I am in the process of researching the best way to take my old 3g slide and build a very light bootable ROM from CM source for mp3/media, wifi & apps only. I figured instead of trying to figure this out on my own maybe I could open this thread for discussion.
The idea is to take a CM supported device and tweak it into a mp3 player with wifi and the apps market but remove/disable all phone related activity to preserve battery and have the phone look, feel and function as a media device and not as a phone. This ROM should have no phone.apk, should not have an active radio...but preserve wifi, media playback and the app market.
The UI should look like an MP3 Player!
I have a few ideas on how to achieve this but I wonder if I am making harder than need be. I would really like to hear unique/fresh ideas, potential problems and general advice from the community. I will keep this post up to date with ideas and status and eventually it will serve as a guide.
So lets here it;
How you would go about doing this?
What can be removed?
What needs to stay?
etc....?
Ashamed there have been no replies. This is something I have been looking for, for a while.
Related
I'm new to the development scene. I just wonder if a few things are possible within android...and if so...how easy they'd be to do. If you'd like to explain how to do it...thanks, if not, that's fine, cause right now im just looking for a few answers.
1 - Is there a way to remove the dialer from Android without affecting the general functionality of Android as an OS? I believe the answer to that is simply removing the dialar app from the software...but again, since I'm kinda new to this, I'm not 100% sure. Plus the Galaxy tab has 2 versions...1 with the dialer rmoved...and another one without.
2 - Is it possible to remove the stock music player from Android, again, without affecting the general functionality of Android? This one I'm not 100% sure about...reason being is because I've never seen any roms with the Stock music player removed/replaced(again, not saying it's not possible...just asking).
If it isn't possible, is it possible to "hide" the stock music App?
Thats all I need for now.
Thanks
I just wanted to note down a few things that I wished I knew before flashing my Infuse.
Substituting your official Samsung build for unofficial ROMs like CyanogenMOD (CM) is a double edged sword. On one hand you get to play with the latest and greatest stuff...but on the other hand you have no guarantees of any kind. I'm not sure but you may be in violation of your warranty. In other words you're on your own.
Now there are forums like the Official CM forums and XDA where you'll get help if you run into issues but the bottom line is: You flashed your phone on your own responsibility. Nobody is liable for that. Nobody has any duty to resolve your issues. You may get a response, you may not. Sometimes the level of solution varies with the technical level of the person trying to help you. I may not be able to fix your problem... My suggestion may even f*** it up worse.
In my opinion, if your phone has critical data that you depend on (contacts, appointments etc)... it would be wise to stick with the OS build your phone came with. It may be old...but it has been tested by qualified engineers. All aspects of the phone are functional. And if you run into an issue, you can always pick up the phone and call somebody. When you flash your phone, there's always a minimal chance that you may lose your data (I'm not saying it always happens...but it can). You also lose the privilege of support provided by your carrier or anybody else.
Secondly, your Infuse ships with OS that has been modified by Samsung to provide you with a better experience. These are things which I'll list down at the end, that you'd lose with a custom build like CM. So you'd gain some features by trying the latest version of android but you'd lose a few features too! Because they were provided by Samsung, not by Google.
Things like:
1. No quick view in Calendar. You have to go to Agenda view in options where all entries of all dates will be visible. You cannot see daily appointments on the default Month view. Also there's no option for persistent alarm for your appointments. In the stock build my alarm for tasks used to ring for 15 minutes...now there just one ring and silence. Its a little thing but I sometimes miss the alarm and the whole purpose is lost.
2. Contacts applications is modified by Samsung. Joining contacts from different sources (facebook, twitter) into a single contact is much easier. You can do that in CM too but I had to search the Internet for that option.
You'd also get alphabets on the side of the screen while scrolling contacts. Tap an alphabet and you quickly jump to contacts that start with that alphabet. That's missing in CM too.
3. There are some widgets provided by Samsung like Running Applications widget which I absolutely loved. It would show number of running applications and a quick option to close them all. CM has a task manager and the market has applications that can replicate that functionality but I haven't found one as nifty as that little widget. Then theres a Dual Clock widget, which was important to me as I have contacts in different timezones. I could easily check their time at a glance. In short there were some gems that I miss... and I can't get with CM.
4. Messaging app was modified by Samsung to allow quick addition of a particular group (e.g. all the contacts in Family group) to senders list.
5. There was a very nice Memo app that you could store notes in for offline use. There are tons of alternatives in the market like Springpad, Evernote etc but I kinda liked that app. It had a very nice yellow legal pad template. Its a minor gripe but hey!
6. There's no swype in CM7! Samsung preloads your Infuse with swype. If you've not used swype, its an awesome way to input text. I found that I could sign up for Swype beta and use it in CM but then again....beta is a beta. It has problems.
7. Bluetooth (currently) doesn't completely work in CM7. You can transfer data but audio pairing is an issue. It doesn't bother me but it may be something you use.
8. Wifi is fine but try using Mobile Data on CM. I still haven't figured how to set up my mobilink GPRS internet. I tried setting up the APN with the same settings as on the stock build but it doesn't seem to work. It worked fine under Samsung. But YMMV. It may be particular to my network and CM build.
9. There's no voice search in google search widget. I had to install an apk from net to get it working. It wouldn't even show up in the market.
10. Also you'll lose all your settings in applications. You'll get your apps back from the market (Even the Paid ones...you won't have to re-purchase) but you'll have to set them up all again just the way you want. That may not be such a big deal for some but it may irk you. Also don't use Titanium Backup to restore you app data. I tried that and every f***ing app would crash every ten minutes. I had to reflash again.
11. Your partitions will show up different in the file manager. For example your internal sd card (as it showed up in stock build) will be mounted under 'emmc'. I had to look online for that. Now that may not be a major thing but it screwed up a lot of app data links.
12. Lastly CM isn't even official for Infuse yet. All you have are volunteers packaging builds for Infuse. Hats off to their hard work! But as a user.... you are the tester! So if you're comfortable running untested beta grade software only then go for CM7 on your infuse. Otherwise stick with the stock build.
I'll keep adding other differences as I remember and discover them. You guys can pitch in too.
This post is by no means an attempt to belittle CM. Its an excellent ROM. It has its own advantages which you can read up on its website. I'm just highlighting some tradeoffs so that new users like myself exactly know what they're giving up.
So if you still want to go ahead and flash your Infuse, full power to you. At least you'll be making an informed decision. Just please backup your critical data. Sync your contacts with Google. Back up your music and videos, messages, downloads etc.
Go here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1400375 for the latest CM7 build for Infuse.
Enjoy the CM awesomeness! Best of Luck
This is what distinguishes the men from the boys...or should I say android from apple....be cause we have options....yea...it voids your warranty..who cares...my dedutibke on my insurance and wait time for warranty repair isn't worth it. First we have options, apple doesn't, so if your scared say your scared and buy an iPhone...and as long as you have a back up you will not lose any critical info.. I flash my phone about 20 times or more a day testing out my rom builds and themes and have bricked a hundred times and all info is intact...if you stay stock on infuse...slow, laggy, bad signal.....this is why us devs work so hard ...so your phone and you don't....happy hollidays
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium
dman3285 said:
This is what distinguishes the men from the boys...or should I say android from apple....be cause we have options....yea...it voids your warranty..who cares...my dedutibke on my insurance and wait time for warranty repair isn't worth it. First we have options, apple doesn't, so if your scared say your scared and buy an iPhone...and as long as you have a back up you will not lose any critical info.. I flash my phone about 20 times or more a day testing out my rom builds and themes and have bricked a hundred times and all info is intact...if you stay stock on infuse...slow, laggy, bad signal.....this is why us devs work so hard ...so your phone and you don't....happy hollidays
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said bro...just came off a semi-hard brick and I'm back in business. And you can believe I'll keep flashing. CM7 isn't the only game in town. We've had a tidal wave of ports and even a couple infuse-based roms (thanks D) that can cater to anyones needs. All you gotta do is read and enjoy all the hard work these devs put in.
sbjaved - Thanks so much for this! i just flashed CM10, and am discovering what i've lost (From the latest samsung gingerbread leak) - and what i've gained! two days in and it's so worth it - The only thing i miss is MHL and quite frankly, it's a small loss.
-Woody
Hi everybody.
I've owned A LOT of Android devices, i think this phone will be my number 22 Android phone through time
I've also tried Iphone 3G back in the days (BVADR..), and a couple of Windows Phones..
Bluetooth music streaming in both Windows Phone and Iphones, are really good. It is so good actually, that i don't even bother putting in my AUX cable, because i can't really hear a great difference.
On any Android i tried (not with CM10 back in the days), there is clearly a quality downgrade! It must be something that bother others as well??
Now i know that the Bluetooth music streaming in Android is, well the most unacceptable piece of sh..t that ever was produced , but it bothers me that the only Rom that fixes this, and keeps fixing it, is CyanogenMod. Don't get me wrong, i really like CM 10, 11, 12, but i like Sony's "skin/template" a Little bit better, and would like to keep using that.
I have however reached a point now where i will do just about anything to fix the bluetooth music streaming in my new car. So i will, if i have to install CM12 on my Z3 and Loose a lot of the great features (camera) just for the bluetooth fix.
Before i do it though, isn't there a developer in here that knows where to fix this in general for the Lollipop release? It would be really great to have a BitPool fix, where we can overwrite some system files, or install a zip in recovery, or a Little app that could set the BitPool easy for us..
I'm not a developer but do Work in the IT businness and will of course be able to be beta tester or help in any way that i can!
If a developer can even pinpoint me to which files i need to change, i can go ahead and root my Z3, and do it myself. Would even put in a nice PowerPoint guide (and i'm really not the PowerPoint guy ), so that others can do it too.
Please help a frustated Android bluetooth user
this isn't development and should be in the Q&A section, i've reported this so a mod can move it to the appropriate place
All right thank you. I hope that developers look in the q&a section then
Good day!
I recently upgraded my phone, and I want to hold onto my old device and use it as a media player, mainly for listening to podcasts. The phone is an HTC One M8 from Verizon.
I have been searching the forums and I believe I'm ready to root the device and install a custom ROM. I mainly want to get rid of the Verizon/HTC bloatware and strip the phone down to just what's needed to play podcasts and perhaps audiobooks from the library and such. I will do all of this over WiFi. Basically, I'm wanting an Android version of the iPod Touch.
My question is, how do I search for a ROM that doesn't treat the device as a phone? I've tried searching for the term "media", but that gets me way more than I need, with all kinds of bells and whistles for turning the phone into a multimedia device.
Thank you very much for your time, and for creating this newbie-friendly forum. I really appreciate all the work that xda does.
Hi !
Your request looks kinda unique here on xda , basically the developers are focused on improving and expanding the device`s functionality rather than reducing and eliminating it
I can say that there is no rom closer to your request but what you can do is some modifications by yourself
- block all radios by turning on the airplane mode
- remove the google account
- from settings/apps you can disable any unwanted application and re-enable it at anytime
Alternatively you can root the device and install Titanium backup which helps you to go deeply and freeze more apps or to flash an AOSP rom for your device and along with minimal gapps to reduce the bloatware , also using Titanium Backup
https://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/orig-development
Good luck !
Hats off to everyone on this forum. It's been awhile since I been on here and I am happy to see it still going strong.
I am new to the S8+ and new to modding in 2019. I haven't messed around with this stuff since the "getting the evo to work on boost" days. I am looking for some advise/recommendations on what to choose as far as roms, etc., from the gate from someone who may have had an experience in what I'm trying to achieve rather than going through hundreds of rom post to find the answer I'm looking for. I stepped away from "smart" phones for awhile and came back only when I found out I could lock them down as much as possible using programs like bk disabler (rip). Even root at the time didn't list the "apps in the background" (if you know what I mean) for me to edit or disable them.
I am looking to root (if needed anymore) my device and install an ultra slim/lite rom, no extra apps on it that don't need to be there, especially social media apps. Not sure if roms still come with a separate gaps install option but not having them is fine as well as I will not be signing into any account on my phone and will only want to use youtube as far as the only goog service used, so i wont be able to use any of them anyway besides tube (unless of course there is now a way to use maps and such without signing in?). If theres such a rom out there of course it would need to be stable. I do not want android 9 as none of the apps I actually use (like bk disabler/acr/etc) work with pie from what I have read. Goog wants all the tracking to themselves now I guess, hence why I am looking for a rom that is as slim as possible. I just want to make calls, text, browse the web and use the tube without having all kinds of accounts and sign ups for any of it. I am really tired of big tech but going back to a black and white nokia in 2019 is not an option anymore.
So a few questions I have would be.. Whats the best root process? I see Odin is still a thing so which version should I be using, also which kernel should I be using? Are different roms still based off different kernels, if so which is better? And lastly what rom should I choose or which rom creator is now the person to look out for?
I know I'm oldshool at this point so please bare with me on these questions. Any help in pointing me in the right direction would be very much appreciated. Thanks!