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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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
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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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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.
Can someone tell me how to safe root my incs? I'm on the stock ota gb. I want to do the Android revolution hd but I'm new to rooting. I'm confused about custom kernals and stuff. How do I get sense 3.0? It said there's a thing for that to. I'd search but I know that all that comes up is Rom garbage. I don't want to brink my first Android phone! Thanks.
Sent from my HTC Incredible S using XDA App
Oh and I'd like to be able to go stock if I need repairs.
Sent from my HTC Incredible S using XDA App
For Incredible S there is only one way to do this, and that's with the revolutionary tool, found here: http://revolutionary.io/
Download that tool and type in the necessary info you need to get the beta key
Make sure that during this, your phone is connected to your Windows PC via USB, and that USB debugging is checked ON (Settings > Applications > Development). Also make sure that Fast Boot is turned OFF(Settings > Power > Fastboot).
Once you have the beta key, open the zip file that downloaded and open the .exe file, it will bring up a command prompt (btw, you CANNOT have HTC Sync on your computer. Uninstall it if you do, or this won't work). In the command prompt, type in your beta key (case sensitive) and press enter. The revolutionary tool will now attempt to convert your phone to S-OFF. Congratulations, you have rooted your Incredible S! The developers that made that tool got your back, and the tool automatically creates a backup of your system as it is at that moment. That means from that from the moment your phone is rooted and on, if you ever mess anything up by flashing a ROM that isn't compatible with your OS or do anything to mess your phone up, you can reboot the backup file (saved on your SD card so it will never go anywhere) and you are back to normal the way you started, so no worries. You are free to experiment. You'll also notice you have a new recovery boot screen - that's ClockworkMod Recovery and it is installed automatically with the revolutionary tool. From now on whenever you want to flash a new ROM or make a backup without ROM Manager - you can "Boot to recovery" and it will bring you to that blue and black screen. From there you can create a backup, or mount your USB to your PC and move files onto the SD card (necessary for flashing new ROMs).
Now you need to ask yourself why you rooted your phone. If you're like me, you'll want a custom ROM and a new interface. Or maybe you just want a few apps that require root access. Either way - here are two logical next steps:
1) Download Titanium Backup. Shell out the money for the paid version if you can, it's worth it. If not, you can grab the free version. This app is perfect for backing up your apps AS THEY ARE. Do you have 3 stars on all Angry Birds levels and are afraid that switching to a new ROM will delete all your data? Fear no more. Download and install Titanium, go to the middle tab called "Backup/Restore", press Menu and go to "Batch" This automatically batches together your User Apps that you want to backup. BTW, after your phone is rooted, many apps will ask you permission to grant it root access. Always allow and always 'remember'.
Once your user apps are backed up, you can install a new ROM. Once your new ROM is installed, go back to the market and download Titanium again (yes, again, since after installing a new ROM, your apps are gone). Luckily, your apps are synced to your gmail account, so when you install Titanium back to your phone, it has all your information backed up, even though you technically uninstalled the app . Titanium is a miracle worker.
2) Download ROM Manager from the app store. Search the forums if you are interested in learning about ROMs. If you want to get straight into the action with a program that does the work for you. Go to ROM Manager > Download ROM, and download one of the choices it gives you, but DO NOT download Cyanogen Nightly unless you really know what you're doing. However, CyanogenMod 7.1.0 RC-1 is a perfect choice, and you'll find it's actually one of the most used ROMs. Download that one, and you'll also be prompted to download Google Apps along with it, which you should definitely do. It will ask you to clear your cache and davlik cache, which you MUST DO. Remember you already have a backup, so no need to make another one at this point. Check to clear caches, then it will reboot you straight into the process. Congratulations, you've installed your first custom ROM
Once Cyanogen is installed, go to the market and download Titanium, and re-install your backed-up apps by going to the middle tab and pressing menu > Batch, and scrolling down to "Restore". Click the "Run" button nect to "Restore missing apps with Data"
Now if you paid for Titanium, your work is done. If you didn't, you have to install one-by-one (basically just press Install a bunch of times instead of it being automated - it's not as laborious as it seems). Now you are running a custom ROM with all your old apps and you are now free to explore the world of rooted apps and system management.
2a - you said you wanted Sense 3.0, so choose a ROM that comes with that (I think Android Revolution HD does? not sure but search in the Sensation S development forum and you'll see all the ROMs available and what they come with). ROM Manager won't do the work for you on this though - you have to download the files and put them on your SD card (the same way you do it with the Revolutionary tool), then flash the ROM and corresponding kernel one by one (the link for the corresponding kernel will usually be given to you along with the ROM so it's just a matter of downloading it). Once the new ROM is flashed you can create a backup of it with ROM Manager (or you can do it from the Clockwork boot screen)
By the way, this question gets asked many many times here, so definitely do a search - the information is all here.
I was in the same spot a week ago where i just got my incredible s and i was debating whether to flash a custom rom. The only thing that was holding me back was that i was scared i might mess up and end up with a bricked phone but everything went rather smoothly. The process is pretty simple just follow the instructions from this guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1036581
Hello. I am using Samsung Galaxy Note GT-N7000, N7000ZSLR1, Android 4.1.2 Hong Kong version. There are something I am not quite satisfied with the ROM, I have rooted my device with Chinese one key root app so I wonder if there are some ways to customize the ROM.
1. The first thing is Notification screen. In this Android 4.1.2, when you pull it down, the shortcuts at the top will first display the tiles in picture 1, then it will automatically swipe to picture 2:
Picture 1:
Picture 2:
Is there any method that can modify / remove tiles at the top? Or at least make it like picture 2 in default when I pull down, no swiping.
2. In this ROM, the Task Manager no longer display in app drawer like Android 2.3.6, instead I need to long press Home button to go to "Recent App" screen and tap the pie chart icon at the lower left corner to open Task Manager. I'm curious, the system app is in \system\app, and it IS an .apk. So I wonder if I can at least make a shortcut from it and add to "Home Screen", I always need to use it and I don't want to download third party app for this shortcut.
Recent Apps screen:
View in ES File Explorer:
3. The default Launcher in the stock ROM is TouchWizHome, and by default there are no indication when you tap an icon to open the app. So I wonder if I can add some "effect" to notify me when I open an app, like dim the icon or glow at the edge of icon.
4. If you are a Titanium Backup user, please tell me that should I wipe system apps' data first before uninstall it. Because it always gives me a feeling of "unclean" if I don't wipe the data before uninstall it. I always uninstall system app to keep my phone slimmer and faster.
Thank you in advance.
first, to change anything with the user interface aka UI your rom must be deodexed, so you need to create a deodexed rom from this rom or look for it in a chinease android forum (defnitely you will find it).
once your rom is deodexed, you can flash one of AryaMod or Sweet rom mods to change the interface, i think most of them will work because of the same framework but make a full backup because they might not work.
if you only need to change the order of quick toggles in the notification panel i think you can do it from settings >> display
or you can make your own mods following one of the awesome guides in this forum but that will take you time and you may face bootloops
ASMI1 said:
first, to change anything with the user interface aka UI your rom must be deodexed, so you need to create a deodexed rom from this rom or look for it in a chinease android forum (defnitely you will find it).
once your rom is deodexed, you can flash one of AryaMod or Sweet rom mods to change the interface, i think most of them will work because of the same framework but make a full backup because they might not work.
if you only need to change the order of quick toggles in the notification panel i think you can do it from settings >> display
or you can make your own mods following one of the awesome guides in this forum but that will take you time and you may face bootloops
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How about question 2 and 4?
2/ i think there is a resizable widget of the task manager, all you have to do is place it in your home screen and when you click on it it will open the task manager. i have no idea about how to make the task manager appear in the app drawer but sure there is a way to do it.
4/ yes i always use titanium backup to backup and restore my non-cloud-based apps but not from and to different android version. never restore for example apps that were backed up on jellybean to kitkat or any other android version cuz this will cause force-close and other problems. whenever you are going to install new rom just wipe /preload and /system (/data partition will be wiped automatically when you make wipe data - factory reset) this way you will leave no trace of old system apps data, config, cache or anything.
don't uninstall system apps just freeze them using titanium backup or directly from app settings if you are on ics or above. if you removed an important system app like google contact sync that you may think not important you may get force-close, unmounted storage, ui crash all the time and similar problems.
Hope i helped you
ASMI1 said:
Hope i helped you
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2/ ...Yes you think, but there is not, if it has then I'll place it at home screen from the start... I just want to know how to make that system app have a shortcut icon...
4/ But won't uninstall create more space for my system? I mean frezzing them will still occupy some space right?
Vulturon said:
But won't uninstall create more space for my system? I mean frezzing them will still occupy some space right?
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It is just a safety procedure. Freeze the app and use your phone for a few days. If nothing funny happens go ahead and uninstall it to reclaim the space.
If you are absolutely sure the particular app you want to uninstall will not be needed anymore just uninstall it without going thru the freeze time.