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Hey guys,
Long time lurker and follower of the site but my first post and I need some advice-
The screen on the kindle fire HD sometimes becomes unresponsive. The buttons like power and volume still work fine, just the touch screen itself seems to be the issue. It only seems to occur when memory/processor load starts to climb (like it's being dumped for space or something) and I can sometimes, SOMETIMES, hit the power button to lock it and unlock it to gain control again then I have to immediately close out of what ever app I'm in and close all running tasks.
While watching the memory available the lowest I've seen it drop to is around 125mbs and still not have an issue, or maybe it's spotty. Not fully out, but getting there.
This is also unrelated to the power issue I've seen posted, that when it's plugged in it can occur as well. Doesn't seem to care too much if plugged in or not.
This started on stock rom so I flashed it and installed cm11 which has definately improved the problem but not solved it.
So, just polling the minds of people here to see if anyone has a suggestion.
Latonya1 said:
i had same problem and what i did is i opened battery from the device and inserted its again and did a factory reset on my device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Removing the battery on the kindle isn't an easy feat. Are we talking about the same device, or did you attempt this on a phone? Because if this worked with the kindle, I am more than happy to put the time into trying but I want to make sure.
Thanks for the reply.
dlenoxx said:
Hey guys,
Long time lurker and follower of the site but my first post and I need some advice-
The screen on the kindle fire HD sometimes becomes unresponsive. The buttons like power and volume still work fine, just the touch screen itself seems to be the issue. It only seems to occur when memory/processor load starts to climb (like it's being dumped for space or something) and I can sometimes, SOMETIMES, hit the power button to lock it and unlock it to gain control again then I have to immediately close out of what ever app I'm in and close all running tasks.
While watching the memory available the lowest I've seen it drop to is around 125mbs and still not have an issue, or maybe it's spotty. Not fully out, but getting there.
This is also unrelated to the power issue I've seen posted, that when it's plugged in it can occur as well. Doesn't seem to care too much if plugged in or not.
This started on stock rom so I flashed it and installed cm11 which has definately improved the problem but not solved it.
So, just polling the minds of people here to see if anyone has a suggestion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This happened to me once...however it was solved with me wiping the whole kindle in recovery(dalvick etc) and flashing the kindology rom.....good luck man :thumbup:
sent fro my rooted kindle fire hd 7 with twerp and kinology rom installed
Seems like I have had that problem before, was because I had to many background processes running. I try to keep my ram so only about 60-70% of it is in use when using it, and I also stopped using dolphin web browser, that is a nice browser but man does it use up a lot of resources. On another note I noticed one time my kindle had around a GB left on the internal storage it started getting sluggish so that's another thing to look out for, but I doubt it's the root of your problems. Kinda find it annoying that android uses as much ram as it does, its based on Linux but on a desktop is on my PC with 2gb of ram, it idles at 20% on Ubuntu(which would be like 40% on a kindle because it has half as much ram), whereas android idles at around 60%.
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire HD running CM10.1 Tablet UI using xda-developers app
itouchables said:
This happened to me once...however it was solved with me wiping the whole kindle in recovery(dalvick etc) and flashing the kindology rom.....good luck man :thumbup:
sent fro my rooted kindle fire hd 7 with twerp and kinology rom installed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should have read over what kinology was before flashing it.. I'm sure it's a great rom, but I'm wanting something more android-e. Went great though, as far as the install- and thanks for the tip. Worse case I'll have that file to fall back on.
stunts513 said:
Seems like I have had that problem before, was because I had to many background processes running. I try to keep my ram so only about 60-70% of it is in use when using it, and I also stopped using dolphin web browser, that is a nice browser but man does it use up a lot of resources. On another note I noticed one time my kindle had around a GB left on the internal storage it started getting sluggish so that's another thing to look out for, but I doubt it's the root of your problems. Kinda find it annoying that android uses as much ram as it does, its based on Linux but on a desktop is on my PC with 2gb of ram, it idles at 20% on Ubuntu(which would be like 40% on a kindle because it has half as much ram), whereas android idles at around 60%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I've been doing a bit more testing trying to figure out what is going on, it does seem to happen more often when under 100~75mg of memory available. Idling now at 550 memory available now, thanks to a few tweaks here and there which has almost erased the problem when doing things like browsing the internet, youtube, netflix, etc. It's just happening now during games. Not as much- but still, in the middle of a game of Kingdom Rush it's a little frustrating to all of sudden have no control. And currently I've still got almost 7 gigs of space available as far as harddrive goes so that doesn't seem to effect it by much (at least for me).
Setting the I/O to noop, overclocking to 1500 (leaving the minimum to 350), and setting the zram compression to 28% were the tweaks. Also having Task Killer by rechild set to kill tasks when screen off has been a great fix when I do lose the touch pad controls as it'll free up some memory when I turn it off, leave it off for a minute, then turn it back on without really interrupting progress in several apps.
Still searching for a true, 100% fix so tips are still welcome and I'll keep everyone posted if I run across anything myself.
So I just recieved a pretty sweet present, my brother in law got a new ipad for his birthday and has chosen to give me his old Kindle Fire HD that has some issues.
It was previously rooted, but in an attempt to unroot it, he slightly messed up the kindle's top bar.
The device functions very well for performance, but although all the google aspects are gone off the device from what I can tell, the bar at the top continuously disappears for up to a couple minutes at a time. I'm not sure what kind of root he used back then or how he got rid of it, but I do see SuperSU still installed along with ES File Explorer.
I currently am charging the device and its at 30% since I just got it this morning, but any suggestions would be greatly greatly appreciated!!
Honestly at this point I'm looking to do either 1 of two things.
-Re-root and fix the kindle so Its rooted and status bar is back to normal (to keep as my own, I <3 google apps too much to convert)
OR
-Flash or reboot the kindle to Day 1 install so it looks, feels, and acts like it did straight out of the box (for resale on craigslist).
Its a Kindle Fire HD 8.9" with version 8.4.3_user_4308820.
If more information is needed just let me know!
I was given an 8gb Fire 7 5th gen I guess from the Black Fridays deals for xmas. What I would like to do is run it mostly as a digital calender, so keep it plugged in, running and having it display the calender most of the time only. Is this something I could do with it, easily?
Ideally I'd like to be able to touch the screen to wake it up, or have the calender events running on a screen saver somehow. I haven't even taken it out the box yet, but would pay to remove ads on the lock screen if I can get something set up so it can work that way for me.
Essentially I rely heavily on calenders over all my devices, as well as reminders, so it has to be linked with a google account.
Lifeformz said:
I was given an 8gb Fire 7 5th gen I guess from the Black Fridays deals for xmas. What I would like to do is run it mostly as a digital calender, so keep it plugged in, running and having it display the calender most of the time only. Is this something I could do with it, easily?
Ideally I'd like to be able to touch the screen to wake it up, or have the calender events running on a screen saver somehow. I haven't even taken it out the box yet, but would pay to remove ads on the lock screen if I can get something set up so it can work that way for me.
Essentially I rely heavily on calenders over all my devices, as well as reminders, so it has to be linked with a google account.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This device could be configured to perform such a role but it would take some time to set-up (including a few 'hacks') and come with several caveats. Touch wake is not an option on this device (lacks hardware support) so the display would need to be on 7x24. There's also no ambient light sensor which could be an issue depending on your environment. Reliable Google integration requires rooting and a custom ROM...more work. Really depends how much of a project you want to make of it and the level of personal satisfaction after the last 'T' is crossed.
Davey126 said:
This device could be configured to perform such a role but it would take some time to set-up (including a few 'hacks') and come with several caveats. Touch wake is not an option on this device (lacks hardware support) so the display would need to be on 7x24. There's also no ambient light sensor which could be an issue depending on your environment. Reliable Google integration requires rooting and a custom ROM...more work. Really depends how much of a project you want to make of it and the level of personal satisfaction after the last 'T' is crossed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for replying. I had a think about it yesterday, and just having a read around, I decided to root it to stop OTA updates as I was on 5.0.1 I think, so I did that, then the guide went on to say about flashing a rom, so I figured why not and did that too :$
After a few problems, first being that I couldn't get the flashfire to work from the rootjunky site, I found the one included with the super tool and installed that through the computer. Flashing appeared to be fine, and it loaded into SlimLP fine. But it seems google play etc didn't get installed. After a lot of head scratching and trying to install apk's etc, I figured to reflash it and see what happened. This was a little problematic as now I couldn't connect via usb to do flashfire, so I eventually copied it over via sd card, and installed the apk that way, just reflashed the OS again and a google one, and this time play is there, working.
So I now have a fire running SlimLP saying its model number: KFFOWI, Android 5.1.1. And it's lovely. I have another fire 7 that I do use as a tablet now, and I wish I could do the same to that one, cept it OTA updated on it to fire os 5.3.2.1, and I guess I can't from reading around. It's stuttery compared to the newly flashed one. Oh well. I guess now I need to investigate calender apps, or lock screen widgets to give me what I want.
Thank you for reply, I read it, then though crikey that does sound complicated, however once I looked at locking down the OTA updates to at least allow me to do it later If I wanted, it kind just followed on.
Lifeformz said:
Thank you for replying. I had a think about it yesterday, and just having a read around, I decided to root it to stop OTA updates as I was on 5.0.1 I think, so I did that, then the guide went on to say about flashing a rom, so I figured why not and did that too :$
After a few problems, first being that I couldn't get the flashfire to work from the rootjunky site, I found the one included with the super tool and installed that through the computer. Flashing appeared to be fine, and it loaded into SlimLP fine. But it seems google play etc didn't get installed. After a lot of head scratching and trying to install apk's etc, I figured to reflash it and see what happened. This was a little problematic as now I couldn't connect via usb to do flashfire, so I eventually copied it over via sd card, and installed the apk that way, just reflashed the OS again and a google one, and this time play is there, working.
So I now have a fire running SlimLP saying its model number: KFFOWI, Android 5.1.1. And it's lovely. I have another fire 7 that I do use as a tablet now, and I wish I could do the same to that one, cept it OTA updated on it to fire os 5.3.2.1, and I guess I can't from reading around. It's stuttery compared to the newly flashed one. Oh well. I guess now I need to investigate calender apps, or lock screen widgets to give me what I want.
Thank you for reply, I read it, then though crikey that does sound complicated, however once I looked at locking down the OTA updates to at least allow me to do it later If I wanted, it kind just followed on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great! A couple footnotes:
- being one of the lucky few with a 5.0.1 bootloader you can boot a custom/full recovery like TWRP as a alternative to FlashFire (from fastboot ready: 'fastboot boot <image_name>')
- the build of SlimLP for this device has not seen much love since originally posted; you may want to consider a ROM that sees more frequent updates
Post back if you need/want further info on either topic.
Davey126 said:
Great! A couple footnotes:
- being one of the lucky few with a 5.0.1 bootloader you can boot a custom/full recovery like TWRP as a alternative to FlashFire (from fastboot ready: 'fastboot boot <image_name>')
- the build of SlimLP for this device has not seen much love since originally posted; you may want to consider a ROM that sees more frequent updates
Post back if you need/want further info on either topic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I do a bootloader after using flashfire? Also I considered a CM rom, vaguely recall using one for an Orange san fran years ago, but wasn't sure on latest, or best and it seems that I can't connect things like supertool through usb now, so could I do a CM rom on top of what I have already using flashfire, or would I need to do something else? I seem to remember having to do an XP machine to do the San Francisco phone way back as it wouldn't connect any other way
Lifeformz said:
Can I do a bootloader after using flashfire? Also I considered a CM rom, vaguely recall using one for an Orange san fran years ago, but wasn't sure on latest, or best and it seems that I can't connect things like supertool through usb now, so could I do a CM rom on top of what I have already using flashfire, or would I need to do something else? I seem to remember having to do an XP machine to do the San Francisco phone way back as it wouldn't connect any other way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The CM 12.1 adaptation for this device is excellent; no worries there. I strongly recommend using (booting) TWRP for all future ROM updates. FlashFire is a great tool for those that do not have another option. You do! FlashFire will also work if you can not establish a USB connection.
If you opt to switch ROMs be sure to wipe the system and data (aka app/user) partitions before flashing the new image.
I re-did it all and now have CM 12.1 on it, however I've stalled beyond this as it's a far nicer tablet to use over my non-fiddled with Fire 7. So I'm now using the new one as my main tablet, and will stick the other one, wifi off, in the drawer and sit and wait to see if a roll back is available, or new method to root and flash comes along.
I've been reading threads and am seeing some conflicting information.
Some people say you have to downgrade first.
Some people say you can't root it at all.
Not sure what to believe? Really would like to buy one now that they are on sale.
Thank you so much.
CircularApex said:
I've been reading threads and am seeing some conflicting information.
Some people say you have to downgrade first.
Some people say you can't root it at all.
Not sure what to believe? Really would like to buy one now that they are on sale.
Thank you so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no root for 7th gen fire(s) on any firmware version
sd_shadow said:
no root for 7th gen fire(s) on any firmware version
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you
Well, dang! Hope someone finds a way soon
miztrniceguy said:
Well, dang! Hope someone finds a way soon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't hold your breath. Recent FireOS builds benefit from an effort to clean up sloppy (Android) code by Google and others following several high profile security lapses.
sadly, in my brief search about installing stock android on a Fire 7 didn't reveal that the results were talking about older versions, not the current version I got delivered today for $30.
---------- Post added at 06:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 PM ----------
Currently perusing thread by Savvytechwinner about bloatware removal tool to see if compatible
miztrniceguy said:
sadly, in my brief search about installing stock android on a Fire 7 didn't reveal that the results were talking about older versions, not the current version I got delivered today for $30.
---------- Post added at 06:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 PM ----------
Currently perusing thread by Savvytechwinner about bloatware removal tool to see if compatible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unlikely unless your device arrived with FireOS 5.4.0.1 or lower. Keep in mind Amazon's generous return policy while considering alternatives. You'll be able to install Google's Play Store which is something if you can live with FireOS and a heavy suite of preinstalled apps.
For the statistics:
I bought a Fire Gen 5 from Amazon.de Warehouse that came with 5.3.3.0
Davey126 said:
Unlikely unless your device arrived with FireOS 5.4.0.1 or lower. Keep in mind Amazon's generous return policy while considering alternatives. You'll be able to install Google's Play Store which is something if you can live with FireOS and a heavy suite of preinstalled apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure what it had at first, but as soon as I connected to wifi during setup it updated to 5.4.0.0
I tried several times to interrupt the process but could not. It briefly flashes a "not now" right after you put in wifi password, but doesn't work. 3 times I powered down during the downloading process, booted to recovery, factory restore, and started over. i didn't try pulling power to wifi, but I might at a future date to see what happens. In the mean time I was able to install Google Play.
What version did you receive?
bought a blue one on friday that has 5.4.0.0 preinstalled ??
I turned off the WiFi at the router while it was downloading the update (eg right after it started the process) and it popped up a dialog that said that my connection was slow and it would continue downloading in the background. I still had to turn the WiFi on to complete the setup process after I got that far, but I kept turning it off between steps (and in particular right after it finished the whole thing about getting account details and all.) It never updated the system. So mine is still at the 5.4.0.0 it arrived running. It wants to update, but can't seem to if I'm keeping it busy. Hopefully it won't sneak and do it later. So I guess this method at least works to get you started.
It seems there is a firmware binary for downgrading via adb sideload on the recovery. I'm not sure how safe this is (and mine is still on 5.4.0.0, so I have no reason to flash 5.4.0.0 to it.) KingRoot says a root is available, but it sticks at 1% so I guess it's not working. I'm trying the "updated tools" posted in this forum here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/help/fire-7-2017-7th-gen-downgrade-debloat-t3699937 and so far everything is saying "success." It doesn't include a root option though. It does say it blocks the OTA updates? It uses adb uninstall from the user level, so I'm not sure how effective that is. Guess it can't hurt anything anyway. Isn't 5.4.0.0 rootable? EDIT: KingRoot now no longer shows a root option. With OTA updater removed I can't get to the system section that shows the current OS version (since they don't have a proper "about" page with actual details.) Maybe it did manage to sneak that update through. (I think it was 5.4.0.1 that it was trying to do first.) EDIT2: Kept retrying KingRoot and suddenly the root option appears again. I think maybe the method it uses is unreliable or something. This time around it didn't freeze at 1% but still did take a long time there. In fact, it's very slow the whole way through (I haven't the slightest clue what it's doing. Normally rooting doesn't take very long on any device, but I guess it depends on the exploit used. It seemed to me more like this was downloading a significant amount of data rather than trying exploits though.) Didn't work though. I saw someone else say it can't be rooted from anything past 5.3.3 something? I guess you can't downgrade to that though or people would already be doing it.
(To be clear, I'm not a fan of KingRoot -- I consider it bloatware and potentially dangerous -- but it seems a lot of Amazon Fire users are using it, so I have to presume it at least is somewhat reliable for them.)
Anyway, at least with all this it has the Play Store, an optional debloat that removes Amazon apps (I may put the app store back just in case, but most of it is a bit excessive IMO,) it removes the ads, and it offers a means of changing the default launcher (sort of. It hijacks anyway. The end result is close enough if a bit messy I guess.)
BTW, as a tip from someone who's used to seeking out lower firmware systems in general, don't buy straight from the source or a "fast" place that goes through stock quickly and doesn't keep a lot at a time (since everything is so automated) like Amazon. Go to a brick and mortar store like Walmart, Target, etc etc. Even online they are more likely to have backstock that has been sitting on a shelf for an unknown length of time. There are never any guarantees, but this does increase your chances of getting something older.
Nazo said:
I turned off the WiFi at the router while it was downloading the update (eg right after it started the process) and it popped up a dialog that said that my connection was slow and it would continue downloading in the background. I still had to turn the WiFi on to complete the setup process after I got that far, but I kept turning it off between steps (and in particular right after it finished the whole thing about getting account details and all.) It never updated the system. So mine is still at the 5.4.0.0 it arrived running. It wants to update, but can't seem to if I'm keeping it busy. Hopefully it won't sneak and do it later. So I guess this method at least works to get you started.
It seems there is a firmware binary for downgrading via adb sideload on the recovery. I'm not sure how safe this is (and mine is still on 5.4.0.0, so I have no reason to flash 5.4.0.0 to it.) KingRoot says a root is available, but it sticks at 1% so I guess it's not working. I'm trying the "updated tools" posted in this forum here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/amazon-fire/help/fire-7-2017-7th-gen-downgrade-debloat-t3699937 and so far everything is saying "success." It doesn't include a root option though. It does say it blocks the OTA updates? It uses adb uninstall from the user level, so I'm not sure how effective that is. Guess it can't hurt anything anyway. Isn't 5.4.0.0 rootable? EDIT: KingRoot now no longer shows a root option. With OTA updater removed I can't get to the system section that shows the current OS version (since they don't have a proper "about" page with actual details.) Maybe it did manage to sneak that update through. (I think it was 5.4.0.1 that it was trying to do first.) EDIT2: Kept retrying KingRoot and suddenly the root option appears again. I think maybe the method it uses is unreliable or something. This time around it didn't freeze at 1% but still did take a long time there. In fact, it's very slow the whole way through (I haven't the slightest clue what it's doing. Normally rooting doesn't take very long on any device, but I guess it depends on the exploit used. It seemed to me more like this was downloading a significant amount of data rather than trying exploits though.) Didn't work though. I saw someone else say it can't be rooted from anything past 5.3.3 something? I guess you can't downgrade to that though or people would already be doing it.
(To be clear, I'm not a fan of KingRoot -- I consider it bloatware and potentially dangerous -- but it seems a lot of Amazon Fire users are using it, so I have to presume it at least is somewhat reliable for them.)
Anyway, at least with all this it has the Play Store, an optional debloat that removes Amazon apps (I may put the app store back just in case, but most of it is a bit excessive IMO,) it removes the ads, and it offers a means of changing the default launcher (sort of. It hijacks anyway. The end result is close enough if a bit messy I guess.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- no root exploit is available above FireOS 5.3.1
- FireOS 5.3.2.1 and above cannot be rolled back to a rootable build
- KingRoot is a POS that has no idea it is running on FireOS; the algorithm that tests for various vulnerabilities is unreliable at best; runs the entire gambit of suspected Android 5.1.1 exploits many of which are irrelevant
- you will need to perform a 'factory reset' from stock recovery or sideload FireOS 5.4.0.0 to restore any of the apps/functionality the debloat script killed; you'll loose the OTA block and have to go through the same WiFi toggle hoops documented above; you can also block access to access to Amazon's OTA update servers if you scare up the current URL/IPV4/IPV6 list (always changing)
Nazo said:
BTW, as a tip from someone who's used to seeking out lower firmware systems in general, don't buy straight from the source or a "fast" place that goes through stock quickly and doesn't keep a lot at a time (since everything is so automated) like Amazon. Go to a brick and mortar store like Walmart, Target, etc etc. Even online they are more likely to have backstock that has been sitting on a shelf for an unknown length of time. There are never any guarantees, but this does increase your chances of getting something older.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep - purposely snagged a handful early build 5th gen Fire's at a flagging B&M 6 months after they were released. All were rocking FireOS 5.0.1 which supports booting TWRP. First boot was to a custom ROM; never saw FireOS.
Davey126 said:
- no root exploit is available above FireOS 5.3.1
- FireOS 5.3.2.1 and above cannot be rolled back to a rootable build
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I thought I had confirmed elsewhere, but I really hoped I was wrong.
- KingRoot is a POS that has no idea it is running on FireOS; the algorithm that tests for various vulnerabilities is unreliable at best; runs the entire gambit of suspected Android 5.1.1 exploits many of which are irrelevant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. I always avoid it if I can, but thought if anything out there would have it it would be that. Presumably once root is established (assuming it's a true root) it's no longer needed. Well, since it doesn't work it's not needed either. Already uninstalled, lol. I trust it about as much as I'd trust a snake oil salesman who says he also is running a new bank system with my money.
- you will need to perform a 'factory reset' from stock recovery or sideload FireOS 5.4.0.0 to restore any of the apps/functionality the debloat script killed; you'll loose the OTA block and have to go through the same WiFi toggle hoops documented above; you can also block access to access to Amazon's OTA update servers if you scare up the current URL/IPV4/IPV6 list (always changing)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, blocking it isn't as easy as you think. Many routers (sadly, mine included) do not have any options to block stuff like this. That would, of course, be too easy. Naturally you could block DNS addresses with root on Android, but that... needs root... But the OTA update tool is more harm than good regardless. The only single thing it does that isn't actually harmful is just showing the current system version. All the rest is just harmful. At least from the perspective of someone who doesn't want a super locked-down device.
I don't think I'd ever want to, but given that those apps are still technically present (hence the reason a factory reset restores them) I do wonder if you can't just access them directly from the ROM itself? I suppose if you could get to the actual APK files you could install those. But stuff like the Amazon AppStore has an official downloadable APK, so there's no real problem there.
Yep - purposely snagged a handful early build 5th gen Fire's at a flagging B&M 6 months after they were released. All were rocking FireOS 5.0.1 which supports booting TWRP. First boot was to a custom ROM; never saw FireOS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kind of depressing that we'll probably never see an unlocked bootloader, much less a true custom ROM.
Nazo said:
I don't think I'd ever want to, but given that those apps are still technically present (hence the reason a factory reset restores them) I do wonder if you can't just access them directly from the ROM itself? I suppose if you could get to the actual APK files you could install those. But stuff like the Amazon AppStore has an official downloadable APK, so there's no real problem there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem arises during installation as ROM sees a variant is already installed but does not have permission to update/replace it. Same for read/execute access. Relevant permissions are associated with Android user profiles which are inaccessible with the level of access permitted on a locked down device.
The batch script uses uninstall. Would it be better to simply disable? I don't like the idea that something might let the OTA updater run though. In my experience some apps -- particularly certain system apps -- can still background run after disabling them. (For example, on a device that didn't support NFC I was disabling the NFC service because, well, why do I need a NFC service on something with no NFC? Yet even with it disabled it was always running every time I ever checked.) I don't relish the idea of starting over, but it would be better now before I've seriously started rather than later.
Nazo said:
The batch script uses uninstall. Would it be better to simply disable? I don't like the idea that something might let the OTA updater run though. In my experience some apps -- particularly certain system apps -- can still background run after disabling them. (For example, on a device that didn't support NFC I was disabling the NFC service because, well, why do I need a NFC service on something with no NFC? Yet even with it disabled it was always running every time I ever checked.) I don't relish the idea of starting over, but it would be better now before I've seriously started rather than later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't disable most 'system' apps on a Lollipop era unrooted ROM. And - as you observed Android has full permission to reenable any app. Uninstall is the best workaround for a device with limited user permissions. For obvious reasons Amazon blocked the behavior/command in FireOS 5.4.0.1 and above. It is unlikely their engineers will look back to older releases with an eye toward reversing OTA blocks on a minuscule community of devices.
I guess the best thing to do is to edit that batch file to not completely remove a few basics like the Amazon app store itself. I didn't really understand why it removed everything Amazon entirely, not just the actual bloaty stuff. EDIT: I guess this is worth the effort anyway because it's removing stuff like the standard Android contacts even. Not sure why they'd do that. BTW, if anyone else decides to do this it seems "Venezia" is the package for the Amazon app store.
EDIT2: Waugh! I got a bit tap happy there after a factory reset. I tried to hit the "continue" button more than once because it was so slow to load the next page I thought I mistapped. When it got to the wifi selection screen there was at least momentarily the "not now" button available and because I had tapped that extra time in that exact spot it actually went through to the "not now" button and let me skip the setup... So now it doesn't even have a configured WiFi and still let me get to the home screen and everything. This is sort of a better way to anyone who can manage it.
Maybe this method actually requires an initial setup -- maybe it sets some bit somewhere that doesn't clear with a factory reset. Since you can factory reset from the recovery menu, I imagine you could try this if it manages to download the update and reboots to apply it. (Well, I guess the question is if it applies before or after the reboot, but I'd have to assume after since it must surely modify things that are in use.)
PS. After this factory reset I see that it definitely never let an OTA update through. It's still on 5.4.0.0. Well, I suspected as much but couldn't verify before. Since it has no wifi even configured this time around it doesn't even know there is an update waiting just yet. I'll fix that soon enough.
EDIT3: I made a modified version of that batch file where I tried to identify things a bit more and be slightly less extreme in my removals. I used pm hide on a few where it's slightly more questionable since it's not as hard to fix as an uninstall (though, as discussed it's questionable whether they'll actually STAY disabled.
I read that "hide" is a bit more thorough in many ways though and the ones I used hide on I think are slightly less likely to bypass the disabling.) I don't see why the original creator removed some very basic Android apps like the e-mail and clock apps. There are alternatives, but these are as small and minimal as it gets, so it seems pretty weird and extreme to remove them. (I would definitely say it would be better to disable even if you don't want them.) While I was at it I did a hide only version since that's "safer" overall, though a lot of stuff may still bypass it obviously. (It may be best to actually remove the updates rather than hiding them.) I didn't feel like making a more thorough one that actually asks on each or something. (Going for minimal work here, lol.) The hide version seems to not work though atm and I have no idea why. (It only shows the status for a few things and most of the icons are still there despite a lack of any errors.)
Input is welcome since I just modified their batch file as simply as I could and was very unsure about a lot of things.
@Nazo - a couple quick comments regarding your previous post:
- in recent FireOS builds queued OTA updates get applied early in the boot process before UI is presented
- pm hide is not durable and easily reversed; I believe Amazon crippled the command in FireOS 5.3.x.x and above (possibly a rev or two earlier)
Davey126 said:
- in recent FireOS builds queued OTA updates get applied early in the boot process before UI is presented
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That wouldn't be before recovery though surely. (Actually, if I were to guess I'd assume it's a recovery automatic update type thing? I don't know if holding the button for the recovery menu would beat this or not, but I would assume so since otherwise you could have a permanent brick if a boot loop occurred in a broken update or something.)
- pm hide is not durable and easily reversed; I believe Amazon crippled the command in FireOS 5.3.x.x and above (possibly a rev or two earlier)
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Seems so. It looks like pm hide basically doesn't work at all to put it simply. A couple of apps were disabled and that's it. In the end only uninstall has any sort of reliability whatsoever. Too bad it's such a messy solution. I really wish someone would figure out a way to root this thing.
So I didn't expect it to have the greatest battery life in the world. I'm coming from a Nexus 7 2013 edition (just wanted something cheap to carry around -- I'd be very upset if my Nexus 7 was dropped and broken or stolen in public whereas this $30 tablet won't exactly cause me to lose any sleep if it does, but I need to be able to read and otherwise pass breaktime at work) so I'm used to it lasting almost a week on a full charge since all I do is simple stuff like reading with a relatively low backlight even. I noticed my new Fire 7 is going down so much faster that it will surely be a problem (I guess 20-30% a day?) Now, of course, the Nexus 7 has a significantly larger battery. However, its ~5-7% compared to this thing's ~20-30% is not to scale. One big difference though is the Nexus 7 gets to run a clean LineageOS setup with a rooted Greenify (actually I have Xposed, but lately the module doesn't work without explanation. That's an issue for another time though.) The battery is purportedly a 2980mAh versus the 3950mAh in the Nexus 7, so at 75% the capacity I wouldn't expect it to get 1/4th the run time. I'm hoping Greenify can help. Unfortunately, Greenify is not working at all.
Firstly it seems you must manually grant a bunch of permissions for certain things. During initial setup it tells you to grant one and sends you to the settings, but it doesn't send you to whichever part of the settings it actually means for you to change. (I'm guessing something that isn't present on this thing's modified non-standard system settings app.) Now, they give you instructions on how to manually grant certain permissions via adb, but it doesn't mention that particular permission. It seems also that the accessibility service that it uses for hibernating isn't actually working because it pops up a message. However, that could be related to the more serious problem at hand: it doesn't work at all. When I press the hibernate button, it does nothing. Literally nothing. (Which makes me wonder if it's just saying that because of its failure when it tries to automatically hibernate.) Without root access obviously it is much more limited in what it can do, but it should still do something. The guide only has you grant DUMP, READ_LOGS, and WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS. These are intended for features like accurate app state detection rather than basic operation though. I have no idea what it wants on initial setup since it's not specific at all.
Actually, I think it's not actually granting the permissions at all in the first place. I manually grant those three via adb as it says and pm doesn't say anything back. Regardless, Greenify is unable to do anything at all -- it never hibernates any apps even when run manually. I'm not sure how effective it will be without root, but I'd still like to get it working if at all possible. Still, it officially supports rootless systems, so I don't really understand why it's unable to do anything at all. Even the most basic functionality should work at least (though if it only acts as a task killer it may do more harm than good. Hard to say since I can't even get it to do that much even.)
Any idea what I'm missing?
Nazo said:
So I didn't expect it to have the greatest battery life in the world. I'm coming from a Nexus 7 2013 edition (just wanted something cheap to carry around -- I'd be very upset if my Nexus 7 was dropped and broken or stolen in public whereas this $30 tablet won't exactly cause me to lose any sleep if it does, but I need to be able to read and otherwise pass breaktime at work) so I'm used to it lasting almost a week on a full charge since all I do is simple stuff like reading with a relatively low backlight even. I noticed my new Fire 7 is going down so much faster that it will surely be a problem (I guess 20-30% a day?) Now, of course, the Nexus 7 has a significantly larger battery. However, its ~5-7% compared to this thing's ~20-30% is not to scale. One big difference though is the Nexus 7 gets to run a clean LineageOS setup with a rooted Greenify (actually I have Xposed, but lately the module doesn't work without explanation. That's an issue for another time though.) The battery is purportedly a 2980mAh versus the 3950mAh in the Nexus 7, so at 75% the capacity I wouldn't expect it to get 1/4th the run time. I'm hoping Greenify can help. Unfortunately, Greenify is not working at all.
Firstly it seems you must manually grant a bunch of permissions for certain things. During initial setup it tells you to grant one and sends you to the settings, but it doesn't send you to whichever part of the settings it actually means for you to change. (I'm guessing something that isn't present on this thing's modified non-standard system settings app.) Now, they give you instructions on how to manually grant certain permissions via adb, but it doesn't mention that particular permission. It seems also that the accessibility service that it uses for hibernating isn't actually working because it pops up a message. However, that could be related to the more serious problem at hand: it doesn't work at all. When I press the hibernate button, it does nothing. Literally nothing. (Which makes me wonder if it's just saying that because of its failure when it tries to automatically hibernate.) Without root access obviously it is much more limited in what it can do, but it should still do something. The guide only has you grant DUMP, READ_LOGS, and WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS. These are intended for features like accurate app state detection rather than basic operation though. I have no idea what it wants on initial setup since it's not specific at all.
Actually, I think it's not actually granting the permissions at all in the first place. I manually grant those three via adb as it says and pm doesn't say anything back. Regardless, Greenify is unable to do anything at all -- it never hibernates any apps even when run manually. I'm not sure how effective it will be without root, but I'd still like to get it working if at all possible. Still, it officially supports rootless systems, so I don't really understand why it's unable to do anything at all. Even the most basic functionality should work at least (though if it only acts as a task killer it may do more harm than good. Hard to say since I can't even get it to do that much even.)
Any idea what I'm missing?
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in my experience, Greenify doesn't work too well with these tablets. If you are on 5.4.0.1 or later, I would try Brevent.
I'm on 5.4.0.0. Given how much more restrictive 5.4.0.1+ is I've removed the OTA update apps so it won't go up.
Nazo said:
I'm on 5.4.0.0. Given how much more restrictive 5.4.0.1+ is I've removed the OTA update apps so it won't go up.
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Just a note: on the 7 tablets, you can downgrade from 5.4.0.1 back to 5.4.0.0.
I know that. So?