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I know there are some people like myself who actually like Sense and doing a 'full' root can be daunting, especailly if all you want to do is remove the crud that Vodafone or your Telco install on your branded Legend. But there is no reason this can't be used to remove apps that are in a custom ROM - as far as I am aware! If someone with a custom ROM could confirm this, that would be great!
Righto, as per usual here is the disclaimer - doing this is risky and you do so at your own peril! Don't come crying to me or Paul @ MoDaCo if it bricks your phone (it shouldn't but this is just a warning)
Enough of that you get the idea Now for the fun bit!
First if you are not you'll need VISIONary+ from MoDaCo, at the time of this writing r13 is the latest and is available on page 7.
Please read and check the original post as there may be an updated version. If you are rooted skip to the next step.
This is Paul's guide he done quickly on his G2, it's more of a pictorial guide (same rules apply to the Legend as G2 in this case).
Once installed use the Temproot option, this can take 15 seconds or so to complete, use a Terminal Emulator and type su then return/enter and your $ should change to a # - this means you have temproot.
Go to the market and install SuperUser, Titanium Backup, BusyBox.
Open Titanium Backup allowing it root access when prompted, go to Backup/Restore and scroll to find one of the preinstalled bloatware apps, I chose the Vodafone Music app and the Vodafone Web app.
Long hold on the app you want to remove and scroll down a bit and choose the option "Force remove app (by recovery exploit)"
This will reboot your phone TWICE, you will get the recovery screen up - LET IT RUN IT's COURSE! DO NOT INTERRUPT THIS.
Once it boots back into your normal check that the app is no longer in your App drawer
Repeat for all the Apps that came preinstalled that you don't want, just be careful you don't remove anything that may still be needed!
A huge thanks to Paul at MoDaCo for this ingenious hack and the Titanium Backup, BusyBox and SuperUser developers for their hard work in writing their apps which also allow us to easy do this
Oh and you can use the Temproot on boot to have a sortof but not fully permaroot
Great work. I'll try on CM 6.1 RC1. One thing though...If I'm rooted I presume I need only the Titanium backup not VISIONary or other tools, right?
Yes you need the other apps, but you can remove them afterwards if you want. You'll need SuperUser to be able to grant Titanium Backup access, and Titanium Backup requires BusyBox to be installed - Titanium Backup gives you the option to install BusyBox if you press the 'Problems?' button under the Overview tab.
PS: you can use the free version of Titanium Backup for this exercise.
Yes, thank you. I knew about busybox and the option to install it from Titanium. SuperUser I have it already since I'm using CyanogenMod RC1 and it is included in the ROM (I think it is OK like this). So only Titanium (+busybox) needs to be installed.
I'll give it a try and let you know the results. I'll try to remove a rather large application (for ex Google Maps) and I'll install it afterward on the sdcard (since it is system appl, it cannot be moved directly to sdcard)
Later edit: IT WORKS! So I've tried to (and succeeded) remove 2 "system" applications: Google Maps and Calculator. Both were removed and the free space is now available (before 80 Mb free, after 91.2 Mb free).
There was only one issue with Maps, the icon still showed up in the application drawer and it was working (even after going through all above). After several checks I found the reason. The Maps were installed twice...the version included in the CM ROM (that was deleted by this procedure) AND the updated Maps (it once asked for upgrading the application from the market and I did that). After removing the "system installed" version of Google Maps, the "updates" remained. I went to Settings-Applications-Manage Applications and I found Maps there. I've uninstalled the updates then rebooted the phone. After that the icon was gone completely.
To conclude, for CM ROMS (or for all phones that are already rooted and have already the SU application), the steps to be performed for removing a system appl are:
1. Install Titanium Backup
2. Press (as instructed) "Problems" button. This will install a working version of busybox.
3. Check if the application you want to remove, has also updates (from Market or some other places) installed. If YES, go to Settings-Applications-Manage Applications and uninstall all the updates.
4. Start Titanium Backup and perform the steps indicated in the first post by TheLegendaryJay.
So it is working on custom ROM's as well and you don't need VISIONary or other application/tools.
All credits go to Paul, CM team and this whole community, the ones which made such things possible for our phones. TheLegendaryJay, thank you also for sharing this with us. Perhaps for rooted phones it is easier to remove applications with adb commands, but some are maybe not so technical to install the SDK or know how to use it (I can be counted as one of them), or they just might want to remove an application when they don't have a pc with SDK nearby.
yap, can confirm this. works great on cm 6.1 rc1. thanks for the hint
For you guys who are rooted - why not just flash the overlay filesystem patch, enable it, and then use any file explorer and go to /system/app/ and delete the apps you dont want? just a tip, it's much easier.. (and takes less time)
Because one of the reasons for which I wanted to rip out an application from the ROM is to gain some more space... By using overlay system, as I understood, you're practically duplicate the whole system to make it accessible for writing so I don't know if you gain some more space. Eventually you'll have less. Or, if that space is on the sdcard, that does not suit me also cause as I know, is working slower from there. Anyhow, I don't want to detail this here cause we'll be off-topic.
Rapier said:
Because one of the reasons for which I wanted to rip out an application from the ROM is to gain some more space... By using overlay system, as I understood, you're practically duplicate the whole system to make it accessible for writing so I don't know if you gain some more space. Eventually you'll have less. Or, if that space is on the sdcard, that does not suit me also cause as I know, is working slower from there. Anyhow, I don't want to detail this here cause we'll be off-topic.
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Click to collapse
As I understand it, the system folder is only linked so the phone believes it's on the SD-card. This should mean, no extra space is taken (except for the few kB that makes this possible). i could be wrong, but I use system overlay and I see no whatsoever decrease in performance. Not in benchmarks nor in usage.
If you are rooted - and dont want system overlay, I still think there is a better wway - ADB! just mount system, cd to system/app, ls it and rm whatever apps ypu dont want.. no need for multiple reboots - quick and effective
adb way might be quicker but it might prove to be ineffective (at least for me it was). In order to remove an application, you must check its filename (with ls command). I've tried to remove Facebook and Twitter applications using adb remove and guess what...they're still there. I admit I might have done something wrong, what I'm saying is that through this new method described above, someone is able to remove an appl by chosing it from a list. For the ones that don't feel so confortable using adb, this is an alternative
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
Rapier said:
adb way might be quicker but it might prove to be ineffective (at least for me it was). In order to remove an application, you must check its filename (with ls command). I've tried to remove Facebook and Twitter applications using adb remove and guess what...they're still there. I admit I might have done something wrong, what I'm saying is that through this new method described above, someone is able to remove an appl by chosing it from a list. For the ones that don't feel so confortable using adb, this is an alternative
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When it comes to ADB, you must write the filename exactly as it is, if you want to remove Facebook.apk you must rm Facebook.apk, not facebook.apk or just rm Facebook*
What I do, I ls all files, copy the filenames I want to remove into into a txt file. ex. "rm facebook.apk Torch.apk voiceDialer.apk AndroidTerm.apk" and so on. When I flash a new rom, i just copy that file string and remove em all with that one command ofc. I ls it after and check if there is anything new I want to remove, but I get rid of most of it in a few seconds. (good tip!)
I understood that. Now I've checked again and I know what happened...the same thing I said above. The appl was removed also with adb command but the updates of that appl were not. I've removed the updates from Settings and after that the whole appl was gone (Facebook in this case). So both metods work, everyone can choose what he likes more
Anyway this was much more to test if it's working on custom ROMs as was asked by TheLegendaryJay and less as of providing an alternate way for rooted owners.
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
You both are wrong. Overlay is just an overlay... it uses several file systems or parts of file systems (directories, files), merge them and show them to us as one new merged file system. The principle is such that if U have one read-only and one read-write file system merged together, all writes are then performed to that read-write one. If you'd like to delete one file from read-only portion, that action is noted on read-write portion and your system doesn't t see that file again through merged file system whereas it is in fact still there...
BlaY0 said:
You both are wrong. Overlay is just an overlay... it uses several file systems or parts of file systems (directories, files), merge them and show them to us as one new merged file system. The principle is such that if U have one read-only and one read-write file system merged together, all writes are then performed to that read-write one. If you'd like to delete one file from read-only portion, that action is noted on read-write portion and your system doesn't t see that file again through merged file system whereas it is in fact still there...
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Click to collapse
thanks for this, great info. Now I'm glad I use adb and not file overlay for removing files
Why's that? Overlay is really handy thing for testing... U can make the system think that the file is not there but in fact is. If something goes wrong (boot loop) because of that, U just disable overlay and U R back on with origial state. After U are satisfied with changes, U can merge those changes into read-only file system via recovery mode.
Sent from my HTC Legend
BlaY0, you're totally right. Overlay is a great thing for testing (and by the way many thanks you for what you did). But if you're not a tester, just an enthusiast who look for new stuff for his phone, overlay could be much more than he needs.
I'm looking for example to have as much free space in memory as possible. REAL free space. If I'm using overlay, that will not be gained right? The read only files will still be there, only the overlay will show them "deleted". So...what I'm doing instead is that I'm flashing one of the existing ROMs (as per my preferences - CM 6.1 RC1 for ex.) that will not "brick" my phone, I customize it with widgets and applications as I like, than I start deleting what I don't need. For sure I can use overlay for that, but I can do it also without it. This topic presented an alternative for doing that, to the known adb commands. Also from what I've understood, the method in this topic is more aimed to the ones that are not (or don't want to be) rooted. And for those, the adb method doesn't work
You sure are totally right, but then again if you deleted some apk from /system/app that is needed for some other apk and U didn't know about that, you could end up with a so called boot loop. And if this is done by some noob, the simplest way for him to restore would be to wipe and reflash the original ROM. Overay can prevent such accidents. Actually even with overlay you can save space especially where is needed the most, that's on data partition - there's no need for dex in dalvik-cache any more etc. and surely you get more free ram as that app isn't loading any more. For the system partition it actually doesn't matter if it is full in fact why it shouldn't be full. When we get our S-OFF the first thing I will do is to rearange mtd partitions shrinking system and extending data coz now I have like nearly 50 MB free on system partition that I can not use wisely.
Sent from my HTC Legend
Thanks, VF music and web app not banished from my Legend
Okay, I must be doing something wrong, but I have no idea what. I have the same ROM as Rapier on my Desire, I have Titanium Backup and I did everything he said above. The pre-installed apps are uninstalled with TB (Car app, News and Weather, Facebook, Twitter, Google Voice, Maps, Quickoffice 2.0 which I have no idea what really is), I clear the Dalvik cache and many mega are freed. Then if I reboot, they're back. Like nothing happened.
Do you have any idea or should I give more details? Thanks for the help, guys.
Have you checked also if those applications you're removing do not have some updates installed? Because if they do, you'll get them back on the phone. First remove the updates from each application (from normal "Application" management), then remove the application residing in system with TB.
PS. QuickOffice is a suite program similar with MS Office, that allows you to read (and in the paid version also to write) office documents (.doc, .xls, .ppt...etc)
Thank you for your quick reply.
Yes, I have checked and uninstalled all updates. They are all with the basic version.
About Quickoffice, I know what it is It's just that the one that came with CM 6.1.0 RC1 cannot be accessed, it can only be used to open supported file formats (I just found out after posting here ). I'd prefer the normal Quickoffice with which I can access my dropbox and Google docs too, that's why I wanted to uninstall this in the first place.
Is there any way to re-load the default Samsung Captivate calendar app without starting from scratch? I deleted it thinking that I wouldn't really need it (stupid)and now I realize most calendar apps look for it. If not, is there an independent calendar app that could replace it?
Thanks a lot.
-Tony
Are you on stock or a custom rom? If it's the latter I would just download the zip again, extract the calender apk and place it in the correct folder (using root explorer or whatever) and apply permissions again, and reboot.
Sent from my Captivate
Every time I try to install the apk it tells me that it could not be installed. I tried downloading it from a few different sources and I get the same result every time. I put it into the system folder and try to instal it from there. I've gotten rid of all the other calendar files. No clue why I can't install the new one. I'm rooted and have permissions to side-load apps. any advice?
tonyfiore75 said:
Every time I try to install the apk it tells me that it could not be installed. I tried downloading it from a few different sources and I get the same result every time. I put it into the system folder and try to instal it from there. I've gotten rid of all the other calendar files. No clue why I can't install the new one. I'm rooted and have permissions to side-load apps. any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because you don't need to install it. Put the apk in the system folder, make sure it has the correct file permissions and then reboot. Done!
Okay. Well, it's now in the System folder as far as I can tell. I rebooted andthe Calendar is still not installed. What I'm not sure about is the permissions. What are the "correct permissions"? as in, what should they be set to and how would I chane them if I needed to?
Anyone? This has been driving me crazy for like two weeks now.
Still no dice...
Okay, I'm taking a crack at bumping this again. Honestly, I have no idea why this isn't working. I see the apk and odex files listed under my /system folder.
When I check Titanium Backup I see the following files:
com.android.calendar
com.android.providers.calendar
They're both crossed out.
Why won't they install? What am I doing wrong?
tonyfiore75 said:
Okay, I'm taking a crack at bumping this again. Honestly, I have no idea why this isn't working. I see the apk and odex files listed under my /system folder.
When I check Titanium Backup I see the following files:
com.android.calendar
com.android.providers.calendar
They're both crossed out.
Why won't they install? What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think these apps should be under "/system/app" and not "/system" folder.
Yeah, I also have them under /system/app but still no luck. This is really driving me nuts. They're there. For all intents and purposes the phone SHOULD recognize them and install them... but it doesn't. Weird. I honestly don't know what I should do except forget it.
I tried posting this in the app and themes forum but had no luck, I have an issue with the Medscape app. I wasn't able to update the library so I uninstalled the app and manually deleted the library files from me Medscape folder, later I learned that the update problem was because of the adblock app. I solved that and tried to reinstall Medscape, so far so good. When I try to re install the library files, the app tells me theres no update available (???) and it shows the current files as if they are installed, but the folder is still deleted and when I try to look up something in the database, nothing comes up.
Is there a way to wipe completely the Medscape db registry so I can do clean install?
Thanks a lot
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I had the exact same problem and I wasn't able to solve it... Only a factory reset did it...
I'm not root but if you are root go to /data folder and delete medscape info from that. I think it might work.
The problem is that you deleted the Mescape folder from your SD card but it contains a database file (maybe the index of articles) so anything you search returns nothing!
The solution would be to delete that old account information and data, and I think it resides in the /data folder but I can't confirm that because I'm not root.
Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't work. Nothing related to medscape on the /data folder. I'll keep looking or I'll clean install when I flash Gingerbread
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Having similar Medscape problem, this time I cannot delete Medscape pics/icons in my Gallery. Practically FC's whenever I try to open.
These are .PNG files - is there a trick to delete these?
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UPDATE: I discovered that I could delete one of the PNG pics in the Gallery folder but not delete a second one - the Gallery app would freeze. It actually required a power ON/OFF to "reset" the gallery folder (whose ("number of files") did show that the pic was indeed deleted) and permit me to delete another image. For some reason, as I was fiddling with the FILES app, a Medscape folder popped up (it hadn't appeared before) and it had hundreds of low-kb files in it, including the PNGs. Luckily I was able to delete this Medscape folder without a hitch... other than the 2 minutes it took to actually delete. And wouldn't you know it: my Epic is running faster than ever. What is in that Medscape app I wonder...
===
cheers/dom
My issue is another,
I m using SG2 rooted, i removed my ad blocker and re install Medscape.
So i finaly managed to start instaling the resaurces .... the resaurces started from 1 of 24 ...and downloading ...
Is it logical to keep downloading ...after the 24 ... has been downloaded already?
for example 34 of 24 ...and keep going??
Hi!
I've a problem when trying to update my Medscape app. When I try to get ref updates, it suddently appears: "Not able to complete download at this time"
I've read this post , where they speak about ad blocking apps causing this problem, however I'm using cyanogenmod CM11 M12, without any apps of this kind, more over, I searched for Hosts file, and when I open it, there's only this line: "127.0.0.1 localhost". I don't know what else to do, I've tried unistalling the app, cleaning all data before so, In deed, I've also tried to do a clean install of CM11 M12, with no luck.
Wish you could help me!
Alright, didn't find anything related to this elsewhere, so I'm putting it here:
My Bionic is running on 5.9.901, rooted, no issues. I changed the ro.product.manufacturer and ro.product.model values in my build.prop temporarily to test something. Rebooted and the following apps started force closing: Titanium Backup, Swype (latest beta, not built in), Wifi Tether (GoogleCode version, latest alpha), and Flikie Wallpapers HD.
I figure ok, change what I did back to stock and reboot. That should fix the problem.
Nope. These same apps are still force closing on my. Now, here's the twist; I've removed and reinstalled each one with the same results. Somehow, modifying those two variables in my build.prop has changed something that is keeping these apps (and ONLY these apps) from installing/running properly.
Checking the stack traces from the app crashes, Titanium Backup indicates it's unable to find a file located within /data/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup/files. Upon inspection, the entire directory under /data/data for TB contains nothing, even after reinstall. Permissions for /data and /data/data are set to 771. This is as far as I've gotten and I don't know what direction to go next.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
EDIT: Forgot to put in here that I've already tried running fix permissions from the bootstrap and that didn't change anything.
EDIT 2: Update. Figured out why the apps are force-closing. For some reason, when they're being reinstalled, the lib files (with the .so extension) are not being created in /data/data. If I open up the APK and copy the .so files to their rightful places, the app will then work fine. If, however, I remove and reinstall again, same thing happens. Something has changed, but I'm unable to figure out what and nothing logical makes sense at this point. Now that TB is working, I might just try a factory reset.
how do you edit build.prop? i have a droid bionic and used rom toolbox to tweak the lcd density and i think it messed something up. i am unable to install pandora or aim as it says my device is not compatible.
(I posted a similar topic here: forum.cyanogenmod.org/topic/116749-launchers-crash-no-matter-what/)
I use various CM versions on my Nook HD+, including the stable 10.2.1, the Unofficial 12.0 and 12.1 versions, and several nightlies. I was just getting more stuff from Google Play when things started crashing. So I rebooted my tablet, hoping to clear up some problems. I choose a launcher, and it says "Unfortunately, Trebuchet has stopped."
I have more than one launcher, so I tried them all. Same type of error. I've flashed different versions of CM in an attempt to clear up the problem, but to no avail. My tablet is pretty much unusable now. I need help! Any suggestions are welcome.
Did you do "wipe /data & factory reset" when going between CM10 and CM12.x?
No, because I haven't made a backup, yet. I have personal data I want to save.
CyanogenLover said:
No, because I haven't made a backup, yet. I have personal data I want to save.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to wipe /data when upgrading or downgrading between major releases of CM.
Sent from my BN NookHD+ using XDA Premium HD app
I don't mean to question your response, but I am curious - How will wiping my Nook fix the launcher problem? I was hoping for a simpler solution.
CyanogenLover said:
...
How will wiping my Nook fix the launcher problem?
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The HD+'s /data partition holds the apps -- including launcher apps -- and their data/settings (to see all the apps in the partition, just browse the /data/app folder using a file-manager app that has "root explorer" permission enabled).
Wiping /data forces a clean re-install of the apps and re-initialization of their data/settings which otherwise might be incompatible with the newly flashed ROM version.
digixmax said:
... Wiping /data forces a clean re-install of the apps and re-initialization of their data/settings which otherwise might be incompatible with the newly flashed ROM version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I know what you're saying, but please clarify: Does wiping /data delete the installed apps, or merely the data they store? If the latter is true, what should I avoid doing if I want to keep my apps? I'm trying to be careful not to get rid of the apps themselves, as I have so many (some are paid apps, and I really don't want to have to pay for them again).
A "wipe" re-formats the partition so the partition's content -- the apps as well as their data/settings -- will effectively disappear.
For all apps (whether free or paid) acquired from Google Play store (and Amazon App store) you should be able to re-download them at no-charge. If you have enabled the "Backup and Restore" option for Google Play store on your current ROM, typically your apps will be automatically re-downloaded to your device after you sign in (to Google Play store) on the new (or newly re-flashed) ROM. However, the apps' personalized settings will not be restored and you will have to re-enter them.
A "wipe" re-formats the partition so the partition's content -- the apps as well as their data/settings -- will effectively disappear. ...The apps' personalized settings will not be restored and you will have to re-enter them.
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Click to collapse
Where should I look for personalized settings? I can access CM's file manager via a startup manager, if that helps.
CyanogenLover said:
Where should I look for personalized settings? I can access CM's file manager via a startup manager, if that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The apps and their data are in their respective individual folders in /data/app folders, but are unlikely stored in user-readable format.
digixmax said:
The apps and their data are in their respective individual folders in /data/app folders, but are unlikely stored in user-readable format.
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Click to collapse
I don't care if they're in a format that I can open; I merely want to copy this info elsewhere, so I can restore it when the data is wiped. In fact, I might be able to figure out which app is causing the problem (if it is an app).
CyanogenLover said:
I don't care if they're in a format that I can open; I merely want to copy this info elsewhere, so I can restore it when the data is wiped.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The simplest way to backup and restore an app and its data/settings is to use a Backup/Restore app such as Titatium Backup.
Ahhh, my first query... I'm getting misty-eyed.