Develop Bugs

Remove ALL Sprint Crapware? (Q from an ex-WinMo Poweruser)

I moved from an HD2 to the Evo this week (no more TMobile, woot!). I am very familiar with custom WMO ROMS, Hard SPL, blah blah...
I have nearly zero Android development, custom ROM knowledge, etc, however.
I'd like to flash a custom ROM based on the factory, without all the Sprint programs preloaded.
Clearly I need to root; I am on steady ground with that knowledge. After that? Not so clear. There doesn't seem to be a thread with the steps I need to proceed.
Any info would be invaluable, thanks!
(PS - side question: why does Android launch all sort of processes in the background seemingly at random?)

ifiweresolucky said:
I moved from an HD2 to the Evo this week (no more TMobile, woot!). I am very familiar with custom WMO ROMS, Hard SPL, blah blah...
I have nearly zero Android development, custom ROM knowledge, etc, however.
I'd like to flash a custom ROM based on the factory, without all the Sprint programs preloaded.
Clearly I need to root; I am on steady ground with that knowledge. After that? Not so clear. There doesn't seem to be a thread with the steps I need to proceed.
Any info would be invaluable, thanks!
(PS - side question: why does Android launch all sort of processes in the background seemingly at random?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This should be in Q & A.. But unless someone creates a rom with the apps removed. Its easier to just do it yourself.
If you did toasts method of rooting. Boot into recovery and type this
adb remount
adb shell
cd /system/app
ls
This displays all apps on the phone. Do this to delete them.
rm NameOfApp.apk
rm NameOfApp.odex
It is caps sensitive and make sure you type the apk exactly as its written.

Jus10o said:
This should be in Q & A.. But unless someone creates a rom with the apps removed. Its easier to just do it yourself.
If you did toasts method of rooting. Boot into recovery and type this
adb remount
adb shell
cd /system/app
ls
This displays all apps on the phone. Do this to delete them.
rm NameOfApp.apk
rm NameOfApp.odex
It is caps sensitive and make sure you type the apk exactly as its written.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
any reason adb remount isn't working for me? I do adb devices and my devices is there but when i type adb remount i get "remount faild: Invalid argument"

I started Toasts root directions, placing PC36IMG.zip on the base directory of the SD card. Shut down, loaded with the Vol Down and Power buttons. The bootloader checked the file on the SD card but then stopped on the white screen.
It seems it was supposed to proceed automatically? But I am dropped off with options on the white screen: FASTBOOT, RECOVERY, CLEAR STORAGE, SIMLOCK, and HBOOT USB.
Directions show Vol Up and Down for previous and next and Power for select.

Alright, I resolved this issue. I recopied the file to the SD card and made sure to eject drive before shutting the device down. Seemed to make all the difference! Proceeding with the remainder of Toast's directions now...

p-slim said:
any reason adb remount isn't working for me? I do adb devices and my devices is there but when i type adb remount i get "remount faild: Invalid argument"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running in to the same issue...

rgordon3091 said:
I'm running in to the same issue...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i fixed it. you have to do this.
adb shell
mount /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system
cd /system/app
ls

Getting error trying to remove nascar..
Code:
rm Sprint_NASCAR.apk
rm failed for Sprint_NASCAR.apk, Directory not empty
Any ideas?

That's Linux trying to protect you. Essentially the rm command by default just removes one file at a time.
Try...
rm -r NameOfFolder
...to delete recursively.
Sent from my EVO 4G using Tapatalk

Go see the thread in the apps sub-forum about this. I have a post (#28, I believe) with the exact code to remove the bloatware. You can just copy any paste.
-------------
Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.

nick325i said:
Getting error trying to remove nascar..
Code:
rm Sprint_NASCAR.apk
rm failed for Sprint_NASCAR.apk, Directory not empty
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you shouldn't have a problem deleting the apk, because an apk is not a directory.
i deleted it without the same message.

p-slim said:
i fixed it. you have to do this.
adb shell
mount /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system
cd /system/app
ls
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'
hmmm i put im adb shell then i got a "#" so i put in "mount /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system"
and i got mount:mounting /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system failed: No such file or directory
so what did i do wrong?

Found the issue. Thanks all

Jus10o said:
This should be in Q & A.. But unless someone creates a rom with the apps removed. Its easier to just do it yourself.
If you did toasts method of rooting. Boot into recovery and type this
adb remount
adb shell
cd /system/app
ls
This displays all apps on the phone. Do this to delete them.
rm NameOfApp.apk
rm NameOfApp.odex
It is caps sensitive and make sure you type the apk exactly as its written.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By the way, when I "cd /system/app" and then "ls" I see only NamesOfApps.apk. There are displayed no *.odex files. Is that normal?

thread dead?
IDK if this threads still monitored by anyone, but here's my question: I don't use adb, but I just rused root explorer to locate sprint crap, and added a .bak to the end of all of them to essentially 'disable' them. Is this a safe method? Will Android system waste energy looking for them anymore (they no longer show in app tray, but are they still using resources) ? Thanks much.

scottspa74 said:
IDK if this threads still monitored by anyone, but here's my question: I don't use adb, but I just rused root explorer to locate sprint crap, and added a .bak to the end of all of them to essentially 'disable' them. Is this a safe method? Will Android system waste energy looking for them anymore (they no longer show in app tray, but are they still using resources) ? Thanks much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was just about to say something similar. I had uninstalled Nascar using Titanium Backup, and the found out that I cant do the 2.2 OTA unless its there. TB didn't have the ability to restore it for some reason, so I got an APK from XDA, and put it in the system/app folder via Root Explorer. Then, I had to reset the permissions to match the other APK's, and it showed up and launched perfectly. Even did an update. Much easier than all that adb stuff, I think.

I used system app uninstaller for a buck on the market.. Easy and all there with the icons for easy to find and delete sprint and gapps.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

scottspa74 said:
IDK if this threads still monitored by anyone, but here's my question: I don't use adb, but I just rused root explorer to locate sprint crap, and added a .bak to the end of all of them to essentially 'disable' them. Is this a safe method? Will Android system waste energy looking for them anymore (they no longer show in app tray, but are they still using resources) ? Thanks much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats a good way.. If something goes wrong just have to rename.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Flash this zip and it should remove most of the Sprint apps. It will back them up to /sdx on your SD card so if anything is removed that you want, it will still be there. It's signed to work with RA.
http://grathwohl.me/uploads/android/evo/Sprint-Apps-Remover-signed.zip

I've seen a few people reference my post, but my post was really just trying to ask if anyone knew if, now that I've renamed them, and they don't run, they shouldn't be using up resources? Right, is that correct, or am I wrong in thinkin this?
And thanks cosine83, that's a really helpful post for a lot of people.

Swype APK from 3.70 ROM

I am using Frost ROM and there is no update to 3.70 yet.. does anyone or was anyone able to pull the Swype APK that comes bundled with the 3.70 ROMs yet? If so, please help =D

Just go to a different ROM. Remember to NANDROID and Titanium Backup. Then you are safe.

Lol but I like this one!

I know I need the new APK myself and the ROM I'm using that I love hasn't been updated

Lessthantito said:
I know I need the new APK myself and the ROM I'm using that I love hasn't been updated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just donload a ROM that has it and extract the swype.apk and then install it on your ROM... Case closed.
It is still against XDA rules to post Swype for downloading unless it is contained in a ROM so nobody can just post it for you otherwise I would be happy to.

Remember...
Make sure you not only grab the Swype.apk but the Swype lib file as well. You can find that in /system/lib
Good luck!

cheapskate88 said:
Make sure you not only grab the Swype.apk but the Swype lib file as well. You can find that in /system/lib
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL, whoops, yeah, I forgot to include that. Good call!! Thanks.

If you do not mind hunting, I think the newest beta is much more accurate than the OTA version. This is even after playing with the accuracy/speed settings before people jump on that. I have a 3.70 rom, removed OTA, and flashed back beta and much happier.

I like the Beta much more than the official release for the EVO but I can't seem to get a working version of the beta for the EVO and I don't know how to extract the APK and Lib files from a ROM or I would already be using Swype, can anyone point me in the correct direction for instructions to do this?

Download the hboot.....zip file from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=829045
Pull out the PC36IMG-MR.zip file and extract its contect.
Follow the instructions in this thread to pull the swype files from the system.img http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=890508
Then opened an adb shell session and mounted the /system as rw;
Code:
mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system
Then pushed the Swype.apk and libSwypeCore.so to the correct directories;
Code:
adb push ./Swype.apk /system/app/Swype.apk
adb push ./libSwypeCore.so /system/lib/libSwypeCore.so
On my system it set the permissions as -rw-rw-rw for some reason so I chmoded that to -rw-r--r-- synced the filesystem and rebooted. From the adb shell again;
Code:
chmod 644 /system/app/Swype.apk
chmod 644 /system/lib/libSwypeCore.so
sync
reboot

Swype?

Can someone point me in the direction to a link for Swype? I'm running CM7 GB6

Just sign up for the beta, it's open right now.

I already had swype installed on mine...look in the language and keyboard settings to see if its installed.

Swype is in beta? Weird...

i believe it was released in version 2.2, froyo

mecampo said:
i believe it was released in version 2.2, froyo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah for Sense ROMs, OP's on CM7.

_MetalHead_ said:
Yeah for Sense ROMs, OP's on CM7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oops sorry, not paying attention to details

yeah I just went to www.swype.com and signed up for the beta. I had swype on CM7+4G in about 5 mins or so.

take the apk and so from the zip of your sense rom and place them in your android tools folder then reboot to recovery and mount /system using adb do the following
Code:
adb push Swype.apk /system/app/
adb push libSwypeCore.so /system/lib/
you might be able to use root explorer but idk ,never tried

Mr.Shroom said:
take the apk and so from the zip of your sense rom and place them in your android tools folder then reboot to recovery and mount /system using adb do the following
Code:
adb push Swype.apk /system/app/
adb push libSwypeCore.so /system/lib/
you might be able to use root explorer but idk ,never tried
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alrighty, thanks. Actually, on second thought. Do I have to have the ROM installed or can I just bring it from the zip file?
On third thought, I got it to work.

You can just extract the apk from the zip, then push it via adb.

Swype Keyboard Issue

Well I was wondering if there was a way to get the original Swype Keyboard on a MIUI ROM. My friend told me about flashing it but I dont know how and where to get the file for it. Please help me, the Swype Keyboard BETA has issues and I want the original keyboard. Please post links..

If you got a nand back up you can use swype restorer
Or get one of the stock roms un zip it and take out the swype.apk and libswypecore.so and push them into the phone

I'll make it easy for ya:
adb shell
su
mount -o rw,remount /system
mv /sdcard/Swype.apk /system/app \\NOTE: use "cp" instead of "mv" if you want to keep the file on your sdcard as a backup for future use or whatever
chmod 644 /system/app/Swype.apk
mv /sdcard/libSwypeCore.so /system/lib \\NOTE: use "cp" instead of "mv" if you want to keep the file on your sdcard as a backup for future use or whatever
chmod 644 /system/lib/libSwypeCore.so
reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after your reboot, go to your language&keyboard settings, Swype should be available now.
EDIT: cleanup

pmcqueen said:
I'll make it easy for ya:
download attached files and push them to /sdcard/
(NOTE: before you move the libSwypeCore.so.zip, rename it to just libSwypeCore.so - I had to add .zip to be able to attach it here)
then run the following commands from ADB (or terminal emulator, you just don't need the adb shell command in that case):
after your reboot, go to your language&keyboard settings, Swype should be available now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After " mv /sdcard/libSwypeCore.so /system/lib" I get the error " mv: can't rename '/sdcard/libSwypeCore.so': No such file or directory "
Please help!

I AM VS4 said:
After " mv /sdcard/libSwypeCore.so /system/lib" I get the error " mv: can't rename '/sdcard/libSwypeCore.so': No such file or directory "
Please help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
before moving libSwypeCore.so.zip from your PC to your phone, did you remove the .zip? sounds like it still thinks it's a zip to me.

how do I do that when it wont let me open the zip folder?

EDIT: cleanup

Thanks alot! It worked!! ;P

But the thing is that this Swype wont work! Everytime I swype a word a blue box flashes around it! Please help with this issue too!

did you reboot?
if so and it's still doing it, try clearing Swype data and rebooting again. if you're still having issues after that, let me know and I'll find a different apk for you to try.

yo im all for help and all but your really not allowed to distribute swype, its in the form rules, even if the phone had it, you would have to get it from your own phone, or as said get it from a stock rom,

Thanks for this post. My question no longer really has anything to do with Swype. Now its personal!! lol
When I copy and paste the
mount -o rw,remount /system​
command, it comes up showing the options for mount instead of executing the command. Is there by chance a syntax error in the typing or am I missing something?
Thanks

look in the market there is a app called remount you can use that to mount the system to read or read/write

Thank you!!!

Strange. Tried Remount app, no dice. Tried mount command, yet it still gives me a cross-link error when I try to run the "mv" command. I read that this error is due to the fact that it isn't mounted properly (I'm a complete noob at this stuff). The thing that puzzles me is I type
mount -o rw,remount /system and it always comes back with
Usage: mount [-r] [-w] [-o options] [-t type] device directory
which leads me to think there's some kind of syntax error.
It's to the point now that I just want to know why it isn't working as described in the post.

ok try this
mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

Thanks for the advice. I used the command you posted and it allowed me r/w access. But (there always seems to be a but...) when I tried to move files with the mv command I got a cross link error.
I ended up simply using the move function from root explorer (once I figured out what I was trying to do). Worked well.

ilostchild said:
yo im all for help and all but your really not allowed to distribute swype, its in the form rules, even if the phone had it, you would have to get it from your own phone, or as said get it from a stock rom,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess you didn't read the rules to well. If a custom rom is made for a device that has swype it can be included in rom
Just get swype from the website
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA Premium App

Spastic909 said:
Guess you didn't read the rules to well. If a custom rom is made for a device that has swype it can be included in rom
Just get swype from the website
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's if them rom itself came from the stock kernal, not from asop kernal, think why cyanogen doesn't include it in his roms? But we are allowed to bring it back from our back up that has it,

[HOW-TO] [GSM & CDMA] Root without Unlocking Bootloader via exploit (for 4.0.1/4.0.2)

[HOW-TO] [GSM & CDMA] Root without Unlocking Bootloader via exploit (for 4.0.1/4.0.2)
Edit: This does not works on anything newer than ICL53F (i.e., 4.0.2). It works fine on ITL41D (4.0.1), ITL41F (4.0.1) and ICL53F (4.0.2)
Once you have got root, you can now use segv11's BootUnlocker app to unlock your bootloader without wiping anything. Easy as pie!
Disclaimer: I take no credit for this exploit or the implementation of it (but I will take credit for the step-by step ). Thanks to kendong2 for pointing it out to me here.
So, it looks like zx2c4 has found a local privilege escalation exploit. See source here, and saurik has managed to package it together for Android. See here. Although this may be old news to some, I hadn't seen it before.
So what does this all mean:
If you are running a 2.6.39 kernel (or above), which all Galaxy Nexus' are, you can now root your device without having to unlock your bootloader (and without losing your data).
Moreover, you should now be able to root your device even if your hardware buttons are not working.
Additionally, this allows those who have not received an OTA update and want to apply it without having an unlocked bootloader or root to do so by copying the OTA update to /cache from /sdcard.
Notes:
1) This assumes that you have USB Debugging enable on your device (Settings > Developer Options > Enable USB Debugging) and the drivers for your device installed on your computer. For the drivers, I would recommend you remove all old drivers and install these. If you don't know how to install them, or are having issues, look here.
2) This needs to be done over ADB, as a terminal emulator on-device does not have the appropriate access. If you do not have ADB, I've attached it in the zip. Unzip all files.
3) Some users indicate that, once finished the procedure, they needed to open the Superuser app.
Step-by-step:
1) Download the attached files to your computer and unzip them in the same directory as your adb.exe file;
2) Open a command prompt in the same directory;
3) Copy the files to your device:
adb push mempodroid /data/local/tmp/mempodroid
adb push su /data/local/tmp/su
adb push Superuser.apk /data/local/tmp/Superuser.apk
4) Open a shell: adb shell
5) Change permission on mempodroid to allow it to run: chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/mempodroid
6) Run the exploit: ./data/local/tmp/mempodroid 0xd7f4 0xad4b sh
Note: Once you do step 6, your prompt should change from $ to #. If not, it did not work.
7) Mount the system partition as rw: mount -o remount,rw -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /system
8) Copy su to /system: cat /data/local/tmp/su > /system/bin/su
9) Change permissions on su: chmod 06755 /system/bin/su
10) Copy Superuser.apk: cat /data/local/tmp/Superuser.apk > /system/app/Superuser.apk
11) Change permissions on Superuser.apk: chmod 0644 /system/app/Superuser.apk
12) Mount the system partition as r/o: mount -o remount,ro -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /system
13) Rescind root: exit
14) Exit the ADB shell: exit
15) Done. You now should have root without having to unlock your bootloader.

Reserved

Reserved

This is the same as https://github.com/saurik/mempodroid
saurik ftw.

times_infinity said:
This is the same as https://github.com/saurik/mempodroid
saurik ftw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what you are getting at? I mentioned saurik in the first post, and the link you posted is in the first post. And I mentioned that this may be old news, but I haven't seen it anywhere before today in the GN forums.

Yikes! This exploit works on any kernel from 2.6.39 and >. This could become a common root method for many devices. Linus Torvalds himself posted the fix commit! Nice work by zx2c4!

Sleuth255 said:
Yikes! This exploit works on any kernel from 2.6.39 and >. This could become a common root method for many devices. Linus Torvalds himself posted the fix commit! Nice work by zx2c4!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need ics to have a vulnerable kernel version, so given the number of devices which currently have ics officially, I doubt it will be common. I'd also expect Google and vendors to correct this in next release.
Also many custom kernels don't have this flaw as they are at or over 3.0.18 or have patched it. This prevents gaining unnoticed root.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Hmmm I thought 2.6.39 was found in GB builds. This exploit is almost a root fix for the Moto DX 4.5.621 fiasco. Unfortunately the kernel for that build is 2.6.32.9.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

This was huge in the headlines a few weeks back. It's nice to see someone putting it to a good use!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Hi, been lurking awhile, registered to clear up somethings.
I did some research while attempting to access the /data/local/ -folder with terminal emulator and I found that it would be impossible to write or to find it while being unrooted. Rooting a phone through using an unrooted access root seems impossible.
Did I miss something or is there any other way to copy mempodroid to the data- folder? I sure would like to keep all my files.

Huxleysäl said:
Hi, been lurking awhile, registered to clear up somethings.
I did some research while attempting to access the /data/local/ -folder with terminal emulator and I found that it would be impossible to write or to find it while being unrooted. Rooting a phone through using an unrooted access root seems impossible.
Did I miss something or is there any other way to copy mempodroid to the data- folder? I sure would like to keep all my files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are mistaken. In a terminal emulator type: cd /data/local/tmp
Edit: Fixed a mistake made by auto correct...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

efrant said:
I think you are mistaken. In a terminal emulator type: cd /data/local/temp
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just did. It says "No such file or directory."
Not the best source, but if you google it, people state what I state. Sorry, can't post links

try /data/local/tmp

Huxleysäl said:
Just did. It says "No such file or directory."
Not the best source, but if you google it, people state what I state. Sorry, can't post links
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, damn auto correct. It should be: cd /data/local/tmp
Not "temp".
It works fine.
Edit: Sleuth255 beat me to it!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

efrant said:
Sorry, damn auto correct. It should be: cd /data/local/tmp
Not "temp".
It works fine.
Edit: Sleuth255 beat me to it!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, OK, it worked. But as I'm trying to replicate his instructions, copying mempodroid to data/local/tmp doesn't compute. I tried extracting the files, puting mempodroid in a new folder in ./sdcard/ (which I named Nex), and it still couldn't find it.
Wait, just had an idea. Brb

Huxleysäl said:
Sure, OK, it worked. But as I'm trying to replicate his instructions, copying mempodroid to data/local/tmp doesn't compute. I tried extracting the files, puting mempodroid in a new folder in ./sdcard/ (which I named Nex), and it still couldn't find it.
Wait, just had an idea. Brb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm. Looks like you may be correct. In GB, we had write access to that directory, but it looks like we don't in ICS. I'll have another look tomorrow and try to figure something out.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

OK, this is exactly what I did:
I downloaded the files, extracted them into the ./sdcard folder of my android. I opened the console, wrote exactly as stated. Reaction? Cannot create /data/local/tmp/mempodroid: Permission denied
So, what I'm thinking is this: I tried the cd ./sdcard/mempodroid, found it. So, logically, that should mean that since the permission is dennied, the problem lies not in where I put the mempodroid, but with my authority over my phone. So, here we are again. Could anybody smarter then me clarify?
efrant said:
Hmm. Looks like you may be correct. In GB, we had write access to that directory, but it looks like we don't in ICS. I'll have another look tomorrow and try to figure something out.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
****, I was hoping I was wrong. I originally thought that the exploit was this. But alas.
Try finding an alternative write route to the /data/local/- folder. That should solve all problems, I guess. Big words, ey? This is for the simpletons like me, who stupidly forgot to bootload.

Might want to expand on the steps.
Like what program to use to copy the file.
How do you change permission.
How do you run the exploit.
How to mount rw.
How to copy su.

convolution said:
Might want to expand on the steps.
Like what program to use to copy the file.
How do you change permission.
How do you run the exploit.
How to mount rw.
How to copy su.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hade my initial problems with that too. But as if this moment it doesn't really matter. Read above posts. Anyhow, to answer your question: you need to download a console emulator
Just search for it in the market. Also the commands go in this console
For example: cat /directory/filename > /newdirectory/samefilename means to copy or move from one place. To change permission you just write that line of code ending with 777 instead of cat and then the filename etc and etc.
I didn't know any of this 'till yesterday, so it is quite understandable.
cheers

Huxleysäl said:
F***, I was hoping I was wrong. I originally thought that the exploit was this. But alas.
Try finding an alternative write route to the /data/local/- folder. That should solve all problems, I guess. Big words, ey? This is for the simpletons like me, who stupidly forgot to bootload.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've updated the first post. Give that a go and let me know how it turns out. (The guide may need some minor tweaking, but I am here to help you through it.)
It seems that ADB has rw access to /data/local/tmp but a terminal emulator on-device does not. So for now, you need to be plugged into your computer.
It may be possible to do this with ADB-over-Wi-Fi, but I haven't gotten there yet.