Database Develop

Odex script and optimised donut build

Our devices don't have very much flash memory and it's easy to fill up /data with apps but here is a quick solution that can give you a bit more space.
In /data is a directory called dalvik-cache, this is a cache of the classes.dex from every app on the device, including those in /system.
On most android devices this doesn't happen, the system applications and the framework are stored as optimised dex files with a .odex extension.
People have spent a lot of time figuring out how to recreate the apks from the odex files and this is good if you have enough space to put all your apps on the device twice because it allows them to be easily swapped for theming.
The attached script goes through each app and jar in /system, creates an odex file and deletes classes.dex. It will give you about 30M extra space on /data while making /system about 10% bigger.
To run it do the following:
Backup you device
Make sure you have at least 15% free on /system, this is important because if you run out of space things will go badly wrong.
unzip odex.zip and then do:
adb push odex /data/odex
adb shell /data/odex/odex.sh
Wait till it finishes and then reboot the phone.
Another reason for odexing is that it boots very quickly and when testing kernels its nice not to have to wait too long.
If you want to see a simple odexed system try this:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qjyniynyqzz
Rename it to androidinstall.tar and it will give you the donut system in the attached screenshots.
The main disadvantage of odexing is that it means you can't change the theme without reinstalling /system so find a theme you like before doing this to your device.
Thanks to Paul O'Brien for writing the original script.
Have fun.

dzo, once again, Thank you.
This should provide ALOT more breathing room in Eclair and Sense builds. Not to mention more flexibility for ROM devs too.
Thanks!

so would this only be useful for people who are making roms and stuff like that I'm kinda a noob still sorry

Unfortunately with my eclair build, /system is almost full
App2SD or /data on sd card look better
but that's device dependant
thank you for the tip anyway

I was about to ask if this will mess up the zipaligning but then I looked a the script and it also does zipaligning.

jadenj5 said:
so would this only be useful for people who are making roms and stuff like that I'm kinda a noob still sorry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The end user could run it, too...
Any thoughts on adding this to the install menu? That way you could install system, apply themes, then odex.

I updated the system tar in the first post to fix the broken calendar. I've been running this on my primary phone for a few days now and it seems much faster than it was. Perhaps there's are fewer file accesses with an odexed system and it needs to keep less data in the fs cache. Whatever the reason, give it a try.

is there anyway to do this from the phone without adb?

Include in vogue tools?
Thanks DZO, great that more performance can be squeezed out of our aging devices!
Just a thought: Could this be included in Vogue tools?

Two strange things with this build (on a Kaiser and I've added Wifi so maybe that has to do with it?)
- It never sleeps, I haven't run any Donut build for very long but I think I had this issue when trying the Warm Donut once.
If I turn off the screen (or if it times out by itself) this shows up in /dev/kmsg:
stop_drawing_early_suspend: timeout waiting for userspace to stop drawing
- When I run GPS Test and use the time screen the updates are irregular and sometimes skips a couple of seconds and sometimes several updates comes quickle after each other (with less than a second between them). I actually spent some time debugging my GPS code before I tried on eclair and realized it was not the GPS code that was causing it.
Perhaps both issues are related. I've a panel 1 Kaiser.
Other than that it feels very quick and snappy but no sleeping is terrible for the battery life.
Oh, and I tried turning off both wifi and background transfer but that doesn't help.

Tried this on Incubus's Tattoo and it got to HTCCamera.apk and failed:
Code:
--- BEGIN 'HTCCamera.apk' (bootstrap=0) ---
--- would reduce privs here
--- waiting for verify+opt, pid=3751
--- END 'HTCCamera.apk' --- status=0xff00, process failed
Unable to create '/tmp.odex': File exists
rm: cannot remove '/data/dalvik-cache/*': No such file or directory
It repeated Unable to create '/tmp.odex': File exists but i removed them from the code above because it's not necessary to have them in there 9473975394 times.
I rebooted and reinstalled the system to be safe.

preardon said:
Tried this on Incubus's Tattoo and it got to HTCCamera.apk and failed:
Code:
--- BEGIN 'HTCCamera.apk' (bootstrap=0) ---
--- would reduce privs here
--- waiting for verify+opt, pid=3751
--- END 'HTCCamera.apk' --- status=0xff00, process failed
Unable to create '/tmp.odex': File exists
rm: cannot remove '/data/dalvik-cache/*': No such file or directory
It repeated Unable to create '/tmp.odex': File exists but i removed them from the code above because it's not necessary to have them in there 9473975394 times.
I rebooted and reinstalled the system to be safe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it might have something to do with most of the apk's already being odexed

I've posted an odex:ed and zipaligned CM5.0.7 port here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=700669
It also odexes every app in /data/app on boot (and clears the dalvik cache).

great donut build!
Thanks Dzo, you managed to pull together a great, snappy no frills donut build! it is fantastic on my Kaiser - and it is only a by-product of yet another great contributions of your! Thanks!

how is this donut build for use?

thoughtlesskyle said:
how is this donut build for use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, I am using it daily on my kaiser at the moment. I understand that Kalt_Kaffe had problems with sleeping and battery life, but it works fine for me.

yea i shouldnt have the sleep and battery life problems because i run a vogue and they do things a little differently.
i wish i wasnt changing builds like every other day anymore

this is an excellent vanilla donut build dzo. it's very responsive and stable running from my sd card on the vogue so far. i really like myn's warm donut rom but it would frequently lock up requiring a restart; not the case with this build. thanks.
edit: is it possible to run the odex script again considering that i've been funning this build on my sd card? i wanted to odex the additional apps i added since the first install. also, would i have to manually remove the odexed files after updating an apk?

Had this running for a day on my old Kaiser and it's nearly as fast as my Hero! Fantastic work! Thanks!

This is the "snapiest" android build I have run on my vogue.
loving it thus far.

How to restore deleted (stock) System Apps?

Let me apologize first of all as I come from 5 years of using Windows Mobile knwoing what I am doing (cooking ROMs included) and now just got my Galaxy /Android a couple weeks ago and am blank at all of it.
After messing up with some system files and (useless) stock applications (like I removed stk.apk and other stuff) I decided to do a full hardware reset as the phone started getting random crashes.
But after the full reset things only got dramatically worse. I quickly realized all the missing system apps are still missing (I thought they'd be "restored") and basically nothing works, just crashes one after the next, cant use anything.
So, a hardware system reset on the galaxy, doesnt really reset anything except user installed apps and settings... amazing
Can someone please tell me (the idiot here, I know) how to do a real full restore where all system files, all missing files and positively everything gets back in the Tab as it was originally?
What a flippin' nightmare... Thanks in advance very much!

deletion of Stk.apk causes FC's in phone and acore.
if you don't have a backup of this apk, download a rom (like Modaco or Overcome),
open with winzip and extract the Stk.zpk from system/app and push it to /system/app on your Tab using adb (remember set the permissions to 644 after push).
A hardreset NO restores deletions on /system
Note: Other files that are not deleteable in /system/app are: Browser.apk, Email.apk, TouchWiz30Launcher.apk and TwWallpaperChooser.apk
Note (2): For your convenience, i attach the Stk.apk file from Overcome-1.1.3. Try it
Note (3): In order to restore ALL system data and apps, you need to restore a full rom.

bartito said:
deletion of Stk.apk causes FC's in phone and acore.
if you don't have a backup of this apk, download a rom (like Modaco or Overcome),
open with winzip and extract the Stk.zpk from system/app and push it to /system/app on your Tab using adb (remember set the permissions to 644 after push).
A hardreset NO restores deletions on /system
Note: Other files that are not deleteable in /system/app are: Browser.apk, Email.apk, TouchWiz30Launcher.apk and TwWallpaperChooser.apk
Note (2): For your convenience, i attach the Stk.apk file from Overcome-1.1.3. Try it
Note (3): In order to restore ALL system data and apps, you need to restore a full rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, first of all a big thanks for both file and info. Aside from the Stk.apk, the biggest thing that made me run into problems was trying to update my Contacts.apk:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=907399
things didnt work out for me and even after restoring the original files (Contacts.apk and Contacts.odex) nothing really worked again, reason for wich I tried a system reset.
Now, do I need to re-root the Tab or its still rooted, and can I perform the operations easily with Root Explorer like I did before? You mentioned to use adb and set permissions to 644 after push but, sorry again for the ignorance, I have no clue what adb is nor what/how to set permissions. Pathetic to be ignorant huh?
My last 2 questions are, where could I find the original Contacts.apk and Contacts.odex and if needed a full ROM to do a total restore?... hopefully I wont need to get to that point?...
Thanks a million again.

hi,
try to download overcome-1.1.3, and extract all the deleted apk's from system/app directory. push into the /system/app in your tab.
the apk's of overcome are deodexed (you don't need the .odex files). after that, wipe your data/cache and reboot.
if this don't works, try with roto rom

bartito said:
hi,
try to download overcome-1.1.3, and extract all the deleted apk's from system/app directory. push into the /system/app in your tab.
the apk's of overcome are deodexed (you don't need the .odex files). after that, wipe your data/cache and reboot.
if this don't works, try with roto rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmmm thanks again but I think Im beyond all this. I dont have a file manager on my system, just realized I deleted the useless stock one and had repalced it with Root Explorer and ES File Explorer. I have them on my External SD Card to install them again but withou a file manager or an app installer cant get to them. And I tried download an app installer from the Market and get Framework errors non-stop and downloads do not initialize... I think Im beyond a quick fix... how do I get my hands on a stock full ROM to restore everything... and how? What a nightmare... gotta tell you, I love Windows Mobile... I love it... never ran into anything like this in the past 5 years of using it... never...
Thanks again!

use "adb" in order to access to your tab from your desktop pc.

bartito said:
use "adb" in order to access to your tab from your desktop pc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cant. Dont even know if I need Kies installed or not (I did have it installed) but adb just asks me to connect the phone and thats it... its connected aready... this is desperating...

OK I did manage to connect with adb but, how to I install applications? I can navigate to my SD card where I have ES File Explorer and Root Explorer but dont seem to be able to install them... Also if i try to copy Stk.apk I get immediately an failute message... this is crazy...

OK so I managed to install ES File Explorer and Root Explorer with adb... crazy process. It seems my phone is still rooted after the reset. From the phone I copied Stk.apk back to /system/apps where it was before deleted.
But needless to say nothing got fixed... not sure if Stk.apk is now "actually" installed or just there in the folder. But still nothing works and crashes every 10 seconds... logs provider, dialer, phone, framework, contacts... its all a firework of crashes...

Given that you've hard reset your device already, you are pretty much wasting your time trying to "fix" what you broke by messing with /system, and you should really just flash another ROM.
My suggestion would be to follow the advice on this thread.
Regards,
Dave

Yeap, that what i did and it was succesfull. My only issue is that Id like to convert my Tab's file system to ext4 to improve speed and performance and then update to the 1.4Ghz OC Kernel. I have no idea how to do those 2 things... actually Im not sure I understand the difference between a ROM and a Kernel... I assume a Kernel is part of the engine of the ROM itself but I have no idea how to perform the update. I read countless threads and its all scattered info without finding one straight to the point guide on how to do it...
Thanks again

VeEuzUKY said:
Yeap, that what i did and it was succesfull. My only issue is that Id like to convert my Tab's file system to ext4 to improve speed and performance and then update to the 1.4Ghz OC Kernel. I have no idea how to do those 2 things... actually Im not sure I understand the difference between a ROM and a Kernel... I assume a Kernel is part of the engine of the ROM itself but I have no idea how to perform the update. I read countless threads and its all scattered info without finding one straight to the point guide on how to do it...
Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Part of your problem is that you are trying to run before you can walk! Your experience with WinMo is of pretty much no use to you in the Linux/Android world, and until you get a better handle of how everything hands together you are always going to feel a little lost.
Personally, since your device is now up and running again, I'd suggest that you hold off doing anything else for while, until you get a chance to catch up with some of the basics. Once you are a little more familiar, you can then start with something simple like flashing the MoDaCo kernel (instructions here) to support EXT4, and to give you access to ClockworkMod recovery.
IMO, whilst EXT4 and O/C kernels will give you a performance boost, they are not as noticeable as jumping from a shipping ROM to one of the JMx development builds that Samsung has put out. If you are running JMI, you should already be feeling that the device has got much snappier.
Regards,
Dave

foxmeister said:
Part of your problem is that you are trying to run before you can walk! Your experience with WinMo is of pretty much no use to you in the Linux/Android world, and until you get a better handle of how everything hands together you are always going to feel a little lost.
Personally, since your device is now up and running again, I'd suggest that you hold off doing anything else for while, until you get a chance to catch up with some of the basics. Once you are a little more familiar, you can then start with something simple like flashing the MoDaCo kernel (instructions here) to support EXT4, and to give you access to ClockworkMod recovery.
IMO, whilst EXT4 and O/C kernels will give you a performance boost, they are not as noticeable as jumping from a shipping ROM to one of the JMx development builds that Samsung has put out. If you are running JMI, you should already be feeling that the device has got much snappier.
Regards,
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes Dave you are right, right and right again!!! Thank you for the wisdom and advice!!!
The main thing I have understood with today's messy experience was that the actual ROM files are never deleted or damaged as long as you dont access them via a rooted tool and start deleting them. Now I understand that Titanium Backup, Sprint Backup (my favorite), My Backup Pro and others, only back-up and restore what the user installs on top of the ROM itself. So a full "reset" wipes all that data but leaves the ROM files as they always were. If they got damaged in the process, they'll still be damaged till a a full ROM restores all system data, now I get it.
What I still dont get is the issue of bakcing up and restoring. In Windows Mobile, a toll like SPB Backup has a simple option called FULL BACKUP and that backs-up everything on top of the ROM and then restores everything after a full reset on top of the ROM again like it was before. The problem I have with apps like Titanium Backup, Sprint Backup, My Backup Pro, etc... is that there is not a "BACKUP ALL" option... one has to backup "data", "settings", "apps" and I always feel stuff will be left behind and then not restored.
Till I find an app or way to do a simple one-click "backup everything" and then "restore evertything" I always feel vulnerable to changes I make to the Tab that may get it unstable or corrupt and then not being able to be restored properly without a full ROM Flash and then re-installing all from scratch.
With WinMo, I could do all sorts of crazy experiments and tweaking and after that, a registry restore or back-up restore would bring me back my phone to exactly like it was with all my stuff and configuration in a matter of seconds or minutes. Thats what I need to find out with this Tab/Android and then Im ready to be able to explore messing up with this knowing I can always easily go back within minutes to the state I had before with all my apps and settings.
This is what I need to learn next how to do! Trampoline without a safety net is not a good idea. Ive alwways loved WinMo for the ease of backing up and restoring whatever I was doing on my handsets withjout ever worrying to put myself at risk to loose it all. I need to learn this on Android and its definitely more intricate!

just put sdcard into your samsung tab and flash modaco kernel amd it will automatically covert to ext4, after that you can flash the 1.4ghz kernel you wanted.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

instechgainza said:
just put sdcard into your samsung tab and flash modaco kernel amd it will automatically covert to ext4, after that you can flash the 1.4ghz kernel you wanted.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I cant follow you. I put an SD card in and flash modaco kernel? What files do I put on the sd card for this effect?...

VeEuzUKY said:
Sorry, I cant follow you. I put an SD card in and flash modaco kernel? What files do I put on the sd card for this effect?...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no...you need a kernel to flash via odin, you need sdcard mounted so that it will backup all files automatically while converting to ext4..head over to modaco kernel section amd follow the instruction.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

instechgainza said:
no...you need a kernel to flash via odin, you need sdcard mounted so that it will backup all files automatically while converting to ext4..head over to modaco kernel section amd follow the instruction.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where is the modaco kernel section you refer to? I can search for hours and find zilch... these blogs are endless...

VeEuzUKY said:
What I still dont get is the issue of bakcing up and restoring. In Windows Mobile, a toll like SPB Backup has a simple option called FULL BACKUP and that backs-up everything on top of the ROM and then restores everything after a full reset on top of the ROM again like it was before. The problem I have with apps like Titanium Backup, Sprint Backup, My Backup Pro, etc... is that there is not a "BACKUP ALL" option... one has to backup "data", "settings", "apps" and I always feel stuff will be left behind and then not restored.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you want is a Nandroid backup, which you can only make from a recovery image like Clockworkmod recovery.
Essentially, this does exactly what you want, but you need to flash a new kernel (e.g. the MoDaCo kernel) which supports Clockwordmod.
Regards,
Dave

bartito said:
deletion of Stk.apk causes FC's in phone and acore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i beg to differ about stk.apk fc's your phone. that's the first thing i delete when removing system apps with no fc's
refer to this link about having a bare bones system. stk.apk is for management of multiple sim cards
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Barebones

b0ricuaguerrero said:
i beg to differ about stk.apk fc's your phone. that's the first thing i delete when removing system apps with no fc's
refer to this link about having a bare bones system. stk.apk is for management of multiple sim cards
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Barebones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I delete stk.apk (for me useless useless useless) the first thing that happens immediately is that when I hang-up on a call made or received, the Tab vibrates then freezes for about 5 seconds then tells me the phone application has crashed. I tried this with 2 ROMs now as a test and its guaranteed. More even, if you use a program like SYSTEM APP REMOVER you can emulate the removal of an app by disabling it... it only takes me to disable STK and a reboot for the phone not to work. cant get rid of it, that simple

[Script/tool][Linux]Auto Deodexer shell script

I recently bought a Galaxy Mini 2, and the first thing I wanted to do was modding it!
But I couldn't do it on an odexed ROM, currently available ROMs are only the 4.x builds by TheWhisp and some tweaked ones I don't like, and xUltimate throws errors.
Also, the stock ROM contains 100+ packages to deodex, so I couldn't do it by hand quickly.
I wrote this script to do it for me. I'm not really experienced, and I don't know how far this can be from being optimized, clean and readable, but it works, and it should work for any device and ROM if used correctly.
This script deodexes all the apk and jar packages for system apps and framework, then zipaligns them for better memory optimization (memory consumption is a half of what's normally used on stock ROM). After that, it writes an updater-script and packages everything in a shiny flashable zip to use in recovery.
WARNING: Might cause boot-loops or force-closes. It's recommended to check that the cwm_deodex.zip file contains the .apk and .jar files and pick some random APKs and JARs to check that they contain the classes.dex file in their root. The APKs from framework should not contain the classes.dex, while the JARs should. It's also recommended to do a backup before flashing the deodex package, in case the cwm_restore.zip fails.
HOW TO USE:
Extract the attached zip wherever you want.
Pull all the files from /system/app and /system/framework from your phone and put them respectively in the directories"app_odexed", and "framework_odexed" (they're located under the extracted directory).
Check the API level for your device's Android version (if you don't know, check this). In deodex_app.sh and deodex_framework.sh there are four lines (two in deodex_app.sh and two in deodex_framework.sh) which begin in "java -jar baksmali.jar" and "java -jar smali.jar". Those lines contain an option "-a", followed by a number (by default "10"): you should change that number to your API level. If you are on ICS or later, you can just delete the "-a" option and the consecutive number.
Open a terminal in the directory where the deodex.sh file is and type "./deodex.sh", then you can have a coffee (or more, depending on how many files to deodex are there).
When you come back, you should find the cwm_deodex.zip waiting to be pushed to your device and flashed, and a cwm_restore.zip to flash if you need to restore the previous odexed files.
Notes:
The script doesn't stop on errors.
The cwm_restore.zip package doesn't really odex your ROM: it restores the odexed files you pulled from your device before deodexing. So yes, your ROM will get back to it's previous odexed state, but that package won't odex any ROM.
Changes:
-v1.1: Scripts and binaries moved to a "tools" subdirectory; now also creates a flashable zip to restore the old odexed files; reduced the amount of screen output.
-v1: Initial.
If you can suggest any correction to the script, please do it.
Also, since English is not my language, feel more-than-free to point out if there's something wrong or unclear in the post .

Great work
Could you write such a script for odexing too ?
Sent from my BL-S5570 using xda app-developers app

May be... But I don't see any benefits in an odexed ROM. It's just quicker when booting the first time.

Gspin96 said:
May be... But I don't see any benefits in an odexed ROM. It's just quicker when booting the first time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The .odex file is kept in memory ...so higher ram usage but apps open a lot faster as they are already in memory ....also your internal memory is almost completely empty so you don't need to use sd-ext....
Sent from my GT-S5570 using Tapatalk 2

hsay said:
The .odex file is kept in memory ...so higher ram usage but apps open a lot faster as they are already in memory ....also your internal memory is almost completely empty so you don't need to use sd-ext....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is a quote from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=39393263
R_a_z_v_a_n said:
Advanteges & Disadvantages
The advantage of deodexing is in modification possibilities. This is most widely used in custom ROMs and themes. A developer building a custom ROM would almost always choose to deodex the ROM package first, since that would not only allow him to modify various APKs, but also leave room for post-install theming.
On the other hand, since the .odex files were supposed to quickly build the dalvik cache, removing them would mean longer initial boot times. However, this is true only for the first ever boot after deodexing, since the cache would still get built over time as applications are used. Longer boot times may only be seen again if the dalvik cache is wiped for some reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, keeping things in memory is an Android feature: if an app ran once, it is then kept in memory until you use a task killer (which is not recommended, as Android then would have to reload the app in RAM, slowing down and draining battery) or the system gets out-of-memory.
It's more correct to say that odex files are, ready to be loaded in RAM, because the Dalvik Machine doesn't need to optimize them. However, after the DM optimizes them on the first boot, they're kept in the dalvik cache, as ready to be loaded as an odexed app would be.

Anyway, for who wants to re-odex, there's an easy solution: you can use Titanium backup (menu->Integrate sys Dalvik into ROM).

Gspin96 said:
Anyway, for who wants to re-odex, there's an easy solution: you can use Titanium backup (menu->Integrate sys Dalvik into ROM).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is not odexing ...its just an alternative.
Sent from my GT-S5570 using Tapatalk 2

Did you try? I did. It does indeed create the .odex files you want in /system/app.

Gspin96 said:
Did you try? I did. It does indeed create the .odex files you want in /system/app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I stand corrected ...
But does it odex the framework files and other things?
Sent from my GT-S5570 using Tapatalk 2

I was editing that post because i saw that framework was not odexed.
Hell, I had found a link to a to a re-odexing script/tutorial here on xda in the galaxy 3 (not galaxy s3) forum, but I had to go leaving that post unedited.
I'll add a link to that tutorial on first post as soon as I'm on my PC again.
Thanks.
EDIT: this is the tut: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1402233

Gspin96 said:
I was editing that post because i saw that framework was not odexed.
Hell, I had found a link to a to a re-odexing script/tutorial here on xda in the galaxy 3 (not galaxy s3) forum, but I had to go leaving that post unedited.
I'll add a link to that tutorial on first post as soon as I'm on my PC again.
Thanks.
EDIT: this is the tut: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1402233
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Btw even universal odex script by matrixdj96 works good and its here in the mini Dev section and bro hope no hard feelings.
Sent from my GT-S5570 using Tapatalk 2

I didn't see that script, it looks good (I won't try it, I'm going to mod framework).
bro hope no hard feelings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, man. I've been feeling attacked somehow, but I know I shouldn't have.

New update: now it's a bit (really, just a very little bit) cleaner and also creates a .zip flashable which restores your ROM to its previous state (usually odexed, if it wasn't odexed, then you wouldn't have used the script).

[Q] Rooting Samsung Galaxy Exhibit 4G SGH-T679

Most posts on this are two years old and links no longer work to files needed...
I have never rooted my SGH-T679 but now I keep getting notices that the phone memory is low. I would like to root without touching the rom on the phone so that I can finally dump the bloatware. I have read the XDA thread on rooting this phone and the links to root-stock.zip - 1.62 MB no longer work - come up file deleted or missing. Also second file required - ClockworkMod (? - not sure the name) also comes up as not found.
Yes, it is an old phone (actually only three years old) and I can't afford a another one right now. If I can still root this phone I can get more years out of it. And I like the Gingerbread rom it has.
Also - will the rooting process wipe out all currently downloaded and installed apps? I'd like to avoid that too if possible.
Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

Rooting wipes nothing. Links work fine for me. Perhaps dev-host was down at the time.
http://d-h.st/s9X root
http://d-h.st/O36 cwm
Are you talking about storage space? Removing bloat will not help as that only frees up system space which most apps won't use. If you mean actual memory rooting alone won't help and removing bloat won't help at all. These phones have very little memory and the only thing that will really help is a kit kat ROM as they have been optimized for phones with 512mb memory. Tweaks are mainly a placebo as @ArtfulDodger found out for us through extensive testing.
Sent from my SGH-T679 using xda app-developers app

Dvarl said:
Rooting wipes nothing. Links work fine for me. Perhaps dev-host was down at the time.
http://d-h.st/s9X root
http://d-h.st/O36 cwm
Are you talking about storage space? Removing bloat will not help as that only frees up system space which most apps won't use. If you mean actual memory rooting alone won't help and removing bloat won't help at all. These phones have very little memory and the only thing that will really help is a kit kat ROM as they have been optimized for phones with 512mb memory. Tweaks are mainly a placebo as @ArtfulDodger found out for us through extensive testing.
Sent from my SGH-T679 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried both of those links before I posted this. All download buttons on those pages led to spam ads. Seems every comment on those pages is how do I download - and then a mysterious thanks as if the answer was revealed and then deleted. At one point I got a link on that page to go to a page that said no file found - missing or deleted. Just tried again and found one download button that actually worked.
The system memory on my Exhibit 4G is just about full and there is 1.07 GB of system memory. The internal USB/SD memory is almost empty as is my external SD card. What I need to do is free up internal memory - and deleting apps that will not install to Internal USB/SD memory that I don't use has freed up a small amount of that system memory. But there are some apps that will not install to internal SD and insist on sitting in system memory. And then there are the screen after screen of apps that Samsung shoved on this phone that keep updating constantly and 80% of those apps I have never used. So researching this the recommendation always seems to be root and dump the bloatware - and have the ability to swap External SD for Internal SD. So I am looking to root. I have found Clockworkmod on some other site and just got the stock-rom.zip.
Thanks for responding - hopefully if I do this it I won't get notices to delete apps or the phone will cease this function and that function.
So after I root every app on the phone that I installed will still be there and the only difference is the phone will be rooted. Just asking because one video showed an empty phone other than stock apps after rooting.

Ok, then what you are more looking for may be swap sd since your on stock. It may be a hastle shifting things around. In the long run a lot of people chose to use this feature to have quite a few apps. I never personally used the feature as I never load many apps on my phone. So you would do the following.
1. Flash rootstock.zip
2. Flash cwm.zip
3. MAKE A BACKUP!!! (sorry but I need to stress this point as it will save you tons of headaches)
4. Install/flash swapsd you'll have to search for it as its buried in the thread
5. Shift non system apps/data to your memory card (new internal)
6. Enjoy
Hope the info helps.
Sent from my GT-P3113 using xda app-developers app

Dvarl said:
Ok, then what you are more looking for may be swap sd since your on stock. It may be a hastle shifting things around. In the long run a lot of people chose to use this feature to have quite a few apps. I never personally used the feature as I never load many apps on my phone. So you would do the following.
1. Flash rootstock.zip
2. Flash cwm.zip
3. MAKE A BACKUP!!! (sorry but I need to stress this point as it will save you tons of headaches)
4. Install/flash swapsd you'll have to search for it as its buried in the thread
5. Shift non system apps/data to your memory card (new internal)
6. Enjoy
Hope the info helps.
Sent from my GT-P3113 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how do i "flash root"? sorry im new =)

Instructions are in first post of this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1686384
Sent from my GT-P3113 using xda app-developers app

1776 said:
So after I root every app on the phone that I installed will still be there and the only difference is the phone will be rooted. Just asking because one video showed an empty phone other than stock apps after rooting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rooting alone will not touch any of your data. It just gives you full permissions to your phone.
however, I HIGHLY recommend you put a custom ROM on this phone. If you really want to get the most out of this phone, it is THE BEST way to go. I've owned this phone since it was first out and had so many problems with it on the stock ROM. I was seriously considering spending a lot of $$ on a new phone. Once I put a new ROM on it, its like a brand new phone. Everything is so much smoother. Just put your data on an SD card. If you sync your contacts with Google they will all sync back up to your phone. All your apps will be re-downloaded. Its a bit of a pain to set them all up again but soooo worth it.
After you make a backup, give it a shot. If you really don't like it then you could go back to the backup... but I doubt that would happen after you see just how well the phone runs.

kfs325 said:
rooting alone will not touch any of your data. It just gives you full permissions to your phone.
however, I HIGHLY recommend you put a custom ROM on this phone. If you really want to get the most out of this phone, it is THE BEST way to go. I've owned this phone since it was first out and had so many problems with it on the stock ROM. I was seriously considering spending a lot of $$ on a new phone. Once I put a new ROM on it, its like a brand new phone. Everything is so much smoother. Just put your data on an SD card. If you sync your contacts with Google they will all sync back up to your phone. All your apps will be re-downloaded. Its a bit of a pain to set them all up again but soooo worth it.
After you make a backup, give it a shot. If you really don't like it then you could go back to the backup... but I doubt that would happen after you see just how well the phone runs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What ROM did you end up using?

Raschal said:
What ROM did you end up using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The most stable one I used was this CM 10, Fairly good performace and was rock solid stable for me.
I am currently using slimkat 4.4 though. It does have some small hiccups but nothing that makes me want to go back to CM 10

wadswerth said:
The most stable one I used was this CM 10, Fairly good performace and was rock solid stable for me.
I am currently using slimkat 4.4 though. It does have some small hiccups but nothing that makes me want to go back to CM 10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. I have used Peach Sunrise for sometime. It is very stable.

Towel root?
1776 said:
Most posts on this are two years old and links no longer work to files needed...
I have never rooted my SGH-T679 but now I keep getting notices that the phone memory is low. I would like to root without touching the rom on the phone so that I can finally dump the bloatware. I have read the XDA thread on rooting this phone and the links to root-stock.zip - 1.62 MB no longer work - come up file deleted or missing. Also second file required - ClockworkMod (? - not sure the name) also comes up as not found.
Yes, it is an old phone (actually only three years old) and I can't afford a another one right now. If I can still root this phone I can get more years out of it. And I like the Gingerbread rom it has.
Also - will the rooting process wipe out all currently downloaded and installed apps? I'd like to avoid that too if possible.
Any help is appreciated. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you ever heard of towelroot? there is a website called towelroot.com, and i am not sure whether it still works, but you should try anyway. You click the lambda and it will download an app. You then install it and click the make it rain button, and you should be root. After that, download Supersu, and root checker. You should then be able to clear bloatware with a root browser.

Virgin Mobile Help

I have one of the Virgin Mobile models that has the smaller memory. I have been looking through these forums looking for a way to clear up the memory. It looks like there is simply not enough progress on this phone currently. What I would really like is a basic ROM replacement that does not have any of the HTC crap in it to make it leaner and use less space. Am I right that I need to wait for future developments? I just want to make sure I am not missing something. Is there any way to free up more space right now with existing hacks? I see lots of different posts in here, and when I think I am on to something, I read that it does not work on the Virgin Mobile phones, so I am getting confused. I was hoping somebody who knows my phone really well could hold my hand and tell me exactly what I can do to get some more free space. I am familiar with a lot of the tools, and have rooted and installed recovery on my Kindle Fire, and on my Ouya. I have rooted an old LG phone, but that was cake compared to what I am reading for this phone! Thank you!

Probably the best you can do for now would be to flash a write protection removed kernel, remove as much uneccessary HTC and carrier bloat as possible, and then use an app from the Play Store called System App Manager to turn most of the apps you install into system apps, thereby using unused space on /system instead of your internal storage. My advice is to make a TWRP backup before converting any apps, because some apps will not act right after being moved to /system, so just do a process of elimination/trial & error until you figure out which apps can be moved without causing problems. When you figure out which apps act up, restore your backup and re-do the process without converting the unruly apps.
You also might want to flash Raptor Rom, as it's probably the smallest rom available, leaving tbe most empty space for those apps you move. Someday we'll get a rom/kernel that will allow the moving of apps & thier data to an sd partition, till then this is probly your best bet.
sent from a device

huggs said:
Probably the best you can do for now would be to flash a write protection removed kernel....You also might want to flash Raptor Rom, as it's probably the smallest rom available
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great! Can anybody point me in the right direction for some good/updated directions on performing each of these? Thank you!

jrburke99 said:
Great! Can anybody point me in the right direction for some good/updated directions on performing each of these? Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly, if you haven't done so already: Follow this
Then go grab the download from whatever kernel you want to use thread or grab RaptorROM here. RaptorROM already includes a version of @Pattyboi's kernel, but you can always flash the newer kernel (which he put up last night?) on top.
Drop whatever files you plan on flashing onto the phone, or the sdcard. Reboot into TWRP (volume down and power button when phone's off then select Recovery), tap install, find the .zip or .img to flash, tap, then Swipe to Install/Flash