Database Develop

So what would happen if I just started deleting BN apps ...

... from /system/app
Which of them would save me some resources (assuming I don't care about the built-in nook functionality), and which of them would make things go kablooey?

Wordsmith9091 said:
... from /system/app
Which of them would save me some resources (assuming I don't care about the built-in nook functionality), and which of them would make things go kablooey?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you think they would save you resources?
Plus I think you might want to avoid doing that until there is a full ROM and Recovery, if you screw up /system I think you're hosed.

Without recovery it is possible to brick the NC by deleting stuff as previously stated.
I did try some cautious renaming of B&N stuff with the end result that while the NC worked, it showed as not registered and this made it a bit difficult to de-register and reset...
And not only did the B&N stuff not work (since it wasn't registered!) there were a few other glitches as well.
As a note from my earlier Android experiments: if you do want to try getting rid of something, don't delete it! Renaming it is just as effective and has the added plus of being easily restored AS LONG AS THE THING STILL WORKS AT ALL.
I usually append .bak to things like text messaging, facebook and twitter since I don't use or want them.

/system can be recovered regardless of changes to the file-system as long as you don't play around with the factory fallback stuff which is on a different partition completely. The minute you start messing with that all bets are off.
The /system partition will be restored if the device doesn't boot 8 consecutive times.

Well, so far I've deleted the library, the shop, the built-in app launcher and a few other items with no ill effects (other than, you know, not having the library and the shop). I got rid of one that looked a little borderline scary -- but I'm being a little reckless here and didn't note the name. Maybe a BN specific applicationservice apk?I think that's why selecting settings from the B&N bottom notification bar doesn't work anymore (but selecting settings from within Zeam gets me there). Got rid of the home apk.
I know, I could play it a lot safer just renaming these things. But I'm living on the edge (besides, I could always get back to a stock system setup if I screw things up badly enough to force the 8 reboots).
I'll soon look at this a little more methodically and see if there are any B&N-related services running that I don't think I'd really need ... then go for them too. After all, just deleting things that may or may not be running from boot ... it's a fun reckless experiment, but it doesn't necessarily save any resources (other than space in system).

If you manage it I would be interested in knowing about it- especially if the Nook for Android app can be installed and actually work, afterwards!
That had been my goal when messing with it.
Methinks I found one too many packages that had "bn" in the name for my own good. lol

[ROM] Nothing Special (Plain) v1.3 (UPDATED 03/31/11)

Development dropped in favor of Liberation.
Only difference between Nothing Special 1.3 and Liberation 1.0 is that Google Car Home has been replaced by the stock HTC Car Panel. This is to remove "holes" left by the removal of a stock app. Also, this no longer conflicts with my intent of having a stock ROM minus carrier bloat/restrictions. Google Car Home can be added by the user if they so choose.

Great job. All the stock roms seem to be outdated.
SX Reapz!

Looks nice. Is there any benefit, though, over RUUing, adb shell, and then using rm to delete CityID etc?

pianoplayer said:
Looks nice. Is there any benefit, though, over RUUing, adb shell, and then using rm to delete CityID etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A few.
Apply this ROM is faster than using the RUU, re-rooting, and then manually deleting the programs you want. On the plus side, the slower method lets you delete any program YOU want, rather than being a one-size fits all type deal.
I'm using a memory/task killing teak offered by the Android Kitchen that is a bit more aggressive in memory conservation. This should give a slight performance boost over the RUU.
So really, it's more of a convenience than using the RUU. Many people who flash ROMs don't even know how to remove programs via ADB.

what kind of feed back are you looking for, there is more bloat but that is kinda user preference I remove almost everything and leave just the apps, kinda like the magnoila desenseitize but i do it manually bucause that wont flash for me on the stock rom

so far so good, can you post the list of addons i see carhome which is a good move

tjamscad said:
what kind of feed back are you looking for, there is more bloat but that is kinda user preference I remove almost everything and leave just the apps, kinda like the magnoila desenseitize but i do it manually bucause that wont flash for me on the stock rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to make sure that I didn't screw anything up. Everyone has a different definition of "bloat." I decided to leave whatever HTC/Google apps came with the phone, and removed Verizon's additional bloat. Removing HTC's apps and cause minor stability issues that the casual user won't want to deal with. Those who know how to manually remove the apps tend to know how to deal with the minor issues that crop up.
tjamscad said:
so far so good, can you post the list of addons i see carhome which is a good move
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had Car Home listed under removed apps as the replacement for HTC Car Panel. I've copied it under features as well as per your suggestion. Otherwise, that's pretty much it.
If you want to further remove apps, a very simple way to do so is to unzip the package, delete the APKs under /system/app that you don't want, re-zip using a program like 7-ZIP (free), then flash it.
You can also do this to package ring tones in the /system/media folder so that they are stored in /system, don't take up user space, and will work correctly even when the device is USB mounted or just booting up.

do i use rom manager/ clockwork to flash this rom???

ahjdmarchi said:
do i use rom manager/ clockwork to flash this rom???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use ROM Manager, so I couldn't tell you how to use it in that way. I just download and flash via Clockwork Recovery.

i have used clockwork and rom manager both work just fine

how do you feel about removing the HTCSetupWizzard.apk I find it to be bothersome when i have install a new rom and that pops up. I am not tring to be a jerk just throwing things out there. its your rom

VZW backup assistant, vzw 3g hot spot

tjamscad said:
how do you feel about removing the HTCSetupWizzard.apk I find it to be bothersome when i have install a new rom and that pops up. I am not tring to be a jerk just throwing things out there. its your rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're absolutely not being a jerk. Like I said, no ROM will make everyone happy. Any user is free to modify the zip and delete the APKs (and corresponding odex files) from the /system/app folder prior to flashing.
HTCSetupWizard only pops up when data is wiped. On the "stable" release, if you just do a flash over, (same on any future upgrades) it won't pop up.
tjamscad said:
VZW backup assistant, vzw 3g hot spot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deleting VZW backup assistant causes a "hole" in HTC's setup wizard. The point of this ROM was to maintain the user experience while deleting unused bloat. Also, this ROM pre-dates both Google's backup option as well as HTC's Sense.com option, so VZWBackup is a decent free alternative.
The 3G Hotspot option isn't made by Verizon, it's an HTC app (it's the same app on their unlocked phones). Some people, for whatever reason, will pay for tethering. They need this app to do so and it's not replaceable via the Android/VCAST markets. Also, there's a way to use this app to tether for free, essentially disabling the aspect that reports to Verizon. However, due to questionably legality, I can't detail how that works here.
However, I see your points, and I'll look at it more when I get back from my business trip.

Looking for a good "stock" ROM to replace Virtuous which seems to have been abandoned.
Any first hand experiences with this ROM? I'm starting to think the silence is a good thing (no problems).

I run it with Lou's #8 and it's running absolutely flawlessly. No complaints.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Installed this last night and so far it has been awesome! Very Snappy too.
Titanium seems to be broken, telling me it doesn't have root/BusyBox (even though I granted it root permissions), but I don't think it's the ROM since everything else that uses root works (Root explorer, ROM Manager, etc). Not a big deal since I can just use AppBrain, although a little more work involved there.
This is just what I was hoping for! Thanks.

craighwk said:
Installed this last night and so far it has been awesome! Very Snappy too.
Titanium seems to be broken, telling me it doesn't have root/BusyBox (even though I granted it root permissions), but I don't think it's the ROM since everything else that uses root works (Root explorer, ROM Manager, etc). Not a big deal since I can just use AppBrain, although a little more work involved there.
This is just what I was hoping for! Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At the bottom of titanium click "Problems?" And it will fix that problem by downloading busybox. Hope it helps.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

all good no problems, when do you consider it stable? Not sure you could do anything else to it with out loosing the stock start over feel.

THis is just what i've been looking for, im not too crazy for those roms with 5h!tty mods and ugly colors, just wanted a stock without the bload, just google and HTC stuff and this one seems to offer that.
So nothing got broken in the process of removing the bloat right? will work just like the stock minus the bloat?
Would LOVE to get a ROM like this but with Sense 2.0 in it, now that would be awesome!

Great to always have a copy of this on your SD card. As a backup rom, for those of us who forget to nandroid sometimes

[Q] Using LG Optimus 2X as a PMP need some help...

Hello all very long time lurker but am here now for some help. So a few questions and description of what i wish to achieve.
I have a POS iPod touch 4th gen that I have had 2 and half years or something and really want to replace. Also have an Xperia X10 and shortly will have an LG Optimus 2X. The X10 will function for phone duties until the Xperia TX become available in Australia.
Back the the O2X though. Now turning an android phone into a Portable Media Player (PMP) is something I have been wanting to do for a while now. Naturally though this brings up a few things that will not be needed.
For the music front end I will be using Player Pro and Pics and videos will primarily be held and viewed in QuickPic.
The phone will still need to retain wifi and bluetooth capabilities, however I want to fully disable all other forms of connectivity as I will have no need of it and will not be using a sim in the phone as this will be dedicated to music, movies and pics. So does anyone know the best way gor me to go about that?
I will also have a hell of a lot of unused and unwanted apps. I would love to be able to really strip the phone back and free up as much space as possible. Now in the past I have been able to uninstall pre-installed apps from my X10. I am just unsure how to go about it on the O2X. Does anyone know how I would go about completely removing the phone, contacts, calander, stock music, stock gallery and other assorted apps?
I would also need to be using a kernel with the voodoo sound mods for the wolfson DAC. Now I was wondering if there was any recommendations there?
Finally I would also like a recommendation of the most stable ICS based ROM to go with the voodoo kernel. I would like the ROM to also include a modifiable set of notification bar widgets so I can easily turn on and of things like wifi, bluetooth, gps, airaplane mode and adjust brightness. Anyone know of anything that would fit the bill?
Must also come with a working camera app (does not need to has video recording working or panorama just basic camera duties please). Any other suggestions that you may think of feel free to post them.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hope some of you can help me out here on my project to make an Android PMP out of a great little Android Phone.
Stoner
Note to mods: hope I am posting in the right section, feel free to move it if I am not.

Since connectivity is already built in into the android OS, you can't disable it, but I think keeping your phone in airplane mode all the time should do the trick. Anyway, taking out the sim card already disables all connectivity that involves telecommunications.
If you want to remove system apps, you have to root your phone first. The forum already has so many guides on rooting. Then all you have to do is use any root file manager, go into system/app and delete the apps there. Not everything can be deleted though, some are crucial for the functioning of the phone.
The other way is to download a rom, open the zip and delete everything you don't need that's under system/app and install it. No guarantees that your phone will boot up though, if you happen to hit an app that is crucial for the rom to work. Then you can flash the rom and it's done.
There are many kernels that use voodoo, just find one that fits any rom of your choice.
Finally: ICS roms still have some bugs, seeing that you are going to use it as a PMP, I recommend not upgrading to ICS or later until roms made from LG's sources start popping out. I hear that CM10 (that runs on jellybean) will be released shortly after LG releases their ICS update.
Almost all roms have a camera app, no worries there!
TL;DR Install any rom you'd like that seems to fit the bill. Root your phone, open the particular rom's zip file and remove apps you don't need that are in system/app, flash it to your phone (with recovery mode of course). Flash kernel to your liking.

Looks like LG is no better than Sony when it comes to OS Updates haha
shall look at stock based Rome for now then. Try and find a JB skinned one if possible.
Then play trial and error with what apps I can remove before flashing and which I have to leave and possibly just freeze. New it was something simple but its been a while. I hope I can remove all the basic apps that make it function like a phone otherwise I guess I will make do with freezing and hiding them. Love removing all clutter possible.
Will be waiting to see if CM10 can come along much less buggy than all the CM9 and ICS ROMs that I have looked at. Silly LG hampering the development of ROMs because there isn't an official ICS update to work off and its late 2012 already. Hoping for some good news though with what I have read about SK and them getting ICS.

[Q] Apps safe to remove / debloat guide?

I didn't spot any thread around here covering the topic of debloating stock sony firmware. Not that it would be cluttered like other manufacturers firmware, but theres still room for improvement
Is there a guide somewhere or a list of all apk safe to disable/remove (provided root acces) on sony firmwares? Similar to a Samsung Galaxy S2 related guide here or another very exhaustive one here (<- preferred).

I'm from the X10i & the Arc forums, I use this as a guide
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1089470
Good Luck
* If you want to delete a app by Root-Explorer, don't update it by Playstore first before removing it. (Facebook)
* Some apps can be removed by Settings - Apps etc.
Sent from my LT30p using xda Hotline

Well on tx stock, I got the following apps disabled. ;/
my phone is running fine. From start up to everyday use.

This all depends on what functions you use for the phone. Deleting apps stops their functionality, so you always reduce the functions of the phone when deleting apps. It is persona l preference on which apps you want to delete.
However, there are plenty of apps that are "safe" to delete and still keep your phone working as a phone. The best way I have found of doing this is not by following other peoples list but by using Titanium Backup to "freeze" apps and then test the phone to see if it still works the way I want it. Then I could delete the app. If I ost some functionality I would defrost the app and no harm is done.

gregbradley said:
This all depends on what functions you use for the phone. Deleting apps stops their functionality, so you always reduce the functions of the phone when deleting apps. It is persona l preference on which apps you want to delete.
However, there are plenty of apps that are "safe" to delete and still keep your phone working as a phone. The best way I have found of doing this is not by following other peoples list but by using Titanium Backup to "freeze" apps and then test the phone to see if it still works the way I want it. Then I could delete the app. If I ost some functionality I would defrost the app and no harm is done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What Greg says is right, but to add to it:
Apps that you can "disable" will not effect the functionality of the phone, you will just lose the function of the app in question.
Secondly, if you are using titanium back up to freeze system apps, and you are not sure what the app you are freezing does you might stop your system from working, so before you freeze anything you are unsure of, take a full backup first so you can restore it if your system becomes unstable.
Please post your results in this thread for others to learn from.
There is also a system app cleaner in flashtool, although I have not used it with the T yet.
Sent from my LT30p using xda app-developers app

gregbradley said:
Deleting apps stops their functionality, so you always reduce the functions of the phone when deleting apps. It is personal preference on which apps you want to delete. *snip* However, there are plenty of apps that are "safe" to delete
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As for the first part of your post, I'm fully aware of. In fact thats the reason why I'd like to have some of useless stuff removed (numerous FB clients/apps/agents for example) But thanks for putting it here as other users might not be aware of the possible issues.
The part in bold is of most interest to me. I'm totally not an Android novice, I know most crucial system packages. Derping around in relatively pure Android releases like AOSP and CM10 and reading the same package names over and over again gives a feel what is Android related and what is vendor specific. For Sammy/Touchwiz I know which package does what, but with Sony I'm new and dont know which files are safe to remove without breaking the system. Hence this thread.
[email protected] said:
What Greg says is right, but to add to it: *snip*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course same as above. I do not use TiB though, I use an app called System App Remover. I know TiB very vell of course, but then, who doesn't But again, I'm not interested in getting informations what removing or freezing apk's means in general, I'm interested in which are essential to Sonys UI and will break the system if removed.
I'll have a look at the link provided to the Arc/X10 forums.
Gesendet von meinem ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TG mit Tapatalk 2

LitoNi said:
Well on tx stock, I got the following apps disabled. ;/
my phone is running fine. From start up to everyday use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yesterday I found out that disabeling Setup Guide resulted in me losing all APN settings and the phone refused to (automatically) recreate them. They got recreated without any fuzz after enabeling the setup wizard and running it. I'll eventually try to recreate this as I fight with myself if this connected or if I coincidentally hit a time where my network decided to derp on me.

schaggo said:
Yesterday I found out that disabeling Setup Guide resulted in me losing all APN settings and the phone refused to (automatically) recreate them. They got recreated without any fuzz after enabeling the setup wizard and running it. I'll eventually try to recreate this as I fight with myself if this connected or if I coincidentally hit a time where my network decided to derp on me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure whats that got to do with it, Setup guide is one of the first apps i delte. Unless this an app from your carrier that loads the apn settings...mine are downloaded automatically from vodafone.

Rooted, now what?

I got a new wifi S2, installed the permissive kernel and rooted it. I installed TWRP and made a backup. Now I've got an uninstall app and I've removed a few things; primarily Knox and the security logger so that it quits whining at me. I have a strong desire to never ever use the cloud, create a Samsung account, or a Google account. I really just want to load some books onto it and DLNA some music and videos.
So I want to get rid of all the stuff that I'll never be able to use but it's not clear to me how to identify all that. I'm a long time Unix guy but not at all an android guy. If something prompts me to create an account I know I want to uninstall it, but damned if I can figure out how to identify what to uninstall from what icon I touched.
I've found bloatware lists but they're all somewhat old and not for the S2, so it's not clear to me if I should trust them. I'd like to avoid trial and error "uninstall and reinstall if something doesn't work" or the even more dreaded "uninstall and find out six months later that something doesn't work". Can anyone point me at a good list of what I can remove, or where I can figure out how to determine that for myself? Thanks.

Better start freezen apps instead of uninstalling them. I use titanium backup for that, but you can use whatever you like. Just be carefull freezing or uninstalling OS related apps, you can end in a bootloop, but you always have the odin flash method to reflash your system back to normal. Just don't play around with partitions or /dev .
Right now I using my tablet unrooted and untouched, so I can't be more specific which apps you can freeze without problems.

He doesn't need odin as he has a twrp backup.
I take it you are using System App Remover (root) to uninstall system apps? If so you are pretty safe as they are backed up and can be restored any time if something goes wrong.
Also are you aware without a Google account you will lose part of the functionality of an Android device?
Samsungs account you can do without. All that stuff related to it can be deleted, but don't advise removing any of the Google core services from the stock rom.
If you really want a GAPPless rom then you're better off with a non stock custom rom like CM or AOSP.
Not much in that area of development at the moment, but there are a couple of members working on it.

ashyx said:
He doesn't need odin as he has a twrp backup.
I take it you are using System App Remover (root) to uninstall system apps? If so you are pretty safe as they are backed up and can be restored any time if something goes wrong.
Also are you aware without a Google account you will lose part of the functionality of an Android device?
Samsungs account you can do without. All that stuff related to it can be deleted, but don't advise removing any of the Google core services from the stock rom.
If you really want a GAPPless rom then you're better off with a non stock custom rom like CM or AOSP.
Not much in that area of development at the moment, but there are a couple of members working on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, thanks. If I lose functionality to avoid Google watching over my shoulder I'm all for it. I'm old and probably overprotective of what's my business and not theirs. In truth, I bought the S2 because I have a collection of chess book pdf's and djvu's that I want to be able to read while I'm sitting at my chess board. I got the 9.7 inch S2 because the old eyes aren't what they used to be. Anything I can do beyond that is icing on the cake.
I do have the app remover, and I've removed the stuff that was obvious to me (like the Microsoft Office stubs). But there are still lots of things that bring up a prompt for an account when I run them and it's not clear to me how to figure out what app to remove to get rid of that particular thing. On Linux I could use rpm -q to figure out what rpm contained a file I want to remove and I'd be good to go. I've tried googling some of the app names but the "descriptions" I end up finding are particularly unenlightening. And since this is definitely not my area of expertise I don't really want to operate in "let's remove this and see what happens" even if I can reinstall the app from its backup. I've been doing software development and sysadmin for more than 35 years now and that just doesn't seem like the way to approach this.
I was looking at CM, which seems like it might be what I'm looking for, but it's still in alpha and my skill level is probably not up to coping with that so I'm back with the problem of how to decide what to get rid of.