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Mysteries To Science

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

[Q] Need app to copy files

Anyone know of a app that will copy photos as they are taken on the phone to a second folder as a backup? I know there are a couple of apps that will sync things out to a cloud but I am wanting to monitor the usage on a few phones without paying a service. I already found a way to backup the text messages quietly but nothing I have found will back up the photo's. Anything that syncs will not help me if they delete things. I want to know what was done on the phone even if it was deleted and recovery apps are hit or miss pulling deleted data after a week or two if the phone is used a lot. Or if there is a free monitoring app that is hidden well or even a recylce bin type app that you can hide. I tried dumpster or recycle bin for android but once you hide those apps with something like audio manager they dont function while hidden. The phones in question are LG mytouch phones running android 2.3.6 and are rooted so that isnt a issue.

I am still trying to figure this out. Anyone?

[Q] Apps for S4

Hello All,
I am new to forum. Also new to smart phone world. Earlier I used Iphone 4S. I have two questions as for now:-
1.) Weather application in Iphone was wonderfull but in S4 is useless. Can I uninstall this one which come along with S4 and if that application (Iphone ) is available for android/S4
2.) Is there any good camera application in which date and time get prints on pictures shot ( as in point and shoot camera or SLRs)
3.) Can I install application directly to SD Card so that phone memory remains free.
4.) And Lastly do I really need a antivirus to install on my phone, if yes than which do you suggest.
Thanks All

Answer
1) Yes- if your phone is rooted: you can use any app manager application from the GMarket to do so. If your phone is
is not rooted, you can only turn it off: settings->More->Application Manager->All->find the accuwether app, demon and widget->turn off
(i personally use "eye in the sky"- no complaints
2) Perhaps UCam ot APD TimeStam... i think that 4.3 camera app already has this as feature, but dont count on it
3) I dont know if you can install it directly, but u can move some of then (or all with rooted phone) after install in
'Application Manager' (showed in part 1) -> move to SD card
4) Android is pretty secured OS, so I would not recommend it (studies show that most antivirus apps are not very effective either)
but if you are planning to install external apps (not from Google Play store) and want to be 100% sure, i would recommend
AVG antivirus (lighter) or Avast (heavier, but considered more secured)

Storage reporting problem

Hello,
I`ve noticed something strange at my phone: when I go into Settings - Storage - Used space, the numbers seems legit (Applications - 4 G par ex.).
If I click on Applications - it takes me to Application manager, but the biggest app reported here is Google Play Services - 180 M.
And yes, it is sorted by size
I know where the 4 G comes from: I have 2 massive games (NFS MW and MKX). I checked in Android folder - data and obb - ES File explorer is reporting good (NFS folder is 1.82 G and MKX is 1.67 G).
In App Manager, these 2 apps have 30 M and 82 M (yes, I know, they are only apps, they downloaded the content after).
My question is: shouldn`t the apps content be seen by App Manager? I remembered that on another phone (could be 4.4, could be 5.0) App Manager would stay a bit to process, but the reporting was correct. Is this a Lollipop issue?
Thank you

AtroX_cc said:
Hello,
I`ve noticed something strange at my phone: when I go into Settings - Storage - Used space, the numbers seems legit (Applications - 4 G par ex.).
If I click on Applications - it takes me to Application manager, but the biggest app reported here is Google Play Services - 180 M.
And yes, it is sorted by size
I know where the 4 G comes from: I have 2 massive games (NFS MW and MKX). I checked in Android folder - data and obb - ES File explorer is reporting good (NFS folder is 1.82 G and MKX is 1.67 G).
In App Manager, these 2 apps have 30 M and 82 M (yes, I know, they are only apps, they downloaded the content after).
My question is: shouldn`t the apps content be seen by App Manager? I remembered that on another phone (could be 4.4, could be 5.0) App Manager would stay a bit to process, but the reporting was correct. Is this a Lollipop issue?
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No this is not a issue. They aren't displayed as the biggest apps because the app manager only checks the "apps" and not the obb and data. This is also why Google is on top of this list. They store their data in the app it self. NFS and MKX store their data is a different file.

I understand, but bare with me: z3c with 5.1.1

_SDroid said:
No this is not a issue. They aren't displayed as the biggest apps because the app manager only checks the "apps" and not the obb and data. This is also why Google is on top of this list. They store their data in the app it self. NFS and MKX store their data is a different file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it is an issue, actually. Every other Android phone I've ever used takes these external files into account when calculating app usage space - Moto E, Asus Zenpad S 8, Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7, Nexus 6, hell, my kid's LG Optimus Exceed 2 even worked this way.
It's clearly a bug with the way Samsung is calculating App space as it ignores anything in /sdcard/android/data and /sdcard/android/obb thus making it completely useless to figure out which games or apps you need to delete to make more room on your phone. I'm currently on the lookout for any kind of third-party app that actually reports the proper sized, and I'll update this thread if I find something.

Have screwed up Play Store and keyboard on rooted tablet, stuck trying to repair it

Hi, I have a MID-756, also known as an F900, Quadcore A33, with Android 4.4.2. A bog-standard cheap tablet, but having installed a 10,000mah battery, quite a useful device that lasts for several days.
The performance isn't super-sparkly and it does appear to run out of some types of memory sometimes, with browsers prone to shutting down without warning when reading newspaper websites. So I purchased Link2SD Pro and moved as many things as possible to the internal SD card. This also allows you to set some system programs as user programs, which then enables you to move them to the SD card as well, which is very useful.
I also did this with google play store and google play services, and that is when it went wrong, as google play store no longer worked. Based on things other people suggested, I tried various things like clearing caches, but that didn't work. I tried to use the browser to go to the play store and update them, but it said things like, "App will be installed later" - but which never happened. I tried to download google play services and play store APK's from a repository and after deleting the originals I installed them from the APKs. It nearly worked - it got to checking permissions, but instead of starting the download progress bar it said, "Unfortunately google play store has stopped", or words to that effect. Based on one suggestion I tried clearing the data for services and google services framework, and then it wouldn't even connect to the store at all.
So I saved important things and then did a factory reset, under the naive impression that it would restore it to how it had arrived. I discovered that it only clears user data and programs, and does not restore system apps that you've stupidly deleted. Having reinstalled the play services and play store from the downloaded APK's it still wouldn't actually download anything as it failed at the progress bar stage with the same message as before - "Unfortunately google play has stopped".
The other thing is that after doing a complete reset the keyboard became chinese, and having to use the old 'Nokia' way of entering English using a numeric keypad is a nuisance. So I'm keen to be able to restore the Play store function so I can at least download a better keyboard.
I've tried to download the gapps file, saving it on an external SD card and installing it on its own as suggested by one person, even going to the Pico version and each time I get "E: Error in /tmp/sideload / package.zip (status error 255)", which apparently means not enough memory according to one person.
I have looked for a custom ROM to install from scratch, but there don't appear to be any for this model. I considered reinstalling the original ROM I downloaded (exdroid4.4.2_r2-a33-v2.0) but I haven't found a mid-756 driver file so my understanding is that it is highly likely to fail.
I can't now reinstall the Link2SD app in order to set the play-related apps back to system apps again either, even though I tried uninstalling and then reinstalling on my rooted phone in order to get the .APK files and then transfer them across to the tablet. It appeared that the .APK files were automatically deleted from both the app and the Pro licence app.
I'm feeling I've right royally screwed my tablet. I know it wasn't that expensive, but it is pretty useful with the massive battery so I'd really appreciate any pointers to help fix it. I've read the suggested threads but as I can't find a driver file for this device, reinstalling the whole ROM from scratch doesn't seem like a good idea. Is it safe to clear the Dalvik cache and reinstall a whole gapps package though? I'm cautious because so far clearing other caches does not seem to have improved anything and in one case made it worse.
Very grateful for any help received!
Mike

Ok, didn't get any help but finally fixed it and people might like to know how I did it:
To recap, the situation was: Rooted MID-756 / F900 tablet, having deleted play store after it stopped working when I made it a non-system app, and after doing a full reset, found that the only keyboard option was a japanese one with Nokia-style input for Western typeface. Complete nuisance to use and with hardly any even standard apps remaining after I'd previously moved them to SD card, which was then wiped when I did full reset. So, close to useless.
Solution: Use another Android 4.2 phone, and for each of the following apps, [ Google play services, play store, Link2SD, Link2SD (new)] do the following steps:
a) in Link2SD, select an app.
b) in the details screen, from the options menu, select 'share apk'. You may need to scroll the menu up if your screen doesn't show it.
c) When the share apk options come up, select 'google drive'
d) go to your PC, and in google drive, change the name to xxxxx.apk . I don't know why the .apk seems to get missed off, but you need to add it back in again.
e) Once you've done all four apps, copy all of them to a micro SD card.
f) Put the micro SD card in your tablet.
g) in a file manager, go to the external SD card, and click on the google play services.apk. This will take you through the install procedure. When it has finished installing, reboot.
h) Do the same with Link2SD and Link2SD(new). Even if it says that the licence won't verify (it will show a red triangle next to the name when the app is open), don't worry. Select google play services, and in the detail screen, from the options menu select 'convert to system app'. Then reboot again.
i) Do the same with Play Store - install apk, reboot, convert to system app using link2SD and reboot again.
f) Open Play Store. You will probably have to go through some account setting up of google play store which should be familiar to you. This time when you get to play store and try downloading or updating something it should work. If it still doesn't, do one more reboot.
You can now restore all your previous apps, including the google keyboard if you've screwed that up by doing a hard reset. You will now be able to use a proper keyboard again.
If Link2SD was not verifying the licence for the paid version, when play store is working again you should find it will now check the licence properly.
The moral of the story: Play store does not work as a user app, it needs to be a system app, so don't try to convert it to a user app in the first place.

coolinventor said:
Ok, didn't get any help but finally fixed it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so I think you are new to xda and so I want to tell you that you will only get a reply when you post summarized threads.
Posting long posts will not get much attention
You can post small posts and then just elaborate your problem when you get a reply
Remember my advice next time whenever you post
Regards milkyway3

You're correct - Point taken, thanks

coolinventor said:
You're correct - Point taken, thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And ya also remember
Always thank the post using the thanks button whenever you get any help because it is meant for it and these thanks are recorded by the xda community
Regards milkyway3

Doh! I'll get the hang of it eventually