Database Users

Best Method to Install APK?

hey guys, was googling this question and i came across three ways. I was wondering if the simplest method achieved the same result as the hardest method with no issues. The first method was through android market, second was something about downloading the sdk, than command prompting etc etc, and the last method (which i prefer) was just moving the apk file over and clicking on it (this is the method i prefer).
are there any drawbacks to each one or are they all the same? not sure why theres the command prompt one if you could just move it over and click it...

boogieboogie said:
hey guys, was googling this question and i came across three ways. I was wondering if the simplest method achieved the same result as the hardest method with no issues. The first method was through android market, second was something about downloading the sdk, than command prompting etc etc, and the last method (which i prefer) was just moving the apk file over and clicking on it (this is the method i prefer).
are there any drawbacks to each one or are they all the same? not sure why theres the command prompt one if you could just move it over and click it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
first of all:
"downloading the sdk, than command prompting etc etc", that is what we call an "adb push" into the phone, now for the drawbacks:
1. through market download and install, you need a steady connection while the apk is downloaded, interrupted connection means failing installs
2. adb push needs a little more knowledge on commands, and if you don't know any, you might just mess up stuff, or even not installing apps when you think you installed it
3. moving apk file is the easiest, but if the SD gets corrputed or a bad transfer, then you will be installing corrupted apps that will not work
well ,thats the drawbacks of the 3

noobandroid said:
first of all:
"downloading the sdk, than command prompting etc etc", that is what we call an "adb push" into the phone, now for the drawbacks:
1. through market download and install, you need a steady connection while the apk is downloaded, interrupted connection means failing installs
2. adb push needs a little more knowledge on commands, and if you don't know any, you might just mess up stuff, or even not installing apps when you think you installed it
3. moving apk file is the easiest, but if the SD gets corrputed or a bad transfer, then you will be installing corrupted apps that will not work
well ,thats the drawbacks of the 3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the reply
for the third one, if the SD gets corrupted than a restore would fix the cd card correct? and if i do somehow install a corrupted app, just uninstalling it would solve it right?
but than, why do all the videos on youtube tell me that i should download appinstaller from the market to install apk files when apk's can be installed just by selecting them?

Droid Exlorer > Batch Install

would it can help?
open2go make it easy to download link on your phone.
1) access open2go.com on your phone and create shortcut on homescreen
2) type open2go.com/APK_URL on addressbar of desktop broswer.
input 4 digits on the phone.
download. install. done.
example:
open2go.com/angrybird_apk/ht tp://download.getjar.com/downloads/web/adp/107604/AngryBirds_1.4.2.apk
(remove space ht^tp )

boogieboogie said:
thanks for the reply
for the third one, if the SD gets corrupted than a restore would fix the cd card correct? and if i do somehow install a corrupted app, just uninstalling it would solve it right?
but than, why do all the videos on youtube tell me that i should download appinstaller from the market to install apk files when apk's can be installed just by selecting them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if the app corruption appears (not the SD card), the app will keep on FC or making your phone look stupid, and yeah uninstalling it may help, but if it fails, you will have to manually remove it, and that I am not sure bout how cause it never happens to me. Next bout the SD corrupt, no, restoring will not help since it is the SD's partition in problem, you will have to do some formatting
using appinstallers have a advantage of keeping record of your activity(depending on the app you use), or even do batch installations, which is faster than average one-by-one installs. Imagine downloading something to your pc via internet, would you use a download manager of some sort, or just use browser's download manager?

[FIX] SPB Mobile Shell Force Closing on Startup

My fiance has been using SPB Mobile Shell on her HD2 running AmeriCanAndroid (SD card). SPB crashed and we had to reset her phone. When it started up, nothing was accessible because SPB kept force closing (i.e., the launcher was inaccessible so we could not access anything on her phone). So I simply used adb:
adb uninstall com.spb.shell3d
Immediately the default home launcher loaded and everything was fine.

I'm having this problem. Can you explain to a n00b like me on how to do this fix? What is adb?
Thanks!

OK, so I've googled, downloaded and installed Android SDK Manager. A black box comes up, but I can't type your command in it. Is there a trick I'm missing?

wordnerd said:
OK, so I've googled, downloaded and installed Android SDK Manager. A black box comes up, but I can't type your command in it. Is there a trick I'm missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I missed your reply. Were you able to get it working?

[Q] I need help with Ice cream Sandwich loop

I updated my new kindle fire, then rootet it successfully.
After that i installed the Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 and made it the default launcher.
But this failed, when i now start the kindle fire i get caught into the loop of this error:
! Sorry
The application Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 (process androd.process.acore) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again. [Button: force close]
Which i can press, and then the loop starts again.
I am a noob, so please how do i get rid of this launcher ? I could need a reset or factory default or whatever, but the normal ways dont work, because i cant reach them anymore. Any Ideas how to fix this ?
/edit: I have access to my device with adb shell. so i think i can somehow change the default launcher, if someone tells me which file to change because i have no idea which is the right.

You need to figure out what the package name is "adb shell pm list packages" without quotes. Once you figure out what the package name is you can "adb uninstall name.of.package"

Hard reset it with power button.
Guide - How to hard reset Kindle Fire?

Fyi.....I just tried the hold power for 20 seconds hard reset, and it doesn't work......
Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk

I've had this problem with a different launcher and posted my solution here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1361138
... don't worry... you can fix it... all you need to do is install another launcher or uninstall the ICS launcher... and you may be wondering how you can do that if you can't get to a usable screen.
You can still install/uninstall apps using the adb service you used while rooting. FoxDog66 mentioned how to do this if you know the package name. In my case, I could not find out the package name of the offending package, so what I did was install another launcher via the same method I installed my google apps to the sys/apps folder. with another launcher installed, I get a choice again which launcher should run when turning on.
I suggest you try foxdog's suggestion first, but if you can not find the package name then get another launcher.apk install file like GOlauncher or ADW Launcher and push or install that app the way you see google apps being pushed via the following method:
Download GOlauncher http://61.145.124.93/soft/3GHeart/golauncher/v2.68/go_launcher_ex_v2.68.apk
now make it a system app:
adb remount
adb push c:\androidApps\go_launcher_ex_v2.68.apk /system/app/go_launcher_ex_v2.68.apk
adb reboot
After reboot you should be able to choose your launcher of choice. Don't make anything default until you know you like it!!!
Now that GO Launcher just installed via my method makes it a system app. You can't uninstall system apps in the normal way, so use a program like Titanium Backup to make that pushed launcher app a NON-system app (moves it and makes it easy to uninstall the way other apps do). Titanium Backup is just a great program to have if rooted.
Good Luck.

how to uninstall buggy launcher which is set to default
Thanks for helping me.
Yes thats exactly my problem and i am now trying to follow your instructions.
The hardware reset works, but it will not get rid of the launcher.
So i try to find out the right application name to uninstall it. But *blush* i have not idea which is the right name and i dont want to uninstall something randomly.
I have some very basic skills with linux which i uses 10 years ago or so, so i am able to make a list which i attached here.
OK, i am now trying to do this:
adb remount
adb push c:\androidApps\go_launcher_ex_v2.68.apk /system/app/go_launcher_ex_v2.68.apk
adb reboot
but "adb remount" gives me back a
remount failed: Operation not permitted
I need to look closer how to install and uninstall packages now.
/edit: what i can do is:
adb shell
$
su
#
so this looks like to me that i am superuser. I also see the file system, and i can do some stuff with this shell, but its very limited because this shell is different from the shells i knew long time ago.
/edit:
ok, found something:
i am in the file system in
/data/app
here i have 3 apk:
net.adisasta.androxplorer-1.apk
mobi.SyndicateApps.ICSv2-1.apk
mobi.SyndicateApps.ICS-1.apk
and i think this is the package i installed.
/last edit:
OK folks. SUCCESS..
I just did adb uninstall mobi.SyndicateApps.ICSv2 and i immidiatly got success and got rid of the fail launcher.
VERY NICE and a warm THANK YOU for helping me.
I think i will try more now -- hehe.
Just tasted some blood now. Probably i will be soon here with the next problem. But i really appriciate your help. Hopefull soon i will be more into it and be able to help other noobs, too.
Also if someone needs german help because of language barrier, i can help translating.
Best Regards
Usurpine

Glad you got it fixed
A few tips.... adb remount just remount's the system partition read-write which isn't needed unless the app is installed to /system/app (it also does not work. It does work with doomlord's kernel, i think because of the insecure ramdisk)
The "./" part of your command just means to run in the current directory, if you have fastboot or adb in path then you don't need that part and you can also run the commands from any directory. if you don't have them in path then you would need to have what you wanted to flash, boot, whatever in the same directory as fastboot/adb. To check if something is in path (let's say fastboot) you can type "which fastboot" and it will either tell you where it is (something like ~/Android-sdk/platform-tools/fastboot) or it will say, couldn't find fastboot and it will list out a bunch of directories.
One last thing, you can chain commands together with "&&" so say i want to "fastboot boot newboot.img" i would plug my kindle in, press the disconnect button that pops up on the kindle then type in terminal "adb reboot && fastboot boot newboot.img" if/when the first command runs successfully then it will run the second command. If it does not run successful, it won't run the second command. Also, for me, adb reboot takes a few seconds to work and fastboot waits for the device for a few seconds also.
Hope this is useful, I'm not always good at explaining things. I'm also not a Linux pro lol these are just a few things i have learned that are pretty useful

Well, this is useful. Basically you are talking about how to work with linux. Once i understood that inside my kindle there is just a typical linux i can take one of my old linux books and use any command (like the && and other stuff).
I am not a pro with linux (forgot almost everything) but now i know how to look after it and be able (limited) to use it after some testing.
That said, i now was able to do a lot of funny stuff with my kindle, i installed tons of applications just to look how it works (and it works great) and uninstalled them after that.
Now i can watch movies, listen music, play games and can do almost everything what you normally cannot do with a kindle due to amazons restrictions.
What i want to know is how i can extend the linux inside my kindle so it is using a shell which can do even more stuff, like a ksh (korn shell) or something. A shell with commands like i can find in a "normal" linux installation. Is that possible ?
And how about installing a more linux like grafical userinterface ? Or use the kindle as a normal linux pc, just for fun ?

Ummm..... Have you looked at busybox? It is possible to port command line tools to Android. I've seen things like cURL and lynx that worked. Porting and compiling is a little out of my league (wish it wasn't lol, I'd like a updated cURL binary with https support) i know bash scripts work, I've written a few and "run-parts" (part of busybox) will run a directory of scripts.
You should get into (or look into) custom Android development and/or kernel development. There is a lot that can be done

Help, im a real newbie
usurpine said:
I updated my new kindle fire, then rootet it successfully.
After that i installed the Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 and made it the default launcher.
But this failed, when i now start the kindle fire i get caught into the loop of this error:
! Sorry
The application Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 (process androd.process.acore) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again. [Button: force close]
Which i can press, and then the loop starts again.
I am a noob, so please how do i get rid of this launcher ? I could need a reset or factory default or whatever, but the normal ways dont work, because i cant reach them anymore. Any Ideas how to fix this ?
/edit: I have access to my device with adb shell. so i think i can somehow change the default launcher, if someone tells me which file to change because i have no idea which is the right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please help me, I really have no experience and I followed a link that made it look very easy to install the ICS Launcher. Now I keep getting that same page and it's driving me up the wall.
I have tried the adb so I can uninstall the faulty apk myself but my mac wont detect it even though it still mounts.
Iv done the adb devices but the list is empty.
Please help me in a very easy way to understand.

1 Spotify installation for 2 users - how?

Hi,
I have very silly problem.
I would like to have my Spotify installation available to bot users of Windows 8 Pro.
I have installed some games (desktop mode), Office, etc.. and all of them are available for both accounts existing in the system.
Not Spotify though.
What should I do? My disk space is limited - I do not see any point for installing this software twice - I can always re-log in the program itself.
Help, please

Is it a desktop app or a "Metro" app? If it's the latter, the same installation will be used for both, you just have to "buy" it on the other account. If it's a desktop app, usually you just need to make sure "Install for all users" is selected during setup.

It is a desktop app and it does not have such an option - it does not ask during installation
But other apps I have - Office 2010, Office 2013 Preview, F1 2011 also did not asked me if I want them just form me or all users of PC.
Problem is this one installs under: C:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\spotify.exe (and I do not have an option to install it in different place )
Is there any thing I can do about it?

Hmm... interesting. Can you run the installer as Admin? Installing into the user folder like that is usually something done to avoid requiring Admin permissions.
Otherwise, if the installer is not cooperating and you're seriously concerned about the space it uses, do the following:
1. Install it for both users, normally.
2. Create a location on the filesystem that both users can access. I recommend against using a folder under Program Files as that is usually write-restricted and the app may expect to be able to write to itself; ProgramData may be better.
3. Move the binaries (presumably you don't want the data files, just the binaries... or at least, only also move those data files which are same between installs) from one install folder to the new location.
4. Use symlinks (the mklink command in CMD, you may need to be running as Admin) to link the binaries back into the original install folder. You can use either symbolic links or hard links, actually; hard links may have trivially better performance. Neither one will consume a meaningful amount of disk space.
5. Verify that the first install (with the moved-and-linked binaries/data files) still works, then exit it.
6. Delete the relevant files from the second install, then create the links there too.
Congrats, you've done how much work to save yourself a few megs of space?

Your guide will be useful for future - thanks.
Spotify is small enough that I can install it twice

[Q] Start XBMC at boot?

I am wondering if the way I start XBMC is the right way of doing it ..
The script that I use are here:
https:// bitbucket.org/wojciii/nexusq-modscript/src/fcb5d3cc4efc/xbmc_autostart?at=master
I just wanted to avoid to have to add an android service to init.rc (I assume). So I added a script which waits for
sys.boot_completed to become 1. I think that this is the same as receiving the broadcast "boot_complete" from an android app.
How are you autostarting xbmc? I did not want to install any additional apks. I have no mouse/keyboard for my nexus-q and thus use adb shell only ..

Its easy to install an app for that. I use Startup Manager (Free) from the play store for launching Spotify on my Q's