tl;dr -- How do I restore my original FireTabletSettings.apk to /system/priv-app/FireTabletSettings without adb? --or-- How do I enable adb without the settings panel?
Hi all. I'm reaching out to the amazing braintrust here on xda-d in hopes that maybe someone has some guidance. My most recent adventure has been de-amazon-ing my kids new HD10. And for the most part, I have been quite successful thanks to the wealth of knowledge here in this forum. I've managed to get it rooted, de-bloated, replaced the launcher, and even re-enabled a critical feature not found in the Amazon version of Android (screen pinning, essential for 2 year olds!).
But..... (there's always a 'but'..)..... but.. I have discovered I have somehow managed to lock myself out of adb on this particular device. I did search the forum first, finding nothing helpful for this. In order to get screen-pinning back I rolled the dice and used DragonFire1024's rewritten FireTabletSettings.apk, against the recommendation to avoid it with OS versions after 5.6.2.0 (I'm unfortunately running 5.3.7). I accept full responsibility, it was my gamble. The result is screenpinning resurrected (yay!), but also my settings panel is a mine field of broken links. Apparently much has changed in the settings after 5.6.2. Including how they refer to adb. So tapping on the enable box for USB debugging (here called 'enable adb') crashes the settings panel.
The situation is far from hopeless though, because I am rooted, and I had backed up the original FireTabletSettings.apk to the downloads folder on the tablet. However, when I try to copy it to the /system/priv-app/FireTabletSettings folder, CX tells me it's read-only and can't copy it over. I have it in root mode, and even tried enabling adbd insecure for good measure. But no joy. I do not currently have a recovery (twrp or other) installed.
So I need guidance on how to either enable write permissions (temporarily) on the settings folder or on how to install a recovery, all without adb. Or if there's some backdoor way to enable adb, that would work too.
Thanks for any advice.
UPDATE: Hey friends, I just wanted to update this thread with my progress (albeit negative progress, unfortunately). It seems my gamble with this ill-advised mod has failed pretty hard. I'm updating as a cautionary tale to others considering modding their settings file outside the recommended OS versions. I can say pretty confidently: DON'T DO IT.
EDIT: After initially getting stuck after a hard reset, I was able to manually flash an Amazon rom using adb sideload. This did the trick. It is now full factory stock, including the settings panel. I have to do everything over again (except messing with the settings panel), but I have control of my tablet again. The moral of the story is, unless your os version is supported, don't mess with the settings panel. It will rob hours of your life you'll never get back.
Related
Hey guys. I hate making my first post a really noobie question but here it goes.
I just updated my rooted Xperia Play to 2.3.3 and it erased and/or re-wrote all of my system apps. I stupidly converted some of my downloaded apps into system apps using Titanium (because system apps turn red on the list. It helped me quickly figure out what was external and what was internal. Stupid, yes, and more trouble then it was actually worth.) so those apps were lost. Didn't matter, I had backups but I lost my root so I couldn't access them.
Forgetting what I used to root my phone originally I decided to use z4root after reading about it somewhere. The site I got it from is usually trust worthy but when I downloaded the file my OfficeScan (its a school bought computer) warned me of a potential virus threat. I wrote it off as just the pop-up ad and un-zipped and transferred the file to my phone. I still am not sure if it was a virus or not... Running z4root it got up to "acquiring shell root..." or something like that before kicking me back to the home screen with no change. I, again, stupidly, re-ran it several times without rebooting between each attempt. Giving up I then realized to reboot. Strangely rebooting was A LOT faster then it was usually is and I don't know if that was z4 or 2.3.3.
Anyway I remembered that I used Gingerbreak last time and re-installed that. I made several attempts with that with no change either. Too many to count, but at least more than 8. Several attempts I got a call or a text and, checking them, ended the process. 2 attempts I left running for about half an hour (I know that the instructions say it will never take more then 10 minutes) and some I ended with a battery pull after more then 10mins(as per instruction).
So I guess I have several questions:
1. How bad did I f* up, If I did so?
2. Any suggestions on how to re-root/fix it?
3. Will switching to an empty SD card, successfully rooting it, and switching back to the full card still keep the root?
4. Does an in phone factory reset work the same as flashing the same rom or will I need to actually flash that new rom?
5. If I do need to flash, where can I find a regular Play rom? Or do you have suggestions about a better rom?
6. Is the fast reboot the work of the half done, possibly a virus, z4root process or just the 2.3.3 update?
7.Lastly Was this tl and you ;dr?
Normally, I wouldn't care if there was no fix; My phone boots much faster, I didn't lose all my apps and only some apps launch a little slower then before. But I made tons of progress on Zenonia 2 and I want my back ups for that... lol.
Any help appreciated. Also thanks for putting up with a noob that's writing way to formally
1. Messing with the system apps, and not backing them up probably caused you to not have an OTA update. I'm guessing you flashed it? Not restoring anything and not doing an OTA was mistake number one. Trying to use z4root was mistake number 2.
2. Get the generic UK firmware from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1097591
-Flash that with Bin4ry and Androxhyde's flashtool
-Put in your carrier's APN settings, configure your google account, wifi etc. etc.
-Get Gingerbreak 1.2, run it(I used Astro to open the apk, and you need uunknown sources enabled).
Gingerbreak only worked for me when I formatted an SD card right before running it. I used a spare that was lying around, not the usual one with all my data, and I suggest you do the same if you kept your titanium backups. Hopefully you'll get rooted after about 3-5 minutes. Do not mess with any apps/bloatware after you have the root.
-After you have root, go into the settings menu and start an OTA update.
You should now have 2.3.3 WITH root.
-Once the phone is updated, install Titanium Backup and start backing up your old apps from before you messed up the phone and lost root.
-At this point feel free to remove the bloatware, but make sure you back it up in titanium for later.
3. Switching SD cards won't affect root at all.
4. A factory reset will reset whatever ROM was installed last. In other words, you can't revert back to 2.3.2 with a reset, it'll just reset 2.3.3 - It's really just for wiping data and settings.
5.The regular play ROM is the UK generic I posted above. The only "better" roms are customs that you need an unlocked bootloader to install. Currently they're still buggy and in development and not worth getting unless you like incomplete ROMs with bugs, and wanna lose the ability to update normally. Both OTA updates and the Sony Ericsson Update Service will brick your phone once the bootloader's unlocked.
6. My phone was booting a bit faster after updating to 2.3.3, and became even faster after removing some bloatware.
-Root doesn't speed up the boot process.
-I highly doubt an Android phone would have a virus that makes it boot faster, it's probably just from the update.
7. No, it wasn't. No, I didn't.
Thanks for the (semi-)quick response. Been browsing around the web with this tab open, constantly refreshing like a creep. I'll try your advice soon but its like 3am, just wanted to say thanks and love your Stocking pic.
Btw is there a difference between A US, UK or CAN rom or do those even exist?
The only real differences are carrier specific apps, and some versions have different games installed.
Sent from my R800
Seems like I was to late to flash and the link to the rom you gave me may have been updated to 2.3.3 as well. I was looking for a Canada/Rodgers rom anyway but the forum search isn't turning up anything and google seems to hate me...
Help anyone?
The link was for 2.3.2 in the generic.
The only rogers rom available is for 2.3.3 so you won't be getting root without an unlocked bootloader with that one.
Just follow the directions and it should be fine.
The rogers apps are available in the android market separately.
Sent from my R800
So i have a Nook Simple Touch I was using about 9 months ago, which fell to disuse for a bit for a variety of reasons. It's running 1.1.0, and is rooted.
I dusted it off to recently give it some more use again, and wanted to update some of the apps, but discovered that the Market doesn't seem to work anymore - I know it used to, but now, whenever I try to download anything, I get a dialog: "Download Errror: Download was unsuccessful, please try again." I've waited an extra day, as I remember that was originally necessary to complete the registration process, but still nothing. Searching (with Market Search) works, even for things I haven't looked up before, and it still recognizes my account, as I see my email, though I noticed that the Nook Touch doesn't get listed in the Google Play Store under devices.
Any ideas what might be going wrong here, or things to try? I'm also willing to upgrade to a newer firmware (1.2.1), but am not sure of the best method to update a rooted device. I can pull it into a separate post, but I'll include it here for now:
I'm sure I'l have to root again, but Is it possible to upgrade the rooted device and then simply re-root, or will I lose everything I've installed? Is it just better to wipe, update and re-root? If so, is there any convenient way to keep all of my settings?
Thanks!
mrgygar said:
So i have a Nook Simple Touch I was using about 9 months ago, which fell to disuse for a bit for a variety of reasons. It's running 1.1.0, and is rooted.
I dusted it off to recently give it some more use again, and wanted to update some of the apps, but discovered that the Market doesn't seem to work anymore - I know it used to, but now, whenever I try to download anything, I get a dialog: "Download Errror: Download was unsuccessful, please try again." I've waited an extra day, as I remember that was originally necessary to complete the registration process, but still nothing. Searching (with Market Search) works, even for things I haven't looked up before, and it still recognizes my account, as I see my email, though I noticed that the Nook Touch doesn't get listed in the Google Play Store under devices.
Any ideas what might be going wrong here, or things to try? I'm also willing to upgrade to a newer firmware (1.2.1), but am not sure of the best method to update a rooted device. I can pull it into a separate post, but I'll include it here for now:
I'm sure I'l have to root again, but Is it possible to upgrade the rooted device and then simply re-root, or will I lose everything I've installed? Is it just better to wipe, update and re-root? If so, is there any convenient way to keep all of my settings?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sad, no one wants to reply. Or perhaps no one knows.
Did a backup, and experimented. I couldn't update directly, so I wiped back to a stock ROM, and upgraded to 1.2.1. Rooted with ManualNooter, and the market worked. So I have no idea what was going on, but it works now. Sadly, a computer accident made me lose my backups (including unrooted images). But at least I've got something functional.
I am currently in the same boat with my NST (BNRV300) running rooted 1.1.2. I last installed and/or updated some Market apps successfully perhaps about a year ago, and have not made any other change to the Nook, so I am at a lost as to what might be the cause. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
For now, my workaround this problem is to download the desired app's apk file from an alternate source (e.g., APKPure) then side-load it onto the NST.
My guess would be that somehow your authtication with Google has been lost on the device.
If you go to the PlayStore on a computer do you see your NST listed as a device, and if so, when you select an app that way does it eventually appear on your NST?
Sent from my NST
nmyshkin said:
My guess would be that somehow your authtication with Google has been lost on the device.
If you go to the PlayStore on a computer do you see your NST listed as a device, and if so, when you select an app that way does it eventually appear on your NST?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are right -- my NST credential with the Playstore must have expired or more likely become invalid when I changed my password on my Gmail account.
If so I can't figure out how to re-validate the credential: I recall entering my Google login/password via the YouTube app during the course of rooting my NST using the MinimalTouch tool's 2-phase process, but now I can't even get the YouTube app to start (error message: ... problem starting up, please check your network connection and system time).
Look here
I responded to a related issue awhile back. Not sure if the info at the link might kick-start the signing in process.
Thanks for the pointer.
I decided to go the route of "factory reset, upgrade to 1.2.1 and re-root using Nook Manager", as simply re-rooting 1.1.2 using the old tool (Minimal Touch) is tedious & somewhat error-prone -- plus I'd like to try out 1.2.1.
That was what I would usually suggest but the farther I have gotten from that "day 1", the less likely I am to take/offer the same advice. I've made so many modifications at this point I don't think I'd ever get it back to its present state! Back up early and often...and, apparently, access the Market every so often, even if you don't want anything.
Good luck!
So I was (and I hope still am) happily rooted with touchnooter. Mostly I'm using my nook to read pdfs with ebooka pdf for grad school.
I had the thing plugged into my comp for a bit to download the week's assignments and I noticed once or twice the thing disconnected and reconnected itself without warning. No biggie. I finish the downloads, do a few other things eject the device and unplug the USB cord.
Since then, strange things have been happening. Symptoms I've noticed so far:
1. n button no longer emulates the home button but has reverted to the old bottom menu that comes with factory setting nooks (home/library/etc)
2. While investigating this, I noticed that the shortcut to NookColor Tools is now a dead link. Has the android box icon and doesn't do anything when you click it
3. Search market lets you enter in text, but when you hit search... nothing happens. Market seems to have vanished from my app drawer. In fact several have but I can't identify them.
4.The music app, which I thought I uninstalled, has reappeared in my app drawer
5. Multitouch zoom no longer works in eBooka PDF reader. Don't have any other apps to test multitouch with, but this one's kinda critical and was what led me to finally posting on here.
Up to this point I'd never had any of these problems. NoRefresh was always a bit funky, often turning itself off for no apparenet reason, and sometimes not being able to start up at all. But that was it. Now I feel like my nook might be losing it. Any idea what's going on or how to fix it?
Now I've noticed that Nook Touch Tools, while still installed, has lost root permissions. Also when I try to hit the B&N buttons thing, I get an error saying "No patched android.policy.jar found"
SU still installed, I'm going to try to futz with it and restore root permissions manually. Still clueless and worried.
EDIT I've been poking around more and found the following:
-BusyBox Installer, when run gives the error "The su binary was not found on your phone. This application will not work without root.
-#superuser runs fine and lists nook touch tools, button savior, norefresh, usbhostmode and ES file explorer as all being allowed to have root access. Don't see an obvious way to add more apps to that list (or why nook touch tools thinks it doesn't have access).
-Super Manager does not run
-youtube app doesn't run. Not like I use it, but given market disappearing it seems ominous
-the thing has now frozen on me multiple times while using Ebooka PDF reader, which use to be rock stable.
...do I need to factory reset and start over? I'd really rather not if I can avoid it.
EDIT (again): Man, as if this wasn't weird enough already. I've just went into nook's system settings and the firmware appears to have downgraded itself to 1.0.0. I could've sworn I'd gotten it to 1.1 before I rooted it, but since that was almost a year ago I guess I could be mistaken.
Progress! Or at least a clue. I did some research and found that 8 false boot attempts causes the thing to factory reset. I was not in the room the entire time the thing was accidentally disconnecting from my computer.
You see I have pretty much given up at this point and resigned to factory restting and re-rooting. So I backed everything up, got nook manager, made yet another backup with that, and then told it to use factory.zip. So it did. The thing restored factory settings, then rebooted... and looked exactly the same. Still registered to me and everything and all apps are pretty much exactly how they were before when I first started noticing problems.
In other words, I think this all started when, without my realizing, the thing factory reset itself.
I'm gonna try upgrading the FW and rerooting, this time using Nook Manager. If things get nasty, I can always restore the backups.
Solved. I hope this solo thread account is useful to someone else who encounters the same problem. Thinking a little more carefully, I went back to TouchNooter instead of Nook Manager and used the 1.1 FW. That and the multitouch and usb host kernel patch via CWM did the trick and my nook is back to functioning as well as it ever did. That was several hours I wish I'd been asleep for instead...
NOT Solved. The d*mn thing reverted and I don't know why. I didn't have it plugged it at all (ie none of the disconnection problems I mentioned before), but all of the old symptoms have returned and I'm back on firmware 1.0.0. Will re-root and re-patch the kernel. Anyone have any idea what the heck is going on or how to prevent it from happening again?
EDIT: Well that plan failed. TouchNooter semi-bricks the device. I can recover using Nook manager to restore factory.zip, but haven't figured out anything past that. I'm going to try erasing as much as possible and then rooting via NookManager...
Well. I erased and deregistered the device, upgraded the firmware to 1.2.1 (per Nook Manager rooting instructions), and rooted using Nook Manager instead of TouchNooter. I used GApps attack and everything seems to be working fine... except I've still lost the main features that brought me to making this thread in the first place: multitouch, usb host support, and now also NoRefresh is nowhere to be found. Is there a way to get these back without using adb? I can't get my comp to recognize my nook as a device through adb, but I've got a ClockworkMod disk image I can easily play with, so .zip patches would be most welcome. Thanks!
I've been on a journey with my ShieldTV 500. My Netflix stopped working and there doesn't seem to be a solution. I was on original firmware 5.0.2 for a long time rooted. Hadn't touched the config for almost 2 years and Netflix just stopped working with the "can't connect error."
Last night I sleepily followed various broken instructions to flash a stock non-root OEM ROM all the way up to 8.0.2. Netflix still doesn't work, can't connect and crashes instantly on a fresh system. Troubleshooting has been throughly exhausted. I cannot uninstall it because it's a "stock" app. Apparently it lives in the vendor image that is flashed amongst system, boot, recovery, etc. Is there a way to rebuild the image without certain apps included? I can't sideload a different version of Netflix because the stock one is never actually deleted, and the install always fails. Using adb commands nor a root explorer ever successfully uninstalls or deletes the files.
The Nvidia & Netflix supports are worthless in this respect. I just thought of this and maybe someone with a bit more dev experience than me can chime in. I opened the image with Ext4 Unpacker on my PC to poke around and found the bloatware "app" folder. There's got to be an index file or something telling it to install that apk and I feel like if I just delete it I'll have an error during flashing possibly corrupting the image.
Going to try using ADK to extract and recompile it then flash again. Will post updates.
Any help is appreciated. Cheers.
Im hoping someone can help me or possibly direct me to a youtube video to achieve what im looking to achieve
I struggled with, but finally managed to upgrade my device to stock 7.0, but rooted with magisk. When i tried to install xposed it forced a bootloop, so i restored a backup i had just made prior, and all has been well. I had wanted to install and use "Root cloak" as, at least so far thats been working on my 8.0 device (also Samsung, also stock but rooted but with SU method in that case, i couldnt get SU alone to work on my 7.0, for whatever reason)
I left it alone, but I'm noticing more and more that apps Id like to use come up saying "device is incompatible", which at first i thought it was weird as the play store itself allowed the install... but then upon some basic looking around, it seems that the apps have a way of detecting root, even through "magisk hide" - the feature directly included in magisk manager.
currently when i try to test for safetynet directly in the magisk manager, it doesnt actually properly test at all, no pass or fail, it just said unable
the rather peculiar part is that some of these apps arent all even banking apps, theyre for games. I cant figure out why gaming apps have issues with root access, especially when these apps themselves dont have root access, but thats kind of an aside
Any simplified help anyone can offer would be great! i am slightly familiar with editing the build prop, but i wouldnt know which values to change or even if that method is still effective. i used to use that on a quite older device (captivate glide) to spoof which version of android i was on in order to download app updates (which did work just fine, so why my older version wasnt supported is beyond me, lol)
thank you in advance for any help you can offer!