Database Users

Removing unwanted sense applications.

So i have rooted my HTC desire phone, now i wonder if is it posibble to remove any stock applications from it, without flashing someones rom.
Apps like, Flick, Footprints, Google Talk, Peep, Quickoffice, Stocks.
This are the apps i would like to remove, or atleast make them stop starting and restarting each time i kill them with some task manager.

Yes, it's possible.
You have to do all the steps of rooting till you'll reach "recovery" mode (just before wipe and flash).
than just run the debugger
Code:
./adb shell
withing the shell
Code:
mount /system
list your apps with:
Code:
ls /system/app
now you can delete app:
Code:
rm /system/app/FriendStream*
and so on
It's good idea to backup your apps on sdcard
Code:
mount /sdcard
mkdir /sdcard/backup
cp /system/app/* /sdcard/backup
after work is finished
Code:
umount /sdcard
umount /system
reboot and you're done
It's good idea to wipe data after removing apps to avoid some junk in app manager.

Wow! Thanks a lot for that!
I was trying adb commands with the phone in USB Disk Drive mode (debugging enabled) and I couldn't touch anything off the /system partition.
It never occurred to me to try in Recovery mode though

by saying it's a good idea to wipe data after removing some apps do you mean hard reset ??? or this just deletes the junk files?????
also do i need to flash the rooted update for this or just enter recovery mode ?

[Q] Google Books on GT 10.1 from Google I/O

I can't speak for all GT 10.1s, but the one I received at Google I/O certainly does not have Google Books installed and it's not available in the Market. It comes with Kindle pre-installed, so I'm guessing Samsung has inked a deal with Amazon, but uhh... what about choice? I have several books from both Amazon and Google and use both applications on my Xoom, but now I'm curious why I can't use Google Books on my new tablet. Do I need to try to get the Google Books APK off my Xoom or what? Anyone else found a solution, besides reading their purchases online?
EDIT: The attached file is what finally worked for me. Thanks to smaskell for the link.

Books works fine on the 10.1. Just grab it off another device. My guess is that the market may not know the 10.1 yet as it is not really released now aside from IO.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

I wasn't able to install the tablet version but I did manage to push it to /system/app/ and it works.
1. get root access
2. download busybox
3. adb push busybox /sdcard
4. adb push BooksTablet.apk /sdcard
5. adb shell
6. cd /sdcard
7. su
8. mount -o remount,rw /system
9. ./busybox cp busybox /system/bin - yes, I'm using busybox to copy itself
10. busybox cp /sdcard/BooksTablet/apk /system/app
and you're good to go!

I'm still struggling with this and I've tried installing (via adb, adb shell, and via Astro / app manager) both a BooksTablet.apk (with and without BooksTablet.odex) from a stock Xoom dump and with a copy from my Honeycomb 3.1 Xoom. Am I missing something? Installing always fails and simply putting the files in place does nothing as well (with a reboot). Anyone have any more ideas? I'm out at this point and it seems as if it should be so simple from what you guys are saying! Thanks for the help!

have you tried a deodexed version of the apk?

I have not and cannot seem to find these files anywhere and am not sure how to deodex the files I have. I tried the 1.2.7-dev version of baksmali with no luck. Any other thoughts or perhaps a link to the files you used that seemed to work? Thanks!

I used the one from this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1071047
works like a charm

Case closed
Perfect! Thanks for the link, one of the two files in that thread worked like a charm! In case anyone else is looking for it, I've attached the file that worked for me.

Each time I try installing the BooksTablet.apk file provided above, it fails on the device. When I try installing it via "adb install BooksTablet.apk" it constantly fails with the error "INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_NO_CERTIFICATES"
I took a look at the logcat output and it seems to be having an issue finding the "fallback_covers.png" file in the assets folder.
I tried renaming the apk to .zip and poking around and I was not able to find this file.
Anyone else having this issue when installing the Google Books app?
I searched around regarding the error message on installation and the solution is to uninstall the app and reinstall it. But because I don't have the app installed to begin with then this isn't an option.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

yeah, I had the same problem. The only way I got it to work was by pushing it to /system/app. see my earlier post for details.

Ok so I tried following the same steps however, I was having some odd problems. I installed Titanium backup since it automatically installs busybox or so I've been told. When I actually try copying however, the adb shell throws an error saying busybox isn't installed which is odd.
Because of this the cp command also isn't available. Instead I copied over the BooksTablet.apk file from the sdcard to the system/app folder by using the following command:
dd if=/sdcard/Download/BooksTablet.apk of=/system/app/BooksTablet.apk
This command executes successfully however, the google books app still isn't available to launch from the app drawer. I verified that the BooksTablet.apk is actually in the system/app folder however, I still cannot launch it. Any other suggestions? Or did I just completely miss something. Thanks again for the help.
All the best,
Nader

nadewad said:
Ok so I tried following the same steps however, I was having some odd problems. I installed Titanium backup since it automatically installs busybox or so I've been told. When I actually try copying however, the adb shell throws an error saying busybox isn't installed which is odd.
Because of this the cp command also isn't available. Instead I copied over the BooksTablet.apk file from the sdcard to the system/app folder by using the following command:
dd if=/sdcard/Download/BooksTablet.apk of=/system/app/BooksTablet.apk
This command executes successfully however, the google books app still isn't available to launch from the app drawer. I verified that the BooksTablet.apk is actually in the system/app folder however, I still cannot launch it. Any other suggestions? Or did I just completely miss something. Thanks again for the help.
All the best,
Nader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try navigating to the apk and launching it?

nadewad said:
Ok so I tried following the same steps however, I was having some odd problems. I installed Titanium backup since it automatically installs busybox or so I've been told. When I actually try copying however, the adb shell throws an error saying busybox isn't installed which is odd.
Because of this the cp command also isn't available. Instead I copied over the BooksTablet.apk file from the sdcard to the system/app folder by using the following command:
dd if=/sdcard/Download/BooksTablet.apk of=/system/app/BooksTablet.apk
This command executes successfully however, the google books app still isn't available to launch from the app drawer. I verified that the BooksTablet.apk is actually in the system/app folder however, I still cannot launch it. Any other suggestions? Or did I just completely miss something. Thanks again for the help.
All the best,
Nader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I did have BusyBox installed, I can only vouch for the last thing I did that wound up working since I'd tried so many different things before getting the right APK. So once I had the file in the first post (and of course a rooted GT 10.1), I opened a shell, mounted the /system directory for read/write, chmod'd the app directory to 777, pushed the APK into the /system/app folder and then chmod'd the directory back to 644 (IIRC?). So the steps would have been:
1. adb shell
2. su
(if you get a permission denied error, make sure you leave your screen on and accept the prompt by Superuser Permissions, I forgot this on the freshly rooted tablet the first time)
3. mount -o rw,remount /system
4. chmod 777 /system/app
(now either exit the shell or open a new command prompt)
5. adb push BooksTablet.apk /system/app/BooksTablet.apk
(now back in your su'd adb shell)
6. chmod 644 /system/app
(you'll probably want to note what permissions were there previously as I'm going from memory)
There was no need to launch the APK or issue an install command (it fails anyway), the Books app appeared right away in my app drawer but got a FC after only a moment of it being opened the first time. After a reboot, everything has been working just like on the Xoom!

Just rooted - unable to backup

Hi all,
Ive spent to weekend reading about rooting and ROMS/Kernels and decided to try it. I used a root kit found here from Mskip (great kit). Ive sucessfully rooted, and then sucessfully installed Smooth Rom 4.3 with the Motley kernel.
Ive downloaded Titanium Backup and Rom Manager. TB worked and I did a backup (which I now cant find) (i have ES File Explorer). I upgraded to Titanium Pro, and now when I open the app is states root was denied. I remember when I first opened TB SuperSu asked me to grant it access. After a reboot I opened SuperSu and stated a Binary update was necessary and performed it.
Now TB pro states root was denied, when I open SuperSu there is nothing there in the apps list, and I dont know how to manually grant TB root access.
Sorry if this is noobish, not sure what to do and I dont want to keep going without a backup.
Edit: When I try to backup in ROM Manager I hit backup, it brings up the notification to name the backup, I hit ok and nothing happens.

cam75 said:
After a reboot I opened SuperSu and stated a Binary update was necessary and performed it.
Now TB pro states root was denied, when I open SuperSu there is nothing there in the apps list, and I dont know how to manually grant TB root access.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sort of sounds like the SuperSU "su" update might have failed. Can you get root with other apps? (e.g. go in to a terminal emulator and type "su")
Note there is a chicken-and-egg problem if (either) SuperSU/su or Superuser/su fail: they need root themselves to remount /system so that the "su" binary can be updated.
If no apps can get root, then you sort of have "lost root", and the fix is to manually insert the .apk and su binary into /system/app and /system/bin/su (or /system/xbin/su depending on flavor!) either with a flash package in recovery, or manually via the adb shell command line (with custom recovery running).
HTH
PS you should be able to just manually start the recovery and do a backup in the meantime, no? The fact that ROM manager isn't doing anything could either be a lack-of-root problem or something else (a busybox dependency?)

bftb0 said:
That sort of sounds like the SuperSU "su" update might have failed. Can you get root with other apps? (e.g. go in to a terminal emulator and type "su")
Note there is a chicken-and-egg problem if (either) SuperSU/su or Superuser/su fail: they need root themselves to remount /system so that the "su" binary can be updated.
If no apps can get root, then you sort of have "lost root", and the fix is to manually insert the .apk and su binary into /system/app and /system/bin/su (or /system/xbin/su depending on flavor!) either with a flash package in recovery, or manually via the adb shell command line (with custom recovery running).
HTH
PS you should be able to just manually start the recovery and do a backup in the meantime, no? The fact that ROM manager isn't doing anything could either be a lack-of-root problem or something else (a busybox dependency?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thx for the quick response, however much of that is WAY over my head. I opened terminal emulator and typed su and this is what popped up. 1 [email protected]:/ $
When TB is opened it states error "sorry I could not acquire root privilegdes. this applidation will not work. please verify that your rom is rooted and try again. this attempt was made using the "/system/xbin/su" command.
I dont see busybox in my app drawer

cam75 said:
thx for the quick response, however much of that is WAY over my head. I opened terminal emulator and typed su and this is what popped up. 1 [email protected]droid:/ $
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the SuperSU app (and companion binary) were working correctly, you should have seen one of those "Accept / Deny" pop-up messages coming from the SuperSU app... assuming that you didn't previously grant root access to that terminal emulator app. You didn't mention that happening.... ?
Also, usually the command prompt usually changes from $ to # when you have root, but not always; the explicit way to check would be to (after you have tried the "su" command) to type in "id" and hit return at the prompt - that will tell you explicitly if you are root or not. (That's the letter "i" followed by the letter "d" followed by the return key).
From the way you describe this, it is sounding like you lost root.
I gotta go watch part of the game. In the meantime, perhaps you should at least create a backup manually.
As I said, the simplest fix-up would be to get Superuser.apk/su or SuperSU/su re-installed into /system/app and /system/{x}bin/su (it seems that chainsDD and chainfire use different locations).
There might be floating around someplace a flashable zip file with this stuff in it - to be used for "lightly rooting" a stock ROM after a custom recovery is in place. But things have been in flux recently with both the SuperSU (chainfire) and Superuser (chainsDD) kits because of the JellyBean multi-user support, so the version you might need is important. So you would have to do the research to figure out where.
gotta go - good luck.

bftb0 said:
If the SuperSU app (and companion binary) were working correctly, you should have seen one of those "Accept / Deny" pop-up messages coming from the SuperSU app... assuming that you didn't previously grant root access to that terminal emulator app. You didn't mention that happening.... ?
Also, usually the command prompt usually changes from $ to # when you have root, but not always; the explicit way to check would be to (after you have tried the "su" command) to type in "id" and hit return at the prompt - that will tell you explicitly if you are root or not. (That's the letter "i" followed by the letter "d" followed by the return key).
From the way you describe this, it is sounding like you lost root.
I gotta go watch part of the game. In the meantime, perhaps you should at least create a backup manually.
As I said, the simplest fix-up would be to get Superuser.apk/su or SuperSU/su re-installed into /system/app and /system/{x}bin/su (it seems that chainsDD and chainfire use different locations).
There might be floating around someplace a flashable zip file with this stuff in it - to be used for "lightly rooting" a stock ROM after a custom recovery is in place. But things have been in flux recently with both the SuperSU (chainfire) and Superuser (chainsDD) kits because of the JellyBean multi-user support, so the version you might need is important. So you would have to do the research to figure out where.
gotta go - good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again.
Im watching Superbowl as well. I didnt grant Terminal access. I rebooted into recovery and restored to right after I rooted. SuperSu auto updated through the play store, and stated the binary need updated. I canceled that. TB and ROM manager are showing up in SuperSu. So now Im rebooting into recovery again to after I installed the Smooth Rom/Motley Kernal. I did make a backup of where SuperSu lost root. I now have three backups.
Question on installing the SuperSu apk file. I want to be sure I do it right, if needed. Download the file on my 7. it will go to my download folder. Move it to the system folder and open/run it? what do i do with the current SuperSu folder?
thanks again

I went to my restore point after root and reinstalled 4.3 Smooth ROM Mkernel. I did not take the SuperSu update, (ill wait for the next update) and everything is fine TB an ROM manager working fine, did a backup in both.
Thanks for your help on this.

cam75 said:
Question on installing the SuperSu apk file. I want to be sure I do it right, if needed. Download the file on my 7. it will go to my download folder. Move it to the system folder and open/run it? what do i do with the current SuperSu folder?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dealing with .apk's is not that difficult - drop them into the correct place and reboot.
In Android, apps (.apk files) are stored in one of two places: /system/app or /data/app. It is even possible for two versions of an app to be on the phone - one in /system/app and one in /data/app; that is how upgrades of factory-installed apps happen: the pre-installed app is in /system/app... and never gets deleted (read-only filesystem), whereas update versions get dropped into /data/app. Generally you can just drop an .apk file into either of these locations, wipe the dalvik cache and reboot. During the android boot, these files are compiled into .dex objects in the dalvik-cache, and various version, consistency, rights and permissions are cross-checked.
Think of it this way: when you boot a new ROM for the first time, /data starts out completely empty. Everything needed to support each pre-installed app in /system/app gets created automatically during the android layer start-up.
The "su" native binary is a bit more complicated - it needs to be:
- owned by the user.group root.root
- be executable
- be setuid/setgid
Imagine that you had a copy of these two files on your "/sdcard". If you booted into the custom recovery, you could affect these changes like this:
C:\foo> adb shell
# mount # show what is already mounted
# mount /sdcard # if needed
# mount /system # if needed
# mv /system/app/SuperSU.apk /system/app/SuperSU.apk.old
# cp /sdcard/SuperSU.apk /system/app/SuperSU.apk
# mv /system/xbin/su /system/xbin/su.old
# cp /sdcard/su /system/xbin/su
# chown root.root /system/xbin/su
# chmod 6755 /system/xbin/su
# cd /
# umount /system
# exit
C:\foo>
*
As a practical matter, it is probably easier to just make sure to make a fresh backup if you are about to update the su binary - in case anything goes wrong. It might also be useful to use a root-aware file manager to remount the /system partition in rw mode prior to doing the "update su binary" procedure in the SuperSU app.
Good luck
* note that SuperSU and Superuser apps choose different locations for the su executable file - one uses /system/bin/su and the other /system/xbin/su. There might also be a symlink between these locations. Best policy is probably to examine a known-working installation to determine how to proceed.

[q] urgent help is needed, too many pattern attempts

Hi, i need a fix for this and fast !!! I've tried all that is listed on xda about this issue, but to no avail. Anyway, i forgot my pattern and went to the forgot pattern menu. My wifi was off, so i figured it would give a prompt of some kind to turn on the wifi and then log on to my google account. But nooooo, google supposes that everyone's wifi is on all the time. Please help, what do i do ? I rebooted to recovery, i made a nandroid and currently i am adb pulling the twrp folder from my N7. I would have just factory reseted it, no probs, but i remembered i have some EXTREMELY important works in colornote that i can't afford to lose. Please help, what do i do ?????

Looks like you answered your own question. Unless your Android isn't encrypted, just boot into TWRP and backup your data using adb:
adb pull /data/data C:\backup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The main thing you will have to concern about is restoring those data and make it readable by the app. There are several ways, but you can either:
adb push C:\backup\colornotes /data/data/colornotes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't forget some devices you need to give it write permission first: adb remount rw, though should not be needed with TWRP. Or just copy the folder back using a rooted file manager.
Then go into adb shell and fix permission of the files so the app can get access to them:
adb shell
su - (again shouldn't be needed wile in TWRP)
chmod -R 644 /data/data/colornotes (or 777 for full access)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tips while in adb shell:
Check permissions of files by typing: ls -la
Check what partition is mounted and whether you have write privilege to it by typing: cat /etc/fstab
Also, if you use a custom rom like CyanogenMod or AOKP, there is an option to enable all widgets on the lockscreen. Just put the Power Control widget on the lockscreen, then you can toggle WiFi on and off. (Can't remember if this is also possible with stock.)
Have fun.

OR have a look here.
Looks like either of the two methods suggested would be feasible with only a recovery running, but the 2nd one is easiest (as a custom recovery wouldn't necessarily provide a statically-linked sqlite3 utility).
if it works it doesn't require any wiping.
BTW guess how I found this.... wait for it .... wait for it.... wait for it.... I used google search.

Hi, i forgot to mention that i made the twrp backup while i was locked out and whenever i try to restore from the backup after a factory reset, it goes back to square one... And when i did a full wipe and hoped to use titanium backup to extract stuff from the nandroid, it just gives me and empty list, but the backup is there, all 5gb of it

iAndroidOS said:
Hi, i forgot to mention that i made the twrp backup while i was locked out and whenever i try to restore from the backup after a factory reset, it goes back to square one...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that is to be expected, is it not? You are restoring exactly what is already there - effectively a no-op.
OK, I just booted into TWRP (2.4.1.0) and confirmed that the (equivalent of the) following disabled my pattern lock on the next boot:
cd /data/system
mkdir foo
mv locksettings.* foo
mv gesture.key foo
I did all of the above (the 'cd' command is implicit) using TWRPs touch interface - didn't even need adb.
ymmv as I am using jdq39/4.2.2 and my tablet was not in a "locked-out" state, but its an easy thing to try.

Screen Dead - Need to disable alarm

Hi. My screen is dead on my phone. I need to somehow disable the alarm.
I cannot seem to find where the alarm data is stored.
I then tried to delete the apk.
I got an ADB by booting into TWRP. Then used ADB SHELL. I attempted to cd into System/App as follows
cd system/app
/sbin/sh: cd: can't cd to system/app
I figured I had a root permission error, so I tried "su" but it couldn't find the command which is odd because I have SuperSu.
I can't navigate the TWRP menus due to my broken screen and don't know what to do.

Ratiocination said:
Hi. My screen is dead on my phone. I need to somehow disable the alarm.
I cannot seem to find where the alarm data is stored.
I then tried to delete the apk.
I got an ADB by booting into TWRP. Then used ADB SHELL. I attempted to cd into System/App as follows
cd system/app
/sbin/sh: cd: can't cd to system/app
I figured I had a root permission error, so I tried "su" but it couldn't find the command which is odd because I have SuperSu.
I can't navigate the TWRP menus due to my broken screen and don't know what to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can wipe data.... and to do so you can use a openrecovery script
make a file named openrecoveryscript and push it in /cache/recovery/
in the file put the folowing command
wipe data
and then reboot into recovery and it will execute by itself.
by wiping data the phone will reset to factory/rom defaults. you will loose installed data. everything on "sdcard" will stay in place

darkobas said:
you can wipe data.... and to do so you can use a openrecovery script
make a file named openrecoveryscript and push it in /cache/recovery/
in the file put the folowing command
wipe data
and then reboot into recovery and it will execute by itself.
by wiping data the phone will reset to factory/rom defaults. you will loose installed data. everything on "sdcard" will stay in place
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I considered wiping it, but wanted to avoid that so I can determine who attempts to call/text me before I can get a replacement.

darkobas said:
you can wipe data.... and to do so you can use a openrecovery script
make a file named openrecoveryscript and push it in /cache/recovery/
in the file put the folowing command
wipe data
and then reboot into recovery and it will execute by itself.
by wiping data the phone will reset to factory/rom defaults. you will loose installed data. everything on "sdcard" will stay in place
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get an mhl cable and plug it in to a tv or monitor. It mirrors the display so you can navigate it as usual, unless the digitizer AND the panel are both dead...
Sent from my LG-D803 using xda premium

dirt_squirrel said:
Get an mhl cable and plug it in to a tv or monitor. It mirrors the display so you can navigate it as usual, unless the digitizer AND the panel are both dead...
Sent from my LG-D803 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should have clarified. The display works as in it can display an image. It just does not recognize my touch other than in a very small area.

If you have root access with adb...
Run adb root
Then adb shell
Cd to /system/media/alarms and delete all the sounds.
Or search for clock in /data/data
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk