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.
Click to expand...
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...
Click to expand...
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.
I have a plain vanilla CM10.1 on my HD+. The included CM File Manager runs fine with root privilege. I've also installed a newer version of Jackpal's Term (terminal emulator) which runs fine as well with root.
However, the current version of ES File Manager will not run with root privilege. When I try to activate this, I just get the message "Sorry, test failed." Interestingly, the app is visible in Settings>Superuser as "allowed", but it still fails to acquire root. (I already uninstalled and reinstalled ES File Manager a couple of times with no success.)
Additionally, another app I tried to install (SambaDroid) gets denied root by the CM Superuser app without me even being able to say yes or no.
So something is not working as it should be...?
Have you tried installing supersu from the market?
Sent from my PG86100 using xda app-developers app
jpisini said:
Have you tried installing supersu from the market?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I'm not sure whether installing multiple superuser apps is a good idea... I may end up with a system where the two apps slug it out and
I am left without root access. (OK, I do have backups so that wouldn't be a catastrophe.)
Having said that, I would have tried installing another SU if I could get rid of the CM SU in the first place, but these days this thing is baked into the Settings app and I've found no information as to whether (and if so, how) this can be disabled.
Hints anyone?
Seems I am the only one with that specific problem.
The solution (well, not really but probably better than mucking with the CM superuser app): I've removed ES File Manager and installed X-plore File Manager instead. The interface of the latter is not that great but it seems to do most (or all?) of what ES can do (plus it does open password-protected RAR files, a big plus for me). And of course it supports root...
Still I do not understand why ES would not work with the CM superuser but there you go.
I have been trying to get "gsam root companion" to work on my htc one. I've rooted my device just so i could check out the features such as wake lock, etc.
The thing is, it keep saying "The Root Companion application is not installed correctly in /system/priv-app."
I tried manually installing it by copying the "com.gsamlabs.bbm.rootcomanion-1.apk" (whether or not if its the correct file) into the system/priv-app location. That restarted my device, and the file just disappeared from the priv-app location as well, and so the problem persist.
Am i doing everything wrong manually. Wish I could find a tutorial vid =/.
Thank you in advance
elfking7 said:
I have been trying to get "gsam root companion" to work on my htc one. I've rooted my device just so i could check out the features such as wake lock, etc.
The thing is, it keep saying "The Root Companion application is not installed correctly in /system/priv-app."
I tried manually installing it by copying the "com.gsamlabs.bbm.rootcomanion-1.apk" (whether or not if its the correct file) into the system/priv-app location. That restarted my device, and the file just disappeared from the priv-app location as well, and so the problem persist.
Am i doing everything wrong manually. Wish I could find a tutorial vid =/.
Thank you in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in order to write/modify/delete file in /system, you need an unsecured kernel (/system writeable), otherwise all changes made to /system will be reverted at reboot. I'm not using and never used gsam, maybe there is another option but the only one I know is to flash a custom kernel.
Kernel for the htc one (M7) are listed here
make sure to chose one that is compatible with your rom (sense/gpe based or AOSP based)
elfking7 said:
I have been trying to get "gsam root companion" to work on my htc one. I've rooted my device just so i could check out the features such as wake lock, etc.
The thing is, it keep saying "The Root Companion application is not installed correctly in /system/priv-app."
I tried manually installing it by copying the "com.gsamlabs.bbm.rootcomanion-1.apk" (whether or not if its the correct file) into the system/priv-app location. That restarted my device, and the file just disappeared from the priv-app location as well, and so the problem persist.
Am i doing everything wrong manually. Wish I could find a tutorial vid =/.
Thank you in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just fiddled with this the other day, but didn't use the Root Companion app. It's not the Root Companion apk that's moved to /system/priv-app. It's the actual GSam Battery Monitor apk, com.gsamlabs.bbm.apk. The Root Companion app just does the move for you. If you have a file manager with root r/w permission, you should be able to do it yourself. Just move com.gsamlabs.bbm.apk from /data/app to /system/priv-app. Then restart your phone. I actually used an app called Link2SD to convert GSam Battery Monitor from a user app to system app and it accomplished the same thing.
alray said:
in order to write/modify/delete file in /system, you need an unsecured kernel (/system writeable), otherwise all changes made to /system will be reverted at reboot. I'm not using and never used gsam, maybe there is another option but the only one I know is to flash a custom kernel.
Kernel for the htc one (M7) are listed here
make sure to chose one that is compatible with your rom (sense/gpe based or AOSP based)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running the stock AT&T 4.4.2 ROM rooted with the stock kernel and haven't had any issues with changes reverting back after a reboot. I use ES File Explorer & set it to have R/W permissions in that app's settings, but I assume that only applies to that app. Yet I've converted a few apps from user apps to system apps (3rd party launcher GSam Battery Monitor & SuperSU are the ones I remember off the top of my head) and never noticed them switching back to user apps. That is until I update them; then they become user apps. I don't know if this is because the apps I'm using to switch them have SU permissions or what, but none have changed back by simply rebooting. And as far as I know, I haven't done anything to modify the stock kernel from the OTA. Is it even possible to unsecure a stock kernel using apps?
alray said:
in order to write/modify/delete file in /system, you need an unsecured kernel (/system writeable), otherwise all changes made to /system will be reverted at reboot. I'm not using and never used gsam, maybe there is another option but the only one I know is to flash a custom kernel.
Kernel for the htc one (M7) are listed here
make sure to chose one that is compatible with your rom (sense/gpe based or AOSP based)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much. I had this problem for days. Why isn't my unlocked phone writeable in the first place...
sharksfan7 said:
I just fiddled with this the other day, but didn't use the Root Companion app. It's not the Root Companion apk that's moved to /system/priv-app. It's the actual GSam Battery Monitor apk, com.gsamlabs.bbm.apk. The Root Companion app just does the move for you. If you have a file manager with root r/w permission, you should be able to do it yourself. Just move com.gsamlabs.bbm.apk from /data/app to /system/priv-app. Then restart your phone. I actually used an app called Link2SD to convert GSam Battery Monitor from a user app to system app and it accomplished the same thing.
I'm running the stock AT&T 4.4.2 ROM rooted with the stock kernel and haven't had any issues with changes reverting back after a reboot. I use ES File Explorer & set it to have R/W permissions in that app's settings, but I assume that only applies to that app. Yet I've converted a few apps from user apps to system apps (3rd party launcher GSam Battery Monitor & SuperSU are the ones I remember off the top of my head) and never noticed them switching back to user apps. That is until I update them; then they become user apps. I don't know if this is because the apps I'm using to switch them have SU permissions or what, but none have changed back by simply rebooting. And as far as I know, I haven't done anything to modify the stock kernel from the OTA. Is it even possible to unsecure a stock kernel using apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You just used your stock kernal 0.0
Why isn't mine like that. D=
elfking7 said:
You just used your stock kernal 0.0
Why isn't mine like that. D=
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no idea. I didn't even know about needing an unsecure kernel to be able to write to /system. Nor do I know how the stock kernel became unsecure in the first place. All I've done is root the ROM as I normally would by flashing SuperSU. Then grant root permission to the apps that request it. If something in that process makes the stock kernel unsecured, then I don't know what it was.
You said in your OP that you tried manually moving the com.gsamlabs.bbm.rootcomanion-1.apk to /system/priv-app. First of all, that's the wrong apk. See my original reply for the apk you need to move. Do you even have GSam Battery Monitor installed? Battery Monitor & Root Companion are two separate apps. Battery Monitor needs to be installed before Root Companion will do its thing. At least I assume that's the case, b/c like I said before, I didn't use Root Companion to move Battery Monitor. But the description in Root Companion says all it does is move the Battery Monitor apk to /system/priv-app. Secondly, how did you move the apk? What app did you use?
Like I explained previously I originally used an app called Link2SD. That gives an option to convert user apps to system apps & vice versa. Just now I used it to convert GSam back to a user app. I wanted to test if moving the apk manually made a difference. After I converted it to a user app, I used ES File Explorer to cut & paste the GSam apk from /data/app to /system/priv-app. I then restarted my phone. The apk did not disappear and the app continues to work.
sharksfan7 said:
I have no idea. I didn't even know about needing an unsecure kernel to be able to write to /system. Nor do I know how the stock kernel became unsecure in the first place. All I've done is root the ROM as I normally would by flashing SuperSU. Then grant root permission to the apps that request it. If something in that process makes the stock kernel unsecured, then I don't know what it was.
You said in your OP that you tried manually moving the com.gsamlabs.bbm.rootcomanion-1.apk to /system/priv-app. First of all, that's the wrong apk. See my original reply for the apk you need to move. Do you even have GSam Battery Monitor installed? Battery Monitor & Root Companion are two separate apps. Battery Monitor needs to be installed before Root Companion will do its thing. At least I assume that's the case, b/c like I said before, I didn't use Root Companion to move Battery Monitor. But the description in Root Companion says all it does is move the Battery Monitor apk to /system/priv-app. Secondly, how did you move the apk? What app did you use?
Like I explained previously I originally used an app called Link2SD. That gives an option to convert user apps to system apps & vice versa. Just now I used it to convert GSam back to a user app. I wanted to test if moving the apk manually made a difference. After I converted it to a user app, I used ES File Explorer to cut & paste the GSam apk from /data/app to /system/priv-app. I then restarted my phone. The apk did not disappear and the app continues to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I followed alray's advice. I installed the elementalx kernel which made my system writeable, since my stock kernel wasn't originally. I then retry using the root companion (I installed gsam battery monitor since last week) which finally worked by using the automatic option that the root companion provided. I didn't notice much difference with the app, after giving the battery monitor privileged access to the system=/.
I just rooted my htc one (att version) and i'm using superSU. I want to use BetterBatteryStats, which required to add itself as system app. I tried its own method, Titanium Backup, LuckyPacher and even move the apk myself by Root expolorer, but none of them works- It seems work, but after rebooting the apk I copied to /system/apps (or /system/priv-apps) disappeared.
So my question is, is this operation required "S-off"? I knew I can't delete bloat apps due to this, but INCREASE files into system folders is also prohibited? If so, how could SuperSU be installed into /system/apps in the first place?
I knew this question may sound stupid, please forgive my very basic knowledge about android and thanks!
fireattack said:
I just rooted my htc one (att version) and i'm using superSU. I want to use BetterBatteryStats, which required to add itself as system app. I tried its own method, Titanium Backup, LuckyPacher and even move the apk myself by Root expolorer, but none of them works- It seems work, but after rebooting the apk I copied to /system/apps (or /system/priv-apps) disappeared.
So my question is, is this operation required "S-off"? I knew I can't delete bloat apps due to this, but INCREASE files into system folders is also prohibited? If so, how could SuperSU be installed into /system/apps in the first place?
I knew this question may sound stupid, please forgive my very basic knowledge about android and thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to change your kernel, the stock kernel has write protection on it, try elementalx and no you don't need s-off
As we're loosing the root/safetynet battle with Google I have been wondering about how to live without root. If I place an app in the priv-app folder I suddenly give the app permission to the system, how is this different from just giving it root privileges? If they are the same, what would I lose if I move all of my root required apps to priv-app folder and then un-root?
just tried moving Sixaxis Controller as system app, then unroot, it failed to load driver
So, yeah. it's totally different ball game
ZzzzzxXxzzzzZ said:
just tried moving Sixaxis Controller as system app, then unroot, it failed to load driver
So, yeah. it's totally different ball game
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, IDK why though. Some apps like adaway and FlyGPS are perfectly fine with it and even tell you to put them there for root privileges, but titanium backup and root explorer won't work without su.
Would love to get rid of root on my phone as Ive managed to get away from xposed.
EDIT:Spoke with Colin from Speed Software (Root Explorer) and he linked me to this permission breakdown: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html