Friday, February 28, 2014

All about Root a Tablet

What Is Rooting?

First, for the newbies, let me clarify what rooting is. Getting root or rooting your phone is the process of modifying the operating system that shipped with your device to grant you complete control over it.

This means you can overcome limitations that the carriers and manufacturers put on your phone, extend system functionality, and even upgrade it to a custom flavor of Android.

The name root comes from the Linux operating system world, where the most privileged user on the system (otherwise known as Administrator on Windows) is called root.

Benefits Of Rooting

Let’s check out some of the benefits of rooting your Android phone.


Full Control Over Android

You have access to alter any system files, use themes, change boot images, delete annoying stock apps, such as Sprint's NFL Mobile live and Nascar Sprint Cup Mobile, and other various native applications that might drive you crazy (Footprints, Voice Dialer, etc).

There is plenty of information on the web on how to accomplish this, but our favorite way is by using Titanium Backup and freezing/deleting the apps from there (root required, of course).

Back Up And Restore The Whole System

On most rooted Android devices, you can back up your entire system to an SD card, much in the same way you can image a hard drive. This is great if you’d like to try a new ROM, as you can back up your phone, wipe it completely, flash the new ROM, and if you don’t like it, just restore from your backup to get your device back to exactly how it was before you wiped it.

The easiest way to do this at the moment is by using ROM Manager, developed by famed Android developer Koush.

ROM Manager allows you to easily flash a custom recovery image which is what you will need in order to backup and restore your phone. The recovery image is a special program that can be booted into outside of the phone's main operating system, sort of like an OS recovery console on a PC. By default, the recovery image on most Android phones only gives you a few options, mainly related to wiping the phone. Custom recovery images expand upon these options and usually include scripts that can do things like backup and restore your system, fix file permissions, or allow you to flash custom ROMs that the normal recovery image would otherwise reject.

Normally, flashing a custom recovery image requires some command line work, either on your PC, or on a terminal emulator directly on the phone, but Koush's ROM Manager should automatically flash his custom recovery image (known as ClockworkMod Recovery) for you, provided you're on one of the supported phones (<-- the list in this link should be always up-to-date, as it's maintained by Koush) and that it is already rooted.

Using ROM Manager is pretty simple. Download and install the application from the market, fire it up, and you’ll be prompted to allow the application superuser permissions - make sure you approve it.

The first thing you’ll need to do is flash the ClockworkMod recovery image that I mentioned earlier, which can be done right in the app (it’s the first option). ROM Manager should automatically find the latest version of the right image for your phone, download, and install it - the whole process is seamless.

After that is done, you can simply use the ‘Manage and Restore Backups’, and ‘Backup current ROM’ options to, well, backup your current ROM or restore from an existing backup. It’s that simple!

 Save Space On Your Phone

While Google did introduce Apps2SD (moving parts of applications to external storage) officially in the Froyo update, it remains up to developers to manually add support for it in their apps. Because of that, it's still fairly easy to overflow your internal storage and run out of space.

The easiest way to alleviate this problem and enable most applications to be movable to SD would be to flash a custom ROM that enables just that. For example, CyanogenMod, the most popular Android custom ROM, allows the user to force most apps to SD even if developers of those apps didn't enable this feature. See 13 Ways CyanogenMod 7 Makes My Android Phone Feel Future-Proof [Deep Review] for more info on this and other amazing features of CyanogenMod.

Note that this doesn't work on all apps, notably keyboards and apps with widgets.


Install Custom ROMs

The Android custom ROM scene started growing shortly after the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, was released. The ROMs that were initially available just offered a few tweaks here and there - access to developer only sections of the operating system, debugging information, and things of that nature.

Now, a few years after the release of the G1, the Android ROM community has grown immensely, and ROMs have been developed for most of the Android phones currently on the market.

They've gone far beyond simple tweaks and can now give your phone an entirely new look and feel. There are ROMs that can make your phone fly by replacing the kernel with hyper-optimized versions or even overclocking the CPU. The possibilities are nearly limitless and attempting to cover all of the features of all the ROM's available for all of the phones out there would be pretty much impossible.

If you're interested in flashing a custom ROM on your phone, your best bet is to hit the Googles, search for "phonename custom ROM," and see what comes up. You'll likely find at least one forum dedicated to hacking your phone with plenty of information to get you started.

Here at AndroidPolice, we're planning a series of custom ROM reviews for as many phones as we can get our hands on. Stay tuned for updates!

 How Root The Tablet (Ex: Viewsonic Gtablet)

Root

Now that we got that out of the way, we need to gain root access. You need to sideload Z4 Root to your G Tablet. This allows us to modify all of the necessary files and use apps which require super user access.

Download Z4 Root here and then simply:

  1. Connect your tab to your computer via USB, make sure USB debugging is ON

  2. Turn on USB mass storage when your tablet prompts you

  3. Move the Z4 Root .apk over to your tablet and safely remove before disconnecting

  4. Open your favorite file manager, such as ES File Explorer, go to the root of your SD card, find Z4 Root and install it

  5. After it installs, click open, run the app, sit back for a minute, and enjoy root access!

  Ok, I’ve Rooted, So Now What?

Aside from allowing the installation of popular ROMs developed by the Android community, rooting your phone also comes with the benefit of being able to install apps that require root permissions.

Re flash your Android ROM after Rooting

Now that we have root, download the ROM of your choice:

From here it is another simple process:

  1. Reconnect the G Tablet with USB debugging ON and mass storage ON

  2. Unzip the ROM file on your desktop and move the two extracted files (Recovery and  Update File) over to the tablet in the ROOT of your internal sd card

  3. Disconnect the tablet and power it down

  4. Press and HOLD and volume up button and then the power button together until you see the screen go black and “android” printed on the screen in gold letters, then release.

  5. After you release you should see update package installing itself, just be patient until the tablet reboots itself, and you are greeted by a new boot animation to show you that the ROM was flashed successfully!

IMG_20101130_111450

If you opt to test out several different ROMs, side load ROM Manager by ClockworkMod - it will allow you to easily boot into recovery and flash different ROMs.

Also be sure to keep checking those XDA threads for new updates and fixes!

And now enjoy your completely reborn Viewsonic G Tablet.

 get information from: http://www.androidpolice.com/

 A message from Brint to rom updators


This is the current BETA release of the CyanogenMod 6.1 port for the G Tablet. There are still several issues, but it is far enough along that I use it as my daily system. Please review issues and post new ones as needed at the Issues page linked below. Feel free to leave feedback in the forum, but I may not be able to follow up on it. The best option is to catch me in #tegratab on Freenode IRC.

CyanogenMod 6.1 Beta4
CyanogenMod 6.1 Beta4 - MD5

ClockworkMod Recovery

My site: bekit.net post

gapps does work, but I probably should not release that here. Just make sure it is the MDPI variety and has an update-binary compatible with tegra.

*Note:
This version now matches the standards for SD card mounting on devices with both internal and external SD card space. This means that the external SD card slot now mounts to /mnt/sdcard (symlink /sdcard) and the internal space mounts to /mnt/emmc (symlink /emmc). The device properly recognizes the internal vs. external space and allows proper unmounting and handling of the external SD card. This also means that some apps (if they were coded poorly) will not recognize the internal SD space as available SD card space and will require you ti insert an external SD card. I will see if I can do something about the default apps (read: camera) that have this problem; other apps will need to be fixed by the developers.

Changelog:
CM6.1 Beta4:

  • Updated SD mappings for internal/external SD space to match standards (see note above)

  • Using latest available source from the CyanogenMod repo

  • Updated kernel to latest G Tablet version (still waiting on source so we can build our own)

  • Updated to the lasted drivers available for the G Tablet

  • Included updated libGLESv2 from nvidia (Angry Birds!)

  • Proper setup of CPU values - this allows the folio Flash APK to install properly

  • Matched fingerprint and device settings to latest G Tablet values

ClockworkMod Recovery 2.5.1.3 (2010.12.11):

  • Added options for managing the internal SD card

  • Using latest available source from the CyanogenMod repo

ClockworkMod Recovery 2.5.1.2 (2010.11.24):

  • Updated SD mappings to match standards (see note above)

  • Using latest available source from the CyanogenMod repo

Enjoy!

-Brint (bekit) 

 Root Only APPS

Finding such apps can be a hassle, so we’ve done some of the leg work for you and come up with a detailed rundown of our top 8 root-only applications.

 

TitaniumBackup Titanium Backup

Cost: FREE (Full Version: $3.99)

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup

The thought of losing all the apps on your Android device likely evokes a slight sinking sensation in your gut.

Fortunately for root users, Titanium Backup provides a 2-click peace of mind solution, should such a tragedy befall you. Titanium Backup is a powerful (you guessed it) backup utility which stores your apps, app data, and system data on your SD card for safekeeping.

The application can be configured to run its tasks on a schedule, and the $3.99 donate version allows you to set up multiple schedules for the various combinations of backups it is capable of performing.

snap20100626_210512

In addition to the aforementioned capabilities, Titanium Backup can painlessly remove any application from your phone, including system-installed apps (such as the pesky Amazon MP3 Store, Sprint NASCAR, NFL, and other garbage).

Be forewarned: Titanium Backup’s app removal capabilities can break the OS if you happen to remove an item in your app list that is necessary for critical system functions, in which case you'd need to reboot into recovery and restore from a backup or flash a new ROM.

app-nptD.cs ROM Manager

Cost: FREE (Full Version: $3.99)

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.rommanager.license

If you’ve ever thought about loading a custom ROM or kernel onto your phone, ROM Manager will make the experience a lot more user friendly. While it does require a little experience to use, it’s a lot easier than using recovery boot to do it yourself.

ROM Manager allows you to flash almost any ZIP to your phone, whether it be a kernel, ROM, app package, or radio image. ROM Manager does this through Koushik Dutta's ClockworkMod Recovery (Koush, coincidentally, is also the author of ROM Manager). Once a ROM or other flashable ZIP file is selected, ROM manager will automatically reboot your phone and flash it through ClockworkMod Recovery.

We have a full tutorial on backing up and restoring your phone using ROM Manager here: [Complete Guide] How To Fully Back Up And Restore Your Android Phone Using Nandroid Backup

Another complete tutorial showing how to use ROM Manager to install a custom ROM is here: [Complete Guide] How To Flash A Custom ROM To Your Android Phone With ROM Manager + Full Backup & Restore

snap20100709_100310

One of ROM Manager’s best features is its ability to initiate nandroid backups. Using Clockwork Recovery (which must be installed to use the app, and can be done, as shown above, from inside ROM Manager), you can create full system images for easy restoration.

If you mess up your OS, load into Clockwork Recovery, choose restore, find your backup, and voila! Your phone is back to the exact state it was in before you ruined it.

ROM Manager has other features, including support for installing and updating certain big name ROMs (such as Cyanogen), the ability to download and install ZIP files via QR codes, a permissions repair utility, SD card partitioning, and the option to flash alternative recovery images.

ROM Manager is probably the most feature-packed application on this list, and is definitely worth four dollars for the premium version.

app-zmxE.cs ShootMe

Cost: FREE

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bw.picme.local

No, this is not an app which unlocks your phone’s ability to mortally wound you, nor is it yet another annoying soundboard. ShootMe is a screenshot app that allows you to take a screenshot of your Android device with a simple shake, without the need for a computer.

While of varying usefulness to different people, ShootMe is far and away the most convenient screenshot app available for Android that I've used. The catch, of course, is the requirement of root permissions to run it.


snap20100626_211735

Frankly, I find it useful when I want to shamelessly brag to my iPhone-using friends about how awesome my Nexus One and Android are.

icon Juice Defender: Ultimate Juice

Cost: €2.79

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.latedroid.ultimatejuice.root

Juice Defender is a battery conservation app. It uses various triggers, rules, and timers to control how often your device utilizes 3G/EDGE APN's (data connections) as well as WiFi. These data connections are the number one drainers of battery life when your phone is idle, so Juice Defender allows you to decide when, where, and how often you want them to be active.

Ultimate Juice (the paid version of Juice Defender) must be installed over an existing copy of Juice Defender, and unlocks a few additional capabilities for users with root permissions.

snap20100626_212616

Ultimate Juice provides some extra goodies for root users, particularly the ability to disable all 3G/EDGE (APN) connections on your device during selected scenarios. This includes pesky background mobile data services like Twitter or Facebook, potentially saving a lot of battery life while your phone is idle. The ability to adjust CPU clock speeds on the fly to conserve battery is another feature of Juice which requires root permissions, and is as customizable as any of the app’s many functions.

For a list of Ultimate Juice features that require root, its developers have provided this handy table in their FAQ.

app-Fiq.cs Root Explorer

Cost: £1.90

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.speedsoftware.rootexplorer

Root Explorer is an application for exploring your phone’s directories, much like Astro File Manager, but with one advantage: it can delve into the deepest, darkest corners of Android through the use of root permissions. This includes the elusive “/data” directory, where treasures such as the dalvik cache and application settings reside.

For developers and tinkerers, its usefulness is self-explanatory. For the average user, it certainly is a solid file explorer with a likeable interface, though I’d hesitate to call it as feature-rich as Astro.

One more unique feature of Root Explorer is the ability to modify permissions settings on files or folders. The usefulness of permissions modification is probably limited to developers for the purposes of debugging and testing; then again, Root Explorer probably wasn’t written with the average user in mind.

 snap20100712_152354

Edit by Artem: the "dontpanic" folder in the /data directory is simply hilarious.

13936 Quick Boot

Cost: FREE

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.siriusapplications.quickboot

Quick Boot is arguably the simplest application on this list. However, I find it to be one of the most useful. Quick Boot does 3 things, and 3 things only: it allows you to reboot, recovery boot, or bootloader boot with a single tap. The real usefulness of QuickBoot is in the ability to make home screen widgets for these functions, so they’re always at your fingertips (pun intended).

As has been pointed out to me, these features can all be had separately in other apps. CyanogenMod has the reboot function built into the power/end-button menu, and ROM Manager sports a recovery boot button as part of its menu options. But, neither of these have home screen shortcuts to the aforementioned functions.

snap20100626_232000

Quick Boot may seem a trivial app, but I regularly use the reboot button, and find it to be the easiest way to access reboot, bootloader, and recovery boot functions.

logo Wireless Tether

Cost: FREE

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=android.tether

This is the de-facto app when it comes to wireless tethering - it is free, open source, and actively maintained by its developer Harald Mue.

You can download the app from the market (the first QR code) or from the official google code page (the second QR code). The latter contains experimental releases, which I have so far found stable and more feature-rich than the latest stable versions (specifically, 2.0.5pre2 brings support for WPA2 and infrastructure mode to the EVO 4G).

Wireless Tether remains the best way to utilize your Android device as a WiFi or Bluetooth (PAN) hotspot, and can be installed on nearly any Android device, including those running older versions of the Android OS.

Wireless Tether boasts customization that FroYo’s tether can’t quite match for sheer geekery. The ability to change your wireless LAN’s network block (ie, 192.168.2 vs 10.10.1), enable access control (choose which clients may use your network by MAC address), and alter your broadcasting channel are all features which FroYo’s tethering app currently lacks.

snap20100626_232341

Wireless Tether isn’t perfect; it doesn’t support USB tethering, and certain features (like some higher frequency broadcast channels or alternative encryption schemes) are limited by the hardware of older Android devices.

83122 Shark For Root

Cost: FREE

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=lv.n3o.shark

This app was previously known as Andro Shark over at the XDA forums, and was in closed beta for some time until it recently reappeared as Shark For Root on the Android Market.

What does it do? It’s essentially a stripped down version of WireShark for your Android phone. It’s a particularly geeky app to have, but for developers or those of us obsessed with monitoring where our traffic is going, it’s a godsend.

snap20100709_132539 (1)

Shark monitors all network activity on your device (presumably from all interfaces) and outputs a .pcap file. Unfortunately there is no live feed of the log being generated, and currently no app which can read a .pcap file is available on Android. But, this is still a beta and those features may eventually materialize.

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Thursday, February 6, 2014

How to Recover When your Android Device is Caught in a Bootloop

bootloop-android

“Bootloop” is a very familiar term for smartphone users whatever OS they use, but it is definitely more familiar to Android phone users. Android being an Open Source operating system, is open to third party modifications. If you have a basic or advanced knowledge of Linux coding, you can develop a custom ROM or a modify a system file of your Android phone. Such openness has opened vistas for our great developers to cook ROMs, mods and hacks. It has enriched our experience with our phones at one hand, and posed a few problems like bootloop or a bricked phone in rare cases.
Most of phone-freaks like me spend their days doing nothing but trying almost all custom ROMs and mods available out there to tell other what is good for them. In doing so we often face a bootloop but that is not to say that only the third-party ROMs and mods are responsible for the problem. In most cases, however, it is some incompatible file imposed from outside that hinders the system files to work normally, resulting in a bootloop.
Thus, bootloop is a situation where the Android smartphones refuses to boot normally. There’s something wrong with the Android device, which is preventing it from completing the boot cycle and is stuck between the boot animation and the unlock screen. Bootloop is mainly caused when system files interfere with each other, causing instability, and crashes at the boot sequence.
While getting a bootloop on an Android phone is not a serious concern for an advanced user, it is surely enough to make a newbie or a noob tremble a little. Very often an average user begin to wonder if his phone is bricked or dead. In the present article I shall try to share with you some solutions that might help you recover your Android device from a bootloop.

Precautions to Avoid and Prevent Data Loss:

Bootloop is definitely one of the most undesirable situations a smartphone user can get into. It is shocking enough to make a new or basic user believe that he/she has bricked the device. It is true that in most cases you can recover your device to normal state but if you take precautionary steps, you could avoid it. Prevention is always better than the cure!
However, precautions cannot guarantee that you device is bootloop-proof. Therefore, it is also necessary that you always keep your phone’s data backed up. Remember, if your device gets into a bootloop, there are 90% chances that you will loose all your data, apps, settings and files stored on the internal SD of your device.

Things to be taken care of:
  • Before installing any stock or custom ROM, do not forget to confirm that it is made for your device and, more important, the same model number.
  • Before installing any custom Kernel, mod, patch or ROM, do not forget to backup your ROM
  • Also backup your phone’s apps, games, contacts, messages or any important data to an external storage- memory card, USB storage or your computer.
  • Avoid installing apps from outside Play Store and only those that are compatible with your device.
  • If your device is not rooted, you can use the official PC Suite from your device manufacturer.
Resources:
Read the following tutorials for backing up your Android device’s data backup,  precautionary steps and troubleshoot.
Things to Do Before and After Installing Custom ROMs
Best Backup Apps to Keep Your Phone’s Data Safe

Possible Reasons for a Bootloop on Android Device:

The reasons for getting a bootloop on your Android device might be anything. If you wish to know the reason why your Android phone is stuck on the bootloop, you need not type your problem on the Google search box. Just calm yourself for a while and think what you did just before. It could be anything! Here are some major reasons why your Android device is caught in a bootloop.
  • After installing an official or custom ROM
  • Flashing a wrong ROM or Kernel
  • Running an incompatible app or game
  • Wrong Permissions fix for an app or file
  • Installing a custom  mod or theme
Most often we face a bootloop just after flashing a stock or custom ROM over an old one. This might be a major factor behind the bootloop issue on your device. Suppose you have flashed a new version of firmware over the old version. Your old data still remains on the device and the new firmware will use the Dalvik Cache from the old ROM that might not be compatible with the new system files and it will result in a bootloop. It mostly happen just when your device tries to reboot after you have flashed a stock or custom ROM. If this is the case, here is the solution.

How to Boot Android Devices into Recovery Mode

Solutions to Fix Bootloop on Android Devices:

Method 1:

fix bootloop on android

If your device is on stock firmware, that also means it does not have a custom recovery like CWM or TWRP not installed on it, do the following steps:
  1. Pull out the the battery of your phone, wait for about 30 seconds and reinsert it to its place.
  2. Boot your device into ASR (Android System Recovery) mode. The method involves a hardware key combination and varies from one phone to another. For Samsung phones, for example, the key combination is Volume Up+ Home + Power keys. The tablets which generally have no Home button, you can enter the Recovery mode by pressing and holding the Volume Up + Power keys simultaneously.
  3. In the Android System Recovery, scroll down to “wipe cache partition”. option using the volume rockers and select it using the power key.
  4. When you have wiped the data/factory, go back to the main menu and reboot the device by “reboot system now” option.
  5. If the device is still stuck on Bootanimation  pull out the battery again and repeat the above steps. This time also “wipe data/factory reset” and then reboot device
The bootloop problem should be fixed now.

Method 2:

If  you have a rooted device with CWM Recovery installed and your phone is caught into a bootloop after flashing a custom ROM or mod, do as follows:

  1. Pull out the battery, reinsert it after 30 seconds and boot the device into CWM Recovery: Volume Up+ Home + Power keys simultaneously.

  2. Go to “Advanced”

  3. Choose “Wipe dalvik-cache”

  4. Now go to “Mounts & Storage”

  5. Choose “Wipe /cache”

  6. Reboot your phone

The bootloop should be gone now. If it still persists, do this.

  1. Boot the phone again into CWM Recovery

  2. Now go to “Mounts & Storage”

  3. Choose “Wipe /data”

  4. Choose “Wipe /cache”

  5. Then reboot your phone.

Now the phone should reboot normally. Next time when you install a ROM, follow the instructions prescribed by the developer. Be more attentive to the warnings before experimenting with any third party ROM or mod. Always ensure what you are about to install is meant for your device.

If the Above Methods Do Not Work!

In case you are not able to get your device come out of bootloop, your final option should be to install or restore a previously backed up ROM by putting the device in recovery mode, or to install the official firmware/factory image to your phone your tablet.

 

Article by: Rakesh Shukla