. I've been playing with my phone non-stop for the past few days and on a number of occasions, have met with slow performance and even not-enough-memory prompts. This is usually after installing a dozen (or dozens) of apps back to back and playing with them all. So long as you are aware of the ramifications of killing a particular process, what's wrong with doing so?
-I've rooted my phone. If I ever get an OTA update, would it be a good idea to unroot prior to applying the update?
-When I select "Allow automatic updating" in the Market for my purchased apps, how exactly does that work? Are updates looked for my Android? Are they looked for when the Market is launched? Are those individual apps first loaded and then look for updates?
-I imported my contacts from WinMo Outlook into Google via ActiveSync in order to get them on my phone. Consequently, I have GTalk contacts and stuff on my phone that I don't want. If I delete them from Contacts, will they be deleted from my Google account? That is to say, if I delete [email protected] from my Contacts, will he suddenly disappear from my IM client?
Thanks for your help! I appreciate it!

LOL you see like you I been also using *nix for ages far as I can count 10+ years and I am Unix Admin. When I got MT4G as it was my first AOSP device I was like yourself shocked it didn't have file manager, basic console, or anything.
It seem that if you wanted to do anything it was required you waste your life installing some backward software though Market that claimed it to be freeware but IRL is actually adware. Also if you want anything done it is required you have root lol and if you do want root you void warranty its like whole catch 22 statement to me. So here I am doing what I do best and owned AOSP along with google market.
UPDATE:
So here ill actually answer some of your questions as I didn't want to due to it being very long but hey it might help you out.
1) Far as the process goes as you know in *nix world we have saying "unused memory is wasted memory" same apply as mostly its cached and does not treat it same as in WM. When you "exit" task if you call it exit that is in first place its put on dormant status so if resource is required then its reallocated. This is why you don't exit them forcefully as data may not be synced and saved. In this case my best advice for you is disable service from booting up in first place and also auto close it if it restarts.
2) Don't worry about OTA as you will more likely get update via dev of XDA long before you officially get it though carrier. You have S off so don't worry about it as its no factor.
3) It is tracked via google account and though your carrier I think, I don't know as I didn't ever officially buy single package however I did cURL 8.1gb of paid app archive of market before getting banned. From what I know once app is installed if you have auto update the current version is checked though market to see if any new version is available. Now when you buy app its under your acc so you can use it in diff device or install it many time as you want even if its updated.
4) I can't say about GTalk as I never used but far as AutoSync goes mostly your TMo data and email is synced though Google accounts like gmail.

I see. I can see how task management is rather pointless then, heh. I wonder where my "out of memory" issue came from. Leaky app, perhaps.

Is there a way to rename applications in the "All Programs" list?

[Q] Nook Simple Touch - all set up and it's partly fun

Hi all, recently bought one of these nice little devices myself. This is how I got on, not all that's supposed to work actually does.
Rooting with Touchnnoter 2.1.31 was easy enough and I soon found SearchMarket to access Android Market. What does work: Kindle, QuickPic, AdAway, DropBox, GoodNews
So I could be reading books and news, but I'd like to have a bit more, namely web access!
- ReadItLater/Pocket is shown as purchased in Market, but can't be installed
- Stock browser shows starting page as Error404, directly opening another page works first time only, but links or scrolling don't. Plus it often crashes.
- pre-installed Opera Mini didn't work, so I uninstalled and reinstalled:
a) only clicking "accept" REALLY fast allowed me to open it at all, otherwise it'd crash
b) spiegel.de and BBCNews always crash, even with images turned off I only briefly see the page layout
- Opera Mini Next doesn't open,
- Opera Mobile and Evernote are supposed to work, but don't appear on SearchMarket
- Dolphin Browser often crashes as well, plus no add-ons can be found
Any ideas why this is happening?
Plus: can anybody tell me how to access the external sdcard? I tried several file managers, activated root access etc. but have never been able to access /mnt/ or external_sd or emmc. So I haven't been able to sideload any apk either.
Thanks!

I use Opera Mobile, I found the apk somewhere (not on Market).
The SD card appears as /sdcard in the system (i.e. shell or ADB).
It is the second device mounted on the USB (i.e. desktop).
If you are writing an application you need the permission android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE.

There's also Instafetch as an alternative clipper.
Regards market errors, it's nice to do adb installs anyway, just a matter of getting hold of the .apk, possibly from AppBrain. OperaMobile (not to be mistaken with the lighter streaming OperaMini) works well for me. Perhaps there's a apk direct from Opera available.
It sounds like you have a problem with market. Perhaps adblock could be interfering? As I say, check out alternative ways to install in the interim.

The last couple versions of opera mini don't work but luckily I backed up my apps via airdroid and have a version that works. Readitlater/Pocket does not work because their recent updates have dropped android 2.1 support. Have you tried es file explorer? In ES you tap the home icon on the toolbar and select Phone the sdcard should then appear as a folder

PatchMeUp said:
- Opera Mobile and Evernote are supposed to work, but don't appear on SearchMarket
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see both Opera Mobile and Evernote through SearchMarket.
Try to see if you can find Opera Mobile directly from Market (not SearchMarket)
Market -> App -> Communication -> Top Free
Opera Mobile is on the second page.
Alternatively you could go to Google Play on your desktop/laptop
and see if the Nook shows up on the devices (its called Phone).
Then install them on the website for the device, and a few seconds later you will see them install on the nook.
--

PatchMeUp said:
- Opera Mobile and Evernote are supposed to work, but don't appear on SearchMarket
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
play.google.com/store/apps
Browsing and installing from the webstore is definitely way faster than on the Nook.
Also, I use another app called Quick Search Widget. Launch it as an app or from the widget. It can search the Market, and also doubles as a Google/wikipedia/... search widget.

Wow, thank you all for your tips - quite a kick-start and steep learning curve!
SD card: my bad, as "sdcard" was available. But as I recently formatted this drawer on my SGS (wanting to format the external sdcard, but wiping the OS...) I was extra cautious. Settled.
I downloaded adb and installed apks, great! I still don't get it how to do this on the Nook itself. There's something in NookColorTools about the app having to be in /system/apps/ or else it won't work...
And I'm quite proud to have figured out why Market didn't work! There was something wrong with the content filter: although set to "all", a lot of apps were blocked. Having switched to "mature", I'm in business with Evernote and trying out Instafetch.
BTW: @Schneicw, you're the best! The working OperaMini.apk was the best birthday present (couple of days early)! You wouldn't happen to have an old ReadItLater.apk lying around as well?!?
Next, I'll give the ebooklauncher a shot. Fingers crossed!

PatchMeUp said:
W
I downloaded adb and installed apks, great! I still don't get it how to do this on the Nook itself. There's something in NookColorTools about the app having to be in /system/apps/ or else it won't work...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably do not have install of Non-Market apps enabled.
Bring up NookColor Tools, and you will see check box with "Allow Non Market Apps". This might be checked (but still not working).
So you need to uncheck this box and recheck it.
Also try out remote install of apps from the google play website play.google.com/store/apps from a laptop (you need to login with the same account as on your nook), I find that really convenient...
--

I've got my Nook Simple Touch rooted with latest Touchnooter. The thing is, I don't want to use the Android Market at all. I want to install the F-Droid repository instead, as it has nothing but Free Software Apps, and has satisfied all my needs on my Droid phone, and I would prefer to keep as much of my data away from google as I can.
I have the FDroid.apk file. But I can't understand how to install it. I have the box (about allowing install of outside apps) in NookColor Tools checked. But I don't know how to get to the file on the SD card to start installing it.
What is this I've been hearing about installing with adb? Does that mean you can't just go to a file manager, select the apk, and begin installing? Because that is essentially how F-Droid installs its apps. Just does it all on its own, you just click "Install". But if that method doesn't work on the NST. Than F-Droid won't work
Any help would be very appreciated. God Bless ya guys!!
P.S. also the stock browser doesn't really work right. just goes to a black screen after a couple different web pages. And Opera (the one installed by Touchnooter) won't open at all. Just flashes the screen once, then stays on the home screen.
We really need a custom made CyanogenMod Rom!!! I get the feeling it would solve alot of our issues.

clem11388 said:
I have the FDroid.apk file. But I can't understand how to install it. I have the box (about allowing install of outside apps) in NookColor Tools checked. But I don't know how to get to the file on the SD card to start installing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should be able to connect the nook to your Windows machine and copy the .apk onto the sdcard.
For browser Opera Mobile works for me.
TouchNooter also has the Amazon Market, which you could use.
--

cbay said:
You should be able to connect the nook to your Windows machine and copy the .apk onto the sdcard.
For browser Opera Mobile works for me.
TouchNooter also has the Amazon Market, which you could use.
--
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well as a first note, I would like to say I have no Windows machines at all. I am 100% Linux
But I already have the apk file on my SD card. Its just I have no idea how to get to the file to install it. I thought that the app "Super Manager" was a file explorer/manager of some sort. But it does the same thing as Opera, I click on the icon in the App drawer, and the screen just flashes once or twice. Then returns the the home screen. No thing saying that it has crashed or anything.
So that is where I'm stuck.
Also, as a side note, I wish to use the F-Droid repository, because I want to use nothing but Open Source (Also known as Freedom Based) Software. Including markets. It's the number one reason why I use nothing but Linux on my machines. Linux is also faster than Mac or Windows, but won't get into that can of worms right now. hahaha.

You could write your own file explorer Jk
adb install seems to be the way for you.
Google "ADB download install", there should be a ton of links.
However now you will have software created by google installed/running on
your linux machine. (ha ha).
--

cbay said:
You could write your own file explorer Jk
adb install seems to be the way for you.
Google "ADB download install", there should be a ton of links.
However now you will have software created by google installed/running on
your linux machine. (ha ha).
--
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol Well I have next to zero programming knowledge. But when I find the the best open source file explorer I'm definitely gonna throw the dev more than a few bucks for his hard work.
I'll look into adb installing for now. Just really hope and pray we get a Cyanogen or some other real Rom ported to NST soon. I think would solve all our issues with a totally different rom on it.
P.S. yes, having proprietary google software is gonna bug the crap outta me!! lol
God Bless ya guys!

Migrating user settings

In windows 7 I was running everything on the Administrator account, and now that I upgraded to windows 8 I have the same account. Unfortunately Metro apps won't run on it and I can't connect with my live account, so I made a new user. But this user doesn't have access to any of the programs I had installed as Administrator.
Is there an easy way to transfer these over without reinstalling them?

What do you mean no access? If you can't see them just take everything from C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop and put it in C:\Users\Public\Public Desktop
Then take everything from C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu and put it in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Now everything should be visible to all users. Make sure you don't move any chrome shortcuts. Chrome installs into your user profile, so you will have to reinstall that. The sync feature takes everything over, though.

JihadSquad said:
What do you mean no access? If you can't see them just take everything from C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop and put it in C:\Users\Public\Public Desktop
Then take everything from C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu and put it in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Now everything should be visible to all users. Make sure you don't move any chrome shortcuts. Chrome installs into your user profile, so you will have to reinstall that. The sync feature takes everything over, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow I feel stupid now. Thanks. I don't really know what I was thinking.

[Q] Multi-user feature in 4.2

Anyone playing with 4.2 yet?
Second and subsequent users seem to have to go through some kind of set up. Can they/do they need to use a Google Account they already have on another device? Is it a good idea for them to do so?

WibblyW said:
Anyone playing with 4.2 yet?
Second and subsequent users seem to have to go through some kind of set up. Can they/do they need to use a Google Account they already have on another device? Is it a good idea for them to do so?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
was just playing around on mine yeah it seems it's set up as another user (inc google sync everything) what i was hoping for was like a guest account that could browse the web use some of the apps (according to a whitelist or something) say im with some friends and am streaming music and want to be able to let them use it without giving them access to my email and other stuff?
sadly not to be i fear unless someone can allay my fears?

Looks like you have to emulate a guest user by pre configuring them as a 'dummy' account, with dummy email etc.
Would be difficult to get them access your paid apps though. And what if you set up free apps under that account? Are re downloaded and take up space? That would be a bummer for big apps like games.

WibblyW said:
Looks like you have to emulate a guest user by pre configuring them as a 'dummy' account, with dummy email etc.
Would be difficult to get them access your paid apps though. And what if you set up free apps under that account? Are re downloaded and take up space? That would be a bummer for big apps like games.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly want to show the thing off but don't want to have to stand over them making sure they don't go rooting around

WibblyW said:
Looks like you have to emulate a guest user by pre configuring them as a 'dummy' account, with dummy email etc.
Would be difficult to get them access your paid apps though. And what if you set up free apps under that account? Are re downloaded and take up space? That would be a bummer for big apps like games.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is this going to be managed then?
Good Point !

Wilks3y said:
How is this going to be managed then?
Good Point !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried that out with my girlfriends account and it seems like if you download an app, which you already have on your device, it "installs" it almost immediately. There is no re-download of the file. However, if you start the app you'll see a new instance of it, without any data taken from your other account. Maybe there are some apps which keep their settings but those which I've testet so far seem to start naked. This will mean that the app itself will only stored once, the data like savegames etc. is stored per user.
What bugs me is that there seems no way (maybe with root) to access the internal storage area of the other user. As example, I have some movies stored on my device and I can only access them in the account which was active, when I copied the files to the device.
Edit:
BOOOM: Here we go. Tried to install the facebook app on two users and got the following message:
"You cannot install this app because another user has already installed an incompatible version on this device"
Seems like Google adding this feature is only one part of the story. I think there are quite a lot apps out there which will run into the same issue.
Edit2:
Looked a little bit deeper into this and found out, that this was NOT caused by an incompatibility issue from the facebook app itself. I've modified the apk (for testing purposes, don't use facebook much) with "AppGuard" and installed it outside of the google play store. As I tried to reinstall the facebook app from the play store I ran into the previous described error message.

So am I correct in thinking there will be no way to "make apps available" to all users? I thought this would be a great tool for my son, so i can basically say you can have access to these 10 games and that's it. but if i have to add my google account then "install" each game that's going to be a pain in the arse!
Is there no resource documentation on this? I looked I could not find anything on google that addressed apps really at all.

Each user appears to get a their own "home" directory created in /mnt/shell/emulated.
Default user dir is "0"
Second user dir is "10"
Each contain the standard dir's from 4.1 and earlier.
I took a CWM nandroid backup immediately after upgrading and the clockworkmod folder is in the same directory, so I'm guessing that any app that uses the old-style home path will need updating.
since adding the second user SuperSu has had issues - hangs & then crash, and the Settings app crashed - if I have time I'll revert to stock, upgrade again, and then add another account without rooting & installing supersu/busybox et al.

[Q] Just rooted, can't get "searchmarket" onto the Nook Glowtouch

I just rooted my Nook Glowtouch. It has the newer firmware, thought I don't have the version handy.
I'm following the instructions found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_r-_BxLKys
I'm at the part where he's talking about installing "searchmarket" but the Opera Classic browser is taking me to the google play web page instead of launching the Google Marketplace. The install from Appbrain is not working, I even tried installing appbrain but that didn't work as I expected it. For whatever reason, I'm getting full pages instead of mobile pages for these sites, so it's difficult to navigate and I'm not sure what to expect.
Is there a "searchmarket/apk" or equivalent available? I don't read Chinese, so I wasn't successful on the dev's site, though it seems more like a blog than a dev page.
Or is there another recommendation for doing this or a better searcher?

AllanonMage said:
Or is there another recommendation for doing this or a better searcher?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have your Nook connected to a WiFi network with Internet access. Start a browser (on the Nook, or elsewhere), login to Google with the same Google account as you used to setup your Nook after you'd rooted it, go to http://play.google.com and search for searchmarket, click on Install, then select your Nook from the drop-down (mine appears simply as 'phone', alongside more descriptive names for my other Android devices registered with that account).

cowbutt said:
Have your Nook connected to a WiFi network with Internet access. Start a browser (on the Nook, or elsewhere), login to Google with the same Google account as you used to setup your Nook after you'd rooted it, go to http://play.google.com and search for searchmarket, click on Install, then select your Nook from the drop-down (mine appears simply as 'phone', alongside more descriptive names for my other Android devices registered with that account).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with that idea is that I have 3 items called "phone" in the list. I can't find the android settings on the nook (I get taken to the nook settings), so I wasn't sure what it was supposed to show up as, or if there were a place I could change the name of it. Sounds like I won't be able to though.
I was finally able to get the app installed. I tried a Dolphin and Opera a few times. Eventually I was able to get the OS to send google play links to the native browser, which then shuffled me over to to the market app. Not sure if I could replicate though.
I was getting a bunch of certificate errors on the google play page during all of this, so I wonder if that's what was causing problems.

Solution? Time-zone!
For me the solution was to set your time zone accordingly -> because google probably checked "if your time certificates" are correct..
and also the problem could be :
"f you have any trouble getting it to install, go open the “NookColor Tools” app in the app drawer, un-check “Allow Non-Market Apps” then make sure to re-check the box again. You have to un-check it then re-check it the first time to get it to allow the installation of third party apps."
viz. h**p://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2011/07/15/rooted-nook-touch-fixing-market-search-and-other-tips-and-tricks-video/
afterwards the tutorial works

AllanonMage said:
I just rooted my Nook Glowtouch. It has the newer firmware, thought I don't have the version handy.
I'm following the instructions found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_r-_BxLKys
I'm at the part where he's talking about installing "searchmarket" but the Opera Classic browser is taking me to the google play web page instead of launching the Google Marketplace. The install from Appbrain is not working, I even tried installing appbrain but that didn't work as I expected it. For whatever reason, I'm getting full pages instead of mobile pages for these sites, so it's difficult to navigate and I'm not sure what to expect.
Is there a "searchmarket/apk" or equivalent available? I don't read Chinese, so I wasn't successful on the dev's site, though it seems more like a blog than a dev page.
Or is there another recommendation for doing this or a better searcher?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=46684355#post46684355
Download it and install