Database Develop

Upgraded from Fresh 2.0d to Fresh 2.1.1 without wiping, everything seems fine. Is it?

Last night after it was found out the leak and the official release were identical I loaded Fresh 2.1.1. I realized as it was loading I forgot to wipe the phone. I figured I'd let it finish and just have to redo it, but I turned my phone on anyway, just to see.
Everything seems fine. The update seemed to leave everything in tact, while running fine. (and freeing up 55mb of space for apps despite seemingly installing the same apps and leaving mine) The update worked, there are noticeable style differences in quite a few places.
My question is, is this an illusion? Am I not really running the updated versions in some areas? Are there behind the scenes things going on that make it error check and fall back to old "backward comparability" type things, make it slower, etc? Or is wiping just a "safety" thing to give you the best odds of success?
Is my phone going to burst into flames in my sleep, or did I get lucky because most incompatibility examples would be obvious?
I'm not using apps2sd.

Wiping is a safety thing, and also required if there are major changes between versions.

If it is working then don't worry about it. I have flashed 2.1 ROMs over each other before without any problems before, for example a Damageless's Rom over Flipz's. I think as long as the framework matches there is likely to be no problem.

I found one thing that doesn't work. The people app force closes every time I go to actually view a contact.
Does anyone know a good way to clear the contacts without deleting them? (If you delete them in the contact app google syncs the deletion, as it should.)
Actually it looks like it's only a problem on the contacts linked to facebook. Maybe if I can find a way to unlink them, and then link them again, without opening them, they'll be fine.

Just had to removed and re add my facebook account. Good times. So maybe people don't need to redo their phone to jump from 2.0d to 2.1.1. Give it a try.

You've inspired me to give it a try. i, however unlike you, do use a2sd and it's picky as **** so hopefully that stays in tact.
I'll post results after.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Q] [i9000 problem]Q about shared preference

I9000 moves the shared preferences to /dbdata/databases/[PACKAGE_NAME]/shared_prefs/[PACKAGE_NAME]_preferences.xml
For other mainstream devices, shared preferences are in /data/data/[ PACKAGE_NAME]/shared_prefs/[PACKAGE_NAME]_ preferences.xml
Everytime, when I uninstalled the application (my own or some other 3rd party's) in i9000, I found that the shared preferences won't be removed. It still exists in /dbdata/databases/...
this will lead to some serious problem: for example, I'm developing some app, and changing the shared perferences structure. when I debuged it (reinstalling, reinstalling the apps, finally I found my shared preference cannot save my configuration. everytime rebooting i9000, the configuration will be reset to the default value. When I change the configuration in UI and then look into the shard_pref xml, it never changes. The root cause is the existing xml is the old one. maybe UID even mismatched.
Is there any patch from Samsung to uninstall the apps completely?
we need remove not only the ones in /data/data but also the ones in /dbdata/databases/.
... Samsung, why do those vendors customize the phone so much?

no comments?

Interesting.
I have never heard of that (or a patch for that) before. But if I think about it... I am no unix expert but shouldn't you be able to mount /dbdata/databases/ into /data/data/ ? As long as the deinstallation routine has not been changed this could work^^
Edit:
Oh dear, I took a look, you're right thats really strange. I thought everything was relocated by samsung. It's not. My statement above is useless

feny_lf said:
I9000 moves the shared preferences to /dbdata/databases/[PACKAGE_NAME]/shared_prefs/[PACKAGE_NAME]_preferences.xml
For other mainstream devices, shared preferences are in /data/data/[ PACKAGE_NAME]/shared_prefs/[PACKAGE_NAME]_ preferences.xml
Everytime, when I uninstalled the application (my own or some other 3rd party's) in i9000, I found that the shared preferences won't be removed. It still exists in /dbdata/databases/...
this will lead to some serious problem: for example, I'm developing some app, and changing the shared perferences structure. when I debuged it (reinstalling, reinstalling the apps, finally I found my shared preference cannot save my configuration. everytime rebooting i9000, the configuration will be reset to the default value. When I change the configuration in UI and then look into the shard_pref xml, it never changes. The root cause is the existing xml is the old one. maybe UID even mismatched.
Is there any patch from Samsung to uninstall the apps completely?
we need remove not only the ones in /data/data but also the ones in /dbdata/databases/.
... Samsung, why do those vendors customize the phone so much?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it's the sammy's "lagfix" since 2.2.1.
Uninstall apps with Titanium, it clears everything ! That's the only way i find (apart manual method...)

Can you give a symbolic link?

, why do those vendors customize the phone so much?
Same reason as users customize their phones .
jje

WiwiPouPou said:
Yes it's the sammy's "lagfix" since 2.2.1.
Uninstall apps with Titanium, it clears everything ! That's the only way i find (apart manual method...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sammy's lagfix? Do you mean there's no problem prior to 2.2.1?
My i9000 is 2.2.1 now, I don't have chance to check the previous versions....

This is a serious bug.
I have encountered this too and it makes the SharedPreferences completely useless.
Uninstalling and the re-installing an app will cause the app to never be able to change preferences again!
Is there a workaround for this that we can code in our apps?

I also experience this problem. Is there really no fix to this. Its damn irritating when I'm developing my app.

I have recently found out about this too.
I started an app to deal with this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=12483276

Considering trying xposed...

Ive come across a couple of root apps that want exposed, to either do more things or to work entirely.
Ive been wanting to try the swypetweaks app, to make the symbols appear on the newer themes, but it needs xposed.
Would installing xposed remove anything or stop anything i currently have from functioning? or does it simple allow more things to function? Id plan on making a backup before i started trying anything anyway, but i was just wondering if its supposed to wipe anything or not??
if something did get messed up and i had to recover from my backup from before i installed it, would it be uninstalled/totally removed once i restored??
basicallyi want to try it out but im afraid to mess anything up lol

Pawprints1986 said:
Ive come across a couple of root apps that want exposed, to either do more things or to work entirely.
Ive been wanting to try the swypetweaks app, to make the symbols appear on the newer themes, but it needs xposed.
Would installing xposed remove anything or stop anything i currently have from functioning? or does it simple allow more things to function? Id plan on making a backup before i started trying anything anyway, but i was just wondering if its supposed to wipe anything or not??
if something did get messed up and i had to recover from my backup from before i installed it, would it be uninstalled/totally removed once i restored??
basicallyi want to try it out but im afraid to mess anything up lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xposed is basically a middleman. As stated in the thread, do a backup in recovery before installing in case you have issues, you can restore imediately. It doesn't change anything on your phone in any way that would affect how you use it by itself. You can think of it like when you use a java app on your computer. The java app doesn't know how to talk to the computer, it talks to java, and that does the work for it. It works on most roms, stock and custom. I've been using it for years, and have had minimal troubles, other than a bootloop when I installed the wrong version, or did something dumb. Basically keep the uninstall in your downloads folder, and a backup of your rom, and just try it out. If something goes wrong, try the uninstall, and if that doesn't fix it, clear cache (dalvik too) and restore the rom backup, and you are running like always. The modules can't do anything or affect your system when you remove xposed. Any more questions, please ask. If you quote my post, I'll notice faster and respond within an hour usually, or one of the other awesome members can help out too!

kdb424 said:
Xposed is basically a middleman. As stated in the thread, do a backup in recovery before installing in case you have issues, you can restore imediately. It doesn't change anything on your phone in any way that would affect how you use it by itself. You can think of it like when you use a java app on your computer. The java app doesn't know how to talk to the computer, it talks to java, and that does the work for it. It works on most roms, stock and custom. I've been using it for years, and have had minimal troubles, other than a bootloop when I installed the wrong version, or did something dumb. Basically keep the uninstall in your downloads folder, and a backup of your rom, and just try it out. If something goes wrong, try the uninstall, and if that doesn't fix it, clear cache (dalvik too) and restore the rom backup, and you are running like always. The modules can't do anything or affect your system when you remove xposed. Any more questions, please ask. If you quote my post, I'll notice faster and respond within an hour usually, or one of the other awesome members can help out too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you noticed any more noticible ram being sucked up by something else running? Or does it only run when called for, like java? I know lots of people use it so i cant imagine its a ram hog, but im only working with 1 gig of ram.
the app i originally wanted to try it for, i found a better (severely under rated) keybaord that i like, even better i think, and all the themes arent extra purchases either. but I know greenify, and something else has asked me about exposed too, but i just kept saying no, cuz i was afraid to mess up. lol.

Pawprints1986 said:
Have you noticed any more noticible ram being sucked up by something else running? Or does it only run when called for, like java? I know lots of people use it so i cant imagine its a ram hog, but im only working with 1 gig of ram.
the app i originally wanted to try it for, i found a better (severely under rated) keybaord that i like, even better i think, and all the themes arent extra purchases either. but I know greenify, and something else has asked me about exposed too, but i just kept saying no, cuz i was afraid to mess up. lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xposed itself doesn't seem to take much ram at all. I have run it all the way back to devices like my HTC Incredible, which was released on 2010. That has 512MB RAM and it seemed to run fine. As for modules, they tend to use very little ram. Greenify takes 10MB and powernap takes 3.7MB on my oneplus one. To compare that, Swiftkey takes 49MB and ran just fine even on the incredible with only 512MB RAM. Do a backup, try it out, and if it doesn't work out, restore /system and it's uninstalled. Well, then uninstall modules. For me, it's a must have personally, and I always try it out, even when I know things may or may not work, because it's so easy to remove if things don't go as planned. Make sure you have a backup, and you are golden. Super easy fix on he rare occasion something breaks.

kdb424 said:
Xposed itself doesn't seem to take much ram at all. I have run it all the way back to devices like my HTC Incredible, which was released on 2010. That has 512MB RAM and it seemed to run fine. As for modules, they tend to use very little ram. Greenify takes 10MB and powernap takes 3.7MB on my oneplus one. To compare that, Swiftkey takes 49MB and ran just fine even on the incredible with only 512MB RAM. Do a backup, try it out, and if it doesn't work out, restore /system and it's uninstalled. Well, then uninstall modules. For me, it's a must have personally, and I always try it out, even when I know things may or may not work, because it's so easy to remove if things don't go as planned. Make sure you have a backup, and you are golden. Super easy fix on he rare occasion something breaks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, other than the possible odd app that may directly ask for it, does it do anything for the overall phone differently? I think i read that it replaces dalvik, which i also dont quite understand. i know the dalvik cache is like windows prefetch files, but as for dalvik it self, im not too sure. is it better than dalvik? (or, did i read the wrong information somewhere?)

Pawprints1986 said:
So, other than the possible odd app that may directly ask for it, does it do anything for the overall phone differently? I think i read that it replaces dalvik, which i also dont quite understand. i know the dalvik cache is like windows prefetch files, but as for dalvik it self, im not too sure. is it better than dalvik? (or, did i read the wrong information somewhere?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't replace it so much as hook into it. Think of how cheat programs can hook into games, or like the steam overlay on games. It hooks in and modifies. Basically, unless you run a module,Aka, an app that needs xposed, then you won't even notice a single bit of difference. Almost 0 ram impact, no discernible performance drop, nada. It's basically a resource hook that allows other apps to hook in to the system. It has different versions for ART and Dalvik (Depending on android version) because they do things differently, so it basically just hooks as needed, and the modules (xposed apps that you want to work) just borrow what xposed knows how to do so each single app doesn't have to figure it out. It's known as a framework. It's just a tool for things to use. Xposed modules can all use that framework to make changes to the system that you ask them to, but otherwise, if you have none installed, it just straps on the system, then does basically nothing as it doesn't really do anything by itself.

Rooted, now what?

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

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

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

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