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So you’ve got a nice, shiny, new G1 and you’ve been hearing about all the amazing things you can do with it but you “MUST HAVE ROOT”. As far as you know, you’re not a plant (although you may feel as smart as one at this point) and beyond that, you have no clue what any of the terms or concepts mean in context.
Well, I’m bored so I’m going to try and clear some things up.
There are a lot of threads that cover each of these things but I’m going to try and put as many basics into one post as possible. Hopefully it can be a perfect start for n00bs and good reference in lieu of search for others. Please feel free to correct any semantic (or blatant) mistakes I make.
I’ll keep the glossary here and update terms as I add to this post:
Android OS - Like Windows Mobile but based on Linux, using a Java based front end.
Linux - Open Source operating system used instead of Windows XP/Vista, Mac OSX etc... it's free (as in beer).
Open Source (From Wiki) – Free and open source software, also F/OSS, FOSS, or FLOSS (free/libre/open source software) is software which is liberally licensed to grant the right of users to study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code.
Root (as in access)- root is like the administrator account on a windows machine (also referred to as su, or superuser). It allows you to have complete access to the underlying OS of a linux or *nix based machine. For the G1, it allows for the use of themes, native backup functionality, manually selecting which apps can utilize root access, auto-rotate screen, multi-touch in browser, moving applications/caches to the sd card etc...
Root (as in location)- the 'root' of a folder or drive is the top most area of that location. In windows, C:\ is the 'root' of your hard drive. The 'root' of your SD card just means you haven't moved into any subfolders.
Shell – (also heard as terminal, bash, command line) This is a loose definition, but it’s basically a command line to run specific actions against the OS.
Bootloader – the SPL and IPL of a flash based device. See jashu’s description here.
SPL (Secondary Program Loader) - You get to the SPL by holding the camera button while powering on your phone. This is where you flash NBH images. See bootloader above.
Recovery Mode - Holding the 'Home' key while while powering on the G1 will take you into Recovery Mode. From here you can perform a NANDroid backup, wipe your phone, access a command line and of course, flash your phone with an update.zip file.
RC## (or release candidate) – In context to the G1, it is an official release of Android from T-Mobile meant specifically for the G1 (not ADP).
ADP (Android Developer Phone) – A Google specific (or carrier non-specific) version of the G1/Dream that has root access by default and is meant for developers writing apps for the G1, or Android in general.
ADP vs. RC## - Neither RC’s or ADP versions are tied to their respective hardware. With the right bootloader, you can flash an ADP image to a G1 or an RC image to an ADP.
JFV1.## - Is a specific Version of a JesusFreke ROM. JesusFreke is a developer on this website that has graciously spent his time to modify the G1 OS to allow us to have root access to our phones. This gives us the ability to explore and modify our phones via a command line.
Cupcake – a development branch of the Android OS that contains many improvements that was merged into the master build of Android and is currently being released to new phones as Android 1.5.
Nandroid – a utility, accessible through Recovery Mode, that allows you to backup your phone and restore to the exact condition at backup.
Apps2SD – Applications moved to your SD card instead of internal memory. Some people like the extra room, some people don’t want to hassle with the partitioning.
Partition – just like the partitions that separate cubicles in an office, a partition separates parts of a drive.
File system – there are many. It’s basically a specific way of organizing data on a partition. FAT(32) is generally windows, ext2 is generally linux. This is not a hard and fast rule, just most common in context with what you’ll see here.
Scripts – scripts are text files that contain a list of commands to perform. Instead of typing each command out multiple times, a script can be run that will initiate all steps listed in the script.
Android SDK (System Developer’s Kit) – This includes all tools (sans fastboot) that a developer needs to create applications for the G1. It also has tools for interacting with the phone via a command line (ADB).
ADB - is a part of the SDK that allows you to run commands against the G1 in lieu of using the terminal on the phone itself.
Fastboot - is a tool used to flash system images (.img files) to the G1 from a command line on your pc. IMG files are created when you do NANDroid backups and official images can be downloaded from HTC as well. To get to fastboot mode on your phone, hold the back button while powering on.
When T-Mobile first released the G1, they left a bug in the Android OS that allowed anything typed on the keyboard to be passed on to a root shell running in the background. This really was a major flaw and needed to be patched. Unfortunately, when they patched it, they really patched it. RC29 was the last version that still had root. With all versions RC30 on, it was removed. It completely denied us any hope at modding our “open-source” phone.
Somehow, the base image for RC29 (dreaimg.nbh) was leaked and some enterprising developers were able get access to the bootloader and return an updated G1 (RC30+) to RC29 and use this to regain root.
Somewhere along this road, Google released the ADP (Android Developer Phone), which has root enabled and uses a specific SPL (EngineeringSPL) that was the base for the modified HardSPL that most of us use now. Nandroid was included to allow us to back up our phones and shortly after, JesusFreke modified RC30 to keep root and still provide the fixes and improvements that came with it.
I’m not sure where it all started, but eventually, LucidREM released a modified version of JesusFreke’s ROM. This made moving applications to SD painless and freed up system storage and now we can have 32 flashlights and 62 tip calculators installed all at once.
Apps2sd has been the bane of many peoples existence. It requires you to partition your SD card in to separate file systems (FAT32 to remain compatible with windows computers as a mass storage device and ext2 to maintain compatibility with the underlying linux OS of the G1). It also requires you to move your apps to the SD card and then create symbolic links (similar to a windows shortcut) from the internal location pointing to the SD card. Lots can go wrong in this process and that’s why LucidREM, MartinFick, MarcusMaximus04 and others have created tools to help simplify the process.
Now of course, to achieve any of the things you want to do with the G1, you have to interact with it. There are at least 2 main ways to do this. Some prefer to do everything from the phone itself using a terminal, while some prefer to use their PC with the phone connected via USB. Others avoid both of these, as best they can, and use other peoples apps or scripts anywhere they can get away with it. This is why you may find many different explanations of the same goal.
In order to interact with your phone from a pc, you need the Android SDK, which includes ADB. ADB is basically a linux shell that communicates with the G1. It is easier to copy and paste from threads and insert commands without worrying about making typos. It also requires it’s own bit of hoops to jump through (unless you use a mac or linux ;-)) and sometimes scares people away. It is highly recommended if you plan on hacking at your phone with any regularity.
Of course, there are some sadists (I once was one) that like to type line after line of code on a tiny keyboard and use the terminal directly from the phone. This is fun and it makes you feel 1337, but it also leaves a lot of room for error. Remember, you are a root user now, and any mistake you make can be potentially huge.
Well, that’s all for now folks. Please feel free to add, subtract, reorganize, correct anything I’ve said, in the comments. Also, I’ve tried to add links to any relevant threads and sources that I used in making this… this, whatever you wanna call it.
Thanks to everyone in this community for doing what you do. We are all geeks and enjoy doing this stuff. It's good to have so many talented people taking an interest in Android and the G1 in general. It is open source communites that keep technology interesting and exciting.
Thanks to Haykuro, TheDudeofLife, all the theme devs, and all the big players that I didn't reference in this post. Oh, and SolemWishing for the Timeline! It helped, thanks!
Reserved for future posting
Awesome post for nuubs. This should be permanently stickied!
Very cool. a couple terms you should add:
Fastboot
SPL
Recovery mode
(including what key strokes you need to hit to get into spl and recov. modes)
Thanks for the feedback!
I added SPL and Recovery... let me get my facts straight on fastboot and I'll add that tomorrow.
I don't know if it is the right place for it, but there seem to have been lots of question about "radio" or more specifically "radio update".
I feel smarter already.
I particularly found the file system explanation useful, i put it together that fat32 and the other were the two partitions but didnt realize which was for cpu. Not ready to attempt but definitely closer (although Im not even sure if I want to partition i have no need for all that space at this point) It doesnt affect performance does it?
Agreed. Good stuff. Definitely noob required reading material.
Yes, indeed a very nice guide for the beginners. Hell we ALL started that way...i remember when I first got this phone ~6 months ago (no root), and there was almost nothing about it, no support, no add-ons, no hacks, nothing. It was boring, and for me I was coming from a motorola (motomodders?), so going to something that was far superior but didnt have community support made me almost cry.
Though look now, 3 months later the market was filling up and being abundent of new stuff to play with (I didnt even try rooting for a while, until it became a lot more well-known [fixes and the likes], and themes became a necessity because they started to get really good), and now 6 months later people are hacking away figuring out soo much stuff about it. Amazing work everyone, seriously.
Something good: It all starts at the roots .
Well, I added info on fastboot and exceeded my 10000 character limit. Now I understand why so many people reserve the second post. lol...
I'll make some changes so I can add info about the radio, however the link to fastboot explains the radio fairly well.
Thanks for the feedback everybody, I hope this helps some people out.
skri11a said:
So you’ve got a nice, shiny, new G1 and you’ve been hearing about all the amazing things you can do with it but you “MUST HAVE ROOT”. As far as you know, you’re not a plant (although you may feel as smart as one at this point) and beyond that, you have no clue what any of the terms or concepts mean in context.
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Click to collapse
When i read those lines i knew that this post would be worth reading
It was a really nice n00b guide, though ive done some WiMo flashing so some of the terms sounded familliar i certanly learned a thing or two
I would say it should be stickied and put on the wiki - oh and perhaps list it in alphabetic order, it would make it more usefull as a "I dont understand this term so ill just look it up"-thread...
Perhaps you can get a mod to give you post #2 & #3
//M
DMaverick50 said:
I feel smarter already.
I particularly found the file system explanation useful, i put it together that fat32 and the other were the two partitions but didnt realize which was for cpu. Not ready to attempt but definitely closer (although Im not even sure if I want to partition i have no need for all that space at this point) It doesnt affect performance does it?
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Click to collapse
I'm glad it helped. As far as performance issues, I've had none. In fact, when I was skating along with 12-19MB of free space, my phone would crall and cause me all sorts of grief. Since I've moved the apps and dalvik-cache, it's been very responsive and reliable. That being said, get a GOOD sd card. I see a lot of people having problems using cheap or < class4 sd cards.
m.klinge said:
When i read those lines i knew that this post would be worth reading
It was a really nice n00b guide, though ive done some WiMo flashing so some of the terms sounded familliar i certanly learned a thing or two
I would say it should be stickied and put on the wiki - oh and perhaps list it in alphabetic order, it would make it more usefull as a "I dont understand this term so ill just look it up"-thread...
Perhaps you can get a mod to give you post #2 & #3
//M
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lol... I'm glad you liked it.
And thanks for the tips. I'm gone for the weekend, but I'll alphabetize it when I get back. Not sure what I can do about getting it stickied but I'll look into the wiki on monday too.
can you add busybox
in the nandroid instructions it requires busybox but I didnt see an explanation for what busybox is. Thanks and this thread has already been very helpful for me
speaking of stickying this....
who is in charge of stickies? A lot of stickable topics aren't stickied and a lot of topics that should be unstickied are still stuck...
DMaverick50 said:
in the nandroid instructions it requires busybox but I didnt see an explanation for what busybox is. Thanks and this thread has already been very helpful for me
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Hey sorry for the late reply... Been pretty busy since Friday.
I'll try and add this to the first post shortly. I may have to remove some of the history lesson if I can't get a mod to give me the second/third post.
BusyBox - This is a single executable utility that contains many common Linux commands, instead of having an individual executable for each command. As far as I know this is built into all of the JF releases, as well as Dude's. It is also usable in the JF recovery console by hitting alt-x. To use busybox, just type "busybox" in front of the command you want to use (i.e. #busybox ls -L --to get a list of your directory).
AbsoluteDesignz said:
speaking of stickying this....
who is in charge of stickies? A lot of stickable topics aren't stickied and a lot of topics that should be unstickied are still stuck...
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If you figure this out, let me know. I haven't tried to PM a mod or anything but I'd still be curious to know what the magic requirements are.
This will definitely help a lot of newcomers. Thanks for taking the time to make it.
Way to get stickied! Now I can stop copying pasting updates worrying I might not be able to find the post...
skri11a:
BusyBox - This is a single executable utility that contains many common Linux commands, instead of having an individual executable for each command. As far as I know this is built into all of the JF releases, as well as Dude's. It is also usable in the JF recovery console by hitting alt-x. To use busybox, just type "busybox" in front of the command you want to use (i.e. #busybox ls -L --to get a list of your directory).
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Wouldn't "Unix utilities" be more correct than "Linux commands"?
And saying Android is "like windows mobile" is blasphemy! You can't compare Unix to Micro$oft Windoze (Yes, that's a very sophisticated and mature way to express my hatred of the OS )! >:|
Anyway, it's good that you wrote this, theres probably a lot around here not having a clue about how things work in the world of unix
Newbie Quick Start
UPDATES
[Info] For Newbie What It Is It Mean? All Your Answare Are Here Part I
[Info] For Newbie What It Is It Mean? All Your Answare Are Here Part II - 29th December 2011, 07:54 PM
[Info] What Is Odex And Deodex In Android - 24th January 2012, 03:07 PM
[Info] What Is Zipalign In Android And How To Make Apps Zipaligned - 24th January 2012, 03:18 PM
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USER REVIEW'S ABOUT THIS THREAD IN JUST SOME MINUTES
m.kochan10
Really good idea! IT should be sticky!
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rajanprash
Hi Sbxlive,
Thanks for all the info on the Galaxy R.
I am getting the device today.
I wanted to know if thr GR has NFC and MHL. As far as I know no review states that these features are present on the Galaxy R.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I Created This New Thread Because Of When I Entered In XDA With My Galaxy R ,I Really Don't Know About Above This Things And I Thought Daily New Members Are Coming In XDA With Their Devices And Facing Thats Problems Also So I Help This Buddies As I Do. So Lets Go On The Worlds
ITS SIMPLE BASIC BUT IMP MY FRIENDS SO PLEASE READ IS CAREFULLY YOUR DEVICE IS YOUR PART OF YOUR LIFE I THINK SO
OTG USB On-The-Go
USB On-The-Go, often abbreviated USB OTG, is a specification that allows USB devices such as digital audio players or mobile phones to act as a host allowing a USB flash drive, mouse, or keyboard to be attached.
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NFC
Near field communication (NFC) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few centimetres. Present and anticipated applications include contactless transactions, data exchange, and simplified setup of more complex communications such as Wi-Fi.Communication is also possible between an NFC device and an unpowered NFC chip
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OC
Over Clock (more clock cycles per second)
Disadvantages
Many of the disadvantages of overclocking can be mitigated or reduced in severity by skilled overclockers. However, novice overclockers may make mistakes while overclocking which can introduce avoidable drawbacks and which are more likely to damage the overclocked components (as well as other components they might affect).
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ROOT
Rooting is a process that allows you to access the workings of your phone that the phone provider does not want you to. It allows you to changed settings, functions, whole operating systems, make upgrades etc......
You can leave the "Stock" OS behind and get the most out of a phone. IT DOES VOID YOUR WARRANTY.
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KERNEL
In computing, the kernel is the main component of most computer operating systems; it is a bridge between applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level. The kernel's responsibilities include managing the system's resources (the communication between hardware and software components). Usually as a basic component of an operating system, a kernel can provide the lowest-level abstraction layer for the resources (especially processors and I/O devices) that application software must control to perform its function. It typically makes these facilities available to application processes through inter-process communication mechanisms and system calls.
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MHL
Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) is a proposed industry standard for a mobile audio/video interface for directly connecting mobile phones and other portable consumer electronics (CE) devices to high-definition televisions (HDTVs) and displays. The MHL standard features a single cable with a low pin-count interface able to support up to 1080p high-definition (HD) video and digital audio while simultaneously charging the connected device.
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CWM
ClockWorkMod - A utility for Android used to flash zip files containing Android ROM distributions on an Android mobile phone. It also allows the user to create or restore backup files containing a whole installation of a ROM, including system, application and user files.
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ROM
Technical Definition of ROM
ROM stands for Read-Only Memory and technically speaking, it refers to the internal storage of a device, which is supposed to contain the operating system instructions that needn’t be modified at all during the device’s normal operation. For this reason, such instructions are stored in read-only memory – much like on a non-rewriteable CD or DVD – to make sure no changes are made to them that could possibly make the device malfunction. This is in contrast with hard disk drives, solid state drives or regular flash storage devices used by personal computers that allow full read/write access even to the storage area that contains the operating system files.
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What is Firmware
The read-only operating systems that we just discussed above are also called ‘firmware’, as they stay firmly in place without modification access to the users of the device. Modification of firmware is still however possible, just not under normal usage. Many devices require specialized hardware to be used for the purpose while other devices have the storage set as read-only through software protection only, which can be removed or overridden without the need for any specialized hardware, just by using software written for the purpose, often but not always requiring connection to a computer.
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Thus, the terms ‘operating system’ and ‘firmware’ both refer to the same thing and can be used interchangeably when applied to such devices.
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Flashing
The ROM memory used in smartphones and tablets etc. is often same as flash memory found in SD cards and USB flash drives, simply optimized for better speed and performance while running the operating system. As explained above, it is read-only under normal usage and requires a special procedure for any modifications to be made to its contents. The procedure of modifying or replacing the contents of such flash memory is known as flashing. Thus, in layman’s terms, flashing is essentially the same as installing or modifying the firmware of a device that is stored on its protected flash memory.
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ROM as the Operating System
When it comes to smartphones and tablets, the term ROM is used to refer to the firmware stored in the internal memory of the device, rather than the internal memory itself. It can also refer to a file prepared for the purpose of replacing this firmware with another version of using a special method.
Thus, when you are told by someone to download a ROM, they are referring to the file that contains the firmware in a format ready to be installed to your phone to replace it’s existing firmware. Similarly, when asked what ROM is your phone running or when told by someone their phone is running a particular ROM, they are again talking about the particular variant of the firmware.
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Types of ROMs
Unlike most desktop operating systems, mobile operating systems can be found in installable format in multiple forms, which can be categorized as follows.
Truly Stock ROMs / firmware:
This is the operating system in its default form, without any modifications made to it except for any device-specific support required to run it on the particular device. Truly stock firmware provides the standard user experience of the operating system without any cosmetic or functional changes made. These days, truly stock firmware is primarily found in cases where both the device and the operating system is built by the same company. Amongst modern mobile devices, examples of truly stock firmware can be found on Apple’s iOS devices, Palm’s WebOS devices and some Android devices shipped without any modifications made to the operating system by their manufacturers.
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Manufacturer or Carrier branded Stock ROM / Firmware:
This type of firmware has had enhancements added over the default operating system by the device manufacturer or the mobile service carrier. This often includes interface enhancements, proprietary applications and in most cases, restrictions intended to limit the use of the device with a specific carrier or region. There are often further restrictions preventing installation of firmware not released by the carrier or manufacturer.
Most Android and Symbian devices fall under this category, and so do most Windows Phone 7 devices but in their case, the changes made from the truly stock firmware are minimal and limited to the inclusion of additional apps only.
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Custom ROM / firmware:
Almost all devices ship with either of the above two categories of firmware, though things don’t end there. Independent developers who like to customize their devices beyond the standard options provided often tend to release the fruits of their labor for the rest to enjoy, in form of custom ROMs. The more open the platform, the more independent development it attracts, a good example of which is the independent custom ROM development for Android.
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In case of proprietary firmware such as iOS and Windows Phone 7, there is often little or no room for customization of the operating system itself but regardless of that, developers still tend to release custom ROMs bundled with useful tools and hacks applied to provide functionality beyond the stock features. In fact custom ROM development for the otherwise proprietary and closed-source Windows Mobile platform lead to the formation of the largest independent mobile development community – the XDA-Developers forum.
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Stock Vs. Custom ROMs
Both stock and custom ROMs have their merits and demerits and choosing between the two requires careful consideration. In this section, we are going to make a comparison between the two types of ROMs to help you make the right choice. Let us begin by taking a look at their advantages and disadvantages.
Do note that this section is written with primarily Android (and now obsolete Windows Mobile) devices in mind. However, the many of these concepts will also apply to other smartphone platforms.
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Advantages & Disadvantages of Stock ROMs
Stock firmware is the result of a lot of research and testing done by the operating system vendor, the device manufacturer and/or the mobile service carrier. Therefore, it carries several advantages:
It is usually quite stable upon release.
Almost all bugs are patched during the extensive beta testing before release.
It carries the official support by the firmware vendor, device manufacturer and the mobile service carrier.
Updates are pushed automatically to the device by the carrier.
Along with its advantages, stock firmware also carries its disadvantages and these include:
Updates aren’t frequent, as development is done mostly by corporations who have to follow a scheduled release cycle.
Providing feedback to the manufacturer in case of any issues is either impossible, unwelcome (often with Apple devices), or a long, tedious process.
Similarly, getting official support can be a hassle as well, involving a tedious process.
If the device manufacturer and operating system developer are different (as is the case with Android and Windows Phone 7), any updates released by the operating system vendor need to be edited by the device manufacturer or mobile carrier to add compatibility and additional software before release. Hence, some devices get updates delayed by months.
Updates are often released first in the United States, leaving the rest of the world waiting. (A world does happen to exist beyond the United States, we’ve confirmed it ourselves!)
Worse still, when manufacturers choose to no longer release official updates for their older devices in favor of newer ones, their users are essentially stuck with old versions of the operating system. This case is evident with many Android devices barely a year and a half old.
Several OS developers, device manufacturers or mobile service carriers add
restrictions in the stock firmware ranging from locking the use of the device with one network/region to disabling sideloading of apps (we’re talking about you, AT&T) not available in the official app market, to advanced restrictions removing any chance of getting root access, just to name a few.
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Advantages & Disadvantages of Custom ROMs
Custom ROMs are as good or as bad as the effort put into them by their developers. Key advantages of custom ROMs are:
First and foremost, choice! There are thousands of custom ROMs out there for a range of devices, each offering a diverse set of features not found in the stock ROM.
Update frequency – custom ROMs are often under active development and newer releases of the core operating system are incorporated in them way before updated official ROMs are released. This is particularly true in case of Android devices, where developers start porting newer versions of Android to several devices as soon as they are released.
Providing feedback is as easy as leaving a message on the development forum for the ROM in question, resulting in highly efficient bug reporting.
Getting support with your issues at the forums is similarly easy, as not only the main developers themselves but also other experienced users of the ROM from the community are glad to help you with your issues and in the process, improve the ROM for everyone.
Custom ROMs usually have all the extra restrictions removed, enabling users to sideload apps, tether their mobile data connection to their computer without paying extra for it, gain root access, use their device in any region etc. without any need for circumventing the protection themselves.
Performance enhancements and optimizations found in many custom ROMs can make them much faster than stock ROMs, enabling users to get the most out of their devices.
Overclocking options are built into some custom ROMs, further speeding up the devices.
Undervolting options found in some ROMs on the other hand result in improved battery life.
Old phones with little internal memory can benefit most from custom ROMs that allow them to use the external SD card memory for the apps exactly the way they would use the internal memory.
So with all these advantages, there should be no reason to stick with the stock ROM, right? Not necessarily! Like all things in life, custom ROMs come with their disadvantages as well:
Due to the lack of extensive testing prior to release, many custom ROMs can be buggy in the beginning and installing a ROM with missing or corrupt critical files can even brick your phone.
Several custom ROMs that are ports of ROMs from other phones can have missing functionality that hasn’t been made to work on your phone with the ROM yet.
Installing a custom ROM usually involves wiping your phone to factory settings, so you lose your data and start from scratch. Fortunately, Android’s built-in contact syncing along with apps offering message, call log and app backup/restore make this process easier, letting you retain your data.
The installation process itself can be cumbersome and may require you to root your phone and often circumvent its security features to allow for custom ROM installation in the first place.
Installing a custom ROM will in most cases void your phone’s warranty, though often the process is reversible, meaning you can turn your phone back to stock as long as it isn’t bricked.
Installing a ROM to your phone requires you to root it first in most cases. While rooting most phones is easy, some phones require a complicated procedure to be followed before you can install a ROM to it and often, such procedures involve a risk of bricking your device if things go wrong.
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I THINK THIS THREAD HELPED YOU MUCH MORE AS YOU KNOW IT WILL KEEP UPDATING WITH NEW WORDS SO KEEP IN TOUCH AND DONT FORGET TO SAY THANKS OR REPLY
IF YOU HAVE SOME SUGGESTIONS OR ANY QUERY"S PM ME OF REPLY
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DONT FORGET TO CLICK ON THANKS
Really good idea! IT should be sticky!
Thanks for the Info.
Hi Sbxlive,
Thanks for all the info on the Galaxy R.
I am getting the device today.
I wanted to know if thr GR has NFC and MHL. As far as I know no review states that these features are present on the Galaxy R.
Thanks.
m.kochan10 said:
really good idea! It should be sticky!
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Click to collapse
t-t i can not understand my english very poor
Thank you.It makes a huge contribution to new users to understand Android.
No problem mys199156 Sticky thread means in this context "fixed", it remains always on the top, no matter if a new post has come or not.
great! post, sticky now!!
Thanks. This should be sticky !!
PS : ClockWorkMod should be CWM....Not CMW.
Cheers !
s4sixty said:
Thanks. This should be sticky !!
PS : ClockWorkMod should be CWM....Not CMW.
Cheers !
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sry my mistek
somthing wrong here wait i will again edit this topic from first line coc i dare to edit this topic on my mobile thats why it happen sorry for that
Sent from my GT-I9103 using XDA App
[Info] For Newbie What It Is It Mean? All Your Answare Are Here Part II
BFQ - Budget Fair Queueing
BFQ (Budget Fair Queueing) is a Proportional Share, or equivalently Fair Queueing, disk scheduler that allows each process/thread to be assigned a fraction of the disk throughput. It has the following characteristics.
It distributes the disk throughput to disk-bound proceses as desired, even if it fluctuates, independently of the disk parameters and with any workload. Providing this sector-domain fairness to processes issuing random requests would easily cause the disk throughput to drop on one hand, and cause other processes to experience very high latencies on the other hand. To face this problem, for processes issuing random requests, BFQ switches to time-domain fairness, in which it is the disk time to be fairly distributed (basically the scheme of CFQ).
According to our results, BFQ achieves up to 30% higher aggregate disk throughput than CFQ with most of the workloads considered, or the same throughput with the others.
BFQ guarantees to each disk request a tight delay with respect to the completion time that the requests would enjoy in an ideal (unfeasible) perfectly-fair system.
BFQ exports a low_latency tunable. If enabled (currently the default), BFQ executes a special heuristics that automatically gives to interactive and soft real-time applications more than their fair share of the disk throughput, to reduce their latency. According to our results, for desktop or handheld usage, the system becomes virtually as responsive as if the disk was idle, whatever the actual disk load is. Soft real-time applications enjoy up to 3-time lower latencies than under CFQ.
Low-latency guarantees are preserved also in presence of NCQ.
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USB JIG
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This jig will allow you to get your phone into download mode when your phone is 3 button combo disabled or soft bricked. As long as there is something on the screen, the jig should work for you.
This JIG also works to RESET THE FLASHING COUNTER. You can flash custom ROMS and put the flash counter back to 0.
***WORKS ONLY AS RESETTER FOR ANDROID 2.3.4 AND EARLIER***
For More Info : http://usbjig.com/
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SbXLivE said:
BFQ - Budget Fair Queueing
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You should always update this article
Very good explanation of basics!
Would be nice to have similar intro explaining slightly more complex things seen during flashing a new firmware or somehow else modding a phone. Not everyone understands what is kernel, boot, recovery, system and data partitions.
Very interesting! You resolve some doubts, thank you!
Sent from my GT-I9103 using xda premium
SbXLivE said:
sry my mistek
somthing wrong here wait i will again edit this topic from first line coc i dare to edit this topic on my mobile thats why it happen sorry for that
Sent from my GT-I9103 using XDA App
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what I've said is wrong. I always say CMW
Nice post for android beginners.
much useful info. thanks!
What Is Odex And Deodex In Android
What Is Odex And Deodex In Android
WHAT IS AN ODEX FILE?
In Android file system, applications come in packages with the extension .apk. These application packages, or APKs contain certain .odex files whose supposed function is to save space. These ‘odex’ files are actually collections of parts of an application that are optimized before booting. Doing so speeds up the boot process, as it preloads part of an application. On the other hand, it also makes hacking those applications difficult because a part of the coding has already been extracted to another location before execution.
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THEN COMES DEODEX
Deodexing is basically repackaging of these APKs in a certain way, such that they are reassembled into classes.dex files. By doing that, all pieces of an application package are put together back in one place, thus eliminating the worry of a modified APK conflicting with some separate odexed parts.
In summary, Deodexed ROMs (or APKs) have all their application packages put back together in one place, allowing for easy modification such as theming. Since no pieces of code are coming from any external location, custom ROMs or APKs are always deodexed to ensure integrity.
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HOW THIS WORK
For the more geeky amongst us, Android OS uses a Java-based virtual machine for running applications, called the Dalvik Virtual Machine. A deodexed, or .dex file contains the cache used by this virtual machine (referred to as Dalvik-cache) for a program, and it is stored inside the APK. An .odex file, on the other hand, is an optimized version of this same .dex file that is stored next to the APK as opposed to inside it. Android applies this technique by default to all the system applications.
Now, when an Android-based system is booting, the davlik cache for the Davlik VM is built using these .odex files, allowing the OS to learn in advance what applications will be loaded, and thus speeds up the booting process.
By deodexing these APKs, a developer actually puts the .odex files back inside their respective APK packages. Since all code is now contained within the APK itself, it becomes possible to modify any application package without conflicting with the operating system’s execution environment.
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ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
The advantage of deodexing is in modification possibilities. This is most widely used in custom ROMs and themes. A developer building a custom ROM would almost always choose to deodex the ROM package first, since that would not only allow him to modify various APKs, but also leave room for post-install theming.
On the other hand, since the .odex files were supposed to quickly build the dalvik cache, removing them would mean longer initial boot times. However, this is true only for the first ever boot after deodexing, since the cache would still get built over time as applications are used. Longer boot times may only be seen again if the dalvik cache is wiped for some reason.
For a casual user, the main implication is in theming possibilities. Themes for android come in APKs too, and if you want to modify any of those, you should always choose a dedoexed custom ROM.
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What Is Zipalign In Android And How To Make Apps Zipaligned
What Is Zipalign In Android And How To Make Apps Zipaligned
WHAT IS ZIPALIGN?
zipalign is an archive alignment tool introduced first time with 1.6 Android SDK (software development kit). It optimizes the way an Android application package (APK) is packaged. Doing so enables the Android operating system to interact with the application more efficiently, and hence has the potential to make the application and overall the whole system much faster. Execution time is minimized for zipaligned applications, resulting is lesser amount of RAM consumption when running the APK.
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SO HOW DOES IT EXACTLY WORK?
In an Android operating environment, data files stored in each application package are accessed by multiple processes, for example, the installer will read the data manifest to determine the associated permissions; the system server can read these resources for multiple reasons, like displaying notifications; the Home application, for example, will read resources to get the application’s name and icon. Since Android is based on a a true multi-tasking operating infrastructure, these files are continually and repeatedly accessed. Finally, but not least, the application itself reads the manifest data.
As Android is Linux-based, memory-mapping plays a key role in efficient handling of processes. Essentially, the optimal alignment for the Android OS’ resource-handling code is 4-byte boundaries. What this means is that, if APKs are memory-mapped to 4-byte boundaries, and aligned accordingly, the OS will not need to ‘read through’ the whole application package to get to the desired data manifest. Every system process will know in advance where to look for it’s desired resources, and hence will execute much smoother and faster.
Summing it up, zipaligning an APK results in all uncompressed data within the package to be aligned on 4-byte boundaries, allowing all portions to be accessed directly with the memory-map. RAM consumption is lowered while execution because the querying code doesn’t have to read through the entire application package.
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DISADVANTAGES OF UNALIGNED APKs
Quite understandably, situation would be reserved for unaligned application packages. Resource reading would be slow and memory usage would be on the higher end of the spectrum. It would also depend on how many unaligned applications are present. For example, if less number of applications with an unaligned home application, you’d see slower application launch times. This is the best case scenario. For a worst case scenario, having a number of unaligned applications will result in the system repeatedly starting and killing processes, struggling with lags and huge battery drain.
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HOW DO YOU DO IT, THEN?
As mentioned earlier, the zipalign tool became a part of Android SDK from 1.6 onwards. It can be found under the ‘tools’ folder of the SDK. To use it, simply run the command:
Code:
zipalign [-f] [-v] <alignment> infile.apk outfile.apk
where infile.apk is the source file, and outfile.apk is the output file.
Furthermore, you can also verify the alignment of an APK file using the following command:
Code:
zipalign -c -v <alignment> existing.apk
where existing.apk can be any application package that you need to get verified. Also, the <alignment> tag in both the commands needs to be an integral value (otherwise the command will return invalid). This value, although can be any integer, MUST always be 4, which would provide 32-bit alignment. Any other value and it will effectively do nothing.
Finally, for the flags used in these commands,
-f : overwrites existing outfile.zip
-v : will give verbose output
-c : will confirm the alignment of a given file
WORD OF CAUTION: zipalign operation must only be performed after you have signed the APK file with your private key. If zipaligned before signing, the signing procedure will disturb the alignment. Same holds true for any other alteration, addition or removal to the APK file. Any change after running zipalign will undo the alignment.
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thanx dude, i am translating to my own language and will use at a forum with your permission?
Hi, this is my first post on XDA, even though I've been trolling/using the site since my first Android device in 2011.
According to everything I've read so far, implementing dm-verity on anything but a completely untouched OEM /system is impossible. This breaks the ability to extend "internal" storage with a microsd card and forces us to use workarounds to encrypt /data on Marshmallow Sense roms (and probably others).
All of the media hype surrounding mobile device security lately has me thinking more about this subject.
In theory, if we are s-off, couldn't we implement this functionality into a rom/kernel (hboot and/or aboot?) of our own design, customized to our preference, then lock the bootloader back down and s-on to prevent modification by anyone without the dm-verity table signature?
If we could implement this, it would be a huge breakthrough in security, especially for those of us who like to modify our devices.
Before proceeding any further:
As you may already know, Cyanogen Inc. has shut down the CyanogenMod project, and will end some of the Cyanogen services by the end of this year. However, Cyanogen is still able to supply updates for the elegible devices whose manufacturer partnered with Cyanogen Inc., like Wileyfox, bq, YU, OPPO, OnePlus, ZUK and Smartfren. You can have a look at this extensive article in the XDA Portal for more info. about the CyanogenMod death, and have a look here for a complete list of Cyanogen-supported devices.
The nightmare:
A user on the /r/programming subreddit submitted this great post, explaining the perspective as a former-Cyanogen-employee. There, it's explained that all of the CyanogenOS core developers were already fired, and the rest were either looking for another job or just abandoned the company. That leads to a company with barely any developers in their staff.
After, reading this, the only thing that came to my mind was "Who the f*** is pushing the updates to the devices?", and what's even more, what do those updates exactly contain?
The post responses go into a sort-of AMA, and the former employee comments here that Cyanogen has 2 OTA systems, the one that handles the OS upgrades, just like in CyanogenMod, and the Ambient Updater, that handles silent packages updates, which doesn't notify the user nor ask for permissions to install the new apps. This could be used to update Cyanogen components on demand, based on what the aerios server say it should install.
By the perspective of this former employee, I can only see that Cyanogen is completely broken, and, I'm quite skeptical of what's going to happen with future updates, if they'll try to do something to our devices. Maybe nothing bad happens, they hire new developers and get back to work, who knows... But I, personally, cannot trust them in this state.
How to disable automatic updates on Cyanogen OS devices:
Requirements: Android ADB Drivers (if on pc), or a Terminal Emulator app from Play Store/the built-in Terminal that can be enabled from Developer options, named Local terminal.
Go into Settings, About device, and tap 7 times on Build number. This will unhide the Developer options. Press the back key on your device and enter that menu.
Now find the Root access, or Administrative access setting, and change it to Apps and ADB.
If on PC: Connect your device to your PC, open a command prompt and type in adb shell. Continue to next step.
If you have no access to a PC: Open the Terminal Emulator app. Continue to next step.
Now type in the following commands.
Code:
su
(Now a prompt will appear on the device screen, tap on Remember and hit Allow).
Code:
pm disable [COLOR="DarkOrchid"]com.cyngn.ambient.updater[/COLOR]
pm disable [COLOR="darkorchid"]com.cyngn.fota[/COLOR]
The output for them should be something like:
Code:
Package [COLOR="darkorchid"]com.cyngn.ambient.updater[/COLOR] new state: disabled
However, it's also possible the package's missing in your system, returning an error:
Code:
Error: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Unknown package: [COLOR="DarkOrchid"]com.cyngn.ambient.updater[/COLOR]
If that's the case, either the app already self-updated and changed the package name (which is highly improbable), or, it's just not included in your device.
That should do the job, but, if you want to go further, you can go to your system partition, mount it as R/W and fully delete those two apps, named System Updates (Cyanogen Updates sometimes), and Ambient Updater.
Final thoughts / What can I do now?
No one knows what Cyanogen Inc is planning except them, but, if they keep firing their devs and try to make money from advertising malware, as the former employee suggests, I'd want to stay as far away from them as possible.
My personnal recommendation: Go into your device subforum, if it has one, and look up what are the alternative ROMs available for it, unlock your bootloader, flash a custom Recovery and the ROM of your preference, at least until our respective OEM says what happens next with the Stock ROM updates.
Merry Christmas, Cyanogen!
XDA Kernel and ROM flashing beginners guide.
If you are reading this, you’ve found your way to the famous XDA Forums. The place where developers and users contribute to the spirit of open source Android development.
If you already have TWRP setup and running and just look for the next ROM to flash, this guide isn’t for you. If you wonder what this TWRP thingy is or what exactly the three letters, R O M mean, that float around these forums all the time, then read on.
This paragraph is about the basic geek terminology, used by developers. ROM stands for read only memory, which basically is the system partition of your device, which can only be read, not written. In everyday usage scenarios, where you browse the web, download some apps, or chat und Telegram, you will never get in the situation, where you have to write on your /system partition. If you plan to get your hands on one of those amazing custom ROMs, that add battery life, performance and beauty of use to your OS experience, the ROM is the smartest way of accomplishing this goal.
What a custom recovery is used for:
This is where the recovery comes into play. The recovery partition is pre installed by the manufacturer of your device. It is used for OEM software updates, wiping your cache and dalvic or performing a factory reset. Enough functionality for the average Joe, but this is XDA developers. Things get interesting, once you unlock the full potential of your device. To do so, you’ll need a custom recovery. Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP) is most common these days. It is fully optimized for touch screen input and offers various features, that even come in handy, if you don’t want to modify your phones software. Nandroids for example.
This is where things start to become really interesting. There are various recognized XDA Developers like Francisco Franco or Flar2 who focus their efforts on bringing custom Kernels to their supported devices. What is a kernel? Do I even need it and why should I bother changing it?
To say this clearly, the kernel is the heart of your software. You might use your phone with a broken Bluetooth driver, without caring to much, without a kernel installed your device won’t be able to boot. So what does the kernel do, if it is so essential for a proper working phone? We can describe it as the bridge between hardware and software. That latest processor and the wickedly fast RAM won’t do anything without something telling it how to unleash it ‘s potential.
That’s where the kernel comes into play. You can imagine the kernel as a moderator between the hardware and the software of your system. An example: You touch the screen to launch your favorite game on your Droid. This game is really challenging your hardware, so the processor has to run on a high clock frequency, otherwise the game would take ages to load. The kernel detects your input and ramps up the frequency by it’s in input boost driver. This is often a pre configured value, that is used as soon as some (touch) input is detected, that’s why it is often called touchboost. OEMs choose a middle frequency offering a good balance between power consumption and performance.
For our gaming scenario this isn’t enough, we need the full potential of the CPU and the GPU should get busy rendering all those pixels as soon as possible. This task is accomplished by the kernel. It is balancing the system frequency based on the load of the system, but that’s just an easy to explain example of what a kernel does. The kernel is doing a lot more things on your device. How should the phone know, how much RAM it can give to that messaging application you open every each five minutes? Simple answer, it doesn’t the hardware of your phone is just silicon ready to do your work. You can compare it to a young guy doing an internship at a company. The guy has some potential, but he gets lost in a moment, if there is nobody showing him what to do. This is where the kernel comes into play again. It calculates which task requires which amount of memory and decides, which task should be kicked out of your recent access and memory and, which is there to stay. The messaging application I just mentioned a few lines back for example should remain in memory. You use it all the time, so it doesn’t make any sense to generate some unnecessary CPU load, which eats up your battery in the long run.
As you can see the kernel is more than a boring piece of code. It basically drives your phone, so you really want a stable kernel.
Which different kernel development approaches exist?
There are various recognized developers who focus on UX features. This means they take the official stock kernel (be it a OEM or let’s say the one made by Lineage) and they add their features on top. For example a fading notification LED or a backlight dimmer, that allows to lower the minimum screen brightness further than the stock kernel allows.
These features focus on adding userspace features on top, which don’t touch the core functionality of the kernel, like CPU scaling or RAM management. These kernels are chosen by users who want additional kernel functionality without leaving the stability of the stock ROM in favor of a custom ROM.
On the other hand their are developers and users who want bleeding edge functionality, which brings new stuff to the table, but is to new and not deemed stable enough to be used in the mainline OEM kernel. A good example for such a feature is f2fs support. F2fs is a file system developed by Samsung. It’s main focus is to suite flash storage (like the SD cards in our smartphones), in terms of write speeds it is significantly faster, than the established and rock stable standard ext4. But it comes with certain downsides for example a ROM won’t boot with a data partition formatted to f2fs if the kernel doesn’t have the required f2fs commits. A year back their also were some major issues with root, which made a lot of users switch back to the stable ext4. However if you want to squeeze the last bit of performance out of your phone, the kernel is the way to go.
Kernel tweaking: A custom kernel allows you to modify certain parameters, which aren’t accessible for the using an official kernel. Some developers ship with their own app, which is optimized to tweak their own kernel. This ensures maximum compatibility, one of the reasons why those kernels are so successful across all XDA sub forums. You don’t have to use a kernel managing app to modify your kernel configuration, you could also use an init.d script, but this requires further knowledge. No matter how advanced your knowledge is, it doesn’t get any easier than using an application to set up the configuration of your choice.
Kernel tweaking fills another guide and their is already a really good one, that you should check it out. Further links will be put at the end of this guide.
To root or not to root?
Another controversial topic is rooting. While a lot of OEMs try to prevent you from doing so by locking the bootloader, a lot of enthusiast swear on the power root access unleashes. Often android root is compared to administrator privileges under Windows. This is an illustrative explanation, but isn’t accurate. Root goes far beyond what Windows Admin rights allow. The main difference that jumps right into your eye: Microsoft allows Administrator access out of the box. Root is blocked by all OEMs, you have to enable it manually (by flashing a root solution of your choice. More about popular root solutions and their main advantages and disadvantages down below.
So what does root do? It gives you full control over your device. One of the main advantages is to gain write access to your system partition, which normally is read only. The power of root is defined by the knowledge of the user, the more you know, the more you can make out of it. For beginnners root apps like Titanium Backup, Adaway, Better Battery Stats or SD Maid are interesting. They utilize the potential of root for you without having to dig to deep into the topic. However root isn’t enabled by default for a reason. Most big custom ROMs, don’t ship with root out of the box anymore these days. Back in the day root basically just gave you more control, without any major disadvantages. This however changed with the introduction of Safety net by Google.
The company developing the OS we all love, is trying to make Android safer and they are pushing this approach forward these days. If you just flash SuperSu, Safetynet gets triggered which results in being unable to use apps which use Safetynet to verify the integrity of your system. Mainly banking apps, but also Snapchat for example or that stupid game, that generated all the hype in summer 2016. You got curious about root or came to this forum, to figure out how to root your phone? Then the next paragraph deserves your attention.
Most XDA users used SuperSU developed by XDA legend Chainfire during the last years. A while ago Magisk by XDA Recognized Developer and contributor Topjonwu. It became very popular, when Safetynet started to break certain Apps. It allows to hide root from safetynet, but it includes much more. One of the key features is mounting modules systemlessly to your boot partition, that way your /system stays untouched and removing a certain module, doesn’t require more than disabling it and rebooting. What about the disadvantages of magisk? It isn’t as compatible as SuperSU, since that root solution was the standard for years. All the developer arranged their work around SuperSU, but most famous root apps, have already adopted to Magisk, so you won’t run into issues unless you are using really outdated apps, which is never a good idea.
Which one to choose is a decision you can make. Both work flawless and it really comes down to personal preference.
Since nobody is willing to read through 50 pages, I’ll just thank you for your attention. This Guide is on going WIP, so if there is anything you’d like to see being added, feel free to let me know, but make sure to tag me, otherwise I might miss your message in the storm of ongoing notifications. Have a great day and keep flashing.