Database Develop

windows vista help needed

every time i try to run ie on my computer it comes up with 1. a screen saying im on an insecure sight. just my google homepage. 2. a pop up that says my computer has a virus, shows a file address of the infected files (which cant be deleted) and directs me to a file explorer that shows i have multiple problems and tries to download ie antivirus or 3. goes to a different website also trying to download ie antivirus. no matter which happens ie always stops working. this all started after i tried downloading winrar.
i really need help with this and dont know what to do please help!

Sounds like you've got a case of spyware my friend.... Go download Ad-Aware from Lavasoft (the free edition) and scan your computer. I guarantee it will find all sorts of baddies that are causing the pop-ups and browser hijackings.
Also, do you have an anti-virus program? Even a free one like AVG will protect you from SOME of the threats out there. I recommend Mcafee, even though it is a little bloated. And keep all of your anti-virus definitions up to date to further protect your computer from most of the malicious software out there... Good luck!

i tried downloading a spyware removal program like you said but couldnt because i couldnt use my internet and since i just woke up didnt think to download it from my phone or a different computer. eventually just did a system restore which fixed it.
now i wan to know what i can do to prevent something like this from happening again. i already run mcafee and windows defender every night but since neither of those found the spyware im looking for something that can prevent it from happening. any advice would be great

I've never had luck removing ad/spyware completely, even with the best removal tools. I find formatting the hard drive and reloading Windose is much less aggravation in the long run.
Also, those MF's that write the ad/spyware programs should be hunted down, and have their genital hair shaved with cold water and a dull rusty razor.

i reccomend spybot to remove spyware, i have found it works best. AVG works well too, but if you have antivirus installed already it may not install. formatting is certainly the best way.

Bah... Only format as a last resort... You can run both Ad-Aware and Spybot - Search and Destroy on the same machine... Together they usually find 90% of the crap that gets installed (as far as spyware is concerned)... It may take several hours to get everything resolved, but as you already did the system restore, now is a good time to run both applications, then delete all of the restore points after your machine is running fine... Then once you have deleted the restore points, set one from the clean environment...

[Q] Things I want to know about flashing and more!

A lot of things are never explained. Its really easy to just flash a ROM but there is a lot more to the process that could help.
I have soo many questions its ridiculous.. Why not ask them all at once? Im not dumb, I would like to see someone find complete information on any of these things..
1. Nobody ever explained what we can do with Clockwork Recovery, I know that I can restore previous ROMS with it but what else? Could I easily just flash back to my original 2.1 out of the box modded phone ROM even though I am on 2.2 now?
2. When I flash these ROMS, should I be doing like a format of the internal SD card to make it all fresh and what not?
3. What about App2SD? Thought sounded way cool when I first heard about it. How can I get that working? Couldn't I just use that and never have to backup my apps between ROMS anymore? Maybe I don't get it but theres no info on it either.
4. What is Nandroid? Sounds cool.
5. What would be the best way to back everything up between flashes?
At the moment, I just use TB to back up my important apps and then restore them + data afterwards. And for contacts and stuff I just uses Google sync, easy enough. It seems pointless to back up though because the Titanium Backup folder still remains after flashing, why do things still remain? Is this a good thing?
6. What the heck is kernel swapping and more specifically, what does it do? I have a general idea what a kernel is but feel free to explain!
7. Anything else about the finesses of flashing would be awesome to read about. This is all that comes to mind but yeah, feel free to really lay on the details.
I don't really care how ridiculous this seems, its a forum. More specifically, the Q&A section. Any help would be awesome!
[Edit] Ha, go figure. No replies. Was worth a try.

Those are all very good questions.
I agree with you that so far there is not a good central repository of information to explain all this that I know of.
I recently flashed to Cognition 9.1 after reading bajillions of threads to try and piece together the proper procedure. You see people making suggestions left and right, but half the time they conflict with each other, and the other half are stated in terms that only someone that already knows how to do it would understand.
There are two wikis and a couple guides out there with good information, but they tend to be grander in scale. "How to make your Captivate take over the world" articles are great and useful. But it's very difficult to find information on the small specific bits contained in those guides.
To understand all those little bits requires lots of googling and taking notes. I can't tell you how many e-mails I've sent myself from work containing little snippets of "do this", "try this", "how to..." that I've slowly come across after scouring these forums for hours on end.
That's not to say I don't appreciate all the info given from the users here. I'm just saying it'll be nice when all that knowledge gets pooled into one central location like one of the wikis rather than scattered sentence by sentence amid thousands of pages of posts.
And the next response to me from some snarky person will undoubtedly be "Well if you want the wiki to have that info then do it yourself!". My response then would be, "I don't know that information which is why I'm saying it would be nice if..."
The next snarky response to expect would be "If you want to know stuff then search the forums you newb. That's how *I* did it!" And my response to that would be, "And wouldn't you have been incredibly overjoyed to have NOT spent hours of your free time trying to piece together knowledge out there? And why the heck didn't you then post a straight-forward guide of simple steps on how to do it. And why the heck aren't you being a good person and helping me out now rather than being snarky and telling me to figure it out myself??"
So here's my answers to your questions which won't be very good but maybe if enough of us clueless people discuss this kind of stuff we can start to hash out more specifics.
1. Clockwork Recovery? I really don't know. I've read so many cryptic discussions about Clockwork that I can't tell you what it does. I know it can be used in flashing ROMs, but in following the Cognition line it's easier to use the Odin One Click method.
The name of it however makes it seem like its purpose is to recover from something to something. I'd assume that means you can recover our phone to stock if we have problems, but I bet that assumption is wrong.
2. Flash internal SD when updating ROM? Funny story that... I found this thread because I was doing a search on that very thing. I have seen mentioned in a couple places people saying you should do it. However in most "How to flash a ROM" discussions I've read they don't have formatting the internal SD as part of the scenario. And nowhere (yet..) can I find instruction on how to do it properly. I'm assuming I shouldn't just hook it up in USB mode to my computer and having my computer run a format on it. So I won't.
I know that the Odin tool does a "Master Clear" which I assumed would wipe the internal SD. But when I look at my internal SD it still has all sorts of stuff on it from before still. So evidently to "Master Clear", which is suggested in many "How to flash a ROM" guides, doesn't format the internal SD but "clears" some other mystical information.
3. App2SD. Well when I look up App2SD at Appbrain the description says, "helps you to move apps to either external or internal storage thru' the system Settings." Ok... great... So if I have apps installed (which default to internal SD) then I should be able to run this to move those apps to my external SD.
What happens when I flash a new ROM though like you said? The apps are on my external SD, but can I instantly use the apps on the fresh ROM or do I have to use App2SD again to move them to internal SD or what?
4. Nandroid! It does sound cool doesn't it? In most "How to flash ROM" guides and just about every other guide people say "Make sure to make a Nandroid backup before proceeding". Ok, doing a search on Nandroid I find this in the G1 forums:
"* What is Nandroid Backup v2.0?
Nandroid Backup is a set of tools and a script that will enable anyone who has root on their G1 and has the engineering/dev spl bootloader [1] (or has a dev phone) + a recovery image with busybox and adbd running as root [2] to make full system backups. These can then be restored using the fastboot [3] commandline tool and your phone in SPL/bootloader mode (hold camera + power)."
Uh.. say what? Ok I get what its end result is. It backs up my system. But what's this engineering/dev spl bootloader? I remember from WinMo that a bootloader booted the phone into a state where you could load a ROM onto it. Doesn't seem to fit exactly in this context.
I don't think I have a dev phone and I know I don't have any sort of recovery image. Busybox I recognize because Titanium Backup makes you install it. Don't know what it is though. And "adbd" has to do with running the Android developer kit or terminal or something which allows you to interact directly with Android on your phone I think. I couldn't get it to work on my computer so haven't been able to play with it.
So yeah, when everyone one says "Make a Nandroid backup" like it's the most simple thing in the world that every newborn baby is born with instant knowledge of doing... I must be missing something...
5. Backup between flashes. Well, from all the discussions I've read it sounds like you're supposed to use Clockwork Recovery or Nandroid or maybe both. Possibly you're also supposed to hunt down an ostrich and ride it to your local gas station to pick up a pack of bubble gum and donate it to your local charity of choice in order to get it to work.
Titanium Backup appears to backup your Apps so you can then install them again (I wonder if using App2SD affects that?). You can also back up system stuff, but everyone says not to do that. I assume that means it backs up various system files that would just mess up your new ROM if you restored them.
6. Kernel swapping. I know in general computing terms a Kernel is the very core of an operating system. Since there's swapping going on I assume there are different versions of the Android kernel out there and each one must have something different about them or there wouldn't be any swapping going on. As to what those differences are I couldn't tell you. Personally I'm going to stick with premade bundles like Cognition. That way I don't have to worry about kernel swapping and sacrificing chickens since some awesome genius (like DesignGears) has already done all that. Minus the chicken sacrifice possibly.
7. Flashing finesse. Like I said I've recently flashed from stock to Cognition 9.1 and everything seems to work (except my battery seems to be draining faster, even though I flashed from 100% charge, and did "Master Clear". So next step will be clearing the battery stat file which is another thing I need to research and doing another full charging cycle to see if that helps).
I scoured the forums before doing the flash looking for the proper steps and I finally came upon a post from someone that actually listed each step very clearly on how to do it properly. Huzzah!
Here's what KewlRobD posted:
"- I was running 2.1.7 so I disabled voodoo lagfix
- I powered off my phone and waited for it to reach 100% battery
- I removed my SIM card
- I then used ODIN to flash back to JF6
- I then used ODIN to Master Clear
- I then used ODIN to flash Beta9
- I then used ODIN to Master Clear again.
- I then put my SIM back into my phone and began customizing"
How many hours did I spend reading thread after thread to slowly piece parts of this together into some confused possible instruction list?? Well here you go, KewlRobD was very awesome and actually listed very clearly the steps to take.
The disabling lagfix part he mentions didn't apply since I was on stock and never applied a lagfix. However this is something else I'll have to research if I decide to flash to a new ROM because all "How to..." guides tell you to disable lagfix. Because again, all newborns pop out of the womb with instant knowledge on the disabling of the lagfixes.
Now the only thing he didn't mention was formatting the internal SD, nor did he mention anything about recalibrating the battery, clearing the battery stats file, bump charging etc. (besides saying to charge to 100% first)
So I'm still searching for the formatting of the internal SD information, and I remember reading somewhere about clearing the battery. I think I actually e-mailed it to myself. Yep, here's what Demented71 says about clearing the battery:
"As far as the battery, I would:
Charge your phone while it's on to 100%
Turn it off and charge to 100%
Turn it on and let it fully boot and turn it off again, charging to 100%
Then, when you unplug it, put it into recovery mode first, use CWR (the green recovery) to 'wipe battery stats' in it's advanced menu.
Then use your phone completely until it won't turn on, trying not to connect it via USB or wall charger.
When charging it up after that for the first time, try and leave it off and charge it to 100%, but let it sit for a few hours past 100%, and then use it normally. It's best to do this when your sleeping if you don't need your phone during that time. Another option is to buy the 2x battery+charger from eBay. Works great to always have a full battery."
Again, very helpful post with nice clear instructions instead of "Ur battery sux? Then reset it... duh!" However, there's one spot in there where he says to use CWR. I can only assume that means Clockwork Recovery. KHAAAAAAAAAN!! So in the end I need to do more research to figure out what exactly CWR is and how it works. *sigh*

Clockwork Recovery is a very useful tool. With it you can do many system type things before the os proper (android) is loaded.
You can install "mods" which are modifications to the system, such as zmod, or replacing your battery icon. They are given to you in zip files that have the instructions in place as scripts and such that install the mod for you. No creeping around your internal file system wondering what goes where and I hope I get it right.
You can install roms the same way.
A nandroid back up is the backup (for us) that clockwork recovery provides. If you do a rom manager or clockwork backup, you just did a nandroid backup. It lets you rollback to a point of your chosing as long as you can root your phone and install rom manager.
rom manager downloads the clockwork recovery app to your phone. As long as it's the most recent version you can move the update.zip it puts on your phone to your computer, and then you can put it on your sdcard anytime you want. Once it's there, reboot into recovery, select reinstall packages, and you should be in the clockwork recovery program.
From there you can create or restore a backup, install a mod, or rom from sdcard and quite a few utiliy scripts like formating your sd, removing battery stats, and the like. Careful. Some of this will wipe your data and leave you without apps and such. Like new.
Titanium Backup is your friend. A nandroid backup is a fallback spot, or a relatively easy way to switch back and forth between roms, sort of. If you flash a new rom you don't want to do that. Titanium Backup allows you to backup all your apps and thier data. If you pay for it, and you'll want to, it allows you to do it all as a batch operation, instead of one app at a time.
While it's beyond my time constraint's AND expertise level to answer all your questions, I hope these helped some?
Edit: Before messing with this it's a good idea to be sure you can do the button combinations to get into recovery and/or download modes. DesignGears has a thread in development that explains this and offers a fix if you can't do it. Will help keep/get you out of reboot loops if something goes fubar.
Recovery: From power off, hold both volume buttons down and push power. Hold all three until you see the at&t white screen. Hold for a second or so then release the power button while still holding the volumes. You should boot into recover there. Blue text with some choices. Move with volume up and down, choose with power.
Download: From power off, hold both volume buttons and plug in your usb cable. You should get a big yellow graphic with "Don't turn target off." That's download mode. (If you are planning to use odin or odin one click then have that program running on your computer when you do this.
(Just in case ya didn't know. Don't mean to talk down to anyone.)

Awesome response, Sulphur4724. Thank you very much.
I had no clue Clockwork Recovery was capable of doing so much stuff. I'll definitely have to check it out now.
And that answers our question on how to format the internal SD. Now we just need to find out under what circumstances it's a good idea to do so.
Along the same lines I've also heard people mentioning repartitioning the SD. I'm assuming that's only to do with the various lag fixes out there?
And thanks for clearing up the Nandroid inquiry. I always thought when people said "Make a Nandroid backup..." that they were referring to a program called Nandroid. No wonder I couldn't find an app called that!
So to simplify a little:
1. What can I do with Clockword Recovery (CWR)?
CWR backs up your ROM to an update.zip file that you can store elsewhere in case you want to restore your ROM to saved state. It also allows you to install modifications to Android such as a new battery icon. And finally, it allows you to run system utilities such as formatting the SDCard, or clearing the battery stats. CWR also works in conjunction with an App called "Rom Manager" to perform some operations.
2. Should I format the internal SD when installing new ROMs?
Not sure yet. But in order to actually DO the formatting you would use Clockwork Recovery.
3. What is App2SD and how do I use it?
Not sure yet. The description sounds simple. Move apps to the external SD card. But earching the interwebs for information is giving descriptions involving repartitioning the system into 2 partitions, flashing things, running adb commands, etc. Maybe all that information is old and it's now a simple process? We need more info.
4. What is Nandroid and how do I do it?
Nandroid is basically backing up your ROM so you can use it to restore later. To do this you use Clockwork Recovery. See question 1.
5. What's the best way to back up everything between flashing ROMs?
Using Rom Manager and Clockwork Recovery you can make a backup (Nandroid) of your current ROM. See questions 1 and 4.
In order to back up applications you will want to use an app called Titanium Backup (often referred to as TiBu). With TiBu you can make backup copies of any apps you want. Along with that you can tell it to back up any data for those apps (which would be game saves, app settings, etc.). You can also back up system files and data, but this can often lead to ROM issues if you replace a new ROMs files with old backup files so do your research and be careful.
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Besides the formatting internal SD and App2SD questions, does that all sound right so far?
Does anyone know if all this is universal Android stuff, or if it only pertains to the Captivate?
By the way, thanks for asking these questions, Shival!

And that answers our question on how to format the internal SD. Now we just need to find out under what circumstances it's a good idea to do so.
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You can also format the SD card by settings/sdcard and phone storage.
Along the same lines I've also heard people mentioning repartitioning the SD. I'm assuming that's only to do with the various lag fixes out there?
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Lagfixes will take care of themselves. I'm not real sure how this works, tho I always do it and it ain't hosed me yet. From my days as a computer geek I seem to remember that when you make a partition you should make the blocks, where stuff actually gets written, as small as possible. When a file is written to a file system it is written to these blocks. On the last one it uses, if it doesn't fill it up that space is wasted. So smaller blocks = smaller waste = more free space. Not really expert about this (hell, about any of this) so someone else may be able to clarify better, but it's workin' for me so far.
And thanks for clearing up the Nandroid inquiry. I always thought when people said "Make a Nandroid backup..." that they were referring to a program called Nandroid. No wonder I couldn't find an app called that!
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I spent a while lookin' for it too.
CWR backs up your ROM to an update.zip file that you can store elsewhere in case you want to restore your ROM to saved state
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An update.zip is a stored mod or rom before it's applied to your phone. Made by the developer with install scripts and such to automate the process. The actual backups you can find and inspect under clockworkmod/backup on your sdcard once you've run a backup. They are saved as img files that can be written back to your phone if you have an issue you can't recover from using cwm. But they are NOT the update.zip files. Those are the android format for installing stuff from recovery.
2. Should I format the internal SD when installing new ROMs?
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The jury is out on this. Some guys swear by it, some guys say "nah." What it will do is wipe all YOUR data and stuff off the phone, leaving it with just the OS ROM as created by the dev. cwm can do it, or you can do it from settings/sdcard and phone storage.
3. What is App2SD and how do I use it?
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Most phones have a finite amount of storage that the system can use. Most of them have a relatively small amount actually. As cappy owners we have a whopping 2 gb of that storage. But the other guys usually have considerably less. Applications get written to that space and it quickly runs out on other platforms. so app2sd moves apps to the external sd. Or the internal for us, since our total storage is 20 gb. (i think.) The unreserved space is formatted by the phone to look like an external SD card to the phone. anyway, it's not as big an issue for us as 2gb is a LOT of space that will take a while to fill up.
You can also back up system files and data, but this can often lead to ROM issues if you replace a new ROMs files with old backup files so do your research and be careful.
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For backups this is fine. If you flash a new rom do NOT restore system settings from an older backup. It will restore stuff that may not work with what your flashing and will gum it all up but good. FC hell. You are pretty safe restoring apps+data as that just restores the apps data itself and doesn't overwrite any system files.
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Does anyone know if all this is universal Android stuff, or if it only pertains to the Captivate?
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I dunno! This is my first android phone!

Sulphur4724 said:
You can also format the SD card by settings/sdcard and phone storage.
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Ah cool, thanks!
From my days as a computer geek I seem to remember that when you make a partition you should make the blocks, where stuff actually gets written, as small as possible. When a file is written to a file system it is written to these blocks. On the last one it uses, if it doesn't fill it up that space is wasted. So smaller blocks = smaller waste = more free space. Not really expert about this (hell, about any of this) so someone else may be able to clarify better, but it's workin' for me so far.
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Click to collapse
Yeah if I remember correctly small blocks mean less space wasted, but it also means more I/O which slows performance. And bigger blocks mean more potentially wasted space but faster performance since there is less I/O going on because you're writing bigger amounts of data at once rather than a bunch of tiny writes. In today's computers where space is cheap you want to make bigger blocks to enhance performance. Not sure what's suggested for NAND. And my memory could be faulty on all that, but that's what I remember from back in the day of tiny hard-drives.
An update.zip is a stored mod or rom before it's applied to your phone. Made by the developer with install scripts and such to automate the process. The actual backups you can find and inspect under clockworkmod/backup on your sdcard once you've run a backup. They are saved as img files that can be written back to your phone if you have an issue you can't recover from using cwm. But they are NOT the update.zip files. Those are the android format for installing stuff from recovery.
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Ahhh, ok. So update.zip is literally the file Android uses to make updates with whether it's a mod or ROM. The backed up ROM then will be a .img file?

Yeah if I remember correctly small blocks mean less space wasted, but it also means more I/O which slows performance. And bigger blocks mean more potentially wasted space but faster performance since there is less I/O going on because you're writing bigger amounts of data at once rather than a bunch of tiny writes. In today's computers where space is cheap you want to make bigger blocks to enhance performance. Not sure what's suggested for NAND. And my memory could be faulty on all that, but that's what I remember from back in the day of tiny hard-drives.
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Never thought of it like that, touche'. Now I gotta try changing sizes.
Ahhh, ok. So update.zip is literally the file Android uses to make updates with whether it's a mod or ROM. The backed up ROM then will be a .img file?
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Roger that. Now ya got it.

WOW!
This thread RULES! Sulphur4724 and sschrupp, many thanks, I learned a lot. If I have the time this weekend I'll try to edit this information into a backup / memory FAQ, if you think that would be useful.
sschrupp check out this guide if you haven't seen it before, it's pretty idiot proof; I had no trouble and I am an android n00b.
edit: nevermind the forum isn't letting me post links because I'm new here. It's a great guide though, so if you want, go to the website android police, and under the guides tab, read the guide called "complete guide how to fully back up and restore your android phone using nandroid backup and clockworkmod rom manager"

Glad I could help. I'd let this stand a few days and see if there are any corrections. I'm going by what I know which may or may not be 100% correct. I came to this phone from a Blackberry. Everything I'm trying to pass on I learned from reading the cognition thread and branching from there. Yes. All of it! Even before the 4k post cleansing it got a while back.
But see I can't code, and I wanna participate. So I'm doing what I can to be part of this community and if it takes some weight off the guys that DO code... well that's full of win.
/shrug

Sulphur4724 said:
But see I can't code, and I wanna participate. So I'm doing what I can to be part of this community and if it takes some weight off the guys that DO code... well that's full of win.
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Yeah that's how I see it too. Also I almost always buy the pay version of apps that really help me that independent devs here on XDA write.

Why does ROM manager run after startup? Is it okay if I disable this through autostarts? I don't run pre-scheduled backups so I can't think of any reason for it to be running in the background all of the time.

This thread is epic!
So worth it =]
I really hate that the phones storage is called internal SD, I get soo confused reading thing that say "do something to the SD" I am like, WHICH ONE!? and then I explode.
I tried to install a lagfix on a Cognition ROM once, it failed. Did it right after flashing, created the file system then I tried to do the lagfix and it failed. I never tried again. Don't know if its worth it anyways.
Battery has been a super drain! It is incredibly hard for me, a light user who is mildly OC, to let the battery get below 80% and yet, within ten minutes off the charger it starts going down lol. I keep it clean and everything, nothing is running and I always disable background data. I probably do need to redo the battery bin file. Wish I had time, either at work or I am in class.
Phone runs fine I think so I guess I'll just forget formating the internal SD. Maybe I'll try it someday though. I'd imagine the device would clog up eventually.
I just wish I was smart enough to make use of some of the more advanced facets of Android.
I guess there are just too many devices and technology moves so fast that its almost impossible to make a guide. Searching for the info is sort of fun and I do try.
I love it when you are searching for something specific but you learn so much more along the way and I, usually forget what I was searching for in the first place.
This CyanogenMod thing sounds cool. I want it, when its finished, I know barely anything about it though.
I cannot keep up at all with the Cognition releases. I barely know what the changelogs are even talking about when I do lol.
Do our phones work more efficiently with a linux distribution? I just use my Windows Vista partition mainly but I have Ubuntu. Screw windows 7, I am sticking with Vista lol. I'd imagine it would be super hard to find the same tools we use to mod our phones via windows, for Linux.

Komodo Rogue said:
Why does ROM manager run after startup? Is it okay if I disable this through autostarts? I don't run pre-scheduled backups so I can't think of any reason for it to be running in the background all of the time.
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Be careful in your thinking. Just because an app is loaded in memory does not mean it is actually doing anything. This is not windows with hundreds of processes going on. Android actually prefers to have things in memory to make accessing them faster and consuming LESS battery power as a result of not having to load them every time you want to access them. Each activity is assigned a number corresponding to its priority which determines what gets kicked out when you want to load something that is not already present and more memory is needed than what is available.
You can see this in action by utilizing a system monitor that tracks cpu activity for each process. Most apps that are in memory use ZERO cpu time unless/until you open them. For the ones that do, such as an email app, they will only use cpu time when retrieving messages which takes little energy. If you endlessly kill these with a task manager, you willuse MORE battery as a result of these having to be reloaded by the os instead of accessing them from ram, not to mention the battery drain caused by the task killer constantly polling to see what is in memory.
Sent telepathically using vulcan mind meld app.

newter55 said:
Be careful in your thinking. Just because an app is loaded in memory does not mean it is actually doing anything. This is not windows with hundreds of processes going on. Android actually prefers to have things in memory to make accessing them faster and consuming LESS battery power as a result of not having to load them every time you want to access them. Each activity is assigned a number corresponding to its priority which determines what gets kicked out when you want to load something that is not already present and more memory is needed than what is available.
You can see this in action by utilizing a system monitor that tracks cpu activity for each process. Most apps that are in memory use ZERO cpu time unless/until you open them. For the ones that do, such as an email app, they will only use cpu time when retrieving messages which takes little energy. If you endlessly kill these with a task manager, you willuse MORE battery as a result of these having to be reloaded by the os instead of accessing them from ram, not to mention the battery drain caused by the task killer constantly polling to see what is in memory.
Sent telepathically using vulcan mind meld app.
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Thanks for the response, that's helpful information to know. I don't use a task killer but I DO have quite a bit of apps disabled at boot through the app "autostarts" that I am going to turn back on now. Quickoffice comes to mind as an example; I use that maybe two or three times a week so I didn't see why I should have it "running" all of the time, but now I'm going to re-enable it.
Nevertheless, the only time I see myself using ROM Manager is before a system flash... and sadly if you read the thread I wrote about flashing to a new ROM, it turns out I may NEVER be flashing a new ROM. So in THIS case, shouldn't I just disable it from startup?

I tried to install a lagfix on a Cognition ROM once, it failed. Did it right after flashing, created the file system then I tried to do the lagfix and it failed. I never tried again. Don't know if its worth it anyways.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer to this is... sometimes. The phone can get pretty laggy if there are a lot of os writes and reads. A lagfix helps out with this. It depends on your patience and how fast/cool you want to be. (I do it just for the geek factor! RAWR!)
Battery has been a super drain! It is incredibly hard for me, a light user who is mildly OC, to let the battery get below 80% and yet, within ten minutes off the charger it starts going down lol. I keep it clean and everything, nothing is running and I always disable background data. I probably do need to redo the battery bin file. Wish I had time, either at work or I am in class.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried every thing I could find/read/think of and my battery life still sux. Why? It's not a phone, it's an ENTERTAINMENT CENTER! Seriously, the Amoled screen on this puppy is pretty as hell but it's also hell on a battery. When it's open, it's eating energy as fast as it can put it away. My philosophy after hours and hours of trying to figure this out is this: Enjoy the phone and keep a charger handy. Try this tho, next time you flash something rom wise pull your sim card. DG says that when the modem.bin file flashes with it in it can cause it to keep the modem open all the time causing massive battery drain. I tried this last flash and it does seem to make a difference. /shrug
Phone runs fine I think so I guess I'll just forget formating the internal SD. Maybe I'll try it someday though. I'd imagine the device would clog up eventually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't done a master clear or format in several flashes and I've had no ill effects. I can imagine a point down the road where issues may ensue, but not recently.
I just wish I was smart enough to make use of some of the more advanced facets of Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't we all!
I guess there are just too many devices and technology moves so fast that its almost impossible to make a guide. Searching for the info is sort of fun and I do try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some guys trying, they just aren't advertising well!
This CyanogenMod thing sounds cool. I want it, when its finished, I know barely anything about it though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CDE is about as close to CyanogenMod as we have right now. Want a sneak peak? There's your huckleberry.
Do our phones work more efficiently with a linux distribution? I just use my Windows Vista partition mainly but I have Ubuntu. Screw windows 7, I am sticking with Vista lol. I'd imagine it would be super hard to find the same tools we use to mod our phones via windows, for Linux.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are coding or plan on coding i'd say yes. If not? nah. winders works just fine. Or as fine as it ever works.

Full Ubuntu Mod for WebTop

I was googling WebTop hacks for the Bionic to see if any came up but it did show ones on the Atrix that were pretty frickin awesome if we could get this up and running on our phones
WebTop2sd 1.1.0
Imagine running a full version of Ubuntu instead of the lite version that is preloaded in the WebTop OS. Finally we could run XBMC or OpenOffice through the power of our phones

Find anything? The closest I have come across is a flashable zip for the Atrix but no full Ubuntu for the Bionic.

I am on my bionic....
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App

I have been searching for the past 24 hours to no avail... I guess we just need to wait a few weeks or so for our Bionic version of UbunTop.
I was thinking of trying to overwrite all of OSH on my Bionic with the OSH dir from UbunTop package... but I decided against it. Primarily because if it did actually work, I'd still be on jaunty instead of maverick (newer ubuntu). So there'd be all sorts of incompatibilities with stuff I'd be wanting to try.
So, I guess I'll keep waiting and searching Can't be long now...

Ok, so I have gotten as far as being able to load ubuntu 10.10 w/ gnome panel but when i try to upgrade to 11.04 it tells me that it needs 10.5m of space. I partitioned my 32gb sd card 50/50 so there is a ton of room. Disk Usage Analyzer says there is no mount point. Everything in Ubuntu is trying to load to /, not osh/ maybe??
Anyone have any ideas?
Edit: Any installs from synaptic can install just fine, its only from ubuntu updater thats giving me issues

hastaply said:
Ok, so I have gotten as far as being able to load ubuntu 10.10 w/ gnome panel but when i try to upgrade to 11.04 it tells me that it needs 10.5m of space. I partitioned my 32gb sd card 50/50 so there is a ton of room. Disk Usage Analyzer says there is no mount point. Everything in Ubuntu is trying to load to /, not osh/ maybe??
Anyone have any ideas?
Edit: Any installs from synaptic can install just fine, its only from ubuntu updater thats giving me issues
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried the same thing and got the error message.

hastaply said:
Ok, so I have gotten as far as being able to load ubuntu 10.10 w/ gnome panel ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could I please ask how you achieved this? Thanks!

Ok, start with the webtop2sd mod then, check out
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1281722
Once your done there, go into synaptic and install gnome and ubuntu. When you start doing things, it will give you a few errors of items needed to install/uninstall, install/uninstall them as needed. It will also give you an error about "Bluez", when you get there you will need to "completely remove" it. Once everything is installed, restart your phone.
Reopen "start-oshwt-2.sh", remove the xfce panel and desktop you added earlier and add:
sfalv -i "gnome-panel"
sfalv -i "ubuntu-desktop"
Save and restart
Back into webtop and you should have a nice new ubuntu webtop.
I recommend doing a complete uninstall of firefox then reinstall it, it will give you a more complete firefox.
Openoffice works too.
At this point I am stuck, synaptic works just fine but when I try Ubuntu Update, it gives the disk space error. Still working on it.

not sure if this will help but I was having alot of problems getting certain things to install and I did a:
apt-get install --reinstall coreutils
fix alot of problems for me
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium

hastaply said:
Ok, start with the webtop2sd mod then, check out
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1281722
Once your done there, go into synaptic and install gnome and ubuntu ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So webtop2sd is absolutely necessary before we can install that webtop patch? I'm not sure what went wrong when I tried doing the webtop2sd once before, but I got stuck at the M loading screen and had to completely restore my phone from RSD... So I'm a bit nervous to try again, lol. But I will if it's necessary for Ubuntu
EDIT:
OK, I am attempting the webtop2sd process again. This time I partitioned the SD from the windows program "MiniTool Partition Wizard..." as suggested. It is currently synchronizing... I'm keeping my fingers crossed

tomgiboney said:
So webtop2sd is absolutely necessary before we can install that webtop patch? I'm not sure what went wrong when I tried doing the webtop2sd once before, but I got stuck at the M loading screen and had to completely restore my phone from RSD... So I'm a bit nervous to try again, lol. But I will if it's necessary for Ubuntu
EDIT:
OK, I am attempting the webtop2sd process again. This time I partitioned the SD from the windows program "MiniTool Partition Wizard..." as suggested. It is currently synchronizing... I'm keeping my fingers crossed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, youll want to do it for no other reason than disk space, installing gnome, ubuntu, etc takes quite a bit. Even though webtop2sd says that it changes /etc/tomoyo, i found that there was both the original and the "toy" folder after install. I went again and changed the folder name to tomoyo1 and never had a boot problem after.

hastaply said:
Once your done there, go into synaptic and install gnome and ubuntu. When you start doing things, it will give you a few errors of items needed to install/uninstall, install/uninstall them as needed. It will also give you an error about "Bluez", when you get there you will need to "completely remove" it. Once everything is installed, restart your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I certainly thank you and appreciate you taking the time to write this lil guide But unfortunately, everytime I try to install gnome and ubuntu I get fatal errors and it never finishes anything. Everytime so far, I've had to fully restore my phone... But, I'm a very patient man No full on bricks, so that's great! ... But I do feel as though I'm getting closer and closer each time. You've given me a lot of info to run with, I just don't understand why mine won't give the same results as yours... oh well.
Thank you for all your input, it is greatly appreciated!

tomgiboney said:
I certainly thank you and appreciate you taking the time to write this lil guide But unfortunately, everytime I try to install gnome and ubuntu I get fatal errors and it never finishes anything. Everytime so far, I've had to fully restore my phone... But, I'm a very patient man No full on bricks, so that's great! ... But I do feel as though I'm getting closer and closer each time. You've given me a lot of info to run with, I just don't understand why mine won't give the same results as yours... oh well.
Thank you for all your input, it is greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only thing specifically related to my process that I left out was that in the guide for webtop2sd, I took that authors advice and used the partition tool included in his post to partition my sd card although i doubt thats your issue. If you get hung up, between the posts are all the files need to go back to fully stock, that's where i started from and, not that is should make a difference but im using the (r3)blur3d 2.0 rom.

Any more progress?
Has anyone else gotten any further with this?
I think this has SO MUCH potential and I really wish there were more updates and/or interest in this.
I (think) I have webtop2sd working correctly, but I still encounter the low memory issues when I use even 2 or more browser tabs in Firefox simultaneously. I saw the other thread about adding the swap partition, perhaps I need to go that route instead?
I have a class 10 SD card in my phone, and I did allocate 3GB to the webtop2sd partition, but I know there are some inherent limitations of OSH based on Motorola's original design.
I just wish it could be made more powerful and viable. The idea of carrying around a full-blown desktop OS on my phone almost makes me salivate.
Thanks!
-Rob

hastaply said:
... used the partition tool included in his post to partition my sd card although i doubt thats your issue. If you get hung up, between the posts are all the files need to go back to fully stock, that's where i started from and, not that is should make a difference but im using the (r3)blur3d 2.0 rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition! It's a great tool! I used that to partition mine as well... the biggest partition for my sdcard-ext (like 9GB) then almost 5GB for the webtop2sd partition... then whatever was left for a swap partition (created in MiniTool Wizard also). I've never noticed a low memory warning, but I really haven't used my webtop much. Just today I got the bluetooth mouse and keyboard in the mail, so I'm thinking it'll be able to get more usage. Oh, and I was running stock, just rooted (forever rooted) and NOT deodexed... BUT now I am running on the HIFT3R rom ... I'm gonna try out the TH3ORYPAKX "Blurry" now... I tried the ICS Blurry, but I don't like the color scheme, and various little things... Hoping the Blurry is more to my liking.
But it does seem as though I have more power/rights for some reason, perhaps cause it's deodexed or perhaps because it has a lot of mods built-in? Who knows... I just know it seems a lot better.
I *just* got thru with the sudo apt-get update at lunch time... getting ready to go back home and start playing around. This time with the bluetooth mouse and keyboard! woot!
I did get the KFCE4 working a while back, as in the guide...
sfalv -i "xfdesktop"
sfalv -i "xfce4-panel"
BUT I didn't really like it for some reason... I want the gnome-panel and ubuntu-desktop but no matter what I've tried, I have always ended up with poor results... not once have I seen the gnome-panel (which would be on the bottom right? the webtop-panel will always be on the top, unless I rem out that line too) And I'm not sure what I'll see if the ubuntu-desktop ever works...
But I'm dying to find out
I'll let you know my results...
---------- Post added at 03:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:44 PM ----------
robroy90 said:
Has anyone else gotten any further with this?
I think this has SO MUCH potential and I really wish there were more updates and/or interest in this.
I (think) I have webtop2sd working correctly, but I still encounter the low memory issues when I use even 2 or more browser tabs in Firefox simultaneously. I saw the other thread about adding the swap partition, perhaps I need to go that route instead?
I have a class 10 SD card in my phone, and I did allocate 3GB to the webtop2sd partition, but I know there are some inherent limitations of OSH based on Motorola's original design.
I just wish it could be made more powerful and viable. The idea of carrying around a full-blown desktop OS on my phone almost makes me salivate.
Thanks!
-Rob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rob, I must agree 100% ... the idea of having a fully loaded, ready to roll, desktop OS on my smartphone is mind-blowing! The lapdock is great and all, but too expensive. Having the alternative ability to hook my phone up to my or my friends HDTV when I visit, whip out my bluetooth mouse and keyboard... then queue up a movie, or show them some awesome websites, or let them surf the web... or work on some overdue projects... it's quite appealing! You could even hook it into a projector and give a presentation... from your PHONE, lol.
...
That being said, though. I have ran into some discouragement. I have a monitor here at work with DVI input, and a HDMI to DVI adapter cable. The native res is like 1680x1050. In the beginning, I was able to hook my Bionic up to it and webtop just fine. It looked stretched cause it was using a 4:3 resolution, but it still worked. Now, it doesn't work. Says something like it's unsupported res or something (on the monitor screen for a second). So, I try it on every monitor I have handy (I work in the IT Dept)... not a single one of them worked!!! But I go home and hook it up to my 1080p DLP 60" and it works just fine. Hmmm...... I wish I could figure this one out.

I'd like to know the solution if you find it. It seems to be running the desktop at 1280x1024. I've changed the resolution with xrandr to 1680x1050 and the proportions look right, but the actual resolution it's outputting is still 1280x1024 so all of the pixels look weird and fuzzy. It's as if the virtual desktop is only 1280x1024. I tried creating my own xorg.conf file and setting up a 1680x1050 resolution mode and virtual line but it still doesn't work. Any ideas from anyone else?

nstallion said:
I'd like to know the solution if you find it. It seems to be running the desktop at 1280x1024. I've changed the resolution with xrandr to 1680x1050 and the proportions look right, but the actual resolution it's outputting is still 1280x1024 so all of the pixels look weird and fuzzy. It's as if the virtual desktop is only 1280x1024. I tried creating my own xorg.conf file and setting up a 1680x1050 resolution mode and virtual line but it still doesn't work. Any ideas from anyone else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got it working on this monitor here at work again... what I did was just make sure I went down to like 1024x768 resolution while I had it on my HDTV at home before I unplugged it. For some reason, if I left it on the 720p, it would stay there and wouldn't be recognized on any other monitor (unless it was capable of actual 720p). Automatic 'new' display detection looks like it is built in, but doesn't seem to work most of the time.
On another note... My bluetooth mouse and keyboard have some crazy, 1 to 2 second lag ONLY in webtop. I was doing something last night and the mouse sprung into life... the lag completely went away, on the keyboard too! But after unplugging and hooking back up, the lag is back... If I unplug the monitor, there is absolutely no lag with the mouse or keyboard on just the phone itself. Could this be the 'Bluez' thing you were talking about Hastaply?

tomgiboney said:
I got it working on this monitor here at work again... what I did was just make sure I went down to like 1024x768 resolution while I had it on my HDTV at home before I unplugged it. For some reason, if I left it on the 720p, it would stay there and wouldn't be recognized on any other monitor (unless it was capable of actual 720p). Automatic 'new' display detection looks like it is built in, but doesn't seem to work most of the time.
On another note... My bluetooth mouse and keyboard have some crazy, 1 to 2 second lag ONLY in webtop. I was doing something last night and the mouse sprung into life... the lag completely went away, on the keyboard too! But after unplugging and hooking back up, the lag is back... If I unplug the monitor, there is absolutely no lag with the mouse or keyboard on just the phone itself. Could this be the 'Bluez' thing you were talking about Hastaply?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it could be. The bluetooth drivers in Ubuntu dont play well with webtop but if your keyboard and mouse are paired with the phone and then you enter into webtop they should still stay connected. Under synaptic, search for and 'completely remove' Bluez.

hastaply said:
Yeah, it could be. The bluetooth drivers in Ubuntu dont play well with webtop but if your keyboard and mouse are paired with the phone and then you enter into webtop they should still stay connected. Under synaptic, search for and 'completely remove' Bluez.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried uninstalling Bluez and it did not alleviate the bluetooth device lag issues. And again, these issues ONLY happen in webtop. Sometimes they go away, the mouse & keyboard (/and*or/ the PS3 controller) work fine without any lag at all, but that is only like 20 percent of the time if that. It could be working, I disconnect, 5 min later hook it back up to webtop and the lag is back...
But, I really don't know what to do there so... I will just continue on with getting my webtop the way I want it.
I really would like to know how to replace 'metacity' window manager with something else. So much so that the .sh files and such that are called upon Webtop launch actually call the new window manager instead of metacity... I want to completely eliminate all reference to it and replace it with whatever window manager I want... like kwin or enlightenment ... but I certainly don't want to break the aiw (motorola phone window) in any way.
I was able to figure out why ubuntu-desktop wasn't finishing install. When dpkg got to configuring stuff it couldn't complete samba-common due to a bad readlink/symlink... and if samba-common couldn't complete, neither could smbclient, and in turn ubuntu-desktop. After deleteing the bad readlink and rerunning dpkg --configure -a ... the problem was resolved
I'm slowly learning how to get stuff fixed... but the more complicated I get, the easier it is to hose the whole webtop and then it's restore time!
Anyhow... progress, slowly but surely.

Is there a way to use webtop2sd AND the swap space hack?
I think I have the webtop2sd piece working correctly, but I still get low memory available errors when only running a single tab in Firefox.
Full Ubuntu someday would be nice, but for now I would just like to have the ability to have a stable and reliable browser. I am not much of a Linux guru and don't need to run native apps (at least right now). Should I just undo the webtop2sd app and go back and follow the directions to enable the swap space hack?
Thanks, any experienced advice would be appreciated.
-Rob

Riddle me this,,,

Now I know I am a new member, and I respect that (I am slowing working my way up), but I just recently rooted my D4. After such, I installed SafeStrap and played around with that. What I am curious about now is how do I get a hold of all this ram that they say I have.I am looking for something that will rid me of all the memory eating apps that run in the shadows, and something that will keep them away from auto loading back to where they where. To sum up, I need a good, solid clean of all the bloatware (even to the core) and a place where I can make my fancy... if you are current on the term. Thanks to anyone whom gives out advice.

Well, you could install a different ROM. I'm running Eclipse and I like it.
I'm not sure you really need to worry about programs eating up your ram though, since the android OS automatically "garbage collects" idle applications anyway.

A word of advice, don't tweak just to tweak. IMHO, especially when it comes to Motorola, their OEM software isn't that bad. It does have some bloatware (which can be FROZEN using Titanium Backup, don't uninstall it so you can easily update in the future), but that is it.
If you really want a clean ROM, install Eclipse, it really is fantastic.
That being said, Titanium Backup is a must have, and autorunners can help you prevent things from running at startup (and other conditions), but be forewarned, you can screw things up and make the phone run much worse...

podspi said:
A word of advice, don't tweak just to tweak. IMHO, especially when it comes to Motorola, their OEM software isn't that bad. It does have some bloatware (which can be FROZEN using Titanium Backup, don't uninstall it so you can easily update in the future), but that is it.
If you really want a clean ROM, install Eclipse, it really is fantastic.
That being said, Titanium Backup is a must have, and autorunners can help you prevent things from running at startup (and other conditions), but be forewarned, you can screw things up and make the phone run much worse...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes true. you do have a point. I did download Eclipse and i LOVE IT. so ill have to get titaniam now to what? get things running even smoother?

LuckeyNo7 said:
so ill have to get titaniam now to what? get things running even smoother?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use it to freeze bloatware. What we mean by 'freeze', is to basically make the phone think the app isn't installed anymore, when in reality it is. You can easily 'defrost' frozen apps with the press of a button.

so to follow with the title... riddle me this.. why would i look over at my phone ( running eclipse in safetrap) and it is operating itself, better yet someone is remotely controlling it. i have the option set so i can see where my screen touches are, so i see this little faint white dot doing stuff oall over my screen... it starts to send a picture message to people completely random when i interveen and shut down.. 5hen load up my stock rom to post this.... HELP1!!

If it does not do this with the stock OS, then chances are you downloaded something you should not have, and someone is controlling your phone.
Does it act intelligently, or randomly? Poor quality charges can also cause spurious touches.

A short in the touchscreen can also cause this.

killgorian said:
A short in the touchscreen can also cause this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i probably downloaded something i shouldnt have... but i wasnt my stock rom (thank god) so i just flashed a new one from scratch.. hope it doesnt happen again..

Question Help malware

So I have some malware on my S21 ultra reinstalled the factory operating system and this thing whatever it is is still taking screenshots and just doing weird things. Like what is the next step here thanks in advance

MECHMILLER said:
So I have some malware on my S21 ultra reinstalled the factory operating system and this thing whatever it is is still taking screenshots and just doing weird things. Like what is the next step here thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to give more details bud. We are not mediums here.
Which version of the phone do you have? Where did you buy it? Rooted, non-rooted? What weird things, other than taking screenshots? How exactly do you understand that it is taking screenshots, does it give you a notification or do they just appear in the gallery? How often does it happen, is it random or does it also happen when you do certain tasks?
If you need help with such a potentially complicated issue, you need to give as many details as possible so people can help you without guessing everything.

On Android 9 and above it's almost impossible to have an embedded rootkit that a factory reset won't kill. On 8 and below it is.
So it's something you installed (including updates), or that's living in your data or one of the factory installed apps. Fun times

MECHMILLER said:
So I have some malware on my S21 ultra reinstalled the factory operating system and this thing whatever it is is still taking screenshots and just doing weird things. Like what is the next step here thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best solution for this is to ODIN reset.

MECHMILLER said:
So I have some malware on my S21 ultra reinstalled the factory operating system and this thing whatever it is is still taking screenshots and just doing weird things. Like what is the next step here thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not enough information to offer any intelligent solution. Please elaborate further. With every single, minute detail. We'd all be happy to help.

Download your factory ROM and flash the phone using Odin
Download Odin 3.13.1 - Samsung Odin download with ROM Flashing Tool
Odin download. Download Samsung odin 3.13.1, latest Samsung ROM Flashing Tool for android - Samsung odin download
odindownload.com

arf8 said:
Download your factory ROM and flash the phone using Odin
Download Odin 3.13.1 - Samsung Odin download with ROM Flashing Tool
Odin download. Download Samsung odin 3.13.1, latest Samsung ROM Flashing Tool for android - Samsung odin download
odindownload.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's complete overkill. More than likely a factory reset is all that's needed... and greater care when downloading.
Pre-Pie OS's are susceptible to rootkits that can breached protected partitions but not the more modern Android versions if I remember correctly.
This is an example of one that requires a reflash to totally wipe it from the phone:
Redirect Notice

I disagree, tot overkill at all if its a persistent malware. Plus if you want peace of mind it is about as simple of a process as loading the factory ROM. Why take a risk?

OP hasn't checked into this thread after the initial message. Maybe the issue has been solved.
I think we can stop trying to break our heads until he/she reappears and joins the conversation.

enigmaamit said:
OP hasn't checked into this thread after the initial message. Maybe the issue has been solved.
I think we can stop trying to break our heads until he/she reappears and joins the conversation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or the rootkit has infiltrated all the OP's devices and data drives
Be prepared and never sync all your backup copies at the same time, stagger the syncing to help avoid the possibility of all copies being compromised.
This unlikely but it's a wild, wild world.

blackhawk said:
That's complete overkill. More than likely a factory reset is all that's needed... and greater care when downloading.
Pre-Pie OS's are susceptible to rootkits that can breached protected partitions but not the more modern Android versions if I remember correctly.
This is an example of one that requires a reflash to totally wipe it from the phone:
Redirect Notice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I typed that original post I was using the phone and the keyboard kept screwing up and I was exhausted. I have factory reset the phone. The strange things that were happening like when I'd hit my recent apps tab at the bottom, if open say Ebay app then Chrome. I'd hit the recent and it would show gallery and settings. Since the factory reset it has still been taking screenshots. I've only had this phone about 20 days and got it at bestbuy. It's over the 15 day period to just take it back but hadn't been incredibly long so I guess we will see what they say. I dont do alot of app downloading or visit a bunch of websites and so on so I have no clue how this happened. Here's the real kicker, this stuff is also happening on my wife's phone (a11) I am honestly thinking about throwing the a11 in the trash and trying to get this one replaced. It's so damn frustrating it's caused arguments because I'm the one who will spend time learning how to do stuff with this. Like how to use everything the phone is capable of and can look in the settings and see that the "tracking device" in the settings that can UNLOCK YOUR PHONE, ACCESS YOUR CONTACTS" is the find my phone app that you installed from Samsung. So of course I am a "hacker" and really know nothing about this crap. And she's the person who will download every survey and shopping app she can find. So this is where I am with it idk what else to do.

MECHMILLER said:
When I typed that original post I was using the phone and the keyboard kept screwing up and I was exhausted. I have factory reset the phone. The strange things that were happening like when I'd hit my recent apps tab at the bottom, if open say Ebay app then Chrome. I'd hit the recent and it would show gallery and settings. Since the factory reset it has still been taking screenshots. I've only had this phone about 20 days and got it at bestbuy. It's over the 15 day period to just take it back but hadn't been incredibly long so I guess we will see what they say. I dont do alot of app downloading or visit a bunch of websites and so on so I have no clue how this happened. Here's the real kicker, this stuff is also happening on my wife's phone (a11) I am honestly thinking about throwing the a11 in the trash and trying to get this one replaced. It's so damn frustrating it's caused arguments because I'm the one who will spend time learning how to do stuff with this. Like how to use everything the phone is capable of and can look in the settings and see that the "tracking device" in the settings that can UNLOCK YOUR PHONE, ACCESS YOUR CONTACTS" is the find my phone app that you installed from Samsung. So of course I am a "hacker" and really know nothing about this crap. And she's the person who will download every survey and shopping app she can find. So this is where I am with it idk what else to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try something bud, in the settings there is the palm swipe capture option. When you find it try and disable it and see if the issue persists. If your phone has no virus, it might have some issue with the gestures or the screen and it might be getting mistaken that you are trying to make a screenshot.
And regarding your wife, you gotta sit her down, smash on the table with your hand so you can get her attention for a bit, and show her some videos about security and the risks involved with ignorant behaviors in the digital world.
Good luck.

babyboy3265 said:
Try something bud, in the settings there is the palm swipe capture option. When you find it try and disable it and see if the issue persists. If your phone has no virus, it might have some issue with the gestures or the screen and it might be getting mistaken that you are trying to make a screenshot.
And regarding your wife, you gotta sit her down, smash on the table with your hand so you can get her attention for a bit, and show her some videos about security and the risks involved with ignorant behaviors in the digital world.
Good luck.
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Click to collapse
I have the palm swipe off. She reset hers and says it's still doing "weird stuff" but this has been such an extreme issue with us that I can't and won't touch her phone. Because even with her sitting there watching me if I'm going through **** too fast for her to see exactly what's happening it's like I'm asked to slow down and I try to... Then she's will be like well what's this and start touching **** on the screen and u lost where I was in the first place because I then have to explain something that was just there.. Like if I'm in running processes and it's like WHATS THAT. And it will be a system operation that she read somewhere is "a concern for vulnerability" and doesn't understand that it doesn't mean that because that's there that it's a problem.. It's there normally and it is possible that's a way for security to be compromised.. Hopefully you can see the pattern I'm going in..... I am pretty good with this stuff for a power user. I know what oden is.. I know what a ROM is and stuff but I have never actually loaded my own ROM on a phone. And the fact that I sort of understand some of this is working to a huge disadvantage because it's like.. Well you know how to do this stuff so no wonder she's concerned.. When in fact I don't know how to do this stuff.. I made (foolishly) the comment when I was showing a process used by find my phone to her and my sister... The fact that I just showed you this process running that your asking me about you're just viewing it in a different place shows that if I wanted to track you I'd do it and you'd be too stupid to ever find out... And it was just frustration.. I meant Id just look at your Google history or something along that mannor.. Anyways I'm gonna be heading to bestbuy to see what they say.. As far as her phone is concerned I'd rather just spend the 200 bucks and throw it in the trash. I can't do that with the s21 so this is where I am with all this. I wad actually told by my family not to worry about it.. So what if someone steals your bank info it will be fraud and you won't be responsible for it anyway.. So just forget about it and use it....and here I am

This isn't rocket science... or a soap opera
Do a factory reset then change your Google account password.
Don't load anything until it's verified to be functioning ok*.
Then be careful what you load.
*If that fails reflash the firmware.

arf8 said:
I disagree, tot overkill at all if its a persistent malware. Plus if you want peace of mind it is about as simple of a process as loading the factory ROM. Why take a risk?
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I am ready to do this if needed. I know this isn't a major thing to do but I've never actually done it and don't know where to get my factory ROM for this on my carrier and all of that good stuff. And do I need a computer to do this with oden or can that be done completely on the phone. I am not worried about anything on here I CA. Re-download apps and photos and stuff are backed up ill just start over

blackhawk said:
Or the rootkit has infiltrated all the OP's devices and data drives
Be prepared and never sync all your backup copies at the same time, stagger the syncing to help avoid the possibility of all copies being compromised.
This unlikely but it's a wild, wild world.
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Plot twist: the malware actually created the OP

SomeXGhost said:
Plot twist: the malware actually created the OP
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Yeah that's sounds about right... we're getting played.

SomeXGhost said:
Plot twist: the malware actually created the OP
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I feel the same way.
blackhawk said:
Yeah that's sounds about right... we're getting played.
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Yea I feel like I've been created by malware with all the problems this had actually caused me.

MECHMILLER said:
Here's the real kicker, this stuff is also happening on my wife's phone (a11) I am honestly thinking about throwing the a11 in the trash and trying to get this one replaced.
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if this is for real I'd say your problems are far bigger than just yours and your wife's phones. I'd be looking at everything in your house, computers, routers, your amazon Alexa and every cloud drive you own.

3mel said:
if this is for real I'd say your problems are far bigger than just yours and your wife's phones. I'd be looking at everything in your house, computers, routers, your amazon Alexa and every cloud drive you own.
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Don't forget the smart appliances.
My bets on the fridge... you know the cold, silent type.