Database Info

Build Your Own alt+w Wipe...(edit: if you don't use apps2sd...)

First Note: These apps will become uninstallable! (much like any other stock rom apk) and must be deleted using the console, somehow.. anybody care to shed some light on how?
Hopefully someone can add more to this or use this info to build a much more thorough how-to, but for now here's what I've got...
Instead of building your own update.zip you can modify your alt+w wipe data to reinstall the downloaded/backed-up apks of your choice. This can also be used to install 3rd party apks without having access to any other installer, for instance if you wipe then find yourself without any access to the internet/market or a computer.
To do this you must first have the apps on the sd. I used astro to backup apps which puts the apks in /sdcard/backups/apps
I'm doing this on IonR2, your system apps may be elsewhere, mine are located in /system/app, you'll need to know where they are for this to work.
Power off your phone and do this (enter the bold stuff only, replace my directories with yours):
home+power (enter recovery)
alt+x (to go to console)
hit enter (cause the prompt says so..)
/ # mount sdcard
/ # mount system
/ # cd sdcard/backups/apps (or cd to where ever your backed up apks are)
/sdcard/backups/apps # ls *appname* (this may be useful for finding the exact *.apk name)
/sdcard/backups/apps # install -cp org.appName.com.apk /system/app (remember to capitalize where necessary)
at this point it should hang for a second then return to the "/sdcard/backups/apps #" prompt, if so the apk has successfully been added.
/sdcard/backups/apps # reboot (or install more apks if you like)
home+power then alt+w to test if you so desire. now your backed up apk should reinstall itself if you ever have to do an alt+w wipe again..(weather the apk is on the sd card or not)
I know, not very thorough but wth, I figured someone might find this as useful as I did(or be able to expand on it a bit, data, app settings etc). Also cool if you happen to have no net connection, no pc access and a wiped phone with no real useful/fun apps...

u only have to do this once, and it'll flash the new roms WITH these apps installed? how do we 'clear' these apps if we don't want to have them installed when we wipe?

Is it possible to install all the apps in your backup directory at once, with some sort of batch command?

These apps will become uninstallable! (much like any other stock rom apk) and must be deleted using the console, somehow.. anybody care to shed some light on how?
@ Lieu10ant, yeah, you only have to do once/updated rom, this modifies the base install. the newely added apks will be installed every time you alt+w (wipe). If you apply an update.zip this process will need to be redone(I'm pretty sure, haven't tried).
@ lukekirstein, I'm sure there's a way but I'm not sure how. Really hoping someone more knowledgable jumps in here with a bit more info :/
I've added a file manager(with backed up apps installer) and wifi tether because I always need/use em and never really planned on uninstalling em..

Im pretty sure you would have to use "rm" and individually remove all apps you dont want.

instead of backing up your apps, just run apps to sd and never reinstall any apps again

Breakthecycle2 said:
Im pretty sure you would have to use "rm" and individually remove all apps you dont want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you would mount the system again from the recovery console and 'rm' each app you don't want. You would want to be careful not to batch delete stuff.

sonikamd said:
These apps will become uninstallable! (much like any other stock rom apk) and must be deleted using the console, somehow.. anybody care to shed some light on how?
@ lukekirstein, I'm sure there's a way but I'm not sure how. Really hoping someone more knowledgable jumps in here with a bit more info :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wouldn't it be a nice thing to make them uninstallable? That would, in theory, make them a lot more stable like the stock apps and can only be updated, not modified. You can probably delete them through console in recovery or even through ADB if you wanted to. It'd definitely be impossible to do it through some basic installer or the package uninstaller while the phone is running normally. The same process as a stock app.
I know you can't do it while the phone is running (bummer :/) but I was hoping it's possible when the phone is off.

@ Breakthecycle2, cool, I figured rm through console after mounting but haven't tried so wasn't 100% on that one.
@ Sirus20x6, I prefer this method to apps2sd, mainly because everything's stored in the phone's internal memory. Although I know most folks now seem to be using an apps2sd of some sort.
@ lukekirstein, yeah. That's why I do it this way, but some may want them uninstallable so I figured I better make a point to inform those folks

Wouldn't this decrease your internal memory since these apps are being saved to the phone so you can later wipe?

jusplainmike, I would assume so. Something to keep in mind.

Would a nand be better?

sonikamd said:
I'm doing this on IonR2, your system apps may be elsewhere, mine are located in /system/app, you'll need to know where they are for this to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(10c)

perhaps, depends on what you want I suppose. I wipe clean every so often just to get a fresh start, speed things back up etc. Sometimes while installing themes I wipe multiple times and also just want a clean slate.
This is definitely not the way to go for a complete backup-restore. Just seems a good way to reinstall a few missing by stock apps after a wipe.

lol soulife i know, i know

I believe apps2sd is the best bet for keeping apps after a wipe or fresh install.

retort
sonikamd said:
lol soulife i know, i know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only reason is because you push a market app to internal memory it read only. If there's an update you have to open terminal or adb and rm and push the update back. Plus if you flash a new update it will wipe them out. With a2sd however you can update them no hastle, and even if you flash a new build, with a2sd the reinstall themself. Much more convient as long as you smart with your partitioning.

I think you guys may be doing this the hard way. If you are wiping and moving to a compatible ROM, just leave the sd card as it is and the new ROM should be able to find and install the apps as long as it has apps2sd built in.
If you are moving to an incompatible ROM you will have to remove old sd app directory first.
rm -r /system/sd/app
then you should be able to just copy over your entire apk backup directory to your sdcard as follows.
cp- a /sdcard/yourdirectoryname /system/sd/app
and if you are installing a ROM that has app2sd built in, it should find all the apps and install them.
If the ROM you use does not have apps to sd, then you will be able to use Lucid script to move apps from phone to sd card app directory (with already copied apps) and link directory

Tru, I just don't use apps2sd. My sd is constantly getting mangled for one reason or another..

uh, by doing this you're filling up your /system folder which actually needs memory to improve. and you can uninstall them by
mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
rm/system/app/nameof.apk
on another note wouldnt wiping while having info in the system ; wipe?
anyways

[Q] Cant install apk, installation fails

Hi, I installed an application on my XT720, but I think the installation hanged so I took out the battery to reset the phone. Now it wont install.
I've encountered this problem before by deleting the temp files using root explorer, but I can't seem to find the temp files on this one. Does anyone know where I can find temp files from installations?
thx

if it's rooted already, just use any of the clear cache apps in market, to clean the temps out
also the Dalvik cache

that almost no one reported problem and almost nobody knows how to fix it, I can say that there are caches market or anything like that, the problem is that there are duplicates in a folder on the SD card, and you have to delete the folder is hidden and not visible on the phone and can not erase, deves do it on the pc, and appears as olcuto file in linux and mac, but you can delete it just by putting "view hidden files" Fortunately, it is easy to fix

AllGamer said:
if it's rooted already, just use any of the clear cache apps in market, to clean the temps out
also the Dalvik cache
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have encountered the same problem, but after i cleaned the caches by Cache Cleaner, the problem didn't solve.
When I tried to install the apk file, the device returns the message 'application not installed'.
Can anyone help?
Thanks

I doubt this is your problem, but maybe check the permissions and ownership of your /cache directory. I borked mine once while experimenting and the market was very silently unhappy.
ls -l should give:
drwxrwx--x system cache 2011-03-28 23:13 cache
If it's not owned by the cache group or if the group doesn't have write permission, downloads just go poof. That doesn't sound like your problem, though.
I've had some situations (going all the way back to 2.1) where Market apps wouldn't install the first couple of times I ask, but if I'm persistent and repeatedly keep installing, eventually it will start installing.
Another trick I've found is if the download completes and then the install never starts, try leaving the Market page for the app and come back. Sometimes that kicks the install into gear.

Mioze7Ae said:
I doubt this is your problem, but maybe check the permissions and ownership of your /cache directory. I borked mine once while experimenting and the market was very silently unhappy.
ls -l should give:
drwxrwx--x system cache 2011-03-28 23:13 cache
If it's not owned by the cache group or if the group doesn't have write permission, downloads just go poof. That doesn't sound like your problem, though.
I've had some situations (going all the way back to 2.1) where Market apps wouldn't install the first couple of times I ask, but if I'm persistent and repeatedly keep installing, eventually it will start installing.
Another trick I've found is if the download completes and then the install never starts, try leaving the Market page for the app and come back. Sometimes that kicks the install into gear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My problem seldom associate with the market apps, but rather the apk files that i backed up before. when i pressed install, the installation bar would load for a while, about 1 second, and then it said application not installed.
This happens when I first try to install angry birds few days ago, the application hanged up with no response, just showing the installation bar. After that i removed the battery and try to install, the apk can't be installed and the above situation happened.
I can still install some of the other apk files, but some cannot. I tried to wipe all the caches as well as factory reset by the openrecovery, but the apk still cannot be installed.
Anyone got the same problem?

gn01222116 said:
My problem seldom associate with the market apps, but rather the apk files that i backed up before. when i pressed install, the installation bar would load for a while, about 1 second, and then it said application not installed.
This happens when I first try to install angry birds few days ago, the application hanged up with no response, just showing the installation bar. After that i removed the battery and try to install, the apk can't be installed and the above situation happened.
I can still install some of the other apk files, but some cannot. I tried to wipe all the caches as well as factory reset by the openrecovery, but the apk still cannot be installed.
Anyone got the same problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you on froyo? IIRC Angry Birds tries to install to the SD card using native froyo App 2 SD. Perhaps that's what's not working on your phone. Since not all apps do that it could seem random. See if you can Move to SD any downloaded apps (Settings > Applications > Manage applications > Downloaded > pick one > Move to SD). If you can't there's probably something wrong with your FAT partition on the SD card (e.g. it may need to be reformatted).

Mioze7Ae said:
Are you on froyo? IIRC Angry Birds tries to install to the SD card using native froyo App 2 SD. Perhaps that's what's not working on your phone. Since not all apps do that it could seem random. See if you can Move to SD any downloaded apps (Settings > Applications > Manage applications > Downloaded > pick one > Move to SD). If you can't there's probably something wrong with your FAT partition on the SD card (e.g. it may need to be reformatted).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried your method, and my apps could move to SD.
So what will be the possible reasons for my problem?

/data restore uid mismatch reference

I was getting ready to update my tablet and try the official ICS as well as the CM9 builds. Just before getting ready, I was apparently bitten by a bug in the busybox installer (1.20.0) which disabled all network access from my device. I also tried the platform.xml permissions change to add sdcard_rw but apparently something went wrong and I was left with no write access to either /mnt/sdcard/ or /mnt/sdcard/extStorages/SdCard/. I was therefore unable to find a way to run TitaniumBackup to get a consistent backup (no network for external backup, no local storage for even root-requesting mode), but wanted some sort of backup before wiping my tablet. I ended up finding an rsync binary, and via an adb root shell rsynced all of /data/app, /data/app_private, /data/media, and the wpa_supplicant file for wifi to the internal sdcard.
I have since wiped and installed the 8/10 CM9 release, and have all of my apps available. I've also restored the data and run the fix_permissions script from the CWM recovery. What I did was copy /data/app and /data/data back at the same time via a recovery adb shell. What I ended up with though, is the lib directory from each of the copied data directories being symlinked to an invalid target (lib -> /mismatched_uid/settings_NNNNN/fs_0, where NNNNN is an app id, and differs for each data directory). What this causes is for apps not only not having write permissions, but those that require libs fail at startup to even load their expected libraries are terminate immediately.
I realize after doing this that one can't restore apps and data at the same time via recovery - the fix_permissions script won't work until at least one boot cycle so that the system can process the new apks and assign app ids. I've rerun the script and the permissions are set appropriately, however I am still stuck with the broken lib directories for each of the effected packages.
Since I don't have any important data changes since the load, what I'm going to try doing is wipe /data/data and reload the content in recovery since they have now been assigned app ids. However, as a point of question, what, and when do the /data/data/*/lib/ directories get replaced with the broken symlink, and if when that situation is encountered is there anything that can be done besides reloading the data properly (or an uninstall/reinstall)? I couldn't find any trace of the previous contents of the ./lib/ directories. I've tried with a couple test cases using Titanium Backup to backup the app (even with the broken symlink), then uninstall the app and reinstall the app plus the data. This works, I presume because the appid is managed appropriately.

I tried again and it didn't work as I expected above. I re-copied the /data/data/ contents via adb in recovery, ensured that the lib contents were correctly linked (./lib/ owned by system, other dirs owned by app_NNN). However, after booting the device, I had the /mismatched_uid/ links reappear.
Any pointers on how to bulk restore the data and tie it to the app properly?

mrjoel said:
I tried again and it didn't work as I expected above. I re-copied the /data/data/ contents via adb in recovery, ensured that the lib contents were correctly linked (./lib/ owned by system, other dirs owned by app_NNN). However, after booting the device, I had the /mismatched_uid/ links reappear.
Any pointers on how to bulk restore the data and tie it to the app properly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having a similar problem with no wifi, and mismatched uids (and consequently no /data/data access -> crashing apps) on another device. I've been searching (and learning) for about two weeks now. Did you ever figure this one out?

tonestertm said:
I'm having a similar problem with no wifi, and mismatched uids (and consequently no /data/data access -> crashing apps) on another device. I've been searching (and learning) for about two weeks now. Did you ever figure this one out?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did u try flash Pit file?
Sent from my GT-P6200 using XDA Premium

tonestertm said:
I'm having a similar problem with no wifi, and mismatched uids (and consequently no /data/data access -> crashing apps) on another device. I've been searching (and learning) for about two weeks now. Did you ever figure this one out?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I didn't directly figure it out. I ended up doing the restore, and using TitaniumBackup to backup all apps with the broken ./lib/, then uninstalled them all and reinstalled them. When reinstalling, the lib directory was correctly generated with a [newly] associated uid.

Link2SD completely messed up my phone

Alright guys I'm about to blow my top off here. The most recent Link2SD update completely messed up my entire phone.
For reference, I'm currently running an LG G3 D851 4.4.2, stock ROM and rooted. Everything was fine until recently when I started noticing a Play Store update app error "-110".
Not knowing what it was, I investigated, and found that my entire group of app installations have been completely screwed up.
1) First off, I can't install ANYTHING. No app, no nothing. I need to probably install an updated Link2SD to fix this nonsense...right? Can anyone direct me to how I would install the apk using ADB?
2) My mount script is broken and it's not working. It tells me "Mount script cannot be created. mount: Unknown error 150". As a result, my SD 2nd partition remains unmounted....which I think is the source of this entire problem.
3) Viewing my internal storage through DiskUsage, I've discovered that every single app I used to have installed has been "merged" into a single folder simply called "System data". Referenced through this photo here: http://i.imgur.com/ksukQGG.png . Instead of showing the individual folders, e.g.: Google Translate, Pocketcasts, etc, it just shows that big anonymous block of "System Data".
4) If I go to Settings -> Apps. Every single app shows up with "0.00b" as their app size.
HELPPPPP PLEASEEEE I will seriously monetarily tip someone if they can provide me with a solution to this.

crazylilazn said:
Alright guys I'm about to blow my top off here. The most recent Link2SD update completely messed up my entire phone.
For reference, I'm currently running an LG G3 D851 4.4.2, stock ROM and rooted. Everything was fine until recently when I started noticing a Play Store update app error "-110".
Not knowing what it was, I investigated, and found that my entire group of app installations have been completely screwed up.
1) First off, I can't install ANYTHING. No app, no nothing. I need to probably install an updated Link2SD to fix this nonsense...right? Can anyone direct me to how I would install the apk using ADB?
2) My mount script is broken and it's not working. It tells me "Mount script cannot be created. mount: Unknown error 150". As a result, my SD 2nd partition remains unmounted....which I think is the source of this entire problem.
3) Viewing my internal storage through DiskUsage, I've discovered that every single app I used to have installed has been "merged" into a single folder simply called "System data". Referenced through this photo here: http://i.imgur.com/ksukQGG.png . Instead of showing the individual folders, e.g.: Google Translate, Pocketcasts, etc, it just shows that big anonymous block of "System Data".
4) If I go to Settings -> Apps. Every single app shows up with "0.00b" as their app size.
HELPPPPP PLEASEEEE I will seriously monetarily tip someone if they can provide me with a solution to this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Latest (free) Link2SD version
Latest Android Commander for Windows
Enable usb debugging in your phone's settings (Make sure you have the latest drivers for your phone installed)
Install Android Commander (AC)
Open AC while your device is connected
If your device is listed, press okay
On the right upper side in AC there is a option "Install"
Select the Link2SD APK (Try "update" if it doesn't work "normal insstallation"
Link2SD should be installed again

LS.xD said:
Latest (free) Link2SD version
Latest Android Commander for Windows
Enable usb debugging in your phone's settings (Make sure you have the latest drivers for your phone installed)
Install Android Commander (AC)
Open AC while your device is connected
If your device is listed, press okay
On the right upper side in AC there is a option "Install"
Select the Link2SD APK (Try "update" if it doesn't work "normal insstallation"
Link2SD should be installed again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for the detailed response. Unfortunately though, it looks like I already have the most recent version installed, 4.0.9? Would this solve anything by basically reinstalling it? I was hoping there would be like a 4.1 version that would fix the issue or revert changes or something.

Update:
Tried installing an app through ADB and it now shows me this:
WARNING: linker: app_process has text relocations. This is wasting memory and is a security risk. Please fix.
pkg: link2sd-4-0-8-multi-android.apk
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_INTERNAL_ERROR]
Any idea anybody? Like before, I'd be willing to donate to anybody who can provide me with the solution. Thanks!

crazylilazn said:
Update:
Tried installing an app through ADB and it now shows me this:
WARNING: linker: app_process has text relocations. This is wasting memory and is a security risk. Please fix.
pkg: link2sd-4-0-8-multi-android.apk
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_INTERNAL_ERROR]
Any idea anybody? Like before, I'd be willing to donate to anybody who can provide me with the solution. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems as you have 4.0.8 at the moment. 4.0.9 is the latest official and released 03/10/2015. By the way (most) people here won't help more willingly if your offer some bucks

LS.xD said:
Seems as you have 4.0.8 at the moment. 4.0.9 is the latest official and released 03/10/2015. By the way (most) people here won't help more willingly if your offer some bucks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, I was trying to downgrade Link2SD in hopes that it would fix whatever happened with 4.0.9.
According to the about page in Link2SD, I currently have 4.0.9.
And haha thanks for the heads up...I'm really desperate though which is why I pulled that card out.

crazylilazn said:
Oh, I was trying to downgrade Link2SD in hopes that it would fix whatever happened with 4.0.9.
According to the about page in Link2SD, I currently have 4.0.9.
And haha thanks for the heads up...I'm really desperate though which is why I pulled that card out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please fix.
pkg: link2sd-4-0-8-multi-android.apk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
looks like 4.0.8. Thats why I asked. Have you tried to reinstall the app or does it offer an option to reload the mount script?

LS.xD said:
looks like 4.0.8. Thats why I asked. Have you tried to reinstall the app or does it offer an option to reload the mount script?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can uninstall apps, but I can't install or update anything. That's why I was trying to install through adb instead, which unfortunately still doesn't work. When I open up Link2SD, it doesn't give me an option to reload, it only gives me the option to "Recreate mount scripts". If I click on it, it gives me the mount script error - "Mount script cannot be created. mount: Unknown error 150."

crazylilazn said:
I can uninstall apps, but I can't install or update anything. That's why I was trying to install through adb instead, which unfortunately still doesn't work. When I open up Link2SD, it doesn't give me an option to reload, it only gives me the option to "Recreate mount scripts". If I click on it, it gives me the mount script error - "Mount script cannot be created. mount: Unknown error 150."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there any really important data on your installed apps? If I was you I would simply reflash the firmware and start from scratch instead of spending hours to find a solution. The point is that you don't know what you changed that your phone became like this. I have send a email to the Link2SD developer but I'm not sure if he can provide a solution.

LS.xD said:
Is there any really important data on your installed apps? If I was you I would simply reflash the firmware and start from scratch instead of spending hours to find a solution. The point is that you don't know what you changed that your phone became like this. I have send a email to the Link2SD developer but I'm not sure if he can provide a solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm actually backing up all my app data as I'm typing this. The only concern I have though, is that my phone is actually on the stock recovery. I only rooted it because I didn't want to deal with the potential for something like this to happen (which would suck up all my time, haha). As a result, I can't flash anything. So if I decide to stock factory reset, would that clean the /system /data, and everything else that needs to be cleaned for my phone to work properly again? I thought that root (and potentially whatever screwed my phone) persisted through a stock factory reset, which would make trying to do that pointless.

crazylilazn said:
I'm actually backing up all my app data as I'm typing this. The only concern I have though, is that my phone is actually on the stock recovery. I only rooted it because I didn't want to deal with the potential for something like this to happen (which would suck up all my time, haha). As a result, I can't flash anything. So if I decide to stock factory reset, would that clean the /system /data, and everything else that needs to be cleaned for my phone to work properly again? I thought that root (and potentially whatever screwed my phone) persisted through a stock factory reset, which would make trying to do that pointless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't know, if your root survives a factory reset. Probably it will. A custom recovery is really usefull as you can make complete nandroid backups

LS.xD said:
I really don't know, if your root survives a factory reset. Probably it will. A custom recovery is really usefull as you can make complete nandroid backups
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose so, I'll have to make sure I can flash it properly though considering I'm finding it impossible to install apps right now. This is getting to be highly frustrating

crazylilazn said:
I suppose so, I'll have to make sure I can flash it properly though considering I'm finding it impossible to install apps right now. This is getting to be highly frustrating
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any progress here? Developer has answered my mail, but not offered any solution yet

LS.xD said:
Any progress here? Developer has answered my mail, but not offered any solution yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I solved the mount problem by formatting my SD card. But that didn't fix anything else unfortunately.
I also noticed a couple interesting things:
1) Android and Link2SD show my data and cache for ALL apps to be 0.00b. I know that's not true because I went to the /data/data/app directories and found the data exists.
2) I can use all my apps normally with no problem. that means all the files are there, and can communicate correctly(?)
3) I still can't install any app at all.
Next course of action: Completely disable link2sd's boot script perhaps? So what would that entail, deleting install-recovery.sh from /system/etc/ ? Anything else, or would that be good enough?

System partition access issues after failed root attempt

Hi all,
I recently moved from Windows Phone to Android and have been enjoying fiddling with my phone. I rooted the phone using ODIN and CF Auto Root (CF-Auto-Root-herolte-heroltexx-smg930f.tar.md5). I used Titanium Backup to remove a lot of bloatware from my device, but ended up making a mess of things. I then flashed the stock firmware for my Telstra device from Sammobile (G930FXXU1APF2_G930FTEL1APF2_TEL).
Everything seemed fine, but I now cannot use Titanium Backup to integrate updates or move apps to the system partition. I have tried using ES File Explorer and an adb shell to do this also, but with no luck. The apps either do not work, or are installed back into /data/app. It seems to move the apk to /system/app (I can see it there), then removes the app from /data/app and then hangs. If I reboot the phone, the app is uninstalled (but the apk is still in /system/app). I have noticed via /proc/mounts that the /system partition is often mounted RO. Even when I remount RW after TB starts processing it immediately becomes RO.
I have set the TB to use indirect app loading, enabled USB debugging and unknown sources for apps.
Before I reflashed with the stock firmware I was able to move apps to the system partition (I did Gmail and Google Keyboard and they worked well). Could I have stuffed up my firmware flashing? I only used the AP file, not BL/CP/CSC/UMS that were included in the download.
I apologise in advance if I am all over the shop here with my description. I know enough to get myself into trouble but not enough to get out! And yes, first thing I did after flashing was to back everything up so I don't make the mistake again...