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I've tried and tried to get a number of questions answered here and on the Cyanogenmod forum, but either my questions are extremely advanced and esoteric, or everyone here is just users and developers are somewhere else.
So I'm creating this thread of Mysteries To Science, for all those questions you have which no one is able to answer. I've run Debian exclusively for 14 years and am used to having total control, and the lack of knowledge on Android here is perplexing. I have the Nexus One, but I think these questions apply to essentially all Android phones.
Here are my Mysteries:
Messaging Problem - I use ChompSMS. A couple weeks ago I stopped receiving text messages, about the time I removed the stock Messaging app using Titanium. I can send just fine, but I never receive them.
Anyone seen this problem? Does Chomp use its own system, or does it depend on Messaging? I reinstalled GApps thinking Messaging is there, but it's not. Is it a dependency, and if so where is it? If not, why do I no longer receive and what can I do about it?
App Shortcuts - I created a desktop direct messaging shortcut to call my boss, with a pic of an angry boxer dog. Made the pic as a gif and png with transparent background, although it is ending up as black on the desktop for some reason.
I assigned the pic as the shortcut's icon using Gallery, and I suspect that Gallery is converting the background to black, but I cannot find where app pics are stored either on the SD or /system.
App Sorting - Also like so many others, I have many many apps. I have always categorized my apps, since I started using Debian exclusively 14 years ago. To have all my apps dumped into a giant pile as they are in the N1, is irritating. I installed Apps Organizer, but it seems to want me to tag each app with a category, rather than basically making folders with categories such as Utilities, System, Multimedia, etc.
Is there any way to make folders for the apps?
Calendars - I am not sharing my personal information with That-Search-Engine-Everyone-Uses. (Yes, I've deinstalled all GApps except Market, and use exclusively AppBrain's app to install apps, but still haven't found a way to buy apps in a way I trust) Can anyone recommend a calendar app which is compatible with Linux and M$ calendars, yet doesn't sync with some Outside Authority?
Compass - The magnetometer in this phone is completely unreliable in my experience. Any stray magnetic field throws it off by 18 degrees permanently. The only way I've found to almost calibrate it is with the Compass app Calibrate function, but to run that before any other app which requires a compass is a headache. Is there something I'm doing wrong?
SD Card - What relation does the SD card have to the system? Why is it that when I install an app to the SD card, its widget is no longer available and its daemon will not run? Is there some way to add the SD card to the kernel's awareness for these purposes?
Factory Reset - If I back up system and apps using Titanium, and desktop and ADW settings using ADW, and export contacts, is that enough?
What are the data structures in Android? I know there's the kernel, and ADW is the full user interface, but where are contacts stored? Where are apps, /system/apps?, and if so where are their config files? Where are the desktops configured, and where are the shortcuts+icons stored? I can't find any such config files, and the only one I know of is the central system config file /system/build.prop.
How to recover my contacts? Apps installed in phone memory? Would a restore, restore whatever is ostensibly messing up the compass?
So given wherever these data structures are, what effect does a factory reset have? Exactly which data structures does it wipe/replace?
Quantumstate said:
Here are my Mysteries:
SD Card - What relation does the SD card have to the system? Why is it that when I install an app to the SD card, its widget is no longer available and its daemon will not run? Is there some way to add the SD card to the kernel's awareness for these purposes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android seems to boot from ROM before the SD card, once the OS is up and running then it starts to mount the SD card, so any widgets you have installed on homescreens while residing on the SD card won't load when first booting. You need to keep all of your widgets on the phones internal memory to stop this problem recurring. If you are having memory shortages you might want to consider using ROM Manager, partitioning your SD card and using an A2SD (App to SD Card) ROM that will install apps to the SD card instead of internal memory.
App Shortcuts - I created a desktop direct messaging shortcut to call my boss, with a pic of an angry boxer dog. Made the pic as a gif and png with transparent background, although it is ending up as black on the desktop for some reason.
I assigned the pic as the shortcut's icon using Gallery, and I suspect that Gallery is converting the background to black, but I cannot find where app pics are stored either on the SD or /system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Gallery in conjunction with Launcher Pro to display my custom dock icons it works just fine. It sounds to me like you're not making one of the layers transparent before saving it as a PNG.
Kalavere said:
Android seems to boot from ROM before the SD card, once the OS is up and running then it starts to mount the SD card, so any widgets you have installed on homescreens while residing on the SD card won't load when first booting. You need to keep all of your widgets on the phones internal memory to stop this problem recurring. If you are having memory shortages you might want to consider using ROM Manager, partitioning your SD card and using an A2SD (App to SD Card) ROM that will install apps to the SD card instead of internal memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya, it -only- boots from the 'ROM' (firmware). Need to keep thos apps that have widgets and daemons installed on the phone, or else they won't work. This is what I'm saying. Am using A2SD as it's built-in to CM6, so must move those apps with widgets and daemons back to the phone. None of this addresses why the system can't load a widget from the SD after boot, nor whether there's a way to tell the kernel about SD widgets.
Kalavere said:
I use Gallery in conjunction with Launcher Pro to display my custom dock icons it works just fine. It sounds to me like you're not making one of the layers transparent before saving it as a PNG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Examining the images in Linux viewers shows the transparency. (checkerboard background) Viewing it in Gallery does not. gif and png both support transparent background, but it appears to me that Gallery does not.
Quantumstate said:
Messaging Problem - I use ChompSMS. A couple weeks ago I stopped receiving text messages, about the time I removed the stock Messaging app using Titanium. I can send just fine, but I never receive them.
Anyone seen this problem? Does Chomp use its own system, or does it depend on Messaging? I reinstalled GApps thinking Messaging is there, but it's not. Is it a dependency, and if so where is it? If not, why do I no longer receive and what can I do about it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suggest you break down the Mms.apk and look in there. It does have dependencies, they're written into a file inside the apk telling it where to send the message and where to check for messages. It also contains the user agent information. If you could some how pack that into chomp or another mms/sms app then you might be able to delete the stock app and push/install your choice messaging app to the system.
You no longer get messages (I assume) because when you're sent an sms/mms it sits on your carriers server while it sends a message to your phone (you don't see it) telling it that there's a message waiting to be retrieved. It's expecting a certain response about the phones state and type. If the format is incorrect or it doesn't get a response then the message just sits on the server. To send a message I believe it just uses apn settings to contact the server with 'wait for message' then the server responds 'ready' the phone sends it and all is well. It doesn't request the phones state and type and therefor the lack of a UA has no effect. Of course that's my understanding of how it works but I could be a little off here or there
Thanks KCRic. I did a factory reset and installed CM6.1-RC1, and now I'm getting texts. I find that this has happened to others too. I expected to get an avalanche of texts when I factory reset, but nothing. At least I'm receiving them now.
I'm surprised to read that files are actually modified on-the-fly inside apk's. This would explain alot of things. Is there a way to manually modify those files using some sort of apk tool?
Quantumstate said:
App Sorting - Also like so many others, I have many many apps. I have always categorized my apps, since I started using Debian exclusively 14 years ago. To have all my apps dumped into a giant pile as they are in the N1, is irritating. I installed Apps Organizer, but it seems to want me to tag each app with a category, rather than basically making folders with categories such as Utilities, System, Multimedia, etc.
Is there any way to make folders for the apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are using adw you can set up groups in the app drawer. Not quite the same as folders but pretty useful
Quantumstate said:
Factory Reset - If I back up system and apps using Titanium, and desktop and ADW settings using ADW, and export contacts, is that enough?
What are the data structures in Android? I know there's the kernel, and ADW is the full user interface, but where are contacts stored? Where are apps, /system/apps?, and if so where are their config files? Where are the desktops configured, and where are the shortcuts+icons stored? I can't find any such config files, and the only one I know of is the central system config file /system/build.prop.
How to recover my contacts? Apps installed in phone memory? Would a restore, restore whatever is ostensibly messing up the compass?
So given wherever these data structures are, what effect does a factory reset have? Exactly which data structures does it wipe/replace?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried my backuppro for backing up your contacts and apps. There is a free version that will work for 30days. I personally never restore anything with TB, as it causes me no end of headaches. I use my backup pro to backup my personal data, ( contacts, sms, mms, dictionary, calendar etc ) I use applist to save a txt file with a list of apps i have installed. Then just reinstall the apps via market or diect push. This is just my personal o
I do this on a fairly regular basis ( trying different roms ) and can do it about 15mins
(EDIT: Apologies, the thread title should have stated this is relevant to the market(s))
I'm considering creating a series of applications, some of which contain a database of images thus making the final apk size quite large.
Does large file sizes for reference programs (when the user knows there will be a large amount of data involved) put them off downloading it or do people prefer having things pulled from a host? (or even having a small app size but then asking the user to install xx MB to there SD card?)
I suppose the best option would be to have an option for both.. but just want to know what other dev's have done in this situation.
(P.S - First post.. lurked here for a while but mainly been at modaco )
Whats puts me off is when I want to buy a program and I know I will not be able to test it within 15 minutes because of the extra files needed after the install.
I'm not paying for something I can't test out, blame stupid Google for their 15 minutes refund policy.
i don't really like large size file
why not pull the images from the interweb when the app opens?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
It depends on what you mean by "large."
I don't want to spend time downloading an app that is a few hundred megs.
If it is only a few megs, I don't think of it as large though.
I'll also add that I don't want to download an app to find that I have to download more things to use it. If it is pulling data from a host, I don't want to experience any delays at all.
Thanks for the responses but I think I ended up answering my own question in the first post - have the option for both.
The best option from a dev point of view is downloading the extra files first, then the reliability and speed of hosting isn't as much of an issue as people won't need to access these on demand.
As I'm typing this post a 4th option has also become apparent - download all the text data in the beginning and for each entry you can pull the image manually.
Some of the apps are most useful on the go (Think: Wine lists/database), making using their mobile data compulsory would put people off I think.
Thanks for the advice
P.S By large I mean less than 70mb, which I'd say is quite large for a phone app)
If i understand Android correctly, it sends applications into a "background" mode when switching tasks? I would like to prevent that. There are some apps (like games or browser) that need quit a bit of time restoring the last state so this would be usefull for some tasks.
Is this possible ?
TyrionWarMage said:
If i understand Android correctly, it sends applications into a "background" mode when switching tasks? I would like to prevent that. There are some apps (like games or browser) that need quit a bit of time restoring the last state so this would be usefull for some tasks.
Is this possible ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, switching to background mode just marks the application as not displaying anything. The way memory management on Android works, if foreground apps (i.e. apps that are actively displaying on the screen) need memory and there's none available, then background apps will be put into a stored state that frees up memory for the foreground apps. Coming back from that stored state is probably what you're noticing. Android also tries to keep a certain amount of unused memory around and will put background apps into stored state to achieve that. We do have pretty limited memory available on this device so some level of pausing is always going to happen. See also: http://andrs.w3pla.net/autokiller/details
You may be able to reduce how many background tasks are put into storage by tweaking the minfree parameters (using e.g. Autokiller Memory Optimizer from the market) to tell Android to aim for a smaller pool of free space.
Mioze7Ae said:
Well, switching to background mode just marks the application as not displaying anything. The way memory management on Android works, if foreground apps (i.e. apps that are actively displaying on the screen) need memory and there's none available, then background apps will be put into a stored state that frees up memory for the foreground apps. Coming back from that stored state is probably what you're noticing. Android also tries to keep a certain amount of unused memory around and will put background apps into stored state to achieve that. We do have pretty limited memory available on this device so some level of pausing is always going to happen. See also: http://andrs.w3pla.net/autokiller/details
You may be able to reduce how many background tasks are put into storage by tweaking the minfree parameters (using e.g. Autokiller Memory Optimizer from the market) to tell Android to aim for a smaller pool of free space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, i'm will give it a try. Is it also possible to max out swap before sending apps to background? I think restoring the ram-state from sd would still be faster for several apps.
Edit: reading your post again, i'm not talking about a tasking switch delay, but apps that completly reload themselves when switching tasks (DolphinMini page load,DungeonHunter as examples). Just to prevent any confusion...
TyrionWarMage said:
Thanks, i'm will give it a try. Is it also possible to max out swap before sending apps to background? I think restoring the ram-state from sd would still be faster for several apps.
Edit: reading your post again, i'm not talking about a tasking switch delay, but apps that completly reload themselves when switching tasks (DolphinMini page load,DungeonHunter as examples). Just to prevent any confusion...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh... Sorry I misunderstood. I don't know anything relevant to that case.
I've spent a few hours trying to find how to make certain Droid apps maintain their foreground state when put in the background with no luck. Perhaps it just can't be done.
I'm thinking of the Cydia iPhone app called Backgrounder which lets you choose which apps maintain foreground state when put into the background.
This is necessary, for example, with a note application where you are switching between taking notes and looking up info. Every time you switch back to the note app, you need to go back into your note, put it in edit mode and navigate to the section of the note you were editing. If it were acting like a foreground app in the background, when switching back to it it would already have your note open and be in edit mode with the cursor where you left off.
K9 mail has a similar problem where if you have an email open, switch to another application, when you go back to K9 it takes you to your inbox again where you have to navigate to the email you had open before switching.
Is there a tool similar to Backgrounder for Android?
Thanks.
nheacock said:
I've spent a few hours trying to find how to make certain Droid apps maintain their foreground state when put in the background with no luck. Perhaps it just can't be done.
I'm thinking of the Cydia iPhone app called Backgrounder which lets you choose which apps maintain foreground state when put into the background.
This is necessary, for example, with a note application where you are switching between taking notes and looking up info. Every time you switch back to the note app, you need to go back into your note, put it in edit mode and navigate to the section of the note you were editing. If it were acting like a foreground app in the background, when switching back to it it would already have your note open and be in edit mode with the cursor where you left off.
K9 mail has a similar problem where if you have an email open, switch to another application, when you go back to K9 it takes you to your inbox again where you have to navigate to the email you had open before switching.
Is there a tool similar to Backgrounder for Android?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking for such tool too. Making app to stick with its foreground state even though it is actually in the background. (Make it appear in notification?)
ZDBox is a useful tool... you can download from market its free and the app has the abbility to:
★ Traffic counter: Monthly/daily mobile data usage overview, shows remaining data traffic, detailed data usage information for each app.
★ Do not disturb: Just set days and the time when you need your privacy and you won’t be disturbed by your phone. Set phone to silent, vibration or airplane mode.
★ App lock: Protect apps with a password or pattern, for exmaple your contacts, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp,Gmail and so on
★ Task killer: Kill all apps at once, define protected apps which won’t be killed, set auto kill when screen gets locked, mark single or multiple apps to kill
★ history eraser：clean your（Browser history,market search history,Google Map search history,Gmail search history,Clipboard）
★ Notification bar: One tap on the bar shows remaining battery time, running apps, how much data traffic is left and if app lock is active or not. A tap on these informations starts ZDbox.
★ Uninstaller: Shows used/available internal and SD card memory. Apps can be easily uninstalled. Single or multiple (batch) uninstall possible.
★ App to SD: Move apps to your SD card. Single or multiple (batch) move possible. Only for Android 2.2 and 2.3.
★Cache Cleaner:With Cache Cleaner you can clean your cache of phone.protect your secret without a trace.
I hope you can use for keep your running applications with that app...
sorry for my english...
davidequiz said:
★ Task killer: Kill all apps at once, define protected apps which won’t be killed, set auto kill when screen gets locked, mark single or multiple apps to kill
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will not help since the task killer which kills the background apps in inside the android system not an external one.
We must find a way to control the internal one then...
nheacock said:
I've spent a few hours trying to find how to make certain Droid apps maintain their foreground state when put in the background with no luck. Perhaps it just can't be done.
I'm thinking of the Cydia iPhone app called Backgrounder which lets you choose which apps maintain foreground state when put into the background.
This is necessary, for example, with a note application where you are switching between taking notes and looking up info. Every time you switch back to the note app, you need to go back into your note, put it in edit mode and navigate to the section of the note you were editing. If it were acting like a foreground app in the background, when switching back to it it would already have your note open and be in edit mode with the cursor where you left off.
K9 mail has a similar problem where if you have an email open, switch to another application, when you go back to K9 it takes you to your inbox again where you have to navigate to the email you had open before switching.
Is there a tool similar to Backgrounder for Android?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guys, I'm so much looking for a solution of this same thing. The closest I came to is Ram manager. Has a xda threat and can be found in the play store. But it also can't manage to lock an app and prevent its killing (although it helps a lot). I need my navigation always running and it is silently killed or stopped while I'm looking at my mail or have a phone call. This is ridiculous. Have you found a solution. Some way to protect an app from killing and lock it in the foreground. I mean how are they able to do it for the apps which are in the system tray!? Like antivirus apps and tons of other. I can't believe xda experts don't know how...
I would think that Antivirus apps run a service.
In Mioze's CM6 there are build prop edits that might work, but I never tried them.
Code:
# apps to be kept in memory (specified by process name)
# use with caution, RAM is limited!
sys.keep_app_1=
sys.keep_app_2=
I am not an expert and can't tell the difference between service and an app running. What you're saying makes sense, but I need clear instructions somewhere to make an app protected from killing. Thanks for helping.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Wrong forms this milestone xt720.
Sent from my SGH-T759 using xda premium
I pretty much fixed android multitasking - even on ense 4.0 and 4.1
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1900626
Testers welcome.
And for locking an app in a foreground state, my SuperCharger can do that via BulletProof Apps menu.
zeppelinrox said:
I pretty much fixed android multitasking - even on ense 4.0 and 4.1
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1900626
wI
Testers welcome.
And for locking an app in a foreground state, my SuperCharger can do that via BulletProof Apps menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tested that and almost became an expert. I'm not so sure if it is completely solved, although I have to admit that you have done a great and recognized job.
Just tell me can the script for bulletproof apps work alone, without the supercharger script. Many ROMs have their own memory settings and one is afraid to cover them with supercharger script settings.
But if bulletproof script can run and do the job on itsown then the problem is really fixed.
Yeah its separate.
Alot of devs say dont supercharge because they dont want to be showed up and scare their users lol
But hundreds of roms come supercharged anyway.
zeppelinrox said:
Yeah its separate.
Alot of devs say dont supercharge because they dont want to be showed up and scare their users lol
But hundreds of roms come supercharged anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for answering!
So I'm going to try running only the bulletproof script without the supercharger script and set an app to be UNbillable.
Should I set it to run on startup!? I'm using custom ROM. The last revolution HD.
The init.d script would run automatically.
So you dont need to configure anything.
Whatever app is in the hitlist will get bulletptoofed soon after running the app.
zeppelinrox said:
The init.d script would run automatically.
So you dont need to configure anything.
Whatever app is in the hitlist will get bulletptoofed soon after running the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am trying to get this configured. But I only want to run the bulletproof script, not the 99SuperCharger script. I just want to keep my rom's memory settings, cause I am OK with them.
But both of the scripts (99SuperCharger and bulletproof) are going to reside in the init.d folder of my custom rom. So they will both be started, aren't they?
How can I make only bulletproof script run at boot. Should I just delete 99SuperCharger from init.d?
Hello,
I'm attempting to make an inventory application. Basically, our company has several devices/equipment that we checkout to other people and our current paper system isn't working out. The devices will each have an NFC tag put on that uniquely identifies it, and the idea is that the Android application on our smartphones (provided by the company) will simply scan it to check in/out the device. It will record the date time, who checked it out, and other information, and we want more than one person to be able to check in/out items at a time.
My problem is figuring out a way to store this data. Our company already pays for a OneDrive for Business account and our initial idea was to simply store the data in an Excel spreadsheet and share it with the people who checkin/checkout the devices (only two people at the moment), then the app would download the spreadsheet, record the new data, and upload it again to OneDrive. Reading and writing the data is easy, but actually pulling the file from OneDrive is where we hit a road bump and now we need another plan.
Are there any free alternatives for data storage of this kind where I would be able to access it through the Android application and update it? We also thought of using Heroku, but through researching I found that directly connecting to the PostgreSQL database they provide within the application is not possible. Of course we want to keep this data secure and only accessible to the people actually checking in/out devices, but we do not need a huge amount of space to store this data. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
cyborg99 said:
Hello,
I'm attempting to make an inventory application. Basically, our company has several devices/equipment that we checkout to other people and our current paper system isn't working out. The devices will each have an NFC tag put on that uniquely identifies it, and the idea is that the Android application on our smartphones (provided by the company) will simply scan it to check in/out the device. It will record the date time, who checked it out, and other information, and we want more than one person to be able to check in/out items at a time.
My problem is figuring out a way to store this data. Our company already pays for a OneDrive for Business account and our initial idea was to simply store the data in an Excel spreadsheet and share it with the people who checkin/checkout the devices (only two people at the moment), then the app would download the spreadsheet, record the new data, and upload it again to OneDrive. Reading and writing the data is easy, but actually pulling the file from OneDrive is where we hit a road bump and now we need another plan.
Are there any free alternatives for data storage of this kind where I would be able to access it through the Android application and update it? We also thought of using Heroku, but through researching I found that directly connecting to the PostgreSQL database they provide within the application is not possible. Of course we want to keep this data secure and only accessible to the people actually checking in/out devices, but we do not need a huge amount of space to store this data. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heroku is a good option. You'll have to make an app to run API's that will talk to your app.
Any help will be much appreciated.
I have to install an app which I don't trust, but which requires too many permissions, which obviously I am not keen on giving the app. For reasons beyond my control, I can't name the app (it's a work thing).
My idea is to create a new user on the phone, (OnePlus2) and install the app for that user only. Would this stop it from being able to access the data under my own user, and restrict it to only read the data available for the new user for which it is installed?
It requires permission to: (just incase this info helps)
Draw over other apps
Take pictures and videos
Find accounts on the device
Approximate location, precise location
Read SMS/MMS, Send & View SMS/MMS
Modify or delete contents of USB storage
Read contents of USB storage
Read phone status and Identity
Any other solution I should look at? Or will this work just fine?
Cheers!
No way I would install that. Not on a device I use. Unless I had full control over the source code for the apks. I could see some uses.
But to answer your question, I think that should work. I don't have much experience with the details of extra users on the device bit you can look it up on the Google developer site.
That should be enough.
For good measure, I Tried Doing this on my Moto G4 Plus. I created a new user and installed Drupe and Textra. And here is what happened.
1. The New User did not have access to my contacts, call records or SMS
2. The old user could not see these two apps.
since the gallery is tied to photos on the Moto, the users could not see each other's photos.
UPDATE: I just saw an app on another thread that may work for you. - https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/closed-beta-test-incoming-companion-app-t3366295