Titanium Backup and Cyanogenmod7: got a problem? - Android Software/Hacking General [Developers Only]

Crossposted from my blog since more people read xda-devs
http://bellybuttonporn.com/wp/2011/05/19/titanium-backup-and-cyanogenmod7-got-a-problem/
I’ve run into this and from my searching it seems a few others have too.
Here’s the scenario: You’re running CyanogenMod 7 on your phone and you decide to try out a different ROM. You use Titanium Backup to save all your apps and data only to find that once you’re on the new ROM a lot of data doesn’t seem to stick around. Titanium reports that it’s successfully restored the data — and some of it really has been restored — but lots of data is missing. It’s restored to the default value from when you first installed the app.
Now here’s what’s really going on.
Titanium is indeed restoring your data. It just makes sure the app isn’t running and copies all of the database and prefs setting files into its data directory. No magic. That’s all it does and that’s all it needs to do. When your app starts up (if it’s coded well) it will check the integrity of its database files. If they are corrupt it will probably delete them and start over from scratch. Not exactly optimal, but at least the app can still run, right? Well that’s what’s happening here. Your app thinks its database file is corrupt.
CyanogenMod 7 uses a newer version of sqlite than other ROMs. (sqlite is the database engine underpinning android’s apps). This version introduces a new journaling method, the write-ahead-log, abbreviated wal for short. There’s a variety of technical benefits to using wal but that discussion doesn’t really impact our issue. Our issue is that the older version of sqlite on other ROMs doesn’t understand wal, so thinks your databases are corrupt. Bam, bye-bye data!
You can attempt this fix in one of two places. You can either fix the database files before you back them up, or after you restore them. In terms of having the right version of sqlite3 available, it’s probably best to try this before you back up your apps.
This fix assumes a few things. First, you have root. If you’re messing with CM7 and Titanium Backup you already have root. Not a problem. Second, you have busybox installed. Again, not a problem since Titanium requires busybox (and even installs it for you). Third, you have to have a sqlite3 binary somewhere on your phone. If your ROM doesn’t (some don’t for some reason) include it, you’re not screwed. I *think* Titanium will detect this and copy a binary to your phone when you click the “Problems?” button. If that’s not the case, there may be other copies of sqlite3 on your phone you can use. Open up a terminal, buddy, you’re goin in.
Find an sqlite3 binary:
find / -name sqlite3
This will locate sqlite3 for you, if it’s on your phone. Once you find it, (mine was in /system/xbin/, i.e. preinstalled in the ROM), make sure it’s new enough to understand wal.
/path/to/sqlite3 --version
If you get something 3.7.0 or higher, you’re in luck. If not, hopefully you found other sqlite3′s you can try. This is why it’s a good idea to do this BEFORE backing your apps up and flashing a new ROM. If your ROM has wal, its copy of sqlite3 does too.
I hesitate to call this a script, so here’s the command to run:
find /data/data/ -regex '.*databases/[^-]*' -exec /path/to/sqlite3 {} 'PRAGMA journal_mode=delete;' \;
Again, run this in a terminal. And yes, you do need to be root. What this is doing is going through all of the database files stored by your apps and setting them to the old journal_mode. You will get errors that certain files ending in -wal or -shm don’t exist. Don’t worry about those. When sqlite3 changes the journal_mode back to delete it will get rid of the -wal and -shm files automatically; that confuses find but doesn’t hurt anything. If an app is running during the process we won’t be able to open and update its database files. So make sure to kill them all from the Applications menu (or your task killer if you still have one of those around).
IMHO the best time to do this is on your old ROM (e.g. CM7) before doing the Titanium Backup. If you’ve already flashed to the new ROM and you’re stuck, then you can try running the command immediately after restoring everything in Titanium Backup. If you mess something up try not to panic; Titanium still has your data safely backed up. You can try again.
Leave a comment to tell everyone if this worked for you.

Interesting! I ran many times into the problems you described when switching ROMs or full wipes and restoring from titanium backups.
Unfortunately I'm not technical enough to follow your solution.
Hm!
Nandroid backup also has a problem, which I figured out the hard way. If your SD card has not enough space for its backup, I don't get an error message. It even states backup successful, when its only partial due to low card space.
Gotta watch out more for those traps.
Sent from HTC Legend on CM7.

@daoist: You, Sir, are my hero of the week! I tried to restore a backup from a Nexus S on Cyanogenmod to a Galaxy S running stock Gingerbread. And failed.
Thanks to your insights and this guy's blog article, I managed to restore everything. Thanks a lot!

I have a question, I found two files Sqlite3, version over 3.7.0, so I entered the command you tell:
find /data/data/ -regex '.*databases/[^-]*' -exec /path/to/sqlite3 {} 'PRAGMA journal_mode=delete;' \;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing happens, means that there is not file found or means that there was not found any error? I copied pasted the command exactly like that, should I need to see a progress of files processed or something like this?
Thanks very much for the tip.

Related

[Q] Disabling Android 2.2 DropBoxManager

Good Day Folks.
I'm a Noob in need of help and i'm hoping the more experienced among us might be able to assist. I have an issue with disappearing phone storage. Over the course of a week I realized that I was losing about 1MB a day. My phone would basically be dormant and I would still see my storage space dropping by this amount everyday.
Cache cleaning didn't work. Later I realized that Android creates a bunch of log files in Data/System/Dropbox that was responsible for the disappearing phone storage trick I've been seeing for a while now.
I know now that Google has incorporated into Android as of the 2.2 iteration, a DropBox Manager that's responsible for logging all of the events that take place during the course of a running Android session. Everything from what took place at boot to force close details.
I understand that this is used for debugging purposes but I'm no developer . So my question is.... Can this DropBox Manager be disabled....somehow.
I really don't need all these files (and its A LOT OF THEM) being created as they serve no practical purpose for me. Not sure if anyone else might have noticed this but I'm hoping to receive some help. Even if it means pointing me in the right direction so I can work on it myself.
I really don't have a clue on how to start. Any help will be appreciated....Seriously...
Currently using G1 with CM6 Magpie running on EZTERRY's 2.6.34.7 kernel.
Its perfect except for this annoying problem.......
Hm what happens if you rename the directory. It might throw some errors in the logger, but probably won't create anymore files.
I just deleted the content of my dropbox folder, the DropboxManagerService was throwing some errors that he could not open files, but the phone was fine, no FCs or anything.
Renaming the directory just results in a random reboot. My guess is that when Android tries to create a new log, its unable to find the directory and then it just freezes and after a while it reboots. Once restarted it just reappears... I've tried that too.
And its true.. Its ok to delete the files. Its what I do currently. All of those files in Data/System/Dropbox as well as the ones located in Data/Tombstones are ok to delete. As I said, its just used for debugging purposes. Whats really annoying though is that, no matter how many times you delete anything, they just get repopulated just as fast as they're deleted. I'm ok with micro-managing my memory and phone storage (its a G1 after all) but this is ridiculous. It just creates too many of these log files too quickly.
If there was a way to turn the DropBoxManager service off then that would be the end of it all.
What's unusual about it too is that in my particular case, the contents of these text files just have two things listed in them. Pertaining to my online accounts associated with the phone: My Google account and My Whatsapp account...
It just repeats the same thing over and over again. I'm starting to think that the event data might actually be synchronization data or at least synchronization attempts made at regular intervals. But ultimately i'm guessing....
I really don't have a clue... Have you ever heard of anything like this on XDA......possible resolutions of this issue?
epolaris said:
I really don't have a clue... Have you ever heard of anything like this on XDA......possible resolutions of this issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not yet .
What about replacing the folder by a symlink to /dev/null ?
You could also try to change permission on the folder.
Ok... I'm a real Noob but I'll take a shot.. When you say symlink what do you mean.
I'm not really familiar with Android at that level yet its really just flashing and such.
But I know a symlink is really just a reference to a location that the OS would interpret and follow (like a pointer i think). So, is it that you're suggesting some sort of redirection where the Data/System/Dropbox directory is pointed to another arbitrary location. Kind of like a creating a dead link that Android is unable to follow up on. Or maybe, redirecting the folder to an entirely new location that Android would then follow. I'm not sure... How do you perform a symlink in Android... I'm willing to try.
You can do it with a console on the phone it self or using adb shell. You need root of course.
You could make a link to another location where you have more space?
Or you change to permissions of that directory to write only.
Or you can mount a different file system to that directory that is read only.
On how to do that just google a bit for linux tutorials on that topic.
I have just googled a bit and it seems you can't symlink directories to /dev/null.
If all that doesnt help post again, there might be an option to make an app delete the files automaticly, first time they get created.
If that would be an option too let me know, im in the mood to program something intresting .
Disabling Android 2.2 DropboxManager [RESOLVED]
I took your advice and did the research you suggested and it worked.
The first thing I tried was changing the permissions on the "Data/System/Dropbox" directory and it worked. But I didn't use CHMOD and console command line to do it.
I have a program called Root Explorer that allows me to permanently change the permissions on any file or folder I select. I set all of the offending folders to read only and the log files stopped being written to those folders.
These are the directories I set to read only:
1. "Data/System/Dropbox"
2. "Data/System/UsageStats"
3. "Data/Tombstones"
Since changing the permissions on these folders my phone storage has stopped dwindling out of control. No additional programming necessary
Disabling the DropBoxMangerService itself is not necessary which is good.
I'm going to take your advice and read up some more on Linux commands (specifically Ubuntu as its what I currently use).
You have been very helpful, thanks for the advice. If you have any ideas about Froyo ROMS (Maybe even Gingerbread ) I should try let me know.
Thanks again....
I have also found these files. They can take MUCH space in memory and nothing seems to delete them. I made the dropbox system folder RO but I think this is a bug. It should be reported to the dropbox team. Is there a bug report form somewhere? I did not find it... Just found the forum, QA,...
[edit]I reported it in the forum... Just see http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=41227 [/edit]
vax said:
I have also found these files. They can take MUCH space in memory and nothing seems to delete them. I made the dropbox system folder RO but I think this is a bug. It should be reported to the dropbox team. Is there a bug report form somewhere? I did not find it... Just found the forum, QA,...
[edit]I reported it in the forum... Just see http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=41227 [/edit]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are mistaken: /data/system/dropbox, has NOTHING todo with www.dropbox.com !
See http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/DropBoxManager.html
Dark3n said:
You are mistaken: /data/system/dropbox, has NOTHING todo with www.dropbox.com !
See http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/DropBoxManager.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, just looked at your SD Maid app (looks cool).
So what do you know about /data/system/dropbox? I just read that htc uses the dir to store phone events which is then sent to the htc cloud of spying-on-your-ass. But since non-htc phones have this dir, is htc merely misusing the directory and it has other legit uses, or is this a directory we should try to keep cleaned out?
(I like the idea of changing perms so nothing writes to it if that's the case.)
600 MB additional free storage
Hi all
Just found a smart way to increase your Dropbox account with 600 MB:
1 Sign into your existing Dropbox account (or create a new account)
2 Goto https://www.dropbox.com/free
3 Follow instructions ... and voila 600 MB additional free storage
Mittaa said:
Hi all
Just found a smart way to increase your Dropbox account with 600 MB:
1 Sign into your existing Dropbox account (or create a new account)
2 Goto https://www.dropbox.com/free
3 Follow instructions ... and voila 600 MB additional free storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yay, nice to see you didn't read the thread at all.
This has nothing todo with dropbox.com
Yea other day I got the SD Maid, and the Pro version after I saw how handy it was. I too on my G1 (with 2.2) see that dropbox folder.. and lately Ive been thinking its causing my G1 to constantly reboot. When I look, it has 300+ files in it. So I clear that folder and seems to stop rebooting for a lil while.
Not sure what the deal is here however, been trying to find out. HOWEVER it only seems to reboot once its connected to the internet, so I am wondering if this is where it tries to upload and so. Not really sure. That and its hard to tell in logcat whats going on before it reboots.
Thanks
Excellent information. This works on my Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro MK16a, Rooted. Thank you so much. My best regards.
Try to change the permisions of the folder, I'm not sure if it would work but you could try ^^
Sent from my GT-I9001 using xda premium
All is ok
All was fine. The permissions :laugh:changed with root explorer. Thank you so much
Note completely disabled but only 1 file in the /data/system/dropbox folder with these Android shell commands (or use Sqlite3 editor):
content insert --uri content://settings/secure --bind name:s:dropbox_max_files --bind value:i:1
Or for Android 4.2+
content insert --uri content://settings/global --bind name:s:dropbox_max_files --bind value:i:1
settings put global dropbox_max_files 1
Reboot.
more dropboxmanager settings:
dropbox_age_seconds
dropbox_max_files
dropbox_quota_kb
dropbox_quota_percent
dropbox_reserve_percent
I've been using the advice from this thread to control this "dropbox" data collection directory for several years now until I updated to 9.0 and found that the folder and default permissions were restored after every reboot. Was irritating bc I can use root to modify /system but no longer have control over my own data partition Something is over-riding my root-user!!!
I tried different apps, TWRP's FM, adb, and almost gave up when init.d scripts wouldn't work either. init.d will work tho. A simple script to run
Code:
#!/system/xbin/sh
busybox rm -f /data/system/dropbox
at boot. You can probably chown and chmod if you want but I just deleted it. Just put it in your init.d folder and make sure you give it the correct permissions (root:shell -755), then immediately perform a soft reboot. Use hardware keys if you have to. You want the phone to go immediately OFF, no spinny wheels or "powering off" notifications. That's the only way I could get rid of the damn thing.
Anyway, I came across this thread while searching for a solution and thought I would add this in case any other paranoids like me are concerned about this mysterious "dropbox" directory. This will probably break any ability for google to troubleshoot your phone but I don't think that's real anyway. It's just spyware as far as I'm concerned.
p.s. (off-topic) Thanks @Dark3n I'm also a frequent SD Maid user btw and in case you happen to read this, I thought I might mention I intended to send a donation via your app the other day (i like to show love when ppl share badass works) but balked at the only available option for "pizza," not bc I don't appreciate it that much but I can afford a little every now and then. If you add a smaller option, "coffee" or beer or whatever, maybe even an outside of googlePlay option, BTC perhaps. I'd be happy to shoot a few dollars at you.

Market Fix - Froyo Apps + Tegra 2 Apps

In addition to the standard Market Fix to get protected applications working (clearing cache/data), we also need to trick Google to think we have a Tegra 2 device.
We simply need to change the following line in /system/build.prop
ro.product.device=olympus
This tells Google Market we are using a Motorola Atrix 4G and will give us the missing Tegra 2 apps when applying our market fix.
However, since we are mimicking a phone, Tablet specific apps will not show up (NYTimes app for Tablets is an example)
Cheers!
Edit:
It is well known that the Google Web Market is hit and miss on our GTablets. This thread indicates it may take a few days for our tablet's to show up on the web interface. However, what this fix does is allow you to download most of the Froyo + Tegra2 apps via the Market Application within our tablets. There will be applications that will refuse to install through the web market interface (if your tablet can actually show up on the darn thing) because of missing capabilities, but will install just fine via the Market app.
If you want to install apps using a web browser from your Desktop computer, I recommend the use of Appbrain to generate your list of desired apps and then syncing your list on the tablet to install.
Hi,
SUPER!!
This build.prop change, just by itself, on stock 3588, allows me to see a bunch of apps I haven't been able to see before, including Firefox, Flash, Tank Hero, etc. Didn't have to do anything else, no fingerprint changes, etc.
Thanks!
Jim
AWESOME! The only thing I can't find is message ease which is no great loss and I'm not seeing it on the web either -- I think they are pulling it on and off the market. But YES -- Laucher Pro, Saumari, Silver Creek games, Flash 10.2, tv.com, both opera browsers, dolphin HD -- all there. FANTASTIC. THANK YOU!
Even Vlingo shows up which was never found before. Truth is I don't even want it but it was one of my indicators.
wd5gnr said:
AWESOME! The only thing I can't find is message ease which is no great loss and I'm not seeing it on the web either -- I think they are pulling it on and off the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you looking for MessagEase?
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.exideas.mekb
Whoops! Helps if you spell it right. I always think that should be a faster keyboard but then I give up and go back to BetterKeyboard or the word predicting one which is great until you need to do Linux command lines and such.
Sorry for the confusion. I even found Astro Bluetooth Module another I used to have to switch for. Very cool.
Hmmm... the market.android.com site no longer shows my device since I made the above fix! It only shows my older device. I tried just clearing the market cache and rerunning but no go. I am now running the regular market fix (clear cache in market, stop, clear data in service framework, stop, reboot).
I did install things off the market, but it had to be from the device.
Ok tablet is booted back up.... drum roll....
Nope. And now I am -- for now -- only showing my paid apps off the market, none of the freebies I had previously installed.
UPDATE: I killed the market data and cache along with the service framework data and rebooted. This made no difference to the web site (unless it takes time for it to catch up) but it did -- after installing something else -- restore my existing apps. On the other hand, having the market working on the device beats the web site, but it still means something is "off".
How do we request this be made a sticky?
I know I've tried just about every market tweak for the last 3+ months and this is the only 1 that made a huge diff.
Jim
I haven't tried this fix (heck I don't even know how to apply it, someone mind helping a noob out?) but I had the same problem you did where the web market doesn't show your device. I tried spamming the regular market fix and still no good.
However I logged back into the web store today and it showed my device, weird.
Not sure how to fix it but yesterday I changed my password so I was forced to sign in again. Of course that didn't work at the moment but I guess it worked since I can now see my device now.
Hope this helped.
wd5gnr said:
Hmmm... the market.android.com site no longer shows my device since I made the above fix! It only shows my older device. I tried just clearing the market cache and rerunning but no go. I am now running the regular market fix (clear cache in market, stop, clear data in service framework, stop, reboot).
I did install things off the market, but it had to be from the device.
Ok tablet is booted back up.... drum roll....
Nope. And now I am -- for now -- only showing my paid apps off the market, none of the freebies I had previously installed.
UPDATE: I killed the market data and cache along with the service framework data and rebooted. This made no difference to the web site (unless it takes time for it to catch up) but it did -- after installing something else -- restore my existing apps. On the other hand, having the market working on the device beats the web site, but it still means something is "off".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I tried logging out of the web site and back in. I've tried forcing a google account sync. And I've tried making sure Talk is running (apparently the website uses talk to send things to your device.).
Just for fun I put my ro.product.name/device/board back to Vega and with no reboot or anything the web site immediately found the device.... curious....
Well now that I'm back on the web site, my market is back to how it was even after I put the olympus line in. Getting too late. Will look at it tomorrow :-(
Hachi2Go said:
I haven't tried this fix (heck I don't even know how to apply it, someone mind helping a noob out?) but I had the same problem you did where the web market doesn't show your device. I tried spamming the regular market fix and still no good.
However I logged back into the web store today and it showed my device, weird.
Not sure how to fix it but yesterday I changed my password so I was forced to sign in again. Of course that didn't work at the moment but I guess it worked since I can now see my device now.
Hope this helped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did the change by:
- get temp root via z4root
- make /system R/W via root explorer
- start a terminal
- cd /system
- Edit build.prop: busybox vi build.prop
- did regular market fix
- reboot
Jim
wd5gnr said:
Hmmm... the market.android.com site no longer shows my device since I made the above fix! It only shows my older device. I tried just clearing the market cache and rerunning but no go. I am now running the regular market fix (clear cache in market, stop, clear data in service framework, stop, reboot).
I did install things off the market, but it had to be from the device.
Ok tablet is booted back up.... drum roll....
Nope. And now I am -- for now -- only showing my paid apps off the market, none of the freebies I had previously installed.
UPDATE: I killed the market data and cache along with the service framework data and rebooted. This made no difference to the web site (unless it takes time for it to catch up) but it did -- after installing something else -- restore my existing apps. On the other hand, having the market working on the device beats the web site, but it still means something is "off".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right that having market work on the device beats the website! The web market issues may be a whole separate battle.
Jim
jimcpl said:
I did the change by:
- get temp root via z4root
- make /system R/W via root explorer
- start a terminal
- cd /system
- Edit build.prop: busybox vi build.prop
- did regular market fix
- reboot
Jim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm quite new to the Android OS so I'm not really sure how to do this.
I installed z4root and got temp root. I'm not sure if I needed it as I read somewhere that Vegan 5.1.1 (which I am using) gives me root already.
But I installed it and ran it anyways.
I'm stuck on giving my /system read and write permissions. Is this 'root explorer' app needed? Or can I use my 'iFileExplorer' app to do so, if so how? (It came with the vegan ROM)
Not sure if you meant to type ifileManger, but it will not get you write permissions. Root explorer will allow you to write. It looks as though you may have to
open a terminal up as discussed above, to change the build prop.
Hachi2Go said:
I'm quite new to the Android OS so I'm not really sure how to do this.
I installed z4root and got temp root. I'm not sure if I needed it as I read somewhere that Vegan 5.1.1 (which I am using) gives me root already.
But I installed it and ran it anyways.
I'm stuck on giving my /system read and write permissions. Is this 'root explorer' app needed? Or can I use my 'iFileExplorer' app to do so, if so how? (It came with the vegan ROM)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hachi2Go said:
I'm quite new to the Android OS so I'm not really sure how to do this.
I installed z4root and got temp root. I'm not sure if I needed it as I read somewhere that Vegan 5.1.1 (which I am using) gives me root already.
But I installed it and ran it anyways.
I'm stuck on giving my /system read and write permissions. Is this 'root explorer' app needed? Or can I use my 'iFileExplorer' app to do so, if so how? (It came with the vegan ROM)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
If you don't have root explorer, there's a free app on market called something like "system mount r/w" that is free that will mount /system as r/w for you. Or, I think that you can do it using a terminal and a mount command (something like mount -remount....).
Normal file explorers won't do the remount.
Jim
mount -o remount,rw /system /system
Watch out for the spaces and you need to be root so do an su command first.
When done, repear the mount command but use ro instead of rw. You can do this with a terminal program or the adb.
Root Explorer is what, $3.99? Worth it for the time savings. I bought the Ti Pro too. $300+ on a tablet...spend $9 on some software to make life easier.
iam a noob. i have stock rom 3588. how do i get market working?
By the light of morning I got back to a full market! But it again broke the web site connection. Is anyone seeing this behavior? Or is it just me?
For the new guys.
1) This appears like it MAY break your connection with the market web site [Update: Wait a few hours and it appears to catch up with you]. It may have other unknown effects. If you are not comfortable with making mods you might wait until more people have reported success or failure with this. For the record I did NOT find this fix (thanks Isira -- see OP of this thread). Just writing up my take on what you need to do. This applies to VEGAn 5.1.1 with supplement. It has been noted that with a stock rom you may need to put "busybox" before commands like cp (which you don't need to use if you have Root Explorer, by the way). If you get this to work (or not) on a different ROM, report it in this thread.
2) That being said, you need a file explorer that will look at / and edit text files, an su utility (comes with your root kit; as far as I know all the custom ROMs are pre rooted) and a command shell/terminal. Or you could spring a few bucks and get Root Explorer which is well worth it and does all of these things. Others have suggested Absolute Root tools which I do not know about. You could also use adb for all of it (which is what I did) but if you know how to do that, you probably don't need me to tell you what to do. We will be changing your build.prop file in the /system directory.
IF YOU ARE NOT USING ROOT EXPLORER GO DOWN TO STEP 3B. IF YOU ARE, GO TO STEP 3A.
3A) Open root explorer. Find /system and press the "Mount R/W" button.
4A) Long press on build.prop and select Copy. Then navigate somewhere like /mnt/sdcard and press the paste button at the bottom of the screen. This is your backup. Please backup.
5A) Go back to /system
6A) Long press on build.prop again. The menu is scrollable. You want Open in Text Editor.
7A) Find the line that says ro.product.device=XXXX (where XXXX is probably Vega). Make it read:
ro.product.device=olympus
Don't change anything else.
8A) Save the file by pressing the menu key and selecting Save & Exit.
9A) Scroll to the top of the /system directory and press the Mount R/O button.
10A) Reboot your tablet. Wait for things to settle down on restart. Open Market. Look for Saumari 2. Look for LauncherPro, Opera Mobile, etc. It will all be there.
If you don't have root explorer:
3B) Open the terminal. At the prompt, enter (spaces and lower case matter):
su
mount -o remount,rw /system /system
HINT: If you think you will do this a lot grab Script Manager off of the market. You can put the mount line in a script, tell it to execute as root (which is the same as su) and then you can run the script when you want to make changes.
4B) Start your file manager and find the /system directory. Your file manager probably starts in /sdcard or /mnt/sdcard. You'll need to go "up" a directory or two to root and then back down. Either way, when you find it, make a backup copy of build.prop somewhere you can write to. Seriously. Do not skip this step. Make the copy.
5B) Edit build.prop. You are looking for a line that sys ro.product.device=XXXX (probably Vega; I don't know about other ROMs and if this works for other ROMs but for VEGAn 5.1.1 its Vega). Carefully replace whatever you have as XXXX to olympus. So the line should read:
ro.product.device=olympus
Note: Some of us had other changes to build.prop. Not clear if these had any effect or not.
6B) Save your changes. If your file explorer is not root, you probably need to save the file to where you can write (your sdcard for example) and the copy from a terminal, such as:
su
cp /mnt/sdcard/new-buildprop.txt /system/build.prop
or
su
busybox cp /mnt/sdcard/new-buildprop.txt /system/build.prop
7B) Open your terminal and enter:
su
mount -o remount,ro /system /system
Remember spaces and case count! Also if you are in the same terminal window as before you don't have to keep entering su since you stay root.
NOTES FOR BOTH SETS OF INSTRUCTIONS
I did the original market fix after saving the file, but some people say it is not necessary. But at least a few people have said they don't see much or anything in market until the redo the fix (the one where you delete the market cache and the google services framework data and reboot).
Things that appear to work:
1) Installing free programs
2) Updating existing programs
3) Amazon market web site oddly enough
4) The official market Web site AFTER WAITING SEVERAL HOURS
5) Buying an app off the build in application
Some of us had other changes to build.prop but I don't think any of them were significant. If you have trouble you might apply it (shouldn't hurt). Also, if your "my apps" only shows your paid apps (or nothing if you have no paid apps), try downloading anything off the market and that will usually restore it. There is also an update local cache key that might do the trick, but loading some freebie off the market is easier. Also check to make sure gtalk is logged in. You can try forcing a resync on your Google accounts (in the main menu under Accounts).
Hope that helps someone. Its early so I probably made mistakes and will edit any that are found.
wd5gnr,
I don't know how "unusual" it is, but on my Gtab, where I had 3452 for awhile, then now 3588, I've always noted that I don't have a "cp" command, so I have to use "busybox cp".
Just FYI, in case anyone encounters this when they try your instructions.
Jim
wd5gnr said:
By the light of morning I got back to a full market! But it again broke the web site connection. Is anyone seeing this behavior? Or is it just me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on this thread ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=941205 ), it seems it may take a few days for the tablets to register on the market.
I have 3 tablets and I'm trying to change the identifier for each tablet through the ro.product.model and seeing if each of the tablets will show up on the market. So far, only one tablet is showing on the web market, but it's still using the old ro.product.model identifier (GTablet-TnT-Lite).
However, the web market is still pretty wonky. Certain apps may refuse to install through the web market because of missing capabilities on our tablets, but will install just fine through the market app.

[APP] Undelete Beta - recover deleted files on rooted devices

Undelete
Welcome to the open beta of our newest root application - Undelete for Android, an application for root users that allows you
to recover deleted files on your SD card or internal storage.
Features:
- Fast scanning logic
- Restore any file that has not been written over
- Securely wipe/shred files
- Works with images, video, music, archives and binaries
Currently, only FAT is supported. On Tegra devices, only the external SD is supported.
We may write a special version supporting EXT4 if this app is successful.
Be warned: this is an early Beta build, provided "as is" with no support of any kind.
We take no responsibility for any issues that may arise from using the app. In some rare cases attempting to restore files may
corrupt the memory entirely (though we have not seen this problem, it is theoretically possible).
That said it has been in development for a while and well tested on the devices we have at the office - Incredible S, Nexus S,
Xoom, Transformer, Sensation, Galaxy S I/II, Galaxy Ace, Desire.
Market:
https://market.android.com/details?id=fahrbot.apps.undelete&feature=search_result
Screens:
You guys make nice apps!
Thanks. We are pretty awesome. And humble too
Really great idea! Looking forward to support for ext3 and ext4
For most people this will be enough. The only ones who will truly suffer will be those with no sd tablets like the galaxy tab family...
I myself build a variant of cm on ext4, but have no need to restore data from the internal memory.
Just took it for a spin and it found one file I deleted. It also showed an asec file. You might want to filter those out or have it for advanced users only.
I can see a need from some users to undelete from /data/app and /data/data. For example, an accidental app install. If you can tie the apk and deleted app data directory together, it would be even more convenient. I know some might have Titanium Backup but this would cover the cases where they don't or only have an older backup. Just an idea
Damn..I'm impressed. Keep up the good work.
One more question . Do you have plans to implement deeper recovery methods?
As mister morden told londo mollari - one thing at a time
Looking forward to it.
OK, you're going to hate me, but I have another suggestion . Since you opened a can of worms with file recovery some of your more paranoid users will want secure deletion (rewriting the file with junk data or 1s and 0s, etc) I think this would go pretty well in this app. So have a section for users to pick the file to be securely deleted and also give them an option to overwrite files that can be recovered.
doesn't seem to work for me,crashes every time I attempt to restore something
You'll have to be more specific. What file system are you using? What phone? Did you send logs?
Has anyone had problems? Lets get some feedback please!
No problems yet. I tried undeleting a few things and it has worked without a hitch.
ftgg99 said:
You'll have to be more specific. What file system are you using? What phone? Did you send logs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
incredible,cm7 rom with latest nightly and log was sent
I havent looked at the logs yet, have been avoiding work on my bday. However, there is no guarantee that a file can be recovered, sometimes the data is just corrupted.
If one file doesnt work, another will.
Any issues?
avgjoemomma said:
OK, you're going to hate me, but I have another suggestion . Since you opened a can of worms with file recovery some of your more paranoid users will want secure deletion (rewriting the file with junk data or 1s and 0s, etc) I think this would go pretty well in this app. So have a section for users to pick the file to be securely deleted and also give them an option to overwrite files that can be recovered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are already apps on the market that do this, look for SHRED, the typical name for this sort thing on PCs. I saw a few, although they all claim that due to journaling it will possibly not work.
Not sure what VFAT they're using, but the ones I know of don't journal So YMMV.
Indeed, deletion may not be right for this application...

Accessing system folder without root access

Hi all.
I'm after quite specific need but would like to know more general answer / solution if possible at all.
I know that wihtout being rooted there's not much one can do with system folders, but still, there are some ways and tricks to get to them, one of them being Backup option provided by android, using ADB shell.
I'm after specific file, that is /data/data/com.android.mms/shared_prefs/com.android.mms.categoryInfo.xml
Using Htc One M8, stock rom, I've tried to do adb backup of com.android.mms application, but all I got was 1kb (actually 41 bytes) sized file, which contains nothing.
I wonder, is there any other way to get to the specific system app folder, if you're NOT rooted?
Any help would be highly appreciated.
Additional info: I'm after that file because it has stored Secure message box password in Plain text. My phone is about to go to the service due to several issues, including battery getting way overheated when used, and not charging over 25% at all, and the only thing left to make a backup is the secure box storage, which I used as an "Other inbox" folder in order to have the main Inbox a bit more "clean", and I know I've set it to something stupid and short, and I've accessed them not long ago, but for the f's sake I can't get in the folder anymore (and I'm highly betting that after several attempts even the real password is no longer accepted, and that being the reason I can't figure out the pass by trying, but there's nowhere info it thats true, and if so, how long to wait before real one would be accepted etc...)
Big thanks if anyone could help out, if not - not gonna be the end of the world. But would kinda like to store some of the messages that are newer than my latest backup...
Cheers!
cucolino said:
Hi all.
I'm after quite specific need but would like to know more general answer / solution if possible at all.
I know that wihtout being rooted there's not much one can do with system folders, but still, there are some ways and tricks to get to them, one of them being Backup option provided by android, using ADB shell.
I'm after specific file, that is /data/data/com.android.mms/shared_prefs/com.android.mms.categoryInfo.xml
Using Htc One M8, stock rom, I've tried to do adb backup of com.android.mms application, but all I got was 1kb (actually 41 bytes) sized file, which contains nothing.
I wonder, is there any other way to get to the specific system app folder, if you're NOT rooted?
Any help would be highly appreciated.
Additional info: I'm after that file because it has stored Secure message box password in Plain text. My phone is about to go to the service due to several issues, including battery getting way overheated when used, and not charging over 25% at all, and the only thing left to make a backup is the secure box storage, which I used as an "Other inbox" folder in order to have the main Inbox a bit more "clean", and I know I've set it to something stupid and short, and I've accessed them not long ago, but for the f's sake I can't get in the folder anymore (and I'm highly betting that after several attempts even the real password is no longer accepted, and that being the reason I can't figure out the pass by trying, but there's nowhere info it thats true, and if so, how long to wait before real one would be accepted etc...)
Big thanks if anyone could help out, if not - not gonna be the end of the world. But would kinda like to store some of the messages that are newer than my latest backup...
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and not.
if you don't have root access, you can not copy an application from the system folder, to make this the ADB would need root permissions. but....
You can download the stock rom, and copy/extract/edit the app you need it.
xdedeone said:
Yes and not.
if you don't have root access, you can not copy an application from the system folder, to make this the ADB would need root permissions. but....
You can download the stock rom, and copy/extract/edit the app you need it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually no, if the file is user specific, as in my case, the help of stock rom's file is not gonna help.
Anyway, SOLVED now.
As per this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2054401
The backup of the app was made and got the file. I've done the same thing without success, because on HTC, the messaging app is com.htc.sense.mms and NOT com.android.mms.
Therefore creating backup of the com.htc.sense.mms did result kin getting exactly what I needed.
In the extraction of the tar .ab archive using dd in linux, I got folder app, within there is a folder com.htc.sense.mms, wihtin there's a folder sp, and there is com.htc.sense.mms.categoryInfo.xml which has the secure box password stored in plaintext.
Voila! )

"adb backup" blocks on running apps

I have been trying to make an ADB BACKUP of my phone the whole day yesterday, but have so far failed. The backup always blocks at certain points, and it seems it is due to the apps being backed up are active in some way or another. Is that normal? I used to be able to make backups of apps with adb without that much trouble, but can't anymore.
Anyway, is there some way to ensure no app is running to make the back complete? This includes services.
I was trying to build a package list and backup every app (or a group of apps), but this would create a lot of backup files to handle and would require hours and hours or work on my part. For each backup, I have to acknowledge it on the phone, so I can't fully script this. :-/
I am running CM13 non-rooted.
I think I found a way to make the backup continue when an app blocks. The reason for the block seems to be that the app wont exit when asked by the backup system.
So I open another command prompt and run this command:
set "adb=C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe"
"%adb%" shell am force-stop com.airties.waooandroid
, where com.airties.waooandroid is the app currently blocking the backup stream.
And how do I know it blocks and isn't just taking a long time? Well, I do this:
"%adb%" logcat in a third window (first being backup and second my kill window), where I should see messages related to the backup system (like backup_file_helper outputting a message for each file found).
If there aren't any messages for a few minutes, I assume the app shown on the phone is blocking the backup and issue a force-stop.
I may have to kill twice as some apps are too quick to restart, still preventing the backup from continuing.
Cumbersome, but what are my options?
Thanks for this tip, it's genius and it allowed my backups to complete after a couple of kills.

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