[GUIDE][ROM DEVELOPMENT] How to develop on your PC from your device

[GUIDE][ROM DEVELOPMENT] How to develop on your PC from your device - Android Software Development

This tutorial will explain how do basic developing on your Windows/Linux Machine from your tablet or smartphone while away from it. This is a very simple process and I take no credit for the application used in this tutorial.
Its quite simple:
Install PocketCloud from the Play store, set it up, follow the directions to get it set up, install it on your PC/MAC, and vwala! I have successfully decompiled an app, surfed the net, edited XMLs, etc. from my tablet (this is the most recommended device due to the large screen, 8-10 inch tablet will give you the easiest way). Please note that you have to have the stuff installed such as APK Multi-tool, Notepad++, etc. to do this stuff, this simply allows you to remotely develop with all of your tools while away from them, while not having to jump through hoops like INSTALLING THE OS ON YOUR DEVICE (even though that's cool too). Also, I am using this with 1 MB internet speeds, and it is pretty laggy, but not unusable. Awesome 3G speeds, 4G or wifi are needed or strongly advised (I think 3 MBps+ will give you some solid performance)
THis is a small contribution, is self explainitory, and helped me the other day while I was at school . I was curious about the code located in the ICS apks and remembered I had this, so I decompiled the app from my phone, it is a VERY USEFUL TOOL for any [aspiring/veteran] developer.

AirDroid App from Play Store is also very good! Nice guide.
One more thing if you try to edit system Apps then this technique becomes complicated. You should flash it via creating a small updater-script and making a small directories in which you would put your system apps so they can work well.

Related

ROM for juniors?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mod. edit: not dev related, moved to general

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

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

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

Webtop: Working Ubuntu programs plus small guide

Let me start off by saying I am not a developer. And Im not too familiar with Linux either. Just goes to show that this isnt too difficult
To get ubuntu on the Atrix please go here first:
[MOD] Full Linux (Debian) inside WebTop! v0.2.6 [2011/07/07] [14.15 GMT+2:00] - xda-developers
Follow the steps. Must have CMW installed, rooted etc.
I was unsuccessful with webtop2sd. You might have good results with it, but for me it didnt.
Once you flash this cmw file, reboot you phone and enter into webtop (if you need the HDMI hack, you will find that on XDA). You will now see 3 new icons. Leafpad, Lxterminal, and a penguin. Click on the penguin, and you it will say found image. Click ok.
If your unfamiluar with linux, this will look french to you. Once it launches (the first time after reboot will take some time, be patient). Hit enter, enter again and scroll down to Shells, then hit enter on Bash. Now this is where the fun begins.
Enter synaptic. If that doesnt work you might need to install it. apt-get install synaptic. After thats opened search for gnome-panel, right click and select "mark for installation". Hit apply and go for a coffee. This will take a long time, and make sure your on wifi. This is a huge download.
Here is a list of working applications so far :
Epiphany web browser
Epiphany IM
Evolution Mail
Iceweasle
AbiWord
GNU image manipulation
All of the games
Im working on getting usb-to-ethernet dongle working.I can see it, just cant get access to it.
Almost all of the pre-installed applications with gnome work. EXCEPT sound. This is driving me nuts. I am unable to find a sound driver (gstreamer) that works. If anyone here figures it out let me know. And if anyone out there have programs that work let me know. I can always add it to the list. Im very green to Linux, and just playing around at this point. Im no developer, and most of your questions can be answered on XDA forums.

I have the same setup, and you can add openoffice.org and geany packages to the "functional" list. I use openoffice's writer every day and have found no missing functions. Geany is working, but does not build and compile, so it's basically a color-coded text editor (still useful for note-taking my language classes). I did NOT use synaptic to get these. I simply used the bash script (in the same manner you described for your synaptic install) to apt-get install openoffice.org and geany respectively. Nice thread,
-omni

Where you able to get sound working??

g2tegg said:
Where you able to get sound working??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My sound through the Webtop is functional, yes. I'm not sure if you were talking about gnome-specific apps (I wouldn't know, because I'm not using gnome panel), but anything through mobile view or iceweasel (not including flash) plays stereo through the Webtop. I didn't do anything special to get it working, it always just has. I hope you figure out your problem.
-omni

With epiphany did you encounter a problem where it uses xulrunner-1.9.2 instead of xulrunner-1.9 and fails to start the gecko engine? The epiphany version that is available through synaptic after fixing apt-get dependencies and sources uses xul1.9 once and works right then uses xul1.9.2 every time after that and fails. Epiphany lists both xul versions as deps so i, unsuccessfully, tried to lock xul1.9 and install a fake xul1.9.2. Any help would be awesome.

I did manage to make Webtop2SD work after I created a 4 GB partition on my ExtSD through Webtop2sd partitioning tool.
Here's what I got working (installed through Synaptic):
XFCE4 (full suite)
OpenOffice
GIMP
EPDFViewer
Fillezilla FTP client
VLC Media Player (marginal results)
Ristretto Image viewer
ABE's Amazing Adventure (game with full working sound)
I was hoping to have some sort of ScummVM, MAME and SNES emulator to run, but unfortunately they don't even after a successfull install.
Cheers!
Rayan
Sent from my Atrix using Tapatalk

@ g2tegg
I know it's a bit late for commenting lol. And probably my post may be off-topic. But was your issue the <no sound coming from HDTV via HDMI> one?
I also had this issue in webtop going on for like 3 months (like flashing and reflashing webtop to no end), until I stumbled upon this Motorola forum:
h**p://supportforums.motorola.com/message/330591#330591
(had to mod link because I didn't reach the minimum amounts of posts to allow links -_-)
Basically, if you switch display resolution to anything other than 1280x720, sound will not redirect to HDTV. And as for me, after switching to 1280x720, I had to reboot my Atrix in order to finally have sound . No need to find for drivers.

My sound would work within the Webtop apps from Motorola. But if I wanted to use a Linux MP3 player, watch a video etc there would be no sound. Kept getting a gstreamer error.

Hi g2tegg,
I have Atrix with iBlur ROM. I installed the WebTopMOD zip file using CWM and have the folder with linux image in sdcard-ext. But when I reboot the phone and plg it in Atrix Lapdock I don't see the icons like: penguin etc.
Could you please help.

Got it working !!

katlimaal said:
Hi g2tegg,
I have Atrix with iBlur ROM. I installed the WebTopMOD zip file using CWM and have the folder with linux image in sdcard-ext. But when I reboot the phone and plg it in Atrix Lapdock I don't see the icons like: penguin etc.
Could you please help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to reflash the webtop and then the mod again. There is a thread in the developers area I believe called webtop mod v1 or something like that. When I get the chance I will try to dig it up. Driving in a snowstorm at the moment slightly hinders my searchability haha. Good ol Ontario I tell ya

quick question: are these persistent? can I make a desktop icon for these or do I have to apt-get them everytime?
seems counter intuitive to not be able to "hard" install the applications

V DidDy 210 said:
quick question: are these persistent? can I make a desktop icon for these or do I have to apt-get them everytime?
seems counter intuitive to not be able to "hard" install the applications
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You dont have to apt-get everytime. The installed applications are on either the phones hard drive or the SD card. Only thing you will have to do is start the gnome panel every session, which is easy enough.

g2tegg said:
You dont have to apt-get everytime. The installed applications are on either the phones hard drive or the SD card. Only thing you will have to do is start the gnome panel every session, which is easy enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah after tinkering with them for enough time I figured that out!
only question is how do I figure out where they are located on my phone? I can't find a DEBIAN folder anywhere on my device (sd or sd-ext) my webtopmod folder is on my internal storage btw
thanks for the response!

If you use webtopmod's debian chroot (the white shell) they'll be in the linuxdisk file, as it's actualy a filesystem in itself. You won't be able to 'directly' access them. I recommend switching to webtop2SD. I didnt' want to, but everything is native that way and most things run better anyways, I installed xfce4 and got rid of that stupid awn dock at the bottom and put in a little bar. Now it feels like linux!
My apps so far:
OpenOffice 3
XChat
rdesktop (doesn't work, keymap doesn't work)
gimp (not used yet)
Any other useful ones people know of? I don't need an email client... the phone's gmail app is sufficient enough, and if I need more support I'll just use gmail. Kind of wish I could get an updated firefox, or a tun/tap module so i could use hamachi.

Mgamerz said:
If you use webtopmod's debian chroot (the white shell) they'll be in the linuxdisk file, as it's actualy a filesystem in itself. You won't be able to 'directly' access them. I recommend switching to webtop2SD. I didnt' want to, but everything is native that way and most things run better anyways, I installed xfce4 and got rid of that stupid awn dock at the bottom and put in a little bar. Now it feels like linux!
My apps so far:
OpenOffice 3
XChat
rdesktop (doesn't work, keymap doesn't work)
gimp (not used yet)
Any other useful ones people know of? I don't need an email client... the phone's gmail app is sufficient enough, and if I need more support I'll just use gmail. Kind of wish I could get an updated firefox, or a tun/tap module so i could use hamachi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed chromium, and it's running smoother than firefox ever did. Haven't really had a reason to install anything else, but i think i'm gonna get fxce4 because the current dock at the bottom annoys me
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium

^yeah after using it exclusively for the past day or so it's quite capable but I can also see the limitations of debian through chroot. I'd ideally like to get rid of the webtop all together and just have kde or gnome (i'm not picky, xcfe4 would work for me too)
but I'm assuming if I do webtop2sd I can have ubuntu with gnome installed no problem?
I went through the process of putting all of my gnuSTEP icons on the webtop and it's very much like my current gnuSTEP machine (supremely capable btw when using a debian core) I haven't run into any real problems using the chroot method, save for not being able to put shortcuts on the AWN bar and the occasional, but when I get my lapdock in the mail and start exclusively using this when I'm out and about I'll look into doing webtop2sd. I need to get a bigger sd card too, I have a 16 but I'd rather have a 32 external only for webtop and the 10 or so internal for android I don't listen to music on my android (I own a zune) so 10 should be plenty to just have apps and android
---------- Post added at 02:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:20 AM ----------
Alcapone263 said:
I installed chromium, and it's running smoother than firefox ever did. Haven't really had a reason to install anything else, but i think i'm gonna get fxce4 because the current dock at the bottom annoys me
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you use the jaunty hack to get chromium working?
I successfully installed chromium but every page loads for a second and then crashes. I didn't really look into the chromium hack (I don't think I use jaunty for anything and synaptic/apt-get can get all the repositories I need) but it seemed intensive especially to get flash.
I've found that while firefox has FANTASTIC flash support (like, really good and speedy, no chops) I just end up using konqueror for regular internet tasks. I can't seem to get it to install flash (I don't know how to install .deb packages) but it's speedy for other things and makes an excellent file manager

If you could get chromium without 2.3.5 i'd get it... but 2.3.5 offers what appear to be no benefits at all, correct?
Just kinda scared to have to rebuild from a bricked phone.
Trolling from my ATRIX 4G's XDA premium app, still on the gold medal winner of worst customer satisfaction for the second year in a row! Congrats!

I upgraded to 2.3.5 it has the new firefox, it runs fine from what I've seen

I'm trying to install synaptic by "apt-get install synaptic", but it shows several "Failed to fetch http://ftp.debian.org/debian/......" messages.
How can I fix this?

[Q] Masters Project question(s)

Hey guys/gals, the folks over at android forums sent me to bug you guys about my endeavor, so if i am annoying, blame them . Also loved the registration video and there were no results of forum posts when it came to robotics.
"Just picked up my new Acer A500 yesterday and have been playing with it just a little bit. It has the unupdated 3.1 OS (honeycomb I THINK). So i have a few questions but first let me explain my purpose for the tab and my background.
My purpose for the tablet is for my Masters project, to interface it to a IOIO (pronounced YOYO) controller board in for motor and senor control. The IOIO is an android driven device hence an android tab. Also the tab is going to the the brains and face of a telepressence robot i am building. My background in mobile devices is windows mobile (forget the version) which i did not mod very much and my IPHONE 3GS which i have jailbroken and modded for my amusement. I also have a background in C# and VHDL but not so much in mobile application development (which i suspect should not be too difficult to pick up)
Now on to some questions. I plan to root this just to have root access but is there any other benefit such as an underground app store. My favorite is book access such as stanza. Can i host a web server on the tab or will i have to remote into it using some other utility? And i thought i had another question but i think that will do for now. Anyways thanks for any help and i look forward to future interaction."
SD

Regarding root, some apps need it. For instance, the advanced features of Titanium Backup or AdFree. As for setting a server, I am using File Expert, a file manager with some cool options (including root access) that also allows http and ftp sharing of files to and from the tablet. I am sure there are other apps with similar functionality.

superdave14 said:
I plan to root this just to have root access but is there any other benefit such as an underground app store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't expect anyone to answer that with a link, right? You can install whatever apk you want with or without root on your own risk. The benefits of rooting have nothing to do with stealing of applications. You simply get r/w access to the filesystem.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

No need for an "underground" app store. You can use the regular Google Market, Amazon App Store, AppBrain, and GetJar to acquire and install applications.
If you are writing one yourself, then merely compile it and package it appropriate for the Android OS and you can install it without a market as long as you enable "Unknown Sources (Allow installation of non-Market applications)".

Thanks, I have never used the android device before so i was not sure of the actual restrictions the OS has as far as modifications compared to the Iphone, which is what i'm use to. If i offended anyone as far as the thinking i'm looking for free apps, i apologize. I'm more interested in direct access to the accelerometer, 6 axis gyroscope, and compass for instant feedback for my robot navigation system, as well as setting up either web server or remote capabilities to motors and functions through the device. It's all about what type of control and feedback i can gain from root versus not rooting. As well as tethering my iphone to it for greater bandwidth range, when WIFI is not available or weak.
Again any info regarding this type of information would be great.

superdave14 said:
Thanks, I have never used the android device before so i was not sure of the actual restrictions the OS has as far as modifications compared to the Iphone, which is what i'm use to. If i offended anyone as far as the thinking i'm looking for free apps, i apologize. I'm more interested in direct access to the accelerometer, 6 axis gyroscope, and compass for instant feedback for my robot navigation system, as well as setting up either web server or remote capabilities to motors and functions through the device. It's all about what type of control and feedback i can gain from root versus not rooting. As well as tethering my iphone to it for greater bandwidth range, when WIFI is not available or weak.
Again any info regarding this type of information would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a look at the sdk. You don't need root for the things you intend to use your tab for. Root is needed if you need to modify the filesystem and you don't. You aren't helping yourself with thinking in the ios box. Android is much more open and thus much more friendly to the developers. All google apps are created using the same sdk that's available to us all, so if they can do anything, we can do it too (or at least we have the means to do it). There are some good examples in the sdk too, that can really help you to understand the means of reading sensor data. If I remember correctly, you had some C/C++ background, so it might help you to look as the ndk too.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

Android is much more open that the iOS, if you have a basic linux background, you can apply it here too. Rooting allows you to edit the filesystem, the equivalent of being able to write to the c:\windows and c:\program files folders. Occasionally, you may need it, but for most applications, you don't. The SDK is pretty powerful and its tutorials are quite comprehensive, with a little studying, you should be able to write an app that extracts the information you want. In general, Android app development is quite open and flexible.
As for the underground app store, there are many free apps in Google Market. Angry Birds and AdFree for instance (this is just to show that not just second rate developers offer free apps). Also, Amazon has a marketplace and they occasionally have offers for free or very discounted apps. In general, if you need an app, there is probably a free version that is supported by ads, or a lite version you can try before buying the full thing.

Just buy the Iconia tablet already.Erica promises you will love it..
Giggles.

[Q] Going after minimalistic set of programms/feature on N7

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

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.

[App] Proposal - Android TV web console

I just got a Shield TV, and I love it. I'm probably going to root it tonight to tinker further.
One issue I have with it is how annoying it is to configure, side-load apps, upload files to, etc. I'd love to have a web console for it, and I'm willing to do most/all of the heavy lifting for the front-end and server-side web development perspective. I'm going to need help on other fronts, however.
I'm a full-stack web developer. Most of what I've done professionally is PHP, but I'm not married to that. I'm also pretty good at configuring apache/nginx/ha-proxy/etc. Though once upon a time, I wrote front-end applications in Java and C++, that's ancient history, and I don't really have time to re-learn those skills and the Android SDK. Also, I'm not much of a designer, so unless I'm just using a pretty stock framework like Bootstrap, I'll need someone else to provide the art.
What I'm envisioning is an app that we can have in the play store that has a very simple UI to:
- install an SSH server
- install bash
- install web server/app server
- install DDNS client
- launch server on boot
- check server for new versions of the software it installed
Stuff I want the web interface to do:
- install/uninstall apps (file submission, URLs, etc.)
- 1-click installs of common things people want (Kodi, Amazon Prime Video, etc.)
- start/stop sshd
- manage mounting/unmounting NFS/AFS/CIFS/etc. shares (is this even possible on Android?)
- restart the device
- configure most settings on the device, including some hidden stuff
- file management
So, what I can do:
- script the download/install/upgrade of stuff on already rooted box in bash
- write back-end web code in PHP, Python, or Go
- write HTML/CSS/JS for front-end
What I need help with:
- writing the Android TV app to trigger the install script
- some help understanding/bootstrapping the process (what's installed by default on Android? What's the minimum we can get away with? Do we need Python?)
- someone to design the app (honestly, this can wait until we've got a baseline functionality if we like)
Anyone interested in joining me?
I'm leaning towards Go for the web app, because the binary can (in theory) be deployed standalone, and can be its own web server, obviating the need for apache or nginx or whatever. Also, performance and memory utilization -- PHP and Python are fairly expensive to run, and this is a really minor background thing.
This would be open source on Github.

While I unfortunately don't have a machine to helpwith code, nor the time for the code, I thought I'd give you a dev/modders look on the possibility/dificulty of things. Please don't think that I am discredditing this idea, in fact, I like it. Just want to passibly help you consider dev order and dificulty oy each item as listed, and hopefully add my own as others may have interest.
- install/uninstall apps (file submission, URLs, etc.) <-- Would be pretty easy. Users should provide apks, or you'll need a site that stores a lot of them.
- 1-click installs of common things people want (Kodi, Amazon Prime Video, etc.) <-- Similar to last point. You'll have to have a mirror of updated apks, weather you or another host provides it. You'll probably need a web scraper if going to an external host.
- start/stop sshd <-- I suggest dropbear, even if it's not my cup of tea. It can be easily found in other apps and should find code in open source ones to get you started.
- manage mounting/unmounting NFS/AFS/CIFS/etc. shares (is this even possible on Android?) <-- can be done. Check Kodi or other open source apps for code, though there are usually caviats to each approach. Luckly Android has fuse in most kernels these days.
- restart the device <-- Very easy
- configure most settings on the device, including some hidden stuff <-- Gonna be a long process, but you can probably reverse engeneer the apks and parse the XML files for a shortcut.
- file management <-- Super easy. Use the ssh server, or adb connection.
Over all, I think a lot of this is possible. Luckly these machines have the beef for a web server, and several are ported last I checked, though they may be out of date. Even still, check their codebase for a massive head start as they are mostly required to keep open source by licence (Apache excluded, though some still are). I would also suggest these features as they would be somewhat easy to imprement once the base file management is started, and would broaden the scope to bring in more users, support and interest, and hopefully devs.
-Rom Manager for emulators.
Mass File Renamer based on Filebot (Both are java, so should not be TOO hard to port) as many buy this box for Kodi.
I'll think of more.
I'm not an app dev, though I do rom modding and sometimes porting, and I can offer insite to things, so if you have questions on specifics, please pm me. If I get some free time, and a dev machine, I'll let you know antd get things going in the right direction. May also want to, once this idea is flushed out, post something in a more general android TV/ App Development thread for cleanness and to get devs on board (don't post in dev till there is code to show on github though please.

Something like remix os would be nice, this x1 has a lots of power
Sent from my trltetmo using Tapatalk

This is a great idea. This device is in serious need of developer attention. Im not a dev at all but Ive gotten pretty familiar with this device and Android OS in general, especially after spending so much time digging around trying to make android things happen that apparently were not indended for Android TV. I will be more than happy to be a tester and keep up so as to offer any ideas and some of the ways Ive found to do stuff.

@kdb424 - Thanks for the info. I'm working on a prototype right now. First build is going to list a bunch of stuff from the setting status, and allow you to reboot the device. I'll post the Github repo when I have that.

Great ideas!
There is a tool sorta in development already that does a lot of this (I've mentioned it on the Shield Zone a couple of times)
https://sites.google.com/site/nvidiashieldtvutilityapp/home/
My main needs (personally) is a means to move files to and from and my current solution is a free FTP server that works even when the Shield TV is sleeping.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theolivetree.ftpserver
... works very well despite having to side load, has a terrible interface, etc. Set and forget. What's great is, I can use my file-manager-on-steroids Directory Opus to manage files since it is a standard FTP connection.

@darkuni - Yeah, I saw that, but I've got no Windows PC's in the house -- 2 Macs, a Chromebook, a Linux server, phones and tablets. I'm an old-school UNIX guy, and Windows doesn't strike my fancy. Plus, it seems like the sort of thing a web app is best for. No need for a fat client.

darkuni said:
Great ideas!
My main needs (personally) is a means to move files to and from and my current solution is a free FTP server that works even when the Shield TV is sleeping.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theolivetree.ftpserver
... works very well despite having to side load, has a terrible interface, etc. Set and forget. What's great is, I can use my file-manager-on-steroids Directory Opus to manage files since it is a standard FTP connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that I'll give it a go. I use ES file manager currently but it closes the server when you exit the app. Will also try this on a couple of FireTV Sticks I have dotted around the house as Kodi boxes :good:

Database Users

welcome