Develop Bugs

How to Change The Resolution of Your Phone / A Must if You Have Root!

So it has been mentioned throughout a lot of threads but I figured I would give a step by step and overview for the people who do not know about this or are unsure what it means and does. You must be rooted to use this.
When you compare our phones to a phone that has a qHD display you will see that the qHD display will have smaller text and will allow you to view more on the screen at one time then our WVGA screen allows. Well this is how you can even the playing field and view your phone like it was a qHD or even a 720p screen.
No more super large text like your phone was built for the blind. Also, a great feature if you use an alternate launcher you can set the screen to 5x5 or even 6x6 depending on the resolution you pick.
You will need the 2 apps from below.
First you need to install busybox. Download the app and then open it. From there it will ask you to install. Just choose okay for all the defaults and don't change anything.
https://market.android.com/details?...t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsInN0ZXJpY3Nvbi5idXN5Ym94Il0.
Next app is lcd resolution. This is where you change the resolution.
https://market.android.com/details?...NvbS53ZW1vYnMuYW5kcm9pZC5sY2RyZXNvbHV0aW9uIl0.
There are 2 settings I use, 200 which is almost identical to qhd. qHD is 960x540 and the app allows you to set it at 960x576. You can also set it at 160 which is 720p. You can use all the settings in-between as well but I stick to these 2. You can do your own testing and see what works best for you. Make sure when testing that you do not click save on boot in case your Rom does not play nice with that resolution. I have found that 200 works almost everything but 160 can be a little more tricky, especially with certain themes. You top bar will be all blurry. A reset will put you back to stock if your Rom does not like the resolution as long as you did not click set on boot.
By doing this hack, TW launcher will not play nice so you must use an alternative. All other launchers will work. The stock dialer will also not work. You can use Go contacts, dialer one or Ex Dialer. They all look and function great. You will also need an alternate calendar and calculator app. Their are a ton to choose from.
When setting your system to 200, you might encounter an error message saying certain apps are not compatible with your phone in the market. This is because this setting while close to qhd is not exactly the same resolution so the market app does not think is is compatible as it is not a standard resolution. There are 2 ways around this. You can install the app through Amazon market as it does not know the resolution you are running on your phone or you can switch back to stock (240) then clear market data and you can download the app. Then switch back to 200. This won't happen with every app as a lot will still download when st to 200.
When running at 160 (720p) you will not have this issue in the market as this is a native resolution of Android and is recognized by every app.
I think that covers it all for now and I cannot imagine going back to a WVGA resolution as it looks sooooooo much better running at a near qhd res.
Below are 2 picks showing the difference. One is stock, one is set to 200 (qhd) and the other to 160 (720p).
Stock (240)
qHD (200)
720p (160)

I like 720p. Also, you can edit your build.prop manually and modify:
ro.sf.lcd_density=240
Does anyone know how to modify a theme to make it work with this?

bertm13 said:
I like 720p. Also, you can edit your build.prop manually and modify:
ro.sf.lcd_density=240
Does anyone know how to modify a theme to make it work with this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah TW theme built for 720p setting would be a keeper.

bertm13 said:
I like 720p. Also, you can edit your build.prop manually and modify:
ro.sf.lcd_density=240
Does anyone know how to modify a theme to make it work with this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That works as well but the app makes it much quicker to jump between resolutions then having to edit the file.

When i changed it with LCD density the resolution changed but there was lots of space under the home screen # indicator, can you do a shot of your home screen and wallpaper to see what it looks like?

xlGmanlx said:
When i changed it with LCD density the resolution changed but there was lots of space under the home screen # indicator, can you do a shot of your home screen and wallpaper to see what it looks like?
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Click to collapse
you can't use Touchwiz. Need another launcher, and dialer. On some roms the camera and music apps break too if you go too low (like 720p), likely others.

I am confused, if the resolution can be improved via software, then how come the manufacturers are not doing it, what is the catch?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

kingsway8605 said:
I am confused, if the resolution can be improved via software, then how come the manufacturers are not doing it, what is the catch?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was going to take issue with OP's terminology but decided to not be 'that guy'...
...but here we are.
This doesn't actually change the resolution of the panel at all. You always have the same amount of pixels. Period. All this does is scale the UI. at a screen density of 160 our screen will display things at the size that a 720p screen of identical size would display them. However we lose detail on fonts whereas a 720p screen would have the same amount of detail at 160 as we would at 240....roughly. If you can live with smaller and slightly blocky fonts, go for it.
I can. It's awesome.
another confusing but interesting tidbit: LCD Pixels are made up of red green and blue subpixels. Our panel and the 720p Galaxy Nexus panel have an identical amount of subpixels. But the 720p panel achieves a higher resolution by using less subpixels for each pixel. That is why it is said to have a "pentile" display, as each pixel is composed an arrangement of 5 sub-pixels whereas we have 12 sub-pixels for each pixel. This also explains why 800x480 (WVGA) "pentile" panels look like crap...err...ahem...receive so much criticism. (See: motorola displays)
EDIT: Also, more sub-pixels per pixel means better 'sub-pixel hinting'...which is an effect used to enhance text on LCD panels. The fact that we have so many sub-pixels is probably the only reason why we can pull this off. Of course I'm assuming that android takes advantage of subpixels.

Just a reminder to everyone to nandroid before doing anything like this;
My phone won't boot after doing this. I can get into CWM, but anytime I try to reboot it gets stuck in a loop at the Sprint / 4g animation. I suspect it has something to do with busybox installation but who knows.
I did NOT have the "Set on Boot" selected in the LCD density app. I think I already had busybox support... maybe trying to install the market busybox app borked something.
Anyhoo... always do a nandroid, kids!

As Dan mentioned, it does not actually change the resolution in the true sense but for the purpose of this thread I didn't get into that detail.
I think our screens look 10x better then the Evo 3d and the photon screens when our screens are set to WVGA compared to their qhd display. This only makes it better. With a screen this large it only makes sense to shrink things down to get more on the screen.
Now the Galaxy Nexus screen, I am expecting that to be a killer screen.

Ok thanks, it was leaving like choke real estate under the page number on the screens, I actually like Touchwiz but thanks for the heads up
daneurysm said:
you can't use Touchwiz. Need another launcher, and dialer. On some roms the camera and music apps break too if you go too low (like 720p), likely others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

xlGmanlx said:
Ok thanks, it was leaving like choke real estate under the page number on the screens, I actually like Touchwiz but thanks for the heads up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think if we could yank touchwiz off of a Galaxy Note it would do 720p (160) and if not whatever the density setting is on the Galaxy Note would make it fit perfectly.
As far as I've seen, touchwiz isn't ingrained in Android at all. I could be wrong, but, it seems like just a launcher. It's nothing like Sense which has it's big fat tentacles way up Android's ass.
...though I'm not a fan of Touchwiz, so, it really doesn't bother me at all. It's not that I hate touchwiz--I was actually astonished to find how nice it was after all of the Sense-o-philes bashed the crap out of it--I just love me some Launcher Pro and/or ADWex, depending on the time of day....though every now and then I throw on Launcher7 for giggles.

I think you are right on all accounts. I actually like its styling (well with ICS + ICS Twist) but the fact that the launcher is hardware accelerated is too much to give up
daneurysm said:
I think if we could yank touchwiz off of a Galaxy Note it would do 720p (160) and if not whatever the density setting is on the Galaxy Note would make it fit perfectly.
As far as I've seen, touchwiz isn't ingrained in Android at all. I could be wrong, but, it seems like just a launcher. It's nothing like Sense which has it's big fat tentacles way up Android's ass.
...though I'm not a fan of Touchwiz, so, it really doesn't bother me at all. It's not that I hate touchwiz--I was actually astonished to find how nice it was after all of the Sense-o-philes bashed the crap out of it--I just love me some Launcher Pro and/or ADWex, depending on the time of day....though every now and then I throw on Launcher7 for giggles.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

xlGmanlx said:
I think you are right on all accounts. I actually like its styling (well with ICS + ICS Twist) but the fact that the launcher is hardware accelerated is too much to give up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has this been verified? I stopped caring about it once I got LP/ADW up and running and it seems supernaturally smooth. Though I have to admit that the transition to the app drawer in TW is phenomenally smooth...aside from that, though, I don't really see it.
...and if only TW is hardware accelerated that must be via an API. Samsung proprietary? Considering the popularity of the SGS2 worldwide I'd imagine there would have to be another launcher that would take advantage of these hooks.
Honestly if we do, in fact, have hardware acceleration (and I believe we do) why wouldn't that be system wide? Once you go into settings you are out of the launcher and if anyone remembers Cupcake or Donut holy crap was that a painful experience for what was at the time super fast 528-800mhz phones (g1/hero and moment).

this is a great find I think, I really like the tight resolution, not too keen on having to change the type of launcher either
Has anyone noticed the jacked up notification on the notification bar?
And too bad there's not a way to make the dialer and home screens fit the screen now!
Thanks for the hint

Tried this at 160 using go launcher on starburst 1.9.8r with the beta ICS theme and it looked great except the status bar was screwed up. Do you think it might be the theme or rom?

psych2l said:
Tried this at 160 using go launcher on starburst 1.9.8r with the beta ICS theme and it looked great except the status bar was screwed up. Do you think it might be the theme or rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was it a theme you added on to the Rom? If so, you can try it without the theme.
I am running Calk's 1.5a Rom and it works at 160 by itself, with the honey theme and the ICS mixup theme as well...

Tried it at 200 but didn't like how it screwed the dialer up and went back to 240.

tenaciousj said:
Tried it at 200 but didn't like how it screwed the dialer up and went back to 240.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download GoContacts, it comes with GoDialer. Both better than stock apps and free and work at any density.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

Anyone figure out a way to replicate a true qHD resolution? Being that it is a little off you get the apps not compatible message in the market. If you were able to replicate the exact res like 720p does you would not get that message.

[Q] Apps not scaling properly

Day 2 with my stock (for now) S8.4.
The first thing I did was to download the Google Now launcher, and I was struck by how odd it looks. The Google Search bar is very narrow, and the cards on the Now screen are small and centered on the page, rather than being edge-to-edge as they are on my phone and my old Nexus 7 tablet. Then I started noticing in a number of other apps that fonts are very small, or that there are large amounts of wasted white space.
I can only guess that this is due to the screen resolution, and I understand older apps designed for phones don't scale up properly. But c'mon Google -- really? It's not like you don't have a couple of larger tablets out there already.
Not ready to root this tablet yet; I'm going to sit back and wait for Lollipop to come along and bring a host of new headaches and issues... But the question is am I the only one using the Now launcher (love the left swipe to Google Now!) that realizes it -- and other apps -- look funny? And is there any non-root solution that may help increase the DPI?

Yes, Samsung has messed up DPI. Their apps don't work with it, therefore they put wrong DPI. Solution: root, xposed module, set DPI for each App individually. See several threads regarding DPI.

Yup, I was afraid that was the only answer. Sigh... Really takes the shine off my shiny new toy!

How is the Lollipop update to those who have it?

I've heard some people are getting less battery life and more lag while others are saying better battery life and more fluid. What is your experience using lollipop? (especially the 8.4 version since I own one and want to know if I should update or stay with kitkat).
Thank you

I flashed the saudi arabia firmware on my 8.4 and factory reset it, I don't notice any difference with battery life or fluidity but I install nova launcher + disable most of the bloat so it has always been very smooth for me both on kitkat and lollipop.
I really like how multiple users are set up now with both restricted access, screen pinning and temporary guest modes, there is a lot of flexibility there and the user switching has moved to the top of the notification bar so you can switch users at any time.
I like all the new animations and uniform teal & white color scheme, in kitkat some things were black background, some things were white, in lollipop it feels more uniform.
What I dislike is that it feels very much like a phone rom ported to a tablet, the recents menu in kitkat made sense to only cover the bottom of the screen but now its a full screen giant sized card recents menu like on our phones and it just looks gigantic and makes multitasking harder in my opinion. Then on the opposite side of the scale the size of the notification bar has shrunk and is super tiny compared to kitkat, it takes precision to click the buttons now but at least it looks better I guess.
Overall, I do like lollipop because of the way multiple users are handled, improved notifications and sd card read/writing fixed, I just wish the recents menu wasn't replaced really.

Personally, I have found nothing worthwhile in Lollipop. I didn't want to update but since AT&T pushed it OTA I had no choice. It installed the update while I was asleep (after asking me several times during the day if I wanted to apply the update) and now I'm stuck with this ridiculous iPhone color scheme, the previously-mentioned obnoxious "recent apps" screen, the complete crippling of Tasker and the necessity to dig deep into menus to enable/disable mobile data.
I haven't noticed any new features or any significant change in performance (for better or for worse). TouchWiz is still a piece of **** and I'm never buying another Samsung. If I want a UI that looks and feels like iOS, I'll buy a damn iPhone.
I also don't like the new notification panel or the fact that I can't see it on my lock screen. I can either have full-blown notifications blasted across the lock screen (similar to Google Now cards) or nothing at all. There was nothing wrong with simply having the panel's notification icons visible on the lock screen. Now I have to unlock my phone to see if I got an sms or a voicemail.
I suppose that wouldn't be such a big deal if this device had a notification light that I could customize with different colors for email, sms and voicemail.
Based on the new way the OS handles (with no thought to whether there is any difference in performance), I recommend you stick with KitKat. Lollipop just plain sucks.

thorvindr said:
Personally, I have found nothing worthwhile in Lollipop. I didn't want to update but since AT&T pushed it OTA I had no choice. It installed the update while I was asleep (after asking me several times during the day if I wanted to apply the update) and now I'm stuck with this ridiculous iPhone color scheme, the previously-mentioned obnoxious "recent apps" screen, the complete crippling of Tasker and the necessity to dig deep into menus to enable/disable mobile data.
I haven't noticed any new features or any significant change in performance (for better or for worse). TouchWiz is still a piece of **** and I'm never buying another Samsung. If I want a UI that looks and feels like iOS, I'll buy a damn iPhone.
I also don't like the new notification panel or the fact that I can't see it on my lock screen. I can either have full-blown notifications blasted across the lock screen (similar to Google Now cards) or nothing at all. There was nothing wrong with simply having the panel's notification icons visible on the lock screen. Now I have to unlock my phone to see if I got an sms or a voicemail.
I suppose that wouldn't be such a big deal if this device had a notification light that I could customize with different colors for email, sms and voicemail.
Based on the new way the OS handles (with no thought to whether there is any difference in performance), I recommend you stick with KitKat. Lollipop just plain sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dont get mad at samsung, at&t was the one that forced it down your throat.

Well I am happy with kitkat, and lollipop has been available since yesterday for my T800 in the UK, I have auto updates disabled, and a found an thread dealing how to cancel an update and remove the update notice, which i have not seen yet.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1856632
John.

Oreo number of rows in quick settings

Hi,
can somebody please tell me how to add the 3rd row of quick setting toggles in the Oreo update like it was with Nougat?
I've tried Oreo for the third time now but several things simply don't work anymore or got worse in comparison with Nougat.
I could live with a few of those but only having two rows of quick setting toggles is definatily not one of them.
I tried gravitybox (it's missing the option to manage the vibration strength of the virtual buttons and the battery tile now has additional text which takes up all the space so the temperature part isn't visible anymore.)
Furthermore I had to buy a substratum theme to not vomit from the white quick settings panel. With the march security update the installation is now as tedious as with Nougat due to the forced reboot.
The Xposed module HowGiveLolli doesn't work anymore and the centered normal letters instead of all upper case was a real nice feature.
Why are the points in the settings app regrouped so it's harder to find specific settings?
There are simply so many bad design choices in my eyes I can't bring myself to live with Oreo due to not finding substitute functions for the missing ones.
Kind regards

I know you posted this last month so you hopefully figured it out, but either way I thought I'd share the answer since someone else might want to know in the future.
It has to do with the display scaling in Settings\Display\Advanced\Display Size. If set to default or large, you only get two rows of quick settings. If you set to small, the UI shrinks and as a side effect you get three rows of quick settings tiles. You can always increase the font size afterward if it's too small, but reducing the display scaling is the only way to have enough room to display three rows.

ABQNM said:
I know you posted this last month so you hopefully figured it out, but either way I thought I'd share the answer since someone else might want to know in the future.
It has to do with the display scaling in Settings\Display\Advanced\Display Size. If set to default or large, you only get two rows of quick settings. If you set to small, the UI shrinks and as a side effect you get three rows of quick settings tiles. You can always increase the font size afterward if it's too small, but reducing the display scaling is the only way to have enough room to display three rows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for posting the solution. I simply restored my Nougat backup as I never upgraded my bootloader for that matter. I don't think I'll be using Oreo until I get a new phone which possibly can't be a Moto Z3 because I'm not really convinced they will release anything more than the Z3 play.

ABQNM said:
I know you posted this last month so you hopefully figured it out, but either way I thought I'd share the answer since someone else might want to know in the future.
It has to do with the display scaling in Settings\Display\Advanced\Display Size. If set to default or large, you only get two rows of quick settings. If you set to small, the UI shrinks and as a side effect you get three rows of quick settings tiles. You can always increase the font size afterward if it's too small, but reducing the display scaling is the only way to have enough room to display three rows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi and thanks for this trick : as a matter of fact I was always on "small" in Nougat and it worked nice with 3 rows, but with Oreo I needed to switch to "smaller" to switch from 2 to 3 rows :silly:

Question 12 "Stable" Issues Thread

Besides the general low quality of this piece of software, here are some specific pains:
1. SafetyNet test fails (no root) - WTF? Can't use any of my work applications because of that.
2. Status bar notification icons don't appear (except for Gmail, for some reason)
3. About device shows there's an update available but I can't update because I'm not the "owner" of the device (there is only 1 user configured, no multiple users) - screenshot attached.
Please share your experience and whether or not you're seeing the same issues (or more).
Thanks!

Another botched update from oneplus scams

Well, it's a good thing I decided that the OP9P would be my last OP smartphone. I'm gona stick with Pixel phone from now on. Finally release A12 and no phone or data works. Really OP???

- Phone stuck in 60hz like 99% of the time.
- Keyboard doesn't have this convenient padding anymore. (On botttom to make typing easier.)
- [Launcher] Can't search apps with a single up swipe anymore, will have to find some hacky solution again. Usually I put a KISS launcher shortcut on other phones. But why ruin it when they had it ....
- [Launcher] Folders open on the middle of screen. Makes no sensse.
- [Launcher] The whole launcher experience is just way worse.
- Battery Management is a mess, now there are other options per app. The previous settings were reset.
- Rooting with Canary Magsik can soft brick. Managed to fix it but it took me a while and I consider myself a veteran.
Honestly, tons of great features are missing. I wish they would just give us a lean AOSP instead like the ASUS Android and call it a day. This feels like a botched, budget Android on a cheap Chinese phone.

App drawers can only display 4 icons per row. Anyone knows how to change it to 5 per row or more?

it is no longer possible to film and in 21:9... or I am blind.
Like a say h8Aramex Phone stuck in 60hz like 99% of the time.
anhtin said:
App drawers can only display 4 icons per row. Anyone knows how to change it to 5 per row or more?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's possible. settings --> home screen and lock screen

purpleman2k said:
Status bar notification icons don't appear (except for Gmail, for some reason)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not actually a bug, that's feature. Go to notification settings for particular app and you can set to show notification icon on status bar. Disabled by default for all apss (I think it should be enabled by default), except Gmail, Dialer and a few others.
Bug I found:
- font size issues. I want to set small fonts and dpi. But some apps, like default camera app, power menu, google feeds when swipe etc has still default large font, experience is terrible
- custom dpi set in developer settings will be reverted after reboot. If you set smaller dpi in phone settings, it will be applied a few seconds after boot, phone starts with default dpi
- AOD does not work, even if enabled, screen will turn off when inactive
I installed via built in ota from Oxygen 11 Global, I got update to ColorOS 12

Just got my first 1+ yesterday and was really impressed with the OOS 11 experience.
All day long. All the magic has gone after the update.
In addition to what was already said, the AOD is flickering terribly.
Perhaps it is caused by the pwm of low frequency.

Lol, I paid 1000 euros for this phone because the software was supposed to be good...

Oh yeah, the CLOCK. What is WRONG with that CLOCK!? LMAO.
I mean look at this ABOMINATION.
WHO DRAWS A CLOCK LIKE THAT? SATAN?!?!??!
Like wtf lol.

I have a new problem. I listen to music while walking with my wireless headphones. The phone is in my pocket. Unknown reason causes the phone to crash.
I feel it's going to be complicated.... At least I have 5G working.

Why would they remove the seconds on the clock feature. This update is horrible all around

anhtin said:
App drawers can only display 4 icons per row. Anyone knows how to change it to 5 per row or more?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get Nova launcher and don't look back?

I'm not even going to upgrade A12, I deleted the 4gig update I got from Oxygen Updater. Oneplus just shoot them self in the foot and will not recover from this. I'll be suprise if they sell 1k Oneplus 10 phone next month.

h8Aramex said:
Oh yeah, the CLOCK. What is WRONG with that CLOCK!? LMAO.
I mean look at this ABOMINATION.
WHO DRAWS A CLOCK LIKE THAT? SATAN?!?!??!
Like wtf lol.
View attachment 5476711
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is your phone in 24-hour format? Mine looks normal in 12-hour format but like yours in 24-hour format. I don't use the stock clock app so I hadn't noticed.
ddizzy81 said:
Why would they remove the seconds on the clock feature. This update is horrible all around
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They didn't. This is only when setting an alarm in the clock app.

Camera goes bananas when zoomed beyond 10x.. See attached

Any custom DPI set in developer options is completely lost after reboot.
Reported by me multiple times and was also seen in previous phones/Android versions.

Hi all, i can't open the icon option in the Launcher and and in the settings too it simply crash and nothing. Anyone as an idea? I just wipe launcher data but nothing.

h8Aramex said:
- Phone stuck in 60hz like 99% of the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you select "High" refresh rate in settings? Mine is at 120hz the vast majority of the time.

I have issues with screen brightness not adjusting to low-light conditions. When setting my phone on my dash mount I have to manually adjust the screen brightness down or go blind, even in dark mode. Worked fine with Oxygen OS 11. Fairly disappointed with the overall quality of this update, and I usually love getting the shiny new OS version update.