Android Devices

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Preface

PLEASE ALWAYS AND IN ANY STEP BE AWARE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING WHEN YOU PERFORM TASKS MENTIONED IN THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS!

I AM NOT AND WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ERRORS, NON FUNCTIONAL DEVICES, TROUBLE AND HEADAGES.

AGAIN: BE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

GENERAL TIP's:

  • Don't hury up! Take time.
  • Read in the internet, whatch videos and be prepared.
  • Be carefull. Write down your tasks. Make a plan and do step by step.
  • Always make a backup before you proceded. Be patient ;-)
  • For mission critical tasks use different methods and tools in parallel. If one fails on recovery, you have a backup.
  • Use encryption for your backup data. Use a secure place to store the encryption pass phrases!

Root an android device

The procedure to root an android device boils down to a few basic tasks.

They can be performed using various tools and operating systems but remain always the same:

  1. connect your running phone to your pc so you can copy files to it
  2. enable debug mode
  3. enable PTP usb mode (not MTP)
  4. get and download a 'super user script (usually packed in a zip file) and put it on the phone
  5. boot your android device in download mode (e.g. SII: pressing HOME + VOLUME_DOWN + POWER)
  6. connect your phone to the pc
  7. use a flash program like e.g. heimdall (commandline) to flash device with a recovery image
  8. imediately after that (!!!) boot the android device with the recovery image (e.g. SIII: pressing HOME + VOLUME_UP + POWER)
  9. load the previously copied super user script (usually a zip file) within the recovery menu
  10. reboot the android device into graphical mode
  11. start the newly installed super user app
  12. enjoy your rooted phone

Sources: Depending on your phone, please use google


Backup

Nandroid Backup

The most versatile and save method of backing up an android phone is

  • flashing the device with a recovery rom an booting into it. This is usually done by a and works best with a ClockWorkMod Recovery image!
  • performing a backup on an external SD-card within the phone

This method guaranties a full backup in case of a severe problem.

Further reading for the most well known providers:


Boot a device into recovery mode

This only works, if a recovery image is available!

  • Use adb 
adb reboot recovery
  • Press POWER+VOLUME-UP+HOME (on most phones) while booting

Backup with cyanogenmod recovery image

READ BEFORE: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/ClockWorkMod_Instructions

This procedure will backup your rom to an external SD-card in your device using a recovery image. Therefore you have to flash and reboot the device with this image! The SD-card must have an appropriate size!

Install heimdall

Be careful here: for certain devices it might be necessary to use an older version of heimdall (v1.3.1) - keep eyes open! In most cases and for newer devices it should be sufficiant to get the actual version of your distribution: 

sudo apt get install heimdall-flash heimdall-flash-frontend

Download the needed files

  1. Download a clockwork mod recovery image for your phone ("cmw"-file)
  2. check the md5sum of the downloaded file !

Test the connection

  1. boot the device in the download mode (e.g. SII: pressing HOME + VOLUME_DOWN + POWER)
  2. connect your device to the pc
  3. download the PIT file for your device 
heimdall download-pit --output standard.pit

Download the cyanogenmod for your device

  1. Connect the android device (Debugging mode)
sudo su
heimdall flash --RECOVERY recovery-clockwork-X.X.X.X-DEVICE.img --no-reboot

If the flash was successfull:

  1. disconnect the device and proceed with the next step

Reboot into the recovery image

  1. boot the device in the download mode (e.g. SII: press HOME + VOLUME_DOWN + POWER)
  2. follow the backup and restore instructions

Backup your backup

An SD-Card is not a very good choice for storing backups.

  • Put the SD-Card out of the phone to your pc and save the file with e.g. rsync (makes md5sums!)
  • also backup the cyanogen mod recovery image you used for the bakup
  • make a CHANGELOG file

YOU ARE DONE

Holo Backup

One of the most simpe ways is to use each android phones build in funktionality in conjunction with the android developer kit (adk). The prgram is called

Please refer to the various HowTo's in the web.

BE AWARE: Simple ADB Backup is using the standard Android Backup functionality which does not perform any error checking! See: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/23357/is-there-a-way-to-look-inside-and-modify-an-adb-backup-created-file

Helium Backup or carbon

Apply a custom rom (cyanogenmod, slimkat, ...)

[UPDATE 2017-02] After working for two years with SlimKat, I now installed the last stable version (2015) of [ArchiDroid https://github.com/ArchiDroid/ArchiDroid/releases] with Android 5.1 (cm 12 BASED) for my Samsung Galaxy SIII I-9300 (t-online, NO-LTE). I can say: this is the best ROM for this phone. I had NO troubles, no lagging any more, very stable ...

There are various and very good informations on the wiki of cyanogenmod (here for the samsung galaxy S3) or other mods (Slimkat).

Please read (!) and use the avaiable acual instructions of your preferred custom ROM provider:

Get an actual copy of google apps (gapps!) before flashing!

Please inform yourself in the internet on how to backup your device in case of a problem BEFORE you proceed!

Cyanogenmod ROM's and recovery images you will get here:

Screencast an android device

1. Install an appropriate android adb in ubuntu or download it manually 

sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb


If you installed it manually alter your path, so adb will be found 

vim ~/.bashrc # also for ROOT!!!

[...]
#AndroidDev PATH
export PATH=${PATH}:"/wherever/android-sdk/tools:/wherever/android-sdk/platform-tools"

source ~/.bashrc # for the current shell until re-login

2. Start Java Webstart as root and alter the security settings - change to LOW! 

sudo javaws

3. Get Android Screencast: 

wget http://goo.gl/LMbQb -O androidscreencast.jnlp

4. Connect your device via usb

5. Start it 

sudo adb start-server
sudo adb device # check the output
sudo javaws androidscreencast.jnlp

Enjoy!


[GER] Cyanogenmod Updaten und Daten dabei Daten erhalten

Source: http://stadt-bremerhaven.de/cyanogenmod-11-0-m10-veroeffentlicht/

[...]

Ok … Das Ganze dauert bei mir ca. 15 Minuten, also nur unwesentlich länger als normal.

  1. . Udate über den Cyanogenmod-Updater downloaden, aber noch nicht installieren
  2. . Gerät ausschalten
  3. . In die Recovery booten [Laut + Leise + Power > Recovery mode]
  4. . Ein Nandroid-Backup erstellen (zuvor schauen, dass genügend freier Speicher auf der „Virtuellen Sdcard“ vorhanden ist) … [Backup and Restore > Backup to /sdcard]
  5. . Wipe Data / Factory Reset
  6. . Reboot durchführen
  7. . Alle Steps des Einrichtungs-Assistenten überspringen (Standortdienste können ausgeschaltet werden)
  8. . Über den CM-Updater jetzt das Update anstoßen
  9. . Alle Update Schritte durchlaufen lassen und dann noch einmal neu starten

(Das Update sollten jetzt ohne Probleme und Fehler durchlaufen)

  1. . Gerät wieder ausschalten
  2. . Wieder in die Recovery booten
  3. . Backup and Restore
  4. . Advanced Restore from /sdcard
  5. . Das zuvor erstellte Backup auswählen
  6. . Restore Data auswählen
  7. . Start Restore
  8. . Zurück und Reboot durchführen

Fertig … Das war’s … Alles ist wieder so, wie gewohnt … mit M10 !!

Kannst ja mal Rückmeldung geben, ob alles geklappt hat !!

[...]

Android 4.4.2 devices: move obb folder to external SD Card with Obb on SD (Xposed)

I successfully got SkySafari 5 Pro on my Pocketbook SurfPad 4 L up and running.

PROBLEM: SkySafari 5 Pro uses too much memory for a simple Android device (in my case a 4.4.2 Android Tablet). So Android will refuse to install OR the system becomes highly unstable after installation because the Android system is compromised.

E. G.: my tablet ha approximately 1.8 GB ram free for android applications. The standard installation with simple apps occupies ~ 1.2 GB . 800 MB is too less for SkySafari 5 Pro (needs 1.6 GB for obb file) to install. This is because of a big data file (1.6 GB) with resides within the /data/Android/obb folder which is also the folder for e.g. games.

What we need: something that makes it possible install thes obb data on the SdCard (internal or external) which enough space. Preferable DURING the installation.

Any other solutions I tried did not work because of the KitKat problems with writing on external SD card or other problems including that KingoRoot will not give you full root access for some apps like foldermount or link2sd (>4.0). These apps could be used to FIRST download and then MOVE the obb data. On the other hand there almost never is enough space for saving the 1.6 GB obb data file.

PREREQUESITES: Sufficient space on your device. Rooted device (chances are high you can use KingoRoot).

SOLUTION:

1. You have to root your device first.!!! I am using KingoRoot ( https://www.kingoapp.com/ ) which seems to work for a lot of devices. Install it with the APK on its website.

2. Install the Xposed Framework via the APK file on its website. Please make yourself confortable about this framework BEFORE you do this ( http://repo.xposed.info/module/de.robv.android.xposed.installer )

3. Install the Xposed module "Obb on SD" via Playstore (or, if you know how via the Xposed Framework)

4. Enable the "Obb on SD" module in the Framework (Xposed Installer -> Module -> Check "Obb on SD"

5. In the Settings of "Obb on SD" check "Play Store Hooks"!!! This will enable, that the obb data will be DIRECTLY downloaded and stored upon installation.


Have fun.

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